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Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Dropbox” helps you learn and teach Dropbox

Good day!

Here at Take Control, we’ve long been huge fans of the Dropbox file-sharing service, relying on it every day to collaborate on manuscripts with our authors and editors. Now we’re pleased to share our expertise with you in the form of Joe Kissell’s latest ebook, “Take Control of Dropbox.” The book normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-dropbox-mug-discount

Whether you’re already among the millions of people who sync and share files with Dropbox or you plan to join their ranks soon, Joe Kissell has the real-world advice you need to go beyond the basics. He shares the best practices for using Dropbox effectively and securely on your own or with a group, explains how to avoid common mistakes and irreversible settings, describes what’s involved with mobile devices and Dropbox-savvy apps, and tips you off to unusual uses of Dropbox.

Did you know you could use Dropbox to control your Mac, publish a blog, automate Web activities, sync with other cloud services, and even publish a book like this one?

Perhaps you do know all that, but since Dropbox shines brightest when sharing files with friends and colleagues, we’ve included a “Teach This Book” chapter with links to a downloadable single-page PDF handout and an 18-slide PDF presentation that you can employ to help your collaborators use Dropbox correctly (and thus make your life easier).

Other useful advice in “Take Control of Dropbox” includes how to:

* Recover an accidentally deleted or revised file. You’ll find help with a few non-obvious controls and a discussion of the Packrat option for Dropbox Pro users.

* Work with photos and videos in your Dropbox folder and learn how to share collections with Dropbox’s new photo album feature.

* Use Dropbox to store and automatically sync data used by Dropbox-savvy apps on all of your devices, whether they’re running Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Windows, or Linux. You’ll get a better idea of what’s going on behind the scenes and how to manage app authorizations.

* Check a few important account-related details to make sure you’re set up optimally. These include security settings and methods of getting more storage space.

Be sure to check out Joe’s short intro video on the book’s page!

http://tid.bl.it/tco-dropbox-mug-discount

Two final notes, since we like to give you peeks behind the curtain here at Take Control. First, you’ll notice that “Take Control of Dropbox” sports an elegant new cover design and logo, both created especially for us. You’ll be seeing more of these covers in the future, in a variety of colors.

Second, if you like reading on a Kindle, the Mobipocket version of this book will be available in your Take Control library immediately after you purchase, thanks to a new (Dropbox-based!) publishing system that we used. The book looks great on a Kindle Fire or Paperwhite and is entirely acceptable on older and less-capable Kindle models. Between this new publishing system and a new technique we’ve developed for our existing publishing approach, we hope to make Mobipocket files available simultaneously with other formats going forward.

Thank you for your support of the Take Control series – we couldn’t do it without you!

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Here is the presentation file from the March 23, 2013 meeting. Presentation by Tom Suhadolnik, Lead Engineer. enCompass Group LLC.

Top 10 Cyber Threats for Mac Users v1

For backup products, external hard drives were recommended. The Voyager Q is a great product for Creative Professionals with Macs and FireWire. Think FireWire = pipe. USB 2.0 = straw. Spike loves these products and always has a least one in his car.

NewerTech Voyager Q

The latest Macs have USB 3.0 which is equivalent to FireWire. This product would be good for those configurations. It supports 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch SATA drives.

Plugable USB 3.0/2.0 SATA Hard Drive Docking Station (ASMedia Chipset; UASP and 3TB+ Support)

Subject: “Take Control of iCloud” ebook updated to cover Apple’s many changes

Time for a pop quiz!

Is iCloud (a) packed with useful features, (b) more complex than Apple lets on, (c) almost essential for Mac and iOS use, (d) thoroughly documented by Joe Kissell in “Take Control of iCloud,” or (e) all of the above?

The answer, as you veteran quiz takers know when faced with an “all of the above” option, is (e). iCloud really is helpful, deceptively complicated, integrated deeply into the Mac and iOS experience, and, frankly, sometimes a royal pain in the posterior. But no one does a better job of explaining iCloud’s features and quirks than Joe Kissell, and you can come up to speed with everything iCloud can do for only $10.50 with the 30% MUG discount:

http://tid.bl.it/icloud-mug-discount

If you’re pulling out your hair in frustration as you try to connect your Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Windows PC to the many digital pipes that iCloud offers, Joe’s 155-page “Take Control of iCloud” will answer your questions and preserve your hairstyle. And, if you’re trying to help your mother, sister, uncle, co-worker, fellow Rotarian, or Game Center buddy sync contacts between devices, create a shared calendar, filter email before it hits the iPhone, and so forth, Joe has ferreted out the details you need to solve their problems.

iCloud is no longer new, and the dreaded transition from MobileMe is long past, but updates and ongoing issues have made “Take Control of iCloud” our top-selling book of the past few years. Keeping it fresh and accurate – this is our fourth free update! – is like playing Whack-a-Mole. Sometimes it seemed that nearly every page had some detail that needed checking and tweaking. Even though Apple doesn’t share inside information with us about what’s happening in iCloud’s troposphere, things Joe has had to track down and explain since just the last version of this book include iOS 6, iTunes 11, the Notes and Reminders Web apps, Shared Photo Streams, numerous tiny changes to iCloud’s Web interface, and more.

As always, thank you for supporting the Take Control series!

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Please share “Take Control of Your iPad, Second Edition” with a friend!

We’re pleased to bring you our latest ebook, “Take Control of Your iPad, Second Edition,” written by our intrepid editor-in-chief Tonya Engst to help you get more delight from any iPad running iOS 6. Although this guide has something for nearly any iPad user, some advanced iPad users may not see it as necessary – but if that’s true of you, we bet you know someone who does need it. So, as you’ll see below, we think that you should buy a copy and share it with a less-geeky friend or relative. (Encouraging sharing? From a book publisher? Can you imagine!) The book normally costs $15, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $10.50. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below.

http://tid.bl.it/your-ipad-mug-discount

Why, you may ask, put significant effort into completing a 226-page ebook that’s guaranteed to be obsolete in a year? Tonya has struggled with that question over the past weeks, particularly as she sat down to write each weekend day for the last month.

What she realized is that the answer is a single word: Delight. She wants you – and your close friend or relation – to be delighted with the iPad. Many people can use the iPad well enough, but aren’t having the amazing experience they should be. They sell themselves short. They can’t find their stuff. They scroll laboriously when they could tap to navigate. They put up with a cacophony of noisy notifications. They miss important email messages. They watch video on the iPad when they could stream it to an Apple TV. They need help… even if they don’t realize that they do.

You may already be delighted with your iPad. But, maybe you still want a good reference book. Or, perhaps you’re aware that there’s always more to learn. Either way, this ebook has answers.

We’re doing something a little different with “Take Control of Your iPad, Second Edition.” Consider your purchase a two-fer. Buy “Take Control of Your iPad, Second Edition” for yourself, but make a copy and give it to the less-geeky person in your life who _really_ needs it. We’re serious about this – our goal is to help people with technology, and the best way we know to do that is to get them to read what we write.

Here’s a sampling of the many ways this ebook aims to increase iPad delight:

* Remind yourself of the fun four- and five-fingered gestures.
* Sort out the many different ways to turn down the volume.
* Start using Siri to tell your iPad what to do (introduced-in-2012 iPads only).
* Fill out your “card” in Contacts and autofill your contact info when shopping.
* Create a calendar – and share it with other people.
* Finally get iTunes syncing working the way you want it to.
* Use the easy drag-down Notification Center – and even tweet from it.
* Explore iTunes U – it’s like going to college, but without the deadlines.
* Sync Safari tabs, read later items, and bookmarks with iCloud.
* Get expert tips for a successful Home screen organization.
* Lull yourself to sleep with an audio recording, and wake to your favorite music.

http://tid.bl.it/your-ipad-mug-discount

Thanks for your questions, comments, and kind support – readers like you make it possible for a small independent publisher like us to bring you the Take Control series.

cheers… -Adam Engst, Take Control publisher

Overcome password frustrations with “Take Control of Your Passwords”

Do you find juggling Web site usernames and passwords frustrating? I know I do, thanks to having over 300 Web accounts, accumulated over a decade or more. During that time, the recommendations for secure passwords have changed significantly and both the likelihood of problems and the liability of having accounts compromised have increased radically. It’s maddening, and, honestly, a bit scary, especially after the high-profile hacking of Wired writer Mat Honan last year, coupled with password thefts from the likes of Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook.

Luckily, Joe Kissell is on the case, and his latest ebook, the 88-page “Take Control of Your Passwords,” calmly offers a secure, reliable strategy that you can apply with a minimum of fuss. I’ll explain more about the kinds of problems Joe’s approach solves in a bit, but I strongly recommend you watch Joe’s short intro video on the book’s page linked below – it’s a lot of fun, as is the “Joe of Tech” comic we commissioned from our friends Snaggy and Nitrozac at the Joy of Tech, also on that page. The book normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7; it’s all encoded in the link below.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-passwords-mug-discount

“Take Control of Your Passwords” helps you overcome frustrations that arise when dealing with the following password problems:

* 9-character passwords with upper- and lowercase letters, digits, and punctuation are NOT strong enough.

* You CANNOT turn a so-so password into a great one by tacking a punctuation character and number on the end.

* It is NOT safe to use the same password everywhere, even if it’s a great password.

* A password is NOT immune to automated cracking because there’s a delay between login attempts.

* Even if you’re an ordinary person without valuable data, your account may STILL be hacked, causing you problems.

* You can NOT manually devise “random” passwords that will defeat all potential attackers.

* Just because a password doesn’t appear in a dictionary, that does NOT necessarily mean that it’s adequate.

* It is NOT a smart idea to change your passwords every month.

* Truthfully answering security questions like “What is your mother’s maiden name?” does NOT keep your data more secure.

* Adding a character to a 10-character password does NOT make it 10 percent stronger.

* Easy-to-remember passwords like “correct horse battery staple” will NOT solve all your password problems.

* All password managers are NOT pretty much the same.

* Your passwords will NOT be safest if you never write them down and keep them only in your head.

Author and database developer William Porter said, “Joe handles a confusing and scary subject more clearly and calmly than I would have thought possible. I’ll be recommending this book to just about everybody I know.” And Securosis CEO Rich Mogull, although he’s also a TidBITS friend, said this after our collaborative feedback pass on the book: “Awesome. You did an amazing job breaking it down. This should be mandatory reading.”

http://tid.bl.it/tco-passwords-mug-discount

As you might have guessed from Joe’s video short and the Joe of Tech comic, we’re trying to have more fun telling the world about our ebooks this year, and another step in that direction is to reprise something we did with the initial release of our first title, Joe’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Panther” back in 2003: if you find this ebook helpful, we encourage you to write to us about your experiences – for example, how you overcame bad password habits or solved a challenging password problem. (If you want to include a photo of yourself, perhaps with an “uncle” you’ve helped out with advice from the book, feel free!)

We’ll post the most interesting and creative responses on our Web site, and once a month (for the first three months after publication) Joe will pick his favorite story and send the lucky reader a batch of his famous homemade chocolate chip cookies. Photos and testimonials about the cookies are also welcome, of course!

As always, thank you for your support of the Take Control series!

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers