Books in the Hacks series

Streamline and simplify your holiday season with this comprehensive guide filled with quick tips, easy hacks, and fun DIY project ideas?all designed for the most wonderful time of the year! While the holidays are a joyous time to spend with family and friends, we all know they can quickly become a hassle if you're not prepared. Holiday Hacks gives you expert tips and pointers to celebrate in style?while getting the presents wrapped and sorted, the food beautifully prepared, and the decorations on point?all with a minimum of stress! Holiday Hacks includes over 600 handy tips for everything holiday-related?from how to fill your house with a festive cinnamon scent, to soothing those holiday headaches, to an easy and delicious hot chocolate hack using Nutella and milk. There's even advice about ornament storage?egg cartons are a great way to keep your small and delicate ornaments safe in their yearly hibernation?so you'll be ready to go when the holidays roll around again next year!

A brand new way to understand and remember 100 of the most important concepts in the history of political thought.

Find the best travel deals, skip the lines, pack like a pro, and enjoy the easiest trip of your life with this definitive guide to making your next getaway smoother than ever.

Be as productive as possible at work while never leaving your home with these 500 easy-to-follow hacks that will instantly improve your work-from-home experience.

Optimize your health with these 175+ quick, actionable ways to boost your immune system and beat the common cold every season.

Take control of your wedding planning (and budget) with over 500 easy hacks to help your wedding go as smoothly as possible.

Make your garden flourish with these 300 easy and inexpensive gardening hacks to help your plants blossom-perfect for any green fingers, first-time horticulturalists, or reluctant gardeners!

So much of what is commonplace today was once considered impossible, or at least wishful thinking. Laser beams in the operating room, cars with built-in guidance systems, cell phones with email access. There's just no getting around the fact that technology always has, and always will be, very cool.But technology isn't only cool; it's also very smart. That's why one of the hottest technological trends nowadays is the creation of smart homes.At an increasing rate, people are turning their homes into state-of-the-art machines, complete with more switches, sensors, and actuators than you can shake a stick at. Whether you want to equip your home with motion detectors for added security, install computer-controlled lights for optimum convenience, or even mount an in-home web cam or two purely for entertainment, the world is now your oyster. Ah, but like anything highly technical, creating a smart home is typically easier said than done.Thankfully, Smart Home Hacks takes the guesswork out of the process. Through a seemingly unending array of valuable tips, tools, and techniques, Smart Home Hacks explains in clear detail how to use Mac, Windows, or Linux to achieve the automated home of your dreams. In no time, you'll learn how to turn a loose collection of sensors and switches into a well-automated and well-functioning home no matter what your technical level may be.Smart Home Hacks covers a litany of stand-alone and integrated smart home solutions designed to enhance safety, comfort, and convenience in new and existing homes. Kitchens, bedrooms, home offices, living rooms, and even bathrooms are all candidates for smart automation and therefore are all addressed in Smart Home Hacks.Intelligently written by engineering guru and George Jetson wannabe, Gordon Meyer, Smart Home Hacks leaves no stone unturned. From what to purchase to how to use your remote control, it's the ultimate guide to understanding and implementing complete or partial home automation.

Nokia's smartphones pack a powerful computer into a very small space. Unlike your desktop or laptop, your smallest computer can be connected to the Internet all the time, and can interact with the world around it through its camera, voice recognition, and its traditional phone keypad. Nokia smartphones combine these features with impressive storage options and a host of networking protocols that make this smallest computer the only thing a road warrior truly needs.If you're still cracking open your laptop or pining for your desktop while you're on the road, you haven't begun to unlock your Nokia's full potential. Nokia Smartphone Hacks is dedicated to tricking out your smartphone and finding all the capabilities lurking under the surface. Learn how to:Unlock your phone so that you can use it with any carrierAvoid and recover from malicious mobile softwareWatch DVD movies on the phoneUse the phone as a remote controlUse the phone as a data modem for your notebookCheck your email and browse the webPost to your weblog from your phoneRecord phone conversationsChoose mobile service plansTransfer files between the phone and your computerWhether you want to use your smartphone as your lifeline while you're on the road, or you're just looking for a way to make the most of the time you spend waiting in lines, you'll find all the user-friendly tips, tools, and tricks you need to become massively productive with your Nokia smartphone. With Nokia Smartphone Hacks, you'll unleash the full power of that computer that's sitting in your pocket, purse, or backpack.