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emmastory writes "When I mentioned this book to some of my friends, the response was usually either 'Doesn't the iPod come with a manual?' or 'Does the iPod even need a manual?' There is, in fact, a little CD-sized booklet that comes with the iPod, and it's true that you probably don't need much more than that if all you need to know is how to turn the thing on and play a song. But one of the great things about the Missing Manuals series is that while they tell you everything a manual ought to, they also tell you an awful lot that a manual never would." Read on for the rest of emmastory's review of iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition. iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition author J.D. Biersdorfer pages 349 publisher Pogue Press/O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596006586 summary An inexpensive way to get the most out of your iPod

For example, if you ask someone (like an Apple store employee) how to get MP3s off of an iPod and onto a computer, they'll tell you that the transfer is only supposed to go the other way. The idea is that you're not supposed to be able to just collect the entire music libraries of anyone who happens to drop by your home with his or her iPod. Of course, it turns out that there are plenty of legitimate scenarios in which you might want to be able to get your own music off of your MP3 player. (I certainly intend to rescue my music from my iPod should the external drive that's currently holding my files ever give up the ghost.) The Missing Manual, on the other hand, devotes several pages to detailing the various ways you can go about accomplishing the unspeakable act of iPod-to-computer copying.

And additional content isn't the only thing you'll find in this book -- there's also a significant difference in the depth and helpfulness of the respective texts. I'll compare their coverage of a common question among new iPod owners: what's going on when the iPod screen always says "Do not disconnect"? Here's the answer as given by the iPod User Guide:

Important: If it is not safe to disconnect iPod, a message on the iPod screen says "Do not disconnect." Don't disconnect iPod if you see this message. You could damage files on iPod. If you see the "Do not disconnect" message, you must eject iPod (see page 22) before disconnecting it.

Apple's apparent fear of possessives and articles aside, this is pretty much as bare-bones as you can get. It tells you one thing you can do if you're seeing this message, but not why it's happening, or what to do if ejecting the iPod doesn't make it go away. Here's an answer to the same question in the Missing Manual:

If you've turned on the "Enable disk use" box in iTunes' iPod Preferences panel, the "Do Not Disconnect" message appears on the iPod at all times. You have to unmount the iPod from the computer manually to make it go away (see page 215).

Even if you haven't set up the iPod to work as a FireWire disk, its hard drive may not have spun down properly. If it's stuck in a loop, the "Do Not Disconnect" message may also appear. Try clicking the Eject iPod button in iTunes, or dragging the iPod icon on the desktop to the Mac's Trash, to see if you get the "OK to Disconnect" message. If that doesn't work, try resetting the iPod as described on page 46 and then try ejecting it.

Note: If you live in a cross-platform household and have both Macintosh- and Windows-flavor iPods lying around, make sure you're plugging the WinPod into the PC. Macs are generally friendly towards PC-formatted 'Pods, but not vice versa. Mixing them up can lead to several error messages, including the "Do Not Disconnect" message (even as the computer won't mount or recognize the iPod) and the "This iPod is linked to another Music Library" message.

(Note that I plucked that answer from the iTunes troubleshooting section - there's also a similar response in the MusicMatch section.) I don't know about you, but this strikes me as infinitely more useful and enlightening than the User Guide's response (no offense to Apple's technical writers intended). And of course there are questions answered in the book that aren't addressed at all in the User Guide, nor on Apple's site.

There are plenty of other things that you'll find in this book that you might not already know, and that you certainly won't find in the included booklet - like information about the iPod on Linux Project, or descriptions of a number of different shareware and freeware programs you can grab to enhance your iPod. You'll find tricks to extend your battery life, ways to make the 'Pod behave even more like a PDA than it does by default, and how to boot off of your iPod should the need arise. Of course, it's true that you can find a lot of this on the web by yourself without having to pay for a book, so part of your decision about buying it will depend on whether you care more about spending $24.95 or saving yourself some time.

If you're wondering whether it's worth buying if you don't use Mac OS or if you have an older iPod, rest assured - coverage of all the different iPods is included, and there's material on both versions of iTunes, as well as MusicMatch for Windows. There's not a whole lot about using an iPod with a *nix box, although the topic isn't completely ignored (as you might expect). There's enough about the iPod itself that Linux users wouldn't be making a mistake to pick it up. On the other hand, it's probably not worth buying if you don't have an iPod and are just curious about iTunes. But iTunes is covered in almost every general Mac book out there, so you're not totally out of luck if that's the case. For most iPod owners, though, this book is a great and inexpensive way to get the most out of your new best friend (as long as your new best friend happens to be an iPod).

You can purchase iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

emmastory writes "The Nutshell series includes some of the most well-worn and useful technical books I own, and Cocoa in a Nutshell is one of the newer Mac-related additions to the collection. If you're familiar with the format of the series, probably the biggest question you'll have is whether or not this book is as good as the other Nutshell handbooks - the short answer is Yes, it's just as good as its predecessors." Read on to see the logic underlying that conclusion, in the rest of Emma's review. Cocoa in a Nutshell author Michael Beam, James Duncan Davidson pages 545 publisher O'Reilly rating 8 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596004621 summary A good overview of the language and API reference.

Cocoa is a great thing to learn, and if you've got some relevant experience with other languages, this book is a great way to learn it. It's one of the Apple Developer Connection recommended O'Reilly titles, and comprises a complete and thorough reference to the language that most Cocoa developers will appreciate.

I say most Cocoa developers rather than all of them because this is of course a Nutshell handbook - it's not intended to serve as a step-by-step tutorial for those without any prior Cocoa or object-oriented programming experience (for that, there's Learning Cocoa with Objective-C). Readers completely unfamiliar with the language may find the book a little bewildering, it's true. However, that's not to say you need to have already mastered the language before picking up the Nutshell book - the first part contains quite a decent introduction, and if you're already familiar with something like Java, this will probably be all you need. I have a couple of years of experience with C and Java myself, and although this was my first Cocoa book, I didn't feel lost when reading the book's first half.

Coauthor Michael Beam notes that "The 'In a Nutshell' format had always been a very efficient means of communicating information, particularly for more experienced developers. Cocoa is a very verbose and wordy API; that is, the method names are long and can have many arguments. It is often the case that a developer can be moving along in his code, and he knows what method to use, but can't remember the precise syntax. This book seeks to provide a quick way to look up that syntax." I think that's a goal it achieves admirably, and as long as readers are aware they're buying a reference and not a gentle introduction to programming, they won't be disappointed.

It's primarily the second half of the book that serves as a complement to Apple's documentation for the Foundation and AppKit classes. Apple's Cocoa site is better than it used to be, and it does include a basic API Reference along the line's of Sun's site for the Java API - you can use it for the kind of syntax-checking Beam is talking about, and many developers do just that. If you're already in the habit of looking things up on the Apple site, the API documentation in this book won't change your life. I prefer it to the web version, partially because there's slightly more explanation of the various classes, but not everyone will feel the same way.

So, who should buy this book? The intended audience is pretty much the same as that of the other programming-related Nutshell books. If you're completely new to programming, don't bother. You'll be much better off starting with something that assumes no knowledge of programming concepts and skills. On the other hand, if you're an experienced Cocoa developer who'd rather use Apple's Cocoa site than shell out for a book, there's really no reason to do so. But plenty of people don't fall into either of these categories. If you've got some OOP experience, and especially if you've already fumbled your way through a little bit of Cocoa but would like to learn more, you'll find the overview section very useful and the reference section convenient. (It's probably also worth noting that, at least at the moment, Amazon is offering Cocoa in a Nutshell for $15.98, down from $39.95. Even if you're not totally convinced it's worth forty bucks, it's definitely worth sixteen.)

You can also purchase Cocoa in a Nutshell from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page

emmastory writes "It shouldn't really surprise anyone that David Pogue has once again produced an unqualified success in the third edition of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Since OS X came out, I've read and reviewed some dozen Mac books, but when it comes time to pick a single volume to recommend to friends making the switch, I invariably choose Pogue's. It's true that OS X beginners can understand it without any problems, but that shouldn't suggest that it's somehow too simple for veteran users - it's just that the text is exceptionally clear, meaning that even beginners won't find it too scary or confusing. While other books are bigger (Mac OS X Unleashed) and others are written specifically for a more advanced audience (Mac OS X Power Tools), the Missing Manual is the best all-purpose book on the subject, and one that should be in the library of pretty much anyone who runs OS X." That answers the question of "Did she like it?", but read on for the rest of Emma's review, including a mini-interview with David Pogue. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition author David Pogue pages 763 publisher O'Reilly/Pogue Press rating 10 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596006152 summary A must-have manual for Panther users

As I see it, there are really two groups of people who might be wondering whether or not they ought to buy Pogue's new Panther book: Mac users who own a previous edition of the Missing Manual, and those who don't. For the latter folks, the short answer is Yes - you should buy this book. And for the former, the short answer is Probably. Keeping in mind that all the various online retailers offer significant discounts on the book, and that you can also get 30% off if you've registered a previous edition with O'Reilly, it's going to only wind up costing you about twenty bucks, and it's definitely worth it. The text hasn't just been updated to reflect changes and new features in Panther - it's also been updated to reflect reader feedback on previous versions, including things like more information for people migrating from Windows, and mini-manuals on some of the iLife applications. There isn't a single page that hasn't been changed from the Jaguar edition of the book (and there are over seven hundred pages).

Some of my Mac-using friends have told me that they haven't picked up anything from the Missing Manual series because they're under the impression that they're basically novice guides. This is both right and wrong: it's absolutely true that beginners will get their money's worth from a Missing Manual and that they won't get lost in an abundance of overtechnical discussion. The part that isn't true, however, is the implication that these are books only for beginners. I've been using Macs for over ten years now (and various Unix-like systems for five), but my copies of the Missing Manuals get dog-eared and underlined more than any other technical books I own. One of the reasons I'd dispute the claim that this book isn't useful for advanced users is that sprinkled throughout are dozens of little productivity notes -- a keystroke here, a shortcut tip there -- and this is the stuff that I, at least, really get off on, while it seems like novice users tend to be content with straightforward dragging and double clicking. I dive into Part One ("The Mac OS X Desktop") with my Mac in easy reach not because I don't know how to minimize a window, but because I had no idea that (for example) there's now a Finder keystroke to jump immediately to the parent directory. That's not to say topics typically associated with power users aren't given their due, though. Even people who know their Unices (and Unix workalikes) will probably welcome the coverage of NetInfo Manager and other OS X oddities. If you find yourself stuck on some particular topic, chances are it's covered here. It's not by any means an exhaustive guide to BSD, but it's a good way to get started with Darwin. I end up using this book often enough that it has its own place of honor on top of my G4 (my other Mac books are also nearby, of course, but they're not necessarily quite so handy).

Aside from the little-bit-of-everything approach, one of the most refreshing features of the Missing Manuals series remains the writing itself - surprisingly readable, often funny, and rarely confusing. These are some of the few technical books that I'm willing or able to read cover to cover, and some of them I've even read in bed or on the subway. As for specific parts and chapters that stand out from the rest: the new mini-manuals dealing with iLife applications like iTunes and iPhoto are a welcome addition. They'd been more or less ignored in previous editions of the OS X book, since they've got their own books, but the Panther edition introduces a section on each to get you started. Another of my favorite portions of the book is the addition of Appendix F, the Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List. It will take a while before I'm able to memorize all of them, and in the meantime it's great to have them all collected in one place.

As for bits I didn't like? Well, I was going to complain that as someone who owned a previous edition of the book and who just upgraded to Panther, it would be nice if the "What's New in Panther" section in the Introduction were a little more fleshed out, so that I would know immediately everything that had changed. But after playing around with the new OS and reading the rest of the book, that wish seems a little impractical - after all, every page in the book had to be changed, so the entire thing is really about what's new in Panther. The section at the beginning covers the biggies (like Expos and the new security features), so that's probably all it really needs to do.

It's probably pretty clear by now that I liked the book, but I still had a few questions about Panther in general and the Missing Manual in particular. Lucky for me, David Pogue was willing to answer them for me - and here they are, in case you're wondering the same things I was:

ES: What are a couple of your favorite new Panther features?

DP: I'm just nuts about the secret buried just-for-fun features: the secret graphing mode of the Calculator; the choice of surface textures for the pieces in Chess (including Marble and Jaguar Fur!); the way you can Option-drag in Preview to copy only one column of text without snagging the adjacent column in the process. These are the kinds of grace notes that really distinguish the Macintosh from the more boring operating systems.

ES: Anything from Jaguar or earlier that you particularly miss?

DP: ALMOST all of the stuff that disappeared from Mac OS 9 has now come back into Mac OS X: labels, the clean install, spring-loaded folders, randomized desktop pictures, and so on.

A few niceties still haven't returned, though. Occasionally I miss the Put Away command, SimpleSound (for quick and dirty sound recordings), and the ability to encrypt a folder on the fly without leaving the desktop.

ES: Do you think that Apple's decision to more or less give up on writing their own manuals is a wise one?

DP: Well, as someone who's making a living filling the gap Apple left behind, obviously I have a vested interest in this point.

But the truth is, a lot of people never crack software manuals--I'm told this over and over again by software makers--and they are expensive and, more to the point, time-consuming to create. (Translation: Once the product is ready, the company wants to SHIP it--not wait around for manuals to be printed and bound.) And Apple certainly isn't alone in eliminating paper manuals.

For myself, yes, I rather wish my software programs came with printed manuals--they're infinitely superior to online help. Whether it's "wise" or not depends on whether you're a shareholder, programmer, customer, product manager...

ES: For those just switching to Mac OS from Windows, should they go for Mac OS X: The Missing Manual or Switching to the Mac? (Or both?)

DP: At this point, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition. Because I haven't yet updated the Switching book to reflect Panther.

ES: What's another Mac book you'd recommend?

DP: There are many books that pick up in technological depth from where mine leave off. For example, if you're interested in digging deeper into the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X, I hear great things about Mac OS X Unleashed. And if you want to become a Mac OS X programmer, of course, the whole O'Reilly line of Cocoa, Unix, and Java books await.

The bottom line: if you're a Panther user, you should probably pick up this book. You'll definitely be getting a lot of bang for your buck, even if you think there's nothing you don't know about Mac OS X.

You can purchase the Mac OS X: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

emmastory writes "'Expert Dan Frakes toiled endlessly with OS X so you don't have to,' proclaims the back cover of Mac OS X Power Tools. Not to be confused with the O'Reilly power tool books, this is a recent Sybex title. Frakes assures the reader that anyone who's ever touched a computer before can make use of this book, and that even the most experienced user will find something new and exciting. Is he right? Maybe." Read on for the rest of emmastory's review. Mac OS X Power Tools author Dan Frakes pages 607 publisher Sybex rating 7/10 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0782141927 summary A solid OS X title that covers its bases.

Here's the thing about book reviews: They're a lot easier to write when you either absolutely hated or absolutely adored the book in question. Once you've decided how you feel about it, it's easy to find a dozen examples of its mediocrity or excellence, as the case may be. However, I've been sitting on this particular review for a few weeks now, unable to finish it because I can't say that I feel very strongly at all about Power Tools. I recently decided, however, that being unable to form a definite opinion of it one way or another is itself a kind of opinion. There's nothing glaringly wrong with it or missing from it, but when it comes down to whether I'd choose to buy it over a different Mac book, I can't say that I would. I realize that this isn't a work of fiction -- its goal isn't exactly to suck me in with thrilling plot twists so that I read the whole thing cover to cover in one sitting. Nevertheless, there are some other books out there that do exactly that (I'll get to them later), and I think I've been spoiled by reading them.

What I Liked
Power Tools covers its bases in a thorough, informative way. It's a solid OS X book, intended for anyone who understands the very basics involved in using a Mac. The author makes very clear early on that he's not intending to show you how to log in, or how to launch an application, but that's about the extent of the proficiency required, I think. Frakes seems to understand his audience and to address it consistently, which is rare enough to be refreshing. One of my pet peeves in technical writing concerns authors who can't decide who they're talking to -- sidebars for beginners and power users are great, but when the body of the text itself waffles back and forth between skill levels, it can be both frustrating and confusing. This is a trap that Power Tools sidesteps completely: At the beginning of each section, you'll find a couple of lines telling you whether an Admin account is required for the techniques described, and whether the changes being made are system-wide or will affect only your own account. Mac OS X Hacks (which is, incidentally and confusingly enough, the Mac equivalent of O'Reilly's classic Unix Power Tools) uses a similar system to introduce each of the hacks in the book, and it's a practice that I'd like to see used more widely.

Favorite sections: Although certainly not the meatiest bits of the book, I thought the quick-reference keyboard shortcut and third-party utility lists were great, and I've used them fairly frequency since Power Tools took up residency on the shelf over my desk. As far as the more substantial content is concerned, I'd have to say Frakes's coverage of Classic is probably one of my favorite chapters -- oddly enough, since I never use Classic myself. That's part of the reason I liked his section on it, though: it does a good job of explaining why you'll want to avoid Classic whenever you can, while also pointing out some ways to make the best of it if it can't be avoided. The list of startup files necessary to use Classic is a good reference for folks who'd like to clean out their old System Folders without crippling anything. And of course Frakes's experience managing and troubleshooting OS 9 comes in useful here -- he points out classics like Conflict Catcher that users shouldn't be without if Classic is used with any degree of regularity.

Chapter 14, covering maintainence and administration of a Mac running OS X, is also full of sound, reasonable advice. Disk care and repair as well as how to recover lost data and prevent such mishaps to begin with are all covered thoroughly and intelligently in this section, as well the whys and wherefores of backups. Nothing surprising, perhaps, but nothing that should be left out of a decent Mac book, either.

What I Didn't Like
Although this is purely a matter of taste and I'm aware that there are many people who disagree with me, I just don't like Frakes's writing style. I have enjoyed some of his columns in the past, but it seems like his humor falls more than a little flat when stretched out over the course of a book. The alliterative titles were amusing for the first one or two chapters, but "Apple-ication Aptitude" is pushing it just a bit, I think. Although I realize that the first priority of a technical book is not to entertain its readers, exactly, is it too much to ask that it enthuse us? I was already interested in OS X before reading Power Tools, but I didn't find anything to excite me -- how would a new Mac user fare?

My least favorite chapter was probably Chapter 6, "Developing a Dynamite Dock." Despite Frakes's promise to assume that the reader is familiar with the basics, there's still the inevitable trot through the relevant Preference panel. Some good third-party software like Tinker Tool is discussed, but there wasn't anything that surprised me in this chapter.

The Bottom Line
This is a perfectly adequate OS X book, and you wouldn't be wasting your money by buying it. Indeed, if you're already a fan of the author, you should probably do exactly that. For me, though, while it does a decent job of accomplishing the tasks it sets for itself, the book just never quite cuts it for me. The bottom line is really that if I had enough money to buy only a single Mac book, this wouldn't be it. I'd spend my forty dollars (or so) instead on either Mac OS X Unleashed or Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Frakes actually recommends the latter as an alternative for absolute beginners who would be lost in his own book, but don't make the mistake of thinking it's just for novices. It really is a complete OS X manual, covering topics for users at every skill level. As for Unleashed, I've reviewed this book already (more recently than I have the Missing Manual) so I'll just say that if you want a Mac book so complete that it will introduce you to web programming so you can use that default Apache installation, then that's a book you should consider. While I would prefer either one of these books to Power Tools if I were only able to buy one, it's also true that I'm not sorry to have added it to my collection (since, like most people, I'm not limited to one book per subject).

And Furthermore
Dan Frakes is a generally beloved Mac writer and developer and, my ambivalence about this book aside, his stuff is worth looking into. He contributes to the "Mac OS X Secrets" column in Macworld and is also involved in the 9th edition of the Mac Bible. His personal site is danfrakes.com, and the site for this book is at macosxpowertools.com.

You can purchase Mac OS X Power Tools from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

emmastory writes "The New York Times is running a story on the phenomenon of lecture hall back-channeling - now that many conferences and universities have wireless access, some people discuss lectures via instant message or weblog as they happen. Although the article quotes an instructor at NYU, I haven't seen much of this in lectures I've attended there. I would guess it varies from department to department, but laptops aren't yet as common in classes as one might think. Either way, some people consider the practice rude, others consider it progress, and good arguments can be made on either side."

emmastory writes "The New York Times is running a story (free registration required) about a new development at Amazon - they plan to assemble "a searchable online archive with the texts of tens of thousands of books of nonfiction." Users would only be able to read a certain portion of the text from any one book, but it sounds promising nonetheless. The Times article suggests that this is part of a larger strategy to compete with Google and Yahoo by making Amazon an authoritative source of information on everything book-related."

emmastory writes "Mac OS X Unleashed is not a pocket guide. It's more of a massive tome than anything else - at over 1500 pages, it's probably the heaviest technical book I own. (And that's including Deitel & Deitel's C: How to Program.) Since Mac OS X Unleashed describes itself as 'a complete guide and reference for Mac OS users,' my biggest question when approaching the book was whether this is in fact the case. It seems like if you're going to shell out for an OS X book of this size and price, then it should ideally be the only OS X book you'll have to buy." Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd Edition) author John Ray, William C. Ray pages 1560 publisher Sams rating 7/10 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0672324652 summary A massive book that aims to be a complete OS X reference

What I Liked
There's no shortage of good things about Unleashed, but the best is probably that the authors assume, for the most part,that you already know how to use your computer. Although there are many good books out there for those new to Macs, this is not one of them and does not try to be. That means that if you've already achieved a basic working knowledge of Mac OS, there's still well over a thousand pages of information intended especially for you. A line from another review of Unleashed (posted anonymously on Amazon) that rang particularly true after reading the book: "If you're looking for a book that says 'this is called a mouse' and tells you where to find iTunes in order to click on it, or drops the bombshell that command-p will print in many applications, you don't need this volume, but if you want to get your hands dirty, it's an excellent resource."

However, I can understand that many people do want the basics in an OS X book. In fact, another Amazon reviewer makes this very point: "Coverage of the iApps is far less than it should be, and there isn't enough information for a novice user like myself. I thought the author spent far too much time on the UNIX and Terminal side of Jaguar and not enough on the real-world tips that I've found in other books." Still, I personally don't really see that as a problem. There are plenty of real-world tips as long as your real world involves a shell, and if there's one thing I've never needed a book for, it's the iApps. In fact, I've always found it irritating that other OS X books spend so much time on them. But that's me, and I'm not everyone.

There were several sections of the book that surprised me, including the chapter on web programming. It makes sense, though - the book is intended to "unleash" OS X, after all, and OS X does come with an Apache installation (even if System Preferences calls it Personal Web Sharing). Given that every OS X box has a webserver, it makes sense that many OS X users would want to know more about related topics. In fact, the chapters that focus on system and network administration comprise a pretty thorough introduction to the BSD side of OS X, and were fairly impressive. These were my favorite sections of the book, probably because they're topics rarely dealt with - or at least rarely dealt with well - in Mac books.

What I Didn't Like
The book suffers from some minor issues typical of most massive technical volumes - it's informative, but also dry, dense, and not terribly readable. Also, while I appreciate the depth and scope of the book, it is a little unwieldy. This isn't something you'll be reading in bed or on the subway. It's not a cheap book, either - its list price is $50. These problems are neither hugely important nor terribly surprising, but they're also not inevitable - reference texts can be thorough without being dull, it's just that this one happens to be both.

Probably the only other real complaint I have with the book is that at times it seems as though it can't decide who its audience is. As I mentioned above, one of the things I liked about Unleashed was that most of the book seems firmly aimed at the intermediate to experienced user. And yet if that's the case, then the chapters that cover things like Desktop Accessories (Calculator, Clock, Key Caps) seem out of place. It doesn't seem like the introductory material offered in the book would really be enough to serve as a tutorial for an absolute beginner (as evidenced by complaints like the one I quoted earlier), but at the same time it's difficult to figure out who else would need it. However, I'm not suggesting they skimped on advanced topics to squeeze in inappropriate Clock coverage - if there's one thing this book has, it's plenty of everything.

The Bottom line
I believe that Unleashed does live up to its title, and does a good job in the process. It's not an introduction to OS X - it's about getting more out of your system after you've already learned the basics. It doesn't (usually) try to be a beginner's book, but a quick-learning novice would probably do fine with it, and any moderately experienced Mac user will probably find that it serves his or her purposes effectively and efficiently. If given the choice (and funding), I'd probably still go with a couple different books, but I think Unleashed has in fact reached its goal of being a complete guide to OS X. You could do just fine with only this book, and at $50 it may be cheaper than buying a couple smaller books separately.

And Furthermore
Other reviews and sources of information on the book:

• Review at macosxhints (from whence another Mac book, incidentally)
• Review at osnews.com
• Review at mymac.com
• Epinions page for the book, which as it turns out isn't all that useful
• Amazon's page for the book, including many customer reviews

You can purchase the Mac OS X Unleashed from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

emmastory writes "Mac OS X Hints is a brand-spanking new O'Reilly book containing over five hundred 'power tips' and tricks for (amazingly enough) Mac OS X. The tips are culled from the website of the same name, written and maintained by Rob Griffiths. The book is edited by David Pogue, of Missing Manual and Pogue Press fame. It's 461 pages, list price is $24.95, and the O'Reilly catalog page (containing samples from the book) is right here." Read on for emmastory's review. Mac OS X Hints author Rob Griffiths pages 461 publisher O'Reilly/Pogue Press rating 8 reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596004516 summary The perfect sequel to the Missing Manual, this book contains 500 tips for OS X

Addressing the Obvious

The most immediate question I had when I heard that O'Reilly would be publishing a book containing hints from macosxhints.com was, of course, Why I should get the book when the hints are already on the site for free? Both the author and the publisher also thought of this, understandably enough. Here's how Rob Griffiths answered the question in a post on the site, when the book was first announced: "The book isn't just a 'cut and paste' job from the site-to-print form. Every hint was rewritten and retested from scratch, and hundreds of screenshots were added to help clarify and explain the hints. In addition, many of the scripts and programs posted here are included (the author of each program was contacted for approval to include their original work in the book -- thanks to each of you for agreeing!)."

The response included in the O'Reilly press release for the book is along the same lines: "'The 500-plus hints in this book are based on tips published in the Mac OS X Hints web site,' explains Griffiths. 'But it's not just a rehash of what's there. Every hint has been rewritten, expanded, organized, indexed, tested for compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X 10.2, and in many cases, illustrated, making the book an even better resource than the web site."

So the question then becomes: is this really the case? Are the differences between the hints as posted on the site and as printed in the book really significant enough to merit shelling out $24.95?

The short answer is that, in my opinion, the book is worth its price. The long answer is (predictably) a little more complicated. There are, of course, people who are more than willing to do the extra digging on the web to get the relevant content for free -- they'd rather do without the little perks (increased readability, revision, testing, screenshots) than spend potential beer money for a glossy O'Reilly book. And that's fine -- I'm more than sympathetic with this position, being frequently hard up for beer money, myself. But of course there are also people for whom the convenience is just as important as the cost, and who consider the price of the book well worth it in terms of the time saved. If you fall into the former category, don't bother buying the book -- but then, you weren't going to buy it anyway, were you? As for the latter group, rest assured that your investment will not, in this case, be wasted.

What I Liked

I've read several other books on Mac OS X. The one I believe everyone should start with is still David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual . If you've already read this book (and enjoyed it) or didn't read it but are confident you've already got the equivalent experience, then Mac OS X Hints is a good next step.

Griffiths assumes you're comfortable using OS X for basic tasks: he doesn't tell you how to log in, or what the Dock is. If you're fuzzy on those kind of basics, you're not quite ready for this book (but you're positively crying out for a copy of the Missing Manual). Additionally, he pushes some not-entirely-obvious processes to the introduction, so you don't have to read the same instructions over and over in the meat of the book itself. After all, once you've been told the first time how to view the contents of a package, you're probably all set in that regard. This is one of the aspects of Mac OS X Hints that I found most appealing, actually - Griffiths just explains in the beginning that he's assuming certain things, and then doesn't bother dumbing anything else down.

I've been a fan of macosxhints.com since I first installed OS X, but it seems like Griffiths's style has really improved for the book -- this may be a function of Pogue's role as editor, as the writing in Hints displays the same familiar, comfortable tone while not skimping on depth or details. Like other books Pogue has been involved in, this one is highly readable but not oversimplified.

It seems like the revision process the hints went through during their transition from site to print has been pretty successful, as well -- despite being familiar with the site, there was a great deal of material in the book that I had never seen, even after reading other OS X books. Additionally, the testing involved in the book's creation removes a great deal of the frustration inherent in the site. As much as I like the site, there have been several hints that have mysteriously declined to function on my own system for whatever reason -- but everything I've tried from the book worked without a hitch.

I also enjoyed the fact that this book, like Mac OS X Hacks , is made for sampling. Each article is short and to the point, and while related hints are grouped by chapter, no single tip depends on the reader having already performed one of the others (unless otherwise specified). You don't have to read the book cover to cover -- you can flip around at will without getting lost.

Incidentally, another plus is that 15% of all Griffiths's profits from this book are being donated to the Doernbecher Children's Hospital. That in itself isn't a reason to buy the book, but it's good to know.

What I Didn't Like

If I can be nitpicky for a moment, I was bothered by the frequency of purely typographical errors. Little things like "than" being used instead of "then," or the bottom edge of a line in a sidebar getting cut off. It didn't keep me from enjoying the book, and I'm sure it's the sort of thing that will get corrected in future printings, but this sort of error occurred often enough that I noticed it, anyway.

Another little thing: I wish URLS had been included whenever a third-party shareware program was mentioned. Of course I know I can Google for DragThing and find it immediately -- but if I'm paying for a book, it seems to me that I shouldn't have to.

There is also the fact that this book is undeniably a book, and that limits it in certain respects (at least when compared to the site). The index is comprehensive and useful, but it's just not as useful as the ability to search the entire text of the book. It's also inevitably dated to a certain degree -- new hints posted to the site, even if they're infinitely more fabulous than ones already present in the book, just won't show up in print for a long time to come. Similarly, if a new version of the OS breaks one of the hints, you'll be able to find out somewhere on the web, but it won't be immediately obvious when you're just reading the book. Of course, these are problems shared by all print technical books, and not just Hints.

One final note: there's a lot of overlap between this book and Mac OS X Hacks, although each book has a significant amount of unique content. If you own one, you probably don't need to get the other, but it's difficult to say which I'd buy if I had to choose. Hacks contains only 100 articles, but they're more in-depth and the tasks they cover are often trickier or less obvious. Hints contains over 500 tidbits, but they're much shorter and often deal with things like key commands that allow you to increase your efficiency, and things of that ilk.

The Bottom Line

If you're the sort for whom time is at a higher premium than money -- maybe you're the kind of person who would buy a boxed *nix distribution instead of downloading it -- then I'd say go ahead and get this book. It's well worth its price as long as you understand that what you're paying for is ease of use and reliability, as well as content. If, on the other hand, you're living on Top Ramen for the foreseeable future, you're probably better off sticking with the site. If you do buy it, I think you'll find it will make a happy addition to your bookshelf -- stick it next to the Missing Manual and dip into it whenever you're sitting through an install or reboot.

You can purchase the Mac OS X Hints from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

emmastory writes "I finally (finally) picked up Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. I've been meaning to grab it since I first heard that David Pogue wrote a book on OS X; I've been a fan of his for a while. I remember reading his stuff in Macworld -- on System 7, even -- when someone gave me a subscription (many) years ago, and his New York Times columns have generally been pretty good as well." Update: 03/25 16:43 GMT by T : Ha! The original headline was missing OS X's "X" -- now in place. Read on ... Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Second Edition) author David Pogue pages 712 publisher O'Reilly and Associates/Pogue Press rating An excellent book that merits its title. reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596004508 summary An intensely thorough look at using OS X, updated to include Jaguar.

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual is exactly what you'd expect if you've read any of Pogue's other books or columns: it's clear and straightforward without seeming dumbed down. His writing tends to be fairly light and often funny, making for particularly readable technical books. That's not to say it's without substance, though -- within the first chunk of this book (which is pushing six hundred pages) I'd already had a dozen of my existing questions answered as well as plenty I hadn't even thought to wonder about.

It seems pretty definitely directed at people who've been using Mac OS for a long time and are switching to OS X. Given what OS X is, it's not surprising that it takes some getting used to, despite vaguely looking like Mac OS. If you've never used OS 8 or 9 and don't have any existing Mac habits to unlearn, you might not even need a book like this -- but I suspect it would still be pretty useful. Pogue also takes time to address issues people might have switching to OS X from Unix or Windows, but the focus is on comparisons to older versions of Mac OS. As the title implies, Apple documentation tends to be slim to non-existent, and this is by far the most thorough OS X book I've seen yet. It functions exactly as promised -- I keep my copy on the shelf over my desk, and when I have a question about something I remember from OS 9 or why something I know from BSD doesn't work under 10.2, I can just look it up.

The second edition is more of the same -- the book is bigger, fatter, and covers Jaguar. It was published in October 2002, so it's not quite up to the minute, but it's certainly not outdated yet. I shelled out another twenty bucks when I first saw it, and I don't regret it -- the only major complaint I'd had about the first edition was that its usefulness was somewhat impaired when 10.2 came out. It's possible I'll feel the same way about the second edition when faced with 10.3 -- but maybe Pogue will write another book.

I would recommend this book for just about every OS X user, regardless of how recently you switched -- people who installed it back during the public beta will probably get just as much out of the second edition as those who just bought their first-ever Mac. However, you'll probably find it more useful if you're coming from older versions of Mac OS than if you've just switched from another Unix or Windows, but that's not to say it isn't worth reading in those cases. It's relatively cheap for an O'Reilly book (712 pages, list price is $29.95) so you can't really go wrong.

You can purchase OS X: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.