Things you Can Do with your iPod and you Didn't Know

by Collin Hilder  |  June 18, 2009

Released on October 23, 2001 the iPod has succeeded in almost eight years to become one of the most popular brands of media players, the sales in 2008 reaching a number of over 150 million units sold worldwide. With five major models (Classic, Mini, Nano, Shuffle, Touch) and many other sub-models available on the market, the iPod has become over time more than a portable media player. Later on, in the same year – 2001 - Apple presented to the world the iTunes application. Thanks to it, the iPod has gained new functionalities and new features, some of them being better known than others. Some of the less known iTunes features which are equally useful and interesting will be presented below.

Apart from listening to music on the iPod, one can also give a slide presentation with no help from the PC but with help from iTunes. The procedure is quite simple: one needs first to make the slide show in JPG format by using the Export function (available both for the Power Point application and Keynote software) and after that, to transfer it to the iPod with the help of the standard photo synchronization function from iTunes. Attention! In order to have good resolution images it's better to create / find as large resolution images as possible, because the iPod can only produce low resolution images. The final step to do is to connect the iPod to the projector with the help of the Apple iPod AV Cable.

Another useful iTunes application, especially in the early morning when it's hard to get up of bed is the “Alarm Clock” feature. Over night iTunes can be transformed into a friendly alarm clock. Because iTunes doesn't come with such a feature from the beginning, one can add it. The iAlarm application, developed by xultrasoft can fill this gap. So, after installation one has to open it, go to the iTunes check box – check it and set the desired time. After that, one may also select a favorite song on which to wake up and may even adjust the volume for a truly comfortable wake up. The iTune Sleep Timer – which can be found at the bottom of the window offer the possibility to stop the iTunes from playing after a certain number of minutes.

A very useful application is brought about by the iTunes 7: burning CDs with CD text. This feature refers to showing information about the song track on the CD player when playing a CD. By using iTunes, the pieces of information (CD text) will be procured from the iTunes database. All the players which have the CD text logo will be able to show this kind of information.

The steps one needs to follow are the following:

1.Access iTunes.
2.Go to “Preferences”.
3.Choose the “Advanced” tab.
4.Select the “Burning” option.
5.Check the box “Include CD Text Box”.

Even more, iTunes can burn MP3 CDs. A peculiarity is the fact that the MP3 CDs must be made of MP3s, otherwise any other song format will be rejected. Another particularity concerns the size of the playlists – they must have a smaller capacity than the one of the CD. So, to burn an MP3 one must do as following:

1.Open the “Preferences” window from iTunes.
2.Select the “Advanced” tab option.
3.Go to “Burning”.
4.Select the “MP3 CD” option.

Next articles in this series:

1. The Complete iTunes Guide
2. How To Fully Benefit from iTunes Preferences
3. Things you Can Do with your iPod and you Didn't Know

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