iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Chapter 7. iPod as Address Book

When the iPod music player made its debut, many a reviewer compared its pocketable shape to that of personal organizers like PalmPilots. Maybe the physical similarity put the notion in people’s minds that the iPod would also make a convenient way to carry around addresses and telephone numbers. Or maybe it’s because anything that can be hacked, will. In any case, it didn’t take long for the iPod faithful to figure out ways to add nonmusical, life-information features to even the earliest iPods.

Apple took the hint. When it released version 1.1 of the iPod operating-system software in 2002, the company included several basic organizer functions alongside the iPod’s music-management features. This chapter guides you through importing information from programs like Palm Desktop and Outlook and then looking it up when you’re on the go.

Introduction to the iPod Address Book

Before Apple incorporated the Contacts program into the iPod’s software, people went through all kinds of contortions to get their address lists onto the music player. They went so far as to create short, silent MP3 files, named “Bob Smith” from the album “[phone]” recorded by the artist “23 Broadway, New York, NY 10023,” just so that they could look up their phone numbers. Shareware wizards rode to the rescue, but using the iPod as a little black book was still an exercise for geeks. (See the end of this chapter for more about organizer software for the iPod.)

But starting with ...