2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 9-8-05

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, September 9, 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:

For several years now I have been reluctant to let iTunes manage my music library, mainly because I dislike the system iTunes establishes for maintaining music files (for example, multiple album folders, truncated file names, and compilation folders). I carefully structured my own system for file nomenclature and management long before iTunes was made available for PC users, and I have been hesitant to surrender management to what I believe to be iTunes’ inflexible system. However, I pay a price. Every time I try to clear an unwanted file out of iTunes and delete it from my computer, I have to go manually delete the file using “Show Song File” first. I also have to work around the issue when importing music. Is there any option or trick that allows iTunes to manage your music library even when you use a system for file naming and organization that is different from the iTunes default?

- Wilson

A:

Unfortunately, the short answer is “no.” There is simply no way to customize the “Manage my Music Library” function of iTunes, though several power users would surely like to be able to do so. 

The long “answer” is on the surface an evangelistic, persuasive anecdote: Before iTunes debuted on the PC, one of our editors exclusively used Winamp in conjunction with Tag&Rename to meticulously maintain filenames and ID3 tags, ensuring a logical file structure and complete synchronization of ID3 and filename information. When iTunes was released for the PC, this editor too was extremely skeptical of the “hands-off” approach that iTunes encourages as far as the file system is concerned. He made 3 redundant backups of his pristine MP3 collection, and allowed iTunes to do with the master as it pleased, giving “the iTunes way” a week trial. In that week, he never once regretted the switch. Never did he need to access the filesystem directly. When he needed to deal with a file directly, he simply dragged the song(s) out of the iTunes library window onto the Desktop (which makes a duplicate copy) and used that. When he needed to fix a tag, he did it in the same program that does burning, playback, and syncing.

We’re certainly not suggesting that everyone can or should adapt to iTunes management, but it is potentially enlightening, even for the most die-hard “custom nomenclature” fans. Try it, and you might be amazed at being able to enjoy your music rather than care for it.

Q:

When I move songs from iTunes to my iPod, some of the artists and albums show up more than one time, and the songs then are divided between the same artist, showing up to three times on my list. It doesnt make any sense, and takes up some time in finding the song - plus it makes it impossible to listen to the entire album in one shot. How do I fix this?

- Anders

A: This is a common problem when your Artist titles aren’t exactly identical. Often, the problem is “Simon and Garfunkel” vs. “Simon & Garfunkel,” but your problem is not likely so obvious. The most likely “invisible” complication here is trailing spaces. To the iPod, there is a difference between “Artist” and “Artist “. To ensure that each artist has exactly the same name, select all songs by this artist at once in iTunes, right-click, and choose Get Info. Now change the Artist title (and only the artist title), and the change will be propagated uniformly across all of an artist’s tracks.
Q:

Is there a way to get sleep timer functionality on iTunes for Windows?

- Luisi

A:

Sure. Keeping things simple, a basic sleep timer can be accomplished with a smart playlist. 

To make a shuffling sleep timer smart playlist, simply select “New Smart Playlist” from iTunes’ “File” menu, and change the properties like this:

  1. Deselect “Match the Following Rule”
  2. Check “Limit to” and select 30 (or however many) minutes selected by “random.”

This will automatically choose 30 minutes of music from your library at random. Want to limit it to “Quiet” music? Try changing property (1) above to “Match the following rule:  Genre / is / Classical,” or a similar modification. Play around with the various settings here (and take a look at our Smart Playlists tutorial).

The major limitation here? This simply ensure iTunes will stop playing your music, but doesn’t ensure that your computer will sleep/hibernate/shut down at the appropriate time. Play with your computer’s power management settings (preferred, and free) or use a third party utility like Sleep Timer Pro to accomplish this. We also include information on iTunes clock utilities in our Free iPod Book.

Q:

I usually put my iPod in “Shuffle Songs” mode in the morning and just let it play at work all day, but I’ve been getting really annoyed because it insists on shuffling in my Podcasts. Is there some way to stop that from happening? In a related issue, is there a way to keep long songs from shuffling in as well?

- Beth

A:

Absolutely. Create a Smart Playlist in iTunes (select “New Smart Playlist” from iTunes’ “File” menu), and give it this criteria:

  1. Select “Match the following rule”
  2. Change the rule to “Time” “is less than” “9:00” (time to your choosing)
  3. Click the plus sign to the right
  4. Make the second rule “Podcast” “is false”
  5. Leave the remaining options as they are

Click OK, and name the playlist “Shuffle Nicely,” or whatever you’d like.
This will ensure that the contents of this smart playlist are short songs and are not playlists. From here on out, play this playlist in shuffle mode (See “iPod—>Settings—>Shuffle”) rather than using the “Shuffle Songs” feature, and you’ll have exactly what you’ve asked for.

Q:

Over the past several months I have noticed an oddity in my iTunes library, and it seems to be spreading. Seemingly at random about 1/3 of my songs are developing an extremely negitive playcount value (i.e. -1101560161)! I’m not super concerned with getting the correct playcount back, but I would like to at least set them back to zero. How would I go about doing that?

- Derek

A: While we’re not sure how this problem may have arisen, we can surely easily fix it. First, collect all the negative-playcount songs into one area, either by sorting your library via the “Playcount” column header or via a Smart Playlist specifying playcounts less than zero. Then, select all the affected songs (by holding down the shift key while clicking between the top and bottom affected songs), right-click, and choose “Reset Play Count”. That’s it! Your playcounts on the affected songs should be returned to zero.
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: Harman Kardon Drive + Play Car Kit

Previous: Super First Look: Motorola ROKR E1 iTunes Phone

Comments

1

I haven’t gotten an Ipod yet but I plan on getting one soon.  Do you know if there is another way to get music on there wihtout using the Itunes system? Or the Itunes system and another system?

Posted by Sallypingo on September 10, 2005 at 9:06 PM (PDT)

2

I went to add recently purchased songs to my ipod and I got a message that said that some of the songs in my library cannot be copied to my ipod (they were in my ipod before) and then it wiped out a bunch of songs I’ve already purchased!!!  What do I do to get my songs back on my ipod?????

Posted by nusspenton on September 11, 2005 at 8:34 AM (PDT)

3

I have a 40gb ipod for Windows XP,  and now an upgraded v10 of MMJB - which means they are incompatible! So I’m trying to use ephpod to transfer music to my ipod; however I get a continuing error messsage
“list index error” which does not allow me to save changes to my ipod. And I can’t seem to find the meaning of this error message.

Posted by mikasan33 on September 11, 2005 at 9:01 PM (PDT)

4

1) Instead of iTunes, can i download music from Napster or MSN Music and load it in my ipod?

2) Which one is better Napster or MSN Music?

Posted by bombi866 on September 15, 2005 at 7:01 PM (PDT)

5

the question that wilson asked, his problem was having to delete files directly and not thru itunes but did not want itunes arranging his files. If you change ur itunes folder to the folder with all your files in, and then disable itunes managing the folder, then when you delete a clear a file in itunes it will ask you if you want to move the file to the recycle bin!

Posted by newso on September 20, 2005 at 5:54 PM (PDT)

6

i have duplicated artists and i tried the right-click make all artists the same thing and it still didnt do anything

Posted by XxaaronzZ on June 12, 2006 at 3:44 PM (PDT)

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