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Top iTunes tips – part 2
by Stephen Elliot
09.01.07 |
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In the same way that you can create playlists for the iTunes Store samples (see Top iTunes tips – part 1), you can also do the same for radio shows. Start by going to the Radio section of iTunes and then, when you’ve found a few favourites, drag the names of the stations from the main iTunes window to your playlist. |
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If your Internet radio connection keeps stuttering, it might be that you need to adjust the buffer size of the stream. Simply put, the larger the buffer size, the more iTunes will store of the show before it plays it and the better your connection will be. Go to iTunes Preferences > Advanced and look for ‘Streaming Buffer Size’. Dial-up users should aim for a large buffer size. |
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If you’re listening to music radio, then you ideally want to pick a station with a bitrate of 96kbps or above, as otherwise the sound quality is likely to be decidedly rough. If you pick a spoken word radio station though (like Big Soccer Radio, for example), then you can obviously pick a station with a much lower bitrate (around 32kbps). |
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| step 4 |
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Subscribing to podcasts |
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Occasionally you might want to subscribe to a podcast that isn’t one of iTunes’ wide selection, as there’s plenty out there that aren’t. Get the URL of the podcast you want to subscribe to and then go to Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast and put the URL in here – the file name will end in ‘xml’. |
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Scroll to the right to find the end of the podcast in iTunes’ main window and you should spot a small ‘i’. This indicates that there’s more information available for this podcast, so click on the icon to display it – you can also view this text on your iPod by repeatedly pressing the Centre wheel while the podcast is playing. |
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| step 6 |
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Podcast preferences |
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To get full control of the way that iTunes handles your podcasts and updates them, go to Preferences > Podcasts and here you can change when iTunes checks for updates, what it does with them and which ones it keeps in its archive. |
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1. If the help you want can’t be found here, why not try our forums? We’ve got a whole section dedicated to iTunes and there are always plenty of willing people online who are only too happy to offer assistance. |
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2. Apple do have an impressive support section for iTunes, and to get there, go to Help > iTunes Service and Support. Here you’ll find plenty of tutorials, troubleshooting advice and the latest upgrades. |
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