"Oh, cool..."

The iPod is one of the great benefits of living in the twenty first century, right up there with advanced medicine and quilted toilet paper. Through the magic of the little white rectangle (the iPod, not the toilet paper), thousands of Americans have their entire music libraries literally at their fingertips, even if those libraries consist mainly of Weird Al Yankovic parodies and bad John Tesh albums. So, you've bought an iPod. I know you've got new toy syndrome, but while you're setting up the camcorder to film your own dorky version of an iPod commercial, be sure to check out some of the great products that have come out to enhance your iPod experience.

iPodAgent

iPodAgent is by far my favorite iPod-pimping-out software. This one little application does nearly everything you can imagine, basically turning your iPod into a PDA. It downloads news, weather, and even movie listings from around the area you live in straight to your iPod's notes section. The movie feature in particular is pretty useful, and may even list a few theatres that you didn't know existed. The newscasts come from Yahoo news, and while interesting, they take a bit of time to load. If you don't have a newspaper subscription, or just want to carry as little paper as possible, then it's a worthwhile feature.

What's more, iPodAgent can synchronize your Outlook contacts and calendar to your iPod, and can even move mp3 files from your iPod to your computer based on artist, album, or song title. It can also download PodCasts, though iTunes 4.9 is better equipped for this purpose. While this program used to be free, it now has a cost of $15. However, there's still a free trial of the program available at the link at the bottom of this article.