iPod and iTunes Hacks

Stream Your Music via iDisk

If you want to share a favorite song quickly and easily with a friend, this hack is for you. Using .Mac’s iDisk, you can make your tunes available to anyone over the Internet.

Using iDisk, you can stream MP3 files (but not AAC files) over the Internet. Friends won’t be able to download songs from your iDisk, but they will be able to listen to them. Want to share a mix of your favorite tunes or your latest GarageBand creation with friends? Don’t bother burning a CD (although, if you do, make sure to check out “Make a Custom Mix CD” [Hack #96] ). Instead, all you have to do is copy them over to your iDisk and email your friends a URL.

For this hack, you need to be a .Mac member. Apple no longer gives out free iDisk access. Mount your iDisk in the Finder either by clicking on the iDisk icon in your Finder window or by going to Go → iDisk → My iDisk. Your iDisk will now mount in the Finder. Alternately, if you are on Windows XP, you can download the iDisk Utility (http://www.mac.com/1/idiskutility_download.html) and use it to load your iDisk into Windows Explorer, so that you can navigate to it like any other Windows folder.

Copy any songs you want to include into your iDisk’s Site folder. Your iDisk comes with 100 MB of storage (which you can upgrade to up to 1 GB). Depending on what you already have stored on the disk (and the bit rate at which your MP3s ...