iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

Article

Ask iLounge 7-30-10

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By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, July 30, 2010
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.

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And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q:

I have a playlist on my iPod touch which I’ve refined over several years from tracks in my main iTunes library (my music is managed manually). I have just bought a new iPhone and would like to have the same playlist on the phone. Is there a way to get the same tracks onto my phone other than by manually copying them?

- Red

A:

Since you are managing the content on your iPod touch manually you will need to copy those playlists back to your iTunes library in order to sync them to your iPhone. If you have content that it also stored only on the iPod touch and not in your iTunes library, you will need to copy these tracks back as well so that they can be synced to your iPhone.

If you need to copy the tracks themselves, then you will want to look at using a third-party utility such as those described in our article on Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer. Most of these utilities will also transfer your playlists back to iTunes as part of the copying process, and once the information is back in your library you can simply sync your iPhone with iTunes as you normally would.

If all of the music is already in your iTunes library, however, and you’re merely looking to get the playlists from your iPod touch, there is a slightly easier way to do this directly within iTunes. You can use iTunes to export the playlists from your iPod touch to a file and then reimport this file into your iTunes library to recreate the playlist directly in your library.

To do this, simply expand the iPod touch within iTunes to display the playlists contained on it, right-click on the playlist that you would like to export, and choose the Export option from the context menu which appears.

iTunes will prompt you for a location and format to save the file. Save the playlist as an XML file using whatever name and location is convenient for you. Once you have done this, simply choose File, Library, Import Playlist from the iTunes menu and select the file that you previously exported. The playlist will be recreated in your iTunes library and will contain any tracks that were referenced in the original playlist that already exist in your library. Keep in mind that this process will not add any new tracks that aren’t already in iTunes—it will merely reference those tracks that are already there.

Once the playlist is back in your iTunes library, you can simply sync it or manually transfer it to your iPhone as you normally would.

Q:

Are there any iPad apps that allow me to read existing tracked changes on MS Word docs and/or add my own tracked changes to MS Word docs? Such a capability is critical to
most business users.

- Ian

A:

Sadly while there are some very good word processing apps for the iPad, the ability to view revisions and track changes is currently a glaring omission in all of them. Two of the most popular apps for viewing and editing MS Word documents are Documents To Go by DataViz and QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite by QuickOffice. For Documents to Go you can send a feature request in to DataViz at http://www.dataviz.com/eforms/feedback/generalfeedback.html. QuickOffice has an idea submission site where users can vote for features and enhancements, and support for track changes has already been suggested and can be voted on here.

Although there are not yet any solutions for tracking changes in MS Word documents, there are several apps such as iAnnotate PDF that allow you to work with annotations in PDF files, which could be a potential workaround depending on your specific situation.

Q:

Thanks for your review on the iHome+Sleep app. However, there is something I haven’t seen covered anywhere, including in your review. Is the app usable with other alarm clocks, or JUST the IA5/IA100? The most impressive, useful and appealing feature for me is the ability to set custom alarms. My work schedule does not follow the standard weekdays/weekends that most 5+2 or 7+5+2 alarm clocks follow. So having the ability to set an alarm for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays but NOT Sundays, Mondays and Fridays (for example) is the most helpful feature of the app, with the sleep cards. The problem is, the IA5 is not appealing to me at all, from a hardware standpoint, and while the IA100 looks much better (both in terms of layout and hardware), I’m afraid it will be overkill for my needs. So, the question is, will the iHome+Sleep app work with other alarm clocks and docks, particularly the alarm feature…either other iHome clocks/docks, or other brands in general? I would greatly appreciate it if you have any info about this!

- Matthew

A:

Although the iHome+Sleep app is designed to be used with iHome’s app-enabled alarm clocks, it also works as a standalone app in which case it simply begins playing your alarm sound at the scheduled time. You will need to ensure that the app is left running before you go to bed as it does not yet provide any background notification support, but this would be the case even if you’re using it with iHome’s app-enabled speakers as the app cannot be triggered by an external accessory due to Apple’s SDK restrictions.

Without the iA5 or iA100 speakers, the iHome+Sleep app works in much the same way as any other iPhone alarm app and as long as it’s running will play your scheduled alarms at the appropriate time, either through the iPhone’s own speaker or through whatever other speakers are attached. If you’re docking with a speaker system you simply need to ensure that the speakers are on and the app is running before you go to bed and when the alarm goes off in the morning it should sound through the speakers.

Note that if you’re simply looking for an alarm that can be scheduled to repeat on specific days of the week you may want to just check out the iPhone’s own Clock app, which offers this capability and has the advantage of running in the background so that it goes off regardless of whether you leave the app running or not. While not as flexible as the iHome+Sleep app in terms of sleep timers, alarm sounds and snooze times, the Clock app will allow you to choose one or more weekdays to repeat and allow you to use any built-in or custom ringtone as your alarm sound and also includes a basic sleep timer function.

Note that with the release of iOS 4 several third-party apps are now providing background alarm capabilities as well, although in many cases not all of these apps’ normal features are available when using background alarms due to limitations of the background notification APIs in the iPhone OS.

Q:

I am not able to update apps on my iPhone or iPad that were purchased under my former Rogers e-mail address which is no longer valid since moving to an area not serviced by Rogers. I can sign in with the old address but since it is no longer valid, the apps store responds with a message “unable to connect.” I get the same error message when using my new email address as the update file is looking for the same address as the app was purchased under. This is even for free apps. Does anyone know how to get around this problem or how to get the app store to recognize that a user has a new email address.

- Bob

A:

Whether or not your e-mail address is active should have no bearing on your ability to access the iTunes Store with a given account as long as you actually know the Apple ID and password for the account. In fact, even if you chose to use your e-mail address as your Apple ID for the iTunes Store, this login name is not actually tied to your Rogers e-mail address, but is simply an ID. Your user account will contain your e-mail address, but this is stored separately from the Apple ID that you actually use to log in to the iTunes Store. You can update your e-mail address in your user account by going to your iTunes Store account, either via iTunes or by visiting http://myinfo.apple.com and signing in with your Apple ID and password. It is a good idea to update the e-mail address in your account to ensure that you are using a current and valid e-mail address as this is where your iTunes Store receipts are sent and where password reset instructions will be sent if you ever forgot your password or need other assistance with your account.

The problem you’re having connecting to the iTunes Store is not related to the validity of your e-mail address, however, and is more likely some other network problem. Check to ensure that you don’t have any firewall software running on your computer or your home router that might be causing problems accessing the Internet. Certain types of anti-spyware or anti-malware software can also interfere with iTunes’ ability to connect to the iTunes Store. You can find more information on troubleshooting your connection to the iTunes Store in Apple’s knowledgebase articles: iTunes for Windows: iTunes Store Connection Troubleshooting and iTunes for Windows: Connection issues when using Internet filters, accelerators, or firewalls.

Once you get the situation resolved and can successfully connect to the iTunes store you should be able to continue using your original iTunes Store account without any problems, although again it’s recommended that you update the e-mail address in your account as noted above. If you have chosen to use your e-mail address as your actual Apple ID, however, you can continue doing this as the Apple ID isn’t used an an e-mail address but merely as a sign-in name.

Q:

I have a fifth-generation iPod nano and am wondering what the best way is to copy videos I take with the video camera to my computer? What can I actually do with those videos? Can I put them on a DVD? I think there are some format issues that I don’t understand and some software I might be in need of. Thank you for your help.

- Laura

A:

Videos recorded with the 5G iPod nano need to be transferred to your computer manually in Disk Mode rather than by using iTunes. To do this, you first need to enable Disk Mode on your iPod so that it will remain connected to your computer for long enough to access it with other software. You can enable Disk Mode on your iPod by connecting it to your computer and selecting it from the Devices listing in iTunes. A Summary screen should appear in the main panel: select the Enable Disk Use option and click the “Apply” button.

Once Disk Use has been enabled, you can access your iPod nano through Windows Explorer where it should appear as an external hard drive. Your videos can be found under the DCIM folder and you can either just copy them off directly to view them on your computer using QuickTime or import them into a tool such as Windows Movie Maker if you want to edit them, save them in a different format or burn them to DVD. You can find more information in Apple’s Knowledgebase article on How to copy your recorded videos to a PC.

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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 + iPad Gems: 1951, Mr. Hat and the Magic Cube, NFL 2011, Osmos for iPhone + More

iPhone Gems: AirAttack, Gorillaz Escape/Plastic Beach, Helsing’s Fire, Solitaire Classics + Super 7 »

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Comments

1

When i try to download the latest version of I-Tunes my computer tells me that there is an invalid drive e can you please help.

Posted by john on August 9, 2010 at 5:07 PM (PDT)

2

I have a five year old I pod and have tried to get it to play through the docking device of my new Samsong disk player: nothing happens. Is this because the IPod I own is too old? Advice welecome at my e-mail address .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). before I lash out and buy a new Ipod. Thanks in advance.

Posted by Tony brenna on August 9, 2010 at 10:20 PM (PDT)

3

I’ve found an iPod and want to get it to the right owner, can anyone assist? 
I contacted Apple and for obvious security reasons they can’t give me any info. and told me to give it to the police department, which is fine, but I’d prefer to just give it to the person and not cross my fingers that they’ll call the police department in my town.
Owner doesn’t have any contacts or notes so all I have is the serial number.  Anyone been successful in getting one of these back to there appropriate owner?  If so, how?

Posted by Kurt Gehring on August 10, 2010 at 11:14 AM (PDT)

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