Filed under: Features, Ask TUAW, iPhone
Ask TUAW: iPhone (of course), reinstalling OS X, migrating iTunes and more
This week on Ask TUAW, our weekly Q&A column: an obligatory iPhone question, reinstalling OS X, watching TV on your Mac, transferring your iTunes library, and increasing hard drive capacity.Remember: everyone's welcome to post questions for Ask TUAW; we're happy to help! Just leave questions for next week in the comments. Now let's get to it.
Graham asks
I know that the iPhone allows for super-easy software upgrades, but will the First Gen iPhones be able to make the switch if AT&T ever stops using EDGE? Also, is there a vibrate mode?
It's almost certainly not possible that the iPhone's EDGE data services could be upgraded to true 3G. This would require different radio circuitry, not just a software upgrade, and if such circuitry were in place it's likely that it would have come to light in the obligatory FCC filing. So in short, there's almost no way that the iPhone ver 1.0 will be software upgradable to 3G.
And yes, according to Macworld the iPhone will have a vibrate mode.
Brandon asks
If I have a computer thats been upgraded to tiger and I now need to format it, but I have no idea where my tiger cd is. I tried using a tiger cd that came with one of my newer intel macs, but that wouldn't work. So if I were to format my computer with a panther CD, would that revert the OS back to panther? If so is there anyway around that? Also two little side notes; I'm not exactly sure which option for formating does what, so could you go over those? And also, what does software restore do?
If you use the Panther disc you'll get Panther. I'm sorry but there's no way "around that" other than to find the Tiger disc.
For an explanation of the different options see this Support Doc from Apple (though this one applies to Tiger a Panther one is here). With regards to the "Software Restore" discs, these will allow you to reinstall non-system software that originally shipped on your Mac (the particulars will vary between Mac models).
steve asks
Is there a way to pipe component HD and composite SD into my Macbook at a reasonable price? All the EyeTV solutions seem to be coax based but I would like to be able to watch tv (non OTA) / game console / etc. in my small office.
For HD you're pretty much out of luck, unless you can get a cable box with a FireWire output (technically you should be able to demand one from your cable company); this article at Mac OS X Hints will get you started. However, the EyeTV Hybrid which we've mentioned many times here on TUAW will allow you get SD composite and S-Video into your Mac. They also claim "virtually no latency" when connected to a game console, but I have not used it in that way myself, and I have heard adverse reports about using the product in that way.
(a different) Steve asks
I plan on upgrading my computer in the near future, and have my entire 60 GB itunes music stored on an external drive. Is there a way to have itunes on the new system find this library without having to manually re-open all the music into itunes on the new computer?
If all you want to do is get the music, then you can use iTunes' built-in import option in the file menu. However, I assume you want to get all the associated metadata in your library. In this case I would suggest following this tip from Playlist using the Consolidate command.
mic1981 asks
I manually store a lot of excess photos and large files etc on a few external drives. I am wondering is there anyway that I can add a large external drive (possibly as RAID), so that some progams such as iPhoto or iTunes will automatically view the drive as one with my internal hard drive and therefore store and retrieve files in the external drive automatically. So basically I want to know can I automatically increase my total hard drive by periodically added a firewire external drive?
The answer to your question depends on just what you mean by automatically. You can set up a software RAID with external hard drives to increase capacity, but each time you wanted to add storage you'd have to set it up again. The only way I know of to add storage capacity just by adding new hard drives that is truly automatic is the Drobo "storage robot" ($499) which we mentioned a while back.
One thing you might do if you feel your internal disk is too constrained is buy a large external FireWire HD, clone your internal HD to the external with SuperDuper, and then boot from the external drive. Another thing you might try is locating your specific iTunes and/or iPhoto libraries on one or more external drives (there are options in the preferences of both programs that will allow you to specify an arbitrary location for your libraries).
Okay that's it for now, remember to add your questions for next week in the comments below!
This information is provided for your entertainment. Neither TUAW nor this author can be held responsible for any problems arising from the use of the information provided here.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bill Mac said 10:14AM on 6-27-2007
Okay, so how do you "Ask TUAW" a question anyways? Simply by posting in the comments here?
If so, then I'd like to ask if you know of any website(s) that will be trying to post up-to-date information about iPhone sales - ie: which stores are sold out, where lines are already forming, etc. Of course, I'm only interested in Colorado stores, but hey, it'd be fun to know what's happening nation-wide too. :)
Reply
chesama said 10:18AM on 6-27-2007
different steve - just hold down option when starting itunes for the first time (or any time, really) - it will ask you for a library location. no consolidation necessary.
Reply
artifex said 10:23AM on 6-27-2007
What's sad is that there are cheap USB HDTV dongles for Windows users. I have one, myself. I'm thinking about trying to get it up and running in Parallels, but I'll need to use a firewire drive on my MacBook to make sure I have enough space for it to be useful. Beyond that, the little HDTV antenna that came with it can break down to probably fit in my laptop bag, though I'd hate to have to try to explain it to the TSA :)
Reply
Joe said 10:26AM on 6-27-2007
I had the same problem as (a different) steve - the answer is easier than you'd think, if you use the migration assistant. Boot the old PC in target disk mode, connect the firewire cable, and run the migration assistant. I had the external drive connected to the old machine, although I doubt either machine was aware of this at the time, and when I launched iTunes on the new machine, it looked to the external drive for music, and all my metadata was still intact.
Frankly, I think the migration assistant is one of the best things Apple has done (if they could somehow make one for migrating from Windows to Mac, it would be amazing, but that's a pretty complex issue to tackle).
Reply
Joe said 10:29AM on 6-27-2007
And when I say "boot the old PC," I mean "boot the old Mac," of course.
Reply
Brian Cohen said 10:37AM on 6-27-2007
I have a Mac powerbook G4 12" 800mhz. It has Firewire and USB 1.0.
How can I sync a iPhone to this computer?
Reply
Alan said 11:01AM on 6-27-2007
You guys might want to hold onto this question until, say, September or so.
When I buy my new copy of Leopard, will I have to do a clean install? Or will the disk be able to do an upgrade on my existing Leopard install? I'd hate to have to backup all of my stuff (and most likely lose something)
Reply
Travis Richardson said 11:08AM on 6-27-2007
Question for next week:
I have a bad habit from the years I was a Windows user. I assume programs like Mail will automatically capitalize the begining of sentences and the word "i" as well.
Is there a way to get Mail to do this automatically?
Thanks,
Travis
Reply
Bastian said 1:33AM on 6-28-2007
Brandon,
I had a similar problem: My Powerbook CDs were so scratched, they weren't readable anymore but my girlfriend iBook ones were fine (Tiger 10.4.1, if I remember right).
I was able to reinstall Tiger on my Powerbook by connecting it via Firewire with the iBook, booting the Powerbook in target disk mode, booting the iBook from the iBook-Tiger-CDs and install Tiger on the Powerbooks Harddisk, appearing as an external Firewire Drive on the iBook. I was a little bit surprised that this worked because you may assume that there are some problems concerning the Boot Volume etc. but it worked fine.
Sure, this solution doesn't work cross-platform between PowerPC / Intel-Machines.
Reply
Rob said 11:20AM on 6-27-2007
I'm using airport extreme and have an external drive attached to it. My mac mini (running OS X 10.4.10) is connected to the airport extreme via ethernet.
What I'd like to know: is there a way to have the mac mini automatically remount the external drive attached to airport extreme after a reboot?
Reply
Mitch said 11:22AM on 6-27-2007
Alan, I am using the 9a466 load from WWDC and you can do an inplace upgrade. It gives you the option of archiving the old install, or a straight upgrade, but my buddy had some problems on his PowerBook when he did it. I have a MacBook and did a fresh install with no problems.
Reply
addi elding said 11:34AM on 6-27-2007
I have a question for you guys:
Is the 7200 hard drive worth it?
Do you have any stats, comparing 5200 to 7200 on a mbp?
I remember reading a article 4 years ago. That stated that 7200 drives, not only where faster but also used less battery. Is that still true?
i have seen a lot of speculation about this online, but no hard numbers.
Reply
Reuven said 12:54PM on 6-27-2007
Question for Ask TUAW:
I have a Macbook with OSX 10.4 and a Nokia 6131 cell phone, and I recently discovered the wonders of their Bluetooth interaction.
I like using Quicksilver to make calls through the phone, but I need Address Book for SMSes and on-screen caller ID.
However, once one of these apps has snagged the Bluetooth connection, the other can't seem to access it.
Is there some way to get Quicksilver and Address Book to share the Bluetooth connection through the OS?
Thanks,
Reuven
Reply
MNJayW said 1:57PM on 6-27-2007
I recently made the switch from windows to mac. I am using my old PC as a tivo2go server. I am looking for a way to convert avi files to mpeg2 or .tvo files to be transfered to my series 2 tivo via my PC, without doing any file conversion on the server as it is pretty old and has a tendency to freeze up. Has anybody found a way to do that easily?
Reply
Thomas Beck said 3:40PM on 6-27-2007
Question for TUAW:
I recently upgraded to the Safari 3 Betas and seem to have lost the ability to push return after typing in the address bar to load the website. Luckily, I use quicksilver, but it's still annoying. Any thoughts?
Reply
Mikhail Wright said 4:40PM on 6-27-2007
I have aim.com e-mail accounts and recently for some reason Mail just stopped working, I have no clue as to what to do. I was wondering if there was a way to reinstall it and start fresh ?
Reply
dave said 3:09PM on 6-28-2007
I've been using a USB thumb drive to move files from one of my old computers to my new macbook. Every time I plug in the thumb drive iPhoto starts. Is there anyway you can change the automatic actions that are associated with specific drives and/or devices? (I would like a finder window to open so i can copy the files that are on there)
Reply
(a different) steve said 9:39AM on 6-28-2007
Thanks for your help TUAW, Chesama and Joe...Much appreciated!
Reply
Matt Morgan said 12:53PM on 6-28-2007
When you save or close a document and that dialog box comes up asking if you want to Save, Don't Save, or Cancel...Is there a way to tab over to Don't Save or Cancel so that you can hit enter on those...or does enter only work on Save? Thanks, Matt
Reply
Aaron Bennett said 2:16AM on 6-29-2007
The question about migrating an iTunes library reminded me of a long ongoing quest I've had trying to find a good mp3 (id3 really) tagging program. I used The Godfather back on windows and it was *really* powerful with a somewhat steep learning curve.
I played around with MusicBrainz on OS X but it didn't really do it for me. And forget about tagging stuff in iTunes; That's not where I keep my library so import/tag/export is just a pain.
What tagging programs do people here in macland use?
Reply