Apple Propaganda Takes a Stab at Nintendo
Apple reported today at it’s event that the iPod Touch was better than the Nintendo DS for the following reasons:![no-multi-touch[1]](http://tech.gtaero.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nomultitouch1.jpg "no-multi-touch[1]")
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No Multi-Touch User Interface
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Games are Expensive
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No App Store
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No iPod
Now, If you don’t like to listen to me rant, It would probably be a safe bet that you’ll want to skip this post, because I’m going to be going into great deal about what exactly is wrong with those reasons. If you’re willing to listen to me rant and rave, then just continue reading 
PHP class mp3Data – Get ID3 Info from MP3
So recently, I submitted a bid on a project to make a lyrics website using PHP. I haven’t been contacted about whether or not I won the bid yet, but I decided that I might as well start some preliminary work on backend coding – It’ll make my life easier, and deliver a faster and better result to the client, so why not?
Why am I mentioning this, you ask? What does my personal life have to do with my tech blog? Well, I’m getting to that!
I almost immediately thought. “Hey, wouldn’t it be really cool if the admin of the website could simply upload an MP3 file and pull almost, if not all of the data from it to use on the site?” After which, I quickly searched around for something that would allow me to do just that, to read the ID3 tags on an MP3 file.
The first thing I came to, was the search result on the PHP website for “id3,” the ID3 PECL Library. Unfortunately, after trying for a very long time on DreamHost, I not only couldn’t get it to install, but had just wasted probably an hour in an attempt to. Not only that, but the library was still in its alpha stage.
Some quick internet searching took me to the getid3 library, a robust library programmed to read ID3 data tags (and other types of metadata?) from almost any type of file. I quickly set about to using it, and found its internal structure complicated and confusing. It didn’t even offer me a quick and easy way to access the album artwork.
After a good period of time learning some of the basic structure of ID3 and how the getid3 library worked, I set about to coding up a library of my own to quickly interface with getid3 and retrieve the information I needed.
The result is class::mp3Data. A very, very simple library built exclusively to interface with getid3 and retrieve basic information about an mp3 file while still retaining more advanced information for coders who need it. Take a look at some example code and the licensing permissions after the break.
Overlooked: iTunes 9 & Windows 7 Make Sweet Love
I’m not much of an Apple fanboy, in fact I generally don’t care much for the brand at all. But today’s iTunes update has made even me smile in elated happiness just a little bit.
Why is this, you ask? Because Apple is making sweet, sweet love with Windows 7.
As you can see, iTunes has added the ability to pause and skip forward and backward in Windows 7, a feature that (so far as I know) is only supported by Windows Media Player at this moment in time. But that isn’t all. The application now loads up quicker, doesn’t usually give off that annoying black background in place of UI elements, and even includes some Windows 7 Tasks!
As you can see very plainly in this picture, iTunes 9 has added tasks involving the iTunes store.
This is all of the secret love making I’ve found so far. Have you found any? If so, please, post about it in the comments!