appleJAC Users Group

Take Control of Big Sur (v.1.1)

from Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books You may have heard that Apple finally released macOS 11 Big Sur today! As such, I’ve updated my book Take Control of Big Sur to version 1.1, reflecting the changes that occurred between the beta versions in the summer and today’s public release (which was, in fact, version 11.0.1). We’d like to offer you the chance to save 50% when you purchase this freshly updated book. (NOTE:We’re also releasing an updated version of Take Control of iCloud today, which you may hear about in a separate message.)   Take Control of Big Sur is a complete introduction to the many new changes in macOS 11. Instead of publishing separate titles on upgrading to Big Sur and using Big Sur, this year we’ve combined them into a single book. It contains an updated but condensed version of my upgrading instructions along with complete details on all the new apps, features, and visual changes in Big Sur. It also tells you what you need to know to prepare for the new Macs (announced this week) with Apple-designed M1 processors. Because you purchased one (or more) of our previous books on upgrading and exploring macOS, we are offering you a special price: 50% off. You can:   Buy Take Control of Big Sur (normally $14.99) for $7.50 or Learn more about this book In the coming weeks, we look forward to releasing still more updated books, including Take Control of Apple Mail and Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal.

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Prepare for Big Sur, iOS 14, iPadOS 14 with Take Control books

by Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books We’re pleased to announce two new titles that give you early access to essential information about macOS 11 Big Sur, iOS 14, and iPadOS 14 during the public beta period ahead of their official release. And we’d like to offer you the chance to save over 34% when you purchase both of them together. Take Control of Big Sur, written by yours truly, is a complete introduction to the many new changes in macOS 11. Instead of publishing separate titles on upgrading to Big Sur and using Big Sur, this year we’ve combined them into a single book. It contains an updated but condensed version of my upgrading instructions along with complete details on all the new apps, features, and visual changes in Big Sur. The book includes information on how to prepare for the forthcoming transition to Macs with Apple silicon.   Take Control of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, by Josh Centers, introduces you to all the new and improved features in Apple’s mobile operating systems, as well as giving you a refresher course in iOS/iPadOS basics. Learn about App Library, adding widgets to your Home screen, using new tools in Messages and Maps, new features in the Camera and Photos apps, tracking your sleep, translating conversations in real time, organizing notes and voice memos, managing your privacy, using new accessibility features, and much more.   Buy only Take Control of Big Sur for $10.49 with your 30% MUG discount or Learn more about this book Buy only Take Control of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 for $7.69 with your 30% MUG discount or Learn more about this book Buy both books together for the special bundle price of $16.99 (over 34% off the combined cover price of $25.98) As usual, we plan to release free updates to version 1.1 of these books as soon as the final operating systems ship. The updates will cover anything that changes between now and then. We have many additional updates planned for the next few months. Among other titles, we’ll be updating Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac, Take Control of Apple Watch, Take Control of Shortcuts, and Take Control of Your Online Privacy to support the new operating systems. In all, we currently have more than two dozen updates in various stages of development or planning. We’ll be in touch again soon!

 

Master Zoom with a new book from Take Control

from Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books In the 144-page Take Control of Zoom, Glenn walks you through all the important capabilities of Zoom, from top to bottom. An important early chapter titled “Can You Trust Zoom?” goes into detail about the past, present, and likely future of Zoom’s security and privacy issues, and what you can do to keep yourself safe. Glenn goes on to explain how to set up and use Zoom on any platform; what you should know about cameras, microphones, and lighting; how to make smart configuration choices; the differences between free and various paid plans; how to take part in meetings as a participant or a host; how to use features such as screen sharing, chat, and call recording; and what to do if participants become unruly. An appendix covers a variety of alternatives to Zoom and explores cases in which one of them may be a better choice.   Buy Take Control of Zoom now for $10.49 with your 30% MUG discount Get more information about what’s in the book I also wanted to quickly mention three new free updates: Take Control of Working from Home Temporarily version 1.3 adjusts its perspective to account for the longer-term nature of remote work that many of us are now adapting to. Take Control of PDFpen, Second Edition covers PDFpen and PDFpenPro version 12. Take Control of DEVONthink 3 version 1.2 covers DEVONthink 3.5. Thanks for your kind attention, and please stay safe & healthy!

 

 

Three new Take Control books

Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books It’s my pleasure to announce three Take Control titles—a brand-new book and two major new editions. Each of these books has a cover price of $14.99, but you can buy any of them for $10.49 with your 30% MUG discount.

First up: a new edition of Take Control of Apple TV by Josh Centers. If you already have an Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K, this book will help you get more out of it—mastering the Siri remote, adding apps, showing photos, playing music, watching movies and TV shows (with or without Apple TV+), playing games (with or without Apple Arcade), and so on. If you’re considering getting an Apple TV, the book will help you decide whether that’s the best choice, and if so, which model to buy. It also covers the Apple TV app on macOS Catalina, iOS/iPadOS, and third-party smart TVs. This new, fully revised third edition adds information on useful topics such as controlling your Apple TV with Control Center on an iPhone or iPad, using Siri with AirPlay, and much more.

Buy Take Control of Apple TV, Third Edition now for $10.49 Get more information about what’s in the book

Next, a brand-new book: Take Control of Home Security Cameras by Glenn Fleishman. Whether you want a way to see who’s ringing your doorbell from across the house, deter package theft and other crimes, or set up a heavy-duty full-house monitoring system, this book spells out your options. It explains what features to consider in a camera system (including field of view, weather resistance, pan/tilt/zoom, local and/or cloud storage, and much more), how to place cameras and access them remotely (if desired), the privacy and legal issues you should consider, and how various manufacturers and their respective ecosystems may benefit you (or not).

Buy Take Control of Home Security Cameras now for $10.49 Get more information about what’s in the book

Finally, we have the new third edition of my book Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal. I begin with the basics, such as the meanings of terms like “Terminal,” “command line,” and “shell.” Then I walk you through a gentle, safe exploration of the command line, teaching you useful commands as we go (and pointing out common pitfalls). As the book progresses, I move into more advanced areas, such as customizing your command-line environment, creating and using scripts, and installing third-party Unix programs. There’s a chapter of tips and tricks, as well as a huge chapter at the end with 63 ready-to-use command-line “recipes” for a wide variety of common (and some uncommon) tasks. The book is now completely up to date with Catalina, including the new default zsh shell.

Buy Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal, Third Edition now for $10.49 Get more information about what’s in the book I hope you find these new books interesting and useful!

Learn about browsers and Mac automation with updated Take Control books

by Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books First up is Robyn Weisman’s Take Control of Your Browser, now at version 1.1. If you’ve ever felt like you should be getting more out of your browser, I recommend this book to you. It covers all the major browsers on both Mac and Windows, with somewhat less information on iOS/iPadOS and Android. Learn browsing tricks and tips of the pros, how to stay safe and avoid unwanted ads and tracking, the best ways to customize your browsers, why you might use different browsers for different purposes, and much more. The book—freshly updated to cover Safari 13 and more—is normally $14.99, but it’s on sale through December 2 for just $7.50.   Next is my book Take Control of Automating Your Mac. You don’t have to be a computer geek to find time-saving shortcuts to lots of everyday activities you do with your Mac. This book is a compendium of some of the best tools and techniques I’ve found for making a Mac do more work with less effort. Many of them use only stuff built into macOS, though I also discuss third-party apps that can do even fancier things. (And, the book includes coupons worth over $100 on 10 of my favorite automation tools.) This newly updated 249-page Third Edition covers automation-related changes in both Catalina and Mojave and adds even more tips. The cover price is $14.99, but it’s on sale for $7.50.

appleJAC Member Publishes Book

Long time appleJAC member Stephen Archer from Columbia, MO has just published his new book, I, Clodhopper!:an agrarian getaway

In I, CLODHOPPER! an agrarian getaway the author recalls with a dry wit his childhood on a Midwestern family farm. Farming had little attraction for him, and he sought alternate existences, finding city life (“where all the people were”) much more appealing. On the farm he worried that he might be worked plumb to death juggling hay bales, tending to cow-brutes and other beasts, and spreading manure over the fields. He describes his primary education in a one-room, one teacher country grade school as crude, but in it he discovered the wonderful world of book and reading. When he began high school, he found success as an actor, although his grades began to plummet. Much the same happened in his first two years of college, so he dropped out and served a twenty-seven-month sentence in a crayon factory, then fled back successfully to higher education. In time he became a college professor, which he found more challenging and satisfying than plowing corn fields. In the final chapter (Who Cares? So What?), he muses on the care and feeding of one’s happiness, looking back over the first years of his life.

Kirkus Reviews dubbed this book “a delightfully laid-back, entertaining take on country living, adding “this memoir is laugh-out-loud funny.” Beta readers offered such comments as •“. . . a masterly job of capturing time and place, and [the author’s] evolving consciousness from child to boy to young man.”• “. . . absolutely the wittiest and most endearing, human, honest and surprising book I’ve ever read.”•“I woke up sore in the ribs . . . because I laughed myself silly throughout [this] wonderful book.”•“I’ve laughed, hee-heed, guffawed and otherwise made rude noises. . . .”

I, Clodhopper! is available from Amazon.com

Take Control new books about macOS Catalina and iOS 13/iPadOS 13

by Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books   In September, the next releases of Apple’s macOS, iOS, and iPadOS will arrive. We’re pleased to offer you three new titles that provide early access to what you need to know about macOS 10.15 Catalina and iOS 13/iPadOS 13, and to give you the chance to save over $17 (if you buy all three books together).   Plus, once Catlina and iOS 13/iPadOS 13 officially ship, we’ll release free updates to all three books, to cover what changes between now and then (and, in the case of Take Control of Catalina, add several new chapters).

Take Control of Upgrading to Catalina is my thirteenth consecutive guide to upgrading to the latest version of macOS. Learn what you need to know to make the process go smoothly and efficiently, and what has changed from previous versions—including how to deal with new gotchas in Catalina that could complicate your upgrade process. Includes troubleshooting advice in case things go wrong!   Get more info or buy Take Control of Upgrading to Catalina for $9.09 with the 30% MUG discount

Once you’ve successfully installed Catalina, learn all about it with Take Control of Catalina by Scholle McFarland. Like her previous book on Mojave, this book covers the new features and options in macOS 10.15, and also provides a good overview of the entire operating system. Find out about all the changes to your Mac’s apps and system-wide tools, and learn useful tricks that may be not be obvious at first glance.   Get more info or buy Take Control of Catalina for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

Take Control of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, by Josh Centers, also builds on his earlier book about iOS 12, detailing everything that has changed in iOS 13 and the new iPadOS 13. Learn about the new activity views (which replace Share sheets); major changes to Siri and Shortcuts; improvements to accessibility (including voice control); updated Files, Mail, Maps, Messages, Notes, and Reminders apps; new iPad multitasking features; and more.   Get more info or buy Take Control of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

Or, add all three books to your cart and then apply coupon code 679DJ76E to save 40% on the full bundle!

In case you’re wondering, we have lots of other books that will be also updated for compatibility with the new operating systems—to learn more about those, please see this blog post. And a final note…we continue to fix bugs and add features to our new website (see the status update). If you encounter any problems, please let me know. I appreciate your patience as we work our way through a long to-do list.

Get more out of Siri on all your Apple devices!

by Joe Kissell,Publisher, Take Control Books Dear MUG member,

In our customer survey last summer, when we asked which Apple software products people would most like to read about, Siri got the most votes. In keeping with our theme of giving you what you’ve asked for, I’m delighted to announce our latest book, Take Control of Siri by former Macworld editor Scholle McFarland! This book is the definitive guide to Apple’s voice-controlled digital assistant across all platforms—iOS, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and even HomePod. If you own any Apple device with Siri support, this book will tell you everything you need to know about being more productive, saving time and effort, and having fun with Siri. And you may be surprised at how powerful Siri has become since its early days!

 

This book is a terrific resource. I’ve been using Siri pretty much since day one—I even gave presentations on it at Macworld/iWorld back in 2012 and 2013—but I learned quite a bit I didn’t know from this book. (I also relearned some things I’d forgotten!) As a result, I’ve started using Siri in ways that have helped me reduce my overall stress level. So whether you’re an old hand at Siri like me, or someone who has never tried it, you’ll find loads of useful advice, tips, and tricks. Here’s just a tiny sampling of what’s in this 138-page book:

● The numerous ways to activate Siri (by touch or by voice) ● How to personalize Siri by telling it about yourself, your contacts, and more ● How to use Siri with AirPods, wired earbuds, or third-party headphones—or in your car ● How to ask Siri about sports, math and conversions, time, food, movies, people, stocks, the weather, jokes, and random facts (including follow-up questions) ● How to control music (on any device, with or without an Apple Music subscription) ● Techniques for using Siri to get directions, set reminders and appointments, send messages and email, and take notes ● Ways to use Siri to search for files on your Mac ● What Siri can and can't do for you on an Apple TV or HomePod ● How to make and use Siri Shortcuts on an iOS device or Apple Watch ● Everything you need to know about your privacy where Siri is involved

In addition, Scholle has made a series of videos to go with the book, showing you exactly what happens as you use Siri. (Two are ready right now, and eight more will be available in the coming days.) You’ll get to see and hear how to make the most of Siri (as well as its sense of humor). If you’d like to get to know Siri better, you can:

Buy the book now for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount   Get more information about what’s in the book

As always, you can download a free sample of the book from our website.

One more thing. This week we also shipped a minor update to Glenn Fleishman’s popular book Take Control of Your Apple ID, which now goes into more detail about two-factor authentication and addresses issues faced by Apple developers with more Apple IDs than devices to set up authentication codes on. If you have any questions or confusion about how your Apple ID works or how to solve problems with it, I hope you’ll check out this updated book.

P.S. If you’d like to explore our catalog with dozens of titles that help you take control of technology, you can click one of the thumbnails below. (That’s also the easiest way to add multiple books to your shopping cart at once.)

MUG Discount: Master Photos in Mojave and iOS 12 with "Take Control of Photos"

By Joe Kissell, Publisher, Take Control Books

Dear MUG member:
 
Jason Snell has been writing about Apple and the Mac since 1994. He was formerly the lead editor of Macworld, and now runs the Six Colors site and hosts a bunch of podcasts. In other words, he’s pretty much a celebrity in the Mac community, and we couldn’t be more delighted that he has applied his considerable expertise to a new book that explores Apple’s Photos app in Mojave and iOS 12. Take Control of Photos updates and expands on Jason’s earlier book, Photos: A Take Control Crash Course. At 156 pages, the new book is more than twice as long as its predecessor, and it tells you everything you need to know about using Photos.

Photos, of course, replaces both iPhoto and Aperture, and if you’re still using one of those older apps, this book will help you migrate to Photos effectively. But even if you’ve already been using Photos for years, you may not have tapped into all of its powerful features for organizing, editing, and sharing photos and videos. Jason takes you in depth with this thoroughly illustrated guide. He also highlights changes in Photos under iOS 12, including searching for multiple items at once, a For You tab, and an updated Import tab; plus changes in Mojave, including new keyboard shortcuts and the removal of built-in features for making printed materials like calendars and books (and alternative means of obtaining them)
 
This book tells you how to:

• Migrate your library from iPhoto or Aperture (Apple’s discontinued professional photography app) into Photos
• Import photos from devices or memory cards
• Use multiple Photos libraries
• Navigate the Photos interface, including the sidebar and icons
• View, edit, or disable Live Photos
• Organize your library by using enhanced search features, adding metadata, building albums, and creating smart albums
• Edit your photos using quick fixes like cropping, applying filters, and fixing red-eye and rotation problems
• Use advanced editing techniques within Photos and edit using external apps like Photoshop
• Manage your photo collection using the Memories and People features, and get summary views
• Sync and share your photos with iCloud
• View your photos on an Apple TV
• Share your photos via social media, export them out of Photos, or turn them into slideshows
• Create printed objects (such as books and calendars) from your photos using third-party services

…and much more. You can:

• Buy the book now for just $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount
• Get more information about what’s in the book

This is an excellent, detailed book that will help anyone who uses Photos, and I recommend it to you!

One more thing… I’ve also updated Take Control of Apple Mail, my complete guide to Apple’s built-in email app, for Mojave and iOS 12. If you use Mail, I’m sure you’ll find it helpful!

With warm wishes for a happy Thanksgiving

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Take Control of Your Digital Storage“ for your MUG

by Joe Kissell
Publisher, Take Control Books

Dear MUG member,
 
We have a new book to tell you about today, and I’m especially excited about it because it’s all about solving problems I know many of you are having. Quite a few people have expressed an interest in a book that will help them deal with the many questions involved in storing their data and managing their disks—concerns that have become more frequent as the volume of data we have (photos, videos, music, and more) has grown. I’m pleased to announce that our good friend Jeff Carlson has written a book that addresses these questions, and it’s available now: Take Control of Your Digital Storage.

I can’t tell you how many email messages I’ve received that involve storage puzzles. People want to know if they should use a NAS (network-attached storage) device or not, and if so, what they can do with it. How to partition and format a disk. Whether a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a good idea. How to decide whether something should be stored on their Mac, on an external or network disk, or in the cloud. How to make sense of Apple’s new APFS filesystem. What really happens when they use iCloud’s Optimized Mac Storage feature. And so on. Jeff and I decided it was time to research all these questions and more, and the result is Take Control of Your Digital Storage.

Here’s just a taste of the topics Jeff covers in this Mac-specific book:

• How to choose a new (internal or external) hard drive, SSD, or hybrid drive
• Determining how much storage space you need
• What you need to know about filesystems, including Apple's new APFS filesystem
• Formatting and partitioning disks using Disk Utility
• How to repair a misbehaving disk
• How to create and use disk images
• What a personal cloud is and why you might consider using one
• Strategies for freeing up extra disk space
• Selecting and using a NAS with your Mac (with extra information on using it to store your digital photos)
• The various kinds of RAID setups, why you might want one, and how to set it up
• The differences between volumes and partitions (and, for APFS, containers)
• Why and how to encrypt a disk using FileVault or the Finder
• Using iCloud Drive’s Optimized Mac Storage feature

And, there’s much more packed into this 124-page ebook. If you’re frustrated because you’re running low on disk space…confused about what storage options you should use…struggling with questions about volumes, formats, or partitions…trying to wrap your head around a new NAS…or just wanting to have a better understanding of how storage works on a Mac, you need this book!

Buy Take Control of Your Digital Storage for $9.09 with your MUG discount OR

Get more information about this book

I hope you’re as enthusiastic about this book as I am! I’ve been wanting a title like this in our catalog for a long time, and I couldn’t be happier that it’s finally here. Get to the bottom of your Mac storage issues today!

"Take Control of Apple Mail, Fourth Edition" for your MUG

by Joe Kissell
, Publisher, Take Control Books
 
Running a publishing company, as I’ve been doing for the last year, has been an interesting and exciting challenge. One thing I wasn’t entirely prepared for was how little time it would leave me to actually write books, which is still pretty important given how many Take Control titles have my name on the cover. Today, however, I’m happy to say I’ve crossed one more off my to do list. And if you use Apple Mail on macOS or iOS, I think you’ll find this book incredibly useful.
 
We’ve just published Take Control of Apple Mail, Fourth Edition. This is a complete guide to handling your email with Apple Mail, and it now covers Mail in High Sierra, Sierra, and iOS 11. Among the hundreds of changes in the new edition are descriptions of the current workings of gestures, addressing, Markup, Handoff, and many other recently updated features. It contains extensive recommendations for third-party plugins; helpful hints for filtering and finding messages; instructions for backing up, restoring, and importing email; suggestions for making attachments work better (both as sender and recipient); and numerous troubleshooting tips. And it has greatly expanded coverage of using Apple Mail on an iPhone or iPad.
 
In addition, we’ve lowered the cover price of this 221-page book from $20 to $14.99, making it an even better value than before. And, with your 30% MUG discount, it’s only $10.49.

Buy Take Control of Apple Mail, Fourth Edition for $10.49 with your MUG discount OR Get more information about this book
 
Note: You may have heard about a new encryption issue called EFAIL that can affect Apple Mail. This issue was discovered too late to cover it in the book, but we have an article with complete details here: What You Need to Know About the EFAIL Vulnerability. (Short version: it’s not as big of a deal as the press is making it out to be.)
 
This update has been in the works for a long time, and I’m delighted that it’s available at last. If you use Apple Mail on a Mac or iOS device, I hope you’ll consider purchasing a copy so that you can have the best possible email experience.

Updated Take Control books about Numbers and Pages

by Joe Kissell
, Publisher, Take Control Books
 
The pace of software updates from Apple never seems to slow down, and that keeps us busy too, since we often update our books to reflect the latest reality. Today I’m happy to announce updated books about two products in Apple’s iWork suite: Numbers and Pages—plus a special discount on our Keynote book.
 
First, Sharon Zardetto has thoroughly revised her book Take Control of Numbers, now entering its second edition. This extensive update covers Numbers 4 for Mac, with a large number of new features since the first edition of the book was published, including easy transposing of rows and columns, an updated formula editor, threaded comments, Touch Bar support, and much more. This edition also adds a new section on Numbers’ new sharing and collaboration features.

And, we’ve lowered the cover price of this 273-page book from $20 to $14.99.

Buy Take Control of Numbers for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount (a coupon code will be applied automatically when you click Check Out)

Not to be outdone, Michael E. Cohen has also updated his book Take Control of Pages, Second Edition to version 2.1, which now covers Pages 6.3 on the Mac, Pages 3.3 for iOS, and the current version of the Pages for iCloud web app, all of which were released in September 2017.

The 283-page book now discusses linked text boxes, the expanded Shapes library, threaded comments, custom color fills in iOS, fixed layout EPUBs, and expanded file management capabilities, among other new or updated features.

Buy Take Control of Pages, Second Edition for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount (a coupon code will be applied automatically when you click Check Out)
 
But wait, there’s more! Even though each of these lengthy books is individually a steal at $10.49, we have an even better offer for you: buy a bundle of both books for just $20 and save 33% off the cover price—that’s an even bigger bargain than your MUG discount!
 
Buy Take Control of Pages and Take Control of Numbers together for $20
 
There’s one other app in Apple’s iWork suite: Keynote. And we have a book on that one, too: Take Control of Keynote — in fact, I wrote it myself! Unfortunately, that book hasn’t been updated to cover newer features such as real-time collaboration and Keynote Live. But even though the book is somewhat out of date, it still contains loads of useful information, and most of it applies to the latest versions of Keynote for macOS, iOS, and iCloud. Since we couldn’t swing an update at this point, we’ve done the next-best thing, which is to lower the price from $15 to just $5! If you use Keynote, I think you’ll find this book quite useful, and I hope you’ll take advantage of this special deal.

Buy Take Control of Keynote for $5
 
Improve your productivity with Apple’s iWork apps and these great books today!

Two updated Take Control books about digital photography for your MUG

by Joe Kissell

I’m delighted to announce two updated books about digital photography from our friend and digital photography expert Jeff Carlson. (And, you can buy both books together for a special low price.)
 
Now that it’s so easy to take and store digital photos, it can become overwhelming to stay on top of managing them all. In Take Control of Your Digital Photos, Jeff gives you a plan for tackling this problem, starting with preparing your camera ahead of time, then choosing the right app to manage your photos, judging and organizing your photos, and backing up your photos for safekeeping. This book is geared towards both Mac and Windows users, and discusses the merits of five popular photo management apps–Apple’s Photos, Lightroom Classic CC, Lightroom CC, Photoshop Elements, and Mylio–to help you choose the right one for your needs. (This book expands and updates an earlier title, Take Control of Your Digital Photos on a Mac.)

Buy Take Control of Your Digital Photos for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount (a coupon code will be applied automatically when you click Check Out)
 
We’ve also released a new version of Jeff’s book Take Control of Lightroom CC. Last fall, Adobe released a new version of its Lightroom application, Lightroom CC, that is specifically designed for cloud interaction, and meant to appeal to users who want to do more than the basics with their photos, but want something more streamlined and simplified than Lightroom Classic CC or Photoshop. In Take Control of Lightroom CC, Jeff gives a thorough but accessible guide to the new Lightroom CC. He explains where it fits in the Lightroom ecosystem, then moves on to detail how to import, manage, and professionally edit your photos using Lightroom CC. For those who want to keep using Lightroom Classic CC, he also looks at how the two apps can work together.

Buy Take Control of Lightroom CC for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount (a coupon code will be applied automatically when you click Check Out)

But, we’re also offering a special bundle of the two books together for $20, which is even less than what you’d pay with the MUG discount on the individual titles!

Buy Take Control of Your Digital Photos and Take Control of Lightroom CC for $20 (a coupon code will be applied automatically when you click Check Out)

Enjoy!

 

Four updated Take Control books for your MUG

Happy holidays!

Here in San Diego, Morgen and the kids and I have been busily preparing for Christmas while also doing our best to get another batch of books out before the end of the year. I’m pleased to announce new editions of four popular Take Control titles (all of which update and replace books I previously released independently as Joe On Tech guides). All four titles now include coverage of High Sierra, in addition to hundreds of other changes.

Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac teaches you how to protect your data against mishaps of every kind by guiding you through the process of creating and implementing an excellent backup plan.

 

Buy Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac helps you prevent problems by de-junking and optimizing your Mac, followed by simple daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance tasks. It also shows you what commonly suggested maintenance tasks aren’t worth your time.

 

Buy Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

 

Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac helps you solve problems by teaching you troubleshooting techniques, providing ready-to-use recipes to fix common Mac issues, and teaching you how to think like a technician even when solutions aren’t obvious.

 

Buy Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

 

Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac shows you how to improve your Mac’s performance. It addresses a wide range of speed issues, including CPU, RAM, and disk usage; hardware upgrades; network configuration; and much more.

 

Buy Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac for $10.49 with the 30% MUG discount

But wait, there’s more! You can save a full 50% by buying all four books as a bundle for only $30. The easiest way to do that is to use this handy Mac Fitness Collection link, which adds all four books (and a 50%-off couppon) right to your shopping cart.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Joe Kissell

 

Three new Take Control titles on High Sierra and iOS 11

from Your Take Control Team—Joe Kissell and Morgen Jahnke

Summer is almost over (in our neck of the woods, anyway) and that means the next releases of Apple’s macOS and iOS are right around the corner. We’re pleased to offer you three new titles that provide early access to what you need to know about High Sierra and iOS 11, and to give you the chance to save when you buy all three books together.

• Get more info or buy Take Control of Upgrading to High Sierra with the 30% MUG discount

• Get more info or buy Take Control of High Sierra with the 30% MUG discount

• Get more info or buy Take Control of iOS 11 with the 30% MUG discount

• Buy all 3 books (a $40 value) for only $26

In Take Control of Upgrading to High Sierra, tech expert Joe Kissell has updated his stellar advice on upgrading to the latest version of macOS. Learn what you need to know to make the process go smoothly and efficiently, and what has changed from previous versions of the operating system, like the new file storage system Apple is introducing in High Sierra.

Once you’ve successfully installed High Sierra, learn all about it with Take Control of High Sierra by Scholle McFarland. This expanded version of Scholle’s popular Crash Course on macOS (previously on Sierra and El Capitan), makes the book a more substantive look at what’s in store with High Sierra. Find out about all the changes to your Mac’s apps and system-wide tools, learn useful tricks that may be not be obvious at first glance, and handle troubleshooting using Scholle’s expert advice.

Take Control of iOS 11, by TidBITS Managing Editor Josh Centers, also expands his Crash Course on iOS to give an even more thorough survey of everything that has changed in the new iOS. Learn about major changes to Control Center, about the new Instant Markup features, and the Files app, which offers access to files stored in iCloud and on your device. Find out how iOS 11 is a game-changer for the iPad, with new features that take it one step closer to being a peer to the Mac.

You can purchase any of these books individually, or save $14 when you buy all three together. Plus, once High Sierra and iOS 11 officially ship, we’ll release free updates to all three books, to cover what changes between now and then.

• Get more info or buy Take Control of Upgrading to High Sierra with the 30% MUG discount

• Get more info or buy Take Control of High Sierra with the 30% MUG discount

• Get more info or buy Take Control of iOS 11 with the 30% MUG discount

• Buy all 3 books (a $40 value) for only $26

Get ready for Apple’s fall operating system releases with the invaluable advice of Joe, Scholle, and Josh, and save money doing it!

We appreciate your continued support of Take Control and our authors!

Blog • FAQ • Contact • Privacy  Orders are processed by eSellerate on a secure site. © 2017 alt concepts inc.

Our mailing address is 4142 Adams Ave. Ste. 103-619, San Diego, CA 92116

 

Save 50% in Take Control's Spring Book Bargain Bonanza

-Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Good day, fellow Apple aficionados!

We felt like having a big sale, but couldn’t find a good hook for it. Sure, tomorrow is World Backup Day, and Joe Kissell’s excellent Backing Up Your Mac: A Joe On Tech Guide is the latest incarnation of Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac, which was one of our most popular books of all time. But you’re all backing up now, right? Right?!?

So no hooks, just a straightforward 50%-off sale on all Take Control books through April 9th. All our books are DRM-free and available in PDF, EPUB, and Kindle formats, so you can get the real-world advice you need wherever, whenever, and on whatever device you like.

Order now with this link: http://tid.bl.it/50-percent-off-mar-2017-sale-mug

A few titles deserve special mention:

• The whole “Turkish hacker gang” thing seems to be just a bunch of hot air, but data breaches happen almost weekly now. You have little to worry about if you generate and manage strong passwords in 1Password, and Joe’s Take Control of 1Password will help you with that. To ensure you have nothing to worry about on key accounts, turn on two-factor authentication, which his Take Control of Your Passwords explains. Stay safe out there.
  
• Apple totally can’t stop toying with iTunes, but Kirk McElhearn’s Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ was completely up to date until last week. Luckily, the only noteworthy changes are iTunes rentals being available on all your Apple devices, playlists opening in their own windows, and a redesign of the MiniPlayer.
  
• Keeping up with Apple’s operating systems doesn’t have to be difficult, and Scholle McFarland’s Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course and Josh Centers’s iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course are the key books you should turn to for core Mac and iOS documentation. They’re packed with tips, illustrative screenshots, and real-world advice.
  
• You can’t get any more core than macOS’s Unix foundations, and even while Apple tries to “protect” us all from scary things like the Library folder (hold Shift to see it in the Finder’s Go menu!), if you study Joe’s Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal, you’ll get super powers. We can promise X-ray vision into the Mac’s file system, navigating nested directories and managing related files with a single command, and mind control over remote computers.

Of course, that barely scratches the surface of our full collection, so check out the other gems available for 50% off in our catalog. It’s a great time to stock your Take Control Library with the books that you can turn to for help at any time. And remember, we don't expect you to read everything cover to cover. Instead, use the Table of Contents and Quick Start section to jump instantly to the topics that explain what you want to know.

Order now with this link: http://tid.bl.it/50-percent-off-mar-2017-sale-mug

Thanks for your continued support, and the many useful questions and kind comments you've sent over the years. And please, if you would do us a quick favor, spread the word about this sale to your friends and colleagues!

Order today at 50% off, while supplies of these artisanally crafted electrons last!

Blog • FAQ • Contact • Privacy  Orders are processed by eSellerate on a secure site.   © 2017 TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Each of our books is meticulously hand-polished at 50 Hickory Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA.

Reduce paper clutter with "Take Control of Your Paperless Office, Third Edition"

- Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Good day!

Take a look around your office. Can you see the surface of your desk? Are there piles of paper on the floor and file cabinets lurking in the corners? Regardless of the decorating implications, could you easily find last year’s tax return or the airline ticket receipt from your last trip?

If you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of paper, you can clear some of that clutter with the advice in Joe Kissell’s latest book, the 149-page Take Control of Your Paperless Office, Third Edition. This book isn’t theory—having lived in tiny apartments in San Francisco and Paris, and now in a small home in San Diego, plus having experienced two transatlantic moves, Joe has led a nearly paperless life for years. The book is normally $15, but as a MUG member, you save 30% with this link:

Get more info and buy the book for $10.50

Joe first guides you through choosing your tools, including scanners and OCR (optical character recognition) software, devices and services for storing scanned documents, and apps to categorize, locate, and view your documents. Once you have your gear in hand, Joe shows you how to convert paper into digitized files and gives you ideas for how to organize your workflow. He explains how to develop an efficient approach that reduces the amount of time you spend pressing buttons, launching apps, and otherwise managing your war on clutter.

If you’ve already embarked on a campaign to reduce the amount of paper in your life, Take Control of Your Paperless Office has a chapter about reassessing your strategy to make sure you’re working as effectively as possible given recent changes in hardware, software, and services.

Plus, Joe discusses using iPhone apps to scan documents while you’re away from your office, creating a digitized image of your signature, and using an online fax service. He even covers switching to paperless billing and bank statements and relying on a paperless postal mail service.

Thanks for supporting Take Control and our hard-working authors! 

Save 30% on all Take Control titles with your MUG discount!

 

Read "Take Control of Your Digital Legacy" to preserve your data for posterity!

by Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

How do you want to be remembered by future generations? You can make a will to handle your physical possessions, but what about your digital life—photos, videos, email, documents, and the like? Tech expert Joe Kissell has now written Take Control of Your Digital Legacy to cover many aspects of leaving such electronic ephemera to your family or to an institutional archive as part of your digital legacy.

With Joe’s advice in this 127-page ebook, you’ll both get a handle on digital estate planning and benefit today from improved organization—wouldn’t you feel better knowing that if you were suddenly incapacitated, your family could access your important online accounts, like banking, email, social media, and more? And if you’re like us, it’s not just you—we also have to think about our elderly relatives and friends and all they’ve done on their computers over the years.

Watch Joe’s video intro and buy the book for $10.50 with the 30% MUG discount.

Joe distills years of experience with managing all manner of digital data and backups to help you:

• Identify your key digital assets: online accounts, photos, audio files, videos, passwords, documents, email, and more.
• Plan for each type of digital asset based on your priorities for today, for shortly after you are no longer around, and for posterity.
• Communicate your wishes in a “digital will” and designate someone to be its “digital executor.” The book includes a template document that you can develop into a personalized digital will.
• Preserve your data for the future. You’ll consider types of archival storage media, cloud-based storage services, backups, and what instructions to provide about maintaining your data as file formats and storage media types evolve.

Whether you just want to ensure that your heirs can find a few important documents and photos, or you need to catalog and preserve tens of thousands of digital items, this book helps you make smart decisions to get your digital ducks in a row and shape your digital legacy.

On a personal note, we’d like to thank some older friends and relatives for providing feedback that helped to improve this book. In particular, Adam’s mother, Elaine Engst, was able to offer a professional perspective based on many years of working as Cornell University Archivist, and Lauri Reinhardt, who always handles our customer support email with a smile, made useful comments based on having gone through much of this for her late mother.

Finally, a quick favor. If you have a friend or relative who needs to read this book, please let them know about it. And if you can think of any groups who might be interested, such as those involved with genealogy or estate planning, drop us a line. Thanks for helping us get the word out—this is an important topic for us all!

Save 30% on all Take Control titles with your MUG discount!

Each of our books is meticulously hand-polished at 50 Hickory Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA.

AUG Discounts: Make the most of iCloud with "Take Control of iCloud, Fifth Edition"

by Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Good day, fellow iCloud user! 

iCloud has become integral to the Apple experience—it’s almost an operating system in its own right, and macOS 10.12 Sierra, iOS 10, and tvOS 10 all rely on iCloud for core functionality. If you are confused by the difference between iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream, have wondered if you should use two-factor authentication or two-step verification, or been unsure of what iCloud data counts against your storage space, Joe Kissell’s best-selling book, Take Control of iCloud, Fifth Edition, has the help you need. It’s the comprehensive documentation of iCloud you won’t find from Apple or anywhere else, and with your MUG discount you can pick up a copy for just $10.50, 30% off the cover price.

In the book, Joe offers insight into what iCloud is trying to do, while providing steps for key procedures and advising you on the best real-world techniques for integrating iCloud’s many services into your digital life on Macs, iOS devices, Apple TVs, and even Windows-based PCs.

“Brilliant and concise information on using current iCloud systems.” —Brian M.

This new edition is overflowing with up-to-date iCloud advice for you, explaining:

• The ins and outs of Desktop and Documents folder syncing in macOS Sierra
• Whether to leave the Optimize Mac Storage checkbox in Sierra selected
• The six conditions that must be true for Universal Clipboard to work so you can copy and paste among your Apple devices (Mac to iPhone, iPhone to iPad, Mac to Mac, etc.)
• Turning on Apple’s newer two-factor authentication (which is different from and better than two-step verification) so you don’t have to worry about your iCloud data being compromised
• Getting around in the latest incarnation of iCloud Drive

“I just read Take Control of iCloud cover to cover, and it helped me sort out several problems and clear up my confusion on how iCloud works with my iMac, MacBook, iPad, and iPhone. Your book has helped me get more out of my devices and I can see it’ll make my life easier. Thanks for a job very well done!” —Andy S.

Take Control of iCloud, Fifth Edition walks you through getting started with iCloud (whether you have one or more iCloud accounts), and then explains the key aspects — and hidden gotchas — of iCloud’s capabilities. Among the many features Joe covers are <deep breath> iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, iCloud Photo Sharing, Family Sharing, iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library, iCloud Drive, Optimized Storage, Universal Clipboard, Mail and Mail Drop, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes, iCloud Keychain, the iCloud Web site, Find My iPhone, Find My Friends, two-factor authentication, activation lock, Back to My Mac, and backing up and restoring iOS data. (It’s a lot, we know. Hence a 182-page book!)

“As someone who hadn’t invested a lot of time in setting up iCloud before, I found this book very informative—particularly the information about managing multiple iCloud accounts and the Photos section.” —Kelly G.

Thanks for your support, which makes it possible for us to continue documenting what’s going on in Apple’s new operating systems and online services!

Save 30% on all Take Control titles with your MUG discount!

Blog • FAQ • Contact • Privacy  Orders are processed by eSellerate on a secure site. © 2016 TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Each of our books is meticulously hand-polished at 50 Hickory Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA.

 

MUG Discounts: Take Control of Sierra, iOS 10, and Photos with four essential books!

- Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

 

Good day!

Apple has released iOS 10 and macOS 10.12 Sierra, and we’re pleased to bring you four Take Control books to help you get started with the new operating systems and their shared Photos app.

Joe Kissell helps you perform a trouble-free upgrade to Sierra in Take Control of Upgrading to Sierra, Scholle McFarland covers what’s new in Sierra (and much more) in Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course, Josh Centers takes you on a tour of iOS 10 in his comprehensive iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course, and Jason Snell focuses on the new features of Photos in his Photos: A Take Control Crash Course.

The easiest way to pick up multiple books is to load our catalog, click the Buy button under each book you want, and then click one of the Cart buttons. All books are discounted by 30% for MUG members; you’ll see the discount once you click the orange Check Out button in our cart.

Thanks for your support — it’s great to be able to channel the excitement generated by Apple’s new operating systems into new books, and we couldn’t do it without you!

Take Control of Upgrading to Sierra, by Joe Kissell (98 pages, $7)

Experience an anxiety-free upgrade to Sierra as you follow Joe Kissell’s time-tested advice in this focused book, thoroughly updated for Sierra. You’ll ensure that your hardware and software are ready for Sierra, prevent problems by making a bootable duplicate of your primary drive, and decide on the best installation method for your particular situation. You’ll also find full installation directions, plus suggestions on what to do immediately after the install. The book ends with a look at how to handle a failed or problematic installation. Learn more…

Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course, by Scholle McFarland (100 pages*, $10.50)

You can head off into the wilds of Sierra with confidence when you’re equipped with Scholle McFarland’s new Crash Course. It kicks off with an overview of what's new, followed by a chapter about Sierra’s cool little features, like keeping folders on top of file listings, new text shortcuts, Picture in Picture, and link and video previews in Messages. Scholle devotes more space to teaching you about big new Sierra features like Siri, app tabs, Desktop and Documents folder syncing, and Universal Clipboard. Particularly important is the book’s discussion of Optimized Storage, which can save a lot of space on a Mac with a small drive, but should be enabled only when you understand its implications. Learn more…

*The 100-page 1.0 version of this book covers the changes in Sierra, but we’re still finalizing a handful of chapters about existing Mac features. We’ll give all purchasers the content-complete version 1.1 of this book for free very soon.

iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course, by Josh Centers (143 pages, $10.50)

Quickly master new (and existing) features in iOS 10 on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch! TidBITS Managing Editor Josh Centers helps you come up to speed with extensive coverage of iOS 10’s key changes, including the redesigned Lock screen, Widget screen, and Control Center, and new ways for third-party developers to add features to Apple’s apps. You’ll also learn how Apple has radically revised essential apps like Photos, Messages, Mail, Maps, and Safari. Josh even gives you an introduction to home automation by way of iOS 10’s new Home app and Apple’s HomeKit specification for third-party devices. Additional special topics cover Family Sharing, accessibility, privacy, managing data usage, improving battery life, and more. Learn more…

Photos: A Take Control Crash Course, by Jason Snell (74 pages, $7)

Get the most out of Apple’s Photos app on all your Apple devices! Written by Jason Snell, publisher of Six Colors and former lead editor of Macworld, this book helps you understand Photos’ new machine-learning features like Memories, Categories, and the new version of Faces. It also teaches you how to import (and merge!) old iPhoto and Aperture libraries, set up iCloud Photo Library, organize and edit photos, share photos online, create cards and calendars, and much more.

The book focuses on Photos for 10.12 Sierra, but those who also use the Photos app in iOS 10 will appreciate the iOS-specific help at the end of nearly every chapter. Jason has also included a chapter about viewing your photos on an Apple TV. Learn more…

Thanks again, and we hope our efforts help you make significantly better use of Sierra, iOS 10, and Photos!

Save 30% on all Take Control titles with your MUG discount!