iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

iPod Extenders

There are so many new add-on gadgets for the iPod, the average consumer might be forgiven for forgetting all about its music-playing abilities.

Belkin Media Reader

If you have a digital camera, you know that once your memory card is full, the fun’s over. You can’t exactly duck into a drugstore to buy a new SmartMedia card to tide you through the rest of the day at Disney.

So what does this have to do with the iPod?

Plenty, thanks to the Belkin Media Reader (Figure 14-8, left; $100). You attach this device to a dock-connectable iPod, and then insert your camera’s memory card (Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Smart Media, or Memory Stick format).

Figure 14-8. Left: Thanks to the Belkin Media Reader, the iPod can take a load off your digital camera by transferring photos from its overloaded memory card to the iPod’s hard drive for safekeeping. Below: The Griffin iTalk (left) and Belkin iPod Voice Recorder (right, snapping into its protective prong cover) fit into the iPod’s headphone jack and record your dulcet tones—or anyone in range of its microphone. Once the iPod is connected to the computer, you can move all your stored photos and voice memos back to the mother ship.

On the iPod’s main screen, go to Extras→Photos→Import Photos→Import. (You don’t see the Photos option except when the Media Reader is attached.) When you choose Import All, the iPod begins slurping in the photos ...