In Depth: Essential tips to get the best from iTunes: "
We find it hard to believe that iTunes is now more than eight years old. And although it has grown to incorporate many new features since its creation, it still looks remarkably similar to the way it did when it first appeared, running on OS 9.
Back then it was just a jukebox, but over the years came developments like CD burning, the iPod, Smart Playlists, the iTunes Store, video support and, most recently, the iPhone.
Apple has gradually turned iTunes into the hub for managing and playing all the music and movies on your Mac and mobile devices, whilst continually adding support for new devices and services like the Apple TV, movie rentals and much more.
In 2003, Apple made the smart move of developing a Windows version of iTunes, opening up the iPod market and the iTunes Store to a much wider audience, and the results speak for themselves. iTunes remains one of Apple's most important applications, and it is capable of far more than just playing music.
Whether it's converting movies to watch on your iPod while out and about, building party playlists, getting album art online, buying music, renting films or backing up iPhones, there's an awful lot under the surface.
Most importantly, many of the tips and tricks we're going to show you will save you time, and maybe even reveal a few things you didn't know you could do. So read on to become an iTunes and iPod expert.
Use Smart Playlists to manage music
As music libraries grow they can become unwieldy. Go to File > Smart Playlists and you can create playlists that display tracks meeting any criteria you enter. If you specify that the playlist should show all songs with the Artist tag 'Rolling Stones', all tracks in your library by that band will appear in the playlist.
You can add further criteria; say, for example, all Rolling Stones tracks you have rated as five stars. By using the match any rule option plus other options you can have playlists that display different sets of tracks.
For example, a playlist where the genre is blues and also rock, plus bit rate is greater than 128. And, best of all, if you check Live updating, the Smart Playlist will watch the library and automatically add any new files that meet the criteria you have set up.
Clean up the clutter & save space
Some people's iTunes libraries get very full with duplicate tracks. You need to know whether you're accidentally copying tracks as you drag them into iTunes.
Go to Preferences > Advanced and see if Copy files to iTunes music folder… is switched on. If it is, it could be that when you're dragging files into iTunes they are being duplicated and so exist in two places on your hard drive.
Select the Music library in iTunes and then choose File > Show Duplicates. Sort the list by clicking on the Name tab and duplicate files will be shown side by side. Be aware that iTunes uses a song's name in this process, so if a song has been imported on two different compilation CDs, for example, it would then show up as a duplicate track.
Before you delete any tracks from your Music library, play them to check if they are actually the same tune. To find a track's location, use the Cmd+[I] Get Info trick, or right-click on a file and choose Show in Finder. You can also use the File > Library > Consolidate command to copy any music that's referenced outside of the iTunes Music folder into it.
Use the Genius tool to find new music
With more music than ever available to buy online through the iTunes Store, it can be hard navigating through it to find new stuff that you might like. The Genius feature in iTunes sends information about your listening habits to the iTunes Store and recommends new music based on similar artists and other people's listening habits.
If you select a track from your library and click the Genius button, iTunes will create a Genius playlist for you of other songs from your library that complement your chosen track. If you're after something new, the Genius Sidebar will display songs that it thinks go well with the track you're playing, and you can preview and buy these songs directly from the sidebar.
Since it knows what music is already in your library, Genius won't recommend anything you already have. It's a much better way to find new music than clicking through the iTunes Store at random.
Share your iTunes library
You can duplicate an entire consolidated iTunes library by simply copying the Music folder. But with libraries frequently running into many gigabytes, it's slow and inefficient. iTunes can share your library over a local network, so it can be accessed by anyone on your Ethernet or wireless network.
Go to Preferences > Sharing and you can turn on sharing of the whole library or specific playlists. You can password-protect access, and also tell your iTunes to look for other shared libraries. Since the music is streamed and not copied, it takes up no disk space on the listening machines. It's great for use in the home or an office environment.
Buy or rent movies online
The iTunes Store contains many movies as well as TV series, and recently the quality has been improved so that video looks better both on computer monitors and on televisions through the Apple TV.
In the iTunes Store you'll find Film and TV sections and just like with music, you can get a free preview (in this case a trailer) of the content. If you choose to buy or rent a film or TV show it will download to your Mac and will then be available to transfer to your Apple TV, iPod or iPhone after conversion.
Content is increasingly available in HD and you can 'gift' videos to people as long as they're in the same country. Purchased videos remain playable, whereas rented ones have to be watched within a certain number of days. Still, it's easier than going to the video shop.
Manage playback settings for a better viewing experience
iTunes can display videos from its library in many ways. If you go to Preferences > Playback, you can tell it to play back videos in the small artwork viewer, in iTunes' main window, in a separate window, or full screen. You can have anything from a small, unobtrusive window that lets you continue web browsing, to a full theatre presentation, blanking out additional monitors.
When it's in a floating window, video can be resized during playback, and if you right-click you can select any preset size for playback. If you have more than one screen, move the floating window onto the monitor you want to use; iTunes will make that the main screen. This is handy if you have a digital TV connected as a second screen.
Get video podcasts for a better podcast experience
Not long after regular podcasting had taken off, the improving technology and broadband speeds made video podcasts possible. Now there are plenty of great video podcasts available on the iTunes Store. If you go to the iTunes Store and head for the Podcasts > Video Podcasts section you'll see lots of them available to download for free, on every subject from technology to comedy and special interests.
Once downloaded these appear in the Podcasts section of your iTunes library and can be watched in iTunes or transferred to any of your video-capable iPods. By subscribing to video podcasts – just as you do with regular podcasts – you can automatically get new episodes as they become available.
In the Settings menu you can manage how often iTunes will check online for new content, and how regularly (if at all) it deletes all episodes that have been played. Video uses more disk space than audio, so setting it up to clear out old content automatically can be a good idea.
Convert video for use with iTunes & iPods
iTunes is quite restrictive when it comes to video formats, and even if you have lots of codecs installed on your Mac it still doesn't like AVIs, WMVs or other non-Apple formats. If you have a movie that's already been digitised into one of these incompatible formats, the best course of action is to convert it with QuickTime Pro into an MP4 or M4V file using the File > Export > MP4 or Apple TV options.
You will need to install Perian to enable QuickTime to open the videos in the first place. You should be able to drag the converted movies into your iTunes library, holding the O key if necessary to override automatic copying of the file. Then, you can choose Advanced > Create iPhone, iPod or Apple TV version and iTunes will convert the video using the optimum quality and screen-size settings for the device that you will be viewing the video on.
Make and sync ringtones
iTunes supports ringtones, but there are restrictions. You're only allowed to create ringtones from tracks bought from the iTunes Store. And it doesn't seem to work very well outside of the US. In fact, in many cases it just seems to give an error with no explanation.
One way round this is to use the MakeiPhoneRingtone application. Choose a music file, convert it to AAC format in iTunes (Advanced > Create AAC Version) and drag it to the Desktop.
Drop it onto MakeiPhoneRingtone and it is converted and placed into iTunes' Ringtones playlist. For a more flexible approach – including working with multiple file types and the ability to edit and trim songs, then save directly out as a ringtone – look at Fission.
Download podcasts from your iPhone while on the move
Whilst you can download video and audio podcasts into iTunes and then sync them to your iPod, anyone running the version 2.2 software or higher on an iPhone or iPod touch also has the option to download podcasts on the device. You don't even need to be on a WiFi network or have 3G, as it also works over an EDGE connection, though it will be slower.
There is a limit of 10MB on podcasts that can be downloaded on anything except a WiFi network. In the mobile iTunes Store > Podcasts tab you can navigate or search by category and download as many audio and video podcasts as your device will hold, which is quite a lot.
Once downloaded these appear in your Podcasts playlist in the iPod section, along with a link to get more episodes in the series. Once you've finished listening, quickly slide your finger left to right across the podcast in the Podcast list and you'll see a Delete button. Press it and next time you connect to your Mac, the podcast will be deleted.
Automatic syncing to save time and space
iPods and iTunes have always had the ability to automatically sync with each other – sharing exactly the same music files. For some people this is great, as it maintains an exact copy of your music, photos and contacts on your iPod or iPhone and on your Mac. Others, though, prefer more flexibility.
For example, you may have lots of music on your Mac but not enough room to fit it all on your 4GB iPod nano. With your iPod selected, go to its Summary tab and click Manually Manage Music and Videos.
Then you can add or delete tracks from the iPod's music library by hand. Just drag and drop tracks from your iTunes library to add them. In each subsequent tab you can choose to manually sync contacts, calendars, ringtones, videos, applications and more. This is a great way of syncing some data but not performing a full sync, which can be slow and puts you at risk of overwriting data accidentally.
Manage apps on your iPhone or iPod touch
You can download applications directly onto your iPod touch or iPhone through the App Store, or download them through the iTunes Store on your Mac and then sync them to your device. When you connect the the iPod touch or iPhone to iTunes, it will back up copies of the apps to your Mac, where they will be placed in your Home folder > Music > iTunes > Mobile Applications.
From the Applications tab in iTunes you can view, delete and update all the apps, then sync them back to the device. Or, on your iPod touch or iPhone, use the Updates tab in the App Store to install updates.
Once you have purchased an application, the iTunes Store remembers this so even if you delete it by accident, you can re-download it for free. Applications can be dragged from iTunes to the Desktop, though like DRM-protected purchased music, they are limited to use on your authorised devices.
Prevent iPhoto launching
In many cases, the fact that your Mac recognises devices as you connect them and then automatically opens a helper application is great. Certainly when you connect an iPod, you'll want iTunes to open so you can manage the music, videos and other data on it. Similarly, when you connect an iPhone, OS X also opens iPhoto by default if there are any images in your iPhone's image library.
However, this can actually be more annoying than helpful for some people. OS X recognises the iPhone as a camera device, because of course it has a camera built in, but most people don't want to manage their pictures every time they connect, let alone having to wait for iPhoto to finish opening (which can take a while if you have a large photo library).
The way to stop this happening is to go to Applications > Image Capture, and open the application's preferences. Then choose When a camera is connected, open : No application. Now, connecting an iPhone won't cause iPhoto to open.
If you decide you want to manage your pictures with an iPhone connected you can simply open iPhoto manually at any point and it will detect the iPhone and let you import the images stored on it.
Control iTunes remotely from your iPhone
Many people now have a wireless network in their home and, of course, iPhones and iPod touches have wireless capabilities as well. In fact, if you have one you will almost certainly have it connected to your wireless network.
Remote (made by Apple and available on the App Store) is a free application that gives you remote control over iTunes. When started, a unique passcode on your iPhone or iPod touch pairs it with your Mac (and Apple TV, if you have one). You then get an application that looks just like the iPod app on the iPhone, which contains playback, searching and volume controls for iTunes running on your computer!
You can control iTunes in real-time, create Genius playlists and even view album art of your currently playing tracks. And because it works over a wireless network, it works from anywhere in your house – no line of sight required. It's an amazing tool and well worth checking out.
Use iTunes from the menu bar
For some, especially those on laptops, even iTunes' minimised window still occupies too much screen space. Synergy is a €5 (£4) shareware application that sits in your menu bar and lets you control iTunes even when it is hidden.
You can play, pause and skip, and by right-clicking you can switch between playlists, set preferences and in some cases buy albums from Amazon. There are many smaller, useful features like floating album art windows that display briefly then fade away, hot keys for controlling iTunes without using the mouse, and a volume control.
For those who like to leave iTunes running but don't want to see it while they work, Synergy (and programs like it) are a great way to maintain control without using screen space.
Find album artwork that iTunes misses
iTunes and all recent iPods can display album artwork, which is nice to be able to see as you listen to music. iTunes now has the ability to automatically fetch album art online but it isn't always able to find the correct covers if your album is older, obscure or not in the iTunes Store.
The Amazon Album Art widget (on the disc) lives in Dashboard and is a great solution to finding artwork that iTunes can't locate. Simply select all the relevant tracks in iTunes, call up the widget and then press the little iTunes icon. It should then find the art, and you can click to attach to the selected files in iTunes.
If it finds the wrong artwork, click the small box at the top-right to see alternatives it has found. If it still finds nothing, it offers the option to Google for the requested cover. You can type in the text field to refine or change the search terms.
Link up with Last.fm to get free music streamed to your Mac or iPhone
Last.fm is a website that offers free, legal, streaming music. The way it works is to note what you listen to and recommends similar music based on yours and other listeners' habits. To enable this to happen, install iScrobbler, a small application that lives in your menu bar.
Whenever you play a track in iTunes, it sends the name of the track to your Last.fm profile, gradually building up a database of your most listened-to tracks. Using the Last.fm app you can receive new music radio tailored to your existing listening habits.
There's also a Last.fm application for the iPod touch and iPhone, which lets you stream tracks you've played before, or stream recommended tracks whilst on the move. Combine this with an audio-out cable and a hi-fi, and you've got a ready-made radio station to use at parties or other events.
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(Via Clippings.)
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