My New Mac
by Wallace Wang
Publisher:
No Starch Press
Price: Paperback $29.95 (ebook $23.95)
ISBN 9781593273903
xxii + 481 pp
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A bit over three years ago I compared two Macintosh books for beginners, David Pogue’s Mac OS X Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual and Wallace Wang’s My New Mac. To cut a long story short, they’re both good books, but aimed at somewhat different audiences. The Missing Manual covers just about every aspect of the Mac operating system, giving power users the information they need to do all sorts of different things. But it doesn’t actually tell a new Mac user what they can do with their computer. To get the most from The Missing Manual, you need to have a fair idea of what you want to do first.
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Ever wonder how you’d like reading a magazine on your iPad? Wonder no more as Scott details the magazines he has tried, and his perceptions of each. John Nemerovski reviews two books by Wallace Wang, My New iPad, 2nd Edition, and My New iPad 2. John also talks about the HardCandy Convertible Faux Nubuck Flip Folio iPad 2 Case. And for those chatty Facebookers amongst you, Scott suggests BeejiveIM for Facebook Chat in this week’s App Folder.
Which iPad book is best for you?
Three iPad titles reviewed by guest writer Howard Nemerovski
iPad Made Simple
by Martin Trautschold and Gary Mazo
Apress
ISBN 978-1-4302-3129-5, 703 pages (all grayscale)
$29.99 US
My New iPad — A User’s Guide
by Wallace Wang
No Starch Press
ISBN 978-1-59327-275-3, 346 pages (all grayscale)
$24.95 US, $31.95 CN
iPad the missing manual
by J. D. Biersdorfer
O’Reilly / Pogue Press
ISBN 978-1-44938784-6, 299 pages (full color) plus missing CD
Our guest reviewer Howard Nemerovski explains why one of these three titles will serve you well as a guide to becoming a power iPadder. Take it away, Howard.
Six unusual items you’ll want to buy for yourself: FireWire adapter plug, 10.6 training DVD, cooling pad, photography book, Snow Leopard tutorial, and laptop battery.
FireWire 800-400 Adapter Plug
Company: Newer Technology / Other World Computing
Price: $10
http://eshop.macsales.com/
Recommending a good book for newcomers to the Mac platform is always tricky. You want to recommend something that doesn’t just cover all the basics but also has some depth as well. A book that only covers the simplest aspects of the Mac interface like how to copy files or connect to the Internet will quickly become obsolete as the user’s skills increase. So the best sort of beginner’s book is one that doesn’t just cover the interface and the operating system but also explains how to use the supplied programs to complete a variety of different projects.
Mac OS X Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual by David Pogue (O’Reilly, $34.99) and My New Mac by Wallace Wang (No Starch Press, $29.95) are books that meet this challenge in completely different ways. Pogue’s book essentially takes an OS-centric view, running through all the different utilities and applications, explaining what they do and how you can use them. Along the way he reveals all kinds of tips and tricks that will make a Mac user’s life easier and more productive. Wang’s book takes a different approach, focusing instead on specific projects and describes how they can be done (mostly) using just the stuff that comes as part of the Macintosh OS. By steadily ramping up the complexity of each project, Wang expands the reader’s skills so that by the end of the book pretty much every major aspect of the Mac OS will have been used in one way or another.
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