By Mark Brett Independent Reviewer
Title IPod Fan Book
Author: Yasukuni Notomi
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-00776-0
Price: £ 9.95 Published September 2004
The iPod is a strange piece of technology, more than a an MP3 player, less than a PDA, more addictive than a Game Boy.
With IPods your either “Get it” or you don’t, until you experience one you can like me happily live with two teenage boys, both with IPods and not take any notice of them, you listen to their music on it, which probably isn’t your first choice and this, that’s nice, just don’t take it out to school in case it gets stolen.
Then something happens, your commuting or walking around and notice other people, using iPods, you discover a new model, with a large disk and the ability to display photos, you dig deeper and discover a whole new portable world, which is where this little book comes in…………..
The iPod fan book is small compact, very well illustrated and easy to read. The book starts with the history of iPod, the differences between the models, useful if your looking to the second-hand market to get one. When you get your iPod, the iTunes software is easy to use, this little book will save you a few hours of guess work. The iPod Fan Book takes you through building your library, creating play lists, discusses how to import different types of media, such as cassettes, vinyl records and other audio sources including DVD soundtracks. You shouldn’t forget the iPod is very good for storing audio books, an area often forgotten, the same applies to audio learning material.
The world of iPod is expanding all the time, people forget or simply are unaware you can store text files on iPod, very useful in many areas of IT support for instance, where you often need lists.
A wide range of third party software is appearing to let you read your e-mail on your iPod, to store your contacts and diary. The book contains many useful web references and discusses many novel ideas. The iPod Fan Book has an excellent section on accessories, specially useful is the section on headphones!
For anyone thinking about getting an iPod or for anyone who has just brought one or received one, this little book will not disappoint you.
