iTunes
iTunes 7. 6, running under Mac OS X 10. 5
Developed by	Apple Inc.
Latest release	7. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 6. 2. 9 / April 2, 2008 (2008-04-02); 71 days ago
OS	Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, Windows XP Service Pack 2, and Vista[1]
Genre	Media player
License	Proprietary (freeware)
Website	www.apple.com/itunes/

iTunes is a digital media player application, introduced by Apple Inc. on January 9, 2001^[2] at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco,^[3] for playing and organizing digital music and video files. Events 68 - Galba, Governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Mac OS X version 103 “Panther” was the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server Operating system. Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use Media player is a term typically used to describe Computer software for playing back Multimedia files Most software media players support an array of media A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. Freeware is computer Software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Digital media (as opposed to analog media) usually refers to Electronic media that work on digital Codes. Media player is a term typically used to describe Computer software for playing back Multimedia files Most software media players support an array of media Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics Events 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Produced by Boston -based IDG World Expo, Macworld Conference & Expo is a trade show dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform with conference tracks held The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone. iPod is a popular brand of Portable media players designed and marketed by Apple Inc The iPhone is an internet-connected Multimedia Smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc Additionally, iTunes can connect to the iTunes Store via the internet to purchase and download digital music, music videos, television shows, iPod games, audiobooks, various podcasts, feature length films and Movie Rentals (available only in the USA, UK and Canada), and Ringtones (available only in the USA). The iTunes Store is a software-based online Digital media store operated by Apple Inc Digital audio uses Digital signals for Sound reproduction. This includes analog-to-digital conversion, digital-to-analog conversion, storage A music video is a Short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music most commonly a Song with lyrics A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U A podcast is a series of audio or Video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated Download The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page A ringtone or ring tone is the sound made by a Mobile phone to indicate an incoming call or text message

iTunes is available as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows Vista, and Windows XP from Apple's website. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and It is also bundled with all Macs, and some HP and Dell computers. Product bundling is a Marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently The multinational technology company Dell Inc develops manufactures sells and supports Personal computers and other computer-related products Older versions are available for Mac OS 9, OS X 10. Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's "Classic" Mac OS. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently 0-10. 2, and Windows 2000. Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible graphical and business-oriented Operating system designed to work with Although Apple does not produce iTunes for other operating systems, it can be run on Linux through Wine. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Wine is a free Software application which aims to allow Unix-like computer Operating systems on the X86 architecture to execute ^[4]

Contents 1 Features 1.1 Playlists 1.2 Library 1.3 Library views 1.4 Printing 1.5 iMix 1.6 Internet radio 1.7 File format support 1.8 Sound processing 1.9 Library sharing 1.10 Video 1.11 Plugins 1.12 Podcasting 1.12.1 Other uses 1.12.2 Receiving and using podcasts 1.12.3 Managing podcasts on an iPod 1.12.3.1 Example 1.12.4 Video podcasting 1.13 Synchronizing iPod and other players 1.14 iTunes Store 1.15 Gracenote 1.16 Integration with other applications 1.17 Use on other platforms 1.18 iPhone activation 2 History 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Features

iTunes is an application that allows the user to manage audio and video on a personal computer. While iTunes is required to manage the audio of an Apple iPod portable audio player, users do not need to own an iPod to use iTunes. iPod is a popular brand of Portable media players designed and marketed by Apple Inc Users can organize their music into playlists within one or more libraries, edit file information, record Compact Discs, copy files to a digital audio player, purchase music and videos through its built-in music store, download free podcasts, back up songs onto a CD or DVD, run a visualizer to display graphical effects in time to the music, and encode music into a number of different audio formats. In its most general form a playlist is simply a list of Songs The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of Radio Broadcasting and A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio A digital audio player, more commonly referred to as an MP3 player, is a Consumer electronics device that stores organizes and plays audio files Some A podcast is a series of audio or Video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated Download A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is There is also a large selection of free internet radio stations to listen to.

Playlists

In addition to static playlist support, iTunes supports 'Smart playlists'. Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria, much like a database query. A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system Multiple criteria can be entered to manage the smart playlist. ^[5]

Playlists can also be published by a user of iTunes with his or her own preferences.

Playlists can be played randomly or sequentially. Randomness is a lack of order Purpose, cause, or predictability In Mathematics, a sequence is an ordered list of objects (or events The "randomness" of the shuffle algorithm can be biased for or against playing multiple tracks from the same album or artists in sequence (a feature introduced in iTunes 5. 0). Party Shuffle can also be biased towards selecting tracks with a higher star rating. With this bias enabled, each star rating increases the preference for that particular song about 4% over that of a one-star-less rated song. Unrated songs are the least likely to be played. Inter-star ratings are stored by iTunes, but only affect this feature in the range of zero to one star.

The Party Shuffle playlist is intended as a simple DJ'ing aid. A disc jockey (also known as DJ or deejay) is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience ^[6] By default, it selects tracks randomly from other playlists or the library; users can override the automatic selections by deleting tracks (iTunes will choose new ones to replace them) or by adding their own via drag-and-drop or contextual menu. In Computer Graphical user interfaces drag-and-drop is the action of (or support for the action of Clicking on a virtual object and dragging it to a different A context menu (also contextual menu and shortcut menu) is a menu in a Graphical user interface (GUI that appears upon user interaction such This allows a mixture of both preselected and random tracks in the same meta-playlist. The playlist from which Party Shuffle draws can be changed on the fly; this will cause all randomly chosen tracks to disappear and be replaced.

Library

iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song's attributes. These attributes, known as metadata, are stored in two library files. Metadata ( meta data, or sometimes metainformation) is "data about data" of any sort in any media

The first is a binary file called iTunes Library and it uses a proprietary file format. It caches information like artist and genre from the audio format's tag capabilities (the ID3 tag, for example) and stores iTunes-specific information like play count and rating. ID3 is a Metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 Audio file format. iTunes typically reads library data only from this file.

The second file, iTunes Music Library. xml, is refreshed whenever information in iTunes is changed. It uses an XML format, allowing developers to easily write applications that can access the library information (including play count, last played date, and rating, which are not standard fields in the ID3v2. Don't change "Extensible" 3 format). Apple's own iDVD, iMovie, and iPhoto, and Freshly Squeezed Software's Rock Star^[7] are examples of applications that access the library. iDVD is a DVD creation Software application made by Apple Inc iMovie is a Video editing software application which allows Mac users to edit their own home movies iPhoto is a software application made by Apple Inc exclusively for their Mac OS X operating system

If the first file is corrupted, iTunes will attempt to reconstruct it from the XML file. Detailed third-party instructions regarding this are documented elsewhere. ^[8]

For MP3 files, iTunes writes tags in Unicode ID3v2. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's 2 by default, but converting them to ID3v2. 3 and ID3v2. 4 is possible via its "Advanced" > "Convert ID3 Tags" toolbar menu. If both ID3v2. x and ID3v1. x tags are in a file, iTunes ignores the ID3v1. x tags.

AAC and Apple Lossless files support Unicode metadata, stored in the MP4 container as so-called "Atoms". Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio. MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO / IEC 14496-142003, is a Multimedia Container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4 With a required QuickTime plugin, iTunes can play Vorbis or OGG enclosed FLAC (standard FLAC is not playable), furthermore the support is limited with no tag editing or album art. Vorbis is a free and open source, lossy audio Codec project headed by the Xiph Free Lossless Audio Codec ( FLAC) is a File format for lossless Audio data compression.

iTunes supports ripping from CDs, but not from DVDs. Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a Hard disk, typically from Removable media or media streams. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio As with any digital music management, users must use an analog-to-digital converter to import analog recordings (such as audio cassettes) to their iTunes libraries. The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a Magnetic tape sound

Library views

iTunes users may choose to view their music and video libraries in one of three ways: as a list, as a list with accompanying album artwork, or as a side-scrolling catalog of album artwork, which bears the marketing name Cover Flow. Cover Flow is a three-dimensional Graphical user interface included with ITunes, the Macintosh Finder, and other Apple Inc

The standard list view displays library files with many optional detail fields, including name, artist, album, genre, user rating, play count, and so forth. Item backgrounds alternate between white and a light blue-gray for readability.

The list with accompanying album artwork is much the same, only the list is broken up by albums, with the artwork as a header to the list. Although this allows users to browse content more visually, sorting the list view by name will accordingly break up the library into redundant instances of each album. Accordingly, as with Cover Flow view, the second view mode is most appropriate for users who sort their libraries by album.

Cover Flow displays all of the user's album art as CD covers in a slide show format. It sorts the albums into artist, genre, etc. Compilation albums are only shown as a single album cover if the compilation tag for each of the album's tracks is turned on. If the song(s) from the album were imported from a 'mix' CD, the album artwork will be displayed as a default music note picture.

iTunes also sorts with secondary parameters, album by artist and album by year, to make its artwork-centered interfaces more intuitive.

Printing

To compensate for the lack of a physical CD, iTunes can print custom-made jewel case inserts as well as song lists and album lists. Optical disc packaging is the Packaging that accompanies CDs DVDs and other formats of optical media. After burning a CD from a playlist, one can select that playlist and bring up a dialogue box with several print options. The user can choose to print either a single album cover (for purchased iTunes albums) or a compilation cover (for user-created playlists). iTunes then automatically sets up a template with art on one side and track titles on the other.

iMix

An iMix is a user-created playlist published in the iTunes Store. The iTunes Store is a software-based online Digital media store operated by Apple Inc iMixes were first introduced in iTunes version 4. 5. Anyone can create an iMix free of charge. iMixes are limited to 100 songs and must feature content available on the iTunes Store. iMixes are public and searchable by any iTunes user. Users may also rate any iMix using a five-star system. iMixes are active for one year from their original published date. Users can publish their iTunes iMix to their blog, profile page or website such as Yahoo! 360, Facebook, or MySpace. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of Yahoo! 360° is a personal communication portal operated by Yahoo!. Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004 MySpace is a popular social networking Website offering an interactive user-submitted network of friends personal profiles blogs groups photos music and

Internet radio

iTunes 1. 0 came with support for the Kerbango Internet radio tuner service, giving iTunes users a selection of some of the more popular online radio streams available. Kerbango was both a company acquired by 3Com and its lead product Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the ^[9] When Kerbango went out of business in 2001, Apple created its own Web radio service for use with iTunes 2. 0 and later. ^[10] As of February 2008, the iTunes radio service features 1795 "radio stations," mostly in MP3 streaming format. Programming covers many genres of music and talk, including streams from both internet-only sources as well as streamed traditional stations. iTunes also supports the . pls and . m3u stream file formats used by Winamp, enabling iTunes to access almost any stream using that format. Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of Time Warner.

Since the release of iTunes 7, Apple no longer promotes the Internet radio feature, and there is no mention of it on the iTunes website. However, it remains in the QuickTime 7. QuickTime is a Multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc, capable of handling various formats of Digital video, Media clips sound text 0. 4, and iTunes EULA used by iTunes 6. 0. 5. 20. With iTunes 7, the "Radio" item has reappeared as an optional source in the preferences, along with its stations. Companies such as iRADIOmast offer iTunes plugins that add thousands of additional radio stations.

In addition, a user is able to enter their own stream feeds to listen to under the "Radio" tab. This is done by "Advanced" > "Open Stream. "

File format support

iTunes 7 can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC, and Apple Lossless. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression WAV (or WAVE) short for Waveform Audio format, is a Microsoft and IBM Audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio.

iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books. QuickTime is a Multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc, capable of handling various formats of Digital video, Media clips sound text FairPlay is a Digital rights management (DRM technology created by Apple Inc Audiblecom is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment information and educational programming There is limited support for Ogg and FLAC enclosed in an Ogg container (FLAC files are not playable) or Speex codecs with the Xiph QuickTime Components - because tag editing and album art is done within iTunes and not Quicktime, these features will not work with these quicktime components. To learn how to create video or audio files for Wikipedia and its sister projects check WikipediaCreation and usage of media files. Free Lossless Audio Codec ( FLAC) is a File format for lossless Audio data compression. To learn how to create video or audio files for Wikipedia and its sister projects check WikipediaCreation and usage of media files. Speex is a Free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and Podcasts Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions The Xiph QuickTime Components are Xiphorg 's implementation of the Ogg container along with the Speex, Theora, FLAC and Vorbis iTunes currently will not play back HE-AAC/aacPlus audio streams correctly. High Efficiency AAC ( HE-AAC) is a Lossy data compression scheme for Digital audio. HE-AAC/aacPlus format files will play back as 22 kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 11 kHz). HE-AAC streaming audio (which a number of Internet Radio stations use) will not play back at all. Internet radio (also known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio and e-radio) is an audio Broadcasting service transmitted via The latest version of iTunes (Win/Mac) supports importing audio CDs, when referring to iTunes standard file format AAC, users can choose to import their CDs in either 128 kbit/s, which used to be the standard importing option or 256 kbit/s. Of course, the 256 kbit/s feature only applies to AAC format.

There has been some criticism of the quality of Apple's MP3 variable bitrate encoding. Variable bitrate ( VBR) or less commonly variable bit rate, is a term used in Telecommunications and Computing that relates to the In a January 2004 double-blind public participated in a codec listening test of six MP3 encoders encoding at 128 kbit/s, conducted by Roberto Amorim, and the iTunes MP3 VBR encoder came last. The blind method is a part of the Scientific method, used to prevent research outcomes from being influenced by either the Placebo effect or the Observer A codec listening test is a Scientific study designed to compare two or more lossy audio Codecs usually with respect to perceived The author has later acknowledged that there may have been serious issues with how iTunes was tested. ^[11]

The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert DRM-free WMA (including version 9) files to other audio formats, but it does not support direct playback or encoding of DRM protected WMA files. Windows Media Audio ( WMA) is an Audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. Telestream, Inc. provides free codecs for Mac users of QuickTime to enable playback of unprotected Windows Media files. Telestream Inc, founded in 1998 is a United States Digital media for Broadcast company producing software video transcoders for the Mac These codecs are recommended by Microsoft. ^[12]

Sound processing

iTunes includes sound processing features, such as equalization, "sound enhancement" ("sound improvement" in some languages) and crossfade. Equalization (or equalisation, EQ) is the process of changing the frequency envelope of a sound in Audio processing. There is also a feature called "Sound Check" which automatically adjusts the playback volume of all songs to the same level. Like "sound enhancement", this can be turned on in the 'Playback' section of iTunes' preferences.

Library sharing

iTunes Library can be shared over a local network using the closed, proprietary Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by Apple for this purpose. The Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP is the proprietary protocol introduced by Apple in its ITunes software to share media across a local network DAAP relies on the Bonjour network service discovery framework, Apple's implementation of the Zeroconf open network standard. Bonjour, formerly Rendezvous, is Apple Inc 's Trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a Service discovery protocol Zeroconf, or Zero Configuration Networking, is a set of techniques that automatically create a usable IP network without configuration or special servers Apple has not made the DAAP specification available to the general public, only to third-party licensees such as Roku. Roku, founded in October 2002, is a privately held Saratoga California consumer electronics firm which specialises in home digital media products However, the protocol has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software (mainly on the Linux platform). Reverse engineering (RE is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device object or system through analysis of its structure function and operation Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks ^[13]

DAAP allows shared lists of songs within the same subnet to be automatically detected. In Computer networks based on the Internet Protocol Suite, a subnetwork, or subnet, is a portion of the network's computers and network devices that have When a song is shared, iTunes can stream the song but won't save it on the local hard drive, in order to prevent unauthorized copying. Songs in Protected AAC format can also be accessed but authentication is required. FairPlay is a Digital rights management (DRM technology created by Apple Inc A maximum of five users may connect to a single user every 24 hours.

Library sharing was first introduced with iTunes 4. 0, where users could freely access shared music anywhere over the Internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. An Internet Protocol ( IP) address is a numerical identification ( Logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a Computer network Apple quickly removed this feature with version 4. 0. 1, claiming that users were violating the End User License Agreement.

With the release of iTunes 7. 0, Apple changed their implementation of DAAP. This change prevents any third-party client, such as a computer running Linux, a modified Xbox, or any computer without iTunes installed, from connecting to a remote iTunes repository. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. iTunes will still connect as a client to other iTunes servers and to third-party servers. ^[14]

Video

On May 9, 2005, video support was introduced to iTunes with the release of iTunes 4. Events 1457 BC - Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 8. Users can drag and drop movie clips from the computer into the iTunes Library for cataloging and organization. They can be viewed in a small frame in the main iTunes display, in a separate window, or fullscreen. Before version 7 provided separate libraries for media types, videos were only distinguished from audio in the Library by a small icon resembling a TV screen and grouped with music in the library, organized by the same musical categories (such as "album" and "composer").

On October 12, 2005, Apple introduced iTunes 6. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 0, which added support for purchasing and viewing of video content from the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Music Store initially offered a selection of several thousand Music Videos and five TV shows including most notably the ABC network's Lost and Desperate Housewives. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Lost is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American serial drama television series. Desperate Housewives is an American Television Dramedy series created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as Show runner, and produced Disney Channel's shows were also offered (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and That's So Raven) 24 hours after airing as well as episode packs from past seasons; since that time, the collection has expanded with content from numerous television networks. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was an American Disney Channel Original Series created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan That's So Raven is an Emmy, Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Teen Choice Award Award-winning American The iTunes Music Store also gives the ability to view Apple's large collection of movie trailers.

As of September 5, 2006, the iTunes Store offers over 550 television shows for download. Events 1590 - Alexander Farnese 's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Additionally, a catalog of 75 feature-length movies from Disney-owned studios was introduced. As of April 11, 2007, over 500 feature-length movies are available through iTunes. Events 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ^[15]

Originally, movies and TV shows were only available to U. S. customers, with the only video content available to non-U. S. customers being music videos and Pixar's short films. This is in process of being extended to other countries as licensing issues are resolved.

Video content available from the store used to be encoded as 540 kbit/s Protected MPEG-4 video (H.264) with an approximately 128 kbit/s AAC audio track. MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) Many videos and video podcasts currently require the latest version of QuickTime, QuickTime 7, which is incompatible with older versions of Mac OS (only v10. 3. 9 and later are supported). On September 12, 2006, the resolution of video content sold on the iTunes Store was increased from 320x240 (QVGA) to 640x480 (VGA). Events 1213 - Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread The higher resolution video content is encoded as 1. 5 Mbit/s (minimum) Protected MPEG-4 video (H.264) with a minimum 128 kbit/s AAC audio track. MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding)

Plugins

iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays. The visualizer plug-in software development kits for Mac and Windows can be downloaded for free from Apple. ^[16] Device plugins allow support for additional music player devices, but Apple will only license the APIs to bona fide OEMs who sign a non-disclosure agreement. An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM is typically a company that uses a component made by a second company in its own product or sells the product of the second company A non-disclosure agreement (NDA also known as a confidentiality agreement, confidential disclosure agreement (CDA proprietary information agreement

Podcasting

Version 4. 9 of iTunes, released on June 28, 2005, added built-in support for podcasting. Events 1098 - Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It allows users to subscribe to podcasts for free in the iTunes Music Store or by entering the RSS feed URL. A podcast is a series of audio or Video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated Download RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as Blog entries news headlines audio and video – in a standardized Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it Once subscribed, the podcast will be downloaded automatically. Users can choose to update podcasts weekly, daily, hourly, or manually.

Users can select podcasts to listen to from the Podcast Directory, to which anyone can submit their podcast for placement. The front page of the directory displays high-profile podcasts from commercial broadcasters and independent podcasters. It also allows users to browse the podcasts by category or popularity, and to submit new podcasts to the directory.

The addition of podcasting functionality to a mainstream audio application like iTunes greatly helped bring podcasting to a much wider audience. ^[17] Within days after iTunes 4. 9 was released, podcasters were reporting that the number of downloads of their audio files had tripled, sometimes even quadrupled. ^[18]

Other uses

Main article: Uses of podcasting

Podcasting's initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own radio-like shows, but the system quickly became used in a wide variety of other ways, including distribution of school lessons,^[19] official and unofficial audio tours of museums, conference meeting alerts and updates, and by police departments to distribute public safety messages. The following article is a list of uses for Podcasting, including but not limited to Public services Unofficial audio tours of museums ( Musecast)

Podcasting is becoming increasingly popular in education. Podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone at any time. An absent student can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book discussions, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters, music performance, interviews, and debates. Podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Video podcasts can be used in all these ways as well. Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of Video on demand Video clip content via

Receiving and using podcasts

Software, often referred to as a "podcatching client," is required to make full use of podcasts' syndication features. Apple's iTunes player is considered the dominant podcatching client, but alternatives exist, including Juice (multiplatform) and Doppler (Windows). Juice is a Cross-platform Aggregator application that is used to download podcast media files such as Oggs and Mp3s Some established audio players, such as AmaroK, Winamp and Mediamonkey also offer (sometimes limited) podcatching functionality. Amarok (ˈæməɹɒk is a Free software music player for Linux or other varieties of Unix. Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of Time Warner. MediaMonkey is a digital media player and media library application developed by Ventis Media Inc

Podcast listeners can listen in one of two ways: through a hardware device like an MP3 player, or simply on their computer using media player software. A digital audio player, more commonly referred to as an MP3 player, is a Consumer electronics device that stores organizes and plays audio files Some

Managing podcasts on an iPod

iTunes offers the ability to create "Smart Playlists" which can be used to control which podcasts are in the playlist using multiple criteria such as date, number of times listened, type, etc. It is also possible to set up iTunes so that only certain playlists will be synced with the iPod. iPod is a popular brand of Portable media players designed and marketed by Apple Inc By using a combination of the two techniques it is possible to control exactly which music and/or podcasts will be transferred to the iPod. A user may configure a smart playlist to display only podcasts less than two weeks old or removing any podcast that the iPod user has already listened to. This smart playlist is synced with the iPod every time the iPod is plugged into the PC, ensuring that the user does not have to listen to the same show more than once. Once a podcast has been listened to, it will be removed from this list as soon as the iPod is synced with the PC. There are many criteria which can control what goes in a smart playlist, such as "name", "artist", "category", "grouping", "kind", "last played", "play count", "rating", "last skipped", and "playlist" and these can be combined with functions such as "equals", "is greater than", "is less than", "contains", "is true", "is false", "is", "is not", "does not contain", "starts with", "ends with", "is in the range", "is before", and "is after". As a result, it is possible to control exactly which podcasts are transferred to the iPod.

Example

For example, a user may only want news programs less than 24 hours old, unlistened science programs less than one month old, and all Spanish lessons that they have yet listened to fewer than three times. By using smart playlists, they can ensure that these rules will be followed. The user would set up four smart playlists. The first smart playlist containing news podcasts downloaded in the last 24 hours, the second containing the science podcasts which are unlistened and less than one month old, and a third smart playlist containing Spanish lessons which have been listened less than three times, and a fourth smart playlist which contains the contents of the first three. The fourth smart playlist is the one which would be synced with the iPod. Obviously the fourth playlist may contain many other play lists as well as the ones described above.

Video podcasting

Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for video podcasting (also known as a vodcast), although video and RSS support was already unofficially there in version 4. Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of Video on demand Video clip content via RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as Blog entries news headlines audio and video – in a standardized 9. Users can subscribe to RSS feeds through the iTunes Music Store or by entering the feed URL. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it Video podcasts can contain downloadable video files (in MOV, MP4, M4V, or MPG format), but also streaming sources and even IPTV. QuickTime is a Multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc, capable of handling various formats of Digital video, Media clips sound text MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO / IEC 14496-142003, is a Multimedia Container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4 MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO / IEC 14496-142003, is a Multimedia Container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4 MPEG-1 was an early Standard for Lossy compression of Video and audio. IPTV ( Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a Digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure which Downloadable files can be synchronized to a video-capable iPod and both downloadable files and streams can be shown in Front Row.

Synchronizing iPod and other players

iTunes 2 was the first version of the software to be able to sync with an iPod. iTunes can automatically synchronize its music and video library with an iPod or iPhone every time it is connected. New songs and playlists are automatically copied to the iPod and songs that have been deleted from the library on the computer are also deleted from the iPod. Ratings awarded to songs on the iPod will sync back to the iTunes library and audiobooks will remember the current playback position.

Automatic synchronization can be turned off in favor of manually copying individual songs or complete playlists. iTunes supports copying music to the iPod; however, only music and videos purchased from the iTunes store can be transferred from the iPod back to iTunes. This functionality was added after third-party software was available which allowed users to copy all content back to your computer. It is also possible to copy from the iPod using ordinary Unix command line tools, or by enabling hidden file viewing in Windows Explorer, then copying music from the iPod drive to a local disk for backup. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer This article is about the Windows file system browser For the similarly named internet browser see Internet Explorer Windows Explorer is a Doing this can be confusing because the files are arranged in such a way that their folders and (depending on iPod and iTunes versions) file names are seemingly picked at random as they are put on the iPod. It is worth noting however that the files (along with their embedded title and artist information) remains unchanged. It is therefore less confusing to let iTunes reimport, reorganize, and rename all of the files after they are backed up. When music or video purchased through the iTunes Store is copied from an iPod, it will only play on computers that are authorized with the account that was used to purchase them. Several third party utilities can remove this limitation by stripping iTunes DRM from protected files. Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders ^[20] The legality of using such software in the United States is currently the subject of active debate. ^[21]

When an iPod is connected that does not contain enough free space to sync the entire iTunes music library, a playlist will be created and given a name matching that of the connected iPod. This playlist can then be modified to the user's preference in song selection to fill the available space.

The Mac OS X version of iTunes can also synchronize with a small number of discontinued digital music players,^[22] while the Windows version will support only the iPod. A digital audio player, more commonly referred to as an MP3 player, is a Consumer electronics device that stores organizes and plays audio files Some ^[23] The synchronization is limited, however, in that the iPod is the only digital music player compatible with Apple's proprietary FairPlay digital rights management technology, and thus most music purchased through the iTunes Store can only be played on an iPod. FairPlay is a Digital rights management (DRM technology created by Apple Inc The remaining ability to synchronize with a limited number of legacy digital music players is likely a remnant of Apple's timeline the music industry: iTunes was released in January 2001, nine months prior to the iPod's unveiling and slightly more than two years before the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. When iTunes was released, compatibility with other music players was critical; as iPod has become the dominant digital music player, that compatibility may no longer a necessity.

A number of unsupported third-party programs have been created to help a user of iTunes to synchronize songs with any music player that can be mounted as an external drive. Though iTunes is the only official method for synchronizing with the iPod, there are other programs available that allow the iPod to sync with other software players.

As of iTunes 7, purchased music can be copied from the iPod onto the computer. The computer must be authorized by that iTunes account. iTunes currently allows up to 5 computers to be authorized on one account. It does not allow you to transfer imported music files between computers. This may be necessary to back songs up, transfer songs to a new computer, or restore music after a disk failure using an iPod as the backup source. A number of shareware or freeware applications exist that complement iTunes. Operating system support Transfer features Miscellaneous features See also IPod ITunes

iTunes-managed content can also be accessed via the Apple TV set-top box. Files in the iTunes library can either be synchronized with the Apple TV unit, which results in their being copied to the Apple TV's hard drive, or streamed to the Apple TV directly from a Macintosh or PC. Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the Apple TV does not require the use of iTunes (as of the 'Take Two' software update); it can now import files from the iTunes Store directly over the internet. The iTunes Store is a software-based online Digital media store operated by Apple Inc ^[24]

iTunes Store

Main article: iTunes Store

Version 4 of iTunes introduced the iTunes Music Store (later renamed to the iTunes Store) from which iTunes users can buy and download songs for use on a limited number of computers and an unlimited number of iPods. The iTunes Store is a software-based online Digital media store operated by Apple Inc Many songs purchased from the iTunes Store are copy protected with Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system. FairPlay is a Digital rights management (DRM technology created by Apple Inc Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders

In the years since, movies, television shows, music videos, podcasts, and video games have been added to the extensive iTunes Store's catalog. A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U A music video is a Short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music most commonly a Song with lyrics A podcast is a series of audio or Video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated Download A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.

As of January 9, 2008, over 4 billion songs have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28, 2003. Events 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[25] Apple announced that as of July 31, 2007 they had over 3 billion downloads since iTunes was first introduced. Events 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian 's forces but most of his army subsequently Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

At the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the iTunes Store had sold over 4 billion songs and set a new single day record of 20 million songs on December 25, 2007. Produced by Boston -based IDG World Expo, Macworld Conference & Expo is a trade show dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform with conference tracks held Events 274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. He also announced that the iTunes Store will offer over 1,000 movies for rental by the end of February. ^[26] The iTunes movie catalog will include content from 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc (or Warner Bros, Warner Bros Pictures) is one of the world's largest producers of Film and Walt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company: Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner was established Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California. Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios) a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is a major Global American Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc ( SPE) is the television and Film production/distribution unit of Japanese Media conglomerate Sony Renting a standard definition catalog title will cost US$2. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 99, while new releases will cost US$3. 99. High definition titles will cost US$1. 00 more respectively. These movies will also be transferrable to all 6th generation iPods. ^[27]

Gracenote

iTunes uses the Gracenote interactive audio CD database to provide track name listings for audio CDs. Gracenote Inc is a company that maintains and licenses an Internet-accessible database containing information about the contents of audio Compact discs It provides software The service can be set to activate when a CD is inserted into the computer and an Internet connection is available. Track names for albums imported to iTunes while not connected to the Internet can be obtained later when connected, by a manual procedure. For any album loaded into iTunes for which there is not an existing Gracenote track listing, the user can choose to submit track name data to Gracenote.

Integration with other applications

In Mac OS X, iTunes is tightly integrated with Apple's iWork and iLife suites. Dashboard is an application for Apple 's Mac OS X operating systems used for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. In computer programming a widget (or control) is an element of a Graphical user interface (GUI that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user iWork is a suite of applications created by Apple Inc, containing Pages, a Word processing and Desktop publishing application Keynote iLife is a suite of Multimedia Software applications created by Apple Inc These applications can access the iTunes Library directly, allowing access to the playlists and songs stored within (including encrypted music purchased from the iTunes Store). Music files from iTunes can be embedded directly into Pages documents and can supply the score for iDVD, iMovie, and Keynote productions. Past Global Changes ( PAGES) founded in 1991 is a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP and is funded by the U iDVD is a DVD creation Software application made by Apple Inc iMovie is a Video editing software application which allows Mac users to edit their own home movies Keynote is a presentation software application developed as a part of the IWork productivity suite (which also includes Pages and Numbers iTunes is also integrated with Front Row (Front Row compiles its information from the user's iTunes and iPhoto libraries). iPhoto is a software application made by Apple Inc exclusively for their Mac OS X operating system In addition, any song exported from GarageBand, Apple's music-making program, is automatically added to the user's iTunes music library. GarageBand is a Software application that allows users to create music or Podcasts It is developed by Apple Inc iTunes's Artwork. saver is a screen saver included in Mac OS X v10.4 that displays album artwork as a screen saver. Mac OS X version 104 “Tiger” was the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server Operating system for Macintosh iTunes widget is a Dashboard Widget that controls iTunes. Dashboard is an application for Apple 's Mac OS X operating systems used for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. In computer programming a widget (or control) is an element of a Graphical user interface (GUI that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user

Moreover, iTunes can be scripted, using AppleScript for Mac OS X or using the Apple-provided SDK for iTunes on Windows allowing many other applications to integrate themselves into iTunes. AppleScript is a Scripting language devised by Apple Inc, and built into Mac OS. A common use is to relay the title and artist of what the user is currently listening to into their instant messenger or social networking service.

Use on other platforms

As of 2005, iTunes is available on some cell phones from Motorola. Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. The partnership between the two includes the ability to sync your iTunes library with your cellphone, as well as a similar interface between both platforms. Since the release of the iPhone, Apple has stopped distributing iTunes with other manufacturers' phones in order to concentrate sales to Apple Inc.'s device. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics

iPhone activation

Upon purchase of an iPhone, users must use iTunes to select and purchase a contract tariff before the phone features may be used. iTunes also syncs media to the iPhone, much like an iPod. However upon the release of iPhone 3G, customers must activate the iPhone in an AT&T store or an Apple Retail Location. Activation in store will take between 10 and 12 minutes. This change in activation methods signals a distancing between Apple and AT&T, possibly signaling a departure from Apple's current exclusive partnership with AT&T.

History

For more details on this topic, see iTunes version history. The version history of ITunes spans from 2001 to present and covers the application's evolution and refinement from a simple music player to a control center for many types of

Originally the domain name "itunes. co. uk" was set up by a small business in 2000. Legal action was taken by Apple against the original owner of the domain, with the suit ending in favor of Apple. ^[28]

The software that was the basis for iTunes was developed by Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid as a media player called SoundJam MP,^[29] and released by Casady & Greene in 1999. Jeffrey L Robbin is a vice president of consumer applications at Apple Inc and lead software designer for ITunes. William Kincaid (also " Bill Kincaid " was formerly known nationally in the entertainment trade as a costume designer and after leaving the costume business in 1990 SoundJam MP was a Mac OS audio player published by the now-defunct Casady & Greene. Casady & Greene, founded in 1984 by Robin Casady, was a software publisher of Shareware products primarily for the Macintosh. It was purchased by Apple in 2000, given a new user interface and the ability to burn CDs, had its recording feature and skin support removed, and released as iTunes in January 2001. In Computing, skins may be associated with themes as custom graphical appearances ( GUIs) that can be applied to certain software and ^[30] Originally a Mac OS 9-only application, Mac OS X support was added with the release of version 2 nine months later,^[31] and Mac OS 9 support was dropped with the release of version 3. Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's "Classic" Mac OS. ^[32] In October 2003, with the release of iTunes 4. 1, Apple added support for Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible graphical and business-oriented Operating system designed to work with Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and iTunes 7. 1, introduced in March 2007^[33] added support for Windows Vista, and 7. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops 4 marked the end of Windows 2000 support. Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible graphical and business-oriented Operating system designed to work with iTunes lacked support for 64-bit versions of Windows until the 7. 6 update on January 16, 2008. Events 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common iTunes currently fully works and is supported under any 64-bit version of Windows Vista, but not the 64-bit versions of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003; though not supported by Apple a workaround has been discovered for both operating systems. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and Windows Server 2003 (also referred to as Win2K3 is a server Operating system produced by Microsoft. ^[34]

See also

• Comparison of iPod managers
• Comparison of media players
• iTunes Store
• List of audio conversion software
• Music visualization

References

External links

• iTunes product page at Apple.com
• iTunes support at Apple.com

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