iPod: The Missing Manual, 10th Edition

Chapter 10. The iPod as Personal Assistant

THE EARLY CHAPTERS IN THIS BOOK WERE ALL ABOUT SHOWING you how your iPod works and how you can fill it up with music, movies, photos, eBooks, and more. But if you think that’s all the iPod can do, think again. For instance, that gorgeous color screen on the Touch is happy to display your address book and calendar. The Classic can list your contacts and show you your schedule.

And that’s just for starters. If you’re looking for a handsome timepiece, your iPod can function as a world clock when you’re on the road, and as a stopwatch when you’re on the track. The Nano can even automatically count your steps, track your workouts, and mark your progress—and when you’re done exercising, you can unclip it from your running clothes and snap it into an optional watchband.

If you’ve got an iPod Nano, Classic, or Shuffle, you can use it as an external hard drive for hauling around monster files, like PowerPoint presentations and quarterly reports. And most iPods can record your thoughts when you dictate them into the microphone.

So if you’ve mastered the iPod’s AV Club talents and you’re looking for even more ways to use your ‘Pod, this chapter is for you.

The iPod as Address Book

PUTTING A COPY OF your contacts file—also known as your computer’s address book—on your iPod is easy with the help of iTunes. (iPod Touch owners using iCloud to sync contacts and calendars [Set Up an iCloud Account] can skip to Track Time: The iPod as Stopwatch.)

Windows users ...