How to Use the Old Get Info Window in iTunes 12

Apple’s changes to iTunes over the past few years have certainly been controversial, especially the recent jump to iTunes 12 in OS X Yosemite. Some users bemoan the limited sidebar functionality in the new version, others hate the album-focused and effects-heavy album views. Here at TekRevue, however, the thing we dislike the most is the new Get Info window. Apple completely redesigned it for iTunes 12, and we’ve found it to be buggy, less attractive, and overall just plain harder to work with.

Thankfully, there’s still a way to get the old Get Info window back in iTunes 12. Users can view the old Get Info window by highlighting a track or album, holding the Option key, right-clicking on the track(s) and selecting Get Info.

The old iTunes Get Info window will appear, fully functional just as we remember it, with a bit of styling to match the new look in OS X Yosemite. One caveat, however, is that you must perform these steps with the mouse. Longtime iTunes users know that you can normally open the Get Info window by pressing Command-I, but adding the Option key to that shortcut doesn’t work in iTunes 12. In fact, nothing happens at all. You need to use the right-click menu and select Get Info to see the traditional Get Info window. Of course, pressing just Command-I works in iTunes 12, but it brings up the new Get Info window.

It’s not clear why Apple preserved the old Get Info interface in iTunes 12, although Mr. McElhearn proposes that it might be an indication that Apple isn’t entirely set on the new design, and may return to the old design as the default in the future. Until then, users who prefer the traditional Get Info interface will have to use this (admittedly inconvenient) workaround. We’re still hoping that a hidden preference file or Terminal command will let users choose the old window design by default, but we haven’t seen any progress there just yet. We’ll be sure to update this article if another workaround is found.

Reference readings:

How to Remove Duplicate Songs in iTunes 12 in Batch on Your PC

How to Get Music Info for iTunes 12 in Batch

10 Free and Festive Christmas Apps for Android Devices

With Advent upon us the Christmas season has finally begun. The misers among you will be looking to retreat to your caves to fend off the end of the year, but the rest can celebrate the season with these festive Android apps, all available for free.

1. Christmas Gift List

Those juggling presents for their friends and family will undoubtedly be struggling to keep track of what they need to buy, how much it will cost, and who each present is for. This app has been developed with just such a person in mind, and is also password protected so you can keep the presents secret until the big day.

10 Best 3D Blu-Ray Movies to Watch at Home

"Anyone can tell me what are the top 20 3D Blu-Ray Movies? Also the top must have." When you've got a new 3D TV and Blu-ray player combination, you may be wondering what you can watch on it. With 3D home theaters, you can control the experience by buying the right equipment. That just leaves the question of what to watch. Although the choices for the stereoscopic enthusiasts seem frustratingly limited for the moment, these 10 films could make the solid beginnings of a 3D Blu-ray library. Check the below 10 3D Blu-ray movie choices and enrich your Blu-ray collection.

Titanic

With almost half of its running time dedicated to exciting action and flawless special effects, it is sometimes easy to forget that this grand scale smash hit is a love story at heart. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as two young travelers who, despite the chasm of social status between them, fall deeply in love during the fateful maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. The innocence of the love story between the two stars anchors the grand spectacle of the rest of the film, delivering audiences a remarkable film with one of the weepiest endings in memory.

iTunes 12 Tips - How to Show Sidebar in iTunes 12

The iTunes sidebar has been a part of the media player’s functionality since the earliest days of the app, allowing users to quickly navigate around iTunes and their media, and also easily transfer things like music and movies to their iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The latest version of iTunes 12 has a different take on things though, and the interface has changed considerably by removing the sidebar and eliminating the option to show the sidebar from the View menu.

It turns out there is a way to show a sidebar in iTunes 12, however.

No, the new sidebar is not going to behave exactly like what users were accustomed to before in prior versions of iTunes, but it does work to be able to easily move media around between iTunes and iOS devices, and allows you to quickly jump between playlists, devices, and your stuff.

1. Open iTunes as usual to any media player screen

2. Click on the “Playlists” button (it looks like text but it’s actually a button, much like iOS)

3. The media view switches to ‘Playlist’ mode and a sidebar appears on the left, switching out of Playlist mode will hide the sidebar again

You’ll find all of your music and media playlists in the sidebar, but if you switch out of Playlists view, the sidebar will disappear from iTunes again. Thus, if you want to always see the sidebar in iTunes 12 you’ll need to stay in Playlists view, or at least switch to Playlists view when necessary.

In the default view, no sidebar is visible:

In the “Playlists” view, the sidebar becomes visible:

If the appearance of iTunes looks a bit starker here than what you have on your own Mac, it’s due to the increased contrast option being enabled for the broader interface of OS X.

This new sidebar functionality applies to all versions of iTunes 12 in any version of Mac OS X (or Windows). Since iTunes 12 is the default in OS X Yosemite, there is no option to use a prior version of iTunes, but for users on OS X Mavericks and prior versions of the Mac operating system, staying put on an earlier version of iTunes is possible – just note that eventually future versions of iOS will almost certainly be incompatible with the older iTunes releases.

How-to Tips - Find and remove duplicate songs in your iTunes library

After years of use, many iTunes users would find their iTunes music library messed up with songs that show more than once. These duplicate songs would eat a lot of storage and make music enjoying less enjoyable.  Thus, today I would like to share 2 ways to find and remove duplicate songs in iTunes music library, and make a simple comparison between these 2 solutions.

Solution 1 – iTunes

Apple already prepared options within iTunes to help iTunes users find and remove song duplicates. You could follow the below steps to get rid of duplicates.

Find duplicates

1.      Choose View > Show Exact Duplicate Items.

Matches are based on the song name and artist. If you have multiple versions of the same song (for example, live and studio versions, or versions from different albums) you can hold the Alt or Option key (for Mac OS X) or the Shift key (for Windows) and choose View > Show Exact Duplicate Items. This will show only duplicate songs having the same name, artist, and album.

How to Free Up Disk Space for Your iPhone, iPad and iPod

With repeatedly use, the disc space on your iPhone, iPod and iPad might be not enough for downloading and installing new apps, shooting new videos and pictures, etc. Also, low disk space makes your iPhone sluggish. That’s why you need to free up space on your iPhone or iPad without losing any data. And this post would provide you some small but practical tips to free up disk space on your iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Find out what uses space on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

To find out how much space you have left and what kind of app or data uses most of your iPhone disk space, take your iOS device and go to “Settings > General > Usage”. Your device might use some seconds to calculate the free space and then show you details as below:

You could make a preview of what uses the disk space of your iOS device here. And then you could make a decision on what to remove to get back those disc space. Now, let’s check the below tips to know how to free up iPhone disk space.

4 Simple and Time-Saving Tips to Improve Your iPhone 6 Experience

Just get an iPhone 6? Want to have the best possible experience with your iPhone 6 to get things done smoothly? These 4 little tips would help you know more about iPhone 6 and control iPhone 6 in a smoother and safer way.