Secrets of the iPod and iTunes (Fifth Edition) [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Controls

The iPod has rightly been praised for its ease of use. As with all its products, Apple strove to make the iPod as intuitive as possible, placing a limited number of controls and ports on the device. When Apple designed the business cardsized iPod mini, it had to be even more careful about the placement of its controls than with the original iPod. With such a limited set of controls, of course, some controls have to perform more than one function. In the following pages, I examine just what the controls and ports on the original iPod and iPod mini do.

On the Face of It

On the front of your iPod (Figure 1.7), you''ll find a display and set of navigation controls. On the first two generations of iPods, these controls are arrayed around a central scroll wheel and are mechanicalmeaning that they move and activate switches underneath the buttons. On the third-generation iPods, these controls are above the scroll wheel and are touch-sensitive; they activate when they come into contact with your flesh but, allegedly, not when a nonfleshy object (such as the case) touches them.

Because the mini''s size accurately reflects its name, Apple''s designers had to consider carefully the makeup of its display and controls. With a device that measured 2 inches by 3.6 inches, there was no room for frippery. Proving that Apple''s designers are among the best in the world, they not only created a display and controls that matched the functionality of the third-generation iPod, but also in many ways surpassed it (Figure 1.8).

They did so by creating a scroll wheel that incorporates the navigation buttons. Unlike the first two generations of the iPod, on which the buttons are arrayed around the outside of the wheel, these buttons are part of the wheel itself (Figure 1.9). Their sensors sit beneath the scroll wheel at the four compass points, and the scroll wheel sits upon a short spindle, allowing it to rock in all directions. To activate one of the buttons, just press the scroll wheel in the direction of that button.

Knowing a good thing when it designs it, Apple dropped the touch-sensitive buttons when it created the fourth-generation iPod and included a slightly larger version of this click wheel.

Chapter 10, you''ll learn how to activate these hidden commands on the original iPod, the iPod Photo, and the iPod mini.)

The displays

Near the top of the original iPod sits a 2-inch-diagonal, grayscale liquid crystal display with a resolution of 160 by 128 pixels. You can turn on backlighting (switch on a light that makes the display easier to read in low-light situations) by holding down the Menu button. With all iPods using iPod Software 1.3 Updater or later, you can also switch on backlighting by choosing Backlight from the iPod''s main menu.

The iPod Photo also sports a 2-inch display, but with an important differencethis one can display up to 65,536 colors at a resolution of 220 by 176 pixels. When lit, the display is brilliantly crisp. When dimmed, it can be easily read outdoors but is less clear indoors where you may have to view it off-axis to see what''s on the screen (Figure 1.10).

Measured diagonally, the mini''s backlit display is just under half an inch smaller than that of the original iPod and iPod Photo, yet in nearly all cases, it projects as much text as the other members of the iPod family. It does this by using a different font from the one used on the original iPod. This font (called Espy) was originally used by Apple''s Newton hand-held computer. The original iPod uses the Chicago font and displays text in a larger font size. Espy is very easy to read at smaller sizesthe perfect choice for the mini.

Play/Pause button

If you scan the surface of your iPod, you''ll notice that it bears no recognizable On/Off switch. That job is handled by the Play/Pause buttonlocated at the bottom of the iPod control wheel on older iPods, in the third position in the row of buttons on the third-generation iPods, and at the bottom of the click wheel on the iPod mini, the iPod Photo, and fourth-generation iPods. Just press this button to switch the iPod on, and hold it down for about 3 seconds to switch the iPod off.

As its name hints, this button is the one you push to play or pause the highlighted song.

Previous/Rewind button

This button is located on the far-left side of the wheel on first-, second-, and fourth-generation iPods, the iPod Photo, and the iPod mini. It''s the far-left button on the third-generation iPod. Press this button once to go to the previous song in the playlist; hold it down to rewind through a song. When you rewind or fast-forward through a song, you move in small increments at first. As you continue to hold the button down, you move in larger increments.

On the iPod Photo, the Previous/Rewind button also moves you back through a slideshow.

Next/Fast Forward button

Look to the far right on first-, second-, and fourth-generation iPods, the iPod Photo, and the iPod mini; look to the rightmost button on the third-generation iPod. Press this button once to go to the next song in the playlist; hold it down to fast-forward through a song. When you rewind or fast-forward through a song, you move in small increments at first. As you continue to hold the button down, you move in larger increments.

On the iPod Photo, the Next/Forward button advances you through a slideshow.

Menu button

Pressing the well-marked Menu button takes you back through the interface the way you came. If you''ve moved from the main iPod screen to the Browse screen, for example, and you press the Menu button, you''ll move back to the main iPod screen. If you''ve moved from the main iPod screen through the Playlist screen to a particular song within a particular playlist, each time you press the Menu button, you''ll move back one screen.

Holding the Menu button down for about 2 seconds turns backlighting on or off.

Scroll wheel

Inside the ring of buttons on first- and second-generation iPods, below the bevy of buttons on third-generation iPods, and marked with the navigation controls on fourth-generation iPods and iPod minis, is the scroll wheel. On the original 5 and 10 GB iPods, this scroll wheel turned; on later models, it doesn''t. Rather, the scroll wheel is stationary and touch-sensitive. Move your thumb across it to "scroll" the wheel.

Moving the wheel (or, in the case of recent iPods, your thumb) clockwise highlights items below the selected item; moving the wheel counterclockwise highlights items above the selected item. If a window is larger than the display, moving the scroll wheel causes the window to scroll up or down when the first or last item in the list is highlighted.

You also use the scroll wheel to adjust volume and move to a particular location in a song.

The iPod includes a feature that allows you to hear a click as you use the scroll wheel. This wonderful feature provides you aural feedback on how quickly you''re spinning the wheel. On iPod models prior to the fourth generation (including the original iPod mini), this sound came from inside the iPod. The fourth-generation iPods include the option to hear the click from within the iPod, through the headphone port, or both.

Select button

The bull''s-eye of all iPodsthe center buttonselects a menu item. If the Settings menu item is selected, for example, pushing the Select button moves you to the Settings screen, where you can select additional settings.

When you press the Select button while a song is playing and the Play screen is visible, you move to another Play screen, where you can scrub (quickly navigate forward and back with the scroll wheel) your song. On third-generation iPods and later (including the iPod mini and iPod Photo), pressing this button twice while a song plays moves you to a rating screen, where you can assign a rating of one to five stars for the song that''s playing (Figure 1.11).

Note that this works differently if you have an iPod Photo, the song you''re playing includes album art, and the iTunes'' Display Album Artwork on Your iPod option is enabled. Under these conditions, when you press the Select button while a song plays, you''re taken to a screen that shows a larger image of the album art. Press Select again and you''re taken to the scrub screen. Press Select one more time to see the ratings screen.

Up Top (Early iPods)

The tops of the first- and second-generation iPods (Figure 1.12) carry two ports and one switch. Here''s what they do.

FireWire port

As the name implies, this port is where you plug in your 6-pin FireWire cable. The iPod uses the FireWire cable both for power (power pulled from either an up-and-running-but-not-sleeping computer or the power adapter) and for transferring data between the iPod and a Mac or PC. The second-generation iPod models include a plastic cover that keeps gunk out of the FireWire port. The original iPods lack this cover.

Headphone jack

When the iPod was first released, a few people were concerned that it bore only a single audio-out port: the Headphone jack. Other, less-capable music players carried two ports: one for headphones and another for line-level output, which is the kind of output that''s acceptable to home and car stereos.

It turned out that there was no need for concern. Of course you can plug a set of headphones into the iPod, and yes, you can use any set of headphones as long as it carries a stereo Walkman-style miniplug. But you can also plug the iPod into your stereo. Elsewhere in the book, I''ll explain how to do so. For those of you who are interested in such numbers, the iPod has a maximum output power of 60mW rms (30mW per channel) everywhere except in Europe.

Chapter 9), I''ll offer hints about ways to skirt this limitation.

Hold switch

When you push the Hold switch to the left, the front buttons lock. This feature is particularly handy when you don''t want the iPod to begin playing when it''s bumped in your backpack or pushed in your pocket.

Top and Bottom (Dock-connector iPods)

Apple has changed the port configuration on recent iPods. They work this way.

Headphone jack and Hold switch

Today''s third- and fourth-generation iPods, the iPod Photo, and iPod mini sport a Headphone jack, a Hold switch, and a Remote Control connector up top (Figure 1.13, Figure 1.14 ). The Headphone jack and Hold switch work nearly the same way as they do on the older iPods, providing audio output and disabling the iPod''s controls.

Chapter 3).

Dock Connector port

The iPod''s designers replaced the FireWire port of the old iPods with a proprietary port that handles both power and data chores for the device. This Dock Connector port, on the bottom of the third- and fourth-generation iPods, the iPod Photo, and iPod mini, supports data transfer via both FireWire and USB 2.0 (Figure 1.15, Figure 1.16 ).