As you can see, the Videos interface shown in Figure 7-3 couldn't be simpler. Its thumbnail images represent the items you've copied to your iPad. (Synchronizing these items is discussed in Chapter 2.) Navigate between your various video media categories by tapping the category tabs that run along the top of the screen (see Figure 7-4). If you have a lot of videos in a specific category, you can flick your finger to quickly scroll through the list.

Figure 7.4. Navigate your video categories by tapping the appropriate category tab at the top of the screen.

Tap any video thumbnail to open it. The item's icon flies forward as gray panels unfold from behind it like origami. You'll be presented with the information page that displays the name of the video and the year it was made, along with other information that could include the length, dimensions, file size, codecs, and copyright notice, but generally simply includes an extended episode or movie description (see Figure 7-5). Tap "more" to see the entire write-up.

If you are viewing a video with chapters, such as a TV show (each episode in a season is considered a chapter), podcast, or movie, you'll see a list of chapters. If it's a podcast or TV show, you'll be presented with the episodes you have on your iPad, including the name, a summary, ratings, and the length of each episode.

Figure 7.5. Information screens for movies and TV shows

To begin video playback, tap the circular Play button in the top right of the screen, or if your video has a list of chapters, tap a chapter from the list. Your screen clears, and the video loads and automatically begins playing. Tap Done to return to the information page.

If you want to delete a video from your iPad, touch and hold the video thumbnail until a circle with a white × appears in the corner of the video's icon (see Figure 7-6). Tap the × to delete the video. With the exception of videos rented from the iTunes Store, deleting a video from the iPad will not delete it from your computer. You'll be able to sync it again from your iTunes library should you choose to do so.

Figure 7.6. Tap and hold a video's thumbnail icon, and wait for the × in a circle to appear. Tap the × to delete the video.

You can adjust several settings that affect your video playback. These settings are accessed through the iPad's Settings application (see Figure 7-7).

Figure 7.7. The Videos' settings preferences

The iPad's Video app also lets you play content from it through your home television. You'll need to buy some extra cables for this, which you can read about later in the "Video Accessories" section of this chapter, but the Video settings is where you can choose the following options:

Key elements of the YouTube app include a search field in the upper-right corner of the app and a row of seven buttons at the bottom of the screen. Each button (see Figure 7-9) offers a different way to discover and enjoy YouTube videos.

Figure 7.9. The YouTube navigation bar

Figure 7.10. The Sign In/Sign Out button is located in the top-left corner of the Favorites, Subscriptions, and My Videos pages. Tap it to log into your YouTube account.

To remove a bookmarked video, tap the Edit button in the top gray bar. All your bookmarked videos will display a circled × in their top-left corner. Tap the × to remove the video from your favorites. When you are finished deleting favorites, tap the blue Done button. (When you delete your last favorite, and there are no favorites left, the iPad automatically returns you to the Favorites screen without having to tap Done.)

You can also use the search field, found in the upper-right corner of any of these screens, to search YouTube's library of videos.

After finding a video you want to watch, what do you do next? This is one of the situations where the next step depends on whether you're holding the iPad in landscape or portrait mode. If you tap the video thumbnail in portrait mode, the video's information screen will appear, and the video will automatically begin playing in the information screen. If you tap the video thumbnail in landscape mode, the video will begin playing full-screen, and you'll need to tap the Done button to view the video's information screen.

Video information screens provide detailed information for each video. Depending on which orientation you are holding your iPad in—landscape or portrait—you'll see that information laid out slightly differently, but either orientation gives you the same information. Figure 7-11 shows the same info screen in both landscape and portrait modes.

Figure 7.11. A YouTube video's information screen offers information about the video in both landscape and portrait modes. The landscape layout offers a list of related videos, the portrait layout shows you a fuller video write-up.

On the video information screen you'll find the name of the video, its rating (in stars, from zero to five, when applicable), the number of times the video has been viewed, its run time, and more. You'll also see tabs labeled Related, More From, and Comments.

Managing Videos: Rating, Sharing, and So On

You can do more with videos in the YouTube app than just sort and view them. While in a video's information screen, you can bookmark, share, rate, and flag the video, as well as move from embedded to full-screen playback. Simply tap the video to bring up its YouTube control overlay, shown in Figure 7-12.

As you see in Figure 7-12, the overlay consists of opaque bars at the top and bottom of the video. The bar at the bottom allows you to play/pause the video, scrub backward or forward with the slider, and switch to full-screen mode by tapping the double-arrow expand button. These are all standard controls and operate exactly as you'd expect them to, matching the video interface used in other applications. The double-arrow also appears in full-screen mode, allowing you to return from full-screen to embedded playback.

The bar at the top allows you to select several options for managing the video. From here, you can add the video to your favorites, share it with others, vote on the video (like or dislike), or flag the video as inappropriate. All the top-bar options require a YouTube account to apply them. Here's a quick overview of what the options are and how they work.

Figure 7.12. Tap a video in the video information screen to overlay it with a number of management options.

Note

You must be viewing the video in its information screen (i.e., embedded mode) to rate the video, share it with others, and so forth. The managing video toolbar does not show up when you are playing a video in full-screen mode. The only exception is bookmarking. In full-screen mode, a bookmark icon appears next to the volume slider at the bottom of the screen. Tap it to add the video to your favorites.

• Add: Tap this to bookmark the video to your favorites. If you have more than one Favorites list, you'll be able to select the list you'd like to add the video to. The video will immediately appear under the Favorites button in the YouTube app.

• Share: Tap this to send a link to the video in an e-mail message. Without taking you out of the YouTube app, an e-mail compose window will pop up with the name of the video in the Subject field and a link to it in the body of the message. Just enter the e-mail address of the person you want to send it to, and you're done! You can also add your own text to the body of the e-mail like any other e-mail.

• Like/Dislike: Tapping either button flags the video as one you like (thumbs up) or dislike (thumbs down).

• Flag: Tapping this button will display a red Flag as Inappropriate button. Tap that to send a notification to YouTube. They will review the video and pull it from the site, if they deem it necessary. Be warned: don't flag videos just because you don't like the content. Flagging is meant only for objectionable content. If you falsely flag too many videos, you could have your YouTube account suspended.

Note

The Rate and Flag buttons will be grayed out when you've already rated or flagged the video.

Here are some tips for using the YouTube application:

Although Apple's connector cables allow you to direct your iPad video to televisions, a number of innovative third parties provide video solutions as well. Take the $430 Cinemin Slice (www.wowwee.com) from WowWee for example. It's a video system that allows you to dock your iPad (see Figure 7-15) and project video to any screen or wall. With it, you can avoid a lot of awkward cabling when making presentations on-the-go, plus you don't have to arrange in advance for an HDTV. Instead, you can carry this relatively small unit along with you and display to any large flat surface, including the ceiling, if needed—the projector head is on a hinge that can rotate forward and upward.

The Slice works with iPad 2's screen mirroring. If you need to project in landscape mode rather than portrait, which most business folk probably prefer, you can purchase a $40 connectivity pack to use with your Apple-branded VGA video cable.

Figure 7.15. The $430 Cinemin Slice product offers a highly portable way to project iPad 2 screens for on-the-go presentations.

Tap the iPod icon (see Figure 7-16) on your iPad's Home screen to launch the app. The iPod icon is bright orange and has a picture of a classic-looking iPod, complete with outdated click wheel. It's a homage to the past, and should be instantly recognizable to anyone who enjoyed music on an iPod in the early 2000s, even if my younger children have never used, understood, or will likely encounter a click wheel.

Figure 7.16. The iPod icon.

The first thing that you'll notice about the iPod app (see Figure 7-17) is that its layout, as mentioned earlier, is similar to that of iTunes. Not only can you listen to music in the app, you can also easily create and edit playlists like you would on your desktop. If you've played music on an iPhone or iPod touch, you'll be struck by how much more open the layout of the iPad's iPod app feels. There's so much more space on the iPad that you can see more music at once. Instead of popping up and down long sequences of menu screens, the iPad presents more options and more music in one place, making it much easier to find and enjoy your tunes.

Figure 7.17. The iPod app on the iPad closely resembles iTunes on your computer.

The iPod window is composed of five key elements:

Figure 7.18. Types of playlists include (from top to bottom) Genius, smart, and regular.

When viewing music in your library, you can take advantage of several buttons that allow you to choose how to view your tracks. Use these buttons to help locate items you're looking for. Located at the bottom center of Figure 7-17, your choices include:

Whether you are in your main music library or a standard, smart, or Genius playlist, to start playing a song, simply tap it. Figure 7-20 shows the iPod app's Now Playing screen. You arrive at this screen whenever you start playing a song.

Figure 7.20. The iPod app's Now Playing screen provides an interactive screen that controls playback for the currently playing item. From this screen, you can adjust the volume, pause and resume playback, and loop the current track. If you have added lyrics in iTunes, you'll find them displayed here as well.

You'll also notice that a Play indicator has appeared in the iPad's status bar (see Figure 7-21). The right-pointing Play indicator at the top-right of the screen (just left of the battery status) appears universally when you're playing back music. This tells you at a glance that music is playing. You'll find this especially helpful when you've removed your earbuds and placed the iPad on a table. It alerts you that your battery is gleefully emptying itself as your iPad plays music that no one is hearing.

Figure 7.21. The Play indicator is next to the battery status in the iPad's status bar.

Now Playing Screen

The Now Playing screen (see Figure 7-20) is divided into three sections. Here's a run-down of each of those sections and what kinds of information and controls you'll find there.

Title Bar

The title bar (see Figure 7-22) is the black bar at the top of the Now Playing screen and contains the following items:

Figure 7.22. The title bar on the Now Playing screen

• Volume slider: Drag along the slider to adjust the volume. You can also use the iPad's physical volume button to adjust the volume. If you've attached an external speaker or remote control, you can use its switches to control the playback volume as well.

• AirPlay button: When music-capable AirPlay receivers are available on your home network, an AirPlay button appears just to the right of the volume slider. Tap on the button and select a receiver to redirect your music to. Because of Apple's highly encrypted AirTunes protocol, AirPlay for music and audio was limited to Apple-branded receiver equipment until Spring 2011, when it was finally reverse engineered to allow access by third-party applications.

• Artist, song, and album: These items appear at the top middle of the screen and are for information only. Tapping them does nothing.

• Rewind: The Rewind button looks like a line followed by two left-pointing triangles.

  • Tap to move back to the beginning of the currently playing song.

  • Double-tap to move to the previous song in the album or playlist. If you are already at the start of the song, a single tap moves you back; if you're already at the first song, this works as if you had pressed the Back button—you return to the most recent album or playlist screen.

  • Touch and hold to rewind through the current song. You'll hear very short snippets as you move backward through the song. This feature proves especially handy while listening to audiobooks.

• Play/Pause: Play looks like a right-pointing triangle. Pause looks like a pair of upright lines. Tap this button to toggle between playback and pause modes.

• Forward: The Forward button looks like the Rewind button in a mirror. The line is to the right, and both triangles point right instead of left.

  • Tap once to move to the next song in the album or playlist. If you're at the last song, tapping Forward moves you back to the album or playlist.

  • Touch and hold to fast-forward through your song.

Below the title bar, you'll find a thin bar that contains the loop button, the scrubber bar, and the shuffle button (see Figure 7-22).

• Loop control: This control, which looks like a pair of arrows pointing to each other in a circle, appears when you tap album art.

  • Tap once to loop the currently playing album or playlist. After the last song plays, the first song starts again.

  • Tap a second time to loop just the current song. The number 1 appears on the loop, telling you that the loop applies to just this song.

  • Tap once more to disable looping.

  • A blue loop (both the regular loop and the loop with the number 1) indicates that looping is enabled. A white loop means looping is switched off.

• Scrubber bar: The scrubber bar appears to the right of the loop control. Tap the album cover to make this control appear; tap again to hide it.

  • The number at the left of the bar shows the elapsed playback time. The number at the right shows the remaining playback time.

  • Drag the playhead to set the point at which your song plays back. You can do so while the song is playing, so you can hear which point you've reached.

• Shuffle: The shuffle control looks like two arrows making a wavy X. It appears to the right of the scrubber bar and, like the loop and scrubber controls, appears only after you tap the album cover.

  • When the shuffle control is off (white), album and playlist songs play back in order.

  • When the shuffle control is selected (blue), the iPod app randomly orders songs for shuffled playback.

Note

If you are using Apple's iPhone earphones with a remote and mic to listen to music on your iPad, all the buttons and click features of the iPhone's earbuds work just fine (despite Apple not listing the earbuds as an official iPad accessory). Click to play/pause a song. Double-click to skip to the next song. Triple-click to return to the previous song. Tap the + or − button on the earphone control to increase or decrease the volume. The microphone on the iPhone earbuds also works fine with the iPad. The Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic cost $29 at the Apple Store.

Album Cover

Below the scrubber bar, you'll notice the song's album art taking up a majority of the display (see Figure 7-20).

• Album art: When you've downloaded album art, the cover image appears just below the top bar and occupies most of your screen. (When the iPad cannot find album art, it instead displays the same light gray music note on a white background).

• Song count: This is a little pill-shaped button that shows you the number of the song in the playlist and how many songs are in it in total.

• Lyrics: If the song has lyrics embedded in the music file, the lyrics will be displayed over the album art. You can make the lyrics and the rest of the control interface go away by tapping them once. Tap the album art again to bring them back.

Bottom Bar

At the bottom of the Now Playing screen you'll see a thick black bar (see Figure 7-23) containing the following:

• Back button: Tap the Back button (the arrow pointing left) at the left end of the bar to return to the most recent album or playlist screen. Tapping the Back button does not stop playback. Your song continues to play as you browse through your categories or tap the Home button to do other things on your iPad.

• Genius button: This center button looks like an atom with electrons swirling around it. Tapping this will create a Genius playlist based on the song that is currently playing. When you navigate back to the music library, you'll see a playlist labeled "Genius" along with several other options. We'll discuss those options in just a bit.

• Album View button: This button looks like a three-item bulleted list and appears at the right of the bar. Tap this to switch between your Now Playing screen and its Album view.

Figure 7.23. The bar at the bottom of the Now Playing screen allows you to create a Genius playlist and enter Album view.

Album View

Album view is a powerful and fun way to navigate your music. You can access Album view in two ways, both from the Now Playing window. As a matter of fact, Album view is part of the Now Playing window. When you access it, you'll see that the bars at the top and bottom of the Now Playing window stay the same (see Figure 7-24).

• Double-tap the album art area to reveal Album view. The cover art will flip around, and you'll be presented with the full list of songs from that album.

• Tap the Album View button in the thick bottom bar of the Now Playing window. The cover art of the current song will flip around, and you'll be presented with the full list of songs from that album.

To leave Album view, tap the small thumbnail of the album art in the bottom-right corner of the screen (where the Album View button used to be). The list of the albums songs will flip back around and display the cover art again. Alternatively, tap the Back button at the bottom left of the screen, and you'll be taken back to the main iPod app screen. Your music will keep playing.

Why use Album view? Pretend you are listening to a playlist and a song comes on you haven't heard in a while. It's a great song, and you want to check out what other songs are on the album. Album view lets you do this without leaving the playlist. Simply access it by using either of the methods mentioned earlier, and you'll be presented with a screen that shows a track list of all the songs from that album along with their names and durations. Scroll up and down the track list to see all the items on the current playlist or album. Tap any item to start playback.

Figure 7.24. Album view shows a list of tracks and durations for the current album or playlist.

Album view also allows you to rate your songs. Use the star control that appears below the scrubber bar to rate the current song, from zero to five stars. Drag your finger along the stars to set your rating. These ratings sync back to your computer. Rating your music is a good thing to do because it lets you keep track of songs you really like. You can create smart playlists to contain all of your five-star songs, enabling you to access them all in one place instantly.

Also, if you use the iTunes DJ feature in the desktop version of iTunes, higher-rated songs will be played more often. iTunes DJ is an iTunes feature that picks songs from your library and creates an endless playback of music. It's great when you are having a party. iTunes DJ is not a feature of the iPod app on the iPad.

Tip

When there's empty space on the track list in Album view—for example, when you have only one or two tracks—double-tap the empty areas to return to the Now Playing screen. Alternatively, double-tap either side of the rating stars display.

The different kinds of playlists were introduced earlier in this chapter. Playlists you've chosen to sync from iTunes will automatically appear in your iPod app. But you aren't limited to creating playlists on your computer. You can create playlists and Genius playlists right from your iPad, allowing you to build audio-listening experiences on-the-go.

Creating a Playlist

To create a standard playlist, tap the + button at the lower-left of the iPod app screen (see Figure 7-17). A pop-up appears, asking you to name the playlist. Enter a name, and tap Save. Immediately after, a list of all the songs on your iPad slides up the screen. Select the songs you want to include in your playlist by tapping the blue + button next to each track. When you select a song, it will appear grayed out. You'll also find an Add All Songs option at the top of your list of songs. Adding all the songs in your library defeats the purpose of a playlist, however.

If you select a song by accident, you cannot unselect it at this point, but you can easily remove it later. You may add a song more than once to your playlist. You can delete those copies after you're done by editing the playlist (as discussed in the next section).

While adding songs to a playlist, you have several options to navigate your library to find the songs you want. At the bottom of the Add to Playlist screen, you'll see the five category views of the iPod app: Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres, and Composers. Select any of these to sort through your song library, and then click the appropriate song to add it to the playlist.

You also can navigate through your iPod app's Library source list to find items to add to your playlist. To do this, tap the Sources button in the upper-left corner of the screen, and you'll be presented with a drop-down list of the sources and existing playlists in your library (see Figure 7-25). You can combine audiobooks, songs, and podcasts in the same playlist. Tap the blue Done button when you are finished adding songs.

Figure 7.25. Adding songs to a playlist. You can search through your entire library for songs or choose a source or playlist from your library.

Editing a Playlist

When you are finished adding songs to your new playlist and tap the blue Done button in the upper-right corner, you are taken to the playlist edit screen (see Figure 7-26). This screen allows you to add, delete, rearrange, and shuffle songs as well as to delete the playlist entirely.

Figure 7.26. The playlist edit screen allows you to further customize your playlists after their creation.

You can access the playlist edit screen from any existing playlist by tapping the gray Edit button at its top-right corner. This playlist edit screen allows you to do the following:

• Add songs: Tap the Add Songs button to be presented with the Add to Playlist screen again, and follow the previous steps until you've added the items you want; then tap the blue Done button again.

• Delete songs: Tap the white and red minus (−) button to remove a selected song. Tap the red Delete button that appears to the right of the song to confirm deletion. Removing a song from a playlist will not delete it from your music library on your iPad or on your computer.

• Rearrange songs: Tap and hold the grip bars to the right of a song, and drag to rearrange it in the playlist.

• Delete playlist: If you decide you no longer want the playlist, tap the white and red minus (−) button next to the name of the playlist in the source list to delete the playlist. Tap the red Delete button that appears to the right of the playlist's name to confirm deletion. Deleting a playlist will not delete the songs it contains from your music library on your iPad or on your computer. The iPod app will prompt you to confirm your deletion.

Note

You can edit only standard playlists. If you have synced a smart playlist (the kind with the icon of a machine's cogwheel next to it) from iTunes on your computer, you won't be able to edit it.

Another way to explore the music on your iPad is by playing a Genius mix. A Genius mix is similar to a Genius playlist, but you have no control over what songs appear on it, and the songs change each time you play it.

On your computer, iTunes automatically creates Genius mixes when you enable the Genius feature. A Genius mix is based on genre and format, not on an individual song like a Genius playlist is. You can have any number of different mixes—it all depends on the types of songs you have in your iTunes library. Examples of Genius Mixes are Punk Mix, Pop Mix, Classical Crossover Mix, Folk Mix...the list goes on and on.

To play a Genius mix, tap Genius Mix in the source list. The iPad presents a series of Genius mixes represented by squares formed of four album covers (see Figure 7-27). These represent a sample of songs contained in the mix. To begin playing a mix, tap it. The mix's four-covers icon will transform into the album cover of the currently playing song in the mix.

Figure 7.27. Genius mixes on the iPad allow you to listen to automatically generated collections of genre-based music.

Your navigation options are limited while in a mix. You won't see a list of the songs in the mix and can only move through the songs by using the Forward and Back buttons. The currently playing album still appears in the now-playing screen.

If you've synced podcasts, audiobooks, and iTunes U lessons to your iPad, their categories will show up in the iPod app Library source list, along with other playlists. To view the items available in each category, simply tap the category name. Unlike with music, there is no way to sort podcasts, audiobooks, and iTunes U lessons in the items list.

For podcasts and iTunes U lessons, tap the series or class, and then select the episode or lesson to begin playing back that item. To play an audiobook, tap your chosen audiobook in the list.

When you select a podcast, audiobook, or iTunes U lesson, the Now Playing screen appears. While this screen is similar to the Now Playing screen for music, it has some subtle differences (see Figure 7-28).

Figure 7.28. The Now Playing screens for podcasts, audiobooks, and iTunes U lessons offer several extra features that do not appear on the Now Playing screen for music.

The iPod app offers an easy-to-use search feature that lets you find a song quickly. That's super-helpful when you have a large media library and don't want to spend the time flicking through long lists of titles. Tap the search field in the top-right corner of the iPod app screen. A keyboard appears. As you type in your search keyword, a list of results automatically begins to populate the main portion of your screen (see Figure 7-29).

Figure 7.29. The iPod app's search function

You can navigate through the search results by song, artist, album, composer, podcast, or audiobook by tapping the respective buttons above the keyboard. As you can see in Figure 7-29, which buttons are active depends on which media you've loaded into your iPad's library

You can also scroll through the results with your finger. Doing so hides the keyboard so you can see a longer list of results. To get the keyboard back, tap the search field again. Tap any song to play it. Your search results list remains until you navigate to a category or playlist in the source list or tap the × button in the search field.

We've already mentioned how your music, podcasts, and audiobooks will keep playing even when you leave the iPod app. The good news is that you don't need to go back into the iPod app to change tracks. Simply double-tap the iPad's physical Home button in quick succession to reveal the recent apps list, and then swipe to the right to find your iPad playback controls (see Figure 7-30). From this small pop-up, you'll be able to navigate through songs, adjust the volume, or select an AirPlay destination. To close this panel, tap anywhere on the main screen. Tap the iPod icon at the right to move immediately into the iPod application.

Figure 7.30. These iPad controls appear to the left of your recently used applications. Swipe to the right to uncover this little gem.

You can also access these controls when your iPad is locked. Simply double-tap the iPad's Home button, and the iPod navigation bar appears at the top of the display (see Figure 7-31).

Figure 7.31. With a simple double-tap of the iPad's home button, iPod options appear on the iPad's lock screen. Use these buttons and sliders to control music playback even when your iPad is locked.

Surprisingly, for a feature-rich application like iPod, the iPad provides just a few settings for its music player. You'll find these in Settings

Figure 7.32. The iPod app's Settings screen allow you to set EQ and adjust volume limits, as well as add credentials for iTunes' new Home Sharing feature.