Article
Ask iLounge 8-1-08
By Jesse David Hollington
Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, August 1, 2008
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.
How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?
Click here for the answer.
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, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
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!
Q:
On the iPhone 3G, is there a quick way to switch between applications in the same way that I use ALT+TAB on my computer? For example, if I am playing a game while listening to music from the iPod app and then receive a text message, when I select reply I am switched over to the SMS application. The only way that I know to get back to the game is to use the home button and then select the game again, which causes it to have to reload. Is there a way to toggle between open apps without having to start over?
- Linda
A:Unfortunately, no. However, it’s a bit more complicated than simply not providing a fast way to switch between apps. The actual problem is that the iPhone development kit (SDK) that third-party developers use to write applications for the iPhone does not permit these applications to run in the background at all.
This means that as soon as you leave an application for any reason, it must save its state and shut down completely—there is no way to keep the application running in the background when you switch to another app. How well the application later returns to where you left off is entirely dependent on how the developer wrote that particular application. Some applications will return to exactly where you left off, while others will save your current state and give you the option of returning, while still others completely lose track of where you are entirely. We have discovered a wide variation in this behaviour between different iPhone games, so there are no guarantees that any given game will behave well when you exit it to switch to another application.
Note that some of Apple’s own built-in apps on the iPhone do have the ability to run in the background—or at least leave a portion of themselves running so that things like background mail fetching and iPod playback can continue to occur. However, this is the reason why other music playback applications such as Tuner and AOL Radio cannot continue playing once you have exited the application.
I have an iPhone 3G; my car has an auxiliary input on the dash. I would like a solution where I can connect my iPhone via dock adapter to charge and output music from one device - its a pain to connect a dock-connector car charger and a 3.5mm output jack from the top to output music.
- John
A:At this point, only one of the major accessory manufacturers has released a “Works with iPhone” certified car charger with AUX output. The Kensington LiquidAUX for iPhone and iPod provides a car charger with a non-detachable shielded AUX output cable and a wireless remote with a steering wheel mounting bracket.
Note also that Griffin Technology and Belkin both offer Works With iPhone certified chargers with FM transmitters, both of which work with the iPhone 3G.
From our testing thus far, accessories that were Works With iPhone-certified for the original iPhone will still function normally with the iPhone 3G, however you may receive the nag (“This accessory is not made to work with iPhone”) message whenever you connect one of these accessories, suggesting that you turn on Airplane mode to avoid interference from the cellular radio.

Airplane Mode should not be necessary with a Works With iPhone product, and the display of this message for a certified accessory is a bug that Apple should fix.
Whether or not you will actually hear this interference depends on the individual accessory, but most car charger AUX outputs do not exhibit this problem anyway unless the iPhone itself is left in close proximity to the car speakers.
In fact, despite the lack of official Works With iPhone certification, Griffin’s AutoPilot for the iPod (iLounge rating: B) will work fine with the iPhone, subject to the restrictions and considerations mentioned above: You will get the Airplane Mode prompt (which you can safely select NO to), and there may be a risk of audio interference if the phone is placed too close to your car speakers or head unit.
Can I use my old iPhone as an iPod touch? I restored it to factory settings and now iTunes will not allow a sync because it is not activated as a phone.
Christopher
A:This is not possible with a non-jailbroken iPhone, as iTunes will not normally “activate” the iPhone without a valid SIM card inserted into the iPhone and left in place. Depending on your carrier, you might get away with placing your iPhone 3G SIM card into your old iPhone simply to get iTunes to activate it, however the iPhone will still likely require RE-activation when you insert the original SIM card.
The best way to bypass this requirement is to simply jailbreak the iPhone using a tool such as Pwnage. While we do not normally recommend jailbreaking for various reasons, not the least of which is warranty considerations, for an iPhone that is out of warranty and no longer being used as an actual phone, this seems a harmless enough step. All of the jailbreaking solutions activate the iPhone as a function of the jailbreaking process, allowing it to be used in non-phone mode with any SIM card, or even NO SIM card at all. Note that unlocking your iPhone to work as a phone with a SIM card from another carrier is a separate process, but not necessary if your goal is to simply use the non-phone features of the older iPhone.
More information on jailbreaking can be found in our iLounge Discussion Forums, specifically in our Hacks & Mods Forum.
On the iPhone 3G is there a way to send photos via text message instead of through email? If not, has Apple mentioned any possibility of this in the future?
Virginia
A:The feature you are thinking of is Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), and is unfortunately not supported by the iPhone at all, even with the current model and firmware version.
Whether or not this will be supported directly by Apple in the future is uncertain, but it would seem that the current lack of it even in the v2.0 firmware implies that this is not a high priority for Apple. It is possible a third-party application from the App Store may be able to provide some MMS support, but as of this writing, no such apps exist.
If your goal is simply to send an MMS message to somebody else’s phone because they do not have e-mail support, the simplest way to do this from the iPhone is to send the message via e-mail to their carrier’s MMS Gateway. Most cellular providers have an e-mail domain to convert e-mail messages into MMS. For example, if you wanted to send an MMS to an AT&T subscriber with a phone number like 917-555-1212, you would simply send an e-mail message from your iPhone, addressed to 9175551212 @ mms.att.net.
A list of MMS e-mail addresses for some other carriers can be found in our iLounge Discussion Forums in the thread How to SEND MMS from the iPhone.
My iPhone App Store is displaying in Chinese and all the costs are in Yen. How do I configure it to show English and US dollars. I went to the International setting on my iPhone and everything is set to USA and English.
Chris
A:The most likely cause of this is the iPhone inheriting your App Store settings from your desktop iTunes application. Whenever you sync your iPhone, it will set itself to the account and iTunes Store that you are currently signed into on your desktop.
There are no ways to change the store country or store account on the iPhone itself. Instead, go to the iTunes Store in your desktop iTunes application, and sign in to the iTunes Store account that you would like to use on your iPhone. Once signed in, simply sync the iPhone to your iTunes library, and the appropriate store settings will be transferred onto the device.
Is there any way to run spreadsheets (Excel) with this iPhone software? Also is there an app that allows me to use Bluetooth stereo headphones?
Josh
A:The iPhone provides native support for viewing Excel spreadsheets, although there is no built-in way to simply store them on your iPhone. The viewer is designed to display them from e-mail attachments or links on web pages.
A third-party app available on the App Store, FileMagnet (iTunes Store Link) will allow you to transfer documents to your iPhone via WiFi for storage and display on the iPhone itself. Several formats are supported, including text, PDF, Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
In terms of Bluetooth stereo support (A2DP), there are no applications that provide this capability, nor are there likely to be any in the near future. Bluetooth profiles are based on lower-level drivers that third-party developers do not have access to. If A2DP support is to be added to the iPhone in the future, it will likely have to come from Apple themselves. Presently, the only Bluetooth profiles supported are Handsfree and Headset, intended for use with the phone portion of the iPhone. Note that audio from non-phone-related applications does not play through the Bluetooth headset.
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
Next: iPhone Gems: Every Sudoku Game, Reviewed
Previous: iPhone Gems: Cards, Gambling + Arcade-Style Games
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1
what is the best portable device to play my ipod through my car stereo?
Posted by chad morrow on August 6, 2008 at 12:25 PM (PDT)
2
FWIW, if you want to play your iPhone’s music over bluetooth, the Motorola D650 adapter does work with the iPhone 3G.
I found this adapter in a combo kit with the S9 bluetooth headphones on clearance for half price. You can also use the S9 by itself as a hands-free headset.
Buyer beware: Motorola has had problems with counterfiet S9 headphones, so make sure you’re buying the real thing.
Posted by Paul on August 17, 2008 at 2:22 PM (PDT)