Editor's Note -- At the recent BloggerCon and Mac OS X conferences, podcasting was a hot topic. Podcasting is included in this nifty collection of cool iPod tips.
|
Related Reading 
iPod and iTunes Hacks |
An iPod is more than just a music player; it's an Information device. Not only can you use your iPod to play music from your favorite singer or band, you can use it to listen to radio recordings, listen to "audio weblogs" (known as podcasts), and more. In this article I'll show you some tips for getting the most out of your iPod. I'll also explain how to manipulate the files stored on your iPod.
You have seen many FM radio transmitters designed for the iPod, but you haven't seen (but perhaps have heard of) radio receivers for the iPod. For whatever reasons, you are unlikely to see FM radio receivers for your iPod anytime soon. So what do you do if you want to listen to radio broadcast using your iPod?
Fortunately, internet radio broadcasting is making radio broadcast easily accessible, especially if you want to tune in to overseas radio broadcasts. To listen to radio on your iPod, you need to save the radio broadcast into your Mac and then copy it onto your iPod.
My favorite is the Oleg Kibirev's RadioRecorder, a free application under the General Public License version 2.
Using the RadioRecorder is straightforward -- simply type the URL of the broadcasting station and you are ready to record. The radio program is recorded as MP3 files and thus you need to ensure you have sufficient disk space on your Mac before you do the actual recording (since MP3 files are relatively huge). From my experience, one minute of recording takes up approximately 1MB of disk space, so budget for it.
The RadioRecorder also allows you to program it to record at a specific time (see Figure 1). It can also split the songs broadcasted into different files (if the radio stations send titles of the songs they play).
Figure 1. Using the RadioRecorder.
Best of all, the RadioRecorder automatically links with iTunes so that the radio recordings can be copied to your iPod the next time you connect your iPod to your Mac (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Viewing the recorded radio broadcast in iTunes.
Podcasting is a new term associated with weblogs. Increasingly, media files are found in weblogs, besides the usual text and graphics. RSS 2.0 supports a new feature known as enclosure, and it contains a URL pointing to media files in an RSS feed.
Podcasting is the aggregation of discrete, downloadable media files. While the term "podcasting" suggests an association with Apple's iPod, it is important to point out that podcasting is not limited to using Apple's iPod (for example, you can use Windows Media to listen to a podcast).
iPodder is a small application that runs on your Mac. It downloads audio files periodically from the Internet and copies them to iTunes so that they can be copied to your iPod.
Using iPodder, you can subscribe to several news feeds containing media files (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Using iPodder.
You can also configure iPodder to check for new podcasts at regular intervals (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Configuring iPodder to download new podcasts at regular time intervals.
Once the podcasts are downloaded, you can find them in iTunes (see Figure 5). And the next time you connect your iPod to your Mac, these podcasts would be copied onto your iPod.
Figure 5. Viewing the podcasts in iTunes.
|
By default you cannot use iTunes to play the music stored on your iPod on your Mac. However, this is an often-requested feature as it is very convenient (plus it saves on storage) to store all the songs in your iPod and then play it anywhere you desire.
Fortunately, you can use a third-party application called iPodRip to play the music stored on your iPod on your Mac. You can download the trial version of iPodRip (maximum 8 uses) from The Little App Factory.
Once iPodRip is downloaded and installed, connect your iPod to your Mac. Launch iPodRip and you should see your iPod library as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Using iPodRip.
You can play songs from your iPod by double-clicking on the song name or by selecting the song and then clicking the play button located at the top left corner of the iPodRip window (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Playing songs in iPodRip.
You can also play songs by using the play button controls located in the menubar (see Figure 8).
Figure 8. iPodRip controls in the menubar.
By default, iTunes will automatically update all songs and playlists in your iTunes Library. This is evident from the grayed-out song lists in iTunes (see Figure 9).
Figure 9. The iPod playlist in iTunes.
There are times when you would want to free up some space in your iPod. One way to delete unwanted songs in iPod is to delete the songs in the iTunes Library and synchronize your iPod with iTunes again. However, you might want to keep the songs in your Mac and only delete them on the iPod.
One way to solve this problem is to change the sync option in iPod from automatic to manual. Right-click on your iPod's name in iTunes and select iPod Options... (see Figure 10).
Figure 10. Configuring iPod's options.
Select the "Manually manage songs and playlists" option and click OK (see Figure 11).
Figure 11. Changing the iPod's update option.
You should now notice that your iPod playlist in iTunes is selectable. Select the song(s) you want to delete and press the Del key on your keyboard. You should now be able to delete the songs on your iPod (see Figure 12).
Figure 12. Deleting songs from your iPod directly.
|
Once your songs are copied to your iPod, how do you copy them out? To prevent the theft of music, Apple has hidden the music files on your iPod. But are they really hidden? Well, they are simply hidden by turning the "invisible" flag on for each file and the folders that contain them. To extract them, you can use disk tools like ResEdit to manually copy them out into your Mac. But this is not for the faint-hearted. For the rest of us, we can simply reply on third-party tools to do the song extraction.
Ollie's iPod Extractor 3.0 is one such song extractor for the iPod. You can download the Ollie's iPod Extractor and then use it to extract and import songs from/to your iPod (see Figure 13).
Figure 13. Using Ollie's iPod Extractor 3.0.
For this tip, I will illustrate how to extract songs from your iPod. Click on the Extract icon and the following dialog window will prompt you to select your iPod (see Figure 14). Select your iPod name and click Open.
Figure 14. Selecting the iPod to extract the songs.
Then select a destination folder in which you want to save the extracted songs. Select a folder and click Open (see Figure 15).
Figure 15. Selecting a destination folder to save the extracted songs.
The extracted song will be stored in a folder named Music. The songs are stored in several folders (see Figure 16).
Figure 16. Examining the saved songs.
I'm constantly amazed by how versatile the iPod really is. Its beautiful integration with the Mac provides the opportunity for new and interesting things to do. Try something different with your iPod this weekend.
Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.
Return to MacDevCenter.com.
Copyright © 2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.