2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 11-3-05

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, November 2, 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 it possible to get a mix of ‘Match ALL Conditions’ and ‘Match ANY Conditions’ when using smart playlists? It seems all I can do is match ALL rules or match ANY rules, not any complex combination of the two. I am trying to create a smart playlist to do the following:

(Genre contains Podcast OR Genre contains Technology) AND Play Count is 0.

Help?!

- Jeff

A:

Indeed there is a way to do it, but it’s a bit messy. What we’re going to do is create two playlists using a single “ALL” condition, and then create a third playlist that represents what you’re asking for, using a single “ANY” condition.

Start by making the following two playlists:

Unplayed Podcasts:

image

Unplayed Technology:

image

Then, use these two playlists as the basis for the one you really want:

image

If you’d like, you can get the two intermediate playlists out of the way by dumping them into a playlist folder, so they’re a bit less intrusive among the playlists you really care about.

Q:

In your review of the 5G iPod, you mentioned that the iPod’s new hardware and software allow it to record full-quality audio, given the proper dock-connecting microphone hardware. The nano is new, and also uses an updated hardware chip… will it also record in full-quality audio, once the appropriate microphone devices debut?

- Josh

A: The nano does not allow for any voice recording capabilities whatsoever. While this is entirely unfortunate, we can’t call it unexpected: the nano’s predecessor, the iPod mini, did featured neither voice recording nor photo transfer, apparently for no other reason than to differentiate it from the full-size iPod lineup. According to Apple, the nano is in the same situation.
Q:

Can I charge my iPod shuffle by plugging it directly into my wall-socket charging adapter, or do I have to use a male/female USB 2.0 cable when I’m away from my computer? I can’t imagine it’d be a problem, but the last thing I want is a fried shuffle!

- John

A: Either method will work equally as well, and equally as safely. Any extension cable or dock connected to the iPod USB Power Adapter serves only to extend, and has no electrical effect at all. We charge ours by directly plugging it into the USB port on our Airport Express, which works just as well.
Q:

You are supposed to be able to have thumbnail photos of your Contacts on the 5G iPod. I have photos added in Apple’s Mac OS X Address Book program, but they do not appear on the iPod, just white squares. Any ideas?

- Anonymous

A:

We’ve been having the same issue, and we’ve found a temporary and unreliable fix that may or may not work for you.

It seems that iTunes is stripping the image information from the vCard entries before it places them on the iPod. To circumvent this, open MacOS X’s Address Book, select the contacts you’d like to place on the iPod, and choose “Export.” This will create a single vCard file (complete with the picture information). To load this on your iPod, simply Enable Disk Use on your iPod, navigate to it’s “Contacts” folder, and place the newly-exported vCard file within that folder. You may need to delete old files named with iTunes or iSync in the file name.

This method worked for only a subset of our contacts that were supposed to have images. We believe that the feature was simply not reliable enough for public consumption by the time of the iPod’s initial launch, and so contact photos were removed entirely from the iTunes’ syncing process. We expect that the functionality will be restored in a future iPod Software Updater or iTunes update.

Update: Apparently this has been fixed in Apple’s latest update to MacOS X—version 10.4.3—which debuted on October 31st.

Q:

I love listening to audiobooks.  I have bought them on CD and imorted them to iTunes using the (Join CD Tracks) feature.  My question is most audiobooks come on more than one CD, is there anyway to join CD to CD?

- Nick

A:

Sure. You have several options, though none of these is in iTunes itself - you’ll need 3rd party software.

On a Mac, we’d recommend Doug’s AppleScripts’ Join Together 3.0, which itself is free, although it requires the $30 purchase of Quicktime Pro 7. If you have Apple’s free ChapterTool installed, Join Together will actually automatically create an “enhanced” AAC file that has bookmarks marking the beginning of each track (or CD, in your case). Incidentally, this AppleScript is also a neat way to reduce the gaps between songs on gapless albums such as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” Totally free options such as ReJoiner are also available.

On a PC, we direct you towards Download.com to conduct a search for “MP3 Join,” for which dozens of software entries are returned. We invite our readers to provide specific recommendations in the comments thread below.

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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: Many nano Cases, 5G ToughSkin, earBuddy, iBelieve, Transporters, Marvelous Wood, IceBud & More

Previous: First Looks Special: Kensington SX2000 Speakers

Comments

1

Further to your response to John’s comment, I was wondering whether the Airport Express’ USB port has enough power to charge a Video iPod.

I presume it would, because it is a standard USB port, but its ability to do so would make me more inclined to get one.

I currently have a 3g and will upgrade to the video prior to christmas, but have been looking at the AE as a portable wifi station, and if it could double as an ipod charger, complete with a small enclosure, thatd be great.

Cheers

tl

Posted by t i m on November 3, 2005 at 2:38 AM (PDT)

2

also, if a video iPod ere connected to an airprt express, would it show up in iTunes?

Posted by jitaroo on November 3, 2005 at 6:11 AM (PDT)

3

tim -

I can sure try it for you later this evening, but yeah - it should work.

Posted by Jerrod H. in TX on November 3, 2005 at 8:08 AM (PDT)

4

Re: Audiobooks

What I’ve been doing is joining all the tracks on one CD, then making it “Track 1” of however many discs there are. Thus Disc 1 of the latest Harry Potter is a roughly hour-long Track 1, Disc 2 is Track 2, etc. Probably not quite what you were wanting, but works pretty well for me and free as well.

Posted by WenchAmok on November 3, 2005 at 6:37 PM (PDT)

5

I had a hard drive crash.  replaced it. moved my music to the new drive via third party software.  all looks to be there but all won’t play on my ipod.  They do play via itunes on the desk top.  Really frustrated at this point.  songs show on the ipod screen but skip throgh. example in shuffle, start at and play song 1,  next song may skip to song 13 or 15 or 30 or 39 or what ever.  just skips blocks of songs.  Please advise;  Joe.

Posted by Joe Ipod on November 4, 2005 at 2:20 PM (PDT)

6

Can you direct me to this product?

Looking for converter plug, one end into nano, with USB on other end, that would enable me to plug nano DIRECTLY into USB port, and, skip the stupid cable.

Thanks

Posted by banano on November 5, 2005 at 10:24 AM (PDT)

7

Re: Question #1, you don’t need three smart playlists to do this, only two:

“SPL1”: Match ANY
Podcast is true
Genre contains Technology

“Play Me”: Match ALL
Playlist is SPL1
Play count is zero

As you can imagine there are other nested playlist combinations that DO require 3, 4, 5, or more SPLs (be creative!) but this isn’t one of them.

Posted by nyorker on November 6, 2005 at 2:36 PM (PDT)

8

How long does a tune have to play before it is considered “played” and the play count incremented? If I play for 2 seconds then skip to the next song, is it considered that I “played” the song?

Posted by Countach on November 7, 2005 at 12:35 AM (PDT)

9

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 7, 2005 at 6:17 AM (PDT)

10

I have the 40GB iPod picture. Is there any future software upgrade to enable my ipod to play videos or will I be force to buy the ipod 5th gen?

Posted by Chuck2K on November 7, 2005 at 9:12 AM (PDT)

11

I have an ipod plus I just bought a dell axim How do I transfer my music (itunes) to my Axim

Posted by DISABLEDDEALER on November 7, 2005 at 9:20 AM (PDT)

12

question : I have a mini Ipod connected to a car cassette stereo . So far it has work great. But, since i started using it there is a whistling at the speakers what make   a bothersome noise. Do you know the reason and how to avoid it /arrange it?  Second question. In a section of ilounge i read about equalizing your music so you give every song an equalized sound. Does this equalizations also goes to the ipod at the time you download music on it?

third question?  If Ipod mini isn’t anymore at sale do you know/have some articles on sale or promotion for this model?

thanks f

Posted by ignacio zeleny on November 7, 2005 at 9:25 PM (PDT)

13

after 11 months, i opened itunes to find it completely blank.  i have restored all 5100 of my songs but have lost all playlists, ratings, and checked vs unchecked songs.  Is there a way to retrieve my playlists???

Thanks,

Jake

Posted by JakeMartin on November 10, 2005 at 7:24 AM (PDT)

14

My son has bought an ipod shuffle but when we try to import music from itunes to the ipod it wont do it, it comes up with unknown error (36) any clues what to do?

Posted by maxine on November 21, 2005 at 12:14 PM (PDT)

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