Q: I have found your reviews to be most informative, useful, and enjoyable. I was wondering if you are planning to do a review of Ivyskin’s Xylo T2 case for the iPhone in the forseeable future?  I wonder about the effectiveness of its hard-screen-protection touch screen, its general impact protection (i.e. drops on the floor etc.) and especially how it compares in this regard to the Contour iSee v3.

- Don

A: Actually, if you look at our review of the Artwizz SeeJacket Crystal for Apple iPhone this is basically the same case.

Q: I am using a 30GB fifth-generation iPod and I have tried moving rented movies from the iTunes Store onto my iPod with no sucess. I’m not getting any error messages but the movies won’t sync. Any suggestions?

- Joe

A: Unfortunately, your problem is most likely due to the fact that the fifth-generation iPod does not support iTunes movie rentals. Purchased movies can still be viewed on the fifth-generation iPod, even in the slightly improved resolution formats that are now available, but the fifth-generation iPod has not received a firmware update to permit rented movies to be transferred to the device. This is most likely due to the requirement that rented movies automatically expire after a certain time period—a feature that would require updated firmware and possibly even hardware support to properly enforce.

Rented movies are not transferred to an iPod in the same way as other content. If you are using a supported iPod model with a supported firmware version (even the 2007 iPod models require firmware updates for movie rental support), you will see a separate movie rental transfer screen in iTunes above the normal movie synchronization options:

These options permit you to move rented movies between devices. A rented movie can only be located in one place at a time due to the need to properly enforce the rental time restrictions.

Be sure to check out our Complete Guide to iTunes Movie Rentals for more information on how all of this works.

Q: I have an iPod classic 160GB and I cannot see it in iTunes on my iBook as an iPod. I am running Mac OS X Jaguar and I can see it as a removable disk but I don’t know how to copy the songs from iTunes onto the iPod not can I drag tracks from iTunes to the iPod. Any suggestions?

- Khomeini

A: Unfortunately, the new 2007 iPod models are no longer supported on Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar). Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger) or later is required. While the iPod will still show up as a removable device, since it uses a generic USB Mass Storage device protocol, iTunes 7 is also required with the newer iPod models, which is also not supported on Mac OS X 10.2.

You may be able to use certain third-party tools such as Yamipod to manage your iPod content, since these will work with the iPod database and write files to it as an external hard disk, but note that most of these will not provide access to the full set of iPod functions such as video and photo support. Your best option for full-featured support of the iPod classic is to upgrade your Mac operating system to at least 10.4.9.

Q: How long can I safely leave my iPod on “Pause”? I like to play songs randomly, but when I turn the iPod off, the random list expires and a new one is created the next time I turn it on, often resulting in playing of music I heard the last time I played the iPod. I am hoping that pause is a way to turn it off but have it keep the same random list and remember what has been played.

- Bay

A: With the traditional iPod models there really is not any difference between “pause’ mode and “off” mode, since you can’t actually power the device off manually—you can only put it to sleep. The iPod touch and iPhone are a little bit different in this regard, as there is a full power-off mode on these two devices, but typical users should seldom need to power the device right off versus putting it into sleep mode.

When pausing a track on the iPod, the content of the “Now Playing” queue is maintained, and you should normally be able to return to the last playing track just by hitting the “Play/Pause” button, or returning to the “Now Playing” menu item, which will be shown at the bottom of the main menu on the traditional iPods, or as a small “Now Playing” icon in the top-right corner in the “iPod” application on the iPod touch and iPhone.

This “Now Playing” queue is normally retained until you connect your iPod to a computer or the iPod goes into a hibernate or “Deep Sleep” mode, depending on the model of iPod. Older iPod models prior to the fifth-generation would go into “Deep Sleep” mode after 36 hours of inactivity. This was effectively a “power-off” mode to conserve battery life, and would result in the “Now Playing” queue being cleared. Effectively, “Deep Sleep” involved powering down the iPod, requiring it to be restarted in the same way that manually rebooting the iPod would.

As of the fifth-generation iPod, this has now been replaced with a “Hibernate” mode, which still puts the iPod into a power-conservation mode, after 14 hours in this case, but returns to the point where you left off, including not only the content of the “Now Playing” queue, but your actual position that you left off in whichever track you were currently playing.

Another option for avoiding listening to the same tracks repeatedly, even across computer syncs (where the “Now Playing” queue gets cleared) would be to use a Smart Playlist with a criteria that would filter out any tracks you had recently listened to. You could create this Smart Playlist based on tags and/or ratings within your music, or you could even base it on whatever current playlist(s) you’re already using. For example, if you had a standard playlist called “My Favourite Music” a Smart Playlist such as the following would provide a selection from that playlist of music that you had not recently listened to:

You could then play your music by using that Smart Playlist instead of the normal “My Favourite Music” playlist in order to avoid hearing the same tracks repeatedly.

Q: Our school just purchased new iMacs and I would like to import some CD music into iTunes on numerous computers. I believe it is legal to install one song onto five computers if I purchase it from iTunes. What about CDs? Can I install all the songs from one CD onto five computers?

- Michael

A: While the legal issues of copying music onto multiple computers will vary depending upon where you live, there are no technical restrictions that will prevent you from importing a CD to multiple computers, or even copying the imported tracks between multiple computers.

The restrictions on content purchased from iTunes are enforced via a digital rights management (DRM) system that is applied to standard iTunes tracks. Note that this does not even apply to “iTunes Plus” tracks, much less to content you import from other sources such as CD. Basically, iTunes does not add any DRM restrictions to tracks that you import yourself, and you can therefore use these tracks without any technical limitations.