Could Winyl Be Your New Windows Music Player?

By Paul Ferson.  Music, of all the media you can play on a computer, has arguably gone through the biggest transformation. From MP3s stored on a physical hard drive, to cloud storage of your own music and streaming of music from massive digital libraries, it has evolved a great deal in the space of a decade, but all stages continue to progress.
While iTunes might be the most well-known music player available for Windows and Mac, it’s by no means the only one. Given the appeal of customizing iTunes, it should come as no surprise that other players exist and use this type of flexibility as a major selling point. Winyl is one of these players, and the name relates perfectly to the evolution of music’s availability, going right back to the older vinyl records.

Interface

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Winyl’s default interface is dark but inviting; many music players rely on lighter colors and the radical contrast sets Winyl apart very quickly. The skin can be changed, and in a relatively naughty act, there’s a skin labelled “iTunes” that strongly resembles Apple’s player circa iTunes 9, right down to the Mountain Lion-era buttons.

You can get the above iTunes 11 theme here: http://pep0.deviantart.com/art/iTunes-for-Winyl-436614085

The left-hand sidebar contains numerous options which should prove familiar; “Artists”, “Genres” and “Radio” are all entries that should prove familiar, though there is also a file explorer for guiding Winyl to files you’d like to make it play. The functionality isn’t vital but exists for those who may desire it.

In all probability, the majority of use will be through the “Artists” tree, which expands to display all of the artists in the library. These artists can be expanded on an individual basis to see a list of all their albums, or the individual albums can be clicked to filter out any other entries. As a result, it’s easy to find one album in a prolific artist’s discography.

Should you wish to ignore the individual album lists found under the artists, it is also possible to simply scroll through all of the albums from the artist in question. Doing so will allow you to view all of their songs at once, while the search box quickly cuts through the library in order to find exactly what you’re looking for.

If Winyl makes one iTunes feature look sluggish, it’s the search. Rather than giving a long list of options, Winyl cuts down the visible options in the UI to match searches. Winyl’s developers have also seen fit to include support for the enhanced taskbar introduced with Windows 7. The preview features media playback buttons and album artwork as opposed to the more conventional program preview.
Winyl’s other panel of note can be toggled at will on the right-hand side, displaying lyrics. Lyrics are pulled from sources online, though it is done extremely quickly. The lyrics pane is also adapted to fit with the rest of the skins, should you change them.

Functionality

While it should come as no surprise to find that Winyl is up to the task of playing MP3 files, it does have a number of tricks up its sleeve beyond an equaliser. For one, it has an ID3 tag editor built in: users of dedicated software like MP3Tag will likely not be blown away by its features, though it is more than enough for the average user.
Winyl also supports storing and reading lyrics directly from the MP3, rather than via online sources; selective users could ultimately find themselves with more accurate lyrics than the majority of Google searchers online.

Also incorporated into the skin design is a pop-up to inform users of the track when it changes; a neat feature, albeit not an entirely necessary one. This can be disabled in the settings, and should you choose to disable it, you will also discover the ace up Winyl’s sleeve: Last.fm integration.
Winyl supports Last.fm’s official client, which the company refers to as the “Scrobbler.” While most major music players support Last.fm as well, the support means that the barrier to change is removed. For those unaware of what Last.fm does, it records your listening history and recommends artists based upon your tastes. Thus, for passionate fans of music, it can be an excellent tool with which to further broaden their tastes.

Overall

There is little to dislike about Winyl: it provides a considerable amount of user customizability without the expense of overall usability. Those accustomed to extremely flexible programs like Foobar2000 will likely find Winyl a downgrade, but for those who have not used such extensible and modifiable music players – or who want an easier route to a more personalised piece of software, Winyl is a worthwhile prospect.
Development for it is ongoing, and its future appears promising; for anyone who may have lamented Songbird’s functional decline, this should be an encouraging sign of the future.

You can download it here: http://vinylsoft.com/

Source: http://www.maketecheasier.com/winyl-windows-music-player/

Computer Auctions And Why eBay May Not Be Your Only Option

Name the first online auction site that comes to your mind. Can you even think of any besides eBay? For most of us it’s the only online auction site that matters, but if you’re browsing through eBay to find great deals on computers, you may be better off using an alternative auction platform.
Why look somewhere other than eBay?

• Less competition when placing bids.
• Less dependence on PayPal.
• Avoid common eBay scams.

If you need a very specific item and price isn’t a top concern, by all means keep using eBay. The site is so massively international that you won’t find a better selection of items anywhere else. However, if you’re curious to see what’s out there besides eBay, you won’t regret checking out these sites.

 

Dell Auction

 

Dell is a popular brand if you don’t care about building your own computers. Purchasing their computers at retail price can drain your wallet pretty fast, especially if you customize your order, but you can save a lot of money by going through Dell Auction instead.
With Dell Auction, you can bid on refurbished Dell laptops and desktops that have been restored to fit Dell’s quality specifications. It doesn’t cost anything to place bids and each purchase comes with a 30-day satisfaction return policy.
As you might expect, the selection here is somewhat small since they only serve up Dell products. However, I’ve seen a number of great laptops and desktop systems priced under $200 so there’s a lot of money to be saved here. Listed prices do not include shipping.
Regional Availability: United States.

uBid

 

Though uBid has expanded to include many different auction item categories, they’ve always had a strong root in computers and computer-related products. Here you’ll find plenty of affordable equipment from top-name brands like Dell, Lenovo, HP, and even Apple.
Like eBay, uBid has two types of product listings: Auction and Buy Now. At the time of writing, I see dozens of awesome computer auctions that are about to end between $100 and $200. The Buy Now products are just as affordable but typically limited to 1 stock.
If you’re looking to buy a computer at auction, you really can’t pass up uBid. The combination of price and variety is unmatched by any other site.
Regional Availability: United States.

Public Surplus

 

Public Surplus is a place where public agencies can put up surplus merchandise (otherwise known as overstock) for sale at super cheap prices. All sellers on Public Surplus are required to register and pay regular fees, meaning this site isn’t an open auction where anyone can sell anything they want.
You’ll find a lot of variety in items but each item won’t have too many stocked, so if you lose an auction you likely won’t have another chance. The good thing is that not many people know about Public Surplus, making it easier to grab that particular item that caught your eye.
Regional Availability: United States and Canada.

Liquidation

 

Like Public Surplus, Liquidation is a place where overstock is auctioned off at incredibly cheap prices, except Liquidation’s range stretches all over the globe. There are dozens of computer systems on sale at any given time, sourced mostly from the United States but able to be shipped to most countries.
Liquidation has a clean website layout that makes it easy to find what you want at a price within your budget. Items are graded on conditions like New, Used, Refurbished, Returned, or even Salvaged. The selection is somewhat small but it’s the perfect place to find those once-in-a-blue-moon deals.
Regional Availability: International.

Conclusion

 

The next time you need to buy a cheap computer, consider buying from an online auction site that isn’t eBay. You’ll run into fewer auction snipers, the products tend to be more reliable, and you’ll be distancing yourself from those common eBay scams.
If you really don’t like eBay and want to know what else is out there, check out these awesome eBay alternatives.
Know of any other computer auction sites? It’d be great to hear about them. Please share with us in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/computer-auctions-ebay-may-option/

Fed Up With eBay? Here Are Some Worthy (And Cheaper) Alternatives For Sellers

When you want to sell your excess junk online, where do you go? For most people, the one and only answer is eBay. With millions of daily users, it only seems logical to use the number one popular online auction site when you have online selling needs. But what about all of the alternatives that are arguably better?
“Why fix something that isn’t broken, Joel?” you might ask. Or more poignantly, “Why use a different site when eBay suits me just fine?” Well, if you enjoy using eBay, then I suppose there’s no reason to switch. However, over the years, many users have grown fed up with eBay’s services. If you’re one of those users, then have no fear. The eBay alternative are pretty good.
If you have stuff you need to sell and you need it done online, check out the following sites. Some of them may surprise you.

Craigslist

 

Here’s an alternative that may seem like common sense: Craigslist. Founded in 1995, Craigslist acts as an online community where users can post classified ads. In the last 17 years, Craigslist has become so popular that it now serves over 700 localized versions of its site in over 70 countries. If you need a broad audience, here you go.
Craigslist is completely free. You do not pay any service fees or charges for posting your listings. Payment and transactions are dealt with face-to-face between parties, so there is no mediator escrow-type service; be careful that you aren’t scammed. The interface is somewhat outdated and as far as I know there isn’t a way to judge a user’s trustworthiness (like with eBay’s rating system).
But everything considered, you keep 100% of the revenue when you finalize a transaction using Craigslist and its popularity guarantees that you won’t run out of buyers anytime soon.

Ealtbay

 

Ealtbay. Just take a look at this service’s name and you’ll see that its primary purpose is to be an alternative to eBay. But is it better than eBay? Check out their five reasons for existence and decide for yourself.

• Ealtbay does not place bans on items that are perfectly legal to be sold.
• Ealtbay lets you list items for free. Final fees on sold items are much lower than eBay.
• Ealtbay does not force electronic payment methods (e.g., Paypal) on users. Whatever method the seller is comfortable with can be used.
• Ealtbay allows feedback for both buyers and sellers, not just sellers.
• Ealtbay does not force top-rated sellers to appear at the top of search results, allowing smaller-volume sellers more exposure.

The downside to Ealtbay is that their audience is nowhere near the size of eBay (which is understandable) and they have a primitive-looking interface that isn’t exactly beautiful (which is a definite negative). However, those five features above more than make up for any of Ealtbay’s shortcomings.

eBid

 

eBid is a promising alternative to eBay, boasting over 6 million item listings in nearly 13,000 categories. There are no listing fees here and the final fees are much lower than the fees over at eBay. Payment methods include Paypal, PPPay, Google Checkout, and Skrill. If you’re worried about eBid’s reliability as a service, be placated in knowing that eBid is a Google Shopping Marketplace Partner.
eBid’s selling features are that they provide a number of merchant programs (auctions, fixed-price transactions, and storefronts) as well as the ability to “ninja list” items, where you can bulk upload for low fees.

Etsy

 

Unlike eBay and clones of eBay, there are other online marketplaces that cater to a more niche audience. Marketplaces like Etsy, where the focus rests on hand-made or vintage items. It was established in 2005, which means it only had 7 years to become as big as it is now. Impressive, if you ask me.
Etsy boasts over 39 million unique visitors every month who browse the 800,000 available shops. As niche as Etsy might be, the audience size is nothing to sneeze at. In order to list on Etsy, each item will cost you $0.20 per stock and you’ll pay 3.5% of the final selling price in fees. Payment options include Paypal, Etsy’s direct checkout, or cheque.
For one-time junk selling, eBay is still the better option. But if you have hand-made crafts that you’d like to sell for profit, Etsy may be the place for you.

Freecycle

 

If you have items that you just want to get rid of (i.e., you don’t care about making a profit), you ought to check out Freecycle. It’s a worldwide community that aims to reduce global waste by connecting people who want to throw away goods to people who need those goods. In essence, people with excess give stuff to people in need for free. Free recycling. Get it? (Admittedly, it took me a while.)
Listings are completely free and there are no payment options because everything is free. Though Freecycle is a worldwide site, item exchanges are conducted locally so buyers can come pick up the items from the sellers without postage fees. If you need more room in your attic or garage, Freecycle can help you. If you want to make a profit, look elsewhere.

Ruby Lane

 

Ruby Lane is a niche online marketplace where people can buy and sell high-end antiques, art, and vintage collectibles. Here you’ll find thousands of independent shops, each run by individual sellers, from all over the world. Ever since their establishment in 1998, Ruby Lane has guaranteed quality, security, and excellence to their members.
Their shop format only allows selling items either at a certain price point or through the make-and-offer feature; there are no auctions. For sellers, Ruby Lane uses a unique pricing structure that includes a $0.30 listing fee per item, a once-per-month Advertising Fee of $20, and a once-per-month Maintenance Fee that depends on how many items you sell that month. Check out their massive list of reasons why you should sell on Ruby Lane.
So if you’re sick of eBay, then you owe it to yourself to check out one of these eBay alternative. Many are free. Some are great for one-time throwaways while others offer you the chance to build up a lucrative business. If you’ve used any of these services in the past, let us know what you thought of them in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fed-up-with-ebay-here-are-some-worthy-and-cheaper-alternatives-for-sellers/

7 Awesome Foobar2000 Skins

admin Updated on Apr 4th, 2013

foobar2000 is the world’s most favorite audio player for Windows. Apart from playlists and other standard player functionality, it also packs-in a whole range of audio features and functions. Majority of Windows users who once used the native Windows Media Player and the popular WinAmp music player are now migrating to foobar2000.

The current version of foobar2000 supports all popular audio formats, including MP3, MP4, AAC, WMA, WAV, FLAC and more. Customizable keyboard shortcuts, gapless playback support, highly customizable user interface, and full unicode support are the main attractions of this free audio player.

The default UI of the player is very simple. Users who don’t like the default look of the player and would like to skin the best MP3 player in the World, can try out some pretty skins designed for foobar2000. As there are thousands of free skins available for foobar2000, it’s really a difficult job to find out the best available skins. To help you skin your foobar2000, we have compiled a list of better skins for foobar2000. Visit the download page to know about the installation instructions.

1. Vista Skin:

Download Page

2. MonoLiteMod:

Download Page

3. FooWIP:

Download Page

4. Foobaero:

Download Page

5. Ribbon UI:

Download Page

6. FooAero:

Download Page

7. FooW7MP:

Download Page

Source: http://www.intowindows.com/7-awesome-foobar2000-skins/

Best free MP3 software: 11 programs for playing and managing your music

MP3tag makes light work of tagging all your music files

If you just want to play a few MP3s, create a playlist or two, then Windows Media Player will help you get started.
Otherwise, though, the program is probably the worst of all worlds - not particularly powerful, or easy to use - and most people will be better off with something else.

• Download mp3DirectCut 2 for Windows

What, exactly? That all depends on your needs. There are programs to help automatically tag your music, download album art and more.
Others will clean up even the messiest MP3 collection, quickly organising files into sensibly-named folders. And of course you'll need a great player, to ensure your music sounds its best.
This doesn't have to be complicated, though, because there are plenty of free tools around which can do all of this (and a whole lot more). Just keep reading for our pick of the best free MP3 software to download.

1. iTunes

ITunes is a player; a media browser and organiser, and a tool to help set up your iPod, iPhone and iPad. The iTunes Store helps you to discover new content, and of course you're able to buy some of it, too.
The latest version is more stripped down, too, with a simpler, cleaner interface. Most of the key playback options can be controlled from the Mini Player, creating and managing playlists is easier, and the store works more like it does with iPhones and iPads.

ITunes is all about Apple devices, of course, and it does its best to get you into the store (you can't get album art until you're logged in, for instance). But if you don't mind that, this is an excellent player and organiser, and now easier to use than ever.
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2. MusicZen

If your Music folder is a real mess, with MP3s scattered everywhere, then getting them properly organised can seem like a real challenge - until you run MusicZen.
Point the program at your folder and it can scan all your MP3s, reading their tags, then copying (or moving) them to new folders based on the artist, album, song title and more.

The files will be consistently renamed, too, so those odd mixes of upper and lower cases, the dash and underscore separators will disappear.
And the program is incredibly simple, with no complex settings to master - you'll have your MP3s reordered in seconds.
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3. MP3jam

There are plenty of YouTube search tools around, but MP3jam is a little different: instead of accessing videos, it's all about music.
Just enter a search term - an artist, a song or album title - and it'll quickly return any results (complete with album art, in some cases).

Each song title has a "play" button, allowing you to stream it from the web. You can alternatively download individual songs or entire albums, and the program automatically organises these into folders for you.
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4. Winamp

After 16 years of development, it's no surprise that Winamp is one of the most capable music players and managers around.
The program supports 60+ audio and video formats. It can quickly scan your PC for audio files (or import your iTunes library), then organise your music in many different ways, you can create playlists, update and edit your MP3 tags, read more about your favourite artists and access thousands of free audio and video channels.

If you need more, there are thousands of plug-ins to explore, and even an Android app.
All these features do make for an occasionally complex interface, and it'll take a while to figure out how everything works. But if you need a powerful player then Winamp remains a good choice.
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5. MediaMonkey

ITunes is great, if you want to work with iOS devices. If you also have an Android phone or tablet, though - or you're just looking for a better organiser - then it could be time to give MediaMonkey a try.

The program quickly imports even the largest music libraries, and can then automatically rename your MP3s, moving them into a logical folder structure, automatically fixing tags and alerting you to any duplicates.

There are lots of playlist options, while the core player offers lots of features and can be extended with a huge range of effects.
If you want to share your music, it's easy to sync with Apple or Android (and other) devices, or UPnP/ DNLA devices (TVs, Blu-ray players and more).
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6. Advanced Renamer

Advanced Renamer is an amazingly powerful tool for renaming, copying or moving files. If your MP3 library is a mess, then it can give your files new names from their audio tags, change the case of a file name, add or remove text, change a file's attributes or timestamps, maybe copy or move MP3's to new locations based on their tags (specific folders for that artist or album, say).

All this power comes at a price, though - Advanced Renamer has a steep learning curve. Experts will love its configurability, and the program isn't only for MP3s. It works just as well with images, videos and other file types.
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7. Foorbar2000

If other MP3 organisers and players seem too bulky and complicated, you might prefer Foorbar2000.
Just like the competition, the program helps you build and organise your music library, create playlists, sort out your tags, and more.

The interface is very configurable, while a strong core player supports lots of formats, gapless playback, and Replaygain to level out volume across tracks, and more.
Yet despite all this, foorbar2000 requires only 7MB of hard drive space (Winamp needs about 10x more), and can even be installed in "portable" mode, so it won't touch your Registry or install any other components at all.
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8. Freemake Audio Converter

Just as its name suggests, Freemake Audio Converter is an excellent tool for converting audio files into a more useful format.
There's support for writing MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A and OGG files. Various audio settings (bitrate, sample rate, channels) help you get the best compromise between image quality and file size.

The program can join audio files together, or export its conversions directly to iTunes, and it's even possible to extract and convert the soundtrack of most video files.
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9. MP3tag

Changing the tags of one MP3 file is easy (right-click, Properties > Details). When it's hundreds, maybe thousands of tracks, though, you'll need a tool like MP3tag.
The program can automatically import data from various web resources (Amazon, discogs, freedb, MusicBrainz, more), replacing tags in multiple files without you typing anything.

Or you can apply your own rules to tweak tags however you like. Tags can then be used to rename files; there's support for downloading cover art, too, and all this works with a range of tag formats (ID3v1.1, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4, MP4, WMA, APEv2 Tags and Vorbis Comments).
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10. Audacity

Audacity is a capable and feature-packed audio editor, yet is still relatively straightforward to use.
Import an MP3 and you'll see the usual waveform-type display; it's easy to zoom in and select the area you need, and then you can cut or delete it, perhaps copy or paste it elsewhere.
If you need more power, clicking the Effects menu reveals 40 options (Change Pitch, Compressor, Equalization, Normalize and more).

There are useful tools to strip off (some) vocals, or clean up recorded audio by removing clicks and other noises.
If this isn't enough then support for LADSPA, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit plug-ins allows you to extend the program even further.
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11. VLC Media Player

If you're looking for a player which is simple, easy to use, but also has some power when you need it, then grab a copy of VLC Media Player.
You can use the program as a very simple, on-demand player. Select one MP3 or an entire album and it'll begin playing, and the interface can be reduced to a single toolbar, maybe some album art.

The program works with just about every media type, though (music, video, CDs, discs, devices, streams). There's simple media library management, playlist creation and tag editing.
A graphic equalizer, compressor and spatializer help deliver great sound, the interface is extremely configurable, and plug-ins add more power when you need it.

Source: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-mp3-software-11-programs-for-playing-and-managing-your-music-1143479/1