This is the most important chapter in “Take Control of OS X Server,” because getting OS X Server properly installed and configured on a clean installation of OS X 10.9 Mavericks is essential for future reliability and stability. These instructions don’t always take the most obvious route because hard-won experience has shown that extra effort at the start can prevent significant troubles later on.

Feeling mischievous? Just a little geeky? In this final chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV,” Josh Centers shows you how to take your Apple TV beyond what Apple intended, in three ways: playing video from otherwise unavailable sources via the Plex media management system, recording live TV to your Mac with an Elgato EyeTV HD and then showing it on the Apple TV, and getting around DNS-based region restrictions.

The Apple TV may not have been intended as a gaming device, but thanks to AirPlay Mirroring, the combination of an iOS device and an Apple TV can make for a surprisingly compelling gaming experience. In this chapter of the in-progress "Take Control of Apple TV," Josh Centers describes some iOS games that are optimized for the Apple TV and offers some tips on how to reduce AirPlay latency.

Thanks to its capability to connect to a variety of display devices, including projectors and SMART Boards, and its support for AirPlay, the Apple TV makes an excellent helper when it comes to giving presentations. In this chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV,” Josh Centers explains what hardware and software you’ll need to turn your Apple TV into a presentation machine for Keynote from an iPad, when demoing an iPhone app, or even bringing in a remote guest.

In this chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV,” Josh Centers teaches you everything you need to know to turn your large-screen TV into a digital picture frame that can’t be beat, complete with access to photos stored in iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac, or in iCloud or Flickr online.

In this chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV,” Josh Centers shows how the Apple TV can go beyond video to become the hub of your stereo system as well, thanks to AirPlay and a number of built-in apps. You’ll learn how to use each of them plus get tips on ripping audio CDs, using AirPlay for audio, and extending AirPlay’s reach with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil.

In this chapter, you’ll find tips for controlling video playback, buying and watching videos from the iTunes Store, and playing local video. Author Josh Centers also provides instructions for ripping your DVDs with HandBrake, adding metadata with iFlicks, and importing into iTunes. Bonus topics include merging multi-disc movies, ripping Blu-ray discs, and managing all this data on an external hard disk.

With AirPlay, you can play audio and video content from your Mac or iOS device on your Apple TV. You can also mirror your entire screen to the Apple TV, so whatever you see and hear on your device, you also see and hear through the Apple TV. And, in 10.9 Mavericks you can turn the TV attached to your Apple TV into another display for your Mac, just like any other external display. Read on to learn more, including how to prevent your prankster neighbors from playing video on your Apple TV without your permission.

Although iTunes content is front and center in the Apple TV’s interface, Apple offers lots to watch from numerous other sources as well, some of which may be a better deal than renting or buying from the iTunes Store. In this chapter, Josh Centers gives capsule descriptions of each of the Apple TV’s current “apps,” which provide movies, TV shows, sporting events, concerts, music videos, news, weather, and even your home movies. It’s not all video, though, since you can listen to your music from iTunes via the Apple TV, plus enjoy iTunes Radio and podcasts. And if you want something showing on screen while you’re rocking out, or just want to share your vacation pictures with friends, the Apple TV can access your photos from iCloud and Flickr.

With only four buttons, the Apple Remote included with your Apple TV is quite possibly the most elegant remote control ever made. However, that simplicity hides some useful features. This chapter will teach you how to master the Apple Remote’s basic features and shortcuts. But you’re not limited to the Apple Remote; the Apple TV can be commanded by a third-party remote, an iOS device with Apple’s Remote app, or a Bluetooth keyboard. Each option offers considerably more power than the Apple Remote, and each has its own particular strengths (and weaknesses).

In all likelihood, you’ve already set up your Apple TV, but if you’re just getting started, this chapter of “Take Control of Apple TV” walks you through, step-by-step, starting with explanations of all the ports and cables you’ll need. Author Josh Centers then moves on to explain the several different setup approaches and makes sure you get other key aspects of the Apple TV configured right away.

If you’ve been using iPhoto for years and want to switch up to either Aperture or Lightroom, this final chapter of “Take Control of Your Digital Photos” is for you! In it, Jeff explains how to migrate your photos from iPhoto to Aperture, which is incredibly easy, before showing you how perform the same task with Lightroom, where the migration requires more effort if you want to retain all your metadata from iPhoto (which you do).

An old printed photo is precious often because it’s the only copy that exists. In the digital age, that type of scarcity isn’t a problem. You can easily make copies of a photo or have inexpensive prints made. And yet, digital photos suffer from a different type of scarcity: one hard drive failure can wipe out your photos — all of your photos — in an instant. The solution is to ensure you have a solid backup system in place. You also want to make sure you can view your photos in the distant future. Unfortunately, as I discuss at the end of this chapter, that isn’t an easy guarantee given how software and hardware will change over the years.

So much of the information about photography out there focuses (pun intended) on the art and practice of capturing images, but very little addresses what to do with the shots once they’re in captivity. This is where the work you’ve done so far in terms of shooting smart, assigning metadata at import, and applying keywords and other metadata later on pays off. Armed with a photo library chock-full of metadata, you can locate images in a fraction of the time it would take to scan through them visually. I’ll show you how to search for specific metadata — such as keywords and ratings, and even camera-generated data such as aperture, shutter speed, and camera model — to track down shots. Then I’ll cover how to make that search capability work in your favor by building smart albums whose contents can change based on criteria you specify.

A previous chapter talked a lot about adding metadata during the import process because that’s the easiest way to apply it. Assigning keywords and other information during that initial stage takes some prep time, but when you click the Import button, the metadata is applied with a broad brush across all your incoming photos. After import, though, you still have some touch-up work to do. To make your photos easily searchable later — the ultimate goal in our organization project — you also need to apply more-specific metadata to individual photos. This might include identifying people and landmarks, or describing shots. In this chapter, I look at how to choose good keywords and how to apply them smartly. I also discuss how to fix incorrect dates and times, how to apply geolocation information, and why it may not be worth investing the time in your program’s facial-recognition tools.