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Press Release: May 14, 2003

The 500-plus Most Amazing Power Tips for the Mac: O'Reilly Releases "Mac OS X Hints"

Sebastopol, CA--The leading regret held by Mac OS X users--perhaps the only regret--is the loss of years of accumulated tips and tricks that make the difference between a mere user and a proficient user or power user. Many of the former keyboard shortcuts, undocumented double-clicks, and secret timesavers vanished with the appearance of Mac OS X 10.2. The new operating system may be a stunning technical achievement, but it has a personality of its own. Fortunately, Mac OS X harbors just as many secrets as any system that came before; users just have to know where to find them. Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition by Rob Griffiths (O'Reilly/Pogue Press, US $24.95) reveals the best tips, tricks, and work-arounds that Jaguar has to offer.

Written by the creator of the popular Mac OS X Hints web site and edited by David Pogue, author of the bestselling "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual," this handy reference shows aficionados of Mac OS X how to adjust the desktop, tweak applications, reconfigure the system, and even fine-tune the software in Mac OS X's Unix based core.

"The 500-plus hints in this book are based on tips published in the Mac OS X Hints web site (www.macosxhints.com)," explains Griffiths. "But it's not just a rehash of what's there. Every hint has been rewritten, expanded, organized, indexed, tested for compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X 10.2, and in many cases, illustrated, making the book an even better resource than the web site."

Typically, computer books make the most sense if you read them from start to finish, but not "Mac OS X Hints." "You can open the book from any point and read for any length of time," says Griffiths. "Most hints in the book describe a single problem or solution that doesn't depend on any other hints. Think of the book as a vast table of appetizers for your brain."

Inside "Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition" readers will find secrets in every conceivable category, including:

  • Desktop and Finder: how to shut down using only the keyboard; use an animated screen saver as a desktop picture; and jump to System Preferences with a keystroke.

  • iApps: how to burn six hours of iTunes music onto a single CD; merge calendars in iCal; and prevent iMovie 3 from applying the Ken Burns effect.

  • Mac OS X programs: how to unlock 32,000 secret Unicode symbols in each font; rename the System Preferences panels; add an "Email this page" button to Safari; and make Mail announce, in a cute British accent: "Mail has arrived, O all-wise master."

  • Mastering the system: how to share web bookmarks between Mac OS X and Classic; connect to your Mac from the road; and make your iDisk work ten times faster.

  • Terminal: how to save Terminal commands as Finder icons; put background programs to sleep; wake a sleeping Mac via the Internet; unearth the secret emacs adventure game; set up a message board on your Apache-based web site; and more.

With authority, humor, and 440 illustrations, "Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition" brings readers insight, surprise, and delight at every turn. And that, after all, is what the Mac is all about.

Additional Resources:

Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition
Rob Griffiths
ISBN 0-596-00451-6, 461 pages, $24.95 (US), $38.95 (CAN), 17.50 (UK)
[email protected]
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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