January 30, 2012
iBooks 2 supports a whole new level of Multi-Touch interactivity, and textbook authors and publishers are already taking advantage of it to display more engaging and informative books. Once you've upgraded iBooks, get E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth (free) in the iBookstore, and explore the examples of interactivity within it. The Introduction to Ecology chapter in particular makes use of several different techniques now possible--single images become galleries you can swipe through for a more complete illustration of the point; data maps become movies that show how the data changes over time, some under fingertip control; tappable images are linked to regions on a map; and the creators are just getting started.
Free samples are available for the other textbooks already in the iBookstore Textbooks category, and also for a set of four books from DK Publishing which are not categorized as textbooks, but which also take advantage of the new possibilities. If you're also interested in creating Multi-Touch books yourself, explore the free iBooks Author app for the Mac, available in the Mac App Store. (If you don't have iBooks on your iPad, download it from the App Store. If you already do, use the Update button to upgrade to iBooks 2. You must have iTunes version 10.5.3 or later on your computer to sync actions you take there with your iPad.)
January 16, 2012
iTunes in the Cloud stores your purchased music in iCloud for free. Subscribing to iTunes Match adds the music you've imported from CDs or bought elsewhere to the library of music in the cloud. It then gives you direct access to your whole music library via the Music app on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Play a song that's not stored on the device you're using and it will begin playing immediately while it downloads. If there's particular music you always want on a particular device--even if you don't have an Internet connection--use the cloud icons and Download All buttons in the Music app to add them. As you learn to trust your cloud access to your whole library wherever you're connected, you'll discover that you worry less and less about how much storage space you need on a device for your music.
Once you're a subscriber, the switch to turn on iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is in the Music section of the Settings app. When you turn it on, another switch will appear below it that lets you move between seeing your whole library or just the music on the device you're holding.
January 9, 2012
Thanks to the free iTunes in the Cloud service, you can download your past iTunes Store purchases (music, apps, books, and TV shows) to your devices anytime, anyplace. On iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, tap iTunes, and you'll see a Purchased button second from the right on the bottom. Tap it, and you can easily see what you've purchased. Select the Not on this Device tab at the top, and you can see what's not on your device. Tap the cloud icons for individual songs or Download All buttons for album, artists, and so forth, to download content to your device.
You can also automatically send your purchases to multiple devices. On iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, select Store in the Settings app, and turn on Automatic Downloads for music, apps, and books to ensure that the things you buy will be on all your devices immediately.
January 3, 2012
With the new Complete My Season feature in the iTunes Store, when you've bought individual episodes of a TV show, the amount you've already spent on episodes is deducted from the overall price of the season or Season Pass. When you select a season that you've bought one or more episodes from, you'll see a Complete My Season area just below the series image on the upper left. The button below displays the purchase price--the regular season price minus whatever you've paid for the episodes you already have. For comparison, the full regular season price is listed below the button. (Complete My Album offers this feature for music albums. The price to you is the regular album price minus whatever you've already paid for individual tracks.)
