The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

Joan, thanks for calling in. Here are the links we discussed on the air tonight:

Syncing photos to your iPod from your Windows PC

How to restore an iPod to its factory settings

Updating your iPod’s software

Also, the iPod assistant is worth a shot if none of these help out:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/

Let us know how it’s going!

The iPhone is very cool, but it’s not as revolutionary as the iPod Touch. It may lack a cell phone, camera, and even Mail.app, and it’s precisely because it lacks these features, among others, that the Touch represents a leap-forward, not only a glimpse of the future, but also the future manifested, tomorrow today. Because you could buy the iPod Touch and give up your cell phone, if not yet your cell service. And if you’re like me, you may even lose weight in the bargain!

You can now take a 20 minute guided tour of the iPhone here on Apple’s website. This device is mind-bogglingly cool. Watching this makes me want one more than ever.

I’ve had this wonderful little freeware application for many years now. And, since I had to yet again refer to it to definitively answer a call that just came in to the OnDeckTech helpdesk, I thought I’d pass it along to y’all as well. MacTracker is a database with a nifty-looking front end, that does just as it says. It gives you information about every model of Macintosh computer ever made. It even does iPods now as well. You can read more about it, and download it here . And, since it is freeware, if you find yourself relying on it, please consider donating, so that the authors can continue to develop it.

iPhone arrives on June 29. iPhone features an amazing mobile phone, is the best iPod ever created, and puts the Internet in your pocket with desktop–class email, web browsing, searching, and maps. And iPhone makes it all easy to use with its revolutionary multi-touch user interface. iPhone syncs with your PC or Mac just like an iPod, so organizing your content now will help you start calling, texting, emailing, surfing, listening, and watching even faster when you get your iPhone. Here are a few suggestions to help you get ready:

I love to listen to my iPod when I’m walking to work. One problem that I have is volume control. One song is too loud, the next one too soft. And sometimes I have my hands full and I can’t manually adjust the volume. That’s why I like Sound Check.

Sound Check tried to maintain a consistent volume level for all the songs on your iPod. To use Sound Check, first you have to enable it in the Audio pane of the iTunes Preferences window. iTunes adjusts the volume of the tracks in its Library. When the songs are uploaded to the iPod, the Sound Check settings are maintained.

Playlist , a website focusing on digital music across both platforms, has a great feature article on how to coax a few more minutes of Tom Waits out of your prescious iPod. In addition to basic tips, he provides links to a few accessories that will give extra energy to the device. Given that the article was written by Christopher Breen (who wrote a few books about iPods for Peachpit Press), I’ll put my money on the fact that he’s a reliable source.

OK, I admit it. I still carry around an old-fashioned address book. Well, I recently discovered that I could transfer my contacts from Address Book, plus info from iCal, to my iPod.

If you are using a Mac and iSync, it’s as easy.

To import all information using a Mac and iSync:

1. Connect iPod to your computer.
2. Open iSync and choose Devices > Add Device.
3. Select iPod and click Sync Now.

iSync transfers the data from iCal and Mac OS X Address Book to your iPod.

A quick way to organize your music files right on your iPod is to rate them. Find out how.

While a song is playing, simply press the select button (the big white one in the middle of the scroll wheel) twice. Use the scroll wheel to change the settings (1-5 stars) and press the select button once. The songs are automatically added to My Top Rated playlist.

Was sent a question from Chris at CBS:

Where does the Video I-Pod stand with being able to import video from TiVo unit directly? Like, when I have my Mythbusters show on my Directv play list and I want to download it to a video I-Pod for the train ride. Do I first have to go through a computer? Is the technology for that direct connect there yet? Thanks Brother!

Great question. Here’s a link to the TiVo site about their intentions to bring TV programming to the iPod the first quarter of this year (press release from 11/05):