Book Review – iPhone Fully Loaded by Andy Ihnatko

I just finished reading what was not only the best book about the iPhone that I have encountered, but easily one of the most useful technology books, too.   It was iPhone – Fully Loaded by Andy Ihnatko.  I highly recommend it to Information Technology Professionals everywhere who either own or support those who use iPhones. It goes far beyond being simply another, “Push here to make the iPhone vibrate” kind of book, trust me.

It is available only in print from major book sources, including Amazon.com. I appreciated it so much that I also added it to The Information Technology Thought of the Day Webstore, permanently.

Andy Ihnatko, by the way, is one of the premier tech journalists writing today.  His home column is found in the Chicago Sun-Times, where he is their tech writer.  He also appears weekly on the MacBreak Weekly podcast with Leo Laporte.  He makes frequent appearances at conventions on both the stage and as a panel member.

Let’s make one thing clear — this book is not an iPhone, how-to book.  It is a book about being productive with and getting the most out of an iPhone.  It is this difference that makes it such a compelling product.

There were many factors that influenced my recommendation of this book.  Here are the ones that really swayed me.

• Entertaining.  This book managed to take a very dry and dull subject and make it come alive.  There are jokes through out that actually relate to the subject matter.
• Humorous.  Everywhere that he can, the author makes his point with humor.  This is very warming to the reader and makes you feel like he is mentoring you vice teaching you.
• Technique based vice fact based.  Throughout the book, the chapters are organized around how to accomplish another wonder with the iPhone as the conduit.  It steers well clear of “push this button, turn that knob” kind of writing.  It is not insulting to the technically inclined, while still demonstrating how to accomplish new things on every page.
• About what you can do with it not what it is or how it works.  Similar to the above comment, you come away from reading this with wonder for how the device can make you day better, not how shiny it is.
• Dense writing. Stylistically, you pay for this book and what you get is page after page of results and use cases.  There is very little fluff here.  If it were not packaged in the consumer section, I would have classified it more like a technical manual.  Good value for the page count/cost.
• Visual.  The book contains many useful images and screenshots with almost one per page.
• Personality.  Andy has personality.  This book reads like he speaks.  It is a far cry from most of these kind of “manual you should have gotten in the box” kind of tomes.  It is refreshing to see a book on a tech subject that still reflects the author’s character.
• Personal Recommendations.  The author makes many opinionated recommendations throughout the book.  Again, this is greatly appreciated.  I take them from one geek to another and like that he did it. Most of these types of books go out of their way to be agnostic and take no position on anything.  Andy tells you in many places exactly what he recommends and why.

I sincerely wish that more technology books were written in this style and voice.  This unique combination delivers, in my opinion, a much higher quality product that is far more useful to the reader.  I know that I will reference this book many more times than I normally would.  I can only dream of what a wonderful world it would be where Operating System Pubs, Technical Manuals, and Accreditation Standards were produced in this style.  I highly recommend this book and hope that you find it as valuable a read as I did.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 16, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Chicago Sun-Times

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