iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 4-24-09

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By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, April 24, 2009
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:

Is there a way to play purchased iTunes music on iTunes (8.1.1) on a non-networked computer? That is, a computer that cannot connect to the iTunes Store?

- Jeff

A:

You can play protected iTunes Store tracks on a computer without being connected to the Internet as long as the computer has been previously authorized for your iTunes Store account.

Unfortunately, authorizing the computer with the iTunes Store requires an Internet connection in the first place so that your computer can contact the iTunes Store and download the necessary authorization information. This information is computer-specific and cannot be transferred from another computer. You can manually authorize a computer simply by selecting Store, Authorize Computer from the iTunes menu.

Once authorized, however, your computer does not require a connection to the iTunes Store to actually play back your purchased content—it relies on the local authorization information only. You could therefore connect your computer to the Internet, authorize it for your iTunes Store account, and then disconnect it and continue to play your purchased content without having to go back online.

Note that if you’re working with “iTunes Plus” tracks, these do not include any type of copy protection and your computer does not need to be authorized in order to play them. All new music tracks purchased from the iTunes Store should now be in the iTunes Plus format.

Q:

I purchased a refurbished 5th generation iPod online, but it didn’t come with any kind of instructional booklet. I have no clue how to even start with this item (I thought there would at least be a booklet or PDF file with it). Since I am a senior citizen, I’m less inclined to just start pushing buttons without any idea what I’m doing. Is there access somewhere to an instructional booklet for this model?

- Gloria

A:

You can find manuals for all of Apple’s iPod and related accessories on their web site at http://support.apple.com/manuals/#ipod.

Note that these manuals only provide relatively basic instructions for operating the device itself, so you may want to check out some of our tutorials for more detailed information. In particular, our Beginnner’s Guide to Filling your iPod is a good place to get started.

Q:

My wife and I have separate user accounts on our computer. I would like to set up iTunes on her login so she can update her iPod when she’s on the computer (a chore I currently do for her when I’m logged in). It needs to be the same configuration with the same music library. How do I do this?

- Don

A:

By default, iTunes sets up a separate library for each user account on your computer, stored within the “My Music” folder for each individual user account. It is possible to share the same iTunes library between two separate accounts, although to do so you will need to ensure the iTunes library is in a common location where both accounts can access it.

One way of approaching this is to simply ensure that your wife’s account has the necessary rights to read and write files within your own “My Music” folder. However, this is generally a bit more complicated than simply moving your entire iTunes library and media content to a more central common folder (ie, C:\iTunes).

To move your iTunes library to another location on your computer, you start by changing the path to the “iTunes Music” folder and then using the Consolidate Library function to copy all of your music into that new location. You can then manually copy the iTunes library database files to the new location and point iTunes to this new location by holding down the SHIFT key while starting up iTunes. You will need to login in to both accounts and point iTunes to the new location in each one.

Note that your media content should be in a separate folder from your actual iTunes database files, similar to the way in which it is organized in your “My Music” folder.

You can find a more detailed tutorial on how to relocate your iTunes library in our iPod 201 article, Transferring your iTunes Library.

Note that even when sharing a common library, iTunes will store your preferences separately for each Windows user account, so you will want to go through your preference screens in each account and ensure that they match. Most critically, ensure that the settings in the “Advanced” tab are the same, since this controls how iTunes will organize your music files within the “iTunes Music” folder.

Q:

Does the 3G iPod shuffle have an equalizer?

- Jim

A:

Sadly, the iPod shuffle does not include any equalizer capabilities at this point. Not only can you not apply an equalizer setting directly on the device itself, but equalizer pre-sets applied iTunes are not used on the iPod shuffle either.

Q:

Hi, I had my home computer synched with Apple TV. All of my videos, music, and pictures are on the Apple TV. My home computer crashed and I had to buy a new one. I would like take the Apple TV data and restore it on my new computer. Thank you in advance!

- Hector

A:

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to accomplish this task. The Apple TV is a networked device and does not offer any of the “disk mode” or other capabilities that could be used to recover content from it like you would for a traditional iPod.

However, while not simple, with a little bit of effort it is certainly possible to get your content back off of your Apple TV. The most straightforward way to do this would be to crack open the Apple TV, remove the hard drive, and then connect it directly to your computer. The best way to do this is to simply place the drive into an external USB drive enclosure and then connect it via USB.

Note that the Apple TV hard drive is formatted for HFS+, since the Apple TV runs a variant on Mac OS X. If you are using a Mac, you can read this directly, but if you are trying to recover data onto a PC, you will need to use a tool such as MediaFour’s MacDrive in order to read the attached hard drive.

Once your drive is connected, you should be able to browse into the folders which contain your media content and copy it back in a manner similar to using the “Brute-Force Approach” described in our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer. You will not be able to recover information such as play counts or playlists using this method, but you should be able to recover the content itself. As an added bonus photos are copied to the Apple TV in their original full resolution, so you will be able to recover these in their original quality, unlike recovering them from an iPod or iPhone where only a lower-resolution version is normally available.

Note of course that opening up your Apple TV will void your warranty, and it is very difficult to disassemble and Apple TV without making it obvious that you have done so. However, that may be a small price to pay for getting back your media content.

There are also software options available that will allow you to access to your Apple TV without opening it up by applying a USB “patchstick” that will install additional applications on your Apple TV such as SSH and SFTP that would allow you to access the content over the network and copy it back to your computer. However, it is best to avoid these if you are concerned about recovering your content since there is a risk of erasing any existing content on the Apple TV in the process of “patching” it.

Q:

I recently found an odd photo of my enter-password screen saved on my iPod touch after it totally hung and refused to reboot. I connected it into my PC and heard a shutter sound.
A few weeks later I found another strange photo of my home screen appearing in my saved photos section. Is there anything wrong with my iPod touch?

- Mike

A:

It sounds like you may have inadvertently triggered the iPod touch screenshot function. If you press both the sleep/wake and home buttons simultaneously, the iPod touch will take a picture of the current screen and store it in your saved photos. Your screenshot is normally accompanied by a shutter sound, similar to the sound heard when taking a picture with the iPhone camera.

Chances are that these were inadvertently while you were trying to restart your iPod or connect it to your computer, and unless these screenshots are being taken automatically, the presence of these don’t indicate any problems with your iPod touch.

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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...

« iPhone Gems: Assassin’s Creed, World Cup Ping Pong, Silent Scope, UniWar

Weird + Small Apps: 3 Numbers, Currencies, FAIL Maker, Uniqlock S5, Chuck The Ball + More »

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Comments

1

I have an 30GB video ipod.  I have about 600 photos on the ipod.  my computer crashed some time back and i lost all my information including my pictures.  Ot of the thousands of photos I had….and are now gone forever I have the 600 on my ipod.

I have readded all my songs and videos from the ipod to an older computer at home, but I can’t figure out how to add the photos from my ipod to the computer.  It says it is going to erase them.  I went into the photo database and found them there, but they can’t open.  It says they are in a format unknown.

Please help!  i don’t want to lose these photos also.  If i could figure out how to open the photo database and copy those pics it would be great.

thanks in advance, Marc

Posted by Marc on April 26, 2009 at 8:32 PM (PDT)

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