Friday TechTips

Friday TechTip – Growl (also get a free MP3 from Amazon)!

Today’s tip highlights Growl, a unified notification system for both Windows and Mac. Us Mac fanboys users have had Growl to keep us company for a long time and alert us anytime an IM arrives, email lands in the inbox, a new track starts playing in iTunes, etc. Growl for Windows is now up to version 2.0 and there’s a new beta version out. Growl is handy because it allows you to turn off the default notification system (assuming one already exists) in your favorite application and channel all notifications into Growl. This gives you one utility to alert you to new system events. Did I mention that you can customize Growl’s appearance? There’s even a plug-in giving Growl the ability to use text-to-speech to give you a voice alert, perfect for your cubicle mates! All kidding aside, I really like Growl and appreciate it’s low profile appearance versus the default Outlook notifier.

Growl’s Home – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/default.aspx

App Plug-Ins – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/apps.aspx

Growl Displays (skins) – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/displays.aspx

Bonus Tip!

Amazon is currently giving away a free MP3 of your choice in recognition of gaining over 1,000,000 followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/amazonmp3). To claim your MP3, go the celebration site and follow the directions. You’ll need to press a button which brings up a pop-up box where you enter the code (FIRSTMIL) which is displayed on the page. This gives you a credit to then go purchase your song.  Why not download your favorite song to kick off the weekend?

Free MP3 site – http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dm_tw_firstmil?ie=UTF8&gcIsProcess=1&gcpcCode=FIRSTMIL&&docId=1000420651

Tags: growl, mp3, system notifications

Tip for Feb. 6, 2009: SimplifyMedia!

Today’s tip comes to you via special request. Are you drowning in a sea of MP3s? Do you have audio files scattered between computers, not knowing which has your stash of KC & The Sunshine Band and Donna Summer tracks? Would you like to listen to your tunes on multiple computers without adding your music collection to each one? Then you need to simplify! Here are the requirements:

• Choose one computer to store all of your tracks and install iTunes

• Import all of your music into the iTunes library. It might help to organize your music within iTunes using playlists. You could start by creating “Secret 70s Disco” and add “That’s The Way (I Like It)” as the first track uh-huh, uh-huh!

Ok, we’ll now assume that your iTunes library is setup and organized the way you want it. You now need to visit http://www.simplifymedia.com and download the client. The SimplifyMedia client is free and supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and the iPhone/iPod Touch platforms. While installing the application you’ll be prompted to either sign-in to your account or create a new one. If this is your first time, create an account with a username and password you’ll remember. After installing, you’ll see the SimplifyMedia client running in your task tray. Don’t worry, it’s very lightweight and won’t slow your system down.

You are now ready to access your music on your other computers. You will need to have iTunes and the SimplifyMedia client installed on the other computers as well (but not your music, that’s the step we’re eliminating). Make sure you use the same SimplifyMedia account you created on the computer hosting your music. When you launch iTunes on the remote computer, you should see your SimplifyMedia user name and host computer’s name under the “Shared” heading in the left column in iTunes. If you don’t it could be that the host computer isn’t on, asleep, or not online.

Now, assuming everything is online and you see your host computer in the left column, click your shared computer’s entry. This will connect you to your host computer’s iTunes library. After connecting you can expand the entry and see all of your tracks and playlists, including “Secret 70s Disco.” Can you dig it?!?!

More hands-on? Watch my demo video:

BONUS TIP: – Cameroid!

Are you a Windows user and jealous of the Mac’s Photo Booth application which morphs your face into all kinds of craziness? You too can now join the party at http://cameroid.com. Cameroid is a flash-based application built directly into their site. Simply connect your webcam and start shooting. You can frame your face, become the Roaming Gnome’s cousin (my personal favorite), or completely distort yourself beyond all recognition. Now if only the UR One Card office would use this…

Enjoy your weekend!

Tags: cameroid, itunes, mp3, photobooth, simplify media