iLounge iPad 2 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-, 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:

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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:

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:

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...

« The Complete Guide to Earphones, Part 2

The Complete Guide to Earphones, Part 1 »

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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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