iPhone: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

iPod

On this panel, you can adjust four famous iPod playback features:

• Sound Check is a familiar iPod feature that attempts to create a standard baseline volume level for the different songs in your library, so you don't crank up the volume to hear one song, and then get your eardrums turned to liquid by the next due to differences in CD mastering. Here's the on/off switch.

• Audiobook Speed. If you've bought audio books from Audible.com, you can take advantage of this feature to make the reader speed up a little or slow down a little—without sounding like either a chipmunk or James Earl Jones. (Your options are Slower, Normal, and Faster.)

• EQ. EQ is equalization—the art of fiddling with specific frequencies in your music to bring out highs, lows, midrange, or whatever, to suit certain types of music and certain musical tastes. This screen offers a scrolling list of predesigned EQ "envelopes" designed for different situations: Bass Booster, Hip-Hop, Small Speakers, Spoken Word, Treble Reducer, and so on. You can also choose Off, if you want the music to play just the way the record company released it.

  Note

  Be aware, however, that EQ uses up your battery faster.

  

• Volume Limit. It's well established that listening to loud music for a long time can damage your hearing. It's also well established that parents worry about this phenomenon. So all iPods, and the iPhone, include an optional, password-protected ...