Android and Listening to Music

[Bay33saw]

WOW I feel like I'm back at school...Roadkill I thank you for your step by step instructions and will give it a go tomorrow. One question though, would it be easier to follow your instructions as below OR, transfer the songs on my flash drive from aaa to mp3 on my laptop that has W7 already installed?
Again I apologize for my ignorance, but digital music and me go together like a 4 runner and a jeep.

If you have a Mac, it's probably easiest to use iTunes to make an MP3 version of your audio files. It's really quite simple, and as a bonus you don't have to obtain a separate software package.

First, go into iTunes preferences. In the "General" tab, you will see a button down on the pane labeled "Import Settings...". Click that and a new dialog will pop up. Ensure that the "Import Using:" selection box has "MP3 Encoder" selected. Click okay to close the Import settings dialog and then click okay to close the preferences.

Next step, we need to see what kind of files you have (this will be important for later). So, right click on one of the column headers in your iTunes playlist or the top-level iTunes media library browser. You will see a context menu that displays all the column types that are enabled. You want to ensure that the "Kind" column is enabled with a checkmark next to it. The "Kind" column will tell you whether your file is MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, etc.

Next, select the files you wish to convert to MP3. Right click on them and look at the menu that pops up. In the list there should be a "Create MP3 version" option. If you select that, it will (wait for it...) create an MP3 version of your files (haha).

This will take a while as the conversion is CPU intensive. Once it is done, you will have two copies of each song (one AAC, one MP3). You can click on the "Kind" column header to sort your music into AAC, MP3, etc for easy segregation.

ETA: The "Kind" column will list MP3 files as "MPEG audio file" (MP3 is short for MPEG Audio Layer III). Don't worry—these are standard mp3's.

 

[Wakeborder556]

Does anyone use a galaxy nexus w/ entune?

 

[Roadkill]

One question though, would it be easier to follow your instructions as below OR, transfer the songs on my flash drive from aaa to mp3 on my laptop that has W7 already installed?

It all depends where your "master" music library lives. If you generally keep your music in iTunes, then the iTunes approach is simpler (fewer steps). Also, if your "master" library is on the Mac then using the Mac iTunes approach is going to be simpler in the future when you update the songs on the USB stick (add/remove).

BTW, those conversion instructions should be substantially identical if anyone is using the Windows version of iTunes.

Another note: I imagine that the USB stick needs to be PC formatted (ie. FAT32). It is highly unlikely that your vehicle can read a Mac-formatted USB stick. However, given that your Windows laptop can read the USB stick it is almost guaranteed to be in the correct format. I am only including this possibility for the sake of completeness.

To check your USB stick's format on a Mac, simply right click on the icon for it on your desktop and choose "Get Info". The dialog that pops up will have a line in it that says "Format:". It should say "MS-DOS (FAT32)" not "Mac OS Extended" (or anything else that says "Mac OS").

If it doesn't say "MS-DOS (FAT32)" it won't hurt your vehicle if you plug it in, it's just that it won't be able to be read. In that case you would just need to erase it to change the format to FAT32 and load the MP3 files again.

 

[qs933]

I'm still learning, but I've been happy with the Bluetooth streaming from my iPad for music and Bluetooth (phone only) from my BlackBerry.

I connected my iPad first; for some reason, I had to unpair it before I could pair my BlackBerry. Once I paired my BlackBerry, I paired my iPad again, and they've coexisted together since then. I can advance tracks using the steering wheel controls, and they even work when streaming Pandora from the iPad over 3G.

Both pair automatically when I start the 4Runner. I haven't compared audio quality between Bluetooth and a direct USB connection, but the former is better since the iPad won't fit in the glove compartment.

 

[Bay33saw]

See below in bold

If you have a Mac, it's probably easiest to use iTunes to make an MP3 version of your audio files. It's really quite simple, and as a bonus you don't have to obtain a separate software package.

First, go into iTunes preferences. In the "General" tab, you will see a button down on the pane labeled "Import Settings...". Click that and a new dialog will pop up. Ensure that the "Import Using:" selection box has "MP3 Encoder" selected. Click okay to close the Import settings dialog and then click okay to close the preferences. OK Done that

Next step, we need to see what kind of files you have (this will be important for later). So, right click on one of the column headers in your iTunes playlist or the top-level iTunes media library browser. You will see a context menu that displays all the column types that are enabled. You want to ensure that the "Kind" column is enabled with a checkmark next to it. The "Kind" column will tell you whether your file is MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, etc. I can't find what your trying to explain here, what is a column header or the top_level iTunes media library browser??

Next, select the files you wish to convert to MP3. Right click on them and look at the menu that pops up. In the list there should be a "Create MP3 version" option. If you select that, it will (wait for it...) create an MP3 version of your files (haha). Do I have to select each song individually? when I right click on the song nothing happens. If I go to advanced however it gives me an option to "create MP3 version" but only one at a time? Sorry about this but I told you I'm not good at this

This will take a while as the conversion is CPU intensive. Once it is done, you will have two copies of each song (one AAC, one MP3). You can click on the "Kind" column header to sort your music into AAC, MP3, etc for easy segregation.

ETA: The "Kind" column will list MP3 files as "MPEG audio file" (MP3 is short for MPEG Audio Layer III). Don't worry—these are standard mp3's.

 

[Roadkill]

I can't find what your trying to explain here, what is a column header or the top_level iTunes media library browser??

Ensure you are in "List" view. Go to the View menu, select "as List". You should see a bunch of column headers in the iTunes window. Examples of column headers are "Name", "Time", "Artist", "Album", "Genre". If you click on one of those words, it will sort the songs by that column.

Then go to "View Options" in the View menu. A dialog box will pop up. Ensure that the "Kind" checkbox is ticked. This will do the same thing as right clicking on the column header and enabling the "Kind" column.

Do I have to select each song individually? when I right click on the song nothing happens. If I go to advanced however it gives me an option to "create MP3 version" but only one at a time?

No need to select songs individually. You can select all of the songs in your current view via the "Select All" option in the Edit menu. Conversely, you can select a swath of songs by clicking once on the first one you want to select, then holding down the shift key and clicking on the last one you want to select (this will select all the interstitial items).

Using the "Advanced" menu approach to creating an MP3 version will do the same thing as right clicking, so that's fine. Strange that right click doesn't work for you though.

Don't forget to sort by the "Kind" column when you are ready to load the USB stick. Then you can use the "swath selection" technique to grab all your MP3's at once.