Tony Bove has written more than two dozen books on technology and is currently a specialized training consultant for a mammoth software company.
“Near genius at making complex ideas understandable.” — Jerry Pournelle
Tony’s novel, The Experiment, was published in May of 2017. He has also written iPod touch For Dummies, iLife ’11 For Dummies, iPad Application Development For Dummies, iPhone Application Development All-in-One For Dummies (all from Wiley), Just Say No to Microsoft (No Starch Press), The GarageBand Book (Wiley), The Art of Desktop Publishing (Bantam), and a series of books about Macromedia Director, Adobe Illustrator, and PageMaker (see Works).
“Just Say No to Microsoft is one of the most interesting overviews of modern desktop computing history that’s ever been written… possibly a watershed event.” — John Dvorak (for more reviews, see Reviews).
Tony offers consulting and freelance writing services to develop or improve corporate and product messaging, branding, and communications strategies. Clients have included Adobe, BEA/Oracle, Citrix, FileMaker, Google, McAfee, SumTotal Systems, and Sun. “Tony Bove is a technologist and writer who ‘gets it’ and possesses the business savvy to make a real difference in an organization.” (Product Manager at Adobe)
Tony also founded Desktop Publishing/Publish magazine and the Inside Report on New Media newsletter, and he wrote the weekly Macintosh column for Computer Currents for a decade, as well as articles and columns for a variety of publications including NeXTWORLD, the Chicago Tribune Sunday Technology Section, Macintosh Today, the Prodigy online network, and NewMedia (see Resume).
“I’ve come to think of him as the Isaac Asimov of tech publishing. His writing is always clever, engaging, clear, and solid. Tony is one of the best there is at explaining technology to the general public. He also has an enviable record in spotting the trends before they are trends. His early writing on desktop publishing helped launch the field, and his bestselling books on Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Director were all first of their kind.” — Michael Swaine, Editor, PragPub
Tracing the personal computer revolution back to the 1960s counterculture, Tony produced a CD-ROM interactive “rockumentary” in 1996, Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties — “An unflinching, nonjudgmental chronicle” (Wired), “Inspires then and now connections, fulfilling any historical work’s highest calling” (S.F. Examiner), “Truly greater than the sum of its parts” (N.Y. Post). He also developed the Rockument music site with commentary and podcasts focused on rock music history.
As a founding member of the Flying Other Brothers, which toured professionally for a decade and released three commercial CDs (52-Week High, San Francisco Sounds, and Estimated Charges), Tony performed with Hall of Fame rock musicians.
Tony’s blog is a balancing act, writing about everything from innovation to his favorite music. “No doubt about it, I’m addicted to innovation. I try to separate the real innovation from the merely ordinary and identify new, important trends in personal technology — whatever’s new. I write mostly about the technology that I use. I switch my roles of road warrior, music producer, computer industry gadfly, rock music historian, multimedia aggregator, would-be novelist, and harmonica player at any given hour of any day.”
In addition, over the last few decades Tony produced the following:
- The Rockument podcast with shows devoted to rock music history.
- The Flying Other Brothers podcast with shows from tours.
- The Rockument Channel with rockumentaries and playlists.
Hello Tony ….Im an Apple new be and I just picked up a copy of your i life 11 for dummies. I just purchased a macbook pro mid 2012 and it does not have the i web or the i dvd in it….what do you suggest ?
I called Apple and spoke with support and they said I would have to purchase an “Old Version” of i life 11 from amazon if I wished to have the i web app…..they also mentioned an app called Square Space, But since I already have your book,with what seems to be filled with instructions I would like to stay with the i web…..
What are you thoughts……Sincerely Wm Heron
Apple support is right — only the old version of iLife has iDVD and iWeb. They were discontinued. I still use iWeb but it does crash every once in a while, so I’m looking for an alternative. I haven’t burned a DVD since I wrote that book. I hope you find your solution.
Tony, I hate to bother you but I have an iTunes problem. I downloaded iTunes 10 at least 5 years ago, and it worked quite well with IE. I use it with Windows 7 on a laptop. After a lapse, I now use Mozilla Firefox. I know iTunes updates are available, but when I check for updates, I consistently get the “iTunes server cannot be contacted” message, even with my Norton Firewall turned off. I can check my iTunes Store, and even updated my credit card info with them today. How can I download iTunes updates? MUCH Thanks and appreciation! Billl
You could go to the Apple site, click on iTunes, and then click on Download iTunes to download the complete program. You can then reinstall the new version over the old one. Apple offers a page of support topics about this: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/install/
I hope this helps. I haven’t had any problems installing iTunes updates in Windows 7.
Tony: I recently purchased “iPod and iTunes for Dummies,” 10th Edition, hoping that I would find the answer to a non-critical, but nagging question. I may have missed it in your book, but what I am trying to do is restore the “XXX items, XXX total time, XXX GB” line at the bottom of my Song Library page. It went away and I cannot find a way to restore it. It’s not a matter of resizing the page, so there is obviously something I am missing. Can you assist. Thank you for helping me get more mileage out of my iPod. Best wishes. David
You should see it under Songs or Playlists if you choose View>Show Status Bar. It will remain unless you choose View>Hide Status Bar.
I am having a problem with my iPod. The last time that I went to see the photos that I had just taken, the screen went black, and there were no controls. I can still download the photos to my computer, but I can’t view them on the iPod.
Can you help me with this. A friend at work told me to down load the Photos app. from iTunes to reinstall the app., but I don’t know if that is the correct thing to do. I’m not very computer savay. Any advice will be greatly helpful.
Thank you.
I’m not aware of a “Photos” app (iPod touch, I assume). If you mean iPhoto, you can delete it on your iPod touch and then re-sync your iPod with iTunes to put a fresh version of the app on the device.
If you are using the Camera app, you may want to re-sync your iPod with no photos or video clips, and after disconnecting, take a picture with the iPod, and check the Camera Roll album to see the picture. If the problem hasn’t gone away, you can try resetting your iPod. Before resetting the iPod, connect it to a power outlet by using the AC power adapter. Touch and hold the sleep/wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, ignoring the red Slide to Power Off slider, until the Apple logo appears.
If that doesn’t work, restore it using iTunes — after connecting, click the Restore button. You will then have to re-sync all the content and apps to your iPod.
After reading a sample of iLife ’11 for Dummies on my Kindle, I decided to purchase a used copy of the paperback. Despite Apple’s attempts to teach us that optical discs are an obsolete medium, I am wholly unconvinced and wanted the info on IDVD for future reference. I won’t be surprised if, in its infinite wisdom, Apple makes it impossible to use iDVD in a new Mac or with a new OS. If I like this app enough, I’ll boot to a small external drive with the last OS that supports iDVD if necessary, rather than copy the content to a PC — which obviously doesn’t run iMovie.
Anyway, my question is are you going to be writing an iLife 2014 book (dummies or otherwise) and when do you expect to publish it? From the small sample, iLife ’11 for Dummies looks like it will cover the info I need. Would have preferred the Kindle version, but I’m not rich enough to spend that kind of money on something that is technically obsolete.
One of the things I liked about the iLife for Dummies sample is that it seemed to be complete and clearly presented without doing some disservices I’ve seen in other Dummies books. It doesn’t leave out content, claiming lack of space, while simultaneously giving multiple long explanations of why content was left out.
It doesn’t talk down to the reader as though the reader was an emotionally and intellectually challenged third-grader.
It seems to get right to the point.
And finally, it hasn’t so far, wasted any time bashing Windows. This is a pointless exercise. Obviously we’re already sold on Apple. Many of us use a PC at work. I happen to be a Windows software developer. None of my programs can run on a Mac without Windows installed — wine doesn’t cut it. Until the business world adopts Macs (seems unlikely, considering the decades invested in PCs and the lack of business apps for the Mac), there’s no point for me in stopping Windows development. The. PC is great and really not all that different from the Mac. This from the standpoint of somebody’s whose used many different kinds of computers since 1975.
I am working on a set of e-books I will be publishing in 2015, and I intend to cover iLife. In the meantime, the only book I can offer is the existing iLife for Dummies book. Thanks for your feedback on the sample and I hope it helps you.
Tony, is this message getting to you personally? I have questions about iTunes.
First, is the 10th edition of your “iPod and iTunes for Dummies” the LATEST edition? Or is there a later one?
When I use iTunes to add a file or MP3 or photo or whatever to my iPod, I am always in doubt of whether anything EXISTING on the iPod will be erased! I only want to ADD something from my desktop PC WITHOUT danger of losing anything else from the iPod. I never feel comfortable doing this. Is there anything you can say by way of help for this situation?
Thank you!
I wrote the 10th Ed. several years ago. There is no newer edition, unfortunately. The best way to add music or videos to your iPod without changing your iPod’s contents is to follow these steps:
Photos are handled differently. You have to select and sync them by photo album. If your photos have migrated to the new Photos app on the Mac, you have to re-sync all of your photos.
I hope this helps. Thanks for your comment.
Tony Bove
My name is Paul Addair, and I am the editor of the Brazilian PUBLISH Magazine. I would like to invite you to write for the next issue of the magazine that is celebrating 25 years in Brazil. It would be a great honor for us to have your witness to the evolution of technology in these 25 years.
Thanks be useful
Hey Tony:
I have been looking for your contact info but cannot find it, so i am
sending this comment instead hoping to reach you.
i watched with pleasure and more your Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties, Part 1: Grateful Dead and San Francisco Music in the 1960s and would like to know who is the band playing at the very beginning and end of this video. Is it Paul Butterfield?
Anyway, I would like to know so could you kindly email me the name of the song and the band? Your credits do not list it, as it appears the beginning of the music credit list has been cut off and no longer appears at the end of the video.
thanks
JC
email to: jc@jacksemail.net
Thanks for your kind compliments! I’m especially honored to have my harmonica playing be thought of as Paul Butterfield!
The song at the beginning is a jam by the Flying Other Brothers, including G.E. Smith on guitar, that eventually leads into a Dylan song (not in the movie soundtrack). The song at the end is a live version of one of my own, called “Blip in the Life”, which is available in studio form on the Flying Other Brothers CD “San Francisco Sounds” available from Amazon. Neither of the live versions have ever been released, except as part of this movie.
I really enjoy your book iPod & iTunes for Dummies and I can not find an answer to a problem I’m having. I have two albums with the same titles by two different artists. When i transfer from library to player both albums show up under both artists.One album has 13 tracks and the other 11. Both 24 tracks show up under both albums. Do you have a solution as how to separate them?
Thanks
Sorry for the belated reply. My only suggestion is to retitle one of the albums — change it in some way such as adding a number or the artist name. That will ensure that the songs are stored in different folders on your computer. the songs are usually stored in a folder using the title of the album, within a folder for the artist. However, the songs for both albums may have somehow ended up in the same folder.
Looking through Ipod and Itunes for dummies I have not seen too much about how the computer is formated.
I downloded all my CD’s to Itunes.
The first time I synced my ipod all worked well, now I have up to 40 copies of each somg (5396 times 40 , well ove 50000 thousand showing up in itunes.
How do I get only one of each. By the way these fit easily on my ipod classic which is usually in my car connected to its ipod USB port.
If you are using iTunes Match or iCloud Music Library, that may explain the multiple copies of each song. Another explanation may be that the folders in the iTunes folder (in the Music folder of your computer) were somehow duplicated.
Try turning off iCloud Music Library: Choose Preferences and the General tab and turn off the option temporarily, to see if that helps.
I’m in the market for a book on iTunes, primarily on a Mac computer. My only iPod/iPad usage is to sync and play, all “management is on my iMac. (Yes, geek, but not fanboy.)
What version of iTunes is your “iPod and iTunes for Dummies, 10th Edition” aimed at? Will I run into issues related to MacOS v. iOS? I’m using MacOS 10.12.y, and iTunes 12.8.x,
At the time of writing the 10 Edition, iTunes was at version 11. That was in 2013.
You will most likely run into issues because iTunes has evolved considerably since then. However, many of the features “under the hood” (in Preferences, etc.) remain the same.