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Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max: A power guide to Apple's photo app
iPhoto '11 is an easy Mac app to begin using and play with, but a difficult one to master. In his newest book for Apress, TUAW blogger Michael Grothaus takes his knowledge of iPhoto '11 and presents it in such a way that anyone can learn to use the app, not only for organizing and editing their photo library but also for creating albums and keepsakes or sharing those photos. Part of the Apress Technology In Action series, Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max is a 241-page illustrated guide to the app. Available in both paper (US$29.99 SRP) and e-book ($20.99) formats, Michael's expertise as a photographer and writer shines in the book. Michael begins the book at the point where most new Mac users stop -- they figure out how to import their photos into iPhoto and then use the app as the electronic equivalent of a shoe box to store their pictures. Michael begins educating readers at this point in a very understandable way, taking them through the steps of marking and searching their photos using keywords, and describing the detailed information that can be found in EXIF data imported from the digital camera.
Talkcast tonight, 7 PM PT/10 PM ET: iPad Books Edition!
Another Sunday, another episode of the TUAW Talkcast! This week we're featuring two of our own: Dave Caolo, who will be talking about his soon to be released iPad book, and Steve Sande will be joining me to talk about the iPad book he wrote along with our own Erica Sadun and Michael Grothaus. Since I happen to know the right people, we have a copy of each book to give away live on the Talkcast as well! In case that isn't enough, remember that Kelly hosting means a nice big pile of TUAWTF (or Aftershow) for those who show up live. So join us, won't you? To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 PM EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cell phone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
iPad and iPod touch books show off TUAW pride
There's a Yiddish word, naches, that doesn't refer to tortilla chips with kosher sour cream; it translates literally as 'joy' but with a strong connotation of pride and pleasure in the achievements of family or friends. It is, therefore, with substantial naches that we point to the work of several TUAW contributors gracing bookstore shelves near you. First up, from authors Michael Grothaus and Steve Sande with technical review by Erica Sadun, Apress' Taking Your iPad to the Max delivers a thorough guide to the magical and revolutionary tablet for both new buyers and existing owners. Retail price is $29.99, and Amazon will be happy to deliver it to you in plenty of time for the holidays. Second, Michael and Erica collaborated on the Taking Your iPod touch to the Max volume, also from Apress. The book guides iPod touch owners through all the information they'll need to make the most of their new devices, and it looks very pretty sitting under the tree with a new iPod. The book is $24.99 at retail. It's possible that longtime TUAW readers may already know a good bit of the information in these books, but there's always the chance to learn something new -- and for those family members or friends who are new to the world of iDevices, one of these books would be a great way to get them rolling.
A quick tutorial on how to read PDF-formatted ebooks in iBooks
When me and my fellow TUAW bloggers Erica Sadun and Mike Grothaus recently had our collaborative effort "Taking Your iPad to the Max" published by Apress in both ebook and printed format, I wanted to make sure that I had a copy of the book on my iPad so I could show friends and prospective buyers examples of the content in the book. The ebook comes in a PDF format, but I wanted to read it in the iBooks app since it does such a wonderful job of displaying the printed word. Was I going to have to convert the PDF file to the app's native EPUB format before I'd be able to read it in iBooks? Fortunately, no. Apple's recent update to iBooks added the ability to read PDF documents natively. The only thing you really need to do in order to read any PDF in iBooks is to move it to the iPad, and that can be easily done in iTunes: Connect your iPad to your Mac or PC. Drag the PDF to the Books icon in your iTunes Library, and drop it. Note that you can edit the name and author(s) of the book if you don't like the way the file name is displayed. Click your iPad or iPhone in the Devices list, then click the Books tab. Make sure that the book title box is checked and that Sync Books is also checked. Click the Sync button. The sync should go very quickly. Most PDF-based ebooks are relatively small, and even over the somewhat pokey USB 2.0 sync connection, it will move to your iPad in less than a minute. What's interesting is that a new "PDFs" button appears on your iBooks bookshelf, and a tap displays all PDF documents that are in your library. While the PDFs don't have the nice side-by-side view in landscape orientation, they can be searched and bookmarked in the same manner as EPUBs. By the way, expect to see the TUAW-labeled "Taking Your iPad to the Max" in your local bookstore soon!
