This week, we discuss Deke’s second-most used application, iTunes. It’s true, whenever he needs a break, our graphics guru spends copious amounts of time organizing his vast music collection. And with our favorite Macworld folk on hand, Chris Breen and Ben Long, we thought it the perfect time to dig into the peculiar behaviors of Apple’s music-wrangling, phone-syncing, photo-storing, app-harvesting, video-playing hydra.
Here are the iTunes highlights (or, how Chris and Ben point out the obvious):
- Playlists: Hear Deke’s obsession about keeping his playlists organized and usable. Hear how Deke’s obsession informs his life. Hear how (smart) Ben uses Smart Playlists to overcome some of the issues Deke often faces.
- Duplicates: iTunes songs are like the opposite of socks in the laundry, one goes in and two come out. Except you end up with three sometimes. How does this happen and what options are there for cleaning this up?
- iTunes Windows: Where do they go when they aren’t visible? Yes, I can hear Battlestar Galactica playing somewhere, but I can’t see it. Seeing Battlestar Galactica is a big part of the experience.
- Libraries: Did you know you could point iTunes to different Libraries-worth of tunes? It’s great for road-warrior laptop users who don’t want to port around all their songs. There are some pitfalls, Chris illuminates.
- Allowances: You can purchase music allowances from the store in $1 increments. Then you can threaten to revoke it. Awesome, parenting tips thrown into a Martini Hour.
- And for Our Overseas Listeners: Listen for a way to ingratiate yourself to Deke by helping him procure the free music on non-US iTunes Stores!
Cocktails and rock & roll, Baby. Come have a listen. Here’s the regular-quality (128kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. For you audiophiles out there, here’s the link to the high-quality (320kbps) version. Be sure to download, don’t stream. And don’t forget the usual suggestion to subscribe via iTunes.
Thanks to Ben and Chris for once again livening up our lounge with their deliciously helpful if charmingly sarcastic conversation. Cheers!
International iTunes Accounts
A few notes on the international accounts thing, based on my experience with having a USA account (iPad apps before the iPad was available in Canada, better television shows, and much more music selection ... including some Canadian artists that aren’t available in the Canada store!) while living in Canada:
* You can buy an analog iTunes gift card in the nation of the store you wish to buy from, and redeem that, without ever inputting a credit card number, and without Apple knowing the CC number/iTunes account of the person who bought that gift card for you.
* You can’t continue to re-fill that foreign account with gift cards bought in your nation, of course.
* You do need to have a valid address for the nation of the store you wish to buy from. What, did I say “need one”? I meant “need to know one.”
* There is, as best as I can know, no geolocation attempts by Apple to block out-of-country purchases/redemptions.
* The main hassle introduced by this is updating apps, as you’ll need to be logged into the store you bought the apps from to see if there are updates, so you’ll need to log in multiple times to get updates if you’ve bought apps in multiple stores. You can get around this by _not doing that_ (which isn’t always possible ... for example, there was a period of time when the Skype app wasn’t available in Canada but was in the USA), and by keeping iTunes logged into one store, and the App Store on your portable device logged into the other store.
* Bonus tip: if Steve Jobs really wants to stop porn on the iPad, getting rid of the tremendous Air Video app should be his first step. Stream all sorts of movie content (not just iTunes-sanctioned formats) from any computer on your network to your iPad, no syncing with iTunes required. So far, it’s the iPad’s Killer App for me.
cheers,
Adam
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Adam Jury | Dirty Words Design videocast http://dirtywords.tv
a video podcast about Adobe InDesign and Graphic Design
great idea to include itunes into the lounge…
perfect timing for the show… i was recently faced with tons-o-dupes in the library and having your guests mention the many tips (including the app: song sergeant) really helped me out.
but creating a 45+ song playlist to satisfy my 9yr old son and 12 year old daughter for their end of the year party for 50 of their closest friends was not as easy… hmm, i wonder if there was is an itunes function i could’ve used for that. oh well, i just chose bourbon.
and fyi, the pc equivalent for finding “exact duplicates” is shift>file>display exact duplicates
cheers,
//dave