iLounge

Free Early Access: iLounge’s iPad Buyers’ Guide + iPod/iPhone Book 5

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Monday, May 31, 2010
Category: Backstage

iLounge’s editors generally spend two months each year working on “special editions” for our readers—our annual Books and Buyers’ Guides—and we’re always pleased to see that the download numbers are in the millions. Tonight, we’re proud to debut our latest book for your enjoyment, which as its (long) name suggests has fused both of our prior publications into a single download: the iPad Buyers’ Guide + iPod/iPhone Book 5. In keeping with tradition, we’re letting loyal readers grab it before the official press release hits the wires and floods our servers, so get your downloading in now!

We’ve been optimistic about the iPad since well before it was formally announced, and as Apple’s “two million iPads sold” announcement indicates, there’s tremendous international interest in both the device and the ecosystem that surrounds it. Spanning forty pages, the iPad Buyers’ Guide section of the Book is substantial, impartially discussing the device’s pros, cons, best accessories, and top applications. Yet it’s a little less than a third of the 150-page Book’s total content.

Another thing that we’re seriously excited about is the Book’s new iDesign Addendum section, which builds on the series of feature articles we published during 2008 and early 2009. Six new companies have been honored inside with iDesign profiles that illuminate their historic products and innovations, alongside brand new interviews with the key designers and executives responsible for moving development forward in the Apple universe. We’re especially enthusiastic about the never-before-seen details and images featured in several of the interviews, including the first shots of Duck Duck Moose’s next educational application, some neat PopCap Plants vs. Zombies concept art, and the inspirations for Incase’s famous cases.

And, of course, there’s the All Things iPod + iPhone Guide. If you’ve seen past editions of the Book, you know generally what to expect from this massive look at filling and maximizing your iPod or iPhone, but it’s been completely updated with the latest everything. So, should you want to know how much your used iPod or iPhone will fetch on eBay, what sort of hardware or software to use to convert videos into iTunes-friendly formats, or anything else, it’s right here. We’ve pulled the All Things iTunes section from the Book this time in anticipation of some big iTunes-related changes.

Hundreds of hours of energy—and equal parts heart and soul—have gone into the new Book for the past month; if you’ve ever worked two jobs at the same time, you’ll have an idea of what it’s like behind the scenes as we assemble our publications. The iPad Buyers’ Guide + Free iPod/iPhone Book 5 can be read on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad*, and carries the same price tag as its predecessors have for nearly six years: free. Download it from the links above, and we hope that you enjoy it!

[* = We’re thrilled with how it looks on the iPad, and are partial to the two-page magazine-style layout on that format. Our advice would be to download it using GoodReader or Readdle Docs, then read it on the go. The final two pictures above are from ReaddleDocs, alternating between two- and one-page versions, with the preceding two in two-page format from GoodReader.]