The latest edition of the Field Notes COLORS lineup is here just in time for the holidays, and it's called "Cold Horizon". With glossy blue covers whose colors blend into one another across the set when they're arranged side-by-side, these notebooks certainly evoke the winter spirit. The pages of each book – which are tinted light green, light blue, and cool gray,…
Released just this morning, Jony Ive by Leander Kahney (editor of the Cult of Mac blog) explores the meteoric rise of Apple's famous product designer, Sir Ive himself. We're really looking forward to reading this. While this is not a book based on direct conversations with its subject in the way that Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs was, it does cover…
David Sparks is a legend among men. In addition to being an attorney, half of Mac Power Users and blogger, he has written several great ebooks. His most recent — released last night — is a beast. At 300 pages with nearly 1.5 hours of video screencasts and 200 screenshots, the book covers the world of email. Chapters include: The Email Problem Tactical Email…
Written by Nathan Barry and Jeremy Olson, The App Design Handbook is an eBook package that guides app makers through the process of designing their apps for iOS 7. With 126 pages of great information, video interviews with nearly a dozen app experts, and a handful of tutorials and other resources, this is the best starting place for anyone who wants to…
I'm not sure Letters of Note needs any introduction, but for anyone not in the know, it's a blog dedicated to finding and sharing amazing examples of written correspondence throughout history. These letters – whether they're written by an ex-slave to his former master, a Pixar director to a young fan, or even a copywriter looking for a job in the 1930s…
One of my favorite apps (and one of the best reasons to own an iPad) is Paper by FiftyThree. Combined with a Cosmonaut stylus, it's a super fun way to doodle, sketch out ideas, and generally make awesome stuff. And now, FiftyThree has partnered with the people at Moleskine so that you can have your Paper notebooks custom-printed in Moleskine form, directly…
Let's see...we've got Netflix for movies, and Spotify/Rdio for music, but what about books? Ah, here we go: Oyster Books. Imagine if you had could fit an entire library in your bag or pocket, with a personalized list of reading material put together by yourself — that's what Oyster Books is. For $10/month (the price you might pay for a single ebook),…
I've been on a bit of a reading kick lately. First was the Shady Characters book I mentioned here the other day, then Cloud Atlas (an incredible story, in my opinion), and now I'm making my way through Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Mr. Penumbra's tells the story about a young web designer who loses his job thanks to the recession of the…
If you fancy yourself an etymologist, then I'm guessing you're already an expert on the origins of many words. But what about the ampersand (&)? The pilcrow (¶)? Or even the octothorpe (#)? Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston is a book that uncovers the origin stories of several punctuation marks, from common…
Mattt Thompson is the voice behind NSHipster, a weekly journal about aspects of Objective-C and Cocoa you've probably never heard of. It's an awesome resource of useful tips, with a great mix of developer-talk and humor. Thompson is taking articles from NSHipster, along with over a dozen new essays, and combining them into a book titled NSHipster: Obscure Topics in Cocoa &…
Patrick Rhone's excellent guide to becoming a Mac consultant (which we mentioned a while back) is now available in audiobook form. As with the text version, this audiobook will occasionally undergo revisions and additions, with new editions of the book being sent out to all customers. And just like the text version, the audiobook is only $5.
There are a lot of books about Apple's history. However, most of them end at the iMac in 1999 or the iPod in 2001, which is disappointing. This is starting to change a bit, though. The $1.99 Kindle book Design Crazy: Good Looks, Hot Tempers, and True Genius at Apple by Max Chafkin over at Fast Company includes interviews more than fifty…
Evernote's a great tool, but it can be confusing. Between tags, notebooks, stacks and search, there are a lot of different ways to use the application. Over the years, Brett Kelly's Evernote Essentials has been the go-to book for how to get started and excel at Evernote. Today, with version 4, Evernote Essentials is better than ever. Chock-full of hints, use cases,…
Just Enough Research is the latest book to come from the ever-excellent A Book Apart publishing group. Written by Mule co-founder Erika Hall, Just Enough Research delves into the nitty-gritty of doing excellent research for your projects, whether they be design-related or otherwise. Erika has been doing this kind of thing for many years, making her a foremost expert on the matter.…
I'm a big fan of my Kindle. I upgraded to the Paperwhite last year, and while I still miss the physical page-turn buttons, the backlit screen is really handy. I can easily read in bed without bothering my wife. Today, Amazon has announced a new Paperwhite. Available for pre-order starting at $119, the new Kindle promises better contrast, thanks to a re-worked…
Written by our fearless editor Shawn Blanc, Delight is in the Details is an audio book, eBook, and interview series for people who make things. The focus is on addressing the finest goal a person in our industry can have: to create substantive work that delights and excites our audience. To that end, this book bundle contains eight audio interviews with such…
John Carey runs two of my favorite photo blogs on the internet: the ever-popular Fifty Foot Shadows and the less-known but equally-good Yesterday Was Only. The latter is a project wherein John posts lovely photographs pretty much every day, and he compiles each month's photos into a book. Each volume – priced between $13 and $16 – is a perfect coffee table…
The Zeitgeisty Books Bundle is a collection of books about making things and being awesome while you do it. Featured writers include Robin Sloan, Disrupto's Jack Cheng, Minimal Mac's Patrick Rhone, Justin Sirois, game designer Ian Bogost, and Bryan Young. The bundle is "pay what you want," but paying over $10 unlocks four additional books. All of the books are DRM-free, and…
The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero is a fantastic book that examines the world of design, and the role of designers that inhabit it. This isn't a guide to making websites look great, or a how-to on making apps. Chimero encourages the reader to think about the why behind great design, not the how. There are fantastic quotes and illustrations sprinkled…
Learning iOS Design is a book written by William van Hecke, the User Experience Lead at the Omni Group (the makers of OmniFocus and other well-known apps). In this book, William takes you through the process of becoming an iOS app designer, regardless of your experience level. You'll learn how to flesh out your app ideas, from early sketches and wireframes to…