Well I just celebrated my 9th anniversary and since the two of us are rather hard to buy gifts for we simply picked out our own presents this year. Not too romantic but I got exactly what I wanted and she did too!

Besides some other things less techie, she got her first iPod. A nano with 4gb of storage. Now I am not a huge music listener. Sure I like dancing, driving to tunes and even right now as I type this I am watching Austin City Limits on PBS - The Raconteurs performing. But it wasn't until the iPod arrived and I starting setting it up for her that I realized this little tool could become "exactly" what she had been looking for, or rather what I had been wanting her to get... a PIM (personal info manager). I have always used my cellphone device (currently a Blackberry 7130) for contacts, addresses and calendars.

I am excited that she can accomplish some of this now with the same device she will carry for storing music, photos and office files. She was using Yahoo for mail so here is how you import a Yahoo Mail address book into your new iPod.

Now the result is very easy. First go to Yahoo Mail and click on the Address book and then on Options in the top right corner. Now go to the Yahoo Mail Import/Export and you want to export the Yahoo Address book as a csv file. It will download as a compressed file and all you have to do is export the individual csv address cards into the iPod folder labeled "Contacts". If you haven't done this before then should already be two example files in the folder.

That's it! You now have the Yahoo Addresses loaded on your iPod and you are ready to rock and track your best buds. There is software to automate the syncing side but this isn't too hard and since you can't edit the addresses on the iPod it is only a one way sync.