iPhone for Newbies: Honey, I shrunk the manual

You can try putting the manual in your iPhone. I developed "Tony's Tips for iPhone Users Manual" as an app, for $2.99. Just search for "Tony's Tips" in the App Store and by the time you type "Tony" it should be on the suggestion list.

Or you can visit www.tonybove.com and see a description first.

I believe in the iPhone as an excellent platform for e-books, but note that my app is not an e-book -- it offers complete, continually refreshed instructions for one low price, forever. In fact, it now covers iPhone 3.0 and iTunes 8.2, most likely the first "e-book" or book to do so.

Thanks,
Tony Bove

I'm not quite sure why it is that even in this day and age people can't seem to figure out that sometimes it's the little things that count. And by that I mean things like cutting out what would probably be a significant waste of paper. If you need the manual so bad download it yourself of just click iPhone help in iTunes, since you have to use it anyways.

Some might like to point out that the only reason Apple has cut the manuals is because of money... Last time I checked people already complained enough about the cost of Apple products so lets be happy they employed a cost cutting measure that effects almost nobody.

As a side note the author said the box was small for Apple's "minimalist look", but they made a pretty big deal about how they were reducing packaging to cut costs, save waste on fuel and other resources.

Think of it this way. Lets say they include this manual in every box... If they each weigh 2 oz then Apple would have shipped 125,000 lbs. of extra weight just from the initials sales of the 3GS alone. (Figured with 2 oz. ea x 1,000,000 iPhone 3GS sold). If you count the 17 million iPhones sold so far your talking over 2 million pounds of paper wasted.

If you're lucky enough to live by an Apple store, you can actually schedule a time to have a 1-on-1 meeting with an employee to show you the more advanced features and functions on your iPhone or any Apple device.

ROFL... I thought this was a technology blog, and that most "techies" were bright enough to figure these things out without poorly written, cumbersome manuals. When I turned on my first iPhone, I'm on the 3rd model now, I needed no user manual to figure it out, it was that easy to use.
The point of the iPhone is the intuitive user interface, and that a manual is propably not needed. Maybe you should purchase a Jitterbug cell phone, http://www.jitterbug.com/phones/?source=google&group=brand&ad=20&gclid=CK_-293Bo5sCFRFMagodhnEvBg It's easy to use. You'd probably need a user manual for it.
You could go online and get info from Apple website. Most user manuals are usually poorl written, and a big waste of paper.

I haven't read all the comments but am happy to see TUAW readers think about the environment. It would be crazy to print up manuals for the 10% of people who want them. As Glen mentioned the manuals also go out of date. I'd add that they often are out of date before the product gets to you.

I'd prefer a help/manual app on the phone that stays up to date. Even better- why don't all apps have built in help? That said- if you really want to know all the little semi-hidden features on the iPhone you will end up keeping up to date via resources like TUAW anyway.

When you have to continually explain your talking points in the comments, David, you've lost the audience.

Apple's all about going green, the easiest way to do so is removing paper waste. My Verizon phone's manual still has the plastic on it.

Nobody reads printed manuals anymore. They are costly and wasteful to print and ship across the world when an electronic version is more useful (searchable!) and portable. Plus, online resources are more up to date than something which had to be finalized a month before the device shipped and two OS updates ago.

iPhone for Dummies anyone?

I think they should just make an app that has the Manual in digital form. This app can be deleted.

yes, this is a great resource.

The best part is that this is a preloaded bookmark on every iPhone so new users can easily find it.