When AirPlay was introduced late last year, many were frustrated by how limited it was. You could only use it to stream media from iOS devices to your bigger screen at home. What most really wanted was the reverse of this, allowing you to stream media through your iPad or iPhone. With Home Sharing in iOS 4.3 onwards, this is exactly what you can do.

If you want to watch a movie on your iPad, or listen to a new album that you just bought on iTunes on your computer, you no longer need to wait for the two devices to sync before you can get playing. After a quick setup process you can take films or songs from your computer and play them wirelessly, as long as both are connected to the same wireless network. This not only makes the whole process quicker and easier; it also means that if you’re close to capacity on your iOS device, you won’t need to spend time deleting items before your media can be made to fit on it.

Step 1: Share and share alike
First, go to iTunes’s Preferences (on your Mac) and select Sharing. You can choose to share you entire library, or just select certain playlists or types of media.

Step 2: Home Sharing
There are no Home Sharing options in Preferences. Instead you need to selected Advanced in the menu bar and turn the function on from there.

Step 3: Can I see your ID?
You’ll need to log in using your Apple ID in iTunes and the iPad Settings menu. This ensures Home Sharing stays private, and that your computers are up to date.

Step 4: iPod on your iPad
On your iPad, go into the iPod section of the Settings app. Enter the same Apple ID as you did in step 3 to make sure you connect to the account correctly.

Step 5: Who’s in the library?
When you open the iPod app you’ll see a new Library tab on the left. Tap it and you’ll be given a choice of which to use, including your new Shared Library.

Step 6: Connect and play
Upon tapping the library, you’ll instantly connect and have access to the full collection from your computer, as well as all the podcasts, audiobooks and playlists.

(Click on the image below to zoom in and view the annotations)

It’s hard to believe that iTunes is now more than ten years old. Since 2001, it has seen Windows support added, the Genius feature, library sharing, playlists, books and, of course, the iTunes Store. If you’re anything like us, then during those ten years your music collection will have grown to an almost unmanageable size. It’s not uncommon to see iTunes music libraries several weeks in total play length, or duplicate music tracks that have become jumbled up in the playlist. As a result, an aging iTunes music library can soon become a mess, with missing cover art and albums split into several parts.

So how exactly does one go about tidying and re-organising an iTunes library that has bloated to a size of unimaginable scope? TuneUp is one solution. It’s a plug-in for iTunes that can fix mislabelled song information, add missing cover art, reorganise albums, display artist details, enable you to purchase concert tickets and share music with friends. Quite an impressive feature set, and one that’s surprisingly easy to use.

Three versions of the program are available: a free lite option will analyse and clean 100 songs and apply 100 cover artworks, an annual pass, priced $19.95, will sort and organise your music collection for a year, and a one-off payment of $29.95 gives you a Gold Pass, enabling unlimited song and cover art fixes. All three versions also include unlimited concert alerts and full access to the Tuniverse service.

Installing TuneUp is a breeze. After you’ve downloaded the program and dragged it to the Applications folder, TuneUp automatically opens iTunes and attaches itself to the right-hand side of the interface. From this new panel you can access five options for sorting and enhancing your iTunes library. The first, called Clean, analyses your music by listening to the audio fingerprint of each track and then comparing the results to the GraceNotes database of more than 90 million indexed songs. It works really well, renaming any errant tracks and reorganising albums in the blink of an eye. The second option, Cover Art, automatically scans your music collection for missing album art and offers a variety of results for you to choose from. It’s a convenient alternative to searching the web for album art when iTunes can’t find any from the iTunes Store. The third button is titled Tuniverse. This interesting feature scans any playing music tracks, then presents related music videos from YouTube, artist bios from Wikipedia, merchandise from eBay and song recommendations from Amazon. What’s surprising is how well this feature works. The constantly updating panel of information and media makes finding new content from your favourite band incredibly efficient, even more so than Ping. Tuniverse also includes a built-in Twitter feature that enables you to quickly tweet what track you’re listening too. Next to the Tuniverse button is a Concerts feature that quickly scans every album in your iTunes Library, then presents web-links to purchase tickets via Ticketmaster and Stubhub. We encountered an odd bug that resulted in no concert tickets appearing, but after a few days’ use the feature suddenly kicked in and began to show a selection of events that could be attended. Oddly enough, however, ticket prices were in Dollars and went up in price when we clicked through the link to the Ticketmaster website. The final button, Share, is aimed squarely at social networking fans. When clicked it displays the latest albums and tracks that you’ve played and enables you to quickly share these results with friends on Facebook. We can’t possibly imagine that our friends would be interested in seeing what music we listen to during the day, but if you’re supporting an up-and-coming band then this feature might potentially come to good use.

If we have a niggling issue with TuneUp, it’s that the program auto-runs every time iTunes is opened. Admittedly it’s possible to turn this feature off from the Preferences panel, but for a program that you’re unlikely to use on a regular basis, we’d prefer auto-run to be disabled by default. It can also take a large amount of time for TuneUp to scan massive music collections when looking for errant tracks and missing cover art.

TuneUp is a great addition to iTunes, with a handful of really handy features that enhance your music playing and sharing experience. It’s ability to tidy an iTunes Library is incredibly useful for anyone who has amassed music over a long period of time.

We can’t count the number of times that we’ve thrown our headphones into our bags, then spent five minutes finding, untangling and cleaning them before we could listen to our music. We’ve also heard all kinds of stories about people wrapping the headphone cable too tightly around their gadgets and ruining the connections. But now, thanks to to Budwrap this issue can be a thing of the past.

The Budwrap is a silicon bracelet that is similar to that worn by students around the world, but this has another function than just looking great. The band is designed to allow you to securely slot your headphones into the holster and wrap the cable around your risk, securing it back into the band when you reach the start again.

Wrap your headphones onto your wrist with this innovative new product

The design looks like it will work perfectly, and the best thing about the idea that we can see is that when you want to use your headphones again you can quickly unwind them from your wrist and use them immediately without worrying about untangling them. It’s great to see a clever design like this really taking off – its just one of the many Kickstarter projects that we’ve been happy to see brought to fruition, and we have to say, we really want one.

At the time of writing the Budwraps are available for pre-order through their Kickstarter page as the release is a few days away. If you back the project now with at least $15, you’ll get a bonus Red Budwrap, so help out the designer and get on over there!

Late last night, Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple Inc. While this has come as a surprise to some, there have been suggestions for months that Jobs was beginning to take a back seat in the day-to-day running of the company he founded back in 1976. With Apple now in the best position it has ever been in, it seems like Jobs has chosen the perfect time to step back and focus on recovering from the illness from which he is suffering. With the iPhone 5 (and iPod) announcement just a few weeks away, any drop in share price that the company will suffer will undoubtedly be recouped in the hours after that keynote, and with Apple having recently passed Exxon as the most valuable company in history, there has never, and will never, be a better time for the CEO to resign from his position and take some time for himself.

Jobs’ health has been in question since the middle of 2004, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, for which he underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy that seemingly resolved the issue. While the prognosis for most sufferers of this kind of cancer, it turned out that Jobs had a far less aggressive form of the disease.

After this procedure, Jobs returned to his position at Apple, but there were constant questions about his health, particularly after he delivered Keynotes at WWDC in 2006 and 2008. While there were assertions from many sources claiming that Jobs was medically fine, in 2009 he took a six-month medical leave of absence, which culminated in a liver transplant in April of that year. Naturally, rumours were rife about his health, but once again he returned to the head of Apple, running operations until the beginning of this year, when he announced that he would again take a medical leave of absence. He remained on this leave until the announcement last night, which will see Tim Cook take over as CEO and Jobs take on the position of Chair of the Board of Directors.

It’s hard to explain quite how big an impact Steve Jobs has had on the world of computing in the last 35 years. After starting Apple with Steve Wozniak in a garage in 1976, it has gone on to become not only the most valuable company in the world, but one of the most recognisable. You can say iPhone to anyone and they will undoubtedly of heard of the device, even if they’ve never used one. Jobs is the one who discovered the true talent Jony Ive and put it to use. Jobs is the one who pushed for the creation of the first iPod. Jobs is the one who took Apple from a failing company in 1996 to most valuable in the world in 2011. Jobs changed everything.

So what do the rest of the team think about this resignation? What will it mean in the long-term for Apple? How will it affect their future? Read on to find out exactly what we’re thinking…

Jimmy:

I really don’t think it will disturb anything other than a temporary flux in Apple’s share price. There’s no doubt that Steve has been plotting his retirement for some time. He’s not the sort of character that will ever not be involved with elements of Apple – but he needs to begin getting that distance so he can eventually move away from the fold without investors and commenters spelling doom for his company. The Apple product road map probably stretches quite far into the future as well so there will be no let up in innovation – the timing of this announcement has been carefully planned too, I feel. We’re just weeks away from a new iPhone, new iPods and what will no doubt be another record breaking holiday season for Apple products sales. A slight dip in share price now will probably only strengthen its position going into the new year. Shrewd, careful and perfectly planned as always.

Stephen:

One thing we’ve been saying a lot around iCreate Towers recently is that we’re sure the Apple has planned ahead for many more products than are rumoured at the moment. Somewhere in Apple HQ the iPhone 6 is well into its development, and iPad 4 and 5 have undoubtedly been planned since the launch of the first iPad last year. While, in the coming days, many may shout about how Apple will fail now that Steve isn’t in charge, it’s worth noting that he will have had a huge part in the development of these products already. And of course we can’t forget that he’s not leaving Apple entirely; he’ll still have a hand in the Apple’s development as a company as he takes the position of Chair of the Board. I’m confident that we’re still going to be experiencing the influence of Steve in Apple’s products for years.

Freddie:

When you devote your life to building up a company as successful as Apple, it can’t be an easy decision to make when it comes to stepping down as CEO. That said, it’s undoubtedly the right decision, everyone needs a break after all, particularly in poor health. Naturally there’s a knee-jerk reaction from shareholders and the markets and with all the commentary going on you’d think the poor guy is dead already, but this will all die down. More importantly, with someone as prolific as Tim Cook at the helm, it wont be long before the hysteria subsides and Apple can be left to go on making great products and changing the face of technology for the better.

________________________________________

As a team, we would all like to wish Steve Jobs the very best in his new position, and thank him for helping to make Apple what it is today. Get well soon, Steve, and we look forward to hearing more from you as Chairman in the coming months and years.

Is your Lion having some teething problems? Is auto-save baffling at best? Do you need a guide to upgrading from an older Mac? Then look no further, because in this month’s issue of iCreate Magazine we’ve got a six-page special genius bar guide to Apple’s latest operating system. There’s plenty of tips, tricks, hacks and how-tos to sink your teeth into and really make the most of the new big cat on the block.

Talking of upgrading, issue 98 also features a pretty nifty guide to picking your perfect Mac. We’ve pored over the details of every one of Apple’s amazing machines so you don’t have to. Simply pick up a copy of the magazine from any good newsagent or shop and take a read before you head out to make your next big purchase and you’ll go knowing exactly which Mac you really want.

As well as our hand-crafted guides to all things Lion and Mac, we’ll show you how to make the most of iTunes with our ‘power up iTunes’ feature, by letting you in on some amazing tricks and killer add-ons to really make your Mac your one-stop media shop. We’ve also got a bunch of creative tutorials from making amazing photobooks to mastering typography in Pages.

Top that all off with the latest news and reviews of all the latest and greatest Apple accessories, and you’ve got an issue of iCreate that you can’t afford to miss. So head out and pick one up today!

If you want to make life a little easier for yourself, why not treat yourself to an iCreate subscription? That way your favourite Mac magazine gets delivered to your door and you can get all the goodness before anyone else has even left for the shops and save yourself some money too.

With Ping, Apple entered the social networking world. Its focus is based around music – specifically, music available from the iTunes Store. The aim of Ping is to make it easier for you to find new music you might like, but rather than relying on a machine or a series of algorithms to propose new groups and tracks for you to enjoy, those recommendations will come from friends and other people you choose to follow.
Ping is integrated within iTunes 10, so you can find, listen to and purchase new tracks from there. Ping is also part and parcel of your iPhone’s iTunes app under iOS 4. So how do you access it? If you’ve already signed into Ping from iTunes 10 and your Apple ID on your iPhone matches the one you use in iTunes (which it almost certainly does, unless you happen to juggle multiple iTunes accounts), then you’re already good to go. Otherwise, it’s a simple matter to alter your account details on your iPhone (by tapping on Settings, then selecting the Store menu). Once registered, open the iTunes application and you’ll be ready to dive into Ping.

If you’ve jut got a new iPhone, and iCreate’s tutorials aren’t quite quenching your thirst for knowledge, you can now learn how to use you new device on the move thanks to the iPhone for Beginners eBook from Imagine Publishing. Available on Kindle (there’s an iOS Kindle app for this too!), this book will walk you through setting up your device and learning its core functionality. It will also walk you through all the best apps to download from each category of the App Store, as well as an extensive section dedicated to answering all your iPhone questions.

Editor in Chief Aaron Asadi commented: “iPhone for Beginners was a great bookazine, and it has now made a fantastic eBook. This will allow people to learn about their iPhone on the move, and to follow the tutorials at any time, anywhere. The guides will help people extend the functionality of their phone no end, and the extensive app section will provide great material to browse through when you’ve got some time to kill.”

Designed and written by experts as an accessible, friendly guide to world-beating software and devices, the For Beginners series will help give you the confidence to learn everything you need to know. Clear, easy-to-understand and comprehensive, For Beginners’ first class tutorials, features and reviews are created with you in mind, ready to give you the tools you need to get the most out of your new passion.

The iPhone for Beginners eBook is available for Kindle from http://amzn.to/qmtlGO priced £5.81.

Link to iCreateLive on iTunes

If you want to contact us you can comment on a post here or tweet us @iCreatemagazine. If you want to get hold of me or Jimmy, you can do that as well, we’re @Stephen_iCreate and @jimmyhayes respectively. Let us know what you think of the videos and you might well get into the magazine!