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Rating: 
Summary: describes a lifestyle
Review: A glossy paged book that gorgeously plays up a lifestyle supposedly affiliated with a Mac. Not unlike various magazines of gracious living (Town and Country, Architectural Digest...) Brisbin goes through the impressive portfolio of applications. GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes etc. The narrative is heavily illustrated with colour screen captures on most pages.
Relatively little computer jargon is tossed at you. Brisbin tries to write of uses that readers could relate to, and to write of these in straightforward terms, as a fellow user. The uses described tend to be things that images can be easily made of, or for which appropriate Mac screens can be made. A tight reinforcing of the text, for more effective learning.
Squint at this book and imagine yourself a few decades hence. The book is totally period of this Noughties decade. Not just because of the technology, but also because the usages reflect a common contemporary lifestyle that will one day date this era. Just like quadrophonic sound and tape decks for the 70s.
Rating: 
Summary: iApps and Apps i-NOT
Review: The Mac comes with a ton of applications built into the operating system that are poorly documented, if there is any documentation at all. Shelly Brisbin, has been writing about the Mac for 17 years, and in this book she goes over the following iApps: iTunes, GarageBand, iPhoto, IMovie, iDVD, iChat AV, ICal, iSync and the following Apps i NOT: Address Book, Mail, Safari, Sherlock, FontBook, Preview, The Terminal, and the Little Guys. Finally she covers a bunch of little programs that are almost hidden in the nooks and cranys of the operating system.
This is a book that will greatly expand what you think you can do with a Mac.
Rating:
Summary: Living the iLife
Review: This "How To" book by Shelly Brisbin is ideal for both the beginner and the intermediate Mac user because it thoroughly covers the software included with Mac OS X and iLife 04. The material is presented in an easy to-follow and underdstand-
able manner with lots of examples and illustrations - all in full color. Each chapter
is loaded with useful tips and sidebars that are easy to find because they are highlighted in color in the left margins. Also included throughout the book are lots of resources and links to software and hardware that will help improve your iLife.
In Part 1, the author thoroughly covers iTunes, Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iChat AV, iCal, and iSync with a chapter devoted to each. To make the material more interesting, she ends each chapter with a project that walks you step-by-step through a real-world task - a fun experience. With the help of Part 1, you should be able to create some nice gifts, such as, music CDs, photo CDs, quicktime movies, and DVDs that can be played on a TV. In Part 2, the author fully explains the other Apps available, such as: Address Book for maintaining contacts. Mail for managing your e-mail accounts. Safari for your internet browser, Sherlock for searching the internet. Font Book for managing the fonts available. Preview for opening all sorts of image files and PDF documents. Unix and the Terminal for those interested
in digging deeper into the depths of OS X. The last chapter, The Little Guys, covers some interesting and useful programs: Calculator, Chess, DVD Player, Image Capture, Internet Connect, QuickTime Player, Stickies, and Text Edit. The final section is Appendix A which covers material in the Utilities Folder that many Mac users may not know they have. The author breaks each one down into What it is, Do you need it, and the Skinny. They include: Activity Monitor, AirPort Admin Utility, AirPort Setup Assistant, Audio MIDI Setup, Bluetooth File Exchange, Color Sync Utility, Console, Digital Color Meter, Directory Access, Disk Utility, Grab, Keychain Access, Netinfo Manager, Network Utility, ODBC Admin, Printer Setup Utility, and System Profiler. This book covers a lot of material and the author does an outstanding job of making it interesting, educational, and useful. The layout of this book and the use of color throughout made it enjoyable to read. I now have an outstanding reference book.
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