March 2004 - Digital Music

Meeting Details

Meeting Summary

With the lawsuits surrounding Napster and Kazaa and the recent success of Apple’s iTunes, it seems like music is on everyone’s minds these days. Navigating all the various ways to purchase and enjoy listening to music can be very daunting. Well NPUG is here to help.

This month we’re taking a look at the exciting world of digital music. We’ll walk you through where to find music, how to get it on your computer and even how to make it mobile. We’re going to be stepping outside the boundaries of the Palm OS and focusing on everything from Macs and PCs, to iPods and PDAs.

If you’ve ever had questions about digital music, this is a meeting you definitely don’t want to miss!

Agenda

1. Welcome
Special thanks were given to First Data Systems for their continued support in hosting the NPUG meetings. It’s been close to three years that our meeting space has been so generously provided. We couldn’t have our meetings without them.

2. Announcements
Membership
-We now have a total of 792 members.
-Last month we reported that we had 830 total members. However upon further inspection, many of those were phantom registrations.

Web Site:
- The NPUG web server served 31,887 pages served in February. That’s a little above average.
- 11,222 unique visitors in February

NPUG Was In The News
- The Nashville Palm Users Group was featured in the Thursday, February 19, 2004 edition of the City Paper. Michael Ashby, NPUG Director, was quoted in an article on page 11 regarding PalmGear and the recent announcements they made regarding their new partnerships with Tapwave and Qualcomm’s BREW.

Mini Meetings Are Back
- Our next mini meeting will be March 25th at 6pm and the topic will be gaming. Mini meetings are informal get togethers, so bring your Palm and any games you may have. We anticipate trying several IR games between handhelds, so even if you don’t have a game, be sure to check it out.

- Information will be posted on the web site. The meeting will be informal and provide an opportunity to get together and talk about varying subjects. The meeting will be at Perk Central on Murfreesboro Road and a map is on the web site.

3. Handheld Reports & General Discussion
PalmSource - Michael Ashby
- Palmsource.com has a section called Expert Guides. This is a great resource for a wide variety of topics and professions. New guides were just recently posted.
- Members were encouraged to submit their name to PalmSource if they were interested in creating and “Expert Guide” on a specific topic.

Pa1m0ne - Charlie Akers
- Zire 72 has been rumored on many web sites. It is expected to be a Garnet (OS 5) Zire with an SD slot.
- Other rumors include the Tungsten E2 and Treo 610. Since the Treo 600 has just been released, many feel that the 610 won’t be released very soon.
- Another rumor about a non-camera version of the Treo 600 is floating around as well.

Sony Report - Tom Tyndall
- Tom Tyndall stepped in to provide the Sony report. He recently purchased a PEG-TJ27. Dropped his old Clie and PEG-TJ27. Sony Tech support has been excellent. It works fine.
- The rest of the new Clie line was discussed as was the new Palm Desktop software recently released.
- NPUG is still in need of someone to handle the monthly Sony report. If you are interested, please post something in the NPUG Forums.

SmartPhones - Michael Ashby
- Sprint PCS is selling the Treo 300 for $99. If you need a low cost mobile phone that is an awesome deal.
- Phonescoop.com is a great site for finding out information on upcoming phones.
- Motorola has a new Bluetooth phone and rumor has it that Sprint may carry it.

Garmin - Michael Ashby
- Nothing new to report
- Some rumors are circulating that Garmin may be releasing more Palm OS devices at different price points, but nothing definite as of yet.

Fossil - Michael Ashby
- Nothing new to report other than the fact that the PalmOS based Fossil watch is not dead. The development team is still eager to release a product some day.

Alphasmart - Michael Ashby
- Nothing new to report.

Tapwave/Games - Randy Jones
- Software updated to be Zodiac Full Screen Compatible: Zlauncher 4.00, DateBk5 5.1a-sm, Pocket Tunes 2.3.2, Mapopolis-latest beta.
- New software that is specific to the Zodiac: Golden Axe, MMPlayer 0.2.9, Yammy Yammy 1.0, Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater 4, Zodtris 1.1c, Firestorm gbaZ
- Firestorm gbaZ is a GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color emulator. The development of this software was recently put on hold after Nintendo notified Crimson Fire of a patent infringement. In a strike back, Crimson Fire announced that Firestorm gbaZ will be released as a free open source project, covered by the GPL license sometime next week.
- New Hardware: Metal Styli are selling custom Zodiac styli, including a High Lustre Platinum styli for $4045. Brando has released a new case for the Zodiac that looks very nice.
- Games Update: Realm Walker updated to 1.7, Dreamway updated to 1.1, NesEm 1.4 and Gizmo 1.1, Nintendo emulator and Sega Master system emulator, due to be released 03/13/04, Warfare Incorporated updated to 1.1, and a new Warfare Inc. Mission Editor has been released. New missions have already been created by users.
- Other: Tapwave Users Group meeting was held March 8th in Sunnyvale CA.

Price Watch - Charlie Akers
- All current specials can be found in the Device Deals & Price Cuts forum.
- Kerry Woo mentioned that PalmGear does have weekly specials and they can be found at this link. Kerry also mentioned that sometimes software is even given away for free or very, very cheap. Definitely a place to check for good deals.

4. Industry Focus - Michael Ashby
This month we’re turning our attention to something we all do at one time or another - COOK! Even if you’re not the next Emeril, you may find yourself in the kitchen now and again. Michael has recently taken up the hobby of cooking and he’ll share with us some of the software and tricks that he uses when making family feasts.

- Michael gave a demo of PDACookbook Plus.
- Reasearchbuzz.org has a Google hack that allows you to enter in ingredients to figure out what to cook.
- Recipesource.com has plenty of Master Cook files that can easily be imported into PDACookbook.
- If you’re into the South Beach diet, you can find all of the Phase 1 and 2 recipes at the bottom of this page.

—- BREAK —-

5. Digital Music 101 - Music On The Computer
Just what IS digital music anyway? Where do you get it? How do you use it? If you’ve ever thought of questions like these, then we’re here to answer all your questions. We’re going to dig deep in the basics of digital music and cover everything from creating digital music to managing it on your PC. Although this section will revolve around desktop pcs and not Palm OS devices, it will serve as the foundation for the next segment.

- Michael Ashby gave a PowerPoint presentation giving an overview of digital music.
- ShoutCast was mentioned as a great way to listen to digital music for free.
- A demo of iTunes for Windows was given. One interesting point was how well all your digital music tools are included. Internet Radio stations are especially easy to find and listen to.

—- BREAK —-

6. Digital Music 201 - Music That’s Mobile
Now that we all have the basics of digital music under our belt, it’s now time to focus on what makes digital music so great - it’s mobile! We’ll look all the various ways that you can listen to your music when you’re away from your pc. We’ll show you how an iPod works and even how to put music on your Palm OS device!

- Michael Ashby gave a second PowerPoint presentation on how to make your digital music mobile.
- The iPod and the iPod mini was mentioned as one of the best mobile media players currently available.
- The most important thing to consider when purchasing a mobile media player is the type of music player you plan to listen to. All do mp3s, but not all do Windows Media or iTunes format.
- The iTrip was mentioned as a great way to listen to your iPod in your car. The device is made by Griffin technology, which is a Nashville based company.
- If you’re looking to integrate mp3s into your home stereo system, SlimDevices was mentioned as a new wireless system.

7. General Discussion

8. Giveaways
- 2 Free copies of Pocket Tunes Deluxe courtesy of NormSoft and PalmGear.

March 2004 - Digital Music 101 (588KB)
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