iPod Tips for Mac OS Users

Has a virus or hard drive crash wiped out your entire music collection on your computer? No problem. Here's how to copy music off your iPod or iPhone and back onto your computer.
Requirements:

• Any iPod or iPhone
• A computer with iTunes installed and enough hard drive space to store all the media from your iPod/iPhone

Imagine that you have a HUGE music and video library and all of it is kept on your trusty PC or Mac. You of course have a fantastic speaker system, to listen to that music in the highest quality, and an iPod or iPhone, so that you can listen to your music wherever you go. Now imagine that one day, your computer's hard drive crashes, and that music library is now gone. All of the music imported off of CD's which you might have lost by now, all of the music downloaded off of free-music web sites, and most importantly, all that money spent in the iTunes Store has just vanished!

Then you remember that all your music and movies are still on your iPod, safe and intact. You plug it in, you mount it to the OS, and then you realize that iTunes only allows the downloading of music from iTunes to iPod, not iPod to iTunes. (This is to prevent the stealing of music, says Apple). Do you really want to spend hours re-importing music, and repurchasing music from the iTunes Store? We didn't think so.

Luckily for you, here's how to rip media off your iPod/iPhone and copy it back to your computer.

The Cheaper Way

There are many free or shareware applications for both Mac and PC that will copy content off your iPod or iPhone. Mac users can use iPod Viewer or iPodRip. UNIX Savvy Macintosh and Linux users can use command line to pull the music off their iPod. PC users should look for applications like iPOD AGENT or CopyTrans.

No matter what program you use, this is the general "ripping" procedure for coping the music off your iPod:

With a Helper Application:

1. Download a "ripping" program (PodUtil, PodWorks, etc.) and install it on your computer.

2. Make a new folder somewhere on your computer that will have enough hard drive space to hold all the music files from your iPod.

3. Using the ripping application you purchased or downloaded, copy all the music off your iPod and put it into that folder.

4. It's a good idea to archive your music at this point. Burn all your music onto CDs, DVD-ROMs, or copy them onto USB hard drive.

5. Drag that folder into the main iTunes window. You music will then import into iTunes. This make take several minutes depending on the amount of songs and your computer's processing power.

Without a Helper Application:

Here's a way to quickly get files off a PC iPod without any extra software.

1. Plug in your iPod.
2. From the Desktop, go to My Computer and find the iPod (usually designated by a drive letter. i e. E: or F:)
3. Open the damn thing.
4. Go to Tools > Folder Options > View (the tab) > scroll to Show Hidden Files and Folders and click it.
5. Click OK
6. Go back to your iPod folder/drive, there you will find a new folder called iPod_Control
7. Open it.
8. The Music folder in it will have a bunch of folders named F00, F01 and so on. THEY HAVE YOUR MP3s. Look through the folders to find your stuff.

More Tips:

How to put FLV, WMV, MOV, MKV, AVI, etc to iPod on Mac?

How to rip DVD to iPod on Mac?

iPod nano, fourth-generation (4G) 16GB
Basic Information
Price as Reviewed: $149
Company: Apple




Review
The fourth-generation iPod nano isn't the dramatic overhaul last year's nano was. If you've already got a 3G nano, the 4G model's new features may not be compelling enough to get you to upgrade--especially if you prefer the 3G model's more-pocket-friendly shape. And even with twice the storage at the same price, the new nano won't satisfy those who want to carry massive amounts of media with them or who watch lots of video.

Nevertheless, the 4G iPod nano is a solid upgrade, offering useful new features in Genius and Spoken Menus; new voice-recording functionality; a gimmicky-but-useful accelerometer; an improved interface and menu system; and a number of other minor improvements. Interestingly, of these new features, only Genius and the new microphone compatibility are available on the latest iPod classic, meaning the iPod nano has, for the first time, surpassed the classic/full-size line in functionality. If you're in the market for your first nano, you can't go wrong. And if you've been waiting to upgrade a 1G or 2G model, now's the time to buy; compared to the similarly shaped 2G model, the new nano is better in every way except for its sharp corners.--Dan Frakes

More Review

Specs
Capacity 16GB flash memory
Dimensions 1.5" x .24" x 3.6"
Weight 1.3 ounces
Rated battery life 24 hours (music), 4 hours (video)
Included accessories USB dock cable, Universal dock insert, earbuds.
Display size 2 inches, 320x240 pixels, color

Here is some guide may help:

* How to convert AVI/ WMV/ MOV/ MKV to iPod Nano 4th on Mac

* How to rip DVD movies to iPod Nano 4th on Mac

* How to download YouTube, Google, Yahoo, etc videos on iPod Nano 4th on Mac

* How to extract MP3/ M4A audio from DVD to iPod Nano 4th on Mac

Part 1 What is iPod Shuffle?

Apple recently released iPod Shuffle which is the world’s smallest music player also happens to be the world’s first talking one. Two things that make the iPod shuffle one amazing device.



Easy access controls.
The controls of the new iPod shuffle are located on the right earbud cord. With command central now strategically placed in this more convenient location, you can navigate your music — and activate the VoiceOver feature — without taking your eyes off your run, your ride, or whatever you’re doing.


Your music library. To go.
There was a time when limited storage meant you had to leave a lot of your songs on the sync-room floor. But now that iPod shuffle has 4GB of storage, you have plenty of room to store hours and hours of music — up to 1,000 songs.* With room for multiple playlists, too.

1.8" tall x 0.3" thin to be exact.
To create the world’s smallest music player, we moved the controls from iPod shuffle to the earbud cord. This allowed us to make the new iPod shuffle dramatically smaller, but not just for dramatically smaller’s sake. It’s also easier to use, with the controls located where you can access them quickly.


Introducing VoiceOver.
Musically speaking, the new iPod shuffle is brilliant, thanks to an exciting new feature called VoiceOver. Say you’re listening to a song and want to know the title or the artist. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you as the music dips down. It even announces the names of your playlists. And when your battery needs charging, VoiceOver tells you that, too.

Fashion tech-cessory.
Even the iPod shuffle clip gets the rock star treatment. Now forged in stainless steel, the clip attaches securely to your shirt, jacket, workout gear, even your backpack. And the sleek, durable, anodized aluminum case — available in silver or black — makes iPod shuffle a wardrobe essential. And yes, there’s still room for personalized

Learn it more from Apple official website.

Part 2 How to extract audio from DVD to iPod Shuffle on Mac

Sometimes you may want to extract a certain beautiful section of music or dialog from your DVD video file and save them to MP3 for playback on iPod Shuffle, How can you extract the nice attractive audio to your iPod Shuffle? Please follow this guide:

Software you need: DVD Ripper for Mac.

Step1. Download this DVD to iPod Shuffle Ripper for Mac. Wondershare DVD Ripper for Mac can rip DVD to various video formats (including MP4, AVI, M4V, MOV, 3GP, MPG, FLV, etc) to iPod Shuffle AAC (No DRM), WAV, and AIFF.


Step2. Import the DVD including the audio you are fond of. Choose the output format as any of AAC (No DRM), WAV, or AIFF.


Step3. Start to convert to extract the audio from DVD to iPod Shuffle.

That’s it! Then you can enjoy any music section, dialog, songs from any DVDs on your iPod Shuffle!

In my RSS reader, one question comes up: How to put games on iPod Touch.
Apple allows us to download games and apps to iPod touch from App Store only.
If you want to put third-party program and games on your iTouch, you need to get your iTouch hacked. It seems a little bit complicated, take it easy, just follow the video tutorial below.

Just follow this video tutorial. :D



Involved Tool: Mac YouTube Downloader

As we know, iPod, the most popular portable player all over the world, is mostly limited by iTunes store.
It makes you crazy that you have to buy DVD movies you already have on iTunes Store or have no way to watch your favorite videos on iPod, isn't it?
It's time to get your iPod free now.
Apple doesn't prevent us from putting properly formatted movies on the perfect device. So, if we could convert DVD movies or digital videos to iPod compatible, we can enjoy them on iPod unlimitedly. The following two parts will tell you how to finish the conversion work easily.

1. Convert DVD movies to iPod
Install and launch a iPod DVD Converter. You can load DVD files by clicking the "load DVD folders" button.

After your DVD movie is loaded, select right output format from the drop-down presetting list according to your iPod.

Click the Start button to convert DVD movies to iPod compatible format, then you can upload converted DVD movies to iPod(nano/touch/classic/video) or iPhone.

2.Convert Videos to iPod
Install and launch a iPod Video Converter.
Click the Add button, and the program will let you browse your computer hard drive. Select the video files you want to convert and click OK.

Select output format from the drop-down presetting list, which are similar with you do in ripping DVD to iPod.

Click the Start button and wait for the conversion to be finished.

Now, you can kick iTunes store out of the planet. :D


Additional Tips:
1. With the recommended DVD to iPod Ripper, 3 types DVD files can be imported:
(1). regular DVD movie discs;
(2). A DVD folder, it appears like "Video_ts" "audio_ts" folders.
(3). A DVD ISO image, you can mount the iso file in your virtual DVD emulator, say Daemon Tools, and then load the DVD movie.
2. After DVD movie is imported, you can see all the chapters and titles in it, and then you can check the ones you want to convert.
3. You can check the "Merger into one file" option to join all the selected chapters or video clips into one file instead of creating a separated file for each chapter or video clip.
4. Clicking the Settings button, you can customize output video and audio parameters. (advanced user)
5. If you want to edit your movie, such as trimming time length, cropping screen, adding effect, you can refer to another guide.