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How iTunes Works

Remember when Microsoft was the bad guy and Apple was the underdog? Funny how a brilliant idea can change everything. With the raging success of the iPhone, the iPod line of products and iTunes, you'll now find almost as many people ranting about Apple as about Microsoft. Where one person sees the coolest combination to hit electronics since TiVo met the TV, another sees plans for world domination. And it's all about one word: control.

In this article, we'll see what makes iTunes the most popular jukebox software in the world, review some of its more advanced functions, explore the integrated iTunes Store and find out why the whole setup has inspired some lawsuits and epic hacking wars. First, let's cover the basics.

iTunes is a piece of software that lets you add to, organize and play your digital media collection on your computer, as well as sync it to a portable device. It's a jukebox player along the lines of Songbird and Windows Media Player, and you can use it on a Mac or Windows machine.

The most significant difference between iTunes and some other media players is the built-in iTunes Store (where you can get podcasts; iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps; music videos; movies; audiobooks and TV shows, too) and its multi-level integration with Apple's iPhone and its iPod portable media player.

But a portable media player isn't the only way to enjoy iTunes content. There's your Mac OS X or Windows computer, first off -- if you've got a sound card and a set of speakers (and you probably do), that's all you need to use iTunes. There's also Apple's popular entry into the smartphone market, the iPhone.

Or you can play your iTunes library with one of the few phones Apple authorized to access the service, such as the Motorola ROKR E1 phone. Some enterprising hackers have created apps that let you synchronize non-Apple products with iTunes, but these aren't supported by Apple and may not work with every version of iTunes. Apple's wireless networking hub, Air Port Express, lets you wirelessly stream iTunes music from your computer to your hub-connected home-theater speakers. With this setup, you control playback via your computer, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

With another iTunes stream receiver, Roku's Sound Bridge Network Music Player, you control everything through the Sound Bridge remote control. So you're not limited to any single option when it comes to playback.

But you may be limited by the type of player you have and the capabilities of your computer system. You may also have some difficulty tracking down one of these devices; Roku no longer sells the units [source: Roku]

Next, learn about iTunes compatibility with your computer and MP3 player.

iTunes Compatibility

iTunes compatibility in the realm of portable players is a bit of a quagmire, which is part of the reason why some people just avoid iTunes entirely. You can use the iTunes Mac software with, say, a Creative Nomad MP3 player (see iTunes for Mac OS X: Compatible Players for a complete list).

But iTunes for Windows only supports the iPhone, iPad or iPod series -- if you connect a Creative Nomad to a Windows machine running iTunes, the software won't see it. And there's no version of iTunes for Linux machines, either.

But there are ways around that -- just do a Google search for "iPod Linux hacks." What's more, Apple is no longer updating the compatible players list, which may suggest iTunes won't support new non-Apple players moving forward.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple no longer provides iTunes support to new phones from other manufacturers. Apple's strategy is to convince consumers to purchase Apple products and use them with Apple services.

The company doesn't make it easy for you to use iTunes with any non-Apple device. Some companies, such as Palm, tried to get around Apple's closed system only to be shut down in subsequent iTunes updates.

So iTunes (or at least the Mac version) does support other players besides the iPod. But here it gets even trickier: Older music you downloaded from the iTunes Store is protected by the Apple FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) format, which is a proprietary, protected AAC file format that Apple doesn't license to anybody.

The only devices that can play those files are ones with the ability to decrypt the Apple DRM, which includes your computer running iTunes, an iPod, an iPad, an iPhone, an iTunes phone and your speakers connected to AirPort Express. (You can't play them on Roku's SoundBridge, because Apple licensed Roku the iTunes software minus the DRM decryption.)

To play iTunes Store files with DRM on a portable player besides an iPod, you have to first burn them to a CD or DVD as MP3 files. The DRM encoding doesn't make it to the disc. You then rip the now-unprotected files back into your iTunes library and download them to the player.Alternatively, you can repurchase songs at a reduced price to get the version without Fairplay. Songs purchased from the iTunes Store in the iTunes Plus format don't carry DRM, which means you won't have to go through this step.

So now we know which devices will and won't work with the iTunes software. Next, we'll find out what you can do with the software if you've got the right hardware (or the wrong hardware with the right hack).

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