iPod: The Missing Manual

Buy this Book, it Rocks!

The Apple manual for the iPod is 6 pages long, a good start, but hardly enough to really get your feet wet with your new cigarette-pack sized personal music assistant. J.D. Biersdorfer supplements this with a 331 page tome that tells you ¿everything you ever wanted to know about the iPod, but were afraid to ask¿. Biersdorfer covers all versions of the iPod back to generation one (1G) and bringing you up to date to generation three (3G), including those designed for the Windows operating system. The book is organized into five parts: Hardware, Software, Beyond the Music, Extreme iPodding, and Appendixes. Each of the parts explains in layman's terms the relevant areas of the iPod experience. The Hardware section covers the various incarnations of the iPod, as well as, various accessories like the remote control, case, and earbuds. Hardware also covers charging, and synchronizing the iPod with the computer (Macintosh or Windows) of your choice. Clear instructions and diagrams/photos make the hardware section easy to follow. The hardware section even includes instructions for installing a Firewire card if your computer is not equipped with Firewire. One section is sure to be controversial; instructions are given on how to copy music FROM the iPod TO the computer. Biersdorfer admits that this could be used to pirate music, but counters with some good reasons to transfer music WITHOUT piracy. The Software section includes a good discussion of digital music formats including MP3, AIFF, AAC, and WAV. A rather lengthy discussion of the features of iTunes for Macintosh is included to get the reader up to speed on the usefulness of this portion of the digital hub. The books publication predates the December 2003 release of iTunes for Windows, so the older MusicMatch for Windows is covered. Finally, a good overview of the iTunes Music Store is given, with a tour of the features and a really great takeoff on Billy Joel¿s ¿Piano Man¿ called ¿iTunes Man¿. Beyond the Music covers the other uses of the iPod including Address Book, Calendar, Games and eBooks, iSync, and the iPod as a hard drive. I found the Calendar section particularly helpful, as it covers using the major players: iCal, Entourage, and Now Up-to-Date. Extreme iPodding was tor me the most interesting section of the book, as it talks about iPod hacks and cool tricks as well as the myriad accessories available for the iPod. Currently I¿m looking to use my iPod in my car and the information on devices to connect to a car stereo helped me to decide which of the routes to take. The troubleshooting section brings together much of the information from the Apple Knowledge Base articles into one easy to find location. As I have had issues with both of my iPods, it was nice to be able to find the information in one spot, rather than clicking to the 4 or 5 different articles on Apple¿s website, and having to cross reference the troubleshooting procedures from printouts. The appendixes cover both the Macintosh and Windows software offerings, menu by menu, and explain some of the lesser known keyboard shortcuts for the commands in each program. Overall the book is a great compliment to the iPod experience. It is clearly written and has just enough humor sprinkled throughout to keep the reader smiling and interested. I opened the book thinking that 300+ pages on a device this small with five buttons was overkill... J.D. Biersdorfer and O¿Reilly proved me wrong. I learned to make my iPod more than ¿just¿ a music player, and I had fun while doing it.

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iPod: Missing Manual - a reference gem!

Reviewed by: Curt Blanchard, Tucson Macintosh Users Group. And you thought the iPod was just a 21st century Walkman¿ This book will show you how very much more it is - it¿s a bird, it¿s a plane, it¿s a Palm Pilot, it¿s a Gameboy, it¿s an eBook, it¿s an alarm clock and it¿s a fabulous portable hard disk with tons of capacity! I don¿t own one yet but after finishing this book, it tops my Christmas list. I¿m a big fan of O¿Reilly¿s Missing Manual series as I much prefer a physical book to an on-screen manual and they are doing a fine job of filling that void. The OS X Missing Manual is among the very best on this subject. Similarly, the iPod Missing Manual is a serious reference book, not to be taken lightly and it certainly isn¿t something to sit down to read cover-to-cover. However, it covers the iPod so thoroughly that I don¿t believe there can be many questions left unanswered. Tips and hints abound here so it¿s worth skimming around to glean them from the sections that interest you. This is one of those dual-platform books that deals with both Mac and PC formats simultaneously. This makes the book bigger than expected, 330 pages, but seeing how much more cumbersome the Windows processes are, is good for the Gloat Factor if nothing else. In some cases there are separate chapters dealing with Windows issues and they are easy to skip over. The book starts with the iPod¿s hardware and iSync then goes into its software in careful depth including good, clear explanations of the various digital music formats. There is an excellent section on iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Biersdorfer then goes into the iPods other features - the iPod as an Address Book, a Calendar, a Games machine, an eBook player and a capacious Hard Drive. Toward the end, she explains how to connect an iPod to a home audio system, a car stereo and a computer. She also reviews the fast growing selection of iPod accessories. If you¿re a missing Manual fan, this book is highly recommended. I didn¿t realize how much I needed an iPod until I read this book! --Curt Blanchard

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