2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 3-2-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, March 2, 2006
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 would like to make a few simple edits to a few songs in iTunes to make them more “radio edit” like. That is, on some songs I would like to chop off the first 10 to 20 seconds of an unusual introduction, and on others, I’d like to remove some of the final seconds.
 
I don’t believe that iTunes can edit audio like this, but maybe there is some other inexpensive add-on software that can?

- Les

A:

You’re right that iTunes can’t destructively edit audio files, but what you’d like to do is actually very easy to accomplish in a non-destructive manner from within iTunes’ own interface.

Essentially, iTunes allows you to select, on a per-song basis, where to start and stop playing a track. This doesn’t actually shorten the file itself (and thus doesn’t save you any hard drive space), but the setting does transfer to the iPod, making it incredibly useful in many situations.

For example, we once downloaded the BBC’s free series of all nine Beethoven Symphonies. Although we found them to be a wonderful set of recordings, we didn’t need to listen to the minute-long introductory narratives (or the concluding applause) each time we played the tracks. Not wanting to delete them forever, however, we simply told iTunes to start and stop the track at the appropriate points.

Here’s how:

  1. Choose a file in iTunes, and select it.
  2. Choose “Get Info” from iTunes’ “File” menu, and navigate to the “Options” panel.
  3. Check the boxes next to “Start Time” and “Stop Time”, and enter the time values where you’d like to start and stop playing the song. This will define new start and stop points, without harming the file itself.
  4. Click “OK” to save the settings.

To remove the setting, simply uncheck the boxes!

Note: To edit the file permanently (saving file space in the process), you will need to use an external editor such as QuickTime Pro.

Here, the permanent clipping is almost as easy as non-destructive clipping in iTunes: Simply move the selection tabs to the portion of the file you’d like to keep, and choose “Trim to Selection” from QuickTime’s “Edit” menu, save changes, and re-import the file into your iTunes Library.

(Update: Actually, a reader has noted that you can simply use the “Convert this file to…” command in iTunes’ “Advanced” menu to create a new copy of the song with the intro/outro material removed as per your settings above, without the need for Apple’s $29 QuickTime Pro. Neat tip!)

Q:

I want to reduce the amount of entries in the Artist section on my 5th Generation iPod. A large majority of the artists here are parts of dance compilation albums that I have. Obviously, I have one entry for every separate artist, whereas it’s not terribly important for me to be able to sort them this way. Is there any way to prevent artists from these albums from showing in the “Artists” list, instead making them only visible from the album menu?

- Anonymous

A:

Absolutely! Apple has included the ability to mark a track as “Part of a Compilation,” and 5G and nano iPods have the ability to display these items separately when browsing music.

To mark tracks with this setting, select as many of them as you’d like in iTunes’ Library window, and choose “Get Info” from iTunes’ “File” menu. Then, on the “Info” panel, click the “Part of a compilation” checkbox. Be careful not to touch the other settings, or you may overwrite a lot of tag information!

Then, synchronize your iPod to pass these changes along. To instruct the iPod not to include these “Compilation” tracks into your main “Artists” list, browse to it’s “Settings” menu, and toggle “Compilations” to “On.”

You’ll now notice a new entry called “Compilations” in your iPod’s top-level “Music” menu, where all of your dance albums will be listed. You’ll later find that, while these albums still appear in your iPod’s “Albums” menu, the corresponding artists do not appear in the “Artists” menu.

Note that, even if you don’t use it exclusively for actual compilations, this is one possible trick you can use to clean up your iPod’s “Artists” menu in general.

Enjoy!

Q:

Is there a simple way to find out what playlists a particular song is a member of?

- John

A:

There sure is, and in typical Apple fashion, it’s almost too easy to notice it. Simply right-click on any song anywhere in iTunes, and highlight the “Show in Playlist” item. Here, a list is created of the playlists that the song is found in: click any of these, and you’ll jump to the appropriate position in that playlist.

Notice also the “Add to Playlist” button, which is a simple alternative to dragging and dropping tracks onto the playlist icons in the “Source” column.

Q:

On the iTunes download page, Apple claims that you can create a CD from your specific playlist (which I have been able to do without problems), but I can not figure out how to make a CD cover and song list as they also claim you can with iTunes. I also can not find any information on their support page on how to do this. Can you explain it to me?

- Carl

A:

Sure, and you’re right - this is one of the neatest, most under-discussed features in iTunes. First select the playlist in iTunes’ “Source” column just as you would before you go to burn the CD. Then, choose “Print” from iTunes’ “File” menu.

Here, you can select to print a jewel case insert, a simple list of songs, or a list of albums. In each case, there are several “Themes” you can choose from, which allow you to select how much color you’d like to use, and how you’d like to utilize the tracks’ album art.

For much more information on printing, see our guide “Printing CD Covers and Lists in iTunes” here.

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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: iTunes $9.99 Multi-Pass: Just What Videos Needed

Previous: Ask iLounge 2-23-06

Comments

1

WRT the first question, you can also permenantly alter the file WITHOUT the need for quicktime pro (and the required subs) buy simply right-clicking on the track and selecting “Convert selection to…”. It will convert your track with chosen time altertions and you will then have 2 copies of the track. I think i actually remember getting this tip from here originally…

Posted by macron1 on March 2, 2006 at 10:24 PM (PDT)

2

Good call!

Posted by Jerrod H. in TX on March 3, 2006 at 10:38 PM (PDT)

3

Thank you so much for the info about editing the start/stop times for songs.  The only problem now is that I’m going to spend even more time playing with my itunes library.  Yikes!

Posted by ooree on March 5, 2006 at 7:28 AM (PDT)

4

How can I import mix cds into itunes libarary and ipod without breaking up the mix?  Most of my cd collection are dj mix cds that are split up into individual tracks but when you but when you play the cd from start to finish it plays as a continuous mix.  When I import these cds to itunes itunes tries to mix the tracks itself messing up beats for about 2 seconds in between tracks.

Posted by phil nyc on March 5, 2006 at 8:51 AM (PDT)

5

I recently purchased two albums from itunes. I updated my ipod and one song from each album appears to have an error. On my ipod they’ll play and then about half way thru it stops and skips to the next song. When I play the songs on my computer this doesn’t happen. What can I do to fix this? thanks

Posted by frost249 on March 5, 2006 at 4:23 PM (PDT)

6

i have a 4th gen ipod 40gig with tons of music on it and a powerbook that i use with it.  how can i store all my music just on my ipod without it taking up so much space on my laptop?

Posted by dza on March 6, 2006 at 1:09 PM (PDT)

7

Thanks, worked like a charm!
- Les

Posted by lesorkim on March 6, 2006 at 8:09 PM (PDT)

8

Does the “Convert Selection to:” option downsample the quality of the music in any way?  When I was making ringtones from a song, I needed to downsample, so I changed the mp3 import settings.  But if it is the same bitrate, is it *re-ripping* the track at the same bitrate or just duplicating that section of the track?  I couldn’t tell in my experiments if there was a loss of quality or not, but if anyone knows for sure, please give a holler?

Posted by pkrug on March 8, 2006 at 10:29 AM (PDT)

9

I do not know a lot about I-tunes and my I-pod. I have a couple of questions.
—
I loaded i-tunes twice on the same computer under two different users. I then loaded each users music under their icon, thinking I could load them both on to the I-pod (20G). When I load one it’s ok, but then trying to load the other it will only override what I just loaded. How can I get 2 different user i-tunes on the I-pod. or can I move one I-tunes from one user to the other and have one large list?
2. When I first loaded muisc to I-tunes, (my personal c/d’s) it read them fine. Now when I add a few c/d’s here & there the system does not pick up the artist, album, songs. It just shows track 1,2,3 etc. These are not copies, but store bought.

Posted by NEATNIC on March 10, 2006 at 4:35 PM (PDT)

10

my problem is i have a set of photos on my ipod that i don’t want to lose and also have photos on my imac as well is there a way to join them both on mac and ipod..please help if you can… thanks

Posted by adspade on March 26, 2006 at 5:22 PM (PDT)

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