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iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition 201

Posted by timothy from the do-not-panic-button dept.
emmastory writes "When I mentioned this book to some of my friends, the response was usually either 'Doesn't the iPod come with a manual?' or 'Does the iPod even need a manual?' There is, in fact, a little CD-sized booklet that comes with the iPod, and it's true that you probably don't need much more than that if all you need to know is how to turn the thing on and play a song. But one of the great things about the Missing Manuals series is that while they tell you everything a manual ought to, they also tell you an awful lot that a manual never would." Read on for the rest of emmastory's review of iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition.
iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition
author J.D. Biersdorfer
pages 349
publisher Pogue Press/O'Reilly
rating 9
reviewer Emma Story
ISBN 0596006586
summary An inexpensive way to get the most out of your iPod

For example, if you ask someone (like an Apple store employee) how to get MP3s off of an iPod and onto a computer, they'll tell you that the transfer is only supposed to go the other way. The idea is that you're not supposed to be able to just collect the entire music libraries of anyone who happens to drop by your home with his or her iPod. Of course, it turns out that there are plenty of legitimate scenarios in which you might want to be able to get your own music off of your MP3 player. (I certainly intend to rescue my music from my iPod should the external drive that's currently holding my files ever give up the ghost.) The Missing Manual, on the other hand, devotes several pages to detailing the various ways you can go about accomplishing the unspeakable act of iPod-to-computer copying.

And additional content isn't the only thing you'll find in this book -- there's also a significant difference in the depth and helpfulness of the respective texts. I'll compare their coverage of a common question among new iPod owners: what's going on when the iPod screen always says "Do not disconnect"? Here's the answer as given by the iPod User Guide:

Important: If it is not safe to disconnect iPod, a message on the iPod screen says "Do not disconnect." Don't disconnect iPod if you see this message. You could damage files on iPod. If you see the "Do not disconnect" message, you must eject iPod (see page 22) before disconnecting it.

Apple's apparent fear of possessives and articles aside, this is pretty much as bare-bones as you can get. It tells you one thing you can do if you're seeing this message, but not why it's happening, or what to do if ejecting the iPod doesn't make it go away. Here's an answer to the same question in the Missing Manual:

If you've turned on the "Enable disk use" box in iTunes' iPod Preferences panel, the "Do Not Disconnect" message appears on the iPod at all times. You have to unmount the iPod from the computer manually to make it go away (see page 215).

Even if you haven't set up the iPod to work as a FireWire disk, its hard drive may not have spun down properly. If it's stuck in a loop, the "Do Not Disconnect" message may also appear. Try clicking the Eject iPod button in iTunes, or dragging the iPod icon on the desktop to the Mac's Trash, to see if you get the "OK to Disconnect" message. If that doesn't work, try resetting the iPod as described on page 46 and then try ejecting it.

Note: If you live in a cross-platform household and have both Macintosh- and Windows-flavor iPods lying around, make sure you're plugging the WinPod into the PC. Macs are generally friendly towards PC-formatted 'Pods, but not vice versa. Mixing them up can lead to several error messages, including the "Do Not Disconnect" message (even as the computer won't mount or recognize the iPod) and the "This iPod is linked to another Music Library" message.

(Note that I plucked that answer from the iTunes troubleshooting section - there's also a similar response in the MusicMatch section.) I don't know about you, but this strikes me as infinitely more useful and enlightening than the User Guide's response (no offense to Apple's technical writers intended). And of course there are questions answered in the book that aren't addressed at all in the User Guide, nor on Apple's site.

There are plenty of other things that you'll find in this book that you might not already know, and that you certainly won't find in the included booklet - like information about the iPod on Linux Project, or descriptions of a number of different shareware and freeware programs you can grab to enhance your iPod. You'll find tricks to extend your battery life, ways to make the 'Pod behave even more like a PDA than it does by default, and how to boot off of your iPod should the need arise. Of course, it's true that you can find a lot of this on the web by yourself without having to pay for a book, so part of your decision about buying it will depend on whether you care more about spending $24.95 or saving yourself some time.

If you're wondering whether it's worth buying if you don't use Mac OS or if you have an older iPod, rest assured - coverage of all the different iPods is included, and there's material on both versions of iTunes, as well as MusicMatch for Windows. There's not a whole lot about using an iPod with a *nix box, although the topic isn't completely ignored (as you might expect). There's enough about the iPod itself that Linux users wouldn't be making a mistake to pick it up. On the other hand, it's probably not worth buying if you don't have an iPod and are just curious about iTunes. But iTunes is covered in almost every general Mac book out there, so you're not totally out of luck if that's the case. For most iPod owners, though, this book is a great and inexpensive way to get the most out of your new best friend (as long as your new best friend happens to be an iPod).

You can purchase iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition More

iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

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  • Might be worth it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DaHat ( 247651 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:48PM (#9564413)
    My iPod is one of my few toys that I actually would like to know more about and might be willing to pay for an added manual for... provided I learn useful things from it.
    • If the book has a section on MusicMatch (which, when you consider how much better EphPod and iTunes are at managing the iPod on Windows, nobody seriously uses anymore), it probably won't have anything useful in it.

      If you want to know more about your iPod, hop on over to ipodlounge.com, or one of the dozens of other in-depth ipod fan sites out there dedicated to hacking this clever little device.

      • Re:Might be worth it... (Score:5, Informative)

        by foo fighter ( 151863 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:37PM (#9564968) Homepage
        You are wrong.

        The book has a section on MusicMatch because the book is comprehensive in its covering of /all/ things iPod.

        That's not to say ipodlounge.com and the other in-depth ipod fan sites aren't useful resources. But this book is at least those sites' peer in terms of useful information.
        • That's not to say ipodlounge.com and the other in-depth ipod fan sites aren't useful resources. But this book is at least those sites' peer in terms of useful information.

          And there lies the rub - who would pay for dead tree when the info is available online for free? Not to say this book doesn't have an audience or a market, considering the success of the iPod, but they're certainly not on Slashdot.

  • If you have any trouble with your iPod (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:50PM (#9564441)
    Just rebuild the desktop.

  • My opinioin (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aoasus ( 786460 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:50PM (#9564451) Journal
    Of course, it's true that you can find a lot of this on the web by yourself without having to pay for a book, so part of your decision about buying it will depend on whether you care more about spending $24.95 or saving yourself some time.

    Pretty much sums it up for me....

  • I'm too lazy to read it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Apocalypse111 ( 597674 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:51PM (#9564456) Journal
    Maybe I can get it in audio-book format? Then I'll just load it up on my iPod...

    • Re:I'm too lazy to read it... (Score:5, Informative)

      by janbjurstrom ( 652025 ) <inoneear AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:25PM (#9564849)
      Actually, some folks in the iPodLinux [sourceforge.net] project have done some work to get flite [cmu.edu] (a run-time speech syntheziser engine for ARM) working: See this forum thread [sourceforge.net]. It should therefore be possible to have your iPod read you any text file you wish in a cool, monotone computer voice :)

      As you can read in the forum, text-2-speech (ebooks, notes, etc.) as well as a usability for blind people (menus as speech, etc.) are the main motivations (and that it's a cool hack, of course).

      Unsure whether anyone's got it working adequately yet. Check with the devs/users in the iPodLinux forums.
      • It should therefore be possible to have your iPod read you any text file you wish in a cool, monotone computer voice :)

        Cool! I'll start with Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time"... :-)

  • Worth it? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:51PM (#9564464) Homepage Journal
    While the iPos looks nice, and admittedly has the best interface of all the MP3 players (owing to the simple design Macintosh has become a master of), is it worth dropping a couple hundred on it?

    I've heard of two design flaws now -- both of which they seem less than inclined to fix beyond a short period of ownership -- and have noticed that PDAs in a similar price range can do MP3, video, and even word processing. If it was reliable I'd buy one tomorrow, but are they yet?

    • Re:Worth it? (Score:5, Funny)

      by dasmegabyte ( 267018 ) <das@OHNOWHATSTHISdasmegabyte.org> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:07PM (#9564676) Homepage Journal
      In a word: Yes.

      The PDAs in the iPod's range have drastically lower disk space and drastically slower sync interfaces. They are not as sturdy as the iPod. Their interfaces are not usable with one hand and the buttons are more fragile.

      Finally, as cool as it may sound to do word processing and watch video on a handheld, in practice you will never do these things. I sold my Toshiba palmtop for way less than it was worth to buy my 30 gig 3G iPod the day it came back. I have never regretted this decision in the least.

      • Re:Worth it? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:24PM (#9564846)
        The price is higher its true, however for my dollar you get more. Also the storage space is an issue, but I dont realy need to carry around more then half a gigs worth of songs at a time.

        As for the rest....
        I pull the CF/SD card out and stick it into a USB2/IDE/SCSI flash reader. How is that a "drastically slower sync interface"?

        I would put the sturdiness of many PDAs on par with the iPod. Sory to tell ya, but plastic and alunimun are prety much the same regardless of the logo.

        I have a touch screen on my PDA, 100% customizable interface with no hardware buttons. Works great one handed, while in my pocket etc...

        • I pull the CF/SD card out and stick it into a USB2/IDE/SCSI flash reader. How is that a "drastically slower sync interface"?

          If I recall correctly, flash memory writes at 4 MB/s, much less then a firewire linked harddrive.

          I might be wrong though.
        • "Drastically slower sync interface" is misleading, but I can see how an iPod would be faster in transferring files. Your average notebook sized hard drive such as those used in the iPod probably has a faster write speed than most Flash memory devices, so writing a large amount of data would be faster.

      • Re:Worth it? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by martingunnarsson ( 590268 ) * <martin&snarl-up,com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:31PM (#9564912) Homepage
        So true. Think about it, you can listen to music almost no matter what you are doing, but watching video requires your attention. That's why portable video players never will be as big a hit as portable music players. Also, the iPod runs pretty long on one charge. I think the specs say 8 or 9 hours, and that ain't very far from the truth with a new unit. I love my iPod, I rarely leave home without it.
        • Also, the iPod runs pretty long on one charge. I think the specs say 8 or 9 hours

          Funny, that's one of the main reasons I didn't buy an iPod but went with the iRiver H140 which has double the battery life.

          The other main reason is that the iRiver is accessible as a normal disk, no problems copying files from it. I hate it when Apple decides what I can and - most importantly - can't do with my files for some silly reason.
          • Thanks to the copy restrictions, Apple has got the support of the big record labels. They think it's perfectly fine that you buy a song at the iTunes music store, and copy it to your iPod (any number of iPod's as a matter of fact. They wouldn't have been OK with this if you could use the iPod to copy the songs to your friend's computers.
            Yes, I know there are ways, but the average Joe doesn't know about them. And that's what's most important.

      • Re:Worth it? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by merikus ( 722704 )
        I have a 1st Gen iPod.

        About a year and a half ago, I was in a major accident involving slipping off a road and flipping down an embankment about six times. Myself and all the other passengers in the car were injured from the accident.

        The next day I went back to take pictures and find my iPod. I found it about 10 feet from the car, buried in the snow. I pressed play and it worked; it still works to this day.

        If that isn't rugged, I don't know what is.
        • I'm surprised by the ruggedness of most Apple designs. Not to say that I haven't had the occasional problem (the sagging CD drives of pre-slot loading 'books, the hinges on the titanium iBook, the prone to cracking when dropped four feet onto the concrete from a fast moving bicycle Pismo) -- but for the most part, I've dropped, smacked, slid, and scratched most of my Apple gear to hell and it keeps coming back for more. I had a blue and white CRT fall five feet and honest-to-god BOUNCE, and the thing stil
    • ... will will have maybe 512MB of storage, and that's at the high end. So they're useful for the plug-the-mp3-player-into-your-computer-and-grab-so me-tunes-before-going-for-a-jog style of portable music, but not for the here's-my-music-collection-plus-my-home-directory style a hard-disk based player gives you.
      • Actually, I've never seen a PDA that had a fast enough interface to do that. My old Toshiba unit had the slooooowest internal ram, and the USB cable just performed Serial-over-USB for a grand total of 115kbit. Using the wireless ethernet was slightly better, I could maybe get 256kbit off of that...but it was still a pain to get music into it.

        I didn't know what fast was until I plugged the iPod into my firewire card and was able to transfer my whole collection in less than ten minutes. It used to take me

    • Re:Worth it? (Score:4, Informative)

      by taped2thedesk ( 614051 ) * on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:10PM (#9564713)
      The third-generation (3G) non-mini iPods (15/20/40 GB) are very reliable, AFAIK. I have the 20GB model, and haven't had a single problem with it.

      I believe they had some problems with the 1G iPods, and as everyone knows, with the iPod minis - but the consensus seems to be that if you're concerned about reliability, buy a 3G.

      From the accounts I've heard, they've been very good about fixing the defects lately - they usually ask to keep it overnight for testing, then either repair or replace it. There's a ton of repair stories on ipodlounge.com [ipodlounge.com]. In any case, I'd say go for it, especially if you just want the regular iPod. Now that I have one, I'm not sure if I could live without it.

      • Now that I have one, I'm not sure if I could live without it.

        Just another sign of Western Decadence: people will die if you take away their iPods.

    • If it was reliable I'd buy one tomorrow, but are they yet?

      Congratulations proud soon-to-be ipod owner! Yes, they are reliable. Its the most reliable portable electronics device that I've owned. Yes, I'm sure you've heard horror stories about ipod problems but they're actually quite rare - dare you to find a product that doesn't have horror stories. Even the battery issue is overblown. You can pick up higher capacity replacement batteries that even ship with a tool to open the ipod. Its really not that

    • I like the Neuros Audio player interface much better. It has five programmable function buttons that you can use as shortcuts to common tasks/items. Now that is cool.
      I'll take a powerful interface that is still easy to use over one that is simply easy to use any day.

    • Cheap alternative (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Jaycatt ( 530986 )
      If you're not using it for jogging, you could also look into getting an inexpensive MP3 CD player. Bring along 6 CD-R's of your favorite tunes and you've got quite a bit of storage. A $50 one I got works great in the car and never skips. Runs quite a while on the 2 AA batteries too (and it's pretty easy to throw an extra pair in wherever I'm going). Don't think it would work well for jogging, though. After a year of that, I finally broke down and got a car MP3 player, but I still use the portable playe
      • I prefer an in-dash MP3 CD player myself as well over connecting up an iPod to the audio-in connector. The MP3 CD player gets me some of the advantages of the iPod (8-10 hours at a go, random access), but without having to reach over and fiddle with a device setting on the passenger seat when I want to change up music or flip to the next song. (In-dash MP3 players are almost always better located for eyes-on-the-road musch changing.) Changing discs by feel (with only a quick glance at the visor to pick t
    • Short answer: Yes.

      Granted I havn't had mine (20gb model) for a week yet, but so far I love the thing. Great for taking to the gym and I can't *wait* until winter comes to go snowboarding with it.

      Warning: iTunes sucks a big one. I think a group of monkeys could write better software, oh wait sorry that was Windows. If you're going to get one and use it on a Windows platform (I have to, Firewire doesn't work well on my Linux desktop system yet), get EphPod. Good software with a lot of features.

      Now t
    • In a word, no. I bought myself an iRiver iHP-120 for about $100 less than a 20GB iPod; it supports Ogg and WMA in addition to MP3, has a radio tuner and a voice recorder, and plugs into anything as a simple hard drive without any hiding of the music.

      My wife bought a mini-ipod. It looks better, I'll give it that -- but neither of us likes the user interface, I had to set up a windows machine so she could use the Audible and iTunes software, and she can't figure out how to make either do what she wants. She'
      • Ephpod works fine under wine. Windows is not necessary.

        Precisely what does she want the software to do? The device plays mp3s. The software transfers mp3s to the device and allows the creation of playlists.

        It honestly isn't that complicated. If you find it difficult to use, you're doing something wrong.

        Hint, it won't play video, open cans, drive your car, etc.

    • While the iPos looks nice, and admittedly has the best interface of all the MP3 players (owing to the simple design Macintosh has become a master of),

      I wouldn't take this on faith; go play around with some other MP3 players at a big electronics store (one that keeps them running) and see for yourself. The software part of the iPod seems OK, but I like the actual hardware controls on other devices better. And other devices are often cheaper.

      Another problem with the iPod is that you can't recharge it thr

  • Missing from the book: Decrypting your Tunes (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:51PM (#9564469)
    DeDRMS [nanocrew.net]
    hymn [hymn-project.org]
  • information on the: "apple screen of death" "two-finger suicide" Rant on.

  • Retreiving MP3 files off the iPod (Score:5, Informative)

    by joeykiller ( 119489 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:52PM (#9564479) Journal
    I thought this was impossible for a while, until I mounted the iPod as a disk in Windows and used the command line to poke around the iPod. It's very simple: All the MP3 files are stored in hidden directories, and you can copy them to your heart's content with regular DOS commands such as copy.

    The only downside is that the files are stored with cryptic names in directories with meaningless names. But if your files have correct ID3 tagging, the organization of the files won't matter much.

    • Re:Retreiving MP3 files off the iPod (Score:5, Informative)

      by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:54PM (#9564504)
      Try ephpod [ephpod.com].
      • Ephod has to be installed for you to retrieve mp3s and while that may not be a big deal on your home computer you may want to try sharepod which allows you to copy songs from your ipod to your computer without any installation. Useful when dealing with someone else's computer. Here's a link:
        Sharepod [brinkster.com].
        Here's a quote from the page:
        " wrote this program because none of my friends have an iPod, so of course don't have Ephpod/iTunes or similar installed on their computers. With SharePod, nothing needs
    • Another excellent tool to do this is EphPod [ephpod.com]
    • What I've never been able to find out is how to recover data such as ratings and playcounts from the 'pod. I lost my harddrive back in February, and I STILL haven't re-rated all of my music!

      Any tips?
    • Ephpod is cool, but in order to get music off my iPod, just go into iTunes and say "Add folder to library" while "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" is checked. Then you select whichever drive your iPod is mounted as, and it will copy all the unique files off the iPod and into your library. It skips files that are already in the library, which is nice. And, if your files are tagged properly, iTunes will organize them all nice and neat for you.
    • I wrote a simple PHP script to rip the tunes off the iPod. It parses the iTunesDB file for the song information, and copies the MP3s off into a artist/album directory structure, renaming the MP3s properly and re-writing complete ID3v2 tags. It works on linux, windows and macs.
    • If you're using iTunes on an Apple rather than on a Windows PC, the easier solution is to grab one of several Applescripts that will simply copy the selected iPod tracks to your iTunes library and / or hard drive. I use this one [malcolmadams.com], which does the job just fine, but there are others. I'm sure these are covered in the book.

  • Next time... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:53PM (#9564483)
    Someone asks you how use an Apple product - just tell them to RTFMM!
  • Religious arguments aside, how do you copy from iPod to disk? Never had one of these. I'm guessing it should just show up in a folder on the drive.

  • Geeking... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lacrymology.com ( 583077 ) <nospam.minotaurcomputing@com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:53PM (#9564493) Homepage
    Ahhhh, how I yearn for the day when hardware came with code snippets, bound manuals, 3d-glasses, etc... If I recall, my first system (c64) came with the computer's schematics!

    -m
    • Yeah... I once heard that, long ago, when you got a computer, you got the SOURCE code to the OS. I mean...can you imagine?!? The actual CODE to the OS... it just blows my mind! I wonder if we'll ever see those days again...
  • I want to know how to run a gnutella server on my iPod.

  • More Knowledge = More Fun (Score:4, Insightful)

    by grunt107 ( 739510 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @03:54PM (#9564519)
    Any book that exposes "hidden" features or ease-of-use, IMO, makes the toys more enjoyable. Like the hidden API call/DB function that saves development and run times.
  • Are they really so complicated that I have to buy an extra manual from a 3rd party? Normally Apple's products have a reputation of being easy to use.

  • Can't resist punning.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Impeesa ( 763920 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:00PM (#9564604)
    Is it just me, or did whoever formatted the article forget to close an iTag?

  • CD-sized booklet? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Spudley ( 171066 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:03PM (#9564627) Homepage Journal
    There is, in fact, a little CD-sized booklet that comes with the iPod

    This booklet is the size of CD? What? Are they being deliberately ironic, or something?
    • I'd doubt it. The box that iPods come in (at least mine did) are cubes that have similar dimensions as the length of a CD booklet. I'd chalk it up to coincidence. The box happens to fit the whole setup pretty well.

      -Jellisky
    • This booklet is the size of CD? What? Are they being deliberately ironic, or something?

      The packaging has to be at least the dimensions of a CDROM, since the windows side needs software. Thanks to the music industry there are a ton of printers who know very well how to make low-page-count, CD-sized booklets.

  • Kudos to the missing manual line... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by phearlez ( 769961 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:03PM (#9564638)
    ... for pricing their books according to their worth and utility, rather than weight. This one, according to B&N, is a full 350 pages - a decent sized book. Despite that, it's a (comparitively?) reasonable $25. I can't count the number of books I've sat in Borders with a cup of coffee and read rather than purchased because it wasn't worth $40 for the chapter that I really needed.
  • Ok, time for some shameless self promotion.

    If you have iTunes check out Musicmobs [musicmobs.com]. You can upload your XML file or sync your iTunes stats via an open source Cocoa application called Mobster [sourceforge.net].

    It will give you a profile of what you listen to, suggest new music, show you people that have similar tastes as you, and show you related artists for all of your bands.

    It's growing fast so get in now to get a low userid :)

  • And now for the obligatory question, "Does it tell you how to put Linux on your iPod [duke.edu]?"
  • iPod & iTunes: The Missing Linux Version ?
    • Ya know... people say that, but what do they mean?

      Linux the kernel operates on about 8 different major CPU/system types.
      The kernel could be custom compiled by the end users to extremely varied settings from driver selection, to memory management to being modular or monolithic.
      On each system there may be dozens of variations on what libraries are used (GNU, BSD, other), and what system layout, starup scripts, etc are used.

      There is no standard "Linux" system one can write software for because Linux isn't a
    • iPod & Ephpod & wine: The works just fine on Linux Version.

  • Slashdotters reading... (Score:4, Funny)

    by chia_monkey ( 593501 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:14PM (#9564754) Journal
    Slashdotters don't even RTFA. And you expect us to RTFB? Egads!

    This is an odd position to be in. We all want the most out of our toys. Most of us generally play with our toys to figure them out. And we also search online or ask our geeky friends how we can get around this and that. Then again, a book that tells us all...hmmm...

    Do we RTFB or not? Hm.

  • If that doesn't work, try resetting the iPod as described on page 46 and then try ejecting it.

    I'd really like to see what's on page 46. Sometimes my iPod freezes and I've tried every button and button combo that I can think of to reset it but nothing works and I have to wait for the battery to run down.

    I even tried looking at the sample chapter [oreilly.com] on O'Reilly's website which includes page 46, but didn't have anything about reseting it.

    If anyone happens to know the secret handshake that reboots the iPod, I

    • Re:Reset iPod (Score:4, Informative)

      by MikeXpop ( 614167 ) <mike AT redcrowbar DOT com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:31PM (#9564907) Journal
      Hold Menu and Play/Pause for 6 seconds.
    • Just press and hold both the play/pause button and the menu button for a few seconds (both simultaneously).

    • That was in the little booklet that came with the iPod, which I read the day after I got it when I wanted to know what to do. (Try reading the booklet if you still have it -- it'll take ten minutes, and you'll know more than you do now.)

      As other repliers have suggested, hold the Menu and Play/Pause buttons for several seconds will reboot the iPod; you'll see the (black-and-white) Apple logo as the little computer reboots. (I recall the booklet telling me to toggle the Hold switch before resetting, whic

  • iPodLounge (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rexz ( 724700 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:21PM (#9564817)
    I doubt the book contains anything that can't be found trivially at the iPodLounge [ipodlounge.com]

    For example, their compendium of software [ipodlounge.com] includes:

    A workaround for EU volume limitation [ringom.no]
    Ripping [exactaudiocopy.de], encoding [mp3dev.org] and tagging [softpointer.com] recommendations.
    A utility to mass export Outlook contacts [stoer.de]
    News [mesmerized.org] and Weather [staylazy.net] syndication downloaders.
    By far the best way to retrieve your MP3s [brinkster.com] (a utility that sits on your iPod itself and is executable over a network!)
    The fantastic iPod Agent, which creates beautiful XML music lists as well as performing loads of useful functions [ipodsoft.com]

    Every other area of the lounge is equally as exhaustive - from iTunes configuration (you can do amazing things with smart playlists!) to headphones and case reviews. Visit the site instead of buying a book.

    (Oh, and I'm in no way involved with the Lounge other than being a fan.)

  • iPod Programming? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by flyinbutrs ( 792685 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @04:22PM (#9564824)
    I've been wondering this for a while, and this article seemed like a good place to pose the question. Is there any way to program plugins for iPod's interface? I've done a fair amount of research through google and iPod message boards, and have found precisely zilch about how to code programs for iPod. Is it possible?
  • ...it's always in the last place you look!

    CB

  • Zero-need. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ksilebo ( 134470 ) * <russ@NospaM.ksilebo.net> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @05:34PM (#9565587) Homepage Journal
    There really is no need more than what the instruction booklet that comes with the iPod and a google/Apple KB search for everything else.

    If all of that confuses you, you probably should stick to a discman, sans MP3 support.

    I have problems justifying books anymore when a search online yields information faster and usually more accurate than a book ever could. So if some kind of information dark age ever did come about, and there was no Internet, I ask that someone put me out of my misery...

  • The book also covers iTunes (Score:3, Informative)

    by swell ( 195815 ) <jabberwock@poetic.com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @10:38PM (#9567704)


    The book also covers iTunes. This simple fact seems to have eluded 99% of Slashdoughters. The title begins with "iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual"

    Has the glitter of hardware so completely overwhelmed us that the software and the shopping concept is lost in the dust? The cute iPod is only the tangible aspect of a concept that is revolutionizing the entertainment industry. A small aspect at that.

    The software and the link to the store are important to be sure, but I'd like to mention a small insidious part of the iTunes grab for world domination.

    In its friendly way, iTunes offers to organize your music for you. It places the music on your disk or iPod and provides you convenient access to it. You can rearrange your playlist in many useful ways.

    But suppose that some day in the future you decide that you like another music player better. Suppose you decide to move your gigabytes of music to the new player and leave iTunes behind.

    You are in for a sad surprise. Your files are nested into subfolders so deep that it may take months to bring them out into daylight where you and other software can see them. Those MP3s or AACs or whatever are buried where only iTunes can find them. The convenient indexing features are dependent upon data stored in files that other software doesn't understand- don't expect your new software to be able to use them.

    Apple will encourage you to use iPhoto and other programs which use proprietary file systems to order their files too. The name of the game is control. You want convenience, you give up control, you become dependent and the manufacturer has you right where they want you.

    Many manufacturers offer proprietary methods of managing your documents which seem very convenient until you consider a move away from their product. Try moving your financial data from one mfgr's product to a competitor's product as an example.

    There is a pressing need for new methods of organizing data on media, but reliance upon these proprietary systems is probably not in your best interest.

    • Apple will encourage you to use iPhoto and other programs which use proprietary file systems

      err, I hate to deflate your paranoia, but in fact iTunes stores the music neatly in folders at

      Music > Artist > Album1 > .MP3 or .AAC files for that CD

      So all the music is neatly ordered on your hard disk. If you don't like AAC you can easily choose . MP3 to encode the files with instead in the preferences. Other programs can play AAC files through quicktime (though not the copy protected ones you might ha

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