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The Free iPod + iPhone Book4

Ask iLounge 7-21-05

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By Kirk McElhearn

Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, July 21, 2005
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 own a 20 GB iPod and recently bought my wife a color-screened iPod. Can I use her color iPod with the computer where the 20 GB iPod is linked and share the existing music library?

- Greg

A:Yes, you can. When you connect the new iPod, you’ll go through the steps of the iPod assistant, where you name the iPod and choose how you want to sync music to it. In your case, you’ll simply have two iPods synced to the same computer, each syncing the same music.


Q: I have a 4 GB iPod mini, and when I tried to put 200 songs on it, iTunes said that the iPod didn’t have enough space, and made an iPod selection playlist. I don’t understand this. 4 GB iPod minis are supposed to hold 1,000 songs, but mine will only hold 140! They are all four minute songs. Can you explain this?

- Jewels

A: Apple says the following in its technical specifications for the iPod:

Capacity based on 4 minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding.

Our guess is that your songs haven’t been compressed enough. Since you say your songs are all four minutes long, the question is “what type of encoding did you use?” If you imported your music at, say, 320 kbps, you’d get about 1/3 as many songs on the iPod. Or if you imported songs in WAV or AIFF format (uncompressed formats), you’d get about 60 to 80 songs. Using Apple Lossless format, you’d get about 140 songs. Sound about right?

Alternately, it’s possible that some (but not all) of your music is uncompressed, or that you use your iPod as a hard disk as well? If you have other files on your iPod, there is less room available for music. You can read more about using the iPod as a hard disk in this recent article. Our simple advice would be to set iTunes’ preferences for Encoding to encode files as 192Kbps MP3, or 160Kbps AAC, select all of your songs at the same time, and right click (PC) or control-click (Mac) to select “Convert Selection to...” MP3 or AAC. The new files you create will most likely fit on your iPod and leave room to spare.


Q: iTunes doesn’t play unchecked songs on my computer, but my iPod plays them.

Is there any way to only played checked songs on the iPod?

-Steve

A: While you cannot choose to only play checked songs on the iPod, you can tell iTunes not to copy unchecked songs. In the iTunes preferences, click the iPod icon (when your iPod is connected). Then, in the Music tab, check Only Update Checked Songs. iTunes will then not copy any unchecked songs to your iPod.


Q: With the new version of iTunes, I noticed I can now play music videos. Can the iPod photo/color do this too? And can it do it on a TV?

- Anonymous

A: That’s the $64,000 question. Currently, no iPod can play videos, but as you have seen, iTunes can now both store and play videos. Apple includes videos with some albums they sell on the iTunes Music Store, and there are even a couple of “vodcasts,” or video podcasts, available through iTunes.

This is the source of a great deal of speculation, especially over the last few days, and we don’t know whether Apple is planning to release a video iPod or another portable device capable of playing videos. But as soon as Apple announces a video product, you can be sure that we’ll provide complete information and reviews. So stay tuned to iLounge!


Q: Is there a device that will plug into my 20 GB iPod or computer and allow me to transmit music to a radio on my deck about 50 feet away? I know the iTrip will do this from an iPod to the car radio but will it do a good job with the set up I mentioned above?

- Bob

A: There are a couple of ways you can do this. Using an FM transmitter such as the iTrip will work fine, if the iPod is close enough to the radio. Fifty feet is too far - no FM transmitter is going to provide a clear signal from that distance - but if you take the iPod on your deck, you’ll have no problem.

The other solution is to use Apple’s AirPort Express, which allows you to stream music from any computer that’s running iTunes. However, you’ll need to have a wireless networking card in your computer, and you cannot control the music very easily: you need to be in front of the computer to change songs.


picKirk McElhearn is the author of several books including iPod & iTunes Garage. His blog Kirkville features articles about the iPod, iTunes, Mac OS X and much more.






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Ask iLounge Archives:

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

8-8-08: iLounge Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Horwitz responds to reader questions on all things iLounge, including technical issues related to iPhone 3G, and behind-the-scenes editorial issues

8-1-08: iPhone Edition: Switching between apps, Car charging accessories, Activating older iPhone models, Sending MMS, App Store in wrong language, Excel and A2DP support

7-25-08: MobileMe on iPhone for Calendars only, Buying iPods for International use, Voice recorders for 4G iPods, Free Music for iPod, Problems transferring purchased content to iPod, Playing AAC files in Windows Media Player

See the rest of the Archives...

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Comments

1

#5: There are other products made to transmit audio wirelessly over such a distance. Check RadioShack. The Airport Express is probably overkill in your case.

Posted by mattwardfh in Texas on July 21, 2005 at 8:42 AM (PDT)

2

I have just started using podcasting. My first file, about 64 megs, has about 90 minutes of programming. When I resume play after pausing at about 30-45 minutes (done this twice), the iPod starts at the beginning regardless of where the time bar says the stop point is. Fast advance does no good, just moves the bar. Even at 10 seconds from the end, the beginning is playing. Do I need to do something or is this a problem with the iPod. I have downloaded the latest SW, the iPod is the 40 GB with dock.

GPODspooky

Posted by GPODspooky on July 21, 2005 at 8:53 AM (PDT)

3

I tried using ephpod to take my songs off the ipod and put them on itunes. the first time i tried i didnt install the Dataviz Macopener, now 30 of my songs wont play on my ipod, when i click on them it either goes to the next song or goes back to the main menu. I used podu and it put every song on itunes exept the 30 that dont work. How can i get those songs back?

Posted by MvPcuban on July 21, 2005 at 9:29 AM (PDT)

4

MyPcuban,
First of all why are you using Ephpod? Just go into iTunes enable disk use, then go to explorer and make it so you can view hidden files. Then go into the iPod and the music will be under a file called iPod controls>music. If your using a Mac, then your an idiot, and are screwed. If you have a Mac you’ll have to re-import those songs because their probably corrupt.

Posted by Dragoon.exe on July 22, 2005 at 1:24 PM (PDT)

5

Is it possible to use iTunes to export SONGS from a playlist to external media. I like to carry some selected playlists on the CF card on my PDA and don’t know how to tranfer the songs.
Thanks in Advance.
Sonal

Posted by sonalchaturvedi on July 22, 2005 at 2:26 PM (PDT)

6

sonalchaturvedi,
What you can do is burn the playlist to a CD then re-import the CD as an album, then from Exolprer copy it to the CF card.

Posted by Dragoon.exe on July 22, 2005 at 2:43 PM (PDT)

7

There are several songs on my ipod that cut out after a few seconds.  The timer at the bottom of the screen gives the full play time, but the song never makes it through.  I can hear the ipod struggling with the song.  They are complete files on my computer, some have been downloaded and some ripped from my CDs.  What’s going on?  How can I fix this?

Posted by j2718 on July 22, 2005 at 10:00 PM (PDT)

8

Hi

What I want to know is how do I add the music that i have in my iPod into my Library.
I went to a friends house and put into my ipod plenty of songs of his library. How can i put now that song into my hard disk?
I used the itunes to load all of my friend’s songs.  But when i tried to add them into my library, i couldn’t find a way to do it.
Please, i really need to do this.

Thanks in advance

Posted by Palmi on July 23, 2005 at 12:54 PM (PDT)

9

hi again
I wanted to ask this: i have done the Consolidation of my library, but i have done it into the hard disk that have all my music.  So now i have duplicated all my songs.
How can i undone this?? at least free space by deleting some of the dupplicated songs.  I have n’t deleted the originals cause i don’t if im going to mess things again.
I would like to keep my original folder of songs, but if there is no way, it doesn`t matter

Posted by Palmi on July 23, 2005 at 1:13 PM (PDT)

10

same as palmi’s first i have songs on my ipod not in my library how do i fix this please:(

Posted by billybobclifford on July 23, 2005 at 4:13 PM (PDT)

11

Hi I have a 15 gig pod that is 2 years old. the problem I have is that it seems to stop during playing a tune. It also skips through songs rather than playing and going back to menu. Have tried resetting numerous times but no joy. Is it on the way out.
Thanks for your help
Mike

Posted by ekimbee1 on July 24, 2005 at 8:14 AM (PDT)

12

When I charge my iPod Mini, it says it’s charged after a couple hours or so, so I disconnect it and it still shows the battery is almost dead! What is up with this? Please help

Posted by kaitw1017 on July 24, 2005 at 9:04 AM (PDT)

13

#5 “However, you’ll need to have a wireless networking card in your computer”

No, you do NOT need a wireless card. smile That said, it probably is overkill, unless you want to use the wireless features of Airport anyway.

Posted by Ipstenu on July 27, 2005 at 10:28 AM (PDT)

14

I had to uninstall my windows xp and re-install all of my programs as I had error problems developing. In the process I lost about 150 songs in my music files. Those songs are in my i-pod but not in my library. How do I get the songs from the i-pod into the i-tunes library?

Posted by mfsnj on August 6, 2005 at 6:32 AM (PDT)

15

How do I get music from my ipod to my pc?

Posted by mfsnj on August 6, 2005 at 6:40 AM (PDT)

16

I have a U2 Ipod and my son loves listening to it and now wants one.  However I am not willing to spend the money on an Ipod for an 8 year old.  I would like to buy him a small, inexpensive MP3 player and just convert all of the songs that I have saved to Itunes.  These songs were from physical CD’s and not purchased through Itunes.  Is there any way to convert these songs?

Posted by stagg on August 15, 2005 at 9:51 AM (PDT)

17

HELP!  Ok me and my sister each have our own computer and ipod. I had just imported more music into my computer and was going to tansfer it into my ipod, turns out i put the wrong ipod in my computer and now my sister ipod is not working, why is that and what can i do? PLEASE I NEED HELP!

Posted by DarthJade on August 21, 2005 at 12:15 AM (PDT)

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