Gadgetory

what's cracking Brian song here and welcome to the Apple buy for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple now right now I'm somewhere laying down and oiled up on a tropical island but we aren't gonna leave the Apple biters like you without a show plus we also have a killer giveaway we're sticking around for so we're making this a short but sweet email show where we take your questions and also read some of your more interesting ones now Andrew Walker writes in and says is now a good time to buy the MacBook Air because of all the rumors of a 15 inch will the existing models get a spec bump now Andrew if you're looking for a 15-inch laptop I would just wait to see if the rumored 15 air is something you really want it's not for everyone laptops will last you a lot longer and you don't have to upgrade them every year so if you're in the market for one my advice is to wait for the exact model that you want and for sure we'll probably see spec bumps as well now Elena James writes in with I just got an iPhone and I'm annoyed by having to jump into my settings all the time is there an easier way to do this like Android does now Elena I'm happy to tell you there is and this is probably one of my new favorite things a UI and visual designer named Jeff Rodrick created the Lynx and polished icons that will get you quick access to your specific settings so I have to do is just go to the webpage vrdr CK dot me slash settings on your iOS device and you'll see an arrangement of icons for the services we use the most now once you select something like Bluetooth all you have to do is either install the shortcut or just add that specific page to your home screen if you add it as a home page screen you'll have to launch it a few times before it works but after that voila it will jump directly to your iOS settings and it'll look good doing it I know awesome you guys can thanks me later now Alex Breen writes in and says can you make the full version of foxy lady Alex were working on it and we also received some awesome snail mail from you guys right here in this mailbox after I asked for it now I'm gonna look inside and our friend Tyler Gannon he sent us this amazing card from his iPhone directly to us who knew and then Mario Arg Wetty he sent us this Steve Jobs button so thank you so much you guys are so kind except uh where did this half-eaten Apple come from well it's no good all right let's take a break with something we still constantly get asked all the time how do I move I tune into an external drive immersive Donna Bell has the answer to that is your itunes media library hogging up too much space on your computer I'm Donald Bell and I'm here to show you how to run your iTunes library from an external hard drive if you have a massive iTunes library filled with music movies and podcasts it's not a bad idea to offload that content onto a separate external or internal hard drive but transferring that library isn't as obvious as dragging dropping your iTunes folder onto a new drive it's not hard but to do it right you've got a lot I Tunes do the work for you to get started open iTunes and make sure the drive you want to move your library to is connected to your computer and ready to go next go into your iTunes preferences on a PC you'll find this on under the Edit menu and for a Mac it's under the iTunes menu click under the Advanced tab and where it says iTunes Music folder location change the location to a folder on your external hard drive next make sure the copy files to music folder option is checked this ensures that any new content you download or rip into iTunes gets transferred to the new location after that hit the ok button now you're not done yet there's one more big step to take before iTunes really starts moving your library to the new location but before we commit your computer to what could be a few hours of transfer time let's take a moment to do some general iTunes housekeeping delete any old podcasts you're not listening to or maybe some movies or TV shows you never plan on watching again there's probably a lot of clutter in your library that you don't need to waste time copying a couple of minutes here could save you hours of transfer time when you're ready to make the transfer click the itunes file menu then go to library and select organize library you'll see a window with options here for consolidating and organizing your library check them both if you can but the critical one here is the first option for consolidating files this is gonna take all the files referenced by iTunes on your computer your movies your music your audio books podcast TV shows and it's gonna copy it over to the new location on your external drive it will take some time and remember it's not deleting the old files it's just copying them to the new location if you're feeling confident later on you can move your old iTunes media files on your local drive to the trash can after the transfer is complete then check again to make sure everything is still working and then permanently delete the old files watch out for deleting your local iTunes ITL or XML files lo as these might still be used for your playlists and ratings once the dust is settled and all your precious iTunes content is running smoothly from the external drive you can finally pat yourself on the back unless the drive is powered off or disconnected iTunes will remember to load your music library from the external drive every time it launches without the drive connected iTunes will temporarily revert back to the internal drive and function for things like streaming podcast or internet radio or downloading stuff from the iTunes store but you won't be able to play your library content without connecting back up to the external drive for cnet.com I'm Donna Bell helping to give your iTunes library some extra breathing room thanks Donald now we also have tons of you still writing about this one Lionel asks the colorful case you use on your show is it a case or a rap for your phone Lionel it's a jealous skin and because I love them so much and you guys want them so much our friends at jealous kins have hooked up the Apple byte with ten free codes we're twenty five dollars that you can use on their site now it could be a gel skin for your phone a laptop your video game console or an e-reader or an iPad like mine but it looks great and it showcases some amazing independent artists so you guys have to do is watch last week's episode tell me all the food items that were piled on to me will randomly pick the winners and announce them next week all right that's gonna do it for this week's show send us your emails to the Apple bita cnet.com i'm brian tong thanks for watching and we'll see you next week for another bite of the Apple