Tech Tips for Catholic Teens

My dilemma: Okay, so it is 3am and I should be sleeping, but my iPod Shuffle (1st gen) decided to crash while I was at work today. I have just wasted about three hours searching Apple’s forums and troubleshooting pages, along with several other online forums. All I get is other people with the same problem and no real answers.

What crazy things is it doing? (Here are just some of the symptoms of my non-working iPod Shuffle)

1. Neither my computer nor my iTunes recognizes my iPod when it is plugged into any USB port.
2. When I turn it on all I get is a solid green light and nothing happens (won’t play, won’t skip forward/backward & won’t even let me check the battery life as long as it is on.
3. When I plug it back into the USB port it still charges perfectly fine.

So, what have I tried so far? Well, I tried installing a little tool called the HP Drive Key Boot Utility, but it doesn’t recognize my iPod, so this does me no good. Then I tried the iPod Reset Utility, but had the same problem of it not being able to recognize the iPod, so this does me no good. And then, even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I tried Apple’s Fabulous Five Rs advice (Reset, Retry, Restart, Reinstall & Restore).

And, where does this leave me? I could pay to have it serviced as Apple suggests on their website, however this would probably cost more than if I were to buy a brand new 2nd gen. I may just have to suffer not listening to my favorite Podcasts until I can afford a new listening device ― or until I can somehow fix this one.

If you happen to come across something that might fix this, I would greatly appreciate comments. But, if you are having the same problem don’t waste your time posting a comment to say that you are having the same problem.

Good Night : )

Now I know that AppleTV Has been out for quite some time now, but I still don’t have one. Here is a look at the AppleTV complements of Fr. Geek’s Video Podcast.

My Brother works for one of the large cell phone companies and is always telling me different cell-phone tips.  This one, I use quite a bit, and it comes in handy too.

Let’s say that you are driving home from somewhere and you want to order supper from a local restaurant, but you don’t remember the number.  At the next stoplight (Don’t text & drive!), simply text the name of the restaurant, city, and state to 46645.  When I first tried to do this, I kept typing the letters g-o-o-g-l, rather than the number of each letter.  So be sure to use 46645.

…

Within a few seconds of hitting send, you should receive two text messages from Google with the closest results to your search.

You can use this feature to search for a person’s address, a business’ phone number, a definition to a word, and even the nearest Church to your specified zip code.

If you would like to try this without sending an actual text click here.

Please Note: This service is free from Google but charges from your carrier for usage may apply.  I am on a texting plan so I do not get charged per text from my local provider.

Q. I have a bunch of stuff downloaded in iTunes on one computer, which I cannot access right now, because I am having issues with it.  I am loading some of my CD’s into iTunes on another computer for the time being.  If I update my iPod to include some of the songs from this computer, will that automatically erase what I previously put on my iPod from another computer?

A.  I have wondered if there is a way around this as well.  iPods sync to only one computer. So to answer your question…yes, all the previous stuff on your iPod will be erased if you are using the sync setting : (  By default, iPod is set to automatically sync music to your iPod.  That said, (depending on the type of iPod you own) you have the option to manually manage your music files, which will then allow you to upload music from multiple computers : )

See the following links that may help better explain the process.

• Using iPod with multiple computers
• Search for “iPod” on Catholic Tech Tips

Blessings,
Joshua

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Many of them I listen to at work and use MediaMonkey as the music player and down loader. I listen at work on a computer and for me that is fine.

I also listen to many running podcasts (I’m a runner) while out on the road and have a Sansa e250 that supports video and audio. One thing it lacked was the ability to easily convert video for veiwing, and navigatioan was a bit clunky.

Rockbox is an open source project designed to support multiple portable media players. They include the iPod Sansa, Iriver and others.  In an offort to get away from being locked into a format for audio or video that was propritary I did some searching and discoverd RockBox.

This application has it all. It is infinatly configurable, easy to use, and open source. I have been using it for almost a year now and the upgrades are based on user input and feedback. You can also grab the source and contribute.

Some of the best features are the ability to dynamically create play lists on the device, rename files and tags, and customize the interface including adding voice menus. This can really come in handy if your on a run or you have difficulty seeing due to light or eye issues. The font size is also changeable so no more squinting to read. Battery use is excellent and by turning off the frills like album art you can really push the limits of you device for listening.
Take a moment and check it out. For runners its great it has a stopwatch plug-in you can record your time and splits with. You can even play doom, how cool is that?

One of the great features also is the ability to acces the original firmware. So if you really need to do something with it you can.

Check out the site and then head over to SQPN.com, RunningPodcasts.org or your other favorite site and grab your music and shows and listen a whole new way.

LivingSocial Blog: Have an iPhone? This looks like a great iPhone application from the “Virtual Bookshelf” creators at Facebook. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but I can see real value in having a running list of books that I need/want and those I’ve already read that would be easily accessible from my iPhone. I currently use Library Thing and it has a mobile feature at http://www.librarything.com/m/ but this only allows me access to my existing catalog and doesn’t have the “Want to Read” feature. Are you using an iPhone interface you’d like to recommend?

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.