2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 10-6-05

Author's pic

By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, October 6, 2005
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-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 music from my iPod onto my computer?

Click here for the answer.

The second most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I put DVDs on my iPod?


For converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and home movies to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, we have a three-part series outlining the best formats, settings, and various tools to use for converting all types of video content for use on these devices.

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

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

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

Top five questions most recently asked by iLounge readers:

Q: What are the best speakers to use with my iPod? (15, 76-79, and 90-92)

Q: What are the best headphones to use with my iPod? (10, 72-75, and 90-92)

Q: I really want to get a nice case for my iPod. Do you have any suggestions? (36-37, 54-67, and 90-92)

Q: How can I connect my iPod to my car stereo? (14, 32-35, 68-71, and 90-92)

Q: Are there any batteries that I can use to extend my iPod's battery life? (82-83 and 90-92)

A: Answers to these and many other questions can be found in two places. Our Free iPod Book 3.3 provides a complete report card to all of the iPod accessories we've reviewed as of summer 2007, as well as over 125 iTunes and iPod tips & tricks. Further, our new 2008 iPod & iPhone Buyers' Guide has accessory tutorials at the page numbers listed in parentheses above. These and other publications in our Library are free downloads, developed by the editors of iLounge!

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

Q:

Is there any way to connect a cassette adapter to a dock/line-out rather than to the headphone jack of an iPod? I have come to find the sound quality of anything attached to the iPod headphone jack (besides actual headphones) to be noticibly worse than that from the line out port. It seems there is no way to directly connect my iPod to my 2002 Grand Am, so I’m looking at the cassette deck method as the next best option. I realize that this isn’t ideal for the best sound, but if I can avoid the headphone jack, it can’t be too bad.

- Jill

A:

This certainly can be done, and, in fact, it is precisely how we would recommend you connect.

What you need is a simple product that will allow you to convert the 30-Pin Dock Connector into a standard 1/8” headphone jack. There are several products which do just that. The Belkin Auto Kit, for example, simultaneously charges the iPod and provides for the line-out connection with a headphone jack at the cigarette adaptor end of the cable. We have been using this product with a Sony Cassette Adaptor for over a year. Another option is the SiK imp, which is cheaper than the Belkin Auto Kit, and can be used at home as well. One major difference between the two products is that SiK’s imp doesn’t attenuate the line out signal, while Belkin’s Auto Kit does. You may hear clipping in the imp as a result, one reason to prefer Belkin’s solution.

Our reviews page has product reviews for the Belkin Auto Kit, Sik Imp, and a comprehensive roundup of many cassette adaptors.

Q:

When I wake up in the morning, my iPod mini is on and playing, even though I make sure it’s off when I go to bed at night. This has been going on for about a month now, and I can’t figure out why or how it’s doing this. It’s annoying, and it’s running down my battery!

- Deb

A:

Your iPod mini almost certainly has an alarm set and configured to begin playing a playlist late at night. Simply deactivate it by doing the following:

  • Navigate to the iPod’s main menu
  • Select “Extras”
  • Select “Clock”
  • Select “Alarm Clock”
  • Toggle “Alarm” to display “Off”
Q:

I’ve lost a critical piece of hardware that came with my third-generation iPod. It is a small adapter for connecting the iPod cable to a laptop. I can’t find any information about it anywhere on the Apple or iLounge websites. It is a white plastic piece about 1/2” x 1 1/2” and has a standard iPod jack on one end and a smaller jack on the other. Beyond that, I’m not sure how to articulate what I need. Can you help me find a replacement?

- Sarah

A:

Absolutely. What you’re looking for is a “6-Pin Female to 4-Pin Male Firewire (or IEEE1394) Adapter.” While Apple doesn’t sell or replace this component anymore, Nyko sells a replacement part, which we’ve mentioned in a review on the site in our Adapters/Cables section. Other generic but functionally equivalent versions can be found for very low prices at many electronics retailers online. Here are a few low-cost options found using Froogle.com (iLounge does not endorse any of these retailers specifically… shop around!).

You’re no doubt aware that the 4-pin Firewire connection you’re using now does not allow you to simultaneously charge and sync your iPod. To both take care of your missing adapter problem and allow your iPod to charge while connected to your laptop, take a look at Sik’s FireJuice products, specifically the “FireJuice 4 for iPod w/ Dock Connector.”

Q:

I have nearly 100GB of music in iTunes, which I’m running on a Windows XP machine. I’m purchasing an iPod with a color screen soon, and I’d like to start filling my library with Album Art. I understand that with AppleScript, Clutter, and many freeware programs, there’s a plethora of ways to do so on the Mac. Is there anything that can help me on the PC?

While I’m at it, in last week’s Ask iLounge, you mentioned using pearLyrics to automate lyrics fetching on the Mac. Again, how about Windows?

- Anonymous

A:

You’re definitely right - Windows iTunes users still have far fewer options for iTunes add-ons… especially for tagging automation and track management. However, there are at least two software options available that will automate the fetching of album art on a Windows PC, one of which does lyrics, too!

First of these options is iCoverArt from Maximized Software, Inc. This software is $5.00 for unlimited use, and offers a free trial that allows you to fetch and embed album covers into five songs per session. It should be noted that this program does *not* fetch album art from the internet directly, but rather piggy-backs upon the web-scouring work to be done prior by Windows Media Player 9 or 10. Read the iCoverArt Introduction at the link above.

iArt 3.1 from iPodSoft is an option many will find worth the additional $5 premium compared to iCoverArt. This program fetches both album art and lyrics directly from the Internet and embeds each into the appropriate fields in iTunes. The lyrics are placed directly into iTunes 5’s new Lyrics data field, and are transferred to the iPod nano for on-the-go viewing.

Q:

Now that you cover “All Things iPod, iTunes, and Beyond,” perhaps you’d be willing to help me with a troubling problem I’ve been having with AirTunes on my Airport Express device. I’ve been having this issue for months - which means I’ve used various incarnations of iTunes 4 AND 5, as well as several Airport Software versions.

Here’s the problem: I can only play my iTunes audio to my Airport Express for around twenty minutes before I begin to lose connection, with the audio cutting in and out. To get the audio started and reliable again once this happens, I usually need to stop playing, switch speaker selections in iTunes, and reconnect to the Airport Express.

This problem occurs with both my 802.11b (11Mbps) and 802.11g (54Mbps) hardware, so I’m not even sure that it’s a bandwidth problem.

Is this normal? What can I do to fix it?

- Anonymous

A:

Hundreds of users on Apple’s Discussion Forums have experienced this same issue, and so have several of iLounge’s editors. Although we have been able to improve our performance, we unfortunately still can’t get it to behave perfectly.

Here are a few suggestions that we’ve tried that may help you out. Some of these come from Apple’s Support website, and some are our own:

  1. Install all available iTunes and Airport Software updates.
  2. Try to reduce the distance (or physical barriers) between your Airport Express, transmitting computer, and any other wireless router that may be involved in your configuration.
  3. Try configuring your wireless access point (whether it’s the Airport Express or not) to operate on channels 1, 6, or 11. These are the only truly independent wireless channels.
  4. Try disabling any firewall settings or software you have active. These features inspect each network packet as they enter and exit your computer, slightly decreasing performance.
  5. It may be helpful to downgrade from WPA to 128-bit WEP, from 128-bit WEP to 40-bit WEP, or to unsecured mode. Each successive step reduces the amount of “overhead” data that must be transmitted per data packet, and may also decrease the processing load on your system.
  6. If you’re on a Mac, you may be able to increase the priority of the iTunes process. This will give it more processor time, facilitating the on-the-fly audio conversion to Apple Lossless format that iTunes does before the audio is transmitted to the Airport Express. This can be done using the UNIX command “renice,” or a friendlier front-end to “renice” such as “DBoost

Regarding items 4 and 5, iLounge strongly recommends you treat these as temporary exercises only to diagnose the source of the problem. It’s generally a very bad idea to leave your wireless network unsecured.



Ask iLounge Archives:

11-20-09: Sharing iTunes libraries between two user accounts, Enlarging text on iPhone 3GS, Transferring an iPod to a new user, iPhone shuffles when walking, New 8GB iPod touch models, Transferring purchases from a remote iTunes library

11-13-09: Syncing different contact info with two iPhones on the same computer, iPod shows no content, Syncing music and videos in playlists, Exclamation marks next to tracks in iTunes, Playing podcasts on 3G iPod shuffle.

11-6-09: Storing iPod software updates, Playing an iPod continuously, Transferring play counts to a new iTunes library, iPhone backups, Klipsch S4i earphones

10-30-09: Authorization problems with iPod touch, Changing Grid View background in iTunes, iTunes library and Music Folder are different sizes, Older iPods and firmware updates, Reconciling two different iTunes libraries, Syncing multiple devices to one iTunes library

10-23-09: Using a laptop with an iTunes library on an external hard drive, Transferring YouTube videos to iPod, iPod touch accessibility settings, Disabling Shake to Shuffle on iPod nano, Purchased songs fail to download from iTunes Store, Charging and powering off iPhone

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: Reader Editorial: Are iPod add-ons too expensive?

Previous: First Looks: iDuo, FlexPed, myTune FM, Portectorz, TruePower 4G & More

Comments

1

my son has a 20gb ipod that suddenly stopped playing any of his music and so I plugged it in to his itunes but it freezes up and ther’s a clicking sound while plugged in.  I did the restore and then tried to load his music back in the ipod but it wouldn’t load all the songs.  It froze again so I shutdown the computer to unplug the ipod. Now it doesn’t show any of his music again.  I brought it to an apple store and they said the ipod is fried and it’s past it’s warranty. Anyone else you know that can fix it?

Posted by bombi866 on October 7, 2005 at 12:11 AM (PDT)

2

iArt costs $10 now, just thought you should know!

Posted by WldKt in United States on October 7, 2005 at 6:01 PM (PDT)

3

when i connect my ipod to the laptop, the ipod icon in “my computer” appears for a few seconds and then dissapears. even in itunes, the ipod icon an the song list is present for a short time and then it goes. thus i cant put any new songs on the ipod. what should i do…..? pls help

Posted by siddhesh on October 9, 2005 at 7:35 AM (PDT)

4

hi
i have a 3rd gen ipod and it has suffered greatly from battery failure and now it seems to have packed up completley as all i get now is an unhaapy ipod icon on the screen.after doing some research it appears the hard drive may be broken too.so,i have a completley useless ipod and it’s only 2 years old.does this mean i have to buy a new one every 2 years? is there some kind of trade in policy.please help.

Posted by organdonor on October 10, 2005 at 4:11 AM (PDT)

5

I have one laptop and 2 iPod mini’s. How can I keep the libraries separate

Posted by Edel on October 11, 2005 at 2:43 AM (PDT)

6

I recently named my Nano when setting up initially.  The name shows up correctly in the iTunes library but not when iPod Nano is powered up.  How do I correct the name?  Details please.  Thanks.

Posted by miner42 on October 13, 2005 at 7:40 AM (PDT)

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