About the Authors

Edward C. Baig writes the Personal Technology column in USA TODAY, is a regular on USA TODAY podcasts and videos, and makes frequent media appearances. Ed is also the author of Macs For Dummies, 11th Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and cowriter of iPhone For Dummies, 8th Edition. Before joining USA TODAY as a columnist and reporter in 1999, Ed spent six years at Business Week, where he wrote and edited stories about consumer tech, personal finance, collectibles, travel, and wine tasting, among other topics. He received the Medill School of Journalism 1999 Financial Writers and Editors Award for contributions to the Business Week “Investor Guide to Online Investing.” That followed a three-year stint at U.S. News & World Report, where Ed was the lead tech writer for the News You Can Use section and also dabbled in numerous other subjects.

Ed began his journalist career at Fortune magazine, gaining the best basic training imaginable during his early years as a fact checker and contributor to the Fortune 500. Through the dozen years he worked at the magazine, Ed covered leisure-time industries, penned features on the lucrative dating market and the effect of religion on corporate managers, and was heavily involved in the Most Admired Companies project. Ed also started up Fortune’s Products to Watch column, a venue for low- and high-tech items.

Bob LeVitus, often referred to as “Dr. Mac,” has written or cowritten over 70 popular computer books, with millions of copies in print. His titles include OS X Yosemite For Dummies, iPhone For Dummies, Incredible iPhone Apps For Dummies, and Microsoft Office 2011 For Mac For Dummies, all for John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

For more than 15 years, Bob has penned the popular Dr. Mac column for the Houston Chronicle. He’s been published in pretty much every magazine that ever had the word Mac in its title and his achievements have been documented in major media around the world. (Yes, that was Bob juggling a keyboard in USA TODAY a few years back!)

Bob is known for his expertise, trademark humorous style, and ability to translate techie jargon into usable and fun advice for regular folks. Bob is also a prolific public speaker, presenting more than 100 Macworld Expo training sessions in the United States and abroad, keynote addresses in three countries, and Macintosh training seminars in many U.S. cities.

Dedications

I dedicate this book to my beautiful wife, Janie, for inspiring me in myriad ways every day I am with her. And to my incredible kids: my adorable little girl, Sydney (one of her first words was iPod), my little boy, Sammy (who asks to use his iPad the moment he wakes up in the morning), and my canine daughter Sadie (who thankfully hasn’t chewed on the iPad yet). This book is dedicated also to the memory of my canine son, Eddie, Jr., and my late parents, Samuel and Lucille Baig. I am madly in love with you all.

— Ed Baig

Every book I’ve ever written and every book I will ever write is dedicated to my awesome wife of more than 30 years, Lisa, who has taught me more about everything I know than anyone else on the planet. Every book I’ve written or will ever write is also dedicated to my awesome (adult) kids Allison and Jacob, who love their iPhones, iPads, and Macs almost as much as I love them (my kids, not my gadgets).

— Bob LeVitus

Authors’ Acknowledgments

Special thanks to everyone at Apple who helped us turn this book around so quickly: Natalie Kerris, Teresa Brewer, Trudy Muller, Keri Walker, Andy Bowman, Christine Monaghan, and everyone else who lent a hand from the mother ship in Cupertino. We couldn’t have done it without you and apologize to anyone we left out.

Big-time thanks to the gang at Wiley: Susan “Remarkably mellow yet again” Pink, Andy “The Boss” Cummings, our incredible technical editor Jim Kelly, whose suggestions and observations helped immensely (even the ones we ignored), and our invaluable proofreader, Debbye Butler, who did a tremendous job. Finally, thanks to everyone at Wiley we don’t know by name. If you helped with this project in any way, you have our everlasting thanks.

Ed adds: Thanks to my agent, Matt Wagner, who had the right instinct to push this book, even back when we were calling the first edition of this book Project X For Dummies. I’d also like to thank Nancy Blair, Jefferson Graham, Eli Blumenthal, and all my USA TODAY friends and colleagues for your continuing support and encouragement of such projects. Most of all, thanks to my loving family for understanding my nightly (and weekend) disappearances as we raced to get this project completed on time. You are quite simply the greatest.

And Bob says: Extra special thanks to Carole “Swifty” Jelen, my literary agent for going on 25 years. I don’t say this often enough, but you rock, Carole!

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Project Editor: Susan Pink

Copy Editor: Susan Pink

Technical Editor: Jim Kelly

Editorial Assistant: Claire Johnson

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Cover Image: © iStock.com/BlueMoonPics