YouTube internet video is an amazing, revolutionary phenomenon that has exploded the world of video sharing. People are crazy about being able to view YouTube movie clips, music performances, comedy routines, tutorials and amateur video over the internet. You know what I’m talking about - what’s not to love about watching YouTube or FunnyOrDie.

But until now you couldn’t rip audio from your favorite YouTube clip onto your iTunes or MP3 player. And that’s where a company named PocketMac comes in. They thought it would be really cool to be able to carry your audio YouTube clips on your iPod or MP3 player. And that’s great news for YouTube devotees. Now you can rip your favorite YouTube audio clips into your iTunes and MP3 player with their new download called PocketMac AudioExtractor.

The download for the audio extractor program for YouTube ripping to iPod or MP3 players is available from a company called PocketMac. PocketMac has been around for about ten years designing all kinds of creative applications and downloads to expand the way Macintosh users interact with the Mac platform. It’s run by two brothers who are avid Mac users. One brother, Terrance, is the design wizard, and the other brother, Tim, takes care of sales and marketing. They’re great at getting new downloads out to Mac users.

This great audio ripping program for YouTube to iTunes or MP3 will cost you just $29.95. It comes with free web and email support 24/7 and you can install it on two computers with every purchase. It also comes with a full no questions asked guarantee, in case you decide you don’t like it, or you don’t want to rip YouTube audio to iTunes or MP3, after all. PocketMac AudioExtractor requires OS X 10.4 or 10.5 (Tiger or Leopard), 10 MB free disk space, Safari Web Browser, and Mac Universal Application. And obviously, you need iTunes or an MP3 player to use this YouTube ripping program.

I’m often indecisive on this topic. Should I put some music on when I write or should I enjoy the comfort of absolute silence?

For you people who prefer neither but instead like to have a TV on in the background while you write, go away because I don’t have cable and can’t see how you don’t become distracted every five minutes. And now that I think about it if you’re writing on a computer with internet access and you have the television on, how could you possibly get any writing done at all? I would be flipping through TV channels and Firefox tabs like it’s nobody’s business.

As I write this I’m listening to the band Fleet Foxes’ big hit, White Winter Hymnal. It’s such a catchy song that I’m having a little bit of trouble keeping my train of thought. So maybe that’s at least my problem. If I’m listening to a really good song I have a lot of trouble keeping it tuned out while having my writing remain in the foreground. See, now that I’m listening to some mellow instrumental music (The Album Leaf, actually) I’m able to focus more on this post.

But I’ve also found that just because it’s an instrumental piece, that doesn’t mean it won’t keep my mind off whatever I’m writing. The other day I was writing an article while streaming a classical music internet radio station and I became so distracted by the piece that was playing that I had to lean back in my chair and just listen for a couple minutes.

Is writing in silence any easier, though? First, it doesn’t seem likely that most writers have the ability to get to a quiet place whenever they have an urge to write. The number of distractions around you at all times that make tiny little noises we are usually able to tune out are abundant, keeping it nearly impossible to find a place that absolutely silent. How about going to the library to write? The absence of those small noises we’re used to tuning out can sometimes make writing at the library it’s own challenge.

Is there a middle ground then? You might try what I do and go to your local coffee shop. My local homegrown coffee shops provide a cozy and warm vibe, unlike my local Starbucks (blah). With the light music coming from seemingly invisible speakers in the ceiling and the soft chattering of other customers around me, the coffee shop is a great place for me to get a ton of writing finished up. For some reason there are no distractions in this kind of environment, it’s conducive to my writing style. You’ll always find comfort at home at your desk, but try making a trip one day to your local coffee house and see what happens.

But I’m only one writer of many. Where is your writing hot spot? Do you listen to any tunes while you’re there?

P.S.: Also, what about your best times to get writing done? Dawn and after midnight are my favorite times to write.

Using an iPod is easy once you know how. Follow the tips in this article and you’ll be uploading music (games, videos, audiobooks, podcasts) like an expert.

1) Load the music files onto your computer

Most of us start out with our iPods by loading up the CDs we’ve collected over the years, so let’s start there. Copy the files from your CDs onto your computer’s hard disk so it’ll be available to your iPod manager. Note: If you use iTunes and have “Copy files to iTunes music folder” selected, you can skip copying the files to the PC — just having the CD in your computer’s CD drive will be enough.

2) Bring the music files into your iPod manager software

You’ll use an “iPod manager” application to handle moving files to and from the iPod. Apple’s free iTunes software is the iPod manager most of us use. You’re welcome to look at the other options — Wikipedia has a pretty good list. If you’re new to iPods I suggest you start with iTunes. Once you know what you do and don’t like about iTunes you’ll be in a better position to decide whether you want to look for a different iPod manager.

By the way, using iTunes to manage iPod files does NOT keep you from buying music from other companies — I buy music downloads from three different vendors but use iTunes to move them back and for from my iPod.

If you like to be able to find all your iPod music in one location on your computer, set up iTunes to copy all files into the library location. It’s an easy configuration: choose Edit, Preferences, Advanced from the menu and click the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.” This is handy if you’re going to pull music from CDs — let iTunes manage copying the files off the CD for you.

Now it’s time to import to iTunes. One of the easiest ways is to click File, Add Folder to Library, and select the directory (or CD) holding your music. Click the “OK” button and iTunes will import the music to the library. You can also use the Control + O keys and select single files to add.

3) Connect your iPod nano

You probably already did this, but just in case: connect your iPod nano to your computer with the the USB cable that came with your nano. You’ll know the connection’s successful when the left-hand menu in iTunes shows your iPod.

How you upload the music depends on whether you’re letting iTunes manage your iPod or have elected to “manually manage” your iPod. I prefer the “manually manage” approach because it lets me to pick and choose which files to move to my nano. It also allows me to pull files from multiple computers to the one iPod.

4) Now to upload music to that iPod nano

If you decide to let iTunes manage the uploads, click your iPod’s icon and select “Sync” in the lower right corner.

Will you manage uploads manually? You’ll need to do a quick, one-time setup. In iTunes, click the nano’s icon and select “Manually manage music and videos” on the iTunes screen. Now you just select the music you want and drag it onto the iPod icon. Voila! The music uploads.

5) Last step: Eject your iPod before disconnecting

Never disconnect your iPod nano without ejecting it first. Not taking that extra minute risks corrupting the files. Eject from iTunes by clicking the button at bottom right of the screen.

6) Find more cool stuff!

Now that you have the hang of it, it’s time to go find more music, podcasts, games and videos for your iPod nano. I get my podcasts via iTunes, which has a terrific list. Music, games and videos, on the other hand, can be found in a lot of other stores for very reasonable prices. See my web site for suggestions.

Now that Napster has rolled out a 6 million-song library that’s open to play on any digital media player, things have changed. Even though Amazon and MySpace have attempted to hone in on iTunes territory, they lack the name recognition and “hip” rebel image that Napster still carries from the old file-sharing application of the same name. He and his partner Deborah Micek are authors of the hit book Secrets Of Online Persuasion , and creators of the BLOG i360?”? New Media Marketing Site Creater . BLOG i360 is the New Media marketing system that makes online persuasion pushbutton easy. Read more

[Tags]napster, , media, itunes, marketing, micek, creative zen[/Tags]

First Netflix fires a major shot over the bow of the Apple TV with their new Netflix Player set-top box, now Napster is going after iTunes with a new DRM-free music service. Apple can still claim to be the world’s largest digital music store, Napster just has more MP3s. Many songs currently being sold from the iTunes Music Store are encoded with Apple’s FairPlay DRM system and can only be played back on an iPod or iPhone authorized by the purchaser to do so. Of course, DRM can be stripped by burning FairPlay-encoded tracks to CD-ROM then re-ripping them in iTunes as unprotected MP3s but most people can’t be bothered with the hassle. Amazon MP3 became the first store to carry DRM-free music from all four major labels in January 2008 . Read more

[Tags]music, apple, napster, drmfree, amazon, drm, itunes[/Tags]

Trace Adkins’s transcendently goopy maturity-ballad “You’re Gonna Miss This” had a moment because of something to do with the celebrity version of The Apprentice , and American Idol launched at least one dead Hawaiian ukulele player into the top ten for a week or so, but the top spots have been stuck in a “4 Minutes”/”No Air”/”Lollipop”/”Bleeding Love” stasis for weeks now. A sub-Lachey teenpop late-arrival, trying to stay alive in a post- Summerland world, enlists “Umbrella” writer/producers Tricky and The-Dream to give him a trance-pop song. Jesse McCartney cowrote “Bleedin’ Love,” so he shouldn’t need to pay top dollar for someone who’s going to tell him to rhyme seen with man , but I guess we’re stuck with The-Dream for a little while longer. I haven’t heard nearly enough John Mayer songs to call “Say” the best John Mayer song ever, so I’ll just call it the best one I’ve ever heard, though maybe I just like it because it isn’t trance-pop. Normally this would be a good thing, but we need some actual human beings to counteract the R2D2 blips, and Danity Kane sound like animatronic mannequins even when they’re asking a boyfriend how he’s going to deal with all their baggage. Copyright © 2008 Village Voice LLC, 36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003 The Village Voice and Voice are registered trademarks of Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC. Read more

[Tags], enter, top, voice, win, hes, itunes[/Tags]

From the “I Can’t Make This $%&! I know there are so many downloading software which have DRM tech like Napster, Rhapsody, limewire, iTune, bearshare. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. Read more

[Tags], 8220i, bearshare, can8217t, copyrights, downloading, itunes[/Tags]