Other Functions:
The iPod Video is actually capable of doing more things than just music, photo, and video. Apple has gone ahead and included several extras, such as world clock, games, contacts, notes and a stopwatch. I will take a look at each of these below.
If you tend to travel a lot, Apple has included the ability to have multiple clocks setup on the iPod Video (below left image). This allows you to see what time it is in any time zone that you configure it for. Here you can see three clocks; one for California, Rome, and Beijing. To choose a clock, all you have to do is select which continent the location is on, then the City. There is a limited number of cities, mostly capitals.
 
The iPod Video also has the ability to play games (above right image). There are four games included on the unit. Brick, which is the classic "Break Out" style game. Music Quiz, which takes samples of your songs and gives you the choice of several others to choose from. Parachute, in which you have to shoot down airplanes and the parachutes, and finally the classic game of Solitaire. I found Brick, Parachute and Solitaire to be solid games, but a little difficult to control at first. After some time I got the hang of it, and was easy to play. Music Quiz on the other hand, I found to be buggy. It would lock up on me at random intervals to the point where I would have to do a hard reset on the player. Sometimes I could play for 5 or 6 rounds, other times the game wouldn't start up at all.
Every device is beginning to be capable of storing contacts (below left image) and the iPod Video is no exception. You can open iTunes and choose which application you want to sync the contacts with. If you are a Windows user, Apple hasn't forgotten about you either. You can sync with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Palm Desktop, but you will have to export your contacts as vCards, and then drag those to the Contacts folder on the player.
 
The calendar option will synchronize your Outlook calendar with the iPod Video (above right image). This is a great feature to have and will help to keep your appointments close at hand. If you have something scheduled, a little flag shows up, and you can go into that day to see what it is. Once you can see your appointments, you can go into them further to get additional information, if that information was on that appointment.
If you have text files that you would like to be able to view on the iPod Video, you can do so. Simply drag the text file to the notes folder, and when you disconnect you will be able to read them. There is a serious issue with the notes view, you cannot view text files larger than 4KB! To view those, you have to get a third party application to convert the text file to an eBook! So much for having my entire DVD list on my iPod Video! Another thing, while I know it would be tedious, but it would be nice if you could create notes on the iPod Video.
You can even use the iPod Video as a Stopwatch. The Stopwatch will show you the "Lap" timings; it will show you over 50+ laps, and even keep a running history of the timings!
 
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