Cleaning Up Your Music Library

The first is pretty straightforward: you drag improperly named songs or music lacking album art onto the TuneUp window, and it gets right to work, determining what the song really is (name, album, artist, genre, year, track number, etc.) while searching for matching album covers. I’m happy to say that, at least for me, TuneUp’s batting average was over 80%.

That’s less than what’s claimed on their website, but you can’t fault the convenience. Unless you relish going through your songs and correcting them one by one. The utility seemed to have the most problems identifying songs from compilation albums, preferring to categorize them as part of their original albums.

TuneUp even provides you some control over the clean-up process, at least with album art. It presents up to 4 options for each item it successfully identifies, leaving you to pick the cover that suits your fancy. The changes aren’t final as well; they’re applied only when you click on Save (for each individual item identified) or Save All (for everything). TuneUp also creates folders on your music library, grouping songs it was able to identify and vice-versa by clean-up session.

Relevant Content

The other feature of TuneUp is less important for the user, but probably for the app’s bottomline. It basically recommends videos (from YouTube), albums and songs, as well as list related upcoming concerts within your area. I’m pretty sure TuneUp makes money off this referral traffic, or at least plans to do so. In any case, these recommendations are helpful, but not a must-have.

Issues

TuneUp requires some time to fetch the correct information and album art for your songs. Cleaning up a group of 500 songs (as recommended by TuneUp) took me a little over 2 hours. This isn’t so bad, since you can do something on the computer while waiting.

But I wish TuneUp’s makers found some way to smoothly integrate their utility into iTunes main window. The attached window setup looks good on paper, but it disrupts iTunes’ maximize-restore window functionality, and looks a bit silly as it literally catches up when you resize the iTunes window or move it around.

By far the biggest issue with TuneUp is its responsiveness. Sometimes it freezes up while fetching song data, but at least it doesn’t freeze iTunes (version 8.0.2.20) along with it (maybe that’s why it was kept technically separate from the music player?). The utility also crashed on me at least twice while I was trying it out.

In a Nutshell

Despite these issues however, TuneUp is a great add-on for iTunes, especially for those who need to clean up their music library. Just be patient with it, and it will do its job well. TuneUp is currently available priced at $20 for a one-year subscription, and $30 for lifetime access. The free version offers limited functionality. Visit tuneupmedia.com for more information

(images are screenshots of TuneUp running on my computer)

Post from: The Gadget Blog

To be clear, there are many other phones that feature a built-in FM transmitter, which routes any music played on the device to a nearby radio—a boon for those who spend hours in the car, no doubt.

But what makes the Nokia N78 stand out is how it packs a complete feature set. In other words, even if you take away the FM transmitter, the N78 is still a pretty versatile cell phone.

So Typically NSeries, With Some Extras

Like its fellow Nseries contemporaries, the N78 has a built-in camera, does 3G, features some basic organizer apps, a slot that accepts microSD cards, Bluetooth 2.0, and an FM radio. It also runs on the Series 60 (3rd Edition) variant of the Symbian OS, and based on its memory-based info management, can support a practically unlimited number of contacts.

Notable features, aside from the aforementioned FM transmitter, are the integrated GPS receiver, 3.5mm jack that accepts standard earphones and headphones, and WiFi. The latter provides a more reliable and affordable (sometimes free) method of surfing the web, through WiFi hotspots. Another highlight is the use of a 1200 mAh battery; it’s high capacity allows the phone to last longer on a single charge.

So Typically NSeries, the Same Pros and Cons

Previous experience with contemporary NSeries phones is reinforced by the N78; navigating menus was a mostly straightforward and more importantly, responsive experience. Unfortunately, the same issues plaguing other models are also present. Sometimes you get the sense that NSeries phones try to do so much. While it’s a jack-of-all-trades, the N78 is sometimes the master of none.

Case in point: the 3.2 megapixel camera. While it can capture high-quality pictures and videos, it only does so under great lighting conditions. Image quality suffers under low-light conditions, despite the presence of flash. Regrettably, while the N78 does a great job of playing music and videos, managing long lists of media is a significant exception to Nokia’s traditionally clear-cut menu interface.

The FM Transmitter

It helps that it’s easy to access the FM transmitter from the music player; it makes switching from the phone’s loud external speakers or earphones to the car radio a speedy process. Setting a frequency to broadcast (which the radio needs to be set to in order to receive music from the phone) is a simple matter of typing the numbers in.

The only issue here is the audio quality, but that’s primarily dependent the auto’s audio set-up. Sometimes signal interference is also a factor, but again, that’s determined on the auto itself, and the chosen frequency. There were less problems involved when using newer cars like the 2008 Mazda 3 and 2006 Ford Focus. (See Finding the Best Frequency for Your FM Transmitters)

Nitpicking the Buttons and Keypad

On the physical side, the N78’s controls take a little getting used to. As an attempt to address the problem of navigating long lists of content (as detailed above), Nokia integrated a touch-sensitive jog-wheel into the four-way navigator. Sliding a finger over the grey oval frame mimics the “clickwheel” of an iPod, but it unfortunately isn’t as easy to use. Worse, the jog-wheel sometimes interferes with normal menu navigation. Luckily, it’s possible to disable the feature.

On top of that, no recessions separate the buttons below the display and on the side of the phone. The slick exterior this produces is visually appealing, but unfortunately makes pressing the wrong button much easier. It was a bit frustrating to seemingly press clear while composing a text message, only to find yourself back on the main screen (with the message automatically saved as a draft) because you actually pressed the red button. Lastly, the horizontally slim keys of the numeric keypad lack the satisfying feel derived from pressing bigger buttons.

A Good Phone, But Not the Best

To make a long story short, the Nokia N78 is a great phone, featuring the same complete feature set of other NSeries, for all its plusses and minuses. Some issues, particularly with how the buttons are designed, mean that this isn’t a must-buy—unless you’re on the market for versatile cell phone also has a built-in FM transmitter.

Additional reporting and photography by Technograph

Post from: The Gadget Blog