TUAW Review: Griffin Technology's iFill

We've written about Griffin Technology's iFill a few times over the past summer. E entially, it's an a lication that lets you record internet radio, and sends those recordings directly to you iPod. The most recent beta was released on September 22nd, and today it's finally out of beta and ready to rock. Here is our "first look" review of iFill. More after the jump.





I tallation and Initial Setup

Before you begin,you've got to enable disk use on your iPod. If you haven't done thisyet, just plug your 'Pod into your Mac, launch iTunes and click the"General" tab in the iPod preferences. From there, select "Enable DiskUse."

I tallation is a simple drag and drop into yourA licatio folder. When launched for the first time, iFill requests aregistration code. If you want to try before you buy, you may requestup to four demo codes that will each expire after one week. Finally,co ect the iPod you intend to use and iFill sets it as the default recipient. Now you're ready to go.

Interface

Thelayout of the a lication's main window is tidy and unobtrusive, and i 't the typicaltoolbar-acro -the-top type of thing we've all seen a million times.I tead, four main points radiate from a central circle (more on thecircle later). First, quickly view how many songs are currently on youriPod, iFill songs vs. non-iFill songs (note: this works differently onan iPod shuffle, which is what I used for testing. With a shuffle,there is no differentiation made between iFill vs. non-iFill tunes).

Next, you can designate how much ace you wish to allocate for iFill tunes on your iPod, and remove previously collected music with a single click (helpful for shuffle owners like me).

In the center of the window is a status circle that provides a lot of information at a glance. Depending on the lengths of the multi-colored status indicators in the circle, you can view the amount of music on your iPod (iFill vs. non-iFill), as well as the amount of data files and ace available for non-music files. It's really quite nice, and you get used to reading it in a ap. Finally, you can select the radio statio you wish to record (yes, you can record more than one at a time!). Now the fun begi .

Real World Use: Recording and Playback

To select a radio station(s) for recording, click the "Choose" button at the bottom of the window for a list of suggested statio . Lucky, the station I was after, WOXY, was in the list. You can add the addre you're after manually if you don't see it here. Next, it's simply a matter of clicking the "Record" button, and you're off.

When recording, iFill switches to the Record window. From here, you can see a list of the statio you're currently streaming, view the currently playing song and either listen along or mute the sound. A green status ring gradually fills in as your iPod collects music. Like I've said before, I think that iFill and the iPod shuffle were made for each other. I set iFill to fill my shuffle to the brim overnight, and the next morning I have a radio station that I would not otherwise be able to listen to in my pocket all day. Nice.

My only complaint is something that really can't be fixed. Because you're recording an audio stream in real time (as o osed to downloading an Mp3 file), it can take a while to fill your iPod with a decent amount of music (which is partly why I set mine to work overnight). Like I said, there's nothing you can do unle you have power over the very nature of ace and time, but don't expect to grab a whole lot of music during your morning shower and breakfast. Griffin suggests taking advantage of the simultaneous recording feature to combat this: record five statio over the course of an hour and you've gra ed five hours of music. True, but I only want to listen to one station.

Once your iPod is full, listening is just as enjoyable as any iPod experience is. My morning and afternoon commutes are so much better now that I'm free of terrestrial radio, as well as the same, old playlists I tend to o e ively listen to on my 'Pod.

Real World Use: Manage your Music

Now that you've got all that new music, you've got to keep track of what's what. iFill incorporates a very iTunes-like browser for searching, sorting and basically managing all of your iFill music. Its functionality is very much like that of iTunes, so it's i tantly familiar to any iPod owner.

The Bottom Line

iFill is an example of a simple a lication that does a single task well. I do wish I could somehow eed up the data tra fer, but I know that's not po ible. Other than that, this a is a wi er. iFill requires Mac OS 10.3 or 10.4 or better, and a single lice e will cost you $19.99 US.