iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual, Third Edition

Chapter 1. Meet the iPod

Even before you extract it from its box, the iPod makes a design statement. Its shrink-wrapped cardboard cube opens like a book, revealing elegantly packaged accessories and software nestled around the iPod itself.

The first part of this book will familiarize you with the hardware portion of this parcel. This particular chapter takes a look at what’s inside the box for a full-size iPod or iPod Mini. If you’ve got your eye on an iPod Shuffle or have just popped one out of its bright green box and want to know what to do next, skip on over to Chapter 3 for a detailed discussion on Apple’s flashy little music stick.

Parts of the Pod

In addition to the nicely nestled iPod itself (Figure 1-1), the package’s compartments hold all the other stuff that comes with various iPod models: earbud-style headphones and their foam covers, the connection cables for your computer, power adapter, dock, and software CD. Depending on which iPod you have and when you bought it, you may see some variations, like the belt clip that’s included with the iPod Mini or the AV cable that comes with the iPod Photo.

But while HP provides a quick-start poster to help its iPodders get rolling, mostly what you get by way of instructions in the standard Apple box is a small square folder, including the short iPod User’s Guide. Newer iPods do include some electronic documentation and short tutorials in Web page-and PDF-format (located on the iPod CD), but you have to print it out if you want to ...