DoubleTwist | Free iTunes alternative / iPod Manager review

It's sometimes a mess working with iTunes. Especially with its sync option, its difficult to maintain the library on multiple machines. Surprisingly the alternatives available for iTunes are also functionally rich softwares. And moreover many of them are free softwares. I reviewed some of the applications and would discuss about the ones that I found was the best as an iTunes alternative / iPod Manager. In this post I would like to focus on an application called DoubleTwist which has some unique features to mention.

DoubleTwist

DoubleTwist is another very good piece of software for those who dont like to mess up with apple iTunes. It supports many devices including iOS(iphone/ipad/ipod) and Android ones. One great use of the applications is to find new music and podcasts. Another very cool feature of DoubleTwist is that is supports AirSync. You can download DoubleTwist app from Android market for free and you can sync your music library without physically connection your device to your pc/mac with wires. DoubleTwist is available for both windows and mac.

Follow the link for DoubleTwist : http://doubletwist.com/

Check these for more alternatives for iTunes
http://apple-ipad-iphone-ipod.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-top-best-itunes-alternative-ipod.html
TransCopyManager
Songbird
Sharepod

Songbird | Free iTunes alternative / iPod Manager review

It's sometimes a mess working with iTunes. Especially with its sync option, its difficult to maintain the library on multiple machines. Surprisingly the alternatives available for iTunes are also functionally rich softwares. And moreover many of them are free softwares. I reviewed some of the applications and would discuss about the ones that I found was the best as an iTunes alternative / iPod Manager. In this post I would like to focus on an application called Songbird which has some unique features to mention.
Songbird (Android devices)

This comes second in my list as an iTunes alternative. But lately its been noticed what Songbird is not supporting any iOS devices like iPhone/iPod/iPad. But it supports many other devices especially Android devices. This is a very feature rich applications, especially with its add on facilty. It also supports many media file formats. Also it supports both audio and video files. Another advantage of Songbird is that it works on both pc and mac. So go for it if you have an android device and not an apple iphone/ipad/ipod. There is an android app for SongBird in Android Market.
Follow the link for SongBird : http://getsongbird.com/

Check these for more alternatives for iTunes
http://apple-ipad-iphone-ipod.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-top-best-itunes-alternative-ipod.html
TransCopyManager
DoubleTwist
Sharepod

SharePod | Free iTunes alternative / iPod Manager review

It's sometimes a mess working with iTunes. Especially with its sync option, its difficult to maintain the library on multiple machines. Surprisingly the alternatives available for iTunes are also functionally rich softwares. And moreover many of them are free softwares. I reviewed some of the applications and would discuss about the ones that I found was the best as an iTunes alternative / iPod Manager. In this post I would like to focus on an application called Songbird which has some unique features to mention.
SharePod
It is a nice little software for the purpose, but is kind of obselete now, because it does'nt support the new iOS devices including iPhone4 and iPad2. Otherwise it would have been a great software because it enables 2 great features. First it lets you install the application onto your iPod so that you can plug it into any machine and use SharePod. But it required iTunes to be installed on the machine to work with iPhone and iPod touch. A second cool feature of the application is that it permits you to transfer your ipod device content to your pc.

Check these for more alternatives for iTunes
http://apple-ipad-iphone-ipod.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-top-best-itunes-alternative-ipod.html
TransCopyManager
Songbird
DoubleTwist

CopyTrans Manager | Free iTunes alternative / iPod Manager review

CopyTrans Manager

This would come as my first choice when looking out for a free iTunes alternative / iPad manager. The best thing about this little software is it does what it is supposed to do quiet neatly. You can start using this piece of software without much help documentation in no time. May be the basic listings resemble iTunes, the interface is quiet easy. And the commin options we would look out in this software is easily visible and accessible. It supports all versions of iPhone/iPod/iPad including the latest iOS5. It is compatible with your PC running on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Like iTunes you can play music and video from CopyTrans Manager. You can also organize your EBooks and Apps using CopyTrans manager. The applications is available for download as an installable file as well as as zip file with only the executable file.

The main disadvantage of this software is that it does not permit you to copy music/ebooks/podcasts from your iPhone/iPad/iPod to your computer. But this is possible with an extended version for the software which is CopyTrans 4 which is part of CopyTrans Suite which is free to try. It can repopulate your iTunes Library from your iPod to your PC. Eventhough great as a utility, the interface is a little dull but can't complaint about it.
Follow the link for CopyTrans Manager : http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php


Check these for more alternatives for iTunes
http://apple-ipad-iphone-ipod.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-top-best-itunes-alternative-ipod.html
TransCopyManager
Songbird
DoubleTwist
Sharepod

Free Top Best iTunes alternative / iPod Manager review

It's sometimes a mess working with iTunes. Especially with its sync option, its difficult to maintain the library on multiple machines. Surprisingly the alternatives available for iTunes are also functionally rich softwares. And moreover many of them are free softwares. I reviewed some of the applications and would discuss about the ones that I found was the best as an iTunes alternative / iPod Manager.

CopyTrans Manager

This would come as my first choice when looking out for a free iTunes alternative / iPad manager. The best thing about this little software is it does what it is supposed to do quiet neatly. You can start using this piece of software without much help documentation in no time. May be the basic listings resemble iTunes, the interface is quiet easy. And the commin options we would look out in this software is easily visible and accessible. It supports all versions of iPhone/iPod/iPad including the latest iOS5. It is compatible with your PC running on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Like iTunes you can play music and video from CopyTrans Manager. You can also organize your EBooks and Apps using CopyTrans manager. The applications is available for download as an installable file as well as as zip file with only the executable file.

The main disadvantage of this software is that it does not permit you to copy music/ebooks/podcasts from your iPhone/iPad/iPod to your computer. But this is possible with an extended version for the software which is CopyTrans 4 which is part of CopyTrans Suite which is free to try. It can repopulate your iTunes Library from your iPod to your PC. Eventhough great as a utility, the interface is a little dull but can't complaint about it.

Follow the link for CopyTrans Manager : http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php

Songbird (Android devices)

This comes second in my list as an iTunes alternative. But lately its been noticed what Songbird is not supporting any iOS devices like iPhone/iPod/iPad. But it supports many other devices especially Android devices. This is a very feature rich applications, especially with its add on facilty. It also supports many media file formats. Also it supports both audio and video files. Another advantage of Songbird is that it works on both pc and mac. So go for it if you have an android device and not an apple iphone/ipad/ipod. There is an android app for SongBird in Android Market.

Follow the link for SongBird : http://getsongbird.com/

DoubleTwist

DoubleTwist is another very good piece of software for those who dont like to mess up with apple iTunes. It supports many devices including iOS(iphone/ipad/ipod) and Android ones. One great use of the applications is to find new music and podcasts. Another very cool feature of DoubleTwist is that is supports AirSync. You can download DoubleTwist app from Android market for free and you can sync your music library without physically connection your device to your pc/mac with wires. DoubleTwist is available for both windows and mac.
Follow the link for DoubleTwist : http://doubletwist.com/


SharePod

It is a nice little software for the purpose, but is kind of obselete now, because it does'nt support the new iOS devices including iPhone4 and iPad2. Otherwise it would have been a great software because it enables 2 great features. First it lets you install the application onto your iPod so that you can plug it into any machine and use SharePod. But it required iTunes to be installed on the machine to work with iPhone and iPod touch. A second cool feature of the application is that it permits you to transfer your ipod device content to your pc.

These are some of the best and most useful softwares which can be used as alternatives to ITunes. There are some more useful softwares in this category. Some of them are Amarok, Banshee,Floola,gtkpod,MediaMonkey,Rhythmbox,Winamp,YamiPod. I will review them later.

iPad 2 does not charge from most windows and old Mac Laptop

iPad 2 has a very weird behavior that it doesn't get charged when connected to most of the laptops.
It requires a new Mac machine to get properly charged. Or else you need to have the wall adapter shipped with iPad2. Even an iPhone wall charger is slower in charging iPad2.

The issue here is iPad2 requires more power to charge, which new Mac laptops and Mac OS is optimized for.
You can have the trick on Windows based PCs with some USB drivers and to date something that works is an ASUS driver that works on Asus motherboard based laptops and also some other laptops, mostly dell laptops may be because dell uses Asus internally for its motherboard. But some people has reported issues with their machine after installing this driver. Its a mess uninstalling this driver which might mess us usb drives and some registry tweaks is required to fix it.

Actually PC can recharge iPad, but iPad has to be in the sleep mode, but then too the charging is slow.
The normal USB are 500mA, which the iPad2 wall charger is 2Amp.

Some good experiences are shared on this apple discussion forum.

The ASUS driver link is: http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/ai_charger/
But make sure to make a backup and restore from it in case something goes wrong.

How to charge iPad faster

Internally all apple products use lithium-polymer battery. In iPad 2's case, the battery is even larger with 25 watt hour battery, making it more power hunger from the power source, but allows you to surf, listen to music or watch movies for 10 hours.

10W AC Adaptor
The best option to charge an iPad faster is the 10W AC Power adapter which charges iPad 2 from the wall power socket. This is the fastest and most efficient charging mechanism for iPad especially iPad2, as iPad2 is more recharge power hungry because of its larger battery.

USB Port
All USB ports doesn't charge iPad 2. Most Windows based PCs and old Mac's doesn't charge iPad 2, because of its higher power source requirements. Check this post for more details and how to enable usb to charge iPad.
On your laptop, some usb ports are exclusively powered and some shared, so try and find the best usb that gives more power for your iPad.
Some laptops like Mac Book Air which can power external disc drive gives more power output making it more suitable for iPad charging.

Car Adapter charger
Its is most convenient charging option if you are going out and travelling in car. But when you grab the car charger from your electonic store make sure to check its compatibility with iPad2.

Battery Packs
Battery packs are becoming more common now a days with more smart phones and tablets. But for your iPad requirements, make sure to get a battery pack which is iPad compatible. Many of the battery packs supports multiple devices which is very good. Also many of them support multiple power sources to recharge.

Cycle the battery
This rule is not only applicable for your iPad, but also for all your mobile devices running on battery power. The procedure is to completely drain your battery to 0 till it automatically goes to shut down mode. Then at a stretch recharge it to 100%. Do this atleast once a month for better life of your battery.

ipad 2 not charging when connected to laptop - windows pc / mac

Its very strange that my new iPad 2 is not charging when connected to my windows 7 laptop.
I tried switching to my different laptops, one dell xps of my wife with windows vista, one with acer windows 7 ultimate, one with HP Pavilion with windows 7 home premium and finally with my Samsung running on windows vista. None helped and the only option left out to me was plug it to the wall socket with the adapter that came along with the iPad 2 pack.

I searched online much and it seemed to be a frequent and common issue. The underlying issue is with the power requirements of iPad 2. Apple to improve the per recharge usage life of iPad 2 came up with a larger battery and naturally it needs more power. Either it can use the same power source and take longer to charge or use a powerful recharge source and charge it up faster. Apple went for the latter and thus resulting in a requirement for a powerful charger.

Normally any usb drives gives 500mA power. But seems to settle the hunger of iPad 2 it requires 2 A, which is not fulfilled by most of the usb ports. But Apple having had this design plans, already has optimized its new versions of laptops and OS to support a higher power output via usb ports. This helps for instance MAC Book Air to power up the extended optical drive. For normal PCs, there should be an external power source for these extended drives.

There is  a tweak for this. Its by installing some patches for usb drivers so that, it tries to output more power to the usb drives. These patches are more kind of mother board specific but some a more generic. Below are some links to these patches which you can install. After a reboot, your usb ports should be powerful enough to charge your iPad 2.

But because these patches can affect your hardware drivers which in turn affect the working of your softwares, its safe to take make a checkpoint to which you can roll back once you have any issue.

Below are the download links:

http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/AI_Charger/(ASUS) *Recommented
http://www.msi.com/index.php?news_no=1013&func=newsdesc (MSI)
http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/185/on-off-charge.htm (GIGABYTE)
http://www.asrock.com/feature/AppCharger/index.asp(ASROCK)

iPhone / iPod / iPad Screen Shot (Capture)

Many a times we want to capture (Screen Shot) the iPhone / iPod / iPad screen, similar to the way we do a "Print Screen" on our computer. You can use this to capture and share some display on your device or send reference to some error messages displayed on your screen or even to share a high score displayed on your screen. ;) iOS provides a very efficient way for this. the screen capture is very clear and vivid.

When you have the screen to capture on your device, hold your home button for a second. While still holding the home button press the power/sleep/wake button on your device to capture the screen. Your iPhone / iPod / iPad will give a camera shutter like sound and a white flash on your screen representing a successful screen capture.

To view the captured screen go to, "Photos" app -> "Camera Roll" and your last screen capture must be there as the latest picture there.

Note: The power button on iPhone is on the top side of your iPhone towards the right side. It is the same Sleep/Wake button on iPad. The home button is the round button on the front (towards the bottom of the screen) of your iPhone / iPod /iPad.

Screen Rotation Lock - iPhone / iPod / iPad

Many a times the automatic screen rotation option in iOS is highly annoying. Especially while checking out google maps / reading e-books / watching movies / playing games. iPhone / iPod / iPad provides option to lock/disable/turn off the screen rotation whenever you dont want the option. This is a real handy feature provided by iOS. This feature is for iOS 4+.

Double click your home button to bring up task manager. Navigate to the left of the application list by sliding your finger on the task manager to the right. When you slide one screen from the default position, it gives you a screen with iPod option icons and on the left of this menu icons you can see a gray icon with a round arrow. Click this icon and the screen rotation is disabled on your device until you press this icon again to enable the screen rotation.

You can lock the screen rotation and press the home button to start using any other applications as normal. Follow the above steps to come back to this icon to disable Screen Rotation.

How to Restart iPhone / iPod / iPad

Many times you might want to restart your iPhone / iPod / iPad, because of application mal functioning or memory clean up or for any other reasons.

To restart your iPhone / iPod / iPad, you need a combination key press. Press the power button and home button together. Keep holding both the buttons for about 10 seconds and that will restart your iPhone / iPod / iPad.

The power button on iPhone is on the top side of your iPhone towards the right side. It is the same Sleep/Wake button on iPad. The home button is the round button on the front (towards the bottom of the screen) of your iPhone / iPod /iPad.

How to enable Caps Lock on iPhone / iPod / iPad

This is yet another hidden treasure in iOS. Many of the iPhone / iPad / iPad users believe that there is no Caps Lock option with the iPhone built in keyboard. Some smarter people kep holding the Shift button, and type to get the Caps Lock effect.

The fact is there is a Caps Lock option inbuilt in the keypad. You can enable this by double clicking the Shift button on the keyboard. The Shift key also shows up in a differnt color (blue) when the CAPS lock is enabled. To turn off the CAPS lock, press the shift key once again.

iPad trouble connecting to Wi-Fi wireless network issue

This a very annoying issue with iPad / iPad 2. Many of my friends has mentioned this issue. Once the WiFi gets disconnected on the iPad, then its really a headache to get it back. The issue is mostly seen if you are moving around with your iPad and you happen to be at a position where the WiFi signal is feeble. Even after to get back to the position with proper signals, the WiFi symbol shows good signal, but the web pages doesn't load. Another situation when the disconnection happens is when the iPad goes to sleep and wake up after sometime.

Eventhough the issue is a very annoying one we can get back the connectivity in a cheesy way.

Option 1) Try to reset the iPad network settings. This can be done by going to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings. Most of the time this should solve the issue.

Option 2) Try hard reset the iPad. This can be done by pressing the Sleep/Wake button on top of the iPad till you find a "Slide to Power Off" slider on the screen. Power off the device and wait for a couple of seconds to ensure the process is complete. In a while press the Sleep/Wake button again to switch on the iPad. Now you must be connected to the WiFi.

Option 3) Try this funny solution for yourself. :) . Once your iPad / iPad 2 is woken up from sleep and you find there is issue with Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, go to settings and try adjusting the brightness. This could magically help you restore your wifi connection sometimes. :)

Other suggestions:
Always make sure that there is no conflict with the SSID with any wireless networks around. If this is the case then it should seriously be resolved else it will confuse the iPad.

How to make iPad / iPod / iPhone faster

Apple has produced one of the most fast responding devices. iPhone, iPod and iPad users certify this. But sometimes I have heard my friends complaining about a slow responding iPad. Majority of the time I check their tablet, its overloaded by running apps. Also some applications can be buggy and memory leaks in these apps cause in the wastage of usable memmory of your iPad. Below are the steps to make your sluggish iPad faster.

1) Close unused apps from the background. iPad 2 / iPod / iPhone 4 with its iOS supports multitasking (running more than 1 application at the same time) and it does it very efficiently. You can play your favourite game listening to your favourite music all on your favourite  iPad / iPod / iPhone at the same time. But running very many applications at the same time overloads your iPad 2 / iPod / iPhone 4 and it becomes sluggish.
While using an application, when you press the home button (the round button on your  iPad / iPod / iPhone front screen), the application disappears. There are atleast some users, mostly those new to iPad/iPhone iOS, tent to assume that when the application disappears, the application is closed or killed. But in reality, the application remains in the background and still executes and consumes memory (may be not as much as when the application was in use). When there are many applications like this, eventhough iOS manages memory well, at a point your device gets sluggish.
The simplest remedy is to close these background running or temporarily suspended apps. This can be done by bringing up the open applications on your iPad 2 / iPod / iPhone 4 but double clicking the home button. Then at the bottom of your screen, a row shows up with all the open apps. Now press any of the applications in the list for a couple of seconds, till the application icons in the row starts shaking/shimmering. Now on top left of each of these icons a new round red symbol shows up with a white line inside the symbol. press on this round red symbol and the icon disappears and you can be sure the application corresponding to the icon is closed. Continue closing each of the open applications and your iPad 2 / iPod / iPhone 4 must be faster now.

2) In some cases, step 1 mentioned above alone doesn't solve the issue because some of the applications you use might be corrupted and it wouldn't have released some portion of your device memory. To solve this issue you would have to do a reset / restart of your  iPad 2 / iPod / iPhone 4. The need for this usually comes only say once in 3 months according to the apps you use. It's a good idea to restart your iPad / iPod / iPhone once in a while as this improves the performance of your iPad by releasing any of your unusable memory. But don't restart your device often and when not necessary.

To restart your iPad / iPod / iPhone , hold on the sleep/Wake button of your  iPad / iPod / iPhone which is located on the top right of your  iPad / iPod / iPhone along with pressing the home button. Press and hold it for some seconds. After sometime you can see a slider saying "slide to power off" . Slide it to power off your  iPad / iPod / iPhone . Else keep pressing these two buttons and it will restart your device. Once the device is completely power off, press the sleep/wake button and your iPad / iPod / iPhone would switch on now. Now your iPad / iPod / iPhone is has a fresh memory with no unwanted programs using up memory.

3) In some cases, you would have many applications which run on the background, even if you close them from the task manager. These applications will not be visible in the task manager but constantly run on the background checking for specific conditions like checking for online updates or checking for locations using your GPS device. These applications would degrade the performance of your device as they use your iPad / iPod / iPhone resources including processing power, memory, gps, 3g/wifi and ultimately battery life and performance. You can disable these applications from running in the background by going to Settings -> then clicking individual application settings and then switching off the activity that make it run in the background. These settings would vary depending on the application. Typical examples would be like "Refresh Rate" or "Check for updates" etc.