Shaken, not stirred

To some extent yes. You can continue using whatever other program(s) you prefer for listening, syncing, etc. It's just Windows Media Player's database that Shaken, not stirred depends on; if a song or playlist on your computer is not in WMP's database, Shaken, not stirred won't know that you have it. To ensure that Windows Media Player's database is up to date with all your songs, you need to run WMP for a few minutes (without necessarily doing anything with it) after you add songs to your collection, so it has time to scan your music folders for changes. More info on this is in Shaken, not stirred's help.

Not absolutely required, but yes if you want Shaken, not stirred to automatically generate playlists with your favorite songs played more often. If you don't assign ratings to your songs, you can still manually create playlists with multiple repetitions of songs you want played more often, and have Shaken, not stirred shuffle that playlist to distribute the repetitions intelligently.

Will the playlists generated by this program work with my phone or MP3 player?

The program's default Windows Media Playlist format (.wpl) is handled by almost all phones and players, with the possible exception of Apple Corporation products. Most Android sync apps recognize .wpl playlists. Alternatively, if you can sync your phone/player with Windows Media Player, it's almost sure to work (most Android and all Windows phones, and almost all MP3 players except iPods).

I don't own i[Phone/Pad/Pod]s so haven't tested them, but can't imagine a reason why iPhones etc. wouldn't work as well as any other phone/player. However unlike almost all other devices, Apple iP...'s are normally synced with iTunes; in that case you'd need to make sure Windows Media Player also knows about your music (see the WMP question above). iTunes recognizes the M3U (Unicode) playlist format, so you should choose that in the Shaken, not stirred options, instead of the default Windows Media Playlist (.wpl) format, and tell iTunes to include that playlist in its sync.

The utility for copying album art from your PC to your phone/player may not work directly with your device. That utility requires the player/phone to be connected to your PC as a drive letter (UMS/MSC mode). Android phones can connect as a drive so no problem, but some other phones/players connect only as a device, not as a drive. However there is a workaround for phones that can't connect as a drive, but where the music is stored on its removable memory card. You can eject the SD card from the phone and insert it in your computer (e.g. with a USB connected card reader). Windows will treat the SD card as a drive, so Shaken, not stirred can copy the album art to the matching folders directly on the SD.

Aside from being in the same program, not at all. Years ago they just happened to be the two things for MP3 players that I had to write myself to get it the way I wanted, and I put them together in the same program. In hindsight I should have written them as separate programs, especially because Album Art Copy is now useful to only a few people, but disentangling the two would take more time than it's worth to me.

The purpose of the program is to generate intelligently shuffled random playlists. The phrase "Shaken, not stirred" refers to mixing the playlist the right way, as in James Bond movies where Bond insists on having his vodka martini shaken, not stirred. I'm not a fan of martinis, vodka or otherwise, but I know a margarita is mixed much better when shaken rather than stirred (and don't even think about the blender).

The program icon is from the same idea, an image of a Boston cocktail shaker.

* Actually some of these questions I've never been asked, so here F.A.Q. can mean Frequently Asked or Anticipated Questions.

The author with a margarita
prepared as it should be:
Shaken, not stirred

Thanks to DJ Damon for sharing this
photo from his Club Gossip, the best
80s/New Wave/Industrial club in
San Francisco (& maybe the universe)

Shaken, not stirred

F. A. Q. *