‘Tunes Menu’ updated to 1.2 and now supports Mac OS X 10.2

‘Tunes Menu‘ has been updated to version 1.2 and support for Mac OS X 10.2 added.

‘Tunes Menu‘ is a Mac OS X program which provides a simple and easy way to search online music stores via a system-wide menu. The program is fully integrated with iTunes and allows rapid searching of selected local online music stores. The program currently support Amazon (World wide, Europe and UK); Kelkoo, and WHSmiths in the UK; CDUniverse in the US; and CD WOW!, dStore, ozcdshop, and TopShop in Australia. More stores will be added in the near future. (If you have a suggestion for a store please send it to: store_suggestion@mmisoftware.co.uk

Tunes Menu is free, requires Mac OS X 10.2 or greater, and is available for download (180 KB) at http://www.mmisoftware.co.uk/downloads/tunesmenu.dmg.sit. The update has added support for Mac OS X 10.2 and the CD WOW! music store in the UK.

PLEASE NOTE: TUNES MENU IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED

Fun and games making ‘Tunes Menu’ 10.2 compatible!

‘Tunes Menu‘ was written using Xcode and tested on a number of machines running 10.3. However, when the program was beta-tested on machines running 10.2 it was found not to work! The question is, “why wouldn’t it work”?

It turns out that it was a number of problems. First, 10.2 doesn’t contain the necessary features that would allow ‘Copy and Find’ to work (this was known and had already been solved in version 1.0); second it was known that 10.2 did not support ‘user initiated menu updates’ (this was known and a solved); and third, it was discovered that there were major differences in how system-wide preferences were stored and handled.

Problem 2 was solved by using a ‘run-time’ loop that automatically updates the menu every 5 seconds, plus, any ‘incoming data’ also automatically triggered a menu update.

Problem 3 was solved by putting in a check for the OS number and then using the correct calls.

This was all a bit of shock and shows how Mac OS X is maturing and changing!

PLEASE NOTE: TUNES MENU IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED

Tunes Menu updated to 1.1

Tunes Menu has been updated to version 1.1.

The new version contains a number of minor bug fixes but most importantly adds 4 new stores for Australia:

• CD WOW!
• dStore
• ozcdshop
• TopShop

If you have particular store you would like added please e-mail store_request@mmisoftware.co.uk

Tunes Menu is freeware and can be downloaded from MMISoftware or by following this link.

PLEASE NOTE: TUNES MENU IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED

Minor update of Tunes Menu for UK users

Tunes Menu has been updated to version 1.0.2.

The update is a minor fix for UK users which corrects a problem with searches (and reports) at Kelkoo.

PLEASE NOTE: TUNES MENU IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED

MMISoftware releases ‘Tunes Menu’

MMISoftware has released ‘Tunes Menu‘. Actually it was released about two weeks ago but with the general frantic work to complete the project (and test it), and then to chase some bugs in version 1 (and release version 1.0.1), a blog entry on the subject got delayed.

So, what is ‘Tunes Menu’ and how did it come about?

What is ‘Tunes Menu’?

‘Tunes Menu’ is a simple and easy to use program that puts a small musical note icon on your toolbar. When you are in iTunes (either the music store, or one of your own playlists) you can select a song, go to the Tunes Menu and click ‘Copy and Find’. Tunes Menu will then go out on the net (assuming you are connected) and find selected local online stores and report back (in the menu) if the store has the CD and the cost. You can then simply click on the store name in the menu and this will open your default browser and take you to the store.

How did ‘Tunes Menu’ come about?

There is a simple story behind ‘Tunes Menu’. Before the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) was available in Europe I spent a lot of time copying track names etc. from iTMS in the US, via BBEdit, to stores in the UK such as Amazon, WHSmiths and Kelkoo to find the CDs I wanted and it occurred to me that this process could be automated. As with all programs the completion of a working application took longer than expected and by the time the program was complete iTMS had been launched in Europe. However, even with iTMS now available I still found that I was searching on line for the CD I had found in iTMS, hence it was decided to release ‘Tunes Menu’.

At the time of writing ‘Tunes Menu’ is at version 1.0.1 and it a 164 KB download at MMISoftware.

The program supports searches at Amazon in the UK, the US and across Europe; WHSmiths and Kelkoo in the UK, and CDUniverse in the US.

More stores will be added in the near future and if you have any store suggestions please send them to store_suggestion@mmisoftware.co.uk.

PLEASE NOTE: TUNES MENU IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED