As always, Matt added the usual disclaimer that priorities and timelines may change between now and then – but this is what is scheduled currently. Here’s a quick summary of the ten points followed by the video:

(Another) Major Penguin Update
Advertising Spam
A Harder Look At Spammy Queries
Going Upstream At Link Spammers
Higher Quality Link Analysis
Improvements On Hacked Sites
Authority Boost In Algorithm
Panda To Somewhat
Adjustments To Domain Clusters In SERPs
Improved Communication To Webmasters

Now more than ever, Google seems to be listening to feedback from webmasters. What other changes would you like to see regarding search results, web sites and web spam? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Just a quick note on something Apple was actually behind on…

Google has had two-factor authorization for a little while now, so Apple finally got up to speed with it. Here’s the “how-to”:

The key to take away is… you get  a recovery number. So… DO NOT LOSE THIS NUMBER… or else


In my opinion, the entire world should move towards two-factor authentication.


This ends today’s public service announcement.

Some Stats:
- when I started, I had 5,000+ songs less than 256bit
- now that I’m finished, I have 250+ songs less than 256bit

- when I started, I had 3,000+ songs less than 256 AND were ‘matched’ in iTunes Match service
- now that I’m finished, I have 7 songs less than 256 and still matched by iTunes Match service

- I downloaded approximately 3,000 songs from iTunes Match service to replace lower grade/quality songs

Now on to what I learned over the course of the process…

The Bad
- Some of the finite details do not work. List play count from an iOS device no longer syncs up with your library, this bothers me greatly.
- I would never pay monthly for this service. At 25 bucks a year, or even 50 bucks a year, I can handle it. It it was a 100% flawless service. Okay, so perhaps monthly (at a good rate), I might consider it.
- For whatever reason, some of the songs that are in the iTunes catalog will not “match” the songs in your library – therefore you can’t download it at a higher bitrate… but upload it. Dumb.

The Neutral
- Get your library in pristine condition prior to signing up. It will make everything so much easier.
- The songs from iTunes, though DRM free, still have your account associated with it in the metadata.
- The finite details with iTunes Match can be annoying as you’re trying to get things up and ‘perfect’, thus why I brought up the first point in this section

The Good
- If you love music, the service as a whole is indispensable.
- Having a library above 192 bit, I never thought it would be that much better. It is, in a big way, IMO. I hear things in songs I haven’t heard before.
- It completely revamped my music. Or another way of putting it – it made my investment in music worth more.
- The songs from iTunes, downloaded, are of MUCH better/higher quality than the ones that had previously.
- (I can only state this since I used Verizon) Even with 1 bar of 3G, or no 3G, iTunes Match still works! It’s… amazing.

Conclusion

Doing all of this really helped me get almost 9,000 songs in order. I found that I had a lot of duplicate titles from various songs that were on an albums – so those could be deleted. The same goes for some of the songs that I simply don’t listen to anymore (or never have). Old “bootlegs” of songs that I was desperate for at that time (of rather horrible quality in comparison to the rest of the library) are gone. With pretty much everything at >256, it easily exposes lesser quality music. I’m over 8,800 songs now, so getting rid of 200 songs was worthwhile, IMO.

Now my library is a tight, fit, streamlined, library of music. No “crap”, horrible bootlegs, songs never listened to / never gonna listen to, etc. Everything in there has a purpose. Songs, albums, metadata have been updated, broken track listings fixed. It’s fit! It can easily bench press 400 pounds!

To handle almost 4,000 new files of bigger size, I also had to clean my hard drive. Having to clean it turned out to be a plus. At the start, I was really low on space (5GB) – but now I have a good 44GB left after all is done.

Even my wife loves this service, as it has completely changed the way she listens to music. It took her 32GB iPhone and gave her a music library of 88GB, and now she can’t live without it. In addition to her phone, her 16GB iPad can now be used as a radio. This is new for her, as her iPad has now been taken to a new level of cool.

Fun tidbit… I had a modest collection of The Frames’ music but I didn’t know some of the B-sides that I had at really low quality were matched. I downloaded them with iTunes Match, and BANG! Then, I found out they re-released their first three albums remastered.  I then bought the second album (as it had a rare song on it – as in it was part of the ‘re-release’).  I only ever had a sucky 128 bit version of it (unmatched)… and wow… that song was awesome and it completely changed the entire album for the better.

As you can probably tell by now, I can just go on and on with this.

So to wrap it up, if I was asked “Is iTunes Match worth the trouble?” –  I’d say a very resounding… “YES… very much so. Especially at 25 bucks”.

This concludes the fourth installment of My Music Library Refresh Series reports, but stay tuned over the coming weeks/months for more thoughts on this continuing experience. If you missed the first three parts of the series, have a look at them here: iTunes Match Part One, iTunes Match Part Two, & iTunes Match Part Three.

The more I do this, the more I see that some digital music is simply not the same as other digital music. Taking it a step further, some digital albums are not the same. This is because of various reasons. For example: the actual recording process, the track order, or the quality of the music from start to finish. Therefore, I am actually rating my music now too as I go. If I see a song or album that was not rated, I am taking the time to rate them accordingly to my opinion of my music. Since they’re on my hard drive, (as I have deleted other files I do not need), it is safe to assume that even a “one star” album/song is something that will still be to my liking. I also have about five albums that are personal favorites that simply can’t be messed with. And lastly, I have albums or a music collection that is beyond a rating – the Beatles.

Therefore, my rating process will look like this:

1-3 stars @ 256.
4-5 stars @ 320.
Top 5 or 10 albums (to me) @ Apple Lossless.

This method should position me permanently for the future, as compression rates have not changed since the 90s – and they still top out at 320. Anything more than 320 (Apple Lossless or 100% uncompressed) will never change because it’s just math at that point. It just can’t get any higher than uncompressed.

As far as the re-ripping goes, I’m now up to the ‘M’s’ of my library as I just finished my Mavericks collection.

By the way… not to sound like an Apple fanboy, but iTunes Match is great. I just can not express this enough. So far, I’ve had no issues with the service – even in areas where my mobile reception is poor. To me, the service still working as well as it does with limited mobile reception is huge. It may be simply a testimony of Verizon’s awesomeness, I dunno. I have always received awesome throughput with Verizon at one bar. So at this point, iTunes Match is a huge deal to me.

Taking the time to bump up the quality and updating metadata as I go extends the power of my 83.65GB music library and it makes iTunes Genius that much smarter. To an audiophile like me, it’s indispensable. In other words, I now depend on this service.

Yes, it didn’t take long for me to do so. That more than anything should speak volumes of iTunes Match. If you have great music, then this is a service worth 25 bucks a year.

This concludes today’s report, but there’s more to come. Stay tuned over the coming days for more of my Music Library Refresh Experience. If you missed the first two parts of the series, have a look at both iTunes Match Part One and iTunes Match Part Two.

That’s a lot of downloads throughout the course of the day.  The rest will be re-ripping CDs (1,500+ songs). Also… I’ve SMASHED my hard drive space. The good news is that I’m pruning things – removing a lot of duplicate songs and albums/songs not worthy of my hard drive or cloud space. So I’m managing as I go. BUT… it’s coming along. Once this is over with, I’ll be set for a long time.

My First Hurdle

I’m a little shocked, actually. It would appear that ‘back in the day’ there was DRM protection burned into music CDs. The ‘Mac’ (or OS X) didn’t care back then and did its thing to rip the audio from the CD.

Now, a decade later (as the music CD is now 10 years old), OS X actually “respects” DRMed music CDs! I actually had to use Windows Media Player to rip the music (in WAV format of course).  I’ll take that WAV file and convert it to Apple’s 320 Bitrate.

The funny thing is, I used my Mac to rip this music back in the day at 192. It had no problems then. Now, OS X just ejects the disk – it doesn’t even mount. This is rather unbelievable and disturbing. Disturbing that Apple, not Microsoft, is respecting DRM for once…? Wow.

An Update On Where I’m At Now

All of the music I have that is not on CD has been re-downloaded by iTunes for “free”. All of the music that is not >256 and on CD is a pain in the arse. This is mainly because re-ripping is a slow process. Since I have a lot of CDs that are <256… it’s going to take a while.

I also continue to prune my hard drive. I have freed up space by getting rid of music I simply do not listen to anymore. I’ve deleted probably 100+ songs. I have also made the decision that any album that I deem to be “good” but not “great” will either be re-ripped at 256 or simply downloaded via iTunes Match were applicable. This will speed things up.

So far, I can conclude the following:

1. If you’re going to do this, get your library as much in order as possible before starting. Therefore, prune your collection for unwanted material and get your files in order.

2. Downloading from iTunes is fast and easy… and kinda fun.

3. Any song that is not found in the iTunes catalog is uploaded to iCloud, so make sure all of the metadata is as accurate as possible.

4. iTunes Match is not very customizable. Therefore, once you hit ‘go’… you’re off to the races.

Current Thoughts

I’m quite proud of my music library and I’ve felt this way since 2004. It’s been this way because of the iPod, and eventually it paid off BIG TIME when ‘Genius Playlists’ came to light. But my library is huge, and since 2004 it has become slightly unwound. I am tightening it back up with higher quality music files and optimized metadata. I have found that pruning what you don’t listen to or care about anymore is very important. The overall process is like making your music library get into shape. It’s going to be slow at first, but the payoff will be huge.

iTunes Match is best served with a tight library. Since it’s designed to work with a tight music buying ecosystem (iTunes Store), iTunes Match is flawless. Since I have a vast music collection and more than the iTunes Store catalog, it’s this part in particular that must be tight before clicking ‘go’.

Personally, I kinda like doing this stuff. It really is flexing your hard drive space which happens to be a big source of entertainment – and the payoff is just too great. All you have to do is it once, then the rest is cake. Well… maybe again a decade later.

After everything so far, do I recommend that iTunes music lovers go through this process?
Absolutely. Yes. Do it.

Take control of your music and hard work.

This concludes today’s report, but there’s more to come. Stay tuned over the coming days for more of my Music Library Refresh Experience.

]]> http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/03/my-music-library-refresh-with-itunes-match-%e2%80%93-part-two/feed/ 0 http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/03/my-music-library-refresh-with-itunes-match-part-one/ http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/03/my-music-library-refresh-with-itunes-match-part-one/#comments Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:10:50 +0000 Aaron Hahn http://www.vegau.com/blog/?p=378 Continue reading →]]> I recently signed up for iTunes Match so I could update all the music in my library that is less than 256 bitrate. Being the perfectionist that I am when it comes to music, this is the only way to go. This idea exposed me to the fact that a lot of music needed to be re-ripped, as I used to rip my CDs at 192 back in the day. So, for all of the music that I own on CD, I had to re-rip back into iTunes at 320. For all of the music that has been downloaded previously lower than 256, I had to use iTunes Match to download. This process will be both fun and educational, so I figured I’d keep track of what I find and share it here on Vegau’s Tech Blog.

And so, the documentation of my experience begins…

This is going to be almost as much work as it was back in my first music library refresh back in 2004. Now, eight years later, and approximately 60GBs more music/files, it’s going to be time-consuming. So far I’m in the letter ‘C’ in my library.

Before I go any further, I’ll give a brief set of thoughts behind the iTunes Match service. iTunes Match, when it works (I’ve had no failure BTW), works awesomely and is perfect for a music-lovin’ guy like me. With it enabled on my iPhone, I now have iTunes Genius playlists, (not to be confused with regular Genius playlists). To me… this is the ultimate awesome.

I approach my music just like I do my movies – I only own it if it’s worth my money and hard drive space. Period. With iTunes Genius playlists, I literally have a radio station of music genres, with ALL with MY music (not just 16 or 20Gbs worth locally). I have no idea what is coming on, but chances are, I’ll like it because I own it. To me, this is the ultimate in music bliss and well-worth the price of 25 bucks a year. This is what I am most stoked about, hands down.

Again, Verizon delivers. Although their network is not as fast as AT&T’s, it’s definitely more reliable. It’s this reliability that allows for a flawless iTunes Match experience whilst traveling. See… this isn’t just my “local” music… it’s my entire 80GB music library. Since I don’t listen to 80GBs of music at a time, I didn’t think I’d care about having such a large library.

I probably listen to 35GB of my music, but having all 80GB on a Genius Playlist is pure perfection. I just increased my library of Genius pulling stock 55% overnight. I’m not talking about iTunes selecting “radio hits” from my library – I’m talking deep cuts off of albums. This… this is awesome. The combination of radio singles and deep cuts by similar artists- not in my local iPhone library – is the ultimate. To sum up, I have never had a love affair like I do today with my music. I compare it to my iPod Touch back in 2008.

When it came to setting up iTunes Match, it took three solid days of it just running in the background. By day two I thought something was wrong. I stopped it, rebooted my Mac several times, etc.  In the end, nothing worked but time. I read online in a plethora of places about many people having the same issues – so all it took was time… and that’s completely fine by me.

Now that all the music is scanned and “matched”, I can delete any song and redownload it from iTunes at DRM free, 256Bit. I set up a Smart Playlist (luckily, more on that later), with it showing my library with less than 256 bit music, that is “matched”. I’ve been deleting those songs, and then redownloading them with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

The only issue I’ve had so far is that Smart Playlists don’t work all the time. THIS pisses me off. I never thought turning on a function would break another here in Apple’s “MacLand”.  It did though – and apparently it’s a known issue in the community. Smart Playlists still work – it’s just that “new” Smart Playlists sometimes don’t work. I wish I had known this beforehand, but I’ll keep learning as I go.

That’s my initial report. Stay tuned over the coming days for more of my Music Library Refresh Experience.

]]> http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/03/my-music-library-refresh-with-itunes-match-part-one/feed/ 0 http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/ipad-mini-retina-display-could-add-30-to-total-parts-cost/ http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/ipad-mini-retina-display-could-add-30-to-total-parts-cost/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:14:06 +0000 Aaron Hahn http://www.vegau.com/blog/?p=372 Continue reading →]]> According to a recent report, adding a Retina Display to the iPad mini could add 30% to Apple’s total parts cost. Like the original iPad, however, I think the Mini is two years away from Retina. Also, (like I said about the iPad with Retina), I don’t really care unless the weight is the same or lighter than the current model AND the thickness remains the same or thinner. It is all about size, not the display… that is, even if they did bring it to market this year.

Now that I have switched to a Mini, do I miss a sexy Retina display on an iPad? Yes, but not nearly as much as you would think. The iPad Mini’s display is just fine in comparison, for now – although I do think Apple can bring in a better display (one akin to the Nexus 7). I also believe the big mods this year will be a faster processor, hard drive space (@128GB), and (hopefully) more RAM. These are all specs I would gladly upgrade to, but I won’t.

In my opinion, the Mini IS the iPad to get – even right now, without the Retina. Give me a Retina, but refuse to compromise on size and weight, as the size and weight is the Mini’s biggest advantage.

]]> http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/ipad-mini-retina-display-could-add-30-to-total-parts-cost/feed/ 0 http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/new-mobile-oss-will-be-a-future-trend/ http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/new-mobile-oss-will-be-a-future-trend/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:37:51 +0000 Aaron Hahn http://www.vegau.com/blog/?p=359 Continue reading →]]> Earlier this month, a story surfaced about Google asking journalists to tone down the story of a massive Google Play security flaw.

Personally, I am not surprised since this has been going on since 2008. This is yet another reason why I loathe anything Android (and a good chunk of Google, in general).
This is very serious stuff, and I feel like it falls on deaf ears when I bring it up. My mind just cannot comprehend the populous’ decision to purposely lose their privacy and be a money-making whore for a faceless company.

It is of my opinion that in the coming years, Google will start experiencing the same backlash much like Apple is now.  Android has reached its saturation point (similar to Apple’s iOS) and other ecosystems beyond Android and iOS will be coming. Samsung (the biggest Android provider) is starting the switch with its Tizen OS. I was a tad shocked to see Samsung moving off of Android and starting their own, but it makes sense when it comes down to business. In the years to come, I foresee more hardware companies that will opt to go in this same direction.

]]> http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/02/new-mobile-oss-will-be-a-future-trend/feed/ 0 http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/01/a-review-of-my-brief-time-with-bb10/ http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/01/a-review-of-my-brief-time-with-bb10/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:28:56 +0000 Aaron Hahn http://www.vegau.com/blog/?p=350 Continue reading →]]> The tech world has been waiting for Research In Motion to unveil its new operating system for Blackberry, and yesterday they finally did. I was fortunate enough to have a brief stint with the new goods, so I’d like to share my first impressions. Ready? Here goes…

Well, first of all, let me tell you… the phone is NICE. REAL NICE. From my limited experience, the BB10 (OS) is great, IMO. To me, it’s a mix between Android and Apple’s iOS, and that’s alright. The hardware isn’t Apple quality (nothing is), but it is great. IMO (again), it makes any other non-Apple phone look like crap. To say I’m shocked at Blackberry’s latest offerings is an understatement.

Now, on to the OS. I didn’t have a lot of time with it, but I will say it’s pretty nice. IMO it’s as iOS-friendly as you’d want, with a lot of nice Android features. The virtual keyboard is great once you get used to it. My only gripe is that there’s so many touch gestures, you really have to learn it. What I mean is, it’s not intuitive as iOS for the advanced gestures, but it has advanced gestures. It has more than Android and iOS, which is cool, but again, not intuitive. Like, swiping from the top left corner brings up ‘this’, swiping from the top right ‘that’, etc.

As for the hardware – it’s still plastic, but it is very well made. It’s hard to believe that you can still change a battery with a device that has little seams (like a 4S). It’s solid in the hand like an iPhone, and there’s no “crunching” like a Samsung. How long it will last I don’t know – crunching may come after use – but the unit I played with was excellent. What is going to kill them – is what is currently killing them… their inability to compete in an ‘App’ and ‘Media’ “Store”, like Google Play and Apple’s App Store. That, to me, is the saddest part of it all. Blackberry has a great enterprise infrastructure, and this OS and hardware is fantastic. So that’s why it’s sad – but it is what it is. All in all, the more I played with it the more I liked it – and I didn’t really “want” to. It was a refreshing change from iOS, and not ugly or convoluted as Android (and Windows… well, let’s not go there).

As a disclaimer, I will say that I have not yet used the product for an extended period of time. Only time will tell if it’s a flop or not. At first glance, if they can market it well and get a dang ‘App Store’ and good developers for it… it could be a hit. I sincerely hope so, as iOS and Android (and I guess Windows) needs good competition. I mean, iOS 7 has to be BIG this year. If it’s not… I fear it will be the official start of the decline of Apple’s footprint, (against already circulating, unproven, ridiculous, rumors). But hey, at least we’ll all have front row seats to see how it plays out!

]]> http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/01/a-review-of-my-brief-time-with-bb10/feed/ 0 http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/01/my-brief-ipad-mini-review/ http://www.vegau.com/blog/2013/01/my-brief-ipad-mini-review/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:00:07 +0000 Aaron Hahn http://www.vegau.com/blog/?p=336 Continue reading →]]> From the start, my eyebrows were raised ONLY because of the way Apple unveiled the new Mini (as I watched it live on the AppleTV in 1080p!). The unveiling of it was almost as good as that of the original iPhone in 2007. Almost, though, as NOTHING will be beat that. I mean, it is an iconic moment in technology history (I still watch it if I’m bored). Really, the Mini’s unveiling is the only reason why I wanted to even see one, as I’ve always considered it a niche product for the holidays. I see it pretty much as an attempt to compete with the Nexus 7, and more or less a shrunken iPad 2. I had some serious doubts from the start.

The reality is quite the contrary. I finally saw and played with one in person and I immediately knew this is the tablet for me. I’ve always thought that 7″ inch tablets were devices that just couldn’t compete with the iPad, and I laughed at the people that gushed all over their 7″ inch whatevers. Then I saw the Nexus 7 and shockingly I said to myself, “Man, this is actually really nice”. What was so nice about it was the OS (Android Jellybean 4.2) finally had that Apple “polish” to it. It only took Google 5 years to catch up… and then they broke that very same Apple polish with a patch… and broke it worse with a patch to fix that patch (begin evil laughter).

What really impressed me, though, was the form factor, as the design and weight of the Nexus 7 is amazing. Picking it up is like picking up a feather, and I *immediately* said to myself, “Now THIS is portable. I really wish this was an iPad”. Unfortunately, it still is the Nexus 7, as it is still Android… so it still sucks. Always remember peeps… it could look like a Ferrari, but if the engine is a 4-banger… what’s the point? And all the Windows 8 peeps say “WHAAT!”.

 

Apple met, matched, and beat (IMO) the Nexus 7 with one arm behind its back, or at least the unveiling said so. What I saw at first glance was a shrunken iPad 2, and then I started to read more. I read positive reviews, negative reviews, neutral reviews, and biased in both direction reviews. I’m a geek… it’s what I do. But no matter what type of review I read, one thing was consistent… portability. Then I looked in the mirror and admitted, I hardly ever use my iPad as a portable device… so what’s the point in owning the absolute best model you can get? The display? Well, that is a plus. But do I really use it as it’s designed? Honestly, not really. The iPad Mini, however, truly fits that build.

So, I went to the mall, walked by the Windows Store (the only store not busy during the Christmas holidays) and ended up the Apple Store. After waiting my turn, I played on the iPad Mini and I knew right then and there after picking it up that, this was the iPad as it is supposed to be. Turns out, I was wrong with my original assumptions.

One thing that ALL types of reviews talk about is the Mini’s lack of Retina display. For me – one who looks at displays daily for long periods of time – yes, I absolutely notice it is not Retina. Between my iPhone 4S and iPad 3, I can tell in immediately that it’s not Retina. I miss the Retina display on my iPad Mini, I really do. BUT… it’s all mental for a spoiled geek. Bear with me here. Until Retina displays are the norm, they’re a luxury item in my opinion. They are something Apple has over its competitors. Other screens are nice, but nothing compares to a Retina display.

The MacBook Pro Retina is the biggest example of display awesomeness. You simply have to see it to believe it. But, is a 15″ MBP Retina as mobile as say, a 11″ or 13″ Mac Book Air? No. And there’s the difference. A laptop is meant to be mobile, or portable. One obviously does this better than the other. One obviously looks better than the other, too. The iPad is truly meant to be portable, but comparing the portability of the iPad vs. the iPad Mini is no contest.

My take from 10,000 feet in the air? It depends on your usage and needs (as anything in this cluttered tech boom is). Four years ago, I would have said that the Sony PS3 was the better buy because of its BluRay capabilities. Now, I’d say the latest edition of the XBox 360 is. I’ve said before that the iPad 3 is the only iPad worth owning – but now, not so much. Currently, my personal needs are mobility and portability – and enter the 64GB Verizon LTE iPad Mini.

Coming from an IBM Lenovo laptop, walking around with a MacBook Air feels like I’m carrying nothing – but still doing my job. It’s weird. Walking around with an iPad Mini and still being able to have my entire digital life and doing my job (feeling like I’m carrying nothing)… it’s weird. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg had something when he arrogantly said the iPad wasn’t mobile. Well, the iPad Mini is.

If you’re looking for a new iPad or looking to ‘upgrade’ from an iPad 1 or 2, then seriously consider the iPad Mini. It’s cheaper and better in a lot of ways (check out the benchmarks in this piece), and once you have it (pending you have a 4G version) you will wonder how you ever lived without one. The only hard decision is, should you get the white or the black one?

I have read in a few places that Apple is two years out from a Retina iPad Mini, and that sounds about right. But if they do to it what they had to do with the iPad 3 (or 4) Retina (as they had to make it heavier, thicker, awkward weight distribution), then no thanks – I’ll wait till you can meet its current mobile specs (super-feather-light, and form factor).

Mobility… it’s where it’s at… and I’m a fan of the iPad Mini.

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