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Take Control Books Catch Up with Apple Releases

Keeping up with Apple’s release season gets harder every year, as the company flexes its muscles and pushes out ever more updates in quick succession. Fortunately, we at Take Control are accustomed to the pace and enjoy figuring out what to make of Apple’s latest. This year brought iOS 9, OS X 10.11 El Capitan, iCloud, watchOS 2, and tvOS, along with important changes in El Capitan’s bundled Mail and Photos apps. We’re still working on updates to a pile of books, including “Apple Watch: A Take Control Crash Course,” “Take Control of OS X Server,” and “Take Control of Apple TV,” but more interesting for now are the books we’ve already published.

Take Control of iCloud, Fourth Edition — In the latest edition of this perennial best-seller, Joe Kissell helps you take control of the many tentacles of iCloud: photos, music, documents, keychains, contacts, calendars, file sharing, screen sharing, Family Sharing, iOS backups, and more. Notable new content covers iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Music Library, and navigating the latest ins and outs of iCloud Drive. Hundreds of other small changes keep pace with Apple’s constant fiddling, so that the book continues to provide comprehensive documentation of how iCloud works today, making it an essential part of your
reference library.

Take Control of Your Digital Photos on a Mac, Second Edition — Apple’s replacement of iPhoto and Aperture with Photos necessitated a massive rewrite of this book by digital photography expert Jeff Carlson. Jeff now helps you choose between Photos, Lightroom, and Photoshop Elements, before explaining how to develop a custom workflow for importing, evaluating, keywording, and tagging photos so they sort into logical groups. He also helps you pick and use an online service that allows you to view and edit your photos from any mobile device, providing details for iCloud Photo Library, Google Photos, Lightroom
mobile, and Mylio. Don’t miss the photo of Tim Cook personally demonstrating the iPad mini to Jeff!

Take Control of Upgrading to El Capitan — If you’re still hesitating about upgrading to El Capitan, Joe Kissell helps you install El Capitan on your Mac easily, based on his experience with countless test installs. You’ll find essential advice on hardware and software compatibility, problem prevention, prepping your drive, and picking the best installation method. Joe provides full installation directions, plus advice on over a dozen things to do immediately after installation.

El Capitan: A Take Control Crash Course — If you’re already running El Capitan, former Macworld editor Scholle McFarland jump-starts your El Capitan experience with a detailed “What’s New” list and helps you take control of changes in the Finder and new features in apps like Safari and Notes. You’ll learn the latest techniques for working with Spotlight, iCloud Drive, Dictation/Speech, and more. Don’t miss the essential chapters on user accounts and troubleshooting in this Crash Course!

Troubleshooting Your Mac: A Joe On Tech Guide — Much as Apple would like to pretend that Macs never have any problems (or at least very few, to crib a line from my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew”), they can still suffer from significant issues. In this essential reference from Joe Kissell (based on his earlier book “Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac”), you’ll learn 17 basic troubleshooting procedures and how to solve 21 common problems, along with an easy-to-follow process for
troubleshooting novel problems. Whether your Mac won’t turn on, experiences crashes or kernel panics repeatedly, won’t print, or can’t connect to the Internet, this book can help. It’s for all Macs running 10.9 Mavericks, 10.10 Yosemite, or 10.11 El Capitan.

Take Control of Apple Mail, Third Edition — Sure, you use Apple Mail, but are you using it effectively? Another of Joe’s areas of expertise is Mail, and in the latest edition of this helpful book, he explains what’s new with Mail in El Capitan and iOS 9, and how to best set up your Gmail, iCloud, IMAP, and Exchange accounts. Joe also helps you take Mail to the next level with plug-ins and automation, shares his award-winning email management strategy, explains how to customize Mail, and provides solutions to common email problems.

Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course — Although less changed than Mail, Photos 1.1 in El Capitan sports important new geotagging and editing extension features. Former Macworld lead editor Jason Snell has updated his Crash Course to match, so you can make a smooth transition to Photos. You’ll find help with importing iPhoto and Aperture photo libraries, iCloud Photo Library, organizing and editing photos, syncing photos to iOS devices, sharing photos online, making slideshows, creating projects such as cards and calendars, and more.

iOS 9: A Take Control Crash Course — Upgrading with iOS is generally easier than with OS X, but figuring out what’s new can be nearly impossible. In this Crash Course by TidBITS Managing Editor Josh Centers, you’ll get a close look at iOS 9’s new capabilities on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Topics include how those with recent iPads can use the new Split Screen, Slide Over, and Picture in Picture multitasking views; how to use Mail’s new features; how iOS 9 helps you save battery power; the trick to finding the hidden iCloud Drive app; the iPad’s new Trackpad mode; and much more. There’s also
plenty of coverage of important iOS features that haven’t changed much.

A Practical Guide to Networking, Privacy & Security in iOS 9 — No iOS device is an island, and when it comes to networking (and associated privacy and security topics), Glenn Fleishman is here to provide details about Wi-Fi Calling, Apple’s new two-factor authentication, and Safari ad blocking, among much else. Glenn also explains how your private details — who you are, what sites you visit, and where you physically go — are shared with Apple and others, and how to restrict or block that sharing. On the security side, he walks you through scenarios from securing your data in transit to connecting to a
secure Wi-Fi network to dealing with a lost iPhone.

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