Big Book of Apple Hacks: Tips & Tools for Unlocking the Power of Your Apple Devices

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.

Macintosh equipment users and collections catering to them should consider Big Book of Apple Hacks an essential acquisition key to unlocking the power of the Apple computer. It's a new collection of tips, tricks and hacks which covers all kinds of Mac equipment, from the latest line of iPods and Apple TV to the Mac OS X. From adding devices and customizing settings to step-by-step directions to circumvent Apple controls, it's an exceptional, wonderful collection of possibilities.

Excellent book. I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a Mac. If you don't own a Mac, buy this book; then, you can get a Mac.

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.

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.