2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 4-20-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, April 20, 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 subscribe to KEXP.org’s “Song of the Day” podcast. I want to be able to hear the songs from that daily podcast in shuffle mode. As it stand now, from the iPod’s Podcast menu, I can only hear one of these songs at a time, which doesn’t make much sense for this format. Any ideas?

- Scott

A:

Sure. The easiest way to do this is to create a smart playlist into which the specific podcasts’ episodes will be automatically added. Then, to play the Podcast as if it were a bunch of music files (shuffling, or in sequence), simply play this playlist instead of using the iPod’s Podcast menu.

Here’s how to create such a playlist, for your situation:

Choose “New Smart Playlist…” from iTunes’ “File” menu, and set the following settings:

Here, the “Album” tag really represents the Podcast title. Enjoy!

Q:

I am looking to copy tracks, videos, and PDF booklets from my iTunes Library to a file on my drive, for manual backups, file transfer, and other uses. I see there are a lot of programs available that will copy from an iPod to hard drive but not from iTunes Library. Any suggestions?

- Michael

A:

The reason that there are programs to help users extract songs from an iPod to a computer is that Apple doesn’t necessarily want that to become commonplace, as it’s a facility for mass piracy.

However, the files in your iTunes Library are more necessarily already yours, and Apple hasn’t limited what you can do with them at all. In fact, transferring files out of your iTunes Library is easier than you’d think. To do so, either:

  1. The difficult way: Select the track, video, or PDF booklet you’d like to locate on your hard drive, choose “Get Info” from iTunes’ “Edit” menu, and on the bottom of the “Summary” tab, you’ll find the file’s location on your hard drive. Navigate there in Windows Explorer (PC) or the Finder (Mac), and copy the file to a temporary location for your use.
  2. The easy way: Select the tracks, videos, or PDF booklets you’d like to copy to another location on your hard drive, and simply drag them out of the iTunes library window and drop them onto your desktop or any other folder in Windows Explorer (PC) or the Finder (Mac). iTunes will automatically place copies of the files in this location, and you’re free to use them without fear of harming iTunes’ copy.
Q:

I have dial up at home and, since 100MB downloads aren’t fun on such connections, I would like to download an episode of Lost using my work computer, and transfer it to my iPod. Is there a way to do this so that I can still keep all of my existing songs/videos on the iPod and only add the new episodes I have downloaded. Thank you!!!!

- Josh

A:

If you’re using automatic synchronizing mode, than this won’t happen like you’re asking (direct to iPod), but yes - you can certainly download the file from work.

Since a single iPod can’t be managed by two computers when using automatic synchronizing mode, the best way to do this is to simply get the file home before attempting to put it in your iPod’s library.

Download the video from iTunes at work. Then, either burn it to a CD/DVD or place it on your iPod’s hard drive (using Disk Mode), bring it home, and add it to your iTunes Library. Then, synchronize the iPod, and it will be as if you’d downloaded the file from your home computer.

Granted, if you were using manual synchronization mode, this may be easier, as you could drag the video directly to the iPod as you’re asking to do, but if it were us, we wouldn’t switch to this more cumbersome mode of operation just to enable this ability.

Q:

I bought a 30GB iPod Video a week ago. Right from start, I could not get more than 6 hours of audio playback time on it. Is there something worng with the battery? I’m hoping that this isn’t standard when using Apple Lossless. Is it harder for the processor to decode?

- Max

A:

We’d expect the 6-hour mark to be on par with expectations when using an all-Apple Lossless library, although not because it’s harder for the processor to decode. Rather, since Apple Lossless files are much larger than AAC or MP3 encoded songs, the hard drive must spin up much more frequently (approximately every song) rather than for lossy-compressed audio, for which the iPod’s 32MB buffer can fit a handful of songs at a time. This significant increase in mechanical movement is surely to blame for your less-than-spec battery life.

With this explanation, one might expect that an iPod nano (without a mechanical hard drive) might see very little battery life reduction when playing Apple Lossless-encoded files. Does this make it the better hardware choice for such users? Probably not, since today’s largest nano could only fit, perhaps, 200 Apple Lossless tracks. In our opinion, the best iPod choice for Lossless is the current 60GB iPod, with its large hard drive and larger, 64MB buffer, improving battery life.

Q:

If you want to listen to your entire library in shuffle mode, you just use the iPod’s “Shuffle Songs” menu option, and the iPod goes to work playing your entire library. But if you update the iPod, this option forgets everything it has done before, and I frequently hear songs I’ve already (sometimes just) heard in a previous session. How can I create a foolproof way to get through my entire library, without allowing changing menus or synchronizing to throw it off?

- Leann and many other Ask iLounge readers

A:

The easiest way to make your way through your entire library is with a smart playlist that keeps track of what’s been played recently. For example, the following smart playlist will select a number of songs at random from the entire library (Podcasts and videos excluded), but only ones that haven’t been played in the last three weeks. We’ve named ours “Fresh & Random.”

The neat thing about this playlist is that because playcounts and “last played” dates transfer between the iPod and iTunes, listening to your music using either device will change the playlist. You need only synchronize your iPod to keep the list fresh and random. Enjoy!

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Ask iLounge Archives:

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

10-16-09: Moving iTunes to a new computer, Transferring contacts from Blackberry to an iPhone, Disabling iPhone Backups, Using AV cables for audio only, Problems syncing photos to iPod touch, Memorex iFlip and iPhone compatibility

10-9-09: iPhone OS and external keyboards, Adjusting ratings in a remote iTunes library, Excluding tracks from Genius Mixes, Moving iTunes library out of My Documents, Playlist folders on iPod touch, Refreshing random Smart Playlists

9-25-09: iTunes 9 and Shopping Cart, Restoring iTunes to an external hard drive, Using an HTTP Proxy over 3G, Problems transferring movies from iTunes to IPhone, iPod touch shuffle mode, Using an iPhone without a SIM card

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: Ask iLounge 4-28-06

Previous: Editorial: 50 Million iPods and Growing?

Comments

1

How can I view videos that I downloaded on my 60gb video?  They show in itunes under movies but only two appear on my ipod.  The two that appear do not play video only audio.  I’ve converted all of them to video through itunes but no video.  Help!!!

Posted by Bornwise1 on April 25, 2006 at 10:03 AM (PDT)

2

Help.
  My conputer died, i have another computer in which we have a different ipod conected. I need to download my songs into this computer.I read many reviews and the solucion was to use podutil. I downloaded, but it is telling me that the computer cant read the ipods internal datebase. I tryed to unable it thru itunes, but itunes cant read it either. What should i do?

Posted by cata on April 25, 2006 at 6:50 PM (PDT)

3

Regarding the 1st Q. on shuffling podcasts: you can also simply make an On-The-Go playlist from your ipod of the podcasts you want to shuffle or play sequentially.  Any other means of putting podcasts into playlists and adding said playlist(s) to the ipod will work as well.  Hope this helps.

Posted by apha on April 25, 2006 at 6:56 PM (PDT)

4

hi everyone, my question has been asked by several people already but no answer has been provided. i have a pc, itunes 6.0.3.5, and i’m trying to put windows media player video clips into itunes, but it wont recognize this format at all, the ‘not possible sign shows’. i’m successfully loaded quicktime compatible video to my ipod, but not this windows med player ‘video clip’ format (by the way these are seinfeld episodes). does anyone have a solution to this problem, preferable a free solution…?
thank you all so much.

Posted by magiczeppelin on April 27, 2006 at 10:17 PM (PDT)

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