Just Tell Me How It Works: Practical Help for Adults on All-Things-Digital

Just Tell Me How It Works: Practical Help for Adults on All-Things-Digital

• What’s the difference between “texting” and “e-mail”? • How can I connect my e-mail to my mobile devices? • Should I buy an iPad or tablet (and how do they fit to my life)? • How can I convert my old records and CDs into digital music? • How can I search the Internet more effectively? • Can I access “apps” on my television? For that matter, what are “apps”? • What, exactly, is The Cloud? How does Skype work? Help! Talk about a generation gap! Millions of highly competent adults find themselves nearly paralyzed at the thought of operating in an increasingly digital universe. Just Tell Me How It Works author Paul Lance believes you should be in charge of this technology, not the other way around. Fluidly written for adults who are not dummies, Just Tell Me How It Works: Practical Help for Adults on All-Things-Digital solves the gaps in understanding that Boomers and beyond need in order to participate comfortably in today’s digital world. Features like text-box definitions, logical but light-hearted prose, and practical step-by-step instructions guide readers through topics like computer basics (and its confusing lingo); and demystify digital devices ranging from smartphones, iPads and tablets, e-readers, televisions, DVRs, digital music and much more. This book easily explains social media, video calling, blogs, even how to simply create your own website. The book also offers readers a peek into the future with a glimpse as to where digital technology will evolve over the next 5-10 years. Additional Just Tell Me How It Works features include: • The pros : The advantages of a particular device or service. • The cons : Every piece of technology has its downside. This book navigates them as objectively as possible. • The hidden costs : Sometimes these hidden costs are financial; other times they involve your time or frustration level. The book points out the hidden costs behind every device and service. No more relying on 12-year-old grandkids: This handy primer explains the workings of computers, cellphones, Facebook pages and other electronic doodads in simple language even a grownup could understand. Lance’s lucid, well-organized guide starts with the rudiments of setting up a personal computer and goes on from there to cellphones, TVs, video games, online services, email, audio-visual devices and even cloud computing. His is a hands-on treatment for the absolute neophyte, taking readers from the simplest operations—“Make sure your printer is turned ‘on’ before you start to print”—to higher-order tasks such as sharing music files, setting up a LinkedIn page and banking via smartphone, all with detailed step-by-step procedures. Fortunately, it’s not all eye-glazing details; the author also imparts in an intuitive way some of the logic of how gadgets operate, along with easy rules of thumb for self-training. (For instance, on a computer, simply hovering on a position or right-clicking the mouse, he advises, will often show you how to proceed.) Despite the 595-page length, Lance does a fine job filtering and signposting an enormous array of topics to make the book an easy browse, with chapter openings that tell readers who will—and won’t—need the information that follows. Wherever possible he dispenses a simple bottom line—“Never allow an outside computer to ‘remember’ your password!”—and where he can’t, he boils down decision-making protocols to a short list of pros and cons. Lance has an extraordinary feel for the ways in which beginners are confused by digital gadgets and for ways to clear up these mysteries, and even relatively experienced operators—e.g., a book reviewer who thinks his DVD drive is broken because he is putting the disc in upside down—can also profit from Lance’s tutelage. A useful, highly readable and reassuring owner’s manual for novices baffled by their gadgets. ForeWord Clarion Review TECHNOLOGY Just Tell Me How It Works: Practical Help for Adults on All-Things-Digital Paul Lance Grandview Press 978-0-615-84233-2 Five Stars (out of Five) Stellar organization and clear writing bolster this ultimate guide to all things digital. Paul Lance's Just Tell Me How It Works could easily be the new bible for the technologically challenged. This hefty volume, which Lance calls "the adult guide to the digital world," covers it all: computers, the Internet, television (everything from types of TVs to connections and remotes), DVD players, streaming music and video, digital books, digital cameras, tablets, phones, social networking, and more. Lance, who presents seminars and workshops on understanding technology, promises to "make everything simple"-and he does. He is a whiz at turning technology and its associated jargon into utterly understandable prose. The book is very well organized. As Lance points out in his introduction, the content is divided into basic categories containing a chapter on each specific item, so a reader can skip around an