iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide

"iPad Pocket Guide, 3rd Edition" now on Kindle

Just one week after I finished The iPad for Photographers, Apple announced the third-generation iPad and I embarked on a heads-down, super fast update of my iPad Pocket Guide. The paper version of that book is still being printed, but I noticed today that the Kindle ebook is now available from Amazon! It's only $9.59, and covers all the important information about the new iPad and the latest iOS 5.1.

My book, Meet the iPad 2, now at the iBookstore!

I'm ecstatic to announce that the first ebook about the iPad 2 on Apple's iBookstore is my book, "Meet the iPad 2"! It contains 48 pages of essential iPad 2 information, and costs just $1.99. Follow this link to view more information, or, go to iBooks on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, tap the Store button, and do a search for "iPad 2" or "Meet the iPad 2". (You can also download a free sample to check out before you decide to purchase the book.)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/meet-the-ipad-2/id425671338?mt=11

(Note that this link takes you to a Web page about the book; you need to find it in the iBookstore via iBooks on your iOS device. However, as of March 18, Apple was promoting the book on the front page of the iBookstore; scroll down and click the button.)

Honestly, I'm amazed it was available on the launch day of the iPad 2. I expected it would take longer to work through the iBookstore process of submission and approval. (The iBookstore isn't exactly known for being responsive sometimes.)

However, in this case I give a huge amount of credit to my publisher, Peachpit Press. They have a great working relationship with Apple and the iBookstore team. Apple was eager to have an iPad 2 title available quickly, and my editors at Peachpit and I were able to make it happen.

As a result, I submitted the final book to Peachpit Thursday afternoon as Adobe InDesign CS5 files; their in-house team did the EPUB conversion quickly and submitted it to Apple; and the iBookstore folks made the book available.

The ebook is based on material from my iPad 2 Pocket Guide, which I'm working night and day to finish to get into bookstores and e-bookstores as soon as possible. The larger book contains a lot more information about using the iPad 2, from using Mail and Safari to playing media, streaming via AirPlay, being productive with the iWork suite, and much, much more.

(Update: The book is now available for preorder through Amazon; I'll add a link to it at Barnes & Noble when it appears.)

If you're waiting for your iPad 2 to ship, or if you're waiting in line at an Apple Store today to buy one in person, tap over to the iBookstore and buy the book for just $1.99. Thanks!

It's a Book! First Copy of My "iPad Pocket Guide"!

My prolific friend David Blatner started a tradition in the office we once shared. Whenever he published a new book (which is still pretty often) and received his first author copy, he'd bring it around to someone else's desk and say, "It's a book!"

Now that I've published dozens of books myself, I still do the same thing when that first copy arrives—like today's delivery of my iPad Pocket Guide! It's really quite satisfying to have the fruit of a lot of hard work arrive as a tangible thing.

(I'm not contrasting that with digital books, by the way. Receiving the first final PDF of my Take Control of Your iPhone Apps book made me giddy, too.)

Getting the first author copy means the book is probably a week away from being available onAmazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and on store shelves.

 

My review of the 15-inch MacBook Pro (2010)

I've been pretty singularly focused on the iPad since its release, having finished my iPad Pocket Guide (due in stores likely in the next week or so!) and now working on a Take Control ebook about the iPad.

But while I was writing the Pocket Guide, Apple sent me a new 15-inch MacBook Pro review unit, which I used for several weeks while finishing the book. The switch from my 2006 MacBook Pro was painless: I used Migration Assistant on the new laptop to set up my working environment, copied from an external hard drive that had a backup of my hard disk. The fact that I was able to do this easily in the midst of a tight deadline says a lot.

The improved speed and increased memory was much appreciated: I package my print books, which means I do all the writing and layout, so I write directly within InDesign and use Photoshop for processing screen shots. Although the new setup didn't make me write faster (I'm still looking for that particular magic button), it did eliminate some of the little pauses and annoyances I was seeing on my old machine.

I'm happy to report that the new MacBook Pro is nice and speedy: I ended up buying one to replace my 2006 model. I figured I would be buying a new main Mac this year anyway, so the timing worked out nicely. My thoughts on its performance, and particularly how the new graphics-switching technology works, is now online in my latest Seattle Times column: "MacBook Pro makes another jump into the future".

Free Sample Chapter of My iPad Pocket Guide

The iPad was released last weekend, and to celebrate I've made an excerpt from my book The iPad Pocket Guide available as a free download from Peachpit.com. (You need to click the "Sample Content" tab toward the bottom of the page to access the download link.)

As I mentioned previously, I've been working on the book without an iPad in hand, which only goes so far. I was not one of the fortunate early reviewers, so I received my iPad on Saturday along with a few hundred thousand other people.

In fact, I wasn't leaving anything to chance. In addition to preparing the first chapter for the excerpt, I ended up writing the Seattle Times review of the iPad (assigned at the last minute). So, to make sure UPS didn't have trouble finding my house, I printed and made some signs pointing the right direction and hung them a block away. I also set up a lawn chair and waited.

It's funny that I chose to have the iPad delivered when I ordered, versus picking it up at an Apple retail store, because I didn't want to potentially spend hours in line (as I did during the iPhone 3G launch). And so, I ended up outside in the cold anyway.

Fortunately, the UPS driver arrived fairly early (cackling all the way down the street seeing me waiting for him) and I finally got my own iPad. Good thing, too! I ended up making a few structural changes to the chapter based on hands-on use.

(I also made an error. When discussing Multi-Touch gestures, I used the iPod app as an example of shaking the iPod to do something - in that case, it was to shuffle the song playback, a feature that did not, in fact, migrate from the iPhone to the iPad. I've sent an updated PDF to my editor, so hopefully the error will be fixed by the time you read this.)

The iPad is a very cool product, and, I believe, represents major changes for Apple and for computing. I'm excited to be working on this book (even on a speedy timeline) and having fun exploring and writing about the iPad.

My book "iPad Pocket Guide" Is Now Available for Pre-Order

I'm hard at work on my next book, The iPad Pocket Guide, which is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com for only $10.19 and at Barnes & Noble for $10.11!

Amazon lists the release date as June 11, but I'm sure that's just a placeholder. I want to have most of the book written by the time the iPad arrives on April 3 so we can get it printed and distributed as soon as possible after the iPad launch.

Does this mean I have an iPad at my disposal? Sadly, no. I'll be getting my iPad when it ships just like everybody else. I did attend Apple's media event, where I was able to use an iPad for about 45 minutes. (You can read about my hands-on impressions at TidBITS, as well as view a photo tour of what it's like to attend a high-profile Apple event like that.)

I'm writing the book based on that experience as well as my knowledge of the iPhone and iPod touch as an owner and author of Take Control of Your iPhone Apps. When I have an iPad in hand, I'll then go back through and fill in gaps and details I didn't have initially.

Snow Leopard Pocket Guide Now in Stock

I received my first author copies of The Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide this week, and they look great! I also checked Amazon.com this morning and saw that the book is now in stock and available (and still costs only $10, with free shipping for Amazon Prime members!).

Peachpit has also posted an excerpt from Chapter 2, which covers installing Snow Leopard (here's a direct link to the PDF) if you want to get a sense of the book's content.

My Seattle Times Review of Snow Leopard

...is now posted: "Snow Leopard: The big improvements come under the hood". Choice paragraph:

How often in software do you get something that fundamentally makes something better instead of just making it bigger? When you're talking about operating systems, that answer is once — now.

Also, Peachpit confirmed that my book, "The Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide," will be available when the operating system ships tomorrow. I love this little book, and am anxious to get it out to everyone.

Pre-Order My Snow Leopard Pocket Guide!

This has definitely been a busy book year for me, and my latest title is about to hit store shelves (online and physical) soon: The Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide! The book will be available when Snow Leopard arrives, and is available now as a pre-order.

The Snow Leopard Pocket Guide is 240 pages of everything you need to know to use the new version of Mac OS X. It's a tightly-written $15 guide that Amazon currently sells for just $10!

Amazon also has Snow Leopard itself available for pre-order:

• Upgrade from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: $29
• Get the Family Pack upgrade (5 licenses): $49
• If you're upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you need to buy the Mac Box Set (Snow Leopard, iLife '09, iWork '09): $169

(If you buy the book or Snow Leopard using those links, I earn a small referral fee.)

Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 & iDVD

Peachpit.com has posted an article I wrote about iMovie and iDVD: Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 and iDVD. If you've been following along with this blog, these might not be new to you, but I think they're worth highlighting.