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iTunes Sync SupportDecember 24, 2011
NOTE: If you are looking for support for my "Send to PC" app, click here. NOTE: If you are looking for support for my "Print" app, click here. NOTE: If you are having any issues with the program and would like to resolve them, please send me email at daniel.bigham.software@gmail.com rather than posting a review stating what your problem is. Unfortunately, developers have no way to contact people that leave reviews to help them. Ensure Wi-Fi is Connected  | If you are using iTunes Sync with your BlackBerry phone, make sure you have Wi-Fi enabled and connected to your Wi-Fi network. To check this, go to your BlackBerry's "Manage Connections" screen (the icon looks like a radio tower) and verify that "Wi-Fi" is checked. Also make sure that the name of your Wi-Fi network appears next to the checkbox. If not, scroll down to the "Set Up Wi-Fi Network" menu item and click it to walk through the WiFi network wizard. |
If you are having trouble connecting | There is an ugly bug in that if you exit the iTunes Sync PC app by right clicking on it and selecting "Exit", and then you open the app again, the PlayBook won't be able to connect. This is because the .NET program calls a native library that listens for an incoming TCP connection, and there is no way for the .NET program to tell the native library to stop listening, so the program doesn't exit properly. Therefore, if you can't connect, log off of your Windows session and log back in again -- that will kill iTunes Sync and it will start again automatically when you log back in. (So make sure you don't try and start it a second time after logging back in) After you log back in, verify that iTunes Sync is in fact running in your Windows tray, which is at the bottom right of your screen. (You may have to click the little up arrow) |
| Ensure that your Windows Firewall has an exception to allow iTunes Sync to talk on your local network. When you started iTunes Sync for the first time, it likely caused a Windows dialog box to be displayed asking if you want to "Unblock" the program and allow it to talk on either the local and/or remote networks. Hopefully you clicked "Unblock". If not, these Windows Firewall exceptions may be missing. If you are finding that the program cannot connect, then you should probably start by disabling Windows Firewall to remove the possibility that this is the cause. Also note that if you uninstall and re-install the Windows PC program, it should prompt you again for whether you want to unblock the program, so if you missed clicking Unblock the first time, that will allow you to have a second chance at responding to that dialog appropriately. |
| If you got any sort of errors during the installation of the program, it may be due to a virus checker interfering. For example, Norton seems problematic. In these cases, disable your virus checker, uninstall iTunes Sync, log off of Windows, log back in, ensure your virus checker is still disabled, and then reinstall iTunes Sync. Then, check to see whether it is working properly. |
| If you are still having trouble connecting: |
|  | Open a web browser on the computer running iTunes Sync, and go to: |
| | http://127.0.0.1:4556/hello
You should see a message "Hello!". If you don't, it indicates that iTunes Sync isn't running properly. If logging off of Windows and logging back in doesn't fix this, then please contact me by email: daniel.bigham@gmail.com |
| | If that worked, go to a web browser on another computer running on your Wi-Fi network and go to the same address, but substitute for "127.0.0.1" the IP address of the computer running iTunes Sync (which can be found by right clicking the icon in the Windows Tray and selecting "What's my IP address?) |
| | If that doesn't display the "Hello!" text as it did on the computer running iTunes Sync, that indicates that something is preventing other devices on your network from connecting to your computer on TCP port 4556. Usually this is a matter of disabling Windows Firewall, but if that still doesn't work, please contact me by email and I will try and help you troubleshoot: daniel.bigham@gmail.com |
If not all of your songs are getting sync'd | The primary cause for this is that if your iTunes music is DRM (digital rights managements) protected, then it can't be used by mobile devices other than Apple products. To check this, right click on one of your non-sync'ing songs and select "Show In Windows Explorer". If the file extension ends with ".m4p", then it's DRM protected. Fortunately, Apple allows you to pay an additional 40 cents to free your music forever. The relevant URL for that is: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1711 |
If your virus checker is preventing installation | Be rest assured that the PC program doesn't have a virus. I uploaded the EXE to a website that runs it through virtually every virus manufacturer, and none of them flagged it as being a problem. As noted in a section above, disable your virus checker, uninstall iTunes Sync, log off of Windows, log back in, ensure your virus checker is still disabled, and then reinstall iTunes Sync. Then, check to see whether it is working properly. |
If the download link on the web page doesn't seem to be working | For the Windows PC version: Try right clicking this link and saving the .exe file to your hard drive, and then run it from there. |
Does the program run on Mac? | Yes! On December 29 I released a Mac version. The PlayBook app is the same one, while the download for the program that runs on your Mac can be found here: iTunes Sync for Mac. Note that the app description on App World is still pending a change to indicate that Mac support is available, but rest assured that the app available on App World is ready to go for use with Mac. |
Riding a Wave of Success
December 22, 2011
It has been a few weeks now since I released iTunes Sync, and amazingly sales continue to be very strong, even though the app has long since moved on from the "Newest" section. Having CrackBerry cover the app was another shot in the arm which returned sales close to first-release levels.
Since then, sales had settled in at about $150/day (of which I get 70 percent), which for a guy who previous had at best $10/day apps, is incredible.
This week has brought yet another surprise: Yesterday sales shot up to $320, and today, even though it's still early in the day, the numbers are looking similarly great. What is causing this big surge? I have yet to find out. One possibility is that it's my release this week of a phone version of the app. Unfortunately, RIM's spreadsheet downloads are down, and so I am unable to check whether these sales are PlayBook or phone sales. I have been receiving a steady supply of email from people using the PlayBook, but haven't received any mail from phone users, so I'd be surprised if these were phone sales. Also, I was very disappointed that when I released the phone version, it didn't show up in the "Newest" section of phones. There seems to be some underlying App World issues at play whereby PlayBook is treated as "just another device", which it is not.
Something fun that happened a couple of days ago was that a friend from church sent me a message on Facebook that she had just bought a PlayBook and had bought iTunes Sync, then realizing that she knew the author. I love making connections like that!
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Exciting Times at Wolfram AlphaDecember 6, 2011
I've been working at Wolfram Alpha for two years and three months now, and I'm finally working on the project that I always dreamed of working on: Next generation core parser design. Being moved onto this project has breathed new life into me, and I've been busy filling up my notebook with ideas. Doing this kind of R&D is extremely exciting, and so far, I feel like I've been more successful at it than I could have imagined. With any luck, my efforts along with the contributions of others will lead to a serious IQ boost for Alpha. older >>
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