iPod Fully Loaded

Reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher

As anyone knows, the iPod is a big hit both for Mac and PC users. There are many ways to use it and sometimes the best way to discover the merits of this device is to read a good book that is both a tutorial and informational resource guide. For the price, breadth and depth of the information in a book that also looks good, you can’t beat the book iPod Fully Loaded.

Andy Ihnatko is well known in Technology and Macintosh circles. He has written for nearly every Mac magazine and is currently the Chicago Sun-Times Technology columnist. If you've got a copy of iPod Fully Loaded, you can iPod it and this guy backs up its title by being very authoritative and having a lot of information.

In its 312 pages within 20 chapters Andy squeezes a lot of good and useful information. The pale shades of the book utilizing the light green lines are laid out throughout the book along with great screenshots, tips and tidbit and more. These subtle hues draw your attention into all the textual information that makes reading easy instead of a chore. It is a different change not to see brilliant stark white pages and this arrangement complements the text well.

There is a nice troubleshooting section. Chapter 3 has valuable information concerning what to it takes to record from a USB turntable. For audio recording the free Audacity software can be downloaded and the rest of the chapter shows how to use it with your iPod. The section has good information choosing and preparing an audio source as well down and very useful. The section “What software can’t do for you ” applies more information about music with records and tape conversion. Importing into iTunes is important and covers even more.

There are chapters that deal with podcasts, streaming audio, Internet video, downloading free music, using your iPod with web pages, working with email, presentation usage. There are interesting chapters dealing with using the iPod for travel both for PC and Mac users while using Google Maps (Chapter 19) and using the iPod as photo storage, backing up files and much more.

Finally, the book has a nice index, and interesting Appendix sections on automating processes in Mac OS X and workflow. The second appendix is Text-to-Speech.

Andy has crafted this book with in-depth detail, tutorials and solid instructions. It is easy on the eyes as well as being pleasurable for your brain. The book is easy on your wallet and is well worth the price. This book is a great buy if you are thinking and reading to gain more knowledge for ideas and solving problems concerning your iPod.