Toast 4: update to restore track info lookup planned; Alternative lookups for Toast and other applications

Evidently there is an update for Toast 4 in the works to restore the ability to look up track information over the internet (see previous one and two) according to this notice on the Roxio Web site:

Product Alert: Easy CD Creator 4 and Toast 4 software can no longer access the CDDB (Gracenote) link for audio CD names and titles. We will have an updater available as soon as possible to fix this. If you want to be informed when it's released, please sign up for our newsletters, which we use to keep customers informed on this and other product news. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Jennifer Scott writes: "I'm pleasantly surprised, considering that the 4.x versions of both apps are no longer the newest major revision. I hope the updater will allow us to enter our own servers as Toast 5 does (and other Mac and Win CD players I use) as well as defaulting to FreeDB."

Gracenote has filed suit against Roxio, as described in this pair of notes on the Roxio and Gracenote Web sites.

Alternatives to CDDB This page contains a list of differences between CDDB and Freedb, a history of recent news events with the services, and instructions for using Freedb with most Macintosh clients, even if the software does not allow the user to select a lookup server. (Thanks, Harry Mahoney.)

Update: Toast 4.1.3 is out Roxio has released Toast 4.1.3. The new version redirects Toast to use Freedb (thanks, Greg Neutra).