Take Control of Preview – Book Review

Once again, TidBITS hits it out of the park with their latest book, Take Control of Preview. Preview is an application that has been on the Mac since OS10 was released in 2001, but has been overlooked over the years and considered a not very useful app other than opening a PDF or viewing a photo. Josh Centers and Adam Engst wrote Take Control of Preview to change that perception.

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Backing Up Your Mac – Book Review

You’ve heard it time and time again: backup, backup, backup. Updating software? Backup first. Installing a new hard drive? Backup first. Sounds simply enough, but how many of us are really doing it, or if we are backing up, how many of us are doing it correctly? Never fear, Joe Kissell is here to help us with his latest book, Backing Up Your Mac.

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Yosemite: A Take Control Crash Course – Book Review

When I want to learn, really learn, about a single technology topic, I turn to Take Control books. Each book dives deep into its subject; for example Dropbox, online privacy, or 1Password. Many other readers prefer a quick overview of the topic, a get in, get out philosophy if you will.

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iPad in Education for Dummies – Book Review

iPad in Education for Dummies by Sam Gliksman is a must read for any teacher that has, or plans on having a classroom full of iPads. Gliksman breaks up the book into seven parts, with several chapters within each part. Within each chapter, he has numerous subtitles, step-by-step directions on how to use a certain app, and many pictures showing you what the app looks like. The book is set up so that you don’t have to read each chapter sequentially. Look at the table of contents, find a subject you are interested in, and read about the numerous apps that the author describes how to use in great detail.

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Take Control of Networking & Security in iOS 6 – Book Review

Did you ever wonder how to set up a mobile hotspot? Maybe you don’t understand the difference between WPA2 and WEP security. What’s the big deal about having a secure password for a home WiFi network? If you ever had any of these question, Glenn Fleishman answers all these questions, and more, in his latest book, Take Control of Networking & Security in iOS 6.

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OS X Support Essentials, Cover

OS X Support Essentials (Apple Pro Training Series) – Review

As has become standard for titles of this weight and authority (the Apple Pro Training Series is justly widely respected), it’s divided into broad sections – nine in this case. Each has between two and five chapters, or “Lessons”. These vary in length from half a dozen pages (the “About this guide” one at the start) to 50 (two very thorough explorations of networks). Other longer lessons cover application installation, configuration and troubleshooting.

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OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual – Review

Many years ago, David Pogue was present at Macworld Expo in Boston when an attendee opened a new software box. The guy was seriously disappointed that all he got for his money was a CD. This turned out to be Pogue’s Eureka! moment. It was also the birth of the Missing Manual series that now numbers over 150 books by a diverse group of knowledgeable authors. As he says in his latest book, “It’s a good thing you’ve got a book about OS X in your hands, because the only user manual you get with it is the Help menu.”

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Mountain Lion Bible, cover

OS X Mountain Lion Bible – Review

It’s encouraging for the Apple community that new books on new Mac operating systems appear regularly, and in quantity, each time a new OS release appears. During Apple’s less successful periods you struggled to find more than a handful of decent explorations in print of arguably the most elegant and robust OS for any desktop computer. Now there are several dozen. Galen Gruman’s “OS X Mountain Lion Bible” is one of the best for 10.8′

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