Elton One

Since installing Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibon I have had noise coming from the left channel of my Macbook Pro both from the line out and from the internal speakers. Oddly enough, even when I am using the line out I get noise from the left speaker. It sounds very similar to the noise produced when using the line out of a G4 with mirrored double doors; you can hear this crackling electronic noise that I put down to the processor cycling and poor shielding - mouse over the dock or use system resources and you get an increase in the rate and intensity of the noise - clearly poor shielding within the G4 but everyone G4 owner will tell you it’s one of the loudest computers ever. But back to Ubuntu on the MAcbook Pro..

I have never had this problem with my Macbook Pro and OS X so all I can assume is the gain table in the ALSA driver is somehow wrong in Ubuntu 7.10 causing a much lower signal to noise ratio than in OS X. This would also result in a much lower maximum and overall volume output when using Ubuntu, and this is indeed the case.

With the release of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and the inclusion of the PulseAudio sound server hopefully things will improve. Until then the following solution solves all the above problems for me except the left speaker noise while a line out is plugged in. You’re probably using your line out for louder sound like me so this will cover up the problem for the most part so it’s not really a problem any more.

From http://ubuntu-utah.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=611345. Thanks to Volanin for the solution and everyone who contributed to this thread.

1. Open a terminal and type:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

2. Add the following line to the end of the file:
options snd-hda-intel model=[MODEL_BELOW] position-fix=2 probe_mask=1

You must select the Intel HDA model that corresponds to your computer:
intel-mac-v1 : Intel Mac Type 1
intel-mac-v2 : Intel Mac Type 2
intel-mac-v3 : Intel Mac Type 3
intel-mac-v4 : Intel Mac Type 4
intel-mac-v5 : Intel Mac Type 5
macmini : Intel Mac Mini (equivalent with type 3)
macbook : Intel Mac Book (eq. type 5)
macbook-pro-v1 : Intel Mac Book Pro 1st generation (eq. type 3)
macbook-pro : Intel Mac Book Pro 2nd generation (eq. type 3)
imac-intel : Intel iMac (eq. type 2)
imac-intel-20 : Intel iMac (newer version) (eq. type 3)

For example, I have a Macbook 2rd generation, and the setting that worked was model=macbook-pro.

3. Save the file and type in the terminal:
sudo update-initramfs -u

4. Reboot your computer.

5. For BEST sound, if the above works, open a terminal and type:
alsamixer
And set the FRONT and SURROUND sliders to their maximum.
It might be necessary to unmute them with the ‘M’ key.
Press ESC twice to leave the program.

While looking through the Apple site I came across this page: Airport Extreme 802.11n Enabler for Mac

I think it is totally shit of Apple to charge people $1.99 to ‘enable’ a function that already exists on their computer (and to release it free with a purchase of a Airport Extreme router thus locking you in to using Apple products even more). 802.11n support was left out on the release of computers with 802.11n compatible cards and now it makes me think this was done on purpose knowing that it would be the next wireless protocol and if left out it could be added as a pay for upgrade. That’s not cool. What next? Laptops that ship with out the screen working so you have pay a fee to see any thing? Or maybe you’ll have to pay every time you turn your computer on?

Apple - sort your fucking life out, make products that work and are productive and don’t be cunts by milking every last penny. You don’t need it and people need computers that work. It’s not that much to ask..

Conclusion:

Check out http://dougscripts.com/itunes/ and using the Apple Script Editor (installed by default at Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor) you can create scripts, use the built in documentation and get to grips with making iTunes do what you want, or indeed any other Apple application.


I have a few ideas I want to impliment into iTunes to add various functionalities so I had a look on http://developer.apple.com to see how to develop plugins for iTunes. I know it is possible as I have seen various different plugins a bout for a while now, for example Qloud.

What ever I searched for and what ever page I went to I could not find a relevant SDK or even any information on developing iTunes other than those listed on this page (http://developer.apple.com/sdk/), none of which are what I am looking for.

• iTunes COM for Windows SDK
• iTunes Visual Plug-ins SDK for Windows
• iTunes Visual Plug-ins SDK for Mac

So I sent Apple an email:

Where can I download the iTunes SDK or anything that will enable me to develop plugins for iTunes 4.7+ under OS X 10.4?

The only reference to iTunes I can find on http://developer.apple.com/sdk/ is https://connect.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MemberSite.woa/wa/getSoftware?bundleID=19923

Surely there must be information available - why is it so hard to get to?

Awaiting your reply
Eltonone

From http://developer.apple.com/sdk/ there are no links to any pages that discuss iTunes development. Infact, navigating to http://developer.apple.com/mac/ (The Mac Development Centre) everything is about Leopard with nothing on previous Os’s. What happened to all the people using pre-10.5 Apple Operating Systems? Back date compatibility is essential and in the past has been important to Apple, what a shame iFad sales are now more so.

I found this (http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_AppleApplications/index.html) which pretty concisely dashes my hopes of developing anything for iTunes without frist fully understanding how iTunes was built and how it functions. Why no API? GRRRRRRR Apple.

Getting Started with Apple Applications

Technology Overview

Apple publishes a variety of applications for the Macintosh platform, many of which are distributed free with Macintosh computers.

If you are a plug-in developer, you can create a visual effect plug-in for either the Macintosh or the Windows version of iTunes, Apple’s music management software, that presents visual effects while music is playing. Plug-ins for iTunes are written in C.

If you are a content developer, you can create new widgets for Dashboard, an environment designed to keep useful information at your fingertips. Dashboard widgets are built using standard web technologies, like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

If you are a hardware developer, you can build XML printing preset files for iPhoto, Apple’s still photo management software, to enhance its compatibility with your printer. Preset files for iPhoto are written in XML.

If you are an application developer, your application can:

• Access the data in AddressBook, Apple’s centralized database for the user’s contact and other personal information
• Import and export projects to and from Final Cut Pro, Apple’s professional video editing software, using the Final Cut Pro XML Interchange Format
• Exchange documents with Keynote, Apple’s presentation software, using the Keynote XML File Format (APXL)

All I want is the information on the currently playing or most recently played song, including physical location. Last.FM can get this information; how is it doing it? iTunes writes the currently playing track to a file for history, so I can get that information.

I want to be able to control when I excecute my function, either by adding a button to iTunes (which seems impossible without a lot more learning) or maybe with a system wide keyboard shortcut.

Hmm, a work around is beginning to take shape…

Seems that AppleScript is what I need to use (check out some of the stuff you can do with it http://dougscripts.com/itunes/). It would have been useful to see some information at some point while searching http://developer.apple.com that made it clear what you can do and what you need to do it in terms of both creating new applications and adding additional functionality to existing ones under OS X. I’ve been aware of AppleScript for some time, I just didn’t realize that it was the best solution for what I want to do and some pointers on all this on the Apple site would have been a great help and made the learning process a great deal less illusive.