April 2008

Play Tunes across the Network
Mac Tip #336, 30 April 2008

I’m lucky enough to have and use two networked computers. I also have a fair bit of music and numerous audio and video podcasts all on my MacBook Pro, one of those two machines.

Sometimes though, I want to watch a podcast or listen to an audio track while I’m working on the other machine, a white MacBook, that has no music, audio or video on its hard drive. Luckily iTunes makes it possible, in fact easy, to share the one library of music and videos.

The first step is to open up iTunes on the Mac that holds all the audio and video files (the Source machine). Go to iTunes Preferences > Sharing and check the box for ‘Share my library on my local network’. Check a radio button for sharing either the entire library or only selected playlists. Decide whether or not to password protect the library.

The screenshot shows how I’ve set up iTunes Sharing on my MacBook Pro.

Click OK once you’ve selected the settings you want to use. Now make sure to leave iTunes running on that source machine.

On another Mac open iTunes and visit the Sharing section of the Preferences. Check the box for ‘Look for shared libraries’.

If a shared library is available it will be displayed in the source list at the left of the iTunes window, under the ‘Shared’ heading.

The screenshot shows iTunes on my white MacBook — the Music library is empty. When I click on Miraz Jordan’s Library under the Shared heading in the Sources list though, I have access to much of the content on my MacBook Pro.

Double click a track from the source machine’s library to play it on the machine you have in front of you. My screenshot shows me playing an episode of Tekzilla Daily in the Artwork Viewer, with a list of all items from the MacBook Pro’s library in the main part of the window. I would normally play such a video in a fullsize window, but wanted my screenshot to demonstrate what’s going on.

While playing that video I was simultaneously playing a music track on the MacBook Pro in the other room.

Watch out

Some interesting things emerged while I played tracks from the other Mac:

1. I was unable to rate items from the shared music library on the remote Mac.
2. I couldn’t reliably scroll around in the video I was watching. I wanted to ‘rewind’ to catch up on something I missed and just couldn’t seem to achieve that.
3. The short, 1 minute video I watched started playing immediately, as did a 10 minute video. When I tried for a 20 minute video though it looked as though things weren’t working — a ‘Loading’ message appeared and stayed on screen for quite some time. Eventually the video began. I imagine it took a while to transmit the video across my wireless network.
4. When I tried to play an item I’d purchased from the iTunes Store I had to authorise the computer I wanted to play it on.

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If you have more than one computer try out playing audio and video content from one iTunes Library on another machine. It’s fun.

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Get away wireless
Mac Tip #335, 23 April 2008

I’m writing this Tip while sitting on a motel couch in Hamilton, New Zealand, where I’ve presented a Keynote speech and a workshop at a conference. Soon I’ll be on a plane back to Wellington.

The motel I stayed in has broadband Internet, but you have to plug an ethernet cable in to the data port on the wall beside the bed.

I prefer to use my laptop or my iPod touch anywhere within the motel rooms, so I converted the wired connection to wireless. Here’s how.

Invest in an Apple Airport Express. It costs NZ$149 (US$99)

When you’re at home you can plug it in to your Internet connection and also a printer and / or stereo to print or play music wirelessly. But when you travel with a wireless capable laptop you do this:

1. Plug an ethernet cable into the data port in the hotel and into the Airport Express.
2. Plug the Airport Express into a power socket.
3. Use the Airport Utility application in the Utilities folder to set up the device. The screenshot in the archive shows that I had clicked on the Wireless tab and chose ‘Create a wireless network’ for the Wireless mode. I called my network ‘hamilton’.
4. When you’ve finished the setup click the Update button. The Airport Express will restart and you should now be able to use a laptop or other wireless device to connect to the Internet.

I didn’t bother setting any security on my small motel room network, but if you’re in a populous area and don’t want people hijacking your connection then security is a good idea.

Find more instructions in this PDF — download it before you travel: AirPort_Express_Early2008_SetupGuide.pdf (870Kb PDF) .

Remember: if you have problems you can still plug your computer directly into the data port, and check the Support website.

Note: I had some problems, because I’d already set up my Airport express to be part of my home network. read about the problem, and its solution in my blog post Going wireless in a wired motel.

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Open Files with — you choose
Mac Tip #334, 16 April 2008

Sometimes I want to open .html files with my text software so I can edit them. Other times I want to open them into a web browser so I can view them.

Or it may be that I want to choose either Keynote or Powerpoint to open a .ppt file. Or perhaps Pages or MS Word to open a .doc file, Preview or Adobe Reader for a PDF — the list of combinations of file types and software can be very long.

It’s quite common really to want to choose, moment by moment, which application you’ll use to open a particular file.

Of course you can set certain file types to always open with a particular application. I explained how in I’ll open that, Mac Tip #179/19-Jan-2005.

But if you want to override that choice and choose a different application to open a file, then you need a different approach. Here are some possibilities:

1. Drag the file onto the icon of the application you want to use — in the Finder or in the Dock.
2. Open the application, choose Open from the File menu, then select the file to open.
3. In the Finder, Right Click or Control Click on the file and choose Open With from the contextual menu that appears. A sub-menu displays some possible applications that may open the file, or choose Other… to bring up a dialog box where you can select an application.

My screenshot shows half a dozen possibilities for opening a photo in jpg format.

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