Recently in iPod Category

"How do I get TextAloud to work on my iPod Touch?"

TextAloud is a great text-to-speech software solution for Windows, but it does not currently offer a version that runs directly on an iPod Touch. Any files created with TextAlound on your PC should play on your iPod Touch, but the software isn't designed to work on cell phones or MP3 player hardware. Think of TextAloud as more like a companion to your iPod instead. Convert text from your PC to audio files, then copy those audio files to your iPod Touch for playback.

"I have an ipod U2 20gb, which has gone corrupted. I don't have backup of the music in it - can i do anything? The iPod just does not turn on. iTunes says, it has detected an iPod that appears to be corrupt. My Computer option does not recognize the iPod. If it shows as an E drive, under the properties, I see zero bytes of data - I have about 1500 songs."

This is a common problem that seems to have more to do with a communication error between iTunes and iPod rather than there being something actually wrong with the iPod. A series of troubleshooting steps may be required to identify a solution, although in some cases the solution is to have Apple Care.

"I downloaded a bunch of AVI movies from the Internet. How can I convert these AVI files to something I can watch on my iPod?"

I frequently mention WinFF as my favorite solution for converting files between various formats. Converting AVI files to the iPod compatible MP4 format is no exception. WinFF is the app that will do the trick with the least amount of effort. One of the reason's I'm picking WinFF to convert from AVI to MP4 is because it supports batch conversion, so you can line up 20 or 2000 videos to convert and walk away. When you're finished converting simply add the MP4 files to your iTunes library and sync your iPod to watch the movies on your iPod. Here's how it works:

"How can I put my home movies on my iPod? I edit my movies in Windows Movie Maker, but I can't add the files to iTunes to put them on my iPod. How can I get movies I made in Movie Maker to play back on my iPod?"

Windows Movie Maker saves files in two formats - either DV-AVI, which is the format compatible with your camcorder tapes; Movie Maker also outputs WMV files, which are compatible with things like Zune and Creative players, but not compatible with iPod players. In order to get your movies from Movie Maker to your iPod, you need to first convert the files to an iPod compatible file format.

To get from Windows Movie Maker to an iPod playable file, first save the movie to your computer asa you normally would, then convert the file using a freeware app called WinFF.
Save your movie from Windows Movie Maker using one of the higher quality WMV options, preferably at either 640x480 or 720x480 resolution. It then takes four simple steps to get from WMV to iTunes in a format playable by your iPod.

1) After the movie is saved, open WinFF and add it to the list of movies you want to convert for your iPod (you can do one or several in a batch).

2) Choose Convert to XviD for iPod (4:3) from the Convert to menu. If your movie is widescreen choose XviD for iPod (16:9).

3) Browse to the iTunes Movies folder on your hard drive on the Output Folder menu. This is typically {username} > (My) Music > iTunes > iTunes Music > Movies.

4) Click the Convert button to start converting.

By saving your video in the iTunes Music > Movies folder you automate the process of getting files from WinFF to your iPod by always saving them in a folder that gets watched by iTunes. Occasionally this does not automatically update, and you will have to use the File > Add Folder To Library function in order to add your movie.

After all these steps are completed, open iTunes, verify that the converted movie is now in your iTunes library and sync your iPod with iTunes to transfer the video.

"How do I backup the songs on my iPhone?"

My favorite iPod backup utility recently added support for the iPhone. Now, in addition to backing up your music and videos from your iPod, iPod Access also backs up all the stuff you care about on your iPhone as well. You can add songs, videos and podcasts directly to the iTunes library for syncing with your iPhone. You can automatically rename media files. All AAC files, including those purchased from iTunes Music Store are supported by iPod Access. With a single click you can back up all the music and videos from your iPhone, sequentially, so you don't lose any important files and you don't get any duplicates. Songs are automatically organized by Artist and Album (or Composer/Album depending on what you listen to on your iPhone. When something goes wrong with your computer or you want to sync your iPhone with a new computer, you won't need to wipe the music and start over (which is what iTunes attempts to force you to do), you can simply recover everything automatically using iPod Access. Download iPod Access and start backing up your iPhone library now. (Also works with iPods, of course).

Have 1000 CDs at home but only 10 on your iPod? Riptopia turns your used CD collection into high quality digital music for easy loading onto iPods, mp3 players, media centers, and computers. Rediscover your own music. Riptopia’s services start at $.99 per CD, or the same cost as a single digital song! Riptopia digital music is higher quality than sold or subscribed to online, plays on all digital music players including iPods, and is permanently backed up in case of a computer crash or a lost player. Digital music purchased or subscribed to online has playback restrictions, limited sound quality, and only works on select digital player brands. Don't work for minimum wage ripping CDs. Get it done fast for $.99 per CD...same cost as a digital song.

You won't get great sounding recordings by recording telephone calls with an iPod, but it is possible. In an ideal telephone recording scenario, you want independent control over each person on the call, so that if the person you call is too quiet, you can turn their volume up or your volume down. You won't get independent volume control for both sides of the call when recording a telephone conversation on your iPod, but you will get a recording that you can later use as part of a podcast or transcribed interview.

To record phone calls on your iPod, you need two things in addition to the iPod. You need a microphone add-on for the iPod and you need an adapter to pass the phone audio to the microphone.

Download YamiPod

If you connect your iPod to more than one computer on a regular basis or if you move tracks between computers, you've seen the iTunes message offering to delete files from your iPod. This is theoretically Apple's way of protecting themselves from being associated with piracy, but it's a lousy user experience in almost every case. YamiPod provides a great alternative to the iTunes interface, running as a standalone app for managing songs on an iPod. You can even copy YamiPod to your iPod and run it from any computer. Copy songs to and from any Windows, Mac or Linux computer with YamiPod. Update and manage playlists. Play songs from your iPod through your computer speakers. Add lyrics to songs. Manage existing notes or add additional notes all from one central interface. YamiPod is a solid alternative to iTunes as an iPod interface, but you can use it in combination with iTunes so that you get the benefit of multiple computer connections as well as iTunes interfacing for paid downloads. [Windows/Mac OS X/Linux $0.00]

Elliot writes, "I am trying to put a word document on my iPod. I do what you say but when I use my iPod it has a couple of random letters that make no sense. Can you help?"

While you can put Word documents, Excel files and most other Microsoft Office formats on your iPod if you want to use it as a hard drive, they won't display correctly on the screen.

Files you want to view on the iPod need to be saved as .txt files. The downside to this is saving as a text file strips all formatting, so any tables or layout options you setup in word will be removed when converting to plain text.

You can save a Word document as a .txt file by choosing File > Save As and picking Plain Text (*.txt) from the Save As Type menu.

Geoff writes, "I was wondering if there is a way to burn your purchased iTunes movies to DVD?"

Movie purchases from iTunes are protected with Apple's DRM, preventing you from burning them to DVD playable on a set top DVD player using software solutions like Nero, Roxio, etc. You can burn the movies as data files to back them up, storing them for recovery in the event of a hard drive failure. If you want to watch iTunes movies on your television, I recommend getting the iPod A/V Cable for your iPod and watching movies with iPod connected to television. The iPod scales video from the portable resolution to a television-quality resolution well enough for standard definition video playback. If you have an HD screen, turn off image stretching so that the video isn't distorted.

Bebe asks, "Is it possible to transfer music from an iPod to a Zune?"

There's no direct way to copy files from an iPod to a Zune. Files purchased from iTunes music store will not play on a Zune, just as files purchased from Zune Marketplace won't play on an iPod. There are some tools you can use to get songs from your iPod to your Zune and get them all to play, but you have to be prepared to spend a little money or a whole bunch of time.

Dis writes, "How come Windows Media Player doesn't put the songs onto the iPod?"

The short answer to this question is because Apple doesn't want Windows Media Player to put songs on the iPod. The easiest way for Apple to make sure iPod owners get a consistent experience is for Apple to control the process of syncing audio and video from start to finish. This means Apple optimizes the experience of using an iPod with iTunes and generally makes it difficult to use any other software with an iPod. I don't disagree with Apple's methodology, but I also like having options.

I previously offered several alternatives for getting an iPod to work with Windows Media Player. They continue to be valid alternatives with the release of Windows Media Player 11.

The only place this really falls down is if you hope to purchase a subscription to something like MTV URGE, Napster, Yahoo! Music Engine or any of the other monthly subscription services. Music subscription services will not work with an iPod. All of the music subscription services currently use Windows Media Digital Rights Management to keep you from copying the songs. This is not compatible with iPods and therefore will not work. If you want to use one of the subscription services, you need to purchase a different portable device (the iRiver Clix is a nice choice). If you already have an iPod, plan on shopping either in the iTunes Store or in the eMusic library of MP3s.

Brittany asks, "How can i get YouTube video's onto my iPod? Is this even possible?"

The files YouTube plays back on their site won't play on an iPod directly, but if you download the files to your hard drive and convert them to an iPod compatible format, they will definitely play on your iPod. Depending on whether you have Mac OS X or Windows XP, there's are two different software tools that make putting YouTube videos on your iPod almost automatic.

Putting YouTube Videos on an iPod for Windows XP

If you're a Windows user, the software you need to put YouTube videos on your iPod is iTube.

The software prompts you to paste in the link for the YouTube page with the video you want to convert, then it downloads the video, automatically converts it for your iPod and adds the video to your iTunes library. The next time you connect your iPod to your PC, you can sync the video to your iPod.

Find the video you want to download and copy the URL.

Paste the URL in iTube and click Go!

The software locates the video, downloads the video, and automatically converts the file to an iPod compatible video. The whole process takes a few minutes to complete depending on how long the video is. When the conversion process is complete, the video will be in the Movies section of your iTunes library.

Putting YouTube Videos on an iPod for Mac OS X

If you're downloading YouTube videos to Mac OS X, you need an app called PodTube. The software works almost automatically and gives you a couple of options. There is a slight trick in that the video you want to download from YouTube needs to be your top window in Safari when you start PodTube.

PodTube gives you the option to Encode the video for your iPod as well as letting you toggle whether the software will add the finished file to your iTunes library or not, so if you simply want to play the video locally on your Mac, you don't have to have the file in iTunes.

Michael asks, Can you play a Windows Media file on an iPod or download to iTunes?

Unfortunately you can't play a Windows Media file on your iPod. Apple doesn't support playback of WMA or WMV files on the iPod, in part because it might hurt their business model in selling you something they hope you'll fill with music and video from their store. The good news is, you can convert Windows Media files to an iPod supported format and play them back either in iTunes or on your iPod after the conversion completes. The caveat to this is Windows Media files purchased from places like MTV URGE, Napster, Yahoo or any of the other online stores using Windows Media with DRM will not work and cannot be converted. Depending on whether the file you want to play is audio or video and how many files you want to convert, there are a number of ways to approach this problem.

I got face time with a Zune this weekend and decided to look at how the form factor compares to the 80GB iPod I picked up a few days ago. The Zune weighs considerably less than the iPod, although I didn't have a scale on hand to get exact comparison. It felt like the Zune was more comparable to my Cingular 2125 phone, while the iPod weighs quite a bit more.

Screen size on the Zune is a slightly larger 3-inches, but you don't get a real sense for how much difference that makes till you see it next to the iPod screen.

Zune comes in just barely longer than the iPod.

iPod is slightly thinner than Zune, which makes the weight difference even more surprising.

Here's another variation on pairing the two devices.

Album art looks great on the Zune

Navigation through albums is highly intuitive, although you wouldn't know it from this photo.

I purchased the new 80GB iPod 5.5G model today because I need to do some video testing with it. Along the way I figured I'd download a movie and a game to see how the new store features work. The purchase experience and the user interface are both horrid. After buying Zuma twice, I had to enable interface features to even find the game in iTunes. I'm someone who looks at software UI every day, how are normal people dealing with this?

I started out purchasing a copy of Mulan with my card on file in the iTunes store and then proceeded to purchase Zuma. All seems good. Looking in my Purchased folder, I can see the episode of Desperate Housewives I purchased last year when Apple first announced video sales and Mulan, which is currently downloading. No Zuma.

Maybe the sale didn't take, so I try it again. According to iTunes Store, I already purchased Zuma. Or so the dialog box tells me.

Following directions and looking under the Advanced menu, I see no option to Check for Purchased Music.

Maybe that's because the option is under the Store menu and it's actually Check for Purchases

Using Check for Purchases and providing my password takes me back to the Purchases folder with the same two results. Desperate Housewives and Mulan, but no Zuma.

I paused the download of Mulan, which froze iTunes and forced me to do an End Task to shut it down. After rebooting my machine to see if that fixes Zuma not showing up, I relaunch iTunes and still no Zuma in the interface. I open the iTunes Store and attempt to purchase Zuma one more time. This time when I click the Zuma buy button I am told I may have duplicate items.

I clicked Buy just to see if I could finally get the game. This time, Zuma shows up in the Downloads along with Mulan.

After downloading completes, the game was nowhere to be found in iTunes. I connected my new iPod and saw the game sync in the status bar at the top of the iTunes interface, so apparently it's on my machine somewhere. After syncing I saw Zuma in the iPod browser in iTunes.

After further digging around in iTunes, I finally find an option to check the box next to iPod Games in the Edit > Preferences menu.

Hello Apple People! This should have been enabled automatically or at the very worst it should be enabled the second I make a game purchase. What a craptacular experience. This is the kind of UI I expect from Microsoft, complete with incorrect dialog boxes. Where's the consistent Apple user experience? It cost me a second download of the same game and even then, I don't see a quantity of two in the games list.

Maybe I was supposed to buy a Mac before downloading? I have one. It doesn't have all my music on it because I started ripping music before OS X exsisted and you couldn't pay me to own a Mac before OS X. Most iPod customers are Windows users, which means the Windows iTunes experience better rock harder than the Mac experience or you will lose customers.

At the end of the day, I'm only out $4.99, which isn't a huge thing, but it's the principle of getting a bad experience. I'm probably not the only confused customer. The question is, how much of the early sales figures were seeing from Disney can be attributed to purchasing errors. If it had been a company I didn't know, I'd have given up after the first try. Apple is generally known for providing a great user experience, so I assumed it was something I did and tried again. I was on the verge of calling the company when I finally found the hidden setting to reveal the games in the interface. If this is the next generation of customer experience at Apple, we're all in for a rude awakening.

In the meantime, I think from this point forward, I'll stick to gaming on my PSP. At least Sony knows how to make the gaming experience just work.

George writes, Hi, I'm a guitar teacher in Atlanta. Some of my students have iPods and want to use them to take home files. I don't have an iPod myself, so I don't want to burden my laptop with iTunes (oink!). Your article on [Using an iPod as a hard drive] doesn't mention it, but I saw in another website that you need to enable the iPod to act as a hard drive, from inside iTunes. Is there another way to do this without iTunes? What exactly does this enablement do?

As long as the Enable Disk Use feature is checked in iTunes on your student's computer at home, the iPod should automatically mount as a drive on any computer, including one without iTunes installed. With this enabled, you can browse the contents of the iPod, create a folder for your class materials, and copy files into that folder, just like you would any other hard drive connected to a Windows computer. Any of your students wanting to transfer files onto their iPod this way simply need to make sure they've enabled disk use at home via Edit > Preferences > iPod.

These files won't show up in the iPod music library, so if you are copying songs they would have to manually add them to their iTunes library by first copying the audio files to their hard drive and then adding them to iTunes. For other file types, like documents, the students simply copy the files over to their hard drive after connecting their iPod to their home PC.

A caveat to this is the Enable Disk Use feature in the iPod Preferences requires you to manually disconnect the iPod from your computer, because the drive must be un-mounted from the operating system as well as disconnecting it from iTunes.

It's also possible to use an iPod with Windows Media Player, bypassing all the iTunes stuff while still having all the advantages of using your iPod as a hard drive. I don't necessarily recommend this, but it's an additional option.

Simple AMP photos
Velleman Assembly Manual

O'Reilly's Make Magazine has a great DIY community at Instructables.com where people post photos and steps for a wide variety of how-to projects. A recent post over at Gizmodo reminded me of one of my early favorites, posted back in April 2005. The project is a small amplifier for iPods and other portable players, designed to sit between the headphone jack and a speaker system of some kind. Steps walk you through acquiring the parts from Radio Shack and Velleman, includes some shots of testing out the project and a shot of the finished assembly. Ideally you want to download the manual from Velleman to help with building the project, which isn't entirely clear from the Instructables photo series.

How can I use my iPod as a hard drive? I want to transfer some Word files from my work computer to my home computer. Someone told me my iPod will work to do this.

Windows recognizes iPods and most other portable media players as hard drives when plugged in using the USB cable. Any of the player's available memory may be used for transporting files like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and virtually any other file type you wouldn't ever listen to or watch on a portable player.

To use your iPod as a hard drive, first connect it to your computer using the sync cable. Open Windows Explorer and expand My Computer (Start > My Computer or Windows Key+E). You should see your iPod in the list of available drives.

Double click the iPod icon to expand the folders in your iPod. Either copy files into the root directory of your iPod or create a folder in the iPod directory structure to store your transported files.

If you want to quickly add a bunch of contacts or calendar items to your iPod, you can bypass the iTunes interface and use Windows Explorer to copy VCard files into the Contacts folder and .ics files into the Calendar folder.

Note: In general, you should avoid putting any files in the folder labeled iPod_Control, because that folder contains music and video files and information required for the iPod to read music and video files correctly.

Download Free iPod Video Converter

The name of Free iPod Video Converter pretty much sums it up. This is a free app for converting most of the popular video formats (AVI, MPEG, WMV, RM, RMVB, DivX, ASF, VOB) to iPod-ready MP4 video files. The app is entirely wizard driven, stepping you through the process of adding video files, choosing video and audio quality settings, and adding title and author data for the file. Conversion supports queuing up several video files for conversion, before processing all files in a batch mode or you can convert files one at a time. File names are preserved during file conversion by default, although you can optionally choose a different name and location for converted videos. If you'd rather not think about the complexities of video conversion, this is a solid app for iPod video conversion, with simple good, better, best quality selection. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]

I transferred videos to my iPod but they don't show up in my TV Shows list on my iPod. Where did they go?

The latest version of iTunes offers three options for categorizing your video collection: Movie, Music Video and TV Show. You can choose any of these three video types from the Options tab of Get Info. While these are obviously not the only three categories of video, these are the three options Apple supports at the moment. Unfortunately, there are some small inconsistencies in the way Apple supports the choices on the iPod.

The TV Show option, while sensible if you record your own shows using a Tivo or other PVR, is reserved for shows purchased through iTunes Music Store. If you label a file Tivo Show using the Video Kind selection, it won't show up in the reserved TV Shows playlist when transferred to your iPod. There are currently a few ways to solve the problem.

One somewhat complex solution is to use the open source Atomic Parsley to re-write the Video Kind information in your file so it is recognized properly on your iPod. You need some command line knowledge and a Mac to make Atomic Parsley work properly. Combined with the GUI Lostify, the re-classification process is improved although both seem a little buggy and don't work consistently. For Windows users, iPodTVShow might do the trick, with the catch that it creates a second copy of your video file during the re-write process.

A second option is to change the Video Kind on the Get Info Options tab to Movie or Music Video.

A third option is to leave the Video Kind setting the same and create a custom video playlist containing your TV Show videos. Synchronize the playlist to your iPod. Locate the video playlist under Videos > Video Playlist on your iPod and select your TV Show videos.

While it would make more sense for Apple to solve this problem by making the TV Show option available for all videos, the solutions above will make your missing videos available on your iPod.

Download Videora iPod Converter

Convert your videos to MPEG-4 or H.264 video ready for iPod Video playback either individually or automatically from a watched folder. The software will convert most standard video formats, including AVI, MPEG, WMV, VOB, MOV and Tivo ToGo. Videora is significantly faster than the iPod conversion supported in QuickTime Pro and any of the standard MPEG-4 video conversions are also compatible with Sony's PSP (although the companion PSP Video 9 is more practical for PSP owners). Setup for Videora iPod Converter includes a bunch of configuration options, including customization of your own video profiles. In most cases the default options should work nicely. Advanced users will appreciate the options to customize FFMPEG flags and AVS Scripts. [Windows 2k/XP $0.00]

Download MyTV ToGo

After I detailed all the steps for creating a fully automated conversion of Media Center files for playback on PSP (or iPod Video), I ran across MyTV ToGo on Sean Alexander's Addicted to Digital Media. I have not tried this app, but if Sean gives it his stamp of approval, I guarantee it's good. I only know a few people with a closer relationship to Media Center. MyTV ToGo converts recorded television for playback on PSP or iPod video and transfers the files to the connected device. What it lacks is the automation of a watch folder, like I illustrate using with PSPWare in my tutorial, however, I'm also hacking the system. The net cost of my methods is $15 vs. MyTV ToGo for iPod or PSP at $29.95. Considering it's a one-trick pony at this point, I'll likely hold off on getting MyTV to go, in favor of integrated media management in PSPWare. On the other hand, converting recorded television with MyTV ToGo is certainly a cleaner set of steps. [Windows XP MCE $29.95]

Make your own iPod VR

I see visions of fan sites in Phil Torrone's future. PT is a living super-smart sci-fi character bending technology to his will. A less conflicted Tony Stark for Marvel fans or maybe a hip incarnation of Mr. Wizard. His latest project combines the newly released iPod video with a set of virtual reality goggles, creating an immersive experience out of eyeglass-sized LCD screens and a pocket sized hard drive. By the time the market is ready for this creation, the drive will be jacked into our skulls and the glasses will be a portable to another dimension. In the meantime, you can impress your friends and get the odd glance from fellow travelers on the way to another dimension destination.

Paul writes, "I've just read your article about reviving your Archos. I've been looking tirelessly for a case to fit my 30gb (g3) ipod hard drive into so that I can use it as an external hard drive. Do you know of a case that the 1.8" drive can fit into?"

The article I wrote about extending the life of my Archos Multimedia Jukebox you refer to is valid for any portable player with a 2.5-inch drive. The battery in the Archos wouldn't hold a charge and I couldn't find a supplier for the battery, so I gutted the drive. If you have any hope of using your iPod as a music player, I recommend against this course of action because it voids the warranty and generally renders it unusable. Since it sounds like your 3G iPod isn't working anymore, warranty is likely no longer an issue. I don't have an iPod I'm ready to gut just yet, but I do have an older Rio player with a 1.8 inch drive. The Rio flaked several months ago and is currently shoeboxed. Any device wit a 1.8-inch drive can find new life as a portable storage device by gutting the drive and putting it in a new housing. I went shopping for enclosures and found a few options.

eBay is one of my favorite places to shop for obscure items like drive enclosures. As of this writing there are two sellers with high marks and great buy-it-now prices selling what appears to be the same 1.8 inch drive enclosure. The enclosures are USB 2.0 and going for either 9.99 or 14.99 with plenty in stock.

Search eBay for 1.8 inch drive enclosures

An alternative to eBay is SewellDirect.com. Their prices are considerably higher at $35.95 per case. I haven't ever purchased anything from the company, but they are BizRate.com certified, which is certainly better than having nothing to gauge their quality. Like the options available on eBay, the cases are USB 2.0. Sewell has enclosure options in both white (perfect for iPod replacements) and black.

If you have a dead iPod mini, your options are slightly different. The mini uses a Hitachi MicroDrive, which is compatible with CompactFlash card slots and compatible with some high end digital cameras. If your mini dies, simply gut the drive and reformat it to FAT32 with any CompactFlash card reader connected to your PC.