Exclusive preview: Delicious Monster's Delicious Library 2.0

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 89
    slewisslewis Posts: 2,081member
    Null.
  • Reply 22 of 89
    djpadzdjpadz Posts: 37member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mowenbrown View Post


    I would love to hear what people actually catalogue. This seems to be one of those applications that I think is really cool and I want to find a use for. For me at least: a solution in search of a problem and I really want to find that problem.



    Used correctly, it solves two problems:
    • To whom did I lend my copy of movie xyz last year?

    • OMG! My house just burnt down, and I need a list of assets for the insurance company!

    My biggest complaint about the product is that it doesn't support syncing across multiple machines. It would seem as though, by using .Mac sync (or something similar), you could keep your database in multiple places, for both redundancy and convenience.



    We've got around a thousand items in our database, largely comprised of books, CDs, and DVDs. Unfortunately, because we keep the database on our office computer, it's woefully out of date. Being able to manage the database from one or more remote laptops would be a huge benefit.
  • Reply 23 of 89
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slewis View Post


    It's taking so long because Wil decided to rewrite pretty much every damn thing in Objective-C 2.0, which might lead to a better developed application but is really really not good for staying on target for schedules eh? The Good news is, with Objective-C 2.0 (GC), Core Animation, and Core Data for library data, the whole thing should be a LOT more responsive with large libraries since it's no longer a flat XML file.



    Sometimes you have to start over to move forward. I am sure Wil is waiting impatiently for the SDK to be released so he can work on an iPhone application that will extend the functionality of the Delicious Library application. We can use iSight to scan the bar codes so I am sure Wil will create an iPhone application that will let iPhone users use the camera to scan bar codes or even take pictures that will be imported into Delicious Library.
  • Reply 24 of 89
    slewisslewis Posts: 2,081member
    Null.
  • Reply 25 of 89
    What's interesting about a lot of these comments is people saying 'it's not for me therefore it's not for anyone.'

    Well that's rubbish



    I bought it to catalgoue my books and CDs and DVDs. Most work fine but a lot don't and that's not DL's fault at all. I had to same problem with other apps I used.



    It's going to be useful because I do lend a lot of books to students, and I create reading lists. DL2 looks like it will be really useful to me to show students online what I think they should read, and also what I know has been lent out!



    As someone else has mentioned, insurance is important too.



    A great feature is the Dewey system - at last I might actually get all my books in some sort of order.

    OK it takes time to catalgoue your collection, but if you do a few a day you'll soon have it done. I remember it took me a couple of months to rip my 1000 CDs in to iTunes and rename the tracks by work rather than by CD (i.e. Symphony no. 12 rather than 'Shostakovitch Complete Symphonies').

    But did it bit by bit and now I don't look back.

    Unfortunately there is no magic button to do this for you so if you want a database of your books etc then you need to put the effort in.



    One thing: I suggested to Wil that DL2 be able to access my Amazon purchase history which I know is possible, and download my purchases to the catalogue. Anyone know if that's been done? I can imagine that would save a lot of time for some people.
  • Reply 26 of 89
    Neat at first, but like others said, slow, cumbersome, and no development or updates in 3 years.

    I abandoned it and moved on to DVD Pedia. The 'Pedias are updated regularly, are fast, also support scanning (i think) and searches via name or isbn numbers etc (www.bruji.com). For any disgruntled users, try the Pedia and see if its not just better (but maybe less eye candy). Not a bruji employee, just a satisfied customer.
  • Reply 27 of 89
    gastroboygastroboy Posts: 530member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by artistry View Post


    What's interesting about a lot of these comments is people saying 'it's not for me therefore it's not for anyone.'

    Well that's rubbish



    What's interesting is how some people ignore that a product fails to live up to its own billing.



    If it doesn't do what it says it does, ie make cataloging as simple as show and scan, I think that is definitely worth a mention.
  • Reply 28 of 89
    slewisslewis Posts: 2,081member
    Null.
  • Reply 29 of 89
    craiger77craiger77 Posts: 133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gastroboy View Post


    I bought it because of its innovative functions and Mac good looks but it is pretty useless to anyone outside the USA.



    I am in Australia and it fails to recognise most of the barcodes because it relies on Amazon.com's which are for American products.



    I also found it quite difficult to get the distance right to the iMac's camera for reading the barcodes.



    So in theory DL could be great, but in practice useless.



    I have a number of Japanese books and it was a big surprise to me when it went to the Japanese Amazon site and downloaded all the info with no problems. Perhaps there just needs to be a way to redirect its query to the appropriate site for each country.



    Also, others here have criticized it for relying on Amazon, but they fail to mention what are the alternatives. I would like to know where else you could easily get this kind of information.
  • Reply 30 of 89
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by paxman View Post


    Then I'll snap out of it, face reality, curse out loud and wonder where the frk I put my keys. Again!



    Thanks, its nice to know its not just me!
  • Reply 31 of 89
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Um, what is the real purpose of this "preview"? Is AppleInsider now shilling for other software companies, not just for paid links to Amazon and other click-for-payment revenue streams?



    Becoming more and more disappointed with what's being served up here.
  • Reply 32 of 89
    I'm surprised at how many people seem to be trashing DL. I think it's a great product, and I use it all the time.



    Every book with a bar code I've ever looked up has been found (I'm a U.S. user), and for the ones that didn't have bar-codes, I was able to quickly type in the ISBN number and find a match on Amazon. I have 400+ items in my collection, and the program runs nimbly on a 1.83GHz Macbook Pro.



    PLease show me a competitor that's as quick and easy to use in scanning, organizing and lending out titles....
  • Reply 33 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zenwaves View Post


    I have an iTunes library of 25K tracks, and I already feel like I've spent too much time cataloging instead of just listening and enjoying ...



    How slow is iTunes for you? I have about 40,000 tracks in my library and it's an exercise in futility to edit ID3 tags or copy new music into the library. SLOW SLOW SLOW.



    Who was the genius at apple that decided that a flat XML file was the ideal solution to keeping track of a library?
  • Reply 34 of 89
    feynmanfeynman Posts: 1,087member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    How slow is iTunes for you? I have about 40,000 tracks in my library and it's an exercise in futility to edit ID3 tags or copy new music into the library. SLOW SLOW SLOW.



    Who was the genius at apple that decided that a flat XML file was the ideal solution to keeping track of a library?



    Only 40,000 tracks? Try 55,000 plus here....I'm using my iMac G5 2.0 GHz with only 512 memory and it seems to move along pretty quick. Will be upgrading to 2 GB memory soon so that should really help.
  • Reply 35 of 89
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SuperMacGuy View Post


    Neat at first, but like others said, slow, cumbersome, and no development or updates in 3 years.

    I abandoned it and moved on to DVD Pedia. The 'Pedias are updated regularly, are fast, also support scanning (i think) and searches via name or isbn numbers etc (www.bruji.com). For any disgruntled users, try the Pedia and see if its not just better (but maybe less eye candy). Not a bruji employee, just a satisfied customer.



    I really liked DVD pedia when I tried it. However, I don't want to buy four separate apps (for DVDs, Books, CDs, and Games) that essentially all do the same thing.



    I can't imagine why Bruji doesn't combine all of their "pedia" products into one offering??
  • Reply 36 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zenwaves View Post


    ...I just can't picture myself running around my house and scanning barcodes of objects I own ... in order to look at them listed on a computer screen. ...



    What if you could scan the barcodes in with your iPhone. I'm sure Wil is all over that.
  • Reply 37 of 89
    Does anyone know if this App would work well in a situaion in which you had a bunch of hardware you wanted to inventory (RAM, HDD, Graphic Cards, MOBOs, peripherals)?



    Would it pick up the info from a scan (pending there is a barcode, such as found on RAM)? Has anyone tried this?



    Thanks!
  • Reply 38 of 89
    slewisslewis Posts: 2,081member
    Null.
  • Reply 39 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zenwaves View Post


    I'm a 45 year-old gadget freak, OS X network administrator.



    DM looks really cool and all, but the reason I mention my age, is that I just can't picture myself running around my house and scanning barcodes of objects I own ... in order to look at them listed on a computer screen.



    I have an iTunes library of 25K tracks, and I already feel like I've spent too much time cataloging instead of just listening and enjoying ...



    Does anyone else out there, get where I'm coming from?!



    Jon



    Yes and no. 43 here. on one hand - yes, it's a waste. Look on a shelf and see what you have. But there are times when it's handy to share a list of books/DVDs/etc. Or to keep an inventory of things for insurance purposes. I'm curious if there are other fields, such as a review or amount paid, so you can keep some custom data. (like a book a read 10 years ago and forgot, so I don't re-read it again). I'd love it if databases like these could work on an ipod/iphone to see what I have already when I'm at the store. And of course, if I can't export into a CSV file, that makes the product DOA, as I'll never get this info our if the product I'm using goes away. (like address book - sheesh).



    So I agree you can spend too much time organizing and not doing. BUt if you like, you can look at this as a cool interface for filemaker, which I use for inventory control as it is. The demo pics looked cool enough to try out nonetheless...
  • Reply 40 of 89
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Bottom line for DL is this. Many users purchased DL 1.x thinking this is a very cool and useful application. It wasn't. Not by a long shot.



    If DL 2.0 doesn't fix the outstanding issues of 1.x, the product won't sell well.



    Your bottom line is incorrect. It was both a cool and useful application, and version 2 will do quite well.



    Those of us that got DL1 as part of MacHeist made, as Howie says, a pretty sweet deal.
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