2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

Article

Ask iLounge 5-29-09

Author's pic

By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, May 29, 2009
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:

When I import downloaded tracks from a folder on my computer iTunes always imports the tracks in alphabetical order. How can I change this to ensure the tracks are imported in the original running order?

- Anonymous

A:

Although iTunes will import the tracks in alphabetical order, this doesn’t have any direct impact on how iTunes organizes or sorts your tracks - you can choose any of the available track information to sort your tracks on.

If you’re seeing your tracks listed in alphabetical order, chances are that this is simply because iTunes is sorting on the “Name” field. You can tell which field iTunes is using as your sort field by looking for the column heading with the blue highlight and small triangle.

To sort on a different column, simply click on the appropriate column heading. Clicking on the column heading a second time will reverse the sort order. Some sorting criteria have default secondary sort orders as well—for instance sorting by “Album” will automatically sort the tracks within each album by track number, providing the track numbers are stored in the files, otherwise it sorts the tracks alphabetically.

You can check to see if your songs contain track numbers by either displaying the “Track Number” column. To choose which columns are displayed, simply select View, View Options from the iTunes menu and choose the columns you want displayed from the resulting view options dialog box.

If your imported tracks are missing the track numbers, then you will not be able to sort them in album order regardless of which criteria you choose, since the album order simply isn’t available. In this case, you can add the track numbers by selecting each track and choosing File, Get Info and filling in the “Track Number” field yourself.

Q:

I am looking for a iPhone 3G Bluetooth Headset Dual Dock as I can’t find a second generation anywere. Can you help?

- Michael

A:

Unfortunately, Apple never actually made a Bluetooth Headset Dual Dock for the iPhone 3G. Only the standalone iPhone 3G Dock was ever released by Apple. Further, since Apple never released the specifications for their Bluetooth headset charging interface, no third-party product manufacturers ever produced an Bluetooth Headset Dual Dock either.

Since Apple recently discontinued their Bluetooth Headset entirely, it seems unlikely that the iPhone 3G or even the next-generation iPhone will have a Dock available that also charges the Bluetooth headset. If you can track down an original iPhone Bluetooth Dual Dock you can attempt to physically modify it to fit the iPhone as the electrical connections are the same, however that’s likely going to be your only option other than using the Apple iPhone Bluetooth Travel cable.

Q:

I have a question regarding recovery of an iPod. I have an iPod photo which was formatted for use with a Mac. I can no longer access it, and I no longer have the Mac; however I’d like to recover the music on the iPod if possible. My research seems to indicate there is recovery software for PC formatted iPods, and for Mac formatted iPods, but not for my situation. Is there software I can download to a PC that will fix the formatting problem on my iPod short of requiring the factory settings to be restored, or am I out of luck short of finding a Mac to use?

- Michael

A:

Since an iPod is really just an external hard drive as far as your operating system is concerned, the key to recovering a Mac-formatted iPod on a Windows PC is to first install software that will allow your PC to read a Mac-formatted disk. The most popular solution for this purpose is MediaFour’s MacDrive. This application installs as a driver in Windows which allows any Mac-formatted disk to be read from the Windows operating system, including your iPod. MacDrive itself is a commercial software package selling for $50, however a free trial is available which is fully-functional for a limited time period, which may be sufficient to recover your iPod.

Once you’ve installed MacDrive, iTunes should be able to read your iPod just as if it were Windows-formatted. At this point, any of the iPod recovery tools available for Windows will work with your iPod in the same way they would for a Windows-formatted iPod. You can read more information on iPod recovery in our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer.

Q:

I just bought myself a fourth-generation 16GB iPod nano a couple of months ago. Last weekend when my friend and I were getting out of the car she dropped it on the concrete and the glass screen completely cracked so that the LCD screen underneath it is exposed, so much so that the glass completely peeled off. It still works find and I can see the screen, but I’m worried that now that the outer glass shell is gone it may degrade or stop working at some point? Should i look into getting it fixed, have my friend buy me a new one, or just let it be?

- Nathan

A:

You should probably look into getting it fixed or replaced at some point, although there’s no harm in continuing to use it until it stops working, or for that matter, giving it to your friend if she is going to pay for the repair or the purchase of a new one anyway. A good case that covers the iPod nano screen could also be helpful in protecting the device from exposure. Keep in mind that since this kind of damage isn’t covered under warranty anyway, there’s no harm in continuing to use it as long as its still working, and you may in fact get enough life out of it to tide you over until a newer model is released.

Essentially, with the screen exposed you’re at a higher risk of dust or moisture getting into the iPod’s internal circuitry and causing future problems. In the very least, it’s possible that the screen is going to eventually fade due to it being more exposed to the elements.

Q:

My brother gave me his iPod as a gift. It has music on it purchased through his iTunes account. How do I synch it to iTunes while creating my own account (in order to purchase music) without losing the music already loaded onto the iPod?

- Harriet

A:

If your brother purchased music from the iTunes Store and placed it on the iPod, you will not be able to use it at all unless he authorizes your computer for his iTunes Store account. He can do this by selecting Store, Authorize Computer from the iTunes menu on your computer and entering his iTunes Store user id and password. Note that each iTunes Store account can have up to five computers authorized for it, so he could easily authorize your computer while still being able to use his. Further, authorizing a computer for an iTunes Store account does not automatically allow you to purchase music from that account - you would still need to enter his password in order to make purchases.

Once your computer is authorized for his iTunes Store account, you can transfer back any content from your iPod that was purchased with that account simply by connecting the iPod and choosing File, Transfer Purchases from the iTunes menu. iTunes will search through the iPod for any purchased content that is authorized to be played by the current library and will copy that content back from the iPod to your computer.

If there is content on the iPod that was not purchased from the iTunes Store, you can recover this as well, although you’ll need to use a third-party tool, as iTunes only transfers back purchased items. See our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer for more information on how to do this.

As an aside, if all of the purchased content on the iPod are “iTunes Plus” tracks, you can copy these off of the iPod by using a third-party tool described in the above tutorial and use them normally. “iTunes Plus” tracks are not copy-protected and can be played on any computer whether it’s authorized or not. However, you still gain the advantage of iTunes’ built-in “Transfer Purchases” feature if your computer is authorized for the account that was originally used to purchase these tracks.

Q:

I have purchased 15 iPods for my special education class. This was primarily to download books and stories for the Dyslexic students I have, but I am not sure how to use one iTunes for all iPod downloads. I have seen almost nothing on the educational uses for the iPod. I have used mine for several years for this and now have got a class set.

- Gloria

A:

The short answer is to simply plug the iPods in. iTunes will easily support multiple iPods and recognize them as separate and distinct from each other. Ideally, if you wanted to load each iPod with the exact same content, you could build an iTunes library containing only the books and stores you want loaded onto the iPods, and then plug each iPod in and allow it to automatically sync with the iTunes library.

In fact, you can even plug all fifteen iPods in at once if you have enough USB ports available. iTunes can easily handle many iPods syncing with it at the same time, so this can be a faster way to load them up than simply plugging them in one at a time.

There are also devices that can be used to sync very large numbers of iPods to a single iTunes library. For a much more sophisticated solution, you might want to check out Apple’s iPod Learning Lab, which provides a cart that allows up to 40 iPod or iPod nano players to be charged at once, and sync 20 at a time to the same computer. At a retail price of $2,299 for just the cart, this is not an inexpensive solution, but definitely provides more sophisticated options for managing a large class set of iPods. The cart is available by itself, or a custom configuration including iPods and other accessories can be worked out on Apple’s education site at http://education.apple.com/custom_ipod_lab/, which provides an online tool that will even generate a PDF proposal that can be submitted for purchasing purposes.

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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: iPhone Gems: Clue, iBomber, iDroidsMania, Monster Pinball, StoneLoops, SWIRL + Toki Tori

Previous: Weird + Small Apps: Persona, Photo Resize, Volkswagen Polo Challenge, Force Archer + Luigi Vs Pac

Comments

1

Hi there,

I tried looking around and asking Apple for this, but either no one knows or maybe it can’t even be done.

I had my 16G Iphone 3G robbed off me.

Is there a way to brick the unit, since I cannot stand the idea that someone else is now using it?

I have the packaging box with me complete with the serial number and IMEI. I bought it from Optus Australia, unlocked it there, and returned to Malaysia to use; which is where the unit was robbed off me.

Thanks!
John

Posted by John Low on June 1, 2009 at 2:48 AM (PDT)

2

Is there any way to enlarge the font on the iphone eg. text messaging, incoming numbers/names etc.?

Posted by Kimberly Maki on June 1, 2009 at 5:24 PM (PDT)

3

I have several ipods that drop out bits of songs when played on my Klipsch or Bose idocks.  Yet the same tunes will play fine throught the headphone jack.  Apparently the problem is opnly when played therought the usb port (or whatever the rectangular part at the bottom of th4e ipod is called)

Anybody have a solution?

Posted by Chris Harbaugh on June 12, 2009 at 10:31 AM (PDT)

4

Does anybody know, why when I play my ipod, either in the car,  on my ipod dock, or through headphones the song just continually repeats itself, unless I manually change it each time?
Any ideas anyone
Cheers Karen

Posted by karen Bohle on July 19, 2009 at 4:15 AM (PDT)

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