2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 9-1-05

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, August 31, 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 have about 6000 songs in iTunes, and I have removed all album names in each song file ID tag, as I am simply not interested in capturing that information. Since I don’t need to see them, I’d like to remove all references to “Album” in iTunes and on my iPod. Can this be done?

- Gary

A: Sure - you’ll be able to do this in at least some capacity. To remove “Album” from the iTunes’ main library listing, simply right-click (Mac: control-click) on any data column header (i.e. Album, Track, etc.) in the main iTunes window, and deselect “Album.” To remove “Albums” (or nearly any other menu item) from the iPod’s menu interface, simply navigate to “Settings—> Main Menu,” and toggle the “Albums” line item to “Off” by pressing the center button. As you’d expect, however, you’re not going to be able to get rid of references to the Album field everywhere. The field will still appear in the “Get Info” window, iTunes’ “Browse” function, and smart playlist options, but at least it won’t be jumping out at you anymore.
Q:

I am starting to get blue playlists in my iTunes window containing music that I have not placed in my computer and is not in my library. As I’m writing this, another one was just added to the Shared Music list. What is this? How is it happening? How can we stop it? One Shared Music Playlist is over 7 gigs of info, we cannot keep filling up our computer like this.

- Pam

A: Not to worry, Pam… this is “working as designed,” and you’re not using any of your hard drive’s capacity. You’ve inadvertently discovered iTunes’ Music Sharing feature. The “Blue Playlists” you mention are not playlists at all, but rather are the remotely stored music libraries of those on your network. If you open one, and attempt to play a track, the audio is “streamed,” or transferred temporarily in real-time, to your computer. Similarly, others on your network can likely see and listen to (but not take!) your music. Simply, it’s near harmless if left alone. However, if you’d like to disable the feature completely to clean up your Source column or save your bandwidth, simply go to the “Sharing” tab of iTunes’ Preferences, and un-check both “Look for shared music” and “Share my music.”
Q:

I used to use iPodder for getting podcasts in iTunes and onto my iPod. This was quite satisfactory, except that the temporary podcasts clogged up my (more permanent) music library. So when iTunes 4.9 provided podcast support I deleted iPodder and used iTunes 4.9 to subscribe to my podcast feeds. One problem solved. iTunes keeps podcasts separate from the music library. But another problem is created. I cannot find a way to mix podcasts and music in a playlist. Is this some kind of “feature” or am I being obtuse?

- Nick

A:

At first, it seems incredibly easy: simply open the “Podcasts” window, and drag any individual podcast track into an existing playlist (or to the “Source” column’s whitespace to create a new playlist).

Down the road, however, you may discover something slightly annoying - that this podcast now appears in your music library under the genre “Podcast.” The file itself was not duplicated, as it is still stored in the “Podcast” directory, but its presence in the list is likely to be an annoyance reminiscent of your iPodder days. Also, if you delete the podcast entry from the library, the reference will be deleted from the “Podcast” menu as well, regardless of whether you instructed iTunes upon deletion to “Keep File” or not. Perhaps this will satisfy you, but we’d be willing to bet you will still be rather disappointed.

Q:

I have a 3G iPod that still works great! I love it, but noticed something odd a couple weeks ago. When I hooked it up to my girlfriend’s Gateway laptop, it recognized the device and allowed me to access it, but it wasn’t charging the battery. I noticed the same thing on my mom’s Gateway laptop, too. When I connect the iPod to my PC desktop, however, it charges just fine. Is there some “power save” feature enabled on the laptops that is preventing the battery to charge? What’s going on?

- Adam

A:

You’ve discovered the major unfortunate drawback to using Firewire-charging iPods with PC laptops. Standard, full-size Firewire plugs have 6-pins. Most PC laptops, however, use a small, 4-pin Firewire port, which by design does not have the capability (namely the missing two pin connections) to provide power. Even the few PC portables with 6-pin Firewire ports rarely power them. Even more disappointing is that many PC laptops unequipped with built-in Firewire do not provide sufficient power to the PCMCIA slot to allow add-on 6-pin Firewire ports to charge the iPod. It’s a shame, really.

Our suggestion? If you had a 4G or iPod mini, we’d suggest you switch to USB 2.0. Since the 3G iPod can’t charge via USB, however, that won’t work for you. Instead, use a “power injector” device like SiK’s FireJuice product or Apple’s old “USB2.0+Firewire cable” to keep your iPod powered for long, battery-taxing data transfer sessions. If you don’t anticipate such heavy connection sessions, simply keep your iPod charged using the standard AC adaptor included with your 3G iPod.

Q:

I have been trying to get videos to play on iTunes since I discovered it was possible. My problem is that it will only play one before the video window goes away. The audio to the next video starts immediately, just as it would if it were only songs playing, but to get the video back, I have to highlight the next video on the list. Is there a way to keep the video window up and not have to highlight the currently playing file every time?

- Anonymous

A:

Yes, and here are two ways to fix your issue:

From the sound of your problem, it’s clear that you’re playing the video in the Album Art box in the bottom left of the main iTunes window. For starters, you can tell iTunes to instruct that box to do exactly what you want - pay attention to the “Now Playing” item instead of the “Selected” item. To toggle your iTunes’ behavior to “Now Playing,” simply click once on the small bar above the playing video that says “Selected Song.”

Alternatively, you can have iTunes launch videos in another window. To do so, open iTunes’ Preferences, and under the “Advanced” tab, change “Play videos” to “in a separate window.”

Jerrod Hofferth is an iLounge Contributing Editor, with frequent contributions to our iPod 101 and 201 tutorials, plus occasional hardware and software product reviews. As “azdude_40gb,” he also serves as an Administrator of the iLounge Discussion Forums.
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Ask iLounge Archives:

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

10-16-09: Moving iTunes to a new computer, Transferring contacts from Blackberry to an iPhone, Disabling iPhone Backups, Using AV cables for audio only, Problems syncing photos to iPod touch, Memorex iFlip and iPhone compatibility

10-9-09: iPhone OS and external keyboards, Adjusting ratings in a remote iTunes library, Excluding tracks from Genius Mixes, Moving iTunes library out of My Documents, Playlist folders on iPod touch, Refreshing random Smart Playlists

9-25-09: iTunes 9 and Shopping Cart, Restoring iTunes to an external hard drive, Using an HTTP Proxy over 3G, Problems transferring movies from iTunes to IPhone, iPod touch shuffle mode, Using an iPhone without a SIM card

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: First Looks Special: DLO mini fm FM Radio & Headphone Amplifier

Previous: First Looks: iFusion, iBeat, iTube, AB Sutton, MiniSync AV, Sharper Image & More

Comments

1

I have 300 odd songs on my ipod mini and i want to add more , but most of me songs can’t be found.  Is it posable to only add the songs which are not already on your ipod in imusic.

Posted by fin100 on September 1, 2005 at 12:27 PM (PDT)

2

Hey Just got another 2 ipods 20gb wasn’t enough should i be worried about my music in my itunes lib. being erased when i plug in my 60gb or my girl friend shuffle thanks for the help

Posted by ddd23vl on September 3, 2005 at 7:03 PM (PDT)

3

I have enjoyed downloading podcasts to my ipod.  Recently, I have been unable to transfer any podcasts to my Ipod.  I get the error message “Unable to download selected Podcasts because some of selected podcasts no longer exist.”

I know that they exist because I can listen to them on my computer.  I tried to delete all the podcasts from my ipod but this failed to correct the problem.  Can you help?

Posted by bigstu on October 29, 2005 at 5:46 AM (PDT)

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