I have a library of music that I have gotten from all different sources; Amazon, iTunes, cd rips, and so on. I want to stuff all this music in one bloat free place and have it with me everywhere I go. If I am 100% an Apple user this place is iTunes, but I am not. I have an Android phone, a windows netbook, linux laptop, Apple desktop, Apple laptop. There is no easy way with iTunes to keep all these devices in sync when it comes to my music. Nor do I want my 13 Gig music stash living on all these devices. The service that was about to do all this was Lala.com until Apple purchased them and closed them down. Grooveshark.com has sort of done it but their way of doing things is a little odd and they use way to much flash.

Finally!!! AudioBox to the rescue!! AudioBox is a service that gives me a complete cloud-based music solution. I pay them a small fee and can upload all my music. I can play their music from any web browser. They have a mobile platform, and best of all they exposed an API that allows me to have complete control over my music collection. While I am sure the rumors that Apple is working on a cloud-based version of iTunes is true, I am 100% sure they are not going to give you complete control over your music nor are they going to make it very easy for me to use my music on non-apple devices.

Below is a little PHP script I wrote to mass up load my music to AudioBox. I am using AudioBox 100% from now on! I am sick of plugging my phone into my computer. I am sick of writing sync scripts to keep my mp3′s up-to-date on all my devices.


/*
By: Spicer Matthews
Date: 5/16/2010
*/

$email = 'user@example.org';
$pass = '**********';
$dir = '/my/music/folder';
foreach(get_filenames($dir) AS $key => $row)
{
if(preg_match('/.mp3/', strtolower($row)))
exec("curl -F media=@'$row' -u $email:$pass https://audiobox.fm/api/tracks");
}

//
// Get all file names in directory. (thanks CI - http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/file_helper.html)
//
function get_filenames($source_dir, $include_path = TRUE, $_recursion = FALSE)
{
static $_filedata = array();

if ($fp = @opendir($source_dir))
{
if ($_recursion === FALSE)
{
$_filedata = array();
$source_dir = rtrim(realpath($source_dir), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
}

while (FALSE !== ($file = readdir($fp)))
{
if (@is_dir($source_dir.$file) && strncmp($file, '.', 1) !== 0)
{
get_filenames($source_dir.$file.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $include_path, TRUE);
}
elseif (strncmp($file, '.', 1) !== 0)
{

$_filedata[] = ($include_path == TRUE) ? $source_dir.$file : $file;
}
}
return $_filedata;
}
}
?>


Elevation attempts to do away with paper and pencil for personal trainers and move their client management to the Cloud, where all software should be. If you are interested please signup for the private beta and let me know what you think.

For those friends that have asked me over the last few years what I have been working on, this is it. Now that we are in private beta I am looking forward to engaging our users and learning more about how I/We can make this an even better product.

Also, a special thanks to everyone that has supported me/us along the way on this project.

Consumer Technology

Software Development Technology

Codeigniter (www.codeigniter.com)- This PHP framework has changed my life. I have been programing php for over 10 years now. I have played around with many frameworks and have even written my own. Codeigniter has done such a good job of making PHP development fast, simple, secure, lightweight, and more. At the start of 2009 I was spending a great deal of time with Ruby On Rails I was trying to figure out if I should move to RoR or continue building on my own framework. I called it SpicePhp . After spending a long weekend polishing up my framework and not getting as far as I had hoped I came across Codeigniter in a random google search. I never touched my framework again. Beyond being the coolest of the frameworks I really like Codeigniter because they are based in the north west (whatever that means for an Internet company/project). I am from Portland and I spend as much time in Bend (where their office is) as I can. I keep thinking I need to stop by and buy the Codeigniter people pizza. The problem is many of their developers are not in Bend. Regardless, it is a well thought-out framework that I know will continue to grow in popularity in 2010.

And The Winner Is…..

Clearly, Google is the over all winner for 2009 in my tech list. I have a feeling they might be a multi year winner in 2010. The company is on fire when it comes to moving the web world in the correct direction. I look forward to the grow of all the products I mentioned here. I know I will be using each one of these products everyday.

Spicer Is Moving To The Cloud

As many of you know I am the founder and president of Cloudmanic Labs, LLC. At Cloudmanic Labs it is our goal to build web applications that traditionally were handled via compiled native software and stuff them in the Cloud. For a while now I have been not eating my own dog food (for a lack of a better term). I stilled was using a native mail client, still listening to my stored mp3s in iTunes, using word to type documents, still using some sort of compiled solution for a twitter client and so on. Then the recent preview release of Google’s Chrome OS came out and it gave me a wake up call.

A New Man, Thanks To Google

So I watch the presentation that Google put on last week highlighting how the future of computing is just a web browser. Our documents, music, videos and more will live in the cloud through cloud services. For the record I am so excited to see Chrome OS mature. This type of overhaul of operating systems was a long time coming. So I spent a better part of this past weekend truly moving to the cloud. I officially use only a web browser for my everyday computing. There are a few things, which I will get to in a bit that still lack. I read and write all my email in gmail, I type of my documents in google docs, I tweet and listen to music all from my web browser. I even went as far as storing my files in the cloud. I am only storing files with Dropbox from now on. It is so nice to be able to pick up any computer and pick up where I left off. In fact I booted my Mac Book to Windows Xp a few days ago to test out a website and I have not found a need to boot back, a browser is a browser after all. I have even linked up as many services as possible to sync with my iPhone. My iPhone is in the cloud with me!

A Few Things Holding Me Back From Being A Real Man

Music and Video. Where are we on this front? There are tons of services out there that have content I can stream or buy to enjoy on the Internet but I want a place that I can upload movies and music I already own and play it on the go on any computer. I know Google is heading in that direction but I want it now! I sure hope Apple is working their tails off to make a web based version of iTunes. I want a private web based version of iTunes that I can upload all my music and video to and Apple will “sync” it to my Apple Tv, iPhone, and more. This is something we need now not later. If Apple is not already far down this path they will lose to Google. We need to bridge the gap between already owned content and external media devices and we will have an Internet 100% ready to support cloud computing.