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What's New

• AACelerator
  Accelerating MPEG-4 Audio for Mac OS X
• f(x) 2.6
  Advanced Scientific Calculator For Mac OS X
  

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AACelerator 1.0

• About...
• Screenshots
• User Guide
• Support
• Release Notes
   
• iTunes and iPod Compatability!
• Integrating with QuickTime Streaming Server
   
• Purchase
• Lost License Key?
• Download Trial!

MPEG-4 Resources

• Apple MPEG-4 Audio Page
• AAC Audio Homepage
• MPEG-4 AAC Gallery

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MPEG-4 News

• Apple Opens iTunes Store
  Selling AAC over the Web!
• Apple's QuickTime phones Japan

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AACelerator in the News

• AACelerator on TechTV's ScreenSavers!
  Click on Mark's Mak Tip

AACelerator 1.02 Release Notes

• Better iTunes 4 and iPod Compatibility
  MPEG-4 files retain their type and creator codes until they are brought into iTunes. This allows the tag information to come in along with the MPEG-4 audio files. This fixes the problem where valid tag information was transferred into the file, but not recognized by iTunes. The files remain MPEG-4 files, not Apple's so-called "AAC" file format. The only known side effects are that with MPEG-4 files, sound effects like cross-fade and equalizer settings are ineffective. As well, MPEG-4 files cannot be synchronized with an iPod. Converting MPEG-4 files into AAC files is a simple and quick process. See item 2 below for more details.
• Script Menu Items for iTunes 4
  While MPEG-4 files play fine in iTunes, they cannot be synchronized with an iPod and special effects such as equalizer settings and cross-fade effects do not produce the desired audio effect. Converting an MPEG-4 file into an AAC file simply requires changing the file type and creator codes to "M4A " and "hook". No recompression is performed and the process takes just a second or two for a handful of files. With version 1.02, we now include two Script Menu items that appear in iTunes' menu bar to convert selected files to and from AAC format. Their use is as follows:
• make4iPod
  to convert song files created with AACelerator into AAC files capable of being synced with your iPod, select them in the main browser window of the iTunes music player an select the script "AACelerator - make4iPod" from the iTunes Script Menu. The script will only change files created with AACelerator or that have type and creator codes of "mpg4" and "TVOD". MP3 files, purchased music, and other types of audio media files will not be changed. However, the resulting AAC files, if transferred to another computer, will loose their tag information if added to that computer's iTunes application. So, we also included the next script.
• restoreMP4
  if you wish to restore the original type and creator codes of MPEG-4 files for transfer to another computer, select the audio tracks in iTunes' main browser window and choose the script "AACelerator - restoreMP4" from the script menu. This will allow tag information embedded in the audio file to be properly recognized when re-importing into another computer's iTunes library. This script only affects files ending in ".mp4" and that have type and creator codes of "M4A " and "hook".
• Saved Preferences
  AACelerator now saves the user's last selected encoding destination folder, last selected encoding bit rate, and streaming options as application preferences on a per-user basis. When the application is restarted, these settings are restored for your convenience.

AACelerator 1.01 Release Notes

• iTunes 4 and iPod Compatability
  AACelerator can now optionally set the type and creator codes correctly for iTunes 4 so that MPEG-4 files can be synced and played on an iPod. Simply turn on the iTunes checkbox on the AACelerator window.
• iTunes 4 Does Not Import QuickTime Annotations as ID3 Tags
  iTunes 3 recognized QuickTime annotations such as Album, Artist, and File Name as ID3 tags. AACelerator took full advantage of this feature to tag and categorize music files when importing into the iTunes library. With the release of iTunes 4, the software no longer recognizes these annotations as ID3 tags for AAC files. This means that iTunes 4 will not import the Album, Artist, and File Name information stored in MPEG-4 files created with AACelerator. For most of you this will be a major inconvenience. We plan to have a fix soon. However, in the meantime, quick tagging of MPEG-4 files can be accomplished with the following simple steps:
  1. Before importing any MPEG-4 files created with AACelerator, create an empty playlist.
  2. Select a group of files from the same album and drag them into the new empty playlist
  3. In the iTunes 4 application, select the songs in the new playlist and select "Get Info" from the File menu.
  4. Enter Album, Artist, Year, Genre, and any other information shared by all the files.
  5. Click OK to save the changes
• ID3 Tags Copying
  Fixed a bug where annotations stored in an MP3 file would not be copied properly. This bug could result in the error message: "The variable aName is not defined. (-2753)". This has been fixed and annotations should be copied properly.
• iTunes 4 Conversion Dropplet
  The AACelerator installer will now place an AppleScript dropplet on your desktop called "Make4iPod". This dropplet will set the type and creator codes of MPEG-4 files encoded with previous versions of AACelerator properly for use with iTunes 4 and allow them to be synced with your iPod.

AACelerator 1.0 Release Notes

• Folders
  Folders can now be added to the list of items to be encoded. When encoding a folder, AACelerator will drill down through the contents of the folder expanding embedded folders and encoding all audio files it finds along the way. Encoding a CD is now as simple as dragging the CD icon from the desktop into the AACelerator application!
• Drag-n-Drop
  The main window now accepts files and folders dropped onto the table list area of the window. This provides a more natural interaction with the application.
• QuickTime Annotations (ID3 Tags)
  Users can now specify Artist, Album, and Year tags for tracks being encoded from source materials that don't have embedded ID3 Tags such as CDs. For files that have embedded ID3 Tags, a selection of tags will be copied over to the new MPEG-4 audio files. This limitations is dictated by the number of tags supported by the QuickTime Player's scripting dictionary. These tags are presently limited to: Artist, Track Name, Album, Creation Date (Year), and Track Number.
• Quicktime Streaming Server Support
  AACelerator can now embed both basic and optimized hinted streaming tracks for the QuickTime Streaming Server. Since adding a hinting track to support streaming increases the encoded file size (in the case of optimized hinting the size is almost doubled), the AACelerator can also create MPEG-4 content with no hinted streaming tracks.
• Updated User Interface
  AACelerator now sports the stylish brushed metal interface look, the window is larger and can be resized. The application also remembers window positions and sizes across application runs.
• Pricing Scheme
  While AACelerator remains essentially a freeware application, some of the new features represent a significant step forward in functionality and purpose. Application improvements over prior releases (enhanced File/Folder support and better support for drag-n-drop) remain free to use as long as you like. However, a relatively modest payment of $12 will unlock the features to support creating hinted streaming files and embedding QuickTime Annotations.