39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing title from O'Reilly, August 31, 2009
This review is from: Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders (Paperback)
I am accustomed to good books from O'Reilly/Pogue Press, so I just bought this one, without checking it out first. BIG mistake. The book no doubt will please some users (as other reviews attest). This is most likely due to the fact that it is admittedly very pretty, and its small, pleasant format that fits snugly in your hand is very "user friendly" and cute. Although I think there are some legibility issues (compact, grayish font next to some pictures IS hard to read), if I were to rate the book's graphic design, it would be a well-deserved 4 stars.
However, as a software book, and especially one published by O'Reilly, this title has two rather serious, unforgivable flaws:
1 - NO INDEX: This is the only O'Reilly-published book I own that has NO INDEX. So, if you are trying to find out if there is a n app to TRACK your PACKAGES sent though UPS or FEDEX (all caps would be potential index entries), you are out of luck: you will have to flip back and forth through this small, but still 200+ pages long book and try to find the answer (the answer is: there is). I do understand this is not "Photoshop Bible" or "Real World InDesign," and I did NOT expect a similar degree of index detail, but no index at all makes this pretty useless, especially if its declared aim is to let you find apps you need for a specific purpose.
2 - Arbitrary selections, which make me think the author simply didn't do his homework very diligently, are the book's real, core problem. Take something as simple as UNIT CONVERSION apps. The author chooses Convertbot as "best" in this category. But what he really does, is choosing the PRETTIEST conversion app. Yes, I love to play with Convertbot too - it's VERY, very cool, and beautifully designed; and it makes futuristic sounds like something right out of Transformers. And it works just fine for many things. But just wait until you have to actually USE IT for converting things such as type. It's obvious the author doesn't realize the apps failings, which only become obvious if you put it through its paces, and actually use it. Try converting 40 points to picas using Convertbot, and if you are a designer, you will know what I mean when I say that the result calculated is 3.333. Yes, there are apps that convert things like that BETTER (3 picas 4 points is more practical to know), but they aren't as pretty as this one.
I am not trying to say that the book is not good simply because I disagree with many of the author's "best in category" choices - that's NOT my point - a good book would tell you that while Convertbot looks pretty, and might be "overall best" it's not recommended for designers who work with type (and it would tell you what is); it would also tell you that the most popular conversion app you will see in the app store (Convert) has serious deficiencies in currency conversions, so it's not a good choice for an overseas trip to Central Europe.
Another example would be time-tracking apps. Once again, we get a recommendation for a nicely designed, attractive-looking app (Jobs), which unfortunately cannot tell you how much time you spent today (overall) on project X, or tell you how many hours (total) you spent working for client Y LAST WEEK. There are apps that can easily do that, including specific ranges of time or other parameters for export, but they aren't even mentioned here. So if you follow the author's recommendation, and buy Jobs, and you need to get daily total of times worked on all projects, you will not be very happy. Postino for E-Post Cards? Yes, sure, if you don't mind the fact that the post cards arrive in your friends' e-mailbox with fairly obnoxious company branding (even though its a paid app), and from an address your friends are likely to direct right to their spam folder. Many descriptions are misleading (although I am sure not intentionally), for example the author doesn't tell you that the "databases" some of them use are sumply "crowdsourced" user submissions, which means that while some metropolitan areas like NY or SF might be well covered, many other areas may not be(e.g., OpenTable, SotOrSquat).
Although it is inevitable, some information is already out of date (of recommended RSS readers NetNewWire has discontinued service, and TweetDeck, one of the most function-rich Twitter apps is not even mentioned in the book, etc.)
The list goes on, and although I do NOT know all the apps listed in the book (but I have at one point tried about 85-90% of the non-game apps mentioned in the book) the point is not that I do not agree with the choices, the point is that the descriptions frequently omit shortcomings that are serious enough to make many apps unusable for many people, and omit choices that are likely to work better.
I am accustomed to expect useful advice from O'Reilly (and Pogue) Press books and I found this book (like many apps it recommends) pretty, readable, and pleasant, but seriously lacking in functionality and substance. It goes back.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book for an awesome iPhone..., August 3, 2009
This review is from: Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders (Paperback)
As an iPhone junkie, anything that has the word "iPhone" on it makes me giddy. When I saw this extremely glossy and colorful book entitled `Best iPhone Apps' in my bookstore, I started to salivate. This book is exactly what it says: a resource for those who want to get the best of the best. I will say that this is a pretty bold book in that it picks the best iPhone apps when, according to one website, there are at least 400 apps added PER DAY! Holy crap!! That's 1,600 per week!!
Josh Clark certainly put a lot of work in this book to come up with the "winners". Suuuuuure. Getting to test out numerous iPhone apps as a job... oh the horror!! :-) Anyway, Josh test a number of useful apps, IE; best app (b.a. from now on) for tracking packages, b.a. for to-do lists, and b.a. for editing office documents. He also tests fun apps: b.a. for sharing your adventures, b.a. for Twitter, and b.a. for when you can't hold it. Guy apps: b.a. for poker games and b.a. for sport scores. Girl apps: b.a for emotional manipulation (oh shut up it's a joke!) and b.a. for dieting and weight loss (OK so I'm pushing it).
This book is 228 pages with *about* 1 app per page, so this is a pretty informational tome. Josh covers a pretty wide gambit of interests so you'll always have something to look for. A few times he actually puts a runner up to the best app as well. He does this with Twitter, apps for reading books, and for finding movies. Nice. I didn't count to see what the ratio was between paid apps and free apps because 1. I have a life and 2... I have a life. In my opinion, the apps were picked based how freaking sweet they were and that's it. There is only one complaint I have about this book. Josh left out the app that helps us find jobs like the one he has!!! Dude, not cool!
Look, all jokes aside and taking all of the iPhone books into consideration, this one rocks. It's very descriptive, eye catching, and really fun to read. THIS is the one you should have.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent place to start for new iPhone owners., February 9, 2010
This review is from: Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders (Paperback)
When a box of O'Reilly books descended upon my desk, the book that caught my eye because of it's full color contents and beautiful cover was "Best iPhone Apps" by Josh Clark. From the front cover alone, I recognized about half of the apps that were going to be reviewed. I have to admit, I am iPhone app junky. I have pages upon pages of apps installed on my first generation iPhone, and am always reading the internet for reviews and suggestions for more and more apps to try.
Truthfully, I didn't think that a book on iPhone apps was such a great idea. Apps come and go at a rather quick rate on the iTunes store. What's in today could be out tomorrow. But with all things, those of substance have a way of sticking around. I am online enough that I get my recommendations for apps so I didn't think that a book would help me much.
Then I loaned the book for the weekend to a new iPhone user. A coworker had just gotten his government issued iPhone a week before, and he was looking for suggestions on apps to try out. After going through the book, he came back to work on Monday having filled out five pages on his iPhone with new apps as suggested in this book. He couldn't say enough nice things about being able to sit on the couch, flip through the book, then go to the app store on his iPhone and download app after app.
The book is organized by into seven major categories of apps. Each of those categories is further subdivided the best 8 or 9 apps in that category. Each app gets a full-page description including screen captures, summary, pricing and app developer contact information. For most of the best of apps, the picks are apps that I currently already use, so it would seem that I agree with Mr. Clark's best of selection process.
I would recommend this book to someone new to the iPhone and someone who would rather flip through a book than scour the various iPhone app review sites on the internet to get started on their iPhone app collection.
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