The iPhone Book 5th Edition is Now Available for Pre-Order! It has gone to press and should be shipping shortly. It covers the latest enhancements in iOS 5 as well as the new iPhone 4s. Tons of tips and tricks and how to's. You can pre-order your copy here.

My buddy Moose Peterson sent me his latest book as a holiday gift and while I have no aspirations (or skills) of becoming a wildlife photographer Moose's work has always inspired me. Moose is not only one of the best Wildlife photographers out there, he's also a fantastic Landscape shooter. My primary interest in photography is People, however I do enjoy a good landscape shoot every now and then too. I had the honor of shooting alongside Moose in the Fall of 2009 and it was an experience I'll always remember. That's the great thing about photography in general. I can learn something from just about every good photographer even if they're shooting a subject that I'm not primarily interested in. Not only do I enjoy learning from Moose, he's a great human being and friend too.

Captured: Lessons from Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer

That's a heck of a title to live up to! The good thing about the title of this book is that Moose does live up to it. He's been at this for over 30 years and has paid his dues. Rather than just keeping his knowledge and experience to himself, Moose enjoys teaching others. I've witnessed it first hand.

First off, this book is beautifully illustrated. I could spend a couple of hours just looking at the photography without reading a single word. If I did though, I'd be missing out on the great stories Moose tells about how he got started and more importantly how he captures the amazing shots that the does. While I definitely learn from step-by-step techniques I also learn from someone telling me their thoughts and stories that went into a particular shot and how the went on to capture it. That's what this book is all about. I can't wait to dive in deeper over the weekend and the weeks to come. This is the kind of book that I want to digest over time. 

Whether you're a Wildlife photographer or not, if you're looking for some inspiration, this is your book!  If there is anyone more passionate about photography, I haven't met them yet. You can get Captured: Lessons from Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer on sale here for $34.64. If you want it on Kindle it's available here as well (please enjoy this book in color or you will be missing out!)

P.S. Moose if you're reading this (you are aren't you?), yes you always tempt me with big glass

When Joe McNally sends me an email saying that he wants to send me his latest book, I tend to stop whatever I'm doing and respond to that email. Joe is one of my FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHERS and he inspires me. Every photographer I know has someone that they look up to and hope to be like some day. For me, Joe McNally is one of those photographers that inspires me to try to do better. Of course I like Joe's photography and lighting skills, but I'm also inspired by the way Joe works with subjects. He is masterful in getting what he wants out of the subject in front of his camera. Every time I'm with him on a shoot or in a class I say "Wow, why can't I do that?"

This really is a book about learning how to shoot like the Pros

One of the things that actually surprised me was that this book is exactly as the title describes it. Don't get me wrong I think Joe is an excellent instructor, but in his other books Joe talks about photography through his life stories and pretty pictures. While there is certainly nothing wrong with that (I DO LEARN from Joe's stories) and I'm in awe of his shots, this book jumps right in and starts teaching you stuff. Go figure  The first chapter is called "Part One: Light". It starts off with a basic explanation of how the camera processes light, Exposure and camera settings. Then Joe jumps right in with tips and how and more importantly WHEN to capture the best light. He covers it all. Shooting on a sunny day, sunsets, a beach, a snowy day, etc. etc. and that's just chapter one! Joe then goes on to talk about the lens, Design Elements (I can't wait to finish this one!), Color, Composition and some last minute tips. Wow! This puppy is PACKED with great info and I can't wait to finish it over my holiday break.

The Bottom Line

No matter where you are in your photography skills, you can probably learn something from others. If I was 1/10th as good as Joe I'd be ecstatic, so I'm glad that I can learn from him and others. This is a great read. I'm only half way through it and loving what I'm learning. Thanks Joe for the opportunity to learn from you! I'm forever grateful. 

You can order The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography – Everything You Need To Shoot Like The Pros here on sale.

The iPhone Book 4th Edition by Scott Kelby and yours truly, Terry White is now available! I got my first glimpse of it at the Photoshop World book store this week in Vegas. I checked stock at Amazon.com and it's available there too. This 4th edition is loaded with all kinds of iPhone 4 and iOS 4 tips and tricks. So don't walk, but run over to Amazon.com and order yours today!

Thanks!

Scott Kelby has released his NEW Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers and just like his last book on Lightroom, this one is a must read as well. Scott uses his usual straight-forward, I'm talking to one of my friends style to walk you through the ins-and-outs of be productive with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. I know the amount of time that Scott puts into his books and not only does he find just the right words to explain a topic, but he also spends a great deal of time finding and shooting just the right image to make his point.

You can order your copy here at a discount.

I'm excited about getting my hands on the iPad. I think it will be a cool device. However,  I have three questions:

Does the iPad have MS Exchange support?

if the rumors are true, I will be a lot less excited than I was on day one. Which rumors? The rumors that the iPad doesn't have MS Exchange support. Now I know that you can't put a lot of faith into rumors. I would also find it hard to believe that Apple would build in Exchange support into the iPhone OS (which the iPad runs on) and even include it in the Mac OS Snow Leopard, but not include in their shinny new tablet. Even the iPod touch has it. Sure there could be licensing issues or issues with allowing users to do corporate email over AT&T's data connection without buying a business plan but it would seem that Apple would work all that out and give users options for checking work email. You can hate Microsoft all you want. You can say how much they suck and that you wish they would die, but the truth is that more corporations rely on MS Exchange for corporate email/calendar/contacts than the ones that don't. So does the iPad have Exchange support?

Apple makes no mention of Exchange support on the iPad features page:

However, on the iPhone page they call it out big time:

I guess we'll find out soon enough. If it doesn't have MS Exchange support it would be a lot less appealing to me because I'd still need to carry a second device to check work email. If it doesn't, does that affect your buying decision?

Can I put my own EPUB documents on it?

It's a given that Apple will let you put your own music and movies on the iPad. You'll probably also have PDF support and be able to store PDFs on the device using 3rd party apps as you do today. However, the big question that I get asked a lot is "will I be able to put my own documents on it in EPUB format. Apple adopted EPUB as the Book Standard for the iPad. As an Adobe InDesign user this excites me because I'd be able to export my InDesign documents as EPUB as I can already do today. However, I doubt that we'll be able to roll our own books. Why? For the same reason you can roll your own Apps. Sure you can develop an App, but if you want to get it onto the iPhone, iPod touch and now iPad legitimately, you have to do so via the App Store. So it probably stands to reason that books will be treated the same way. Even if you can export your own EPUBs, you'll likely (purely speculation on my part) need to get them published via the iBooks Store to get them on the iPad. I hope that I'm wrong, but we'll see.

Does book formatting matter to you?

Apple likely choose the EPUB format (see a more detailed description of the EPUB standard here in this PDF)because it's already a standard for electronic publishing of books and by choosing this standard they could launch the iBooks Store with a bunch of titles. While the EPUB format does work, it's not visually the same layout as the printed book. If you have a graphically rich book in print, that book is going to be very basic in EPUB format. While EPUB format is great for novels (mostly text), it's probably not going to look the same as the author intended. EPUB has to work on a variety of devices and display sizes. So the content has to be able to reflow accordingly. Traditional ebook readers like the Kindle have focused more on the text readability and battery life than the pretty layout. That's why they don't even have a color display yet. While I certainly don't do a lot of book reading in electronic format, I do appreciate good design and layout. It should also be noted that the EPUB format DOES allow for multi-media content such as sounds, video and dare I say it, even Flash support. The iPad will certainly be able to handle most of these features and I'm sure we'll start to see EPUBs with a little more pizzaz now that we'll have a device that can support these things.

So my question to you is, does the lack of layout focus impact your opinion of the iPad's iBooks feature?

As we get closer to ship we'll soon find out the answers to these questions. It's going to be interesting.

I don't read books often (lack of time), so when I do it must be a really good one. My buddy Scott Kelby has done it once again. I got sucked into this book while on a flight and I had to read the whole thing cover to cover. This is the 3rd book in the series. Both volumes 1 and 2 were must haves and volume 3 is no different. Scott takes his classic one tip/one image per page approach to teach you exactly what you need to know to get the shot that you see featured on the page. Man of the pages also have additional tips at the bottom.

Volume 3 doesn't replace volumes 1 and 2. It's not like a Photoshop book where the new book covers the new version of the software. All 3 volumes contain useful tips that the other volumes don't contain. There is some slight overlap and that's OK, because I'm not going to remember every tip and every setting. So whether you start with Vol 1 or Vol 3 the books can stand alone or work great as a set.

The Volume 3 Chapters Include:

• Using Flash Like a Pro, Part 2
• Using Your Studio Like a Pro
• The Truth About Lenses
• Shooting Products Like a Pro
• Shooting Outdoors Like a Pro
• Shooting People Like a Pro
• Shooting Sports Like a Pro
• Pro Tips for Getting Better Photos
• Avoiding Problems Like a Pro

I'll Never Remember It all

Like I said, I read the entire book cover to cover in one setting. So while it was a great easy read and I understood everything I read, I'm just not going to remember it all. Also I probably won't remember which book had which tip I needed for a particular type of shoot. These books are great for learning, but they are also great for reference. While I'd love to think that I'd carry all 3 books with me everywhere I go, I won't!

However, I did the next best thing. I do carry my iPhone with me everywhere I go. Since these books are all available in Kindle format I bought them for the Kindle and downloaded the FREE Kindle app for iPhone/iPod touch. Now I can lookup whatever tip I need right there on the spot during the shoot. Since the Kindle app also allows for bookmarking, I can even bookmark my favorite tips to get to them quicker.

The Bottom Line

I've learned quite a bit from this series over the years and I look forward to volume 4. You are going to do a volume 4 right Scott? I highly recommend this book and the previous volumes to any photographer looking to improve their skills. Every person that I've turned these books onto has come back and thanked me.

You can get them on sale here:

The Digital Photography Book Volume 3

The Digital Photography Book Volume 2

The Digital Photography Book Volume 1

Get all 3 in this box set and save $$

If you know me, you're probably surprised that I would be writing anything about an eBook reader. Why? Because I'm not an avid book reader. However, my daughter is and the one thing she wanted for her graduation present from high school was a Kindle. Being a straight A student (yes, I'm bragging. It's my daughter), I had no problem with this request. Selfishly I also knew I'd get a chance to play with it, um, I mean set it up for her.

When the Kindle arrived…

I went through the standard unboxing and setup. Everything was pretty straightforward. I set it up on her existing Amazon.com account and with a gift card she was able to buy some books and download them. The first cool thing I noticed here is that the downloading is over the air via 3G technology. So you don't have to worry about having a WiFi connection, nor do you pay any monthly costs for the data connection. That's right! It's all included in the price. I guess Amazon figures that if they make it "easy" to get the content to your device, you'll probably buy more of it.

What I liked…

I really liked how thin the device was. The LCD was certainly easy on the eyes and the size of it seemed about right. Not too big and not too small. Battery life so far (it's been since May 2009) has also been good. The Kindle 2 is also very light weight. Navigating the menus works OK, but it's all with buttons as there is no mouse or trackpad. The Kindle charges with a stand USB charging connection and of course comes with a nice compact travel charger.

All the standard things you would think about are there. It automatically remembers where you left off. So you can be reading multiple books and go between them with ease. Since the books are so small, you can literally carry around an entire library with you. If the device is lost, stolen or broken, you can get your books back the minute you setup your new one as they will automatically sync/download to it from your account. I found out that this really works because the first unit we got had a defect in the display. Amazon replaced it and the books came right onto the new one once it was setup.

Books download very quickly over the built-in 3G connection.

PDFs – rumor has it that a firmware update is coming soon (may be out already – my daughter is away at school) that will allow you to more easily and directly read PDFs on your Kindle 2. This is a nice addition as it will allow you to even load them wirelessly by emailing the PDF to your special/unique Kindle email address. Taking YOUR OWN documents with you such as manuals, books you've created, whitepaper, etc. makes the Kindle much more useful.

Instant Gratification! There is something to be said about wanting a book and within a few minutes you're reading that book. I could see how the whole wireless purchase/download of books could be quite contagious for anyone that's into reading. Sorta like how I am about iPhone apps. It can be quite addictive.

What could be better…

First off, the display is Black and White and not backlit. This was undoubtedly done for the sole purpose of long battery life. Color processors and backlighting sucks juice much faster than B&W none backlit. So as long as you have decent room lighting you're good to go. However, you can forget about reading content in a dark room, say at night, without a "book light." 

A bigger more fundamental problem – BOOK LAYOUT! While I get the whole let's save battery life, what I don't get is the need to reformat the book to be basically just straight text. Is it easier to read? Probably, because you're just reading text with the occasional image inserted. However, I'm a visual person. So I would love to see an "option" to see the book in its original format at the press of a button. Since there is no color, this format will also be hard for books that are well, more visual. Books that illustrate much of the content with photos/diagrams may be harder to consume in this format. 

A nice to have – I'm so used to the touch screen on my iPhone, that the Kindle seems naked without one. Seems odd to have to press a hardware button to go to the next page instead of a finger swipe. There will be a ton of users who will say NO to a touch screen, but I for one would like to see it. Multi-touch pinching would also be nice to have in cases where you want to see the images larger.

It would have also been nice if it came with a case. However, the case I got for it was reasonably priced.

Content

Content is king! The available content seems to be very good. We had no problem finding the books that she wanted on the Kindle store. Amazon boasts about over 360,000 titles. Also since they are being delivered electronically, they are typically much cheaper than the paper editions.

One trick pony

Now the real question is how successful can the Kindle or any other standalone eBook reader be in 2010 if that's all it does (allow you to read books, magazines, etc.)? When you look at the cost of a Kindle 2 at $259, the price seems a bit high (in a 2010 economy) for a device that basically does one thing. I think Apple and others are going to enter this market with devices that do what Kindle does AND a whole lot more. For example, if Apple sold an iPod touch that does exactly what it does today, but with a display the same size as the Kindle and it was $100 more than Kindle, people would be all over that. It will be interesting to see where standalone eBook readers are a year from now. Things are about to get interesting.

Kindle App for your iPhone/iPod touch

Don't forget that Amazon provides a FREE Kindle App for your iPhone or iPod touch that essentially turns your device into a Kindle reader. You can buy books, read them on your iPhone/iPod touch and if you also have a Kindle, reading on one device will sync where you left off so that you can pick right back up on the other device. It's pretty slick. Interestingly enough the same Kindle books DO display in Color via the iPhone App. So it would appear that when Amazon converts a book over to Kindle format, they are maintaining the color images. You can get the Kindle app here from the App Store:

Also don't forget to check out my iPhone Book 3rd Edition in Kindle format here.

The Bottom Line

The Kindle performs well and if you're a book worm, I can't see any reason not to own one. However, it could get interesting in 2010 if Apple does come out with a tablet like device. It will most likely have an eBook reader in it and do a whole lot more. Price could be an issue though as Apple is not known for being the low cost of entry leader. So on that note if you looking for something today. Kindle 2 is a good choice. You can get it here from Amazon.com

The "5 Star" rating system is pretty standard when it comes to rating most products and services on most sites. The sites I frequent the most and look for these ratings are Amazon.com, Apple's App Store/iTunes and Netflix. However, ratings alone don't tell the whole story. 

Don't judge an App by its rating alone

I recommended an app to a friend and later found out that he didn't get it because it only had a 3 star rating. After we talked and I explained to him that you can't go by the rating alone. What I told him was that you have to consider the fact that not everyone uses the same criteria when rating something. For example, the App Store's rating system was severely flawed at first because back when it first started you could rate an App that you had never actually installed or tried. In many cases people were rating Apps "1 Star" because they didn't like the price or it wasn't compatible with the touch or for some other reason that really didn't tell you anything about the App itself. Apple did fix that and now you can't rate an App unless you have at least downloaded it. However, the App Store's rating system is still far from perfect. I'd give it a 3 star rating (just kidding). There are a couple of potential problems that still exist. There are ratings and there are reviews and ratings. If you look at an App that you downloaded in the App Store on your iPhone or iPod touch you can "Review it" and of course give it a rating. If you go to your computer and look at that same App in iTunes on the iTunes Store, you can EITHER Rate it or Review and Rate it. So this means that you can give an App a 1 Star rating with no explanation what so ever.

Let's go back to your iPhone or iPod touch for a moment. If you delete an App right on the device itself, a dialog pops up and gives you the chance to rate the App you've just deleted. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Apps that are rated during a delete process probably rarely receive a 5 star rating. How often are you deleting Apps that work perfectly that you absolutely love? So this again only tells one side of the story. Also there is no opportunity here to say why you're giving it the rating you're giving it or why you're deleting it? The people that have apps installed that love them aren't prompted at any point with a "hey we notice that you use this app a lot, would you like to rate it?" message. People that are happy don't tend to seek out a way to tell anyone. However, people that are unhappy tend to want to tell EVERYONE! For this "Rate upon deletion" feature to be fair, their should be a parallel feature that pops up the same dialog box say after you've used an app 25 times. "We noticed that you use this app a lot. Would you like to rate it?" The user of course would have the option to turn the feature off, but turning it off would turn off BOTH popups. No longer would you see the dialog when you delete an app either.

Reviews on Amazon.com

Usually before I buy something that I don't know much about, I turn to Amazon.com to see what others are saying about it? Once again the ratings don't tell me everything. I'm more interested in the reviews. Also I usually go for the negative reviews first and here's why: I'm already prepared to like the item. If I've done any research at all, I've usually figured out that this is something that I'm going to want. So I'm really just trying to see if there are any major problems with it. Does it have a high failure rate? Does it not work as advertised? I tend to ignore rants about pricing, delivery times, etc. because again the people that didn't feel like it costs too much or got it in a timely manner aren't usually posting reviews to say that. I look at what people "don't like about it" and decide for myself if those things are of any concern to me or not? So even if something on Amazon has a 2.5" star rating that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to not buy it. However, if a ton of people say the same thing about it breaking easily or falling apart or some other bad thing and it seems consistent, then I will really think twice (or three times) before buying.

Unfortunately, people can rate things on Amazon without actually owning them. Even my on iPhone Book 3rd Edition got a 1 star rating a while back from a guy  who admitted that he didn't actually own the book and had not seen a single page of it. He rated the book 1 star solely because he didn't like the sample chapter that is automatically generated for Kindle users to download for free. A sample that the author (me) has no control over. He didn't like it because the sample didn't actually contain any of the content of the book. It was things like the acknowledgements, introduction, etc. However, someone looking to buy the book and judging it by the rating alone might think twice before buying it.

Another example here of a 2 star rating and review by someone who did NOT buy Joe McNally's "The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes" because he didn't like the cover. 

It's OK that he didn't like the cover and therefore exercised his right in not buying it, but to be able to rate and review something that you admittedly don't even own is just not right! By the way, Joe's book has an average rating of 4.5 stars with 110 5 star ratings!

Ratings on Netflix

In the case of a movie, I'm usually the opposite. That means that I could really care less about the reviews and honestly I take the rating a little more into account. Netflix seems to do a better job in comparing ratings of people with similar movie tastes. So chances are if I see a movie with a 3 star rating or less, I'm not going to like it. Sometimes I've ignored the 3 star rating and added the movie to my queue anyway only to be disappointed and kick myself after watching it. So unless it's something that I KNOW that I'm really going to like, I'll typically avoid movies with low ratings on Netflix.

In case you were wondering, yes I'd give Angels & Demons a 4! 

How do you rate?

So that brings me back to the whole star rating thing and I'm curious how do you rate? Before you sound off in the comments below, let me give my formula for each category:

5 Stars – It's as close to perfect as it can be. Nothing is perfect and no matter how much I love a product, I can usually and pretty easily give you a list of things that I would like to see it do or have or change. But If I give it 5 stars that is the ultimate compliment and I'm quite happy with it. In the case of a movie, it's the kind of movie that I could immediately watch again. I liked it that much! It's also a candidate for one I'd want to buy on Blu-ray.

4 Stars – It's a really good product and works as advertised (this will be the norm). However, it's missing one or more things that would really take it to the next level. Or perhaps if it had a slight interface tweak it would earn the 5th star.  Nonetheless I like it. In the case of a movie, I really enjoyed it. I was entertained. I'd recommend it to a friend, but it's probably a movie that I won't watch again. I'm good!

3 Stars – It's OK! It kinda works. There are several things that I would like to see added or changed, but it does work. In the case of a movie, it was barely OK. I'm not going to recommend it again and I wish it had ended sooner.

2 Stars – This product has several problems. I wouldn't review it here (unless I was asked to by the manufacturer)  because I wouldn't be able to say very many good things about it and I wouldn't want to waste your time. I'm probably looking to return it. The only reason I would keep it is because I need to do what it does and there was no other alternative. In the case of a movie, it sucked! I barely got through it and I was checking my email several times while it was playing. 

1 Star – The product should have never been shipped in its current state. The book should have never been written/printed. It's got MAJOR flaws and bugs and is pretty much unusable. It does NOT work as advertised. I'm demanding my money back. In the case of a movie, I walked out or turned it off. My time was more valuable to me than finishing it. I'm sorry that I paid to watch it or rented it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I've rated something 1 Star. 

The Bottom Line

While I've shared my way of rating with you, the problem is not everyone rates the same way. So you have to go beyond ratings and dig a little deeper. I've seen some of the silliest reasons for giving a product a 1 star or even a 5 star rating. When it comes to the App store, the 3 star rating has become the new 4 star rating as far as I'm concerned. So how do you rate?

I’m very pleased to see that my New iPhone Book 3rd Edition is Now Available at Amazon.com. I think this is the best edition yet (I’m a little biased that way). We (my amazing co-author and dear friend Scott Kelby, number one selling computer book author in the world!) went through the book page by page and not only rewrote the pages that needed rewriting, but we also simplified a lot of the language even further. We also added tons of new tips that cover the iPhone 3GS, iPod touch and of course the iPhone 3.0 OS update. So whether you’re a brand new iPhone user or someone that just wants to learn more about your iPhone this book has something for you.

As an added bonus there are links to videos that Scott and I recorded covering our favorite apps, tips and accessories.

Order your copy today!

If you’re a Photoshop Educator then you can register to download a FREE Instructor’s Kit. My buddy Scott Kelby has partnered up with Peachpit Press/New Riders and Pearson Education to release his Photoshop CS4 Book For Digital Photographers as not only a text book, but also additional instructors kit DVD with videos and additional files to show your class. There’s a PDF, test questions and photos to help you teach photoshop. The only catch is that you have to be an educator to get this free resource. So if you work as an educator you should head over and check it out. If you want to check out Scott’s original announcement including a short video explaining the program, go here.

A few weeks back I reviewed the Kindle App for iPhone. One of the books that seemed like a natural in this format was my iPhone Book second edition. Well now you can actually buy the Kindle version of the iPhone Book and enjoy it right on your iPhone or Kindle device. If you need to look up how to do something on your iPhone, you’ll now have “the book” right on your iPhone.

The Kindle version is $9.99. The Kindle App for iPhone is a Free Download from the App Store.

The hard copy version is $13.59.

Although I’m not an avid book reader, it’s hard to ignore the significance of having an iPhone (iPod touch) version of the Amazon Kindle Book Reader. I never really paid much attention to the Kindle because I knew I would never buy one. If I read books a lot, I could definitely see the advantage of having a single device with a nice big crisp display that you could download your favorite books to and read on the go.

I figured this would be a natural for the iPhone. Also it would mean having one less device to have to worry about. When Amazon announced that the Kindle App for the iPhone was available, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to play with it. Although the app was a FREE download, I didn’t have any books in Kindle format. Although there are free sample chapters you can download to test, I wanted something real! Since I didn’t have any novels in mind that I wanted to purchase, I looked around my own book collection and it hit me! There was a book that I would LOVE to have with me on my iPhone. It was Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Book. This was the perfect book for me to buy in this format. Although I’ve already read the book from cover to cover, there’s no way that I’m going to remember everything and every setting that Scott mentions. So I figured it would be great to have this book on my iPhone for reference when I’m out in the field at a photo shoot or headed to one.

So I logged on to my Amazon.com on my computer and bought the book ($9.99). Then I went back to my iPhone and launched the Kindle App. The Kindle App started the download process. For some reason it took longer than I expected and at times acted as if it wasn’t even connected. I had to work on other things, so I quit out of the app. When I tried it again later it downloaded the book quickly. There it was on my Kindle home screen, Scott’s complete book. I tapped on it and there it was, the first page of the book.

Navigating and reading

I was amazed at how well this actually works. The text is very readable and you can adjust the font size. The pictures were in color, which is an advantage over the Kindle hardware that only has a grayscale display. You can either flick to change pages or use the slider.

Of course you can also jump back to the table of contents which has links to each chapter. There is also a very handy bookmark feature. This allows you to add a page you’re currently on as a bookmark so that you can immediately jump back to it whenever you like. This is great for reference books. The Kindle app also keeps track of where you left off. So you don’t have to remember or advance the pages each time you launch the app.

What’s missing?

Besides my iPhone Book LOL (it’s in the works), I was stunned that there doesn’t appear to be a keyword search. Since I’ll likely be using this app for reference books, I want the ability to search for things that I’m looking for. In the meantime I’ll used the bookmark feature.

The Bottom Line

I haven’t really experienced many book reader apps for the iPhone, but this one certainly does the things I would expect. If they were to add keyword search I’d be 100% sold. Although the experience was good and the technology worked, my main concern with doing this on the iPhone would be battery life. The iPhone 3g is already pretty tough on its battery, add an app that keeps the display on for hours (or several minutes at a time) and you might not be able to make any calls after you’ve read that book. Of course this is less of a concern for iPod touch users. The iPod touch battery seems to keep going and going. Check out the selection of Kindle Books here. Download the Kindle App for iPhone here from the App Store.

I have fun reviewing technology and gadgets. Now that I’ve been running my blog for a few years, it occurs to me that new readers may not have seen some of my earlier posts. I also get asked by friends and relatives all the time to recommend my top choice in any given category. I do this formally once a year in my Holiday Gadget Gift Guide, but that doesn’t really help you much when you want recommendations throughout the rest of the year. So I’ve put together my own Terry White Recommends aStore. I will constantly update this site with any new recommendations that I have. These are products that I either have first hand knowledge of or use on a very regular basis. I have no paid sponsors, so these are products that I simply feel are great!

It’s not often that I do book recommendations here. Quite frankly, I don’t get to spend much time reading books these days. So when I take the time to read one and review it, it must be pretty special. I also know how much work goes into writing a book. I’ve written a few myself. What I can’t imagine is how much work would have to go into a book called “Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual“? In this book Ms. Lesa Snider King had to cover EVERYTHING! That’s a tall order when it comes to Photoshop. She had to explain every little facet of the program and Photoshop CS4 is a lot to cover.

This book is designed to be “the manual”, but not the typical manual written by an engineer. It’s written in plain english with plenty of useful examples and techniques. You can use this book in a couple of ways. You can use it to look up things (which is probably what I would use it for most) or you could use it to actually learn the app, step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter. I also appreciate the fact that this book is in color! I dread seeing Photoshop books in black and white.

Whether you’re new to Adobe Photoshop or you’re an experienced user, this book is worth a look see and weighing in at 796 pages, there is a lot to see. The book has a list price of $49.99. Amazon has it for only $29.39.