Hacking iPod iTunes (ExtremeTech Series)

Review
“The technical guff is kept separate… (with) lots of little tips aimed at making your life as an iPod user easier.” (Shetland Times, 3rd December 2004)

“…a legendary Mac hacker explores the nooks and crannies of iTunes and the iPod…” (Publishing News, 22nd March 04)


Review
“The technical guff is kept separate… (with) lots of little tips aimed at making your life as an iPod user easier.” (Shetland Times, 3rd December 2004)

“…a legendary Mac hacker explores the nooks and crannies of iTunes and the iPod…” (Publishing News, 22nd March 04)


Book Description
* Put on the headphones and crank up the action! Here's the one and only, ultimate guide for music junkies looking to squeeze every possible bit of potential from their beloved iPods, both Mac and Windows versions
* Legendary Mac maven Scott Knaster shares more than 100 hacks, tweaks, and mods that unlock both the musical and non-musical tricks in the iPod's repertoire
* Since iPod is the constant companion of music lovers everywhere, they'll groove to the discovery of how to make it download headlines, stock quotes, even driving directions; become a Bluetooth transmitter; or run Linux-and that's before they learn to create and play adventure games with it
* In this latest offering from ExtremeTech, readers learn to tweak Gracenote CDDB in iTunes, hack their own iTunes music library and album covers, and more
* According to Apple's research, an iPod is sold nearly every thirty seconds
* iTunes owns digital music-more than eighty percent of legal music downloads, over seventeen million songs, have come from iTunes since its launch


From the Back Cover
How to Mod The Pod and fine-tune iTunes

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Buy iPod. Press button. Hear music. If that￯﾿ﾽs all you want from your iPod, fine. But it can do lots more than that. With a little tweaking, even more. And, hey, it wasn￯﾿ﾽt cheap. So why not get everything out of your iPod that you can? Scott Knaster￯﾿ﾽs Hacking iPod and iTunes is the place to start.

Knaster, who co-wrote Mac Toys, begins with built-in iPod and iTunes features you probably haven't fully explored yet. For example: Smart Playlists to keep your music fresh, Equalizer to tweak sound quality, and Sound Check to keep volumes level. Next, there￯﾿ﾽs a full chapter on using iPod￯﾿ﾽs built-in non-music features: recording voice memos, storing digital photos, using your iPod as an external disk drive; integrating iPod￯﾿ﾽs contact and calendar with Microsoft Outlook; and more.

If you￯﾿ﾽre running your iPod with a Mac, you can automate all sorts of interesting activities with AppleScripts. As Knaster shows you, you don￯﾿ﾽt even have to write those scripts yourself -- just download ￯﾿ﾽem. For example, Knaster covers scripts that help you clean up duplicate or ￯﾿ﾽdead￯﾿ﾽ tracks; and others that transform your iPod into an alarm clock or sleep timer.

There are some great tips on getting music into your iPod -- from capturing streams (and whatever else your computer might be playing) to ripping ￯﾿ﾽstubborn￯﾿ﾽ CDs. You￯﾿ﾽll find loads of hardware tips, too: sharing your iPod with a splitter, connecting to your car stereo, finding an iPod wireless remote, and more. From burning mix DVDs to finding Visualizer plug-ins, this is your No. 1 source of great iPod ideas. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2003 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Does your iPod go wherever you do? This book will take the two of you on your most exciting adventure -- deep into iPod's awesome potential. You already know it's a musical prodigy, but wait 'til you teach your iPod to take notes, give you the weather and stock quotes, keep your calendar, play games with you, double as a remote control, light up the night, and read you your e-mail -- out loud. think that's great? Take a look at Part 2!

SYNOPSIS