Tune in: Novice guide to iTunes - #4 - Video and audio

comments

Add a comment

0 comments

With iTunes you can download single tracks or full albums from your favorite artists, you can buy and rent movies for playback on your computer or iPod / iPhone, you can grab video and audio "podcasts," grab the latest episode of your favorite TV show, get games for your iPod or iPhone and much more. All for a nominal fee or, in some cases, free.

As soon as you've installed iTunes on your Mac or PC, you can start looking around for movies, music, applications, podcasts and TV shows that are of interest to you. Whether you missed the latest episode of your favourite cop drama or you're looking for the slow song they used to play at every high school dance, you can probably find it in iTunes.

After searching for and finding the movie, music or TV show you want to purchase, you'll want to look at the price. While the cost of individual items is reasonable and largely universal, the price varies between different types of media. You'll also want to keep an eye out for the elusive "free" tag. More on getting free stuff from iTunes in a future episode.

Podcasts are video and audio files that you can download, often for free, and watch on your computer or a media player like the iPod, iPhone, Zune and others. iTunes has an extensive library of video and audio podcasts available. All you need to do is subscribe and these podcasts will be downloaded and synced automatically as new episodes are released.

Before long, you may have so much media that iTunes that finding the song, movie or TV show you're looking for becomes a chore. Playlists to the rescue! These little container files act like folders on your computer. You can sort your music and videos into numerous different playlists as well as create new playlists easily.

The iTunes Genius is a recent addition to iTunes that helps you to build a playlist by assembling music it thinks you'll like. This playlist is based on the data that iTunes has about your musical tastes and the more you use iTunes, the more information the Genius will have upon which to make recommendations.

Using iTunes it's easy to find radio stations you can listen to for free over the internet. In fact, you're spoiled for choice: there are literally thousands of stations broken down by genres available through iTunes. Just find one you like, minimize iTunes and you'll have your favorite radio station to keep you company throughout the day.

The whole idea behind iTunes is that it acts as your one-stop media library. All your music, movies, TV shows you've downloaded, iPhone apps you've grabbed, podcasts you subscribe to and more are all there. To avoid information overload, Molly McDonald has some practical tips for navigating your ever-growing iTunes library.

The iTunes Store can be a little overwhelming thanks to the sheer volume of content available. Molly McDonald breaks down some practical tips for navigating the iTunes Store to find what you want quickly and easily, without getting lost.

To reward us all for taking the time to learn the finer points of iTunes, Molly McDonald makes with the free iTunes content in this installment of Tune In: Novice Guide to iTunes.