So you got your new iPod or you may have already owned one for awhile. After you imported all your CD’s and favorite tunes and spent some big bucks on iTunes, you might want to increase the return on your investment with these 7 tips.

1 Safety copy for your pictures – Protect those memories!

It can never hurt to have a spare copy of your photos. When people run into a burning house or asked what they would carry out the answer is always “my pictures”. Here’s a way to carry your back up wherever you go.

Set your iPod for disk use my checking the “Enable Disk Use” box on the Summary Tab in iTunes. Click on the Photos Tab and click on the “Sync Photos from:” box and browse to your “My Pictures” folder or wherever you store your photos. Click the “Include Full Resolution Photos” box at the bottom of the page. Go ahead and sync now by right clicking on your iPod under “Devices”. You now have a great digital photo album of your pictures and can share with family and friends – wherever you go!.

Tip – buy the A/V cable for your iPod so you can run a sideshow over any TV with A/V inputs.

2 Missed church? download the sermon!
Podcasts are now available from many sources – one of which may be your local church. Go to iTunes and search under Podcasts for your church’s podcast. Subscribe and never miss a great message! If you are a serious “sermon note take” it is good to have the audio to review.

3 Go to school on your iPod
In iTunes, check out “iTunes U”. This service is a partnership with universities and colleges to provide the traditional student with a non-traditional source of educational material. This is a wonderful of example of technology and the times meeting at a sweet spot.

4 Podcasts
There are podcasts on every imaginable subject and from every imaginable source. Finances and investing, religion and philosophy, managing and leading, sales and marketing. You can start with iTunes and search by subject or Google for podcasts on your interests. It is astounding how much great content is out there – and most of it is free!

5 Sync your contacts and calendar from Microsoft Outlook
You can sync your busy schedule with your iPod. From iTunes, click on the “Contacts” tab and click the “Sync calendars from Microsoft Outlook” box. You can choose “All Calendars” or select just the one from your personal folders file.

If you want your contacts information handy click on the “Sync contacts from:” box and choose either your Microsoft Outlooks contacts folder or the Windows Address Book.

6 User your iPod as a back up drive
When you enable disk use, you can use your iPod as a portable drive just like any other USB flash drive.

7 Turn your iPod into a voice recorder
Using a couple of inexpensive devices, the iPod makes a great voice recorder. Take a look at the Belkin F8E462 Voice Recorder or the Griffin iTalk devices. These gadgets add value to your iPod by enabling you to record voice. Both of these have a small speaker built in, so you can use that to play back audio books and even take advantage of the alarm feature when traveling.

Oh, yeah, it plays music, too!
After you have exhausted all of these uses, you might want to relax to some music. I’ve heard the iPod is a great music player, too. If you have a suggestion on another use for an iPod, let us know!