July 26, 2010
To browse a sampling of the music, videos, TV episodes, apps, and podcasts currently available for free in the iTunes Store, scroll to the bottom of the main iTunes page to the Free On iTunes section and click See All. On your iPad, scroll to the bottom of the Music page and tap Free On iTunes in the bottom Quick Links. Throughout the sections -- Music, Featurettes, TV Episodes, Apps, and New & Notable Podcasts -- clicking Free and Subscribe Now buttons start a download immediately, and all the downloads from Subscribe Now buttons will be placed in your iTunes Podcasts library. To see more information first, click the image, and then choose the downloads you want from the resulting page. (Featurettes, for instance, often contain more than one download, and you can choose each separately.) Bonus footage from top movies, season premieres of currently airing shows, and popular apps are just some of the offerings you'll find on this page, which is refreshed each week.
July 19, 2010
When you download an album from the iTunes Store that includes an iTunes LP, you'll find an immersive visual experience that comes loaded with bonus features related to your album. It will appear in your library as a new icon on the album cover if you are in Grid View, or as the first track when viewing the songs from the album. Double-click on the track as if you want to play it (just as you would any other track in your library), and view the menu. From there, you can choose to play the album or browse the bonus items, which -- depending on the album -- can include liner notes, photos, lyrics, album credits, bios, band interviews, music videos, tour footage, and more.
In the iTunes Store, just look for the blue iTunes LP badge to find out which albums come with these bonus features (or to view all iTunes LP albums, click the iTunes LP Quick Link on the iTunes main page or music page). In your library, identify the special iTunes LP tracks by the small booklet icon that appears to the right of the first track name on the album. You can quickly find all the iTunes LP tracks you have by typing "iTunes LP" in the search box in the top right corner of iTunes when your Music library is selected, and you can easily gather them in one place by creating a Smart Playlist.
To do that, first select New Smart Playlist from the File menu. Then select Kind from the first drop-down menu, make sure the second drop-down menu says "contains", enter "iTunes LP" into the text field, and click OK. Your new iTunes LP playlist will appear under Playlists on the left side of your iTunes window.
July 6, 2010
The broad categories in the App Store, such as Business, Entertainment, Games, Productivity, Reference, and more, are like departments in a very large -- make that VERY large -- department store. App Store Essentials are more like boutiques organized around focused themes -- Date Night, Music Discovery, Apps for Toddlers, and Go Green, among others. Every Essentials page contains the cream-of-the-crop apps and games on a specific theme or topic, each interesting in its own right and together a snapshot of the new kinds of personal computing now emerging in your hand. A new chapter of App Store Essentials is added each week. Also, if you click any of the apps on an Essentials page, you can extend your shopping expedition still further by using the Customers Also Bought area at the bottom of the page.
