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Your source for indispensable Apple and Macintosh news, reviews, tips, and commentary since 1990.

Author Biography

Joe Kissell joined the TidBITS staff in 2006 as Senior Editor and currently lives in Paris. He has written more than a dozen Take Control ebooks, including the best- selling Take Control of Mac OS X Backups. He's also the author of numerous print books about Mac OS X and a frequent contributor to Macworld magazine. Joe runs a business called alt concepts, which publishes such Web sites as Interesting Thing of the Day and Truffles for Breakfast. (September 2007)

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Shopping for a new digital camera? In "Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera," pro photographer Larry Chen helps you pick out the right camera and accessories for your needs and budget. This book is loaded with tips on using your camera, pointers to the best review sites, and more!

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Joe Kissell

Senior Editor

How to Pronounce Myanmar

Recently I've heard the name Myanmar pronounced several different ways on news broadcasts, and I was curious to know what the officially correct pronunciation was...Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 07 May 2008 |

First Look: The Linux-Based Paragon Rescue Kit for Mac OS X Lite

A new Mac data recovery utility is actually not Mac software at all, but a bootable Linux CD. That's an odd concept for most Mac users, but even excusing the unfamiliar exterior, is this software a useful problem-solving tool?Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 01 May 2008 |

Solve More Word 2008 Problems with AppleScript

A pair of articles I wrote for Macworld provide several AppleScripts that address common complaints in Word 2008.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 22 Apr 2008 |

A Trio of Articles about iCal Collaboration

If you want more than one person to be able to access and edit iCal calendars, a collection of articles I wrote for Macworld may give you the guidance you need.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 10 Apr 2008 |

Instant Messaging for Introverts

Can your personality type affect your willingness to use certain modes of communication? In particular, do introverts have a harder time with technologies like instant messaging and Twitter than extroverts?Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 04 Apr 2008 |

Web Browser Reviews at Macworld

An article I wrote for Macworld provides an overview of the ten leading Web browsers for Mac OS X.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 31 Mar 2008 |

Updated Paste Plain Text AppleScript for Word 2008

A new and improved version of Joe's Paste Plain Text AppleScript is shorter, more elegant, and less likely to result in the wrong font being used.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 15 Mar 2008 |

SmartSleep Solves Safe Sleep Situation

If you're unhappy with the way your Mac laptop handles sleep mode, you no longer need a command-line script to change it. This new preference pane makes it easy to tailor sleep settings to your liking.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 15 Mar 2008 |

CheckUp 1.0: A Beautiful but Unripe Maintenance Utility

A new maintenance utility looks fantastic and does a few things well, but has some serious bugs, missing features, and other problems.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 29 Feb 2008 |

A Pair of Time Machine Articles

I have a couple of new articles posted at Macworld.com about Time Machine. Both have been generating lots of comments. If you're using Time Machine, or thinking about it, check these out. Is Time Machine all you need? looks at cases in which Time Machine might be adequate as a sole backup mechanism and cases where you'll want to supplement it with something else - or even skip it altogether...Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 21 Feb 2008 |

SuperDuper 2.5 Released with Leopard Compatibility

The latest version of the popular disk cloning utility is not only compatible with Leopard, it has some fancy tricks up its sleeve - such as making copies of Time Machine archives.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 21 Feb 2008 |

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Using iChat Theater for Remote Presentations

Leopard's iChat Theater feature makes remote video presentations far easier and more flexible than before. But the experience doesn't always match up with the elegant effect of Apple's demos.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 20 Feb 2008 |

Microsoft Relaxes Licensing for Virtualized Vista

Microsoft has changed its mind once again, and now permits Vista Home editions to be run as guest operating systems using virtualization software.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 28 Jan 2008 |

Word 2008 and the Paste Plain Text Dance

Pasting plain text in Word 2008 turned out to be weirdly complicated. I found one way of doing it, though, that doesn't rely on third-party utilities, and there may be others.Read more...

by Joe Kissell | 19 Jan 2008 |

More Ways to Pep Up a Slow Mac

Last week Macworld posted my article Fix Mac slowdowns, in which I take inspiration from Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac to discuss numerous potential ways to deal with a Mac that's become more sluggish over timeRead more...

by Joe Kissell | 03 Jan 2008 |

Scanning My Way to a Paperless Office

A few months ago I wrote an article for Macworld titled The Real Paperless Office, and it received tons of positive feedback. Basically I explained how to scan documents in such a way that you end up with a PDF containing both a high-res image of the original and searchable text (PDF+text), meaning that in many cases you can ditch the original documentsRead more...