Reviews

Peachpit Week: Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, 5th Edition

August 17, 2005

Secrets of the iPod and iTunes is a pretty hefty book in the tradition of those thick help manuals you see crowding the Computer section at your local bookstore. Fortunately though, what’s inside this book is nothing at all what you’ll find in the rest of those erudite tomes. The writing style is fresh and light, and is actually a joy to read. And the way the book is organized helps you find information quickly if you don’t want to read it straight through, a chapter at a time. Even though I’ve had my iPod since last December, I learned several interesting things in just a few minutes, so I imagine that this book will be helpful for the whole spectrum of users, from beginner to advanced.

Here’s the Table of Contents, so you can get a rough idea of what sort of information the book includes:

Contents, Controls, and Interface
Managing Music with iTunes
Picture Perfect: iPod Photo
The iTunes Music Store
Of iPods and PCs
The Removable Drive
Making iContact
Making a Date
Accessories
Troubleshooting Your iPod

The text is littered with plenty of screenshots from both the iPod and PC/Mac, so you can see exactly what you should expect, and can more easily follow the directions in the more technical sections of the book. There are also numerous sidebars that present additional information on everything from the reasoning behind how the copy protection scheme in the iTunes store works to why you might want to use a third party software application to organize your music instead of iTunes. And while it’s hard for me to adequately put the tone of the book into words, I can safely say that it’s a cross between the “Dummies” books and one of those imposing computer books I mentioned at the beginning of this review. You won’t feel like the author is condescendingly writing “down” to you as though you don’t know anything, but you won’t feel “lost” either and start frantically searching for your dictionary either.

Like the iPod Playlist Book reviewed yesterday, Secrets of the iPod and iTunes would make a nice gift for a new or current iPod owner. Even if you think you’re an expert, there’s probably plenty of stuff that you can learn from this book. Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, 5th edition, is by Christopher Breen and published by Peachpit Press. Soft cover, 466 pages, ISBN 0321304594. List price is $21.99, but you can likely get it for less than that at an online store. (Even better, support your local bookstore, or it may not be around much longer!)

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