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The Free iPod + iPhone Book4

Ask iLounge 3-9-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, March 9, 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: My dear old dad has bad eyes and misses reading. I’d love to get him an iPod and load it up with audiobooks, but he wouldn’t be able to see any small controls. He’s also very 20th cenutry and doesn’t want to have anything to do with computers.

Can you recommend a model with the biggest, easiest controls and minimal functions?

- Martha

A: In an answer to a previous Ask iLounge question regarding visually impaired users, we recommended the latest full-size fifth-generation iPod for its high-contrast fonts. However, for your father’s situation, we’d tend to recommend the iPod shuffle. True, the size of its buttons are a bit smaller than those on full-sized iPods, but we’d imagine a “20th century” person would appreciate its simplicity: there’s neither a screen to worry about reading or properly navigating nor settings to errantly change. Its only controls are “back,” “forward,” “play/pause,” and volume controls.

The iPod shuffle, of course, can handle all iTunes-imported audiobooks, as well as those purchased from either the iTunes Music Store or Audible.com. Since these audiobooks can range anywhere from 45MB to 250MB in filesize, we’d definitely recommend the 1GB model. Even at this capacity, you may find yourself frequently “refilling” his iPod with new content, but it will be worth it for the ease with which he’ll be able to listen.

Q: I’ve set my iPod to synchronize my photos to my iPod, but I can’t figure out how to manage these photos… especially removing specific ones I don’t need to carry around with me. How do I manage and remove the photo’s I’m synchronizing?

- Ralph

A: iTunes has several different ways to synchronize photos. On the Mac, the user’s only choice is iPhoto. On the PC, one can either synchronize to a specific folder of photos, or synchronize with Adobe Photoshop Elements or Photoshop Album.

In any of these situations, photo syncing is a completely automatic process—there is no manual “management” functionality. To only synchronize a subset of your entire photo collection, you’ll need to create a new album that contains only that subset in iPhoto or Photoshop Elements/Album, or create a new folder with copies of the desired photos in Windows Explorer. Then, in iTunes’ iPod “Photos” preference panel, select this new album or folder source only.

Q: I’d really like to try and characterize my listening habits based on my play counts, ratings, and the spread of artists and genres I have in my library.

I’ve been trying to get a handle on some of this data by copying my library data into a spreadsheet as per your Ask iLounge article from 8-18-05, but there must be a better way. Any ideas?

- Jeff

A: Absolutely. There’s a neat website called iTunesRegistry that allows you to upload the XML version of your iTunes Library file, and it will automatically process it, analyze it, and prepare a multitude of graphs and statistics for you to browse. Additionally, it allows you to compare your library to those of other iTunesRegistry users. Try it out!

Another similar site is MusicMobs.

Q: How do I put a song as my sound on my alarm clock?

- Juan

A: The iPod has the ability to choose a playlist as an alarm clock wake sound, but not a specific song. This at first seems to mean that you won’t be able to select a specific song to wake up to without access to a computer. However, there is at least one way to fix this:

Simply create an On-The-Go playlist containing the song, and then select the On-The-Go playlist in the Alarm Clock settings. To add a song to the On-The-Go playlist, simply highlight it as you browse the iPod’s library, and hold down the center button. When the highlight blinks, the song has been added to the playlist.

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Ask iLounge Archives:

9-5-08: AV output from iPhone 3G dock, New playlists not appearing on iPod, Transferring music on iPod touch from multiple computers, Resetting iTunes Store authorization counts, Editing tag information, iPhone task applications

8-29-08: Disabling data on iPhone 3G, iTunes Plus and Apple Backup, Deleting photos from iPod, iPhone v2.0 and TV Out accessories, Consolidating multiple iTunes libraries, Restoring iPod touch from backup

8-22-08: Cleaning up applications in iTunes, Playing back all songs on iPod, Excluding podcasts from Smart Playlists, Bookmarking tracks, Playing tracks back at a consistent volume level

8-15-08: Transferring play counts back to iTunes, Playing iPod while charging, Customizing iPhone alerts, Syncing movies to iPod nano, iTunes not recognizing new CDs, Sudoku reviews

8-8-08: iPhone and SIM card contacts, Syncing iPhone contacts, Hiding SMS previews on iPhone, Playing iPod touch on secondary computer, Syncing photos to iPod, Resuming interrupted iTunes WiFI Store downloads

See the rest of the Archives...

Shop in the loungeStore for iPod + iPhone Accessories.

Next: Ask iLounge 3-16-06

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

Comments

1

I have downlaoded itunes on my computer but when I try to open the program it says it has an error and it must close. I have tried deleting it and re-installing it but it still would not work.

Posted by kukubee on March 16, 2006 at 10:00 AM (PDT)

2

Hello. I’m trying to take several hundred songs from my PC hard drive and put them into my ipod library however when I do either as individual files or as the whole folder the library puts them in the wrong order and won’t let me rearrange them in the order that I have them in my PC. Is there anything I can do to have the library accept the folder or files in the order that I already have them on my PC? Thanks and best regards.

Posted by tonkinese on March 30, 2006 at 5:35 PM (PDT)

3

Good choice for the person who wanted an iPod audiobook recommendation. They must to clue dear old Dad in on turning off the shuffle function or that audiobook may be giving the end of the book before the beginning.

Posted by Boethius in North Carolina on April 17, 2006 at 9:45 AM (PDT)

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