IN THIS CHAPTER:
If there's any sure indication of the runaway success of the iPod, it's in the incredibly vast market that has emerged for third-party add-on gadgets you can buy to turn your iPod from a simple music player into anything from an alarm clock to a boom box, to double or triple its battery life, to record and play back voice memos, and especially to bring your vast iTunes' music collection with you in the car for your daily commute or a thousand-mile road trip. The iPod's versatile design, with a controller socket in the top next to the headphone jack, and the Dock connector at the bottom carrying all kinds of signals to and from the unit, make third-party enhancement a slam-dunk. Companies such as Griffin, Belkin, Bose, Monster, Sonnet, XtremeMac, JBL, and many others both well-known and obscure have jumped onto the iPod bandwagon to bring you the tools for making the iPod just what you need it to be. The tasks in this chapter describe some of the most popular methods for meeting the most common iPod-enhancement needs. Although some solutions are served by only a single unique company or product, others have a variety of possible products that compete for your business, and new products are entering the market all the time; talk to a Mac or iPod sales professional or one of the folks at the Genius Bar at any Apple Store to make sure that you're getting the best product in the field you're interested in. NOTE The tasks in this chapter describe add-on accessories available for 3G iPods and later (iPods with a Dock connector). Many accessories available for the full- size iPod are also available in versions compatible with the iPod mini, and some work equally well with both. Earlier versions of iPods, without the Dock connector, have fewer options for accessorizing them, and they are generally not addressed here. Most accessories are also not compatible with the iPod shuffle. WEB RESOURCE http://www.apple.com/ipod/accessories.html Apple's iPod Accessories site features purchasing links for some of the most popular and highly recommended gadgets to add to your iPod. |