2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 9-14-06: New Products Edition

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 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:

When I check for iTunes updates, it takes me to Apple’s page to download the new iTunes 7. However, they don’t make it clear: if I download the program from the link and install it, will the upgrade retain my music that was in the old version of iTunes? Will I lose anything at all? I realize my worry is probably unnecessary, but with so much of my data at stake, I want to make sure.

- Matt

A:

It’s a valid concern, as Apple doesn’t explicitly mention whether or not installing a new version of iTunes will overwrite your library, but it is certainly not designed to do so. In fact, all of your playlists, tags, and settings are preserved as well. That said, things can and sometimes do go wrong with iTunes upgrades. In that respect, it’s always a good idea to keep a backup of your library, whether on a separate hard drive, DVDs, or otherwise. For help with starting and maintaining a backup solution, see our Complete Guide to Backing up iPod & iTunes Music. With a proper backup, you can have confidence with any installation. Enjoy the upgrade!

Q:

I was so excited about the new features in iTunes that I immediately bought Pac Man for my fifth generation iPod. I have updated my iPod software to version 1.2, but when I try to upload the game I get a message that I’m not authorized to play it on my computer. What does the message mean, and more importantly, how do I get the game onto my iPod? Thanks.

- Anonymous

A:

You’ve completed only one of two steps which are required for existing fifth-generation iPods to play the new games from the iTunes Store. The first, upgrading the firmware to version 1.2, allowed your iPod to have the actual software capability to execute the game programs.

The second requirement, however, is what we think is probably an odd bug: unlike music, which comes automatically “authorized” (or associated with your iTunes account) on the computer you download it from iTunes with, it seems you must explicitly authorize your computer for the first game you download for your iPod.

To do so, simply open iTunes’ “iPod Games” menu in the Source list, and click on the thumbnail image for one of your games. When iTunes prompts you for your iTunes account and password, simply enter them, click OK, and re-syncrhonize your iPod. The games will transfer to the iPod and become accessible in the existing “Extras → Games” listing.

Q:

After upgrading to iTunes 7, my audio playback for everything in iTunes sounds garbled and is riddled with distortion and static, especially when I’m multitasking. It was never this way on previous versions of iTunes. How can I fix this?

- Kelly

A:

First and foremost, don’t worry - your library’s contents have not been corrupted by the upgrade. The problem, rather, is a bug in iTunes’ software. Many Windows users have reported a startling amount of major bugs since iTunes 7’s release, including the sound distortion you mentioned, CoverFlow rendering problems, a memory leak, album art issues, and more.

At this point, the best recommendation we have is to be patient, and realize that Apple is undoubtedly working on iTunes 7.0.1 as fast as they can, and that most of these major bugs are surely on the top of their to-do list.

For what it’s worth, several users are reporting that the following procedure helps with the audio distortion problem. Some report no change, but the procedure is worth a try:

Open your computer’s Control Panel, and find the QuickTime Control Panel. In the “Audio” tab, try the following changes:

Change audio settings to 44.1 kHz and 16 bit resolution, and, if necessary, check the “Safe Mode” box. Apply the new settings, and restart iTunes to see if they’ve made a difference. If not, keep tweaking: different combinations of settings appear to work for different users.

Q:

I just loaded the new iTunes, and selected “Get Album Artwork” from the “Advanced” menu. However, the feature left a large number of albums blank, and many of these albums are pretty common. How can I get iTunes to recognize my albums and fetch my art? Can I tell it to use a different database?

- Dave

A:

Many users are reporting less than perfect results with iTunes’ new Album Artwork retrieval service. However, this isn’t terribly surprising. Even if the iTunes Store sells the album you’re trying to receive artwork for, it might not work, depending on several factors. In order for the album artwork feature to automatically recognize the album as mapping to one in the iTunes Store’s library, the tags, track lengths, and/or track numbering (or whatever other data iTunes may use to correlate the songs to the Store) must be very close to those in iTunes. In the short term, we’d recommend either trying to clean, correct, or reformat the tags for the tracks in your local library to better match them to known iTunes tracks, or simply manually updating album artwork for those failing to match.

In the long term, we expect the logic behind this feature will evolve in future releases of the software, becoming able to more accurately identify an individual’s imported CD tracks with the appropriate iTunes Store copies.

Q:

On enhanced podcasts with chapter markers, such as the ‘iTunes New Music Tuesdays’ podcast, how can you browse the chapters in iTunes 7… the buttons from previous versions of iTunes have disappeared!

- Anonymous

A:

In iTunes 7, the chapter browsing functionality has been relocated to a text menu in iTunes’ menubar, which (like the previous icon) becomes viewable only when the currently playing item is equipped with chapter markers.

This menu item, shown below, appears directly to the left of the “Help” menu.

Other than being relocated, the new menu behaves the same way as the old one, with thumbnail artwork previews, chapter titles, and time stamps linking to the appropriate position in the file.

Note also that iTunes’ new downloadable full-length movies are also equipped with chapter markers similar in concept to regular DVD chapters, and nearly identical in function to enhanced podcasts.

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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: Enhanced iPod 5G, iPod nano 2G and iPod shuffle 2G: The iPod Economy Reacts

Previous: New nano Records Audio: Welcome, Podcasters

Comments

1

Wow, I can’t BELIEVE the bad advice I just read!  Three times in the last two years upgrading iTunes has completely erased my library.  If I didn’t back up my library files BEFORE I installed, I would have been screwed.

This is highly irresponsible of iLounge to not tell users to back up the library files first.  Further compounding the lack of backup advice is the false statement that you can feel 100% safe!

ALL users should back up iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml before installing any upgrades.

Posted by stark23x on September 14, 2006 at 12:30 AM (PDT)

2

Stark23x -

We’ve revised our answer substantially since the original post - thanks. As the question was focused on the design of the upgrade, so also were we, initially.

You’re right, however: practical experiences can be disastrously different from Apple’s upgrade design intent, and a good backup solution is paramount to the longevity of your Music library, as we’ve stressed in several tutorials.

Posted by Jerrod H. in TX on September 14, 2006 at 3:32 AM (PDT)

3

I have found the album artwork deal to be a try, try and then try again deal. For many albums I would right click on the first track and select “Get Album Artwork” and would get nothing but if I continued to do this on other tracks within the album the artwork would eventually show up. This didn’t work every time but it worked more than half the time and I’ve now got a whole bunch of album covers. And they have the obsure stuff too. I got the cover for the album “Resevoir” by Indecision. All you old heads in VA know who I mean. I was stunned when that one showed up.

Posted by richardfoc on September 14, 2006 at 7:41 AM (PDT)

4

If you are on Windows, you can try TuneSleeve (free) to download album artwork for your iTunes library:

http://tunesleeve.googlepages.com

Posted by Beruk on September 14, 2006 at 7:55 PM (PDT)

5

When I hit the See All link in the top right corner of the NEW RELEASES box in the main pane of the iTMS 7 store, I now see a limited number of album covers. in iTMS 6, I saw a text list of all of the new releases. It was quite a long list with lots of hidden gems. I can’t find a button to being back the text -only list. Is it there?

Posted by michaelhallca on September 15, 2006 at 8:05 PM (PDT)

6

I am familiar with the new releases list in iTunes 6, and would use that to find new music.  I don’t appreciate most of the popular music that shows up in the 3x6 list each week.
I cannot see it either.  I’ve gone to “See all”, and I see a blank page with the 3x6 list of albumn covers at the top.

Posted by black fox on September 19, 2006 at 11:11 AM (PDT)

7

I have lost the Itune libary, but still have the music and video on my ipod how can i get it back.

Posted by mls on October 9, 2006 at 9:46 AM (PDT)

8

I recently updated Itunes to 7.0.3 and since then, it recognizes my Ipod as “HP Pavilion”, which is my computer’s name, and no longer as “Andy Ipod”.  I have a 20GB Click Wheel Ipod and Itunes sees no music on my IPOD, and also says I have used 24GB of memory and have an available 154GB left. My computer itself has only a 40GB hard drive!  Now, when I unplug the Ipod from my computer, it shows all my songs as normal.  I contaced Apple support, and they told me nothing can be done.  If anyone can make any sense of this and help a guy out, I would greatly appreciate it.  Please email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  Thanks again!
Andy

Posted by AndyShaddix on November 16, 2006 at 12:01 PM (PDT)

9

When I try to update to itunes 7.2 I get an error message saying I have to uninstall my previous version, then install the new version.  Will that erase my library? I’ve seen replies saying I should back up my library first, but I wanted to know if this is necessary, or a precaution.

Posted by cmitch232 on April 6, 2007 at 10:27 AM (PDT)

10

I just bought two games for my iPod. However, for some reason they are not going from my computer to my iPod. When I click the thumbnail for the game in iTunes, there is none of theis “authorization prompting” stuf coming up as mentioned above. In fact, nothing happens at all. What’s wrong here?

Posted by MissAbyss on August 9, 2007 at 10:39 AM (PDT)

If you have a comment, news tip, advertising inquiry, or coverage request, a question about iPods or accessories, or if you sell or market iPod products or services, read iLounge's Comments + Questions policies before posting, and fully identify yourself if you do. We will delete comments containing advertising, astroturfing, trolling, personal attacks, offensive language, or other objectionable content, then ban and/or publicly identify violators.





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