March 28, 2011

iTunes 10.2 and iOS 4.3 Extend Home Sharing Playback to Your Mobile Devices

When you turn on iTunes Home Sharing for the computers on your home Wi-Fi network (by choosing Home Sharing from the Advanced Menu), you make sharing media across their libraries as easy as drag and drop, and streaming media between computers as simple as pick and play. iTunes 10.2 and iOS 4.3 extend the streaming playback ability to your mobile devices as well. To enable Home Sharing on them use the Settings app, select iPod, and enter the same Apple ID and password you used to enable Home Sharing on your computers.

On the iPad use the Shared button in the Video app to pick the library you want to stream from and then the Rentals, Movies, TV shows, etc. buttons to find your way to the content you want to watch. For music playback via the iPad, use the iPod app and the Library button in the upper left to choose among libraries. On the iPhone and iPod touch, use the iPod app to control all media playback. The More button on the bottom right has a Shared button at the bottom of its list which you can use to pick among libraries. Then use the regular buttons across the bottom — Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Videos — to pick the content you want to stream.

Added note: if you like smart playlists that use playcount to make selections and want all the plays to count no matter who plays them on whichever device on the home sharing network, check the “Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts” box under the Sharing tab in iTunes Preferences.