"Apple has been in the news a lot these days" is almost a comical understatement, but it's true, and the consumer electronics market hasn't fully assessed the impact that the iPod shuffle has yet to make on the market for MP3 players. Any way you look at it, Apple is still the dominant name in portable personal audio players--how else do you explain the iPod's status as the "must have gift" for Christmas 2004? And 2003? And... well, you get the idea. The white music player is so prolific here in New York that one of my friends (a certified Mac technician, by the way) has taken to calling users of the device members of the "cult of the white earbuds."

As great as the iPod (and its elegant software partner-in-crime, iTunes) may be, there are plenty of uses for these pieces of technology that enterprising consumers have devised, but that Apple isn't exactly racing to embrace. This is why O'Reilly's iPod & iTunes Hacks by Hadley Stern (ISBN 0-596-00778-7) is so useful. It runs the gamut from the simplest of iPod "modifications" (and I mean simple, as in buying a case for it--see Hack #2) to multi-day, overly ambitious projects that might make even the most skilled of home workshoppers cringe (i.e., creating a custom-designed center console dock/cupholder/armrest/charger for your car, complete with backlit Apple logo--see Hack #11). Fortunately each project's difficulty is clearly noted, so you aren't likely to somehow accidentally get yourself in over your head.

The book is divided into six main sections, entitled "iPod Hardware," which encompasses the hacks mentioned above; "Non-iPod Hardware," which describes such nifty tricks as controlling iTunes via a Palm device or PocketPC (see Hack #23, probably officially my favorite, since I now love controlling iTunes from my Palm Tungsten C from the couch); "iPod Software," which details software that can actually be run on the iPod itself, including games and utilities; "iTunes," which includes hacks for not only iTunes, but also complimentary pieces of software; "AppleScript for iTunes," which explains how to use the AppleScript language to carry out certain functions, including cleaning up song titles (Hack #75); and "Beyond iTunes," which provides instructions on some fairly obscure techniques, such as playing music from the command line (Hack #93).