148 Things You Can (Should) Do With Your iDevice – The Very Basics Pt. 3

For the first 38 things to do, check out the rest of the article at: The Very Basics Pt. 1 (1-23), The Very Basics Pt. 2 (24-38)

iPod/iTunes

Let's assume here that after you synced your data (#7) At this point you should already have music on the iDevice, but you just don't know where it is.

39. Play Your Music - Find the 'iPod' app on your iPhone or the 'Music' app on your iPod Touch. These apps are the key to your music listening happiness. Click on them and you will see all of your music just begging to be played.

40. Make An On-The-Go Playlist - You like what you have, you just don't want to hear it all at once. I get it... I do the same thing. To remedy this, do one of two things. First would be to click on the 'Playlists' tab in iTunes and click 'On-The-Go'. It's pretty self explanatory from there. The second way to make a playlist is too...

[caption id="attachment_24088" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="This is where genius playlists are born."]

[/caption]41. Make A Genius Playlist - In my opinion, the genius playlist is a best thing Apple has done for iTunes in years. What it does (in a nutshell) is takes an inventory of all of your music and tracks it against other users that also use the genius function. Then a bunch of tree gnomes in Imaginationland gather the data and ritually prepare it for your listening pleasure. On the computer, it takes awhile because the data has to pass from Imaginationland to your network, which wouldn't be possible without a Transmogrifier... while on your iDevice it's easy because the songs have already been transmogrified. So, to turn on genius, play any song you want, click on the album cover (or the glaring lack of an album cover), and click on the thing that closest resembles an atom. Enjoy!

42. Save The Genius List Or Change It - Inside the genius playlist (go to 'Playlists', then click on the 'Genius Playlist'), you can either save or refresh your playlist, depending on how you feel about it.

43. Listen To Your Podcasts, Audiobooks, and Various Other Boring Media - In the 'iPod' app, click 'More' at the bottom of the screen. All of that NPR that you have saved up for this day will be there... I promise.

44. Buy More Media - Find the 'iTunes' app and click on it. Here you can find all the music and videos that you've ever wanted (as long as it's not by the Beatles). Click around, it's pretty straightforward. One thing to note... most things cost money, but podcasts and iTunes U are free. Take advantage.

App Store (You Know You Want It)

45. Buy Apps - Whew, now we finally get to buy some apps. Click on the 'App Store' app on the home screen (or wherever you've moved it to). Inside of this is the wonderful world of the App Store, where you can buy any app you want at any time (provided that you are in a WiFi zone for apps over 10MB). Play around a bit in here... you'll love it.

46. Update Your Apps - In the 'App Store' app, just click on the 'Updates' tab and hit 'Update All'. Don't pick and choose updates... just do it all at once.

47. Use A Promo Code/Gift Card - Gift cards are self explanatory, but promo codes are a foreign concept to most. Every developer gets allotted promo codes to give away their app. They typically give the codes out to their family members, friends, or the press (us) to give them away for them. The most common way to find these giveaways are through Twitter, so I'd recommend following us( @148apps) and all of your favorite devs so you can win some someday. If you do get one, you can redeem it on your iDevice by clicking on the 'Featured' tab, click the 'New' tab at the top, and then scroll all the way down until you get to 'Redeem'.

48. Check Your Remaining Balance - If you want to see how much money you have left on that gift card you got for Christmas, just go to the bottom of any screen in the App Store.

49. Delete An App - To delete an app, just click and hold on the app like you want to move it around the home screen.