iPhone: The Missing Manual

I've used The Missing Manual on a need to know basis and it's perfect. The little things I've wanted to fix all have solutions. If you want to read a section, the pictures and explanations are clear and the author has a sense of humor which is important when dealing with the potential frustration of electronics. The perfect companion to the perfect phone.

This book has been extremely useful in helping me learn and use my iPhone's capabilities. It is very easy to locate any subject I've looked up directly (versus reading the book in its entirety), and the info presented has proven accurate and easy to understand while being a quick read. The author also injects some light humor into his writing, but not enough to be distracting. Overall I couldn't be more pleased with this book.

A quick note: be advised that you won't find this book in an Apple Store. That's because it contains some info on hacking the iPhone. I'm not sure why the author included that info in the book, but it had the sad effect of removing this book from a logical marketplace.

I purchased this book to get the most out of my exciting new 16GB iPhone. Interestingly enough, I actually already was under contract with T-mobile with a blackberry Pearl, but after buying an iTouch and liking it so much, I took the iTouch back to Sam's club, and then bought the 16GB iPhone so that I wasn't carrying both it and the iTouch.

The book gives you tips that I hadn't thought of - for example, if I wanted my emails to get to my Blackberry Pearl, I had to close Microsoft Outlook on my PC. Same with the iPhone. However, the manual (page 140) showed me that I could go into my settings in Outlook, and check a box to leave the emails on the server in lieu of deleting them, which means I can now leave Outlook open and receive them on both my iPHone and Outlook at the same time. And, I could check a box to delete emails from the server when the email is deleted from my Inbox, or I could delete them automatically after a period of time (such as anywhere from 1-10 days) so that the server would not back up. Cool! Didn't now this.

There are soo many things that you don't know about the phone just from trying it. Another example from the book that I found of value is the following excerpted directly from it:

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The punctuation keys and alphabet keys appear in two different keyboard layouts. So every time you want to type a period or a comma, it's a three-step, awkward dance: (1) Tap the ".?123" key in the lower left to summon the punctuation layout. (2) Type the period. (3) Type the ABC key in the lower left to return to the alphabet layout.

Imagine how excruciating it is to type, for example, "a P.O. Box in the U.S.A."! That's 34 finger taps and 10 mode changes!

And therefore imagine how thrilled I was to receive an email from reader Andrew McCallum, containing a method of typing a period or a comma with only a SINGLE finger gesture.

The iPhone doesn't register most key presses until you *release* your finger. But Andrew discovered that the Shift and Punctuation keys register their taps on the *press-down* instead.

So here's what you can do, all in one motion:

1. Touch the ".?123" key, but don't lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears.

2. Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release.

Incredibly, the ABC layout returns automatically. You've typed a period or a comma with one finger touch instead of three. In fact, you can type ANY of the punctuation symbols the same way.

This makes a HUGE difference in the usability of the keyboard.

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I also learned that you can easily delete an email simply by "swiping right" on the email, and a red delete button will appear without ever opening the email. This makes it much quicker and easier to delete emails.

These are just some of the examples of the benefits I found in this manual. Also, all of the pictures are in color - another plus.

Highly recommended for any iPhone owner, or someone interested in knowing more about it before buying one. Best of luck -

Great product. It will open your world to what this phone can really do, Like the two finger zoom,

I read the book cover to cover, and really was amazed at the number of hints and tips contained in the book. I loaned the book to my son, who had the same reaction. It is a very well written book that is not only interesting but very easy to read, and easy to find these suggestions later. The value of the suggestions contained within the book far exceed the cost of the book!