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Deal Domains - Big Book of Apple Hacks: Tips & Tools for unlocking the power of your Apple devices
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List Price: $34.99
Our Price: $14.00
Your Save: $ 20.99 ( 60% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.446
EAN: 9780596529826
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 0596529821
Label: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 640
Publication Date: 2008-04-17
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Studio: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: For once, a book full of useful info!
Comment: This book is written as a series of useful and powerful hints for the Macintosh, which they call "hacks". Its unusual, almost unique characteristic is that *everything* is useful or at least interesting (i.e. "save it for another time"). There's none of the usual repetition of simple facts from the manual, nor pages-long wordy discussions of not very much but the author's philosophy (I won't include references here!) It is just plain GREAT STUFF! And I haven't even read it all yet...
Customer Rating: 
Summary: worth the money but there needs to be a disclaimer
Comment: First off, this is a great book. If you like to tinker with your computer you'll probably already know 1/3 of the information that they discuss.
The next 1/3 of information will be things that you'll have had no idea existed or new ways of doing them (interfacing with terminal - although could have used more explanation on how other parts of it worked). Here's were the problem comes up....
In the last 1/3 of the book I found some of the information to be a little 'dated'. Which as sad as it is, is still very true. This is a very recently published book, but the computer field is moving so quickly that as I mentioned, some of what it talks about either no longer exists (like the Mozilla hack) or there have been updates to the software so that doing things the way they are explained in the book is near impossible and requires the reader to think of alternative ways to get the same end result (quartz composer - as an example).
Still, armed with the above information, I would still buy this book for the general information that's in it, and the way that it explains how to manipulate various parts of the computer. Definitely worth the price. I would have just liked to know ahead of time that some of the hacks were already outdated.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Must have for Apple-philes!
Comment: This book is stock full of useful tips and advice on how to keep your Mac or Macs running well or in some cases more efficiently. There's tips for ipods and iphones too. If you like to do it yourself but fear doing it alone, this is the only book you need to get it done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book for Mac tinkerers
Comment: The "Big Book of Apple Hacks" represents the meatiest collection of Apple hacks in publication. It provides 131 hacks (and many more sidebar mini-hacks) for all current major Apple products like the computer lines, iPhone and iPod, Apple TV, and even the Mighty Mouse. There are hacks and tips for everyone, from modest skills to the highest, although most of them are for serious tinkerers and the high-end geeks who would be comfortable using the command line, Automator, and UNIX and wouldn't hesitate to crack open the boxes of each of the Apple products to perform technical surgery of some type.
Author, Chris Seibold, is an engineer and writer who makes tinkering with complexity accessible. He is assisted here by a large handful of contributors who are programmers, computer scientists, engineers, writers, and producers of various sorts.
The hacks are organized into 15 chapters, mostly by product line, both hardware and software. All are well-written, easy to follow, illustrated by (grayscale) images of photos and screenshots, and well-larded with sidebar tips and "Quick Hacks." Some of the hardware hacks are illustrated by stage-by-stage photos of hardware disassembly and reassembly.
Many of the hacks, especially the software ones, rely on third-party software and the book references many useful programs available for downloading from the Internet, most of them Open Source, free, or modestly priced. The introductory chapters cover backing up, creating a bootable flash drive, and installing the Apple-provided Developer Tools, using the root account, and modifying plists. There are hacks for the Internet like scraping the web for images using a special script (available for downloading at the author's site), cleaning metadata, Safari tips and tricks, and more. Later chapters cover customizing the Mac OS X operating system, networking and security, maximizing multiple operating systems, hacking the Apple hardware products, and adapting the Mac computer to run custom made weather monitoring systems and Smart Homes utilities.
Throughout there are hacks I've never seen before and which are quite interesting and (mostly) practical, like using Software Restore Disk on almost any Mac, no-cost alternatives to static IP addresses, sucking out an existing Windows installation to a Mac, installing the whole Wikipedia on an iPod, making a laptop cooler, installing a Mac Mini in a car, and disassembling a Mighty Mouse for cleaning.
Some hacks have been published elsewhere in some form or another, but there is no shortage of originality here, and plenty of material for serious tinkerers to deal with. The hacks here are for productivity reasons, cost-saving, and just plain curious fun. But honestly, some of these hacks are for only "Those Who Need a Life!!!" -like, the multiple ways to disable iSight camera, motion activation laptop tricks, and even running (old) Classic games on newer Macs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Collection for Mac User
Comment: I am a tinkerer. I love to play around with things, see how they work, make modifications, hack. I come by this trait honestly. My dad is an electronic tech by trade and tinkerer by nature. Dad likes to "hack" electronics. In fact, our first color television was a Heathkit that dad built himself. Dad always had a table full of electronics that he was working on bought from flea markets and ham radio shows. He always had a Popular Mechanics open to a new project. But now instead of a table of electronics, I have a Macbook. Instead of Popular Mechanics, I have The Big Book of Apple Hacks from O'Reilly.
The Big Book of Apple Hacks is indeed big. Chris Seibold (a senior writer at the Apple Matters web site) collected (with the assistant of 27 contributors) 131 hacks (and many sidebar "mini-hacks") and logically organized them into 15 chapters. The hacks range from simple software code changes to get-out-the-soldering-iron hardware mods. But all the hacks are interesting and most are useful.
Beginning with the usual admonishment to back up your file, Big Book of Apple Hacks actually goes on to show you how via hack #1. Good advise since The Big Book of Apple Hacks quickly goes into hacking .plist files, OS X (mostly Leopard), command-line, network, iPods, iPhones, laptops, even your car!
The hacks, ranging from a few paragraphs to several pages, are well laid out with clear instructions. The illustrations used provide additional clarification. Most hacks are useful and optimize your system, but a few are pretty fanciful.
The hacks in this book are not new and can be found in different forms on the web. But this collection presents these hacks in a consistent way that are easy to read and understand.
The Big Book of Apple Hacks is a real time suck, in a very good way. I can see my dad and I now spending time infrom of our Macbooks hacking away. I would recommend this book to all Mac users, but more experienced users will benefit the most.
O'Reilly is one of the premier publishers of tech books, offer discounts to members of Mac User Groups, so run, do not walk, to your group and get this book.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Bigger in size, longer in length, broader in scope, and even more useful than our original Mac OS X Hacks, the new Big Book of Apple Hacks offers a grab bag of tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of Mac OS X Leopard, as well as the new line of iPods, iPhone, and Apple TV.
With 125 entirely new hacks presented in step-by-step fashion, this practical book is for serious Apple computer and gadget users who really want to take control of these systems. Many of the hacks take you under the hood and show you how to tweak system preferences, alter or add keyboard shortcuts, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your operating system and gadgets that Apple doesn't expect you to do. The Big Book of Apple Hacks gives you: - Hacks for both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, their related applications, and the hardware they run on or connect to
- Expanded tutorials and lots of background material, including informative sidebars
- "Quick Hacks" for tweaking system and gadget settings in minutes
- Full-blown hacks for adjusting Mac OS X applications such as Mail, Safari, iCal, Front Row, or the iLife suite
- Plenty of hacks and tips for the Mac mini, the MacBook laptops, and new Intel desktops
- Tricks for running Windows on the Mac, under emulation in Parallels or as a standalone OS with Bootcamp
The Big Book of Apple Hacks is not only perfect for Mac fans and power users, but also for recent -- and aspiring -- "switchers" new to the Apple experience. Hacks are arranged by topic for quick and easy lookup, and each one stands on its own so you can jump around and tweak whatever system or gadget strikes your fancy. Pick up this book and take control of Mac OS X and your favorite Apple gadget today!
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