Delicious Library
Delicious Monster
Price: $40
Pros: Great interface, easy scanning using QuickTime-compatible cameras, and lots of intuitive extras. Serves as a stop-gap between the future of digital media and the limitations of today's main-stream technologies.
Cons: No actual content available and interfaces only with Amazon.com. Makes you realize how much more should be done with video and books on your computer.
by Gerrit Dalman
Apple has allowed us to manage media digitally with greater flexibility than was possible before. But there are still mediums that iLife does not include. Until digital books are reinvented and full-quality movies can be stored in volume, the incorporation of our libraries and video collections into the digital lifestyle will be incomplete.
While that's on the horizon, there are ways to experience some of that future now. With "personal media management systems" like Delicious Library, users can organize their media collections much like they manage the rest of their iLife, just without actual digitized content.
Library stores a database of information on all the books, movies (DVDs and VHS), games (console and PC), and albums (CD, tape, and vinyl) that sit on your shelves or in boxes and entertainment centers. With a sleek interface that borrows from iLife and uses a "shelf" analogy for display, Library allows for quick inventory, intelligent searching, and flexible sharing of your collection.
Items are added to any number of virtual "shelves" that work like play lists in iTunes or albums in iPhoto. You can manually enter information or search by titles, but you can also use a hand scanner or an iSight to read barcodes right off items! Meta-data for each is gathered from Amazon's database - including cover art that shows up on the shelf.
If you want to quickly find out who wrote a book or when a film was released, you needn't go farther than your desktop. You can search titles, authors, actors, directors, and more with a search field just like iTunes or even speak a title to have it selected with voice recognition!
Library also helps you manage your inventory better than some libraries. By integrating with your Address Book, Library displays a list of potential borrowers and you can check items in and out with ease. You'll never forget when or to whom you loaned your favorite flick again!
While Library is a standout product for a lot of big reasons, there are little things that make it great too. If you have an item that you think someone else might enjoy, one menu click will prepare an email with all the details (including cover art) so you can let them know about it.
You can even sync your library to your iPod so the next time you're at Best Buy and can't remember if you own season three of "The Simpsons," you can check your notes and know for sure. Delicious Library can even pay for itself by expediting sales of your items on Amazon.com.
There's even more in the cards for those who have made the step up to Tiger, since an updated Library now includes Spotlight support and a Dashboard widget so you can find a book without even having to launch the application!
Library is a lot of fun to use. You can tell the developers were passionate about their work from the amount of detail in the app as well as the presence of at least one "easter egg." Add any item with "Star Wars" in the title to see what I mean!
On the downside, while the integration with Amazon.com goes even farther than I've mentioned, it would be great to have some functionality with other services as well, like selling on Half.com or collecting item info from CDDB.
It would also be wonderful if even a small amount of real data could be included. Trailers for films and games or comprehensive summaries for all books seem like natural improvements. Still, no matter how picky I want to be, I can't complain because there is no doubt in my mind that Delicious Library is the best application of it's kind.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.3 or higher