Making the
most of your iPod
MARC SALTZMAN is one of the
leading technology experts in the
United States and Canada. Along
with his regular tech column for The
Costco Connection, Saltzman writes
weekly syndicated columns for
Gannett News Service, CNN.com,
USAToday.com and Can West Media,
and contributes to dozens of other
leading publications. He also hosts
two radio shows focusing on technology and has written 13 books,
including White Collar Slacker's
Handbook: Tech Tricks to Fool
Your Boss (Que Publishing, 2005).
By Marc Saltzman
APPLE’S MEGAPOPULAR IPOD PLAYERS are a wonderful product for music
lovers on the go. Apple, along with other companies, has created incredibly
cool accessories to complement the iPod. In fact, more than 2,000 add-ons have
been designed for the popular player. A good many of them are sold at Costco.
One of my favorites is an FM transmitter/charger kit that enables you to
listen to your iPod’s songs, podcasts or audio books in your car—without risking your safety by a wearing headset. A dock for the iPod attaches to your
car’s cigarette lighter, which provides power and recharges the iPod. A clever
FM transmitter in the dock wirelessly beams the audio to your car’s FM radio.
Another area where iPod accessories shine is speaker systems. You can
plug your iPod into a variety of systems, such as a bedside clock radio, a
boombox for music on the go or a high-end home system, complete with subwoofer and 200 watts of power. The docks in these systems usually double as
iPod chargers.
But the hottest iPod developments deal with video. The latest generation
of iPods can display video clips—movies, TV shows, video podcasts and even
your own home video, if converted into the right format. These video clips can
be obtained through i Tunes, Apple’s media Web site. And with a simple cable,
you can display these video clips on a TV or monitor.
In terms of taking care of your iPod, some simple steps can help out. You
can save battery power by using the back-light and shuffle functions sparingly.
And for protection, cases are on the market that can shield your iPod in case
it’s dropped. (It’ll happen, trust me.)
Also, I recommend that you shouldn’t be too extremely active with the
hard-drive-based iPods. But the flash-memory-based players (iPod nano or
iPod shuffle) have no moving parts, which makes them ideal for a workout.
Last, iPods are prone to scratching, so you might consider cleaning kits
that can help restore them. A
