Mac hints and tips
iTunes: Listen to music you've never heard before
Even the smallest iPod can store several hundred music tracks and the highest capacity ones can contain thousands of tracks. They would take days or even weeks to listen to even if you played them 24/7. It is quite likely that on the iPods with larger capacities there are tracks that you have not listen to for a long time. Perhaps not ever! There's brand new music hidden on your iPod that's just waiting to be discovered!
To find and listen to music you have never heard before you just need to create a smart playlist in iTunes. Click File, New Smart Playlist and tick the box that says Match the following rule. In the first pop-up menu, select Play Count. Select Is in the second pop-up menu and enter 0 (zero) in the third. This will create a playlist of tracks that have not been played before.
There are more options that are useful ands you can tick the Limit to box and set the size of the playlist, for example, enter 50 to pick 50 tracks you've never listened to before. Select Random in the Selected by pop-up menu to mix up the tracks rather than having them in any sort of sequential order. Click OK and the playlist is created. Just name it and then sync your iPod.
iTunes: Add a shopping cart
When you click an item in the iTunes store to purchase it, the transaction goes through immediately, but in the offline real world, this isn't how things are normally done. You don't buy things one at a time and pay for each individual item, you get a shopping basket or cart. You browse around the store adding items to it, putting things back if you change your mind about something or see a similar item that is better or cheaper, and then, when you are happy with your selections, you go to the checkout and pay for everything. Wouldn't it be great if the iTunes store worked the same way? It can!
Go to the iTunes menu and select Preferences. Click the Store icon and then select the option to Buy using a shopping cart. Click OK and a new Shopping Cart item is added to the Store in the left-hand panel. Now you can browse the iTunes store and click on anything you want because you won't be charged for anything.
At any time you can click the Shopping Cart link on the left and see what's in it. You can remove items you don't want, go and add more items, or proceed to the checkout and pay for everything. It's up to you. It's far more convenient and it's easy to keep track of things you are interested in because your Shopping Cart is remembered.
