iPhone® Fully Loaded, Third Edition

Chapter 1. Remedial iTunes

The Skim

The Very Very (Very) Basics

Good heavens! I spent all that time in the introduction explaining that this book certainly isn't meant to be a ... For Dummies–style guide to the fundamentals of using the iPhone and iPod Touch. And now here I am, using the first chapter of the book to explain some of the fundamentals of using the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Blame my friend Roy. He broke my car.

Or at least, he let me break my car. Yes, the thing was 10 years old. Yes, it was pushing 100,000 miles. But I was looking after it very carefully and I'd expected to get another couple of years out of it. Just to be sure, I had my friend Roy teach me about basic maintenance. Roy was definitely the man to ask. He knows so much about cars that I imagine he has a second, ancillary brain down near his butt solely to store information about the correct tire pressure for hundreds of late-model sedans and SUVs.

He told me about the importance of checking the oil. "It's going to be leaking somewhere," he said, after walking me through the procedure. "If you don't know you're low on oil, you'll blow the engine and that's a career-ending injury even on a new car."

I followed his advice religiously. About two months later, I blew the engine.

It seems that when he told be about checking the oil, he neglected to point out the importance of being parked on a level surface. My house ...