text:
I updated my iPod touch (3g) to the iOS 4, but my hard drive filled up 1/2 way through
Part way through the iOS 4 update on my touch 3g my c: reached capacity. After clearing off some space I restarted iTunes. Now iTunes (and my touch) think that the latest version is installed. The touch still works fine, and it thinks it's running version 4, but it doesn't have any of the version 4 features! Is there anyway to force it to install version 4 again without doing a restore?

Since yesterday there is the iOS 4.1 update. Maybe this can be installed without problems. Or, you should be able to reset the iPod (use the link "restore iPod" under "search for updates", maybe different words, I'm using German iTunes).
BTW: You didn't try to update your iPod Touch to iPhone 4 but to iOS 4 ;)

Warning: I am not a qualified Apple support rep, so I'm not sure if the method prescribed here will work (i.e., caveat emptor), or put your phone in deeper trouble, but try this link, which has directions and links to the 4.0 "Gold Master" firmware.
Once you do this, if it works, when you update, also click on your iTunes iPod Touch "Summary Tab" button: "check for update" so you can then download and install iOS4.01 (which fixes a critical security vulnerability).

I'll give it a shot. I tried doing a restore but that put my touch in the same position it was in before the restore.

Put it into DFU mode.
Try this link for more info.


text:
Is there an iPod locator?
I know the iPhone does that, using me.com, but I don't know anything similar for iPods. I have an iPod touch and, sometimes, I forget where I leave it, only knowing it's on my house.
If it was my cell, I would dial the number and listen. Is there a similar app for iPods?

what if you cant connect the me.com thing cuz i didnt install it before i lost it?

You should open that comment as a new question, Mandy.

Your question and Webs' answer answer the question. With me.com, you can send an instant message to your iPod touch. Surely it needs WiFi turned on to receive the message. Additionally you can make the iPod beep for 120 seconds, and you can lock or reset it from remote.

How would the iPod receive those messages? Don't those apps use SMS to send information to the device?

It's an instant message that looks like and pops up like a system message. I tested it with my iPod Touch 8GB 2nd Gen, and it works.

That is pretty sweet! I wouldn't of expected them to accept the message over WiFi if it was an SMS message. But then again other jailbreak apps figured out SMS over WiFi too.

It's not SMS. It's Built off the Push Notifications system that Apple runs.

My guess is that most locating apps work using location services. Location services works by either triangulating the cell phone over cell connection or GPS. The iPod does not have a GPS or cell radio in it.
I have heard of location services using WiFi location, but then you would need location services installed and my guess is that it is not installed on the iPod. However, if it is, then you could connect to WiFi, turn on location, download an app to find your device, and then find it over WiFi. But accuracy is going to be hindered greatly using location over WiFi. Not to mention you would have to have the WiFi radio on to even find the device in this scenario. Which is impractical and not a good idea for good battery life.
Another option would be an app that when activated turns on the speaker of the iPod and beacons. But you would need a way to remotely turn this feature on. The only options here are Bluetooth and WiFi. Again the idea is hindered by needing one of those two radios always on. Which is impractical.
Probably the best options is one of those key finders. Key Ringer (http://www.keyringer.com/) is one such company. But the downside is you will need one of those bulky devices always attached to the iPod.

Wifi location works surprisingly well with the iPod touch, but I just want to find it in my house. Do you think is that impractical to have an app that connects somewhere to see if it needs to beep for some seconds? Maybe that's why I can't find it... But an app that turned the wifi on every 5 minutes just to check that status and then off again shouldn't be that inefficient. Maybe it could be considered a virus. Anyway, the devices are too bulky.

I agree on the bulkiness of devices, but due to the impracticality of the other solutions, it is probably the best. You are certainly free to leave your WiFi on for as long or as little as you like. But currently the only way to make one of those apps function correctly would be to have WiFi always on. No system exists yet to have WiFi just beacon on and off every few minutes.

MobileMe does this for iPod touches (if you have a paid account). You can also send a message and this will make a sound (if your iPod volume is high enough).

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text:
Do you still need to convert video for iPhone 4 (and now iPod Touch)
Short of the filetype (alot of what I have I don't believe is supported by either device) Do I need to convert movies specifically for them? Or can I load them as is?

iTunes will convert some file types for you. For those you want to convert yourself (custom resolution, bitrate, etc) I like to use Handbrake. I'm also experimenting (right this moment actually lol) with AVIDemux.
But to answer your question, I guess it depends on what the original file type is. Here is the spec sheet from Apple.

Video formats supported: H.264 video
  up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main
  Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up
  to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in
  .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
  MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by
  480 pixels, 30 frames per second,
  Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to
  160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo
  audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file
  formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35
  Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames
  per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo
  audio in .avi file format

Try an app called OPlayer. It plays just about anything, straight from a webserver or  iTunes file transfer.

PunyVid
Converts videos specifically for iPhone/iPod.

There is an iphone-app called yxplayer that can play many more video formats than are supported natively by iTunes/iPod/iPhone. However, playback often judders, the UI is quite minimalistic, and it does not remember last playback position etc.

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text:
How do I get good quality photos onto an iPod Touch?
When I sync my photos with the iPod Touch, the photos are put on as very low quality.   They do not even look good at full screen size and do not cope with zooming in to see details.
I can't find a setting in iTunes to control how match it compresses the photos.

You may want to try a re-sync if you recently updated to iOS 4.x
This resolved the issue for a user here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=10844169&postcount=2

this happened to me when I first upgraded my 3GS from 3.1.3 to 4.0, the moment the upgrade was complete, I unplugged my phone to browse the new features and I quickly noticed all my photos were low res, so I plugged my phone back to computer and hit sync, this time iTunes said "Optimizing Photos". Once that was complete, photos were back to normal.

we have done a few re-syncs and iTunes does say "Optimizing Photos".   It just seem to thing that saving space is worth more then having nice look photos you can zoom into.

Strange - it 'optimizes' my photos but I am able to zoom into them a bit once they are synced back to my iPhone.  Perhaps there is some issue with how they have been optimized - I don't think you can customize that.


text:
Is it possible to download a podcast directly to an iPod Touch without jailbreaking?
Specifically with the iPod Touch that was released in September 2010, is it possible to download a podcast directly to the unit. The answers that I've found so far involve jailbreaking, which I'm not interested in doing.
I would like to avoid having to use my main computer at all for managing podcasts, if possible.

This depends a lot on what version of iOS you are running. Please specify software versions!

You could always use a third party app like PodCaster.

+1 for the idea. For whatever reason, the 3rd party apps that I found all required jail breaking. This particular app, however, has some bad reviews that are concerning. Anyone know of more solid and polished apps that perform this function?

Yeah, that app is kinda marginal at best.

On the iPhone which is more or less the same thing; in the iTunes application there is a podcast section under "More"

Does that mean that I can download a podcast directly to the iPod, or do I have to sync it from iTunes on my computer?

@Kyle Cronin: Aren't all iPod Touch models wifi-only?

@jdl Yes, sorry. u07ch mentioned his iPhone and I forgot the question was about iPod Touches.

Went to my local apple store on saturday; the iTunes application on them had the podcast section so if your podcast is in itunes you can download it without a computer.


text:
How do I stop my iPod from playing audio books when I 'Shuffle Songs'
On my main menu in my iPod, I frequently click 'Shuffle Songs' to play randomly through my songs.  It manages not to include my podcasts but every once in a while will play a chapter from an audio book.
Is there a way to stop the Audio Books from mixing in with the music?
I have an iPod nano if that matters.

In iTunes, view info on the problem audio books and ensure "skip when shuffling" is checked.

Thank you.  Do yo have happen to know if there is a way to change this on my iPod without iTunes?

Probably not.  I suggest a resync with your PC/mac.

Audiobooks and podcasts are special categories in iTunes and on the iPod that won't mix into your music. If you manually add or rip them to your iTunes library, you will probably need to change their "Media Kind" to separate them from your music:

Shift select a group of Audiobook tracks
Choose "Get Info"
Go to the "Options" Tab
Change the list select for "Media Kind" to "Audiobook"
click "Okay" to keep the changes

There is only 1 thing you can change about your music library while using just your iPod:  the on-the-go playlist.

The ipod touch won't let you shuffle an Audiobook/podcast/iTunes U file.
Instead it gives you the option to listen to it at 2x, 1/2x or regular speed, and has a 30 seconds back button to quickly go back if your are interrupted

There is a different file extension for Apple Audio Codec (AAC) files when they are audio books.  If you use them, it will save you from having to flag anything specially, and it will be excluded from shuffle play automatically without you having to flag it as in the other answers.

.m4a is used for music only, although
this is not carefully observed
enough.
.m4b is used for books, and podcasts, and anything that needs to
remember a "bookmark".  The b is for
bookmark, not for book.


text:
Can I take a hard drive from an iPod Video and put it in an older iPod?
My 80gb iPod Video just died, and I'm pretty sure the hard drive still functions. If I buy an older black-and-white iPod, can I throw in the hard drive and expect it to Just Work?

Probably not.
You might have "form factor" issues, for one. But also, the two devices probably have different hardware, thus the software on the drives is probably incompatible.
Assuming that you don't have problem #1 (form factor), you'd still need to find a way to copy the image from the "older black-and-white iPod" over the 80GB drive before installing it back into the good iPod.
I think there are guides out there for this, but you're going to have to look around. I would start at the awesome DIY Fix-It site: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide
Otherwise, you may want to consider getting your iPod Video repaired: http://www.ipodrepair.com/


text:
How do I take apart an Apple iPod Connector?
The cable, not the part on the actual iPod.

There are a few different variants of the iPod connector - the cable that came with my iPhone (and caught fire - another story!) was much smaller than the one for my iPod, even though it's the same connector. Having said that, I have no idea how to pull them apart...

As you don't specify what you want to do with it afterwards, a large hammer may do the trick.

Do you actually need to take it apart? or do you need a disassembled connector for some modding?

Joke: it's easy to take it apart. Do you need it to be usable afterwards?
Thomas' suggestion is a good bet, but the pliers will likely damage the connector (the gray plastic).
But if you only care about the connector and not the housing (the white plastic), then you could cut the housing open without touching the connector itself.
It depends on what you want to do after you've taken it apart, but you don't mention that.

I actually had an issue with mine where I wanted to take it apart as well. The Apple brand cables don't seem to be very well-suited for travel, as the wire has detached from the connector on a few of mine.
Anyway, it looks like you may be able to CAREFULLY take a pair of pliers and pull the connector out of the plastic molding (on the iDevice side, not USB). I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure...let me know what you think.
Dunno if you're still interested in this, but I came across this one you can buy disassembled.


text:
How can I prevent my iPod from downloading album art?
I have a first-gen iPod Nano 4GB. I live having album art in my iTunes library on my nice, big, fat, PC hard drive. However, I don't really need it on my iPod. I'd like to maximize the amount of music I can fit on there.
So, how much space is that album art taking up, anyway? Can I keep it from getting on the device without having to delete it all from iTunes?

There used to be an option in iTunes 8 that allowed toggling of album artwork on devices.  This was removed in iTunes 9.
I also have your model Nano and would like to disable the artwork - only recourse for us is to leave feedback :(

I knew I'd seen that setting before. Urgh. Here's hoping it comes back. (I left feedback as well, but my hopes aren't high.)


text:
What are some cheaper alternatives to Airport Express that allow music streaming?
I have a Windows desktop and laptop (no Macs) and an Airport Express for listening to music in the living room. I also have sets of speakers in two other rooms. I don't want to spend another $200 just to redirect sound to other rooms.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Airport Express that would allow me to stream music from iTunes (on a Windows computer) to these distant speakers?
(I intend to control the music playlist/volume remotely via a mobile device)

(warning shameless plug) if you're looking for multi-room audio some of these options may help: http://home4film.com/questions/10/how-can-i-set-up-a-multi-room-stereo-system-for-less-than-a-grand

Check to see what AirPlay enabled devices are coming out in November - they don't require an Airport Express.

Unfortunately, there aren't any products other than the Airport Express that are compatible with iTunes music streaming (unless something new has come out recently). However, it's usually very easy to find a used model online for much less; I was able to pick up two of them on Craigslist for about $30 apiece. They may not be the latest model, but if all you're interested in is streaming music, then any model will work just fine.

Yes - there are all sorts of wireless systems that work by plugging a cable into your mac's headphone port. The griffin iMic and others let you add another output via USB. Don't overlook Bluetooth audio like Belkin and others make.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
How can I turn off the photo preview when I plugin in my iPhone on my PC?
When I plug in my iPhone 3GS into my Windows XP machine, it automatically opens up Word and displays a preview of all my photos from my phone.
I believe I may have accidentally selected an option to always do that. How do I turn it off?

Wait, it opens word? Do you mean Microsoft Word? That sounds very odd!

@torbengb It's entirely possible Word would have gotten associated as the default action. You've never had a user email a screenshot pasted into a Word document? I used to get them all the time...

I see Word-embedded screenshots weekly, but I've never before seen the Scanner-and-Camera thing default to Word.

Connect your phone to the computer.
In Windows, click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras.
Right-click on "Apple iPhone" > Properties.
Click the tab "Events".
Click the radio button "Take no action". Then OK.

Now when you connect the phone, nothing should happen.

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text:
iPhone 3GS on T-Mobile Connecting to iTunes Question
I just purchased iPhone 3GS. Currently it is running Version OS 4.0.1. Now if I update my iTunes on my Mac and plug then connect the iPhone to the Mac to sync it then will it brick or not.
I need the latest version of iTunes on my Mac for iPhone development but I don't want to push the latest version of OS to my iPhone or else there is a danger of bricking the device!
Can someone please enlighten me with this?

Upgrading iTunes will not force you to upgrade iOS on your 3GS.
Upgrade your iTunes with 3GS disconnected. And when you connect your 3GS to iTunes it will say that an update is available and ask you "Download?" or "Download and Install?" From here, you can choose to just download the new iOS upgrade and not install.
This downloaded file will come in handy when you want to upgrade to jailboken version of that new iOS.


text:
Why can't I add or edit contacts on my new iPhone 4?
On my new iPhone 4, I can add a new contact after talking to them (Add as new contact) but I cannot otherwise add new contacts, or edit existing ones.
It looks like a bug.  Is there a way to work around it, or do I have to wait for Apple to fix their issue?  The phone is not jailbroken.

Perhaps it is because I restored a backup from my old 3GS to the new phone?  Either way, the + button in the Contacts app isn't there, and neither is the Edit button when I look at a contact...

There is an issue. When going through the contacts app I am unable to add, edit or delete contacts. I also tried going through my text messages to edit the contact from there and was unable to. But if I go through the phone app and select favorites or numbers that I have recently called, then I am able to edit those contacts. Is this a minor glitch? Before the new software update to my iPhone 4 I was able to edit contacts through selecting my contact book and through txt messages.

Make sure Contacts is closed and removed from the multitasking menu (double tap home button). Then open it and take a screenshot (power + home button). Post that screenshot please.

You can use the Contacts application provided in the iPhone 4, and create/edit contacts in there.

On a brand-new iPhone 4, the Contacts application is the only built-in application on the second app screen. Swipe to the right and you should see it.

What's preventing you from doing so?
The ability to add and edit contacts from the phone app is still available.  I tested this just now on mine.

I can't do that; the + button is missing on mine!

Are you syncing your contacts with any sources?  Please check Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars and see if any accounts say "Contacts" underneath.

-1 - how on earth is "it works on mine" a valid answer? (Except, even though I've got 20k+ global rep, I still can't downvote here. So it's in spirit only)

It seems that the problem occurs when adding contacts to these phones after updating to IOS 5 (the + sign on the corner right is missing).  IOS 5 added iCloud and if your contacts are not turned ON from the iCloud settings, you won't be able to add, edit or delete contacts.
The Fix: turn ON your iCloud contacts settings from Settings > iCloud and you should see your + sign on the corner back again.

I had the exact same problem. Go to settings, then iCloud, go to the 'contacts' switch and set it to 'on' and it will fix your problem immediately.

just go to settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > if there is a accont (hotmail, g mail etc.) just delete the account and then  automatically you can start adding contacts

an anonymous commenter adds this: " this just deletes your mail account... see below answers regarding icloud settings for IOS5 and above... I followed this step and now having to re-configure my mail settings...."

Citing sources is a helpful practice for tips like this.


text:
iPhone backlight blinks on then goes out. What are my options?
This morning I woke up to find my iPhone dark. If I pressed the home button to turn on the screen, the backlight would flash on briefly and then die. I've turned it on and off, done a hard reboot (home+lock), and I'm in the process of trying a restore.
Has anyone ever seen a similar issue?
The phone was purchased last June with a contract from ATT from an Apple store. If I take the phone in, will they fix it or replace it?
What should I do next?

You should take your phone in. They will fix it if they can and it's cheaper for them than giving you a new.
If you try to fix it yourself they can put the blame on you, so don't touch the hardware.

+1 It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. If they say no you've nothing but a trip to the shop.

It may be your proximity sensor. It's what causes the backlight to turn off when you put the phone to your face and turn back on when you move away. I was told that that's one of the few things Apple Care does actually cover.
But before you take it in, do you have a bumper on your iPhone? If so, it may be covering the sensor, which, while facing the phone, is just to the left of the earpiece. If your bumper (or maybe a dirty screen protector) is covering it, that may cause the screen to stay dark.
Hope this helps!


text:
How can I install .deb files for Cydia manually (without wifi)?
as I already said here my wifi is not working so I need to install Cydia .deb files like SBSettings, Installous, Winterboard etc. manually...well I did, but they wont work properly. I got some .deb files from various website, added them on my device in the cydia install folder, so far so good. I restarted my iphone, the icons showed up (Installous, winterboard) but when I open up Cydia and go to the packages they have a redish background (something like "hey there is something wrong"). Is something wrong with the files or the manual install is not good?
SBSettings -> Respring works, "more" work, the toggle icons don't show up (wifi, bluetooth, openSSH etc).
Installous -> Added some .ipa files to my device, they show up on download tab on my device but no icons show up (they are blank). I hit install but i get an error like "Error building SBCache" then "Installed" but they are not installed.
Winterboard -> works.
So any solution to that problem?
3G 16GB - 3.1.2 - 05.13.04

You can add .deb files and install apps from apptrackr, etc.. using the app iFunbox. I actually just used it the other day to locally upload my custom sms-tone pack. So download your needed .deb files from online, then transfer and install them via the program iFunbox.
http://www.i-funbox.com/

This might be because certain Cydia apps have other requirements. When you download an app from Cydia it checks to make sure that you have the foundational files for that app to work installed, if not then it installs them itself. If you don't have those, some .deb files might not work properly.


text:
What can I do once my jailbroken iPhone gets a data plan attached by AT&T?
I noticed my phone bill had a data plan attached this month to my jailbroken iPhone -- is there any way to get around this?

You're going to have to talk to AT&T and have them remove the data plan, unless you're under contract for a data plan (as all new iPhones are) they should be able to take it off your next bill. Jailbreaking really doesn't have anything to do with this.


text:
Sand in iPhone 3G S
The volume controls on my iPhone 3G S are pretty hard lately. It works, but I need to press very hard on them to change volume. I am afraid that some sand went inside, but I am not sure about that.
Any hint to fix it?
Thanks!

This site is for discussing electronic gadgets, so your question is ON TOPIC.

Buy a couple cans of compressed air, hold one right side up and spray into any areas you think sand crept into. See if that helps.
You could also try going to AT&T or an Apple store, maybe they would do a free cleaning?
If not you can hunt around Google for articles on how to open up your iPhone and give it a full cleaning. FYI, you can damage the phone and void your warranty doing this so just beware what you are doing.

DON'T press those volume buttons anymore until you have fixed the problem! Continuing to press the buttons will only make it worse, and you risk seriously damaging the electronics.
From your description it sounds like the hardware underneath the volume switch is broken. It will not get better, only worse over time. I'd suggest to have the phone serviced as long as it's otherwise still in good condition, or give up and replace it sooner than planned.
You could also try to repair it yourself by opening it up and cleaning that switch, but it might not even be possible, and worse: you risk breaking your phone. Have it serviced instead.

Taking it to the Apple store is usually the fastest way to get a trained tech to open the front glass and clean the insides. It's unlikely that operating the buttons will cause harm and not instead crush the sand, but it's good advice to get it in sooner unless getting to a shop would take a significant amount of money or time.


text:
Is it my imagination or do iPods charge faster using a car charger?
Maybe I'm crazy, but it sure seems like when I plug my electronics (iPhone, iPod, etc.) into a car charger it gets up to a full charge MUCH faster than if I use a regular charger and an outlet.
Do these devices charge faster from car adapters, or am I imagining this? If so, why?

Do you have any data to support your suspicion? Have you tried running the gadget down then timing a full charge on both? I suspect it may be a case of watched pots...

The answer to this question is that "it depends" and it is actually quite possible that your car charger is charging your devices faster than the AC charger you use at home. In both cases, there is significant power available at the source to do the charging relative to the number of watts being used to charge the device. That is, both the AC wall outlet and the cigarette lighter socket are both going to have "hundreds" of WATTS available if not more whereas the device being charged is only going to be consuming maybe "tens" of WATTs at the most during peak charging rates.
Therefore what makes the difference is the amount of power being OUTPUT by the particular charger itself....you just need to check the ratings of the charger and see how much power than can each OUTPUT. The output power is simply VOLTS times AMPS for the DC power that your device is likely to be using.
Some wall chargers that are very inexpensive have very small power supplies in them and only put out a limited amount of charging current at the rated charging voltage for your device. Others may be quite a bit beefier and will be output up to or above the maximum the device will take. Similarly for the car adapter.
Given that the DC source from the car is directly available and a very low cost regulator can be used to generate a regulated charging voltage without having to convert using a switching power supply from an AC line, it seems more than likely that you have a car charger that charges quicker than your home unit. Also, it is possible that the device accepts a variable input DC voltage and can take the 9V to 12V range from the car directly. In this case, it is quite possible that the car charger will end up delivering significantly more charging power than the AC charger.

The amount of power you draw from cars is quite limited, so it must be your imagination. The reason is probably because you are doing something instead of going back and forth checking. So it's more your sense of time that's different.
A more detailed explanation:
Typically what you get from a car at it's raw state, is something like 9-12 volts. What you get from your house is around 200-300 Volts, it depends where in the world you live. When you're changing a small gizmo, like iphone/ipad, that has a small power usage, 9-12 volts is just fine. However if you were to charge a laptop you would see what I mean. You would have to convert the 9-12 volts to 200-300, (a factor of 20-30) and would thus have to decrease the amperage with the same factor. The result would be that your laptop could hold power for a longer period of time, but would eventually go flat.
So there is a limit to how much power (Walt) you can draw from a car, and it will always be a lot lower than what you can get at home. If you are a skilled electrician you could raise the amount of power by accessing the car battery directly.
Now why isn't it a lot faster to charge your iphone at home?
Well it easily could be, but charging a battery at a very high pace, will also create a lot of heat. Apple have probably taken this into consideration when they created the charger for the iPhone. A balance between having a low charge time, without heating the battery too much which could risk the health or just the durability of the phone.

There's plenty of power available from a car to power a phone or iPod charger.

@Dennis Williamson: plenty of power to charge it at a decent pace, but not plenty of power to charge it MUCH faster than at home.

A typical gadget draws 300-500 milliamps while charging. A typical cigarette lighter socket is fused for 20 amps. You can run a 150W (120V AC output, about 15A DC input) inverter from a cigarette lighter socket. Believe me, there's plenty of headroom for a quick charger. I have an AC powered quick charger that will charge 4 AA batteries in an hour. It only pulls 18W (120V AC)...

Just because you have 1800 W available in a home AC outlet, that doesn't mean you can jam that down a cellphone's throat. The biggest DC adapter I have is 2250mA and it only draws half an amp on the AC side. A DC-DC adapter that's 12V in and 5V-500mA out is only going to draw about 200mA plus whatever's lost to inefficiency.

I'll disclaim this post by stating upfront I am no sort of electrical engineer, but two things stick out to me as possibilities:

Phones operate on DC power. Any charging effort has to ensure the power is being delivered in DC form. This means charging from the AC outlet has to do a conversion, where as the power from the outlet on your car only has to be regulated. Which brings me to my second point..
The power from your car is already in DC form. If regulated correctly, it should be no different from the wall charger. If you're seeing drastically different charging times I would suspect either the wall charger is limited to prevent too much heat buildup, or your car charger is allowing more direct charging to occur (maybe at the expense of your battery?)

Maybe batteries are 40VDC in Denmark, but they are (mostly) 12VDC in the US (which seems to be where the OP is from). Any car should have more than enough power to charge a phone. My Blackberry charger is only 5V 700mA. My truck has 12v with 30amp circuits... if not regulated I would probably have a fireball on my hands in a matter of seconds.  ;)
Just something to consider...

My iPhone charges twice as fast when being charged with a 3rd party after market charger in the car (DC), as opposed to the Apple AC charger.
In my case DC is definitely faster

My experience is the car charger I use restores my iPhone battery at a FAR GREATER speed than does any device at home: my USB charger in the wall, my USB charger at my computers, and my iHome and other stereo docks.  It's not even close—maybe as much as 4 or 5 times fewer minutes to full recharge.

It would be interesting to check the current supplied by each charger with an ammeter.

Ok... I'm going to put this in simple terms... most car chargers, especially the cheaper ones, don't have voltage regulators on them.  This WILL cause them to charge your phone faster. Some CHEAPER chargers don't have them either and will do the same.  HOWEVER, you should know home chargers are designed to be slower and "trickle charge" your battery because this is safer.  Speed charging damages the battery in time and will limit your battery's charge capacity even though it will read full.  If you look on your home charger it will state this.
For example:  my home charger says on it,
input 100-240v
Output 5.1v
Why would my BRAND NAME MOTORLA CHARGER want to lower the voltage output?   Because it prolongs battery life.  This link has a little more tech talk in it on the subject... slightly.  http://chris.pirillo.com/are-mobile-car-chargers-good-for-phone-batteries/

I think it's because we're charging straight from USB and there's no Adapter involved. May not be how we're intended to charge...


text:
Can I buy songs from iTunes within my iPhone appplication?
I'm new to iPhone development and sorry if my question sounds stupid. Just wondering is it possible that I can buy songs from the iTunes using my iPhone application I just saw some apps doing the same.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

As far as I know, no you can't. Buying music from the iTunes Store is limited to the iTunes application. You can use a link which will pass the user to iTunes to look at that particular song but they can't buy it from within your application.

Ohkay! Thanx Chealion.


text:
Jailbreak iPhone for non-US country
Am I able to get a new iPhone 4 for non US Country (India). My plan is someone coming from US can bring to one to India. Is this possible to do?

iPhone is being sold without any contract in any western european country that sells them, because they are now required to do so. In fact, Apple itself sells the iPhone 4 without a contract.
In the USA, however, things are different, and you have to have a 2 year AT&T contract.
In Spain, the Online Apple Store sells the iPhone completely contract-free, as you can read in this text (in Spanish), however they only ship within Spain. I assume other Apple Stores in Europe follow the same practice.
Regarding the Jailbreak, you should read this.

So if someone from Europe buys an Iphone and ships here does it work

If they buy it contract-free unlocked factory (directly from Apple), then yes. Individual vendors (Vodafone, Orange, etc.) will sell you the phone at a lower price, but you will have to sign a contract for 2 years and pay them the corresponding data and voice fees.

@unknownBBUser: Exactly, if it is factory unlocked, as Martín says. Maybe you could get one from UK with this advice I posted to another question.

you must note that Apple produce iPhone in 2 way.

Normal Mode that @Martin told above.
Unlocked Factory

if you tell your friend(family) that bought you "unlocked factory" iPhone for you yes it work fine for you in India. and if they bought normal iPhone if you jailbreak it, you must able to use it with other simcard.


text:
Spaces and Expose Overview using the 2nd Monitor
I have two monitors, and 9 (3x3) virtual desktops. When I invoke the Spaces overview mode of expose, everything gets pulled onto the primary display. It creates one overview with 3x3 desktops, although each desktop is a weird shape of two rectangles touching and offset, representing the two monitors.
I would much prefer to have both desktops used for this view, with a 3x3 display of the primary spaces on the primary display, and a 2nd 3x3 display of the secondary desktops on the second display.
Does anyone know of a defaults command or 3rd party app that supports this?

As far as I know, it’s not possible to show the Spaces Overview on both screens. It will always be shown in the primary display and the other will fade to black. I haven’t come across any utility that does that. Hyperspaces is nice, but it doesn’t do that. Although if you really use spaces, I’d recommend you give it a look. Read their blog and possibly ask the author if such thing would be possible for future versions. He’s working on version 2.0 at the moment and you never know… :)

Mission Control does this in Lion!

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
How to convert iOS backup from 4.0 to 3.x
Is there a way to convert an iOS 4 backup to format that was used in iOS 3.
I have an iPhone 3G and iOS 4 runs really slow on it. I have succesfuly downgraded the firmware back to 3.1.3 but now I can't restore data backup because the backup format is only for iOS 4. Any ideas?
Thanks!

No, there is no way to exchange backups for each major versions.
but you can give that a try, first you need to downgrade the firmware, and for the moment you can't downgrade from 4.x to 3.x as it already updated the baseband and there is nothing you can do now unless using hacker tricks that you need to find in specialized forums.
Then after update the device with the firmware, you just chose "restore backup" on your first connection to iTunes and pass the activation (if an iPhone)
Remember one BIG thing:
iPhone 3G runs iOS 4.0 really slow, but iOS 4.1 is sooo much faster! you should upgrade! I did and I was impressed with the speed, though now wife has it as I bought the 4th version of the iPhone.

Comment about the BIG thing: I wonder why I didn't see any groundbreaking difference after 4.1 upgrade (my 3G was a lot faster with pre 4.0 versions).

ohh, but it's so dang fast with 4.1, Navigon takes less than one minute to load and get a signal... while with 4.0.2 It would take sometimes, and I'm not kidding, 4 to 5 minutes, it was terrible! (iPhone4 takes around 15 sec, now) :)


text:
How to copy SMS messages from a Nokia phone (or Nokia PC Suite backup) to iPhone?
What if I have a Nokia PC Suite backuped file which contains all the SMS and want to copy them to the new iPhone?

I can provide half an answer. I'm not sure how to get the SMS out of the Nokia backup, but you won't be able to copy them to the new iPhone directly. You'll need to write a script to translate them to the iPhone format. I provide instructions below how to reverse engineer the iPhone SMS DB.
The iPhone SMS DB is sqlite3. If your iPhone is jailbroken, you can get and view the DB on the phone itself (install terminal) or on your desktop:
# get it local
scp iphone:/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db ./
# dump to ASCII
sqlite3 sms.db .dump > sms.db.sql
# edit it
emacs sms.db.sql
# Re-db
cat sms.db.sql | sqlite3 sms2.db;
# Put it back on the iPhone
scp sms2.db  iphone:/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db

If your phone is not jailbroken, you can operate on the backup up SMS DB, replace the backup locally and then restore the iPhone. The backup is located in:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/<long_hex_string>/

And, in my case, and according to various web sources, is named:
3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28

Although comments below indicate that may not always be the name of the file. Run the sqlite3 command above to dump this to ASCII to understand the format, then replicate this format with whatever tools you want from your Nokia DB.

Here are some instructions on how to migrate your SMS in the reverse direction for Android: http://android.riteshsahu.com/tips/import-sms-iphone-android
An iPhone database extractor: http://insend.de/

I'm not sure if the file name "3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28" is iPhone version dependent. On my Mac, I just can't find this file.

Are you on Windows or OS X? My system is OS X 10.4.6 and iPhone 3GS running 4.0.1.

OS X 10.6.4, iPhone 3GS 4.0; I also tried to spotlight this file but not found.

Well you can find it a couple of ways... Go to that folder and then find all the SQLite DB's and search each one (file * | grep SQLite). There are quite a few, so you could try syncing, send an SMS, and re-sync. Look at timestamps, only a few files should have changed.

Please check iNoki at: http://www.nokisoft.com/inoki. It's an iPhone app which can extract and import data in .NBU file created by Nokia PC Suite. All phonebook, sms, calendar, photo, audio, videos can be imported.
AppStore link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inoki/id438619967?ls=1&mt=8
SMS is viewable in iNoki instead of native SMS app - for apple has no official API to insert into native SMS db.

The program inoki has marketing material that shows it might work for your problem:

You can copy the .NBU files to iNoki's folder using iTunes file sharing. You can also invoke iNoki to open the .NBU file from Email or in your Dropbox.

you could find details at http://www.nokisoft.com/inoki/

Declaration : I do not guarantee success for this process as I am not the owner and I do not have relations to this website.
I'm only answering thi question because I have had a hard time looking for the solution to this myself. The free version probably won't work other than to see if it can get a few records as there is alsoo a paid version that costs USD19.99 through the APPSTORE ishttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inoki-lite/id461608906?mt=8

Though its difficult method, I just want you to know it exists in the worst case. You can also do it manually by exporting the messages from C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Nokia\Nokia Suite (the name of the db might be like sms_db.sqlite). There are many tools to read SQLite db like MesaSQLite for Mac and a firefox plugin for Firefox browser.
Then using the same tool import it into the iPhone SMS DB.
I have already written how to deal with iPhone SMS DB here

There are command line tools to read sqlite db - why not explain how to use the tools you recommend here? Also, summarizing your link allows your answer here to stand on it's own in case the link dies in the future.

authors: Dëïù Dë Dôülėur


text:
Is there a tool like Furigana that I can use on iOS Safari?
On my iPod (iOS 4.1), I'm often browsing Japanese webpages, and while I can usually understand the meaning, I often don't know the readings, especially in new contexts.
For my desktop web browsers, there are various ways to get it to display furigana for the webpage you're looking at: the Furigana Inserter extension, a bookmarklet to hiragana.jp, etc.
Does iOS Safari support extensions, or bookmarklets, or any other mechanism by which I can have it add furigana?  I can manually copy the URL, and go to hiragana.jp and paste it, and it looks great when it's all done, but the process is manual and slow.  Alternatively, is there any built-in furigana support, for Safari or any other app?  (If there is it's probably well-hidden, but it wouldn't be the first well-hidden part of iOS!)
I'm not too concerned at this point about whether it's built-in functionality, or whether it has to send my webpage unencrypted over the internet to a service.  It would be really nice if it was local-only and secure, but at this point I'll take anything.

Dredging this question up from the archives, since I found it while looking for related stuff... in iOS 8 apps can provide extensions that change the content of a Safari page (for example, the Bing app offers language translation) — and the Safari share/action button is a lot easier to reach than a bookmarklet. I haven't seen any third party apps that do furigana yet, but maybe someone will make one eventually?

You can use a bookmarklet. Just sync your Safari or Firefox bookmarks with iTunes. Every bookmarklet you have on the desktop will be available on mobile Safari on the iPhone.
Or you can add the bookmarklet directly from within mobile Safari on the iPhone:
Step 1: Select the line bellow and copy it:
javascript:void(document.location='http://trans.hiragana.jp/ruby/'+escape(document.location))

Step 2: Navigate to hiragana.jp and tap on the '+' button to save a bookmark
Step 3: tap on the bookmarks icon then on 'Edit'
Step 4: Select the bookmark you just added
Step 5: tap on the address, then on the gray 'x' to clear the field
Step 6: tap that field again and select 'Paste'
Step 7: you're done

Do as above, but it does not work, nothing happened. Do you mean to add a bookmark with a address "javascript:void(document.location=’http://trans.hiragana.jp/ruby/’+escape(document.location))
" And when we go into the page we want to translate then press the bookmark? I did not but it did not work at all.

It works very nicely - but you have to manually replace the ' symbol in the bookmark, because copy/paste changes this symbol into a series of digits and % that are not recognized


text:
iPhone App Update from a Development Point of View
I am doing iPhone development and my first app is in the market. First week was pretty good but now it is loosing momentum. If I provide an update to the app will it improve the app exposure in the iPhone app store.

All an update will do is reset the star rating for the application if it an .x release (for example, 1.0 to 1.1).
But to take the question and answer a big step further (one that falls well outside the scope of this forum), you cannot rely solely on the App Store to market your app. All of the rules for online marketing still apply.

Oh! Does that mean that I will loose all my 7 stars for my version 1 if I push out version 1.1. This is bad because how will the users know if that is a good app or not!

Yes, but it also means that any bad ratings go away as well. All written reviews remain, however. It is common practice to withhold certain easy, minor fixes and updates to give more opportunities to reset numbers if need be.

Well! I have all good ratings but I also like to provide a new version of the app with new features. What can I do?

You'll want to double-check my facts, but I don't think there is anything you can do about that.

I wouldn't say that you lose your ratings, users can still see the ratings for previous versions.

I'd recomend that you read a book that I'm reading these days, Tapworthy. It has a lot of advice on what to add to your apps, what to do to keep them interesting, and so on.
Anyway, you should market the app as if it were you who were selling it. Create a dedicated website, with a big iPhone picture and screenshots or videos inside it. Create a dedicated twitter account, and give out promo codes to influential bloggers and app reviews sites...


text:
Will iPhone App Update to new version will remove all the ratings?
I plan to update my app with new features. If I publish a new version say V 1.0.1 then will I loose all my ratings from version 1.0.

Apple splits your App's ratings into two sections; "Current Version" and "All Versions".
The preference on the App Store is to display the "current version" ratings, however aggregated historical ratings and reviews are also available.

awesome! thanks for the answer. I will go ahead and update the app with new features. Thanks!


text:
How do I see the currently running applications on an iPod Touch?
There is only one button at the bottom of my iPod Touch. To close applications, I press the home button. Does it really close applications, or does it just display the home page and an extra thread runs in the background? Is there any way that I can see the currently running applications?

In iOS 3, you press the home button, with very few and only Apple-engineered exceptions (eg. the iPod app) the app is closed.
In iOS 4+, there is limited multitasking available to third-party apps. Apple freezes all processes in the background unless they're performing one of the following functions (ripped from Ars):

Audio: you can now listen to streaming music from apps, like Pandora or newscasts through the NPR app, while doing other activities on your phone.
VoIP: you can carry on Voice Over IP calls on services like Skype without having to quit the app if you need to perform other tasks.
Location: apps that need to poll your location, such as GPS and direction apps, will be able to do so in the background.
Local notifications: third-party apps no longer have to rely solely on push notifications if they want to alert you of something on your phone. If you have an alert set in, say, one of Omni's applications, it can ping you when the time comes instead of having to go through a convoluted series of Internet tubes to get to you.
Complete tasks: if you start a task in an application and then switch to another one (such as downloading a new map in your favorite game), it can now complete the task in the background instead of forcing you to sit there and wait on it.
Fast app switching: this is basically "pausing" an app where it is, which allows you to quickly switch away from it and then switch back, picking up where you left off.

In iOS 4, double-tapping the home button shows a tray holding both recently-used apps and apps performing the above limited-multitasking functions. You can close them/remove them from the tray by clicking the red "-" sign.

Yes, but is there a way to distinguish between "recently-used apps and apps performing the above limited-multitasking functions"?

@Thilo No there isn't.

If you use iOS 4 (or higher) tapping the Home button to close an app now only hides the app's activity and don't closed really, if you want close app you must "double tap button hold the icon then press the dash to close it"
But if you use iOS 3 or less when you press ipod touch button it close running apps and go to your home page.


text:
What are Mac OS X diagramming tools like Visio on Windows?
Visio is the most conspicuous example of a program that I found useful on Windows for which I have not identified a Mac-compatible equivalent.
Visio's primary function is as a flowchart diagramming tool. It allows the user to construct complex information flows with smart objects and interconnect graphics that snap and bend as the user moves things around on the page. It evolved over the years to support other diagram and information flow views like IT diagrams and UI mockups.
What's out there that can replace Visio on the Mac?

OmniGraffle or OmniGraffle Pro: http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/feature_comparison/

OmniGraffle Pro reads Visio's binary files, not just their XML ones.  That was worth it by itself for me.  Also, FWIW, I much prefer OmniGraffle to Visio in terms of ease of use.  My coworkers often comment about how nice the diagrams are.

I have had similar experience with my coworkers. Omnigraffle is what Visio would like to be.

OmniGraffle isn't equivalent to Visio. It's a much higher quality software for its UI quality and for the quality of graphics produced.
Pages may also be used to make high quality graphics and with much more graphical objects than OmniGraffle.

As much as i like OG, it still lacks the ability of fine tuning shapes in a more accessible manner like the fine tuning abilities present in visio and concept draw when it comes to mechanical processing diagrams. It still is a fine replacement for the purpose of drawing UI mockups.

We produce draw.io, it's not as complex as the named tool, but it does the majority of tasks in this field. It's free, plus there's a Desktop version available.

Hi. I understand that this answer might be very old and you may not monitor this account, but I just want to let you know that I'm completely blown away by how simple and free draw.io is. It's lightweight, loads fast (even loads faster than the actual MS Visio lol), has tons of shapes, can save to cloud or local drive right away, and also great documentation! I can't believe this is completely free, even for commercial use! Thank you for develop this!

As others have mentioned OmniGraffle is a great Visio replacement.  But if you want something free, I'd also recommend yED:
http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html
I use it on my Linux-based systems, but since its java-based, it works well on Mac OS X, as well as Windows.

Dia, it's not a native app, it uses x11 but it works ok.
There is also ConceptDraw PRO but this is another of those cross-plantform apps and doesn't work as well as OmniGraffle.
I would probably still recommend OmniGraffle for Mac.

OmniGraffle is awesome, but quite pricy. If you're looking for Visio replacement for specifically UI mockups or really simple diagrams, you can use Balsamiq Mockups

Check out GenMyModel, a new browser-hosted UML modeler, cross-platform and free. It works on Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari (Mac OS) and provides UML-compliant modeling with code generation (java, SQL). It presently supports class diagrams and use case diagrams. You can also export images and PDF reports.

Surprised to see that Lucidchart isn't on here.

HTML5 based
Supports all the IT libraries I want
Import and export any Visio files
It has a visio viewer that allows you to edit and view visio files. This is because its integrated with your google drive so it is easy for Lucidchart to allow you to work on those files and export it.
Lucid chart has a collaborative interface that allows to easily work with small teams editing rather than having to send a diagram back and forth.
Its free for a single user. (there are other options which do have prices attached which isn't too bad)
It has a drag and drop feature which makes it easy to use and is very intuitive.

I'm not surprised at Lucidchart's obscurity on the Mac platform. It's not native and for a software rental, the cost is high compared to options for iOS and Mac like OmniGraffle with a rich set of support in the Mac ecosystem.

I have just come across another nice (open source) application for creating Diagrams and Mockups - http://pencil.evolus.vn/. It is not as professional and powerful as Omnigraffle, but for many situations it probably is enough, namely simple diagrams and mockups (which can be exported as HTML).
I also use some other solutions for diagrams (including UML diagrams), these are not for mockups:

Yed: http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html
ArgoUml: http://argouml.tigris.org/

An alternative viewer to the one mentioned in Donald B's answer is:
Enolsoft Visio Viewer for Mac
A smart file viewing tool to support the use of Visio files by Mac OS users, enabling them to view, save and print Microsoft Visio drawings and diagrams on Mac OS X 10.7 and higher.

View Microsoft Visio Drawings in VSD format easily on Mac.
Convert Visio to PDF with original elements retained.
Support multi-tab viewing to switch between multiple Visio files easily.

It is a "Paid-For" product however it is available as a "Free Trial", to allow you to try before you buy (if so desired).

While I love Omnigraffle, it isn't cost effective for most. A cheaper alternative for me was Diagrammix, especially since it allows me to use Omnigraffle stencils to create network diagrams, E-R diagrams, and flowcharts, for example.

If the link was ever valid, it no longer is, and points to videos of dubious morality.

I personally like MaSSHandra. The approach of it is a bit different to what MS Visio has as it is a 3D tool and provides other tools like autodiscovery of networks. And it's cross-platform.

The Opensource Apache OpenOffice offering includes a visio-like tool which is appropriate for drawing shapes. It supports windows, linux and Mac.
You may give it a try:
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

Check out Napkin. It's $39.99 on Mac App Store.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Using git on the iPhone
I have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS running 4.0.1, and I recently installed git from Cydia just for fun. I've noticed in recent weeks that a number of developers have been throwing their theme/plugin source code up on GitHub, which is theoretically awesome because updating is a 2-command process (cd /private/var/stash/Themes/<theme>.theme/ and git pull) that can be done on the phone itself.
But when I try to clone a repo, this happens:
Dylan:/private/var/stash/Themes root# git clone "http://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme"Initialize GMT Statusbar Icons.theme/.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /private/var/stash/Themes/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme/.git/
error: File 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (http://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme/objects/00/00000000000000000000000000000000000000) corrupt
Getting pack list for http://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme
Getting alternates list for http://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme
Also look at   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitiona
Also look at <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lan
Also look at
Brought to you by GitHub</
Also look at
The GitHub Blog</
Also look at
Support</
Also look at
Contact Us</
Getting pack list for   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitiona
error: Protocol   "http not supported or disabled in libcurl
Getting pack list for <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lan
error: Couldn't resolve host '<html xmlns="http:'
Getting pack list for
Brought to you by GitHub</
error: Couldn't resolve host '
<a href="http:'
Getting pack list for
The GitHub Blog</
error: Couldn't resolve host '
<a href="http:'
Getting pack list for
Support</
error: Couldn't resolve host '
<a href="http:'
Getting pack list for
Contact Us</
error: Couldn't resolve host '
<a href="http:'
error: Unable to find 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 under http://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme
Cannot obtain needed object 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
fatal: Fetch failed.

Can anyone tell me why? Am I missing something?

It looks like github is sending you back the 404 page because you're requesting it specifically over http. Try this url instead:
git://github.com/dcinzona/LockInfo-Status-Bar-Icons---Winterboard-Theme.git/GMT Statusbar Icons.theme


text:
iPhone / iPod / iPad Sync Problems
I have an iPhone 4, iPod Touch and iPad... And I have problems with syncing.
If I download an app directly to my iPhone and put it in a folder, and then sync my iPhone with my Mac, it will pull that app out of the folder and put it on the last homescreen of my iPhone.
If I download a song to my iPhone and add it to a playlist, then sync my iPhone with my Mac, it will pull the song out of the playlist and maybe even remove it from my iPhone.
If I sync the iPad or iPod with my Mac, it will add a bunch of random apps that I either previously deleted or did not request at all.
Any ideas how I can make this a more managable process?

You might have an old version of iTunes which does not support folders. The current version is 10.0.1 so I would highly recommend upgrading. If you have the latest then try to reinstall it. This should fix your app/playlist issues.
As for the applications being randomly added ... uncheck the "Automatically sync new apps" box if it is checked. If it is already unchecked, then hopefully reinstalling iTunes will fix this too.

I think I have 10.0 at the moment. I will check when I get home ... but it isn't as if it is removing all my folders. Just pulling new apps out of their folders.


text:
How can I tag movies for use in iTunes/AppleTV?
I'm rolling over my AVI's to MP4 for my new AppleTV.
Is there a good program out there for tagging the movies with their appropriate details?
Also, I noticed iTunes will get "Album Artwork" for some movies and not others.
I don't know if that's related though.
I am doing this conversion on a Windows 7 box.

If you are asking for the name of a Windows program that automatically tags movie files with their info, then you should ask this question on superuser.

Yeah, I'm definitely looking for an automated solution. Thank you for the redirect...

You can do that in iTunes, select each file and click Get Info on the context menu. You can even tag several files at once if they share common info, such as the episodes of a series.
Also, you can add covers in the same manner. Just paste from IMDB or (as I do) from the iTunes browser previews

Thank you for the info Victor but anything less than full automation would be very tedious...


text:
Is there any way to check the availability of iOS app names?
Is there any way to check the availability of iOS app names?

NEW INFORMATION (2018)
Please see this question on the relevant site, Stack Overflow:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/17748195/2684
tl;dr: there is no time restriction on how long you can reserve, but it’s not guaranteed.
OUTDATED ANSWER
I haven’t seen that option in the Apple Developer Program, but you can reserve a name.
After you reserve it, you have 120 days to upload a binary (You have to create an app in the iTunes Connect system). After 90 days, you receive a notification from Apple, saying that you  only have 30 days left to upload the app. Once the 120 days are past, "the app name will then be available for another developer to use.”
I also believe that if you do not upload anything, bad things happen to your account, but I can’t verify this.
Other than that, I haven’t seen a mechanism like “google” for name searching. (Apple might as well do that at some point!).

You could search the app store for what's already in use, but that won't help with what's reserved.

Can you elaborate on the bad things that can happen?

I can’t for two reasons, @NimeshNeema One: I don’t remember (this post is from Oct ’15) but more importantly, as far as I know, this restriction is long gone. More information (where it belongs): https://stackoverflow.com/a/17748195/2684

Yup, fire up your iTunes Connect account and try to create an app with the name you're looking for. Of course, that does limit you to 120 days before you must submit code...


text:
Songs Won't Appear On Ipod After Syncing
I have been having issues with syncing my iPod and would be extremely grateful if anyone could help.
When I connect my iPod to the computer it shows on both the iPod and iTunes that it is syncing. However the songs that I have added a week ago still won't go on to the iPod and I have tried syncing it several items. The songs are downloaded from iTunes so I don't understand why it won't work.

What kind of iPod?

Can you check if your iPod is set for syncing all music ? Attach your iPod to your computer and in the iTunes sidebar select the iPod. Click on Music and check if the setting is enabled or not. Also check if your enabled manually manage songs.
Also, check the Apple Support Article on how to manage and sync the music to your iPod.


text:
Command Line method to backup using two Time Machine disks
Does anyone know of a command line method to select the active Time Machine disk? I would like to alternate between two backup disks for redundancy. I would like this to be automated, presumably via cron, perhaps launchd.
There is an AppleScript method to swap disks, but I am doing remote system administration and cannot rely on GUI scripting. I would presume there is sufficient control of Time Machine using the defaults command, but am not sure how to achieve this yet.

Update: Here is a solution for this on 10.7 Lion: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110906221223743

Note: The restore component of backing up like this has not yet been tested.
Get the ID of the attached drive
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine BackupAlias

Eject, plug in 2nd drive, make it the Time Machine drive with the GUI, repeat.
Write (rather than read) the ID:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine BackupAlias '<00000000 014e0002 ....>'

source & thanks to Christian Stocker. Key comments from that post:

http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/defaults.1.html "WARNING: The defaults command will be changed in an upcoming major release to only operate on preferences domains. General plist manipulation utilities will be folded into a different command-line program."

Also the property DestinationVolumeUUID should be set.

This is easier to do on 10.7 Lion: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110906221223743

If your need is to have redundancy on Time Machine backups, an alternative is to maintain a clone of your Time Machine Volume. I use SuperDuper! for that purpose.


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Is there anything faster than Veency for iPhone?
I want to be able to control an iPhone with a PC or Mac—that is, see the iPhone's screen on a computer and control it with my mouse—via either USB or wireless. Are there any solutions faster than VNC Veency? Veency's frame rate isn't good enough, and I need it to show 16-bit color.

I've tried Veency on both an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 4, and that looks to be the fastest possible speed to get out of it. Unless someone rewrites Veency or writes another VNC server, it looks doubtful that speed would get any better.
I've relegated myself to either looking at the iPhone's screen while typing, or pairing a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone.
Edit: If you don't mind looking at the iPhone's screen, you could try iSynergyClient, the Synergy+ client for iPhone. Right now it only has mouse support, keyboard support is still in development.

+1 for mentioning iSynergyClient. Hadn't come across that one, and am eager to try it out. Too bad it doesn't have keyboard support yet; that would be so cool.

There is a new Cydia app, called Display Recorder. Beside screen recording, it has a local web client, with the abilily to stream live view almost flawlessly.
You can buy it from the BigBoss repo for $4,99.
You stream by opening the Display Recorder app itself, enable web server with the bottom left button, type the url that shows up in a browser on the PC, and select Live View option (while being on the same wifi of cource).
It will even add touch and hardware button simulation right away, but sadly no keyboard support, so you'll need to open a VNC client too in the background, possibly set its refresh rate to never, and here you go. Most probably you can even set your video card to rotate the screen to align with the iPhone screen if you prefer landscape.

+1 for Display Recorder. I had looked at it previously, but it didn't have live view at the time. Looks compelling. Too bad it doesn't do keyboard, though. Surely there would be keyboard focus issues with the VNC app in the background, but it could work, I suppose, to some degree.


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MacBook Pro Hang
I bought a new MacBook Pro with a Core i5 processor; everything is very good but it hangs a lot. I changed its hard drive and used Apple's diagnostic test but neither helped.
Any ideas about what could be the problem?

Do you still have the problem if you put back the original hard drive?

It’s a new machine, if it hangs “out of the box” take it back for repairs, it’s under warranty. It could be the memory (RAM). Don’t change anything, let the Apple folks do it for you.


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Photos not appearing on iPhone
I have an iPhone 3G, whenever I add a photo into a folder in iTunes, and then I sync it to my iPhone, the photo doesn't appear at all in the folder on my iPhone.
Why is it doing this? The image is JPEG image type.

You're adding photos to a folder in iTunes? Are you adding them to iPhoto, then selecting them in iTunes?

There could be any number of issues here; not enough room on the device, corrupt image(s), adding photos in the wrong place... Since I can't know what your exact issue is without more details, I will offer up a suggestion for a "flow" that works for me.

I sync photos from various cameras (including iPhones) to iPhoto
In iPhoto, I have setup a Smart Folder that has at least a Date filter of Last X Months where X is something you can specify depending on how far back in time you want to sync over to your iPhone

Once it is setup, iPhoto will show you the photos that match that filter

Finally, in iTunes, you will connect your iPhone, select it in the iTunes window and using the tab bar at the top, select Photos. Turn on Sync Photos from iPhoto, select Selected albums, events and faces, and automatically include no events (note: include whatever events you want there, I include none). Then scroll down in the Albums list until you see the Smart Folder that you created in iPhoto and put a checkmark next to it.

Then the next time you sync your iPhone with iTunes, it should sync over all the photos in that Smart Folder. If it is too many, you can reduce the time frame that you pull photos from or use tags in iPhoto to mark some pictures to exclude and then include that information in your Smart Folder setup (telling that folder to exclude those tags).
If this is not the kind of information that helps you, then post some more info about the issues you are having so we can try to answer those specific issues directly.
Good luck!


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iPhone picture privacy app
I am looking for a picture privacy app supporting the following features:

Unlimited number of "vaults" (note: only one vault is bad, one real vault plus one fake vault is bad as well, only an unlimited number really allows to hide vaults and to use the app with several groups of people)
Folder support per vault
Full screen mode
Picture zoom
Picture slideshow and manual forward/backward with low decoding delay
Mass upload
Great, well designed, visually appealing user interface

Do you have any idea or recommendation?
Thanks!

If you're looking for privacy, I've heard about an app called Ben the Bodyguard that's going to be released soon. Judging from their intro page, it will probably meet your "well designed UI" requirement.
Apart from 3rd party apps like that one, iOS is not really designed for multiple users. Use a lockscreen PIN and don't share the phone if you want privacy in the meantime.

I believe My Eyes Only Photo matches your list.


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Double contacts after syncing with Outlook
I have duplicate contacts in my iPhone, not knowing their source or how to safely delete them.
I synced my iPhone contacts with Outlook via iTunes. I have 220 contacts in Outlook. I estimate 100 of these are duplicates in the iPhone i.e in both the Contact and Phone app. They are apparently exact duplicates.
The strange thing is that the duplicate ones do not get synced to Outlook so there are no duplicate contacts there.
I don't know which of two contacts is linked to the respective Outlook contact, so I fear that simply deleting one contact may delete it in Outlook as well, which would be bad.
Does anyone have any ideas on the cause and cure for this behaviour?

I fixed this by manually setting the "middle name" to "A" on all Outlook contacts, then synced with the iPhone, then manually deleted all contacts without an "A" middle name on the iPhone, then removed the "A" middle names in Outlook and then synced with the iPhone again.
Drawbacks: lots of manual work and loosing the middle name content (luckily not used in my contacts).
Using the middle name is good because it is shown in list view on the iPhone, so one can quickly see what must be removed without looking at details.

I encountered the exact same problem but with Address Book, to the point where I had duplicate contacts both on the phone and in Address Book. To get around it, I went through Address Book, deleted all of the dupes (and they were all exact duplicates), and then synced Address Book for the iPhone with Address Book on my Mac such that it deleted all of the contacts on the phone and just started fresh. I still have no idea how it happened so I'm not sure how to prevent it from happening again beyond tying the contacts to Address Book from now on, though that's not how I like to handle things. Syncing is a hard thing to program, but I would think Apple would be better at it than this.

I had the same problem when I also synced with Google Contacts, a feature I had to eventually disable because it causes more dupes than copying and pasting your home folder…


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How do I make a game controller an active input device on my Mac-mini?
How do I make a game controller an active input device on my Mac-mini?

Can you be more specific about what game controller, and what sort of input that controller offers?

Yeah, it's a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad, if that helps any (http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Only-Gamepad-Dual-Action/dp/B00171376K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1289119568&sr=1-1).  As far as what input it offers, I am just looking to use it as a standard controller.  I am trying to use it with the Snex9x simulator; with that application, you can choose multiple different input devices, but my controller doesn't show up as an option; I thought maybe I needed to make it active in the MAC controls.  I tried checking for that option under the system preferences, but found no options.  Thanks

Sorry, that should read Snes9x simulator ^^.  And, really, thanks for your attention.

Does it show up in any other apps (ie is in a Snex9x issue?

If you have a Playstation 3 controller, your Mac can recognize it as a bluetooth device and if you pair it with your computer you can set it up to be used as a game controller for your Mac.
I have only tried it with SNES9x, and it DOES work with that app. Playing Super Street Fighter with a wireless PS3 remote is pretty bad ass, I must say, haha.
Not sure what else it would work with, but I am sure you could map the buttons and set it up to work with other games and services once you pair it.
Good luck!

Yeah, it might be an Snes9x issue; I had thought to try the controller with other programs (in part to see if it would work, in part just to play with it), but I hadn't downloaded any games for my NES simulator yet (Nestopia), and I couldn't get Steam to load (I'm not a gamer at all (any case anybody couldn't tell by my asking about simulators for old Nintendo consoles), but my sister had bought me a cheap game on Steam, though I hadn't played it much).  Just now, after Mark's reply, I decided to download a game for Nestopia, and when I checked its options I see it has a link to an emulator enhancer that allows it to work with controllers.  That same site had its own SNES simulator (the BSNES), so I downloaded that one, and my controller now works with both.  So, that's cool.  Thanks for your help, guys.

@David glad to hear you found a solution. Don’t forget to mark the correct answer :)


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Web sharing, 404
On my MacBook (10.5.latest), I turned on "Web sharing" in the control panel.  The built-in firewall is turned off.  I have an index.html in my ~/name/Sites/ folder.  It's publicly readable (a+r).  I can view it in Safari (or any other browser) if I open it as a file.
If I go to http://192.168.15.103/~name/index.html (or without index.html, or with any other file from that folder), I get a page which says simply:

404 - Not Found

What am I missing?  And how do I go about troubleshooting this -- where are the logs?

The logs are in /var/log or /var/log/apache2, access_log and error_log are of interest.

For some reason Apple disabled personal web sharing from your ~/username/Sites folder in Mac OS X 10.5. To turn it back on, edit /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf and look for the following:
#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories).
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of
# features.
#
<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>

Change Deny from all to Allow from all. Then go into your Sharing preferences and disable/re-enable web sharing and it should work.

Found it, changed it, restarted it, still get the 404.  :-(  I was going to be shocked if this was the case, since the control panel says "Your personal website: http://192.168.15.103/~name/".

Also, I'm pretty sure I've used personal web sharing on 10.5 here before, and /private/var/log/apache2/access_log shows a few successful (200) hits to files under ~/name/ in 2008.

@Ken Are you using your full username? The "/~username/" in the URL is your "short" username. If that's not it I'm not sure what's wrong.

could it be a permissions error?  I think it's a different error code for permissions errors but make your index.html permissions are at least 644

It's the 'short' name (Unix login name, same as the control panel says to use, same as the access logs said I used in 2008).  My index.html is already 644 (that's rw/r/r, IIRC).

try 777 just as a test. if works you know it was permissions.  not likely, but worth a try :)

calavera: OK, tried it.  Even making index.html executable doesn't help it be served as a webpage.  :-)

lol, i know crap about web serving so it was a shot in the dark :P

can you get to the computer's apache page by going to just the ip address without a user name?

calavera: Any path I try (including nothing at all) gives the same 404.  But if I try, say, the same IP address on a different port, then Safari gives a very different can't-connect error, so it looks like the 404 is indeed coming from my web server (in case that was in doubt).

@Ken did you check the permissions of the containing folder (~/username/Sites)? I've occasionally had problems where the permissions on the file were OK but the containing folder were affecting my ability to access the page

Are you using FileVault?

ickket no, I'm not

Although I'm not sure if the origins of the problem were same, I faced the exact scenario as you described, and I made the "Your personal website:http://192.168.0.100/~name/" provided in System Preferences panel work by uninstalling Pow, a Rack server.


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iPad VGA output for the iPod app?
I'm trying to get an iPad to play a video playlist through the VGA output cable. The only way I know of to play a video playlist is through the iPod app. The problem, is that the iPod  app doesn't output the video through the VGA cable.
Is there any way to get it to output correctly? Or is there another way to play the video playlist?

I would just look in the app store for a video playback app that supports VGA output. Lots of them do now.
You don't need to jailbreak your phone.
Here is an app called "StreamToMe" that supports playback of your videos over 3G and Wi-Fi and has VGA output.
StreamToMe: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/streamtome/id325327899?mt=8#

The App developer needs to add that API to there App. So as of now if you want to output the video through VGA you will need to jail break you iPod or find an app that supports video out through the dock connector.


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What's a good camcorder that will record video in any of iPad's supported formats?
I'm looking for a camcorder that will save me the video conversion step to display said videos on an iPad.
Does such a camcorder exist?

According to Apple, the iPad is able to reproduce:

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

This leads to the file formats that Flip cameras use:

Video Format   H.264 video compression,
  AAC audio compression, MP4 files
  format

So with that in mind, I assume that Flip does it.
However if you’re looking for a more “camcorder” thing (which you don’t specify in your question), the Sanyo’s Waterproof Xacti Camcorder does record in “Apple Friendly” format. Other than those, Google is your friend, look for “Apple friendly” camcorders. There are others out there.
I’ve personally tried the Flip and it’s fantastic, but I don’t have an iPad.
A word of caution: the ipad is not submersible ;)


text:
How does the volume control work on my iPod touch?
OK, I'm going to sound like an idiot for asking this, but...
How's the volume control work on an iPod Touch (iOS 4)?  I always seem to surprise myself when I discover that the volume is up when I assume it's down, or vice versa.
I've owned (pre-iOS) iPod, and they were easy: there's one volume setting.  For the iPod Touch, having a speaker, running "OS X", and using the Mac OS X semi-transparent gray volume icon overlay, I figured it'd be just like my Mac.  That is, two separate volume settings, one for the speaker and one for the headphones, and it uses the correct one depending on whether there's something plugged in.
After a while, I found that it doesn't work this way.  I can't figure out quite how it works, though.  One thought was that maybe the volume control is per-app, but that doesn't seem to always be true, either.  Or is it per-app and per-headphones/speaker?
Another aspect that confuses me: when setting the volume, sometimes I get the Mac-style gray icon overlay, and sometimes it uses a round slider in the app itself.  It doesn't seem to be just the app: sometimes the YouTube app shows the gray overlay, even when its own slider is visible!  Is this visual distinction supposed to be useful to me?  It seems like it might be, but I haven't figured out the pattern yet.
Can anyone explain to me how this is supposed to work?  Or is there any official documentation on how the volume controls work?
I'm so confused...
EDIT: Example: I go to Flashcards, set the volume to 0%.  Go to home screen, set volume=50% (up from 25%).  Go to Youtube, set volume=25%.  Start playing a video, it shows volume=0% now (why?), so I turn it up to 25%.  Exit, go back to Flashcards, volume here is now 25% (why?).  (This is all with no headphones plugged in -- I'd like to understand the simple case before I even try to figure out how headphone volume works!)
It's obviously not simply a per-app setting: I've never set the volume in Flashcards to be anything other than 0%, yet it keeps getting turned up, in this case to the volume I set in Youtube.  But the Youtube volume isn't a global setting, either, since I set the volume on the home screen, and Youtube showed me 2 different volume settings (depending on whether a video was playing), and neither of them used that setting.
My next theory was that there's a "shared app volume" setting that was used by Flashcards and Youtube-but-only-when-not-playing-video (but not by the home screen, which is silly, since the home screen doesn't have any sound).  So I tried setting the volume in Youtube-not-playing-video and going back to Flashcards ... nope, in this direction the Flashcards volume stays the same.
My latest theory is that Youtube-not-playing-video can set the shared-app-volume, and Youtube-playing-video will read the shared-app-volume, and Flashcards will both set and read this volume.  (And Youtube itself has 2 volume settings, neither of which is the same as the one I set on the home screen, so I always have to just set the Youtube volume twice.  And double this if I decide to plug in headphones.)
This is the simplest theory I've found to explain most of what I'm seeing, but it seems completely insane.  If anybody has a way to explain this that doesn't involve epicycles, I'd love to hear it.

I just want to clarify, on behalf of this person, that the volume in iPod Touch (gen 4 and 6) is indeed complex. There is not just a volume for speaker vs. headphones. For example there are at least 2 volumes for speakers. Only one of them controls the camera sound so that you can take silent photos, and it's not obvious to figure out how to trigger it. Another example: Turning up the volume while playing back a video you just took with the camera doesn't work. I have to exit (home button) & then go into "Photos" & then select the video & play it. Then volume works as expected.

You’re technically right. There are two settings, one for the speaker, one for the headphones. Both volumes are independent; if you have volume low on speaker and connect a headphone, you’re going to get the headphone volume, and that’s what you’re going to adjust until you disconnect it.
Now, applications can alter the device’s volume, but they can also have their own independent volume level. For example a game might have a volume setting and if you put it all the way down, the ipod’s volume (alarms, music, etc.) is not altered. As far as I can remember (should check the latest iOS SDK) that is possible.
Applications can of course mute themselves without altering the device’s settings.

Added an example above.  What you describe makes sense and is simple, but it's not what I'm observing.  Inside a single app, I'm seeing multiple different volume settings, and setting the volume inside one app is changing the volume in another app (but not on the home screen).

Actually, there's two headphone volumes: one for headphones with inline controls and one for headphones without.

It sounds like the OP has it set to change the alert volume with buttons (Sounds > Change with Buttons). This means that, when there is no audio playing, the buttons change the alert volume, and when there is audio playing, the buttons change the normal volume. That would be why the volume changes when you start a Youtube video: There wasn't audio, but now there is.


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Offline furigana for iOS
Is there any software to compute and display furigana completely offline?
It doesn't have to be integrated with any existing app.  A new standalone app I type into is fine.

Is this a duplicate of http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/1950/offline-iphone-app-to-recognize-japanese-words?

No, that question is for OCR (image -> text).  This question is for furigana (kanji -> kana).

Time to close this one, op never clarified and after 2 years a lot has changed in iOS, no point in reviving every so often.

We don't close old questions. It's unfortunate when we go without an accepted answer, but if it's on-topic or can be answered due to changes in newer releases of iOS, it's still completely valid.

You have several apps available on the App store now - just search for Furigana.
I have a friend that likes this one, but YMMV:

Furigana Reader - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/furigana-reader/id529433422?mt=8

It does not work offline, so it doesn't meet your requirements unless you fail to find any offline software and can relax that constraint.

That app needs an Internet connection to create Furigana from pasted text.

@TomGewecke On second thought, I messed up. It needs the internet...

I'm a little confused here. You want an app that you can type kanji into and get the kana in return. But the only way to type kanji into the iPhone is by typing it phonetically, which gives you the kana for free, essentially.
There are a number of self-contained Japanese dictionary apps for the iPhone. Most of them use the EDICT dictionary. I've got one that can import EPWING-formatted dictionaries, and have imported Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary into it.
This seems like the closest to what you want. I think. I get the impression that it has the dictionaries built-in, but I could be wrong.

Perhaps the poster wants something that will add furigana to email or webpage text so he can more easily decipher the kanji.  I think the built in Japanese dictionary could be useful, but it only works in iBooks until we get iOS 5.