iPod and iTunes for Dummies (4th edition)

Reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher

The iPod and its software iTunes have been a hit for millions of computer users and is the MP3 player of choice. There is no manual for the iPod or iTunes. While both the hardware and the software are easy to use and easy to understand, there are music lovers who want to know more about their devices right away, instead of waiting to hear from a friend how to find or do something. That is where iPod and iTunes for Dummies (4th edition) fills the void.

While most of the Dummy books are adequate, there are some that stand out to an even greater extent. These offer good in-depth and comprehensive advice, tutorials and information, especially for price. This one is a great one to get you started, whether you are an iPod novice or have upgraded your knowledge to new versions of the software or device.

Both authors have written more than a dozen books on computers, desktops publishing and multimedia and their experience is displayed with prowess in this book. iPod and iTunes for Dummies is packed with information in its 6 parts that include 28 chapters and span 432 pages.

I like thie way this book is organized and set up. It is easy to read, yet informative and helpful. While it lacks color, the readable format including illustrations, readable screenshots and photos make it stand out.

There are also special insights which are noted with special icons throughout the text. Five highlight icons are entitled "Remember," Technical Stuff", "Tip", "Warning", "On the Web" and serve to target important information in the chapters.

This 4th edition covers the latest updates: Set up iTunes and iPod; buying music and videos; importing music into iTunes; burning CDs from iTunes; get wired for sound; organizing your songs, playlist and more; getting the most out of your battery; selecting and encoding format; recording and editing sound; adding podcasts and working with sound shows. The book also explains in details how to use the iPod as a hard drive storage unit.

Special parts of the book that some users might find useful in particular are Using Airtunes for wireless stereo playback (Chapter 6); sharing content on networks (Chapter 7); managing photos and videos (Chapter 11) ; baking your own discs with printed inserts (Chapter 14) and decoding audio encoding (Chapter 18). There is also a good index and an appendix section with musicmatch additional information and web resources for the Internet related to the iPod.

While it might be a Dummies book, it does not “talk down to you.” It is not only a good read, but the price is a good one for what it offers. The book is a great resource guide. The best way to look through the book is to read the sections that are most interesting and jump around. There are many good books out there, but this one is definitely worth considering.