[6:00 AM] Mac MP3 Users Can Now Take Naps With Their PC Brethren
by Staff
Black Hole Media has released a Mac version of the MP3 utility, Napster. Macster allows users to find and share MP3s with other users while providing a player feature as well as chat functions. According to Black Hole:
Many of you may be asking, "So we've got it. Great. Now what is it?" Napster (Macster) is many things. Napster itself is a chat program, an MP3 player program, and a program that allows you to find and download MP3 files. Macster is in Preview Release 1 status and, at the moment, only supports the latter function. There are also apparently two types of download types and if you attempt to download files with Macster for any length of time, you will undoubtedly get the "unimplemented" message that indicates the person on the other end is using that second, unsupported download type. But this is just a preview release, folks, and BlackHole Media promises to fix these things in the next version. The readme accompanying the download states the following: "We plan to release Preview 2 sometime in the next couple months. Preview 2 will support file browsing by user, the second type of download, and channel chat."
The concept behind Napster is that everyone should share and share alike. When you are online with Macster, it indexes your hard drive(s) for MP3 files and adds them to a searchable database that other Napster/Macster users can access. Users are able to then search that database, find MP3s that they are looking for, and choose whether or not to download them from the people who have them who are using Napster/Macster. This is what makes the whole Napster world go 'round and keeps everybody happy. Of course the legal implications of this are staggering, so it is up to users and solely users what files they download and what files they offer for others to download.
Napster (Macster) is available in this preview release for free. You can find more information at the Black Hole Media web site.
The Mac Observer Spin: This is good news for the Mac MP3 crowd. It has definitely taken a while to catch the Mac up to the Windows world as far as MP3 software product availability, but we have caught up with a vengeance. If you are interested in MP3s, definitely check out Macster.
Black Hole Media
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