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Skipping around on an iPod System
While playing a song on the iPod, holding the > keys will scan backward and forward; this is old hat. But if you click the select button (center), the progress bar turns into a little diamond indicator and the scroll wheel can be used to scan. Pretty cool.

[Editor's note: Yes, I realize an iPod hint is not an OS X hint ... but I also know a lot of you have them, so I thought this might be of interest. I'd test this hint myself, but I'm still pod-less...]
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Skipping around on an iPod | 18 comments | Create New Account
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Another cool feature...
Authored by: chabig on Jan 31, '03 10:47:11AM

If you press the bottom button you can make the audio pause. If you press the same button again, it picks up exactly where it left off!



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Another cool feature...
Authored by: bipto on Jan 31, '03 11:03:43AM

OMG! You're right!!



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Another cool feature...
Authored by: randykato on Jan 31, '03 01:46:21PM

Here's another tip. If you want your iPod to "resume" so the next time you power it up it starts playing right from where you left it, just hit the pause button and let it auto power-off after a few seconds (I think it's 30 seconds or something). Do this instead of manually shutting it down and the next time you power up, it'll be paused right where you left it.



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Great hint!
Authored by: gdelfino on Jan 31, '03 11:01:55AM
This is specially great for very long MP3 files. I converted some cassetes to MP3, resulting in very long MP3 files. Now I can go where I want much faster.

Thanks.

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Great hint! -- one thing though
Authored by: das_2099 on Feb 01, '03 10:31:41PM
If you have songs that are topping in over 20 minutes, you are sucking the life out of that iPod battery. As the song tops 20 min, the cache is filled and the disk is constantly accessed. YOu might want to split that long tape -to-MP3 conversion up a bit. try mpgtxwrap

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Other methods of splitting MP3s
Authored by: ret on Feb 02, '03 08:31:11PM

Two other ways of splitting up huge MP3s into song-sized bites:
1. Jam (part of the Toast bundle, costs $), but designed to do this very thing. Requires the original AIFF format rather than MP3 as well.
2. iMovie. Think I read it here, if you import the song into iMovie, you can crop it using the time-line. Then empty the trash to make the change permanent, and close iMovie. In your project folder you'll find the neatly truncated MP3, which you can import back into iTunes. You'll need to do this twice if you're using it (as I do) to separate out a hidden track into its own file (and getting rid of that five minutes of silence that precedes it... grrr)

cheers
RET



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I Never knew this....
Authored by: CaptCosmic on Jan 31, '03 12:59:39PM

While some people seem to think this hint is stupid, I will admit that I'd never realized it. I've had my iPod for about 6 months, and I knew that pressing the select button switched the display. But I just though it was for looks. I never realized that it changed the functionality of the scroll wheel.

This will come in handy when I need to jump around in songs. Holding down the FF and RW buttons is very imprecise.



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Surprising
Authored by: jimhill on Jan 31, '03 01:07:41PM

It's surprising that more people weren't aware of this. I learned it within a few days of getting my iPod, by inadvertently pressing the center button to toggle between volume/scan. I had a few stressful moments there jumping all over songs while trying to adjust the volume.



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All hints are created equal
Authored by: springstdigital on Jan 31, '03 03:34:03PM

Lately it seems that there is a lot more hint-bashing going on here. While it is true that some of us know more than others, it is also true that we all come here to learn. If you already know, why go out of your way to make someone else feel inferior? Why should every other hint have a disclaimer from Rob about it's validity?
Every day I learn something here. This is one of the last sane and friendly places to give and get information. Please don't ruin it for everyone else.



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well said
Authored by: poultryfarm on Jan 31, '03 04:52:51PM

i couldn't agree more.



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All hints are created equal
Authored by: chabig on Feb 02, '03 12:07:07PM

You are right, of course. I posted the first sarcastic comment in this thread. I'm sorry I did, and would have deleted it after posting it, had there been a way.

People really should read the online help, though. How long do you think it will be before people start submitting hints about the new releases of iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 that really are just features. Then again, book authors make a lot of money writing books that basically just tell people how to use the documented features of many programs.

Chris



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All hints are created equal
Authored by: NetCurl on Feb 02, '03 12:55:28PM

I too found this hint to be quite a surprise. I have had my iPod for about 2 months and I hadn't found this feature yet.

I would like to make an argument for hints based upon functionality though. I think a lot of functionality in many applications and devices can be undocumented but highly useful. I once amazed a fellow Mac user by showing her that you could Command-Click the name of the open folder window and see a hierarchial listing of the directory tree. She was amazed, but had been a mac user for years and never come across this. I think there are plenty of little "feature-ettes" that are handy and are worth the extra few bits to post for all to peruse.

Thanks for the iPod tip too...



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not a hint
Authored by: Mr. X on Jan 31, '03 04:56:00PM

I do agree that we don't really need sarcasms here. But at the same time I really don't think that qualifies as a hint. It's just basic functionality.



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Ah well ...
Authored by: robg on Jan 31, '03 05:29:02PM

I try my best; I guess I should have held off until I could have found someone with an iPod to tell me this was basic stuff ;-). You win some, you lose some. Hopefully I get more right than I get wrong...

-rob.



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Ah well ...
Authored by: gxw on Feb 01, '03 12:48:17AM

I don't have an iPod....yet...
But I do appreciate this hint. Thanks for posting it.



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Maybe I'm slow but...
Authored by: BKuchta on Jan 31, '03 06:55:57PM

I never realized this! And I've had my iPod for over a year. This is a big help to me as I listen to a number of audio books. Do you know how much of a pain it is to get back to your spot using the buttons after you hit the "back" button when you're half way through an 8 hour book. It takes like 20 minutes.



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Re: not a hint
Authored by: jiclark on Feb 01, '03 01:58:50AM

If you say that this isn't a hint because it's "basic functionality", you make almost any hint invalid. To a Unix expert, editing one of your config files (or whatever you call them!) in vi or pico is "basic functionality". I still don't know how to do it very well, so it's very valuable to me.

The mere fact that several people posted saying they'd had iPods for awhile, and didn't know about this "basic functionality", proves my point.

And as someone said above, just ignore it and move on to the next "real" hint if you already know it. No need to get all pompous about it!

Peace,
John-o



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create mp3s from audio input
Authored by: o5jive on Feb 06, '03 03:15:37PM

if you like the command line, you'll like..

http://members.cox.net/shaffersys/audio_tools.tgz



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