2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 11-17-05

Author's pic

By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, November 16, 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:

I have an iPod Photo and an A/V Cable. I’d like to try converting some of my PowerPoint presentations to iPod photo format and display them on a TV / Monitor? How should I do this? I’d rather not use any extra software.

- Walt

A:

This is certainly possible, and it’s actually quite straight-forward to do. First, open the PowerPoint presentation you’d like to show using the iPod. In Powerpoint, choose “Save As…” from the “File” menu, and choose “JPEG” from the format selection pulldown menu.

If you’re on a Mac, next click “Options…” to display the following menu (PC’s don’t appear to have this menu, but the default settings work fine):

image

Here, we’ve chosen to export to images 720 pixels in width, and to compress them in “Best” quality. You may want to experiment with these settings to see what looks best for you.

Then, add the images to iPhoto (Mac) or your Pictures folder or Photoshop Album (PC), and ensure they’re properly ordered.

image

Then, sync your iPod as normal.

Be aware that the iPod only outputs fairly low resolution images, meaning that even if you’re using a computer-grade projector, you may get fuzzy text. The larger your text, the better it will look.  Experiment with your equipment and fonts to find an acceptable-looking font size.

Q:

About half of my songs have album art associated with them. However, I’ve recently found that often when I play a track which has album art associated with it, 4th-generation color-screened iPod displays completely the wrong photo. If I push the center button to display the full screen picture, it may be the correct one, the same (wrong) one as the thumbail, or the photo belonging to a completely different album. The artwork is correct in iTunes, for sure. How can I stop the iPod from doing this?

- Richard

A:

It should be no surprise to you that we suspect your iPod’s album art database has somehow become corrupted. Thankfully, it’s fairly easy to recreate without having to totally restore your entire iPod.

Connect your iPod and allow any syncing to finish. Then, open the iPod panel in iTunes’ Preferences, and choose the “Music” tab. Unselect the “Display album artwork on your iPod” checkbox and click “Ok.”  You will then see iTunes quickly update the iPod, displaying the message “Deleting Album Art from iPod.” Allow this to finish.

Next, return to the same menu item and re-enable the same checkbox. Click “Ok” again. iTunes will now take time to “optimize” the album art for display on the iPod’s screen, and will procede to recreate thumbnail database on the iPod. This will take significantly longer, but when it’s done, you should have properly functioning album art display on your iPod!

Q:

I have the fifth-generation iPod, and I’m wondering if there’s a sleep timer function? I often love to listen to music in bed, and when I doze off I’d like to know that the iPod will soon stop, so as not to drain the battery.

- Dez

A:

Yes, iPods have had sleep timers for quite some time, though Apple has placed them in somewhat of an odd place. Navigate to “Extras -> Clock”, choose any clock you have created, and there you’ll find the “Sleep Timer” option. From then on, it’s entirely intuitive.

We use this feature extensively, and wish it weren’t hidden in a 3rd-tier menu, but at least it’s there!

Note that if you’ve activated an appropriately-sized playlist, it may serve as its own sleep timer. Our “Bedtime” playlist, for example, runs about an hour long. Once the iPod finishes this playlist, it stops and turns itself off after 60 seconds, completely negating the need for a sleep timer!

Q:

I use some smart playlists as “building blocks” for other playlists, giving me some extra logical flexibility. Is there any way I can prevent these intermediate playlists from displaying on the iPod? I have quite a few of them. I tried using the “Only Update Selected Playlists” option and unselecting my building block playlists, but it promptly removed the three quarters of my music library that isn’t in any playlist at all.

- Richard

A:

If we were to solve this problem, we’d do it quite like you… with the “Only Update Selected Playlists” synchronizing method.

How would we remedy the side effect you’ve noticed? Unfortunately, you’re going to need to create one more smart playlist and include it on the iPod in order to hide the rest. This single playlist will encompass your entire library, so that all songs will transfer properly.  Set up this smart playlist as follows:

image

This playlist will continually update as you add new songs to your library.

With this (otherwise useless) playlist added to your iPod’s selected playlists, your entirely library will be transferred to the iPod. Unfortunately, however, this method requires that you manually check (in the iPod panel of iTunes’ Preferences) any new playlists you may later create in iTunes.  Still, it’s really the only way to semi-conviniently exclude a specific playlist from the iPod and still retain some degree of automation.

Clearly, this method is only worthwhile if you have more than one “building block” playlist you’d like to hide.

Q:

I am thinking about upgrading my 20GB iPod photo to the new 5th-generation iPod. I use the Apple Camera Connector with my iPod photo. Will this still work on the new iPod?

- Chris

A:

Yes, the Apple Camera Connector works on the 5th-generation iPod in an identical fashion to how it works on the photo and color-screen 4th generation iPods.

As a reminder to others, no photo transfer solution works with the iPod nano.



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: First Looks Xtreme: New nano accessories, Core Cases, and More

Previous: New First Looks: Electronics and new Nano Cases, Part I

Comments

1

Jerrod - Regarding the clock, you can always put it in the main menu.  Now it’s only second-tier.  Woo-hoo!!!!!

~Dan

Posted by papayaninja on November 17, 2005 at 4:12 PM (PDT)

2

My mini iPod has completely broken down and since it’s not under warrenty it has worked out cheaper to buy a new one altogether.  With the anticipation of my iPod arriving I want to know what to do next in terms of my current iTunes.  I want to know what the best and easiest way is to transport my current iTunes onto my new iPod?  I want to maintain all my playlists, play counters etc, so can I somehow link my new iPod up onto my old iTunes or do I need to remove the old iTunes to put on the new one which means starting all over again?

Posted by bakercow on November 18, 2005 at 7:22 AM (PDT)

3

I’m just hoping someone will try and make a Camcorder Connector for the 5Gs. That’d be so useful.

Posted by benjs on November 19, 2005 at 8:07 AM (PDT)

4

Hey! I just bought an Ipod Nano! I cant seem to figure out how to add photos.. Can someone please help me!
Thanks
Jamie

Posted by sk8rlala on November 19, 2005 at 1:53 PM (PDT)

5

Per the ‘building block’ playlists -
My Solution has been to assign numbers to every playslist in iTunes.  This serves to categorize different playlist varieties - 100s and 200s are for my listenable playlists, e.g. 105.0 is all classical music, 202.0 is an hour of Pink Floyd.  The numbers also let me place all of my building block and sorting playlists at lower numbers, (600s, 700s,...), where they stay out mof my way on the iPod at the bottom of my playlists list.
I use one playlist to take over a 35gig mass playlist to support all of the building blocks, and I’ve tried using the method described in the Answer from iLounge.  However, I thought that this scenario might be a possible culprit when my lists stopped updating on the iPod, so I put all of my building blocks back on the ipod.  The number system lets them be there, but out of the way and organized.
Best regards -

Posted by jsr100 on November 19, 2005 at 7:43 PM (PDT)

6

will there be any new features on any new ipods that will enable you to download whole movies?

davidbuffamanti

Posted by davidbuffamanti on November 19, 2005 at 8:43 PM (PDT)

7

i have a funny feeling this has been covered before and is probably a straightforward answer, but i can’t seem to find it…......

i subscribed to a couple of podcasts which i never got round to listening to, so i want to remove them. i’ve unsubsribed and deleted them so they’re not sitting in itunes but i can’t get them of my ipod, which means really they are just sitting there taking up space. i have about 100mb left on my 60gb 4th gen which could be filling up with something i’m actually going to listen to.

do i have to restore the ipod and then reload all my music back on? that seems to be my only suggestion at the moment!!!!

Posted by guidodufc on November 23, 2005 at 8:17 AM (PDT)

8

i recently copied some music from a P2P site and i now want to upload it to my ipod. the problem is the music is in “ogg” format and my itunes simply refuses to recognise the format and copy it. what do i do?

Posted by bombaywallah on November 24, 2005 at 8:47 AM (PDT)

9

I own a Apple Ipod G4 color/photo 20gig & i am also a Windows XP user

my question is this. Is there games out there for buy/download ? I have gotten very sick & tired of the OEM games that came with my Ipod.

I have also done some research on google.com & only found text games :\

please help me i am seeking more fun

Posted by nrgwar on November 24, 2005 at 1:15 PM (PDT)

10

i’d like to adjust the balance on my ipod mini 2G/6GB.

any ideas ?

Posted by plgagnon on November 24, 2005 at 2:29 PM (PDT)

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