There was a time when you could expect a helpful, comprehensive manual in the box with your software or gadget. Not any more. Now, if you're lucky,  you'll get a Quick Start guide and a link to the company website. The Missing Manual series by O'Reilly/Pogue Press mercifully supplies us with "the book that should have been in the box”.

The new "iPod: the Missing Manual", Fifth Edition covers all the new iPods – Video iPods and new 2nd Generation Nanos and Shuffle. Of course, by the time you read this, MacWorld Expo 2007 in San Francisco has already unleashed lots of new things upon us, so realize that we live in a fast changing world.

J.D. Biersdorfer, covers the subjects in depth but with a sense of humor. She is the computer Q&A columnist for the New York Times and is comfortable with both the Mac and PC platforms and the book covers the iPod in both worlds.  Its' design features sharp, color illustrations, a clear one topic per page layout, and helpful screen shots.

The first two chapters cover operation of the iPod in great detail, describing each menu, including the one that helps you reset your iPod to English if someone punks you by setting your display in Greek.

One of the strengths of this book is its thorough coverage of the iTunes program. iTunes is where you spend a lot of time importing CDs, creating and organizing playlists, burning CD's and DVD's and purchasing, downloading music from the Apple iTunes Store and synching your iPod with your iTunes library.

The final chapters of the book cover all sorts of goodies that you'll probably want to do with your iPod just as soon as you figure out you can. Playing slideshows of your pictures on a tv, using your iPod as an address book, a calendar, a stopwatch, and a portable hard drive are all covered in the book.  The book also describes some less well-known uses for an iPod, like reading text files and recording audio.

An advanced iPodding chapter also includes links to several Podware websites to make your iPod more useful.  Mac OSX users who use AppleScripts will find more than 400 scripts for automating iTunes and the iPod. 

"iPod: Missing Manual" is a great book for beginners to understand the ins and outs of getting the most out of their little media players. If you are someone that likes to throw caution to the wind and just experiment away with every option available until you figure it all out, this book isn't for you - of course you are the type that doesn't read manuals anyway. But, if you want to read through a quick overview of all features and get some cool tips of what you can do, then approach your device as a master, this is your book.

Glenn Cragwall's background
Glenn Cragwall is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at
Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN. He has taught audio and video production at the undergraduate level for the past 22 years in Texas and Tennessee. Additionally, he has served as director of media ministries at churches in New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas as well as producer/director of broadcast and cable programming. He received his B.S. in Radio/TV/Film & Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University and an M.A. in Communication from Southwestern Seminary. Glenn has been a member of DVPA since its inception in 1998 and has been a speaker/staffer at DVPA events.