Macintosh... The Naked Truth

Rating:
Summary: An embarrassing pro-Mac manifesto for the truly clueless
Review: This book purports to tell it like it is in a hard hitting style but it what it really does is a huge disservice to the Macintosh community, because it propagates myths about the Mac platform and how it compares to Windows while wholeheartedly inventing a new set of myths. It's embarrassing to the author, and embarrassing to any self-respecting Mac owner.

I read the book, literally, with slack-jawed amazement at the constant, steady series of utter and total BS that Kelby foists on his readers. I have to wonder what New Riders was thinking when they received this title for edits. How could they not have at least fact checked the numerous claims made by Kelby, repeatedly, throughout the book?

What's really sad is that there is a germ of value in there. Kelby is often honest about the deficiencies in Mac products and what you can realistically do to address these problems. But these bits of insight are surrounded by credibility-busting claims about the Mac's superiority to Windows and--seriously--the superiority of people that use the Mac when compared to those that use Windows. Sad.

The book is an utter waste of time...

Rating:
Summary: Macintosh... The Naked Truth was a riot!!
Review: This book was hilarious to read! I absolutely loved it. Scott Kelby used a lot of personality and humor to make this book great. As all of my friends use PCs, it was helpful in giving me information to get back at their persistant "Windows systems are easier and better than stinky Macintosh!!" attempts. Let me tell you: read it! You'll love this book, especially if you use a Macintosh.

Rating:
Summary: This guy knows Mac. You guys should get it.
Review: This guy obviously knows how us Mac folks think. I mean just by looking at the title it's a dead giveaway that it must be a Mac book by a Mac guy.

Delve into the book, and you'll see every nook and cranny of this book typifies at least one Mac user. I've been suprised to see a virtually complete clone of myself in this book - because all of my virtues (or most, anyway) are described in the book.

There could be more 'bashing' at Windows XP, and the book certainly could have been a lot longer. But this book is a proud effort. It's stashed with Mac character throughout all its pages.

Do your Mac friends a favour: buy a stack of these books for Christmas, and hand them to all of your Mac friends. This is the true Macintosh spirit - in print!

Rating:
Summary: This book helped me switch
Review: This is the book I used to successfully switch to an Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.2 as my main computing platform. This is after using PC's since 1989, from an IBM PC XT running MS-DOS to an HP Kayak workstation running Windows 2000 Professional, which I still use today from time to time (I now consider it as my "legacy" system). I'm also the first in my family that I know of who bought a Mac.

I couldn't have switched without this book as my guide. I don't know if it was intended for switchers, but reading it is similar to having an expert share his/her knowledge & experience with me. To be fair, I did not purchase the book. I simply dropped by B&N & read it there from time to time <grin>. I may get a copy in the future since I like reading it & laughing at the jokes, but it has served its purpose for now.

The bottom line is I needed info that I can trust. I'd trust it if it came from someone who knew what he or she was talking about, and if they've used Macs for a long time & know their merits, and know the other side of the story (PC's). Scott Kelby's that person. I'm typing this now on my Powerbook G4 as proof of that.

You know, switching's not easy. It's a very scary proposition; especially for someone who's used PC's as long as I have. It involves a lot of skillset/mindset/philosophy/belief adjustments, risk, & massive e-mail/file transfers. And $1500 will be spent for *another* computer when I've already spent over $10,000 on PC's during my lifetime. Not only that, but I also had the PC-type thinking: "Macs are toys," "too expensive," & the big one: "Apple is gonna go out of business."

Of course, with the exception of Macs being expensive, these are all myths, which this book easily debunked (like the title says, it's the naked truth.). I needed that. I'm surprised actually how Scott was able to nail down how a PC person thinks; to me, when you're engulfed in your own platform, there's a good chance you're myopic to it and don't consider anything else. This guy isn't like that.

In summary, this book gave me the facts that I needed to know, with a good dose of humor (the last chapter on "The Secret of Macintosh" really got me! Haha!) . Switching was not easy for me. I needed a guide, and this book served that purpose very well. (And if you want to know what finally convinced me to switch, read the book.)

Rating:
Summary: This book helped me switch
Review: This is the book I used to successfully switch to an Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.2 as my main computing platform. This is after using PC's since 1989, from an IBM PC XT running MS-DOS to an HP Kayak workstation running Windows 2000 Professional, which I still use today from time to time (I now consider it as my "legacy" system). I'm also the first in my family that I know of who bought a Mac.

I couldn't have switched without this book as my guide. I don't know if it was intended for switchers, but reading it is similar to having an expert share his/her knowledge & experience with me. To be fair, I did not purchase the book. I simply dropped by B&N & read it there from time to time <grin>. I may get a copy in the future since I like reading it & laughing at the jokes, but it has served its purpose for now.

The bottom line is I needed info that I can trust. I'd trust it if it came from someone who knew what he or she was talking about, and if they've used Macs for a long time & know their merits, and know the other side of the story (PC's). Scott Kelby's that person. I'm typing this now on my Powerbook G4 as proof of that.

You know, switching's not easy. It's a very scary proposition; especially for someone who's used PC's as long as I have. It involves a lot of skillset/mindset/philosophy/belief adjustments, risk, & massive e-mail/file transfers. And $1500 will be spent for *another* computer when I've already spent over $10,000 on PC's during my lifetime. Not only that, but I also had the PC-type thinking: "Macs are toys," "too expensive," & the big one: "Apple is gonna go out of business."

Of course, with the exception of Macs being expensive, these are all myths, which this book easily debunked (like the title says, it's the naked truth.). I needed that. I'm surprised actually how Scott was able to nail down how a PC person thinks; to me, when you're engulfed in your own platform, there's a good chance you're myopic to it and don't consider anything else. This guy isn't like that.

In summary, this book gave me the facts that I needed to know, with a good dose of humor (the last chapter on "The Secret of Macintosh" really got me! Haha!) . Switching was not easy for me. I needed a guide, and this book served that purpose very well. (And if you want to know what finally convinced me to switch, read the book.)

Rating:
Summary: Some of the revies validate this book
Review: This was a very fun read from the point of view of the computer world's underdog. Just about any group that has to put up with the wearying nonsense of the majority can understand what is being said here. What's most ironic, however, is how some of the negative reviews here completely illustrate the point that many Mac users make: that the anti-Mac crowd is generally armed with bad data.

Take "A reader from U.S.A." below for example. David K. Every's new site right now has a very positive aritcle about what's coming for Mac OS X. Guy Kawasaki left the OS wars because he started a venture capital company--- hard to blame him because you can't retire very early evangelizing a computer OS against legions of ignoramuses.

Consumer Reports is not exactly the end all of validation. This one is a fine example of bad data that just gets quoted and requoted in a viscious circle. Look at all the PC users who claim the Apple stole the interface from Xerox. Xerox itself never made this claim, and received quite a nice amount for what tiny amount Apple did borrow.

The rest of his comments are just typical lies and nonsense and bizarre logic. Take his claim that there are 40 Mac advocacy sites, and PC sites have hardware reviews. Well, OK. What does that mean? It means nothing. It's a nonsequitor. It's sound and fury signifying nothing. Of course, there are plenty of hardware and software review sites for the Mac, but that violates "A reader from U.S.A.'s" ideology, so it must be ignored. See Chapter 2 of the book for more examples.

Even stranger is that "A reader from U.S.A." is obviously a Mac hater. Why is he/she spending time posting a review of a Mac book he probably didn't read. Whay was this so important to him/her? It's that sort of bend-over-backwards to bash a computer OS approach that mystifies Mac users. I'll wager a month's pay he/she did not read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Hurts, doesn't help the Mac cause
Review: Though written cleverly enough to elicit the occasional giggle, Kelby's book-length anti-Windows diatribe (yes, it's more anti-Windows than pro-Mac) ultimately damages the image of the very platform (and its users) that he's trying to build up. Speaking as one who uses both Windows and Mac daily (though I'd use just a Mac if I could do everything I need on it), Windows users are not stupid and there are plenty of valid, real-world reasons why someone might choose Windows over Mac. Greater acceptance of Mac will not be won with cheap attacks on the intelligence of those who use other platforms -- it will be won by calmly and accurately demonstrating the real usability advantages that Mac users have learned to love. Even when Kelby attempts this approach, he often relies on myths and half-truths to make his point. Come on, the Mac has plenty of advantages over Windows without relying on cheap attacks and uninformed "facts" that reflect poorly on the whole Mac community -- making it seem as whiny and disingenuous as Kirby appears to be.

Rating:
Summary: Tim Robertson MyMac.com Book Review
Review: With apologies to Scott Kelby for the title of this MacRelevant column, The Naked Truth, I decided to write a brief article on his book of the same name.

Recently MyMac.com writer Chris Seibold wrote a review on Scott Kelby's latest book, Macintosh... The Naked Truth. I even emailed Scott before we published it, telling him that Chris gave him pretty high marks for his book. (Writers HATE hearing from people who liked their book, in case you were wondering.) Then, a week later, Scott asked me to go read the review of his book at Amazon.com by Paul Thurrott, News Editor of Windows 2000 magazine. I did, and if anything, it simply proves the point Scott made in his book.

In response to Mr. Thurrott's review, I present this from Scott himself.

New Mac book enrages PC users

Scott Kelby's controversial new book, "Macintosh: the Naked Truth" has only been out a little more than a week, and PC users are already rushing to attack it, including Paul Thurrott, News Editor of Windows 2000 magazine who posted a scathing review of Scott's new book on Amazon.com. Thurrott called the book "An embarrassing pro-Mac manifesto for the truly clueless."

"It's because of guys like him that I wrote the book in the first place," said Kelby. "Actually, His comments made my case better than I ever could. Frankly, I wish I could've included his review in my book, because every Mac user can relate to an encounter with a PC user just like him," he added.

Paul's blasting of Kelby's book hasn't hurt its popularity as it ranks as the 14th bestselling Macintosh book on Amazon.com. Kelby adds "I'm sure it's also the #1 most hated book by PC users who can't stand anyone telling the other side of the story."

The book, and the review, can be found at Amazon.com (search for Macintosh: the naked truth)

I also posted our review of the book at Amazon.com's website. It is my hope that our more honest review helped sell more copies of the book that Mr. Thurrott's did to steer people away from it.

Our reviewer, Chirs, was not the only MyMac.com writer to receive a copy of the book from New Riders, the publisher of Macintosh... The Naked Truth. I also received a copy, but deferred writing a review in favor of Chris writing his. But now, with Mr. PC Weenie Thurrott's rant, I feel I should also put my own two cents in.

This is a great book for any Mac fan. The front cover of the book says it all: "An irreverent, off-the-wall, PC-slammin', totally-biased look at Apple, and what it's like to be a Mac user stuck in a Windows dominated world."

That is what the book is all about. It is great, the type of Macintosh book I myself would have loved to write. Had I thought any publisher would have ever taken to the idea, this book would have been written by me a few years ago. (Though not as well written as Scott did, I am honest to say. I am not the master of the written word that Scott is!)

So all you Mac militants (and you know who you are!) Here is your chance to shut up a lying, bigmouth PC editor. Head over to Amazon.com and order this book today. It is only $ after all. Cheap for such a good read! Do it today, and then thank me tomorrow after you read it. You will enjoy it.

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Tim