A Technophobe Tackles the IPod Nano

My husband bought me a lime green iPod Nano for Christmas. I immediately forgot about it, the same way one might forget about a dental appointment or lunch with one's mom. These things just slip my mind sometimes, on purpose, because my mind is determined to protect me from potentially life threatening experiences.

After my husband inquired of its whereabouts for the tenth time, I decided I needed to face the music, or more specifically, listen to music while my toddler played on a jungle gym. The time arrived to learn how to operate the cursed thing, one baby step at a time.

Step 1: Transferring music from Windows Media Player to iTunes
This was the hardest step, not just because it was the first step, but because I'd been using Windows Media Player for years and don't like change.

We downloaded iTunes for free from Apple.com. iTunes is a computer program that plays music CDs, movie DVDs, downloaded music, audiobooks, radio stations and podcasts. If you need more help on how to use the many features of iTunes, ask a teenager. I didn't have a teenager available, so I used my husband.

Under the File menu in iTunes (if you don't know what that is, using an iPod Nano is the least of your problems), there is a function called "Add Folder To Library." This function bought up my folder lists. We selected the "My Music" folder and clicked "OK." This uploaded anything I had that wasn't forbidden. Those things I had to reload from the original CD.

To make iTunes work more like Windows Media Player, I pushed the button on the bottom right corner that looks like an eyeball. This brought up lists by genre, artist and album.

Step 2: Behold the iPod Nano
iPod Nano is like a regular iPod, only smaller, holds less music, and doesn't play videos. They cost around $149 and come in 5 colors; black, silver, neon pink, lime green, and neon blue. If you purchase the special addition RED iPod Nano, Apple donates $10.00 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

The iPod Nano can hold up to 2,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, a calendar, and a list of contacts. It has a clock, stopwatch, and a place for taking notes somehow. It also has games, like solitaire, but the screen is pretty small so game playing is irritating.

The iPod Nano comes with instructions made up of pictures so that technologically impaired people like us can figure out how to make it work. Basically the big end of the cord goes into your iPod Nano and the small end goes into a USB port on your computer. A setup assistant automatically comes up in iTunes. Do what it tells you to do.

Every time the iPod Nano is hooked up to a computer, its battery recharges. The battery lasts approximately 24 hours.

Step 3: Transferring things to your iPod Nano from iTunes
The iPod Nano includes a set of instructions that say, "Connect to charge the battery and transfer music." Then, it moves on to show you how to disconnect. This leaves a lot of important stuff out.

When you first connect your iPod Nano, it will start uploading everything in iTunes, which isn't good if you have more songs than can fit on it. To fix this, you can create a playlist in advance and just upload that. You can be boring and call it "iPod Nano list" or unoriginal like me: mine is called "Alisa's Greatest Hits." You make a playlist by clicking on the plus sign in the lower left hand corner of iTunes and dragging songs over to it.

The Summary screen that comes up displays how much space is on your iPod Nano and gives you the option of only syncing (i.e. uploading) checked items. You can then go to the Music screen (that's the button marked "music" on the top of your screen, genius) and choose to only sync selected playlists. Put a check mark on the playlist(s) you want uploaded. You can do the same with podcasts, pictures (it will show you the picture folders you have on your computer) and contacts from either Windows Address Book or Microsoft Outlook.

My iPod Nano has about 200 favorite songs (it holds 1,000 songs but I'm lame and don't have that much music in iTunes), meditation podcasts, and a sizeable collection of photos.

The first time you personalize your iPod Nano this way, you will need to click on the "Apply" button. DO NOT disconnect it while it is syncing. You will hurt its feelings. The message window at the top of iTunes will tell you when you can safely disconnect.

Step 4: Making the dumb thing play music
iPods come with a circular "mouse pad" that you run your thumb around to go up and down in the menus. It has 4 buttons on the wheel and one in the center. Above this is a screen and on top is a white button. Moving the white button until the color red appears will lock the iPod Nano so that the buttons and wheel don't work. This way, if you bump it against something in your pocket or give it to your toddler to make him stop begging for it, it won't turn off and on and waste your battery, or turn up the volume and damage your hearing.

Obviously, you want to unlock your iPod Nano so you can turn it on (good thing you're reading this article). It turns on when you hold down the "Menu" button. You will see a list of menu options, such as "music," "photos," "podcasts," etc. To open a menu option, click the button in the center of your circular "mouse pad." To come back out again, re-click the Menu button.

Since we're dealing with music here, select the Music option. This will bring up another list of menus. By now you should already feel the same frustration you feel when you are trying to call customer service and just keep getting lists of buttons to push. No worries - your iPod Nano can't hang up on you or make you call back later.

If you created playlists, you can select that option here, scroll through your list of songs and pick one. You can also choose a specific genre of music to play (such as classical or pop), a specific album, composer or artist.

Once the song starts playing, the circular "mouse pad" becomes the volume control. Use the buttons on the left and right (marked with arrows) to skip ahead to the next song or go back to a previous one.

To get back out of your list of songs, just keep pushing "Menu."

If you back all the way out to the main menu and go into "Settings," you can turn shuffle "on," which will make the songs play randomly instead of in order.

Step 5: Don't forget you have an iPod
I am sill not used to having my iPod Nano, so I always leave the house without it. You just paid a lot of money for this thing - don't forget to use it! My husband and I like to listen to Comedy Central podcasts on shared headphones while our toddler is napping. It's great to hook up in the car because we don't have to bring bulky stack of CD's with us and can easily unhook it at our destination and bring it with us instead of leaving it in the car to tempt thieves. The iPod Nano is also great for walking and exercising, because it doesn't skip around like a portable CD player.

If, after reading all this, you still have problems or just more questions, contact the previously mentioned teenager.

Next week: How to program your VCR (once I figure it out for myself).