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Syncing iTunes U videos

Reader Neil has a question about syncing videos from iTunes U. He writes:

I’ve downloaded a series of iPhone developer videos from the iTunes U section of the iTunes Store. iTunes has considerately created a playlist for each series within a folder. But I’m not sure how to sync the movies because when I mount my iPhone and choose it within iTunes, I don’t see these playlists listed within the Music or Video tabs. How can I sync these things?

I gave this a go with the University of Utah’s iPhone Programming Association videos and, as you suggest, iTunes created a University of Utah folder and dropped a playlist of the same name into it. While I could see that folder within the Music tab in the iPhone preferences window, I couldn’t select it or see the playlist within.

However, the movies within that playlist do appear within the Movies section of the Video tab in the iPhone preferences window. Just enable the ones you want to sync by placing a check mark next to each.

Differentiating ‘new’ and ‘recent’ podcasts

A colleague contacted me with an iTunes/Podcasts/iPhone/iPod conundrum that goes a little something like this:

I have my iPhone set to sync “All New” of “Selected Podcasts.” If I listen to part of a podcast episode on the iPhone, then sync it to my Mac, the episode gets deleted from the iPhone. What’s up?

Regrettably, the way iTunes defines “new” is not, “most recent” but rather “most recent that you’ve never played any portion of.” It’s like this:

Let’s say you’ve told iTunes to sync the three most recent new episodes of our very own Macworld Podcast. Once you’ve started playing one of those episodes on your iPhone or iPod, it’s no longer considered new. And because it’s not, it’s booted off the device when you next sync and marked in iTunes as not new, even though you may have listened to no more than a couple of seconds of it. You can put it back on by moving to the podcast episode within iTunes, right-clicking on it, and choosing Mark as New from the contextual menu, but yeesh, what a bother.

Where classical music and iPhone apps converge

Apple has a well-earned reputation for fulfilling customer desires on its own timetable. The disharmony around the App Store is hardly the first time Apple sounded off-key to its fans. Consider the flat note that the iTunes Music Store struck with classical music fans early on.

The parallel between classical fans and iPhone users feels apt. Classical music aficionados are a peculiar and particular breed. iPhone users are particular, too. Each has specialized needs and certain expectations. But Apple has come a long way with classical music lovers.

Not long after the iTunes Music Store launched, I wrote a story for Macworld about how Apple was giving classical music fans the high hat. The indictment then wasn’t so different from the complaints about the App Store now: “Illogically labeled albums, mislabeled tracks, and inconsistently listed artists are the standard,” was how one disgruntled user summed up the store.

Updated HandBrake encodes more than DVDs

HandBrake, the tool many people use to convert their DVDs to forms playable on other devices—including iPods, iPhones, Apple TVs, and on Macs via the QuickTime Player application—is being updated to convert not just DVDs and Video_TS folders, but many other kinds of video as well.

The still-in-development edition of the software, version 0.9.3, is available via a "snapshot edition" download page. (The developers warn that this is a pre-release version and is bound to have bugs, so downloaders beware.)

Previous versions of HandBrake couldn't encode videos from QuickTime or AVI movie files. But with the version 0.9.3, you can use any of a variety of source files and convert them to MP4, MKV, AVI, or OGM files. HandBrake’s presets pane remains, so you can easily choose a specific device—iPod High-Rez, QuickTime, Apple TV, or Xbox 360, for example—without having to muck with arcane video and audio settings (though this power still remains). As always, you can't use HandBrake to encode videos purchased from iTunes or videos on commercial encrypted Blu-Ray discs.

Apple and where credit is due

I’m as inclined as any other interested pundit to give Apple a stinging thwok when I think it’s mishandled something. And what with the bungled MobileMe launch, wonky iPhone 2.0 update, and the capricious nature of iPhone application rejections, there’s been plenty to thwok about. But when I then step back and take a look at some of the very cool things Apple has contributed to my multimedia life, I recall that the company is capable of amazing work. I’d like to recount some of that work now.

AirTunes and the Remote application. Last week I wrote about filling your house with music and controlling it with the iPhone’s Remote application. If I didn’t make it clear enough in that article, let me say it here: This is awesome. The networking is really easy to set up and I’ve found the Remote app to be reliable. Oh, and about that Remote app, if you own an Apple TV, Remote is the only way to fly. It makes locating and playing media from the Apple TV a cinch. You’ll never go back to Apple’s clunky physical remote again.

Genius playlists. Every year the South-by-Southwest conference offers up hundreds (as in over 700) of free MP3 files of the work of artists who attend and perform. Because many of these artists are a mystery to me and I don’t have the patience to play through these hundreds of tracks to separate those I like from those I don’t, most sit in my iTunes library without a single listen.

Internet audio and the smallest step forward

Some many months ago, I railed against the Downing of Internet Radio—an effort that A) pays artists and labels fairly for the use of their work or B) jacks up royalty rates to such an extent that some consider this nothing less than an attempt by representatives of the music industry to price webcasters and services such as Pandora off the Internet. Since I penned that article, little had changed until this week. The rate hikes haven’t yet been imposed, thus allowing webcasters to continue operations. But Pandora and others suggested that should those rates come about, they would be forced to close shop.

This week, however, there’s been a slight movement on this front, though not the kind of movement necessary to guarantee Pandora’s or webcasters’ future. The Digital Media Association (representing such large outfits as Napster and Rhapsody) and SoundExchange (a division of the RIAA responsible for collecting royalties) have come together to settle a portion of the royalty issues.

Specifically, if the agreement is approved by the Copyright Royalty Board (the panel of three judges who concocted these usurious fees), subscription services such as Napster and Rhapsody, that allow users to rent their music as long as they continue paying the subscription fee, and interactive streaming services—those where the user chooses the music rather than having an entity such as Pandora choose it for them—will pay a royalty of 10.5 percent of their overall revenue. This is more than satellite radio outfits such as XM and Sirius pay, but far better than the per-track-poke-in-the-eye that the Copyright Royalty Board had imposed.

iPhone + Remote app = houseful of music

The days when a household had one central stereo in the living are long gone. Today you’ll find receivers and speakers scattered throughout—and sometimes, outside—the house. Yet, as many of us move from room to room, we switch one music system off and another on. Wouldn’t it be simpler to feed each system the same music and channel it to different rooms as you move around the house? And, better yet, have a way to control what plays and on which speakers?

Of course you can. And you can with some tools you might already own. Here’s how.

Tools and setup

A simple setup includes a Mac that houses your iTunes library, an AirPort Express Base Station or Apple TV (running the 2.x software), and an iPod touch or iPhone that you’ve added Apple’s Remote application to. You set them up this way.

The limits of iPod touch/iPhone restrictions

I had an interesting note from reader J.S. this morning. He wrote:

Do you know if the new iPod touch has the option of parental controls on the Web browser? My 16-year-old son wants one, but I don’t know if I want him to have a fully functional web browser in his bedroom. In our house, all Web activity is done in a public place (at least up until now).

Because of an upcoming feature story you’ll see in the next issue of Macworld, I’ve spent a lot of time with OS X’s Parental Controls. The iPod touch and iPhone’s Restrictions, however, have taken virtually none of my time. J.S.’s message was all the prompting I needed to take a look.

If you haven’t played with the feature, it works like this: Go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions, tap Enable Restrictions, and enter and confirm a four-digit code. With this done you have the option to switch off these features: Explicit iPod Content, Safari, YouTube, iTunes, and Installing Apps (the iPhone adds Camera as a final option). When you slide the On/Off toggle for Explicit iPod Content, any tracks marked Explicit become invisible. They’re still on the device, you just can’t access them. Toggle off Safari, YouTube, iTunes and/or Installing Apps and the associated applications on the iPhone or iPod touch are hidden.

iPod tidbits

We’ve covered the recent iPods extensively in the last week—including first looks at the 2G iPod touch, 4G iPod nano, iTunes 8, the iPhone 2.1 software, and reviews of the touch, nano, classic, and iTunes 8. In all that coverage could anything have possibly fallen through the cracks?

Not a lot, but I thought I’d offer a few tidbits that might have escaped your notice.

Cost per gigabyte

During the Let’s Rock presentation you heard quite a bit about iPod capacities offered for lower prices, but have you stopped to calculate exactly how much each iPod costs per gigabyte? No reason to. I’ve got it covered:

iPod classic keeping the seat warm

On Tuesday, my colleague Peter Cohen bemoaned Apple’s announcement that the iPod classic is now available in only a single configuration. Gone is the 160GB “thick” model, leaving only the “thin” model, now at 120GB. Peter, like many hardcore music aficionados, was hoping for an iPod with more space, not less—or, in a perfect world, a chunky iPod touch with the same capacity as the now-discontinued 160GB classic.

I’ve heard similar complaints around the Web and from friends, and while I, as a music fiend myself, sympathize—heck, I’ve got a 160GB iPod classic right here, and I don’t plan on letting it go anytime soon—my own reaction to Apple’s announcement can be summed up thusly: One down, one to go.

You see, since the day the iPod classic debuted a year ago, with essentially minor tweaks over its predecessor, I’ve been saying it’s Dead iPod Walking. Even the name implies at much: When a product carries the label “classic,” it’s a pretty good bet the company doesn’t see that product as anything more than a legacy offering for, um, classic customers.