iPod: The Missing Manual, 8th Edition

Chapter 10. The iPod as Personal Assistant

The early chapters in this book are all about showing you how your iPod works and how to fill it up with music, movies, photos, and more. But if you think that’s all the iPod can do, think again. For instance, that gorgeous color screen is happy to display a copy of your computer’s address book and calendar. And that’s just for starters.

If you’re looking for a handsome timepiece, the iPod can function as a world clock when you’re on the road, and as a stopwatch when you’re on the track. Modern iPods can now record your thoughts—if you speak them out loud into the iPod’s microphone. The Nano can even count your steps and tell you how many calories you burned by just walking around.

If you’ve got a Nano, a Shuffle, or a Classic iPod, you can easily use it as an external hard drive for hauling around monster files, like PowerPoint presentations and quarterly reports. So if you’ve mastered the iPod’s AV Club talents and you’re ready for new challenges, this chapter shows you even more ways to use your iPod.

iPod as an Address Book

Putting a copy of your contacts file—also known as your computer’s address book—onto your iPod is quite easy, as long as you use up-to-date software. Windows users need to have their contacts stored in Outlook Express, Outlook 2003 (or later), Windows Contacts, or the Windows Address Book (used by Outlook Express and some other email programs).

Mac folks need to use at least Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and the Mac OS X Address ...