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iBook Book Review: "The Ultimate iBook iBook " by Dan Parks Sydow Review by Ted Bade The
Ultimate iBook Book suggested retail price is
$24.95 and is published by Mac Central Press.
The 408 page Paperback Edition of " The Ultimate
iBook Book" is now
shipping.
The Ultimate iBook Book
offers detailed information presented in a
manner easily understood by the computer novice.
It covers a variety of topics ranging from the
basic desktop to adding peripherals and
troubleshooting. While it is yet another ported
iMac book, repackaged, and sold as specific for
the iBook, it is well written and would be
useful to an iBook owner new to the
Macintosh. There are many ways to
present the material of a "technology" book.
Many authors opt to make the book a reference,
intending that their readers scan sections of
interest now, and return later with questions.
Another method is to design the book to educate
the reader. Mr. Sydow presents the materials in
The Ultimate iBook Book in the latter fashion.
If you read this book as presented, you will
learn a lot about using your iBook and
Macintoshes in general. There are occasions in
this book when the topic of a section is one
thing, but the text of the section begins with a
description of something loosely related,
although not exactly on topic; often these items
are not related to the iBook.For instance, his
dissertation on various types of RAM seem
superfluous, although educational. That the fact
that this book is perhaps just a "port" of the
Ultimate iMac book shows here as well.
Explanations of upgrades that cannot be done on
an iBook (upgrading VRAM), while educational
aren't applicable. There is nothing wrong with
doing this; just that it is not
related. Let's
look at what's in this book! The book begins with the
expected basic introduction to the iBook, the
MacOS, and Macintosh software. I like the fact
that more technical information is set aside
with a section stating "Warning, this is
technical". This first section
acquaints the user with the iBook, explains
using the keyboard, trackpad and button, use of
the hard drive, and the various ports and
connections to the iBook. The software section
briefly describes MacOS 8.6 (which came on the
original Rev. A iBooks), and offers a paragraph
on the software included with the iBook. I was a
bit disappointed with his description of the
Palm Desktop organizer, since he implies you
need a Palm PDA to use it. I know several people
who feel this program is very useful without
owning a PDA. In the style of a true
educational book, after introducing the MacOS
briefly, the next chapters describe it in more
detail. The material here is an excellent
beginners guide to the MacOS. Mr. Sydow does a
great job of including information many new Mac
owners find confusing. For instance, opening a
file versus an application, switching between
running applications (and the fact that the
Finder is an application), what control panels
are, how to change item icons, and how to adjust
the Finder preferences. If every new Mac owner
would read these chapters, there would be a lot
less questions!!! In the chapter on
Macintosh software, he explains the how and why
of "electronic documentation" and online help,
and offers a pretty good discussion on different
file types one might run into and how to deal
with them. The book's explanation of the
difference between commercial, shareware, and
beta software is one of the best I have read in
a book. I know shareware authors will appreciate
the comments on the importance of paying their
fee. The "i" in iBook or iMac
is for Internet. The Ultimate iBook Book
describes how to connect to the Internet and
what to do once connected. There are two basic
areas covered, connecting via America Online or
through an Internet Service provider. The
information is arranged so that one need read
only one section. Although reading both sections
can be very educational. The chapter on setting
up and using America Online is very useful. It
can be used to walk a new iBook user through the
process of setting up AOL and then using
it. In brief this section
covers how to install the software, setting up a
new account (with a screen by screen
explanation) or an existing account, how to deal
with AOL link (and what it is for), connecting
to AOL through an ISP, and how to access email,
the Web, using non-AOL Internet software when
connected to AOL, and newsgroups. The chapter is
loaded with screen shots showing what one should
see when doing many of the steps discussed.
Heck, I even learned a thing or two in this
chapter!! My only concern was he didn't discuss
increasing RAM usage of the AOL package (or
other web browsers later). The next chapter walks
the user through setting up Internet access
using an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and is
equally thorough. There are many more variables
to doing this, because each ISP is different.
The book describes using the ISP provided with
the iBook (EarthLink) and discusses other ISPs
in general. This chapter gets a bit more
technical about how the Internet
works. The following chapter
describe e-mail. Again more detail is provided
here. Not only how to use it, but explains
concepts like POP address, SMTP Servers, and
email addresses. For his examples he uses
Outlook Express, software that is included with
the iBook. Features explained include contact
lists, sending and receiving mail, and even
dealing with attachments. The section on dealing
with attachments is more technical, but then
dealing with attachments can be a chore, so the
more knowledge the better. The chapter provides
follow along examples which can help a new user
quickly and easily learn to handle
email. The chapter on Web
browsers discusses both Netscape Navigator and
Microsoft Internet Explorer, introduces the
concept of bookmarks, plug-ins, and changing
some preferences. Where to go on the web offers
a list and description of a good many Internet
sites, discusses finding addresses and maps, and
even using Internet sites to backup data from
your hard drive. The chapters on
peripherals discusses USB and how to expand and
connect devices, as well as providing a
description of several useful devices,
everything from keyboards to cameras. The
section on printers includes information on
connecting non-USB printers. Also provided is
information on ADB, Serial, and SCSI converters.
Sadly lacking was any warnings about these often
troublesome adapters. The concept of wireless
networking was introduced along with the iBook.
This books offers considerable detail on
networking you iBook. After explaining
networking, the book goes into some detail on
how to install the hardware and software needed
to network. The chapter on the Airport shows how
to install and setup the Airport card using a
Rev A. iBook, then how to make up a network
using either an Airport hub or simply connecting
two machines with Airport cards
together. Setting up Ethernet
covers conventional cable based networks and
includes some detail on using adapters to
connect the iBook to older serial based
AppleTalk devices. Again he covers setting up a
network using a hub and several machines as well
as connecting two machines together via a
crossover cable. Following all this
information on various hardware configurations
there is a nicely detailed section describing
how to set up the MacOS software to do this.
Again I must remark how much I liked the
excellent screen shots of this well written
step-by-step approach. After a while every
computer owner needs to resolve problems with
the machine. The Ultimate iBook Book provides
some basic information on troubleshooting and
recovering a confused machine. The basics are
covered including information on repair
software, resetting PRAM, the restore disk, and
viruses. Other sources of information are
explained such as software updates and web sites
that offer help. Upgrading the iBook is also
included in this section. The last two chapters
describe things one may want to use the iBook
for, playing computer games and building a web
site. The chapter on games introduces a number
of games, game related web sites and
peripherals. The 40 page long
chapter, Building a web page, attempts to
introduce, with much detail, building a web
page. I had mixed feelings on this chapter.
Personally, I think the information is out of
place, but in a way logical.
It will either
confuse a new user with too much detail or whet
one's appetite for more. This depends on the
reader. Dan also favors hand coding over using
products like BBEdit, AOL Press or PageMill.
Once a iBook user gets proficient, they will
want to do other things and creating web pages
is one of them. While reading 'The
Ultimate iBook Book" you will have to deal with
a number of sometimes confusing and often
annoying editing errors. These type of errors
have little to do with the writing and a lot to
do with the production of the book. But don't
let that stop you from reading the book.
Also it would have been
nice if this book had a better index. Doing a
quick check I found some holes. The "Airport"
area didn't list the pages at the end of the
book on installing the Airport card, and there
was no entry for "Printers" nor for "MacOS". But
this isn't a reference book; just read
it! Conclusion
- The Bottom Line... Overall, I liked the
tutorial approach of the Ultimate iBook Book.
Sure, it's just a rewritten copy of another
book, but once a beginner has read it they will
know a lot more about the machine. And "The Ultimate iBook
Book" offers some excellent chapters and nicely
detailed (and illustrated) how-to sections.
Despite some flaws, this book is an excellent
choice for a new user who will read this book
from start to finish to learn more. Ease
of Use : Content
Quality : Over
All Score : If you are interested in
buying this book on-line, or want more
information, you can either click on,
The
Ultimate iBook
Book
to go directly to
Amazon.com or visit our iBook
Book Store. Happy
Reading!
You can find several
of Dan's titles, such as "The Ultimate iBook
Book", "The Ultimate iMac Book", and "Macintosh
Programming Techniques", at The
Mac Book Source. Dan also has his own
web site at http://www.sydow.com.
Ted
Bade has
been using Apple computers since 1982 and Macs
since 1985. Dedicated to the Macintosh, he has
been a member and leader of a Computer user
group since 1983. He has a degree in electrical
engineering and loves to write. To date he has
published a number of articles in
Mac
Home Journal
magazine, writes for iBook-User
and writes regularly for H.U.G.E.
a computer user group newsletter, and freelances
whenever he can find the time and need. While
he's not playing Quake Arena or Unreal
Tournament on his Macintosh G4 or PowerBook
G3. The First web site Dedicated to Apple's iBook ! iBook-User © is a Publication of P1 Publishing LLC 2001 |
...it is
well written and would be useful to an iBook owner
new to the "Explanations
of upgrades that cannot be done on an iBook
(upgrading VRAM), while educational aren't
applicable" "offers
a pretty good discussion on different file types
one might run into and how to deal with
them" "the
explanation of the difference between commercial,
shareware, and beta software is one of the best I
have read"
"iBook-User
gives |
You can Order it Now From Amazon.com for
$19.99 !
