The newest invention of Apple, the iPhone, isn’t any ordinary phone. Think of Internet, PDA, and iPod all in one device. That’s what it is. Yet, because it’s still newly released, perhaps a lot of you don’t have any idea how to use the phone to the maximum, especially when it comes to downloading, converting, and transferring movies and music to your phone.

Let’s do this by answering one basic question you may have in your mind right now: what kinds of music and video format can an iPhone support? Generally, an iPhone has the ability to play movies, music videos, podcasts, and TV shows but only if they’re in MP4, MPEG-4, or H.264 formats. With audio formats in MP3, you can listen to music and audio books.

Now that you know which one will definitely work in iPhone, it’s time to “hunt” for ways and means so that you can download free stuff into your mobile device. Fortunately, there’s plenty of them.

For one, you can look into the different P2P (peer-to-peer) networks in the Internet. These are programs such as Morpheus, MLDonkey, BiTTorent, Napster, and eMule, among others. There are even some file-sharing freeware that can work in any type of operating system, be it Linux, MAC, or Windows. However, you need to consider one important factor: it should be free of any spyware or even virus. If you don’t want them in your PC, the more it should be in your phone. Meanwhile, for a very small amount, you can buy music and videos directly from iTunes. These stuffs are properly categorized, plus the site has a Search tab, making it easier for you to look for what you need. Moreover, you can choose two types of iTunes files. These are the DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected files and iTunes Plus. These things are easy to transfer to your phone, especially if they’re already in their proper and acceptable formats. Just read the manual for the steps. Else, you need to look for a converter first.

If you have purchased music or video in sites such as MusicNow, Yahoo! Music, and MusicMatch, you can simply record them and convert them to iPhone-compatible formats with the aid of third-party software like SoundTaxi or Tunebite.

Sometimes the music or video that we like are not found in any of these online freeware sites or can be searched in any downloaded program. The next best thing that you can do is to rip them from their CDs or DVDs and then convert them to MP3 (for music) and MPEG-4 or H.264 formats (for videos). For these, you can use Windows Media Player or, better yet, iTunes, which can simply “import” songs when the software detects the CD.

Who says you need to be a techie geek just to have fun with your iPhone? No matter who and what you do in life, there’s no stopping you in enjoying cool music and videos, especially if you know how to download them.