iPhone: The Missing Manual Book Review

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about my skill set is that because I can develop software for the iPhone, iPad, and Windows 8 tablets, I must know everything there is to know about using them. 90% of my time spent on a computer is spent in code, UML tools, and using basic Word functionality. I do not play games, make photo albums, or read books on them. In other words, I am not as computer savvy as the business user or teenager that use them to connect to the world and conduct their business or coordinate a gaming session. I am very grateful for the Missing Manual series because they put everything I need to know about my devices in one place, and I don't have to spend the time looking for features. I have listed the five parts of this Missing Manual and the chapters they contain below. The iPhone as Phone Chapter 1 The Guided Tour Chapter 2 Typing, Editing & Searching Chapter 3 Phone Calls & FaceTime Chapter 4 Speech Recognition—and Siri Chapter 5 Voicemail, Texting & Other Phone Tricks Pix, Flix & Apps Chapter 6 The iPhone as iPod Chapter 7 Camera, Photos & Video Chapter 8 All About Apps Chapter 9 The Built-In Apps The iPhone Online Chapter 10 Getting Online Chapter 11 The Web Chapter 12 Email Connections Chapter 13 Syncing with iTunes Chapter 14 iCloud Chapter 15 The Corporate iPhone Chapter 16 Settings Appendixes Appendix Signup & Setup Appendix Troubleshooting & Maintenance As with all the Missing Manuals, the book is on the Missing Manuals web site. It has links to all the sites, software, and white papers mentioned in each each chapter. They are organized by chapter so they are easy to find. One of the cool things I really like about this book is all the crazy little features I would never find on my own. Some of them are how to invert the colors on the phone, how to have the phone speak everything on the screen, how to make free ring tones, free texting with Google Voice, all the weird stuff you can do with Siri, how to tweak Spotlight results, and much much more. Another cool thing I like is how the author points out different ways to save money throughout the book. This Missing Manual is in full color. Not all of them are, and for a book about using an interface like the iPhone it makes a big difference. The index is very thorough and laid out really nice. This may seem trivial, but I am currently reading two programming books, and one of them has a horrible index, and the other has none. They are both great books, but they won't be very good references at all. I highly recommend this book to the user that wants to know how to use all the applications and features included with the iOS 7. The most amazing thing about this book is how many topics the author covers, and they cover them in detail giving lots of screenshots so you can see what they're discussing. If you are thinking about buying your first iPhone, this book is perfect for seeing what you'll be getting.

iPhone: The Missing Manual

iPhone: The Missing Manual