As technology grows exceedingly more complex--offering a diversity of applications, social connections, and advice to make life more efficient--unsophisticated users often want to learn more about the devices they use, how they work, and what they could provide beyond the basics. Springer has stepped into this marketplace, providing an overview of selected present-day technologies to serve as a “preliminary references” for interested readers.

In a technically correct and easy-to-follow text, the reader is introduced, chapter by chapter, to what lies behind the World Wide Web (WWW), smartphones, social networks, and taking and storing pictures and video. Explored, too, is how the web, with all its associations, has shifted to a technology where users interact, produce content, communicate away from connected land phones, develop digital communities, take free classes, create and share images, and so on.

Each chapter, in addition to its technical descriptions, offers checklists, and--depending on the chapter specifics--information and recommendations for browsers and URLs, sources for online education, applications for smartphones, how to choose and work safely with a social network, a brief description of YouTube, and so on. The book is not illustrated.

The author states that the book is “targeted at a broad audience, ranging from young gadget enthusiasts to senior citizens trying to get used to new devices and associated apps.” With a grade level 12 reading score, this book is actually aimed at a reader with upper-level high school or above. Chapter recommendations in general are aimed at this readership. Innovative technologies in everyday life could serve as an introductory text for high school students interested in technology. Parents of techie youngsters wanting to keep up with what their kids are doing might find the information useful. Senior centers, particularly, could use the text as basis for a class for their members who want to learn more about a technology they did not grow up with. For individuals wishing to broaden their scope on their own, many of the “Dummy” books do a better job because of their more general coverage, heavy use of graphics, and lower reading levels. This book is best suited to higher level readers who wish to broaden their technically based digital experience.