When traveling, I am always amused to see other iTunes libraries appear in my iTunes as we all glom on to the same wireless network. "Oh, hello there, Sandy's MacBook, I didn't realize you were such a Hootie and the Blowfish fan." If you're constantly asking your friends about their iTunes libraries (excessively, perhaps?) you might want to check out Mashduo -- an OS X application that allows you to drag and drop library files for comparison. Finally you'll know who has the larger ABBA collection, or who never quite understood The Dead Milkmen (hint: they only song they own is "Bitchin' Camaro" or "Punk Rock GIrl").

As you can see in the video, Mashduo is pretty fast for what it does: collating and analyzing all that iTunes data. I cut about 22 seconds out as Mashduo did its thing to over 14,000 songs in those libraries. So yeah, it's fast. It is also a limited use piece of software, yes, but it is open source, so you can monkey around with it to your heart's content. First feature request: it would be lovely to have it work with those mystery iTunes shares over the network.

Update: As one might expect, this API restriction has also hit Pocketpedia; the app is now pulled as well (as of 7/17).

Sudden removal of an item from the App Store isn't unheard of; sometimes an app has a hidden bug or a content problem, and if Apple hasn't seen fit to take it off the store shelves then the developer can take matters into his, her or its own hands. Even applications that would seem to be wholly gratuitous and obvious ripoffs of other companies' IP might make it past the first round of Apple's scrutiny, only to be abruptly pulled under threat of litigation.

Apps that leverage content from websites and online services have another hurdle to clear: they may run afoul of trademark or licensing restrictions that prevent them from doing particular things with data from those third parties... things like, ferinstance, using that data on mobile devices.

This all brings us to Scenario D: the 'D' is for Delicious, and it's Delicious Monster's iPhone version of Library that's undergoing an unwelcome and rapid yanking from the App Store -- and believe it or not, Apple has nothing to do with it. Earlier today, Head Monster Wil Shipley announced that the iPhone app is on indefinite suspension and is no longer for sale; this is the consequence of a particular clause in the Amazon API terms and conditions. Part 4(e) of Amazon's agreement, which Shipley is a party to due to the desktop DL app's reliance on Amazon for book and DVD data, reads as follows:

(e) You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link , use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

Amazon gave D-M an ultimatum: pull the iPhone app, or lose the API access for the desktop version of Library. Despite Shipley's requests for a mobile device exception, the big A did not relent. It's not 100% clear why Amazon chose to enforce this clause now, nor why the company is not providing exceptions to developers. We have an email in to their press office to inquire.

If you've got DL on your iPhone already, enjoy. If not... it could be a long wait.

Anvil photo from flickr: fboyd and remixed via CC license.

I haven't run the numbers thoroughly, but there's a team consensus here that iTunes library management and synchronization questions occupy high slots in the top 10 list of frequent questions to Ask TUAW and our tip line. With multiple machines, iPods/iPhones and massive libraries of media, keeping everything shipshape can be a real challenge.

Past posts have discussed several options for sharing and syncing, including products like Syncopation, myTuneSync, TuneRanger and Mojo -- and one item that keeps showing up in the list is SuperSync, mentioned by Mat here. It may not be the most attractive tool for the job, but reports are that it handles the task with aplomb (though it's a good idea to back up your library first).

SuperSync is discounted 50% today via MacZot, at $14.95 for a pair of licenses (allowing you to sync 2 machines); if library cleanup is on your holiday to-do list, it might be a good last-second purchase. We'll aim for a TUAW Faceoff on the various library sync and management tools early in the new year.

I should say, even before I start this post, that I've moved my iTunes library from one installation of iTunes to another, and what I did was just copy everything in the /Music/iTunes folder from one Mac to the other. But that's the transfer equivalent of parallel parking a semi and stopping when it "feels right" -- it worked for me, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else. I also have almost no iTunes purchased music in my library, and that's likely not the case for anyone else.

Fortunately, for people who don't enjoy playing Russian Roulette with their iTunes library transfers (and don't want to buy the software for it), here's a quick and easy guide to how to transfer everything over properly, and make sure that all the little hooks and crannies line up correctly in the new installation -- specifically, iTunes keeps an XML file that tracks where everything is, and you've got to change paths (using a quick find and replace) on all the tracks in your library. iTunes will then use that XML file to backup its own records, and then you're hunky dory.

What I can't find, according to this guide, is what damage I may have caused to my system by just hauling everything in and starting up iTunes -- I checked the Location key on both my new Mac and the old one, and the Locations are completely different, without me ever changing them. Either way, even though I throw around my libraries with abandon (look Ma, no backup!), you'd probably much rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks, Robert!

Just as Firefox users were upgrading to version 3 last week, many people started to miss their iWeb-created galleries as they just disappeared. Well, one iWeb user has been doing extra work to fix Apple's? (erm... Mozilla's?) problem. Joshua Ochs has posted an in-depth article on his site describing exactly what is going on -- he also provides a fix in the form of a script to patch iWeb.

Joshua says that the problem is neither with Apple nor Mozilla, but with a JavaScript library called "Prototype" which is used by iWeb. Right now there are two ways to fix the problem (neither of which are supported by Apple): you can use the information on Apple's Discussion Board, or you can download Joshua's script -- both seem to work and are free.

[via ArsTechnica]

The beta period is over and Delicious Library 2.0 is officially ready to go (we took an early look at version 2 back in March). If you're unfamiliar, Delicious Library is the beautiful personal media database (that's the fancy way of saying "it keeps track of your stuff") that's as fun as it is useful. Use your Mac's iSight camera to scan the UPC on a book, DVD, software, games, etc. and watch it appear on your "shelf." From there, you can track who you've loaned it to, publish your library to the web and a whole lot more.

Version 2.0 includes more than 100 changes, including

• One-click web publishing
• Speedier graphics
• iTunes integration
• Three-click selling

There's plenty more, of course, and you can read the rest here. Delicious Library 2.0 requires Mac OS 10.5 and a single license will cost you $40US.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Whether you have a good reason for wanting to maintain more than one iPhoto library or your collection simply became un-browsable long ago, Brian Webster's iPhoto Library Manager is your answer. This slick little utility was mentioned briefly in an Ask TUAW back in May, but to summarize: iPhoto Library Manager makes it painfully simple to create multiple iPhoto libraries, keep them anywhere you want, automate them with AppleScript and Automator, switch between them with a single click and even set one library as the default. But it doesn't stop there - the features I've already listed are available in a free version, but registered users get to enjoy the ability to create library shortcuts for opening straight from the Finder, copying photos (and preserving all their metadata) between libraries, merging libraries and copying photos from multiple libraries into a folder for synching with an iPod. To top all this off, the new v3.3 brings iPhoto '08 compatibility and some other goodies.

What does it cost for this multiple iPhoto library goodness? To gain the more powerful features and give Webster his due, iPhoto Library Manager costs a mere $19.95 from Fat Cat Software.

Ollie Wagner sends word that he has release both of his Spencere apps, Menuet and Art Collector, as careware. Over on his site, you can get both of the apps for free, as long as you promise to donate to the charity of your choice (he's listed eight good choices if you don't have a preference).

We've covered both before-- Menuet is a pretty iTunes controller with a few other features built in, including Last.fm support, themes, and a sleep timer. Art Collector grabs artwork from Amazon for your iTunes library-- it's a little useless, because iTunes now does this for you, but if there are a few covers iTunes can't find, maybe Art Collector can.

Together, they used to run around $13 (although Art Collector separately was $7, and was originally bundled with Menuet). If you've seen these before and never gotten a chance to try them, here's it is, and hopefully you can help out a charity as well.

TUAW reader Jamie Phelps has possibly stumbled upon a nasty iPhone synching bug when keeping one's iTunes library on an external hard drive. While tips like our how-tos for setting up iTunes with external drives or even an AirPort Disk work pretty well even when synching iPods with them, Jamie found that his iPhone gets the brainwash treatment when he's away from the drive containing his external iTunes library. As the story goes, Jamie synched his iPhone with a few songs and playlists, made a couple new playlists and then synched again. Hitting the road, however, and getting away from his external iTunes library drive is when the bug rears its nasty head: plugging the iPhone in while on the go caused iTunes to wipe out the new playlists and songs from the second sync operation, basically reverting them to their state before the second sync. To verify, Jamie even got adventurous and tried this whole thing a second time, once again watching iTunes blow away changes from the previous iPhone sync when the external media library isn't mounted.

This is the first time I've heard of iTunes handling this kind of setup in a poor way; for as long as I can remember, iTunes has been clever enough to realize what's happening and and would either not sync anything to an iPod when away from the library drive, or it would actually sync any media downloaded or imported while away (as we've mentioned before, you can use the Advanced > Consolidate Library command to move all this new media once reconnected with the library drive). Since we don't really have any evidence of Apple deliberately changing this behavior for their iPods or iPhones, it makes sense for this quirk to be classified as a bug that will hopefully be squashed with an inevitable iPhone software update. But what say you, TUAW readers? Anyone else get bit? Sound off.

Apple makes it super-easy for you to share your iTunes media between computers. It's just a matter of three steps to get iTunes sharing up and running. If you have a local network in your house but you've never tried this out, here's a simple quick-start.

Read on to discover the three easy steps to music sharing nirvana.

Last September we showed you how to keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive. While doing the same thing over an AirPort Disk with Apple's new AirPort Extreme Base Station sounds like it should more or less be the same situation, there are a couple of new catches to be aware of. Never fear, though - we'll outline what you need to know to truly snip the wires on your iTunes library.

First, in order to do this right, we recommend backing up your library before snipping any cables (we also don't recommend actually snipping any cables; they can be expensive to replace). If you haven't gotten into the backup habit yet, Scott's How to Back your music using iTunes 7 tutorial is a great place to start.

Now, on with the show.

At last, the chains that bind an auto-synced iPod have been broken; or at least, this is the first time I've heard of such a simple hint for adding music (and possibly photos and video) to an iPod already bound to another computer's library. Mac OS X Hints has a surprisingly simple tip for accomplishing this: all you need to do is select and expand the iPod icon in the left Sources menu, then simply drag from the Finder whatever new music you want to add onto the main list of music, *not* the iPod in the list. This can be useful especially for those who have separate libraries on two machines (example: one for work and another for home), since the only other simple alternative is to set the iPod for manually managing your music, which then doesn't allow you to sync some metadata like ratings and comments or tags. Oh what a twisted music management web Apple weaves.

A commenter at Mac OS X Hints says they can add photos and videos using this method as well, but I unfortunately don't have a second machine to try this out on right now. Anyone in the audience care to give it a go?

For more helpful how-to guides, check out the TUAW Tips, iPhone 101 and Mac 101 topics.

After discussing how my iTunes library is set up with a few readers in the comments on my First Impressions/2G iPod nano post, I figured this might be a handy tip for readers who find themselves running out of room to store an expanding iTunes library. My only machine is a MacBook Pro with a 120GB hard drive, but after installing ~ 40GB of the entire Final Cut Studio suite and other various software and projects, I don't have room for my ~ 35GB iTunes library.

I decided to do some experimenting a couple weeks back with moving and keeping my library on an external hard drive. There are obvious initial disadvantages to this, but after some tinkering and getting comfortable with iTunes' baked-in library management genius, this can be a pretty useful setup for those who, like me, are cramped for space but aren't willing to trash those albums you're too embarrassed use in a Party Shuffle playlist. This setup also has the inherent, and obvious, advantage of keeping your library on an external hard drive, so it's more or less already backed up - though I, with my paranoid data habits, keep a backup of my library on a second hard drive, and I now also use Scott's iTunes 7 backup tip (instead of a previous Smart Playlist system) to burn my library to DVDs (the lesson from someone who knows: your data can never be too backed up - ever).

Getting back on topic: read on for a walkthrough (from a very mobile notebook user) of how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive. I'll include some tips on how iTunes is already one step ahead of this setup, as well as a few habits you might need to adopt when living la vida external-iTunes-library.

Macintalk has posted a how-to on enabling a really slick Constellation menu plugin for Quicksilver β49. Granted, this menu is quite a bit of eye candy, but if you follow Macintalk's post all the way through and assign this menu to a hotkey, it then becomes a bit of really handy eye candy.

Keep in mind, however, that (as far as I know) you need the latest developer β49 to bring this plugin to fruition, so just like with the last slick Quicksilver Cube eye candy plugin, if you're not interested in the beta side of things, you should probably leave this one alone until it gets ironed out a bit more...

...but on the other hand: look at how cool that is! The entire thing is clickable, and it's also bigger in 'real life' - on my 1440 x 900 display it's 512 x 512 pixels, so it's much more legible than the 225 x 225 screenshot in this post. The small button just to the right of the iTunes icon in the middle of this menu, for example, displays a popup list of your playlists. Clicking on any of the larger slices, such as the albums or artists, pops up a second, similar menu you can browse through by using the down arrow at the bottom of the inner circle. The whole menu system seems pretty zippy too, once it takes a second to load all your iTunes information. Of course, I'm also using a 2.0 Ghz MacBook Pro with 1.5 GB RAM, so YMMV. Check out Macintalk's how-to if you're done drooling and want to get down to business.

You'd better get out those credit cards boys and girls, as the Delicious Monster Gambler's Sale has entered its fourth and final week. For those not familiar with this type of sale: Delicious Monster set aside a secret number of Delicious Library licenses and put the app on a four week sale. Each week, they drop the price by $5. Herein lies the catch: the sale ends when either four weeks are up, or the secret number of licenses is sold - whichever is first.

This is the fourth and final week of the sale, and Delicious Library has hit $20. I just purchased my own copy, but only Delicious Monster knows how long you can keep waiting to taking advantage of a killer sale on a killer app.

Thanks RP