So you have got an iPod as a Christmas or birthday present. It looks good and holds true with its claim of a thousand songs in your pocket, huh? But do you know that iPod could do much more for you aside from entertaining you? To all new iPod owners, here is a guide on how to be productive with your iPod.

New iPod owners could find a sleek, sexy personal data assistant with their iPod. Read on below to learn how to sync contacts and calendars from your iPod to your computer, or use it to transfer soft files, of any format, to your computer, and read sticky notes.

* Add VIPs

All the stored information in your computer about the important people in your life that you know such as phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, company name, birthdays, and other personal information, you can transfer it your new iPod.

If you’re a Mac user, it is quite easy to sync your Address Book with your new iPod. If you’re a Windows user, you can use Outlook Express or Microsoft outlook to sync your contact details in your new iPod.

* Sync Schedule

Scheduled for a meeting with the top bosses tomorrow? Or have a date with the lady of your dreams on Saturday? You can sync your alarms and schedules from Mac’s iCal with your new iPod. For Microsoft Windows users, your new iPod can work with Microsoft Outlook to sync schedules.

* Take and Read Sticky Notes

You do not need those yellow sticky notes to write anything that pops up in your head (since they always get lost, anyway) like, what are your deadlines for the day and the coming week, your grocery lists, driving directions, etc. You can take all your sticky notes inside your new iPod and carry it with you all the time.

Your new iPod can hold a total of 4096 characters or (4kb in total) for each note. So, keep in mind to keep your notes briefly so won’t run out of character lines if you sync it with your new iPod.

How can you sync sticky notes from your computer to your new iPod?

Here’s how.

1. Open your notepad or any word-processing application that can save the file into .txt. Type a new note to create your grocery lists or those bulleted to-do’s that you have been laying aside for a few weeks already. Or if you want to keep an important email message or want to put in your new iPod lyrics of the songs from your new iPod’s playlist, just copy the text and then paste it in a notepad.

2. Save document in .txt file.

3. Connect your new iPod to your Mac or Microsoft Windows computer.

4. Since you’re a new iPod user, you might have not set your iPod for disk use. But if you are a techie new iPod user and already did this, skip this step.

To new iPod users who have not set their new iPod, or iPod Nano, for disk use, enable this feature by doing these:

1. Open your iTunes program from your computer and then open iTunes preferences. Mac users should click ‘Preferences’ from the iTunes menu, while Microsoft Windows users should choose the ‘Edit’ menu first before clicking ‘Preferences’).
2. Find the iPod tab, click it, and then a new pane will open. Click in the iPod pane the Music tab.
3. A Select the “Enable disk use” checkbox, then click OK.

5. Open your iPod volume that appears on your desktop (Mac) or in My Computer (Windows) to display three folders: Calendars, Contacts, and Notes.

6. Drag your text file to the Notes folder on your iPod to add it.

* Use the iPod as File Carrier

If you haven’t already figured it out by now, you can use any iPod model as an external hard drive, allowing you to copy files onto it and shuttle items from one computer to another. This comes in handy if you need to work on projects at the office or school and at home, or you want to transfer your digital music collection from your old computer to a new one. Here’s how to enable this feature.

Show me how:

1. Connect your iPod to your computer.
2. Open iTunes (if it isn’t open already), then open iTunes preferences (Mac users, choose Preferences from the iTunes menu; Windows users, on the Edit menu, click Preferences).
3. Click the iPod tab, then click the Music tab in the iPod pane.
4. Select the “Enable disk use” checkbox, then click OK.

Your iPod should now appear as a mounted volume on your desktop (Mac) or in My Computer (Windows). To copy files for transport, simply drag any file onto the iPod volume icon, or double-click the volume, create a new folder (or folders), and copy items to it.

Related posts:

1. Practical Guide to Free iPod Music Downloads
2. A Guide to the New Apple iPhone
3. iPod Tips: Play the iPod on Your Computer’s Speakers

Have you ever experienced a situation when you call someone, say a particular company or a helpline to enquire about something and could not get through because the line was busy, but after a few minutes you not only get a call back from the company or person you were trying to reach but they already know your full name and contact details? Well if you have experienced such a situation and have been wondering how on earth the caller knew everything about you even though you did not leave your name or any other details, then welcome to the world of reverse phone lookup.

At first when you get a call back from a number you were trying to reach and you realize they already know your name, contact address etc, the first reaction is of amazement as well as of complete shock. After this, either some people are quite impressed that the company you were trying to reach already knew your details or some people are completely freaked out and even wonder whether they are being stalked or their number is being tapped or traced somewhere.

Well good news is you do not have to worry about your number being tapped or someone stalking you. It is actually quite easy to find out about someone who has just called you. All you need is the number flashing on your caller id or missed call list. Once you have this then all you need to do is switch on your computer and go to your favorite search engine and search for reverse phone lookup directories. You can even type reverse cell phone lookup directories just in case the number you have is a cell phone number.

Once you find an online reverse phone lookup directory, which should be very easy to find, simply enter the number that you have in to their search box and click on search and that is it. You will immediately get the full name of the person who just tried to call you. Not just that, you will get their complete details such as the postal address, zip code etc. Reverse phone lookup services are not just for checking out phone numbers that you have in your missed calls list or caller id. You can use it very effectively to find out addresses of convenience stores, doctors, dentists, corporate offices, government offices and a whole lot more. All of need to have is the phone number. Once you have this, you can easily get the postal address of the person or company. This is a great feature because now you do not have to call up companies and be on hold for ages just to get their address. Just go to a reverse phone lookup service directory on the internet and get their address in no time at all.

Reverse phone lookup services have been used most successfully by companies who want to find out more about the calls they receive, to find out from where they are getting most of their calls and service their customers more efficiently. So the next time you get a call back from someone you were trying to reach and they already knew your name and address, do not panic, they just used a reverse phone lookup service to get your details.

Related posts:

1. Conducting A Phone Number Reverse Lookup