To celebrate the holiday season and the end of another year, we're having a 50-percent-off sale on all the ebooks we sell - Take Control titles and the Macworld Superguides, along with the ebook version of my "iPhoto '09: Visual QuickStart Guide." This is a great opportunity to try your first Take Control title, stock up on tech reading for the new year, or update your collection of Take Control ebooks quickly and efficiently with a single trip through the cart, starting from any link in this article. (The sale is only for ebooks, not our at-cost print-on-demand versions. Bits are easy, atoms are hard.)

Want to give one of our ebooks as a gift? Since we don't use DRM of any sort, you can buy the ebook just as you would buy it for yourself and then give the PDF file to your recipient using the technology of your choice, such as a funky USB thumb drive or nicely labeled CD-R if you need something physical to wrap. For last minute gift-giving, you can just attach one of our PDFs to an email message or drop it in an iChat window while you're wishing the recipient many happy regards.

Not sure what titles might be most useful to you? Here's a guide:

• You've been a power user for years, and you like to know precisely what's going on under the hood and why. Our best-selling title, Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, Fourth Edition, covers the field of Mac backups in a huge way; Take Control of iPhone OS 3 provides all sorts of geeky iPhone details and troubleshooting advice; and Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network explains the many, many things to know about Apple's AirPort base stations and Wi-Fi networking on the Mac. And, if you want to understand how Mac OS X handles syncing managed data like contacts and calendar items, Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard has the scoop on Sync Services and the truth database.
• You know your way around your Mac at a basic level, but you'd like to better understand how things work. Take Control of Users & Accounts in Snow Leopard brings you up to speed on how accounts work in Mac OS X, while Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal introduces you to the command line and helps you use it for practical tasks. Take Control of Exploring & Customizing Snow Leopard helps you get started with various aspects of Mac OS X, and Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X is required reading for anyone frustrated by having to enter passwords frequently on a Mac and on Web sites. If you want a solid, useful overview of the most important aspects of Mac OS X, there's the Macworld Total Snow Leopard Superguide. Finally, if you want to prevent and fix problems, check out Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac and Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac.
• You're less interested in Mac OS X than in running applications that let you communicate with family and friends or help you create Web sites, podcasts, music, photographic slideshows, and more. Check out Take Control of Safari 4, Take Control of iWeb '09, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand '09, Take Control of Recording with GarageBand '09, Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac, and Take Control of Customizing Microsoft Office. Also, don't miss the Macworld Digital Photography Superguide and iPhoto '09: Visual QuickStart Guide.
• You're planning to upgrade your Mac to Snow Leopard over the holiday break, or you're planning to give Snow Leopard as a gift. Take Control of Upgrading to Snow Leopard has clear, step-by-step instructions for a painless, stress-free upgrade, and Take Control of Exploring & Customizing Snow Leopard goes the next step by showing you around Snow Leopard's main features.
• You have an iPhone or iPod touch, or one figures in your gift-giving plans for the season. Take Control of Your iPhone Apps is a must-read for anyone starting with an iPhone because it lets you in on hidden features in Apple's core apps that you aren't likely to find on your own. And Take Control of iPhone OS 3 provides in-depth configuration details and troubleshooting advice should anything go wrong. For a general overview, also see the Macworld iPhone & iPod touch Superguide, Third Edition.

Or, if you aren't quite sure what you might be interested in, check out our catalog page, which you can view by topic or as a big list of ebooks, sorted alphabetically.

The sale lasts until the end of December, so please tell your friends!