Cover Flow (also called the cover browser) lets you flip through your cover art to select music alphabetically by artist. The iPod classic, iPod nano, iPod touch, and iPhone (as well as some earlier sixth-generation models) can display the cover art for albums.

To browse music by cover art with an iPod touch, choose Music from the Home screen; on an iPhone, choose iPod from the Home screen. Then turn the iPod touch or iPhone quickly to view it horizontally. This movement changes the display to landscape mode and displays the cover browser, as shown in Figure 16-1.

Figure 16-1. Cover Flow: the cover browser (on an iPod touch).

Slide your finger across the album covers to scroll swiftly through the music library, or tap to the right or left of the cover art in the foreground to move forward or backward an album cover at a time.

Tap the Play button in the lower-left corner (shown in Figure 16-1) to start playing the first song in the foreground album; the Play button turns to a Pause button so that you can tap it again to stop playback. Tap the i button in the lower-right corner (or tap the foreground cover art) to list the songs in that album. Then you can tap a song to start playing it.

The Cover Flow browser is also available on the iPod classic and iPod nano models. Choose Music from the main menu on an iPod classic and then choose Cover Flow from the Music menu. Rotate an iPod nano 90 degrees to the left or the right, and the Cover Flow browser appears automatically. (You can also choose Cover Flow from the Music menu.)

To browse by cover art on an iPod nano or iPod classic, scroll the click wheel clockwise to move forward or counterclockwise to move backward through album covers. You can also press the Fast Forward or Rewind buttons to step forward or backward in your library one cover at a time. Press the Select button in the middle of the click wheel to select the album in the foreground; a list of songs appears. Use the click wheel to scroll the list of songs and then press the Select button to select a highlighted song.

You can quickly and easily locate a song by looking up either the song's artist or its album. Your iPod or iPhone organizes music by artist and then within each artist by album.

To browse music by artist on an iPod touch, choose Music from the Home screen; on an iPhone, choose iPod from the Home screen. Next, tap the Artists icon along the bottom row of the Music or iPod screen. A scrollable list of artists appears, with an alphabet listed vertically along the right side, as shown in Figure 16-2 — flick your finger down to see the very top, which shows the search field.

Figure 16-2. Locate an artist.

Tap any letter in the alphabet shown on the right to scroll the list directly to that letter. Tap an artist name to see a list of albums or songs by that artist. (You see multiple albums if more than one album is available — tap the album name to select the album.) Tap a song title to start playing the song. To search, tap inside the search field in the top, and start typing in the onscreen keyboard that appears. Suggestions appear below matching what you type — you can tap a suggestion to go right to it.

To browse music by album title on an iPod touch or iPhone, tap the More icon along the bottom of the iPod screen, which displays a list of options including Albums, and then tap Albums. The albums appear in a scrollable list with the album cover on the left side and an alphabet listed vertically along the right side, as shown in Figure 16-3 — flick your finger down to see the very top, which shows the search field.

Figure 16-3. Browse by album title.

Slide your finger up and down the alphabet to scroll quickly, or tap any letter in the alphabet to scroll the list directly to that letter. Tap an album title or its cover art to see a list of songs in the album. Tap a song title to start playing the song.

Follow these steps with an iPod classic or iPod nano (or earlier models) to locate a song by artist and then by album:

To choose an album directly on an iPod nano or iPod classic, choose Albums from the Music menu. The Albums menu appears, displaying albums in alphabetical order. Choose an album from the Albums menu. Then select a song from the list.

When you synchronize your iPod or iPhone with your entire iTunes library, your iTunes playlists are included. Well, that makes sense, doesn't it? You can choose to synchronize your iPod or iPhone with only specified playlists, as I describe in Chapter 9.

To browse music by playlist on your iPod touch or iPhone, tap Music on the iPod touch Home screen or iPod on the iPhone Home screen, and tap the Playlists icon along the bottom row of the Music or iPod screen. A scrollable list of playlists appears. Tap a playlist title to see a list of songs in the playlist and tap a song title to start playing the song.

Follow these steps to locate a playlist on your iPod classic or iPod nano (or earlier models):

To locate songs by title on an iPod touch or iPhone, tap Music on the iPod touch Home screen or iPod on the iPhone Home screen, and tap the Songs icon along the bottom row of the Music or iPod screen. A scrollable list of songs appears with an alphabet listed vertically along the right side — flick your finger down to see the very top, which shows the search field. Slide your finger up and down the alphabet to scroll quickly, or tap any letter in the alphabet to scroll the list directly to that letter. To search, tap inside the search field in the top, and start typing in the onscreen keyboard that appears. Suggestions appear below matching what you type — you can tap a suggestion to go right to it. Tap a song title to start playing the song.

You can also find music by composer or genre on an iPod touch or iPhone by tapping the More icon along the bottom row of the Music or iPod screen. You can then select Composers to see an alphabetical list of composers or Genres to see all the genres of the songs. Tap either a composer or a genre to see a list of songs.

Follow these steps with an iPod classic or iPod nano (or earlier models) to locate a song by its title:

Whenever you play a song on an iPod touch or iPhone, you see the album cover associated with the song on the Now Playing screen. You also see the buttons for playback control — Previous/Rewind, Play/Pause, and Next/Fast Forward. (See Figure 16-4.) Slide your finger along the volume slider at the bottom of the display to change the volume.

Figure 16-4. The Now Playing screen on an iPod touch.

Tap the Next/Fast Forward button once to play the next song in sequence, and tap the Previous/Rewind button once at the beginning of a song, or twice during the song, to play the previous song. You can fast-forward through a song by touching and holding down the Next/Fast Forward button, and you can rewind a song by touching and holding down the Previous/Rewind button.

You can tap the bullet-list button in the upper-right corner if you want to display a list of the album's contents. You can then tap the title of another song on the album to start playing that song.

Tap underneath the left-arrow button or the album title while a song is playing to show more buttons and the scrubber bar for navigating through the song, as shown in Figure 16-5 — and if lyrics are available in the iTunes information, they also appear.

To skip to any point in a song, use your finger to drag the playhead along the scrubber bar. To finely scrub through a song, after dragging the playhead, slide your finger down the screen (toward the physical Home button) to slow the scrubbing.

To start a song over from the beginning, drag the playhead on the scrubber bar all the way to the left or tap the Previous/Rewind button once.

While a song is playing, the artist name and song name appear on the Now Playing screen. Color-display iPods also display the album cover, and the iPod classic and iPod nano models show a progress bar as well.

To adjust the volume on an iPod nano or iPod classic, scroll the click wheel when you see the progress bar. On older iPod models, press the Select button once to show the progress bar. For more info, see the later section "Adjusting and Limiting the Volume."

Figure 16-5. Tap under the album title to show more buttons, the scrubber bar, and lyrics on an iPod touch.

To pause playback, press the Play/Pause button while a song is playing. To stop playing a song, press the Play/Pause button again (the same button).

To skip to any point in a song, press the Select button to reveal the scrubber bar (on older models, press the Select button twice). Scroll the click wheel to move the playhead across the scrubber bar forward (to the right) or backward (to the left) in the song.

Press the Next/Fast Forward button once to play the next song in sequence, and press the Previous/Rewind button once at the beginning of a song, or twice during the song, to play the previous song. You can fast-forward through a song by pressing and holding down the Next/Fast Forward button, and rewind a song by pressing and holding down the Previous/Rewind button.

To start a song over from the beginning, move the playhead on the scrubber bar all the way to the left or press the Previous/Rewind button once.

To return to the menus and make other selections when playing a song on an iPod classic or iPod nano, press the Menu button or press and hold the Select button until a menu appears on top of the cover art.

Tip

You can cross-fade songs on an iPod nano or iPod classic, just like in iTunes (as I describe in Chapter 13). A cross-fade creates a smooth transition from the ending of one song to the beginning of the next one. To set your iPod nano or iPod classic to cross-fade songs, choose Settings

If you want to drive yourself crazy repeating the same song over and over, your iPod or iPhone is happy to oblige. (You might want to try repeating "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa" by Napoleon XIV, a favorite from the old The Dr. Demento Show radio broadcasts — and perhaps they will come to take you away.) More than likely, you'll want to repeat a playlist or album, which you can easily do.

On an iPod touch or iPhone, tap underneath the left-arrow button or the album title while a song is playing. The Repeat and Shuffle buttons appear, along with the scrubber bar and lyrics, directly below the top row of buttons. (Refer to Figure 16-5.)

Ordinarily when a song finishes, the iPod touch or iPhone plays the next song in the sequence that appeared on the Playlists, Artists, Songs, or Albums screen you chose it from. When it reaches the end of that list, it stops — if you chose the last song in an album on the Albums screen, the iPod touch stops after playing it. But if you tap the Repeat button once while the songs are playing, the entire sequence repeats. If you chose an album, the album repeats; if you chose a playlist, the playlist repeats.

After you tap Repeat once to repeat the sequence of songs, the Repeat button shows blue highlighting. Tap the Repeat button again to repeat only the current song — the button changes to include a blue-highlighted numeral 1. Tap it once more to return to normal playback.

You can set your iPod classic or iPod nano (or older models) to repeat a single song, or to repeat all the songs in the selected album or playlist, by following these steps:

Maybe you want your song selections to be surprising and unpredictable, and you want your iPod or iPhone to read your mind. You can shuffle song playback to play in random order, just like an automated radio station without a disk jockey or program guide.

On an iPod touch or iPhone

When you are playing a song or a song is paused, you can just shake your iPod touch or iPhone, and it shuffles the songs in the album you are playing. By default, your iPod touch or iPhone is set to shuffle when shaken (not stirred). To turn this feature off, choose Settings

You can also set your iPod touch or iPhone to shuffle songs across your library. The shuffle algorithm is as random as it gets (not taking into account a fundamental tenet of chaos theory that says a pattern will emerge). When an iPod touch or iPhone creates a shuffle, it reorders the songs (like shuffling a deck of cards) and then plays them in the new order.

To turn your iPod touch or iPhone into a random song player, choose Music from the iPod touch Home screen or iPod from the iPhone Home screen, and tap the Songs icon at the bottom of the display. The song list appears, with Shuffle at the top of the list. Tap Shuffle to turn on Shuffle.

You can also set the iPod touch or iPhone to shuffle songs within an album or playlist after starting the album or playlist. Start playing a song in the album or playlist and then tap underneath the left-arrow button or the album title while a song is playing. The Repeat and Shuffle buttons appear, along with the scrubber bar, directly below the top row of buttons (refer to Figure 16-5). Tap the Shuffle button to shuffle songs within the currently playing album or playlist.

Tip

You can also set an iPod touch or iPhone to shuffle any album or playlist before playing it. First, select the playlist or album; then tap Shuffle at the top of the list of songs for that playlist or album.

Tip

Want to repeat an entire album or playlist but still shuffle the playing order each time you hear it? Start playing a song in the album or playlist and then set your iPod touch or iPhone to repeat all the songs in the album or playlist as described in the section "Repeating songs," earlier in this chapter. Then set the iPod touch or iPhone to shuffle the songs as described in this section.

On an iPod nano or iPod classic

To turn your iPod classic or iPod nano (or older model) into a random song player, choose Shuffle Songs from the main menu.

To shuffle songs in an album or a playlist with an iPod classic or iPod nano (or older model), or to shuffle albums, follow these steps:

1. Choose Settings from the main menu and scroll to Shuffle.

   The Shuffle setting displays Off next to it.

2. Press the Select button once (Off changes to Songs) to shuffle the songs in the next album or playlist you play. Press Select again (Songs changes to Albums) to shuffle the albums without shuffling the songs within each album.

   When you set Shuffle to Songs, the iPod classic or iPod nano shuffles songs within the currently playing playlist or album, or if nothing is playing, the next album or playlist you choose to play. When you set Shuffle to Albums, it plays all the songs on the currently playing album (or the next album you play) in order and then randomly selects another album in the list and plays through it in order.

   If you press the Select button more than you need to, keep pressing until the setting you want reappears. The button cycles among the Off, Songs, or Albums settings.

Tip

While playing a song or while a song is paused, you can shake an iPod nano so that its motion detector switches to a random song. Whenever you shake it, the iPod nano shuffles again to another random song. Shaking to shuffle doesn't change your shuffle settings — it just immediately shuffles songs. Shaking to shuffle is disabled when you put the Hold switch in the Hold position (so that you don't keep changing songs as you jog or exercise strenuously) or if the iPod nano display is off. You can also disable it by choosing Settings

The iPod shuffle has a three-position switch on the top for playing songs in playlist order, for shuffling songs randomly, and for turning it off. To start playing songs, plug the earbuds into the iPod shuffle and place them in your ears, and slide the three-position switch from Off to Play in Order (the icon with arrows chasing each other in a closed loop) or Shuffle (the icon showing arrows crossed).

Playback starts as soon as you turn the three-way switch away from Off — to indicate this, the iPod shuffle status light blinks green once. However, if the iPod shuffle is already playing before you plug in your earbuds, playback may stop. To start playback, press the center button on the remote controller or toggle the three-way switch to Off and back to Play in Order or Shuffle.

To pause playback, press the earbud remote controller's center button once. The iPod shuffle status light blinks green for 30 seconds.

To go forward to the next track, press the center button twice quickly (the status light blinks green once). To fast-forward through the current track to the next track, press the center button twice, but on the second press, keep holding it down.

To go back to the previous track, press the center button three times quickly within the initial six seconds of the current track (the status light blinks green once); to go to the beginning of the current track, press the center button three times after the initial six seconds. To rewind through the current track to its beginning and then to the previous track, press the center button three times, but on the third press, keep holding it down.

If you set the three-position switch to Play in Order, going backward or forward navigates in the order the songs were copied to the iPod shuffle or the order within each playlist. However, if you set the position switch to Shuffle, the playing order is randomized first. Then going backward skips backward within the shuffle order, and going forward skips forward within the shuffle order. For example, suppose your iPod shuffle plays the 14th song, then the 5th song, and then the 20th song. In that case, pressing the center button three times quickly within the first six seconds of the 20th song takes you back to the 5th song, and pressing it three times again takes you back to the 14th song. From there, pressing the center button twice quickly skips through the songs in the same order again: the 14th song, the 5th song, and then the 20th song.

If you installed the VoiceOver kit and enabled VoiceOver for your iPod shuffle in iTunes when you set it up (as I describe in Chapter 2), you can hear the iPod shuffle talk back to you. Specifically, you can hear song titles and artist names, a menu of playlists for you to choose from, and the status of your battery charge.

VoiceOver for your iPod shuffle is enabled by default, but you can turn it on or off by connecting your iPod shuffle to your computer for synchronizing it, as I describe in Chapter 9. The Summary page of the iPod shuffle sync options appears, as shown in Figure 16-6. Under Voice Feedback, select the Enable VoiceOver check box to turn it on (or deselect it to turn it off). You also have the option to choose the language you want from the Language pop-up menu. This sets the language for spoken messages and playlist names, as well as many of the song titles and artist names. Finally, click the Apply button to apply these settings.

To hear the title and artist of the song, press and hold the center button. If you press the center button twice quickly to go to the next track, the next message plays as well.

To hear the playlist menu, press and hold the center button until you hear a tone and then release it to hear the names of playlists. The playlist menu announces the current playlist (if one is playing), "All Songs," any other playlists in alphabetical order, any podcasts, and finally any audio book titles. As you listen to the playlist menu, you can press the plus (+) or minus (−) button to move forward or backward in the playlist menu. After hearing the playlist, podcast, or audio book title you want, press the center button once to select it. If you don't want to choose anything from the playlist menu, you can exit by pressing and holding the center button.

Figure 16-6. Enabling VoiceOver for an iPod shuffle while syncing it.

Tip

If you've synced an iPod shuffle loaded with the VoiceOver kit with iTunes, iTunes adds a new option to the Options tab of the Get Info dialog: VoiceOver Language. You can use it to pick a different language for specific songs. After selecting the songs in iTunes, choose File

Follow these steps with an iPod touch or iPhone to select songs for your On-The-Go playlist:

Figure 16-8. The On-The-Go playlist ready to play (or be cleared).

To select and then play items in your On-The-Go playlist for an iPod classic, iPod nano, or older iPod, follow these steps:

When you delete listed items, they disappear from the On-The-Go playlist but they are still in your iPod or iPhone; only the playlist is changed.

To delete an item from an On-The-Go playlist in your iPod touch or iPhone, follow these steps:

To delete an item from an On-The-Go playlist in your iPod classic or iPod nano, follow these steps:

After creating the On-The-Go playlist, it remains defined in your iPod or iPhone until you clear it.

It turns out that when you synchronize your iPod or iPhone with your iTunes library, the On-The-Go playlist is automatically copied to your iTunes library and then cleared. (You can rename the playlist there, just like any other playlist — see Chapter 14.)

You can also clear the On-The-Go playlist completely in one step on an iPod touch or iPhone: just tap the Clear button. (See Figure 16-8.)

To clear the On-The-Go playlist in an iPod nano or iPod classic, follow these steps:

To enable Sound Check to work in your iPod or iPhone, first follow the steps in iTunes described in Chapter 13 to sound-check your iTunes library. After syncing your iPod or iPhone with the sound-checked library (as I describe in Chapter 9), you can take advantage of the volume leveling in your iPod or iPhone.

To turn on Sound Check in an iPod touch or iPhone, choose Settings

To turn on Sound Check in an iPod nano or iPod classic, choose Settings

To turn on Sound Check in an iPod shuffle, connect it to your computer for synchronizing, as I describe in Chapter 9. The Summary page of the iPod shuffle sync options appears (refer to Figure 16-6). Select the Enable Sound Check option, and click the Apply button to apply the new setting. After the iPod shuffle syncs with the iTunes library, the songs in your iPod shuffle are sound-checked.

You can use the iPod or iPhone built-in equalizer presets to improve or enhance the sound coming through a particular stereo system and speakers. With the equalizer presets, you can customize playback for different musical genres, listening environments, or speakers.

To set an equalizer preset on an iPod touch or iPhone, choose Settings

To select an iPod equalizer preset on an iPod classic or iPod nano, choose Settings

Each equalizer preset offers a different balance of frequencies designed to enhance the sound in certain ways. For example, Bass Booster increases the volume of the low (bass) frequencies; Treble Booster does the same to the high (treble) frequencies.

To see what a preset actually does to the frequencies, choose Window