Thursday 4 December 2014
Thursday 12 December 2013
Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands. Airtel has a GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4Gservices depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third largest mobile telecommunications company by subscribers, with over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries as of July 2013.[6] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 192.22 million subscribers as of August 2013.[7] Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom.
Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom services under the "airtel" brand, and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification.[8] It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.
Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been copied by several operators.[9] Its network—base stations, microwave links, etc.—is maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network[10] whereas IT support is provided by IBM,[11] and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India).[12] Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of 
1/minute (US$0.02/minute).[13] During the last financial year (2009–10), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.[14]
1/minute (US$0.02/minute).[13] During the last financial year (2009–10), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.[14]History[edit]
 | This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2012) |
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda. [15]
Airtel launched "Hello Tunes", a Caller ring back tone service (CRBT), in July 2004 becoming to the first operator in India to do so. The Airtel theme song, composed by A.R. Rahman, was the most popular tune on that year.[16]
On 26 February 2013, Airtel announced that it had deployed Ericsson’s Mobile Broadband Charging (MBC) solution and completely modernized its prepaid services for its subscribers in India. As a part of the deal, Ericsson’s multi service MBC suite allows prepaid customers to have personalized profile based data charging plans. Prepaid customers will be able to customize their data plans across mobility, fixed line and broadband by cross bundling across multiple domains (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE & Wi-Fi). It will also offer flexible multi service charging in geographical redundant mode, making Airtel the first operator to implement geographical redundancy at such a large scale.[17] In May 2013, Bharti Infotel paid Rs 50,000 as compensation to a customer "for unfair trade practices". The customer alleged that the company continued to aggressively demand payment despite customer requests for disconnection of service.[18]
Corporate Structure[edit]
| This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2012) |
Airtel's initial corporate structure concentrated on the hierarchy of the operations inside the company as a whole. The structure depicted the corresponding operation/region of different in-charges and it didn't hold anyone responsible for each of its services. So, the company found it better to restructure its corporate hierarchy. The transformed organisational structure has two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with clear focus on B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) segments. Bharti Airtel's B2C business unit will comprehensively service the retail consumers, homes and small offices, by combining the erstwhile business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Digital TV, and other emerging businesses (like M-commerce, M-health, M-advertising etc.). The B2C organization will consist of Consumer Business and Market Operations.
Worldwide presence[edit]
Airtel is the one of the largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and has a commercial presence in 20 countries and the Channel Islands.
Its area of operations include:
- The Indian Subcontinent:
- Airtel Bangladesh, in Bangladesh
- Airtel, in India
- Airtel Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka
- Airtel Africa, which operates in 17 African countries:
- Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
- The British Crown Dependency islands of Jersey and Guernsey, under the brand name Airtel-Vodafone, through an agreement with Vodafone.
Airtel operates in the following countries:
| Country | Site | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
 Bangladesh | Airtel Bangladesh | Airtel Bangladesh had about 8 million customers as on Sep 2013.[19] |
 Burkina Faso | Airtel Burkina Faso | Airtel Burkina Faso is the dominant player with 1,433,000 customers representing 50% market share.[20] |
 Chad | Airtel Chad | Airtel Chad is the #1 operator with 69% market share.[20] |
 Democratic Republic of the Congo | Airtel DRC | Airtel is the market leader with almost 5 million customers at the end of 2010.[citation needed] |
 Gabon | Airtel Gabon | Airtel Gabon has 829,000 customers and its market share stood at 61%.[21] |
 Ghana | Airtel Ghana | Airtel Ghana had about 1.76 million customers at the end of 2010.[22] |
 India | Airtel | Airtel is the market leader with almost 193.4 million customers as on Sept 30, 2013. [23] |
 Kenya | Airtel Kenya | Airtel Kenya is the second largest operator and has 4 million customers.[24] |
 Madagascar | Airtel Madagascar | Airtel holds second place in the mobile telecom market in Madagascar, has a 39% market share and over 1.4 million customers.[20] |
 Malawi | Airtel Malawi | Airtel Malawi is the market leader with a market share of 72%.[20] |
 Niger | Airtel Niger | Airtel Niger is the market leader with a 68% market share.[20] |
 Nigeria | Airtel Nigeria | |
 Republic of the Congo | Airtel Congo B | Airtel Congo is the market leader with a 55% market share.[20] |
 Rwanda | Airtel Rwanda | Airtel launched services in Rwanda on 30 March 2012.[25] |
 Seychelles | Airtel Seychelles | Airtel is the leading comprehensive telecommunications services providers with over 55% market share of mobile market in Seychelles.[26] |
 Sierra Leone | Airtel Sierra Leone | |
 Sri Lanka | Airtel Sri Lanka | Airtel Sri Lanka commenced operations on 12 January 2009. It had about 1.8 million mobile customers at the end of 2010.[22] |
 Tanzania | Airtel Tanzania | Airtel Tanzania is the market leader with a 38% market share.[20] |
 Uganda | Airtel Uganda | Airtel Uganda stands as the #2 operator with a market share of 38%.[20] |
 Zambia | Airtel Zambia | Airtel Zambia is the market leader with 69% market share.[citation needed] |
Channel Islands† :  Jersey Guernsey | Airtel Vodafone | Airtel operates in the Channel Islands under the brand name Airtel–Vodafone through an agreement with Vodafone. |
†Jersey and Guernsey are British Crown Dependencies. They are not independent countries. Therefore, Airtel's countries of operation is considered to be 20.
I TUNES
iTunes is a media player and media library application developed by Apple Inc. It is used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video on personal computers running the OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The iTunes Store is also available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, andiPad.
Through the iTunes Store, users can purchase and download music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks, podcasts, movies, and movie rentals in some countries, and ringtones, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch (fourth generation onward). Application software for the iPhone, iPad andiPod Touch can be downloaded from the App Store.
iTunes 11 is the most recent version of iTunes, available for OS X v10.6.8 or later, as well as Windows XP or later. It was released on November 29, 2012, one month later than expected, because of a delay by Apple, which said that it needed extra time to get things right.[4]
History[edit]
See also: iTunes version history
SoundJam MP, developed by Bill Kincaid and released by Casady & Greene in 1999,[5] was renamed iTunes when Apple purchased it in 2000. Jeff Robbin, Kincaid, and Dave Heller moved to Apple as part of the acquisition, where they continue to work today as the software's original developers. They simplified SoundJam's user interface, added the ability to burn CDs, and removed its recording feature and skinsupport.[6] On January 9, 2001, iTunes 1.0 was released at Macworld San Francisco.[7] Macintosh users immediately began poking through iTunes' resource fork, where they discovered numerous strings and other resources that indicated iTunes was a re-engineered SoundJam MP. Casady & Greene ceased distribution of SoundJam MP on June 1, 2001 at the request of the developers.[8]
Originally a Mac OS 9-only application, iTunes began to support Mac OS X when version 2.0 was released nine months later, which also added support for the original iPod.[9] Version 3 dropped Mac OS 9 support but added smart playlists and a ratings system.[10] In April 2003, version 4.0 introduced the iTunes Store; in October, version 4.1 added support for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP.[11]Introduced at Macworld 2005 with the new iPod Shuffle, Version 4.7.1 introduced the ability to automatically convert higher-bitrate songs to 128kbit/s AAC as these devices did not natively support audio encoded in AIFF or Apple Lossless formats, also improving the value proposition of the Shuffle's limited flash-only storage.[12] Version 7.0 introduced gapless playback and Cover Flow in September 2006.[13]In March 2007, iTunes 7.1 added support for Windows Vista,[14] and 7.3.2 was the last Windows 2000 version.[15] iTunes lacked support for 64-bit versions of Windows until the 7.6 update on January 16, 2008. iTunes is currently supported under any 64-bit version of Windows Vista, although the iTunes executable is still 32-bit. The 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are not supported byApple, but a workaround has been devised for both operating systems.[16] Version 8.0 added Genius playlists, grid view, and a new default visualizer.[17] iTunes 9 added "Home Share", enabling automatic updating of purchased items across other computers on the same subnet and offers a new iTunes Store UI. Genius Mixes were added, as well as improved app synchronization abilities, extending the iPod Shuffle 128 kbit/s down-convert feature to all of Apple's AAC-capable devices.[18] It also adds iTunes LPs to the store, which provides additional media with an album. Apple added iTunes Extras as well to the store, which adds content usually reserved for films on DVD and Blu-ray discs.[19] Both iTunes LPs and Extras use web-standards HTML, JavaScript and CSS.[20]
A version of iTunes[21] was shipped with cell phones from Motorola, which included the ability to sync music from an iTunes library to the cellphone, as well as a similar interface between both platforms. Since the release of the iPhone, Apple has stopped distributing iTunes with other manufacturers' phones. In the absence of support from Apple, Nokia has released a Mac application called Nokia Multimedia Transfer that supports transferring data from iTunes and iPhoto onto some Nokia devices.[22] Palm, however, reverse-engineered iTunes to allow its Pre device to sync directly with iTunes. It did this by fooling iTunes into thinking the device was an iPod.[23]
In late March 2010, Apple released version 9.1, which has support for the iPad and its iBooks application.[24] In June, Apple released version 9.2, which brought support for the new iPhone 4, as well as any iDevices running iOS 4, and included support for the new iPhone and iPod Touch version of the iBooks app.[25] On September 1, 2010, Apple held their annual music press event, where they unveiled an updated version: iTunes 10. The new version was available for download later that day. One major feature includes the integration of iTunes Ping, which brings a social factor to the iTunes experience. Apple CEO Steve Jobs also announced a new logo, one without a CD in the background because of the increasing popularity of iTunes digital downloads.[citation needed] On November 29, 2012, Apple released iTunes 11. The update included a new user interface that dropped Cover Flow in favor of a redesigned grid layout. Other new features included an improved MiniPlayer, tighter iCloud integration, and a new iTunes Store design. iTunes Ping was dropped in favor of more advanced Twitter and Facebook integration.
Media management[edit]
iTunes acts as a front end for Apple's QuickTime media player. Officially, it is required in order to manage the audio data of an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, althoughalternative software does exist. Users can organize their music into playlists within one or more libraries, edit file information, record Compact Discs, copy files to adigital audio player, purchase music and videos through its built-in music store (iTunes Store), download free podcasts, back up songs onto a CD or DVD, run a visualizer to display graphical effects in time to the music, and encode music into a number of different audio formats. There is also a large selection of free internet radio stations to listen to. Additionally, users can add PDF files to their library (to add digital liner notes to their albums, for example). The PDFs can be synchronized with and read on an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, but not a regular iPod.[26]
iTunes 8.0 saw the removal of several options in the Preferences window. For example, iTunes once gave users the option to display arrows beside the selected song's title, artist, album, and genre that link directly to the iTunes Store. These arrows are no longer removable, except through the direct editing of a preferences file.[27]
Music[edit]
iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song's attributes. These attributes, known as metadata, are stored in two separate library files. The first is a binary file called iTunes Library and it uses a proprietary file format ("ITL"). It caches information like artist and genre from the audio format's tag capabilities (the ID3 tag, for example) and stores iTunes-specific information like play count and rating. iTunes typically reads library data only from this file.[28] The second file, iTunes Music Library.xml, is refreshed whenever information in iTunes is changed. It uses an XML format, allowing developers to easily write applications that can access the library information (including play count, last played date, and rating, which are not standard fields in the ID3v2.3 format). Apple's own iDVD, iMovie, and iPhoto applications all access the library.[29] If the first file exists but is corrupted, such as by making it zero-length, iTunes will attempt to reconstruct it from the XML file. Detailed third-party instructions regarding this are documented elsewhere.[30] Beginning with iTunes 10.5.3 this behavior has been changed such that the XML file is not read automatically to recreate the database when the database is corrupted. Rather, the user should load the iTunes Library.xml file via File > Library > Import Playlist....
It has also been noted that iTunes does not automatically track changes to actual files in the library. If a file is moved or deleted, iTunes will display an exclamation mark beside the library entry and the user will need to manually amend the library record. Several third party tools address this problem.[31]
iTunes supports ripping from CDs, but not from DVDs. However, in 2008, Apple and select film studios introduced "iTunes Digital Copy", a bonus feature on some DVDs that provides a copy-protected and iTunes-compatible file for select films.[32]
File format support[edit]
iTunes 11 can currently read, write and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless (.m4a).[33]
iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books. There is limited support forVorbis and FLAC enclosed in an Ogg container (files using the Ogg container format are not natively supported) or Speex codecs with the Xiph QuickTime Components, but requires iTunes to run in 32-bit mode (no longer an option after iTunes 11.1.2 released with OS X Mavericks). Because tag editing and album art is done within iTunes and not QuickTime, these features will not work with these QuickTime components. As of Snow Leopard, iTunes 9 (Mac) will play HE-AAC / AAC+ internet streams. The latest version of iTunes (Win/Mac) supports importing audio CDs with the default iTunes standard file format of AAC at 256 kbit/s, but users can choose from 16 kbit/s to 320 kbit/s constant bit rates (CBR) in either AAC or MP3.[citation needed] Importing of audio CDs into MP3 or AAC formats can also be accomplished using variable bitrate (VBR) encoding.
The Windows version of iTunes can automatically transcode DRM-free WMA (including version 9) files to other audio formats, but does not support playback of WMA files and will not transcode DRM protected WMA files. Telestream, Inc. provides free codecs for Mac users of QuickTime to enable playback of unprotected Windows Media files. These codecs are recommended by Microsoft.[34]
In addition to importing CDs into the iTunes library, users can also import digital audio files from other sources, an any format that iTunes supports. This can be accomplished by either right clicking on the file, selecting open with, and then selecting iTunes or dragging the file into the open iTunes window. Alternatively, for Amazon.com mp3s, the Amazon MP3 Downloader application will automatically import the mp3 files into the iTunes library.[35]
File metadata[edit]
For MP3 files, iTunes writes tags in ID3v2.2 using UCS-2 encoding by default, but converting them to ID3v2.3 (UCS-2 encoding) and ID3v2.4 (which uses UTF-8 encoding) is possible via its "Advanced" > "Convert ID3 Tags" toolbar menu. If both ID3v2.x and ID3v1.x tags are in a file, iTunes ignores the ID3v1.x tags.[36]
Advanced Audio Coding and Apple Lossless files support Unicode metadata, stored in the MPEG-4 Part 14 container as so-called "atoms". The QuickTime plugin that supports the OGG container format has no support for tag editing or album art.[36][citation needed] iTunes uses the Gracenote interactive audio CD database to provide track name listings for audio CDs. The service can be set to activate when a CD is inserted into the computer and an Internet connection is available. Track names for albums imported to iTunes while not connected to the Internet can be obtained during a later connection, by a manual procedure.[37] For any album loaded into iTunes for which there is not an existing Gracenote track listing, the user can choose to submit track name data to Gracenote.[38]
File metadata is displayed in columns, including album, artist, beats per minute, bit rate, composer, date added, date modified, disc number, genre, last played, last skipped, plays, purchase date, size, skips, time, track number, year, and a few fields that may be supplied by users, such as description, kind, and rating. Metadata fields not loaded with the song, or added by a user, remain blank.
iTunes utilizes a special ID3 tag in order to display an Explicit or Clean tag on songs purchased from the iTunes store. Unlike most other tags, the tag cannot be changed within iTunes. It can be changed or added to AAC files in third party software.
Genius[edit]
The Genius feature, introduced in iTunes 8, automatically generates a playlist of songs from the user's library which are similar to the selected song. Genius playlists are created by the ratings system andcollaborative filtering. An iTunes Store account is required because information about the user's library must first be sent anonymously to Apple's database. Algorithms determine which songs to play based on other users' libraries, and Genius becomes more intelligent given a larger data set. The resulting Genius playlist can contain 25, 50, 75, or 100 songs and can be refreshed for new results or saved. The iTunes Sidebar recommends selections for purchase from the iTunes Store based on the selected library track.[39] Once Genius becomes active in iTunes, it can be used on current generations of the iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Touch or the iPhone.[40] iTunes 9 added Genius Mixes, where the Genius software finds similar music and automatically puts them into mixes.[41] iTunes Genius creates playlists from the user's existing iTunes library based on a single selected song. Genius Mixes create playlists based on the musical genre.
Library sharing[edit]
One way of sharing a library is over the network, known as network sharing. A user's iTunes Library can be shared over a local network using the closed, proprietary Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by Apple for this purpose. DAAP relies on the Bonjour network service discovery framework, Apple's implementation of the Zeroconf open network standard. Apple has not made the DAAP specification available to the general public, only to third-party licensees such as Roku. However, the protocol has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream audio from non-Apple software (mainly on the Linux platform).[42] DAAP allows shared lists of songs within the same subnet to be automatically detected. When a song is shared, iTunes can stream the song but won't save it on the local hard drive, in order to prevent unauthorized copying. Songs in Protected AAC format can also be accessed, but authentication is required. A maximum of five users may connect to a single user every 24 hours. The multiple, alternate "View" options normally available to iTunes users including "Cover Flow" are disabled when viewing a shared library over a network.[citation needed]
Library sharing was first introduced with iTunes 4.0, where users could freely access shared music anywhere over the Internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. Apple quickly removed this feature with version 4.0.1, claiming that users were violating the End User License Agreement.[43]
With the release of iTunes 7.0, Apple changed their implementation of DAAP. This change prevents any third-party client, such as a computer running Linux, a modified Xbox, or any computer without iTunes installed, from connecting to a remote iTunes repository. iTunes will still connect as a client to other iTunes servers and to third-party servers.[44]
iTunes libraries can also be shared using the “Home Share” option. This option enables users to share both video and audio files through the application. This allows users to also look for items that they don’t already have.[45] Like network sharing, it allows users to share over the same network to up to five computers. The media can then be transferred to any type of iPod or iPad. To set up home sharing, the two computers being used must be on the same network as well as set up using the same Apple ID.
Another option to share music files is to burn CDs. To do this the user needs to create a playlist with the songs the user wishes to share. If the playlist exceeds roughly twenty songs it is likely they will need to make multiple CDs. By inserting a disk into the disk drive a button on the bottom of the window should give the option to burn a disk. The files are automatically downloaded to the disk and may be uploaded onto another computer or saved as a backup for the user’s computer.
Library viewing[edit]
iTunes allows users to choose different ways to categorise their collection, and displays content according to the selection. The default settings show the music collection sorted by album, laying out the artwork in a grid similar to the iPad music application. When selected, albums extend downwards, showing their contents, and allowing users to browse the store for missing or related content. The content listings are themed depending on the predominant color of the album artwork. Film and television shows are laid out in the same manner, with their posters or artwork laid out in a grid. Users may alternately arrange their music collection as a list of every song, by genre, or by artist. These show details in a list structure, but the latter two include the album artwork as thumbnails to aid navigation. Items are automatically arranged alphabetically by album name, but users may rearrange this if using the song list option.
iTunes 11 removes the Cover Flow option, previously the default viewing method for a user's music collection. It also disables the sidebar by default, focusing on spreading content across the width of the window. The status bar is also disabled by default. Both of these may be reactivated by the user. The sidebar design has been slightly altered, reinstating the colored icons removed in iTunes 10. When the sidebar is not activated, users can move between media libraries using a drop down menu below the control buttons.
Playlists[edit]
In addition to static playlist support, version 3 of iTunes introduced support for smart playlists.[46] Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria, much like a database query. Multiple criteria can be entered to manage the smart playlist.[47]
Some automatic smart playlists that are added to the user’s library include Top 25 Most Played, Recently Played, Recently Added, My Top Rated, Music Videos, Classical Music, Purchased, and 90’s Music. While creating Smart Playlists the user has to choose whether they want the playlist to be based on genre, whether or not the songs have album artwork, date added, etc. and if they want it to contain or not contain certain genres or artists. For example, a genre like country music, or songs added in a specific month or year, or an individual artist. The user can also limit the amount of songs they want in the playlist or they can leave it as unlimited. The Live Updating option will automatically update their new playlist as their library changes.[48]
There formerly was a feature which allowed publishing of a playlist, which was called iMix.
Introduced in iTunes 4.5,[49] the "Party Shuffle" playlist was intended as a simple DJing aid.[50] By default, it selects tracks randomly from other playlists or the library, but users can override the automatic selections by deleting tracks (iTunes will choose new ones to replace them) or by adding their own via drag-and-drop or contextual menu. This allows a mixture of both preselected and random tracks in the same meta-playlist. The playlist from which Party Shuffle drew could be changed on the fly by the computer user, but doing so will cause all randomly chosen tracks to disappear and be replaced.
Party Shuffle was renamed iTunes DJ in iTunes 8. When iTunes was updated to 8.1, quite a few features were added to iTunes DJ. The free Apple Remote application for the iPhone and iPod Touch was also updated at this time that added a new iTunes DJ option in the settings screen when the user is connected to a Wi-Fi network and a new song request feature is enabled in iTunes DJ on the hosts. Along with the song request feature voting on songs in the queue was added, the more votes a song gets the higher in the queue it will be and the sooner it will be played. Song voting can only be done when song requesting is enabled and in two ways: the first by right clicking on a song in the iTunes DJ queue on the host's computer in iTunes, the second is in the Remote application ether connected with the iTunes DJ option by a guest or by the host in the full playlist section. When song requesting is enabled a customizable welcome message is displayed below the host's shared library name in the button used to connect to iTunes DJ.[51]
Playlists can be played randomly or sequentially. The randomness of the shuffle algorithm can be biased for or against playing multiple tracks from the same album or artists in sequence (a feature introduced in iTunes 5.0, and later discontinued in iTunes 8.0). iTunes DJ can also be biased towards selecting tracks with a higher star rating.
With the release of iTunes 11, the iTunes DJ feature was removed in favor of the Up Next feature, which allows users to specify a song from their collection to play next, add it to a queue of songs to be played, or view a list of previously played tracks. However, the Up Next feature does not include features previously found in iTunes DJ, such as the ability for guests to request songs, does not provide as much information as the playlist view, and requires juggling multiple windows and floating dialogs to perform similar tasks.
Printing[edit]
To compensate for the lack of a physical CD, iTunes can print custom-made jewel case inserts as well as song lists and album lists. After burning a CD from a playlist, one can select that playlist and bring up a dialog box with several print options. The user can choose to print either a single album cover (for purchased iTunes albums) or a compilation cover (for user-created playlists). iTunes then automatically sets up a template with art on one side and track titles on the other.[citation needed]
Sound processing[edit]
iTunes includes sound processing features, such as equalization, "sound enhancement" and crossfade. There is also a feature called "Sound Check", which automatically adjusts the playback volume of all songs in the library to the same level; this is usually called volume leveling or audio normalization. Like "sound enhancement" and crossfade, this can be turned on in the Playback section of iTunes' preferences.
Video[edit]
On May 9, 2005, video support was introduced to iTunes with the release of iTunes 4.8. Users can drag and drop video clips from the computer into the iTunes Library for cataloguing and organization. They can be viewed in a small frame in the main iTunes display, in a separate window, or fullscreen. Before version 7 provided separate libraries for media types, videos were only distinguished from audio in the Library by a small icon resembling a TV screen and grouped with music in the library, organized by the same musical categories (such as "album" and "composer").
On October 12, 2005, Apple introduced iTunes 6.0, which added support for purchasing and viewing of video content from the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Music Store initially offered a selection of thousands of Music Videos and five TV shows, including most notably the ABC network's Lost and Desperate Housewives. Disney Channel shows (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and That's So Raven) were also offered 24 hours after airing, as well as episode packs from past seasons. Since then, the collection has expanded to include content from numerous television networks. The iTunes Music Store also gives the ability to view Apple's large collection of film trailers.
As of September 5, 2006, the iTunes Store offers over 550 television shows for download. Additionally, a catalog of 75 feature-length films from Disney-owned studios was introduced. As of April 11, 2007, over 500 feature-length films are available through iTunes.[52]
Originally, films and TV shows were only available to U.S. customers, with the only video content available to non-U.S. customers being music videos and Pixar's short films. This feature is being extended to other countries as licensing issues are resolved.
Video content available from the store used to be encoded as 540 kbit/s Protected MPEG-4 video (H.264) with an approximately 128 kbit/s AAC audio track. Many videos and video podcasts currently require the latest version of QuickTime, QuickTime 7, which is incompatible with older versions of Mac OS (only v10.3.9 and later are supported). On September 12, 2006, the resolution of video content sold on the iTunes Store was increased from 320×240 (QVGA) to 640×480 (VGA). The higher resolution video content is encoded as 1.5 Mbit/s (minimum) Protected MPEG-4 video (H.264) with a minimum 128 kbit/s AAC audio track.
Movies[edit]
In September 2006, iTunes progressed to selling full-length films.[53] This entails downloading movies from the iTunes store. The prices for these range from: $9.99, $14.99 if it is a new release, and $19.99 if it is in High Definition.[54] iTunes also gives the option of renting movies, which began in January 2008.[53] The price for renting a movie can range from $0.99 if the movie is on sale, $3.99, and $4.99 if the rental is HD. However, iTunes sometimes carries, for a limited time, movies to rent that are available OnDemand, for a price of $6.99 in both SD and HD. Once a rental is downloaded the viewer has thirty days to watch the movie before it expires. Once the viewer begins to watch the movie he/she has twenty-four (in the US) or forty-eight hours to finish the movie before it expires. Movies can be organized in the iTunes library by title, genre, or unwatched.
Television shows[edit]
In October 2005, the iTunes Store began to offer the option of downloading television shows.[55] iTunes offers the option of buying individual episodes of TV shows for $1.99 in standard definition or $2.99 in high definition. The high definition feature on TV shows was added in July 2008.[53] iTunes also offers the ability to buy a season pass for television shows. This allows viewers to buy an entire season that automatically downloads new episodes around twenty-four hours after they air. In the iTunes library, these shows are then categorized by season of the particular show. iTunes also gives the option of ordering shows based on: series, genre, or whether or not the episodes are unwatched. In fall of 2010 iTunes offered TV show rental options, but as of August 2011 this option is no longer offered.[56]
Podcasts[edit]
Version 4.9 of iTunes, released on June 28, 2005, added built-in support for podcasts.[57]
Users can subscribe to any podcast by entering its RSS feed URL, but also by browsing the podcast directory within the iTunes Store. The front page of this displays high-profile podcasts from commercial broadcasters and independent podcasters and allows searching by category or popularity. Once subscribed, the podcast can be set to download manually, or automatically — and as with other audio, content can be listened to directly or synced to a portable hardware device like an MP3 player.
The addition of podcasting functionality to such a widespread audio application like iTunes greatly helped podcasting enter the mainstream.[58] Within days after iTunes 4.9 was released, podcasters were reporting that the number of downloads of their audio files had tripled, sometimes even quadrupled,[59] and iTunes is considered the dominant podcast client.
Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for video podcasting, although video and RSS support was already unofficially there in version 4.9.[60]
Users can subscribe to RSS feeds through the iTunes Store or by directly entering the feed URL. Video podcasts can contain downloadable video files (in MOV, MP4, M4V, or MPGformat), but also streaming sources and even IPTV.[61]
Downloadable files can be synchronized to a video-capable iPod, or downloadable files and streams can be shown in Front Row.[60]
iTunes offers the ability to create "Smart Playlists" that can be used to control which podcasts are in the playlist, using multiple criteria such as date, number of times listened to, type, etc.[62] It is also possible to set up iTunes so that only certain playlists will be synced with the iPod. By using a combination of the two techniques, it is possible to control exactly which music and/or podcasts will be transferred to the iPod. A user may configure a smart playlist to display only podcasts less than two weeks old or removing any podcast that the iPod user has already listened to. This smart playlist is synced with the iPod every time the iPod is plugged into the PC, ensuring that the user does not have to listen to the same show more than once. Once a podcast has been listened to, it will be removed from this list as soon as the iPod is synced with the PC. There are many criteria which can control what goes in a smart playlist, such as "name", "artist", "category", "grouping", "kind", "last played", "play count", "rating", "last skipped", and "playlist" and these can be combined with functions such as "equals", "is greater than", "is less than", "contains", "does not contain", "is true", "is false", "is", "is not", "starts with", "ends with", "is in the range", "is before", and "is after". As a result, it is possible to control exactly which podcasts are transferred to the iPod.
Books[edit]
In February 2010, Apple announced the release of the iPad, and along with it a new app for it called iBooks. The application performs two functions. The first function is as a direct link to the iTunes book store, called iBookstore, which can be accessed on iOS devices and computers (Mac or PC). The second was as a storage place for downloaded books (whether free or purchased) from the iBookstore. The format of books from the Apple store (and the only one users could use with iBooks, until PDF functionality was added later) is ePub.
Additional functions were later added in mid-2010 to include annotations and placeholder/bookmarks in any book being read. Also PDF documents were able to be added, and were stored under their own tab in a user's iBooks library, with the same functionality. The iBooks app for the other two iOS devices (iPhone and iPod Touch) was released when iOS 4 was distributed shortly before the release of the iPhone 4.
Until the release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, in October 2013, books (though not PDF documents) could only be read using the app on any iOS device and not on a user's Mac or PC. With the release of Mavericks, Apple released a standalone iBooks app for OS X, which moved books from the iTunes library, and allows Mac users to read these books on their Macs. PDF documents can be read using Previewor any other PDF reader/editor application the user has on their machine.
On January 19, 2012, Apple announced a new part of the Books store with textbooks. They also released a new authoring method called iBooks Author.
Apps[edit]
See also: App Store (iOS)
The App section on iTunes keeps track of all of the apps the user has downloaded or purchased. It also organizes their apps by genre and there is another tab that lets the user see all of their apps. It also informs the user when they have updates available for their apps.
iTunes Store[edit]
Main article: iTunes Store
Version 4 of iTunes introduced the iTunes Store, then named the iTunes Music Store, from which iTunes users can buy and download songs for use on a limited number of computers and an unlimited number of iPods. In previous years, purchased music from the iTunes Store were copy protected with Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system which allows protected songs to be played on up to five computers at one time, as well as unlimited devices (iPod, AppleTV, etc.) DRM protected songs cannot be played on computers not authorized to the purchaser's iTunes account. At the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo, it was announced that the iTunes Music Store would be DRM-free, with all songs DRM-free by April 2009.[63]
Apple also announced changes in their price tier. They announced that songs will now cost $0.69, $0.99, or $1.29, but did not elaborate on how they will be priced. Observers expected new hits to be $1.29 while older songs will be the cheaper $0.99 or $0.69 tier.[64] However, many record labels have listed whole catalogs by artists with nothing but $1.29 songs, taking advantage of the price option. Due to this, there are very few songs in the iTunes store with a $0.69 price tag.[65]
In the years since, films, television programs, music videos, podcasts, and the App Store (for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) have been added to iTunes' extensive store catalog.
On January 6, 2009, Phil Schiller announced in his Macworld 2009 keynote speech that over 6 billion songs had been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28, 2003,[66] making it the largestonline music store in the world.
At the previous Macworld Expo 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated that the service had set a new single day record of 20 million songs on December 25, 2007. He also announced that the iTunes Store will offer over 1,000 movies for rental by the end of February.[67] The iTunes movie catalog includes content from 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. These movies will also be transferable to all 6th generation iPods.[68]
On February 24, 2010, Apple announced that over 10 billion tracks had been downloaded from the iTunes Store.[69]
As of Tuesday, November 16, 2010, Beatles fans could download their entire catalog digitally via iTunes.[70] Artists whose music remains largely unavailable include Garth Brooks, Tool, Black Sabbath andBob Seger. Def Leppard albums are no longer available through iTunes.[71] The KLF, who infamously deleted their back catalogue, had their catalogue unofficially released onto the iTunes store.[72][73]
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