Big Book of Apple Hacks: Tips & Tools for unlocking the power of your Apple devices (Paperback)

by Chris Seibold (Author)
Key Phrases: photo booth, final translation, final rotation, Disk Utility, Quartz Composer, Boot Camp (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Bigger in size, longer in length, broader in scope, and even more useful than our original Mac OS X Hacks, 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 125 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. Pick up this book and take control of Mac OS X and your favorite Apple gadget today!



About the Author
Chris Seibold is an engineer, writer, and cartoonist residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. As an engineer, he has tackled such diverse processes as powder coating and hot dog casing manufacture. As a writer, he has focused on computing and written for a variety of online and traditional media, including serving as Senior Contributing Editor for the Apple Matters web site and contributing hacks to "iPod and iTunes Hacks", with a talent for making the complex accessible to the interested but harried user. As a cartoonist, he has produced both cartoon strips and editorials. Chris also managed to spend some time working producing radio shows relating to sports. As soon as he hits television, the trifecta will be complete. Chris lives with his wife, young son, and what is quite possibly the world's dimmest canine. He has a degree in Physics from the University of Tennessee but has yet to find work involving frictionless inclined planes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596529821
• ISBN-13: 978-0596529826
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,769 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The O'Reilly Hacks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the book I've been waiting for!, May 4, 2008

By	Anthony Lawrence "Unix, Linux and Mac OS X" (Middleboro, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm not through reading this yet, but I'm definitely impressed and happy to have it. This is not just the typical collection of "Tinker Toy" type stuff - yes, there's some of that here, but it goes way beyond and even gets into hacking hardware.

I feel like a kid in a candy store.. yes, yes, there's stuff here you'll find all over the web, but there are also hacks and tips I have never seen anywhere else.

And it's not just Macs, though that's a lot of it. There are also hacks for iPods and iPhones and Apple TV.

If you own a Mac, you want this. Period. Met and exceeded my expectations.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection for Mac User, September 8, 2008

By	Jefferey Scott Mousseau "shagbolt" (Kissimmee, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a tinkerer. I love to play around with things, see how they work, make modifications, hack. I come by this trait honestly. My dad is an electronic tech by trade and tinkerer by nature. Dad likes to "hack" electronics. In fact, our first color television was a Heathkit that dad built himself. Dad always had a table full of electronics that he was working on bought from flea markets and ham radio shows. He always had a Popular Mechanics open to a new project. But now instead of a table of electronics, I have a Macbook. Instead of Popular Mechanics, I have The Big Book of Apple Hacks from O'Reilly.

The Big Book of Apple Hacks is indeed big. Chris Seibold (a senior writer at the Apple Matters web site) collected (with the assistant of 27 contributors) 131 hacks (and many sidebar "mini-hacks") and logically organized them into 15 chapters. The hacks range from simple software code changes to get-out-the-soldering-iron hardware mods. But all the hacks are interesting and most are useful.

Beginning with the usual admonishment to back up your file, Big Book of Apple Hacks actually goes on to show you how via hack #1. Good advise since The Big Book of Apple Hacks quickly goes into hacking .plist files, OS X (mostly Leopard), command-line, network, iPods, iPhones, laptops, even your car!

The hacks, ranging from a few paragraphs to several pages, are well laid out with clear instructions. The illustrations used provide additional clarification. Most hacks are useful and optimize your system, but a few are pretty fanciful.

The hacks in this book are not new and can be found in different forms on the web. But this collection presents these hacks in a consistent way that are easy to read and understand.

The Big Book of Apple Hacks is a real time suck, in a very good way. I can see my dad and I now spending time infrom of our Macbooks hacking away. I would recommend this book to all Mac users, but more experienced users will benefit the most.

O'Reilly is one of the premier publishers of tech books, offer discounts to members of Mac User Groups, so run, do not walk, to your group and get this book.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get beyond the manual, April 29, 2008

By	Bakari "Wedding & Event Photographer, Mac User" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

First off, a disclaimer: I contributed three articles/hacks to this tome, so I'm a bit biased. And I also must admit that Chris Seibold, the editor/writer of this book, was easy and inspirational to work with. That being said, I really can't recommend this book highly enough, especially for intermediate and advance Apple computer and software users. If you're ready to move beyond the sort of rudimentary features of your computer, the Big Book of Apple Hacks is just for you.

This book assumes you know how to open folders and applications, set up Mail and Address Book, and even how to add photos to iPhoto. You're wanting to get beyond the basics. You're ready to automate, customize, maximize, and better secure your Mac computer, software, and data.

You may be at the point of wanting to hide some precious files so no one but you can find them. You may want to kill the Dashboard because you never use it. Or you think the Dashboard is hella cool and you want to create your own widgets. In fact, you've downloaded a lot of great third party applications and now your curious about creating your own.

Apple Hacks assumes that you know how to use the Finder to get at stuff. So maybe you're ready to get underneath the hood of Leopard and have some command-line fun with the Unix system. You're not scared. You're ready know about Shell Scripting and Unix Daemons. You want to customize folder icons, the Dock, or even the freakin' Boot image. You wanta convert audio files using iTunes, rename the un-renameable. You're ready to hack your iPod or iPhone, partition your hard drive nondestructively, run Windows on your Mac.

Dude, you want to be in control your Mac, rather than it controlling you.

You want to get more out of iTunes or iPhoto, or use Apply TV with a standard definition television set. You want to get beyond the supposed limits of Time Machine, or tweak an existing Widget. You're ready to tear into your old or new iBook or set up a dual drive for your MacBook Pro. Shoot, you've heard about BitTorrent, but now you actually want learn how to access and use it. You wanta keep some web trafficking secure and private. You're a Mac addict, so installing an old Mac Mini in your car so you can run iTunes or the programs without a hitch is really not a crazy idea.

There's so much more to this mammoth guide of hacks. Like me you'll be marking selected pages with yellow stickies and discovering more "how-tos" each time you flip through the book.

Serious kudos to Chris Seibold for this well put together book. If you've found Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual powerfully useful over the years, you're now ready to move beyond it with the Big Book of Apple Hacks.