How to use iTunes 11's new features (and?restore?the old look)

4 hrs.

Thorin Klosowski , Lifehacker

Apple released its newest version of iTunes, and it's a complete overhaul to the entire program. As you'd?expect, that means there are a few cool (somewhat) hidden features. Here are some we've found especially helpful.

With any new iteration of software you're bound to have a bit of a learning curve as you get used to it.?iTunes? 11?is no different, and the first thing you're greeted to when you launch it is a completely different main screen. The big news with iTunes 11 is the new interface, but hidden beneath that is some pretty cool functionality you might not notice at first glance.

Yes, you can get the old iTunes look back (sidebar and all)
Let's start with what we're guessing is most people's main gripe: it looks different. It's true, it does, and if you're not a fan of browsing your music library with giant covers, and navigating drop-down menus, iTunes 11 is a bit annoying. The good news? You can get the old look back:

• Get the sidebar back by clicking View > Show Sidebar (or hitting Alt+Cmd+S).
• Get the status bar back by clicking View > Show Status Bar (or hit Command+/).
• Click Songs in the top bar, and sort by Artist for the traditional list view.

Now, iTunes 11 should look about the same as iTunes 10.

Scan iTunes gift cards with your camera
Entering?in the code from a gift?certificate is always a bit annoying. With iTunes 11, all you need is a camera:

• Head into the iTunes Store, and Click "Redeem" at the bottom of the screen under the "Manage" list (or?click this link)
• Click "Use Camera"
• Hold your gift card up to the camera and wait for it to register.

That's it! No more fumbling around typing a random string of letters and numbers together.

Expanded view replaces cover flow
Cover Flow is gone in iTunes 11 and it's replaced with the new "Expanded View." When you're viewing your library by Albums, simply select an album, and you get an expanded view right there with all the album info. It works a lot better than Cover Flow and makes it so you can quickly view album info without leaving the place you're at. You can either click the album art again, or the "X" in the right corner to make it go away.

Also, a fun fact: Expanded View uses the album artwork as a background for the view (see image at right), so it creates a different background for each album. You can disable this if you want under iTunes > Preferences > General Preferences. Just uncheck the "Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc" box.

The 'up next' feature is actually awesome?
Ever have those moments where you're listening to a song and it reminds you of another song? You don't want to stop the song playing, but you do want to cue up the song you're thinking of. That's what "Up Next" lets you do. Instead of creating playlists for everything, you can create on-the-fly playlists of songs or albums.

You can do this from anywhere. Just right-click an album, artist, or song, click "Add to Up Next" and it's added to the queue. You can also click "Play Next" instead to add it to the top of the queue. To see what's in your queue, click the list button in the middle of iTunes, and to view the previously played tracks, click the little clock icon. "Up Next" replaces iTunes DJ/Party Shuffle, so if you're looking for those, you won't find them.

Your place is now saved across devices?
If you use a bunch of Apple products, say, an iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, one of the best new features in iTunes 11 is that it saves your progress in your media across all devices through iCloud. So, if you pause a movie, TV show, podcast, audiobook, or iTunes U file on your desktop, you can pick up right where you left off on another device.?

MiniPlayer is more functional
In older versions of iTunes, the MiniPlayer didn't do much except allow you to pause or skip tracks. Now, MiniPlayer allows you to search for new tracks, add new songs to the "Up Next" queue, and even control AirPlay volume.

To enable MiniPlayer, just click the window icon in the top right corner and iTunes will shrink down. When you mouse over the window, you can control playback or search for new tracks. Otherwise, it displays the currently playing track.

Preview history tracks what you listen to in the store?
The iTunes Store now tracks everything you listen to in its preview history panel. When you're in the store, click the list icon in the top right corner, and you're shown all the stuff you listened to recently. You can hit "Clear" to get rid of everything in the list Also worth noting is that provided you're signed in with iCloud, your previewed tracks on all your devices will sync here. So, if you preview a song on your iPhone, it will show in your preview history in iTunes.?

Search is now universal?
This isn't the most earth-shattering of news, but in iTunes 11 you have two main search areas: the store and your library. That's it. In previous versions you had to search separately for video, music, or podcasts. Now, it searches your entire local library, or the iTunes store for everything.

Also nice is the instant search results you get. Start typing a search, and iTunes starts delivering you results. Select what you want, and you're taken there directly. It's simple, but it works really well.

Apps get a list view for easy trimming
One of the most annoying things to do in older versions of iTunes was trimming down the apps downloaded on your computer. You had to do it in the Apps panel with large icons that seemed to take forever to load. Now you can do it with in a List View, and it supports the same basic sort options you get with music (Date Added, Purchase Date, Size, etc).

All you need to do is select the Apps tab, then click "List." This should come in really handy when you're cleaning out old apps you don't use anymore. Reader?shafnitz points out?this view has been around a little while, but if nothing else it's more prevalent now.

More from LifeHacker

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/how-use-itunes-11s-new-features-bring-back-old-itunes-1C7361026

oklahoma state santonio holmes raheem morris winter classic mt rainier caucus stanford vs oklahoma state

66 species of coral proposed for protection by US

Seaview Survey, in partnership with Google, has been capturing 360-degree views of famous coral reefs. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.

By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

In its most sweeping use of the Endangered Species Act, the nation's oceans agency on Friday proposed listing 66 species of coral as endangered or threatened -- and cited climate change as driving three key threats: disease, warmer seas and more acidic seas.

NOAA

Pillar coral are seen in the Florida Keys. The species was one of 12 proposed for listing as endangered by the U.S.

"Climate change and other activities are putting these corals at risk," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in announcing the proposal. "This is an important, sensible?next?step toward preserving the benefits provided by these species."

Lubchenco argued that the benefits extend to fishermen -- some of whom are worried that any coral protection could mean less fishing.

"Corals provide habitat to support fisheries that feed millions of people," she said, as well as generating jobs through recreation and tourism, and protecting coastlines from storms and erosion.

---

In its press release, NOAA emphasized that since President Barack Obama had directed agencies to minimize regulatory burdens it would strive to "adopt the least burdensome means" of compliance should it create protected habitat. "A full analysis of economic impact, including impact on jobs," will also be undertaken, it stated.

The proposal is the result of a court settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned to have 83 coral species listed. NOAA agreed to review 82 of those species.

Dave Gilliam and Liz Larson Nova Southeastern University and James Byrne, The Nature Conservancy discuss the large scale environmental program that is underway in Florida's coral reefs.

"While the government decided that 16 of the corals we proposed do not warrant listing, the fact that dozens are moving forward with protections is good news," the group's oceans director,?Miyoko Sakashita, told NBC News.

"Our coral reefs are dying and need federal protection," she added.

Last April, NOAA scientists reported that more than half of those 82 species were "more likely than not" to face extinction by 2100.

Corals are very sensitive to disease and temperature change, and the fact that seas have warmed and become more acidic as carbon dioxide?emissions have risen led to NOAA's proposal and focus on climate change. The acidity weakens the skeletal structure of coral.

The polar bear is the only other species listed under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change, and that's because of shrinking sea ice.

Since climate change is global in nature, NOAA can't do much to protect coral from that threat, but?Sakashita said actions that the U.S. could eventually take include protecting corals from overfishing.

"For example, in the Caribbean we have a lawsuit pending that challenges overfishing of parrotfish, which are important grazers for coral reefs to keep them free of algae," she said.?"Other local threats that need attention include water pollution, dredging, or coastal construction that impacts coral habitat."

See dozens of wonders from coral reefs and other exotic seascapes, courtesy of the Catlin Seaview Survey.

To date, just two species of coral -- staghorn and elkhorn -- are on the Endangered Species Act, and both are in Florida and the Caribbean. Now listed as threatened, they would be reclassified as endangered under the proposal.

Of the 66 species now proposed for listing, 12 would be listed as endangered -- seven in the Pacific and five in the Caribbean; 54 would be listed as threatened -- 52 in the Pacific and two in the Caribbean.

NOAA aims to finalize the listings in late 2013, after public meetings and a comment period. Comments can be made via NOAA's listing proposal site.

NOAA had never before analyzed so many species over such a wide geographic range. The closest in scope was a review of 30 West Coast salmon and steelhead species in 1994.

Friday's proposal came as nations met in Qatar to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol with a new framework for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Little progress has been made,?and the talks continue next week.

More content from NBCNews.com:

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

?

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15577394-66-species-of-coral-proposed-for-endangered-or-threatened-listing-by-us?lite

van der sloot heather locklear mlk memorial mlk memorial heather locklear hospitalized joplin tornado extreme makeover home edition

Gunman kills one in shooting at Wyoming college: report

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co introduced its redesigned Civic sedan only a year-and-a-half after a major model change of the best-selling compact car in the United States. Even Honda admits that the 2012 Civic, introduced in the spring of 2011, missed the mark. For a company that prides itself on rock-solid reliability, it was a shock last summer when influential Consumer Reports ranked the Civic dead last in a field of 12 compact sedans it tested. Sales of the new Civic, a 2013 model, will start this week and the refreshed car was shown off on Thursday at the LA Auto Show. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunman-kills-one-shooting-wyoming-college-report-182250965.html

biggest loser bonnie raitt internal revenue service intc andrew shaw tupac tim lincecum

Video: Marriott CEO on the Fiscal Cliff

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50030515/

giants game norman borlaug santorum new hampshire debate rupaul meet the press steelers vs broncos

White-Chocolate Baby Heads: The Cure for Chocaholics

Got a sweet tooth that's led to you packing on the pounds? Until now there was no cure for that inexplicable chocolate craving a lot of us get. But after seeing these horrific lifesize baby heads hand-crafted from white chocolate, there's a good chance you'll never want to touch the stuff again. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CG05VfMIt10/white+chocolate-baby-heads-the-cure-for-chocaholics

eric cantor pope joan pope joan paul pierce strawberry festival knicks strikeforce tate vs rousey

Obama aides seek to counter Republican charges on 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration sought to counter Republican charges on Friday that President Barack Obama's plan to avoid a year-end "fiscal cliff" is light on spending cuts and too reliant on tax increases.

Administration officials said the overall plan, offered to Republicans on Thursday and quickly rejected by them, would achieve $4.5 trillion in savings to the government. This includes around $1 trillion in cuts already enacted into law and would set up an "expedited process" to spirit through Congress some of the most comprehensive legislation in decades.

The plan, which Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined to Republican congressional leaders, is aimed at taking a big step toward comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code and overhauling federal programs like Medicare by next August 1, according to a summary provided by administration officials.

The fate of the administration proposals is uncertain, as they are now part of a mix of offerings to be hashed out over the next few weeks and beyond, aimed at heading off a package of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that would tip the U.S. economy over the fiscal cliff and back into recession.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell outlined his ideas for cutting entitlement programs in a Wall Street Journal interview Friday, while House Republicans said talks had basically arrived at a stalemate at this juncture.

The administration's proposals for next year, when combined with some immediate savings such as taxing the rich at a higher rate, would raise approximately $1.5 trillion in new revenues. Those would be coupled with about $2.4 trillion in spending cuts, according to the officials who asked not to be identified.

Some of those proposed spending cuts are controversial. For example, they count $800 billion in savings from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are winding down. Many Republicans in Congress argue that sound budgeting should not allow for counting savings on money that was not going to be spent.

The war savings were part of previous deficit-reduction negotiations that failed in 2011.

TWO-STEP APPROACH

Administration officials disclosed details of the White House proposal in an effort to push back against Republicans' characterization of it as not serious.

Without a deal, around $600 billion in steep tax increases and spending cuts would begin in January, forcing the economy into a recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

As expected, the White House proposal called for a two-step approach to deficit reduction.

The first step would mainly consist of letting income tax rates rise on families with net incomes above $250,000. The revenues generated would help replace the steep, automatic spending cuts to domestic programs due to kick in on January 2 if Congress and the president cannot reach a compromise.

Also included are the extension of expiring major tax breaks, such as the research and development credit.

A second deficit-reduction step, which both Republicans and Democrats have talked about at length, would give Congress time to revamp the complicated U.S. tax code and figure out how to slow the rapid growth of federal healthcare programs for the elderly and poor.

Under the scenario laid out by Geithner, the new tax provisions would become effective on January 1, 2014, according to administration officials, and are anticipated to bring in an additional $600 billion in revenues over 10 years, beyond the $950 billion from raising taxes on the rich.

Meanwhile, federal spending would be cut by $350 billion over 10 years by reforming Medicare and other unspecified health programs, the officials said. Savings of another $250 billion would be achieved by cutting subsidies to farmers and other actions.

Also tucked into the proposal, the officials said, were $200 billion in "economic growth initiatives" designed to help stimulate the sluggish economy.

This would include $50 billion in infrastructure spending, an extension of payroll tax cuts, extending unemployment benefits and funding for a mortgage refinancing program.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Fred Barbash and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-aides-seek-counter-republican-charges-fiscal-cliff-010121591--business.html

the line us soccer bobby brown arrested the happening black panthers mauritania mark sanchez

Deer get onto racetrack, announcer plays along

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) ? Spectators who came to watch horses at a western Pennsylvania racetrack got a surprise this week when three deer got onto the course first and beat the horses to racing.

According to KDKA-TV (http://cbsloc.al/VdzJuq ), a race was about to begin Wednesday night at the Meadows Racetrack in Washington County when the deer jumped onto the track.

Race announcer Roger Huston didn't miss a beat. He began calling the race as it unfolded, saying things like: "As they race down the track, Bambi has the lead. Here comes Rudolph from the outside."

The deer ran fast but kept changing directions. At one point, they appeared headed to the paddock, where the horses were being held.

Several minutes into the show, the deer decided to leave the track to the horses.

Huston says Bambi won the race.

___

Information from: KDKA-TV, http://www.kdka.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-12-01-Deer%20on%20Racetrack/id-740bdfd8af3f46f09279ab45f6fa87e5

supreme court health care joe oliver joba chamberlain new york mega millions jetblue jetblue michelle malkin