Macworld iPod and iTunes Superguide

iPOD
AND iTUNES
SUPERGUIDE
$12.95
FIRST EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
34 Working with Podcasts
Getting
Music onto
Your Mac
From political commentary to travel guides
to comedy skits, the Internet is buzzing with
interesting new podcasts from amateurs and
professionals alike. And thanks to the iTunes
Music Store, you can have any and all of
them delivered right to your music library.
We’ve got everything you need to know to
jump on the podcast bandwagon.
6 Choosing a
Music Encoder
There’s more than
one way to rip a CD. When building a digital
music library, you’ll need to find the right balance between sound quality, file size, and
device compatibility. We break down the differences between file formats to help you
find the best match.
Working
with Video
38 Downloading
Video from iTunes
11 Importing Music from Tapes and LPs
Got a stash of cassette tapes and records
from the days before compact discs? They
won’t last forever. Although it requires a little
more work, you can add these gems to your
new digital music library—and stop the aging
process in its tracks.
iTunes is no longer
just for music
lovers. You can also use it to download and
watch movies, TV shows, and other video files.
If you have a video iPod, you can even take
your movies on the road with you. We’ll show
you what you can—and can’t—do with video
downloaded from the Music Store, and help
you better manage these space-hogging files.
19 Mastering the iTunes Music Store
Looking for something new? The iTunes
Music Store lets you download the latest hits
from your favorite artists—one song at a time
or entire albums. Learn how to navigate the
store’s massive collection and take advantage of special features, such as allowances
and recommendations.
41 Converting Video from
Your Hard Drive
iTunes isn’t the only place to get your video
kicks. With the right software and an understanding of video formats, you can convert
the video from your personal DVD collection
and home movies for playback on your video
iPod or a connected TV.
Managing
Your Music
Making
the iPod
Connection
26 Organizing
a Large Library
with Playlists
As your music
library starts to swell, smart playlists will help
you discover new ways of organizing and listening to your favorite songs. Once you get
the hang of it, the possibilities are endless.
46 Syncing
Music to Your
iPod
Struggling to fit
your entire music library onto your iPod
nano? Want to make sure your iPod leaves
a little extra room for personal files? Our
syncing strategies will help you become
more selective about which songs you take
with you.
32 Taming Your Classical Collection
Classical music presents some unique challenges, including inconsistent tags, annoying
breaks, and complicated metadata. Our
smart strategies will help you restore order.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Troubleshooting
Your Tunes
50 Using Your iPod as a Photo Viewer
Forget about carrying crumpled and faded
photos in your wallet. If you have an iPod
with a color screen, you can store, and show
off, hundreds of your favorite photos, all with
a mere spin of the dial.
68 Taming iTunes
Plagued by missing
songs, duplicate entries,
unplayable downloads,
and other iTunes glitches? These solutions will
be music to your ears.
53 Keeping Track of Calendars,
Contacts, and Notes
Hidden within your iPod’s Extras menu are
handy tools for keeping track of contacts,
calendar events, to-do lists, and notes.
There’s even an alarm clock to keep you on
time. We’ll show you how to access your
iPod’s inner personal assistant.
75 Soothing a Troubled iPod
When you find yourself staring at a blank
screen or a mysterious icon, these troubleshooting steps should help you locate the
problem and put things right.
56 Extending Your Battery’s Life
Finding
the Best
Accessories
Don’t let your iPod run out of juice halfway
through your next flight. With some smart
strategies and a little external help, you can
ensure that your iPod keeps pumping out
tunes all the way to your destination.
80 iPod Cases
Shield your iPod
from bumps and bruises by putting it in a
protective case.
59 Managing Multiple iPods
and Computers
Does your household have multiple iPods
that all sync to the same Mac? Or do you
need to access your iPod from two different
computers? These tips and tricks will help
you navigate the sometimes complicated
terrain of multiple connections.
82 Headphones
If you’re still using the earbuds that came
with your iPod, you may not be enjoying your
music to its full sonic potential. A new set of
headphones can make a world of difference.
83 Car Accessories
Protecting
Your Music
With the right hardware, you can listen to
your favorite iPod playlists and albums from
the stereo system in your car.
62 Backing
Up Your iTunes
Library
84 Speakers
Whether you’re lounging around the house
or hosting a picnic, a good set of speakers
will let you share your music with others.
We’ll help you find the right system.
Don’t let all of
your hard work disappear with a single
stroke of bad luck! Take steps now to protect
your iTunes library from hard-drive failures
and other disasters.
86 AppleScripts for iTunes
From corralling artwork to silencing the Done
chime, these clever scripts add new timesaving powers to iTunes. Best of all, every
one of them is free!
66 Backing Up Your iPod
If you carry important information on your iPod
or have some songs that aren’t in your music
library, you’d be wise to create a backup of
your iPod, too. It takes just a couple of minutes.
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GETTING MUSIC
ONTO YOUR MAC
From Digitizing Old Cassettes to Downloading New Releases,
What You Need to Know to Build Your Digital Music Library
Thanks to iTunes, our music collections have never sounded
so sweet. Tired of going to the stereo system every time
you want to switch albums? Apple’s powerful digital jukebox
puts your entire music collection at your fingertips. Don’t like
half the songs on an album? Create your own playlist that
includes just your favorite tunes.
But before you can take advantage of all that a digital music
collection has to offer, you’ll need to convert your old music—
including CDs, tapes, and old records—into a format iTunes
understands. The choices you make here will affect not just how
your music sounds, but also how you can use it and how much
room it takes up on your iPod and your Mac’s hard drive. We’ll
show you which settings to use for the best results and how to
build a library that will grow with you over time.
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5
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Choosing a Music
Encoder PAGE 6
Importing Music from
Tapes and LPs PAGE 11
Mastering the iTunes
Music Store PAGE 19
GETTING MUSIC ONTO YOUR MAC
IMPORTING MUSIC
FROM TAPES AND LPS
BY JIM HEID
You know those old cassette tapes you
have lying around the house—compilations of favorite songs from a bygone era,
family get-togethers recorded with a battery-powered portable, and audio letters
from a faraway friend? They aren’t getting
any younger. In fact, they’re deteriorating as
you read this. Over time, a tape’s magnetic
particles lose their charge, muffling the
audio. If you’ve stored tapes improperly—
in a car’s glove box or a hot attic, say—the
particles may flake off entirely, peppering
your audio with momentary silences.
If you’ve been collecting music for a long
time, you probably also have crates full of
records collecting dust—and possibly warping—in the attic. And many records have
never been released on CD, so you can’t
just go out and replace them with digital
copies.
It’s time to get those old recordings into
your Mac. Digitize your old tapes and LPs,
and you can enhance the audio and remove
noise, and then burn your efforts to CDs or
transfer them to your iPod.
Once you have your equipment set up, the
process of recording and editing is similar for
tapes and LPs. I’ve focused here on working
with cassette tapes, because they can be a
bit more problematic. (For additional details
on recording from an LP, see “For the
Record.”)
library and you don’t want to commandeer
the deck in your stereo indefinitely, consider
purchasing a separate player that you can
dedicate to the task. You can buy a good
stereo cassette deck online for under $100.
If you originally recorded your tapes on
high-quality gear, you should use a midrange or high-end deck that can do justice
to your recordings. But keep in mind that
even the best equipment won’t significantly
improve audio captured with a cheap battery-powered tape recorder.
Audio-Input Hardware Next, you need a
way to connect the cassette deck to your
Mac. Most currently shipping Macs include a
stereo audio-input minijack (marked with a
hollow circle and two arrows pointing
inward) that’s perfect for the task. To
connect the two, you’ll need a
minijack-to-RCA cable
(see “Get Connected”).
Simply plug the
two RCA plugs
into the lineout jacks
B
A
STEP 1: SET UP YOUR EQUIPMENT
To transfer audio from aging cassette tapes
to your Mac, you’ll need some basic audio
hardware and recording software. Here’s
what I recommend:
Cassette Deck The first thing you’ll need
is a cassette deck that can play back your
tapes. Any deck with audio-out jacks should
work. However, if you have a large tape
A
GET CONNECTED To begin, connect the two
RCA plugs A to your tape deck’s line-out
jacks. Then connect the 1/8-inch miniplug B
to your Mac’s audio-input port (or to the
minijack port on an audio interface).
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11
MANAGING
YOUR MUSIC
Smart Strategies for Taking Control of Your Growing Library
Building a digital music library can be addictive. You start
with a few of your favorite CDs and perhaps some downloads from the iTunes Music Store. The next thing you know, you
have enough material to play music for several weeks without
ever hearing the same song twice.
Of course, few of us actually want to listen to our music collections straight through. And while iTunes’ Shuffle feature can
add some excitement to your listening habits—jumping across
genres and albums to give you a little taste of all your favorites—
you’ll probably want to exert a little more control over what
iTunes plays and when (unless you don’t mind hearing
Tchaikovsky followed by Led Zeppelin). Thankfully, iTunes also
includes some powerful management features that let you
quickly search, group, and organize your audio files into collections that match the way you prefer to listen to your music.
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25
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Organizing a Large
Library with Playlists
PAGE 26
Taming Your Classical
Collection PAGE 32
Working with Podcasts
PAGE 34
MANAGING YOUR MUSIC
ORGANIZING A LARGE
LIBRARY WITH PLAYLISTS
BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN
Crafting the perfect playlist by hand can
be a fun and creative endeavor—as long
as you have the time. But as your iTunes
library swells to gargantuan proportions, it
can become difficult to manage the music
you listen to (or would like to listen to if you
could only find it). Thankfully, iTunes offers a
leg up with the Smart Playlists feature, which
lets you create dynamic playlists containing
exactly the kind of music you want in iTunes
and on your iPod.
You can assign ratings in one of three ways:
One at a Time To assign ratings to individual tracks, click on the My Rating column
in the main iTunes window (if you don’t see
it, go to Edit: View Options and select the
My Rating option), and then drag the pointer
to the right. This causes stars to appear in
the column. Click on one of the stars to
assign that rating. You can also control-click
on a track and choose a rating with the My
Rating command that appears in the contextual menu.
Multiple Songs You can assign the same
rating to several songs at once. To do this,
select the songs in the iTunes library (hold
down the 1 key as you make selections), and
then press 1-I. In the resulting Multiple Song
Information window, select the My Rating
option. Now choose a rating in the My Rating
field. The rating you choose is assigned to all
selected songs.
On-the-Go You can also assign ratings
while you’re out and about with your iPod.
While listening to a song, press the center
button three times (press it twice if you have
an iPod that doesn’t display album art or if
the track you’ve selected lacks album art).
You’ll be whisked to a rating screen, where
you use the Click Wheel to assign a rating.
When you next synchronize your iPod, the
ratings you’ve entered on your iPod are
transferred to iTunes. Note that you can rate
songs only on third-generation and later
display-bearing iPods.
BETTER TAGS FOR
BETTER PLAYLISTS
To do their job well, smart playlists need your
help. Obviously, you can use song information, such as artist, genre, and album, to set
up smart playlists. But these items don’t offer
much help in separating the songs you love
from the ones you tolerate—or the ones you
never want to hear again. To really give your
playlists some smarts, you need to add some
custom information.
ASSIGN RATINGS
iTunes lets you vent your critical spleen by
applying stars (from one to five) to songs in
your library. After you rate your songs, you
can use those ratings as a playlist criterion.
For example, you can create a smart playlist
that contains nothing but songs with a rating
of four stars or more, thus guaranteeing that
you hear only your personal favorites. Or if
an ill-mannered cousin has planted himself
on the living-room sofa for one night too
many, you can create a playlist made up of
nothing but one-star wonders, and blast it
from one end of the house to the other in a
repeating loop.
ADD COMMENTS
Unless you’re the kind of person for whom
the party never ends, you’re going to want
to listen to a far different kind of music on
Sunday morning than on Saturday night. A
great way to do so is to use iTunes’ Comments field to create smart playlists. As
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WORKING WITH
VIDEO
Watch Your Favorite Movies, TV Shows, and Home Videos on
Your Mac—or on the Road
Although music continues to be the primary focus of the
iTunes Music Store, it’s not the only thing you’ll find there.
In addition to offering audiobooks and podcasts, iTunes also
gives you access to TV shows, animated shorts, music videos,
and more. If you have a video-capable iPod, you can even take
your video on the road—catching up on the latest episode of
your favorite TV show while at the gym, or learning new photoediting tricks while riding the bus to work.
But the addition of video brings new challenges. For example,
you can’t just drag home movies onto your video iPod and
expect them to play—you must first convert them into the right
format. And the videos you download from the iTunes Music
Store come with their own limitations. Here’s what you need to
know to download, organize, convert, and play video files in
iTunes and on your iPod.
THE MACWORLD iPOD AND iTUNES SUPERGUIDE
37
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Downloading Video
from iTunes PAGE 38
Converting Video from
Your Hard Drive PAGE 41
WORKING WITH VIDEO
CONVERTING VIDEO
FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE
BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN AND JONATHAN SEFF
With its ever expanding catalog of
programming, the iTunes Music Store is
a great place to obtain video content for
the iPod. But it’s not the only place. Your
collection of DVDs, home movies, and Macrecorded TV shows is also perfect fodder.
With the right software, you can quickly convert these movies into iPod-compatible files
and take them with you on your morning
commute or your next vacation.
DVD Folder/Image, and then navigate to the
VIDEO_TS folder of the disc you’ve extracted.
Step 2 Once it has scanned the disc,
HandBrake Lite presents you with a list of
titles—discrete elements such as a film, a TVshow episode, a bonus interview, a making-of
documentary, and so on. Pick the title you
want to convert. If it’s a movie, it’ll be the title
with the longest duration; if you’re ripping a
DVD of a TV show, you’ll notice several titles
of similar length—to figure out which episode
is which, check the DVD case for the order.
Step 3 With the file selected, go to the
right side of HandBrake Lite’s window, specify where you want to save the file, and give
the file a name. Click on Rip, and then take a
walk—the process can take a while, depending on the length of the video and the speed
of your Mac.
RIP YOUR DVDS
Because of the way they are encoded and
encrypted, DVDs require a little work to rip,
but the right software makes it a painless
process. Before you begin, decide whether
you’ll mainly be viewing the converted files
on your iPod or sometimes connecting the
iPod to a TV and watching them on a larger
screen. Your decision will determine which
software and settings you use for the conversion process.
VIDEO TAGGING
iTunes will let you add basic tag
information to your video files,
but if you want them to show up
on the iPod the way purchased
videos do—for example, under
the TV Shows menu, with the
IDEA
show name, and filed in a submenu with season and episode info—you’ll
need to take another step before you
import the files into iTunes.
Lostify (macworld.com/1265) and
Parsley Is Atomically Delicious
(them.ws/pad/) are two free graphical
interfaces for the command-line MP4
metadata editor called AtomicParsley.
Both are a bit crude, but either can tag
your TV shows, movies, and music videos
with all the info they need in order to
show up in the right places on the iPod.
FOR VIEWING ON THE iPOD
If your goal is simply to rip DVD content so
you can watch it on your iPod, the simplest
way is with Tyler Loch’s free HandBrake Lite
1.1 (www.isquint.org/handbrakelite).
Step 1 To rip a DVD, pop the disc into
your DVD drive and launch HandBrake Lite.
Click on the Open button, and HandBrake
will scan the disc for the needed video data.
If you see the message “no valid title
found,” HandBrake can’t read the disc; this
sometimes happens with recent DVDs that
have special copy protection (see “Is It
Legal?”). In this case, you’ll need to download
and run MacTheRipper, which is more adept at
bypassing DVD copy protection (its Web site
tends to move around, so check VersionTracker if you need it). Once you’ve used MacTheRipper, return to HandBrake Lite, choose
SMART
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41
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAL FERÁK
MAKING THE
iPOD CONNECTION
Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Your Music Player
With its sleek design and seamless iTunes integration, the
iPod has become the de facto standard for digital music
players. But if you think music playback is all there is to Apple’s
portable powerhouse, you’re in for a surprise. From displaying
photos to storing contacts to keeping you on time for your next
appointment, the iPod has plenty of lesser-known talents.
Whether you’re trying to squeeze more life out of your iPod’s
battery or simply want more control over what the syncing
process transfers, this guide will help you get the most from
your iPod.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Syncing Music to Your
iPod PAGE 46
Using Your iPod as a
Photo Viewer PAGE 50
Keeping Track of
Calendars, Contacts,
and Notes PAGE 53
Extending Your
Battery’s Life PAGE 56
Managing Multiple iPods
and Computers PAGE 59
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45
MAKING THE iPOD CONNECTION
SYNCING MUSIC
TO YOUR iPOD
BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN
By default, when you plug an iPod into
your Mac, iTunes syncs it with your
entire music library—or at least as much of
your library as will fit on the iPod’s hard
drive. That’s great if you do in fact want to
carry around an exact duplicate of your
library. But what if you’d prefer to keep a different collection of music on your iPod? Or
what if you want to sync it with just a small
subset of your library? In these cases, you’ll
need to exert a bit more control over the
syncing process.
A
B
KNOW YOUR OPTIONS
To take control of your iPod’s library, you
must change how iTunes updates it. To do
this, plug in your iPod, open your iTunes
Preferences, and click on the iPod icon. In the
Music tab, you’ll find several options for managing the syncing process (see “All or
Nothing”).
Sync Everything If you choose the
Automatically Update All Songs And Playlists
option, any songs on your iPod that aren’t in
iTunes’ music library will be deleted from
your iPod when you next update it. This
option—turned on by default—is handy when
you want your iPod to reflect the contents of
one iTunes library, but not so hot when you
want your computer and your iPod to hold
different songs.
Pick Your Playlists What if you don’t want
to—or can’t—carry around your entire library?
In this case, choose the Automatically Update
Selected Playlists Only option. This updates
just the playlists you’ve selected and erases
any songs stored on your iPod that don’t
belong to those playlists. This is a good setting if you have lots of music and an iPod
with limited storage space, or if your family
shares an iPod and a computer. When Dad
wants to load his Beatles collection, he selects
ALL OR NOTHING If you have more songs
than will fit on your iPod, go to the iPod
preference pane and set your iPod to update
only specific playlists A, or choose to manage your songs manually B.
that playlist in iTunes, and the app moves only
that portion of the library over to the iPod.
When Addie uses the iPod, she can load her
playlist—giving the boot to “Rocky Raccoon.”
Manage by Hand When you choose the
Manually Manage Songs And Playlists option,
iTunes doesn’t automatically delete anything
from the iPod. To add songs to it, you drag
them from the iTunes library or a playlist
onto the iPod icon in the Source list. You can
also select Show Browser from iTunes’ Edit
menu, and then drag an item in the Genre,
Artist, or Album column from the browser to
the iPod. When using the manual syncing
mode, you can also add videos by dragging
them to a fifth-generation iPod’s icon in
iTunes’ Source list.
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TROUBLESHOOTING
YOUR TUNES
Solutions to the 24 Most Common iTunes and iPod Problems
Apple has put a lot of effort into making iTunes as easy to use
as possible—and for the most part, the company has done a
great job. But nothing is perfect. At some point in the process of
building and maintaining your new digital music library, you’re bound
to run into hiccups, slowdowns, and some downright stupid behavior.
And iTunes isn’t alone. The iPod also comes with its share of quirks—
from mysterious messages to files that refuse to play.
The good news is that most of these troubles have solutions.
Whether you’re dealing with missing songs or a fussy iPod, these
tried-and-true fixes should take care of most of the issues you’re
likely to encounter.
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Taming iTunes
PAGE 68
Soothing a Troubled
iPod PAGE 75
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR TUNES
TAMING
iTUNES
BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN
Finding iTunes to be a less lyrical experience than you’d hoped? These fixes
should bring it back under control.
your iTunes folder (stored by default in your
user folder’s Music folder), and drag any
iTunes Music Library files to the Trash. (You
may have more than one of these files if
you’ve used older versions of iTunes with this
computer.)
Now drag the iTunes Music Library.xml file
to the desktop. Launch iTunes and choose
Import from the File menu. Navigate to the
iTunes Music Library.xml file on the desktop
and click on Choose. Importing this file should
cause your playlists to appear in iTunes.
If you have an iPod that contains the
playlists from your Mac, you can also use a utility such as CrispSofties’ iPod.iTunes (¤30
[about $37 at press time]; www.crispsofties
.com). In addition to copying music files from
an iPod to your Mac, iPod.iTunes will synchronize playlists between the two. If you’ve lost
the playlists on your computer, iPod.iTunes
should be able to restore them from the copy
stored on your iPod.
THE VANISHING LIBRARY
Your iTunes library is empty, even though
you’ve added songs.
First try rebuilding your music library by creating a new iTunes database file. Quit iTunes if
it’s running. Locate the iTunes Music Library
file (your user folder/Music/iTunes), and
change the name of the file to iTunes Music
Library (Old). This will prevent iTunes from
recognizing your old library file. If there’s
already a file with that name, use a slight variation, such as (Old1). When you’re done,
launch iTunes. It will build a new database file,
and everything should be hunky-dory.
If the problem persists, check that your
iTunes Music folder is where iTunes thinks it
is. If you’ve moved the folder to a different
location, you’ll need to tell iTunes about it.
To do this, go to iTunes’ Advanced preference pane, click on the General tab, and, in
the iTunes Music Folder Location area,
change the default location with the
Change button.
If all else fails, add your song files again.
Open iTunes’ Advanced preference pane;
within the General tab, make sure that the
Copy Files To iTunes Music Folder When
Adding To Library option is not selected.
This way, song titles will be added to iTunes
without the songs themselves being copied
to the iTunes Music folder. Then go to File:
Add To Library to find your music and add
it again.
MISSING DOWNLOADS
You’ve purchased a song or video from the
iTunes Music Store, yet the file doesn’t
appear in your iTunes library.
In iTunes, go to Advanced: Check For
Purchases. If there was a connection problem
during the download of some purchased
music, not all the files you bought may make
their way to iTunes. This command tells
iTunes to see if there’s anything in the Store’s
download queue that you haven’t retrieved.
ACCESS DENIED
Songs purchased from the Music Store show
up, but they no longer play in iTunes or sync
with your iPod.
For some reason, upgrading to Tiger confuses many Macs when it comes to iTunes
Music Store content. If you’re having this
MISSING PLAYLISTS
Your playlists suddenly disappear.
This is often caused by a corrupted iTunes
Music Library file. To fix it, quit iTunes, open
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FINDING THE BEST
ACCESSORIES
Great Gadgets and Add-ons That Make the Most of Your Music
There’s no denying the success of Apple’s iPod music
player—Apple has sold more than 50 million of the stylish
devices. But for most people, purchasing an iPod is only the
beginning. Whether it’s a case for protection, high-quality headphones for better sound, a set of speakers for listening to music
around the house, or a car adapter for hooking up your player to
your car stereo, there are hundreds of add-ons that can transform
your iPod into far more than a mere music player. Here are some
of the most useful iPod and iTunes accessories on the market. For
more reviews of the latest iPod gear, go to www.playlistmag.com.
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
iPod Cases
PAGE 80
Headphones
PAGE 82
Car Accessories
PAGE 83
Speakers
PAGE 84
AppleScripts for
iTunes PAGE 86
FINDING THE BEST ACCESSORIES
CAR ACCESSORIES
BY DAN FRAKES
CAR STEREO INTEGRATION
One of the most popular places to listen
to an iPod is in the car; unfortunately,
for many people it’s also the biggest hassle
in terms of figuring out how to actually get
your iPod connected to your car’s stereo. If
you’ve got a stereo with an auxiliary input
jack, you’re good to go; for everyone else,
here are some solutions.
For the ultimate in car stereo connections,
you can install a system that integrates your
iPod with your car stereo—letting you control
FM TRANSMITTERS
FM transmitters connect to
your iPod’s headphone jack
or dock port and broadcast
its audio over an open FM
TransPod
shuffle
frequency to your car
stereo. While convenient, FM
transmitters can also be
frustrating, due to static and
shifting FM stations. But
there are a few that tend to
outperform the rest.
Recommendations: Kensington Digital FM
Transmitter/Auto Charger for iPod ($80;
www.kensington.com), DLO TransPod shuffle
($60; www.dlo.com)
Drive+Play
your iPod via the stereo’s controls or adding
a permanent iPod display and controller to
your car’s system. (For even more options,
check out Crutchfield’s Digital Drive-Thru,
www.crutchfield.com/ipodcar, which lists
compatible systems for particular cars.)
Recommendations: Dension IceLink Plus
($199; www.densionusa.com), Harman
Kardon Drive+Play ($200 plus installation;
www.harmankardon.com)
CAR MOUNTS AND HOLDERS
If you’re connecting your
iPod to your car stereo,
you’ll need a way to keep
the iPod from bouncing
around while you drive.
The options here range
from simple, such as
Griffin’s adapter for
your cup holder, to fullfeatured, such as Ten
Technology’s flexible
mount that places your
iPod within easy reach.
Recommendations:
Griffin Technology
iSqueez ($10; www.griffin
technology.com), Ten
Technology FlexibleDock
($50; www.tentechnology
.com)
CASSETTE
ADAPTERS
If your car stereo
has a cassette
SmartDeck
deck, then a cassette adapter—
which plugs into your iPod’s headphone
jack—will let you play your iPod through the
deck. These adapters provide better sound
quality than FM transmitters and are much
easier to use. One caveat: we haven’t found a
single adapter that works with every cassette
deck, so you may have to try several.
Recommendations: AVB Cassette Adapter
($10; www.avbusa.com), Griffin Technology
SmartDeck ($30; www.griffintechnology.com),
Newer Technology Cassette Adapter ($13;
www.macsales.com)
THE MACWORLD iPOD AND iTUNES SUPERGUIDE
83
FlexibleDock
Macworld is the top Mac magazine on the planet,
and its editors and writers are recognized as leading experts in their fields.
Every year Macworld publishes huge amounts of
digital-music advice, including hands-on tutorials
and little known shortcuts. Now, for the first time,
all of that advice is available in one place, updated
and expanded in an easy-to-use book. Macworld’s
iPod and iTunes Superguide features material from
an all-star cast of writers, including Christopher
Breen, Dan Frakes, Jonathan Seff, Kirk McElhearn,
and Jim Heid. Together, they lead you through
every aspect of building, managing, and protecting your digital music library.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned pro, this book provides practical advice and
advanced techniques that you can put into use
right now. You’ll learn how to import music from
CDs, cassette tapes, and LPs without compromising on sound quality. As your music library starts
to grow, you’ll find smart strategies for organizing
and managing your music files so you can find
exactly what you want—or discover some unexpected pairings. But iTunes isn’t just about music
anymore. We’ve also got the inside scoop on
downloading podcasts, video blogs, and TV
shows. Or if you prefer, learn how to convert video
from your own DVD collection for playback on
your video iPod. Speaking of iPods, we’ve got
plenty of tips and tricks for taking advantage of
their lesser known powers (need an alarm clock
while on the road?), as well as squeezing out extra
battery life. We’ll also show you how to protect
your music library from potential disaster—and
how to troubleshoot potential problems before
they turn into disasters. Best of all, every chapter
is filled with smart ideas and time-saving strategies so you can spend less time managing your
music more time enjoying it.
If you love music and love using your Mac, this
book is for you.
ISBN 1-4116-9376-0
52499>
9 781411 693760