iTunes "Hanging" Windows on Exit

If you use a Windows computer to manage your iPod library then chances are good that you've run into the frustrating condition where  iTunes pretty much hangs, or freezes, your XP or Vista computer when you try to exit the iTunes program.

Search the web for "itunes hangs (or freezes) windows xp exit" and you'll plenty of folks looking for answers or work-arounds for it -- including on Apples support forums.  You may also notice that these complaints go back for years and that there are zero ("zip", nada, none, nothing) responses of any kind from Apple.  (Like Windows users aren't used to that from Apple; LOL.)

So, OK; here's the work around -- but please, do me a favor first.  Please don't post this on other forums and blogs but instead please just link over to this page. I really will appreciate it very, very much.

Continue reading "iTunes "Hanging" Windows on Exit"

April 30, 2008

Google Maps Plane in Flight Over Mt. Vernon

I've heard about guys who "collect" sightings of airplanes in flight on Google Maps and found a plane in flight myself just this evening. I searched Google for references to it but couldn't find a single one so maybe this is a new sighting.

The airplane is almost directly over George Washington's residence at Mount Vernon in Virginia.

Below is a screen capture of the view on Google Maps. The plane is there in Google Earth also. If you look just south of the main residence (the large red-roofed building adjacent to the oval drive) between the house and the river you'll be able to see a passenger jet in a steep bank. The second image below is zoomed in on the jet.

Google Maps image of George Washington's residence at Mt. Vernon, VA. with an airplane visible in a steep bank directly south of the main house (large red structure) between the house and the river.

Zoomed in on the plane shown in Google Maps and Google Earth images of George Washington's residence at Mt. Vernon, VA. The airplane is visible in a steep bank directly south of the main house (large red structure) between the house and the river.

Cool.

April 26, 2008

iPod Touch Lexicon

A Glossary of Terms in the jargon of iPod Touch

At the top are terms specific to the iPod Touch and to iPhones. Further down is a list of terms for iPods in general.

Specific iPod Touch and iPhone Terms

Home Button

That's the button on the face of the iPod Touch (and iPhone). If has several functions but the main one is that when you press the home button once it takes you back to the Touch's springboard home page.

Home Screen

The home screen is iPod Touch's and iPhone's equivlent of the "desktop" in Windows and OS-X. It is the home page of the Touch, from which you select and open Touch applications. (Apple's term of choice is "home screen" but it is also called: "springboard" or "home page" or, less often, "that place with the little icons".)

iPod General Terms

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)

Apple's data envelope format for digital audio compressed using the MPEG4 compression and encoding standard.

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)

Apple's format for uncompressed audio files. Similar in purpose to the WAV format used on Windows based systems.

ALE (Apple Lossless Encoding)

This is Apple's very own method for compressing and storing CD-quality audio in about half the space of the original file. Similar in purpose to the WMF format used on Windows systems. (There is no hope for world peace.)

Bitrate

In audio compression terminology this is the average amount of data bits required to store one second of music in kilobits per second, or Kbps. Generally speaking, the sound quality changes with the bitrate. When the bitrate is reduced then the sound quality will probably also be decreased.

Classic [iPod Classic]

A slightly larger version of a "regular" iPod but with a color screen to play movies and display photos, as well as play music and games. Compared to Touch it has mammoth storage capacity at 80GB or, optionally, 160GB.

Click Wheel

Not a Touch Screen. This is the gizmo that is on recent vintage "standard" iPods that lets the 'Pod's user navigate through songs and/or videos and which also incorporates the Menu, Fast-Forward, Rewind, and Play/Pause buttons within the wheel itself, so that the user can perform those functions all from one control.

Cover Flow

Cover Flow is Apple's graphical user interface for navigating your music collection on your iPod Touch or iPhone by virtually "flipping" through pictures of album covers.

Dock or Docking Station

A cradle and/or stand gizmo for your iPod stands it up in some useful and/or attractive way and also connects it to some other device or system. The most basic type replaces the cable connection to your desktop computer with a convenient place to just "stand" your iPod. When you put the 'Pod in the stand the connection to the computer is automatically made too. Other types of docks include an audio system connector, a complete bookshelf stereo system, a clock radio and a media center dock for video capable iPods.

Dock connector

This is the name that Apple gives to the cable that it provides to go between your iPod and a USB port on your computer. When your iPod is connected to the computer with the dock connector its battery will be charged and you'll be able to "sync" the data on your iPod with the music & data on your computer.

FireWire®

iPod Touch no speaky firewire. Firewire old and dead and irrelevant to iPod Touch. Old iPods may have Firewire. Dead, dead, dead.

Flash memory

A solid state memory device with capacities are equal to small to medium capactiy hard drives but with no moving parts. Having no moving parts has three advantages for portable devices like iPods: the weigh less, they consume less power and they are far more rugged.

Hard drive

In the case of iPods, a hard drive is a teeny tiny replica of the one inside your computer. Hard drives are not used in iPod Touch or in iPhones.

Home button

That's the button on the face of the iPod Touch (and iPhone). If has several functions but the main one is that when you press the home button once it takes you back to the Touch's springboard home page.

Home Screen

The home screen is iPod Touch's and iPhone's equivlent of the "desktop" in Windows and OS-X. It is the home page of the Touch, from which you select and open Touch applications. (Apple's term of choice is "home screen" but it is also called: "springboard" or "home page" or, less often, "that place with the little icons".)

iPod nano

As the name suggests, the Nano is much smaller than the iPod classic. The Nano is all solid-state and comes in 4GB and 8GB versions and is available in several swell colors.

iPod shuffle

The tiniest iPod. The Shuffle is actually kind of goofy. It has no display -- none -- and no way to pick which songs you are going to hear. The idea is that you stuff up to a few hundred songs in it and then it randomly plays them back to you. Hence, "Shuffle". While it clearly exudes Appleness in looks, it is the best example ever of "Apple stuff is over priced" and I've ever have been able to figure out why anyone buys this one. (Much less why Apple makes it.) Goofy.

iPod Touch

"God said to Steve Jobs, 'Unlock my iPhone.' Steve said, 'God, you must be putting me on.' God said, 'No.' Steve said, 'Ok, I'll tell you what...'". And with apologies to Bob Dylan, that is the story of how the iPod Touch came to be. More or less an iPhone without the phone. (And without the camera. Boo! That sucks.) But if you're reading this then you probably know all about it. Good news for Steve, God looked upon the Touch and said, "it is good" and rolled a big spleef.

iTunes®

This is the name of two different things that Apple provides: 1. the music store and online service from Apple is called "iTunes", 2. the media library manager/player software that runs on your Mac or Windows PC. The software part also manages media and data syncing with your iPod and, all together, makes it quite easy to efficiently manage and customize your media library on both your computer and on your 'Pod.

iTunes Tagging

A process by which you will be entinced to spend more money at iTunes. The way it works is this:
As (a)you're listening to a station broadcasting a tag-enabled HD Radio signal (not all HD stations will carry tags) (b) on an HD receiver capable of decoding the tag data (not all HD receivers will decode them) then (c) when you hear a song that you like you will run or reach over -- depending on where you are in the house or on your driving situation at the moment -- and press the button marked "Tag". The receiver will then save the song info about name, artist, label, etc -- but not the song itself -- into its own memory. Later, when it is convenient for you, you will connect your iPod to the receiver and the song information will automatically transfer into your iPod. Then the next time that you sync your iPod to your computer, your tagged selections appear as a list in iTunes and giving you the option of buying them through the iTunes Store to be loaded to your iPod.

MP3 (MPEG1, Audio Layer 3)

The most popular method for storing and transferring music. It employs a "lossy" compression system which removes some frequencies judged to be essentially inaudible but MP3 still manages to deliver near-CD sound quality in a file that's much, much smaller than a corresponding uncompressed "raw" music file. You, the user, have some control over how much data is "lossed" (yes, "lost") out by the process by selecting compression rates and bit scan rates and such arcane things.

MPEG-4

Another method for compressing musical data, this is also one of the most commonly used methods for storing and transferring video. MPEG-4 compresses audio and video content into manageable file sizes, especially for portable devices such as iPods. MPEG-4 video files usually have an ".mp4" or .m4v" filemane extension.

Springboard

See Home Screen

Tagging

See "iTunes Tagging (above).

Touch screen

What sets our baby apart from them other 'Pods.

Touch Wheel

"Touch wheel" is earliest form of the flat donut shaped user navigation interface used on non-touch-screen iPods. It was eventually replaced by the "click wheel" version which looks similar but also incorporates the Menu, Fast-Forward, Rewind, and Play/Pause buttons that the "touch wheel" lacked. In any case, it is most definitely NOT a touch screen.

WiFi

WiFi is the jargon name for the wireless ethernet connection between your iPod Touch and the internet.

Wireless FM transmitter

A wireless FM transmitter lets you send music from your iPod through your car's FM radio. It offers acceptable sound quality and is portable so that you can take it from car to car or anyplace where there's an available FM radio.

April 24, 2008

Things Missing From the iPod Touch

A to-do list for Apple of much needed features on the iPod Touch
(and presumably its iPhone cousin)

Because, as beautiful as they are, there are just a couple of things that (I think) could make it even better. The iPod Touch is a wonderfully sophisticated and beautifully crafted device. I hope that the acclaimed -- for good reason -- and obviously quite brilliant Apple designers don't mind me making these few suggestions.

Because the physical machine and its software function are so closely intertwined these are really all about software function. Some are closer to the operating system level and some are clearly within particular applications but most have to do with either the operation of the device or standard approaches to situations so that users can depend on the Touch to do what they need in the manner in which they expect it.

Cut-and-Paste

To copy bits from one place and paste them into another. Right now that "another" place would only be a form field or a search field in one of the Google apps, but my goodness would it be useful to be able to copy from one field to another or to copy from a webpage to a form field. Please!

Sound Alerts

"Sound Effects" settings on the iPod Touch are limited to "On" or "Off" (with options to hear them in the earphones or from the Touch or both.) This one setting effects all sounds that the Touch makes except for playing music including keyboard clicks (irritating as heck when you're trying to be quiet in bed.) and calendar alarms. Major bummer that to quiet the darn keyboard clicks you have to also loose the calendar alarms.

It would so handy to have separate volume settings and options for a set of different functional sounds. A set of options for calendar alarms and another, separate set for keyclicks and another for system alerts and application sounds. And maybe a choice of sounds for alerts too -- different people hear different things. And they hear them different ways.

Application Jump

Let the user move from application to application (virtually) without having to first leave an application to go out to the home screen and then select the next application from the homescreen.

This functions as when selecting "Maps" in "Contacts" data entry or selecting contact information from a target on the "Maps" screen. The difference here is that the user decides which apps to jump to. (Like the Touch works for the user. Cool.)

Two-finger tap for context menu

This should be on all applications please. A standard feature of the interface that would, among other things, facilitate cut-&-paste and the jump to other applications. (And it would be awesome.)

Forms Data

Option to remember forms data in Safari. A security issue, to be sure; and perhaps irrevocably tied to a password for the iPod.

Password Vault

Urgently need a secure database for carrying little bits of personal information. Passwords are most likely, but allow flexibility please.

Save Webpage

Option to save a webpage complete as a recallable file on the Touch. This is for when the data is needed but the internet is not available. E.g., a map w/ directions, a movie schedule, an address listing, an advertisement.

Dictionary "Learn Mode"

It's wearying and time-wasting to have to fight with the typing dictionary over a word. Need a mode that says "do as I say and learn" and perhaps another that is simply "do as I say".

Library edits

The "On the Go" playlist is swell. The Touch's GUI makes it so easy -- actually fun -- to do things in it, like manipulating this playlist. It would be swell to extend the fun to the media libraries. So when I see a typo on the screen o the Touch, I can go ahead and fix it there and then have it synch back to the computer library whenever it gets connected. Ditto for the photo and video libraries.

Sideways view for Everything!

I haven't come across an application or feature on the Touch, yet, that I haven't wanted to see or access in the landscape mode. Some may say that, "well 'this' app doesn't need it and so doesn't do it". To that I say, "I want it because I find it useful, easier to read and, sometimes, just easier to hold the the iPod Touch that way." The iPod Touch should allow twisting every screen any time and all of the apps should support it. Period.

"Exclude" from Slideshow

Slideshow allows selecting one folder or all, but it would be swell to be able to go with a sort of "show all except" on the fly and without needing to change what is stored on the Touch. Perhaps a list of folders with checkboxes, then uncheck what is not wanted in the slideshow.

Contacts search

Please provide a way to search the contacts database and in the search permit/support searching in alternate fields (e.g., first name, last name, company name, category).

"Find-on-page" in Safari

The web browser needs a way to find specific items on the web page, please. This would be helpful in the extreme when viewing large and/or elaborately formatted pages.

Apple; Please visit your user support forums.

Dear Apple, Please check the user support forums (including those for Windows users) on the Apple.com website. Your presence there is definitely something that is "missing" from the iPod Touch and its relationship with the iTunes software. There is a lot of stuff there on the fourms that needs a solution &/or workaround and that may be useful for you to know about as you move forward. Thanks.

April 20, 2008