Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with iPod

Help me force my mom into 2003!

Madamina — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:51:20 -0800

Giftfilter: My contrarian technophobe mother has indicated that she "might like to experiment with an iPod." Which one should we get her, and how can we make this as easy as possible? My mom is a terrible, terrible technophobe, though I am convinced that half of it is simply her need to be a special snowflake. Refuses to get a microwave (even though she subsists almost entirely on leftovers and tea), refuses to get a cell phone (but will gladly commandeer that of a complete stranger if she feels like it). My patience with her techno-whining ran out around the time my 94-year-old great-aunt got on Facebook.

However, she is intrigued by the ability to take an iPod from room to room and dock it in speakers. She's also been downloading podcasts individually. She is very close to her next-door neighbors, who are more or less my age, and likes how they've used theirs this way. So between them, me and my dad with our iPhones, she could have someone show her how to do things.

I have a 30 GB iPod Classic that is about six years old. I don't use it myself, and she's welcome to it. However, I think that an iPod Touch might be a little easier for her to figure out. Also, a new one would have the most current warranty/help specs available.

We plan to open it before Christmas and prefill it with all of her music. (She has a PC that is entirely her own, so we plan to sneak in there and put the stuff on her iTunes before giving it to her.) I realize she can go in there and switch stuff in and out, but she is so hand-flaily that I'd prefer to do that as little as possible, so we'll probably try to get a 16 or 32 GB model. The Gmail solution, if you will: just have enough space on there that you never have to deal with it.

An iPhone would, of course, be most appropriate, but she would be frightened by it (seriously, she would put on a big show) and she would absolutely refuse to pay 70 bucks a month. Which is unfortunate, because she would LOVE the ability to take pictures of random stuff with the camera.

So I have two related questions:

1. People keep telling me that the iPod Touch would be way more scary to a technophobe than an iPod Classic, and I remain unconvinced (mainly because of the source). To me, it seems like the visual interface would be easier, especially if she's seen me and my dad use our iPhones. When she was telling me how she wanted to do this, she seemed like she was confused by the whole finger-twirly scroll action on an old iPod. Which would be better?

2. Are the second generation ones just as good as the third generation ones? It looks like the big thing she'd miss out on if she got a second-gen one would be voice controls/voice memos, and I highly doubt she'd use those. Apps wouldn't interest her, although she might use maps and the notepad... that sort of thing.

Anyone else with advice for introducing their parents to iPods, or similar, be my guest. Thanks!

Most protective cases and accessories for iPhone 3GS?

shivohum — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:17:41 -0800

I'm a clutz, so my iPhone needs protection. What are the best cases for shielding an Iphone 3GS from drops and spills? Do I need other accessories, too, like screen protectors - and if so which ones?

Loud speaker. Quiet speaker. Alternate at random.

TheSecretDecoderRing — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:41:24 -0800

I want to listen to my digital music player at work (technically, WMAs and not MP3s) through speakers rather than headphones. With the latter, all my songs sound fairly consistent in volume. With the former, they're all over the map and ditto for the dynamic range. Suggestions? I'm using PC speakers. They seem of good enough quality, but is that what's magnifying the variation in volume? Would a cheaper, weaker set of speakers actually make it better?

This is at work, so sound quality and bass isn't too important. And I keep the volume just loud enough so I can hear it, and the environment is usual office ambience/conversations. I've tried maxing out the speakers and adjusting the player, vice versa, and in between on both.

I'd prefer to avoid the hassle of normalization software, unless there's something out there for WMAs that's really easy and effective. USB access to the work computer is restricted. Hopefully others have had similar problems and have found workarounds as simple as just getting the right speakers. Thanks in advance.

is there a "smart" way to get my computer to shut down after my ipod is charged?

pennstatephil — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:49:05 -0800

is there software or a trick to shut down my computer after an ipod finishes charging? Recently moved to an iTouch, and the old wall charging brick (firewire adapter) won't work with it, so I've got to use my computer. I'd love some sort of tool that would auto-shut down the computer when the battery was charged. Is there such a tool, or (I'm a programmer) is there some way to interface with itunes' battery status meter to run something when the ipod is fully charged? I know there are plenty of programs that can shut down at a certain time, but I'd rather something a bit "smarter."

My iPod Classic won't synch properly

Stonewall Jackson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:53:20 -0800

iPod syncing weirdness. After I updated to iTunes 9 the other day, my iPod (Classic, 120 GB) stopped syncing properly (my laptop is running OS 10.4.11, the iPod software is also up to date). Every time I plug it into the computer it goes through the entire (half-hour) process of syncing, but when it finishes the iPod says there is no music there. I've done this twice, and now there is 75-odd GB's worth of music somewhere on there, but none of it is accessible (i.e. the iPod claims it's empty but when I plug it into iTunes the bar at the bottom of screen indicates there is 75 BG taken up). I suspect I've somehow borked the library, but have no idea how to rectify the problem.

How to get my iPod to sync in the order I want.

tonylord — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:10:04 -0800

I can't figure out how to get my ipod to sync an audiobook playlist, a podcast playlist and then fill up with music from another playlist. Can you help? Hi there,
I'm running a MBP with Snow Leopard and the latest version of iTunes.
My questions is about syncing itunes with my 2G iPod nano. I have the iPod to sync automatically with a podcast smart playlist, an audiobook non-smart playlists, and a non-smart music playlist.

Each time I sync, the size of the podcasts/audiobook playlists changes (either because I have made changes, or because new podcasts have been downloaded). This sometimes goes over the free space on the iPod and sometimes Itunes tells me this and says "Itunes will sync as many songs as possible", sometimes it just tells me there isn't enough free space and cancels the sync and sometimes it volunteers to turn off podcast syncing, which is what I specifically don't want. I haven't been able to figure out why I get different messages at different times.

What I'd really love is to get iTunes to be able to sync first the audiobook playlist, then the podcasts smart playlist and then fill the rest of the iPod from my music playlist. Is there a way of doing this?

Sending mail...psyche!

Bobby Bittman — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:09:56 -0800

Why won't my iPod Touch send mail? Everything about my new iPod Touch (2G, 32GB) works great - except replying to or sending e-mail. At first it was sporadic, and then after I did the 3.1 software update it stopped altogether.

Receiving mail is perfect. Replying, forwarding and composing email always seems to go fine, it says "sending", there's a little progress bar to show that it's leaving...and then it just never arrives, and never appears in "Sent Mail", presumably because it wasn't really sent.

I suspect it has something to do with the Outgoing Mail Server, which is the Yahoo! SMTP Server, but beyond that I don't have a clue what to do.

One other possibly relevant detail: I also use Microsoft Exchange to sync my Google Calendar with the Touch's Calendar app, and I have a gmail account under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" to make that happen. Could that cause a conflict?

What do you think?

What do you mean I can't watch Dora the Explorer on a brand new iTouch?

fourcheesemac — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:09:12 -0800

Brand new iPod Touch 3G 32GB running 3.12 software and synched to the latest version of iTunes. Getting a "This movie could not be played" error notice when attempting to play an iTunes-purchased commercial video from a major television network (and for Youtube videos as well). Why? Asking this up for a non-techie friend . . . and I'm stumped.

I've googled this problem and, to my amazement, it's apparently widespread but there's no mention of it on Apple support forums and no canonical solution. This is a fresh out of the box 3G iTouch, connected to the latest version of iTunes running on Windows XP. Music and photos transferred and work fine. Email set up and working fine. But both Youtube videos AND a commercial television program (if you must know, it's an episode of "Dora The Explorer," and a sweet little girl is very sad tonight) bought and downloaded from iTunes give me a "This movie could not be played" error. I've re-synched; rebooted the iPod. Removed the offending video and reloaded it. No luck.

A few forums suggest a full software restore of the iPod, as does Apple as a last resort for this problem, but specifically (and only) for inability to play YouTube videos.

I can restore it, but it's damn annoying to have to do this on a brand new iPod that's already been set up, plus my friend has slow DSL, so the 300MB download is taking all night. And I have my doubts it will work.

WTF, Apple? Anyone have this problem and solve it? Any ideas?

Ice Ice Ipod, too cold? Too cold?

arniec — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:15:32 -0800

How bad is it for me to leave my iPod classic in the car all the time? I live in the Midwest where in the coldest parts of winter temperatures average about 17 degrees F (although they can and do drop below zero regularly) and our highs in the hottest months average in the mid 80s though we do have our post 100 degree days.

I park my car outdoors in the sunshine during the day, indoors in a standard garage during the night. In the garage items like bottled water and soda rarely freeze, but have on a few occasions. (Likewise soda stupidly left in the trunk of my car has frozen and left me some burst cans full of slush).

Given all of this, how bad is it for my iPod to be left in the car at all times? My iPod is a hard drive based iPod classic that I only use in my car. My dock for the iPod is in my glove box and it's somewhat inconvenient to remove from the car regularly, and I only take the iPod with me when I want to update the music.

But I am a computer guy and part of me knows that it's unsafe to use devices that have been in the cold, and that I should worry about condensation as the item warms up, etc, etc, etc. Of course, that being said, condensation is also likely to form as I take it from warm buildings to cold outdoors to a cold but rapidly heating car, right?

If the problem is specific to the hard drive would I be better off getting an iPod Nano or something not hard drive based? Or is the problem to the electronics?

Thanks in advance for settling this issue between my wife and I (she is constantly taking it out of the car, and thus constantly leaving me music-less as I don't expect to go to the car and my iPod to be missing)

Playlist on iTunes and iPhone have different songs.

You Should See the Other Guy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:27:01 -0800

I have a smart Playlist on my iTunes which functions properly and has all the right tracks in it. I have it checked as a Playlist to export to my iPhone. The iPhone has a playlist with exactly the same name ... but completely different songs. I've double checked that I don't have two playlists with the same name in iTunes. Not just one track is different--none of the tracks overlap. Why is this happening? So far, I've tried:

- resetting to factory settings
- rebooting the phone
- deleting the playlist, synching, recreating the playlist, and resynching

Nothing works. It's driving me nuts. WTF?!

recommend me a good file transfer thing or something...

osloheart — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:15:21 -0800

How do I transfer music from old iPod to new iPod, without using iTunes? This may have been asked before, but I couldnt find exactly what I needed, so.. basically, I have music on my old iPod that is not in my iTunes library, and I want that music on my new iPod.

The guy at the apple store said "it's possible" but he wasnt allowed to tell me how, and I should google it. But I trust you guys, and there seem to be a lot of options floating around on the internet that I am afraid of just trying out (Im not very tech-savvy), so Im asking here first. How can one go about transferring those files?

Thanks!

HELP! Need Wedding Playlist!!

madmamasmith — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:35:50 -0800

HELP! I am (was) using my ipod instead of a DJ for my wedding that is in 10 days and it just CRASHED! It synched to my computer without warning and now all my wedding playlists are GONE! I'm a dope and only very recently started using an external hard drive...long story short I need help to rebuild my wedding playlists. With the stress of the wedding planning I cant even remember to poop, let alone the collection of music ive been building for years!! I would appreciate ANY and ALL recommendations but I need the most help with the dance portion. I love all kinds of music from all eras and I want to make sure there are some dance hits from my school days ie TLC, SWV etc but I also want to play some newer hits and I am suffering serious brain fart. I'm also 6 months pregnant so I have baby brain as they say.

So far my playlists are thus (in a nutshell)

Preceremony/seating:

sun kil moon, joni mitchell, elvis, alasdair roberts, some instrumental stuff etc., peter gabriel

Dinner/Cocktail:

cocteau twins, yo la tango, van morrison, fleetwood mac, sufjan stevens, nina simone, otis redding, nuetral milk hotel

Dancing:

MGMT, MIA, Soldia Boy, JAson Derulo, Kool & the gang, outkast, madonna, pssion pit, cure, aha, TI, iggy pop, peter bjorn and john, daftpunk, the knife, george michael.......

any idea where i can get an out-of-warranty ipod dock repaired?

camdan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:51:57 -0800

i purchased a specktone retro ii a couple years back, basically this thing. unfortunately, i got it at a bargain bin reduced price from an ebay mass seller, with a very short warranty. sure enough, right at the end of the warranty the thing started wigging out. the original seller wouldn't take it back, of course, and the manufacturer won't take it either; they said to return it to the seller. a perfect feedback loop of screwed.

you might tell me to cut my losses and buy a new dock. and i do have another dock. but i like this thing. the sound is great, it looks cool, and it takes up very little space. it's just sitting around and i hate to waste it. every few months i'll start it up again, and i get a nice 15 minutes of brigadoon before the thing starts flipping out. i'd like to work it out. i need to work it out.

oh the problem - it plays fine for the first 15 minutes or so, then the audio cuts in and out continually in split second bursts. your only option is to unplug it, let it sit for awhile, then start over again. (if left plugged in the problem will continue without the ipod docked - the speakers cut in and out continually without cessation.)

if anyone knows anywhere i could send this thing to get it fixed, that would be great. if it's someplace in the atlanta area that would be even better. what would be THE BEST, if it's a simple solution that i can fix myself, and someone could tell me how to do it. it's got to have something to do with the power, and not the docking mechanism itself.
thank you! come again.

What are some good iPod speakers?

MaryDellamorte — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:55:11 -0800

Looking to buy some speakers for my iPod which I have absolutely no experience with. Looking for something in the $150 - $200ish range. Specifics:

-Don't really care about how it looks.
-Don't want it too big or too small.
-I'm shooting for no more than $200, but if there are some phenomenal speakers for more than that, I can go higher.
-I've seen some with sub woofers, how much of a difference do those make?

Free WiFi in Tokyo and the rest of Japan?

teem — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:39:56 -0800

How widespread is free, open WiFi in Japan (Tokyo especially)? I've had good success using free WiFi in malls and such with my iPod Touch when I'm in unfamiliar major cities. It's great for accessing Google maps, looking up addresses, etc.

Will I be able to do this when I'm in Tokyo next year? What about when I'm in smaller rural cities? Are there any potential technologic or legal worries I need to consider or things I should prepare before going?

Help me keep track of iPhone app price changes.

ellighi — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:57:18 -0800

I'd like to keep track of iPhone/iPod app prices. Are there any websites that display price info, such as whether an app has gone up or down in price?

What audio format for remastered Beatles listening on iPod only??

Avenger50 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:11:06 -0800

What audio format would you rip the recently remastered Beatles albums in for optimum iPod listening? Let's say you've got the recently released Beatles in Mono (or Stereo). Let's say you have to use iTunes and you only listen on your iPod, via Sony headphones or the car stereo. And let's say storage isn't an issue. What format would you rip them in? MP3 192kbps? AAC iTunes Plus? Apple Lossless?

I've seen parts of this question answered here, here, here, and here, but not specifically for strictly iPod listeners with something this good.

Maybe with just the iPod, you don't hear the differences anyway.

ipod touch updating error

klangklangston — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:27:22 -0800

Unknown error 0xE8000001 from ipod touch; won't connect. OSX 10.4.11, powerpc.

Last night, I tried to update my girlfriend's ipod touch software so that she could run apps (she'd been wanting it for a while, and I thought it would be a nice surprise). So, I paid my 4.95, downloaded the firmware… and got an error connecting to the iPod (the aforementioned 0xE8000001). I googled around, and it seemed like maybe I needed to update my iTunes version from 8 to 9. OK, so did that. Still, same error.

Fuck.

Now my iTunes says that I need to update my safari so that it can connect to the iTunes store, but I don't believe Safari 4 will run on a powerpc.

How can I: Revert to the earlier version of iTunes and how can I unfuck my girlfriend's iPod before she stabs me in the face?

Playlists won't stay random after transfer to iPod

friarjohn — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:32:43 -0800

Playlists set to random in iTunes won't stay random on my iPod. How can I fix this? [searched around and didn't see this exact issue addressed]

I've built a couple playlists (one smart, one regular) for my 5th Gen 30GB Video iPod and set them to random in iTunes. After I sync and disconnect my iPod the playlists are no longer in random order. They are in alphabetical order by album. In Settings, Shuffle is currently set to songs.

This hasn't always been a problem. It just cropped up recently, but I don't normally use a lot of playlists as I mostly listen to podcasts and audiobooks and just shuffle all songs when I want music.

What setting am I missing?

Bluetooth receiver for home Hi-Fi?

grahamwell — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:50:31 -0800

How do I stream music from an iPod Touch to a conventional Hi-Fi wirelessly? Bluetooth A2DP would seem to be perfect - but I need a gadget wired in to the hi-fi that will receive the signal and play it. What gadget (from the UK)? The objective is to sit in an armchair, call up some music (using Spotify) on the iPod Touch, press 'play' and hear it in exquisite quality on the sitting room Hi-Fi. All of this without wires. Bliss.

What I need (I think) is an A2DP receiver with a couple of RCA outputs that would plug into the Hi Fi. Quality matters and such a device is hard to find. It's tempting to buy a BlueTooth Tube. like this and pull it apart to find somewhere to run some wires to the HiFi input. An FM transmitter is an option but clumsy and low quality - strictly a last resort. There must be a better way. Ideas?

AniPod?

Oktober — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:29:15 -0800

I have a substantial amount of anime that I'd like to watch, but a less-than-perfect system for doing it. Pretty much all of it is in .mkv files (h.264 video and AAC audio) with subtitles, and I'd like to transcode them to a format that's playable on either my iPhone or my PS3 with subtitles intact. I've tried both handbrake and VLC, and I either get 1) no subtitles in handbrake or 2) encoder errors in VLC. So, hive mind, what am I doing wrong here?

ipod nano without itunes?

crapples — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:29:24 -0800

iPod Nano without iTunes?? What does that mean and how can I fix it? I just bought a Nano off eBay for my son. There was a note in the listing that said: "This Ipod model is OEM, meaning it is from the original manufacturer. However, its main difference is that it does not have itunes. So if you want itunes, this model is not for you. Please consider this when purchasing."

Unfortunately, I ignored this thinking that we already had iTunes, so it didn't make sense.

Anyway - the iPod is here now and when I plug it into our iMac it will not show up under devices in iTunes. Instead it shows up like a regular disc on the desktop called "untitled". Also, the iPod software is weird: Like you have to navigate through folders instead of using the familiar iPod UI (Artist, Genre, Album, etc).

I'm totally disappointed, but ultimately I guess this is my fault. As Mike Brady said, "Buyer Beware".

So, is there any way to make this thing work like a normal iPod?

backup --> iPod

Jaltcoh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:00:25 -0800

Trying to get my music library from my external hard drive back onto my iPod while maintaining my sanity. (Apologies in advance for the lengthy/convoluted question.) I recently started having problems with my iPod and realized I should make sure to have a perfect, up-to-date backup. I started by turning on the iPod's hidden files. If you're familiar with these hidden files, you know that they have randomly generated names like "VCKT.m4a," "BBLC.m4a," etc. (no apparent indication of which songs these are), and they're in folders called "F00," "F01," etc. (Mine go up to F49 since I have over 7,000 songs.) I copied all of these files to my external hard drive. At the time this seemed like a really smart, thorough way to do it.

Then I went to the Apple Store and got my iPod fixed, which involved them restoring my iPod. So now I need to recreate my music library in my iPod using the external hard drive.

I thought this would be pretty simple: plug in the iPod and external hard drive to my Macbook at the same time, then drag and drop all the folders -- F00 through F49 -- from the external hard drive to the iPod, right? Well, I did this, and the cryptically named files do appear in the iPod when you look at the iPod's contents in the desktop. But if you try to use the iPod as a normal music-playing device, it doesn't work -- there are no songs that show up for you to listen to (whether you're looking at it in iTunes or disconnected from the computer).

I again thought I was being smart by seeing what happens when I "open" one of the hidden files. Hey cool, a random song gets copied to iTunes! And it's a normal song -- not "VCKT.m4a" but something I can actually listen to, with a song title in English, etc. Of course, I can then drag and drop this song from iTunes into my iPod. At first I thought this would be the solution: just do the same thing for all the songs.

But there are a couple problems with that, and I'd really appreciate any help getting around them. As I said, I have over 7,000 songs, roughly 70 GB of music. My computer's hard drive has about 4 GB left. So if I were to just open all the hidden files from my iPod into iTunes at once, it'd be a disaster: at best, I'd quickly get a message telling me my computer's hard drive couldn't hold any more. (And I'd be afraid I wouldn't be so lucky -- the hard drive could get filled up and paralyzed. This happened to someone I know.)

So, should I just copy the hidden files one folder at a time? I could do that, but that would mean opening up the songs from "F00," waiting for them to get copied to iTunes, then waiting for them to get copied to the iPod, then deleting those songs from iTunes and emptying the trash, then moving on to "F01" ... and repeating that whole thing 50 times. I'd like to avoid that if I can.

So my questions are:

(1) Is there an easier way to do this? I'd love to be able to just get it started, then sit back and let the computer handle it.

(2) I already feel kind of silly for how much of a minor ordeal this has turned into as a result of my backup method that I (mistakenly?) thought was so clever. Could someone please assure me that there's a way to follow through with this that won't mess things up even further?

(In case it's relevant, my external hard drive holds about 500 GB, I have a 160 GB iPod, and I'm using Mac OS 10.4.11.)

I Ch-Ch-Charge you

gensubuser — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:10:49 -0800

Where would you go to get a cheap iPhone/iPod wall charger and/or USB cable? From looking at amazon and a couple other vendors, it seems there is a very popular tactic of ramping down the product quality in successive batches. By the time an item has 4star reviews, the next shipment could very well fry your device. I have a 2G Touch.

Can you recommend a vendor that either: A) has a large inventory in stock of the same device, such that I can rely on the reviews, or B) is semi-branded such that their reputation matters?

Or, some other tactic.

I need an iPod stereo with some special requirements. Help?!

suburbanrobot — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:53:15 -0800

I'm getting married in 3 weeks, and I need some sort of stereo for the wedding ceremony to play music from my iPod. It will not be amplified, so it needs to be able to play loud enough to play outdoors for about 60 people, without a massive amount of distortion. Oh, and as a pipe dream, it would be optionally battery operated. Suggestions? It's worth pointing out that the stereo doesn't need to be specifically for iPods. As long as it has an aux input, that's just fine. I'm really most worried about the volume. The wedding is outdoors and near a noisy area (near Battery Park in Charleston if you are familiar with the area).