2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

Article

Ask iLounge 11-6-09

Author's pic

By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, November 6, 2009
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 an iPod touch and an Asus netbook. Like many people I have difficulty
keeping to the very small C drive on the netbook, so I have moved my iTunes library to the D drive. Thanks for the article on how to use consolidate to do this. However, the iPod touch software updates themselves are very large, and they appear to end up in ‘application dataapple computeriTunesiPod software updates’ on C. Is there any way to get the ‘application dataapple computer’ tree to be on my D drive? If not, at least the iPod software updates folder to D?

- JFG

A:

Although there is no way to relocate the actual iPod Software updates folder that iTunes uses, you can save space by moving the update packages out of this folder to any other location that you prefer. iTunes does not need to access the iPod Software updates during normal operation; they’re only used when restoring your iPod back to factory settings. Further, when performing a restore on your device iTunes will download the latest iPod firmware package from Apple if it cannot find a local copy of it in the iPod Software folder.

You may notice that iTunes keeps older firmware packages in this folder as well. There are not used by iTunes at all, and can be either deleted or copied to another folder for backup purposes. Retaining a couple of recent firmware versions may be useful should you find that you ever need to go back to an older firmware version, but these are otherwise completely unnecessary.

Note that you can also choose a specific package to restore by holding down the SHIFT key (Windows) or OPT key (Mac) when clicking the “Restore” button in iTunes. This will bring up a file selection dialog box, and you can browse to your iPod software update package regardless of which folder it is located in.

Q:

I want to play my iPod 24/7 as my telephone hold music. Will it hurt to leave it plugged into the AC outlet 24/7? I have the first generation 30 GB iPod.

- Ken

A:

While you won’t damage the iPod itself by doing this, there will be an impact on the iPod battery. When connected to an external power source, the iPod runs from the external power rather than its own battery. Once the battery is fully charged, the charging circuit shuts off and the iPod simply runs from the external power source.

In this case, the battery is not being used at all, so leaving your iPod connected to external power is the equivalent of leaving it turned off on the shelf as far as the battery is concerned. This will result in the battery not being “exercised” and thereby failing earlier than it otherwise might. Apple recommends that you run your iPod through a full charge cycle from battery at least once a month to help preserve your battery life.

Q:

I have a 120 GB iPod classic that I sync with iTunes. I moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. I transferred all my purchases back so the iPod and iTunes have the exact same content on them. I will do ANYTHING to get my play count back. The play count is still on my iPod, it just isn’t on iTunes, and iTunes keeps prompting me to erase and sync, which will delete my play count.

- Anonymous

A:

It sounds like when you moved your iTunes library to an external hard drive you actually started a brand new iTunes library and then reimported all of your tracks to this new library, rather than using the consolidation method outlined in our iPod 201 article on Transferring your iTunes Library. If you still have the iTunes library database on your internal hard drive or backed up somewhere, your best solution would be to switch back over to the original database and then follow the steps in the above article. This would preserve all of your play counts, play lists, and other metadata since you would still be using the exact same library database and simply relocating the files.

If you don’t have a copy of your iTunes library database from your original library, then you’re going to have to go through the steps of recovering this content back from the iPod itself. There are a number of third-party tools that can do this for you, although most of these will want to copy your entire content back from your iPod and rebuild your iTunes library. Some will sync just the play counts, but this may not be completely reliable since it would require matching up tracks between disassociated libraries.

If you’re in a situation where you’re going to be forced to recover your play counts from your iPod, your best bet will be to use a tool that copies your tracks back and rebuilds your iTunes library from scratch. Our tutorial on Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer covers these solutions in much more detail.

Q:

The whole Apple ecosystem is marvelous but the iPhone/iTunes slow backup destroys the whole experience. I have a non-jailbroken iPhone 3G on 3.1.2, iTunes 9.0.2, and iMac Intel on Snow Leopard. ALL my pictures and music, iCal and Address book, and my Applications ARE already backed up to hard disk. If I cancel the backup process what are the downsides? I believe games settings, email settings, etc are lost but what else? Thanks.

- George

A:

The backups created by iTunes include everything that is stored on your iPhone that is not already synced to your device from iTunes itself. Media content, including music, photos and videos are not normally backed up as these come from iTunes in the first place. Likewise, your applications are not backed up but their data is, which may or may not be important depending upon what sort of applications your are using. Other content that may be relevant in the backup are your device settings and any photos or videos that you have taken with the iPhone’s own camera.

A more complete list of which data is backed up can be found in Apple’s knowledgebase article, iPhone and iPod touch: About backups.

Under most circumstances, iPhone backups should not take more than a couple of minutes, so if you’re finding that your backup times are excessive, you may want to look at which applications you’re using and how much data they’re likely storing, if you’re taking a lot of photos between backups, and/or if you’re not syncing your iPhone on a regular basis. iTunes only backs up that data which has changed since the last backup, so the length of time required to make a backup will depend largely on the above factors.

Keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with cancelling a backup in progress during a sync when you’re in a hurry. Your previous backup will still be maintained, and this will not prevent iTunes from backing up your iPhone the next time you connect it. This allows you to still retain some backups of your data, albeit perhaps not always up to the very last sync.

Q:

Hello, I was wondering when you guys were going to have a review of the Klipsch S4i? I’m debating between the S4i and the ER hf2.

- Brad

A:

The Klipsch S4i are basically identical to the S4 which we reviewed previously. The S4i simply add a remote control and increase the price accordingly. The Etymotic hf2 are generally a better pair or earphones but have less extra bass than the S4. The hf2 were also designed for the earlier iPhone models, simply providing a one-button remote rather than the in-line volume controls of the S4i. Unless you’re using an iPhone 3GS or a recent iPod model, however, this will not be an issue, as the iPhone and iPhone 3G do not support the in-line volume controls.

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Ask iLounge Archives:

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

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

See the rest of the Archives...

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