“Missing Manual” Now an iPhone App
11:24 am, December 26th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
New York Times technology columnist David Pogue and publisher O’Reilly combine to bring those of you who just unwrapped your brand-new iPhone yesterday iPhone: The Missing Manual, a $5 application available at Apple’s iTunes AppStore.
According to the publisher, the app “shows you everything you need to know to get the most out of your iPhone. Full of humor, tips, tricks, and surprises, this book teaches you how to extend iPhone’s usefulness by exploiting its links to the Web as well as its connection to Macs or PCs; how to save money using Internet- based messages instead of phone calls; and how to fill the iPhone with TV shows and DVDs for free.”
The funny thing is if you can purchase and download the app to iTunes and sync your phone so the app gets on there, you probably don’t need the manual in the first place.
Via iSmashPhone
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Humor, Software, iPhone, iTunes | Comment on this article
This book/app is worth every penny. I learned things I would have never found on my own. Perfect for the new owner.
Julie Delio, on December 28th, 2008 at 6:01 am
I’m an early customer of the Missing Manual app, and I’m also a “competitor” of the publisher and author (as author of “iPod and iTunes for Dummies”). That said, I took a look at the app and decided there must be a better way. The e-book has a large footprint (10 MB), and “paging” through it takes too much time to find the info I want. Also, I’m not a big fan of the e-book format for reference works that need to be updated often. What happens when Apple changes the software a little bit, and screens are out-of-date? I would need a complete app update (and I’d have to wait for them to do it). The page metaphor — taking the book page-by-page and e-booking it — is nice for novels but not for reference manuals.
I developed and published an app that not only puts all the iPhone instructions in your iPhone, but also lets me update it every day, adding tips, updating screens and instructions when Apple changes things, etc. — without having to update the app and without leaving a large footprint in the iPhone.
“Tony’s Tips for iPhone Users Manual” is only $2.99, available in the App Store. Just search for “Tony” and it pops up, or go to:
http://www.tonybove.com/tonystips_iphone.html
Tony’s Tips is both online and in the iPhone — the content is updated regularly, and you can save pages to read offline, even in Airplane mode. The tips are bite-sized nuggets you can locate quickly and easily by browsing or searching. With lots of links and a menu of related topics, you don’t have to “page” through an e-book to find things.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for checking it out.
Tony Bove, on March 3rd, 2009 at 9:17 am