iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 10-20-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, October 20, 2006
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-, iPhone-, iPad-, iTunes-, or Apple TV-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.

The most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I copy content from my iPod/iPhone onto my computer?

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Win)

Best Speakers?

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Find more answers in the latest publications in our Library. Free downloads developed by the editors of iLounge!

And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q:

I just got a new 80GB iPod, and before I begin digitizing my entire CD collection, I’d like to get a feel for the tradeoff between song quality and iPod capacity. Is there somewhere I can easily see what my options are? Thanks!

- Jane

A:

Absolutely. We’ve written a calculator that does just that. Simply select your iPod’s advertised capacity, and you can find out what useful capacity that corresponds to, and approximately how many songs of various bitrates (and average durations) that model iPod will hold.

Average Song Durationminutes
iPod Size
Approx. Useful Disk SpaceGB
Average Song BitrateSong Capacity
96 kbpssongs
128 kbpssongs
160 kbpssongs
192 kbpssongs
224 kbpssongs
256 kbpssongs
320 kbpssongs
kbpssongs
Apple Losslesssongs

Update: This calculator is now available as a permanent iLounge site feature, the iPod Storage Calculator.

Q:

Whenever I leave my iPod unused overnight, when I turn it on in the morning, it seems to perform a soft reset (the Apple icon appears). Is this normal, or should I have it checked?

- Chris

A:

Don’t worry, your iPod is behaving precisely as expected. For power conservation reasons, Apple’s iPods have various stages of “sleep,” where the iPod puts itself into varying degrees of low-power operation. The specifics of these modes actually depend on which iPod model you’re using, and are explained in full detail in this Apple support document.

Essentially, your iPod is not undergoing a soft reset, it’s merely returning from a low-power mode.

Q:

Is there a way to make the iPod show albums in the order in which they were released instead of showing them alphabetically?

- John

A:

Unfortunately, the iPod has not yet gained a feature comparable to iTunes’ “Album by Year” sort method (accessible by repeatedly clicking the “Album” list header). However, we can easily replicate this behavior in a playlist by taking advantage of iTunes’ ability to sort this way, and the fact that iTunes’ playlist sort orders synchronize directly to the iPod.

Begin with a smart playlist that collects all albums from a given artist:

Then, repeatedly click the album header in this playlist, to sort with the “Album by Year” feature. Then, synchronize this playlist to the iPod.

Clearly, limitations exist with this method. First, this only works for a specific artist, and you’ll have to individually create playlists for any artist you’re interested in doing this for. Second, all playlists on the iPod display as simple lists of tracks; you won’t be able to hierarchically traverse albums here, as you are able to do elsewhere in the iPod’s interface.

Q:

Is it possible to listen to my iPod while its charging through a USB port connected to a computer? I have a PC. Does it matter if this PC has iTunes installed or not?

- Kevin

A:

Sure. On any computer, regardless of whether or not it has iTunes installed, the iPod can accept a charge over a USB connection and still remain operational.

The single thing you must do to enable this is to make sure that the iPod has been ejected (or “unmounted”) from the computer. On a computer with iTunes installed, this is done automatically after the iPod is synchronized, or, if you have “Enable Disc Use” checked, after you manually click the Eject button next to the iPod’s name in the Source list.

On a computer without iTunes, the iPod’s drive can be unmounted using the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the Windows system tray. After the iPod’s drive has been “safely removed” from Windows’ operation, the iPod’s “Do Not Disconnect” screen will disappear, and the iPod will allow you to operate it normally, while still taking a charge via USB. You can verify that the iPod is taking charge from the connection while active by simply looking at the small battery indicator in the top right corner of the iPod’s screen.

Q:

Help! I’ve accidentally deleted a very special manual playlist from iTunes. It’d taken me hours and hours to create and meticulously rearrange, but I didn’t back it up on the computer. There is, however, a copy on my iPod still - is there any way to get it back without simply looking at the iPod and manually recreating the list in iTunes?

- Steve

A:

Absolutely - don’t worry. If you have chosen to automatically synchronize your music in iTunes, we can exploit one of the iPod’s relatively obscure features for this purpose: On The Go playlists.

Because On The Go playlists that the iPod creates are automatically synchronized back into iTunes upon a synchronization, we can use this feature to automatically rebuild your lost playlist. However it’s important that you don’t synchronize the iPod until doing this procedure, or else iTunes will delete the playlist from it as well.

First, browse on the iPod to “Music → Playlists.” Highlight the playlist you’d like to recover, and hold down the center button until the playlist name flashes, adding the entire contents of this playlist, in order, to a new On The Go playlist. You can verify that this was accomplished by scrolling to the bottom of the iPod’s playlist listing, and opening the “On-The-Go” playlist.

Next, save the On-The-Go playlist on the iPod by scrolling to the bottom, and selecting “Save Playlist.” The iPod will now create “New Playlist 1,” which will synchronize back to the iTunes library automatically the next time you synchronize. Simply rename this playlist in iTunes, and you’ve successfully restored your lost playlist!

Clip to Evernote

Ask iLounge Archives:

2-3-12: Deleting pictures from Photo Stream, Transferring Apps to a new iTunes library, Apple Universal Dock and iPhone 4S, Getting Track Names after CD Import, Video Playlists on the iPad

11-25-11: Removing music after activating iTunes Match, Smart Playlists and iTunes Match, Backing up data from an iPhone, Syncing MP3s to an iPod nano, Migrating Playlists to a new Computer

11-11-11: Configure Apple IDs on family iOS devices, Recovering lost audiobooks, Unable to disable passcode lock on iOS devices, Buying an iPod for audio-only use, Preventing deleted tracks from coming back from an iOS device

11-4-11: iPhone 4S storage capacity doesn't match, Transferring HD video from iPhone 4S to a computer, Recovering photos from iPod touch, Notification Center and iMessage in iOS 5

10-21-11: Using iCloud's Find My iPhone on older devices, Batch deleting photos in Camera Roll, Using iTunes Gift Cards internationally, Audiobooks and iCloud, Merging contacts from two devices into iCloud

See the rest of the Archives...

« Ask iLounge 10-26-06

Editorial: Apple, Smugness, and You »

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Comments

1

Love the calculator.

Could you add 160 kbps?

Posted by mattwardfh in Texas on October 20, 2006 at 10:52 AM (PDT)

2

Just added 160kbps, a few others that iTunes supports, as well as a custom bitrate field.

Enjoy!

Posted by Jerrod H. in TX on October 20, 2006 at 10:53 AM (PDT)

3

I have a third generation ipod which holds my entire music library, and also a nano which appears on i tunes as a playlist. I want to buy a new 5th gen video ipod but I want this to be my new master and not a secondary playlist. How do I do this???

Posted by willed on October 21, 2006 at 5:12 AM (PDT)

4

I have a problem with my nano :[. I accidently restored my ipod, which deleted all my songs. So after, I tried copying all the same songs back onto my ipod but when I ejected it from the computer, none of the songs showed on my ipod. I need help

Posted by efo310 on November 6, 2006 at 7:11 PM (PDT)

5

Apologies for joining the discussion a little late, but in terms of John’s question regarding song ordering by year, I keep all of my albums in date order by using the fact that iTunes/the iPod numero-alphabetises albums. For example, under Radiohead I have:

(1993) Pablo Honey
(1995) The Bends
(1997) OK Computer
(2000) Kid A

Whereas before it would have read:

The Bends
Kid A
OK Computer
Pablo Honey

It’s pretty time-consuming to set up in the first place, and it means that although you’re now in date order, the date will be permanently in view beside the album name. Still, I’ve been using that system for years, and wouldn’t even consider changing back now.

Hope that helps!

Posted by scottyd on January 6, 2007 at 9:11 AM (PDT)

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