Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

"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.

Great Review of ‘Take Control of Media on Your iPad’

My wonderful editor Tonya Engst sent along a clipping—yes, paper!—of a review of my book Take Control of Media on Your iPad, Second Edition that appeared in the August 2011 issue of Recording magazine. It’s a fun review by Mike Metlay, with several quotable gems:

Take Control of Media on Your iPad (v2.0) is 158 pages of good advice, step-by-step tutorials, background information, occasional snarky comments about digital rights limitations and stupid design blunders, and sneaky workarounds to the above (with at least one carefully boxed sidebar entitled “Is It Legal?”)—all concerning the iPad as a media consumption device.

and this extensive bit:

I fancied myself a decently-knowledgeable iPad media user before I picked up this book, certainly on the basics of “easy stuff” like watching movies and listening to music. By the time I put it down, I had to hang my head in shame, because I’d learned a good twenty or thirty tricks that would have saved me hours of sweat and a fair bit of money, too. Did you know there’s a freeware program specifically designed to help you import movies from your DVD collection to your computer, with optimization settings for iPad use? (See the “Is It Legal?” sidebar first, naturally.) What’s the difference between the PDF and EPUB formats for electronic document delivery, and in which areas does one format win over the other? And are you aware of the seemingly innocuous dialog box in iTunes that can pop up when you’re adding a video to your library that can destroy everything on your iPad before you know it? How about “The Best iPad Camera Tip Ever”?

Reviews are good (yes, even critical ones) and I have to admit that even after publishing dozens of books and probably hundreds of articles in this electronic age, getting a review as a clipping, tri-folded in a #10 envelope (and better, nestled against a royalty check) gave me a little electric thrill. It was like a delicate artifact had been transported from the past.

My PowerShot G12 Book Is Now Available!

It's a book!* I returned to the office to find a stack of author copies of my new book "Canon PowerShot G12: From Snapshots to Great Shots". It looks great: Full color, high quality printing, and wow, look at that cover! (Okay, I'm biased; that's my photo on the front. But I think it really pops well.)

The book is an update of my book on the G10/G11, and includes details specific to the G12. For example, did you know that the G12 has a setting that waits to fire the shutter until everyone in the frame is smiling? Or that there's a new scene mode that shoots good HDR images?

The book also includes a brand new chapter about shooting video, since the G12's ability to shoot 720p HD video is one of the camera's biggest new features. You'll also find a new section devoted to shooting with an external flash using the G12's hot shoe.

As with the previous edition, the book contains lots of photos shot by contributors to the Flickr groups we set up to find great images, and I'm thrilled at the high level of quality and broad range of images we were fortunate enough to use. If you buy the book, do make sure to check out the photographers who appear—you'll find links listed on page xi of the introductory chapter.

Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble currently list the book for about $16 (37% off); there's also a Kindle version, though I'm sure it's grayscale. I imagine an iBooks version will also appear at some point.

* The "It's a book!" exclamation originated in a shared office I used to inhabit years ago. Now it's become a tradition to say when the first copy arrives. Pity my poor officemates.

Two Recent MacVoices Appearances

One of the fun parts of my job is being able to talk to people about new stuff. In this case, I recently did two podcast recordings with Chuck Joiner to talk about the new iMovie ’11 and Photoshop Elements 9. Take a listen:

MacVoices #10126: Jeff Carlson Helps You QuickStart with Photoshop Elements 9

Jeff Carlson is the author of two new books, Photoshop Elements 9 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide and Photoshop Elements 9 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide, both focusing on the new version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. Jeff explains why he and Peachpit decided separate books were best even though there is parity between the two platform versions of Adobe’s approachable photo editing software. New to this version of Elements is the Organizer; Jeff explains what it is, what you can do with it, and how it differs from Bridge. Jeff also talks about why Elements and iPhoto shouldn’t be compared, and what each does best, explains the new content-aware healing technology that is the shining star of Elements 9, and more.

MacVoices #10125: Jeff Carlson Looks At The Known and Unknown Features of iMovie ‘11

Jeff Carlson has been spending lots of time with the new iMovie ‘11, and has discovered a number of useful, cool and largely undocumented features. Jeff discusses the under-publicized return of the timeline (even if it isn’t called a timeline), the usefulness of Movie Trailer and other effects, and then dives into things you didn’t know, including rolling shutter fix, morse code in a theme, and several other minor but tasteful additions. iMovie ‘11 still isn’t good with interlaced video; Jeff explains what that means to you and how to work around it, and why iMovie ‘11 is finally almost like the long-dead iMovie HD.

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 on Amazon.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".

Talking about G10/G11 Book on MacVoices

On a recent MacVoices podcast, I joined Chuck Joiner to talk about the making of my (almost ridiculously long-titled) book "Canon PowerShot G10/G11: From Snapshots to Great Shots." What's great about this episode is that we were joined by photographers Jeff Lynch and Justin Van Leeuwen, who contributed photos for the book through an experimental crowd-sourcing process using Flickr.

From Chuck's description: "The team talk about how the project came together, the decision to publclly solicit photographs, and why so many shooters decided to get involved. The project took on a life of its own, and the conversation covers it all, from the social networking aspects of digital photography to an explanation of what makes this book different than other instructional and coffee table books, to some good old photographer geek talk."

Listen to the podcast here.

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.