Category: Book

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The Mac Manual: The Step-by-step Guide to Upgrading, Maintaining and Repairing a Mac (by Keith Martin, 2003)

This is a rare Mac Collection blog entry for a non-Apple product, but I consider its crossover appeal to warrant its own post. Many thanks to Tom for this gift that was purchased at the Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, England.

For automobile enthusiasts worldwide, Haynes is instantly recognizable as “the worldwide leader in automotive and powersports equipment repair, maintenance and customization manuals, with over 150 million sold to date globally.” The publisher is based in the United Kingdom, and they note on their website:

“Haynes Publishing was founded in 1960. The main office is located in Somerset, England. The Haynes Manuals team is headquartered in Newbury Park, CA [USA] and is part of Haynes North America, Inc., which also publishes Chilton Repair Manuals in print and Clymer Repair Manuals in both print and online editions.”

Haynes Manuals are written by expert technicians and based upon tear-downs of each vehicle that they describe as a “step-by-step procedure for dismantling a vehicle or piece of equipment part-by-part. This is followed by the detailed rebuilding of the vehicle.” Hundreds of photos and videos accompany the tear-down process that are used in creating the manuals. They tout their manuals as “the ultimate DIY guide books for used, collector, and newer model vehicles and powersports equipment.”

In addition to automotive manuals, Haynes has offered manuals in their signature style in a variety of “lifestyle” categories. As of 2024 their website lists the following lifestyle options: Aviation; Maritime; Military; Motorcycling; Motorsport; Music; Rail; Space; Caravanning & Camping; Cooking, Food + Drink; Computing; Fitness, Sport + Wellbeing; Hobbies + Leisure Activities; Home, DIY + Garden; History + People; Pet & Animal Care; and Sci-Fi.

This Haynes tome is from 2003 and is titled The Mac Manual: The Step-by-step Guide to Upgrading, Maintaining and Repairing a Mac by Keith Martin (2023).

The back of the book provides the following description:

“This full-colour manual shows how easy it is to upgrade, maintain and repair a Mac – from a beige G3 to a flat-screen iMac. From adding more memory or upgrading the processor to installing a new DVD drive, it takes the reader through each stage using plain English and clear step-by-step photographs. Along with information on software and peripherals, this manual will save you time and money, giving a basic understanding of all areas of Mac hardware and installation – without blinding you with science.”

The author, Keith Martin, at the time of its publication was considered “an acknowledged Mac expert with a talent for debunking jargon and explaining how things work in plain English, is the full-time Technical Editor of MacUser, the UK’s most authoritative and best-selling Mac magazine. He lives in south-west London.” As of 2024, he describes himself as a “consultant, practitioner and lecturer in print and digital publishing, design, tech, and 360 virtual reality imaging.”

Sources: Haynes Motor Museum, Haynes (What We Do, About), Amazon, Keith Martin

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Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words (hardcover book, 2023)

Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words is a book created by the Steve Jobs Archive. The book was offered as a free download on the Steve Jobs Archive and a hardcover edition was sent to Apple and Disney employees.

According to an article about the book at 9to5mac, the phrase “make something wonderful” was used by Steve Jobs at an internal meeting at Apple:

“One of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.”

The Steve Jobs Archive described the book as:

“A curated collection of Steve’s speeches, interviews and correspondence, Make Something Wonderful offers an unparalleled window into how one of the world’s most creative entrepreneurs approached his life and work. In these pages, Steve shares his perspective on his childhood, on launching and being pushed out of Apple, on his time with Pixar and NeXT, and on his ultimate return to the company that started it all.”

Featuring an introduction by Laurene Powell Jobs and edited by Leslie Berlin, this beautiful handbook is designed to inspire readers to make their own ‘wonderful somethings’ that move the world forward.”

The physical book measures 21.1 cm x 13.3 cm, and is 2.2 cm thick. The dark gray hard cover has an uncoated paper texture and an embossed title. The front cover features a glossy Polaroid-style photo of Steve Jobs wearing a tuxedo with a crooked bow tie.

The digital book can be read online at https://book.stevejobsarchive.com and downloaded at https://stevejobsarchive.com/book/download.

Sources: Steve Jobs Archive, 9to5mac

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The Visual Almanac: An Interactive Multimedia Kit (January 1990)

The Visual Almanac is the earliest Apple Education multimedia product in my collection. According to the kit’s Laser Disc, pictured on the Domesday86 website:

“The Visual Almanac is composed of 3 parts: the Visual Almanac Videodisc, the Visual Almanac software, and the Visual Almanac Companion (a book). This two-sided videodisc contains an Introduction, over 7000 images and 2 channels of sound organized into 12 collections. It is designed to be used under control of a Macintosh computer.”

The printed materials include a guide (First Steps in the Visual Almanac) and a spiral-bound book. Media includes three 3.5-inch disks: HyperCard 1.2.2; Visual Almanac Home (home HyperCard stack; Collections Directory (pre-made collections), and a CD-ROM. The kit also includes a cable.

The cable is described as a “LaserDisc Player Serial Lead,” designed to “connect a Pioneer player (with a 15 pin D-Sub connector) to the Apple Macintosh mini-DIN serial port.”

The box containing all the items in the kit measures 12.75 inches square and is 1.5 inches deep. The accompanying spiral-bound book is titled The Visual Almanac: An Interactive Multimedia Kit Companion, measures 11 x 8.5 inches, and contains 216 pages, printed in full color.

The Preface of the book contains a welcome message that states the resource’s intent:

“Welcome to The Visual Almanac! We designed the The Visual Almanac to give everyone a glimpse of potential computer-centered futures and have tried to show how current multimedia technologies might be used to do something new. We tried to make something that could be used now, but would also provoke the development of methodologies, technologies and pedagogies for the future. It is an interactive multimedia kit aimed at children and all their teachers—in schools, in homes and in various public environments—as well as business people, researchers and developers who make educational and other materials for our youth.”

Although the full package is dated January 1990, the accompanying CD-ROM is dated 1989 and the CD (as well as the Laser Disc) specifies that it was “Produced by the Apple Multimedia Lab.”

The box in my collection is missing the accompanying 2-sided LaserDisc that contains the primary content in 78 “collections” for the kit:

Side A Collections
Animals and Plants
Earth View
Everyday Physics
Solar System
Sounds Side A

Side B Collections
American History
Around the World
History of Daily Life
Everyday Objects
Historical Portraits
Sounds Side B
Studies in Time

Special thanks to the Domesday86 website for providing an excellent, detailed entry about this kit that allowed me to better describe this early educational multimedia example.

Source: Apple, Domesday86

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Macintosh Resource Guide, Vocational Education (1992)

This Apple Resource Guide booklet focused upon K–12 Vocational Education. The book opens with Apple’s case for using “Technology to Change Vocational Education:”

“As the SCANS Report notes, the personal computer ‘has reconfigured the world of work as has perhaps no other invention since electricity or the assembly line.’ The nature of work is changing as is the ‘foundation needed to find and hold a good job.’ Technology holds a promise, not only of new kinds of work, but also of the means of attaining the skills and capabilities that will permit our work force to accomplish those tasks.”

Released in 1991, “The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) examined the demands of the workplace and whether young people were capable of meeting those demands. Specifically, SCANS determined the level of skills required to enter employment” (United States Department of Labor).

In the next section of Apple’s booklet, the section titled “Why use the Macintosh computer?” lays out a use case for Macintosh in Vocational Programs. Three reasons include: “The software is easy to learn,” “It’s idea for graphics,” and “It helps build the foundations—and more.”

The book is primarily comprised of six case studies about vocational education programs across the United States that use Macintosh. Schools that are profiled include:

  • Delta County School District—District Planning Provides Computers and Opportunitites at All Schools
  • Auburn High School—Industrial Technology Benefits from Computer Technology
  • Butler Middle School—Learning the Engineering Behind the Magic of Technology
  • Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences—Computer Links Agriculture and Business in Philadelphia School
  • Tulsa County Area Vocational-Technical School District #18—Educational Enhancement Center Serves All Students with Technology
  • Burkburnett High School—Business Class Keeps Curriculum and Technology Current

The booklet concludes with a series of Resources for Using Technology in Vocational Education.

The booklet measures 8.5 x 11 inches and is printed in black.

Source: Apple, United States Department of Labor

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Designed by Apple in California book (2016)

Released in November 2016, Designed by Apple in California was a photo book that documented 20 years of design at Apple. The book contains 450 photos depicting products from the original 1998 iMac to the original Apple Pencil released in 2015. The book “also documents the materials and techniques used by Apple’s design team over two decades of innovation.”

In the book’s foreward, Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, stated:

“While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process or product development. It is an objective representation of our work… We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative.”

The book itself was described by Apple:

“Designed by Apple in California is available in two sizes and printed on specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost ink. This linen-bound, hardcover volume was developed over an eight-year period. It is published by Apple.”

The large book measured 13 x 16.25 inches and was sold for $299. The small book was 10.20 x 12.75 inches and was sold for $199. The book could be purchased at apple.com and at selected Apple Stores, including Apple SoHo, Apple Fifth Avenue, Apple Upper East Side, Apple Williamsburg and Apple World Trade Center in New York; Apple The Grove in Los Angeles and Apple Third Street in Santa Monica; Apple North Michigan Avenue in Chicago; Apple Lincoln Road in Miami; Apple Northpark in Dallas; Apple Union Square in San Francisco; Apple Palo Alto and Apple Infinite Loop in Cupertino.

This example is the large version of the book, unopened in its original box. I purchased this book at the Chicago Apple Store on Michigan Avenue.

Source: Apple

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iLife. For the classroom. books (2003)

Two books with the same cover photo (three girls filming themsleves with a DV camera) are headed with “iLife. For the classroom.” and titled, Engage and motivate students with Apple’s new suite of integrated digital media software. The books are spiral bound, have a clear plastic cover, and five tabbed sections. One book is divided into the sections Language Arts/Literacy, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Other. The second version of the book replaces the “Other” tab with a “Step by Step” tab.

The first section of the book is printed in color and describes the iLife suite as “Tools that power today’s classroom.” Each tabbed section’s pages is printed in black and includes projects created by educators including a Project Description, Outcomes, Technology Skills, Tools and Resources, Assessment Suggestions, Tech Tips, and more.

Many of these activities were written by my friends who are teachers and Apple Distinguished Educators.

The pages measure 8.5 x 11 inches, are spiral bound, and the tabs add an extra 0.5 inch—making the full book 9 x 11 inches. Each section of these books is paginated separately. The March 2003 edition has approximately 68 pages and the June 2003 edition has approximately 82 pages.

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1998: The Year of Thinking Different. book (1998)

With a foreword by Steve Jobs, the book “1998: The Year of Thinking Different.” features the Think different manifesto and two-page layouts of many of the Apple Geniuses (cultural icons) featured in the Think different series.

The book begins with the Think different “manifesto:”

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
While some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Think different.

The book includes the following Apple Geniuses:

Albert Einstein
Mahatma Gandhi
Pablo Picasso
Alfred Hitchcock
Rosa Parks
Bob Dylan
Buzz Aldrin
Muhammad Ali
Thomas Edison
Martha Graham
Jim Henson
Maria Callas
Dalai Lama
Amelia Earhart
Ansel Adams
Joan Baez
Paul Rand
Miles Davis
Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz
John Lennon & Yoko Ono

The final page of the book states, “This is a limited-edition publication to commemorate the first year of the ‘Think different’ series. It is not for sale or resale, and is only available to employees/affiliates of Apple Computer, Inc.”

The book is paperback, measures 11 x 14 inches, and is printed in black and white.

Source: Apple (this book)

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Getting Started Book (2006)

This book, titled Getting Started: Apple Technology for Diverse Learners (An essential teaching and learning resource written by Apple Distinguished Educators) was released in October 2006 with contributions from Dr. Mary Male, Dianna Williamson, and Robert E.M. Craven—all from different California schools.

The book contains a Foreword and three main sections: Setting Up and Personalizing a Mac for Diverse Learner Needs, Using the Applications on a Mac With Diverse Learners, and Connecting Learner Needs With the Built-in Tools on a Mac. The book contains 62 pages and measures 9×7 inches.

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Stories Worth Telling Book (2004)

This Apple Distinguished Educator book publication was released in 2004 and is titled, Stories Worth Telling: A Guide to Creating Student-Led Documentaries. The book authors are Mary Palmer (English Teacher) and Perry Lee (Social Studies Teacher), from Central High School in Bismarck, North Dakota.

A Documentary Resource CD is also available as a companion to this book.

Written by teachers, the book is a how-to manual to teach the process of planning, writing, filming, and editing student-led documentaries using iMovie and other Apple software of the time.

Chapters include:
Chapter 1: Sharing Our Start
Chapter 2: Getting Started and Setting Expectations
Chapter 3: Managing the Project
Chapter 4: Managing the Production Process
Chapter 5: Interviewing Skills
Chapter 6: The Writing Process
Chapter 7: The Editing Process: Celebrating and Reaping the Benefits

Several Appendices include sample assessments, transcripts, and other templates.