2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 3-10-07

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Saturday, March 10, 2007
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:

The iTunes 7.1 update seems to have added a lot of new fields for sorting, but the implementation is so awkward and confusing that I’m not sure how one uses it properly. Can you explain how this feature is used?

- Anonymous

A:

Sure. The new sorting fields are a powerful expansion to a long-existing iTunes feature that automatically removed articles like “The” from artist name behind the scenes for sorting. With this behavior, “The Beatles” would be sorted in the “B’s” rather than the “T’s”. Now, this feature is fully customizable, and can be applied to any field.

In the example below, we’ve used the “Sorting” panel of the “Get Info” window to sort a numerically-named artist by its phonetic spelling, rather than resting at the top of our library:

Useful, right? One problem - what if you want to apply this change to all tracks by this artist? Usually, you would select the tracks all at once, then bring up the Get Info window to edit “Multiple Item Information.” However, the sort fields don’t show up in this window. Instead, do this:

Apply the sort fields to one entry only. Then, in the iTunes library window, right click on that track, and choose to “Apply Sort Field”.

For our example above, choosing the “All Matching Fields” option will apply both the “Sort Artist” and “Sort Album Artist” field to all tracks where “311” is the existing “Artist” and “Album Artist” field - exactly what we wanted.

Why Apple chose to introduce a new, obscure method of editing tags for multiple tracks is not obvious, but one possible reason is that the user doesn’t have to select the tracks which need to have the sort field applied - after you do one entry, iTunes can find them for you. We still wish Apple kept all multiple-track editing features together for simplicity, but this method does eliminate one step.

Q:

When I have a play list with a limited number of items populated “randomly”, are higher-rated songs chosen more often, or is it truely random?

- Andrew

A:

Any random sampling that a smart playlist makes is strictly random. There is no preference given to higher-rated songs, unless you’ve explicity required it through the use of a rule for “My Rating” or chosen “highest rating” in the “Limit to:” condition.

If you’re actually looking for a way to choose higher-rated songs more often in a “random” sampling, Party Shuffle has this feature. Simply select the checkbox in the settings at the bottom of the window, choose your source, and hit “Refresh.”

Q:

Are you aware of a way to get notified an RSS feed of new movie trailers when they are added to iTunes?

- David

A:

For some time, iTunes has had an RSS feed generator program online here. Simply pick your country, a desired RSS size, and what you want to display, and a custom RSS feed is generated for you.

Unfortunately, this tool hasn’t been updated in some time, and doesn’t give the option to output new video content - only music & audiobooks. The best substitute for an iTunes movie trailer RSS feed is one that Apple has set up here for its QuickTime movie trailer web page.

Q:

I have more music than I have space on my iPod nano, so I’ve been unchecking albums in order to make the music fit on the iPod. I recently discovered that, for whatever reason, iTunes doesn’t play unchecked songs unless you click them. Is there any way to make it not transfer the songs to the iPod, but still shuffle to them?

- Anonymous

A:

While it’s true that checkboxes are one way to control what gets synchronized to an iPod being automatically synchronized, we wouldn’t recommend using check boxes in this way on such a large scale, and for precisely this reason. As you’ve discovered, iTunes won’t play deselected tracks either. Thus, this method should only be used to mark tracks that you want to keep in your library, but don’t ever really want to listen to. For example, we deselect the check boxes next to our holiday tracks - songs we don’t want to hear on the iPod or in iTunes when they’re unchecked.

How, then, should you best control what gets loaded onto your iPod nano, if auto-sync isn’t an option? There are two methods which are far better suited to the task.

First, you could change your synchronization method to “Automatically synchronize selected playlists only.” Here, you can maintain smart and/or manual playlists of songs you do want transferred to the iPod nano, and select these playlists in the Music tab of iTunes’ iPod panel. Any updates to these playlists will be automatically synchronized to your iPod.

Alternatively, you can use the “Manually manage songs & playlists” synchronization method instead. With this method, you drag songs & playlists directly to the iPod to transfer them, and no changes whatsoever are automatically transferred.

Both methods will allow the iTunes program to remain viable way to listen to your whole library. For more information about iPod synchronization methods, see our article here: iPod Connection and Synchronization.

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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: The Complete Guide to Earphones, Part 2

Previous: The Complete Guide to Earphones, Part 1

Comments

1

I’ve tagged a few videos as Music Videos and I cannot find them on my iPod anywhere. I do have it set so that they won’t play when I am on shuffle. Would that matter? How can I find my Music Videos?

Posted by MikeJM79 on March 13, 2007 at 4:32 PM (PDT)

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