Take Control of Media on Your iPad
ISBN:978-1-61542-131-2
Version:2.0
Pages:158
Size (PDF):4.6 MB
Date:March 23, 2011
Make the most of your iPad media machine!

Take Control of
Media on Your iPad

Second Edition
Jeff Carlson

Become an iPad media maven! Join Jeff Carlson as he explains how to add text, tunes, movies, and more to your iPad, and learn smart ways to use Apple’s core media apps, plus find tips about third-party apps. Also, read about using your iPad as a TV remote. Updated for the Apple TV 2, and the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3!

This product has been discontinued.

This ebook is no longer for sale.

You’ll learn how to:

Mind your media: Get an overview of options for moving media to your iPad, including iTunes, Home Sharing, and more.

Read books, magazines, comics, and more: Learn about different ebook file formats. Find free and commercial ebooks to read in iBooks, transfer ebooks from a desktop computer to iBooks, and learn how to use iBooks so you can go beyond flipping pages. And, if iBooks isn’t your cup of tea or if you want to include multiple ebook-reading apps in your repertoire, or read magazines or comics, you’ll find ideas for top third-party options.

Listen to music and audiobooks: Jeff covers the basics of controlling your music and podcasts in the iPod app, and he gives steps for creating regular and smart playlists (a surprisingly complex endeavor), and for using Apple’s handy Genius feature. You’ll learn how to stream music directly to your iPad with a third-party app or with Home Sharing, and you’ll learn how to stream music from your iPad with AirPlay.

Watch video: Learn how to add video to your iPad, whether you want to buy it from Apple or acquire it from an independent source. Specific topics include iTunes Store rentals, ripping DVDs, exporting from iMovie, a GoodReader workaround, and an SD card tip. You’ll also learn how to output from your iPad to a television, and get ideas for streaming video to your iPad, with quick looks at YouTube, Netflix, and Safari. Bonus for Apple TV owners—the ebook has directions for integrating an Apple TV with an iPad.

View photos: Benefit from Jeff’s experience as an enthusiastic amateur photographer as he discusses moving photos (and certain videos) to an iPad from a camera or a computer. Jeff also covers how to share your photos once they are on the iPad, whether with a slideshow, Picture Frame mode, or via email attachment. You’ll even learn what happens when you transfer a raw image file from an external device to an iPad. Bonus for iPad 2 owners—Jeff offers tips for taking better-quality photos using the iPad’s built-in cameras!

Control your electronics: If you truly want to use your iPad as a big iPod touch, here’s one opportunity—as a big remote control. Jeff shows you how to use Apple’s Remote app to control iTunes on a computer or to control an Apple TV, and he offers ideas for how to trick out your iPad so it can serve as a remote control for other consumer electronic devices like TVs and stereos.

Jeff Carlson

About Jeff Carlson

Jeff Carlson is a contributing editor of TidBITS, a frequent contributor to DPReview, Macworld, and CreativePro, and the author of best-selling books on the Mac, digital photography, and, in earlier incarnations, web design and Palm organizers. He consumes almost too much coffee. Almost.

What’s New in the Second Edition

Apple released iOS 4.2.1 in late 2010, bringing to the iPad features that had already appeared in the iPhone such as Home screen folders, expanded multitasking, and more. And, then, just as this manuscript was going into production, Apple released iOS 4.3 and the iPad 2. We delayed publication for an extra week in order to add information about iOS 4.3 and the new iPad 2.

Highlights of the many changes in this edition include these:

  • The Mind Your Media chapter has expanded steps for how to Sync from iTunes. It also has instructions for how to Stream from iTunes, a new feature introduced in iOS 4.3.
  • The Read Ebooks and More chapter details the changes in iBooks 1.2, such as the new Collections organization feature. It also has a new introduction that helps you get your head around popular options and file formats for reading ebooks on the iPad.
  • The Listen to Audio chapter has been revised to reflect the latest information. In particular, the new topic Stream Audio to an AirPlay Device describes how you can play audio from your iPad to a stereo system or Apple TV.
  • In the overhauled Watch Video chapter, Encode Videos from Your DVDs is updated to note a few small changes when using Handbrake, and the workaround for exporting HD video from iMovie is deleted, since an iPad-friendly HD 720p setting is now available. Also, Connect via Cable now discusses the new Apple Digital AV Adaptor, which has an HDMI port, and mentions that the iPad 2 supports mirroring, allowing you to show the iPad screen on an external display.
  • The View Photos chapter is generally updated, and it has a new topic, Take Photos with the Camera, that walks you through the basics and teaches useful tips for focusing and zooming.
  • The Use Your iPad as a Remote chapter is fully updated to cover the latest version of Apple’s nifty Remote app (version 2.1 at press time), which you can use to control iTunes on your computer or a first- or second-generation Apple TV.
  • Read Me First
  • Introduction
  • Quick Start to Media on Your iPad
  • Mind Your Media
  • Read Books and More
  • Listen to Audio
  • Watch Video
  • View Photos
  • Use Your iPad as a Remote
  • Appendix A: Set Up AirPlay on the Apple TV or AirPort Express
  • About This Book