My iPhone
Product Description
A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0789738236 ISBN-13: 9780789738233 Step-by-step instructions with callouts to iPhone photos so that you can see exactly what to do Help when you run into the few iPhone limitations Tips and Notes to help you get the most from your iPhone Learn How to Make iPhone Your Own: Use as a cell phone for multiple simultaneous calls, visual voicemail, and more. Manage your contacts on your computer… More >>
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Grant Campbell said :
February 7, 2010 at 7:33 am
A must have book that is really easy to follow and understand due to the numbered steps to follow with pictures of the phone links.
Rating: 5 / 5
Tami Brady said :
February 7, 2010 at 7:54 am
My iPhone covers 3G, 3GS, and OS 3.1. This resource is designed as a detailed manual for those who already have an iPhone and need help setting up and tailoring the systems to their own needs. Essentially, it is the book that should have come with the box. More than this, however, I found that this book also provided important information that people should probably know before they purchase an iPhone.
There are plenty of points of note that potential iPhone users should know before deciding if iPhone is the best choice for them. On the positive side, iPhone’s touch screen, intuitive keyboard, and features such as being able to attach photos to text messages make the iPhone easy to use. On the potentially negative side, there are extra fees for Internet use and downloading iTunes.
Rating: 5 / 5
Derek J. Matthews said :
February 7, 2010 at 10:46 am
This book was a great resource for me, as I am in the “considering” stage of purchasing an iPhone. The book is helpful in showing the iPhones possibilities, as well as providing useful tips to make the device’s use more accessible. In addition to using screen shots with numbered diagrams of each step, the author points out helpful “work-arounds” to some of iPhones shortcomings. Lastly, the author was responsive to iPhone questions I e-mailed him, which enhanced my experience of his work. Read this book if you are considering purchasing the item, or if you’ve just recently got your hands on one.
Rating: 4 / 5
Kathleen said :
February 7, 2010 at 12:56 pm
This book has 419 pages, including nine pages for chapter contents at the front and almost a full 12 pages of indexed items at the back. The soft cover is glossy and stiff with an attractive and colorful iPhone, bigger than life-size, on the cover.
The book uses high quality slick paper and bright colors to denote chapters in the contents section that correspond to page number tabs of the same color within that chapter appearing deeper in the book. This makes it easy to find what you want to know in the chapter list and jump right to it, visually.
Especially well done is the “>>>step-by-step” feature in almost every chapter relating to how to program your iPhone. These are against a sky-blue background with numbered instructions appearing in easy-to-read black type. Additionally, as you work your way down the numbered instructions, a red circled number corresponding to that instruction appears in the crisp iPhone screen shots so you can follow along, fully oriented. This is exceptional, clear and professional.
The book contains 12 chapters that cover everything from “Getting Started” through managing your phone calls, contacts, text messages and emails to some of iPhone’s unique features, such as listening to audio and watching video, connecting with the Internet and surfing the Web and taking and storing photos
Especially unique to the iPhone is the use of downloadable free or low-cost applications that allow your iPhone to do some pretty amazing things, like a voice Google search, or the Wall Street Journal mobile edition (allowing you to read this business newspaper for free, while their Web site charges a subscription fee), or the iTalk app that lets you record interviews and download them to your computer via wireless (just to name a few examples of the multitude of applications.)
Let’s take a look at that chapter on apps. It clearly lays out the two different ways to obtain them. One is by linking up to iTunes from your computer, selecting the app of your choice available in the Apps Store, placing it in your library and then selecting it for syncing with your iPhone when it is connected to your computer.
But the iPhone also has an App Store application, allowing you to select apps right from your iPhone connected to the Apps Store, and load and install them right to your iPhone. Both methods are clearly spelled out with easy instructions.
The chapter on how to use iPhone applications smartly has a section on maintaining them, and deleting the ones you end up not liking. The book offers some sage advice if it was an app you paid for. You can delete it from iPhone alone, leaving it on your iTunes for future use should updates improve it and you decided you once again want it on your iPhone. (The book clearly describes how you can allow updates to happen your apps, meaning at some point, and improvement might make you want that app on your iPhone again). If you follow the writer’s advice, you’ll never pay for that app again.
The book smartly advises readers not to use the iPhone direct connection to the App Store unless you do so via Wi-Fi or a 3G network. Using the more standard E cellular network will be too slow and frustrating, explain the writers. (Actually, I’ve tried it and it wasn’t so bad.)
There is an excellent chapter on iPhone’s GPS application, called Finding Your Way with Maps. Clear instructions walk you through fully utilizing it. You can easily find a route between two locations, and get walking, public transit or car route and street-by-street directions. I hadn’t used this default app (comes with the phone, not one you install on your own), and the directions in “My iPhone” made it easy to play with and recognize the amazing features in the GPS.
But here’s why I like this book even more. The writer is really looking out for consumers, manifested by his willingness to call out the inefficiencies or ineffectiveness of an iPhone feature. These sections are sprinkled throughout the text as the author found the need. They are easy to spot, with a rust-colored background, white type, and the heading “It’s not all good.”
In the GPS chapter, this consumer-oriented section pointed out that the iPhone Maps app doesn’t give directions audibly, meaning a driver could be in a real and dangerous fix if he’s trying to follow the route and directions on his iPhone while driving. In some states (Alaska!) this would be illegal.
Overall, the publishing quality of this book is very high. I found no copyediting errors or oversights. I was tripped up once by reading a back-cover blurb that talked about iPhone’s “visual voicemail.” I went right to the index and searched for those words, hoping I could skip to it and find out exactly what it was.
No dice. That particular enticing item isn’t listed in the index. I did find it as a subsection labeled Using Visual Voicemail under the Making Calls chapter in the contents section at the book front, so I wasn’t too delayed. I still think if the item deserved a back cover blurb, it probably deserved its own line in the index.
Overall, this is a high quality, top-notch overview of the iPhone. It’s sturdy for refreshing and referring to as your iPhone knowledge increases and you want to expand your effectiveness on the iPhone. I predict you’ll go back for refinements and tune-ups all the time.
One last suggestion: Since the applications for the iPhone are a growth industry into and of themselves, it might have been fun if this author listed Web sites where readers could find reviews of new apps. If the publisher maintained a companion Web site with the author’s recommendations on apps, even better! These items couldn’t be in the book, but an addendum Web site might be a flexible way to handle it.
Good job, overall.
Rating: 5 / 5
W. Yanez said :
February 7, 2010 at 3:27 pm
My husband purchased the iPhone for my birthday. I am not a Techie, so I was challenged to learn by reading this book. I have successfully been able to configure my phone, email, and internet, etc… The directions were easy to understand and the pictures are priceless– very informative and step-by-step procedures are provided. I was able to follow the book and maximize the use of my iPhone. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5 / 5