Book review: iPhone Application Sketch Book

by Ryan Thu, November 19 2009 15:20

150 pages of identical iPhone outlines with room to sketch and label your designs. Not a great read, but handy nonetheless!

There's not a lot to say about this book, it's pretty basic but very useful for scribbling down ideas if you don't have Balsamiq Mockups to hand, are on the move or going into a meeting. I'm going to give copies to clients in the hope that they'll think about their app a bit more before asking for a thousand buttons on screen.

You can get it at Amazon and I imagine B & N (but I can't find it).

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Book review

Book review: iPhone for work

by Ryan Sun, November 01 2009 11:20

iPhone for Work: Increasing Productivity for Busy Professionals or 'The missing iPhone manual'

I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about the iPhone but I'm happy to say that I've found out a few more tricks thanks to this book. For example, did you know that you can take a screenshot by using an obscure (almost Windows like) button combination? Or that you can set up a WiFi network between your iPhone and Mac without a wireless router? You might have known how to, but I didn't and judging by the lack of Apple documentation I guess a lot of other people are missing out a fair chunk of detail too.


It starts simple (too simple for me, but great for people who don't spend all day playing with computers) by walking the user through activating the phone, sending text and making basic calls. I skimmed these bits and got straight to the WiFi, Exchange, Calendar and LDAP sections which you'll need to know if you want to sync the iPhone with a corporate network.

Although the book is targeted more at the general iPhone user than IT professionals I think alpha geeks will learn a thing or two from it as well and afterwards they can give it to their relatives to lessen the support load. Apple should have shipped this book with the iPhone but I suppose it won't fit into a trendy little black box in a non-shredded form!

The best tip I got from the book means I can now control my laptop slideshows from the iPhone without worrying about needing a router (something that not all venues have). You can pick up a copy of the book at Amazon (in theory I get a referral fee, in practice it goes on swag and pop for the Hereford nxtgen user group).

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Book review