Audio File Formats You Might Encounter When You Use iTunes

As you work with digital music and other audio files, you’ll encounter a number of different file formats that you need to understand. This is important because each of these formats offers specific benefits and limitations that impact what you do with your music. For example, some file formats offer better music quality versus file size than others. You definitely don’t need to have all the specifications for each of these formats committed to memory; instead, all you need to be able to do is to distinguish between them and to be able to choose the format that is the most appropriate for what you are trying to do.
Most audio file formats are encoded. What this means is that specific compression algorithms are used to reduce the size of the audio file without, hopefully anyway, lowering the quality of the resulting sound very much. The higher the compression that is used, the lower the quality of the resulting music when it is played back. Note that the words higher and lower are relative. Often, it takes a musical expert to tell the difference between encoded and unencoded music, but even if it is imperceptible to us mere mortals, it does exist.
When it comes to digital audio files, one trade-off always has to be made. And that is file size versus sound quality. When you add thousands of songs to your iTunes Library, you can easily consume gigabytes of disk space. Although you might have a humungous hard drive in your computer, you might also have other files you want to store on it, such as photos, Word docs, and so on. Even I realize that computers can be used for more than just music.
To keep the amount of disk space required to store your music to a minimum, you will encode it. When you do, you choose the settings you want to use to encode that music. The more encoding you apply, the less space the music will consume, but the lower quality the playback will be. You will quickly find a happy medium between file size and how the music sounds to you.

What You Can Do with iTunes?

Following are some examples just to whet your appetite:

• Listen to audio CDs.
  
• Listen to Internet radio.
  
• Store all the music you like in a single place so you never need to fuss with individual CDs again.
  
• Search and organize all this music so that listening to exactly the music you want is just a matter of a few mouse clicks (and maybe a few key presses).
  
• Create custom albums (called playlists) containing the specific songs you want to hear.
  
• Create custom albums (called smart playlists) that are based on a set of criteria, such as all the Jazz music you have rated at four or five stars.
  
• Use the iTunes built-in Equalizer to make your music just right.
  
• Burn your own music CDs to play in those oh-so-limited CD players in your car, a boom box, or in your home.
  
• Share your music collection with other people over a wired or wireless network; you can listen to music other people share with you as well.

Getting Help with iPod Problems

Apple maintains an extensive iPod Web site from which you get detailed information about iPod problems. You can use this information to solve specific problems you encounter (that aren’t solved with the information in the previous sections, such as a reset).
To access this help, use a Web browser to move to www.apple.com/support/ipod. On this page, you can search for help, read FAQs, and get other information that will help you solve iPod problems .There are a number of other Web sites that might be helpful to you as well. These include www.ipodlounge.com and www.ipodhacks.com. You can also use www.google.com to search for other iPod information; you’ll find no shortage of it.

Restoring an iPod

As you read earlier, you can also use the iPod Software Update application to restore an iPod. When you restore an iPod, its hard drive is erased and a clean version of its software is installed. The purpose is to configure the iPod with factory settings that will likely solve many problems you are having.

How to reset an iPod?

If you can’t get an iPod to do anything (and you’ve checked the Hold switch) or if it is behaving badly, try resetting it. When you reset an iPod, its temporary memory is cleared, but your data won’t be affected. Follow these steps:

1. Connect the iPod to the power adapter using the FireWire cable and then plug the power adapter into a wall outlet.
2. Move the Hold switch to the On position and then slide it to the Off position again.
3. Press and hold both the Menu and Play/Pause buttons down for about five seconds until you see the Apple logo on the iPod’s screen. This indicates that the reset process is complete.
4. Try to use the iPod to do what you were trying to do when you noticed a problem. If resetting your iPod solves your problem, you are home free. If not, you might want to try restoring it.

Checking the Basics iPod Malfunction

We all do things that can be classified as dumb once in a while. And using the iPod can result in a few of these events, so use the following list to make sure you haven’t done anything to shoot yourself in the foot:

• If the iPod won’t respond to any controls, make sure the Hold switch isn’t active. The Hold switch does just what it is supposed to—it prevents everything from working. It can be rather embarrassing to panic that your precious iPod has suffered a major failure only to realize that the Hold switch is on. (Of course you understand that this has never happened to me.)
  
• If the iPod won’t turn on, connect it to the power adapter or to a computer using a six-pin FireWire connection. It might simply be that the battery is out of power. Remember that the iPod uses some battery power when you aren’t using it, and after 14 days or so, it might not have enough battery power to wake up. Sometimes the empty battery icon will appear when you try to turn on a fully discharged iPod and sometimes it won’t.
  
• Try connecting the iPod to a computer. If it mounts, you probably just need to do a minor reset to get it to work again.

Updating or Restoring an iPod’s Software

Apple is continually improving the iPod’s software to add features, make it even more stable, and so on. You should periodically check for new iPod software and, when you find it, install it on your iPod—this is called updating the iPod’s software. When you are having major problems with your iPod or just want to completely reformat it, you can also restore its software to return it to factory settings.
You do both of these tasks in the same way, as the following steps show:

1. Open a Web browser and move to www.apple.com/support/ipod/. You’ll see the iPod Support page
2. Locate and click the link for the latest iPod or iPod mini software for your computer’s OS, such as Mac OS X or Windows XP. You’ll move to the iPod Software Update page.
3. Complete the form, click the radio button for your OS, and click Download Update. The update will be downloaded to your computer. Notice the name of the application you download and where you store it on your computer.
4. Launch the iPod Update application— in some cases, it will run automatically after you download it. On the Mac, you’ll see the iPod Software Updater application. On Windows PCs, you will have to restart your computer after running the Setup application. Then, choose Start menu, iPod, System Software, Updater. You’ll then see the Updater application for Windows.
5. Connect the iPod you want to update or restore to your computer.
6. If you want to install the latest version of the iPod software on your iPod, click the Update button. If you want to restore your iPod, click Restore instead.
7. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the update or restore process.

After you have updated your iPod, you can continue using it as you did before the update.
If you restored your iPod, you will have to perform an update from iTunes to load your music back onto it. You’ll also have to replace any calendar or contact information you want to store on it.

Getting Help from Apple for iPod Battery Problems

If your iPod doesn’t play for the expected time, the battery probably needs to be replaced. If the iPod is still under warranty (one year without the AppleCare Protection Plan or two years with it), Apple will replace the battery for free. If the iPod is not under warranty, Apple will replace the battery for you (currently this costs $99 plus $6.95 shipping). To get more information and start this process, go to www.apple.com/support/ipod/power/ and click the iPod battery service request form link.
If you are comfortable working with electronic devices yourself, you can replace the iPod’s battery on your own. How to do this is beyond the scope of this book, but you can purchase a battery and get help on the Web at places such as www.ipodbattery.com and www.ipodresq.com Replacement batteries cost from $60 to $80, including tools and instructions.
Although being a bit more expensive, sending the unit back to Apple is probably a better way to go in most situations. (Who knows, if you have an old iPod, you might get a better unit back in return!)

How to Test iPod’s Battery?

If your iPod doesn’t seem to play for a reasonable amount of time, you should test it to get an idea of what its current battery life is.
Test your iPod by performing the following steps:

1. Fully charge your iPod.
2. Remove the iPod from the charger so that it is running on battery power.
3. Make a note of the current time.
4. Use the Settings commands to turn off the Equalizer and Backlight.
5. Set Repeat to One.
6. Select an album or playlist and play it.
7. Let the iPod play until it runs out of power. While the iPod is playing, don’t use any of its controls. Anytime you cause the iPod to perform an action, you cause it to use additional power. In this test, you are attempting to determine what its maximum life is so you can compare it to the rated life.
8. When the iPod stops playing and the low power icon appears in the display, make a note of the time.
9. Calculate the battery life by figuring out how much time passed since you started the iPod playing (compare the time you noted in step 8 with what you noted in step 3). If you iPod plays for four hours or longer on a full charge, Apple considers that its battery life is acceptable. If the iPod won’t play for more than four hours, it likely has a problem and needs to be replaced.