November 2013
Beginner to intermediate
950 pages
34h 26m
English
Content preview from Windows 8.1: The Missing ManualBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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Music
It wouldn’t be a computer if it couldn’t play your tunes, right?
But the Music app, completely redesigned in Windows 8.1, is much more than a jukebox for songs you already own. It’s also the front end for one of Microsoft’s best-kept secrets: the Xbox Music service.
Tip
Don’t be thrown. When you open the app, you see that its official name is “xbox music,” and it lets you work with the Xbox Music service—but it has nothing at all to do with the Xbox game console. “Xbox” is simply the new word for “Microsoft.”
Within Microsoft’s collection of 30 million songs, Xbox Music combines elements of services like Pandora (plays endless free music in a style you choose), Spotify (you can listen to any song or any album or any performer, on command, for free), and iTunes (you can buy songs to download). And it’s a Windows 8 exclusive; none of your Windows 7 friends can use it.
And it’s all free. (If you’ve signed in with your Microsoft account, that is.)
Note
OK, it’s free with occasional interruptions by audio/video ads. Music streaming is free and unlimited for your first six months; after that, you can listen free for 10 hours a month. If you’re willing to pay $10 a month (or $100 a year), you can get an Xbox Music Pass, which lets you (a) also listen on a Windows 8 phone and your Xbox 360 (provided you also have a Gold membership), (b) download songs for offline listening, (c) sync your playlists across multiple gadgets, and (d) eliminate the ads.
The Three Faces of Music
The Music app serves ...
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I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.