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About irth's creation and concept

English is not my first language, i hope that you will understand all this content, if not, fell free to ask me. irth is born from my own needs. I'm used to listen some radio stations, and i often check the song name, trying to find more information on google. The first feature of irth was logging song's names, then i added a way to keep my prefered radio station. And now i can read the radio's current song name every time with the new "track info window". The meaning of irth is "iTunes radio track helper". I don't know if i've choosed the right name (compatibility with Whamb is planned..) but it sounds well so...

I've some difficulties to find beta-testers, irth is a bit specialized, and interest a few people. So i hope that you will help me :)

What is irth and what does it look like ?

First of all, irth is NOT another iTunes controller, and it's not a radio tuner too !

irth lets you log and keep reference of tracks played by netradios. Basically irth requests track informations from iTunes at defined regular time intervals. With a little practice, you will be able to create basic but cool colored logs easily, check the "how to use" documentation to see pictures samples.

Installation

Place it where you want.

First launch

irth needs iTunes to run, if it's not launched, irth will ask you if you want to open it. Then look and set desired preferences in the File menu. After some testing, you will be ready to log radio station and add them in the list !

irth is intuitive (i hope), check the help tips that are provided everywhere by staying a few seconds on a button or text field with your mouse. You can edit yourself manually the log file, it resides in the specified location as defined in Preferences.

Documentation

To know all about irth's windows and preferences, go to the how to use page to check the full documentation.

What you need to know - Tips

When a saved station in the list doesn't work when double-clicking on it, its url may be invalid. Search and play it with iTunes, then use the assign button with this station selected in irth radio list. It will save the new url.

Check the information about update frequency to adjust it to a reasonable value.

Bug, problems, requests, ...

To report bugs, problems or send me a request, instead of emailing me,
please use the irth mini-forum. By checking if someone post a similar message, you will save your time (and mine :) ) You can still emailing me if you want.

I don't know what will be the popularity of irth, if nobody use it (i will check download stats =] ), don't expect quick updates :)

To do - Evolutions

As i don't spend a lot of time on this sofware and there's nota lot of users, irth is growing very slowly. But i regulary add some functionalities. Here is a list of my needs and users requests :

• the ability to minimise irth window
• use discogs for the search
• import/export of netradio lists to simplify exchanges between users [high priority dev]
• info window : multiple skin size and customisation
• more reactivity, and fastest updating when changing the webradio
• the ability to save more preferences for single station, like saving update frequency for some radio ambient station.
• makes irth compatible with other plugin-able ou scriptable mp3 players. Actually i plan to add compatibility with Whamb.
• dock menu for instant access to main functions
• to be able to click on the tune playing in the info window and have it launch a search in the default browser (but the click is used to drag this window..)
• notation system for played tracks

Actual limitations

• irth has been tested with iTunes, 4.5 and later, older version may not work

Greets

• many thanx to gl4dys, popey, le Kat, and all few testers..