The iPod & iTunes Pocket Guide, Third Edition

4. iTunes and You

A high-performance automobile is little more than an interesting amalgam of metal and plastic if it’s missing tires and fuel. Sure, given the proper slope (and, perhaps, a helpful tailwind), that car is capable of movement, but the resulting journey leaves much to be desired. So, too, the iPod is a less-capable music-making vehicle without Apple’s multitrick media manager/player, iTunes. The two—like coffee and cream, dill and pickle, and Fred and Ginger—were simply meant for each other.

To best understand what makes the iPod’s world turn, you must be familiar with how it and iTunes 7 work together to move music (and pictures and videos, in the case of some recent iPods) on and off your iPod. In the following pages, you’ll ...