The iTrip is one of the more popular, and efficient FM adapters available for the iPod. It has a good signal strength and quality, and lets you listen to your iPod through your car stereo, or your stereo system at home for that matter.

FM transmitters were made legal in the UK last year, so if you live there you can enjoy this functionality of the iPod in clear conscience. For readers elsewhere, it's worth checking before buying one to make sure they're OK where you are.

There are lots of other FM transmitters on the market, but the iTrip is one of the better ones – the idea behind the transmitter is to allow you to enjoy the clarity of your sound systems while listening to tracks on your iPod.

Whatever transmitter you go for – check out a few reviews first to make sure that the quality of the signal is good enough to make them worth using.

If you're going on a trip, then you may be able to save some space in your luggage by leaving your Rough Guide or Lonely Planet book at home.

The chances are, you'll be taking your iPod with you on holiday, so, assuming it has enough battery life left after you've listened to MP3s all flight long, why not use it for your travel guide too?

Rough Guide recently launched their PodScrolls collection – they've started off with 10 of the most popular cities in the world – Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Rome and San Francisco.

If you're heading to any of those cities, then you can use the PodScroll to find out the best places to eat and drink, with tips pulled from the paper Rough Guide Directions series.

They'll be adding more destinations as time goes on, so keep your eyes peeled – and remember to take your iPod charger with you on holiday!

Mobile devices rock, until you realise that you're sunning yourself in the Caribbean and you left your charger back home in California. That's when something like the Solio comes in handy.

The Solio is a universal 'hybrid' solar powered charger – you charge up the Solio, either by exposing it to sunlight, or by plugging it into a mains socket while you're at home, and then you can use the power that the Solio has stored up to power almost any mobile device.

The Solio holds its power for up to a year so you could charge it up and then pack it ready for your holiday.

One hour of sun will give the Solio enough power to play an hours music on your iPod, while a fully charged Soli can charge an iPod Nano up to full power at least twice, giving you plenty of playtime while you're away.

The Solio costs around $100, which makes it a great investment considering it can power your mobile phone, iPod, digital camera or handheld console, and, being solar powered, it's good for the environment too.

One of the main problems with the iPod is the battery life – it has improved, but in many cases, it still is not as good as music fans would like. If you're going on a long journey - a trans-Atlantic flight or a hiking or camping trip, then the standard battery life of an iPod may not be enough. That's where the Belkin Battery Pack comes in – it isn't exactly 'stick in your pocket' portable, but it isn't too bulky either – it can easily come along with you on a holiday and it extends the battery life of newer iPods by up to 20 hours. The Belkin Battery Pack sticks to the back of your iPod using suction cups, and clearly displays how much battery life it has left using four LEDs. If you are heading anywhere that may have limited access to electricity, or just like to be sure you'll always have some more music to listen to, then it's well worth it.

The iPod is a great little machine, but little is the important word – something as small and sleek as the iPod is bound to take a bit of a beating. Most people take their iPod everywhere with them – either in a jacket pocket, where keys and coins also live, or in their jeans pocket - where it could fall out when they go to sit down. There are protective cases on the market that will keep the iPod from getting damaged, but, if you haven't bought one yet and your iPod is looking a bit rough, there are still things you can do. You could pick up iCleaner – a range of products that will make sure that your iPod looks as good today as it did when you first took it out of the box. Well, almost as good. It can't work miracles, but it will give it a really good shot. The iCleaner range includes polish, scratch removers, and a number of cloths for cleaning up various parts of your iPod. It's no substitute for taking care of your iPod, but, if you've had a couple of minor indiscretions that you'd like to clean up, then it will go a long way towards repairing some scuffs and scratches.

While listening to music is nice, sometimes you want to record things, and carrying both an MP3 player and a Dictaphone seems like a bit of a waste of pocket space. That's why Belkin have released a Voice Recorder for the iPod – it plugs into the top part of a docking iPod, and lets you record things directly onto your iPod. It's much easier than having to try to squeeze an entire lecture into the limited memory of your phone or digital camera, and since the recordings will automatically sync with iTunes, it's nice and easy to get them on to your PC for later listening. The quality is pretty good considering the size of the device, and if you're not sure if a recording will come out OK because of background noise or other issues, then you can use the built in speaker to play back something you've just recorded to see how it sounds. You'll need to have the latest firmware on your iPod for it to work, but for anyone who regularly records meetings or lectures, or even just likes to leave verbal memos for themselves, it's very handy.

Encyclopodia is a free program for the iPod which allows users of iPod Linux to install a mini version of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia on their iPods. It runs on iPods of generations 1 through 4 as well as the iPod Mini and the Photo iPod. The Encyclopodia comes in two parts, an application, and an e-book. The e-book is offered in three different languages – English, German, and Italian. The English version weighs in at 1.7GB, whilst the other language versions are significantly smaller. The e-books are updated every 6 months, so the knowledge in Encyclopodia is fairly up to date. Encyclopodia is a free download, and is probably one of the greatest uses of the iPod to date. You will be giving up a large amount of storage space to run it, but in my opinion it will be worth it purely for the number of pub or bus ride arguments you'll be able to settle by looking up esoteric facts on your iPod.

If you're used to a fully-featured iPod with a screen, then the screen-less iPod shuffle might seem a little strange and counter intuitive at first. It has a few quirks, which can take some time to get used to. A few of them are described here. The iPod Shuffle lacks a 'hold' switch. Normally you would use the 'hold' switch to turn off the buttons to prevent your player from swapping tracks if it gets knocked in your pocket. To achieve the same thing with the shuffle, you will need to press the Play/Pause button for a few seconds. When the orange light blinks a few times, the keypad has been locked. To unlock it, hold Play/Pause in for a while until the light blinks and turns green. If your iPod Shuffle starts acting up, then you may need to reset it – you can do this by using the slider at the back to turn it off, waiting several seconds, and then turning it back on to the 'Shuffle Mode' position.

Since the iPod Shuffle lacks a screen, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out what is going on – blinking lights are not exactly the most intuitive indicators of status, or any errors that may have occurred. This short article will give you some idea of what the lights mean: Orange Light: Your iPod is locked – hold down Play/Pause to unlock it. No Light: If there is no light at all, and the iPod is supposed to be switched on, then check that the battery is charged. Green and Amber Flashing Light: This either means that there are no songs on the iPod, or there has been an error and the iPod needs reset. When the iPod shuffle is connected to the computer, the light on the front will be amber – if it is blinking, then you should not disconnect the iPod without clicking the eject icon in iTunes, as you could cause data corruption if you eject it while it is transferring data.

The iPod Shuffle is the first iPod that has to be formatted as a FAT32 volume, and it has a lot of restrictions on file names – certain characters, such as the following: * . " / \ [ ] : ; = , cannot be used in the names of songs. If you are tempted to format your iPod Shuffle as a HFS drive, then don't – it will not be able to play any songs, making it nothing more than a very expensive memory stick! The character restriction doesn't apply if you use iTunes to transfer the files, as iTunes will re-name the files to something that is allowed. If you are copying files directly, however, then you will be alerted if the file has a disallowed character in the name. If you ignore this message, then be aware that if you copy the file to another computer from the iPod Shuffle, the file name will be different to what it was on the original computer.

Many homes these days have more than one computer, and sometimes you may want to quickly grab some music from one of the other machines. ITunes is a nifty piece of software, but one of its biggest disadvantages is that by default, you can only synch your iPod with one computer. If you try to synch with another, at best, it will get confused, and at worst it could wipe the contents of your iPod. There is a workaround, however – just connect your iPod, and then navigate to the sources list in iTunes and select your iPod. Under the Summary page, tick 'Manually manage music and videos', and then apply the changes. The main disadvantage of this is that you will have to manually add and remove songs, and manually eject the iPod once you're done altering playlists, but at least you will now have full control over the files on your iPod, instead of iTunes trying to manage play lists thinking that it knows best.

If you've ever been stuck for ideas for cool things to do with your iPod, then maybe you need the book 'Your iPod Life' – supposedly a guide to the best iPod Accessories, it does a good job of guiding you through the most interesting, unusual, and sometimes silly accessories available for the iPod.

You can find almost everything for the iPod – from poseable cases which have been made in the image of all kinds of animals, to digital music systems, and dancing, flashing speakers that are shaped like aliens.

There are useful accessories too, such as FM transmitters, alarm clocks, and chargers that plug into your cars cigarette lighter plug.

The book is a little old now, but most of the accessories are still available, and many have new versions for the latest iPod models.

You can get most of the information on the web, but if you're the old fashioned, tactile type that loves well presented books with color pictures, then it makes for interesting bedroom reading.

You may have seen iPod socks on eBay. If you don't feel like paying 'designer' prices for one, don't like the colors that are offered, or just feel like knitting something, and then why not make your own?

It's quite simple. All you need are some 3mm knitting needles, and some double knitting wool.

To make an iPod sock with a small front pocket, use these instructions:

Front pocket:

Cast on 16 stitches, and knit (stocking stitch) for 3 inches, then put the stitches on a spare needle.

Main Sock:

Cast on 40 stitches and knit 2x2 rib for 3 inches. End with the wrong side. Then knit (rib) for 22 stitches, cast off 16 stitches, P2Next row, K2 transfer 16 stitches from the Front pocket needle and knit 2x2 (rib) across all stitches until the sock is 4 inches long.

Finally, change to a smaller needle and knit 2x2 (rib) for another 2 inches. Then cast off.

Now fold in half and sew it up to make a sock, secure tightly, and make sure that your iPod fits nice and snug.

If you are competing for Geek Kudos with your friends, then you should try iPod Linux – it is considered safe for iPods from version 1 through 3, and they are working on increasing support to cover other iPods too.

Why settle for just playing music on your iPod, when you can install databases, games, and a plethora of useful utilities as well?

You can play everything from Dope Wars to Soccer, view your photos, use a Word Processor get Weather forecasts, and even write your own programmes using the standard C++ library.

Installation is relatively simple, and the good news is that if you don't like it, you can uninstall it and go back to the old iPod firmware.

You should check that your iPod is supported before installing it (you can view the list at http://ipodlinux.org/Generations) but as long as it is supported things should be relatively trouble free.

It's the ultimate iPod 'hack', and it really increases the usefulness of your iPod – making it almost a fully fledged PDA as well as an MP3 player!

Being the first portable accessory designed specifically for the iPod Nano the iJet remote with FM transmitter integrates the RF remote and the FM transmitter into one package making it more convenient.

The iJet remote is very easy to use, simply slide the iPod Nano into the iJet receiver case and start jamming to your favorite tunes. The great thing about the iJet is you can use it in your car, at home or even at work by allowing you to play your iPod music through any FM radio with out worrying about cables or wires.

Lets not forget about the RF remote that allows you to stay in control of your iPod Nano from any distance up to 100 feet. Now how is that for wireless?

So you love listening to music but do not like the fact that you always take it with you. Well now you can with the TuneCast II Mobile FM transmitter. Imagine listing to your favorite music from your iPod, PDA, MP3 Player or cassette player anywhere you go. Whether you are in your car, on the beach or just laying around your backyard.

It is so easy anyone can do it. Just plug the TuneCast II into your headphone jack, tune you car stereo or any receiver to any clear FM frequency, and enjoy hours of your favorite music with more sound and more portability. How is that for mobility?

With the TuneFM transmitter you can wirelessly connect your iPod to any car, home or portable stereo in the skip of a heartbeat. This accessory for so easy to use, just plug the TuneFM into the dock connector on your iPod, tune your stereo to any FM frequency and start enjoying your favorite music will full sound and fewer wires.

One of the best in its class the TuneFM features an FM transmission that delivers a clear, clean, crisp performance to enhance any listening experience. The great thing about this unit is the ability to tune into your favorite stations right from the comfort of the iPod display.

There are many cases out there for the iPod Shuffle, but none of those give you the flexibility of the sports case. This orange and clear case is made of plastic and offers first class fashion. What more could you ask for in a sports case for your iPod Shuffle.

The sports case helps to protect your iPod from the elements out and the tunes playing no matter what the weather brings you. Apple designers put a lot of thought into this case as it fits the iPod Shuffle perfectly with the fitted edges and more. It does have one minor inconvenience and that is the fact that you cannot turn the iPod Shuffle on or off while in the case.

The very attractive Keychain case for the iPod Nano is just what any person with a Nano could want in a case. The metal case is the first of a kind with the magnetic design that permits easy opening and closing. Has another unique feature that cannot be found in any other case, the headphone porthole.

The Nano Keychain case gives complete protection to help your iPod stay nice for a longer period of time. Having full access to the iPod Nano screen and click wheel at all times. This was a great choice in design and would be a better choice for anyone who owns an iPod Nano.

This hybrid iPod Nano accessory combines the highly protective case, an FM transmitter and an RF remote control into one single package. This accessory for the Nano is available in black or white and the remote even stores in the back of the case.

Getting complete access to the iPod radio tuning up close or from a distance of about 50 feet and does not require line of site between base and remote in order to be connected to the iPod. One other great feature is it can be used indoors from the other room. Now that is a wow factor feature that no user should be without.

When you talk about iPod accessories you cannot forget the car adapters for your iPod. Being able to take you iPod with you anywhere you go including while traveling in your car is something most iPod users want. Some of the car accessories include car chargers; earphone and FM transmitters are available.

One available car accessory is the Power Adapter, which will allow you to charge your iPod or iPod mini while in your car, and comes with a 2-foot coil cord as well. Another great accessory available for the iPod is the car charging dock and digital FM transmitter. You will be able to choose any FM station and lock up 10 of your favorites.

Within the last year Apple added a feature that will have every parent glad that they purchased and iPod or Nano for their kids. With the new volume limit feature you can decide what the maximum volume level of any of these iPod’s.

This feature is very easy to use and will give parents the ability to pre-determine a volume level that is safe for them to use. By simply selecting the settings from the iPod’s main menu an option called Volume Limit will appear and you can make the changes.

With the four-digit combination dial that locks the maximum level in place you cannot go wrong.

You may already be able to watch video on your iPod, but did you know that you can now it take it one step further and shoot video from your iPod? You can shoot and record video with the same ease as playing your favorite movies.

With a small accessory called the iSee 360 you are able to have a compact video camera right at your fingertips. It can record in multiple popular video formats, including the all time favorite MPEG. This neat little accessory transforms your iPod by slipping your iPod right into it.

The best accessory for any iPod user that is into creating videos!

So you might not be familiar with the iPod but I am sure you have heard the term. An iPod is an MP3 player, which can store songs and photos and do much more if you have the right accessories. It is the new standard in portable music players and weighs in at about six and half ounces.

There are currently several models of the iPod available including, the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Mini, the regular iPod and lets not forget the iPod U2. Each with its own amount of storage, which is what will determine which iPod, you choose. The features are outstanding and stand on their own.

With a battery life of 15 hours you are sure to receive longer hours of continuous music with the iPod.

If you're just starting to look for your MP3 player you may think that the iPod is the only game in town. Apple's music player is the one that gets the most attention from its iconic advertising to use in pop culture, and it is a great product. But it isn't perfect. There are some disadvantages to the product that aren't often talked about, but are important to know when making your music player decision.

The iPod is not compatible with Window Media files. These are the preferred format for many music sites other then Itunes. For example, Amazon Unbox, which sells movie and television shows downloads, will not work on the iPod. If you want to buy digital content you are locked into Itunes, which limits your options greatly.

Also, the iPod is more expensive then other MP3 players of similar storage size. When you are buying an iPod much of the price is the cache of the name. You can get cheap MP3 player with the same features and quality for less money. On the other hand, many MP3 accessories are specially designed for the iPod because it is the most popular brand. If you get a lesser known brand it may be harder to find products that are compatible with them.

Don't just buy the iPod without doing research into the other players on the market to see if they can better fit your needs.