Keep your iTunes Content Organized

Keeping your iTunes Content organized, especially Movies, TV shows  and the likes of it is a tough job  with a lot of upkeep required. Which is why , if you're a Television and Movie fan, you should read about the three apps and several tips that will make your life far far more... Organized. ( And easy )

Lets start with the basics. If you buy the Movie / TV Show from iTunes, you'll have no problem except a lighter wallet. But say, you get it from a different place say a DVD or downloaded from somewhere else. You first need to convert your movie to .mp4 the file format which is pretty much one of the only files iTunes accepts. For this I present to you -

1. iSkysoft iMedia Convertor - While it is a bit pricey at $49.99, it is an amazing application which allows you to convert to pretty much any format. It has predefined formats for specific devices such as iPad, Mac, Youtube, HD, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod and several others in addition to letting you make your own custom formats based on required video resolution, etc. You can also download a free trial version from here. A few free alternatives applications for the same purpose are Handbrake and iSquint.

Once converted, the Movies / TV Shows can now simply be dragged to iTunes where they will automatically import themselves into the Movies tab of iTunes. Now you can simply leave them there untouched. Or you could add artwork and make them look like above. To do so, select the Movie / TV Show, press command-I, go to the artwork tab, drag an image in there and click okay.

Now, if they're TV shows do you really want them in your Movies tab ? No. So you select one or all the episodes, press command-I, go to the options tab and change the media kind to "TV Show". If you wish to, go to the videos tab of the same window and type the name and season of the TV Show. Episodes of the same TV Show name get grouped together.

Next Up : TV Shows Application ( For educational purposes only )

TV Shows Application - This is an amazing application, free of cost. You simply choose from a MASSIVE list of TV Shows and it will download the newest episode of the show from torrents or any other source of your choice as soon as it is released. Also gives you the option to download HD versions of the show by default.

The third application -

VLC - Even if you have problems opening or playing the video with ANY other media player, which you most likely will, you won't have one with VLC. It is by far the most amazing application I have ever used for video playback. Its also quite useful if you're simply too lazy or if you don't have the patience to convert the video before watching. It can play ANY kind of video no matter what. I have one simple rule: If it doesn't work on VLC, its not a video.

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Alfred - A Must Have App

Spotlight is an amazingly useful feature of Mac and I used to find myself using it numerous times in a day. The convenience could actually be classified as overwhelming. Yet, there were some aspects of the search which would hamper this convenience. The small font, indexing time and inconvenient location for example. So, when I found Alfred, a simple search application which was far better on the eyes ( stunning ) and even somewhat faster than the native Mac search, I was mind blown. Not only does it provide all the functions of spotlight including dictionary and calculations, it is also located ( by default ) in the center of the screen, is bigger with better, crisper font and has numerous additional features such as the ability to give a command like “screensaver” or “sleep” straight from the app and information about its usage. And all this in one free lightweight package. Download it now or live with the inconvenience.

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Mac OS X - Zoom Text Only in Safari

Zoom only text in Safari. Click View ( Menubar ) --> Zoom Text Only. Then Press Command-Plus (+) to zoom in on text.

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Versions in Mac OS X Lion

Versions in Mac OS X Lion is a way to browse through every edit you've ever made to a document, image or any other file in a timefield and Restore it to whichever one you preferred. Stunning appearance, very functional and one of the best features in Lion. Never lose your data again.

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Mac OS X Lion - Safari Reading List

One of my favorite new features in Apple's New Operating System - Mac OS X Lion, is the fact that Safari has a "Reading List" ( Another one of my favorite features is Safari's Superfast loadtime ). Anyway, Reading list basically provides you with a list of all the Articles that you might want to read but dont have time to read at the moment. To add an article or website to your reading list, click the glasses icon on the left side in your bookmarks bar and the reading list will pop out. To add the website you are currently on to your reading list, click add page in the reading list sidebar. Alternatively shift-click a link to add it to your reading list.

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Mac OS X Lion - All My Files

Lion provides you with a beautiful, organized way to view all files on your Mac. It conveniently and neatly organizes them by last opened such that you can easily find whatever file you're looking for. It also only shows you your own personal files and doesn't add system files to the list.

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Photo Booth in Mac OS X Lion

The new Photo Booth in Mac OS X Lion is a wonderful application with a page of new features as well as the ability to operate in a beautiful fullscreen mode. Photo Booth on Mac is one of the most recognized pre-installed applications on a Mac. It's effects are known to be amazing and Lion has made it even more so. With it's new facial tracking technology, take photos of your self with "dizzy" birds flying around your head or twirl your nose. Enjoy other effects lile chipmunk, frog, space alien, lovestruck, dent, twirl, bulge, light tunnel, mirror, strtch, fish eye, comic book, pop art, sketch, Thermal, X-ray, Glow, B&W, Sepia and more. Or take a snap of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower, or in a Roller Coaster or perhaps, a beautiful beach. Or take a video of the same. Enjoy
Bonus tip: To take an instant snapshot / photo / picture, Hold down alt / option on your keyboard and press the capture button. Or press Command-Alt-T.

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Launchpad in Mac OS X Lion

Launchpad on Mac

Launchpad is another one of Apple's favorite new features in Lion, It's basically a new quick way to launch applications conveniently straight from your Desktop.
To view launchpad, Simply click on the Launchpad icon in the dock (the same as the one to the left) It may take upto a minute or so the first time you launch it. However the next time, It'll launch with amazing speed.
Those of you who've used an iOS Device previously, will immediately recognize the similarity between this and the gridded applications launching system ( Springboard ) on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
Click and hold on an application to move it around and click the cross on it to uninstall ( delete ) it. Drop it into another app to create a folder.
Apple. Coincidentally, I had designed an application with the same name and purpose too. Strange.

Launchpad Folders

Bonus tip: Click on the name of the Folder to rename ( for example, in this case, you would click on "Developer" to rename it.
Related - Similarities between iOS and Lion )

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Resume in Lion

Mac OS X Lion, released earlier this week, has the added ability of being able to resume your previous work, windows and applications exactly as you left them. The best part about this is that it works even after a reboot To my knowledge, this is the first Desktop Operating System which is able to do this. This is an amazing leap forward in Computing Technology and will no doubt, soon be replicated by other operating systems. However it may be potentially harmful for you incase it's a shared computer. So I'll also tell you how to disable it -

Open System Preferences --> General.
Uncheck the box which says "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps."

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Lion - Inverted scrolling or Normal ?

Mac OS X Lion is out ( available on the Mac app store ) as you probably already know. Now one of the many changes in the OS is that scrolling is now inverted or as Apple calls it "Natural" which basially means that like in iOS Devices, to go up on a page you scroll down on your mouse / trackpad and to go down on a page, you scroll up on your mouse / trackpad. Scrolling is now also momentum based which means that it will move based on how you scroll on your mouse.

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