iPhone Unlocked

Smart guy.

I have had an iPhone since they came out so I am familiar with them. After spending literally hours in the settings app, I wanted a book to make sure I’m squeezing every last drop of functionality. With this book I won’t miss anything. I like to use all of the radios & sensors for non ios related stuff.

Pogue has a unique way of explaining things. He’s understandable. I have used over a dozen of his books in the past and find them all very helpful. This book is the same. I always find what I need to know and could learn a lot more if I weren’t so lazy.

Looked for the Missing Manual for an iPhone 12. Couldn’t find it, but this one’s by Pogue, who wrote the previous issues of the MM, and it includes iPhone 12.Soooo, is this the new Missing Manual? I don’t know, but it’s a great book for learning all the functions this phone has.

For years I found David Pogue's editions of _iPhone: The Missing Manual_ to be indispensable and comprehensive. They weren't books that you would be likely to read from cover to cover, but their extensive indexes made it possible to find what you needed. Recently, however, O'Reilly dropped the series, and the replacement, now published by Simon & Schuster, is a disappointment.In his introduction to the new book, Pogue suggests that his previous iPhone manuals had become bloated, whereas _iPhone Unlocked_ focuses on "the features you'll actually find valuable, in the right order, with the right emphasis". It does that very well, but the material that was apparently deemed extraneous actually served as an essential reference; hence, the excised content seriously undercuts this book's value. Ironically, _iPhone Unlocked_ is itself in need of a "missing manual".Recently, I had occasion to look at my iPhone's "Reset Network Settings" option, and I needed to know exactly what it would accomplish. I turned to the index of Pogue's new volume, looked under "Settings", and found virtually nothing. It did say "See also individual app and feature names", so I looked for both "Network" and "Reset", but the index contained no entries for either of those. At that point, I turned to Pogue's earlier book, _iPhone: The Missing Manual_ (13th edition), whose index contains four listings under "networks", one of which is "network settings"!I then began to wonder where I might find information about resetting an iPhone, since the index to _iPhone Unlocked_ offers no clue to that. Again, I opened Pogue's earlier book, which contains an entry for "resetting the phone", along with six sub-topics. One of those topics is "erasing the phone", which led me back to the new book under review. It does contain an index entry for "erasing the phone", and when you go to that page (417), you'll find that it contains a short discussion of resets (albeit nothing about resetting network settings). That discussion includes instructions for accessing that option (Settings-->General-->Reset). So, why are the terms "Settings" and "Reset" omitted from the index?In short, _iPhone Unlocked_ can serve as a useful supplement to its O'Reilly predecessor, but with its deletion of vital reference material, it falls way short of being a satisfactory replacement. To add insult to injury, Amazon is offering no discount on this book, so it actually is more expensive than its much more useful predecessors.Maybe Pogue has decided that he no longer wants to write for an audience that has some degree of technical sophistication. If so, that would be very unfortunate. Pogue is highly knowledgeable, with a lot of expertise to offer, so I hope that he will seriously rethink the scope of his project when he comes to plan the next edition. In this case, less is not more; it's less.

My New IPhone 12 is great!. And it’s only because of this book. It’s very easy to navigate. It actually humorous and fun to read. It’s really the best source to be proficient in the iPhone12series.

Very easy to use and beats the heck out of asking Siri!

I didn't read the description of this book before I ordered it. In recent years, I recommended three middle-aged friends to buy David Pogue's earlier iPhone books after I got tired of them asking me how to use features of the iPhone. I was using Android phones at the time, so didn't know the answers.When my cellphone carrier made me a offer I couldn't refuse on an Apple iPhone with iOS14 for a replacement, I bought their phone. I also pre-ordered this book at full price from Amazon. When I received this "iPhone Unlocked" book shortly after the publication date, I saw it was published by Simon and Schuster. At 502 pages, it was down from the 664 pages of the second previous edition of the O'Reilly "iPhone: The Missing Manual" book I have. The very last O'Reilly book (the 13th edition) is claimed to have 720 pages.Comparing sections on such topics as Facetime video calls, I see the new edition has less verbiage than the 11th edition of the O'Reilly book I have. You can download a free 967-page Quick Start guide for iOS14 phones on to your iPhone from Apple Books.Edit February 26, 2021: Amazon also sells another updated book by David Pogue for the Apple Mac computers. Again, it is from a different publisher and again the new publisher is Simon & and Schuster. David Pogue used one of his "Unverified" Amazon reviews to post a rebuttal to critical reviews of his "Mac Unlocked" book on January 26, 2021. At least for the Mac book, he notes the book is a complete rewrite and is written more compactly.The iPhone is a mass-produced device which requires as much documentation as some low-selling electronic devices or systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm willing to pay for documentation rather than spend a lot of time googling how to get some feature to work. I realize that one should no longer automatically buy the latest edition of a David Pogue book. They may want to explore some of the other books Amazon is selling on the subject before making a purchase.

Excellent introduction to iOS 14 with important information clearly set out.