My iPhone (covers 3G, 3Gs and 4 running iOS4) (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)
I had been using the basic features on my iPhone intuitively... flipping once in a while through the thin booklet and the PDF file that Apple provides as a user manual. After a month, I decided that to make the most out of my purchase I had to more proactively learn about all the features.
The presentation in this book is clean and stylish. It's also very clear -- THE INSTRUCTIONS are detailed and ACCOMPANIED BY SCREENSHOTS, which are LABELED WITH NUMBERS that correspond to each step. There's no way to get lost.
It's comprehensive. For instance, there's a section on iTunes and iPod, which is especially useful for the complete novice who need step-by-step instructions about building playlists, finding podcasts, etc. (The Dummies book is limited in this area; there's a separate "iPod & iTunes for Dummies" book.)
If you're already familiar with certain features or there are some you're not interested in learning about, the book is arranged in such a way that you can skip ahead or hop from one section to another. There's an index, of course, but the Table of Contents is as helpful because the headings and subheadings are straightforward, instead of cutesy titles.
The only thing that the Dummies book has extra is a list of ten web resources at the end. They probably have more informational nuggets spread around, but I personally found it unencouraging to wade through all the text. In this book (My iPhone), every page has screenshots and you can see every step illustrated -- it's very visual.
I found a typo on page 94 ("Inlcude" for "Include"), and the iPhone seems to have added a few modifications to the map functions since it first came out. You can find out about those on page 81 of Apple's PDF guide. No biggies. The traffic icon is no longer a car, and there's an icon for finding your approximate location on the map you're looking at.
Thumbs-up.

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Step-by-step instructions with callouts to iPhone images that show you exactly what to do.Help when you run into iPhone problems or limitations.Tips and Notes to help you get the most from your iPhone.Full-color, step-by-step tasks walk you through getting and keepingyour iPhone working just the way you want. The tasks include how to:• Connect to the Internet, Bluetooth devices, Wi-Fi networks, other iPhones, iPods, and iPads• Manage your apps with the iPhone's new multitasking capabilities• Customize your iPhone with folders, wallpaper, ringtones, and much more• Configure and sync your information, and efficiently manage contacts and calendars• Communicate via FaceTime videoconferences, conference calls, text, email, and more• Make the most of Safari to browse the Web and Mail to manage all of your email from one inbox• Listen to music, subscribe to podcasts, and watch video–including movies and TV shows• Capture photos and HD video• Use your photos in slideshows, for wallpaper, and your contacts or share them via email, MobileMe, and texts• Find, download, install, and use iPhone apps, including the amazing iBooks to read ebooksBONUS MATERIAL: Find additional tasks and other helpful information on this book's website at quepublishing.com/title/9780789747143CATEGORY: Apple Digital MediaCOVERS: Apple iPhoneUSER LEVEL: Beginning-Intermediate

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Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought Microstyle after reading the NY Times review, and found it to be an interesting but slightly repetitive survey of short marketing messages and funny one-liners.
Most of the examples in the book are advertising slogans, mixed in with far too many fake headlines from The Onion and selections from Twitter Wit and the FakeAPStyleGuide. I kept waiting for a discussion of more substantive micro-communication. There was no mention of Iran, China, or other places where people have been experimenting with short bursts of text to organize, communicate with the world and avoid censorship. Surely the author has seen instructive examples of that type of communication, and I think the book would benefit by moving beyond branding, marketing and humor.
Highlights were the three short chapters on rhythm, poetic patterns and sonority, but in general this book made me want to re-read Strunk & White. For a more elegantly curated collection of microstyle, try Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.
(As an aside, I bought the Kindle version because I could not stand to look at the book jacket. Microstyle applies to graphic design as well, and the jacket design is a clunky and nonsensical mixture of metaphors: ruled notebook paper, two kinds of typewriter text, digital type and a stylized magnifying glass, which might also represent a search icon. The author is able to elegantly dissect mixed metaphor in text, but his insights should have been aggressively applied to the cover.)


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A field guide for the age of the incredible shrinking message.
Some of the most important verbal messages we craft are also the shortest: headlines, titles, sound bites, brand names, domain names, slogans, taglines, company mantras, email signatures, bullet points. These miniature messages depend not on the elements of style but rather on the atoms of style. They require microstyle. Branding consultant Christopher Johnson here reveals the once-secret knowledge of poets, copywriters, brand namers, political speechwriters, and other professional verbal miniaturists. Each chapter discusses one tool that helps miniature messages grab attention, communicate instantly, stick in the mind, and roll off the tongue. As he highlights examples of those tools used well, Johnson also examines messages that miss the mark, either by failing to use a tool or by using it badly. Microstyle shows readers how to say the most with the least, while offering a lively romp through the historic transformation of mass media into the media of the personal.

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