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P.N.S.:
Post Napster Syndrome
Unless you live in a hole
you have heard of Napster
and have used it at least once. If you're like me you've burned
several CDs containing songs found on Napster. The amount of songs
that can be found on napster is amazing. But there's more to Napster
than just downloading bootleg files.
Many artists use it as a
way of getting their music heard and becoming more popular. Dave
Mathews, Madonna, Green Day, U2, B.B. King, Radiohead, Foo Fighters,
and many other artists have all spoken out in support of Napster
(Artists
Sound Off). Maybe the RIAA should have listened to the people
they were created to protect. But it's too late for all that. Napster
now has to deal with creating new technology to screen for copyrighted
and unauthorized files, while charging some users to listen and
burn music, while charging others less to just listen to it for
a cost of upto $15. They are calling it Napster II.
This blows major chunks for
current Napster users. There are many other file and MP3 sharing
programs out there. Some are web based search engines, others are
clones of Napster or Gnutella
(which when closed down placed a story on it's site about a man
at a bar who was not allowed to share the fire from his lighter),
and others were simply created by Shawn Fanning wannabe's, which
isn't a bad thing. As people search for new ways to get their music
and other sound files for free I have decided to make that search
a little easier by testdriving several of the other MP3 search tools
that are out there. I'll be updating the chart as I find more. E-mail
me if you think there's one that I should review. If you have any
comments on my reviews just post them on the message
board.
Current ratings:
Green
text = PRO's about program
Red text =
CON's about program
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A
list of MP3 sharing utilities (in no particular order)
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MP3
Utility
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Comments
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Rating
(5 stars)
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It
runs off of AOL
Instant Messenger. It searches shared
files of thousands of AIM users much like Napster. It
not only allows you to search MP3's but other audio formats,
images, videos, text, and applications. The results are
displayed much like Napster except that there is a column for
the frequency of the sound file, and it
does not ping results like Napster does. Also,
the search engine does not search separately for artist and
song. There are plug-ins that can be downloaded. One
that comes with Aimster is the Napster Plug-in.
This allows you to search on Napster's servers for your songs
simply by switching channels. It lists AIM Buddies, Aimster
Buddies, and Napster Buddies. When I was
using it not all of my buddies who were on my AIM list appeared
on Aimster's list. It has chat capabilities, displays
your local files, and has its own web browser. There doesn't
seem to be any difference in the rate of transfer. If you've
used Winamp you will be familiar with the window movements.
The multi-window interface is appelaing
in that you can hide and show windows using the handy control
panel. it's pretty compact if you want it to be.
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The
installation file is only about 630KB. When
you run the program there's only a small window with whitespace
and a menu. It automatically logs you in. The
program window simply displays transfers. Click
"Go!" and it opens a browser window. You do your searching
in the browser window. when you search it returns a list of
songs that match with artist and song title. You
can sort the files by popularity or by song title. You can send
it directly to the queue for download, or find a specific version
based on time, bitrate, file size, or number of locations.
But AGS doesn't give you much control
with transfers. You can't select any specific user, connection,
or location. When I was trying to download U2's "Beautiful
Day" someone was downlading another MP3 form my computer.
Normally on other programs you can cancel transfers, but AGS
wouldn't allow it. So my transfer rate on my 56K modem shot
down to 1.-sumtin kb/s. This is definitely a program that needs
work.
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WinMX
is an easy program to use.
But it's also very much exactly like Napster. It
not only allows you to search for and share MP3s but also other
audio files, video files and images. WinMX
gives you a larger search area by connecting to several different
default servers, and any other servers you add to the list.
When you search you can choose to search
all available servers, or just one specific server that you
are connected to. When you begin to download a file it changes
it's color so you don't accidentally download it again from
the same user if it doesn't go through. Unlike
Napster it doesn't have ping results, which is the true test
of a users connection, but neither do any other programs.
It has a chat function, an IM function,
and a hot list for your buddys. You have control over which
servers you search, and over which transfers (downloads AND
uploads) you want to continue or cancel. The
transfer rates were great. There
are different windows for each function, such as transfer, search,
library, and so on, and it might get a little cluttered with
all of them open, but the control window
stays on top so you can close and re-open the windows easily.
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Upon
installation Napigator created two shortcuts on my desktop.
One for normal Napigator, and one for the standalone version.
The difference is that the standalone doesn't need Napster to
run. When Iran the regular version of Napigator it started up
Napster and added it's own button at the top. It's button led
to a view of many different servers that it would search. Whatever
you expect from Napster expect from Napigator's plug-in. It's
main function is its server list. Every
server had it's own set of details that you could sort through
based on number of users, files, the size (in Gigabytes), the
ping results, and connection type. At the end was a rating for
each server. Napigator doesn't
have it's own search engine. You simply use it to select which
server you want to use to search on Napster. The standalone
differs in that it doesn't open within Napster but in a window
and program on it's own. But you still
have to use Napster's program to search. Napigator
will probably face problems in the future with the court ruling
on Napster, so it better come up with it's own search engine
pretty soon.
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(2/5) |
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My
AIM Screennames
Gr8IndianBear
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