The Apple iPhone Thread (5 Viewers)

[The Noid]

Anyone use a cassette adapter, instead of an FM transmitter, to play their iPhone through the car? With everything I read about FM transmitters being spotty, quality-wise, I'm wondering if I should make some use of the cassette player in my radio.

 

[XNOUGHT]

the little booklet that comes with the phone is a must readdouble tap home button while locked brings up ipod controlstap and hold over a word to get magnifying glass to move insertion point when you make a typo (instead of deleting the entire word to fix a spelling mistake)double tap home button from within any application brings up your favorites screen (favorite contacts)

I never got one

 

[Disco Stu]

Anyone use a cassette adapter, instead of an FM transmitter, to play their iPhone through the car? With everything I read about FM transmitters being spotty, quality-wise, I'm wondering if I should make some use of the cassette player in my radio.

I haven't tried it with the iPhone yet but use one with an mp3 player. Works great and very cheap. I don't see any reason it'd be any different with the iPhone. Most people just don't have cassette players in their cars these days.

 

[Britney Spears]

I have a turntable in my car. Suspended from the roof by chains. I run the iPhone through that.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

I have a turntable in my car. Suspended from the roof by chains. I run the iPhone through that.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

 

[Alias]

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

slingbox works from what I hear

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

Look up ORB as an app.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

slingbox works from what I hear

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

Look up ORB as an app.

you need something hooked up to your TV and/or PC for both of these, correct?

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

slingbox works from what I hear

Can you watch live TV over this thing?

Look up ORB as an app.

you need something hooked up to your TV and/or PC for both of these, correct?

http://www.orb.com/en/how_it_worksFor TV, you'll need to install a TV tuner card and leave you PC on.

 

[Pick]

Just back from a trip and the FM thingy doesn't work too well. You have to change the channel every so often and it never seems to come in perfectly clear anyway. Like listening to radio on a bad station sometimes. Not worth it IMO.

 

[adonis]

Looks like they're close to jailbreaing 3GS. Should be interesting.

 

[Spartans346]

Once in a while when I am listening to the iphone for music the voice control keeps coming up. It happens a lot when I run as well. Is there anyway I can turn off voice control or just prevent it from popping up? Yes, I have checked the settings. Does it have anything to do with my headphones?

 

[HellToupee]

Went to the Apple store today to upgrade. Very fast & smooth except for my case. Somehow I ended up with an ipod touch case. Have to be careful tomorrow before I can exchange it a night. My1st gen iphone was dropped about 50 times in the case I had with zero damage.

 

[goldenchild]

Just back from a trip and the FM thingy doesn't work too well. You have to change the channel every so often and it never seems to come in perfectly clear anyway. Like listening to radio on a bad station sometimes. Not worth it IMO.

I found that the thing is pretty much useless in places that are not rural...The one I had was the Monster Cable one with only like 4 or 5 possible choices. A lot of local community colleges and small time radio stations use those lower FM band frequencies so I've had similar experiences like what you're describing.I have since switched to a radio with an AUX input that I plug my ipod into.

 

[Fruitbat]

OK I've got some newbie questions surrounding the iPhone, and smartphones in general. Sorry if these have been covered before (its a long thread)

1. We are moving to a market that does not yet have 3G. Dude at the local AT&T store (in our current market with 3G) showed us web surfing speed if you turn 3G off and it seemed OK. Do I have anything to be concerned about here? Is what he showed us a fair comparison. Maybe a better way to ask would be can I expect reasonable performance from web and email in a "2G" market?

2. I've never been one to like music library services/software. (Although I do have media monkey). I prefer to have control and knowledge about where my music is...if I want music on my mp3 player, I can simply go into windows, and copy and paste what I want onto my device. What is going to be my experience with the iPhone. Do I need iTunes? and what does that even mean? Is it software, online service? both?

3. Does Wi-Fi mean what I think it means? I can wirelessly connect to my home network (or other networks for that matter) and browse the web and email? can I grab files from shared folders on other computers on the network?

4. How does email work? I currently have email/internet service through earthlink. Is email on the iPhone (or any smartphone for that matter) basically the same as configuring Outlook on my laptop to point to the earthlink servers? What if I want my email "home base" to be my home laptop that automatically downloads email and deletes them from the earthlink server? would I need to change that to allow my phone to "grab" those emails as well?

and in conclusion, everything I've read leads me to beleive that the iPhone is the choice for us. We are personal users (not business) that want internet/email access on our phones...cost is not an issue. We like the "style" of the iPhone where it is primarily one big touchscreen. Other than playing around with it in the store or personal taste, are there any other factors we should consider? I suppose carrier is one of them, but I have no preference there.

 

[iamsmilin]

Anyone use a cassette adapter, instead of an FM transmitter, to play their iPhone through the car? With everything I read about FM transmitters being spotty, quality-wise, I'm wondering if I should make some use of the cassette player in my radio.

I use this in my 4Runner and my ipod and it works great. The only issue is that it can be staticky (sp?) but all you have to do is play around with the sound on your ipod. Turn up the ipod and down the the radio dial. I haven't tried this on my iphone so I don't know what happens when I get a call.ETA: I guess you can just punch the speaker button on your iphone and you should be fine.

 

[Osaurus]

I am lucky I guess....have auxiliary jack built into RAV-4. No mess, no fuss.

 

[Pick]

Went to the Apple store today to upgrade. Very fast & smooth except for my case. Somehow I ended up with an ipod touch case. Have to be careful tomorrow before I can exchange it a night. My1st gen iphone was dropped about 50 times in the case I had with zero damage.

So you can upgrade 3GS to a new iphone?

 

[Pick]

I am lucky I guess....have auxiliary jack built into RAV-4. No mess, no fuss.

Most new cars have them. My Tacoma is a 2008 but Toyota likes the rugged feel for their trucks and so didn't include an AUX plug-in even though every other vehicle in the fleet has one.

 

[joey]

OK I've got some newbie questions surrounding the iPhone, and smartphones in general. Sorry if these have been covered before (its a long thread)1. We are moving to a market that does not yet have 3G. Dude at the local AT&T store (in our current market with 3G) showed us web surfing speed if you turn 3G off and it seemed OK. Do I have anything to be concerned about here? Is what he showed us a fair comparison. Maybe a better way to ask would be can I expect reasonable performance from web and email in a "2G" market?2. I've never been one to like music library services/software. (Although I do have media monkey). I prefer to have control and knowledge about where my music is...if I want music on my mp3 player, I can simply go into windows, and copy and paste what I want onto my device. What is going to be my experience with the iPhone. Do I need iTunes? and what does that even mean? Is it software, online service? both?3. Does Wi-Fi mean what I think it means? I can wirelessly connect to my home network (or other networks for that matter) and browse the web and email? can I grab files from shared folders on other computers on the network?4. How does email work? I currently have email/internet service through earthlink. Is email on the iPhone (or any smartphone for that matter) basically the same as configuring Outlook on my laptop to point to the earthlink servers? What if I want my email "home base" to be my home laptop that automatically downloads email and deletes them from the earthlink server? would I need to change that to allow my phone to "grab" those emails as well?and in conclusion, everything I've read leads me to beleive that the iPhone is the choice for us. We are personal users (not business) that want internet/email access on our phones...cost is not an issue. We like the "style" of the iPhone where it is primarily one big touchscreen. Other than playing around with it in the store or personal taste, are there any other factors we should consider? I suppose carrier is one of them, but I have no preference there.

looks like no one got to this one so I'll do what I can...1) I have an original, 1st gen iphone, non-3G...guess that makes it 2G?...anyway...it works "fine" surfing the web. I'm not saying it's "fast" web browsing over the phone network, but in a pinch (need some important info, wasting time waiting for an appointment, whatver) it gets the job done.2) as far as I know, iTunes is the only way to deal with your music on an iphone. As a Mac user, I can't imagine any other way to manager my music. itunes is software and it's basically just a music collection browser. Simplest interface in the world. The other main feature is it's also a browser to apple's online iTunes store where you can buy and download music.iTunes keeps your music nice and organized.3) yes, wifi is as simple as you think it is. I have a wireless network in my house and at work. I walk into my house/work and my iphone finds the network. As expected, web browsing and email downloading is MUCH faster using wifi instead of 2G. 4) I just have yahoo and gmail email accounts and those are kind of integrated into the iphone, in that, when you want to setup your email accounts, there are shortcuts for yahoo and gmail accounts and it's super easy to set up. I don't do earthlink so I can't say for sure, but I think the iphone seems to cover all bases with push and pull email, so I couldn't imagine it wouldn't work. Someone else could probably give more specifics.Besides that, the iPhone is amazing. Ever since they offered Apps on the phone, it's one of the most amazing all-in-one devices ever created. My only problem with the iPhone is that AT&T's coverage kind of sucks in my area. But I wouldn't trade it in for any other phone.

 

[Dash]

OK I've got some newbie questions surrounding the iPhone, and smartphones in general. Sorry if these have been covered before (its a long thread)1. We are moving to a market that does not yet have 3G. Dude at the local AT&T store (in our current market with 3G) showed us web surfing speed if you turn 3G off and it seemed OK. Do I have anything to be concerned about here? Is what he showed us a fair comparison. Maybe a better way to ask would be can I expect reasonable performance from web and email in a "2G" market?2. I've never been one to like music library services/software. (Although I do have media monkey). I prefer to have control and knowledge about where my music is...if I want music on my mp3 player, I can simply go into windows, and copy and paste what I want onto my device. What is going to be my experience with the iPhone. Do I need iTunes? and what does that even mean? Is it software, online service? both?3. Does Wi-Fi mean what I think it means? I can wirelessly connect to my home network (or other networks for that matter) and browse the web and email? can I grab files from shared folders on other computers on the network?4. How does email work? I currently have email/internet service through earthlink. Is email on the iPhone (or any smartphone for that matter) basically the same as configuring Outlook on my laptop to point to the earthlink servers? What if I want my email "home base" to be my home laptop that automatically downloads email and deletes them from the earthlink server? would I need to change that to allow my phone to "grab" those emails as well?and in conclusion, everything I've read leads me to beleive that the iPhone is the choice for us. We are personal users (not business) that want internet/email access on our phones...cost is not an issue. We like the "style" of the iPhone where it is primarily one big touchscreen. Other than playing around with it in the store or personal taste, are there any other factors we should consider? I suppose carrier is one of them, but I have no preference there.

looks like no one got to this one so I'll do what I can...1) I have an original, 1st gen iphone, non-3G...guess that makes it 2G?...anyway...it works "fine" surfing the web. I'm not saying it's "fast" web browsing over the phone network, but in a pinch (need some important info, wasting time waiting for an appointment, whatver) it gets the job done.2) as far as I know, iTunes is the only way to deal with your music on an iphone. As a Mac user, I can't imagine any other way to manager my music. itunes is software and it's basically just a music collection browser. Simplest interface in the world. The other main feature is it's also a browser to apple's online iTunes store where you can buy and download music.iTunes keeps your music nice and organized.3) yes, wifi is as simple as you think it is. I have a wireless network in my house and at work. I walk into my house/work and my iphone finds the network. As expected, web browsing and email downloading is MUCH faster using wifi instead of 2G. 4) I just have yahoo and gmail email accounts and those are kind of integrated into the iphone, in that, when you want to setup your email accounts, there are shortcuts for yahoo and gmail accounts and it's super easy to set up. I don't do earthlink so I can't say for sure, but I think the iphone seems to cover all bases with push and pull email, so I couldn't imagine it wouldn't work. Someone else could probably give more specifics.Besides that, the iPhone is amazing. Ever since they offered Apps on the phone, it's one of the most amazing all-in-one devices ever created. My only problem with the iPhone is that AT&T's coverage kind of sucks in my area. But I wouldn't trade it in for any other phone.

I'll add: and if you go with an iphone, change the import settings on CD rips for iTunes from AAC format to a custom, high quality MP3 so you can easily transport your music anywhere. Also, you can buy your MP3s through Amazon and it will import right into iTunes. Some folks have DVD movies and tv shows that they convert to iPhone ready format and import into iTunes, there has to be a thread around here discussing that...

 

[Harry Manback]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.

Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

 

[The Commish]

Dumb question, but what is "jailbreak"? Wife is a glutton for punishiment...getting the new version despite her past experience with AT&T / Apple last time. We'll see if this is any better.

 

[Alias]

Dumb question, but what is "jailbreak"? Wife is a glutton for punishiment...getting the new version despite her past experience with AT&T / Apple last time. We'll see if this is any better.

easy answer

 

[noneother]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

 

[Dash]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

iTunes store sells MP3s without DRM, but the files contain your e-mail address (aka iTunes login ID).

 

[noneother]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

iTunes store sells MP3s without DRM, but the files contain your e-mail address (aka iTunes login ID).

thasnks.. now a few more...1- can you choose the file type you purchase? or is it all mp3 now?2- if so, how do you choose so all purchases are mp3 in the future? 3- are purchases on the iphone aac or mp3? 4- can you choose those too?thanks sorry to pest

 

[goonsquad]

I'll add: and if you go with an iphone, change the import settings on CD rips for iTunes from AAC format to a custom, high quality MP3 so you can easily transport your music anywhere. Also, you can buy your MP3s through Amazon and it will import right into iTunes. Some folks have DVD movies and tv shows that they convert to iPhone ready format and import into iTunes, there has to be a thread around here discussing that...

Out of curiosity, why would you do this? AAC is part of MP4 and has better sound quality/compression than MP3.

 

[Harry Manback]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

Awesome, I will try this when I get home.I was going to be very irritated if they did not allow this.

 

[Dash]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

iTunes store sells MP3s without DRM, but the files contain your e-mail address (aka iTunes login ID).

thasnks.. now a few more...1- can you choose the file type you purchase? or is it all mp3 now?2- if so, how do you choose so all purchases are mp3 in the future? 3- are purchases on the iphone aac or mp3? 4- can you choose those too?thanks sorry to pest

No problem at all. Answering all your questions in a lump here: as of a few months ago, all iTunes songs are 256kb/s MP3s without DRM (yes, you can use them on any mp3 device). Anything bought recently or in the future, through the iPhone or desktop iTunes (they access the same online store), should be an MP3. Older tracks may trigger a "Upgrade to iTunes plus" which is code for "We have DRM free, higher quality versions that you can download for $.30 more per track or cheaper if you upgrade a whole album. If you're looking for MP3s, Amazon has some great deals on a regular basis and a piece of "download software" that imports the tracks right into iTunes.

 

[noneother]

So I bought a few songs on iTunes via my iPhone, I synced my phone and it doesn't appear that they are in my iTunes on my computer.Can anyone confirm that this is true? If so this is a major flaw, either that or an idiotic scam.

top left corner in Itunes, File, I believe, "transfer purchased songs from phone" or something to that..apple only sells aac files? right?

iTunes store sells MP3s without DRM, but the files contain your e-mail address (aka iTunes login ID).

thasnks.. now a few more...1- can you choose the file type you purchase? or is it all mp3 now?2- if so, how do you choose so all purchases are mp3 in the future? 3- are purchases on the iphone aac or mp3? 4- can you choose those too?thanks sorry to pest

No problem at all. Answering all your questions in a lump here: as of a few months ago, all iTunes songs are 256kb/s MP3s without DRM (yes, you can use them on any mp3 device). Anything bought recently or in the future, through the iPhone or desktop iTunes (they access the same online store), should be an MP3. Older tracks may trigger a "Upgrade to iTunes plus" which is code for "We have DRM free, higher quality versions that you can download for $.30 more per track or cheaper if you upgrade a whole album. If you're looking for MP3s, Amazon has some great deals on a regular basis and a piece of "download software" that imports the tracks right into iTunes.

thank you

 

[Dash]

I'll add: and if you go with an iphone, change the import settings on CD rips for iTunes from AAC format to a custom, high quality MP3 so you can easily transport your music anywhere. Also, you can buy your MP3s through Amazon and it will import right into iTunes. Some folks have DVD movies and tv shows that they convert to iPhone ready format and import into iTunes, there has to be a thread around here discussing that...

Out of curiosity, why would you do this? AAC is part of MP4 and has better sound quality/compression than MP3.

MP3 is more widely supported in portable audio players, car stereos, especially older devices. If someone were buying all new digital audio players and made certain AAC was supported, sure, it would be fine, but since MP3 is more prevalent I lean towards compatibility.Also, I doubt most folks will be able to tell much difference with sound quality at 256kb/s.

 

[goonsquad]

No problem at all. Answering all your questions in a lump here: as of a few months ago, all iTunes songs are 256kb/s MP3s without DRM (yes, you can use them on any mp3 device). Anything bought recently or in the future, through the iPhone or desktop iTunes (they access the same online store), should be an MP3. Older tracks may trigger a "Upgrade to iTunes plus" which is code for "We have DRM free, higher quality versions that you can download for $.30 more per track or cheaper if you upgrade a whole album. If you're looking for MP3s, Amazon has some great deals on a regular basis and a piece of "download software" that imports the tracks right into iTunes.

Actually, all songs from the iTunes Store are still AAC, not MP3.

iTunes music. Now 100% iTunes Plus.

Now, every song available on the iTunes Store is an iTunes Plus song. That means you get high-quality music with 256-Kbps AAC encoding, making every song you download virtually indistinguishable from the original recording. iTunes Plus songs are all free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM).

 

[goonsquad]

I'll add: and if you go with an iphone, change the import settings on CD rips for iTunes from AAC format to a custom, high quality MP3 so you can easily transport your music anywhere. Also, you can buy your MP3s through Amazon and it will import right into iTunes. Some folks have DVD movies and tv shows that they convert to iPhone ready format and import into iTunes, there has to be a thread around here discussing that...

Out of curiosity, why would you do this? AAC is part of MP4 and has better sound quality/compression than MP3.

MP3 is more widely supported in portable audio players, car stereos, especially older devices. If someone were buying all new digital audio players and made certain AAC was supported, sure, it would be fine, but since MP3 is more prevalent I lean towards compatibility.Also, I doubt most folks will be able to tell much difference with sound quality at 256kb/s.

I suppose, although I think AAC support is much more widespread than you may expect. Also, I agree that you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference in sound quality at 256kbs, but the benefit of AAC is you can save at a lower kbs and get the same sound quality but with smaller file sizes.Anyway, here's a wiki list of devices that support AAC:

Hardware

[edit]iTunes and iPod

In April 2003, Apple Computer brought mainstream attention to AAC by announcing that its iTunes and iPod products would support songs in MPEG-4 AAC format (via a firmware update for older iPods). Customers could download music in a proprietary Digital Rights Management (DRM)-restricted form of AAC (see FairPlay) via the iTunes Store or create files without DRM from their own CDs using iTunes. In later years, Apple began offering music videos and movies, which also use AAC for audio encoding.

On May 29, 2007, Apple began selling songs and music videos free of DRM from participating record labels. These files mostly adhere to the AAC standard and are playable on many non-Apple products but they do include custom iTunes information such as album artwork and a purchase receipt, so as to identify the customer in case the file is leaked out onto peer-to-peer networks. It is possible, however, to remove these custom tags to restore interoperability with players that conform strictly to the AAC specification.

iTunes supports a "Variable bit rate" (VBR) encoding option which encodes AAC tracks in an "Average bit rate" (ABR) scheme. As of October 2007, Apple has not added support for HE-AAC (which is fully part of the MP4 standard) or true VBR encoding to iTunes.

[edit]Other Portable Players

Creative Zen Portable

Microsoft Zune

SanDisk Sansa (some models)

Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with firmware 2.0 or greater

Sony Walkman

Nintendo DSi

Slacker G2 Personal Radio Player

Cowon

[edit]Mobile phones

For a number of years, many mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, BenQ-Siemens and Philips have supported AAC playback. The first such phone was the Nokia 5510 released in 2002 which also plays MP3s. However, this phone was a commercial failure and such phones with integrated music players did not gain mainstream popularity until 2005 when the trend of having AAC as well as MP3 support continued. Most new smartphones and music-themed phones support playback of these formats.

Sony Ericsson phones support various AAC formats in MP4 container. AAC-LC is supported in all phones beginning with K700, phones beginning with W550 have support of HE-AAC. The latest devices such as the P990, K610, W890i and later support HE-AAC v2.

Nokia XpressMusic and other new generation Nokia multimedia phones like N- and E-Series: also support AAC format in LC, HE, M4A and HEv2 profiles

BlackBerry: RIM's latest series of Smartphones such as the 8100 ("Pearl") and 8800 support AAC.

Apple's iPhone supports AAC and FairPlay protected AAC files used as the default encoding format in the iTunes store.

The HTC Dream (Also known as the T-Mobile G1) is described as supporting certain subset of the full AAC format. As of 2009-04-13 at least several forms of AAC files played while others did not play.

[edit]Other devices

Palm OS PDAs: Many Palm OS based PDAs and smartphones can play AAC and HE-AAC with the 3rd party software Pocket Tunes. Version 4.0, released in December 2006, added support for native AAC and HE-AAC files. The AAC codec for TCPMP, a popular video player, was withdrawn after version 0.66 due to patent issues, but can still be downloaded from sites other than corecodec.org. CorePlayer, the commercial follow-on to TCPMP, includes AAC support. Other PalmOS programs supporting AAC include Kinoma Player and AeroPlayer.

Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms support AAC either by the native Windows Media Player or by third-party products (TCPMP, CorePlayer)

Epson supports AAC playback in the P-2000 and P-4000 Multimedia/Photo Storage Viewers. This support is not available with their older models, however.

Vosonic supports AAC recording and playback in the VP8350, VP8360 and VP8390 MultiMedia Viewers.

The EGreat line of NMT's support the playback of AAC encoded files.

The Popcorn Hour A-110 supports AAC encoded files.

The Coolech CP-816R can play back AAC encoded files.

The Dvico Tvix 6500A is a personal video recorder (pvr) which is capable of playing back AAC files which are either stored on the inbuilt hard drive or streamed from elsewhere in a home network.

The Sony Reader portable eBook plays M4A files containing AAC, and displays metadata created by iTunes. Other Sony products, including the A and E series Network Walkmans, support AAC with firmware updates (released May 2006) while the S series supports it out of the box.

Nearly every major car stereo manufacturer offers models that will play back.m4a files recorded onto CD in a data format. This includes Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Kenwood, Clarion, Panasonic, and JVC.

The Sonos Digital Media Player supports playback of AAC files.

The Roku SoundBridge network audio player supports playback of AAC encoded files.

The Squeezebox network audio player (made by Slim Devices, a Logitech company) supports playback of AAC files.

The PlayStation 3 supports encoding and decoding of AAC files.

The Xbox 360 supports streaming of AAC through the Zune software, and off supported iPods connected through the USB port

The Wii video game console supports AAC files through version 1.1 of the Photo Channel as of December 11, 2007. All AAC profiles and bitrates are supported as long as it is in the.m4a file extension. This update removed MP3 compatibility, but users who have installed this may freely downgrade to the old version if they wish.[10]

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen records and stores audio in AAC format. The audio files can be replayed using the pen's integrated speaker, attached headphones, or on a computer using the Livescribe Desktop software. The AAC files are stored in the user's "My Documents" folder of the Windows OS and can be distributed and played without specialized hardware or software from Livescribe.

[edit]Software

A very common program supporting AAC playback is Flash player, version 10, update 3 and above.[11] [12] However, since flash player is a browser plugin, it can only play AAC files through a browser.

The Rockbox open source firmware (available for multiple portable players) also offers support for AAC to varying degrees, depending on the model of player and the AAC profile.

Optional iPod support (playback of unprotected AAC files) for the Xbox 360 is available as a free download from Xbox Live.[13]

[edit]Other software media players

Almost all current computer media players include built-in decoders for AAC, or can utilize a library to decode it. On Microsoft Windows, DirectShow can be utilized this way with the corresponding filters to enable AAC playback in any DirectShow based player. Software player applications of particular note include:

Audio Transcoder - CD Ripper, audio converter, tag editor for Windows, allows to convert from/to AAC.

Easy CD-DA Extractor for Windows, CD Ripper and audio converter, which includes an AAC encoder that supports LC and HE AAC.

ffdshow is a free open source DirectShow filter for Microsoft Windows operating systems that uses FAAD2 to support AAC decoding.

foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows that supports LC and HE AAC.

Jetaudio is a free media player for Microsoft Windows that plays a large array of formats, including AAC.

AIMP also supports AAC and MP4 audio files, and has a tool to AAC format conversion.

The KMPlayer also supports AAC.

KSP Sound Player also supports AAC.

Media Player Classic

CorePlayer also supports LC and HE AAC.

MPlayer or xine are often used as AAC decoders on Linux.

RealPlayer includes RealNetworks' RealAudio 10 AAC encoder.

Songbird for Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh supports AAC, including the DRM rights management encoding used for purchased music from the iTunes Store, with a plug-in.

Sony SonicStage also support AAC.

VLC media player supports playback of MP4 and AAC files.

Winamp for Windows, which includes an AAC encoder that supports LC and HE AAC;

Another Real product, Rhapsody supports the RealAudio AAC codec, in addition to offering subscription tracks encoded with AAC.

XBMC (XBox Media Center) supports both AAC (LC and HE) on modified Xbox game-consoles.

XMMS supports mp4 playback using a plugin provided by the faad2 library.

Some of these players (e.g., foobar2000, Winamp, and VLC) also support the decoding of ADTS (Audio Data Transport Stream) or MP4-contained AAC streamed over HTTP using the SHOUTcast protocol. Plug-ins for Winamp and foobar2000 enable the creation of such streams.

[edit]Nero Digital Audio

In May 2006, Nero AG released an AAC encoding tool free of charge, Nero Digital Audio,[14] which is capable of encoding LC-AAC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 streams. The tool is a Command Line Interface tool only, and a separate utility is included to decode to PCM WAV.

Various tools including the foobar2000 audio player, MeGUI encoding front end and dBpoweramp can provide a GUI for the encoder.

[edit]FAAC and FAAD2

FAAC and FAAD2 stand for Freeware Advanced Audio Coder and Decoder 2 respectively, collectively make up an open source implementation of AAC.

 

[Dash]

No problem at all. Answering all your questions in a lump here: as of a few months ago, all iTunes songs are 256kb/s MP3s without DRM (yes, you can use them on any mp3 device). Anything bought recently or in the future, through the iPhone or desktop iTunes (they access the same online store), should be an MP3. Older tracks may trigger a "Upgrade to iTunes plus" which is code for "We have DRM free, higher quality versions that you can download for $.30 more per track or cheaper if you upgrade a whole album. If you're looking for MP3s, Amazon has some great deals on a regular basis and a piece of "download software" that imports the tracks right into iTunes.

Actually, all songs from the iTunes Store are still AAC, not MP3.

iTunes music. Now 100% iTunes Plus.

Now, every song available on the iTunes Store is an iTunes Plus song. That means you get high-quality music with 256-Kbps AAC encoding, making every song you download virtually indistinguishable from the original recording. iTunes Plus songs are all free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM).

Seriously? Oh boy...my wife is gonna be pissed that some of our music won't translate to the other devices. Back to Amazon it is for me...eek!

 

[Alias]

Are there any good speaker phone docking stations? I work from home a lot and would like to increase the volume for the speaker phone since it is kind of weak. I searched Amazon and only found hands free car speaker phones (bluetooth)

 

[Lehigh98]

Are there any good speaker phone docking stations? I work from home a lot and would like to increase the volume for the speaker phone since it is kind of weak. I searched Amazon and only found hands free car speaker phones (bluetooth)

ETA: Oops, at second look I realized you were asking for something for phone calls and not music.Don't have any help for that but I'll leave my comment about a music dock...

I have the Logitech mm50 for my old iPod and like it alot but its not compatible with the iPhone.

The sound was pretty good and it had its own internal rechargable battery.

I think the new version for the iPhone is the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 Compact Speakers for iPod and iPhone.

I've still been using the old iPod and mm50 around the house so haven't got myself to buy it yet though.

 

[goonsquad]

No problem at all. Answering all your questions in a lump here: as of a few months ago, all iTunes songs are 256kb/s MP3s without DRM (yes, you can use them on any mp3 device). Anything bought recently or in the future, through the iPhone or desktop iTunes (they access the same online store), should be an MP3. Older tracks may trigger a "Upgrade to iTunes plus" which is code for "We have DRM free, higher quality versions that you can download for $.30 more per track or cheaper if you upgrade a whole album. If you're looking for MP3s, Amazon has some great deals on a regular basis and a piece of "download software" that imports the tracks right into iTunes.

Actually, all songs from the iTunes Store are still AAC, not MP3.

iTunes music. Now 100% iTunes Plus.

Now, every song available on the iTunes Store is an iTunes Plus song. That means you get high-quality music with 256-Kbps AAC encoding, making every song you download virtually indistinguishable from the original recording. iTunes Plus songs are all free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM).

Seriously? Oh boy...my wife is gonna be pissed that some of our music won't translate to the other devices. Back to Amazon it is for me...eek!

What devices?

 

[Disco Stu]

The text message preview thing is kinda nice, but I had to turn it off. Way too much train wreck potential there.

 

[Pick]

The text message preview thing is kinda nice, but I had to turn it off. Way too much train wreck potential there.

 

[Pooch]

I like the new search function but was disappointed to find it doesn't search the phone numbers in your contacts.

 

[Pick]

Can you guys give me some examples of good uses for the search function?

 

[adonis]

Can you guys give me some examples of good uses for the search function?

Any contact, any song, anything from emails on the phone.Say I want to call my mom, I click home button, go to search, type in mom...contact comes up.Say there's an email about me getting milk from store, and other things. I click home, go search, click in milk, and my email comes up which i click, it loads, and i see what else i need to get.Say I want to bombard myself with Michael Jackson songs...I can search Michael Jackson and see his songs, click one, and play it.

 

[rodg12]

I like the new search function but was disappointed to find it doesn't search the phone numbers in your contacts.

You mean the actually numbers themselves???

 

[adonis]

I like the new search function but was disappointed to find it doesn't search the phone numbers in your contacts.

You mean the actually numbers themselves???

Yeah, it's weird, i can't think of a reason to do that, BUT, if you want to, you can go to the keypad, and manually enter the numbers and it'll show the contact whose number it is.

 

[Pooch]

I like the new search function but was disappointed to find it doesn't search the phone numbers in your contacts.

You mean the actually numbers themselves???

Yeah, I'm weird that way. I may miss a call at work (different phone) and see the number displayed when I return and wonder who it was. If the search function supported phone numbers, I'd be able to type the number into the search box and see if whoever it was that called was in my contacts list.I'm curious as to why the search function doesn't include phone numbers but does include contact names.

 

[Disco Stu]

The text message preview thing is kinda nice, but I had to turn it off. Way too much train wreck potential there.

Say your phone is sitting on the coffee table. You have a gf, family member, whatever sitting there and you get a text. The phone wakes and automatically displays the body of the text despite no buttons being pushed. Now imagine it says something you'd rather not share with whoever is sitting there. Too late.I could see this being an issue for some people. Theoretically.

 

[Pick]

The text message preview thing is kinda nice, but I had to turn it off. Way too much train wreck potential there.

Say your phone is sitting on the coffee table. You have a gf, family member, whatever sitting there and you get a text. The phone wakes and automatically displays the body of the text despite no buttons being pushed. Now imagine it says something you'd rather not share with whoever is sitting there. Too late.I could see this being an issue for some people. Theoretically.

If you're getting texts your SO shouldn't see you got problems.But I do have a friend who uses colorful language. And my wife can sometimes get dirty with her texts. And my kids play on my phone a lot so I can definitely see a point. Changing it now.

 

[Gachi]

The text message preview thing is kinda nice, but I had to turn it off. Way too much train wreck potential there.

Man, I had NO IDEA you could turn off the preview feature and I've had the iphone for a year. So, what does it look like when you get a text?