Episode 19

Scott Bourne <a href="http://www.podcastingtricks.com">www.podcastingtricks.com</a>
Derrick Story <a href="http://www.thedigitalstory.com">www.thedigitalstory.com</a>
Chris Breen <a href="http://www.macworld.com">www.macworld.com</a>

Episode 19 iLifeZone December 19, 2006
Holiday iTunes Special
40:15

This is our last episode before Christmas!  Our next episode will drop on January 1st and will be a "Best of" show.  It'll be hard filtering through allthe great moments this past year, but we'll manage!  And, of course, don't forget our MacWorld coverage, so there's a lot coming up in 2007!

<a href="http://www.ilovemyipodthesong.com/">I Love my Ipod</a> song by Daphne Kalfon

On with the show!  Today is our <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/">iTunes</a> show, which is perfect, of course, because we know lots of you have wrapped iPods sitting under your tree as we do the show.  Fret not.  If it's your first, we'll get you started.  If it's not, we'll help you get more out of it.  If you don't own an iPod and haven't used iTunes, listen in and you'll probably end up one of us before the show's over!

-Derrick says this year is going to be great for iTunes gift cards.  Scott mentions the recent <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,40858,00.html">Forrester report</a> that <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/11/digital_downloads_flatline/">iTunes sales were "collapsing"</a> and Chris points out that people were too quick to believe people who didn't actuallly read the report and points out the flawed methodology of the report (Forrester apparently took the number of iTunes Store sales and divided that into the number of iPods sold to arrive at its number).

-Scott is an iPod <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGame?id=188703975&amp;s=143441">poker addict</a> (Scott, there are <a href="http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/">groups</a> to help you with that).  You can buy games, movies, television, audiobooks, and get podcasts from iTunes.  Oh yeah, and music.  Don't forget the music!  Derrick likes the store because he travels and can load up a bunch of content which makes the trip even easier.  Important note:  If you plan to travel with a 30 Gig 5th Generation iPod, don't expect the battery to last your entire trip if you're going to be playing video.  That being said, check out one of the many external battery packs available for the iPod ( <a href="http://www.tekkeon.com/site/products-mypower.php?gclid=CI7o-qq_nokCFRE9FQodZDSgWg">such as this one</a> ) to give you a little more juice while you're in the air.  The 60 Gig 5th Generation and 80 Gig 5.5th Generation iPod do provide longer battery life while playing video, as does the 5.5th Generation 30 Gig iPod, but either 30 Gig probably won't get you from New York to California.

-Chris has stopped buying CD's because of the convenience of the iTunes store (no shopping and no waiting!).  Chris doesn't have a problem with the quality of the iTunes downloaded songs (no groaning, audiophiles!).  Derrick points out that Chris isn't easy to please, either, since he managed to determine a sound quality difference between the newer <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/">Shuffle</a> and the 1st generation Shuffle.  Scott has also stopped buying CD's and likes the fact that the iTunes store will sell you one song off an album instead of the whole album (although that is changing to some degree).  Derrick points out that even though you can't necessarily grab every song as a single, Apple is adding value to the purchase of an album by including interview videos / PDFs of album liners, etc.

-Chris says that he thinks Movie sales are going reasonably well on the iTunes store.  Disney has sold approximately <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2006/12/12/fool-on-the-street-disney-winning-all-three-battle.aspx">$25 million worth of movies</a> already!  Chris is hopeful that Steve Jobs will be announcing more participating studios at MacWorld.  Chris makes the point that people consume video and music differently than audio and that in itself means there should be less overall sales of movies / television shows.  Derrick would also like more movies, and would be satisfied with one or two good movies for a trip.

-Scott plays a phone call from James from Ohio about the <a href="http://www.twit.tv/ilz17">Mac Hardware show</a> (Episode 17).  He's a big fan of the <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini/">Mac Mini</a> for its ease of use and cost.  He just got one for his mother in law with a 19" LCD and a digital camera for $1200!  He points out that it's more power than she needs and is the only Mac that worked for her budgetwise.

And now, the tip rundown:
=========================

-Tip #1 from Derrick:  If you want to find a song on your hard drive, go to File / Show in Finder, iTunes will open up the file in a Finder window so you don't have to dig around on your hard drive to find song files.

-Tip #2 from Chris:  Chris has a big library.  It's important to tag your files using ID3 tags.  He recommends using the Comments field in the Get Info screen (Cmd+I).  You can put descriptive comments or keywords in the field, and then build a Smart Playlist that utliizes those tags (for example, songs with "Sunday" in them).

-Tip #3 from Scott:  Scott brings in music from everywhere.  Under the Advanced menu, if you click Consolidate Library, it will put all your songs in one place from wherever they are.

-Tip #4 from Derrick:  Derrick reminds people that have .Mac accounts that the included Backup utility will let you back up your purchased music, which is a good idea if you buy music from the iTunes Store, just in case!

-Tip #5 from Chris:  In the old days, you had to re-buy all your music if you lost your hard drive.  Most likely because of demand, you can call Apple and they'll let you re-download all your purchased music once a year.  It'll take a phone call, but it's indeed worth it!

-Tip #6 from Scott:  Podcasts are happily listed in the <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGenre?id=26">Podcast section of the iTunes Store</a> .  Head to the iTunes Store and click Podcasts to see the Podcast Directory.  Scott explains that the Store lists the most popular Podcasts, but only considers the last 7 days on that list (so don't fret if you do a podcast once a month and it doesn't show up every week!)

-Tip #7 from Derrick:  Derrick brings up De-Authorizing your computer but can't find where that option moved to.  Chris says to head over to your iTunes Store account and click Settings.  Once you're there, there's an option 2/3 of the way down to deauthorize all computers (only works if you have all five authorized).  You can only do this once a year.  A good tip would be to remember to deauthorize your computer before you uninstall iTunes.

-Tip #8 from Derrick:  You can add lyrics to your songs using the Get Info command (right click on a song and click Get Info)

-Tip #9 from Chris:  Scott is a fan of Coverflow, the technology built into iTunes that lets you flip through your album covers as if they were on a CD rack.  Derrick points out, accurately, that people either love it or hate it.  Chris hated it until he "fixed it."  In the old days you had to find the art and drag it in.  Now iTunes can get the art for albums you don't have art for (including albums that you ripped on your own).  To set the album art for all tracks on an album where iTunes shows multiple album covers for songs on the same album, select all the songs in an album (click the first song, then Shift Click the last song), then press Cmd+I to Get Info.  At the very bottom, check Compilation to YES.  Another potential problem is that ID3 tags are generally inconsistent in your collection (different spacing, hyphenation, etc).

-Tip #10 from Derrick:  Derrick recommends a nice romantic evening with you and Visualizer (View, Visualizer)

-Tip #11 from Chris:  Instant gratification is important.  In the source list is Radio, which are all streaming radio stations.  Hold down the Command key and click any triangle, and it'll refresh the entire list.  Look for stations running at 128 bits (the highest possible).  Music will stream to you until you stop it, almost like listening to a customized radio station.  Derrick points out that the Visualizer works with streaming radio also.

-Tip #12 from Chris:  With the Visualizer on the screen, press F.  That brings up the frame rate.  Then, press T and that turns off the "cap" on the visualizer so it will run at full speed.

-Tip #13 from Scott:  Scott points out that iTunes, as great as it is, is extensible.  He recommends downloading the <a href="http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/iwow-plugin.asp">SRS iWow plugin</a> for iTunes for the enhancement it gives you on your music.  

-Tip #14 from Derrick:  Derrick recommends getting some new speakers if you're really into iTunes.

The iLifeZone is sponsored by M-Audio and Podango.

Thanks to Pixelcorps for production assistance with the iLifeZone and Libsyn for hosting services.
-----------------------------------------------
Subscribe free of charge to the iLifeZone podcast at the <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=160070588">iTunes Store</a> .

A special thank you to Vincent M. Ferrari (The AOL CANCEL GUY) for providing us with show notes. You can find out more about Vincent at <a href="http://www.ispnmedia.com">ISPNmedia.com</a> .