Mac.sis making macs and S60 handsets talk

As noted in AllAboutSymbian.com, the Nokia Multimedia Transfer for Mac (previously Nokia Media Transfer for Mac) has been updated to version 1.1 beta. Changes mentioned by Nokia include:

As noted at E-series.org, Nokia has silently added support for some more of the E-Series products for Nokia Media Transfer for Mac. I am sitting at a pesky PC right now, unable to try this out myself, but apparently you should be able to have NMT check for updates to install the updated version.

E-series owners, let me know how this goes.

After being on the road for a good 10 days, I finally managed to take PutPinfInItsPlace to a test. This free application takes an iTunes Plus song and shifts a few bits to make the song playable at least on the N95.

I would still prefer a real solution from either company, but for the time being, PPIIP is really helpful.

NOTE: I am not a lawyer and cannot tell whether using this type of utility violates some part of the iTunes EULA, so usual warnings may apply.

A recent tip at MacOSXHints indicates that there is a workaround for getting iTunes Plus songs to play on the Nokia N95. The process involves using the "Convert to AAC" functionality in iTunes, essentially creating a standard AAC version of the song.

After being tipped off by Sälli, I managed to take his iTuneMyWalkman application for a spin, and I have to admit that I am completely sold. Basically, iTMW can be used quite similarly to SyncTunes, but I particularly appreciate the clean user interface (slightly ahead of SyncTunes there), the supplied scripts for syncing automatically upon USB connection as well as the scripts installed directly to iTunes.

A reader in my Finnish Omenamehu.org discussion forum (thanks Sälli) brought to my attention his open source alternative to SyncTunes: iTuneMyWalkman.

From the feature list:

• Synchronizes the contents of specific iTunes playlists to your mobile phone.
• Detects automatically when the device is connected.
• Creates directory structure according to artists/albums, playlists, or genres.
• User can define how much space is left on the memory card.

Most S60 devices have built-in music playback capabilities and double as a portable music player for MP3 and AAC tracks. The music player speaks ID3 and allows you to navigate your music library by artist, album, genre etc.: