João's posterous

Just for the lulz...

Filed under: apps

Mac Apps: TVShows

Well, TVShows isn't exactly an app anymore, it's just a pref pane that will do wonders if you use to download your TV shows episodes by torrents.

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TVShows 2, developed by embercode, is a little pref pane that allows you to subscribe to your favorite TV shows and automatize the download process for new episodes.

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All you need to do is subscribe to your shows from the list of available ones, tweak the show-specific settings and TVShows will check the web for new episodes on regular intervals and download the torrent files as soon as they become available. In this new version, TVShows allows you to choose where you want to save the torrent files, set the interval for searching for new episodes and set the quality of the torrent to download for each show (on previous versions, this setting had effect in every show) and keep a default configuration.

You can also choose if you want to automatically open the torrent on your default torrent app for it to download immediately. It also features Growl notifications for new episodes.

This new pref pane version is still in beta (as you can see in the screenshot, show covers are not yet available) and, despite of working beautifully for me, many people reported some problems with it. If you prefer the older, standalone version, it is still available on the website. The fact that the older version is a standalone app does not make it less useful. The only drawback is that you can't choose different settings for each show (the HD setting may be the most preponderant).

Currently, TVShows 2 can't import settings from older versions.

The beta version (currently 2.0b4) is available from embercode's blog and the older version (currently 0.4.8r2) from TVShow's website (direct download links).

TVShows is free and open-source!

-João

Mac Apps: beaTunes 2 - Fix your iTunes Library

If you're like me, an iTunes organization freak, you like to have your songs very well organized, with all the info and cover art and everything.

Eventually you'll get duplicates, different genres between songs from the same album and other situations that are a pain to solve manually. But there's beaTunes.

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beaTunes helps you with this kind of issues. It checks your library for consistency problems (compilations with only one artist, different release years, different genres, ...), general issues (duplicates, missing info, missing files, ...) and spelling issues. By clicks on the options it give you, it solves all this problems easily.

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But it does more! Identifies tracks, import lyrics and creates interesting playlists. Get the full specs here, and get the trial. It's great.

I may admit that there are other, better options when it comes to identify tracks, like SongGenie, but nothing that I could find will get your library in shape this fast and does not have this many features. beaTunes deserves a try and my recommendation.

-João

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo