Kirk McElhearn

Discover Apple's Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps Version 1.1, updated October 30, 2025 Are you bewildered with the apps that replaced iTunes on your Apple devices? Befuddled by Apple Music? Confused about whether or how to sync your media to the cloud? Wondering how to view movies and TV shows on each of your devices? Wishing for a way to organize your podcasts? In this book, Kirk McElhearn explains not only how Apple's media apps work, but also how normal people can make the Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps do just what they want. Back in 2019, Apple replaced iTunes for Mac, iOS, and iPadOS with three apps—Music, TV, and Podcasts—with audiobooks handled by the Books app. Take Control of Apple Media Apps is your guide to this post-iTunes world. Covers macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 or later (including macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, and iPadOS 26), plus Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod. Expanding on his earlier title Take Control of macOS Media Apps, Kirk McElhearn shows you how to manage your music, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks on all your Apple devices. Whether you just want to play your media, or you want to go deeper with special features like Apple Music, Genius, Shuffle, Playing Next, and iTunes Match, this comprehensive guide has the answers you need. Kirk also looks at various ways of bringing audio and video into Apple's media apps, tagging music and videos so you can find them more easily later, creating playlists, sharing your library over a home network, and accessing your media libraries on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or HomePod. Here's just a taste of what the book covers. Music • Play Music: Learn the basics of playing audio (and even music videos) in the Music app. You'll also learn about making quick playlists with Genius and Playing Next, the best ways to search for the music you want to hear, how to stream music to other devices in your home, and how to view lyrics while tunes play. • Stream Music: Use Apple Music, a paid service, to listen to any of 100 million tracks. Or listen to live broadcasts from Apple Music Radio (including Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, and other live radio stations). • View Your Music: Learn how to view your music library and work with contextual menus in the Music app. • Organize Your Music: Make a simple playlist of romantic songs, workout songs, or whatever theme you like. You’ll learn how to create smart playlists that, for example, comprise only your 5-star faves or only tunes you haven’t heard recently, and how to transfer playlists to your Apple Watch. You’ll also find help with operational issues like eliminating duplicates from your music library. • Store Your Music Library in the Cloud: What are the pros and cons of using the Sync Library setting to store your music in the cloud? How do Music and iTunes Match figure out whether to upload your music when that setting is enabled? How can I make sure I have all the media I want on each of my Apple devices? You’ll get answers to these questions and more. • Tag Your Music: Tags are bits of information (also known as “metadata”) that can describe your media. Learn which tags to bother changing, the best ways to add lyrics and album art, how to rate songs with stars, favorites, or both, and what other types of metadata you can use. • Meet Apple Music Classical: Apple Music Classical is a special app for iPhone that helps lovers of classical music enjoy their favorite composers, performers, and pieces without the limitations of the standard Music app. TV, Podcasts, and Books • View Movies and TV Shows: Use the TV app to watch videos, including those purchased, rented, or streamed from Apple and those you add yourself. • Listen to and Watch Podcasts: You’ll be sampling and subscribing to podcasts in no time with Kirk’s advice, plus you’ll pick a method of syncing podcast episodes to your iPhone or iPad and even learn about creating your own podcast station. • Listen to Audiobooks: Discover how to download and play audiobooks in the Books app, and how to manage your audiobook library. (Note: This book does not cover using ebooks in Books.) All Media Apps • Buy or Rent Media from Apple: You can buy music, TV shows, movies, books, and audiobooks directly from Apple—and rent movies—from within the various media apps. Find tips on shopping for media, and get advice on sharing your purchases with family members and among your various Apple devices. • Manage and Share Media Files: Whether you want to casually share a playlist from your laptop when visiting a friend or you want to make all your media available on all your home’s computers, you’ll find out how Media Sharing and Home Sharing make sharing possible. You'll also learn how to manage massive media libraries and store media files on external drives. • Put It on Your Wrist… Enjoy your favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks using your Apple Watch. • …or on a Big Screen: Use your Apple TV not only for TV shows and movies but also for music, and work with a shared library.

Take Control of Apple Media Apps

Unix Under the Hood

The Mac OS X Command Line

Todd Stauffer

Mastering Mac OS X

Describes how to get the most out of Mac OS X Panther, covering such topics as navigating the desktop, using folders and files, creating user accounts, working with applications, using digital media, and surfing the Internet.

How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther

Create and organize writing projects with ease using Scrivener 3! Version 1.1.1, updated June 4, 2021 Compose a masterpiece with Literature & Latte's Scrivener. Whether you're writing science fiction, a historical novel, or a zombie travelogue, learn how Scrivener's powerful tools can take your work to the next level. Kirk McElhearn shows you how to collect notes, organize your work, arrange and rearrange sections, and more. Covers Mac, Windows, and iOS/iPadOS versions! Scrivener is a powerful tool for managing long-form writing projects—like novels and screenplays—and Take Control of Scrivener 3 gives you all the details you need to know to harness its potential. In this book, best-selling author Kirk McElhearn walks you through setting up, organizing, writing, formatting, revising, and compiling a Scrivener project, whether you’re working on a Mac, a Windows PC, or in iOS/iPadOS. Using this extensive guide, you’ll be able to: • Meet Scrivener: Learn about the Scrivener philosophy and its basic layout • Start your project: Pick a template and add existing materials to your project • Brainstorm and organize: Discover three different ways to work with your material using the Binder, Corkboard, and Outliner. • Set up your writing environment and avoid distractions: Choose default fonts and colors, opt for Script Mode if you’re writing a script or screenplay, and simplify your workspace by hiding interface elements or by using Composition Mode or Full Screen Mode. • Make the most of key features: Learn how to work with styles; use annotations and comments; add footnotes and endnotes; view more than one file at once; use collections to view selected items from the Binder; store bookmarks and project notes; and share and synchronize your project with others. • Go further with Scrivener: Get the details on special features like Scrivenings View (write in sections, but view as a single document) and Snapshots (allows you to make and view periodic backups of your text). • Revise and edit your work: Learn how to find and replace text, and work with revisions. • Use Scrivener in iOS and iPadOS: Sync your projects to iOS/iPadOS and work on an iPhone or iPad. • Print and export: Understand the process of preparing your project to be printed, and what’s involved in compiling it so that it can be exported in a different format. Kirk also highlights the many changes to Scrivener since the last version (see the What's New section below), including updates to the interface, styles, outlining and metadata capabilities, and improved searching and writing features. In addition, he explains brand-new features in Scrivener 3, including Bookmarks (lets you store references to other sections of your project), Linguistic Focus (Mac only—highlights specific elements such as dialog, adverbs, or adjectives), Section types (such as Chapter Text and Scene), and Copyholders (allows you to view three or four documents at once).

Take Control of Scrivener 3

The Mac command line offers a faster, easier way to accomplish many tasks. It's also the medium for many commands that aren't accessible using the GUI. The Mac OS X Command Line is a clear, concise, tutorial-style introduction to all the major functionality provided by the command line. It's also packed with information the experienced users need, including little-known shortcuts and several chapters devoted to advanced topics. This is a book to get you started, but also a book you won’t soon outgrow.

Kirk McElhearn

Books

Your next favorite book is out there