Tags: nano, ipod, iPhone, Apple, Downloads, Music

As always, in the age of “consumer first” economics, Apple leads the way. The iPod nano is following along behind the footsteps of the original iPod, as Apple’s fourth digital player. The iPod nano came out the same day the iPod mini was discontinued – September 7, 2005 – but is known for having combined features of the iPod shuffle and the original iPod in its new development. It only took nine months for the design development of the iPod nano to become effective, even though most media were aware it was coming. What they did not know was the iPod mini was being discontinued on that same day.

Where the iPod Photo and Video versions capture the deeper pockets, and iPod Shuffle takes in the shallow pockets, iPod Nano catches those who find themselves in the middle. Although its disk size isn’t comparable to that of the iPod Photo or iPod Video, the iPod Nano does bring the tremendous features that makes the Apple iPod the industry leader. Picking up where the iPod Shuffle leaves off, the iPod Nano has a hard drive of 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB flash drives which holds up to 500 to 2,000 songs in a 128-Kbps AAC format, up to 25,000 iPod nano-viewable photographs, and stores data via the USB flash drive.

The iPod shuffle brought a lower price with the ability to listen to favorite music, but was lacking in the user-friendly features. For instance, with the iPod shuffle there was no control over the song that is being played – it was completely random. With the iPod nano, there is all the control needed like the bigger iPod systems, but without the disk space. It is smaller in disk size than the larger versions, but the iPod nano brings a sleek look and fee, roughly as thick as an ink pen or pencil. It is still slim and manageable like the iPod shuffle, so you can take it running or to the gym. The important thing to remember is that a person DOES have control over what they are listening to. The disadvantage of the iPod nano is much the same as that of the larger versions of the iPods – its durability. It can be taken to the gym or to run more than say the iPod Video or Photo, but does seem to fade out a little quicker than the iPod Shuffle. This is a problem that all electronic devices seem to have, but the more expensive the device the less the consumers are willing to put up with faults and glitches.



By: Mike Singh

About the Author:

Wondering why people are becoming crazy about this miniature audio device? iPods offer excellent quality of digital music. The success of iPod is due to its features like:



iPod is able to deliver extremely rich quality of digital music. It comes in attractive small sizes and thus tends to be very handy and compact. They come with in-built media library software, called as the iTunes media library software. This feature enables the user to manage the music files efficiently. The most attractive feature which made iPod the best seller is the attribute which allows the device to be connected to the user’s computer. Thus by enabling connection with the user’s computer, the iPod prove to serve as efficient storage devices. iPods sport a display, which makes the gadget more user friendly. Improvised iPods also had PDA’s( Personal Digital Assitants). Apple, the creators of iPod kept on improvising it, and thus many models of iPod have rocked the market.



The models of iPod categorized according to the chronological order.

First Generation iPods:

Initially the iPods were released with 5GB hard drive, but then later Apple increased their hard drive capacity to 10GB. These iPods have a scroll wheel with a select button in the middle. This device was a huge hit in the commercial market, but now they rarely exist due to the release of new models.

Second generation iPods:

These devices had a thicker body and they supported 20 GB hard drive. They were the first gadgets, which were compatible with the windows. They also sported cases and wired remotes.

Third generation iPods:

These iPods were thinner than the original versions, the 30 pin dock connector was introduced with this series. They also had touch sensitive buttons this attracted the masses to a great extent. And it did not have buttons surrounding the wheels and hanging parts.

Fourth generation iPods:

The only difference, the fourth generation iPods had over the others is the introduction of click wheels. They also sported the same monochrome screen. But it enabled the battery to be charged through the USB connection.

Color iPods:

As the name suggests these devices had a color screen and the ability to store and display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images. They supported 65,536 colors. They possessed the photo library and released accessories like iPod camera connector.

Fifth generation iPods:

They were developed to reduce minor audio effects so that the head phone does not deliver hard drive noise. They came in a wide variety of sizes, colors and hard drive capacities. They also supported features like the World Clock, Stopwatch, and Screen Lock applications. In addition, the earphones plug were smaller.

iPod mini:

The mini had a smaller structure and it resembled the earlier versions in its features,but it did not support third party accessories. They introduced micro-drive hard drive as the storage medium.The minis were futher improvised as the first generation and second generation devices. It had rich case colors and was a big hit in the market.

iPod shuffle:

Flash memory was introduced through these gadgets, but they did not have a screen so navigation of music files were a little difficult. But it has been reviewed as the best sounding audio device in comparison with the other models.

iPod nano:

iPod nano also had the flash memory but it came with a color display. It also included a number of features like world clock, stop watch and screen lock options.



By: Gayathri Sekar

About the Author:

Before we start, a warning, obvious teacher speak coming up: we all know the legalities of this. Keep the CD for yourself and therefore you are not going against copyright.

Step 1.

Create a new playlist

This will allow us to group together all the tracks that we want on our CD, and also allows us to arrange them in an order. Go to file > New Playlist. When it appears in the source list on the left hand side, click on it and give it a name (it will also be the CD name).

Step 2.

Add some tracks

The first tracks are the ones that are already in our iTunes library (ripped from CD or downloaded before hand). You can add tunes by using iTunes search box, type in the artists name and track name into the box. When the track appears in the main window drag and drop it into the new playlist.

Step 3.

Source tracks from CD

That is getting tracks from your own collection of CDs and they are not in your iTunes library. Put your CD into your CD-ROM drive and load up the Internet, then wait for it to appear in iTunes. The track names will appear in the library. If they dont? Make sure you are on the Internet, goto Advanced menu and select Get CD Track Names.

Step 4.

Rip your CD tracks

Goto Edit/Preferences and click on the Importing tab. From the Import Using menu choose AIFF encoder and leave Setting at Automatic. Leave the three boxes unclicked, unless you want to hear the tracks while importing. Drag the now ripped tracks to your playlist.

Step 5.

Add tracks from your Hard Drive

If you have any tunes hiding around on your drive, you need to add them to the library. iTunes can play MP3 or AIFF files, but it converts (non protected) WMA files to MP3 after importing them. Locate your songs, and then drag them onto the Library icon in iTunes source window. From there you can add them to your playlist.

Step 6.

Place tracks in order

This is a case of dragin files to the place where you want them and then drop. You could have similar themes, styles or even beats coupled together. Slow tunes at the start, dancy track at the end?

Step 7.

Set burning preferences

Select Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced > Burning. Set the speed of your CD burner to the max and click the Audio CD button. Now select the gap you would like between tracks. If you want iTunes to force all the tracks to play at the same level, tick Sound Check.

Step 8.

Burning

Double check everything, track order etc. The total time is displayed at the bottom of the iTunes window (dont exceed 72 mins as it wont fit onto a normal CD). Insert a blank CD in your drive and then click on Burn Disk.

Step 9.

CD case insert

This is an insert for your CD case, complete with track listing. Go to File > Print. Select Jewel Case insert and pick a theme. If you have album art on iTunes you can use it to create a cover. Standard is White Mosaic. Click page set-up and check everything is ok, especially the paper for printer use. Then Print.



By: D.J.Hough

About the Author:

If you own an iPod, chances are you’ve already scoured your music collection on your hard drive for every last song that you have and uploaded it on your music device. But the thing is, nobody wants to listen to the same songs every day, day in, day out.

Of course, everybody wants the latest hits on their iPod, and for some others, finding those favorites that they listened to from a few years back. And if there’s a site where one could download music for free, the prospect is somewhat intriguing. You can always find some free iPod music downloads on the internet; you just have to know where to look.

There are other sites apart from iTunes

Of course, the first choice for downloading music on your iPod is the matching online service from Apple, which is the iTunes online music store. There are some free music downloads available on iTunes, but most of it isn’t probably to your taste if you’re constantly looking for the top hits on the airwaves so that you can listen to it when you want. Though this is the first download choice for iPod music, iTunes isn’t free, and if you’re a constant downloader of music, your bills can reach obscene amounts right quickly if you download every so often.

But then, there are other sites that also offer similar services as iTunes, and some of these sites offer their wares for free, although most do only for a limited time. But still, it’s nice to know that you can actually download a few songs for free on one site, then move on to the next when your trial period ends. But this is sometimes time-consuming, and not for those who don’t want to keep signing up to new sites just to download some songs for free. Pay sites for downloads appear more often than free sites, so it’s not really a wonder why most are searching for free download websites.

Best Options to take

Another good option would be to register at a pay site for music downloads, but one that only requires a monthly or lifetime membership fee, and offers unlimited downloads for the period that you signed up. While technically it’s still not free, the good side about it is that you can download all you want, thus making the cost per download smaller and smaller until it actually becomes negligible. You can pretty much download at whim with this type of policy, making it a very good option for those who want to download often, and for those who download whole albums at a time.

One of the best options however, is still to download music off the internet using peer to peer sites. The trump card of these sites and their programs is that you can search for a song download that you like, and see if anybody else has it in their collection. Once you find a peer who has it, then you can start file sharing as well, and download that song directly to your computer.

An important consideration when using these sites is to make sure that the songs that you download are also legal. It’s sometimes too easy to download illegal music, and not only is this morally wrong, it is also considered as stealing from the artist who made that music. However, if you’re careful about from whom you’re downloading and from where, you can spend much time with free iPod music downloads and listening to them on your device.



By: Sandra Stammberger

About the Author:

If you have iTunes software installed on your computer, upon inserting the CD with your audio files on it, into your computer, all audio files will automatically upload onto your hard drive. However, due to certain restrictions, known as DRM (digital restrictions management), should you download any audio book directly from a site on the Internet, there is a slightly different process involved.

Passwords are required in order to first use digital audio files under DRM, after which they will have to be opened and a short process to ascertain legality completed for you to copy them.

Burn your audio files from the computer’s hard disk onto a blank CD, then, without ejecting it, open iTunes. Transfer the contents of your CD by clicking on “Import CD” which can be found by accessing “Devices”, then “Audio CD” (situated to the left of the monitor).

Although the names of some of your audio files appear when transferred, many do not in which case place the cursor on the file e.g. Track 1, right click, and choose “Get Info”. This will provide you with enough information to rename the track with a more easily recognisable name.

After you have renamed each audio file, start a fresh “Playlist” for them and drag and drop the ones you want into it. This will make it easier to access them when using an iPod.

If your iPod is set to Automatic Synchronisation, upon connecting it to your computer, all audio files, complete with Playlist and titles will routinely be copied onto it. If your iPod is set to Manual, on the other hand, you will have to select those audio files you wish to transfer and then select “Synchronise” in order to transfer them across. This Manual method is advantageous in the sense that you might not wish to transfer all the files together at that time, so can choose the ones you want and only transfer those.

Zipping large audio files is a good way to save space and can be transferred effortlessly to a portable hard drive for storage or as a backup. In this way, they do not slow down your laptop and can be easily accessed by unzipping them and then downloading them to another location. Alternatively, you can hear them straight from your computer’s hard drive.

Similarly, as books take up space in your home on shelves, audio books take up space on your computer hard drive. Therefore it’s advisable to set up a special storage device for them.

Naturally the greatest advantage of audio files over actual books made from paper is that you can take your entire collection with you on a portable disk drive ‘ wherever you go to enjoy whenever you want. And now that you’ve learned how to copy your files to an iPod, you have the freedom to do exactly that!



By: Steven Magill

About the Author:

At some point most people have needed to transfer files from one computer to another. Floppy drives are virtually obsolete. Not all computers have a CD burner and unless you use a re-writable CD you can only use it for files one time. So how can you do it? Ever thought of using your iPod? Few people realize the iPod can be used for much more than listening to songs and watching videos. The device can also be used as a hard drive to store every kind of file you will need. Here are a few tips on how to use your iPod as a hard drive.

First, connect your iPod to your computer. Once the iPod has been connected open the iTunes window. Then open the iPod preferences window. In the iPod preferences window you can select Manually manage songs and playlists or Enable disk use. If you would like to use your iPod for disk storage and you would still like for iTunes to automatically update your iPod library then choose Enable disk use. This will allow your iPod to store files and play music.

Once you have set up your iPod to store files you can drag the files you want to store into the iPod window. When you have finished moving the files click the iPod eject button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window. The iPod screen will show Ok to disconnect when it is safe to unplug it.

You can also use your iPod as a hard drive without using the iTunes window. First connect your iPod to the computer that has the files you would like to store. Then go to My Computer. You will see the iPod listed as an available drive. Double click the drive and copy the files you want to store into the root folder. Alternatively, you can create a separate folder for storing your files to avoid confusing your files with the files the iPod needs to operate. Do not put anything 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.

If you are using your iPod without having iTunes running you will need to manually disconnect the iPod from the system. Open My Computer. Browse to the drive that lists your iPod. Select the drive and drag it to the recycle bin. Once the drive has been deleted, you can safely detach your iPod from the computer. Avoid detaching your iPod from the computer with going through these steps first. Doing so can result in corruption of important files.

The iPod shuffle can also be used for storing files. Using a USB flash drive does this. To configure the iPod shuffle to store files, open the iPod preferences window from within iTunes. In the iPod preferences window use the slider to choose how much of the drive you would like to use for storing files and how much you would like to use for storing songs. You can add files in two ways. The first way is to drag and drop the icon for the file you would like to add onto the iPod folder in the iTunes screen. The second way is to navigate to the iPod drive through My Computer and add file. If you have the file open you can save it to the iPod by going to File, Save As. In the location window click on My Computer and select the iPod drive.

The iPod shuffle must be removed in a similar way to a regular iPod. If you are working through the iTunes window click the iPod eject button in the lower-right corner of the window. When the iPod screen shows Ok to disconnect you can safely remove your iPod. You can also remove the iPod shuffle if you are not working in iTunes by deleting the drive icon from the My Computer folder. As with a regular iPod, be careful not to detach the iPod shuffle from computer without first removing it in one of the two ways described above.

Hassle no more with emailing files to yourself in order to access them from another location. As long as you have your iPod and the USB cord or your iPod shuffle, you can access and store all the files you need.



By: Jason Cox

About the Author:

acute_angle12245 asked:


My iTunes library is all wrong. It won’t display my iPod songs on my laptop. So, in order to listen to my iPod songs, I have to plug my iPod in, and listen to my iPod’s library. But once I disconnect the USB cord, the library goes back to the stupid original songs that I don’t want. It’s very confusing, and it’s frustrating me. I try to drag the iPod songs into the existing iTunes library [You know, like when you're creating a playlist] and it won’t let me. On my mom’s computer though, iTunes cooperates and uploads and updates songs normally. But she had to wipe her hard drive clean because of a virus, so the songs don’t exist anymore.

PLEASE help me. This is very frustrating. I hope you understand it well enough to help me. Thanks.