Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ipod and osx

Scripting events on a jailbroken iPod

harlan — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:45:20 -0800

I have a jailbroken iPod with iOS 4. I would like to run a shell script when the device wakes from sleep, or when the wifi interface connects to a certain SSID. What can I use?

Anyway to develop iPhone/iTouch apps without investing in a Mac?

nmaster64 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:16:25 -0800

I'm interested in developing iPhone/iPod Touch applications, however my understanding is the SDK only works in OSX. I have a XP desktop and a Vista notebook with an AMD Athlon and Turion (both dual core) respectively, both pretty good machines. Is there any way to avoid spending serious cash buying a Mac just to get into iPhone development?

Help Me Stop Watching My iPod With My Glasses Off, Please

interrobang — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:04:04 -0800

Audio and video are out of sync on mp4s downloaded from Google Video about 80% of the time. Is there anything simple that I can do about this? OSX, by the way, and it's mostly for watching on my iPod.

Itunes is not counting play counts and recently played tracks from my ipods.

rglass — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:26:06 -0800

Itunes is not counting play counts and recently played tracks from my ipods. Itunes is not counting play counts and recently played tracks from my ipods.

I have a 3G ipod and a 1G nano which I sync about once a week with itunes 7.0 on my Macbook.

When I play songs on itunes, the play count for that song increases by one and it appears in the Recently Played playlist (and is submitted to LastFM, by the way).

When I connect my ipod and do a complete sync, play counts are not updated and songs played do not seem to appear in the Recently Played playlist (and are not submitted to LastFM).

I have both ipods to sync specific playlists, and I have not checked the box that says "Manually Manage Music" on the ipod summary screen (I heard that can cause sync problems).

I thought it might be a chronology problem – that if I played my last ipod track at 2 PM and my last itunes track at 3 PM, that when I did a sync it wasn't tracking anything from before my last played itunes track. (Did I explain that clearly?) But that isn't it. I've been using itunes for years and I've never seen it behave that way before,
and I just did a test, using my ipod for 24 hours without playing any tracks on itunes. I did a sync, and none of them are in Recently Played, and the play counts have not changed.

What's going on? How can I get itunes to keep track of the songs I play on my ipod? (Can't get them submitted to LastFM either, but that's a secondary issue).

macbook doesn't recognize ipod

Manhasset — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:15:50 -0800

Plugged my iPod into my MacBook, the iPod lights up and then... nothing happens. WTH? I have an 80 gb iPod and an iMac. They work together fine. However, the iMac's currently in the shop so I plugged my iPod into my MacBook to charge and the iPod lights up and then and nothing happens. It doesn't charge, it doesn't appear on the desktop... nothing. What gives?

I tried it with the laptop running, with it closed, in the firewire slot, in both usb slots, and with multiple usb cables...

Any suggestions?

My Library! Its being held prisoner! Oh, sob, all my lovely ratings....

Brainy — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:39:07 -0800

Had PC, got Mac, want to get ALL my songs + metadata off my iPod and into my Mac library. Have tried a few programs and they didn't work out exactly right. Your recommendations please! I tried this a couple of weeks ago and I tried Senuti and iPodRip and neither of them worked (although I can't remember how, maybe one errored, one didn't copy playcount or something). So what programs do you guys recommend? I NEED my ratings, playcount, last played date, as I have tons of smart playlists based on them.

ipod update help

sanitycheck — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:16:21 -0800

I tried to update my iPod using Apple's "iPod updater" and now it wants an external power supply to finish the job. The problem is, I don't have the power adapter handy. I sync my iPod with a Powerbook running OSX. I'm at home and my external power adaptor and firewire cable are in my office at school, an hour commute away. All I have right now is the USB cable.

If all else fails I can complete the update on Monday morning, but in its current half-updated state my iPod is not usable, and I don't really want to be ipod-less all weekend!

Does not play well with others.

sourwookie — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:25:12 -0800

I've searched Apple Forum, iPod Lounge, and others, yet have not been able to get a satisfactory answer. I need a plan, a strategy if you will, concerning iTunes for Windows on my Toshiba, iTunes for Mac on my iBook, an NTFS formatted external drive, and an iPod...too many elements. First of all, my MP3 collection is larger than the HDD of either computer. It's about 50G, thouroghly tagged and living on a 150G external drive. I can't write to that drive due to it being NTFS from the Mac. I am currently importing the entire collection to my iTunes library (placed on the external drive) via iTunes for Windows. When I plug this drive into my Mac, will it recognize this newly consolidated library? Rhat is will I be privy to the iTunes search function?

When I enter the iPod into the picture, as I understand it, it will have to be formatted for either Windows or Mac. If I format it Mac, I should be able to tranfer from the External drive to the iPod via iTunes, assuming that iTunes need not write to the drive. The inverse would be true for Windows formatting.

When iTunes "imports" my library, what is it doing? Is it making a list of all the ID3 info and storing it somwhere? Can I copy this info and store it somwhere on the internal HDD of each computer so I can take advantage of iTunes indexing/search capabilities from each computer?

Would it be best to partition the external HDD and format one half NTFS and the other HPF+? And if so , any way to sync the to?

Man, folks, I really don't even know what to ask. I just really need a plan more than anything else. Someone, please--give me a roadmap!

I deleted all my music. Help.

logovisual — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:32:00 -0800

I just managed to delete my entire iTunes library. But I have it on my iPod. Problem is, the iPod is set to auto-update, and if I plug it into a computer with no music on it, it'll all vanish. Help. I store all my music on an external drive, since there's not enough HD on my Powerbook. I just bought a new iMac, and in the process of trying to copy my music onto the new computer (via said external hard drive), I realized that the XML files with all my listening statistics weren't on the external hard drive, they were still on the laptop. So I connected the drive back up to my laptop, grabbed the iTunes XML file and the "iTunes Library" data file, and dragged them onto the external hard drive. Problem there is, all of my MP3s -- 10,000 of them -- were inside a folder called "iTunes Library." And the iTunes Library data file replaced that. The music files are not in the Trash, there were too many of them. They're just gone.

But! I have everything stored on my 60GB iPod. How can I connect said iPod to the new Mac (which currently doesn't have any music on it) without having the new Mac wipe it clean upon first contact? I *know* there's got to be a way to do this... (And yes, this was a f***ing ridiculous newbie mistake. I'll tolerate the first five responses being of the "Ha ha!" Nelson variety as long as the sixth response tells me what to do...)

How can I get my iPod to play nice with my PowerBook and my XP box?

keswick — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 16:30:42 -0800

One iPod (60 GB). One PowerBook. One XP Box. One keswick. How do I keep all four happy? Okay, I finally bought an iPod (60 GB) the other day. My 70 GB music collection resides on my XP box under my desk. I was able to cull my collection down to 55.8 GB for the iPod and got it loaded along with some smart playlists. I have it set to sync only certain playlists rather than automatic sync or manual sync.

My main computer, however, is my PB (also 60GB).

Here's a few things I'd like to be able to do. Maybe you can tell me if a) they're possible and b) how to do them.

I'd like to be able to some how administer my iPod's library on my Powerbook, because (apparently) you can only append comments (rather than replace/edit comments) via iTunes OSX.

I'd like to be able to create new smart playlists on my PowerBook and put them on my iPod.

Also, if possible, can I add the MP3s located on my XP box to my PowerBook's iTunes library without adding them to my PowerBook's drive?

Basically, I'd like to kick my XP box to the curb, proverbially speaking.

How do I rip XCP encoded CDs to my computer?

thewiseacre — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:46:46 -0800

I just got a compact disc encrypted with XCP technology. How do I rip it to my Mac G5 computer (OSX 10.4.2)? I want to put the music on my iPod as well as run it on my music server here at home. I have Virtual PC if a Windows app is necessary.

iTunes alternative for OSX?

clh — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:35:40 -0800

Are there any other sites from which I can download music to my iTunes library on Mac OSX.3.8? The iTunes Music Store is missing a few of my favorites.

Can I play my iPod via iTunes with autosync turned on?

lbergstr — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 15:27:35 -0800

Can I play music through my docked iPod via iTunes with autosync turned on? I like to play mp3s through my docked iPod, since then I can have music coming out of my stereo and computer beeps coming out of my computer, as God intended. I used to be able to do this using the nice iTunes interface, by clicking the iPod in the left pane to make it the active volume and then playing a track.

However, some version of iTunes for OS X made the iPod library appear grayed out in iTunes with autosync on. Since I also like to have my iPod autosync with the iTunes library on my iMac, I have to reach over to my iPod and fiddle with the scroll wheel to play music.

Can I have my cake (autosync) and eat it too (use iTunes to control my docked iPod?) I'm guessing no, but maybe somebody knows a workaround...

OSX Music Software

jed — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 14:45:59 -0800

Music software for OSX question: A band of which I am quite fond has posted bootlegs for one of their shows on their Web site, as avi videos. I want to be able to listen to the goodness on my iPod, but I can't find any software that will convert the audio from the avi files to mp3s. VersionTracker and download.com yield various shady, non-working shareware or freeware packages.