iTunes 6 fixes cracked DRM

Warning to iTunes Music Store users - it appears that you will no longer be able to use JHymn to remove DRM from iTMS tracks bought using iTunes 6. Also note that once you buy a song using iTunes 6, you can no longer buy songs with earlier versions of iTunes. Via MacSlash.

iWood nano, love Bill

While the recent launch of the iWood nano - a wooden iPod nano case - isn't particularly noteworthy, poking fun at the world's richest man certainly is! Via Infinite Loop.

Disassembled Nano

It was announced a matter of hours ago, and someone has already taken it apart (English translation here). Via TUAW.

And the iPhone arriveth ...

It's finally been announced, and it's so underwhelming that it's almost disappointing. Nothing unexpected here - maximum 100 songs (512MB TransFlash card) only, and not particularly good looking. Also no syncing over Bluetooth, locked to one computer, and will not sync with any music software other than iTunes. Supports MP3 and AAC. Verdict? Wait until Apple actually design the phone as well as the software.

iPod nano!

Through all the recent talk about the iPhone there has been a few murmurs of a new flash-based iPod mini. It looks like Apple have another winner on their hands. 4GB, 1.5 ounces, thickness of a pencil, color screen, 14 hour battery, free laser engraving. And available in black.

Another stupid patent, do we need 'em?

Techdirt are reporting that Microsoft have been granted a patent on Kazaa-style music playlists. The relevant US Patent Office document weighs in at a hefty 43 pages, but one essential paragraph caught my eye - it is a series of example playlists that will be possible with this "invention":

• "My favs—All 4 and 5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—64 Mb worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=64 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—128 Mb worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=128 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—One CD-R worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=630 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs, that I've not heard of recent"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Sort: UserLastPlayedTime
• "Workday 100—Favorite Weekend songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountWeekend
• "Weekend 100—Favorite Weekdays songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountWeekday
• "Caffinated 100—Favorite Late Evening songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountNight
• "Recently Aquired Music"Filter: Type=audio, UserLastPlayedTime=
• "Recently Aquired Music (Yet to be rated)"Filter: Type=audio, AquisitionDate=
• "Songs I've not heard of recent"Filter: Type=audio Sort: User Rating, then UserLastPlayedTime (strongest sort)
• "Songs not yet rated"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating=
• "Sucky music—Songs I dislike and should delete"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating=<10 Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "Songs with digital rights management"Filter: Type=audio, Protected=Yes Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "Songs other users like"Filter: Type=audio, ServiceRating>70 Sort: UserRating
• "My Kazaa Music—All of it"Filter: Type=audio, PathFilter Contains "Kazaa"Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "My Kazaa Music—Recently Aquired"Filter: Type=audio, PathFilter Contains "Kazaa", AquisitionDate=
• "Hi-Res video clips"Filter: VIDEO_VIDEO_WIDTH>300 Sort: Title

Just hang on a second there. Even glossing over the fact that these playlists were implemented in Kazaa at least as far back as September 2002, and this Microsoft patent originated in September 2003, several of these playlists, including the very first one, are identical to iTunes smart playlists. Even if one argued that Kazaa wasn't very widespread (and thus somehow unworthy as 'prior art') you can hardly make the same comment about iTunes. Granted, some of the other playlists listed in the patent are not possible in iTunes, but surely there should be some acknowledgment that significant parts of this "invention" are already in common usage. It's akin to someone coming along and patenting the idea of using arrow keys on a wireless controller to change TV channels.

Comment
There really should be a rule about patenting ideas that have been already implemented in commercially available products (Apple's idiotic and futile 1988 GUI lawsuit against Microsoft comes to mind). Seemingly ignorant decisions like this one by the US Patent Office are what drive some Europeans to question the usefulness of software patents. I'd even go so far as to say that if a company cannot keep an idea secret long enough to patent it and bring it to market, then the idea is clearly so bleedin' obvious that it shouldn't be patentable. Does anyone agree?

HP no longer in the iPod business

It was bound to happen. HP and Apple both confirm the end of HP's iPod reseller deal. Yet again, Rob Enderle must be feeling pretty stupid.

Batch audio conversions, new contender

Given my previous travails batch converting mp3s to low-bitrate oggs, I was interested to read about the latest update to Sound Grinder. However, it is priced at a hefty $39 ... I'll try the demo and see how it goes.

iPhone with 512MB RAM?

A recent post on fscklog (English translation here) offers some evidence that the iPhone will have 512MB of RAM. Not enough, if you ask me.

Too ugly to be the iPhone?

Could this be the much-discussed iTunes-enabled phone from Motorola? AppleInsider, Slashdot and Engadget all have coverage, while one Engadget reader points out the (somewhat superficial ) similarities to the Moto E1060.

Unusual MP3 download site

TUAW mentioned this legal MP3 download site today. With top hits like Ice Cream Truck how can you go wrong?

G4 Tower Media Center

xlr8yourmac have posted a great guide to setting up an old 'Sawtooth' G4 Tower as a fully fledged media center. The setup is designed to be a CD/DVD jukebox, internet radio station, TiVo-like personal video recorder, video conferencing center, web browser and (Mac) gaming console. Of course, it can still do all the other things you might want to do with a Mac, checking email for instance.

Build your own Salling Clicker

The Unofficial Apple Weblog commented on a very interesting MacDevCenter article today detailing how to control iTunes from an internet-enabled mobile phone via a WAP browser and OS X's built-in Apache webserver. Great stuff, but hang on a minute ...

If you already own the incredible Salling Clicker, you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about. With Clicker you can already do everything described in the article without typing a single line of code. Furthermore you can view album art and playlists on the phone, which really has to be seen to be appreciated. And to top it all off it's not only iTunes - Clicker also has controls for iPhoto, DVD Player, Keynote and PowerPoint, as well as numerous third party plugins (admittedly of varying quality).

Given the all-round awesomeness of Clicker, it was the ability to script apps other than iTunes that really intrigued me about the MacDevCenter article. One such use I will be looking into is toggling P800 Manager's internet sharing. Since Clicker can activate the BlueTooth connection from the phone, this would eliminate the need to physically visit your Mac to start P800 Manager's internet sharing. It may be that P800 Manager is not scriptable, in which case I'll be looking into applescripts which enable internet sharing over bluetooth.

Back to the MacDevCenter article, the use of a web interface was also interesting - on the plus side it is not range-limited like the BlueTooth-based Clicker is, but on the down side internet access on a phone costs money (quite a lot in most cases). I suppose if you have an unusually large home the web interface may be the best option, but I for one cannot imagine any other need for the greater range.

One free alternative that comes to mind is sharing your Mac's internet via BlueTooth to access the web from your phone, all in order to surf to your Mac's webserver and control iTunes. How's that for convoluted? But we're now back to limited BlueTooth range, which kind of defeats the purpose. I think I'll be sticking with Salling Clicker, at least for iTunes control.

Walkman phone announced

Continuing this post, SonyEriccson have now officially announced their new Walkman phone. Notable features are the 2 megapixel camera and the supplied 512MB MemoryStick Duo Pro. As previously stated, it supports both MP3 and AAC.

Mac Mini in a Lexus

How cool is this?

Sonos on a Mac

A while back I drooled over the Sonos Digital Music System - it appears that there have been reports of problems with Mac compatibility, but they've now been fixed.

Sony Ericcson Walkman Phone

Sony Ericcson are planning on cashing in Sony's Walkman brand by releasing a combination phone and digital music player. The story is that it will have enough storage for six to ten albums worth of MP3 or AAC files which suggests a 256MB capacity. The support for AAC is interesting, since that is the usual format for the iPod and iTunes.

That sounds better on my suitcase

This week's sign that the Apocalypse is nigh: Boom Bags.

I love this bit:

In addition, the bags include a microphone input with separate volume control. Anyone doing presentations can use their suitcase to provide speakers and amplification for a multimedia program, and for live narration at the same time.

I can see it now - we'll all be taking our empty suitcases to presentations .

PCM to MPEG1 to AIFF to AC3

I recently encountered an unusual AVI video file, containing MSMPEG4 video and PCM audio. My favorite DVD (ffmpeg) preset in ffmpegX refused to process the file. I knew from previous experience that the DVD (ffmpeg) preset could handle MSMPEG4 video, so I surmised it was the PCM audio that was fouling things up.

Slower workaround
I worked around the problem by using the DVD (mpeg2enc) preset with 'Decode with mplayer' selected. After a slow encode (probably twice as long as ffmpeg) I ended up with an .mpv video file and another file. This second file had a truncated name, according to the settings it should have been some sort of AC3, but the mpeg2enc engine had produced a file without a suffix.

Not actually an AC3 at all
The first thing I did was drop the mystery file onto ffmpegX for identification but, unusually for ffmpegX, nothing was revealed. I then tried adding an .ac3 suffix only to have A.Pack reject the file. Soldiering on, I changed it to .mp2 and tried to open it in QuickTime Player. Still no go . Finally I tried an .mpa suffix. Bingo! Hitting command-J showed that QuickTime identified the file as an MPEG1 audio file. Unfortunately my good mood was short-lived. I was unable to export it from QuickTime - the only options were movie formats.

MPEG1?
After resorting to Google I was reminded that iTunes can play MPEG1 audio files. The first thing I did was change the iTunes import preferences to 'AIFF encoder'. However iTunes then refused to let me drag my .mpa file into the music library unless I changed the suffix to .mp2. Once I had done that I used iTunes to convert the audio file to AIFF (by option-clicking the Advanced menu and choosing 'convert to AIFF').

The Finish Line
Once I had my AIFF, I was able to drop it into A.Pack, select my two channels, and convert it into a two channel AC3 file. From there it was just a matter of using the .mpv video file and .ac3 audio file in Sizzle to author a DVD, and using Toast to burn it.

Conclusions
The Mac used to boast a system where, no matter what you changed the name of a file to, double clicking it would always open the correct application. We used to brag about this to PC users. Why am I now, fifteen years later, messing around changing file extensions?

DIY iTunes radio station

CodePoetry today posted an excellent guide on making your own 'radio station' via clever use of iTunes playlists.

Ultimate digital music

Alan Graham at the O'Reilly Developer Weblogs had a write-up today of the best non-Apple products from the recent MacWorld. The one that he is most enthusiastic about is the Sonos Digital Music System. He's not wrong! This thing is truly lustworthy.

HP iPod doomed?

AppleInsider are reporting today that HP have refused to order any more iPods until they resolve a potential future pricing dispute. The article mentions that during the fourth quarter of 2004 HP iPods accounted for only 7% of total iPod sales. Rob Enderle must be feeling pretty stupid.

More Limited Edition iPods

CultOfMac today mentioned a funny take on the recent U2 Limited Edition iPods.

Cheaper-than-normal iPod

Gizmodo are reporting on a David Hasslehoff-signed 20GB iPod on eBay (click through for a little movie from the man himself). The current eBay price after 6 bids is £102.01. A brand new 20GB iPod from Apple costs £212. Go figure - evidently the Hoff's signature immediately strips £100 off the iPod's value. I wonder if the signature can be buffed off?

20GB Digital Mind

One of my preferred Mac news sources, MacMinute, today reported on Digital Mind's DMC 8270 20GB audio jukebox.

I'm not too sure why this particular digital music player gets featured on a Mac news site in preference to countless other players, but let's just say the name caught my eye .

But wait ... just take a look at that thing! Is it just me or is that possibly the ugliest digital music player you've ever seen? There are enlarged images here and here. The specifications sound okay - the ogg support is noteworthy, and the voice recording and decent battery life might attract some people. The price is also pretty good. But ... please! Take another look at that thing! Perhaps it's just a really bad mock-up, but this thing looks suspiciously like it was made in someone's garage. The screen isn't even in line with the its body!

YA iPod Killer

Yet another iPod Killer - Gizmodo had an insightful report on Archos' new G-Mini XS 200 digital music player. I particularly liked the comparison of the relationship between Apple and Archos with the relationship between OS X and Linux. The Gizmodo article linked to a more complete review. Engadget also covered it, but went with C|Net's review instead.

iPod killer

John Dvorak reports on X2's MEGA View 561. This device sounds great, think of it as the fusion of the iPod photo with TiVo. It looks good too - and all for US$399, although versions with larger hard drives would be welcome. Oddly enough, this device is smaller in every dimension than the Archos Gmini 400 but it has a 3.5" screen as opposed to the Gmini's 2.2". It's also quite a porker - it weighs in at about 50% more than the larger Gmini.

iTunes 'Album Artwork Not Modifiable'

I encountered this message displayed in the album art window of iTunes today. After some googling I found that it might be the result of trying to add album art to songs on ejected disks, or songs on a CD, but neither applied to me. After some investigation I discovered it was because that particular album was in the ogg format!

The True Story of Audion

I heard about this over at John Gruber's excellent Daring Fireball site - the True Story of Audion is a truly wonderful piece of Mac storytelling. I don't think I've ever felt so equally moved and delighted by what is essentially an article on the history of some computer software.

OS X polyphonic ringtone converter

I noticed the creatively-titled Polyphonic Converter listed on Macshareware.net today - it's for converting midi files into polyphonic ringtones for modern phones. The good thing about this is that there are thousands of midi files freely available all over the web.

Remote control for AirTunes

While we're on the subject of Airport Express, Macworld had an article today about the Keyspan Express Remote. The setup consists of an infrared remote control and a receiver. The receiver plugs into the USB port of an Airport Express or the iTunes computer whilst the remote lets you control iTunes (and other media applications).

Ogg and the Music Man

When Mireth Technology, the makers of MacVCD and iVCD, released Music Man (formerly MacMP3CD) a few days ago I was curious to see if it would simplify the process of converting songs from my MP3 collection to 48Kbps Ogg files for my P800 phone. My current method involves batch converting MP3s to WAV with MACAST MP3 Converter and then converting the WAVs to Ogg with Ogg Drop X.

After installing Music Man as per the instructions, I discovered that in order to convert MP3s to Oggs I would need to install the LAME MP3 encoder as well as the Ogg Vorbis Quicktime component. I already had the Ogg component installed, and after a quick read of this I was ready. Note: installing LAME 3.96 resulted in an error at the end of the make install process - the error was make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1, however the encoder seems to be installed correctly, since Music Man MP3 conversions now work correctly.

All of the above only took 20 minutes or so, and soon after that I was merrily converting MP3s to Ogg in just one click. Very handy, although watching the output folder shows that Music Man converts the MP3 to WAV before reconverting to Ogg, so the actual workflow appears to be similar to my previous two step process. However, I was disappointed to discover that Music Man does not apparently allow you to set the bitrate of your output Oggs. They appear to be 128Kbps files, which is too large for me to consider using on a mobile phone with only a 128MB memory card.

iPod vs The Cassette

I recently stumbled across this guy's crazy mac.com page. My favorite part was the photo album entitled iPod vs. The Cassette. Defintely worth a look!

One self-employed analyst, idiotic statement of the year

"The expectation on the iPod is that HP's version will probably outsell Apple's version relatively quickly ... due to HP's broad distribution at electronics retailers", said Rob Enderle. Mr Enderle runs an outfit with the grandiose-title of The Enderle Group. Some kind of umbrella company controlling a multitude of lesser corporations? Nah, it's him, his wife, and two buddies.

This guy is either smoking crack or is operating on the principle that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I even saw an HP product other than a printer at an "electronics retailer", but I usually see a prominent iPod display of some sort.

Secondly, I've lost count of the number of times I've been to shops that do not sell any Apple products of any sort, except for the iPod. Let me emphasize this - shops that sell only Wintel-based PCs and wouldn't touch an Apple Macintosh with a bargepole will have iPods on display. So much for his theory that HP's "broad distribution" will make a difference.

Finally there is the 'cool factor'. Go and grab an average young person (for simplicity's sake let's say someone between 15 and 29) and ask them who is cooler, Apple or Hewlett Packard. Dollars to doughnuts the answer won't be HP.

Converting audio tape to CD

As mentioned on a couple of occasions recently, I've had to do this a few times now, both for unique live music tapes and family archive interviews. The following method has given me good results and is very easy, albeit somewhat time-consuming.

First off, get yourself a copy of Rogue Amoeba's US$16 utility Audio Hijack (Ambrosia's free WireTap might also work, but it crashed when I tried it). Plug the output from your tape deck into your Mac's line-in port.

Next you'll need an app called LineIn, which is included with the US$32 Audio Hijack Pro. Download the trial version of Audio Hijack Pro and install it. Find the Audio Hijack Pro application icon and control-click it. Choose Show Package Contents. Browse through Contents/Resources and find the LineIn app. Copy it to your Applications folder. You can delete Audio Hijack Pro now if you like.

Fire up LineIn and press play on your tape deck. You should now hear the tape through your Mac speakers. Launch Audio Hijack, select LineIn as the application to be hijacked and click Hijack. Click Record and start playing the tape at the same time. Audio Hijack will now be recording an AIFF file onto your desktop. This is a realtime process, so if your tape is 45 minutes long, recoridng it onto your Mac will take 45 minutes.

Optional: Once you have finished recording what you want, use QuickTime Player to cut the AIFF into tracks (QT Pro required). Save each one as a dependent file.

Optional: Use Bias' excellent SoundSoap to remove all the tape hiss from the AIFF file(s). This application is expensive (US$99), but the difference it makes to non-musical recordings is astounding. Note: to save yourself a lot of sitting around and clicking, you may prefer to run the entire AIFF track through SoundSoap before cutting it up into tracks.

Drop the AIFF(s) into iTunes. Arrange as a playlist. If necessary, open up the iTunes preferences and assign a value of 0 seconds as the gap between songs. Burn.

Edit: Don't forget to delete the AIFFs from iTunes' library afterwards. A 90 minute tape converted to AIFF will fill up around a gigabyte.

Audio Hijack Pro & 10.3.5

I was at the in-laws' house today attempting to record a family history audio tape (via line-in) onto my laptop for later conversion to a CD. I have done this for them before, but after much frustration I came to the conclusion that Audio Hijack Pro no longer works properly. Everything appears to be fine, but the recording doesn't actually start.

At the time I assumed the problem was a conflict between APE and the new OS X 10.3.5 upgrade I installed yesterday. The console log shows a permissions error involving Unsanity's Application Enhancer (APE) which doesn't seem to be able to execute superuser commands. A quick online search didn't turn up any answers but lack of broadband at the in-laws' place prevented any real thoroughness. In an attempt to work around the problem I downloaded Ambrosia's free utility WireTap to record the tape, but my whole laptop froze and started repeating a ringing noise when the recording got to about 95MB (about 30 minutes into it). By this point I had run out of time and had to postpone the whole exercise.

Some further research once I got home into the Audio Hijack problem showed that Unsanity are on the case, and have released a free upgrade to Audio Hijack Pro 1.3.2 to address 10.3.5 compatibility. I'll be trying again in a few day

Edit: Tried again on 17/8/04 - and it works

iPod speakers

BoingBoing reported on a MacGyver challenge involving tins of Altoids. There are some pretty inventive folks out there

The Land of Ogg

Until a few weeks ago I never gave the Ogg Vorbis format a second thought as a music format. I always knew it could achieve the same quality as mp3 in less space, but so what? Hard drives are bigger and cheaper than ever. Then came my awakening (cue choir breaking into song) - I got my first phone which can play real music. The limited storage on a 128MB memory card suddenly made the Ogg format rather appealing.

A bit of digging around on the Mac software sites turned up an OS X app named Ogg Drop X. This is a nicely done drag-and-drop Ogg encoder. It works well, can batch encode Oggs at a variety of bitrates and has good metadata tag support. Unfortunately the program is intended for ripping CDs to Ogg and as a result it only accepts the uncompressed music files you'd find on a CD (AIFF / WAV format). I'm reliably informed that audiophiles would recoil in horror at the thought of re-encoding an mp3 as an Ogg, which is presumably why this program doesn't offer the option. So you're stuck with creating your Oggs direct from CD, or using something like QuickTime Player to convert your mp3s back to AIFF prior to using Ogg Drop X.

Update: If you have a batch of MP3s to convert, using QuickTime Player to convert those MP3s to AIFF is a painstaking process, primarily because you have to sit and wait for each conversion to finish before starting the next one. After a few conversions I was heartily sick of it so I set off in search of a better solution. Enter the freeware app MACAST MP3 Converter. This a batch converter for MP3 to AIFF/WAV conversions.

However in the default mode, MACAST MP3 Converter's output AIFF and WAV files are not accepted by Ogg Drop X. To fix this, select AIFF in MACAST MP3 Converter's pull-down menu, click options, select Custom, click Set, and then select Compressor: 24-bit Integer. The output files will now be compatible with Ogg Drop X.

Finally, MACAST MP3 Converter isn't totally bug-free. The notable one is that it appears to consume all available CPU power, even after the conversion has finished. So don't forget to quit the program once you've finished your conversions!

Who says size doesn't matter?

As far as size is concerned, mp3s at 128kbps (generally accepted as CD quality to the untrained ear) weigh in at about 1MB per minute, or just over two hours on a 128MB memory stick duo. However an Ogg can achieve very similar quality at half the bitrate. Since space is at a premium, I have chosen to encode my Oggs at 48kbps. In my opinion the quality is still totally acceptable, and this means we can fit almost six hours of music on a 128MB MS Duo. In practice I generally only keep a couple of albums at a time on my P800, for a total size of about 40MB.

Playback on the P800

The bad news is that there isn't a lot of choice. As far as I'm aware there is only one Ogg player available for the P800, and that is OggPlay. The good news is that OggPlay is a quality piece of software! It can not only play Oggs (you'd hope so!), it can do so in both flip-open and flip-closed modes and it's clever enough to mute the music if the phone rings. It's also skinnable - there are various skins available on the developer's site.

Crappy P800 headphones

I've heard the bundled headphones that come with the P800 are less than satisfactory (I wouldn't know since my phone from eBay didn't come with them!). But since they have the pickup-hangup button on them you are kinda stuck with them if you want to receive phone calls while listening to music. All is not lost however! On a recommendation I bought this headset adapter. What can I say - this is a nifty little device. It consists of a spring-loaded retractable wire connecting the P800 to a combination microphone, pickup-hangup button and headphone miniplug adapter, and it comes with a detachable single earpiece for your handsfree conversations. The clever part is that you can unplug the single earpiece and plug your high-quality third-party headphones into the miniplug adapter, and still use the pickup-hangup button and microphone on the adapter itself.

P800 ringtones

The P800, unlike it's newer sibling the P900, cannot play an MP3 as a ringtone. It is restricted to normal ringtones (which are MIDI based, i.e. they only reproduce the melody of a song, not the actual sound or any lyrics) and WAV files. Unfortunately, a WAV file is by definition uncompressed, which makes them enormous when compared to the phone's memory. An average MP3 that is 4MB in size, when exported to WAV with QuickTime Pro at the default settings (48KHz, 16bit, stereo), will weigh in at around 50MB in size! How can we reduce the size of our WAV file? Luckily for us, since the file is only for a phone's ringtone, and given the limited speaker in the phone, we can drastically reduce the fidelity of the WAV file to the minimum possible and still have a recognisable song. Using the minimum settings (8KHz, 8bit, mono) when we export to WAV, our output file comes out to about 2MB in size. This is of course for the entire song - for a ringtone we only need about 15 seconds of the song which at the same settings will somewhere in the 100KB range. To cut out the section of the song we want, use the 'bookend' markers underneath QuickTime Player's position slider to select the portion of the song you want to keep, copy it, and paste it into a new empty QuickTime Player document. We can then export to WAV from this new document. To export to a WAV, simply choose Export (this requires QuickTime Pro), select WAV, click Options and choose 8KHz, 8bit, mono. If you have a lot of MP3s to convert you may wish to have a look at SoundConverter, a great drag-and-drop audio conversion application. It is free for input files under 500KB in size, otherwise it costs US$10. What I do is cut my MP3s in QuickTime Pro, save them all, and then batch convert the lot with SoundConverter (once your MP3s are cut down to size they should be quite a bit smaller than 500KB).