Entertainment For Lively Minds
Ipod tip!
Posted by Pinmonkey on 12 April 2010 - 9:28pm.
I've always wanted to be able to create a playlist on my Ipod without sitting at my PC. Lo and behold my son was sat in the car and was doing exactly that and he was amazed that I didn't know that it was possible.
So for those who don't know simply highlight the track you want to add, depress the centre of the wheel until the blue bar over the track flashes twice and it adds the track to the On The Go Playlist which can then be saved as a New Playlist!
It made my day when I was told so is there anything else on my Ipod which may be blindingly obvious that I don't know about?
- More from Pinmonkey.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Didn't know that
Just tried it and it works a treat.
Cheers for that.
RTFM
I believe they say in IT circles...
There's a manual?
There's a manual?
Yes.
The iPod comes with simple documentation to get you going, but it doesn't cover everything.
You can also access complete documentation on all features from the help menu in iTunes, which takes you to Apple's website. The iPod's functionality can change due to both firmware updates and iTunes improvements, hence the external manual. Even the iPod Shuffle has extra features not in the initial documentation, such as fast forward, reverse and a spoken indication of the current battery level.
You are right, of course,
You are right, of course, but I'm not sure the little leaflet and online help constitutes a manual as such. Especially when it comes to these neat little hidden tricks.
As they say in our business...
... "if all else fails, read the instructions."
They probably say it in other businesses as well, but you know what I mean.
And you can do it with whole albums if you so wish...
Ditto artists etc etc in exactly the same way. Select, hold, flash flash and Bob's your uncle.
Also
You can set your iPod to wake you up with a song of your choice, provided that song begins a playlist.
You can import text files to your iPod to save printing.
And here's one my daughter showed me: try the music quiz.
Nice one
Always wanted to do that while I'm out running. It also distracts from the pain of running up that hill as Kate would have it.
Alas, it doesn't seem to
Alas, it doesn't seem to work like that on iPod Touch. On The Go is possible but a smidgeon more convoluted.
My Personal Favourite
Is Smart Playlists. I've got a playlist of 1000 songs with a playcount of zero that I dip into in shuffle mode if I want something new and fresh. The groovy thing is once you've set this up on iTunes, the iPod takes over and works a little magic by continually adding to the list to replace the songs you've just played with fresh ones you haven't, maintaining my playlist of 1000 unplayed songs.
iPhoto uses the 'smart' idea as well
for dynamically updating photo albums based on keywords, events or people.
Smart Playlists
A great feature that Apple managed to break on the iPod Touch (and iPhone, I presume).
If your smart playlists are dependant on Play Count, Skip Count or Last Played, they just don't update properly. Since buying my Touch all my Smart Playlists have become redundant. It's a known issue which Apple haven't got round to fixing.
Hopefully the release of the new iPhone OS (4.0) in the summer will fix this maddening bug.
Apparently, if you add a
Apparently, if you add a rule that says: "Playlist" "Is" "Music", it solves the problem. (I've not tried this, but it's cited as a good workaround in the Apple Support forums.)
Playlist is Music
Tried that and I'm still getting 25 random songs in my Most Played playlist.
Apple also suggest turning off Live Updating which kinda defeats the whole purpose of Smart Playlists.
Not sure even the FM warned
me about one "gotcha". This was the fact that one needs to have the pod plugged in to the mains when doing a firmware upgrade-not just the USB.
Unwisely tried this while visiting my dad w/o the mains unit-silent iPod on the long drive home.
And thanks to the OP for the two flashing bars-had noticed the on the go list but not this aspect.
Anyway, the joy of the iPod is surely that it is 99% self-explanatory --I wish all tech was as toaster-like.
If only there was a way
to make the Ipod Classic louder.
Buy One In The States
Apparently "European" Ipods have sound limiters on them whereas US ones do not. Mine bought in the States is certainly louder than my son's.
While we're on the subject
Is there any work around to re-instate 'album shuffle' on iphone/ipod touch? I've bought an app but it doesn't always work properly. I know I can chose an album to play but this isn't what I'm after - I want the random element and not to have to change it after each one
Bad Apple
In some respects the music playing capabilities of the iPhone fall way short of the mark (see Smart Playlists above).
C'mon Apple - dump the utterly predictable Genius Playlists and give us some good old-fashioned iPod playability.
Genius
The main problem I have with that is that it repeats bands/artists in the playlist. (i.e. if I asked it to produce a 'playlist' around The Jam it would most likely have songs from them, three from Paul Weller and three from The Small Faces for example.
iTweek
I believe this problem may be iTweakable.
How?
.
iDontknow
iDontknow
This is how I make it work....
1. Go onto iTunes.
2. Find in the menu tabs the bit that controls "shuffle" - change it from "songs" to "albums".
3. Create a new smart playlist
4. Set the playlist to select x GB (to suit the size of your pod).
It should now select random albums into a playlist by picking complete albums only.
You then need to play from that playlist.
Hopefully that should work....
Song Lyrics
You can cut & paste lyrics and add them to the "lyrics" tab of a song. When you play the song the lyrics automatically show on the display.
Not sure if this works with ipod classic but it works a treat on the iphone and presumably therefore on the ipod touch.
You can automate the population of the lyrics tab as well...
with a bit of Applescript niftiness
http://zirkel.com/blog/2009/05/18/adding-lyrics-to-songs-in-itunes/
And there's more...
Some books worth exploring to get the most our of your iPod & iTunes:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-iPods-iTunes/dp/1848362595/ref=sr_1_...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/iPod-iTunes-Dummies-Tony-Bove/dp/047059070X/ref=...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/iPod-Missing-Manual-J-D-Biersdorfer/dp/059680431...
Thank you Pinmonkey
Loving this [don't have itunes at the mo, so nice to make up my own playlist so easily, rather than trawling through stuff i'm sick of].
It's a pleasure!
My wife couldn't understand my excitement at this discovery.
Making It Louder, Part Deux
I have one of those cassette doodahs to connect up the iPod to the cassette player in the car (I know, how retro ....and don't tell me about the iTrip : my first one was fine, then I got a new iPod but the new one is appalling, but I digress...), and it plays back through the headphones at such a low level you are as likely to hear the cassette mechanism. However there is a way...
Within iTunes you can bung up the default level of your tracks.
Go into "Get Info - Options" on your chosen tracks, and bung up the loudness level from zero to , say 80%. See how you feel about it.
If you like then you can select all your music and change them , which with take a while, but podcasts will have to be done separately.
Of course the ripping default level will still be at zero, so you would have to alter the settings of the new stuff on a regular basis.
But...
Doesn't boosting the volume make the tracks distort? I only ask because I tried this on a particularly quiet album and had to change it back due to distortion. I hope you're right as it's a great tip.
Very likely
It may not be good for everything, but I find it is good for podcasts and stuff I know will be played in the car amid all the other noise.