2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 8-3-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, August 2, 2006
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 have two AirPort Express units connected to individual stereo systems, and I play music from my iTunes Library through them. I have recently noticed that I am now able to play music on “Multiple Speakers,” which is really neat, except that I get an error message reporting that one of my AirPort Expresses does not support playback as part of a group. Why not?

- Anonymous

A:

There are two potential issues that users often encounter when attempting to play music to multiple speakers simultaneously:

First (and most likely your problem), you’ll need to make sure that each Airport Express unit has been upgraded to the latest firmware (v6.3 or later). You can check this using Airport Admin Utility, and if you need an upgrade, you can obtain it from Apple’s website here: (Mac, PC). You’ll also need iTunes 6.0.2 or later.

The second potential issue that often hinders users from using this feature is that it requires a certain kind of network traffic often blocked by many firewalls. This “Incoming UDP traffic” needs to be allowed to pass into the computer you’re running iTunes from. In your firewall configuration settings, either set it to allow all UDP traffic, or simply open UDP traffic on ports 6001 and 6002.

Q:

I just got an iPod Radio Remote for my iPod nano. It seems to work OK, but I can’t seem to tune to the “even stations” - those ending in .0, .2, .4, and so on. This is a problem here in Denmark, as one of the popular stations is located at 100.0. What do I do?

- Jan

A:

Your iPod Radio Remote is using the “USA” region settings, which set the tuner to scan frequencies between 87.5FM and 107.9FM, in 0.2 Mhz increments—forcing “odd” frequencies only.

Since you’re in Denmark, you should change your Radio Remote’s region to “Europe,” allowing you to tune between 87.5FM and 108.0FM in 0.1 MHz increments. With this setting, you’ll be able to access the stations with even decimals. To change the region setting, toggle the “Radio Region” located setting in the iPod’s “Settings” menu when your Radio Remote is plugged in.

For reference, the “Japan” region setting tunes between 76.0 and 89.9FM in 0.1 MHz increments.

Q:

When I import CDs to my iTunes library, they appear in descending order, so the last song is first, and so on. I’ve tried to drag the songs to the correct order but I am not able to do that either. How do I correct the songs for each album so that “track number” is in ascending order?

- Kim

A:

Assuming your CDs have been successfully tagged with the track number field’s data, it sounds as if your iTunes Library window is simply sorted by “Date Added” or “Date Modified.” To restore a sorting methodology which will put your albums in track order, simply click on the “Artist” or “Album” column headers, as sorting by these fields automatically use the track number field as a secondary sorting criteria, within an album.

Q:

is it possible to get the audio extracted from video podcasts so I can play it on my video-incapable iPod Photo?

- Leo

A:

Sure! As video podcasts are unprotected video files, you’re free to do with them as you please. All that’s needed is a piece software capable of extracting the audio track of a video file into an iTunes-compatible format.

As this site deals with many users from both Windows and PC environments, we tend to recommend QuickTime Pro (Apple, $29.99). With this program, here’s how to extract the audio:

1) Drag a file out of iTunes onto your Desktop.
2) Open the file using QuickTime Pro.
3) Choose “Export…” from the “File” menu.
4) From the “Export” pull-down menu, select either “Sound to AIFF” or “Sound to Wave.”
5) Select a file name, and click “Save.”

Next, drag this newly-created audio file back into iTunes to add it to your library. If you’d like, you can then use iTunes’ built-in conversion features to create a smaller AAC or MP3 compressed audio file, so the podcast uses less disk space. Simply choose the format in iTunes’ Importing preferences, and right click on the file to select “Convert Selection to AAC.”

Q:

It seem that you are able to have multiple pictures attached to a single song in iTunes and cycle through them as you listen to the song. Is it possible to carry all these artwork files over to my iPod and view them all as you listen?

- Manny

A:

Unfortunately, there is currently no iPod hardware or software which enables the display of multiple artwork files per track. The only way to view multiple photos while music is playing is, quite clearly, through normal pictures loaded into color iPods’ “Photos” feature.

As always, however, users are invited to provide feedback to Apple on their iPod feedback website.

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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: iPod Your Car Central Information Hub

Previous: Editorial: Fun, real fun, with iPod accessories

Comments

1

I have been using my itunes for about 6 months now. And a few days ago an icon appeared saying that this is not the original itunes library ive been using with my ipod. But this is the Itunes library ive been using since day one with my ipod nano.So i tried uploading the songs again. I have 322 songs to upload but after 42 it stopped and an icon came up that said my ipod is not able to be read from or written to?
What do you suggest i should do?

Posted by Bluey on August 4, 2006 at 1:27 AM (PDT)

2

I bought an iPod Nano today (replacing my iPod Mini) to go with the Nike Plus running shoes. Anyways, I went to plug in the Nano thinking iPod software is iPod software. After plugging it in, I got this little message in my system bar:

http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wtfnanovj5.jpg

I ran chkdsk, tried running /f but it wouldn’t let me. Said I needed to restart and it would run before XP booted up. Long story short, chkdsk did nothing. Anybody have this problem / know what to do now?

My Nano is constantly flashing the “Do not disconnect.” screen. I ran the updator software, restored factory defaults. Now, the taskbar message is gone, but iTunes doesn’t recognize an iPod is connected.

Posted by maltrogg on August 5, 2006 at 2:23 PM (PDT)

3

I’ve added mpeg video files to my ipod. The video portion plays fine. I don’t get audio. Audio & Video works fine on the PC. Any suggestions of how I can get the audio portion to play on the ipod?

Posted by tforte on August 6, 2006 at 12:42 PM (PDT)

4

The iPod still doesn’t allow the user to browse songs, artists, etc. in a round robin manner.  For instance, if you have 10,000 songs on your iPod (I do), and you want to go to songs starting with later letters in the alphabet, then must first scroll through a, b,c d,..., and finally get to the last letters, r,s,t…x,y,z.  It would be a simple matter to add the ability to allow the user to go backwards from a to z: a,z,y,x,w,... 

The problem with Apple is that they don’t allow the user community to make suggestions like this to improve their product.

Posted by redgecko13 on August 8, 2006 at 9:51 AM (PDT)

5

I recently recieved an ipod+hp and it came with the connectors (usb and firewire) cables to hook it to my PC. how do I connect it to my Mac powerbook?
Sorry but I know nothing about ipods
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Posted by gk321 on August 12, 2006 at 11:25 AM (PDT)

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