TidBITS is an influential electronic newsletter and web site dealing primarily with Apple Computer

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

 and Macintosh-related topics.

Internet publication

TidBITS has been published weekly since April 16, 1990, which makes it one of the longest running Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 publications. TidBITS is published by Adam C. Engst

Adam C. Engst

Adam C. Engst is a technology writer and publisher who resides in Ithaca, New York, United States where he was born and went to college at Cornell University....

, author of a number of computer books, including four editions of Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh, Eudora for Windows & Macintosh Visual Quickstart Guide, and five editions of iPhoto for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide.

Staff

Currently, the TidBITS staff includes:

• Adam C. Engst
  Adam C. Engst
  Adam C. Engst is a technology writer and publisher who resides in Ithaca, New York, United States where he was born and went to college at Cornell University....
  
  , Publisher
• Tonya Engst
  Tonya Engst
  Tonya Engst is a technology writer and editor who resides in Ithaca, New York, United States, where she grew up and went to college at Cornell University....
  
  , Editor in chief
• Jeff Carlson
  Jeff Carlson
  Jeff Carlson is a retired American ice hockey forward. Carlson is best known for his role in the movie Slap Shot as one of the Hanson Brothers. Carlson also played in the World Hockey Association with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. Carlson is now an electrician in Muskegon, Michigan.-Regular...
  
  , Managing Editor
• Glenn Fleishman
  Glenn Fleishman
  Glenn Fleishman is an American freelance journalist who edits Wi-Fi Networking News, a widely cited early news blog that covers wireless data networking...
  
  , Technical Editor
• Joe Kissell, Senior Editor
• Rich Mogull, Security Editor
• Mark Anbinder, Contributing Editor
• Matt Neuburg, Contributing Editor
• Geoff Duncan, Editor at large

Electronic books

TidBITS also publishes a series of electronic books in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...

 (PDF), EPUB

EPUB

EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum...

, and Mobipocket

Mobipocket

Mobipocket SA is a French company incorporated in March 2000 which produces Mobipocket Reader software, an E-Book reader for some PDAs, phones and desktop operating systems....

 (Kindle

Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...

) formats that cover issues related to Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 and the digital lifestyle. The "Take Control" series first appeared in October 2003 with the publication of Take Control of Upgrading to Panther which was issued at the same moment as the official launch of Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther"

Mac OS X v10.3

Mac OS X Panther is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and preceded Mac OS X Tiger...

. Excerpts of the Take Control books can be downloaded free of charge, and some have been published in Macworld magazine.

The series includes many books for using and upgrading the various versions of Mac OS X and iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

 software; applications such as Apple Mail, DEVONthink

DEVONthink

DEVONthink is a Mac OS X program for intelligent document management and associative search. It is developed by the company DEVONtechnologies located in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, USA....

, and iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

; and general technology such as wireless security

Wireless security

Wireless security is the prevention of unauthorized access or damage to computers using wireless networks.Many laptop computers have wireless cards pre-installed. The ability to enter a network while mobile has great benefits. However, wireless networking is prone to some security issues...

 and choosing a digital camera

Digital camera

A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...

.

There are also some wider lifestyle titles such as Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner

The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, generally centered around a large roasted turkey. The majority of the dishes in the...

.

Reviewers have described Take Control titles as "thoughtful" and "loaded with useful tips and humor".

External links

• TidBITS Web site
• Take Control Books Web site