little to recommend in little iTunes book : [©james mcnally, 2001]

The Little iTunes Book, by Bob LeVitus. Peachpit Press, 2001, 177pp. US$19.95, CDN$29.95.

The Little iTunes Book is the latest in the beloved and genuinely useful "Little Book" series from Peachpit Press. I wondered if Apple's MP3 player/encoder/burner deserved an entire book of its own, especially since Peachpit publishes "Little" books devoted to entire computers (iMac, iBook) and one on the entire Macintosh operating system. How could Bob LeVitus fill 177 pages on one apparently simple program?

Author LeVitus is a well-known author and columnist in Macintosh circles. He writes about computers for the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman, as well as the MacCentral web site. He confesses in the preface to the book that his intended audience is someone like his father, "an avid but unsophisticated iMac user." The book generally succeeds in reaching this audience. The question is whether someone like that would be willing to pay for a book like this.

The book is well laid out, though more than half the material deals with subject matter other than the iTunes program. There are four main parts, entitled "Getting to Know iTunes," "Working with iTunes," "Getting More Out of iTunes," and "More Stuff You Should Probably Know." I must say I was impressed with the comprehensive treatment LeVitus gives the program, although I'm not sure any user really requires him to go through every possible menu item and preference in detail. To his credit, LeVitus greatly simplifies some of the trickier aspects of using the program, like encoding MP3s from audio CDs, and burning your own compilation CDs from your playlists. The other useful information he provides, on Internet radio stations and compression rates and other MP3 products, can all be found with a little effort on the web.

My gut reaction is to tell you, gentle reader, to save your thirty bucks (US$20) and spend them instead, if you wish, on a more fully featured MP3 player/encoder such as Audion, from Panic Software. Audion features faster encoding, a built-in equalizer, and hundreds of available faces. If you're averse to spending money for an MP3 program, then you're probably averse to spending money on books about an MP3 program. For the vast majority of people, iTunes is a no-frills MP3 player/encoder/burner that requires no manual to use effectively. If you're absolutely baffled, or are a detail junkie, then LeVitus' book is useful. But spending money on a manual (an admittedly comprehensive and well-written one notwithstanding) for a free program is hard to justify.

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