[jrebman]

Yes, it was just announced that the new version of Window-Eyes 7.0 will support full access to iTunes 8, including the iTunes store.  Apple and GW Micro have been cooperating on this, even unknown to those of us on the private beta test team, and I just gave it a whirl and it looks pretty good.  There are a couple minor quirks, but nothing that I've found so far that doesn't work.

Now I'm really going to need some help figuring out how to set this up to use my NAS for the library -- if that's even what I want to be doing.  So much to learn and most of the tutorials are videos and/or geared to Macs.  BTW, because of the screen reader I'm using this on a PC with XP Pro.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally glad to see Apple taking this seriously.

-- Jim

[Crimson]

Great news! Regarding your NAS, other than telling iTunes where your library resides there is nothing else to set up (Preferences > Advanced > General). Let us know if you have any questions.

[jrebman]

Thanks.  So, I can pretty much just ignore the iTunes server on the ReadyNAS?

I was planning on just using the share I setup and mapped a Windows drive to.  If that will work, then that's all I need to worry about, and I'll just assume that any future machines that are for playback purposes can also just point to the same location on the NAS.

One peripheral question: will the SB play aiff files?  If not, I'll use .wav, but long term I'd like to use aiff for all the advanced tagging and cover art features.

-- Jim

[Crimson]

Thanks.  So, I can pretty much just ignore the iTunes server on the ReadyNAS?

The iTunes 'server' on the ReadyNAS will show up under your Shared resources in iTunes (in addition to having the NAS store your main Music library if it's set up as such). As a Shared resource, you will not be able to manipulate it (add, delete, create playlists, etc). I use NAS drives as well and tend to ignore their availability as a Shared library from my 'main' computer. It does come in handy, though, when accessing your library from another computer. Since you mentioned setting up two computers, I'd have one set up to write all rips to the NAS (this would be your 'dedicated machine from where you can manage your library), and have the second(ary) computer access the library as a Shared resource (i.e. the second machine does not have it's iTunes library path pointing to the NAS).

I was planning on just using the share I setup and mapped a Windows drive to.  If that will work, then that's all I need to worry about, and I'll just assume that any future machines that are for playback purposes can also just point to the same location on the NAS.

As I've mentioned above, you do not want future machines pointing to the NAS (from within iTunes). The beauty of having the ReadyNAS preloaded with iTunes 'server' is that no setup is required on the secondary machines as iTunes running on them will see the server resident on the NAS and automatically include it as a Shared resource.

One peripheral question: will the SB play aiff files?  If not, I'll use .wav, but long term I'd like to use aiff for all the advanced tagging and cover art features.

Yes, it will play AIFF files.

[jrebman]

Thanks.  I think I'm pretty clear on this, but I'm still going to keep my eyes open for some accessible iTunes tutorial info.

So far though, looks simple enough.

Thanks again,

Jim