New MacBook pro with Snow Leopard

[DRL]

I have been a very satisfied CDpedia user now for more than two years. Once I had got over a few uncertainties at the beginning, it has worked so well that I have only had an occasional look at this forum. I had no intention of moving from my 4 year old MacBook Pro, so when I read of new features on Leopard and Snow Leopard I did not take much notice.

However a major problem with my old machine has just forced a new purchase which I had not expected. Everything seems good - and all my old data, including CDpedia, has been transferred to my new computer.

My questions are:

1 What new features can I expect? (I had always kept up with new versions of CDpedia, so I imagine any changes will be due to Snow Leopard improvements.)

2 Are there any problems I should watch out for? I think I have read something about the iSight camera working either better or worse! Do any settings need adjustment?

[Conor]

Things should be a lot faster with Leopard and Snow Leopard, as although we strive to keep backwards compatibility we have been coding for Leopard where possible for the last two years. Most of the changes are improvements under the hood, but the most visible UI change are the addition of a Cover Flow view, third view tab. The ability to use Spotlight to search for your CDs and the option to use QuickLook on those results as well (you can search and retrieve information quickly from CDpedia without needing to open it).

The problems with the iSight are on an older iMac 2009, so with a new MacBook Pro the iSight should be even better than before, as we take advantage of the new QuickTime API's in Leopard.

For the most part you shouldn't even noticed that you changed OS X, as all the improvements should feel natural.

[DRL]

Thanks Conor. I had already found the Cover Flow, which looks good. I will experiment with the Spotlight feature.

I had a few problems with my old (2006) MacBook Pro's camera, but concluded that the efficiency was much better in good daylight! I am looking forward to putting some new discs in over the next few days.

[DRL]

iSight is now amazing. Really quick, even in poor light. The only type of CD it struggled with was the glossy style of box. Congratulations on a great step forward.

I've been looking at the Spotlight feature. Doing a search on Beethoven, for example, brings the single CD I've just entered, but not the ones previously in my CDpedia collection. Do I need to do something to make the search include them all?

[Conor]

Glad you are enjoying all the new features and improvements.

Since it can take a while to create the Spotlight index, it only updates it as you change/add entries. To have it recreate the entire index, head over to the help menu on the main menu bar and un-check the "Spotlight" command, this will turn it off. Redo the procedure to turn it back on and all your CD's will now be added into the index. It might take a minute or two but it will show a progress bar as it works.

Another neat trick is all the entries share a type in Spotlight, "Pediaitem". So be adding this keyword to a search you can limit the results to Pedia items, and not all the "Beethoven" references on your computer.

[DRL]

Amazing! Within a couple of minutes I got up to "738 items added" and now everything is on Spotlight. Many thanks for the help. In a way, doesn't this duplicate what can already be done by putting Beethoven into the Q box (not sure what to call it) at the top of the CDpedia page, especially if Pediaitem is added? (Apart from not needing to open CDpedia, as you said earlier)

Astonishing to think that CDpedia is getting even better though. I made a point of telling my local Mac dealer all about it (who had never heard of it!) I especially stressed the importance of taking care of it when transferring the data from my old MacBook Pro. Even though I have several backups I would not want to risk losing it, after all the time I've taken in adding discs!

Many thanks again. I'm thinking of DVDpedia sometime soon.

[Conor]

I made a point of telling my local Mac dealer all about it

Thank you. It's the word of mouth that is our best marketing channel.

Doesn't this duplicate what can already be done by putting Beethoven into the Q box

It does. If you are in CDpedia there is no reason to use the Spotlight. We just like providing many different ways to do the same thing as so many users have their own habits. Also we make a point of integrating with all the Apple technologies. What we've requested, from Apple, is to be able to launch the QuickLook with space bar directly from the Spotlight result list, as that would make it more useful. With each OS X they keep changing the UI for Spotlight results, so hopefully in the next release it will be more polished.

[DRL]

Thanks for all the help, Conor. Everything is working well now. I love the improvements, especially the cover flow!

One small problem has arisen today, which I'm sure has an easy answer. When entering a four-disc collection (Ella Fitzgerald - Twelve Nights in Hollywood), everything went straightforwardly, until I found that the track listing had some strange misprints (like You’re instead of You're.) I tried alternative sources for the track listing, but they all seemed the same. I decided it would be easy enough to go through and correct each error, but I could not get down as far as the last two discs in the Edit track list. So I now have corrected everything except the last few items, which are still odd. How do I get access to the lower part of that Edit page? ( I know the answer is going to be obvious and I will feel stupid for asking the question. I don't seem to be able to scroll down!)

And I suppose another question should be: what's the reason for the confused rendering of some punctuation marks?

[Conor]

Should indeed scroll all the way to the bottom including the last two tracks. Could you please send me a .ccard so I can try it out, doing a search results in an entry where everything is working. To create a .ccard drag the CD from your table view to your desktop. It will create a new file there that you can then email to me. But to solve the problem immediately try making the edit window larger, bottom right of the window.

[DRL]

I've tried making the Edit window larger and can't make it go any further. I will try to send the email you requested.