It does seem to be working better for me since the desktop version updated. Previously, it would unexpectedly close although that might have been more a problem with Vista. I didn't know about the protected tracks bit, maybe that explains why some albums don't appear in the iphone app which is a bit annoying. Still, it's very impressive for something that I got for free.

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iPhone now rules my life!

It certainly hits the processor, but I haven't been hit as hard as you. On my 2x Dual Core Mac Pro it hovers around 20% CPU when it's streaming. And that's with a mess of applications open and a library of over 17K tracks.

Huh, I'm just not seeing it. (Though I do have two more cores than you.) Are you using the latest version? 1.0.0.1080?

Chris, I did some testing last night with the latest version, and it exhibited behavior that I couldn't predict. When connecting to a new friend, it spiked to >90% use of one processor. I assume that's because it was indexing his iTunes catalog and delivering it to my iTunes.

After that, it settled down to a much lower CPU use while I was listening to his music -- anywhere from 7% to 30%. Whenever one of us would access a new track on the other's computer, it would spike up again to around 100% and sometimes higher. But then it would settle down again.

All of that seems predictable and understandable. But occasionally its CPU use would ratchet up to much higher levels for no reason I could discern. And then there was the kernel panic this morning when I tried to fast-forward through a track. (I was testing that for a friend -- I don't recommend fast forwarding through tracks when using Simplify Media. Clicking farther down the timeline seems to work OK, but pressing the forward and backward arrows didn't make it happy.)

So heck! I don't know. I'm willing to give it further testing with other friends. The promise of the product is so huge, I don't want to give it up.

My favorite part: using the Simplify app on my iPhone, I can listen to anything in my home iTunes collection while I'm traveling. If Apple could build that into iTunes, to me it would justify the relatively small storage capacities of all the latest iPods & iPhones.

Thanks for the comments! On Friday we released build 1087 (www.simplifymedia.com/download.html) and it has optimization for processor usage. Very large libraries are a challenge, and we are always looking ways to improve. If you have any problems, please contact us at support at simplifymedia.

Do anyone know of a program that will let you also stream the videos/movies/ tv shows in your library?