Itunes101
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iTunes 101: Making the most of contextual menus
I love contextual menus. In Mac OS X, you find them when you right-click, two-finger-click (on a trackpad) or when you hold down the Control key and click. They're handy in scores of applications and in the Finder; if you're looking to supercharge your iTunes usage in particular, Macworld's Kirk McElhearn has published 10 ways to use contextual menus with iTunes. One particularly useful option is to "Start Genius" from any track. When selected, iTunes will instantly create a genius playlist from that track. The "Add to playlist" option is also useful. When selected, you get a hierarchical menu all available playlists (smart playlists are excluded). Simply click the one you're after and the track is added. Contextual menus also work on multiple tracks at once. Make your selections by either Command- or Shift-clicking, then right-click one of the highlighted songs to see the contextual menu. From there you can add that group to a playlist, adjust ratings, convert tracks to Apple Lossless format, and so on. There's an important iTunes contextual menu that didn't make Macworld's list. If you connect your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to your computer, you can right-click the device's icon in the iTunes sidebar to see a specific contextual menu for that iOS gadget. You can quickly eject, restore or back up your device; also, if you're about to update your version of iOS but iTunes is warning you that you need to transfer purchased items from your device back to iTunes pre-update... well, here's where you do it, via the Transfer Purchases command. For all ten Macworld tips, read Kirk's article. In the meantime, please share any favorites with us below.
Get an iTunes or Mac App Store account without a credit card
Parents, the safest way to keep your kids from accidentally spending your money in any of the iTunes stores, including the App Stores, is to give them their own iTunes Account that doesn't have an associated credit card. Whether you want to let your kids play around safely, or just don't have a credit card, you can use an Apple Account with no credit card to try one of the hundred free apps in the new Mac App Store or download free apps on an iPhone or iPod touch. You can't create an account in the main iTunes Store without a credit card, but you can from the App Stores. From iTunes, if you're already signed into an account, sign out. Choose your country (use the country flag at lower right), then navigate into the App Store section using the top nav bar. Now, you must try to "buy" a free app, such as Apple's iTunes Remote. You'll be prompted to Create a New Account. Go through the process, making sure to choose "None" for your payment option. Check your email and click the link to verify your account. The process is essentially the same from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, but you'll specify your country after you click Buy. Now you have an iTunes Store Account without a credit card on file, and you don't have to worry about your little snowflakes raiding your wallet for the latest holiday edition of Angry Birds. We found this tip in the new Mac App Store Support site. For a step by step guide, along with instructions for setting up the free account from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, see Apple's Knowledge Base article. UPDATE: In the comments, some readers are saying this is not working for them. I've confirmed on the iPhone, in iTunes, and even in the Mac App Store itself: as of 10 PM UTC on 7 January 2011, this tip still works as described. Sign out any existing ID. Find a free app, click to buy, and follow the steps to create a new account. For your Credit Card type, choose None, exactly as shown in the screenshot above for iTunes, the button labled "None" in the Mac App Store, or the last item in the scrolling menu on your iPhone or iPod touch.
iTunes 101: Display exact duplicate songs using the Option key
This is a really useful iTunes 101 lesson for beginners and expert users alike. While iTunes makes it easy to remove duplicates in your song library, sometimes just because a few titles have the same name doesn't mean that they are the exact same song. Because of this, it could take you a really long time to go through checking all your songs to make sure you are truly deleting duplicates and not songs that just happen to have the same name. Thankfully, a reader over at Lifehacker found a way to narrow down your search for duplicates to exact matches only, courtesy of the oft-used Option key. By holding down Option while navigating to File > Display Duplicates in iTunes, the "Display Duplicates" choice changes to "Display Exact Duplicates," thus enabling you to carefully delete only those songs which are exact matches and not just in title alone. This couldn't come at a better time for me, as I have recently finished loading every CD I own into iTunes, leaving me with some titles that match in name only. For example, I have a ton of bootleg and underground Led Zeppelin songs on my computer. While all songs titled "Black Dog" are by Led Zeppelin, there are different versions from different concerts and old recordings. Without using the Option key to search for them, iTunes might have thought they were all the same, and I might have deleted them if I wasn't paying close attention. If you have a similar situation in your music library, you may want to give this tip a shot. I certainly am glad I know it's there now!
iTunes 10.1 live now, introduces AirPlay and iOS 4.2
iTunes 10.1 is now available in a Software Update near you -- the latest version of Apple's all-in-one music library/iOS sync/movie rental/social network/educational material application (why's it still just called iTunes again?) introduces AirPlay compatibility (as promised), lines up the iOS 4.2 release with all kinds of goodies for iPhone and iPad owners, and includes that special sauce that seems to come with all big Apple releases: "stability and performance improvements." But don't take our word for it -- hit up your Software Update right now and find the new version for yourself. If you spot something in there that we didn't know about, be sure to let us know about it, too.
iTunes 101: Share your Ping profile
Here's a tip about something that had me confused for a while, I hate to admit. After setting up Ping in iTunes 10 and getting my profile just so, I naturally wanted to tell the eager masses where to find me. After all, many of the folks I follow on Twitter were sharing URLs to their accounts. But where did it come from? The answer is quite simple. Log into your account, and right-click (or control-click) on the "My Profile" link. Then select "Copy link" from the contextual menu and you're all set! Paste that address in Twitter, email or where ever you want to broadcast your shiny new account. Another, more roundabout way of accomplishing the same task is to search for yourself on Ping, and when your name shows up under "People," right-click your avatar icon and choose "Copy link." We'll have more iTunes 10 tips and tricks coming right up.
iTunes 10 quick tip: Liking a song in Ping
Here's a quick tip for iTunes that puzzled a few of us this morning: once you've gone ahead and set up Ping in iTunes 10, how do you 'like' a song instead of an album? The albums have those handy thumbs-up buttons, but it's not as obvious for songs. A bit of exploration reveals that the 'Like' command is under the pop-up menu for each song, along with the other song-specific actions like gifting, sharing, wish-list-adding and the 'Other Versions' search. We'll have more iTunes 10 tips and tricks coming right up.
