install iPhone apps from my computer

Thanks - that's easier than I expected, and very logical.

My iPod....

Version 4.2.1 (8C148)

Model MB531LL

Something that puzzles me - the "wallpaper" on my phone is the grey background with what looks like lots of bubbles - what I think is the default background.

My iPod has a black background, even though I changed the setting for wallpaper to be just like the iPhone. Is there something else that needs to be set? It acts like something is confused, but more likely the confusion is all me, not the device.

I will try what you suggested now....

Plug in iPod...... nothing happens other than the AutoPlay window opening.

Click on "Device".

Select "photos".... select one of my folders with 1800 photos.....

click on "apply"..... iTunes does backup, then starts copying my photos....

......as I'm typing this, iTunes is copying photos. I'll let it finish, then continue.

........I'm curious as to what is going to happen, but I'm surprised it's letting me do all this without asking what a password might be on the device (which I wouldn't know, were it to ask me...). There are some songs on it already - if I add a few of mine, will it add them in addition to what's there, or instead of?

Thanks for your link for "set up as new". I expect that's what I will be doing later this evening.

If I can ask a follow-up question.....

When all is said and done, I will have my iPhone and my iPod bot connected to my Sony laptop via iTunes.

Is it permissable to also set up iTunes on my desktop computer, and have it also work with my devices?

This would allow me to use the devices with the much larger and faster desktop computer when I'm home, but when I travel with the laptop, I could continue on as before. The only problem I forsee is doing a "sync", as I suspect the devices would sync to only one set of images from a single computer. I'm just guessing that's the case.

I think I remember reading that I can have up to five devices; is there a similar limit on how many computers?

Your suggestions worked out fine. I decided I would just leave the devices synced to my laptop, as it will hopefully be whereever I am.

I connected the iPod to and "empty" test computer I have, and ran 'SharePod' which copied everything on the iPod to that PC. I then disconnected the iPod, and (now that I had nothing to lose), played with some of the sync tools, which work as you describe.

I then used the <reset> tools to bring everything back to a new state. It said this would take up to two hours.

I then did a 'sync' for my apps (using the same laptop I use with my iPhone), and everything except for the camera apps was transferred to the iPod (which is now getting to be very much like my iPhone).

This is great - with the information you gave me, and the <restore> tools, I can try out all sorts of stuff on the iPod without worrying about causing a problem - I can always make it like new again.

Two things I'd like to try - I read that with either Aperture or Photoshop Elements I can create nested folders on the device. I can't try Aperture (I don't have a Mac) but I can try out Photoshop Elements.

By the way, between my learning how to get more out of the iProducts, and with Nokia apparently doing their best to cripple the capabilities of the Nokia N8

(read page 5 of

http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/t5/Software-Updates/List-of-Belle-additions- corrections-needed/td-p/1328167/page/5 )

, I am getting SO close to moving my SIM card from the Nokia to the iPhone.

When/if the iPhone ever gets a useable file system, and useable bluetooth, and a memory card slot, even without the Maps software I'll be switching. Even without those, for use in the USA I'll probably be switched over in the next week or two.

It's pointless to argue, as the phone is what it is, but overseas one of my *must have* features is the ability to send and receive things from other people, and at least in India, 99.99% of the people I am with don't have Apple products. The lack of the ability to send/receive photos and other things by Bluetooth is a major problem for me, as well as lacking the ability to transfer things via a memory card. As I pointed out earlier, even the inexpensive China phones sold over there for $50 or so have both, as well as a second SIM card slot. My answer isn't to argue with Apple - it's just to use a different phone. I don't need big brother worrying about my phone security - I can do that just fine on my own.

Meanwhile, back to our discussion. I have phone contacts on my iPhone, which are very different from the contacts in my computer's Microsoft Outlook. To get the contacts transferred from my Nokia N8 to my iPhone I used software named "PhoneCopy". Now that my iPod is pretty much set up, I used PhoneCopy on it to duplicate the contacts on my iPhone. That's all done, and working fine.

Quick question - does iTunes have a similar function? I don't want to 'sync' my Contacts with Outlook, or GMail, or any of those programs - is there a way to sync the Contacts to iTunes? If so, I will use that from now on instead of PhoneCopy. I did try to look this up in various web discussions, but I couldn't find a way to only sync to iTunes.

(The reason for wanting this, is that I am trying to get Viber to work on the iPod Touch, and wanted the phone book there to be a duplicate of what's on my iPhone.)

I guess I need a bit more help.... The place I need this phone the most is in India. In the US I've got lots of phones, and lots of other devices. Anyway, I set up my Apple ID for where I'll be staying overseas, and I put down "India" for the country. The intent was to use the phone with Vodafone (Hutch) service in India. It all made perfect sense to me.

I just tried to download a free app, "Mapquest", but I couldn't find it on the 'search' page on the phone. Puzzled, I tried to find it on my PC, quite easily, and went to download it. Then I get a message telling me I can't do so, as my app store is in India, and this app is only available from the US App Store.

I can change my App Store to the US store, but I read somewhere that all my apps on the phone will be removed. Not good. ...and when I return to India, I'll again lose all my US apps, when I change the store back to India.

I read somewhere that this is all because of licensing, and you shouldn't be able to buy something over the internet from one country, and use it in another - which to me is just plain silly, as the apps I put on my Nokia come from all over the world.

I know - if you don't like the way things are, use a different phone...... but with me spending 6 months in the US, and then 6 months in India, and so on, this is all very frustrating...... Nobody told me that of those bazillion apps, only the ones from your local country can be downloaded. .....and with Mapquest being a free app, who cares which country I'm in when I'm looking at it?

Just a short update.... while I still feel as I did about the difficulty of doing all this, it seems to have led to a better solution than I expected.

If you can't beat them, join them..... famous statement from old cowboy movies. So, I did some searching and got to the list of navigation apps for India:

http://itunes.apple.com/in/genre/ios-navigation/id6010?mt=8

So, if Apple US won't let me download from the US app store, maybe I simply forget that, and use only the Indian store. I dunno.

This led to some more searching, and finding "NavFree GPS India" which then led me to NavFree GPS US. I don't know yet for sure, but these might be the programs I always wanted, and was told didn't exist - free maps and navigation, with all the map data stored on the phone (not the cloud) so even in places with no network or phone access, I can still use the navigation - just as I now do on my Nokia.

For the India version, you download one huge file. For the US, you download the program, then the data for as many states as you want. I'm doing Florida as this is being written, all 173 megs of it.

I'm still annoyed that I'm limited on where I can download free software from, even if I'm using official Apple sites and stores, but I guess nothing can ever be "perfect".

In my case, my Apple ID is registered in India. At the time, it made sense, as that's where I'll probably be using apps on the phone the most. (It's also true that I had no idea of any limitations I was creating by selecting India or the USA).

The Mapquest app is for the US, and is naturally available from the US Apple store.

It's free.

It's not listed in the Indian Apple store.

Is it true that there currently is NO way of adding that application to my iPhone 3GS, other than changing my Apple store, allowing all the apps on my phone to be deleted, and then starting all over again?

(If I do a backup, then change stores, losing everything, then restore my apps, will they come back to my phone?)

If so, problem solved, but with a ton of extra effort.

If not, this all seems pretty silly.

If I buy an electronic device overseas, then bring it to the USA, I might lose service and support, and maybe my PAL video recordings won't play on an American TV, but there is nothing preventing me from bringing items legally purchased overseas, back to the US. This should apply to things already on my phone - logically, that is. I'll wait for you to tell me how Apple deals with this, or better yet, how I can get around this obstacle. :-)

I went to the page you referenced, and found this:

iTunes will back up the following information

"App Store Application data including in-app purchases (except the Application itself, its tmp and Caches folder)."

If you are correct, along with the above, were I to do a backup, and then change Apple store when I visit India, not only will I lose all the applications, but I won't even be able to restore them from the backup. This all does sound a wee bit strange, and the idea of having to buy a second phone just to be able to do this sounds way overboard.

It's all rather frustrating - as long as they're all legally purchased, I don't see how it's anybody else's business what I keep on my phone. Fortunately, there are ways around this if I get frustrated enough, which hasn't happened yet.

Maybe I can trouble you with one slightly different question. I now have two devices, my iPhone (with Indian Apple Store) and my iPod Touch (ditto). What would happen were I to change my Apple store only for the iPod Touch? Will that have any negative effects on my iPhone, or would they be treated completely differently? They are both used with a single iTunes on my PC - would it recognize which Apple store went with which device, or would it get all confusabobbled?