Disk space blues: How To Reclaim disk space on your iPad
If you’re like me – filling up your iPad with as many quality applications, music, videos as you can get your hands on – you might be finding the internal storage is becoming a little claustrophobic. Never fear, iTunes has your covered with a smart feature included new in iTunes 9.
You can now have iTunes automatically convert your high quality mp3s and other media to 128kbit AAC format on transferring them to your iPad. Previously, if you wanted to free space using this method, you would have to maintain two copies of the file in your library and manually select the AAC version for syncing. This feature handles the detail of conversion for you and allows you to convert 10-15mb 320kbps mp3 files into 5-6mb AAC files.
If you’re using iPhone/iPod or mid-grade headphones, the difference will probably be indistinguishable from the higher quality version, while netting you big disk space savings. If you’re an audiophile and or using high quality headphones, you’ve probably already decided this isn’t for you, and that’s fine.
One word of warning though, converting the files is dependent on your computer’s CPU speed. User’s on iMacs and above shouldn’t be kept waiting for long converting files. Users on older Macbooks and Mac Minis may decide the wait time is too long to justify the disk space savings.
Your mileage may vary. Post your experiences in the comments if you decide to do this!
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macbandit
