Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with itouch

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?

OhMyGodIThinkTheItouchIsCoolBut...

wittgenstein — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:23:29 -0800

Question about wi-fi and my new itouch. I was lucky enough to recieve a free itouch from work. After downloading the software upgrade, I am now going crazy with apps (after reading previous AskMeFis, of course.)

One evening, while using the LastFm app, I lost the internet connection. Since then, my itouch does not seem to be able to "receive" the wi-fi at my house.

Data Points:
1. I have tried telling the itouch to "forget" the house wi-fi, so that I have to log in to it again.

2. The itouch works fine at other locations (school, Barnes and Noble, etc.)

3. The home wi-fi is working fine for our laptops.

4. On the very unlikely chance that LastFm had anything to do with it, I deleted and reloaded that application. That had no effect as well.

When I try to connect, and then use Safari, for example, the screen turns a darker color and keeps trying to connect until the operation times out (or I end it myself.)

Obviously, this is not a life or death situation, but it is annoying, and I would like to solve it myself if I can. Any suggestions?

How to save my Kindle books..

newpotato — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:48:07 -0800

I have a new laptop which has my entire library of itunes on it. Everytime I hook up my ipod, it tells me that my device is linked to a different itunes (the one on my old laptop), and asks if I want to erase the entire contents of the device and replace with the new itunes content. This would be fine, except that I have about 20 books on the kindle app that I don't want to lose I'm not sure if I can redownload the books to the same device that they were originally downloaded to and my kindle account at amazon gives me no clues as to whether it's possible.
I don't even know if they will get erased, though it seems that they would. The books aren't appearing on my itunes library, though the icon for the kindle app is.
Please hope me. I am obviously not the most tech-y person in the room.

iPhone OS 3.0 Questions

Effigy2000 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:37:22 -0800

With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, I have some questions that I'd like answered. One relates to Stereo Bluetooth headphone recommendations, and the others relate to internet tethering. Firstly, let's get to my questions about the new ability to tether devices to your iPhone in iPhone 0S 3.0.

1. Most reports suggest that those carriers that do end up allowing tethering will charge you for it. Why? I ask because I don't understand their reasoning for charging for tethering and would like to know if there is a legitimate reason to do so aside from profiteering. Tethering a device to your iPhone won't allow you to get any more data than you already pay for in your data packs, right? If so, there's no data you're getting for free and theoretically no extra strain on their network. So what is the phone companies justification for essentially charging you twice for the same data allocation?
2. How would a phone company even know that a device has been tethered to your phone and is using the data? How do they differentiate between your iPhone using data and your tethered device using data?
3. Would it be possible to tether an iPod Touch (2G) to an iPhone?
4. Has anyone read anything about Telstra (Australia) enabling tethering? My Google-fu has failed me.

And now onto my final question, which is much simpler. Stereo Bluetooth headset recommendations. iPhone 0S 3.0 has unlocked the iPod Touch's Bluetooth capabilities to allow for stereo Bluetooth headsets to be used to listen to music. I've done some research and found a few possible headphones that might be worth buying but some have weird form factors, others are 'in-ear' buds which I find uncomfortable and others are great but otherwise too expensive.

Does anyone here have any personal recommendations for a good set of stereo Bluetooth headphones, compatible with an iPod Touch, that are comfortable to wear, deliver good (or even decent) sound and don't cost the Earth?

Make Apple in-ear phones work better with T-Mobile G1?

Mo Nickels — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:32:14 -0800

How can I get my Apple iPhone/iPod/iTouch in-ear headphones to work easily with my T-Mobile G1 phone? The headphones are great--the best in-ear headphones I've used, except for ones I cobbled together using parts of two different models.

The problem is that when they're plugged into any of the four adapters I have for my T-Mobile G1 phone, they don't work properly. I have to pull the plug out a little bit, to just the right spot, to have full audio in both ears. This is probably due to the nonstandard, four-part nature of the plug: there are four metal places on it that probably don't line up well and my G1 doesn't/can't use the ones for the volume or the microphone.

Does anyone have an adapter that they know for certain works with these earphones? Or a simple hack or trick for making them work easily?

where is my iHUD?

phritosan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:14:38 -0800

I'm looking for an iphone app to have open while my iphone is docked/charging, either as eyecandy or as an information display. Right now, I'm using just FlipClock. I'm looking for other ideas. Obviously I don't need another app that just a clock. But something like a HUD would be awesome. Something like igoogle. Baring that, any suggestions for docked apps would be interesting.

If it matters, I am jailbroken.

I like my phone being an info portal and having apps that I can check for updates throughout the day. I have twitter, I have weather, I have geocaching, I have facebook, mint, usa today, ebay, appsniper and bargainbin, movies, itv, coupon sherpa, yowza.

I want more information!
Tanks!

How to create my own books for Classics.app?

tksh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:45:41 -0800

How would I automate converting Project Gutenberg books into ebooks for Classics.app on the iPhone? Or more specifically, I have recently finished reading some classics on the wonderful Classics program for the iPhone/iTouch and I want to start adding my own favourites for on-the-go reading.

I've figured out that each book in Classics is just a collection of PDF files, one for each chapter, and a simple XML file that acts as a chapters index. The PDF page have a specific size and I have a Pages template and some defined styles that have the right margin, page size, font size, styling and all.

I've done a simple book with a few chapters as a test and they showed up great but it was incredibly tedious. Basically, for each chapter:

Create a new blank document in Pages and apply the saved page size settings

Copy and paste the chapter text into the document

Apply a title style to the chapter heading and a paragraph style to everything else

Run a quick find-and-replace to convert straight quotes into smart quotes

Save file with relevant meta info (in case I need to manually touch-up)

Finally, print as PDF with relevant meta info

Is there any way to automate all this? I'm OK with scripting and am willing to learn Latex if that is the way but I'd rather use Applescript and use the Pages engine to format, hyphenate and style everything.

Can you send an IM to a phone using AIM?

Flood — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:24:03 -0800

Is it possible to send (and receive) IMs to cell phones, using AIM? I have an iTouch. I downloaded AIM into the iTouch. The AIM product description on the app download page seems to suggest that the AIM can be used to send and receive IMs with cell phones - as long as the iTouch is connected to a WiFi signal.

Is this possible? I can't seem to get it to work. Can anyone help?

How do I use AIM on an iTouch to send an IM to a cell phone?

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?

Where Are Those Files?

briank — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:56:28 -0800

iPhone/iPod Touch question: what is the absolute filepath for the directories created by the AirSharing app? I want to be able to point an app that only runs on a jailbroken device to the files I have copied from my PC, and the software developer won't answer the question because they don't support jailbroken devices.

Found an iTouch!

Justinian — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:38:30 -0800

What can I do with a thrown away iTouch? A good friend of mine (not me, really!) found an iTouch in the garbage. The glass on it is all cracked up and it appears to have been abused which may be why it got tossed but it's still functional. I'm going to try to replace the glass for her with some plastic and a dremel... but that's not the question. The iTouch has 12 gigs of music on it. Is there any way to get the music off a found iTouch? I realize doing so is of extremely dubious compliance with the copyrights of those songs, so let's assume this is theoretical. I promise not to take off any music I don't own on CD. Cross my heart. Um. Anyway. It's all a bunch of hip hop crap unfortunately.

It seems that , given this particular iPod isn't authorized on my computer that I can't do it, even with third party software. But surely somebody has figured out how? iTunes won't do it for obvious reasons. And I can't copy it manually or with the third party software I use because the iPod isn't enabled as an external device and the enable option isn't available (as far as I can tell) in iTunes unless the iPod is authorized on that computer. But how can it be completely impossible to copy these files when I have access to all the hardware involved? Or is it just a matter of more trouble than it's worth? But it bothers me on a philosophical level that I have this device plugged in to my computer via USB and I can't see any of the files on it except via iTunes.

Secondly and relatedly, once that is done or found to be impossible can the iTouch just be formatted somehow so my friend can put her account on it and sync it with her computer? She has an iPod already but the iTouch is WAY COOLER.

And yes, I believe her that this was found in the trash. It's pretty banged up but I believe I can fix up the case! Then I will be a hero.

Iphone app creation for the lazy and greedy

mecran01 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:09:29 -0800

Are there any platforms for developing Iphone/Itouch applications that don't require a ton of coding? I'm think along the lines of the old Hypercard, or an interactive fiction engines. I'd like to be able to create a text adventure and sell it in the app store. Thanks, and please forgive my cluelessness.

Can I use an iphone as an ipod touch?

bigcheesegump — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:14:44 -0800

Can I use an iphone as an ipod touch? I am looking into getting an ipod touch as a PDA-type device that can handle my contacts, email, and also serve as a web browser. However, I really dislike the fact that the ipod touch doesn't have external speakers. It is the ONE thing that is missing for me. I know the 3g iphone has an external speaker as well as a camera. Is it possible to use a non-activated iphone as an ipod touch? My google-fu has resulted in outdated forum discussions. I am aware that initially, the ipod touch did not have many of the apps that the iphone has, but thanks to a software patch, this issue was resolved.
My understanding of the new iphone is that all the hoopla it received was due to the increased network speed through the EDGE network. Does the new iphone have any better wifi connectivity or any benefits that would affect me? Any tips or alternatives would be appreciated!

In summary:

WANTS:
wi-fi
e-mail
calendar
address book
music/picture/video player
external speaker

NICE TO HAVE:
camera

DON'T WANT:
cell phone plan

What's the real cost for iTouch?

sandra194 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:12:07 -0800

Teen daughter wants the iTouch for Christmas. Other than the purchase price, what other fees apply? Is this thing gonna cost me a monthly fee to access the Internet--which is what she really wants to do.