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Tonya Engst

Tonya Engst

Tonya Engst co-founded TidBITS with Adam Engst back in 1990 when publishing on the Internet was either strange or revolutionary, depending on your viewpoint. Since then, along with performing nearly every imaginable role involved in running TidBITS, she has worked at Cornell University's academic computer store (selling Macs, PCs, and NeXTs), worked at Microsoft as a technical support person, written and co-written several books, written oodles of articles for the likes of MacWEEK and Macworld, become a parent, edited various books, and worked as editor-in-chief for the Take Control series of electronic books through 2017.

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Take Control Books Are 50% Off This Week

The Take Control series is having a 50%-off sale this week. Take Control’s former editor in chief, Tonya Engst, writes about what makes the series special and which three ebooks are her current favorites.

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Free Webinar for Readers of “Take Control of Mac Basics”

Do you sometimes struggle with things on your Mac that seem like they should be easy? Or do you help people who have such issues? TidBITS editor in chief and Take Control author Tonya Engst is giving a webinar this week for readers of her “Take Control of Mac Basics” book to explain some of those problems.

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Tripping to macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Apple today announced that macOS 10.13 High Sierra will include important under-the-hood improvements, as well as targeted tweaks to Apple apps. The free update to macOS will run on all Macs that can run macOS 10.12 Sierra.

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iPhone 7 Pre-orders Begin This Week, iOS 10 and macOS Sierra Available Soon

Apple today announced pricing and ship dates for the fall line of new iPhone and Apple Watch models, along with a release dates for macOS Sierra, iOS 10, and watchOS 3. Apple also shared details of its forthcoming new AirPod wireless earbuds and new W1 Beats headphones.

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Why watchOS 3 Will Be Nimble and Nifty

With watchOS 3, the Apple Watch will see performance improvements that finally make it feel snappy, along with numerous other interface tweaks that make it fit in more with the Apple product lineup.

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Learn to Record Anything with “Take Control of Audio Hijack”

If you need help to getting started with recording audio from your Mac, or if you’ve upgraded from Audio Hijack Pro 2 to Audio Hijack 3, we now have a book that will help you figure out the best ways of working in Audio Hijack’s new flowchart-like interface.

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When Your Numbers Get Serious, Read “Take Control of Numbers”

If you’re looking to make better use of the free copy of Numbers that Apple now includes with every Mac, Sharon Zardetto’s new “Take Control of Numbers” offers the essential instruction you need to input, calculate, sort, filter, format, and chart your data on the Mac with ease.

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The Feel-Good Mavericks Upgrade

When our 14-year-old son Tristan announced that he wanted to install 10.9 Mavericks on his laptop, we tossed him a copy of Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Mavericks” and told him to let us know if he had any questions. Tristan’s upgrade went well, and yours can too. But if you use Apple Mail with Gmail, you might want to hold off for a bit.

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Prepare for Mavericks Now with Take Control Books

Now that Apple has released the golden master of Mavericks to developers, the clock is ticking on the official release, and we have an early-bird version of Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Mavericks” to help you get ready. Read on for introductory pricing on that title and Sharon Zardetto’s forthcoming “Take Control of iBooks.”

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“Take Control of 1Password” Documents 1Password 4 for Mac

If you’re upgrading to the recently released 1Password 4 for the Mac, or if you’re using its release as an excuse to get your passwords in order (a good idea!), Joe Kissell’s new “Take Control of 1Password” is here to provide all the help you need.

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41 Words that Add Weather to Your iPad’s Notification Center

The iPad still lacks Apple’s Weather app, but concise weather info appears in the iOS 7 Notification Center’s Today view, if you enable Weather in Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Lock and unlock the iPad if it doesn’t show at first. Wacky!

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iOS 7 Pre-flight Checklist

With just a few taps, you’ve installed iOS 7. Or, maybe you have a new iPhone with iOS 7 pre-installed. But everything looks different! Now what? Run through our iOS 7 pre-flight checklist to finalize your setup, familiarize yourself with important changes, and experience the iOS 7 wow factor.

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Why the iPad Is a Superhero for Reading Comics

Jason Snell likes to read comics on his iPad and has the credit card bill to prove it! His piece in Macworld is an outstanding survey of the digital comic landscape, describing how traditional print comics correspond to digital offerings, comparing several methods for acquiring comics, and discussing which mobile devices work best for comics.

Tonya Engst 14 comments

Apple Introduces the iPad mini and Fourth-Generation iPad

Apple has revealed the long-rumored iPad mini, along with making a surprise announcement of a new fourth-generation iPad. Both models ship in November, but can be pre-ordered now. Before you pull out your credit card, read on to find out what’s new and which iPad model has been discontinued. Tonya Engst runs down the details.

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Playing with AirPlay in Mountain Lion

A technology that started out as the audio-only AirTunes in 2004 and transmogrified into AirPlay in 2010 has now been enhanced in Mountain Lion to enable us to mirror our Mac screens to AirPlay-savvy devices like the Apple TV. Read on to find out what else you can do with it, and to learn how to recover the commands formerly on the Display menu bar menu.