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.
Author: Neale Monks
Neale Monks has used Macs since 1990, when he was won over by the simplicity of printing from a networked Mac compared to doing the same thing with networked PCs. Since that time he's written for several Macintosh magazines including Macworld and Macformat as well as MyMac.com, InformIT, Peachpit, TidBITs, and the now-defunct AppleLust web site.
Besides using Macs to make his living every day of the week, he likes to tinker about with vintage Macs, and a few years back wrote an e-book called 'Buying Used Macs' published through MyMac.com.
Neale has a degree in zoology and a PhD in palaeontology. He lives in the market town of Berkhamsted on the edge of the Chiltern Hills.
First Book Shoot-out
Klix
Review
Klix is a utility that recovers photos from digital cameras and memory cards. Klix can’t recover digital image files that have been partially or completely overwritten, but that caveat aside, Klix provides a quick and easy way to bring lost files back.
The Artist’s Guide to GIMP Effects
Book Review
GIMP, or the GNU Image Manipulation Program to give it its proper name, is a graphics-editing program broadly similar to Adobe Photoshop in terms of functionality. The GIMP is an open source program that can be freely downloaded and installed on most computers, including maps. But on the downside it doesn’t come with a manual, so figuring out how to use GIMP can be tricky. Read the full review here.
Whining iPhone hackers or Apple malevolence?
As if their fawning hype leading up to the iPhone launch wasn’t bad enough, the last few days has seen many of those same
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Enough with the iPhone already
Yesterday I stopped by the Apple/Slashdot site. Wall to wall iPhone articles and literally thousands of comments. It’s the cover story on the Macworld
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Something very odd…
Something I just noticed. Type in “Windows”. Hit return. Result: Windows; plural noun [treated as sing. ] trademark, a computer operating system with a
Read MoreMaquarium
Review
Maquarium is an integrated set of tools that allows aquarists to log water chemistry and quality tests, schedule maintenance events, download and record information, and perform a variety of useful calculations. Of course, almost all of the features that Maquarium totes could be done with other applications, and arguably in some cases better and with more flexibility, but what Maquarium does provide is a neat interface and true ease of use.
Read MoreInside the Machine
Book Review
Inside the Machine is a book about computers, specifically, how they work as machines. It isn’t a book about software and operating systems, and neither is it a book about the history of computers either. It isn’t a picture-book of classic computers, and it isn’t a repair manual. Readers looking for any of these things will be disappointed.
Read MoreSleevz and ScreenSavrz for MacBook and MacBook Pro
Review
Keeping your MacBook or MacBook Pro looking shiny and new isn’t easy. Accidental bumps cause the keys to touch the screen, at the least letting grease from your fingers get onto the LCD and at worst actually causing unsightly scratches. Neale takes a look at two of Radtech’s solutions: the Sleevz and ScreenSavrz.
Read MoreA Better Finder Tool Suite
Review
A Better Finder Tool Suite is a set of Finder add-ons that perform bulk renaming, attribute editing, and file finding tasks. A Better Finder Rename and A Better Finder Attributes are launched through contextual menu items and thereby applied to batches of files, making changes to files that are either slow or impossible to make in the Finder. Via a keyboard shortcut, A Better Finder Launcher gives the user shortcuts to files and applications. Since each is also available as a standalone product, this review will look at each of them separately before balancing up the entire set in terms of value and usefulness.
Read MoreBuying Used Macs
People buy used Macs for all sorts of reasons. Often the prime motive to passing over the latest model out of Cupertino is the need to save money. After all, a G3 or G4 iMac might not be the fastest thing on the block, but it will certainly prove to be a rock-solid word processing and web-surfing machine. Students in particular are always like to find bargains, and a used iBook or one of the older G4 PowerBooks may only cost a few hundred dollars but will still provide all the horsepower you need to write a dissertation, carry out research on the Internet, and keep up your coursework.
Free Speech 0 : Radical Islam 1
So much for papal infalliability. After making a speech to his alma mater, the University of Regensburg in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI has apologised
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The Trials of Tony
A friend of mine in the US wrote to me yesterday asking about Tony Blair, and whether his announcement of a retirement date will
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Some stuff I don’t get
It’s a slow news day here at MyMac Towers, and so in the great traditional of newspaper lifestyle columns, instead of reporting on something
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One small step for man, one giant step (backwards) for Mankind?
So, we’re going back to the Moon. By we, I mean humanity. The last time we were there was way back in 1972. Richard
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Apple and Nike just do it
Nike has announced a collaboration with Apple Computer known as Nike+ to produce an integrated system that transmits information from their running shoes to
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Out of the blue, comes green
While right-of-centre parties are not typically seen as the natural friends of the green movement, the British Conservatives used their annual party conference last
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Is China the dark side of the iPod?
Apple Computer like virtually all computer manufacturers, depends on foreign manufacturing, particularly in the Far East, where labour is much cheaper. This is, of
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You can all calm down now
Over the next couple of days, the British Airport Authority will loosen the restrictions on hand luggage that came into force last week, following
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50 years on from Suez
At its simplest, the Suez Crisis was an invasion by British and French military forces that was intended to assert their legal rights of
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