Hi George! While you can’t actually delete unwanted apps from iCloud, you can hide them from your list of purchased items.

(And in case you’re wondering, no—purchased apps don’t count against your allotment of iCloud storage.)

You can hide apps, music, videos, or books from your Purchased list with a little help from iTunes.

Now, you used to be able to hide purchased apps directly from your iPhone/iPad, but that feature seems to have been disabled sometime after last fall’s big iOS 6 update.

That said, you can still hide apps—or purchased music, videos, or books for that matter—with a little help from iTunes on your Mac or PC.

Here’s how…

• Just open iTunes, click on the iTunes Store tab, click Apps (or Music or Videos), then click the Purchased link in the right column.
• You’ll see a grid of all the apps you’ve ever purchased from the App Store, and each one will have a little “X” next to its icon.
• Click the X, and poof! The app will disappear from your Purchased list.

Bonus tip

Want to get your hidden apps, music, or videos back? No problem…

• Open iTunes again, click the iTunes Store tab, tap the button marked with your iTunes user name, then select Account.
• On the next page, under the “iTunes in the Cloud” heading, click the “Manage” link next to “Hidden Purchases.”
• You should now see a listing of all your hidden purchases in iTunes and the App Store. Just click the “Unhide” button next to anything you want re-listed in your “Purchased” apps.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Click here, or click here for help with your iPad.

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Of course, the MiniPlayer won’t do much good if its buried under an avalanche of desktop windows. Luckily, there’s a way to keep the MiniPlayer floating above the fray.

The iTunes MiniPlayer lets you play and pause your music, search your tunes, queue up new tracks, and more.

On a Mac:

• Click the Window menu, then select MiniPlayer (to show both the main iTunes interface and the MiniPlayer at once) or “Switch to MiniPlayer” (to turn the iTunes interface into the MiniPlayer remote).
• You can also click the rectangular MiniPlayer icon in the top-right corner of the iTunes interface, or press the COMMAND + OPTION + M keyboard shortcut.

You can toggle between the main iTunes window and the MiniPlayer by clicking the “Switch to MiniPlayer” option (seen here in the Windows version of iTunes).

On a Windows PC:

• Click the menu icon in the top-left corner of the iTunes interface, then select “Switch to MiniPlayer,” or use the CONTROL + SHIFT + M keyboard shortcut.
• To use both the main iTunes window and the MiniPlayer at once, click View from the menu bar (which you may need to reveal by pressing CONTROL + B) and then select Show MiniPlayer.

Now that you’ve got the MiniPlayer on your desktop, how do you keep it visible above your other desktop windows?

Here’s the trick:

• Click iTunes, Preferences (on a Mac) or Edit, Preferences (for Windows), then click the Advanced tab.
• Check the box labeled “Keep MiniPlayer on top of all other windows.”

Bonus tip

 
Like the song that’s playing? Hover your mouse over the album cover in the MiniPlayer, click the little arrow immediately to the right, then select “Add to” from the pop-up menu to add the track to a playlist.

Note: You’ll need to upgrade to the just-released iTunes 11 to add a song to a playlist from the MiniPlayer.

Got more iTunes questions? Post ’em in the comments below.

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Hi Allan! Yes, you’re right: if your iPad is already synced with iTunes on another computer, the copy of iTunes on your system will try to wipe the apps, music, photos and other goodies off your iPad the moment you connect it to your laptop.

Just check the box to keep iTunes from immediately syncing a connected iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

The first step is to prevent iTunes from syncing automatically with your iPad:

• Open iTunes, click the iTunes menu (on a Mac) or Edit (on a PC) in the top-left corner of your screen, then select Preferences.
• Click the Devices tab, then check the box marked “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”
• Click OK.

Now, when you connect your iPad with iTunes, your iPad will appear in the left column of the iTunes interface, under the Devices heading—but nothing will get synced.

You can also go ahead and click the “Info,” “Apps,” “Music,” “Movies,” “TV Shows,” and “Photos” tabs along the top of the iTunes window, and you’ll notice that none of the “sync” options (such as “Sync Apps” or “Sync Music”) are checked.

If you do check any of those “sync” boxes, iTunes will again warn you that it will wipe the relevant content from your iPad before proceeding.

Of course, you could always re-download any apps, music, or other items that you’ve previously purchased from iTunes. But songs, snapshots, or anything else that didn’t come from the iTunes store will be erased for good.

So … now what?

If your iPhone or iPad is already synced with an iTunes library, iTunes on another system will try to wipe your content before it begins syncing.

When it comes to your music and photos, you’ll need to get them off your iPad before trying to sync with iTunes—and for that, you’ll need the help of some third-party applications.

Lifehacker has a handy list of programs that will copy music from an iPad, iPhone or iPod to your desktop. My personal favorite is Senuti for Mac ($19, or free for a limited demo version), which lets you pull tunes off any iDevice in just a few clicks.

Once you’ve copied your music to your laptop, you can then drag all your albums into the iTunes interface, then (once you’re ready) check the iTunes “Sync Music” box.

And what about your photos? The good news is that iTunes won’t erase any photos sitting in your iPad’s camera roll, even if your iPad is synced with another photo library.

The bad news? Any other photos in your iPad’s photo library (including those synced from another system) will get erased, unless you back them up first.

An easy (and free) solution I found in the App Store is called WiFi Photo Transfer, an app that lets you wirelessly transfer any and all images from an iPhone, iPad or iPod to a nearby PC or Mac, so long as both devices are connected to the same local Wi-Fi network.

What about apps, contacts, and other content on your iPad? In general, the same rules apply. Click, say, “Sync Apps,” and iTunes will erase all the apps on your iPad and replace them with the apps stored in iTunes.

Keep in mind, though, that you can always sync some items through iTunes and not others.

For example, you could sync your music and photos while keeping the “Sync Apps” or “Sync Contacts” boxes unchecked.

And remember, you can wirelessly back up most of your iPad data, including items that aren’t synced with iTunes, with a free iCloud account.

Hope that helps, Allan.

Still have questions? Let me know!

The post How do I keep my iPad from syncing automatically with iTunes? (reader mail) appeared first on here's the thing.

Hi Kim! Well, I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

The good news: yes, you should be able to transfer most—but, potentially, not all—of your iTunes music to your Android phone.

The bad news: nope, your old iPhone apps won’t play nice with Android.

First, let’s tackle your tunes—and specifically, why some of the tracks you bought on iTunes might not work on an Android phone.

Until just a few years ago, Apple only sold copy-protected music on iTunes, and those DRM-protected tunes (“DRM” stands for “digital rights management,” by the way) will only play on devices (like your Mac, PC, or iPhone) that are authorized by your iTunes Store account.

Starting in 2009, Apple reversed course and began selling “DRM-free” (or “iTunes Plus“) tracks on iTunes that will play on practically any digital music player—including, yes, Android phones.

What does that mean to you? Well, if you bought any music on iTunes prior to 2009, there’s a chance you still may have some copy-protected music in your iTunes library. You can spot them by looking for the telltale “M4P” extension at the end of the file name—for example, “In Your Eyes.m4p.”

So, what can you do if you’re stuck with copy-protected iTunes music? Well, two (legal) things.

• You can pay 30 cents a track to convert your copy-protected music to the Android-friendly iTunes Plus format. Click this link, and you’ll jump to a list of songs in your iTunes library that are eligible for conversion.
• Sign up for iTunes Match, a $25-a-year service that scans all your iTunes songs and quickly “matches” them with high-quality, copy-protection free music in iCloud. If iTunes Match manages to “match” any of your copy-protected M4P songs, you could just re-download them from iCloud to get a DRM-free version.

Now, let’s say you’ve dealt with any copy-protected songs in iTunes. How do you move them to an Android phone?

No, iTunes won’t sync your music to an Android phone, but there are other ways to transfer your songs.

• Connect your Android phone to your PC or Mac with a USB cable, then just drag and drop music files from your system’s hard drive to your phone’s Music directory. Then, launch the Google Music app on your Android phone, and voilà—your tunes will be there. (Note: Some Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, won’t pop up on your Mac desktop when you connect the phone’s USB cable; luckily, Google offers a free utility that’ll help transfer songs and other files from your Mac.)
• If the Android phone you pick has a slot for those itty-bitty microSD memory cards, you could transfer your songs to the memory card and then snap the card into your phone. (Note: You may need an adapter to plug a microSD memory card into your PC or Mac.)
• Use a third-party program to sync your iTunes playlists. One of the most popular is called DoubleTwist, which has the added virtue of being free; there’s also a paid version, called AirTwist, that’ll wirelessly sync your iTunes music to your Android handset.
• Upload your songs to Google Play Music, a free digital music “locker” in the cloud. Once all your music is uploaded, you’ll be able to stream them to your Android phone using the Google Music app. Keep in mind, though, that uploading all your songs to Google Music could be a lengthy process—as in days or even weeks. Read more…
• Amazon has its own music locker, called Amazon Cloud Player, that will quickly “scan and match” your songs just like iTunes Match does. Once your music is all matched, you can stream or download your tunes to your Android phone using Amazon’s MP3 Android app. The catch? You’ll have to pay a $25-a-year fee to “scan and match” more than 250 tracks to Cloud Player.

Now then, what about your iPhone apps?

Like I said before, no—you can’t take your iPhone apps with you if you switch to Android.

Of course, there are plenty of Android versions of popular iPhone apps available in the Google Play app store, some of which you’ll find in my list of 15 must-have Android apps.

Unfortunately, TomTom’s iPhone navigation app isn’t one of them. That said, word is that an Android-friendly TomTom app is said to be coming soon.

Also, consider using Google Maps Navigation, a powerful—and free—GPS navigation app that offers turn-by-turn directions.

Hope that helps, Kim. Have more questions? Let me know!

The post Can I play music from iTunes on an Android phone? (reader mail) appeared first on here's the thing.

Well, you can always use the iPhone’s tiny headset remote (more on that in a bit), but there’s also another way: straight from the iPhone lock screen.

The next time you’re playing some tunes on your iPhone (or iPad, for that matter), try this: lock your handset with the sleep/wake button, then double-tap the “Home” key.

When you do, a set of music controls will appear right below the clock, complete with a play/pause button and arrows for skipping forward or back; tap and hold the arrows for fast-forward/reverse.

You’ll also find a volume slider, plus an AirPlay button if your iPhone is in range of an Apple TV or another AirPlay-enabled device.

The lock-screen playback control aren’t just for the iPhone’s main Music app, by the way; they’ll also work for many other third-party music applications, from Pandora and Slacker to Spotify and Downcast.

Bonus tip

Wait, you haven’t tried the iPhone’s headset remote yet? If not, you should.

Just click the little “in-line” control once to pause your music, then once more to crank your tunes again.

You can also click once to pick up an incoming call, or double-click to skip a track.

If you have a newer pair of iPhone earbuds, you can control the volume by pressing the “+” and “-” buttons.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Click here!

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So, what is “HDMI,” exactly? What does it stand for, and what does it do?

Short for “High-Definition Multimedia Interface,” HDMI is essentially a connector—or, yes, an interface—between video and audio components. What kind of components? Think HDTVs, game consoles (like the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360), Blu-ray disc players, HD DVRs (like the one you rent from your cable carrier), streaming-video boxes (like Apple TV or Roku), and home theater receivers (like those used to power surround speaker systems).

A pair of standard HDMI ports lurking in the back of an HDTV (mine, in this case).

Unlike the analog coaxial, composite-video, and S-Video connections on yesterday’s TVs, HDMI connections are all-digital, and they’re capable of transmitting both high-definition video and lustrous surround sound through a single cable.

HDMI cables aren’t the only kinds that handle HD video, mind you. So-called “component-video” cables, which boast a trio of plugs on each end, can transmit full-on HD video, as well. But component video is an analog, video-only connection—and besides, when it comes to the latest HDTVs, game consoles, and streaming TV set-top boxes, HDMI is the current standard.

Besides handling both digital video and audio signals, HDMI interfaces also support a copy-protection system known as High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, or “HDCP” for short—something you’ll probably never need to worry about, unless you’re trying to record HD movies off your cable box.

Want to see what an HDMI port looks like? Just take a gander at the back of almost any HDTV set, and you’ll see one—or two, or three, or even more. They look like little rectangles, about a half-inch wide and a couple tenths of an inch high, with a “v” shape at the bottom corners.

An HDMI port on the back panel of a PlayStation 3.

A standard HDMI cable, meanwhile, will have twin “male” plugs on either end, with each plug a little less than half an inch long.

This type “A” HDMI connector is probably the only one you’ll ever have to worry about, although there are also smaller, “mini-HDMI” (or type “C”) plugs that you’ll find on certain high-end smartphones (like this one) capable of “mirroring” their displays on an HDTV set.

Making the HDMI connection between, say, a Blu-ray player and your HDTV is a snap. Just plug an HDMI cable into the HDMI port of the Blu-ray deck, plug the other end into an open HDMI port on your TV, and you’re set—both in terms of sound and picture.

Some newer, high-end smartphones boast “mini” HDMI ports, like this one.

Another possibility is to plug your Blu-ray player, game console, Apple TV, and other HDMI-equipped devices into the HDMI ports of a home-theater receiver, and then connect a single HDMI cable from the receiver to your HDTV. That way, your receiver will be able to send video from a selected source (like the Blu-ray player, or your Xbox) to your TV, while piping out Dolby or DTS surround sound through a set of home-theater speakers.

So, what kind of HDMI cables do you need? Nothing all that fancy. Unless you’re a home-theater professional laying down yards and yards of line, a standard HDMI 1.3 cable should do—and you shouldn’t have to pay more than about $10 for a six-foot cable.

Have more questions about HDMI, or home theater in general? Let me know!

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Click a thumbnail to start your tour…

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Hi Karen! I think I know what’s happening here. Do me a favor and tap Settings, Music; is “Show All Music” set to “On”? I’m guessing that it is.

So, here’s the deal.

Displaying every track in your iTunes Match library on your iPhone is a recipe for bad battery life, especially if you shuffling music over a 3G connection.

Your iPhone’s music player currently displays every single track in your iCloud-based iTunes Match music library, including those that aren’t saved “locally” on your iPhone.

That means when you shuffle your music and you hit a song that isn’t sitting on your handset, your iPhone will start downloading it from iCloud—and the more data you stream on your iPhone, the more you’ll drain the battery, particularly when it comes to using your carrier’s cellular 3G data network.

Also, the more songs you download over 3G, the closer you’ll creep to your monthly 3G data limit (that is, unless you have an unlimited 3G data plan through Sprint).

My recommendation? Avoid downloading music over iTunes Match when you’re connected to 3G, and there are two easy ways of ensuring you don’t:

1. Set your iPhone’s music player to show only the music that’s stored locally on your phone
This way, when you put your iPhone on shuffle, you won’t run into any tracks that must be downloaded from iCloud. To do so, tap Settings, Music, and switch “Show All Music” to “Off.” The only problem, of course, is that you won’t be able to see your entire iTunes Match collection on your iPhone anymore.

Switch "Use Cellular Data" to "Off" to keep your iPhone from trying to download iTunes Match songs over 3G.

2. Keep your iPhone from downloading iTunes Match music over 3G
This is what I do, and it means you can still see your entire iTunes Match library on your iPhone without having to worry about downloading tracks tracks over 3G, especially when you’re shuffling your tunes.

Tap Settings, store, then switch “Use Cellular Data” to “Off—and yes, you can now switch “Show All Music” back to “On” if you like.

Hope that helps!

Have more iTunes Match questions? Let me know!

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Sure, you can tap the “Get More Episodes” link, but that yanks you out of the iPhone’s music app and sends you to the iTunes store, where you must then download new episodes one at a time. Lame.

Well, here’s the thing: there’s a hidden gem on the App Store that blows the iPhone’s native podcast manager away. I’m such a fan, in fact, that I gave it a coveted spot on the first page of my iPhone’s home screen. (Sorry, Calculator app.)

Downcast can check your podcast subscriptions and download new episodes automatically.

A “universal” app that also works on the iPad and iPod Touch, Downcast ($1.99) lets you browse, search for, and subscribe to podcasts from your iPhone.

Once you’ve got your podcasts all set up (and yes, you’ll have to recreate any podcast collection that you might have on iTunes), just go to your list of subscriptions and tug it down with your fingertip; Downcast will then check for and download any and all new episodes, all in one shot. Finally.

And here’s the part I really love: you can set Downcast to check your podcast subscriptions for new episodes automatically, anywhere from once a day to hourly, and even download them in the background. (You also have the option of downloading new episodes manually, or only when you’re in range of a Wi-Fi network.)

Downcast will keep or delete your downloaded podcasts as you see fit (for example, you can keep them all, or just the most recent episodes), and you can also start listening to a podcast before it’s completely downloaded.

Other features include playback buttons that let you skip forward or back a few seconds or minutes, the ability to create “smart” playlists of your latest podcast episodes (handy for drivers with long daily commutes), and a sleep timer.

Great stuff, and the developer is even promising iCloud support in an upcoming, good for syncing your podcast subscriptions across multiple devices.

I don’t often say this about the iPhone apps I review, but … go get it.

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Unlike Apple’s new iTunes Match service, Google Music can’t scan the songs on your hard drive and “match” then with tracks from the new Google music store, which means those with massive digital music collections could find themselves uploading their tunes for days on end.

Update [3/2012]: Google Music has now been folded into the new Google Play service, but all the basic functionality of Google Music remains more or less the same.

Once you've uploaded your tunes to Google Music, you'll be able to listen to them on your Android phone or tablet.

But while iTunes Match costs $25 a year, storing up to 20,000 songs in your Google Music locker won’t cost you a dime.

Ready to pump up the volume with Google Music? Here’s how to get started.

1. Visit Google Music and sign in with your Google account, or create a new Google ID.
2. Once you’re signed in, you’ll find a selection of free tracks already in your Google Music library. Select a song, then click the “Play” button in the bottom-left corner of your web browser to start listening. Easy, right?
3. Now, time to upload some tunes. Click the “Upload Music” link in the top-right corner of the screen, then click the blue “Download Music Manager” button. Google’s Music Manager software will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
4. Once you’ve installed the Music Manager, launch the application, then sign in with your Google ID.


The Music Manager program will check iTunes or Windows Media Player (on a Windows PC) for tracks, or you can ask it to scan a specific folder.

5. Next, you’ll need to tell Music Manager where you store your music on your computer (and don’t worry, you can always go back and change these settings later). If you use iTunes or Windows Media Player, click the appropriate button; you’ll then get the choice of either uploading specific playlists, or everything in your collection. Keep in mind that if you have more than a few hundreds songs on your hard drive, uploading everything could take a long, long time.
6. Don’t use iTunes or Windows Media Player for your digital music? Well, you could always point the Google Music Manager to your Music folder, or choose a specific folder with songs from a particular artist or album. Or, try this: create a new directory and drag in the folders of music you want synced to your Google Music account.
7. Once you’ve chosen the music you’d like uploaded, Music Manager will ask if you’d like it to automatically upload new music; that’s up to you, of course (and again, you can always change your mind later).
8. All set? If so, Music Manager will tally up your tunes and begin uploading them. On the Mac, you can monitor your progress by clicking the little headphone icon that appears at the top of the screen; in Windows, look in the icon tray on the bottom-right corner of your desktop.
   

   Click the icon at the top of you Mac desktop to check the status of your uploads; for Windows, you'll find the icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

9. Now, uploading dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of songs with the Music Manager can put quite a strain on your Internet connection. To ease the pressure, click the Music Manager headphone icon, click the Advanced tab, then choose how much bandwidth you’d like to make available for uploading, ranging from “Fastest possible” to “Slowest.”
10. Want to stop uploading? Go back to the “Advanced” tab in the Music Manager and click the “Sign Out” button, then sign back in when you’re ready to resume uploading. From here, you can also change your upload folders, or turn automatic uploading for new songs on or off.
11. Ready to start listening? Just go to your Google Music account on the web, find an uploaded song or album you’d like to hear, and press the “Play” button again in the bottom-right corner of your browser—you know the drill.
12. Got an Android phone or tablet? If so, go ahead and download the Google Music app for Android and sign in; within seconds, your entire Google Music library will be available for streaming. You can also save tracks, albums, playlists, or entire genres for offline playback; just tap the menu icon in the top-right corner of the Google Music app, select “Make available offline,” and then “pin” the selections you’d like to download to your device.

Have more questions about Google Music? Sure you do. Let me know!

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