To be perfectly honest, not all these books are new as of September; some came out over the past couple of months.
And a note: one reason why I’ve been promoting Take Control Books is that they are electronic books. You need to know something? Buy the book, download it instantly, and read it on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad within minutes. And they have two other advantages: 1) they are searchable on your computer, iPhone or iPad, and 2) updates are free. Not entirely new additions, but point updates (1.1, 1.2, etc.), are free.
With the release of new operating systems for almost everything that Apple releases, you can shorten your learning curve by reading:
Take Control of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26
iOS 26 is new and different, and definitely a step up from previous versions, but iPadOS 26 is a major change. This August 2025 book covers both operating systems in 89 pages and, as mentioned above, it is fully searchable, allowing you to go right to what you are looking for and skip all that stuff that you should also be reading. $9.99; click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.
Take Control of Tahoe
macOS 26 continues the California theme trend by being dubbed Tahoe, and like the large blue lake, it has depths that you will probably need some help in exploring with this August 2025 book, priced at $9.99. The 133 pages are, of course, fully searchable; click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.
Take Control of Securing Your Apple Devices
This is a hefty tome at 205 pages and $14.99, but it covers Macs, iPhone, and iPads. On the bright side, you will discover that Apple is very consistent when it comes to security and privacy, and even if the interface for a Mac and an iPhone might differ, there are similar controls for both devices, and similar concerns. Again, the book is fully searchable; click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.
Take Control of Your Apple Account
Once upon a time, Apple had an Apple ID, which was your ticket to some online services. Now the Apple universe is much broader, with online word processing, spreadsheets, address books, location services, maps, storage and more. This vast landscape is covered in detail in this 177 page, $14.99 book, covering everything from privacy and security issues to how to migrating information to subscription services. Click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.
Take Control of Photos
This September update to the 4th edition covers some new tips and tricks with Photos, which is one of Apple’s most popular services as well as being one of the least understood. The 213 page tome is $14.99; click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.
Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal
Once upon a time, there were fairly hefty printed books about the vast world of Unix hidden under the Mac’s friendly user interface, but O’Reilly’s Learning Unix for OS X was last updated in 2016, and aside from some self-published books, there hasn’t been much since then. Take Control of the Mac Command Line With Terminal, despite the lengthy title, is just scratching the surface of what Unix can do on the Mac, but it is a very good introduction to the universe of Unix, lurking just below the surface on your nice, friendly Macintosh. This 227 page, $14.99 book doesn’t even pretend to tell you everything there is to know, but it will tell you enough to get started, after which almost any recent book on Unix will allow you to dive in deeper. Click on the heading, above, for a link to the book.