Editorial Review

Apple's iPad is the perfect personal media center. It lets you search the Web with WiFi, helps you stay in touch with its built-in email application, and allows you to read books, magazines, and newspapers in full color. You can also play games, listen to music, watch videos, view photos, and create documents, layouts, and slideshows with iPad's iWork suite.

With iPad: The Missing Manual, learning how to use this new device is a snap. The clear step-by-step instructions, undocumented shortcuts, workarounds, and lots of practical timesaving advice help you learn each feature and application -- presented with the renowned Missing Manual wit and easy-to-read format.

• Learn how to shop in the iPad's integrated, custom-designed bookstore
• Use its full-color, large-screen eBook and ePeriodical reader
• Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with the iWork "lite" productivity suite
• Use iTunes to organize and manage media files
• Get connected to the Web with built-in WiFi and the Safari browser
• Orient yourself with the iPad's GPS and map technologies
• Locate and download custom-built games
• Use the iPad's built in email, calendar, and contact applications
• Run any and all iPhone apps on the iPad

View Pictures on Your iPad
By J. D. Biersdorfer

To see the pictures you synced from your computer, tap the Photos icon on the iPad’s Home screen. Then tap the Photos button at the top of the screen to see your pictures in thumbnail view, filling the iPad screen in a grid. If you chose to copy over specific photo albums, tap the name of the album you want to look at. Mac syncers can also tap the Events, Faces, or Places button to see photos sorted in those categories, as page xx explains.

On the thumbnails screen, you can do several things:

• Tap a photo thumbnail to see it full-size on the iPad screen.


• Double-tap an open photo to magnify it.


• Spread and pinch your fingers on-screen (those fancy moves described in Chapter 2) to zoom in and out of a photo. Drag your finger around on-screen to pan through a zoomed-in photo.


• Flick your finger horizontally across the screen in either direction to scroll through your pictures at high speeds. You can show off your vacation photos really fast this way (your friends will thank you).


• Rotate the iPad to have horizontal photos fill the width of the screen or to have vertical photos fill its height.


• With a photo open, tap the iPad’s glass to display a strip of itsy-bitsy thumbnails of all the photos in the current album at the bottom of the screen. Tap or slide to a thumbnail to jump to a particular picture.

When you tap the ^ icon in the menu bar, you can set a photo as wallpaper, assign a picture to your iPad’s Contact’s program, send a pic to MobileMe, or start a photo slideshow. To get back to your library, tap the Photos or album-name button at the top of the screen.

Email Photos

If you want to share your photographic joy, you can email one or a bunch of pictures right from the Photos program:

• One photo. To email the photo currently on-screen, tap the iPad’s glass to make the photo controls appear, and then tap the ^ icon in the upper-right corner. Tap the Email Photo button. The mail program attaches the photo to a new message, ready for you to address.


• Multiple photos. To email a bunch of pictures at once, tap open the album containing the photos. Tap the ^ icon in the top-right corner and then tap the pictures you want to send (blue checkmarks appear in the corner of the thumbnails to show you’ve selected them). Tap the Email button to attach them to a new message. If you have a draft message in progress, tap the Copy button, then switch to the mail program, open your message, and hold down your finger until the Paste button appears. Tap it to paste in the pictures.

Delete Photos

You have two ways to delete photos from your iPad. If you synced photo albums from iTunes, connect the iPad to the computer, open iTunes, hit the Photos tab, and turn off the checkboxes by those albums. Click Apply and then Sync to “unsync,” or remove, those pix from the iPad’s gallery.

If you have pictures in your Saved Photos album you want to ditch, you can delete a currently open picture by tapping the T icon and then tapping the Delete Photo button. To delete multiple pictures from the Saved Photos thumbnail view, tap the ^ icon, then tap the unwanted pictures to assign the Blue Checkmarks of Selection. Tap the small red Delete button on the top-left side of the menu bar. There’s a blue Cancel button on the other side of the menu bar if you change your mind.

Reviews

Great for beginners!, July 7, 2010
The extensive features in Apple's newest creation, the "magical" iPad, deserve this new book in The Missing Manual series. In addition to its paperback version, iPad: The Missing Manual is available from the publisher, O'Reilly, in four different electronic media versions including ePub. This reviewer downloaded the ePub version to the iPad in order to read it there while exploring the very device it described.

A veteran author of books in The Missing Manual series, Biersdorfer, a New York Times tech columnist, provides clear, detailed explanations and helpful illustrations of the iPad's many features in a very readable, often entertaining way.

Experienced Apple users and iPhone users will find much of the text very elementary (e.g., "Turn the iPad On and Off" and "Find the Home Button," in Chapter One). The five chapters devoted to the multi-media iPod functions of the iPad, music, videos, audiobooks, podcasts, photos and the newest addition, books, will be very helpful to those who come to the iPad without any prior experience with Apple products. But for those who have used a Mac, an iPod or an iPhone even for a short time, they seem superfluous. Not only do all these Apple devices have an easy and intuitive user interface, but also they are similar.

Justifiably, an entire chapter is devoted to the newest feature on any Apple device, books. Helpful sections on how to find books in the new iBookstore and elsewhere, ways to make the reading experience pleasant (changing font size, searching within a book, using bookmarks, etc.) are included in Chapter 8.

Owners who rely on the iPad as a productivity tool will welcome the chapters on email, the internet, and the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). There are many useful explanations and tips such as "all the programs in the iWork suite can export files as PDF documents [and] can export files in their native iWork formats...[but] although Pages can export to the native Microsoft Word .doc format, Numbers and Keynote can't export their contents as Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint files. Yet, anyway." Important information to know--and not obvious.

A very helpful feature of the ebook version of iPad: The Missing Manual is that tapping on any entry in the Table of Contents and/or the Index takes the reader immediately to that precise point in the book.

iPad: The Missing Manual will be most valuable to those with little or no previous Apple device experience. Nonetheless, even those who have used Apple products for years will find insights and tidbits that make using the iPad a more productive and pleasurable experience.

Kindle version needs work!, July 15, 2010
However great the iPad is, and however much you like the Missing Manuals series, don't buy this book in the kindle format until it is fixed. I downloaded the kindle sample, and was shocked by how badly formated this version is. The figures are all mixed up, the cover is missing, symbols seem to confused with figures, single paragraphs can take up entire pages, etc..

Before you buy this book for the kindle, try the free sample and see if you have the same problems I had.

I even tried reading it on the Kindle for iPad app. The colors looked nice, but the formatting was just as bad.

Not the value of previous books by Pogue and company., July 26, 2010
iPad, The Missing Manual (May 2010 First Edition) by J.D. Biersdorfer with David Pogue doesn't hold up to the usual standards of the Missing Manual series published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

The book attempts to cover the latest and greatest from Apple, Inc, the iPad. While it follows the previous format set out by Mr. Pogue it lacks the value of previous titles. Ms. Biersdorfer seems to have taken much from the earlier work entitled: iPod, the Missing Manual. The reasoning is pretty clear. Once you've learned a skill on the older iPod it translates immediately to the iPad. With the possible exception of button placement everything is very similar. Her coverage of the iPod was considerable and here she struggles to define the uniqueness of the iPad over the iPod.

She does cover almost everything the beginning user will need to operate the iPod. If you are totally a novice in regard to Apple's iPods then this may help. I doubt, however, there are that many folks who have not experienced the iPod before purchasing an iPad. Therefore if you have purchased the Missing Manual for the iPod you will find it difficult to justifying purchasing the iPad book.

There were opportunities for improvement that could have made this book more productive. The mere mention of supportive programs like HandBrake do not suffice. A small tutorial on use of programs that are integral to fully benefiting from the iPad would have been nice. A section on best applications would have helped. Suggestions on alternatives to Apple accessories would be most useful and help defray the cost of the book too.

Unfortunately, opportunities did slip by and duplication of information from other books were the hallmark of this work. The new knowledge could have been better contained as a website update or pamphlet added to the back of the iPod book. Equally disconcerting the information may prove to be completely out of date by September when Version 4.0 of the software arrives from Apple.

Probably a waste of money, though there are some nuggets, September 3, 2010
I've not been a huge fan of the missing manuals series. I wouldn't say I dislike them or think they are useless, but I'm just not the target audience. Odds are you may not be said target audience either.

Before continuing check:[...] odds are whatever you were hoping for from this book has been addressed by Apple's Supplied Manual.

So who is the target audience? I'm an IT professional, I work primarily on Linux servers and know painfully little about Windows desktop computers. I use a Mac for most of my work/day for the last ~3 years, and have yet to hit a real wall on Windows (though mostly I'd install Linux if it came to that). I bought the OS X missing manual for 10.5 and found a few nuggets of useful information which I mostly don't use because that isn't what I use the computer for anyway.

If this sounds somewhat familiar in theme, this book may be for your relatives, whom you help because compliance is quicker than resistance followed by compliance anyway. So, they have little incentive to look in the book ... so ... not them.

I've had my iPad for 2 very busy weeks at work and here is what I got out of the book:
- Google Maps: I was missing how to switch map view. Once i found that I didn't know what "traffic" was. This is covered in two paragraphs (maybe 1?).
- 3G & WiFi - turn off what you don't need to save power.
- Bluetooth headphones - make sure they are stereo.

What I felt was missing:
- keyboard shortcuts: for the external bluetooth keyboard ... that info is quick to google anyway, but ... why isn't it here?
- deeper information.

The iPad is an appliance, you are locked in and really there is not much freedom in how you use it. Given the competing devices don't exist (Samsung's Galaxy tablet was announced the week I'm writing this) and IOS 4.2 is apparently going to be the first version for iPad is due in November, not much is going to change here. The user interface is easy to use and Apple has made sure of this. Criticisms here are not with the (apparent) lack of a manual, which this book addresses, but with Apple's practices and frankly if that is what upsets you, you don't need help to drive this product, and likely you don't buy an Apple product.

So who would benefit from this title. My parents probably wouldn't. They got their first own computer about 2 years ago. There are occasional questions but they seem to actually try to work out solutions, so odds are they'd not have any show stoppers of problems. So, again, who would benefit:

If the person in question has never used an Apple computer proficiently, and they are likely to look up their question, this book is for them. Alternatively, if they've never used a computer and don't know the associated lingo, then they need to read (or at least attentively browse) the book cover to cover and they will be learn. Odds are they will enjoy the read, if they want to learn that is.

This book is a reference and as the title implies, it should have been in the box. But really it was, go to [...] I would estimate at least 80% overlap. This book is not bad. It is well written and organized, and tries to anticipate real world needs. This is obviously great, but ... I doubt that's worth their asking price. Also, significant portions are dedicated to Pages, Keynotes and Numbers, which are not installed on the iPad by default anyway.

Add to that, that IOS 4.2 and above will likely change a few of these things, and more importantly ADD features that weren't there, which means this book will be out of date before 2010 is over.

Ultimate reference, December 4, 2010
If you are searching for a fairly complete and detailed iPad manual, this is it. If you want a quick reference with tips, don't choose this book. It is more detailed with lots of information and therefore is not a quick and easy reference guide. However, I love it and found it very useful.

Hit's the mark for a new user, November 12, 2010
The entire "Missing Manual" series is dedicated to providing a solid users manual for a given product. This one is dedicated for the iPad and it does a very good job at providing a broad overview of the device, it's software, and basic functionality.

If you are an experienced iPhone or iPod Touch user you will not find a lot of value with this book. If you are new to iOS devices or are buying one for some then this book is a great starting point.

The chapters are organized to progress you through the usage of the device. The earlier chapters walk you through the iPad itself while the later chapters cover how to work with it.

The only criticism that I have is that I wished the author would have include a chapter regarding things you can't do or can't do very easily with an iPad. Topics like printing, website downloads, and other are thing real people will run into and need to know where they can go or what are the limitations.

An Ongoing Resource For New iPad Owners, November 6, 2010
Apple electronics owners are keenly aware that Apple devices seldom come packed with a useful operating manual; instead, they usually have a short "how-to-turn-on" the device and instructions to refer to online operating information. The Missing Manual series is a very useful and meaningful addition for Apple newbies and the "iPad" addition to this series provides an excellent how-to reference work characterized by clear, concise, easy-to-understand instructions supported by hundreds of photos of screen shots useful in its explanations.

Apple devotees understand that ease of use and intuitive interfaces and software are a hallmark of Apple products. Certainly Apple regulars or Apple iPhone users will quickly adapt to the iPad interface. This manual serves to assist first timers or simply those who want to fully experience the Apple product without unwittingly "missing" a key activity or action that was not discovered by experimenting with it. I have the missing manual series for all my Apple products and find them useful not only in learning about my new device, but also as a bookshelf resouce for questions that may arise later.

Whether a newbie wanting information about how the iPad functions, accessing iTunes, exploring the iPad's music/photo/video capabilities, or most any other introductory aspect to owning and utilizing this creative Apple product, the reader will appreciate the ongoing utility of this manual. True, it does not offer much new material for long time Apple users and/or "techies" but there appear to be a number of useful "nuggets" for them also. Recommended for those who miss having an operational manual accompany their purchases.

Perfect Companion Gift For iPad Owners, August 3, 2010
I love the title of The Missing Manual for this line because it's so RIGHT. The whole line of books scales the spectrum from good to amazing. I have yet to read a single Missing Manual book that I didn't think was as advertised. This book is no exception as you will learn to get the most out of your iPad, from watching videos to buying stuff on the app and book store to everything in between!!

The iPad is a "game changer" piece of hardware and this book is the perfect companion for anyone that finds this under their Christmas tree from Santa Claus. You will be happy you did!!

***** RECOMMENDED

Better than a Manual, July 15, 2010
I have not read very much in iPad: The Missing Manual because my wife is reading it. My wife will not read, or even look for answers to questions in, computer books because they are written by computer people in a language that she cannot understand.

iPad: The Missing Manual is different. It is not like computer manuals. It is written by a real writer, J. D. Biersdorfer, in sentences real people can understand. It even has a touch of humor. For example after explaining how to edit a Safari history list so that you understand what it is and how to edit it, she adds, "Congratulations. You have just rewritten history!"

Contrary to the myths, not everything about iPad is intuitive and obvious. As an example, editing and reorganizing bookmarks is easy to do, but not obvious until you do it. With iPad: The Missing Manual learning to do it is easy, fast, and even enjoyable.

My wife likes her iPad. She is learning how to do more with it, and how to get the most out of it by reading iPad: The Missing Manual.

She sometimes asks me computer questions, but she does not ask me iPad questions. She knows I have not read yet iPad: The Missing Manual.

iPad Missing Manual, October 5, 2010
Great little book with lots of great info. Ordered the book before I purchased the iPad! Got the iPad on the run picked it up on Monday, leaving for Italy on Saturday and knew how to use it. Lots of little tips that would not known otherwise.

Well worth the money - easy to read and great layout. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A fantastic Snow Leopard Resource, October 18, 2009
I love the Missing Manual series by David Pogue and have been waiting for the release of this version.

As with all of the Missing Manuals, this book is very well arranged and readable. You needn't be a complete techie to enjoy Pogue's writing style and the index and appendices are very helpful in locating exactly what you need.

Snow Leopard brings about little tweaks in Apple's newest OS and this Missing Manual explores them. The changes are not large changes, but they are there. I sold my Leopard copy and upgraded my Mac and book to Snow Leopard. Do you need this copy of the missing manual if you already own David Pogue's Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual? Probably not unless you really like to get underneath the hood. If you are starting afresh with the new OS version, this new copy is the way to go. If you own the Leopard version of Pogue's book already and you only use it for an occasional reference here and there, you will probably do just fine. All in all, dollars very well spent.

The Best Mac OS Manual, October 22, 2009
This is the best Mac OS X Missing Manual ever because it has Snow Leopard Spots that describe new Snow Leopard features where they are appropriate throughout the book. They add new information and interest, increasing the appeal of the book.

How quickly you can find the information you need, assuming you can find it, is an important criteria for a good manual. Mac OS X Snow Leopard The Missing Manual is well organized with an excellent index and appendix. It took almost no time at all to find the answer for one of our user group members who wants to record radio music in iTunes. A highlighted Gem In The Rough about the Internet Radio and Podcasts said, "There is no easy way without add-on software."

The Mac OS Missing Manuals have been best selling Mac books in part because the the illustrations and text work together to help you do things.

For example, in the chapter about the new QuickTime a small paragraph tells you how to record sound through a microphone. Right next to it an illustration shows you the drop down menu used. I had no problem following the instructions to record my voice. However, I could not record the sound of the radio playing in iTunes by placing the speaker in front of the microphone. The horrible sound verified that, "There is no easy way without add-on software."

Mac OS X Snow Leopard has all the Notes, Tips, and humor that we expect in David Pogue's Missing Manuals. It is comprehensive and eminently useful as a reference to find what you need when you need it, and for learning how to do things in Snow Leopard. It is so well written that, unlike most manuals, you will look forward to reading more.

Some of you may also want tutorials with step by step instructions to create specific products. Others may want books on special topics with more illustrations.

For example, this book provides all the information I needed to make a movie of my MacBook screen complete with my vocal narrative. It even advised me to use my earphones to adjust my voice level. However, a special lesson could reduce the amount of experimentation and practice it will take to really do it right.

However, tutorials and collections of special lessons cannot provide all the information we need and that can be found here. We need a manual.

Thankfully, the manual was not in the box because we have Mac OS X Snow Leopard The Missing Manual by David Pogue instead.

Got-it-all followup to the Leopard book; fresh material added as needed, October 26, 2009
As a VISTA-phobe Mac switcher, no one did a better job than Pogue at making me feel at home with Leopard. He's done it again for Snow Leopard -- where eye candy was sparse, but getting the OS ready for the future was the driving force, as well as much needed updates of the standard apps to enhance performance. Outwardly, Snow Leopard is no avalanche, hence much of the book is an updated quality rewrite of the Leopard book; but where it counts -- as in describing the newly streamlined Automator -- the author maintains his outstanding track record of clarity and humor.

Thinking it was little more than a cleverly promoted Leopard version update, I installed Snopard upon release ... what a mistake! Frequent failures in opening or closing files, inability to send mail and constant crash reports made me hold on to a reserve Leopard drive - if only to get the email out. Many (but hardly all) of these glitches were corrected by the 10.6.1 release; although importing and saving files with Adobe products remain daily crash report events [feels like a beta tester!]. No way was I going to let Snopard take over until I had it checked out by Pogue. As a measure of my confidence, Pogue gave me the lowdown (and the courage) to do a surprisingly simple 'Clean Install' of Snow Leopard after a 2-month wait, letting go of Leopard's security blanket, and allowing the (yet imperfect) beast to take over as the OS for my computer.

The dauntingly-sized book may seem overwhelming at first, but the author has that rare gift of simplifying daily operations, yet provide all the detail that more advanced users demand. The chapter on Automation alone is worth the price of admission; with the drastic makeover of "ImageCapture", now serving as a frontend image collector within Automator, I would have been lost. Also, I feel reassured that some of the 'bugs' aren't Apple's so much as third party providers', and that Apple will address remaining incompatibilities with the Finder; moreover, as recommended, even with 8MB of RAM, the 32-bit kernel mode seems more stable than the 64-bit mode - at least for using non-Apple software.

Overall, this book comes as close to being the definitve guide to Snow Leopard as can be -- both for newcomers and for oldtimers. Highly recommended!

Kindle Version a Circus of Confusion, July 25, 2010
Looked at the contents book was well written, then purchased the kindle version. Kindle version doesn't really include a table of contents, for whatever reason they rewrote the contents pages and now looks like it was written by a 5 year old.

I contacted David Pogue, he wasn't aware of this, and submitted it to his publisher, who states that Kindle can make some changes, but why they would change the contents page which is the most important part of the book, is beyond me.
So I just have to meander around to find things.

David's great, his publisher was very nice to take the time to answer my e-mail. I just don't recommend the Kindle version right now, buy the full book, which is worth 5 stars, just not the Kindle Version, which was hacked together poorly.

Great book, November 6, 2009
This is a great book with a ton of info on most of Snow Leopard. I'm an experienced Mac user, and was initially worried that the book might be a little too introductory for me, but it's not. I jumped to SL from Tiger so I was looking for something to give details on the new features. In that respect, the book delivers. It also gives all sorts of tips for almost every program included in OS X. I was a little disappointed that it didn't include coverage of iPhoto (IMO because he wants to sell iPhoto Missing Manual books), but beyond that it's pretty comprehensive. Perhaps a little too comprehensive actually; he includes a Unix crash course chapter that IMO is likely to give users just enough rope to hang themselves. But overall it's a solid title that I'm glad to have on my shelf.

A complete and comprehensive guide to Snow Leopard, November 2, 2009
What we have here is another book in the Missing manual Mac OS X series. Pogue continues to write these books with humor making what would other wise be fairly dry reading easier to read. Mac OSX Snow Leopard The missing manual is easy to read and understand, A combination that can be hard to come by in technical manuals written for everyone from the average user to the Mac geek..

As with all of the other books in the Mac OS Missing manual series Pogue covers iDVD, iMovie, Garage band, Spot light, iCal, iChat, Dashboard, iTunes, iPhoto, iSync and all of the more then 40 other applications that come with Snow Leopard in complete but concise detail.. Pogue also goes into great detail about the functions and utilities of the operating system.

What the reader also gets with this book is a good understanding of how the operating system works. The reader gets a lot of screen shots the assist them in following the tutorials and will assist the reader in doing things like installing printers, putting your Mac on a network as well as figuring out how to work each application. Pogue goes into some detail about how to use these applications that might not be immediately apparent to the user.

There are some informative side bars in the book. One is called "gems in the rough" that walks the user through using keyboard shortcuts as an alternate to using the mouse. "Up to speed" walks the user through finding things faster. FAQ's. "Power Users clinic" This side bar walks the users through things like creating their own icons to how to more effectively search and run queries based on specific criteria and doing more granular searches then using Spotlight by it's self. "Troubleshooting moment" fairly self explanatory it details how to recover lost files, passwords etc..

Pogue also covers running Windows on Mac since you can now do that on the Intel based Macs. Pogue covers how to complete a task on the Mac environment and then how to complete that same task on in the Windows environment. The users gets a little bit of an idea on how to create web pages using cascading style sheet using TextEdit.

Using security settings Pogue does a good job of describing how to customize your Mac based un user profiles and user groups i.e. parental controls, access to the web, access to applications ( this works nicely if your trying to keep your kid off of iChat.. Pogue walks the reader through creating these and then modifying them to suit the users needs. Pogue give the reader and idea how to setup a firewall to allow or dis-allow certain types on network traffic access to your computer.

All in all a very comprehensive book. Everyone from first time Mac users to Mac pros will find this book of great value.

Typical Pogue, November 21, 2009
I upgrade my OS every time a new one comes out & I immediately order the new "Missing Manual" for that system. Pogue thoroughly explains Snow Leopard yet keeps it simple as you want. You can glean the basics or get "down & dirty". Not only that, he writes with great humor. I highly recommend this book whether you're a newbee or an intermediate user.

Another hit in the Missing Manual series, March 18, 2010
As a long time Windows/Unix user who converted to MAC OS for home use with Tiger, I've found this book to be a helpful reference. The index is extensive and the content pretty exhaustive at over 800 pages. I have personally used this twice recently. Once I needed to recover/reinstall the OS as a result of a bug while upgrading a synch'ed Ipod Touch. The instructions on troubleshooting and installing were just right for me as an intermediate user.

I also consulted this as I was setting up SSH to connect to some Windows based machines for small business development. I felt the manual was a bit shortsighted since it only addresses supporting remote connections to your Mac and not using your Mac to remotely connect to other machines (w/o tunneling in via a VPN). However, this topic is on the edge of what I think is appropriate for an all-in-one book like this so I don't consider this to be a big issue.

If you are relatively new to Macs or you have been using them for a few years like me and would like to get more out of them (and have a ready reference for troubleshooting common problems) I would heartily recommend this book. The readable style and humor are also welcome additions to keep the mood light and keep those non-geeks interested and learning.

Snow Leopard Missing Manual, November 23, 2009
Superb book: Comprehensive but clear. This is the one to buy if you want any more detail and breadth of coverage than you get in the "For Dummies" type books.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual, February 18, 2010
Although software manuals seem like the complete antidote to controversy or enthusiasm, the author is not a typical technical writer. David Pogue's increasing prominence and influence is starting to get him in trouble when he expresses opinions in periodicals about Macs and PCs.

Mac users are typically suspicious about operating system upgrades like Snow Leopard that result in all G4 and G5 machines losing technical support and can be wary of writers like Pogue who trumpet the change as a big improvement. A recent dustup in //The New York Times// forced an editorial clarification about his multiple status as a product reviewer, writer of computer guides and quotable computer pundit. Nonetheless, Pogue is eminently qualified to lead both computer novices and seasoned users around the new features of the latest Mac operating system, even if he sometimes seems a bit too enthusiastic about some of the latest improvements.

Pogue makes up for it somewhat by being so readable. Although it seems to nearly outweigh a MacBook, Pogue's book is extremely user friendly, and goes way beyond operating system questions to explain basics of the fifty pieces of bundled free software that come with Snow Leopard, as well as explanations of online Apple services like MobileMe. The book does not shortchange arcane subjects like networking with PCs, using Unix commands and utilities, debugging permissions, or troubleshooting web connections. It genuinely seems to have something for everyone who buys an Intel Mac.

Reviewed by Richard Tolmach ... Read more

Editorial Review

Based on Big Nerd Ranch’s popular iPhone Bootcamp class, iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide leads you through the essential tools and techniques for developing applications for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. In each chapter, you will learn programming concepts and apply them immediately as you build an application or enhance one from a previous chapter. These applications have been carefully designed and tested to teach the associated concepts and to provide practice working with the standard development tools Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. The guide’s learn-while-doing approach delivers the practical knowledge and experience you need to design and build real-world applications. Here are some of the topics covered:

• Dynamic interfaces with animation
• Using the camera and photo library
• User location and mapping services
• Accessing accelerometer data
• Handling multi-touch gestures
• Navigation and tabbed applications
• Tables and creating custom rows
• Multiple ways of storing and loading data: archiving, Core Data, SQLite
• Communicating with web services
• ALocalization/Internationalization

Reviews

Love it. I can't stop reading it, April 21, 2010
I love this book. I like the style and honesty of the author. Go right to the point. Is not boring. This is my 3rd iPhone Programming book. I love Jeff LaMarche too (It is also, a great intro to iPhone development). But, I think this one is less cluttered. I got the book yesterday (April 20, 2010). In two hours I read up to chapter 4 (I liked chapter 3 - Memory Management). Good introduction. The combination of XCode screen shots and UML charts are excellent complements to the text. I recommend this book (and Kochan, Objective-C programing book, latest edition) to anyone who wants learn how to program the iPhone. It is sad, that they don't have a chapter on OpenGL-ES, but it looks like the authors are planning to put together a book alone on this subject. I can't wait!. IMHO, Mr. Hillegas and his group, have (or has) mastered the art of communicating knowledge to the masses.

Top of the Heap, April 27, 2010
If you plan on picking up a book about iPhone programming, you've found the right one.

I have a *ton* of iPhone books (and programming books, in general), and this sits at the top of the heap. The book is easy to read and understand, and the code provided is reusable (bonus!). It's obvious the material is derived from an experienced team.

Ultimately I've found that I can "trust" the problems/solutions laid out in the book, since it's coming from The Big Nerd Ranch (search for it if you're not familiar).

5+ stars.

My 3 book recommendation for iPhone:
1) iPhone Programming (this book)
2) Programming in Objective-C (Kochan)
3) Cocoa Design Patterns (Buck, Yacktman)

One of the best programming books I've ever read, May 4, 2010
I move from software technologies almost yearly, starting with PHP to ASP.NET and now starting iPhone development, so each year is basically another library of books I have to buy to teach myself the language. I've read a ridiculous amount of computer books, ranging from the terrible (super boring, dense) to the insultingly easy ones (that basically treat you like a 4th grader learning programming.)

This, thankfully, is a fantastic mix of being incredibly easy to pick up and read, and also super informative. As far as iPhone development goes, this will be my 4th introductory book I've picked up, trying to get a handle on developing for the platform. The other books all typically tend to throw you into immediately coding, and never really actually explain why you're doing what you're doing, or make sense of any of it. Yes, this book does start off with an example chapter that you basically just copy word for word, but that's mostly to get your feet wet before actually digging through all the details and building your foundation.

In the first 3-4 chapters of this book, I already feel like I have a complete grasp on subjects that I did not yet understand from the 3 previous books I've read. I sort of had an idea why I typed '*' in front of names, or what @property (retain) statements meant, but I never fully understood what I was doing--it was mostly just "well, I read it, so it must be the way to do it." Basically, the other books got me about 75-80% there, but this one is 100%. The last 20 I feel is the most important, because that's when you finally begin to understand the concepts of the language, which let you move onto the more complex stuff with confidence.

Another reason I feel this makes a great coding book is the layout of each page. I can't tell you how important it is to present all that text + code in a meaningful, organized way. I've read some books where they just hit you over the head with instructions, with almost no visual clues and with fragmented code samples. But the pages in this book have plenty of white space per page, have plenty of illustrations and each code sample is commented (an appropriate amount) to give you hints as you're typing code as to what you're doing.

Finally, and thank goodness for this, the first example in this book that you write is NOT a Hello, World app :)

In summation, if you're like me and have started to read a few books (or maybe you haven't, I wish I could have started with this one) and are looking for a way to really feel confident with iPhone core concepts, then pick this book up and give it a read. I can't wait to get started on the many project ideas I have!

Misleading on OpenGL ES., May 26, 2010
The book promises "Dive into animation and effects, using Core Animation and OpenGL ES" but there is no OpenGL ES in the book. The authors state that they wrote a chapter for it, then rewrote it, then rewrote it, then decided to leave it out and put the information into another book.

The rest of the book seems like it is well written and gets to the point without a lot of fluff, but seeing as I specifically ordered the book for the OpenGL ES information then had to go through a return process because I was mislead by the publishers I cannot rate this any higher than a three star.

Beginners must buy and read and code, code, code!!!!, August 8, 2010
I picked this up as my first iPhone (Apple) Development book and I was able to get through it in less than a week (working only nights). It's a very easy, straight-to-the-point read and the samples are simple and really drive home the basics. After reading this book, you will want to delve into Apple's documentation more heavily before you start building apps or maybe pick up a more advance book, but this is a great start nonetheless.

I'm currently reading LaMarche's Beginning iPhone 3 Development and I can already tell in chapter 4 that it'll take me a while to get through this book. I enjoy it so far, but it's just a little more dragged out that BNRG's book.

Also, Hillegass is a bit of a purist, setting up non-templated projects and doing a lot of coding, almost avoiding Interface Builder, so you'll get to see how things really work and connect in MVC in Cocoa Touch. I think that's a great approach to teaching. After you learn the inner-workings of a programming language, you will be more comfortable using templates and code gens, then tweaking your code to make things work properly.

Bottom line, as a beginner, you can't go wrong with this book.

Cheers.

Decent IPhone Book, July 6, 2010
This is a good introduction on iPhone programming. It doesn't cover as depth as some of the other books on the market, but it doesn't waste pages on useless things. Overall, it is a good buy.

Great book, September 14, 2010
I'm going to start off with the fact that I NEVER write reviews unless I feel ripped off or deceived. But in this case I have nothing but good things to say about the guys at Big Nerd Ranch.

I'm not a programmer. I'm honestly have only the most basic tenets of computer science and programming. I took AP Computer Science in High school which gives me my amateur C++ background and an introductory Java class in undergrad which armed me with a basic understanding of the concepts behind object oriented programming. Beyond that I've never programmed much less even seen objective-C or interacted with the iPhone SDK.

But with only that, this book has been able to make me incredibly proficient at learning how to program the iPhone(so much so I feel confident enough to teach it to someone else). It's well structured, taking you from the basics and introductory projects to more complex ones. They do very well in explaining everything and when you're at a loss, one of the BIGGEST assets I find is the forums they have online in which the authors are very active in, fielding questions and giving hints. What's also really nice is that in addition to teaching, they also help you go that extra step by providing small extra credit problems to make sure the concepts and material are understood. But it's not a pure regurgitation of the material in the chapter. It requires digging through the developer documentation and a little independent thinking, helping you to learn to investigate the tools that you'll need to successfully write your own programs and helping you to think in a certain way to tackle the problems you'll come across.

I've tried at least half a dozen other books and they'be either been so rudimentary and poor at explaining that you feel like you're just blindly copying code or so haughty that half the time you know nothing about what's going on.

This book will get you confident enough to encourage you to go ahead and start programming your own projects, even if you're not a CS guy like me.

Best iPhone programming book for the slightly knowledgable, July 14, 2010
I've been casting about for the past year or so to learn Objective-C for Mac and iPhone programming, and to be honest I've gone through quite a few books. I've found almost all of them to be one of two sorts: those that think the reader is an absolute beginner (and do way too much hand-holding like screenshots that include arrows pointing to the right button to press-- that kind of thing), and those that assume I have already learned Objective-C in some form, and don't explain enough. So far none of the other books available have made iPhone programming 'click' for me.

Then there is this excellent book. The authors, who are also originators of an Objective-C training program, take you step by step through each project, not just showing what needs to be done, but going into just enough detail. In some cases, they ask you to enter code, explaining that some of it may not make sense YET, but that it will be explained later. In almost every chapter, you're given not just the regular project, but also a series of 'challenge' assignments that apply what has been learned so far (but that also push the reader beyond the regular book projects), as well as a 'for the more curious' section that explains various concepts in more detail.

The end result is an extremely satisfying learning experience. Without fail I have given the challenge assignments my all, to great positive result. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to learn iPhone programming, as long as you have some concept of programming to start with.

A more excellent iPhone Development book!, June 28, 2010
As I've attempted to learn my way around iPhone and iPad development, I've purchase a few books (as likely many others have). Many of the books are informative, and will walk you through creating some interesting iPhone applications, but in many cases, some things are just 'assumed', and aren't explained. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Aaron Hillegass at a conference where he was presenting a session on Cocoa, and then, had a chance to sit with him over breakfast. His teaching style and ability to capture the audience were amazing, humorous, and above all, informative. It was therefore with high hopes that I awaited the Big Nerd Ranch Guide to iPhone Programming, and I have not been disappointed . From the beginning, the authors inject just enough humor to keep reader interest, and lay solid building blocks to ensure a good understanding of what is going on in the process. Very little is taken for granted, and the result is an easy to read, easy to understand, and extremely useful guide.

While I would personally LOVE to be able to attend one of the Big Nerd Ranch training classes (ah... that $$ thing...), this guide is serving as a reasonable alternative.

You want to write iPhone apps? Buy this book., August 6, 2010
This is one of the best programming books I've ever read; in 30+ years of programming, that's quite a statement. This takes you step-by-step through all things iPhone, explains them thoroughly before going on to the next thing. You will not only be able to write an iPhone app when you're done with this book, you will understand how you got there. That's the whole ballgame. Thanks, Big Nerds! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Completely revised for Final Cut Pro 7 and featuring new footage from TNT’s hit show Leverage and the international music creation event Playing For Change: Peace Through Music, this best-selling, Apple-certified guide provides a strong foundation in all aspects of video editing. Renowned author Diana Weynand starts with basic video editing techniques and takes you all the way through Final Cut Pro’s powerful advanced features.

Each chapter presents a complete lesson in an aspect of video editing and finishing, using professional broadcast footage. After marking and editing clips to create a rough cut, you’ll learn how to trim and refine the cut before moving on to complex tasks such as adding titles, creating transitions and motion effects, applying filters, and working with multi-format and multi-camera footage. The book covers Final Cut Pro’s exciting new features, including iChat Theater support, the redesigned speed tools, and sharing projects on a Blu-ray disc.

•  DVD-ROM includes lesson and media files for over 40 hours of training

•  Focused lessons take you step-by-step through professional, real-world projects

•  Accessible writing style puts an expert instructor at your side

•  Ample illustrations and keyboard shortcuts help you master techniques fast

•  Lesson goals and time estimates help you plan your time

•  Chapter review questions summarize what you’ve learned and prepare you for the Apple Certified Pro Exam

Reviews

Coming from 4 years of vegas video this book has changed the way I work., October 9, 2009
I am already reasonably experienced with video editing in Sony Vegas. When I started using FCP7 I found accomplishing simple tasks was leaving me scratching my head. I decided to order this book from amazon to see if I could get some traction with this new suite of programs.

The book is well organized and does a good job teaching a workflow without just telling you to click one thing and another and then admire the outcome. The book begins with laying out a rough cut and refining it in the following chapters through various editing techniques all the way to project delivery. It maintains interest by changing the project media at the right time. It also does a good job of demonstrating multiple ways to accomplish the same result and giving examples of why one method might be more useful in certain situations. I found the illustrations to be very accurate and helpful.

The 4 video projects on the DVD are great to work with. There are 3 documentaries (Seaworld, music and nature) and one TV series (Leverage). The quality of the media is beautiful but not so perfect that it doesn't take a little bit of effort get results. This is one of the most effective parts of the exercises. It's clear when you preview the project that it needs improvement but it's the editing that makes the result satisfying not the fact that most anything shot on a Red One can look great.

I followed every chapter and performed all the exercises closely even when I already understood the concept being demonstrated. The chapters give a time estimate on how long they should take and personally it took me almost twice as long as the estimate in most cases. I think if I already new the software the estimates would be more accurate. By the end of the book I was coming closer the the stated times but it still took longer.

I thought the workflow and methodology of the book were so well organized that I have started applying the editing strategies into Vegas and learning parts of that program I never really used previously. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn editing on Final Cut Pro.

Superior training guide, September 22, 2009
The footage is really fun to work with. This book is a top-notch tutorial on FCP7; taking a powerful and complex software package and simplifying concepts and methods. It is well-written and well-organized with the learner in mind (instead of just unloading a lot of information on the reader). I wouldn't mind a few more images, but it probably has more than most. Best to have some computer and graphics background. Even with that, it is still taking me longer than the book promises, to go through it. But it is worth every penny; this book is a great value.

To quote a concise and accurate review of the FCP6 edition of this book:
"By Vladimir Nagorniy (Hollywood, CA USA) - This book actually teaches you efficient work flows. All lessons designed in a really smart way, so your progress is well guided. Makes you learn keyboard shortcuts. The footage was fun to work with (not the usual snowboarders and surfers). Highly recommended."

Hnads On, April 21, 2010
This book is fantastic for anyone who wants to learn more about the Final Cut Pro program. I Learned more than I thought I would in the first chapter, it has certainly increased my productivity with the quick-ness and smooth-ness that I can now edit video into a rough final cut sequence. I'm a big Hands On learner and this book catered to that style more than any other book I have read on Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro, October 19, 2010
This book is really helpful. It gives step by step activities in a way that is understandable to the reader. It comes with a cd with media and assignments for learning purposes. It's easy to understand. I am completely new to video editing, and was required to buy this book. It's only been a month and I already know my way around pretty well.

Solid training!, August 22, 2010
Very impressed with the thoroughness of this training book. I've been using Final Cut Pro for about a year and felt that I was not progressing in ability. Within 10 minutes of opening this book I learned 5 things that have made me faster and a better editor. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent Book, March 29, 2010
I love Diana's writing style. This book flows and is easy to follow, easy to learn. She covers all points excellently.
After stating a point or lesson, questions come to mind and it's as if she is reading my mind as she goes right on to answer
those questions. One of the best technical books I've read since 2000. Includes lots of clear color shots as she goes.

Final Cut Pro 7 By Diane Waynard, February 19, 2010
Very Well done. Interesting but sometimes a little difficult to follow. I would love to see the content of this book produced in a video format. Because video offers the student an opportunity to review audio and visual instructions.Therefore, faster learning and better comprehension.

Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 7, February 12, 2010
A very thorough review for the Apple beginning level exam. Includes a CD with excellent files. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Apple Certified Way to Learn

In the only Apple certified guide to iLife, the authors have you working wonders with iLife ’11 within the first few pages. Featuring compelling footage and images, this book/DVD combo uses real-life material and practical lessons that you can apply immediately to enhance your own projects. Focused lessons take you step by step through all aspects of iLife—everything from organizing and editing your photo library to creating polished movies and soundtracks. Along the way, you’ll produce movie trailers, photo books, soundtracks, and music and learn to publish and share your projects.

• Master the iLife suite of tools quickly through fun, real-world projects
• Fix, rate, and share your photos with friends and family
  
• Turn your photos into keepsake books and slideshows
  
• Create professional looking sports highlights from your home videos
  
• Learn to make a “Hollywood-style” movie trailer
  
• Play and record music with expert guidance
  
• Fix, arrange,and mix music like a pro
  
• Publish and share your projects with iWeb and iDVD

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

Reviews

A Good Start, March 11, 2010
I am a developer, but I know nothing about the iPhone or iPhone app development, so this book sounded perfect for me. It's a very quick read: I read the whole book (< 160 pages) on a 3 hour flight to Boston. The prose is clear with very little fluff, but did I learn much about iPhone apps with HTML, CSS and Javascript? This raises the big question that was not clear to me when I started reading: who is this book for? It is clear that this book is not for someone who has no prior knowledge of HTML or CSS, or JavaScript. The tutelage on HTML and CSS is razor-thin. If you do not understand these languages, your head will swim very quickly. I have worked with both languages for a couple years, and yet I felt pretty unsatisfied with the skeletal explanations of some of the examples. The Javascript coverage was even more spartan. I am not a Javascript person; I know just enough to tweak simple code I have found on the Internet. I have no clue to some of the book's example code and what it means. Overall, I found this book was not written to be a tutorial at all. It is a bare introduction to the iPhone environment for a developer who has considerable experience in these languages. And to Stark's credit, he does does state in the Preface that this book is for people with "basic experience reading and writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (jQuery in particular)". I was not aware of this assumption, so be aware that you may have some rough going. On the up-side, however, there is some very interesting material in this book. I did learn something about the iPhone development environment, and the iPhone style of presentation. Now I know to look into Cocoa, jQuery and JQTouch. I also have to credit Stark for exactly limiting his presentation to provide a development option to Objective-C and submitting to the Apple Store. His last two chapters really interested me. Using PhoneGap to convert an iPhone web app to a native app was pretty thorough. Doing this conversion makes two distribution options available to the developer. And once your application is coverted, Stark's last chapter on "Submitting Your App to iTunes" really tied together some loose ends for me. Overall, I found this little book pretty helpful. It may not merit a second reading, but I have to offer it this praise: it has given me a foundation to start learning more detail, including writing in Objective-C.

Gets around some of the ugliness of dealing with Objective-C, January 31, 2010
As an IPhone app developer you've probably found that Objective-C is difficult to learn, rather counter-intuitive in syntax, and not very useful outside of the Mac programming world. Also, trying to get an app into the App store is like dealing with airport security - byzantine rules unevenly enforced and guaranteed long waits. Updates also take long time periods, and if your updates are in response to bugs you can quickly get a bad rep as a developer. This book shows you how to use commonly and long-used web technologies to build your application as a web app, have it tested on the web where you can quickly make changes in response to bugs, and then when you are ready, the book shows you how to use PhoneGap to convert your web app to a native iPhone app.

This book assumes that you have basic experience reading and writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, SQL, and jQuery. The author has a very brief overview of these technologies in the book, but it isn't enough if you lack experience, and it is duplication of what you already know if you have experience. The book largely avoids the iPhone SDK but you will need access to a Mac for the material in Chapter 7 on PhoneGap. This is the chapter where the author shows you how to convert a web app into a native app that can be submitted to the App Store.

The book is short, but it is adequate and clearly written for the task at hand. I'd recommend it to anyone who is tired of dealing with Objective-C and is looking for an easier way to write and test IPhone apps.

Saved me hundreds of dollars, tens of hours, March 21, 2010
I have always used my iPod Touch religiously since the moment I got one. I've always wanted to build apps for it - but these were my obstacles:
(1) I don't have Mac OS
(2) I can't afford to invest hundreds of dollars into something I'm not sure is the right choice yet (Mac OS, Apple Developer program, books, etc)
(3) I build in VB.NET/ASP.NET, I use Visual Studio .NET. I curse them daily, but I like them.
(4) Have you heard what developers are saying about the App Store? It doesn't sound very friendly. I built apps on Facebook before, it doesn't feel that great to have a huge company telling you what you can and can't do. It's their right, of course, but an obstacle for me.

This book really surprised me - because it basically has the answers to the above obstacles. Namely, a web-based application approach. There are negatives, sure (I would say animation being the biggest one) - but the absolute beauty of this approach is that those negatives will eventually become less important over time. A big part of this approach is a reliance on open source jQuery plugins. Stark introduces these open source authors and projects succinctly and with full respect.

Before you go down the Objective-C route, give this book a shot. It made me seriously rethink a bunch of assumptions that I had made about an iPhone application. That alone was well worth price. Plus - look at what this book covers in the first few chapters, then compare that to the Objective-C/Cocoa books. This is a faster approach if you already have a web application in place.

On a side note, this books (with some tweaking) could make a good high school textbook. Teenagers today have a good grasp of HTML and CSS (see: Tumblr), and can be introduced to more advanced topics like jQuery and data storage if they see a benefit to actually learning it.

Limited information and already out of date., July 3, 2010
The book starts with a general overview of HTML and CSS and then explains how to use CSS, HTML and JQuery to target some of WebKit's proprietary calls to make Web Apps mimic native iPhone app look and feel. It also covers using HTML5 local storage. The last chapter explains how to use a new third-party (open source) PhoneGap SDK to convert your iPhone app to a native application.

So why two stars? Well, there are a few problems with the book. For starters, the pre-face and getting starting portion is not going to prepare anyone. If you don't have a foundation in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.. You're going to struggle with the content and the information in the first chapter is not going to be enough to help you. With the chapters that follow we get more step by step examples, far too much hand holding and NO SOURCE TO DOWNLOAD (this is unforgivable). Advanced developers will gladly pay for a book just to get their hands on the source and will learn quickly by reading the source code as opposed to reading the authors step-by-step instructions on how to write the source code. For all except beginner books, it's common with tech books that the source code is really what the reader is after and the book becomes a reference (as needed) for understanding the source code. This basic concept of tech book authorship seems to be missing here. This book is formatted as a beginners book but covers more advanced topic, this is a significant flaw in the approach.

Aside from my dislike of the authors approach, there are two other areas where I think this book should have been filled out a bit more. We get no information on using graphics. I know there are hundreds of books out there that cover graphics and animation with CSS/JavaScript, this author had an opportunity to give a chapter or two on this subject in the context of iPhone web app development; this is a huge opportunity missed. If you're looking to create a game app using the HTML/JScript stack to target iPhone this book will do you no good. With iOS4, Safari now supports a lot more of HTML5 which frankly changes a lot. It's not that the techniques covered in this book are all out of date, but there is a lot more that can be done now to make Web Apps mimic native iPhone apps. I realize tech books go out of date quickly, it's important you know this one has already been rendered obsolete in this way.

Finally, the last chapter covers PhoneGap. PhoneGap is an open source SDK that allows web developers to deploy their apps as native apps on many target mobile devices. In context of iPhone native app development, PhoneGap can only be used by developers with MacOS, XCode and the official iPhone dev SDK. It's useless to Windows and Linux developers for the purpose of creating native iPhone apps. Also, PhoneGap supports some really neat features like accelerometer events which this author does not even mention. This is another example of where if this book were just a bit thicker, it could have covered a lot more.

This is the first book I've purchased from O'Reily where I felt the book was a gimmick, written as an attempt to capitalize quickly on a hot subject matter. I can't think of any target audience that would really benefit here. I am very, very disappointed in O'Reily for allowing this one to get out the door. It's not that the author is incompetent, it's that he's not thorough on the subject and his book is not formatted for the advanced technical professional for which is was written.

The author does mention[...]. For the advanced developer (most people reading this book).
Download this library (currently in beta) and it will provide detailed examples of creating web apps the mimic iPhone look and feel. This free toolkit will quickly give you everything you need to know to do what this books aims to teach you and you will pay nothing for it.

[...]

A fine programmer's guide, June 15, 2010
Jonathan Stark's BUILDING IPHONE APPS WITH HTML, CSS, AND JAVASCRIPT offers a fine survey of mobile development tools and open source web technologies that can design and build apps for the iPhone and iPod touch without using Cocoa or Objective-C. Learn how to use various tricks to hook into advanced iPhone features with this fine programmer's guide.

Interesting, But Only Scratches the Surface, March 15, 2010
Developing web apps for phones is the simplest option, but when you get into frameworks like PhoneGap, you get additional elements of the phone's UI and API offered up to the web app for deeper, tighter integration with the phone.

Thing is the multi-platform framework space is *exploding*. Besides Phonegap, you've got Appcelerator Titanium, Rhomobile (with Ruby), the Flash CS5 iPhone packager that Adobe has in private beta (a friend of mine is a Flash developer and has been able to convert a number of his Flash games and get them into the app store), and more. The folks at FlyCast are about to open a service that converts, packages, and submits your apps.

There may be millions of iPhones, but there are also millions of Android phones, millions of Blackberry phones, and don't count out Palm, Symbian, or Microsoft. Once you get comfortable with the idea of creating phone apps using HTML and Javascript skills, start exploring the quickly expanding number of frameworks out there for packaging up and distributing your web apps to multiple phone platforms.

Everything you need to write an iPhone app in a well-written, concise book, March 7, 2010
Great book. I wish more authors had Jonathan's ability to organize and execute their material so concisely. Assuming very little, he provides exactly what you need each step of the way. If you do want more information or background, he explains how and where to get it without burdening the main objective of his book - which is to show you how to develop an iPhone app from the ground up. I am pleasantly reminded of Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" and its premise: Omit unnecessary words. The book may appear to be short, but that's really a testament to Jonathan's clear writing. A very enjoyable read as well.

Highly recommended.

Most Excellent, February 19, 2010
Building iPhone Apps by Jonathan Stark is the best book I have read on the subject of using Javascript, CSS and HTML to build an iPhone app. In fact, it is the only one so far that focuses on that, rather than just making this subject a section of the book. Furthermore, it's the first book that I know of to cover building an app for using PhoneGap to sell in the AppStore. The examples are good and concise, too.

At 166 pages, it isn't nearly as thick as many of the technical books in my library, but it says more than 98% of them, while making sure that you've got the foundation to build on before moving forward. One of the other reviews wrote that the book had a slow start. No, I don't think so - instead the author was making sure that the reader is on the same page before taking off.

In fact, that is probably the best thing about this book. It is concise, while trying to make sure that the reader is keeping up.

Highly recommended!

Ron Braithwaite

Start riding the mobile wave using what you already know!, February 13, 2010
When I got the book, I thought it was a little thin and wondered about it's completeness of topics. But Jonathan really only said what he had to in order to explain the topics. I now think the brevity is a strength and will help the lurkers come out from the dark and see how existing technologies can deliver cutting edge results.

If you have only HTML and CSS experience, get this book! He shows how to make web and stand alone apps using cool Javascript frameworks that do all the hard stuff for you.

And if you're like me, and learning Objective-C sounds about as appetizing as chewing on rocks, this book also will get you rolling on building your own apps for the iTunes store - but using HTML. Killer no?

Highly recommended. Great 'show me' style of explaining how the code works. No errors or mistakes in the code examples at all.

Great resource for web developers who want to write for the iPhone, February 12, 2010
This is a great overview of how to style your web site for the iPhone. It provides a basic introduction to HTML and CSS and covers some of the iPhone webkit specific CSS classes and meta tags. There is a brief introduction to the jQuery Touch JavaScript framework. The book also covers using the PhoneGap framework for writing native iPhone applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Some of the highlights of this book include a helpful Pro/Con list at the beginning to help you decide if learning Objective-C and using CocoaTouch to write an iPhone app is what you want to do. It would have been nice to also cover, or mention, the Appcellerator mobile framework to build native iPhone applications. There are two great chapters that cover using client side storage in your applications and also techniques for making sure your applications work when the phone is offline.

If you are somewhat familiar with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and want to write a web based iPhone application I would highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the newest version of the Macintosh operating system, and “Dr. Mac” Bob LeVitus is the ideal expert to introduce you to Snow Leopard. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies covers all the cool stuff and prepares you for the quirks, so whether it’s your first Mac or an upgrade, you’ll enjoy a truly rewarding relationship.

From starting up your Mac to setting up a network and keeping in touch via iChat AV, Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies gives you the scoop on the new features and improvements that help you do more work in less time.

• Learn when to shut down your Mac and when not to, how to secure it, and how to back it up with Time Machine
• Organize your life with iCal and your stuff with files and folders, and be able to find what you’re looking for
• Set up your Internet connection and e-mail, manage spam, surf with Safari, and start iChatting
• Download and organize songs, podcasts, and movies with iTunes and plan a playlist with Genius
• Create documents with TextEdit, print them, fax then, and make PDFs
• Set up a network and share files, printers, and Internet connections
• Find out about operating system updates, firewalls, troubleshooting, and other ways to keep your Mac safe, healthy, and happy

Technology columnist Bob LeVitus has been a Mac guru for nearly two decades. Mac OS X Snow Leopard For Dummies provides just what you need to get up and running with Snow Leopard. ... Read more

Reviews

New to Mac's, November 1, 2009
This book offers a beginners overview of the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Topics range from turning on the Mac to simple networking. Bob LeVitus does a great job touching upon most features of the new release. However the nature of the 'For Dummies' books are meant to be kept short and sweet. Some topics I felt could of been discussed in greater detail and some topics could of been slimmed down. He does constantly repeat that the built-in Help will answer most questions and that the Apple website offers a wealth of knowledge. I would liked to have read more on the security and less about the different ways to save a document. This book is very light on the technical workings of the operating system. Mr. LeVitus does include the keyboard shortcuts for everything though.

I am new to Mac's. I found this book useful. The chapter that discussed widgets I found was very informative. Two other chapters I thought were neat were chapter 22 - a list of useful Mac websites and chapter 19 - a brief chapter on how to troubleshoot hardware.

dumber for dummies, February 3, 2010
Usually the 'for dummies' series are good, clear, and easy to follow. This is an exception. The book starts off on a very beginners level, but once past the first chapter you will have many unanswered questions, and the text does not anticipate what your problems might be and supplies no way of tracing possible answers. A huge disappointment if you are trying to work out how Snow Leopard works.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Dummies, March 8, 2010
I have used many "for Dummies" books before and been very happy with them. I was disappointed in this one. It was not by the original author of many of the other books. I found it hard to follow because it didn't have many visual examples. I ended up buying the book "Teach Yourself Visually Mac OS X Snow Leopard," and found it much easier to follow. Diana E.

Good overview, expecting more, June 6, 2010
I purchased the electronic version of this book and it has a good overview of OSX Snow Leopard but frankly, there isn't any more in here than you could get for free from the Apple site.

Great Instruction and Reference Book, December 23, 2009
This book can be used as an introduction to the iMac operating system and also as a reference for later questions. I think it is easy to understand and has step by step suggestions and many illustrations, making it easy to learn the system. It would be nice if it was printed on higher quality paper, but then it would be more expensive. I would recommend this book to anyone who has purchased an iMac for the first time. It is basic and may not include everything the computer is capable of, but certainly is helpful.

good book, December 16, 2009
very good info,Ideal for everyone, not matter how good that you are on a Mac

Mac SL, November 30, 2009
My first experience in this century with a Mac. Good summry and jargon free directions.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Dummies, November 27, 2009
The book gave me some short cuts I would never had found on my own.

Snow Leopard for Dummies, June 25, 2010
A good resource but I had purchased Switching to Mac for Dummies and really didn't need both books.

Dummies Rock, May 3, 2010
There should be a Dummies University for people like me the Dummie's books make learning easy and fun. It is the one and only book you need to get the most out of Snow Leopard. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Covers iPad Wi-Fi and 3G

Step-by-step

instructions with callouts to iPad photos that show you exactly what to do.

Help

when you run into iPad problems or limitations.

Tips and Notes

to help you get the most from your iPad.

Full-color, step-by-step tasks walk you through getting and keeping your iPad working just the way you want. Lean how to:

• Connect your iPad to your Wi-Fi network and 3G networks

• Synchronize data between your computer and iPad

• Watch movies, TV shows, YouTube, or home videos

• Surf the Web and email

• Download apps to make your iPad even more useful

• Create documents and spreadsheets

• Build and display presentations

• Find locations and get directions

• Find the best games

• Connect keyboards, cameras, and external displays

Reviews

My iPad is an excellent resource manual, October 30, 2010
Reviewer: Clay Langland, Alaskan Apple Users Group Member
Product: My iPad manual for Wi-Fi and 3G
Company: Que Publishing
url: [...]
Contact for company: feedback@quepublishing.com
Price: $[...] for standard manual; other prices for web manual at various prices
Pros: Very adequately covers the vast majority of questions regarding the iPad, well referenced, Explanations with labeled pictures.
Cons: Hard to find anything adverse to say
Moose Rating: 5 of 5

Conflict of interest disclosure: Que Publishing provided a free copy of My iPad to me for the purposes of the review.

I looked at a couple of `help' manuals for the iPad before picking "My iPad" by Rosenzweig that covers the Wi-Fi and G3 model. What caught my interest initially in this manual was that it was filled with labeled, colored pictures referred to as "callouts." Maybe I'm just simple minded, but I believe in the old adage, `A picture is worth a thousand words.' The instructions are numbered and refer to an adjacent photo that is also numbered. This makes it so much easier to follow the instructions.

Also, the directions are specific and `to the point.' There is minimal author personal input and he doesn't waste your time with iPad or various application complaints. This is a time saver when all you want `are the facts.'

I think one thing that the user/reader of any instruction or teaching manual on any device should do is: 1) to separate the ability of the author to present useful information about the device from 2) the features that are available, or not available, in the device. For example, if one is frustrated that they cannot find an easy way to print from the iPad, one should not blame the author, but rather the (creator of the) device. This manual is ideal. It is all about how to work with the iPad with lack of complaints about what else could or should be included in an iPad.

Regarding specific manual content, the first 2 chapters deal with "Getting Started" and "Customizing the iPad." If you're reasonably acquainted with Mac devices, i.e., the iPhone or iTouch, these chapters can be skimmed over quickly. I did learn how to completely shut down the iPad here. Listening to the iPad making "bonk" sounds all night as e-mails came in was starting to drive me crazy.

The Table of Contents is separated into 17 clearly labeled chapters and is further divided into specific subtopics. I am not going to list them here. If you are looking for a particular area of help, I'm confident you will be able to find it fairly quickly as about all the different topics of the iPad are covered. The `Index' in the back of the book can also help you find specific information. Between the two search areas you should be able to find out how to do about anything. A minimal criticism here: It would be nice to have the page number in the manual of the subtopics, just for convenience sake.

Chapter 15 introduces you to several `Popular' apps as examples. Since there are tens of thousands of apps and everyone is different, probably the best thing to do is to go to the App Store on iTunes and start reviewing apps for your self.

I found one of the more interesting free `barebones' downloadable programs to be Dragon Dictation. I've tried using voice recognition in the past and wasn't real impressed with accuracy. Is the third sentence I dictated, it recognized osteomyelitis, meaning bone infection. On the other hand, it didn't translate a few words correctly later. To be fair, there is a voice training period that all systems require. Overall, I was impressed with the combination of the iPad and the program and glad the book recommended this program.

While there maybe another manual out there that will go into more depth on the subjects covered in My iPad manual, I found the level of information more than adequate. I think you'll be very happy with this manual.

My iPad, September 26, 2010
This is an excellent book to help a beginner with an iPad. I consider myself an intermediate user, and I also find it a useful resource. I follow Gary on Facebook and Twitter and always find his information useful. I also have his MacMost app on my iPhone and iPad. He does a great job.

BEST SMALL IPAD BOOK AROUND., September 17, 2010
I ORDERED THIS SMALL BOOK BECAUSE THE DIAGRAMS ARE CLEAR AND CONCISE.
THERE IS NOT THE USUAL BLAH-BLAH-BLAH... THEY GO DIRECTLY TO THE
MESSSAGE YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND, LARGER TYPE FOR OLDER PEOPLE, TOO!
GET IT... IT IS GREAT. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The only Apple-certified guide to Final Cut Express 4, this bookdelivers the techniques you need to make movie magic with DV, HDV, orAVCHD footage. Each chapter presents a complete lesson in an aspect ofvideo editing and finishing, with hands-on projects to complete as yougo. All the files you need are on the included DVD-ROM. You’ll learnhow to make effective edits and adjust them precisely; create polishedtransitions and sophisticated composites; add audio tracks, titles, andspeed and motion effects; then color-correct and finish your video forexport to DVD or the Web. Whether you’re a student, a devoted amateurwho’s serious about digital video, or a professional who needs acomprehensive editing program, you’ll find everything you need to learnFinal Cut Express 4 within the pages of this book. DVD-ROM includeslesson and media files for over 20 hours of training. ... Read more

Reviews

Indispensable Guide, February 15, 2008
When I upgraded from my old PowerBook to a new MacBook I was dismayed to find that a new version of iMovie came with Leopard. After reading disparaging reviews of iMovie '08, I decided to upgrade to Final Cut Express even though my video editing needs are rather modest. After installing the software and seeing that the PDF user manual was over 1100 pages, I knew I wouldn't have the patience to go through it all and I wanted to order something simpler. With FCE4 being quite new, the only choice immediately available was Diana Weynand's book and I ordered it. Now that I've gone through the entire book, I can enthusiastically recommend it. At first I was dismissive of the DVD that came with it, thinking that it would just contain video demonstrations of various editing operations. It turns out, however, that the DVD contains the material for methodical exercises that take you through various lessons so that the book is really an instruction course, not just a guide. Going through the lessons with the book and DVD is actually fun even though I may never use some of the advanced functions FCE4 offers. I believe that for relative beginners like me this book is indispensable. I confess that I will now go through it again to clear up some of the material I didn't quite understand or have forgotten. Also, there are some questions Weynand's book left unanswered for me, but having the background I gained by studying the whole book made it easier for me to turn to the actual user's manual that came with the software. I'm very excited about FCE4, and I owe a lot to this book.

Great Training From The Bottom Up, February 5, 2008
This training book covers it all. The enclosed CD also includes the lesson clips as well as advanced training. The book examples and screens match exactly with the software.

This is not a book to learn Final Cut Express in a couple of hours. Each of the 15 lessons takes 30-90 minutes but well worth it.

Copyright 2008, but content somewhat outdated, April 20, 2008
I received this book yesterday and so far I've only gotten through the first three chapters. But I have already found a few outdated statements. A few examples:
1) "HDV video formats record on tape....AVCHD formats, however, record directly onto disks or hard drives." No mention of memory cards or hybrid options.
2) Lesson Review question (page 30): "What kind of cable do you use to connect your camera to your computer?" Answer: "A FireWire cable."
No mention of USB; in fact, the entire section in chapter 2 covering connecting the camera to the computer only addresses FireWire.
3) The book says after launching the first time FCE looks for any FireWire devices and displays an error message if none are found. This didn't happen, at least not in my case, which makes sense since many newer camcorders don't have firewire.
4) When I opened the first project file (provided on the book's DVD) as instructed, FCE displayed a notice that the file was from an earlier version and asked whether or not to update it. The book doesn't even address this alert, leaving the user to wonder whether or not to select "Yes" or "No" to update the project file. Not updating all the files to version 4 (which they really should have done) is one matter; not even addressing the update prompt is even worse.

None of this is detrimental to my learning experience, however it is evident this is old material merely updated for the 2008 edition, and they missed a few parts during the updating process.

So far the book is VERY basic. I'm a long-time Windows user who just received my first mac about a week ago, and it is simplistic, even for me.

UPDATE: I've progressed through the first 12 chapters, and I'm beginning to realize this book is great for walking (crawling, actually) the user through using the software with the project files included on the book's own DVD, but not so great for real-life applications. For example, I've scanned through the remainder of the book and realized it doesn't eplain how to handle existing video files in different formats (AVI's, for example). FCE can do it, but this book doesn't cover it. I've quit reading the book and started reading the FCE4 User Manual instead. So far, it seems far more applicable to what I need to know; unfortunately, the FCE4 electronic user guide is over 1000 pages long --- more pages than I care to print.

If I could change my rating on this book, I would. It was a waste of money and time. Even for the basic material that is covered, the progression is at a snails pace; it could be much more concise and efficient. Even better, it could cover more useful territory by addressing real-life applications in addition to sterile made-to-order projects.

UPDATE 2:I decided to finish the book and have progressed to the "Appendix", the additional chapters available only on DVD. It is so cumbersome trying to learn this way - read a line, switch to FCE4 to perform the step, re-activate the Preview window to read the next step, reactivate FCD4 to perform it, back and forth, back and forth. See, this is why I actually BOUGHT A BOOK. So I wouldn't have to do this. There are plenty of tutorials on line. I paid money for a book for a reason - to spare myself such inconvenience.

One more thing: The last two chapters used terminology I hadn't seen before (keyframes, for example), with no explanation. However those chapters kept referencing the Appendix. I found explanations for those terms in the Appendix. It seems the Appendix chapters should be completed chronologically before the last chapter, making their absence from the book even more annoying.

P.S. Word to the wise: I sent an email inquiry to the author several days ago. Although I've yet to receive a response (and doubt I ever will), I have begun to receive spam emails from her company.

Very good, but be aware, February 4, 2008
The book is good, thorough and detailed.
But, the "juicy" chapters where Final Cut is outshining iMovie and the rest of the lower lever video editors are on PDF files on the DVD, not included in the book itself.
This is a small annoying item for an otherwise very useful book.

Very elementary, January 22, 2010
This book is pretty simplistic. It explains every little step in great detail, some of which most people should know already, simply by having used a Mac computer before. If you like to be guided by the hand, this is a good book. I was hoping for more on advanced editing techniques and things but so far no luck. Admittedly I've only gotten to page 137 or so but glancing ahead doesn't give me much hope for more than the basics of using the program.

I might not bother writing a review of this product if it weren't for my wanting to tell you where a really useful Final Cut Express learning tool can be found.

For video tutorials on Final Cut 4 look at the IZZY VIDEO website. This is also very easy for a beginner to understand, is a million times faster getting you up and using the software and also teaches some cool and useful effects.

Indispensable, July 1, 2009
Final Cut Express is easy to use, but only after you've overcome its steep learning curve. You could download the user manual (over 1000 pages) from Apple's web site. Or you could use an excellent do-as-you-read workshop book like this one. There's something to be said about following along in the actual FCE application as the book explains and teaches the various lessons.

As others have posted, it requires a bit of time to complete all lessons, and the appendices on the accompanying disc are invaluable.

This book will get you up and running in no time!, March 2, 2008
This book is a truly rare thing - a primer for a complicated and rich application which cuts through the BS and gives you a real, practical working knowledge of the program in a series of easy, brilliantly designed lessons. If you are new to Final Cut Express, this book will have you up and running in no time. It also gives you a good foundation knowledge of basic film technique, so that when you start shooting in earnest, you'll have an idea of where to go. Bravo Diana Weynand!

Learning Final Cut Express 4, January 18, 2008
Apple Pro Training Series "Final Cut Express 4 Movie Making for Everyone" By Diana Weynand is for "Everyone." Each lesson is interactive, read the step, do the step. It makes you use the program and learn it at the same time. When you complete all the lessons and make your 'Final Movie' to show to Family and Friends. You can say thank to Diana Weynand for writing Apple Pro Training Series "Final Cut Express 4 Movie Making for Everyone."

Outstanding Training Manual, February 8, 2008
I am new to mac and wanted to learn final cut express since i bought a new panasonic avchd camcorder which does not import into the old imovie. The book is very informative with numerous practical exercises at the end of each chapter. This book combines great illustration and concepts with hands on exercises. The book also contains a dvd for more advanced features of fce 4. I have learned diligently and feel quite confident with the semi-professional videos i will be producing. This book comes highly recommended and is as intense and informative as you would expect for an official apple training manual.

Final Cut Express 4.0, January 27, 2008
If you want to know how to use Final Cut Express 4.0 and what you can do with it, this book gives a step by step instruction using the included samples on DVD. It is practicle, usefull and easy to understand and follow.
I can recommend it to anybody who wants to know video editing with Final Cut Express 4.0. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The only Apple-certified book on Mac OS X v10.6, this revised best-seller will take you deep inside the latest big-cat operating system—covering everything from installation to automation, customizing the operating system, supporting applications, setting up peripherals, and more. Whether you're a support technician or simply an ardent Mac user, you'll quickly learn and master the new features in Mac OS X 10.6, including native support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Following the learning objectives of the Apple Certified Support Professional exam, this self-paced book is a perfect guide for Apple’s training and a first-rate primer for computer support personnel who need to troubleshoot and optimize Mac OS X as part of their jobs. Chapter review sections and quizzes summarize and reinforce acquired knowledge.

The Apple Training Series serves as both a self-paced learning tool and the official curriculum for the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server certification programs.
... Read more

Reviews

Excellent Book!, March 6, 2010
As the title says, this is an excellent book.

There are some things to keep in mind, however:

This book was made specifically for passing the exam, and therefor if you wish to delve into various capabilities of things like the command line in-depth, you'll need further resources. (Especially things like full-on scripting.) If you're jumping into the command line "cold," something like the O'Reilly BASH book would make a good companion.

AppleScript, it should be noted (beyond a half dozen pages in this book), is in another book in this series.

If you wish to become knowledgeable about Mac Servers and you're not seasonably Mac proficient (esp in the 'Apple Way' of doing things...), you'll need this book as the Server book alone will not do. You'll also want the Directory Services book. (Actually, if you start working with DS in any format, you'll want the DS book, Server notwithstanding.)

Again, it's a sweet book and gave me the foundation so I can continue taking my skills to the next level.

Small Nitpicks: Only a few errors, but they will bite you if you don't catch them (Which you will if you try the examples.) If it doesn't look/work right, websearch it, try it both ways, and you'll be good to go.

The top of the page doesn't give you the chapter number (just name), while many pages refer to explanations of various resources in different chapters. As I'm one of those people who "can't let it go," (and look it up immediately) this was irksome.

The nitpicks aren't enough to cut it a full star: 4.5, rounded to 5.

Awesome for beginners, February 4, 2010
If you are new to The snow leopard operating system, this book tells you every little thing that you can do with snow leopard. i've been using my mac for years and this book has taught me feature i didn't know existed in snow leopard/leopard. again great for anyone that has never used a mac before.

Passed the test, January 28, 2010
I passed the test in DEC 2009. Everything needed for the test is in this book. Nothing tricky, very straight forward.

Not so great, September 17, 2010
I have gone thru the peachpuit press equivalent of this book already so I guess I have already learned most of the details. This book was dissapointing to me. It doesnt seem to go into much detail and instead is more of a gloss over what OS X administration is. Considering that its supposed to be prep for an exam I would hope that it would cover more than what you need to know for the exam. Instead it seems to cover just enough, if that.
I may take the apple support exam, but I am not counting on this book to get me to pass!

Usual fast service, June 9, 2010
Fast, efficient service and a good price to boot. Need the book for Apple Certification so price and speed were the main purchasing factors. There is no other comparable book.

Perfect for the test, April 11, 2010
If you know this book then you will pass the test. The book is an easy read and to the point.

Excellent Snow Leopard reference - Best I've looked at, August 1, 2010
I've been using OSX since Jaguar. I'm decent at it. I've been through 4 or 5 of the Snow Leopard books. All the books that are good. Bible, Missing Manual etc.

This one is by far the best for those familiar but not expert with OSX.

No useless jokes. Concise and to the point with step by step instructions and just enough background information on the technical reasons for why you need to do things. Good diagrams. Good index. Good enough I'm not falling asleep when I read it. I'm actually looking forward to reading the whole dang thing.

Even if you are not taking the test this is the book to get. I'm reading a library copy now but I might just spring for it.

Great book., May 6, 2010
I recommend this book for all people who want to know more about the OS X. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

iWork 09 The Missing Manual is more than a manual, May 1, 2009
From the overall organization of iWork '09: The Missing Manual to the examples used and phrases selected, Josh Clark has written this book to show us how to do what we want to do in iWork. He has succeeded. It is much better than just a manual.
Other iWork books are organized based upon the history of the program's development. They start with Keynote. iWork '09 The Missing Manual starts with Pages because that is what most people will use first.
You start with writing in Pages text mode, and are soon learning how to use the new outline features to organize your small book.
You learn that in text mode the text flows like rivers, but layout mode puts text in boxes like islands. You learn to flow your text from one island to the next.
Other iWork books all tell you how to put a text box and a picture on a page. That is not enough when you are looking at a blank page and wondering how to design your own layout.
Josh Clark shows you how to create a 6 column, or 5 column grid, and how to use it to align your objects to create your layout.
He has included more interesting information and useful tips than you will find in most manuals. Here are some examples:
Why does Pages open at 125% resolution when 100% is the "actual size?" This book has the answer.
If you make a mistake when you ask your Macintosh to learn a new word, here you will learn how to remove it from your dictionary.
He also tells you how to match a color in your photograph so you can use it in other objects.

In iWork '09 The Missing Manual you will learn more than the instructions for Keynote. You will learn how to plan, make and give a Keynote presentation that will engage your audience in your story, and to not use bullet points to tell your story. You will also learn when you should and should not use the new transitions.

The examples Josh Clark uses are suitable for most of us. To teach us to use Numbers, he uses a membership roster as an example of using a formula to transform text, and uses logic formulas to summarize our team's baseball statistics.

You will also learn about sheets and tables as well as the new multi-row headers and footers, and freezing the header for large spreadsheets.

As I read iWork '09 The Missing Manual I got the impression that Josh Clark really enjoyed writing this wonderful book. Because I thought he enjoyed writing it, I enjoyed reading it. After reading the online in Rough Cut, I bought the book. If you read this far, I believe you will want to buy it too.

The Missing Manual indeed - truly squeezes the most out of iWork09, May 31, 2009
Nearly all the "Missing Manuals" have been right on target; and this is one of the very best -- beats Apple's disjointed iWork manuals by leagues. Starting with Pages, Josh Clark nicely lifts the confusion of (malnamed) 'floating' versus 'inline' objects; puts the important word processing details (for instance the handy 'Outlining' feature, that got a scant one-page brushoff in Apple's manual) in perspective. He clarifies the distinction between pretty design objects and serious work, and makes it obvious that Pages has the power to become a freestanding no-nonsense 'iWord', rather than part of a Jack of all trades approach. Shortcuts, tips, and thinking outside the box abound; clearly, the author enjoys sharing his perspective with the reader, the writing is crisp and airy, the examples are handy, and tough concepts such as layers become understandable so as to exploit the full power of 'iWord'.

The Numbers chapters, likewise, are outstanding; the 3-step drilling down selection process (table, cell and text) finally helped me understand how and what to select for editing, rather than just aimlessly clicking around till you got it right. Same for the difference between Table and Print views, and proper use of the Return key. Functions, Formulas and Styles become a breeze using the keep-it-simple approach. The one thing missing (at least from the Index) was how to lock Tables and individual cells. So occasionally you may have to print a page from the on-line help. iWork09 was updated recently to version 2--we don't know what changed but crashes, or lockups trying to empty the trash have vanished.

You really can't do professional grade word processing or spreadsheeting without this in-depth, yet light-spirited, guide. Well worth the price!

Highly recommended, January 18, 2010
Brief introduction... I got this book as I was just starting to use iWork. I was extremely frustrated by the application and to make matters worse, I'd agreed to demo the app at a Mac User Group meeting. I was in trouble, and iWork's built-in Help didn't cut it for me. Apple has a lot of tutorials on their web site, but I learn better by sitting down with the application and having a book at hand. Having benefitted from several other "Missing Manuals", that's where I turned for help this time.

Bottom line: this book really reveals iWork's power, and it does so gently and interestingly. Josh Clark writes very clearly and succinctly, and the book contains (for me) just enough illustrations to thoroughly communicate what's needed. Clark walks through every program element I could find and leads the reader to understand how iWork's elements and UI approach fit together. That's important. I'd highly recommend "iWork '09: The Missing Manual" to any iWork '09 user. Also, because of what this book revealed to me, I can now recommend iWork '09 to many Macintosh users who need "office" capabilities and would like a more usable software application than "some of the others" out there.

iWork '09 can be a perplexing application. As I told the user group, all of the important functions are very accessible--almost right in front of you--but you won't see them. And each of the three component applications works the same way, but that's not necessarily obvious when you first open them. There's almost a Zen to working with iWork '09, and that's what I came to understand, thanks to The Missing Manual.

I'm a cover-to-cover reader, and this volume is definitely readable that way. Useful information lies on each page, and by around page 150 I was convinced that Pages '09 is almost as powerful as Apple says. "iWork '09: The Missing Manual" quickly and almost effortlessly got me to where I'm producing fairly advanced documents and presentations after a very short time. And, importantly, it enabled me to introduce long-time Pages users to a number of incredibly useful features that they needed, but didn't know existed. In fact, several of them said they were heading right out to buy this book so they could see what else they've been missing.

The only real issue I had with the book is its claim to have been completely written with Pages '09. The problem I have is that according to both the book and everything else I've read, Pages '09 is unable to create an index. Yet the book has an index. I wonder how it was created. This nit plagues me, as I've written a couple of books and would love to use Pages for the next one...if it could create an index.

Efficiency for the Novice, September 18, 2009
iWork '09: The Missing Manual is a tremendous and necessary tool in order for the novice to realize the greatest value from the programs included in this suite of software. For the novice computer user who does not understand all of the specialized language that even Computer magazines use, I have found the manual to be friendly to use in order to, much of the time, shut off the automatic things that the programs do when they come out of the box. Just today I looked up how to find the cent symbol. This feature, I found will make it unnecessary for me to purchase a program offered by one of the so called "free" dashboard items.

I am amazed that the author, who is proficient in so many areas of life could learn all of the details of an imposing array of capabilities of this reasonably priced trio of programs. I am certainly glad that I stumbled on to this book.

Marvelous Book, April 2, 2010
This is a great book that goes along with iWork 09. However, be alerted to the fact that you can buy the same book from iTunes for your iPhone or iPad for $4.99.

iWork09, January 31, 2010
Pages and Keynote are very well explained. But I still had a little trouble with all the in's and out's of Numbers. I don't think it fully explained how to use some of the installed temps. But overall it is well written.

i work 09 Review from Craig, July 2, 2009
This is so much better than the same information in the Apple series book. It is very well written and easy to follow. It is written in such a way that you do not have to be a Apple wiz to get the information you need.

Craig

Great book, July 29, 2010
This book is an essential guide for using iWork'09. I was a PC user and a Microsoft Office user so it was very difficult for me when I changed over to a MAC and to iWork'09. I didn't know what to do and this manual cleared it all up for me. All the answers I need are right there in this book. I highly recommend it to everyone who is trying to learn iWork'09.

A powerful pick for any business library where Apple computers are a key feature, July 17, 2009
iWork '09: The Missing Manual provides coverage of Apple's collection of programs for creating slideshows, documents and spreadsheets, explaining how and when to use each feature and surveying everything from charts and animation to creating professional-style documents. A powerful pick for any business library where Apple computers are a key feature.

iWork The missing manual, April 23, 2010
Am still working on it - it's so comprehensive.

Worth the money? definitely (get a used copy). ... Read more

Editorial Review

The best-selling introduction to Cocoa, once again updated to cover the latest Mac programming technologies, and still enthusiastically recommended by experienced Mac OS X developers.

“Aaron’s book is the gold standard for Mac OS X programming books—beautifully written, and thoughtfully sculpted. The best book on Leopard development.”

—Scott Stevenson, www.theocacao.com

“This is the first book I’d recommend for anyone wanting to learn Cocoa from scratch. Aaron’s one of the few (perhaps only) full-time professional Cocoa instructors, and his teaching experience shows in the book.”

—Tim Burks, software developer and creator of the Nu programming language, www.programming.nu

“If you’re a UNIX or Windows developer who picked up a Mac OS X machine recently in hopes of developing new apps or porting your apps to Mac users, this book should be strongly considered as one of your essential reference and training tomes.”

—Kevin H. Spencer, Apple Certified Technical Coordinator

If you’re developing applications for Mac OS X, Cocoa® Programming for Mac® OS X, Third Edition, is the book you’ve been waiting to get your hands on. If you’re new to the Mac environment, it’s probably the book you’ve been told to read first. Covering the bulk of what you need to know to develop full-featured applications for OS X, written in an engaging tutorial style, and thoroughly class-tested to assure clarity and accuracy, it is an invaluable resource for any Mac programmer.

Specifically, Aaron Hillegass introduces the three most commonly used Mac developer tools: Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. He also covers the Objective-C language and the major design patterns of Cocoa. Aaron illustrates his explanations with exemplary code, written in the idioms of the Cocoa community, to show you how Mac programs should be written. After reading this book, you will know enough to understand and utilize Apple’s online documentation for your own unique needs. And you will know enough to write your own stylish code.

Updated for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, this revised edition includes coverage of Xcode 3, Objective-C 2, Core Data, the garbage collector, and CoreAnimation.

Reviews

Not Perfect, But Highly Recommended, February 23, 2002
This was the book I had been waiting for, or at least ONE OF the books I had been waiting for, to really get started with Cocoa programming. The O'Reilly book, as has been mentioned plenty of times here, leaves a lot to be desired, and while it was better than nothing, a wall still remained between me and Cocoa after finishing it.

After reading Cocoa Programming for OS X, I feel I can say I "get" Cocoa finally. That's not to say I'm an expert, but that I can complete a simple program now, on my own, using the Cocoa frameworks and concepts. As Aaron says in the book, learing the Cocoa APIs will take much longer. I come from a Java background, with only marginal C and C++ experience. Although Aaron does not speak much about the objective-c language itself, that's ok. Apple's PDF is more than adequate to get that background.

There are some things that get glossed over that I wish had been more fully explained, and some things left out altogether that I would have liked to see, such as:

-- Spawning and managing multiple threads, thread safety issues

-- exception handling, debugging and assertions

-- Cocoa "primitive" objects (NSPoint, NSRect, NSRange, etc.), why they apparently don't need to be retained or released, and why they are "NS" objects but don't really behave like them.

-- Calling Toolbox routines or those from APIs that have not yet been "Cocoa-ized" (and integrating the Old Way into the Cocoa Way), with examples. Cocoa is nice but once you get away from building a text editor, you will need to dig into this ugly and unfriendly world at some point (unfortunately). For instance, how do I access the Airport card, how do I open and use a network socket, how can I read a DV-encoded stream from a FireWirePort and save it to disk as a QuickTime movie, how do I access a database, how do I use an OpenGL view?

-- How to customize Cocoa UI elements. Like if I wanted an NSSlider with TWO sliders, a minimum and a maximum. There is an example of subclassing an NSView in the book, but that's just a drawing panel.

To be fair, I'm not really criticizing Aaron for these things. The book has plenty of useful stuff, and I'm sure Aaron wants to write and sell more books, so some advanced Cocoa books that address some of these things as well as others will be welcome...I hope someone is writing them right now. I also hope someone is writing a comprehensive Cocoa API reference, as Apple's is somewhat lacking (Have you seen the phrase "Description Forthcoming" more times than you care to remember? I thought so.)

The bottom line is that this is a great book that is a must-have for anyone interested in Cocoa programming. I'd probably rate it four or four-and-a-half stars, but I'm giving it five for being there when I needed it, and being the first really useful book on the subject. The best thing I can say about it is that I can now do things there is simply no way I could have before.

Great intro, a few nits, February 4, 2002
First my background. I'm a very experienced C++ programmer who is also very experienced with Carbon.

I found this book to be a great intro to Cocoa without a lot of preaching about how Cocoa will change the world. Carbon vs. Cocoa seems to be an almost religous debate, and I'm glad this book didn't try to overpromise the benefits of Cocoa.

The book is well organized, very readable, and has good examples. It is *much* better than the O'Reilly "Learning Cocoa" book.

After reading this book, you'll be able to start writing applications in Cocoa, and you'll know where to go for more info.

Now, my nits:

* The book explicitly stated that it was for people with a C++ or java background, but I think there should have been more direct comparisions between C++/java and Objective C. For example, saying that class functions (the ones with +) are just like static functions in C++ would have helped.

* This may be an introductory book for people moving from other platforms to the Mac, but the UI for most of the applications violated Apple's UI guidelines in many ways. I think the book should have promoted following Apple's UI guidelines.

* There was no discussion of exceptions, and much of the code was not exception-safe and didn't do much error checking. There wasn't even the usual disclaimer about leaving that out for simplicity.

* I would have liked a quick overview at the end of some of the classes not discussed in the book with a couple of sentences about what they do. This would help to learn what's out there.

I hope to see more books on Cocoa by the author. There's still lots of room for books on more advanced Cocoa topics.

Getting started in Cocoa, September 16, 2002
First, I have to say I loved this book, I actually read half of it on a trip, not being in front of my computer, and still enjoyed the clear style and the gradual addition of new concepts and tools, chapter after chapter. Then I could hardly wait to be back home and start doing it for real.

Now for the potential buyer.

WHAT IT IS NOT: a reference book (no list of classes etc...) or a technical book for advanced programming; a book about Java or Carbon; an introduction to object-oriented programming; an introduction to C.

WHAT IT IS: an excellent introduction to programming in Objective C in the Cocoa environment of Max OS X, provided you know enough about
object-oriented programming (some basic understanding of C++ is preferable too).

WHAT YOU LEARN: Objective-C in Cocoa; using Apple Developer Tools; building an application in Mac OS X; how to make optimal use of Cocoa classes and API, knowing how they were conceived and meant to be used; a number of basic concepts and tips that really get you started.

THE PLUS that make this book so interesting: very good and clear writing; some amusing brief 'historical' insights; you really feel the author knows what he is talking about; the author gives personal views (clearly stated as advices, not rules); follow-up, errata, examples, comments, and more on his web site; still completely useable with OS X.2 (a couple or very minor changes that are listed on the web site anyway), so that's the good time to buy it (price is down, but content is still up to date).

Final comment: Objective C in Max OS X is very powerful and enjoyable.

this book is pretty good, but..., January 6, 2003
here's what i discovered while i was trying to learn Cocoa: this book, by itself, was not sufficient for me to really "get off the ground" with Cocoa. Now, don't get me wrong, this really is a good book and, in most areas, Mr. Hillegass explains the material quite well. my problem was that after i had worked --perhaps struggled would be a better description -- through the first 4 chapters of the book i was still left feeling somewhat confused about how to go about writing a Cocoa progam. for some reason things just weren't "clicking" as well as i thought they should be.

not being the quitting type, i began to search for other books on Cocoa programming. i purchased the O'Reilly book "Learning Cocoa With Objective-C", second edition. after reading a few chapters in the O'Reilly book, then going back and re-reading the material in Mr. Hillegass' book, things began to click. since that time, the approach has proven the most useful for me is to read the O'Reilly book until i get stuck on a particular topic, then cross-reference with Mr. Hillegass' book in order to get a different perspective/explanation. in addition, working through *all* of the examples in both books has proven tremendously helpful. if i had my way, i'd combine the material from both books into a single book. :)

in summary, if you buy this book and find that you are having trouble grasping the concepts, try purchasing the "Learning Cocoa with Objective-C" -- make sure to get the 2nd edition -- and see if getting a different perspective/explanation works for you.

OS X developer must have, October 6, 2008
If you plan to write for Mac OS X, and have some programming experience, this book is a MUST HAVE. This is by far the best introductory book I have ever read on any language.

If you DO NOT have programming experience, I would still recommend this book. There are some spots where the logic might be hard to grasp, but Aaron Hillegass walks you through it.

In either case, but more so for beginners, I would also recommend Programming in Objective-C (Developer's Library). The less experience you have, the more strongly I would suggest reading this book first. It will walk you through the basics of straight Objective-C and then start you off using frameworks in OS X. If you are a Windows user and do not have a Mac, Programming in Objective-C (Developer's Library) will show you how to write and compile Objective-C in Windows.
(Look for the new version of this book which uses Objective-C 2.0)

I come from Windows development, having programmed in VB 6, VB.NET, C (and variants), and java. Aaron Hillegass takes you right into the heart of the Mac OS X development environment and gives you a guided tour. Showing you the basics of both Cocoa and the X Code development environment. Pick the book up and you won't regret it. This is a walkthrough tutorial style book. It is not a reference book. Apples online documentation is the best reference for Cocoa.

There are a lot of resources out there for Cocoa programmers. If you are looking for more help with Cocoa, check out the free podcasts that are available on iTunes. "CocoaCast" is a 'screen cast' that actually follows this book and may help you if you have trouble. Other podcasts that i find easy to listen to come from the Mac Developer Network such as "Late Night Cocoa" and "The Mac Developer Roundtable". They also have a great community that you can join by visiting www.mac-developer-network.com. They have video classes on some great topics which are very helpful.

Marv, January 5, 2002
Simply the best book for learning OS X Cocoa programing on the market today. Written in a chatty, easy to read style with lots of pictures by a bloke that knows what he's talking about. Much easier to read than "Learning Cocoa" from Apple.

Working through the books chapters and accompanying programming challenges you actually learn and understand step-by-step. You will quickly have your own OS X programs up and running based on the examples in the book.

A great starting place for new Cocoa programmers.

Four stars not five because there are a few errors in the printing that I have - however the BigNerdRanch web site has all corrections online.

Fantastic Cocoa Resource, January 14, 2002
Before reading this book, I highly recommend you read the "Object-Oriented Programming and the Objective C Language" document from [...] Forcing myself through the concentrated, dry spec made it easier to understand, enjoy, and appreciate Mr. Hillegass' wonderful explanations.

My favorite aspect of this book is that the author gets you into writing sample apps right away. After the 3rd chapter I felt like I knew the tools and environment well enough to write a very simple Cocoa app (like beginning programming excersize type things). I love how he takes you through the tools and shows you how to use them in the context of writing the sample program. When he explains concepts I feel like he does a very good job of giving concrete examples of when you would use such concepts in code.

The author's writing style felt like he was talking or lecturing to me, but without making me feel like a little kid.

This book is NOT for you if you do NOT have any background in Object-Oriented Programming or if you do NOT have any background in C or C++ (you need to understand pointers and memory management in order to learn ObjC from this reference).

Great first book on Cocoa, May 20, 2008
This is the book I have been waiting for!

I am a recent convert to Macs. Ever since I fell in love with my Mac (now two Macs actually), I have yearning to do some experimental application development on it. I should also add that I have extensive programming experience on Windows.

Anyway, I downloaded Xcode, went to numerous websites, saw YouTube video all to try and understand how to create apps for the Mac. Yes, I was able to create an application with some buttons on it that updated a text box. But anything beyond that just didn't make any sense.

Then I ordered this book. I had to wait a couple months as it hadn't been released yet. But boy, was it worth the wait. I got so into the book, I ended up doing a semi-cursory pass of the entire book in about 2 hours. Then I went through the chapters again, reading chapters in-depth and experimented with the code side-by-side. I am happy to say - I finally get it. There are still questions I have, but I feel that I have a much better shot of finding answers in Apple's documentation as well as the numerous Cocoa-related websites.

Note that while the book does teach you the basics of Objective-C, it's not meant to be a complete reference. But between what I read in the book, Wikipedia and Apple's excellent introduction to Objective-C 2.0 PDF, you should be all set.

To summarize, just order this book if you are new to the world of Mac programming but still don't "get it". You will be glad you did.

Excellent Introduction, October 4, 2002
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X is a GREAT way to learn the basics of programming Mac OS X! I've been a Mac user since 1988, but have always been terrified of programming it. Instead I'd gone the evil route and programmed Delphi for Windows. NO MORE. I'm excited about programming my Macs!

THE BAD
The title is probably a misnomer, which is causing a lot of the negative feedback here. "Complete Introduction to the Power Of Cocoa" would have been more appropriate. This book isn't any type of reference book. Nor is it a text on programming philosophy. Nor is it a "Learn Objective-C" manual. And it's not a comprehensive "learn everything about Cocoa" book. My positive remarks about these perceived liabilities are in "THE GOOD" paragraphs below.

There ARE some typos in the book, but no real errors in the code that I've discovered. In many chapters, you're adding to a program you've built from an earlier chapter. On two or three occasions, variable names in the "new" chapter are different from the "old" chapter. But when doing the build, it became quite obvious and wasn't really much of an impediment -- if you can't follow the program flow and detect the problem by time you reach these chapters, you probably rushed or shouldn't be programming! Still, though, it IS a legitimate "bug" in the book.

It's probaby useful that you know something about object-oriented programming. I don't mean knowing C or C++ or Objective-C -- just know a little about object-oriented concepts. Chances are, if you're a modern programmer, you already know enough to make this "bad" point meaningless. If you're a very advanced object-oriented programmer, you may want to FORGET some of what you know to appreciate the pure simplicity of the Objective-C/Cocoa object model!

THE GOOD
It's an in-depth introduction to programming Cocoa in Objective-C. It will get you excited. It will spark your imagination as you work through the example code. You will want to learn Cocoa and forget everything else.

If you know programming in general, you probably DON'T need to know C or C++ or even Objective-C prior to working with this book. I came to it with an Object Pascal background with no working knowledge of C. If you can THINK then you can pick up Objective-C as you work through the book. It's REALLY very simple, even in comparison to Object Pascal.

The book is very well supported on the website. There's even a page-search function with errata and user-feedback in case you get in trouble. I've used it for help with a couple of the chapter "challenges."

RECOMMENDATIIONS
Buy this book, and work through it, and try the challenges. You'll often HAVE TO work through the Cocoa documentation to do the challenges, but this is good because you'll need to learn how to use the documentation to do any serious work.

When you're done with the book, you'll be confident and thrilled, and be ready to buy a true reference book (which I'm just getting ready to do!).

Excellent tutorial introduction to Cocoa., October 4, 2002
This book is an excellent introduction to Cocoa. It is basically what "Learning Cocoa" should have been. It is clearly not the only Cocoa book that you will want, but it will get you to the point that you can read and use other sources. The examples are well chosen and build up incrementally, so you can clearly see that code that is associated with new features as you add them. The book does get to full-up applications, but only simple ones. In this sense, I think this book joins nicely with "Cocoa Programming" or "Building Cocoa Applications". This book does the introductory and tutorial build up better than the other books, I think, although in less detail, and then you can go on to more elaborate applications elsewhere.

The book presumes knowledge of C and the rudiments of object-oriented programming. You can get this as go, from Apple's "The Objective C Programming Language" but you'll need to go slower and be prepared for some puzzles along the way. Also, you really need only minimal knowledge of C, mainly understanding of pointers, to work through the examples in the book.

There are a few weaknesses in the book. The description of the tools, Interface Builder and Project Builder, is sparse, and the book is now a bit out of date with the current incarnation of the tools that Apple is actually shipping. The differences are minor, but can sometimes be perplexing for beginners. Also, the tools (IB in particular) can be set up in various window "modes" that totally change the layout of parts of the tool. This isn't mentioned here, or in any other Cocoa book I've seen.

These however, are minor quibbles in an excellent introduction to Cocoa programming. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to start programming under Mac OS X. ... Read more

Editorial Review

“Next time some kid shows up at my door asking for a code review, this is the book that I am going to throw at him.”

–Aaron Hillegass, founder of Big Nerd Ranch, Inc., and author of Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

Unlocking the Secrets of Cocoa and Its Object-Oriented Frameworks

Mac and iPhone developers are often overwhelmed by the breadth and sophistication of the Cocoa frameworks. Although Cocoa is indeed huge, once you understand the object-oriented patterns it uses, you’ll find it remarkably elegant, consistent, and simple.

Cocoa Design Patterns begins with the mother of all patterns: the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, which is central to all Mac and iPhone development. Encouraged, and in some cases enforced by Apple’s tools, it’s important to have a firm grasp of MVC right from the start.

The book’s midsection is a catalog of the essential design patterns you’ll encounter in Cocoa, including

• Fundamental patterns, such as enumerators, accessors, and two-stage creation
• Patterns that empower, such as singleton, delegates, and the responder chain
• Patterns that hide complexity, including bundles, class clusters, proxies and forwarding, and controllers

And that’s not all of them! Cocoa Design Patterns painstakingly isolates 28 design patterns, accompanied with real-world examples and sample code you can apply to your applications today. The book wraps up with coverage of Core Data models, AppKit views, and a chapter on Bindings and Controllers.

Cocoa Design Patterns clearly defines the problems each pattern solves with a foundation in Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks and can be used by any Mac or iPhone developer.

Reviews

Unlocking Cocoa Programming, October 28, 2009
This superb book has finally unlocked Cocoa programming! Let me explain.

In most subjects we learn by acquiring a little bit of knowledge and, once that bit has been understood, we move on to the next little bit, until the bigger topic is understood. First we learn A then we learn B. Unfortunately, this method of learning does not work well with application frameworks such as Cocoa. These frameworks usually consist of a number of complex idea that are strongly interrelated. You cannot learn A then B, since A requires B and B requires A. Instead you must learn topics A..Z all at the same time! Cocoa is especially difficult for most programmers since it is based on using Objective C, and Objective C is based on Smalltalk. Smalltalk is an extremely dynamic language whose principles are significantly different than those of current popular languages. Thus, most programmers must learn zilllions of elements of the Cocoa framework and also the unusual ideas behind Objective C (Smalltalk). These are essential since Cocoa works differently than other popular frameworks and cannot be understood without understanding Objective C's dynamic approach to programming.

Up until now we have had Objective C books which help learning Objective C, and the excellent Hillegass book (Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X) which is a tutorial on Cocoa. The Hillegass book does help the reader understand many principals behind Cocoa, but it stops short of giving in depth knowledge of the design patterns that Cocoa uses. Thus when the user tries to go beyond the Hillegass book he/she is frustrated because they were not taught the full idea behind each element of Cocoa and their connections to other elements. There is not enough information for the reader to branch out to develop their own programs.

Cocoa Design Patters, on the other hand, presents, in a very professional manner, the most important Cocoa patterns, in depth, and how they are all inter-related. Furthermore, it presents details how how to use the patterns, examples of where they are used in Cocoa, and includes extremely valuable and unbiased information on the pro's and con's and pitfalls of using each pattern. Although this is certainly not tutorial/beginner information, the book is extremely well written and enjoyable to read (especially for those of us who loved Smalltalk and other dynamic languages). It is one of the best written highly technical books I have ever read (and I have been programming since 1970).

In my opinion this book will save the prospective Cocoa programmer many, many, many hours of frustration. I only wish it had been available several years ago when I first tried to learn Cocoa (I did not succeed then, but I am succeeding now).

One final note. The authors could do the Mac Developer Community, and the wider developer community, an enormous favor. In this book they demonstrate an impressive depth of knowledge about Cocoa, Objective C, the Mac development world, and the XCode tools. It would be fabulous if they were to develop a professional unbiased critique and comparison of the pro's and con's of the Objective-C/Cocoa approach to development with other framework/development environments (e.g. Microsoft's). I think this is especially important since the dynamic language approach to programming has fallen out of favor, yet I think it has many benefits that are seriously under appreciated. This document would:
Clearly show programmers the benefits of the dynamic language / Cocoa approach to programming. Perhaps it would reawaken interest in dynamic languages!
Point out the areas where Objective C/Cocoa/XCode has weakness and should be improved. This may inspire Apple to improve their development tools at a brisker pace.
The development world has had few breakthrough improvements over the last decade or two. I think that much can be learned from Cocoa/Objective C, and I hope That Cocoa Design Patters is just the beginning of a renewal of interest in this too-long-neglected approach to software development.

Develops a good foundational understanding, October 26, 2009
This book is not for beginners to Cocoa. I would only recommend it folks that have a reasonable amount of experience with Cocoa / Objective-C. Don't take this the wrong way; I'm only defining the target audience. This book details the patterns at work in Cocoa's architecture. While this text may confuse those new to Obj-C or Cocoa, it provides valuable insight into Cocoa usage patterns.

Cocoa Design Patterns explains techniques commonly used throughout the Cocoa architecture (Model-View-Controller, Release/Retain Counting, Delegates, etc.), and provides concrete implementation examples in the frameworks. For each pattern it also describes the scenario that you may use it in, and the consequences, good and bad, to using the pattern. I would recommend this book to anyone after they've cut their teeth on Cocoa, after writing their first couple simple applications. This book shines light on some of the design decisions Apple made with Cocoa, and helps the reader understand how to best leverage the patterns utilized in the Cocoa frameworks.

If Cocoa is Your Thing, This Book is Essential, September 14, 2009
It was the iPhone that finally brought me into the world of Cocoa programming. I quickly fell in love with the Cocoa & Cocoa Touch frameworks, finding them to be elegant, consistent and truly useful. I've read several books on Cocoa, Objective-C and Mac / iPhone development, but this one stands alone in its quest to fill the gaps, to cement a deep and thorough understanding of one of the best frameworks ever written.

Simply stated, this book is a joy to read. It answered many questions that I had about the "why" behind the evolution of Cocoa and has left me feeling better able to make the most of its power. Cocoa Design Patterns is written in a style that is extremely accessible. It is almost like a detective novel as each chapter unravels the secrets of Cocoa. The most fun I've had reading a technical book in a long while.

Very good, with only a few issues, March 22, 2010
Overall, I thought the book was expertly written. It covers a lot of important and interesting aspects of Cocoa, and all its major patterns. The only reasons I'm not giving it 5 stars are:

- there are several errors in the code samples. Occasional bugs are inevitable, but non-compiling code is inexcusable and a major disappointment, for a book of this nature;
- its coverage of the Singleton pattern is incomplete, considering that it doesn't discuss Apple's own recommendations on how to implement a singleton;
- no discussion of patterns related to thread safety;
- the discussion of HOMs (higher order messages) is interesting, but it strikes me as something rarely used; I'd have preferred if the author had used the space spent on HOMs to discuss something more practical. For instance, a common application of the Proxy pattern is the asynchronous loading of images off the web. I think that would have been more useful;
- later chapters are very repetitive, and much less concrete in actual usage, than earlier ones. For instance, chapters 28 (Managers), 29 (Controllers), and 32 (Bindings and Controllers) have a lot in common, and that commonality is repeated in all 3 chapters. Chapter 31 (Application Kit Views) is a repetition of material covered in several previous chapters and adds nothing new.

I'm a great fan of Design Patterns and think that the Gang of Four book (Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software) is still the best book on the subject. However, it's focused on C++ and not on Objective-C and Cocoa. This book, despite its faults, is a worthy partner to the Gang of Four book and is a great addition to any Cocoa programmer's library.

An Easy Read, Though Errors Noted, December 10, 2009
This has been a very interesting and easy read. This book covers Cocoa design patterns for Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, as you can see on page xxiv. However, learning the design patterns of Cocoa for Leopard will greatly help your understanding of Snow Leopard and later iterations of Mac OS X. Though it would have been interesting to know of any changes to these design patterns in Snow Leopard, something you might have expected in a 2010 copyright book.

That being said, this book is very easy to read and understand, if you really want to learn Cocoa. Though the learning curve for Cocoa is steep, this book greatly simplifies that process. However, not all the code seems to have been carefully checked for errors.

For example, the terminal colon on a method name taking a parameter was often missing, as you can see on page 212:

[someControl setAction:NSSelectorFromString(@"copy")];

The method "copy:" is very different from "copy". "copy:" takes a parameter while "copy" takes none. A colon in an Objective-C method is part of that method name and indicates a parameter to be inserted after it when invoking the method. A method that takes no parameters has no colons in its name. A method name with any number of parameters has a colon for each parameter and always ends with a colon for the last parameter. The error of leaving out the terminal colon for method names taking a parameter was common in the code in the book.

Another error I found was on page 104 where this method was shown:

- (id) performSelector:(SEL)aSelector
{
IMP methodImplementation = [self methodForSelector:aSelector];
return (*IMP)(self, aSelector);
}

IMP is a function pointer type defined on page 103 as:
typedef id (*IMP)(id self, SEL _cmd, ...);

The error is that the return statement above should be this:

return (*methodImplementation)(self, aSelector);

This error was also from not carefully reviewing the code. It may have been better to test the code before putting it in the book to make sure it compiles and works. If I were to write a book, I think I would copy the code to an IDE first, test it, and then copy it back into the software I would be using to write the book.

However, generally the code is correct, and the code errors are not that unusual for computer books. Also, the book has the right mixture of code and text, and the examples are well thought out. At one point I thought I saw an error, but it was correct. On page 332 in the method + (MYGameHighScoreManager *)sharedInstance I did not see where the static variable myInstance was declared. Then I noticed that it is declared at the top of the code listing on page 331 outside of the @implementation block. Referring to page 154, I found a similar method with the same declaration at the beginning of the method:

static MyGameHighScoreManager *myInstance = nil;

In fact, except for that line the two methods on pages 154 and 332 are identical. The difference is that the method in page 154 declares it within the method statically while the code in page 331 shows the same static declaration made outside both the @implementation and the @interface code blocks, which is the correct way to do it, given the intermixing of C and Objective-C code. Hence, learning Cocoa requires expertise in both Objective-C and C, one reason for the steep learning curve. These languages may be simple to learn, but require a lifetime to master.

Due the code errors I found and for not covering Snow Leopard, I give this book 4 stars, but for the content and the explanations I would give this book 5 stars for the author makes it very easy to read and follow. Overall, I would recommend anyone who wants to learn Cocoa or improve their understanding of it to get this book, and I am glad I bought it. It has increased my understanding and filled many holes in my knowledge of Cocoa, for there really are not many books on the subject.

However, I see on Amazon that newer books are coming out on the subject soon. But I still recommend giving this book a read just to learn the design patterns and to understand how Cocoa works and the proper way to program in it. Whether you are expert at Cocoa or a beginner, you will get a lot out of this book.

My absolute favorite cocoa book, May 31, 2010
This is the first review I've written on amazon, even though I have bought tons of stuff here, both great and awful. I decided to get on and write on for this book because it's one of the best purchases I've made with respect to nonfiction programmer references, if not the best. It's a near-perfect example of the way a programming book should be written, in my opinion, and I reference this book all the time. It is the most "reusable" book on cocoa development that I own, by that I mean - I can reference it over and over for various projects and goals, always finding something of use in the book. Because the author takes a more conceptual approach (design patterns) it results in a deeper understanding (at least for me) of these patterns and how to implement them in my own work.

Thus, I wanted to make sure everyone who is looking for a book that covers these topics (and it should be everyone who is learning cocoa - the patterns are extremely ubiquitous, and they are absolutely, absolutely concepts every good cocoa programmer should be very familiar with).

It's written incredibly well, in an easy-to-follow and easy-to-understand manner - I can quickly get through a chapter, or reference one when I need to brush up, extremely quickly and without having to spend a bunch of time going through filler material like I sometimes have to do with other programming reference books I own. I'm very cautious about buying programming references because you truly never know what you're going to get, or if it really ends up applying to you, as they vary so much in the way they are written and the skill level for which they are written. I found this book, though, to be accessible but not written in a way that doesn't assume the reader is both a novice and dumb (something I seem to find way too often).

Great book, great book. Mine is worn out from all the use it has gotten, I have notes scribbled throughout, and I find myself sticking it in my backpack and carrying it everywhere; I think if you want to write good code, clean code, *reusable code*, and want/need a good model of the best route to take, get this book. Even if you understand conceptually how a lot of these things are done (I did, for the most part, when I bought the book), it really helps to have it in this format (and in the way the author took writing the book) because he does an incredible job of getting to the core of _what you need and why you need it_ - so you both never forget a key item in a certain implementation goal, and you take the best route to get what you want from the design pattern. It gives me a great deal of reassurance as I write my code with the goal of reusability and writing great code, that I'm doing so in the best possible way. A 5 star book if there ever was one.

Absolute Must-Read, February 5, 2010
There are a few core books that I consider must-read books for starting Mac / iPhone developers. This is one of them.

It is especially important for current or former Language / Framework programmers to study this book, and study it hard.

Nothing is more obvious than code that has been architected by old C++ / .NET / MFC coders that do not 'get' the Cocoa Design Patterns.

Don't be one of those folks.

This applies to Java, C#, Smalltalk, C, C++, Delphi, etc coders. These Design Patterns MUST be learned, and used.

Should be shipped with the dev tools, January 31, 2010
Documenting sophisticated frameworks has always been a challenge, and even more so with ones such as Cocoa written in dynamic languages such as Objective-C. The reason is that what is there is not really the most important part. Instead it is the intangible lines that go between ("ma") and the structures that repeat themselves with slight variations that really constitute the framework.

"Cocoa Design Patterns" uses this insight to reduce the (by now) massive bulk that is Cocoa to a much more manageable collection of patterns without reducing technical depth. In fact, by focusing on these patterns, the authors are able to provide both a big-picture view and technical depth that goes beyond that found in the documentation or other books on the subject. In short, instead of just information, it provides insight.

If you have been interested in programming Cocoa or Cocoa Touch but have found the frameworks intimidating, both by their sheer bulk and by everything being somewhat different: read this book, it will all start to make sense.

Not just for Mac programmers, August 19, 2010
This book has Cocoa in the title, and indeed it is about Cocoa and the Mac. Many reviews emphasises how it helps you to tap into the power of Cocoa and allows you to develop better code for the Mac. I'd like to approach it from a different angle.

The book is worth reading even if you do not (exclusively) program for the Mac. The 'design patterns' in the title are more than just a 'higher-level coding standard' for the Mac. They are actually design philosophies, ways of structuring your code. Yes, they heavily utilise the dynamic nature of Objective-C but it does not mean that their relevance is restricted to that environment. Objective-C is a fairly thin layer and a small runtime on top of C, after all.

Each design pattern described in the book is a solution methodology for a software engineering problem. The authors present a problem, usually through a small example. Then they explain the 'design pattern', the solution chosen by the Cocoa developers. They then show you why that particular way of approaching the problem makes the result more robust, more flexible and easier to modify. Software reusability and maintainability are central tenets of the book. They demonstrate that while a quick-and-dirty solution might be shorter, using the given design pattern, or, if you like, adhering to a particular software development principle will save you development and maintenance time in the long run, especially for large projects.

Many of the design patterns revolve around the factoring your problem into preferably orthogonal subproblems, decompose your software into units mapped to the subproblems and the design of the interactions between those units. The book is all about minimising inter-dependencies, by keeping your interfaces clean and your units being self-contained. The design patterns are methods to achieve that goal. Whether you rely on the objects and the dynamic features of Objective-C or you achieve the same result by explicit bits of procedural code is beside the point.

You have to know at least some Objective-C and introductory level of Cocoa to be able to read the book, as all examples use those. However, what you learn from the book you can use in any software project, regardless of language and environment. If you know enough Mac-speak so that you can read the book, I recommend it, even if you are not doing any serious Mac development.

The style of the book is pleasant, the explanations are concise but they are clear and thorough. The examples are also good, they are large enough to show the practical benefit of the design pattern they demonstrate but are small enough to the reader actually reading the code and not just glazing over the listings.

Should be on every Cocoa developer's desk, October 30, 2009
This book, together with Cocoa Programming, which was written by these two authors together with Scott Anguish, are excellent ways to save yourself many months of trial and error in becoming a proficient Cocoa/Objective-C developer. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A "from the author" review, September 1, 2009
I can review my own book, right? Sure, why not? There's quite a few things I'm pretty happy with in this book: the breadth of it, the interviews, and the general tone of it, and that it's covering some territory that's not entirely adequately covered elsewhere. There's a things I wish were better as well: a few of the images are cropped wrong, one of them is actually printed twice, and there's a lot of typos. I'd encourage people to check the errata page on the O'Reilly site (oreilly.com/catalog/9780596154141/errata/), you'll find a lot of corrections there that will give you a way better experience with the book. With all the corrections that have been made over the past few weeks taken into consideration, my rating is 4 stars, the "I like it". Without those taken into consideration I would go with a "it's ok".

A Tour De Force of Interaction Design and Physical Computing, August 6, 2009
This massive volume provides the artist, designer, or non-technical hobbyist with all the skills they need to create awesome demonstrations, interactive systems and exhibits which exploit the best of what has been developed in Physical Computing and Interaction Design. Contained within this handbook are the tools for the non-technical individual to explore and exploit the capabilities of the Arduino Microcontroller environment, three different and powerful programming environments (Arduino, Processing and openFrameworks), basic Analog and Digital Electronics, Machine Vision and Sound Processing, as well as interviews with leading practitioners of Interaction Design and Physical Computing.

Its all in here in a well explained and comprehensive fashion--everything the artist, designer, or hobbyist needs to exploit programming, microcontrollers, physical computing, sensors and actuators, and interaction design. My only slight nit, on this excellent instructional handbook is that--given there is much too much information to be digested in a few sittings, the navigation and exploration of this important guide to Interactivity, will be somewhat anecdotal and will require tabbing of important spots for subsequent reference.

But this is the best and most up-to-date and comprehensive review of Physical Computing and Interaction Programming available anywhere.

-_Ira Laefsky
Information Technology Consultant and HCI Researcher

A MUST for those learning Arduino, Processing, or oF, August 31, 2009
What I great book! I was surprised to see how thick this book was.

I am learning the Arduino and have found this book such an in-depth and invaluable reference. It's a well written book that presents each language from the ground up so that even the complete beginner isn't lost. This book is for all, no matter what stage of learning.

If you're just started with the Arduino, or already have some experience with the Arduino and want to learn more you will NOT be disappointed.

Clear, concise, very useful. Top notch Arduino info!, November 30, 2009
Being new to programming I have purchased a dozen texts as of this last purchase "Interactivity". This is the only one of the twelve that got me coding straight away. Within twenty minutes I had something a little more interesting than blinking lights to look at. My home brew robot had an obstacle avoidance routine written and working. I have been adding to that program ever since, not laboring over seemingly hopeless examples of projects that just don't interest me.

If you just bought an Arduino, or have any other reason to understand and use a computer language this should be your first purchased. More than any of that (and that would be enough) this text is readable, enjoyable. I would reread this book just because I enjoyed the author's style of writing.

This book also offers you a bonus, this might scare off some that read other reviews or the book description: you will learn three languages simultaneously. This would seem like an impossible task for most folks intimidated by learning just one language, but the author demonstrates quickly how natural it is to learn all three side by side. What a boon to your knowledge base!

It is very rare a text book of such wide scope and usefulness is authored.

3 different languages mixed, February 12, 2010
I got this book to learn openframeworks. A very good and complete guide, but a little difficult to read and understand because the author mixes three different languages: arduino, processing and openframeworks. I would have found more interesting a simple openframeworks book, a lot of information about the other two is already published.
I have also found some mistakes in code which have made me become crazy.
I recommend this book because i think it's the only openframeworks book option by now (FEB/2010).
I really liked the way that theory is explained, but codelines in this book aren't as good as i had expected.

For those who want to explore a greatly creative field, October 18, 2009
This is a very good treatise about interaction among computers, microcontrollers, human beings and the outside world. In particular it explores Processing, Openframeworks and Arduino.
Absolutly clear on how to make things work, both hardware and software. Those who are not too familiar with electronics or programming will find the practical examples in this book easy to reproduce. Some problems may be encountered with "Openframeworks" though, having it up and running at the beginning. There are some links and forums where any unskilled individual can find help anyway.
This is a "must read" for the creative artist, designer, architect, etc.

Give this book a chance to meet your needs., December 12, 2009
When I began reading (studying?) this book, I was a bit disappointed because of its emphasis on Processing and OpenFrameWorks which are two programming languages closely related to the Arduino programming language. I had purchased the book specifically to gain knowledge about the Arduino language and its nuances, and here I was being "force fed" more languages!
After reading the first Chapter or two, I laid it aside for a couple of weeks, hoping to sell it on e-bay or something. I picked it up again, thumbed to some random location in the middle of the book and found that I was "hooked". I downloaded the Processing language Development Environment as suggested in the book, found it was virtually identical to the Arduino language (from which it was derived), and was delighted that the book delved very nicely into the "nuances" that I had been looking for.
I have little interest in OpenFrameWorks language, but this book gives me everything I hoped for related to Arduino and Processing. It is thorough, simple when it needs to be simple, and more in-depth when appropriate. I recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to become proficient in the programming environment used by Arduino. (BTW...if you don't know what an Arduino is, you probably should NOT by this book!)

Hard work, but exactly what I need, September 4, 2010
I'm working my way through this. Half the time I don't know what Mr. Noble is talking about, but the text does eventually succumb to hard work and study and I would not be learning my way around this field at anywhere near the pace if it were an "easier" book. It's a great book about a new, complex, rapidly growing field in which I am a complete neophyte. I am enjoying the challenge immensely.

Cream of the Crop, October 12, 2009
I've purchased a variety of books on physical computing, arduino, and processing but this one is probably the best of the best. Lots of info with lots of code, probably not for absolute beginners but a great read at any level.

New overview for a complex field, August 13, 2009
When you are beginning Interaction Design it can be hard to know where to start in terms of learning tools. This book provides an excellent overview of many of the tool available and simple examples to get you up and going. It's power is in its diversity. Though I have worked with many of the tools, techniques, and concepts in the book I think that everyone will learn something from this book. As a teacher, this will be my go to book for teaching programming concepts in interaction design.

As a new media lead at the LAB at Rockwell Group ([...]) I love the generalist nature of this book and how it can help to show conceptual overlaps between the different tools.

This is a "must have" book for the bookshelf in our lab and at home.

Joshua Walton
New Media Lead
[...]
... Read more

Editorial Review

Step-by-step instructions with callouts to Droid photos so that you can see exactly what to do

Help when you run into Droid problems or limitations

Tips and Notes to help you get the most from any Droid model: Droid Incredible, Droid Eris, Droid X, Droid 2, or Droid 1

Full-color, step-by-step tasks walk you through getting and keeping your Droid working just the way you want. Learn how to:

• Get started fast!

• Make the most of Droid’s Android software and state-of-the-art hardware

• Discover hidden Droid shortcuts and goodies, from the Droid X Swype keyboard to face recognition

• Master the unique features built into your Droid Incredible, Droid Eris, Droid X, or older Droid

• Save time and money with powerful phone tools such as voicemail, automated transcription, three-way calling, and Google Voice

• Set up and use any email account, from Gmail and Exchange to POP3 or IMAP

• Send and receive text and multimedia messages

• Communicate with contacts, including Facebook, Gmail, or Exchange contacts

• Create and manage appointments, and sync them with Google Calendar

• Play music and videos, search YouTube, and upload your own videos

• Capture, store, and share photos…even take perfect portraits of yourself!

• Connect to the Internet, Bluetooth devices, and your company’s VPN

• Get instant information updates with real-time widgets

• Browse the Web

• Find, choose, install, and work with new Droid apps

• Keep your Droid up-to-date, reliable, and running smoothly

• Even if you have other Android Smartphone models, this book can help you make the most out of them

Reviews

Very Informative, November 20, 2010
I purchased this book to learn how to use the features of my new Droid. The book is very well organized which allowed me to solve my problem with voice dialing in just ten minutes. It allows me to go directly to sections of high interest without having to read it like a novel. If the book had been published earlier, I would have bought it before getting my phone so that I would understand how the device works and be up to speed with it much faster. Managing battery life is important with a phone with so many high energy consumption apps and this book does a great job explaining the process. The book is printed on high quality paper with beautiful graphics. After purchase, you will be able to acivate a free online addition as well as be able to reach the author by email; he was super responsive to my inquiry.

My Droid, December 7, 2010
If you're new to the Android then this book is a must have but if you're tech
Savvy then you wont need this book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

iPhoto ’09 is packed with cool photo-editing features, and iPhoto ’09 For Dummies is your fast track to using every one. You’ll learn to clean up and enhance your photos, print them or upload them to a sharing site online, create cool projects, protect and secure your pictures, and make photography more fun than ever. This full-color guide shows you how, and even helps you shoot future photos with an eye to iPhoto’s capabilities.

There’s an easy exercise to get you started and plenty of beautiful full-color photos to show you the results you can achieve. You’ll learn your way around the interface, what’s new, and how to set preferences.

• Discover how to create a well-organized, maintainable archive so you can find photos
• Import and export photos from various sources, including card readers
• Manage any import problems
• Organize your collection using facial recognition and GPS technology
• Crop, rotate, and enhance your images
• Use a histogram and improve exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation, and more
• Set up a MobileMe gallery, send photos to Facebook or Flickr, make prints, and burn CDs
• Get tips for successfully e-mailing your pictures and for printing your photos at home
• Create photo greeting cards, calendars, or a travel book with maps that show where you took your pictures

iPhoto ’09 For Dummies even tells about cool add-ons and ideas for iPhoto. Learn to make all your photos the best they can be. ... Read more

Reviews

Since my iPhoto didn't come with a manual...., April 17, 2009
The problem with most computer programs today (particularly those pre-installed on a computer) is that they never seem to come with full manuals anymore. Sure there is online help, but unless you are looking for an answer to a specific question you really don't learn much. To get an understanding of everything that is available within the program, you really need a decent book. This iPhoto for Dummies book fits the bill. I like the way it's organized. Instead of taking you through a laundry list of functionality, it takes you through things in the order you would actually do them (e.g., organize your pics, edit, share, etc.). It does a nice job of explaining all the things you either didn't know existed, or didn't understand. For instance, do you really know how to use those little "histograms" in the Adjust Tool? Neither did I, but I do now. This book has a whole chapter on 'em. In short, this book covers everything. It does it in a well organized manner that makes it easy to find things and understand them. The final chapter on hints, tips, and shortcuts is also very helpful with tips on things such as how to speed up iPhoto start-up time (yes!) and customizing the keyboard shortcuts.

Making the Complex Understandable, April 5, 2009
What makes Warren Buffett in Finance or John Madden in Football so effective? It's their ability to make complex things understandable. Notice, I didn't say make complex things simple because that is not always possible.

I know topics like digital photography and iPhoto are not always simple but they are worth understanding. That's what led me to read iPhoto `09 for Dummies.

iPhoto `09 for Dummies is a great book for 3 reasons:

1) Workflow

It provides a proven workflow for editing my photos, starting with one-click features and progressing to multi-step operations. See Chapter 7.

2) Tradeoffs

I now understand the cost benefit ratio of what iPhoto can do. I can answer questions like "Is this photo worth more effort or is it perfect enough?" and "What should I do to every photo?"

3) Knowledge Sharing

There's a wealth of expertise that I wouldn't learn on my own for years, if ever. Why do I need a color card? Hint: the camera doesn't see things as my eyes and brain do. Raw, JPEG, and TIFF -- I can't believe I can now explain these formats and their impact on visual quality! And what's the point of taking photos if I don't know how to share them? See Part IV.

Short of having personal lessons from the author, reading this book is the best way to learn iPhoto and improve everything related to my photos and what I want to do with them.

Finally, the print quality of the book is fabulous - it truly is in full color!

A word to the wise: iPhoto `09 requires Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). I was running the previous OS version called Tiger (OS X 10.4) and had to purchase an OS upgrade in addition to upgrading iPhoto `08. iPhoto `09 is part of iLife '09, a $79 upgrade. Leopard is a $129 upgrade. Bundles may provide better pricing.

iPhoto '09 to the rescue, April 18, 2009
For years I postponed dealing with an ever-growing backlog of unedited digital photos. Not only did the job seem overwhelming, but also computer learning by "exploration" is not my style - too inefficient and too fraught with anxiety.
iPhoto '09 for Dummies to the rescue! Clear explanations allowed me to import and organize pictures from various sources and to make basic edits such as eliminating red eye, cropping, and brightening underexposed shots. I may or may not ever use the advanced editing techniques that the book includes, (although they are interesting and informative just to read), but sharing photos electronically or in print is a "must" and iPhoto '09 addresses these processes with the same admirable clarity.
Recommended highly!

The essential book for iPhoto users, April 17, 2009
As a professional photographer, instructor and writer I am a bit reticent to purchase a book that refers to me as a dummy. However, as I quickly learned from reading this book, iPhoto '09 is a powerful and versatile program. So maybe the title fits.

Micheletti makes no assumptions about the skill level of the reader. Every step of every process is clearly and succinctly delineated. The writing style is easy to follow and almost conversational. Short of someone holding your hand this is as close as you are going to get in terms of personal instruction.

My only minor objection to the book had nothing to do with the content. I'm use to computer tutorial formats of at least 8X10 inches and the smaller size of this book meant smaller pictures. It's personal preference and certainly not a deal breaker.

Great read and reference, April 27, 2009
Originally I was interested in reading the book in order to show my 70 year old mother a thing or two about using iPhoto. However, after reading it I began to use the product myself and bought my Mother her own copy.

This book is a must read if you want to learn how to get the most out of iPhoto. I found this book to be full of useful information and more importantly, easy to understand and reference. Perhaps more important than the great practical examples demonstrating the product's features, this book reinforces the workflow concept embodied within the product - from capture, image editing and enhancement, to key wording and organization, and finally publishing and sharing you images. In today's digital camera environment, the importance of organizing your images cannot be emphasized enough.

Ask a REAL Dummy, April 21, 2009
In our famlly, it's my wife who's the iPhoto user. I dabble with it but over the years I've found it -- like other carefully crafted and mystifyingly designed products from my all-time favorite computer company -- to be a tad obscure. This obscurity seems to me to come about as a result of Apple's serious attempt to make these complex programs easier to use and understand but it has always seemed to me that by hiding things like the data storage in iTunes and iPhoto, Apple has traded ease of use for clarity of understanding.

Angelo Micheletti's new iPhoto '09 For Dummies does the bridge work here, making the program's design and structure clear by revealing how to *use* the software in a variety of helpful and common ways. I was able, after reading the first half of the book, to feel like I had a pretty good handle on how iPhoto *thinks* about the workflow involved in gathering, editing, producing and displaying photography. And given my relative lack of serious expertise in the field of photography, I'd say that's a high compliment indeed.

A must-read for iphoto users, October 8, 2009
I normally don't read these types of user manuals, but I wanted to do more with my photos and this book really helped. It was an easy read with clear, well-written instructions and tips. The screen shots that illustrate the text actually help - they don't overwhelm the text and they make it easy to follow along. I especially like the sections on advanced editing and creating photo cards and calenders - with the holidays coming up, I know I'll be referencing this book as I make my Christmas cards and end-of-year photo books. The keyboard shortcuts card is really helpful - and I like how you can pull it out and keep it by your computer as a quick reference card.

iPhoto 09 for Dummies, April 25, 2009
Being a dummy I found this book excellent value and can now go further in my use of iPhoto ... Read more

Editorial Review

Sams Teach Yourself iPhone® Application Development

Second Edition

John Ray

Figures and code appear as they do in Xcode

Covers iOS 4.0 and up, and iPhone 4

Additional files and updates available online

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to build powerful applications for today’s hottest mobile device: the iPhone! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll master every skill and technology you need, from setting up your iPhone development environment to building great user interfaces, sensing motion to writing multitasking applications. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success!

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common iOS development tasks.

Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.

By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.

Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.

Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.

Printed in full color—figures and code appear as they do in Xcode

• Covers iOS 4.0 and up
• Learn the features of Xcode 3.2 and Interface Builder
• Prepare your system and iPhone for efficient development
• Get started quickly with Apple’s Objective-C and Cocoa Touch
• Understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development paradigm
• Design highly usable applications with interactive widgets and web-connected interfaces
• Use Table views to navigate structured data
• Build rotatable and resizable user interfaces
• Read and write data and create System Setting plug-ins
• Use the iPhone’s media playback and recording capabilities
• Create map and location-based (GPS) services
• Sense motion and orientation with the iPhone’s accelerometer and the iPhone 4 gyroscope
• Create universal applications that run on the iPhone and iPad
• Write background-aware multitasking applications
• Distribute your applications through the App Store

http://teachyourselfiphone.com

Reviews

3.5 - 4 stars, generally recommended, October 30, 2009
I've read through the first nine or so chapters and tried a couple of examples - fairly impressed so far.

Good:
+ loads of color screenshots.
+ strong on UI description and diagrams.
+ easy read and good flow, without compromising content or making silly jokes all the time.
+ technically most of it is correct, with a few caveats.
+ quite strong on application lifecycle and the authors have an ability to put some points over (sometimes fairly complex points) in a surprisingly efficient and straightforward way.

Not as good:
- some typos/errors (missing pointer asterisks, diagrams that don't display what is discussed in the text).
- some fundamental errors related to properties (@property/@synthesize are not in any way required in order to make use of dot syntax), also the book declares properties and then doesn't use them, but makes the mistake of thinking they're needed in order to access properties of a pre-existing class. Interestingly - and I suspect not entirely unrelated - Mark and LaMarche made the exact same error in the first edition of their Apress iPhone dev book.
- ok Objective-C coverage but by no means great (though the authors stress the need to read up on it elsewhere).

The good points outweigh the bad and I'd recommend the book with the provisos: get an Obj-C book to go with it, and you'll probably want to read it with another iPhone dev book to get a different viewpoint (eg. Apress or Pragmatic Programmers).

Slam-dunk best way to start iPhone Dev, December 2, 2009
If you're a developer who has never worked on Apple platforms before, this book is GREAT. The iPhone training materials from Apple are thorough but they are frustrating to anyone coming into it cold and wanting to know how to start. This book plugs all of the holes and gets you going fast. It does not give you every little detail but the point is that you can build simple but interesting aps, understanding what you are doing at each step of the way, and come out of it knowing how to continue by yourself. I looked at a lot of other books and they were either too simplistic, only oriented at games, too advanced, etc.

Couple of challenges... the index is mediocre and there was one missing step in the early stages (you have to go into xCode->Windows->Organizer and actually enable your iPhone for development or it won't load your debug aps).

Very good intro into iPhone Dev, January 22, 2010
While other iPhone books received many deserved praises, I found that this book had the easiest explanation and learning curve for the beginner cocoa touch and objective-c programmer.

After read all the book, you will be prepared to absorb more demanding books easily. It's a great intro book and really worth your money, specially the first chapters.

Some of this works, January 9, 2010
It is not "24 Hours". Each lesson takes you through a development step by step explaining everything apparently very clearly. But then about half of the exercises won't compile, or having compiled, crash on the simulator. Never trusted anything enough to load it on my actual phone. Instead of wrangling with this book that has good intentions but poor execution, I suggest going to Stanford University on iTunes University and taking their CS193p course. Good videos and rough assignments. But it may get me through. All this book did was start me on the path, but then throw roadblocks in the way.

Download the errata FIRST!, April 8, 2010
I have been able to get all of the examples through the first 14 chapters to work. I have at least a dozen iPhone books and think comparatively this is the best or second best starter book (O'Reilly's Head First is good too). Most chapters do take more than an hour(Of course I'm learning Objective-C at the same time). I also like the fact that this is the first book to show you how to get examples on to your own iPod Touch from the beginning of the book instead of telling you to just use the X-Code simulator. but (and this is a big but) DOWNLOAD THE ERRATA from the Sams website first. It will save you a lot of frustration.

A good intro, July 10, 2010
This book is well-organized, with 24 lessons and online resources to help you learn how to program with XCode. At first I thought it was not updated enough to work with the new iPhone 4 Software Development Kit, but realized once Apple released the 4.0.1 version that the problem was mainly with their software. The only problems I've had with the lessons so far (up to Hour 6) is that some of the files you download from the books website, like the icon.png files may need to be opened and saved into more updated version before you can proceed with the lessons. For some of the XCode files you download, you may get a message that the "Base SDK" is not loaded, since it is looking for an older version. If you go to Project | Edit Project Setting, then you can change the Base SDK to the new iPhone Device 4.0.

More time debugging their code than reading the book..., May 6, 2010
As others have commented, the first twelve-to-fourteen chapters are excellent. They did an good job teaching the basics with very understandable examples. However, right around the fourteenth chapter everything falls apart. They start feeding you code without a lot of detailed explanation. Many of the example projects are just flat out broken because of the typos and lack of direction. I am amazed that they didn't take time to quality check their book before publishing it. Very, very sloppy.

With that said, if you do pick up this book make sure you also download the example code from their website because it will be VITAL in order to compare their broken mess that they had you type in to something that actually works. You might want to skip typing in their code altogether and just follow along with the downloaded examples. You also just might want to skip this book entirely and find something written with a little more care.

An excellent starting point, November 7, 2010
I've recently decided to dive into the iPhone development arena, and as such, have picked up various books to assist me in the pursuit of that endeavor.

There are two books in particular that I'd highly recommend to an aspiring iPhone developer:

This book here, to introduce you to the Xcode IDE as a whole. It'll ensure that you have what you need to get up and running with iPhone development with just enough of an Objective-C explanation to put together a few choice apps.

And "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" by Stephen Kochan. It gives an excellent set of lessons on the Objective-C language, ultimately having you build a traditional calculator app.

Back to Sam's book:

Pros
- Full-color, the book presents beautiful screenshots that represent the Xcode environment true to life.
- UP TO DATE! It teaches you how to use Xcode with the newly released iOS 4 operating system. This is a serious advantage, as I've already returned two books for having outdated material.
- Simplifies ideas to a point where you can easily understand them. For example, other books that I read would go and have you implement an NSMutableArray without telling you what one of those was. This book went the extra mile and notated that Mutable simply means it can be modified after its created.
- Each hour ends with a Q&A, as well as a workshop for you to further build upon ideas and concepts learned that hour.

Cons
- Unless you buy the book here at Amazon, the price is ridonkulous. On par with other texts of the type, of course, but still ridonkulous.
- Not sure if all the projects are affected by the issue, but I know that in Hour 2, you're unable to run the HelloSimulator project due to the iOS 4.2 SDK not being released to the public at this time. So unless you're gonna pony up the $99.00 to join Apple's paid developer service, you're outta luck for the time being.
- Various grammar and spelling issues, but really? They're few and far between, and don't detract from the overall quality of the book.

In the end, I can't stress enough how helpful this book has been. I'm proud to have it on my bookshelf, and would definitely recommend it to others.

HIGHLY recommended.

outdated info, but still worth its weight in silver., August 15, 2010
For sometime I have been interested in developing an iPhone app of my own, but thought the task far more technical than I would be able to comprehend.
"Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 hours" was published (2nd printing in February 2010) before the new iPhone4 OS was released. This may account for some of the issues I experienced, but was still able to overcome.
This book's focus is towards those with no or very little experience coding (me).
Divided into 24 chapters or 24-1 hour lessons, this paperback tips the scales at 600+ pages. Acknowledging the gravity of this book, I knew it would take far more then the 24 hours for me generate an application. Reaffirmed in the introduction by the authors, citing additional time is required to work through tutorials and review documentation on the apple website. The subject of these additional lessons include introductions to some pretty complex programming languages such as Objective-C and Cocoa. Apple does try and make the learning curve as flat as possible, however a lot of reading and re-reading is involved.
I'm a pretty realistic guy, if this book would have be titled "...Development in 24 months", I would have never considered it. Given the complexity of the subject, to me this is still acceptable. The book is organized in a logical easy to follow manner with clear color illustrations of screen shots that I found very helpful.
At the time this review was written I have managed to download the Xcode software and other tools that are essential to programing in iPhone OS 3.x, and register my iPhone to simulate applications that I develop for testing. I am presently wading through crash course tutorials on Objective C coding language.
Overall I think that this book is exceptional in teaching those who are serious about and new to iPhone application development and an excellent resource, even with the advancement of a new iPhone OS.

Great book!, July 1, 2010

I've read a lot of iPhone Programming books and I liked this one the best. They do a great job teaching in one hour chucks. Also, the book has different projects for each chapter, unlike other books that focus on one sample project all the way through the book. The problem with those books is if you don't care for the project, the whole book is going to bore you to death.

This book does not bore you at all. The sample code works when compiled and the challenges at the end of each chapter are a great tool.

If you want to start iPhone programming, buy an intel mac and this book and you are well on your way! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Go beyond the mechanics of Final Cut Express 4--learn how to edit with it! More than a button-pushing manual--this workshop give you firsthand experience with the art and technique of editing. You develop a working knowledge with nineteen tutorials that cover each and every essential, including:
* setting up your system and understanding the interface
* ingesting and organizing your material including drive-based and disc-based camera data
* slicing, dicing, and organizing clips
* editing to build and trim a sequence of shots
* adding transitions
* using sound to refine your edit
* titling with FCE and Photoshop
* animating images to create engaging scenes
* adding special effects filters
* compositing to enhance your projects
* outputting your material
The companion DVD contains project media, demo software, and free plug-ins for your use.


* Nineteen tutorial lessons give you firsthand experience with the art and technique of editing
* Covers every essential activity from system set-up to outputting your material
* The companion DVD contains project media files, demo software and plug-ins ... Read more

Reviews

FCE4 revealed, January 17, 2009
After buying the FCE programme I started wading through the 1000 plus pages on-screen manual and got bog downed very quickly.

I was up to about page 350 and fortunately Tom Wolsky's book turned up in the mail before I threw a tantrum and gave up. Problem with learning from the on-screen instructions is that it's not in a useful order so can't practice what they're saying as haven't learnt how to set up and capture yet.

Mr Wolsky's book is in a sensible order. It starts with setting up the computer, then to capture then to edit etc. The DVD that goes with the book, gives you the material you need to practice on until brave enough to start on your own.

Another problem with the manual is it doesn't give you value comments. By that I mean it tells you what the button or command does but usually no information on when to use it or why. Mr Wolsky does. This is so useful at the beginning stage when you need everything set up right or it probably wont work and he's got comments and recommendations on why and when to use a particular setting.

I'd been swapping my short-film-making efforts over from iMovies, so I was quite impatient at having to go right back and start again to get even vaguely close to where I had been. So did appreciate how well-ordered the book was to get me back editing again as soon as possible. Then I carried on with the next few chapters on sound and applied that to my efforts.

I got bogged down for quite some time with the Boris Calligraphy chapter and came to a grinding halt. Then concluded I didn't need to know about twirling, swirling, multi-coloured, rotating text and got moving again. All I needed was 3D text that fades in and out and could ignore the rest. I don't think this is an indictment on the book, more that I was looking for what I needed to get my film effort progressing.

So only got up to chapter 12 so far. Once I've applied that to my movie I shall read the rest and see what I need. And that really is a strength of the book that I can do that - rather than having to absorb it all at once.

Also appreciated that the examples given to practice on in the DVD don't look like professional takes. It's got useful stuff that relates to me - like cutting out the footage where you knocked the camera and how to cope with sound that's jumping all over the place.

Mr Wolsky's book has told me everything I need to get started. (Although I still havent figured why I cant use the editing keyboard commands like F10, F12 etc for insert and over-write, must have missed that bit somewhere.)

I should also point out that now Ive some idea what I'm doing I can now use and appreciate the on-screen manual, but as a complete beginner it was soul-destroying.

Tom's the best, July 16, 2008
I've gotten each new edition of this book, even though there aren't a huge number of changes. It's just nice to see the updates he's made and draw from his rich knowledge and experience with Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Express/iMovie, and the new nuances he throws in with each edition.

You can already learn some key points to keep in mind about the latest version of FCE in the Excerpt from the front of the book available for viewing on Amazon. It's worth the price of the book right there!

Tom works so hard providing lucid and practical support on the Apple Support page for FCE, and no doubt uses that to enhance the next edition. You're going to be getting his free advice sooner or later, so you might as well throw a few bucks his way and give him some credit for all that you will benefit from his wisdom. I've bought several of the other FCE books over the years, but Tom is the best.

Ron Carlson

Great way to learn FCE, July 9, 2008
I plowed through the book in order of the lessons & I can't imagine having learned FCE any other way. While learning, I produced 2 new TV commercials for a local New Orleans gardening & gift shop, & I'm ready for more. The veteran video guys at the tv stations couldn't believe we did the spots in the attic of the store on an iMac. I couldn't have done them in iMovie--and I couldn't have done them so quickly without this book.

Best FCE Series Out There, July 3, 2008
I bought Tom's earlier book on FCE 2, and it was the best purchase I've ever made for any of the software I use. Tom writes like an editor and an artist. He writes in a manner creative people can understand. Practical and to the point. I have been in the broadcast production industry for 28 years and I can tell you Tom is the real thing. If this book doesn't help you then you should find another hobby.

P.S. Ignore the idiotic one star rating. The book is in English.

Excellent learning tool, August 26, 2008
Final Cut Express has a bit of a learning curve to work through. I'm only half-way through this book, and its worth is already more that I paid for it. I'd already been through most of the online help, and also another FCE4 book that I had purchased, when I bought this one. It has provided many valuable insights that have made it possible for me to actually become productive with Final Cut Express.

Do you have FCE? Then get this book!, January 9, 2009
I purchased this book after getting frustrated using Final Cut Express, and realizing it wasn't going to be quite the same easy experience I had with iMovie.

I tend to be rather handy with computer programs, but FCE's interface, as Wolsky's book explains, is NOT 'plug and play.' If you're like me, and tooled around with iMovie (and noticed the inherent limitations iMovie has), you upgraded to FCE with the promise of more powerful editing tools.

Since FCE has the same layout as the professional grade (and aptly named) Final Cut Pro, there is quite a steep learning curve. I thought "Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop" makes sense of what I needed to know to effectively use the tools presented.

Easy Step-by-Step Education, September 14, 2009
Tom Wolsky is very deliberate but thorough in explaining the operation of FCE 4, so it's easy to follow with him as he walks through all the features, the setup and the interface of FCE. Apple has given us an impressive piece of editing software, but as with all software, you need to know where to go to get what you want done. This book makes that process less confusing, and offers helpful video clips to let you practice what you learn. Of all the books that claim to teach you skills for FCE, I would definitely recommend this one.

It's in English, June 3, 2008
Admittedly my five star review is biased, but I would appreciate if you didn't rate and review my book based on a stupid mistake on the Amazon web site, which after some time we have still not been able to get corrected.

All the best,

Tom Wolsky

No DVD on Kindle edition, July 31, 2009
This review is just for the Kindle edition:
The book constantly refers to the DVD for examples, but if you buy the Kindle addition it is not provided. There is no link to download the Disc.

Step By Step...anyone can learn to use this program, January 26, 2009
I have had the program on my computer for months now. I was completely overwhelmed by it and figured I might never use it. I had the book but wasn't really ready to take on the task of learning the program. Today I sat down with this book, went page by page (I am only to page 36 now) and I totally get it. Using the book, I could go baby step by baby step to learn the program. I now have renewed confidence and I am ready to take this on! Great book for even the most novice of novices! I highly recommend it! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Good Book for Programmers, Probably Not-So-Much for Beginners, May 29, 2010
I would agree with the previously-reviewed notion that this book as an absolute beginner's guide is misleading. I happen to be an experienced programmer who works day-to-day in an object-oriented language (but not Objective-C), utilizing design patterns. I found the shorter explanations useful...I learned a few things and some (Objective-) C concepts were made clear, but I didn't have to wade through pages of "this is a loop. This is a function" that gets tiring to one who understands the general programming concepts. But as one who moonlights as a college professor that teaches these very same concepts, I would expect a beginner to get quickly overwhelmed by this book.

I also feel the book's promise to teach iPhone/Pad programming misleading (the subtitle is "Foundations of Mac, iPhone, and iPad Programming"). Stevenson never introduces iPhone-specific programming concepts, or any of the unique aspects of Cocoa Touch and UIKit. There are mentions of such differences (like the discussion on CGImage, NSImage, and UIImage), but the mention is merely that, and no further information is provided. If you're looking to get into iPhone programming specifically, you can do better than this book. However, this book would supplement another iPhone book well, for its basics on C and Objective-C.

My biggest complaint is the Chapter 9 "real" application. Personally, I don't mind that it took that long to get to a practical app. But the chapter was basically one big "type all of this code in" with pages and pages of code on paper. The introductions to MVC and Core Data were pretty cursory, but I was hoping that through the practical example Core Data would be made clearer, and how it fit into MVC. Also, other topics such as drag-and-drop, fetch requests, and sorting were pretty much presented in the code and never discussed. Stevenson would do very well to refactor the chapter and present it in more of a step-by-step fashion. I found myself longing to hit "Build and Run" just to see something working, but knew that it would be pointless, because I just typed in a big, long class, which is supposed to use other classes that I haven't written yet. I just kept typing and typing, just sort of hoping that all would end well, and that I would have a clear understanding of how the app worked once it was done.

It didn't, and I don't.

What was needed were milestones. You know, just stub in a methods and properties, build and run. NSLog a few things, build and run. Flesh out the details of one of the views, build and run. Give the reader some stopping places where they can test the existing functionality against what they're supposed to see, and also just a stopping place in the reading! I couldn't do it all in one go, and it was difficult picking up where I left off the next day.

The funny thing (funny in a relative way) is that in the very next chapter, Stevenson does *exactly this* iterative approach that I'm talking about. We get into drawing into views, and we start with colors and rectangles. We build an app, and draw a colored rectangle. Hey, it works. Great, let's learn about bezier paths, now. Then move on to graidnets, and images, and then text, and then styling text, and finally user interaction. All the while, we build a simple (not very useful, but still cool enough) application that slowly builds up all of the techniques from a simple colored rectangle to an image with a border, shadow, and sheen, that's scaled properly, has a title that's rendered in a bezel below the image (and is optional) that can be dragged around the view and re-centered with a key press. We had so many stops along the way that it was pretty easy to check your work as you went, and I ended up with a working application, not to mention a much better understanding of these particular concepts. Chapter 10 is the model for what Chapter 9 should have been like.

That particular shortcoming is why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. If Stevenson addresses this, I'd happily give it 5. However, you need to be comfortable with a certain skill set before being able to harvest information from this book. That itself is not a flaw, although the marketing that implies otherwise is.

Remarkable publication, May 19, 2010
My opinion is very different from the previous reviewer. This book is a remarkable publication for all those who want dive into Cocoa development. You should keep in mind that learning Cocoa is not that easy. Cocoa is driven by Objective-C which is a superset of the C programming language. In other words: it is required to know the basics of the C programming language before you start with Cocoa. With that fact in mind, Scott's book is one step beyond it's competitors, because it also gives an introduction to the basics of the C programming language, a unique feature in my eyes. It is written in a very likeable style. The examples are similar to the ones published on Theocacao and Cocoadevcentral, very informal and of course understandable. I recommend it to everyone who is willing to seriously develop for Mac / iPhone / iPad. If I could give 6 Stars, I would.

EDIT: Due to a recent comment on my review I decided to revise it (I did not buy the book here so I can't post a reply to said comment). I understand your concerns but there is no need to worry. It is indeed my first review at Amazon.com but it is not my first Amazon review at all. I come from Germany. Please open my profile and change the URL from .com to .de and you will see some more reviews I posted on Amazon Germany. I'm in no way affiliated with the author. At the time my review was published, it was the first positive, now there are more because it is simply one of the best Cocoa books around. It is also true that I did not buy the book from Amazon, I bought it digital. I think it makes absolutely no difference whether Amazon is the source or not. I bought here countless times and I just felt a need of sharing my experience with other Amazon customers. I think Amazon benefits from reviews that come from non-customers.

Just alright, May 21, 2010
I read this book on Safari online both the rough cut version and the final version.
I do find the book very easy to read as I always enjoy Scott Stevenson's Theocacao blog and his articles on [...]


One thing is certain that this book is not targeted for non-beginner, as the title suggested. Its content is introductory and far too short with 11 chapters. Compared to other books like Cocoa Programming (Aaron Hillegass) which has 35 chapters, it is obvious that a lot of topics are left out. Don't expect advanced topics like Core Animation, Grand Central etc.

Now for up-and-coming Cocoa programmer, is it a good book?
I felt that on this regard, the author is too ambitious.
It is tough to cover Cocoa and Foundation Framework, let alone having to cram C, Objective-C, object-oriented principles and design pattern into it, it ends up only touching the surface on most topics.
And if the newcomer want to know what's the iPhone or iPad app all about, sorry there is none mentioned.
It seems that the author fails on meeting both ends that, either lets the reader to build a solid foundation or having them a tastes of Mac, iPhone programming on Cocoa.

Honestly I wonder why publishing companies in general don't release computer programming books in a series.
If I think of this book as Volume I out of Volume 5, it is a pretty good book. And progressing with the series gives the readers a sense of achievement too.

The absolute best introduction to Cocoa programming, May 21, 2010
Scott Stevenson's tutorials on Cocoa Dev Central have been an invaluable resource for new Cocoa developers for many years, with down to earth descriptions of the essential topics of Cocoa programming and the Objective-C language.

This book brings all that and so much more. It is certainly `the' Cocoa programmer's guide to getting up and running. Starting off with an essential setup guide, chapter two quickly jumps into code, with a great introduction to the C programming language and basic programming concepts that form the foundations of thinking in code. Covering the perfect amount of C, from the ground up the author discusses the basics of variables, functions, conditions and straight forward examples of a procedural application.

Chapter Three dives deeper into C discussing arrays, loops, pointers, primitive types, dynamic memory and more. Scott does a great job of introducing new concepts at a human level, making each new idea tangible. This is where his tutorials have always thrived, and these chapters are definitely where I wish that I could have started my journey into programming.

Chapter Four is where the fun really begins. Thinking in Objects. The author begins to introduce the conceptual foundations of object oriented programming, with clear-cut examples of designing objects. The following two chapters compose the best introduction to Objective-C that I have seen, covering everything from classes, syntax and memory management to dynamic language features like introspection and forwarding messages, interspersed with quintessential thoughts on object-oriented design.

The next chapter discusses the Foundation framework and its value classes, the lower level component of Cocoa. A subject that is often abstract comes through in tangible examples of working with objects and the real life data they represent. This chapter goes into detail discussing many of the value classes that you will use regularly developing Cocoa applications. Styled like a reference, but broken apart by relevant topics, you go through data objects, collection classes, mutability and more, and every class and topic comes with a healthy portion of code. The examples in this section are great.

Chapter Eight is like starting a new book. Titled Basic Controls, it jumps into the user interface level of application development and covers the basics of creating an interface and wiring it up to your code. There are a lot of new topics that go into connecting UI to code, and I think Scott does a great job here of peeling away the layers of the subject, using good examples that help you make sense of things quickly.

The next section was the most helpful to me, as a Cocoa developer with some experience but certainly not expertise, the discussion of Model-View-Controller design and the great sample application were just what I needed to be able to picture the beginning points of real applications in my mind.

I love the chapter on custom drawing, and the amount of coverage it has on the details of creating custom UI programmatically. The sample photo viewer app, with a nice shine drawn on the photo programmatically, cracks open a world of possibilities. And the section on refactoring view code is a true gem; this one part was my favorite.

The final word is a take away guide absolutely worth revisiting.
-

Scott Stevenson has been an active member in the Mac developer community for many years, and has always been respected for his contributions through awesome tutorials on his website, focused on getting new beginners started, and great technical articles on his blog, ranging many topics relevant to writing software with Cocoa. I started with Scott's tutorials years ago, and have followed all of his material since, so I was really excited when this book was announced, and I can honestly say that it did not disappoint. It is the absolute best introduction to Cocoa programming with Objective-C, written by a true expert on the subject and one of the best teachers around.

A Very Good Beginning Text, December 3, 2010
12-3-2010 Review 1

I have purchased about 12 books which teach C, Objective-C and Cocoa. Most are very good, well written, but do not match my experience and learning rate goals. This is the best one for me so far. I expect to modify this review as I progress through the book, confirming my opinions or modifying them. I am through the first few chapters. So far, it explains Objective-C with enough C to get me started, but not enough to confuse me. Little Cocoa except explanation so far. Another book I reviewed took much the same approach, but omitted some small and important details that kept the examples from working. Others took the PhD approach telling me vast amounts way before I could retain all of it. It did not use complete examples useful for references while I build my own code. I could not tell where we were going. Those stalled me after a few chapters but filled my bookshelves.

I have a number of C programs I created years ago to create operating code sequences for a CNC lathe. All are in text. My goal is to develop Cocoa graphic display applications which produce those CNC operating code sequences to make parts. This should not be much different from creating iPhone or iPad applications.

Also, I have a website listing military veterans also in text. I hope to use Cocoa to convert it to graphic displays for guiding searches.

This book is concise and thorough. It includes explanation and every step needed to make the examples work. It is just what I need to become a confident Cocoa programmer. RSM

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Excellent!, November 29, 2010
This book is written for the C programmer who is new to Cocoa. The book is very slow to cover the basics, which explains why after 10 chapters you have only begun to scratch the surface of Cocoa. But for me, a non-professional, that was ok. After attempting to muddle through the Hillegass book multiple times, which left me with more questions than answers, this book was a relief. In the early chapters, you can easily read each one without entering the code and yet understand the output generated. There's no doubt that this is an entry level book and you'll need another to springboard onto, but for those of us befuddled by Cocoa and in need of a true beginning, this is the best book I've read so far.

Not for Beginners, May 17, 2010
This book claims you can "build solid applications for Mac OS X, iPhone and iPad, regardless of whether you have basic programming skills or years of programming experience." Sadly, though, the concepts in this book ramp up so quickly and with so few examples that a beginner will get lost.

This reviewer has experience with web development using PHP and PERL, so I bought this book in the hopes that it would be basic without not sugar coating it for me. However, the author does not take enough baby steps to help readers through complex concepts. He instead hopes you'll retain pages upon pages of Accessors, Protocols and Instance Variables before you actually put them to any use. In fact, you don't actually start building a usable app until CHAPTER 8. I know Cocoa allows you to build useful things right out of the box, but this book focuses so much on the more esoteric concepts -- with very little context -- for nearly 200 pages.

I'm not sure WHO this book is written for. You need a computer science degree to keep up with the pace, but then if you have a computer science degree, you'll probably think this book is too basic. Very disappointed. ... Read more