http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
I just found this website. It has very useful AppleScripts for various situations. The ones I'm using now are the Add/Subtract Play Count and New Last Played Date. This allow me to keep rotating my smart playlist even if I'm not using iPods (regular UMS DAPs or MP3-CD).
For us that are using Macs, the most logical choice would be to use iPods as your digital audio player (DAP). Well, what if you don't want to use iPods? You can always use any DAPs that are USB Mass Storage compliant (meaning can be connected to any modern OS without needing additional driver/software), and doesn't require a special software to transfer music (eg. pure drag-n-drop). Example of this kind of DAPs are most cheapo flash players, Creative flash players, Sony NWZ series, PSP, rockbox enabled DAP, etc. Using these DAPs are easy, since they will show up on Finder just like an external drive/memory card. Drag-n-drop your music, and you're done. Easy right? But what if your library is managed by iTunes, and you already have a perfectly auto-cycling smart playlist? Transferring these tracks manually won't update their tags (last played, and playcount).
If you follow the readme included with every scripts from that site, there will be a script menu shown in iTunes. First step is to create a smart playlist that you'll use. Then disable Live Updating (important, especially if the criteria for the smart playlist depend on the playcount and last played tags). If you don't, since we're going to apply the scripts in 2 steps, the set of tracks will already be different the moment you use 1 of the 2 scripts. Next is to run those 2 scripts (in my case, I set to add +1 to the playcount, and set the last played to today's date). You're free to drag-n-drop the tracks to your DAP. The next time you want to transfer fresh tracks, simply enable live updating and iTunes will refresh the smart playlist with new tracks according to the criteria.
I'm sure somebody can/already created Apple scripts to automate the whole process. There an AppleScript-based utility called iTunesmywalkman that syncs a/multiple iTunes playlist(s) to a UMS device. I tried it, and it delete my ratings on the tracks. Weird.
I just found this website. It has very useful AppleScripts for various situations. The ones I'm using now are the Add/Subtract Play Count and New Last Played Date. This allow me to keep rotating my smart playlist even if I'm not using iPods (regular UMS DAPs or MP3-CD).
For us that are using Macs, the most logical choice would be to use iPods as your digital audio player (DAP). Well, what if you don't want to use iPods? You can always use any DAPs that are USB Mass Storage compliant (meaning can be connected to any modern OS without needing additional driver/software), and doesn't require a special software to transfer music (eg. pure drag-n-drop). Example of this kind of DAPs are most cheapo flash players, Creative flash players, Sony NWZ series, PSP, rockbox enabled DAP, etc. Using these DAPs are easy, since they will show up on Finder just like an external drive/memory card. Drag-n-drop your music, and you're done. Easy right? But what if your library is managed by iTunes, and you already have a perfectly auto-cycling smart playlist? Transferring these tracks manually won't update their tags (last played, and playcount).
If you follow the readme included with every scripts from that site, there will be a script menu shown in iTunes. First step is to create a smart playlist that you'll use. Then disable Live Updating (important, especially if the criteria for the smart playlist depend on the playcount and last played tags). If you don't, since we're going to apply the scripts in 2 steps, the set of tracks will already be different the moment you use 1 of the 2 scripts. Next is to run those 2 scripts (in my case, I set to add +1 to the playcount, and set the last played to today's date). You're free to drag-n-drop the tracks to your DAP. The next time you want to transfer fresh tracks, simply enable live updating and iTunes will refresh the smart playlist with new tracks according to the criteria.
I'm sure somebody can/already created Apple scripts to automate the whole process. There an AppleScript-based utility called iTunesmywalkman that syncs a/multiple iTunes playlist(s) to a UMS device. I tried it, and it delete my ratings on the tracks. Weird.
