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(Or, How to sync an iPhone with one computer and manually manage music and videos on another).

Note: This tutorial allows you to add music/videos/podcasts from multiple machines. If you just want to sync PIM (Contacts/Calenders etc) on one machine and media on another there’s a simpler way.  On the computer you want to sync contacts/calendar with select only these items and perform a sync. Now, on the second machine enable Music/Photos/Etc and perform a second sync. You will be warned the media library will be deleted, but as there’s no media this is fine

Because I do most of my music listening at work and my Calendar/Address book are kept in Outlook I have my iPhone setup to sync with my office PC.  When I’m at home however I find I also want to put music/podcasts/videos on my iPhone for the weekend or trips.

Normally it’s only possible to sync media on an iPhone with one computer. If you try to use a second computer you get the warning below that “the iPhone XXX is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library”?

However, I’ve found an easy fix for this. In the instructions below I’ll show how to modify any iTunes Library so it can also be synced with your iPhone. You can then either manually manage your iPhone on a second computer, or sync different data on different machines (E.g. Music at home, Contacts/Calendar at work).

The instructions below use the example of modifying the iTunes library on my home Mac to work with my existing iPhone/PC setup. If your existing library is on a Mac, or both machines are of the same type, then the steps are identical.
Notes

• On the PC you can find your iTunes folder in your “My Music” (XP) or “Music” (Vista) directory. On the Mac it is in your Music directory.
• For the editing part, I recommend UltraEdit on the PC and a combination of TextExit / HexEdit on the Mac. Any hex editor will do, and you only need to edit files on the second machine.
• After completing these steps you will be able to sync your iPhone with both computers, either by normal syncing or choosing one machine to manually manage your music and videos. Unless you also keep your music libraries in sync, I recommend you do not attempt to normal sync the same types of data on both machines.

Backup Your Library

On the machine you want to sync with, backup “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Music Library” (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC) to a safe location. These are the files you will be modifying.

1) Find your iTunes Library ID

On the machine your iPhone currently syncs with, open “iTunes Music Library.xml” with a text editor and find the entry between the <string></string> tags, after “Library Persistent ID”. In the example below this is 8B6C633F7DACB74B. Copy this entry exactly to a piece of paper, email, temporary file etc. You can then close this file.

2) Change your Library ID

iTunes stores your library information in two places. An XML file and a binary file. You now need to change the ID in both so they match your other library.

Make sure iTunes is not running.

On the machine you want to sync with open “iTunes Music Library.xml” in a text editor. Again, find the entry between the <string></string> tags after “Library Persistent ID” and copy this entry exactly. This time you can use the clipboard if you wish.

When you have a copy, replace this entry with the one you copied in part 1. Make sure you do not change anything else, and the length of the entry is 16 characters/digits. Save this file and close it.

In the Hex Editor, open “iTunes Music Library” (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC).

Select “Find and Replace” from the Edit menu. Make sure “Hex” matching is selected (not ASCII). In “Find” enter the ID you took a note of in Part 1. In Replace, enter the ID you copied at the start of Part 2. Choose Replace All, there should be one match.

Save this file and close it.

Success!

Start iTunes on the machine you wish to sync with and plug in your iPhone. When you select “Manually manage music and videos” you will no longer be prompted to erase your data, nor will the files on your iPhone be grayed out.

Additional Notes

Previously I’ve found that intentionally corrupting the binary “iTunes Library” file (e.g. replacing it with a text file) would cause iTunes to regenerate it using the XML data. This no longer appears to work for me in iTunes 7.6.1 and the “repaired” file only contains a few songs. This may be because I keep my music on an external drive but I cannot say for sure. Either way, patching the binary file does not take long and removes any chance of later problems.

Source: http://www.andrewgrant.org

Popularity: 5% [?]

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Apple’s releasing some hot new features in iPhone 3.0 this summer, but will it be better than Google’s Android? Let’s take a look.

You already know what you get in iPhone 2.0, you’ve heard about what you get in iPhone 3.0. Let’s see how those features stack up against Android’s current release and its upcoming update (called “Cupcake”) feature by feature.

The Breakdown

There’s a whole lot of green in the iPhone 3.0 column of that chart above, and some red and yellow in the Android side. That’s mostly because we’re comparing Android to the feature set Apple unveiled yesterday; it doesn’t mean that new smartphone buyers stuck between iPhone and Android should automatically wait for iPhone 3.0. It all depends on what you need.

The phone features that actually matter to you: While much has been made of cut/copy and paste coming to iPhone 3.0, many smartphone users say they haven’t run into many situations where they needed it. The feature that’s getting less press but may add more usefulness to iPhone 3.0 is search: with Spotlight, and within Mail, Contacts, and Calendar.

Personally, besides its Gmail client, the feature I love most about Android that the iPhone doesn’t come close to is Android’s pull-down “window shade” notification area, that lists multiple alerts. So if you’ve gotten an SMS, new email, a Twitter reply, a missed call, you can drag and drop the window shade down to see them all. (See screenshot.) The iPhone still pops up a box you have to dismiss to do anything else (include hang up a call!), which is simply an inferior way to handle alerts.

Background processes versus push notifications: While it’s wonderful in theory that Android runs background processes, Apple’s point about how it kills your battery life is absolutely true in my experience. It remains to be seen how well iPhone 3.0′s push notifications will work when they actually do come out (hence the yellow coloring in the table), but right now, the battery life point is not just a bunch of marketing hooha (which is why it got the yellow coloring in the table, too). Besides, Apple has promised and not delivered push notifications before, so we’ll believe this one when we see it.

iPhone 3.0′s application potential: The other big “remains to be seen” part of iPhone 3.0 is where developers will take the new functionality available to them in iPhone 3.0. Voice over IP, maps integration, peer-to-peer Bluetooth, media access, accessory-specific apps—these are really exciting options for application developers that will surely bloom into a million great apps and functionality that haven’t been born yet.

When you’re in control of the hardware: When two different pieces of software are competing, it’s pretty easy to for one to respond to another feature by feature, and we expect Android will offer similar features as iPhone 3.0 eventually. But when you’re in control of the hardware like Apple is, you can do things like enable accessory support—which means, for example, that diabetics can plug their glucose meter into the iPhone and download readings. Since Google’s Android is just the operating system that will run on various handsets with different hardware configurations, that sort of software-to-hardware control will not be as easy.

But given what we know now… As a former iPhone user who switched to Android, I can say: iPhone 3.0 hasn’t made me regret my decision. Yet. Right now, Android’s killer Gmail client, proper MMS support (available now), background processes (even though they kill the battery), window shade, and general Google product integration makes me a happy camper. In fact, on the chart above, the top five items are the features most important to me, and Android—right now, not this summer—hits on almost all of them.

That said, given the potential of iPhone 3.0, gamers, audiophiles, and others may disagree. What about you?

Source: Lifehacker

Popularity: 48% [?]

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It’s going down March 17th. Apparently, we’ll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we’ll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple’s calling this an “advance preview of what we’re building,” so we’re not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won’t have too many months to wait after that for the real deal.

Source: Engadget

Popularity: 20% [?]

Popularity: 24% [?]

Por si el Dev Team no fuera suficiente pesadilla para Apple, ahora acaba de lanzarse la beta de Crackulous, una aplicación que se descarga desde Cydia y que asegura acabar con la protección de todos los programas, o dicho de otra manera, los libera sin pasar por caja.

Por descontado, necesitarás un iPhone liberado para instalarlo y viendo lo fácil que es usa la Pwnage Tool no nos queda ninguna duda que Crackulous será la sensación del momento.

[Vía Funky Space Monkey]

Popularity: 27% [?]

Popularity: 23% [?]

Griffin Technology rolled out a gaggle of new accessories at CES 2009, but curiously absent was this fellow. The outfit has announced today that its TuneFlex AUX SmartClick is shipping to those interested, and if you’re still attempting to gauge your own level of excitement, let us detail what it does. Essentially, what we’ve got here is an in-car iPod / iPhone charger (via cigarette adapter) that comes with a wireless remote tailor made for slipping around your steering wheel. Also, there’s no messy FM transmitter to bother with; instead, it relies on the much more solid auxiliary input connection. Yeah, $79.99 sounds a tad high to us too, but momma always said you can’t put a price on keeping your eyes on the road.

Fuente: engadget

Popularity: 26% [?]

Popularity: 24% [?]

Los chicos de Apple son expertos en ofrecer productos y aplicaciones cerradas tal es el caso de iPod, iPhone e iTunes que dan a esta empresa una posición dominante en el mercado obligando a los usuarios de iPhone e iPod a usar exclusivamente iTunes para sincronizar y administrar sus datos.

Gracias a miles de desarrolladores podemos disfrutar de alternativas para administrar un iPod en cualquier sistema operativo sin necesidad de usar iTunes. solo disponible para Windows y Mac. En el caso de iPhone tendremos que esperar unos cuantos meses.

En SimpleHelp han elaborado una lista con diez alternativas a iTunes:

• Amarok.
• Banshee.
• Floola.
• gtkpod.
• MediaMonkey.
• Rhythmbox.
• SharePod.
• Songbird.
• Winamp.
• YamiPod.

Fuente: VisualBeta

Popularity: 29% [?]

VideoDirecto.Es es un blog en el que diariamente se publican enlaces a descargas directas de videos en formato MP4, perfectos para poder verlos en el iPhone, iPod, PSP o cualquier móvil que soporte este formato de video. A pesar de ser prácticamente nuevo, ya hay unas cuantas películas disponibles y empiezan a meter más series de televisión. Todos los videos (o casi todos) se publican en versión original y también en VO con subtítulos integrados en español. Y si existe, también su versión doblada a español.

Por ejemplo, los enlaces a los últimos capítulos de Lost (Perdidos) de la cuarta temporada son publicados en unas horas después de su emisión. Y poco a poco se planea ir incorporando más y más series. Y lógicamente puedes comentar para realizar peticiones.

Algunos videos que podemos encontrarnos ahora mismo en VideoDirecto, convertidos a MP4 y preparados ya para visualizarlos en el iPhone/iPod/PSP:

• Dexter – Temporada 1
• Lost (Perdidos) – Temporada 4
• The IT Crowd – Temporada 1
• Gomaespuminglish – Temporada 1
• Enjuto Mojamuto – Temporada 1
• Películas de todo tipo
• Videoclips de música

Enlace:

• VideoDirecto.Es – películas y series en MP4 en descarga directa

Fuente: Hachemuda

Popularity: 93% [?]