Apple iTunes, iPods, iPhone, iPads & Music...

So many students are now using various Apple devices – such as iPod, iPad, iPhone etc.. and the questions we receive are as varied as the devices themselves.

Bu the most popular question I receive is “how do I get music from my computer to my iPod, iPad, iPhone etc”…all of which use Apples iTunes…

Apple has a wonderful instructional site that answers every conceivable iTunes questions you might have – The site walks you through (in English) the various aspects of everything and anything you might want to do with these and other Apple devices… And trust me, it is easy…

So if you have created an iTunes library and/or you have one of the iPod, iPad, iPhone devices - visit this website. The website boasts “It will answer all your questions from burning CDs to watching HD TV, everything you always wanted to know about iTunes"

I would recommend that you save the website to your Favorites/Bookmarks or better yet, add it to your Favorite Bar, because I’m sure you’ll visit it often…

http://www.apple.com/itunes/features

How to Burn a CD or DVD

BURNING TO A CD OR DVD is as easy as copy and pasting.. You can burn documents, photos, music or video’s to share or for back-up.. Remember CD’s can hold up to 700MB; DVD’s hold about 4.5 GB.

Open Windows Explorer: use the keyboard shortcut: Windows Flag Key + E

Windows Explorer allows you to see your entire computers filing system at once – whatever is highlighted on the left column is hat you are looking at on the right side of the screen…

• Put a blank CD OR DVD in your drive
  


• Now you can drag and drop the files you want on the CD or DVD into that area OR.
  Simply right click on the files or folder you wish to burn to a to CD/DVD and Choose send to and then choose your CD/DVD drive...
  


• Once you’ve done this, you will see a balloon message appear in the bottom right corner of your monitor, reminding you that files are ready to be written to CD. If you click on this balloon it will show the writable CD/DVD folder and all of the files and or folders that you have ready to be “burned”.
  


• If the balloon disappears and you want to see what files you are adding to a CD, simply open my computer and press on your CD/DVD drive there.
  


• Simply choose to write these files to CD/DVD D in the left menu which is under the heading of CD writing tasks or Right Click on the CD/DVD drive and choose “Write files to CD”.
  


• You can name your to CD/DVD (not necessary though) and press next until it starts to burn…

Notes:

When you insert a blank to CD/DVD into your to CD/DVD burner a Windows dialog box will appear. Here you can choose the Open to CD/DVD folder using Windows Explorer. It will open a to CD/DVD writing dialog box where you can drag and drop files into it to burn to CD/DVD

There are so many different types of to CD/DVD burning Software, but it’s just as easy to use what came with your Windows Operating System and it’s free .

BACKING UP YOUR COMPUTER AND INFO

It's very important to back up your computer as well as your important files - documents, photos, music, videos and movies - often. Today more and more of what we do is on our computers and we want to be sure we don't "lose it all" if our computers crashed...

When you back up your files - you can use a CD, Large Flash Drive, Portable or External Hard Drive or a company such as Carbonite.com; Mozy.com or your Internet provider (many offer back-up services)

Backing up on a regular basis is critical – especially for those of us with older computers or if you have large document folders, photo, music or other media files… If you use one of the services – remember to ask how much space is included and what the charges are for additional storage (personally that’s why I like carbonite.com-it offers unlimited)

External Hard Drives-Such as Office Depots “Clickfree" HD1035 Backup External USB Hard Drive, 1000GB”, which Automatically backs up your computer without any confusing software to install - These allow you to back up your computer in just 1 step ~ No software to install or set up and incremental backup lets you save only the files changed since the previous backup – About $135.00

Or use a company, such as Carbonite.com,which is easy and has great advantages..
Once you install Carbonite, future back-ups are done each time you are on your PC/Internet, so you can relax and you can Restore lost files easily and you will have Remote Access to the data on your computer...

What Carbonite is – and what it isn’t: Carbonite offers unlimited backup of the irreplaceable files on your computer. That said, your Carbonite subscription does NOT include some services often confused with backup:

• Online/offsite file storage: Carbonite is NOT a place to move files from your hard drive, to free up space on your hard drive. If you remove any file from your hard drive, they wait 30 days for you to recover it, and then they delete that file from their servers also.
• Program or system backup: Carbonite backs up the irreplaceable files on your computer – user-generated content such as photos, documents, music, etc. They do not back up software programs, temporary files or system files.
• External Hard Drive backup: Carbonite consumer product does not allow you to back up your external hard drive, unless you purchase their external hard drive support with as a small business.
• Archiving: Carbonite does not keep every version of every file you’ve ever created. Their PC product offers versioning, which allows you to recover some versions of your files, going back up to 90 days
• Carbonite costs $54.95 per year-check them out at http://www.carbonite.com/

HOW TO PLAY MUSIC CDS ON THE COMPUTER

Why not listen to your favorite music while you work - it's easy once your computer is on and when you have speakers:

• Put your favorite music CD, label side up, in the CD-ROM drive and close the drive
• When auto play is enabled (which is pretty standard) the CD will start playing the first track (using your default media player, such as Windows or VLC Media Player )
• If the CD doesn’t start playing automatically, open the Start menu. Choose Programs, then Accessories, then Entertainment and Click CD Player. Click the Play button on the CD Player window (a single right-pointing arrow in the top row)
• You can use the Pause, Stop, Skip to Next Track and Go Back to Last Track buttons to control what you listen to.
• Choose Edit Playlist from the Disc menu to program a particular sequence of tracks
• Minimize the CD Player window if you plan to listen to the entire CD while working and you can bring it up anytime from your taskbar

In the system tray (right side of the monitor) you can quickly control the music volume with the speaker icon - just left click on it to slide volume up & down, and by checking the speaker icon or box - you can toggle between MUTE to turn music off for that phone call and then again to turn it back on...

Why not save/rip the entire CD to your computer so next time you simply access your “music list” just as you do with a word document.. it’s there ready for you to listen to

When I download music from the Internet (such as iTunes) or from my CD’s, I always download (save/rip) it in mp3 format so that I can use it on my mp3 player and just as importantly, so that I can use the music in projects that I might create, such as in Power Point Slide shows, Picasa & Windows Movie Maker projects)

CARING FOR YOUR CD’S & DVDS..

So much information comes to us today on CD's & DVD's - so it's important to take care of them properly...

• Handle only at the hub or outer edge. Don't touch the shiny surface with your fingers
• Store in a protective case when not in use
• Don't bend the disc when taking it out of the case
• Be careful not to scratch the disc when placing it in the case or in the player tray
• Make certain the disc is properly seated in the player tray before you close it
• Keep discs away from radiators, heaters, hot equipment surfaces, direct sunlight (near a window or in a car during hot weather) and other destructive forces
• DVD specs recommend discs be stored at a temps between 50 °-90 °F with less than 27 °F variation per hour, at relative humidity of 5 to 90 percent
• Artificial light and indirect sunlight have no effect on replicated DVDs, BUT
• Exposure to bright sunlight may affect recordable DVDs, specifically write-once DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) that use light-sensitive dyes
• Magnetic fields have no effect on DVDs, so it's OK to leave them sitting on your speakers

What are computer Drives

Drives are the “hardware/equipment” that read and write the information the various disks.

Disc drives rotate the disk very fast and have one or more heads that can read and/or write data to them..

When “drives” are put into the computer, the computer assigns them a “letter” making it easier to identify them to then be able t see what is stored/filed on the specific drive, such as:

• "C" is typically the Hard Drive on almost all computers is
• "D" is often times the CD or DVD Drive
• "E" or "F"- when you put your flash drive in the USB Port in one computer it might be the “E” Drive – in another computer it might be the “F” drive..

The "letter" the computer assigns, allows you to know where things are..

There are different types of disc drives, but the common ones that we work with are:

• CD-Rom can read audio and data CD discs
• CR-RW drives can read and record (burn) audio and data CD discs
• DVD-ROM drives can read CD and DVD discs
• DVD+RW+R Drives, can read and write (burn) CD and DVD discs
• COMBINATION DRIVES, combine the functions of 2 rives into one-either a DVD+RW/+R drive and a CD-RW drive or a DVD-RIM drive and a CR-RW drive
• Flash/jump drive and read and write to a flash/jump drive
• Hard disk drive (HDD) reads and writes hard disks (can be internal or external or totally portable)
• “6 in 1” - “50 In 1” Memory Card Readers – allows you to read from the memory cards of digital cameras and other media devices

Disk drives can be either internal (housed within the computer) or external (housed in a separate box that connects to the computer)

COPY (OR MOVE) FILES AND FOLDERS TO A CD or DVD

1. Insert a blank, writable CD/DVD into the CD/DVD burner.
2. Click the files or folders you want to copy (or move) to the CD/DVD. To select more than one file, hold down the CTRL key while you click the files you want.
   Under File and Folder Tasks, click Copy (or Move) this file, Copy (or Move) this folder, or Copy (or Move) the selected items.
3. In the Copy (or Move) Items dialog box, click the CD/DVD burner drive, and then click Copy (or Move).
4. Open My Computer and double-click the CD/DVD recording drive. Windows will display a temporary area where the files are held before they are copied to the CD.
5. Verify that the files and folders that you intend to copy to the CD/DVD appear under Files Ready to be Written to the CD/DVD.
6. Under CD/DVD Writing Tasks, click Write these files to CD/DVD.
7. Windows displays the CD/DVD Writing Wizard.
8. Follow the steps clearly outlined in the wizard.

Notes:

• For Audio Files - Music - we recommend using CD-R's
• Do not try to copy more files to the CD/DVD than it will hold. Check the CD/DVD packaging to see the capacity of each CD/DVD.
• For photo or Video files too large to fit on a CD, you can copy files to a recordable DVD.
• Windows XP does not support copying to a DVD, so you have to use DVD authoring software (such as Windows Media Player, Picasa 3, Roxio or others).
• Windows 7 has DVD maker software built in
• Make sure you have enough disk space on your hard disk to store the temporary files that are created during the CD/DVDwriting process. For a standard CD, Windows reserves up to 700 megabytes (MB) of the available free space. For a high-capacity CD, Windows reserves up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of the available free space
• After you copy files or folders to the CD, you can view the CD to confirm that the files have been copied.

Tips about "burning" CD's - DVD's

HOW DO I KNOW MY COMPUTER CAN BURN CD'S?
Fortunately, these days virtually all computers bought new include a drive that is able to both read and write (or burn) both CD and DVD media. If you’re not sure if your computer or laptop has a CD burner then there are two ways to check.

• Look thru your computer owner's guide to learn if you have a CD burner or not OR
• Go online to your computer manufacturer website - put in your model - and it will give you the specifics of whar is on your computer/laptop - or you can email them with the model # and serial #; they will e-mail you back an answer.

HOW DO I BURN FILES ON A CD?
Burning files on a CD is like saving files on a flash drive or portable hard drive. There are two ways to save files on a CD. Follow these steps:

• Highlight what it is you want to "burn/copy" onto the CD-DVD
• Once highlighted choose "copy" (anyone of 5 ways-from edit menu, icon, action key, CTRL+C, right click-choose copy)
• Put CD-R or CD-RW in your CD burner tray
• Go to the folder that has the file you want to save on the CD on it
• Right click - menu appears, choose drive your CD is on
• Now say Paste again one of he 5 ways
• You will have an extra step - whatever you have copied is being held in a temporar folder to be sure you have everything you want "burned/copied" onto the CD - once eveything is there and ready
• Now choose "Write these files to CD" - you can do it now or later - but you must choose this option

OR

If/when you are burning to a CD or DVD using a program such as Windows Media Player, Picasa, Movie Maker, Roxio or others, on the top menu bar it will have an action"BURN" choose thar option and it will walk you thru the steps noted above

You're done!!!!

TO MAKE SURE FILES ARE SAVED ON THE CD

• Go to the drive on My Computer that has your CD/DVD on it.
• Now double click on the drive with your CD and/or DVD in it - it will open and show you what is on the CD/DVD

Tips to help you care for your CD's & DVD's

Hope these tips will help you take great care of your CD's & DVD's..

· Handle only at the hub/outer edge. Don't touch the shiny surface with your fingers.

· Store in a protective case when not in use.

· Don't bend the disc when taking it out of the case

· Try not to scratch the disc when placing it in the case or in the player tray.

· Make certain the disc is properly seated in the player tray before you close it.

· Keep discs away from all heat and direct sunlight.

· DVD specs recommend discs be stored at a temps between 50 °-90 °F with less than 27 °F variation per hour, at relative humidity of 5 to 90 percent.

· Artificial light and indirect sunlight have no effect on replicated DVDs, BUT

· Magnetic fields don't effect DVDs, so they are ok on/near your speakers.

· Exposure to bright sunlight can affect recordable DVDs, specifically write-once DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) that use light-sensitive dyes.

Difference between CD's & DVD's

CD vs DVD is the amount of storage. Typically:

• A CD will hold about 700MB
• A DVD will hold 4.5GB (1000MB = 1GB)
• An HD-DVD will hold about 30GB
• A Blu-Ray Disc will store up to 50GB

R – means read only and indicates onetime permanent use

RW – means you can burn – erase and “rewrite” but don’t!!!

CD’s & DVD’s should be considered for one time use only – if you want to write & rewrite data use a flash drive/memory stick or portable hard drive

For music CD’s (or anything to archive) a CD-R is your best choice.