This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Listening to Music
After you move audio content to iPhone, you can enjoy it while on the move. There are two fundamental steps to listening to audio content. First, find the content you want to listen to; from the Cover Flow Browser to artists and genres, iPhone offers many ways to find what you want to hear. Second, after you select what you want to hear, use iPhone’s playback controls to listen to your heart’s content.
>>>step-by-step: Using the Cover Flow Browser to Find and Play Music
The Cover Flow Browser simulates what it’s like to flip through a stack of CDs; you can quickly peruse your entire music collection to get to the right music for your current mood.
- On the Home screen, press the iPod button.
- Press one of the music buttons, such as Playlists, Artists, or Songs.
- Rotate iPhone in the clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The Cover Flow Browser appears. Each cover represents an album from which you have at least one song stored on iPhone.
- To browse your tunes, drag a finger to the right to move ahead in the albums or to the left to move back; the faster you drag, the faster the albums scroll. Below each cover, you see the name and artist for the album in focus, which is the one that is “face on” to the screen.
- To see the contents of an album, press its cover or press the Info button when it is in focus. The Contents screen appears showing you a list of all the songs on that album. At the top of the screen, you see the album information. Below that, each song is listed along with its playing time.
- To scroll up or down the list of songs, drag your finger up or down the screen.
- To play a song, press it. The song begins to play. It is marked with a blue arrow, and the Play indicator appears next to the battery icon.
- To pause a song, press the Pause button. The music pauses, and the Play button replaces the Pause button.
- To return to the album’s cover, press its title information or press the Info button.
- While you’re listening, you can continue browsing to find more music you want to listen to.
- Rotate iPhone in the counter-clockwise direction to see the Now Playing screen.
- Use the Now Playing screen to control the music (covered in detail in the “Playing Music” task later in this section).
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Using Playlists to Find Music
Accessing the iTunes playlists that you moved to iPhone is simple.
- On the Home screen, press the iPod button.
- Press the Playlists button. The list of all playlists on iPhone appears.
- Slide your finger up and down the list to see all the playlists on iPhone.
- Press the playlist that you’d like to explore. The list of songs in that playlist appears on a screen with the title of the playlist at the top.
- Slide your finger up and down the list to see all the songs it contains.
- When you find the song you want to listen to, press it. The song begins to play, and the Now Playing screen appears.
- Use the Now Playing screen to control the music (covered in detail in the Playing Music section later in this chapter).
- Press the Return button to move back to the playlist’s screen.
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Using Artists to Find Music
You can always find music on iPhone by artist.
- On the Home screen, press the iPod button.
- Press Artists. The list of all artists whose content is on iPhone appears. Artists are grouped by the first letter of their first name or by group name.
- Slide your finger up and down the list to browse all available artists.
- To jump to a specific artist, click the letter along the right side of the screen for the artist’s or group’s first name.
- Press an artist whose music you’d like to explore. The list of songs by that artist organized by album appears on the Albums screen.
- Slide your finger up and down the screen to see all the albums for that artist.
- To see the contents of an album, click it. The list of contents screen appears with the album’s title at the top.
- Drag your finger up and down the screen to see all the songs on the selected album.
- To move back to the Albums screen, press Albums.
- To move back to the Artists screen, press Artists.
- Continue browsing artists, albums, and songs until you find songs you want to hear.
- When you find the song you want to listen to, press it. The song begins to play, and the Now Playing screen appears.
- Use the Now Playing screen to control the music (covered in detail in the Playing Music task later in this section).
- Press the Return button to move back to the Artists screen.
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Using Genres to Find Music
Like the other categories, using Genres to find music is simple.
- On the Home screen, press the iPod button.
- Press More. The More screen appears, showing you all the categories of content on iPhone.
- Press Genres. The Genres screen appears, showing you all the genres of music on iPhone.
- Slide your finger up and down the list to see all the genres.
- Press the genre in which you are interested. That genre’s screen appears, and you see all the artists whose music is in that genre. At the top of the screen is the All Albums option, which shows you all the albums in that genre on iPhone.
- Scroll the screen to see all of the artists in the genre.
- When you find an artist whose music you want to view, press it. That artist’s screen appears, and you see all the songs by that artist on iPhone, organized by album.
- Press an album to see the songs it contains.
- Scroll the screen to see all song titles in the album.
- When you find the song you want to listen to, press it. The song begins to play, and the Now Playing screen appears.
- Use the Now Playing screen to control the music (covered in detail in the “Playing Music” task later in this section).
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Using the More Menu to Find Music
The More menu shows you all the content categories on iPhone. You can use this menu to access content when it can’t be found by one of the category buttons at the bottom of the screen. If you read the previous section, you already know how the More menu works.
- On the Home screen, press the iPod button.
- Press More. The More screen appears, showing you all the content categories on iPhone.
- Press the category in which you are interested. That category’s screen appears.
- Browse the category and drill down into its detail to get to songs you want to hear. Browsing categories is simil to browsing playlists, artists, and genres. In fact, these are just three examples of categories available on the More menu.
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Playing Music
As you have seen, the Now Playing screen appears whenever you play music. This screen provides several controls for the music, and you can use them to navigate back to wherever you came from.
- Find and play a song or album. The Now Playing screen appears, and you can use its controls.
- Press the Track List view button or double-tap the album cover. The Album Cover view is replaced by the Track List view. Here you see the list of all tracks from which the current song comes, even if you aren’t listening to the album itself (such as when you are listening to a playlist). You see the order of tracks on the album along with their names and playing times.
- Drag your finger up and down to scroll through the tracks in the album.
- Press a song to play it.
- Rate the song playing by pressing one of the dots. Stars fill up to the dot you pressed to give the song a star rating between one and five stars.
- Press the Album Cover button. You return to the Album Cover view.
- Press the album cover once. The Timeline bar appears. If the song has lyrics associated with it in iTunes, the lyrics are shown on top of the album cover.
- To repeat the current album until you stop playing it, press the Pause button, press the Repeat button once. To repeat the album one time, press the Repeat button again. When the album is set to repeat indefinitely, the button is blue. When it is set to repeat once, a small 1 appears on the button.
- To move ahead or back in the song, drag the Playhead to the right or left.
- To play the songs on the album randomly, press the Shuffle button.
- Scroll up and down the screen to read all the lyrics.
- Press the album cover again or just wait for a few seconds. The Timeline bar disappears.
- Press the Return button. You move back to the screen from which you selected music to play.
- Press the Now Playing button. You return to the Now Playing screen.
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Viewing Albums
As soon as you play a song from the Track List view screen, you jump to Album mode. From that point on, you are working with the album from which the current song came only. For example, if you play a playlist, switch to Track List view and play a different song on the same album. You change the content to only that album, so the next song that plays is the next one on the album, not the next one in the playlist. When you press the Return button, you move to the album’s screen instead of the playlist’s screen. If you view only the song’s information or give it a rating in Track List view, when you move back to the Cover view, you are still working with the original source, such as a playlist.