iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 2-20-09

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By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, February 20, 2009
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?

Best Headphones?

Best Case?

Best In-Car Solution?

Best Battery Extender?

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 want to buy a docking station that can be connected to my TV, so that I can watch videos and DVDs that are on my iPod. Which models/brands are compatible with my fifth-generation iPod?

- Kandra

A:

The good news is that despite the confusion that surrounds video accessories with the newer iPod models such as the iPod classic, the fifth-generation iPod remains compatible with all of the iPod video accessories that are presently available, at least at the basic level of displaying your video output onto your TV.

Note that some of the more advanced features on the newer docks such as on-screen menu display may only work with the newer iPod models, but any iPod-compatible video dock should have no problem simply displaying your video output from your iPod, as the fifth-generation iPod models had no restrictions on video accessory compatibility—only the newer iPod models are locked down in this regard.

You can find more information on some of the products available in our reviews section, specifically under our categories for Docks with on-TV menuing and Docks with video-out.

Q:

I have an iPod, probably 4 years old or so. My original PC is sitting in a box, unavailable. I am trying to connect my iPod to a new laptop and get a message providing me with two options: ‘Erase and Sync’ or ‘Transfer Purchases’ I’m not sure what to do, as I do not want to lose any songs on my iPod. I installed iTunes on my new laptop but am stuck. Can your recommend the correct next step?

- Sean

A:

In this case, the option you actually want is the third one: Cancel. Selecting Cancel will leave your iPod connected to your computer, but iTunes will not attempt to sync anything with it.

If every track you wanted to recover from your iPod was purchased from the iTunes Store, then the Transfer Purchases option could be used to copy your iPod’s content back to your computer. Since you likely have content acquired from your own CDs or other sources, this is not usually a viable option.

Fortunately, there are other methods for recovering your content from your iPod back to your computer. Check out our tutorial Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer for more information on how to accomplish this.

Q:

I just bought a new 120 GB iPod classic and my problem is that I can’t download iTunes 8 because my Internet connection is down. Is there anywhere else where I can iTunes 8, like copying it from a friends computer?

- Damian

A:

Sure. You can download iTunes 8 from Apple’s web site at http://www.apple.com/itunes from any computer and then save it to a USB memory key or burn it to a CD to transport it back to your own computer and install it from there. If you’re already running an older version of iTunes, the installer package will happily update your older version for you in the same way as downloading it directly onto your computer would.

If you cannot find another Internet connection to download iTunes from, you may want to see if you can find a local Apple Retail Store or Apple retailer who might be able to help you.

Q:

I just bought a used iPod and I am trying to find out how to erase all the music and everything else from it so I can start fresh.

- Anonymous

A:

You can return any iPod to its original factory settings by connecting it to your computer, running iTunes, and choosing the “Restore” option found on the iPod’s “Summary” page.

This will basically reformat the iPod, removing all of the content from it, and reinstall the iPod firmware. Your device will effectively be returned back to its original out-of-the-box factory configuration, and iTunes will then run the normal iPod Setup Assistant as if you were connecting a brand new iPod.

Q:

I have my boyfriend’s iPod which has old pictures on there that we want to get off. He doesn’t have the computer that his iTunes was on or the computer that originally had the pictures. We have tried to use my copy of iTunes to copy them off. All that showed was his iPod on my screen but nothing showed up for photos on that main menu on the left side. What are the steps in getting all these pictures off from his iPod to my iTunes?

- Leslie

A:

iTunes itself does not provide any way to transfer photos from your iPod back to your computer, nor really any means for directly managing your photos on your iPod—it merely acts as a conduit to transfer your photos to your device.

If your boyfriend had opted to store full resolution copies of the photos on the iPod when he first transferred them over, then you can access these through Windows Explorer or Mac Finder simply by setting your iPod to enable disk use and then browsing it as an external hard drive. The photos will be located in the /Photos/Full Resolution folder, and you can just copy them off in the same way as you would any other file.

On the other hand, if the full resolution photos were not originally saved to the iPod, then you will need to look for third-party recovery software to retrieve the photos from the thumbnail databases that iTunes stored them in. Note that in this case you will be limited to recovering a 640 X 480 version of the photos in question, as iTunes would have resized the original photos to more appropriate resolutions for the iPod itself.

You can find more information on recovering photos from the iPod in our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer. Page 4 provides detail on recovering photos from your iPod.

Q:

In the left pane of my iTunes, I suddenly have the SAME number of songs and music videos in my PURCHASED listings as I do in my LIBRARY listings. How do I get my PURCHASED icon to show ONLY my PURCHASED items as it used to?

- James

A:

Despite the shiny green icon, the “Purchased” playlist in your iTunes library is actually just a standard playlist, and you can add and remove tracks from it like you would any other playlist. In this case, it’s likely that at some point you or somebody else using your computer inadvertently added all of the tracks in your library into this playlist.

Since the Purchased playlist is a standard playlist, it doesn’t magically track which items you have purchased in the past. iTunes automatically drops newly-purchased items into this playlist, but it doesn’t not keep track of just any purchased item in your library.

To create a listing of all of the purchased tracks currently in your iTunes library, your best bet is to create a Smart Playlist that looks for information unique to purchased tracks. Specifically, a Smart Playlist that looks for a “Kind” that begins with either “Protected” or “Purchased” will generally do the job.

This Smart Playlist will include all of the purchased tracks in your iTunes library, and will dynamically update as you purchase new tracks. You can refine this Smart Playlist even further if you want to track only purchased items of a certain type (ie, only music or movies).

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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...

« iPhone Gems: Aqua Moto, Biplane, iDracula, Monospace, Radio Flare, Tower Bloxx + Vector Tanks

Weird + Small App Reviews: Arcade Bowling, CompareMe, IQ Test, SkyCoaster 3D, Yo Mama + More »

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Comments

1

How do I find out how many songs, not gigabyte volume, are on my iPod 3rd generation?  Thank you.

Posted by David Pearlman on February 24, 2009 at 12:58 PM (PDT)

2

Any apps that convert voice to text to email?

Thanks

Posted by Steve Gayer on February 24, 2009 at 9:48 PM (PDT)

3

I have a windows 2000 professional computer.. recently my computer crashed and I had to reformat my whole system. My Ipod is a 5G 30 gig. I had Itunes 7.6 running and now I am not able to update it but to a 7. I can not put the games that i purchased in Itunes back on to my pod without updating. But it tells me it won’t work with a 2000 it has to be a xp. My question is How do i fix this. I know it works it worked for over 2 years but I can’t remember how to fix it. Could you give me some pointers or point me to someone who might know how to fix the problem? Thank you

Posted by Chris on March 26, 2009 at 12:53 PM (PDT)

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