
How can I customize how iTunes autofills my iPod Shuffle?I have an iPod shuffle and it's pretty neat, though of course I'd love to have a tiny screen on it. Problem is, a lot of the time the music that iTunes drops onto the iPod isn't what I want. I do aerobics, and there's nothing that's a buzzkill faster than a slow song in the middle of a workout! You're in luck: I have an iPod shuffle (though it's a first generation 1GB unit, not one of the sleek new devices that Apple sells. Nonetheless, from the perspective of iTunes they're all the same, just different sizes. So it turns out that there are two main ways you can control the music that Apple iTunes autofills your shuffle: either by picking a playlist or by creating a smart playlist. I prefer the latter, because there's all sorts of cool stuff you can do with a smart playlist. I'll demonstrate how you can skip slow-tempo music, for example, but give me a sec to show the basics of working with the iPod shuffle first, okay? Unlike any other kind of iPod, when you plug a shuffle into a computer running iTunes, you get a slightly different display: ![]() Let me zoom in a bit on the bottom part, because that's where it's interesting: ![]() Here you can see on the pop-up menu that I've left it with the default selection of all music ("Music"). Click on Settings and you'll see that there are a few things you can tweak: ![]() It slows the sync down, but I choose "replace everything" because that way each time I use the iPod shuffle I'm surprised by what is - and sometimes isn't - on the device. After all, a 1GB unit has about 950MB of space and my music library is over 27GB, so there's a lot more missing than present. Click on "Autofill" or "Sync" and it'll start chugging along: ![]() More interestingly, go to "File" --> "New Smart Playlist..." and you can create a smart playlist that's perfect for this task: ![]() Here you can see I've constrained this playlist to songs with at least 60 beats per minute out of my "rock" genre (fast tempo classical probably isn't going to be so good for your aerobics or Nia, somehow), limited to 1GB of music total. Back on the main iTunes window instead of "Music" I choose the new smart playlist, then click "Autofill" again and my shuffle has a randomly selected collection of up-tempo rock. Neat, eh?
Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon
Categorized:
Sony PSP, MP3 Players, Etc.
(Article 9123)
Tagged: apple ipod, apple itunes, ipod autofill, ipod shuffle Previous: Review: Nikon Coolpix P90 Compact Digital Camera Next: How can I shrink picture/photo size in Windows? Subscribe!
Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Your library is better organized than mine if you have all your BPM fields populated. I just checked mine and less than 5% of the files have anything there. Of those numbers that are present, many are meaningless: A bunch of 192's and 168's, suggesting that somebody confused bit rate with BPM. A bunch of 3's for some reason, and one song claims to be 890 BPM. That should be a good one for the workout. Posted by: Dan at October 17, 2009 9:56 PMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
|
![]()
Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 2300+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.
Help!
Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!
Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.
Articles and Reviews
Auctions and Online Shopping Blogs and RSS Feeds Building Web site traffic Business and Management Cell Phones and Mobile Phones CGI Scripts and Web Site Programming Computer and Internet Basics d) None of the Above HTML and CSS Industry News and Trade Shows Mac OS X Help MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Social Network Help Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine Optimization Shell Script Programming Sony PSP, MP3 Players, Etc. The Writing Business Unix and Linux Help Video Game Tips and Help Windows Help
Recent Entries
Book Links
|