Jason Purdy's Virtual World

How To: A New Album Every Time You Sync Your iPhone

When I bought my iPhone 4S, I opted for the 16GB model, mostly because I sync my phone a couple times a week clearing photos, videos and other data. I underestimated how much data 1080 HD video takes up and I would suggest future buyers to go for the 32GB upgrade. The other major data source on the phone is of course music.

I consider myself a bit of a music hound, getting dozens of new albums a month across all genres. I then throw them into my 2012 playlist and each time I sync my phone it automatically pulls in the new music and deletes anything I’ve either moved to my permanent collection or deleted.

This usually satisfies my musical appetite, but every now and then I want to listen to older albums from my 200GB collection. I try and keep a “classic albums” playlist together, but it gets stale quickly and I rarely listen to it, taking up valuable space of my puny 16GB.

The Goal: Every time I sync my iPhone, I want to remove albums that if I’ve listened to since the last sync and replace them with new albums that I haven’t listened to in over a week.

The way to do this is using smart playlists, which after you start using, opens up tons of possibilities that you would have never thought possible. Hat tip to the Apple engineering team for an underused, but very powerful feature.

Step 1: Change the way iTunes “randomizes” content, instead of choosing random songs, choose random albums. Simply click Controls -> Shuffle -> By Albums

Step 2: Next create a smart playlist. File -> New Smart Playlist

Step 3: Now the fun begins. Smart lists are based on adding filters and I created 4, but feel free to add more to further narrow your content set. The ones I created are: 1) Filtering out the audiobooks 2) Removing albums if played in the 7 days or 3) Skipped in the last 14 days and, finally, here’s the tricky part: 4) In order to include the largest set of content possible, 4) Album contains ” “. Important to note that you need to have the space there, as the query can’t accept blank entries. So, basically a space means to include all albums (besides the above criteria). 

The last few check boxes are to limit to 1GB so that we don’t overload the iPhone (you can use as much as you’d like) and finally live updating, which allows the playlist to update on it’s own.

Step 4: Last step is to include the smart playlist in your iPhone sycing, and you’re done! 

**I’ve noticed that the play count is only updated if a song is played till the end for some reason. Further, also seeing some problems updating the play count if using a bluetooth headset. Let me know if you see these issues as well. 

Image Credit: Deadmau5 & ClubDrive.org

Nokia Lumia 900: Better than the iPhone (Yes, Really)

Although I’ve had a Nokia Lumia 900 at work for a few month now, the device is now official after being unveiled at CES this week. I can’t say I’m surprised that it’s getting some pretty great reviews. Hell, even Apple fanboy MG Siegler is getting in on the positive reaction. I used the device around the office as my daily phone for about two weeks and was in love with it so much I didn’t want to go back to my iPhone…a big statement if you read my blog regularly. 

I’ve used hundreds of phones over the years, but a rare few made me excited to open the box on launch day. I don’t say this lightly, but Nokia’s Lumia 900 unboxing experience is the best yet. 

My personal cell phone infatuation history is a common one. Starting in the late 90s with the StarTAC flip phone, then in 2000 getting a panasonic GU87 (the first color screen phone in america), the black Moto Razr, and finally the Nokia N95, until Apple took over my heart with the iPhone. These devices struck my fancy for various reasons, from 80’s miniature coolness to technical capabilities, like a true 5MP camera. What peaked my interest about the Lumia 900 wasn’t it’s software (as the iPhone continues to do so well), but it’s creative hardware.

Simply put, the Lumia 900 is beautiful. Everything that I love about an electronic device this thing nails. The weight is that dense, but not quite heavy feeling that the iPhone 4/4S and the Nexus One have. The texture is right on, smooth but not slippery. Most of all though, are the edges and curves the phone has. It feels so nice in your hand, it just fits in a nice comforting way and I don’t want to put it away in my pocket. 

Using the device is a joy as well, whether you’re using Meego (sad Nokia killed it, such promise) or Windows Phone (which I know more about than I should) the hardware is what sticks out.

So, how can the hardware stand out when using the phone? What about the software? The curves I mentioned before are on the edges of the screen as well. You’ll notice there isn’t a single physical button anywhere on the front and all navigation is done via swiping left <-> right from the edge of the screen. The first time you do it, it’s a bit weird, but then it becomes natural and really fast. Moving your thumb from the top of the screen, down the bottom to hit the home button and then back up is slower than you’d think, but trust me, after you start swiping as part of our navigation inside an application, it’s hard to go back.

Unfortunately though, like any device nowadays, it’s not just about hardware. Do I like this phone? Hell yes, and if I could make this run iOS I’d pony up the money and switch from my 4S tomorrow. I’ve used the device on both Meego and WP7, and it’s ok…not great enough to have me switch from iOS, but certainly not horrible. The rendering is done very well inside most apps, like for instance AP Mobile, and the previously mentioned app swiping is great, but there’s just that last mile in the OS missing that iOS continues to lead on. 

How great can this device be? The new Galaxy Nexus is going to give it a run for it’s money for the non-iPhone, iPhone market. It would do amazingly well if it was out 3-6 months ago. Unfortunately, such as the pace of the mobile world, by the time this is actually out, it will compete with other Android phones, let alone the new iPhone 5. 

The Lumia 900 is the best Windows Phone device made hands down and is going to help stop the bleeding for Microsoft, but they needed this out in 2011, not 2012. Techies will love it, I know I have, but it’ll take another great device, and soon, to keep Microsoft around. 

NOTE: The photos above are actually of the Nokia N9, but the majority of dimensions and general FEEL of the two devices is the same…if anything the lumia is even nicer.