Beginner amplifier

Although making the jump sooner than I probably should from beginner acoustic to beginner electric I'm about to seek an entry level amp (with a guitar of course).
My question deals with add on stuff for the amp. I noticed that an instructer had plugged in his blackberry or Iphone to his amp and used it for backing tracks, or percussion, etc. I'm not sure if he plugged this directly into the amp or if there was an intermediate device between the two. My questions are;
1. Are most amps made to accommodate this now or is this something you have to compile with other components?
2. Is there a basic method of recording your own backing track to accompany you while you play, or are we talking about these recoding software packages.

Welcome to the AGC forums JimF!

As far as awesome and affordable goes, check out Roland's Cube Amp line-up. I own a Roland Cube-20 and absolutely love it. People that here me play, most often are surprised to find out I'm just using a small 20 watt amp. They also have Cube models all the way up 80 watts I think.

Check Out Roland Amps Here!

A lot of amps do have a 1/8" "audio in" jack separate from the 1/4" guitar input jack. Not all amps have that feature, but I think it is safe to say that most do.

If you don't yet want to spend the money on recording software (Which by the way you can get for free! Check out Cubase or Audacity for free recording software, you can get yourself a hand held recorder. Although, to buy a good quality recorder could cost you more than recording software.

Best of luck!

Rock on!