Big Book of Apple Hacks

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Author: Chris Seibold

O'Reilly

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529826/#top

Released: April 2008

Pages: 640

$35 USD

ISBN 10: 0-596-52982-1

ISBN 13: 9780596529826

Strengths: Compilation of hacks for power users.

Weaknesses: Not intended for "Beginners".

Intermediate to Advanced

Introduction

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 100 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.

Since this is a new printing and things change, there is an Errata sheet getting populated already.

There are 15 chapters on hacks for Safari, Network and Security, Customizing Mac OS X, Command Line, the iPod, Multiple OS, iLife, Apple TV, Leopard, iPhone, Laptops, multimedia and even real hardware hacks for cars, scratched DVDs and CD, Weather-monitoring, Smart Homes cables and even cleaning the Mighty Mouse.

Do you have the itch to mess with your Mac or a hankering for hacking and even possibly void the warranty? Do you feel comfortable tweaking the Mac systems? I asked my daughters if they wanted to hack their iPods and they turned up their cute little noses and said, "No WAY"! So this book is not for them. It's for guys like me who are computer shadetree mechanics by trade and like to optimize everything. This book would intimidate my mom and drive my dad crazy. This book is not for Attention Deficit Syndrome types either.

May be if the title had been "Customize" instead of "Hacks" there would be a larger audience for this kind of book.

Conclusion

Get the geekbook par excellence for Mac Geek types.