Rating: 

The iPod Nano ships with a brief 'iPod + iTunes Quick Start'. At sixteen pages, the accordion-fold Quick Start is the same size as the Nano, only a whole lot thinner. After you learn the most basic operations of your new iPod, the Quick Start ends and you're on your own.

That's where iPod: The Missing Manual takes over. The first forty-three pages cover operation of the iPod in great detail, describing each menu, including the one that helps you reset your iPod to English if you accidentally set it to display in Greek. The book covers all iPod models, including the standard video iPods, the Nano and the Shuffle.

The real meat of this book is its thorough coverage of the iTunes program. iTunes is where you spend a lot of time importing CDs, creating and organizing playlists, purchasing and downloading music from the Apple iTunes Store and synching your iPod with your iTunes library.

The final chapters of the book cover all sorts of goodies that you'll probably want to do with your iPod just as soon as you figure out you can. Playing slideshows of your pictures on a tv, using your iPod as an address book, a calendar and a portable hard drive are all covered in the book.

The book also describes some less well-known uses for an iPod, like reading text files and recording audio. It even mentions the funky Nike+iPod Sport Kit that tracks your progress when you workout by beaming a signal from your running shoe up to a small receiver that snaps into your iPod.

Easily the coolest thing about the book is that it's printed in full color with excellent photographs, screenshots and iPod menu graphics. The text is easy to follow and to the point.

Apple should bundle this book with every iPod they sell. If you have an iPod and want to learn how to use it for more than just the very basics, I highly recommend reading this book.