Tags: ipod, nano, iPhone, Downloads, Music, Apple

Before we start, a warning, obvious teacher speak coming up: we all know the legalities of this. Keep the CD for yourself and therefore you are not going against copyright.

Step 1.

Create a new playlist

This will allow us to group together all the tracks that we want on our CD, and also allows us to arrange them in an order. Go to file > New Playlist. When it appears in the source list on the left hand side, click on it and give it a name (it will also be the CD name).

Step 2.

Add some tracks

The first tracks are the ones that are already in our iTunes library (ripped from CD or downloaded before hand). You can add tunes by using iTunes search box, type in the artists name and track name into the box. When the track appears in the main window drag and drop it into the new playlist.

Step 3.

Source tracks from CD

That is getting tracks from your own collection of CDs and they are not in your iTunes library. Put your CD into your CD-ROM drive and load up the Internet, then wait for it to appear in iTunes. The track names will appear in the library. If they dont? Make sure you are on the Internet, goto Advanced menu and select Get CD Track Names.

Step 4.

Rip your CD tracks

Goto Edit/Preferences and click on the Importing tab. From the Import Using menu choose AIFF encoder and leave Setting at Automatic. Leave the three boxes unclicked, unless you want to hear the tracks while importing. Drag the now ripped tracks to your playlist.

Step 5.

Add tracks from your Hard Drive

If you have any tunes hiding around on your drive, you need to add them to the library. iTunes can play MP3 or AIFF files, but it converts (non protected) WMA files to MP3 after importing them. Locate your songs, and then drag them onto the Library icon in iTunes source window. From there you can add them to your playlist.

Step 6.

Place tracks in order

This is a case of dragin files to the place where you want them and then drop. You could have similar themes, styles or even beats coupled together. Slow tunes at the start, dancy track at the end?

Step 7.

Set burning preferences

Select Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced > Burning. Set the speed of your CD burner to the max and click the Audio CD button. Now select the gap you would like between tracks. If you want iTunes to force all the tracks to play at the same level, tick Sound Check.

Step 8.

Burning

Double check everything, track order etc. The total time is displayed at the bottom of the iTunes window (dont exceed 72 mins as it wont fit onto a normal CD). Insert a blank CD in your drive and then click on Burn Disk.

Step 9.

CD case insert

This is an insert for your CD case, complete with track listing. Go to File > Print. Select Jewel Case insert and pick a theme. If you have album art on iTunes you can use it to create a cover. Standard is White Mosaic. Click page set-up and check everything is ok, especially the paper for printer use. Then Print.



By: D.J.Hough

About the Author:

Are you annoyed by iTunes DRM? Do you want to strip it off because you want to play the iTunes music on other mobile devices other than iPod and iPhone, use it as background music in a home video, or anything else that DRM limits it to do? Many people know you can strip off the DRM off iTunes music by simply burning the song to a CD, and ripping it back over, losing very little quality(if settings are correct):

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You’d better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.

2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the encrypted iTunes music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.

3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.

And the method I am going to introduce does the same exact thing but you will not need a CD-RW disc, a CD ROM drive, or even need to burn anything! It’s that simple. Let’s show you how to perform this.

We are going to be using a program called TuneClone. TuneClone is basically a program that acts as a virtual CD drive that allows you “burn” MP3 from iTunes and “rip” it. TuneClone “lies” to your computer saying that you have a CD-RW drive that it will burn to (like Alchohol 120%). You can use this to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file’s metadata. Below is the step by step tutorial that shows how it works:

1. Download TuneClone from http://www.tuneclone.com and install it.

TuneClone is fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. A virtual CD Burner will be installed. This virtual CD-RW will be used to convert music files.

2. Make settings at TuneClone



Click the Settings button at TuneClone. In the pop-up window, you can specify the output folder, output filenames, output format, etc. for the output files.

Note: Apart from MP3, TuneClone also allows you to convert iTunes M4P to WAV and unprotected WMA.

Tip: You can get the output protection removed music folder by clicking the Folder button after the whole process.

3. Make settings at iTunes(iTunes Create a playlist, and then add the files you want to convert into the playlist.



After you have created the playlist ready to be burnt, click the Burn Disc in the bottom right of iTunes. In the pop up window of Burn Settings, make the settings as highlighted below:



4. Start to burn Click the Burn button to start burning. After the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3, WMA or WAV. You can open the manager screen to show all the converted music files.



The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically. It is exceedingly easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.



By: likeachamp

About the Author:

The Problem

It is probable that in your home, more than one person owns an iPod / MP3 player of some description. It is also probable, that one person seems to have been delegated the task of updating everyone’s iPod and managing iTunes.

If you are reading this article…it is probable that you are at least fairly computer literate, and therefore probable that you are that lucky, lucky person in your household.

Sure, being the sole manager of your household’s music has its advantages – you have complete control of your music, you can update your own iPod whenever you want, and I suppose with some clever deviations from the truth you could loosely call yourself a DJ, a sure way to pick up girls in your local club.

However, once your mates start asking why the hell you have the latest McFly album (which you innocently downloaded for your girlfriend / sister / roommate) on your iPod…a better solution is needed.

The Proposal

If you have even a basic wireless network in your home then there is a simple solution. By using what is known as a ‘Network Attached Storage” (NAS), you can attach a hard drive to your home network, on which you can store all of your music.

When you used any of the computers in your house, they would detect the NAS as another hard drive on your computer, meaning that from any PC in the house you could:

Play music

Download music from the iTunes store or other (totally legal, of course) places

Create a new playlist for your iPod

Synchronise your iPod

Sound appealing? If so read on!

The Possibilities…

There are many ways to add a NAS device to your home network - the main one I will discuss here is the simplest – you buy a NAS device, problem solved. These are relatively new, especially to the home market. If you take a look at http://www.scan.co.uk/ you will see a number of them ranging from £86 to £650. None of them there are particularly bad, but personally I use the Western Digital’s MyBook series and have had no problems with them. The instructions you need to follow however will be almost identical regardless of which product you buy in the end. For more info on choosing a NAS please look at the “Choosing a NAS” section at the end of this article.

The Solution

Once you have purchased a NAS (I like that acronym…) you simply plug the Ethernet (usually yellow or blue) cable into your router or modem. If you have a PC connected to the router via Ethernet, as opposed to wirelessly, don’t worry - you don’t need to plug the NAS into the computer directly.

It is beyond the scope of this article to cover plugging the NAS to a plug – if you need help, give your household Microwave company a call…they seem to specialise in telling people how to plug things in (for legal reasons you may have to lie and say its your Microwave by the way….you could try running the term “Network Attached Storage” by them but…)

Anyway – when you power up your PC, the NAS should be pretty much plug and play – the NAS will show up as another hard drive (viewable from My Computer) or possibly a network location, depending on how it was designed.

Either way, now all you have to do is move your music to the new hard drive. First, go to iTunes, click the Advanced tab and then click “Consolidate Library” - this will simply make sure all your files are in one place (My Music for Windows by default), so if you have downloaded files to random places over the years, it will move them to My Music.

Now close iTunes and simply move or copy your music folder into it from your local drive. Once this is done, you may want to delete your local copy to save space, and so you can be sure iTunes is no longer using the ‘old’ library.

Now to add the new library to your home computers simply go to File (in iTunes of course) -> Add folder to library -> select the folder you just copied everything to.

You can now install iTunes on all PCs in your house, and link them to the NAS!

Extra: Choosing a NAS

NAS devices can be a simple “hard drive in a box with an Ethernet port bunged on the back” affair – in which case the only real factor in making a decision is getting a balance between cost and space.

I would recommend you be generous with the storage capacity – a 320gb model is little more expensive than a 160gb in most cases, and it will obviously allow for future expansion of your (totally legal) music library. In addition, you can also use it to store documents, backups etc in the future.

These basic models will typically cost between £80 and £120. If you stretch the budget a little further, you can get the excellent “Asus WL-700gE NAS Appliance” (http://www.trustedreviews.com). This is not only a NAS device, but also a router with firewall, and acts as a “media and print” server – so you can connect all your PCs wirelessly to one printer, and stream TV etc. It can even be used to download files without a computer running through the night! I have not used it myself, but it has excellent write ups.

As stated earlier in the review, if you are looking for a simple NAS box, I’d recommend the Western Digital MyBook series, but LaCie and other companies also produce good devices.

If you have an old hard drive lying about, you should be able to find an adapter to give it an Ethernet port, but by the time you have bought that and an enclosure for it, it would probably be more cost effective to just get a separate NAS device.

If you have any questions , feel free to contact me at james AT pimp-my-ipod DOT com – this is my first article here but I intend to post more and maintain my existing ones to keep them up-to-date.



By: PimpMyiPod

About the Author:

It is no doubt PSP is a great game player. But it is also a very good entertainment device which can be used for playing music. Assume you have some songs on your iTunes and are trying to figure out how to put them on your PSP. You copy and paste them in the PSP music folder, however, the PSP doesn’t recognize the songs as music at all. So what’s wrong? Don’t worry! This guide will help you out of the trouble.

The music downloaded from iTunes is under DRM protection. In order to play it on your PSP, you need to strip the DRM off and have the iTunes M4P M4A converted to PSP MP3 format. You can burn the protected M4P music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to convert the audio CD track back to PSP MP3. Also iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD:

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You’d better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.

2. Create a new playlist in iTunes. Add the protected songs to your playlist until you have 72 minutes of music. Click Edit and select Preferences. Select the Advanced tab. Tick the Audio CD option on the Burning tab. Click the Burn Disc button to make an audio CD.

Note: You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the protected music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.

3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes or Windows Media Player to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.



Sounds a good idea! But it would be a time consuming process if you have a library of iTunes M4P music files ready to be converted to PSP MP3 for playback on your PSP. And it is a waste of CD discs. Moreover, the information about the M4P music files like title, artist and album will be lost after burning and ripping back to MP3 or WMA files. So this method is not recommended if you have a big collection of iTunes M4P music files ready to be transferred to your PSP.

Here, I would recommend using TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter to convert iTunes M4P to PSP MP3. It applys the virtual CD burning technology to simulates the burning and ripping process. You just need to burn the iTunes M4P playlist to TuneClone virtual CD burner. Then TuneClone will directly convert the iTunes M4P music list to PSP MP3 for you. It is very fast and the information about each music song will be preserved perfectly. You can follow its the step by step tutorial to learn how to convert iTunes DRM protected M4P music to PSP MP3.



After getting the output MP3 files by adopting either the burn-and-rip method or the way of using TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter, now you can begin to transfer the MP3 files to your PSP:



Connect the PSP to your PC with a USB cable.

Press the “home” button on the PSP (it’s a tiny button to the lower left of the screen) then use the left-right directional buttons to find “Settings”, then the up-down buttons to find “USB Connection” on the PSP.

Press the “X” button (you got it, the round button with the “X” on it) and your PSP should display “USB Connection”.

In a moment or two your computer should tell you that a new USB device has been connected, then show you a new generic hard drive, usually E: or F:

Click on the drive letter that corresponds to the PSP unit.

Now create a new folder on that drive and name it “psp”.

Within the new “psp” folder create another folder, and name it “music”.

Copy your desired mp3 files into the new “music” folder.

When you’re done copying your desired music tracks, press the “O” button on the PSP to get out of USB connect mode.



Now you’re ready to go! Use the left-right arrows to move to the music area, then the up-down arrows to find “Memory Stick”. Choose that folder by pressing the “X” button again, and you should be able to find all your favorite music!



By: terry007

About the Author:

If you have iTunes software installed on your computer, upon inserting the CD with your audio files on it, into your computer, all audio files will automatically upload onto your hard drive. However, due to certain restrictions, known as DRM (digital restrictions management), should you download any audio book directly from a site on the Internet, there is a slightly different process involved.

Passwords are required in order to first use digital audio files under DRM, after which they will have to be opened and a short process to ascertain legality completed for you to copy them.

Burn your audio files from the computer’s hard disk onto a blank CD, then, without ejecting it, open iTunes. Transfer the contents of your CD by clicking on “Import CD” which can be found by accessing “Devices”, then “Audio CD” (situated to the left of the monitor).

Although the names of some of your audio files appear when transferred, many do not in which case place the cursor on the file e.g. Track 1, right click, and choose “Get Info”. This will provide you with enough information to rename the track with a more easily recognisable name.

After you have renamed each audio file, start a fresh “Playlist” for them and drag and drop the ones you want into it. This will make it easier to access them when using an iPod.

If your iPod is set to Automatic Synchronisation, upon connecting it to your computer, all audio files, complete with Playlist and titles will routinely be copied onto it. If your iPod is set to Manual, on the other hand, you will have to select those audio files you wish to transfer and then select “Synchronise” in order to transfer them across. This Manual method is advantageous in the sense that you might not wish to transfer all the files together at that time, so can choose the ones you want and only transfer those.

Zipping large audio files is a good way to save space and can be transferred effortlessly to a portable hard drive for storage or as a backup. In this way, they do not slow down your laptop and can be easily accessed by unzipping them and then downloading them to another location. Alternatively, you can hear them straight from your computer’s hard drive.

Similarly, as books take up space in your home on shelves, audio books take up space on your computer hard drive. Therefore it’s advisable to set up a special storage device for them.

Naturally the greatest advantage of audio files over actual books made from paper is that you can take your entire collection with you on a portable disk drive ‘ wherever you go to enjoy whenever you want. And now that you’ve learned how to copy your files to an iPod, you have the freedom to do exactly that!



By: Steven Magill

About the Author:

acute_angle12245 asked:


My iTunes library is all wrong. It won’t display my iPod songs on my laptop. So, in order to listen to my iPod songs, I have to plug my iPod in, and listen to my iPod’s library. But once I disconnect the USB cord, the library goes back to the stupid original songs that I don’t want. It’s very confusing, and it’s frustrating me. I try to drag the iPod songs into the existing iTunes library [You know, like when you're creating a playlist] and it won’t let me. On my mom’s computer though, iTunes cooperates and uploads and updates songs normally. But she had to wipe her hard drive clean because of a virus, so the songs don’t exist anymore.

PLEASE help me. This is very frustrating. I hope you understand it well enough to help me. Thanks.

The iPod shuffle is the smallest of the iPod family and it is the simplest, but it is still convenient and has good sound quality. The iPod shuffle is available in two models. The first generation of the iPod shuffle is as big as a pack of gum. There is no screen on the iPod, but it still has navigation. Many people took to the iPod Shuffle because it was easy to carry around on a run or to keep around during a workout. The iPod shuffle is still popular, and has become more so since the 2nd generation of the iPod shuffle.

Even though there is no screen on the iPod, there is still the standard click wheel on the front face that allows the user to navigate through its songs. Every iPod has the click wheel so that the user can go forward and backwards through the playlist. While most iPod models have a menu screen, the iPod Shuffle lacks this feature. The songs are shuffled on one playlist and the user has the choice to start the playlist over each time the iPod is used, or they can set the iPod shuffle to continue where it left off each time they leave the iPod Shuffle.

Since there is no screen on the iPod shuffle, the battery life is portrayed through blinking lights on the front and back of the iPod Shuffle. When the iPod shuffle is charging, the light will blink an orange color. Once the charge is complete, it will be a green light. When the iPod shuffle is losing battery, the light will either be orange or red. There is a card included with the iPod that informs the user of what the lights are indicating.

The 2nd generation iPod shuffle is much smaller than the first iPod, and has a back clip that covers the whole back side. The newest version of the iPod shuffle still has the click wheel, but has no screen. The casing is durable like that of the iPod Nano 2nd gen. Both models of the iPod shuffle are successful amongst runners and other people that use their iPod for workouts. The iPod shuffle is small enough that it will not get in the way of most body movements.

Apple created the iPod shuffle in hopes to appeal to the active type of people. Even though they are not as advanced as the rest of the iPod family, they are intended for those to listen to music on the go. A person can get several hundred songs onto their iPod, which is enough for a couple of hours worth of music.

There are two generations of the iPod shuffle that people have the option of choosing from. While they are small and compact, the iPod shuffle has a lot of potential, and can still be useful for many people. They are the smallest of the iPod family, and are great for many people.

For more information about iPod Nano or even about iPod Shuffle and especially about iPod Sweepstakes please review one of these links.



By: Groshan Fabiola

About the Author: