If you're running an online business like I am, there are times when you need to connect and log in to the server to tweak or check things. It can't be helped and while the Cpanel solution and related are often splendid, sometimes I just like to get bits all over my hands as I "go old school" on my server and use a command line. In those instances there's a nice solution on the...

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Our son traveled to NYC with my iPod Touch. I downloaded several apps for him. I'd like to delete them from the iPod for now, but maybe put them back on later since I paid for them. I'd also like to delete kids' programs, then put back on again when I see grandchildren. Is this possible? I'm thinking not possible, because when I downloaded free apps before, then deleted them when I purchased upgrades, they...

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I listen to a lot of audio books on my train commute into Boston, buying used CDs and ripping them into iTunes, then copying them onto my iPhone. Problem is, I can end up with 80, 90, 100 or more tracks and sometimes it's crazy how they aren't played in order, driving me insane! Not good. I have heard that there's a better way to import audio books into iTunes, something about consolidating or merging...

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A friend who also has an Apple iPad told me that there's a software / firmware update to the iPad, but when I go to the App Store on my iPad and check for updates, I don't see it's available. How do I update my iPad's operating system firmware?...

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I don't have one of those fancy iPod Touch units, but my recent iPod Classic appears to have the ability for me to buy and install games on it. Problem is, when I go to the App Store, it's all iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad related and there's no link of any sort to iPod games. Do they still sell these games?...

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If you ever wondered what techies did BEB -- Before eBay -- to find the coolest "used" technologies, widgets and gizmos, they simply traveled to a local Hamfest. A Hamfest, for everyone who missed this rare sub-culture gathering of the Ham amateur radio generation[s], it is a massive second hand technology fair, occurring nearly every weekend during warm weather. My father would travel for miles to attend; anything to be surrounded by the old "junk"...

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I want to give my daughter my old iPhone so she can use it as an iPod Touch sort of device and am concerned that she'll listen to material that doesn't meet my approval as a parent. What I'd like is to put some sort of limiter or lock on the phone so that any music that is marked as having explicit lyrics is skipped or prevented from playing. Possible?...

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I travel a lot, flying to a city then driving around visiting customers. It's pretty boring. So I listen to a lot of audio books (or are they "audiobooks"?) on my iPhone. I recently finished one while in Houston and was stuck: for future reference, is there a way to buy a new audiobook directly on my iPhone, without a computer involved?...

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We see tons of questions like this: "My iPod went through a huge wash, and the screen is black, when I hold the flashlight to it, it is seeable, but, it's very inconvenient to have a black screened iPod nano in the public." that ultimately boil down to: my iPod's busted, how can I get it fixed cheap?...

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Dave, I have two iPods and I want to give one to my almost 9 yo son, but some of MY songs are inappropriate. I have a folder specifically for him on my iPod, but how do i sync ONLY that folder to the iPod that I want to give him?...

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This is just weird. I've been using Aperture 3 on my iMac for quite a while and it's been going great, I love this program! Problem is, I just got an iPad and want to drop some photo projects onto it from Aperture on my iMac and when I click on "Sync Photos from Aperture" I get an error about the library not being visible and previews needing to be shared? But I can't figure...

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A friend of mine was pretty psyched about an update to a game we both play on the iPad, a game that started out with some major bugs but has apparently fixed them in a subsequent release. When I start the game, however, it doesn't say "there's an update" as I would expect. How do I update my iPad apps?...

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I'm about to throw my Apple iPhone out the window, Dave, so help me out! I bought an audio book on CD-ROM from the local used bookstore, ripped all the tracks in iTunes, then set the files to "audiobook" format. Sync'd on the iPhone, they show up as audio books, but when I go to play it, the tracks are in shuffle mode, and there's no way to prevent it! How do I fix it??...

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I listen to a lot of music and have thousands of CDs on my iPod and now my Apple iPad too. On the iPod - and on my PC - I can get to the "equalizer" and adjust the audio profile for small speakers, jazz, etc. On the IPad it doesn't seem like that's available any more. Did Apple just axe it in the iPad version of iTunes, Dave?...

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The more devices I get that can access the Internet, the harder it is for me to keep track of all the accounts and passwords I've set up for access. I know I don't want to use the same password on multiple sites, but I can't remember what's what. I've heard good things about Agile Software's 1Password app for password management, and I can see that there's a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad version....

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How do I set up another photo album and how would I transfer pictures on my Apple iPhone 3gs to each corresponding albums? Thank you....

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In addition to having a ton of music on my Apple iPod, I also have a copy of it all on my laptop, which is great. Any time I want I can plug in my headphones and listen to it while working. Except there are some songs that I just don't want to show up when I'm in "shuffle" mode in iTunes. Can I mark them as not eligible for play during a shuffle?...

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Every time you hook up your iPhone to your PC the iTunes app immediately starts by doing a backup of everything that's on the phone. But what is it actually backing up and is there any way to get to the information that's there if you were to lose your phone or if you just want to poke around? That's the purpose of iBackupBot (formerly known as iPodRobot), a slick little Windows app that makes...

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Now that I have a bunch of apps on my new Apple iPhone 3GS, I want to change what's where in the most efficient manner possible: dragging back and forth isn't my idea of fun when there are three screens full of icons! What's the best approach for reordering my apps on the iPhone?...

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I don't know how it's happened, but I seem to have a bunch of duplicate tracks in my (huge) iTunes library and it's annoying as heck. I can remove them by hand, but it's tedious and I'm afraid of user error. I checked out the "Show Duplicates" feature in iTunes, but it seems to think that songs with the same name by different artists on different albums are dupes. Uh, no. So what's the solution,...

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