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A friend of mine told me that when she first bought her IPhone that this book was very informative and helpful. So, when I purchased my IPhone I followed her suggestion. She was correct. The book is easy to read, easy to find answers and gives step by step instructions how to use the phone and its' various apps.
device (if I had predicted its features to you just ten years ago you'd have laughed). Instead I got a heavyweight. The iPhone 3GS is a marvelous. The salesman told me it's done that way on purpose: the good folks at Apple want you to play around with it, to go on the web to get a good look "under the hood," to experiment. This one certainly has made my iPhone experience richer and less painful. Out of the box it can do darn near anything. I thought I'd get a book written about the original iPhone, with a couple of chapters tacked on to explore the 3GS.
This is a gold mine of useful information, presented in a straightforward, logical manner. almost a miraculous. a full-color book with detailed drawings and step-by-step instructions for using all the iPhone 3GS features it documents. But it's in that little box all by its lonesome: there's scant documentation. I figured I'd rather own a "shop manual" to point me in the right direction.This book far exceeded my expectations. Can you fall in love with a book. A must-have.
This book contains all the essential information for the new users. It is well laid out and the index is complete. The little notes and tips that are done in reversed type are hard to read, but that is a minor gripe. If you give an iPhone as a gift, give this book too.
Maybe it's in there somewhere, but if I can't easily find the answer, what's the point of buying the book. The location I visited didn't have Pogue's book, but they called another location that did. I went to a book chain looking for David Pogue's book on the iphone 3GS in the Missing Manual series. Otherwise, just read the how to online. I use this book to look up things when I get stuck. Maybe $9.99.
I wish I had not. So I bought it anyway. It is OK but not great. I just bought my iphone so I was in a post purchase high and really wanted something to read. I bought this book kind of by mistake. But it lacked a really intense index. And I couldn't easily find what I needed.
For example, I couldn't find how to lock the iphone screen with this book. I had to look it up online. The Portable Genius book is just OK. So I drove over there, only to find that they had this book instead. I really enjoyed Pogue's Missing Manual book on the Mac OS X (liked it better than the Dummies, I own both) and also the Missing Manual on iPhoto.
In retrospect I should have ordered Pogue's from Amazon and researched the phone on the web. It had what you would expect, chapters devoted to different features. Pogue seems to go into more detail, have more tips and tricks, and also (for my mind at least) does a better job of explaining the theory behind the programming so that I can understand holistically rather than memorized discrete tricks.Bottom line, I don't think The Portable Genius is worth the money. If you are a book learner, order The Missing Manual.
My review title speaks for itself. It's great if you don't feel like messing around with your phone for 10 minutes, though it will take you 45 to read the book.
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