iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Charging the Battery

Many a cloud of gadget euphoria dies instantly when the new owner realizes that the device must sit in a battery charger and juice up before any fun can happen.

Out of the box, the iPod may have enough juice to turn itself on and get you hooked on spinning the scroll wheel. But you’ll still need to charge the iPod before you use it for the first time.

Charging via FireWire or USB 2.0 Cable

If your Mac or PC has powered FireWire or USB 2 jacks, you can charge up the iPod just by plugging it into your computer. (For FireWire, “powered” usually means the fatter 6-pin FireWire connector, not the little 4-pin connectors found on many Windows machines. For USB 2, you need a powered jack like those on the back of the computer, or on a powered USB hub—not, for example, the unpowered jack at the end of a keyboard.) The battery charges as long as the computer is on and not in Sleep mode.

It takes about three hours to fully charge your iPod. Note, however, that it gets about 80 percent charged after an hour. If you just can’t wait to unplug it and go racing out to show your friends, you can begin to use it after an hour.

During the charging process, you may see either the “Do Not Disconnect” message (if the iPod is also sucking down music from your computer), the “OK to Disconnect” message (if it’s done with that), or the main menu (if it’s a 2003 or later model).

The Dock

Some iPods come with a cool accessory: the iPod dock. The dock, shown in Figure 1-4, is a plastic stand ...