In today’s meeting -- It’s First Tuesday, so it must mean iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad!

Here is the list of apps reviewed today. To get more information on these, simply search for the names in iTunes or in Google search:

Evernote (Free),
Dragon Dictate (Free)
AP Mobile (free)
GoodReader (.99 plus a lite versione)
NotofyMe ($2.99 and a free version)
Opera Mini Web Browser (free)
BugMe! (.99 and free version)
Siri Assistant (Free)
LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99)
iDisk (free)
MobileMe Gallery (free)
TextPlus (2.99 and Ad-Free version)
BeBot Synthesizer ($1.99)
Angry Birds (.99 plus Lite version)

FIRST TUESDAY MEANS iPHONE, iPOD TOUCH, and now iPAD

Today we showed and talked about the new iPad.... for all the information you need, visit www.Apple.com/iPad
Also see my impressions in the next entry.

I am often asked if the iPad replaces the laptop. While it is truly an incredible device (Apple calls it “Magical”) which will prove itself as time goes on, I do not recommend it as a sole computing device - most particularly for a college student or anyone who needs to create more than simple-to-moderate word-processed documents, spreadsheets and presentations! Here’s my reasoning, and some facts, to hopefully help you make an informed purchasing decision.

The iPad is a new form factor for personal computing. It fits somewhere between a smart phone and a laptop computer. It is not meant to replace a personal computer (laptop), but to supplement one. In its present configuration, the iPad is designed more for information consumption than for information creation. It is an excellent electronic communications device as well, where you can literally hold the Internet in your hands!

While there are some productivity software products available at its debut in early April, 2010 - and more to come - for now and the foreseeable future, the iPad is not necessarily adequate for more than casual productivity-based projects. As a research and electronic communications tool, the iPad fits the bill in remarkable ways. As a creativity and writing tool, it does not. But, don’t get me wrong; the iPad can be placed on light duty. There are word processors and page layout apps (eg; Pages), spreadsheet apps (eg; Numbers), presentation apps (eg; Keynote), drawing apps, photo editing apps, and more. Certainly, there are many “casual” computer users who would find the iPad to be adequate.

I recommend that those interested in considering the purchase of an iPad take a little time to visit an Apple Store (or a Best Buy with an Apple kiosk), and take a personal test drive of the iPad. Get the feel of it. See how fast it responds. Try some of the apps. Use it to look up information on the Internet. Then, you decide!

Which Model?
Regarding the models available, storage size choices are 16, 32, or 64 Gigabytes (GB). The initial iPads are the Wi-Fi-only models. In late Spring 2010, the “Wi-Fi + 3G” models will become available, also in the three sizes specified.

When considering the purchase of an iPad, storage capacity is the first decision to make: 16, 32 or 64 GB.

Of course, I always use the excuse that since I am a technologist, I need the high-end version of every gadget! Actually, the 64GB model is overkill for how I use the iPad. This amount of storage is good for those who like to carry around a good deal of media: music, videos, movies, and photos. A typical movie can take up to 4GB of space. Other types of data, though, take relatively small amounts of storage. Here, I’m talking about most apps (applications), document files, and e-books.

So, when I am asked about this, my response is always, “it depends.” Examine your own needs for storage based on your data consumption patterns.

What about the “Wi-Fi” versus the “W-iFi + 3G” decision?

Wi-Fi allows you to connect to the Internet via your own home-based wireless network or the many “Hot Spots” located in public places like coffee shops, libraries, airports, etc. On the other hand, 3G is a wireless “ubiquitous Internet” connection provided by AT&T via the same cellular network used by cell phones. This means that your iPad’s Internet connectivity is available anywhere, as long as you are within range of the AT&T cell towers.

The “Wi-Fi + 3G” model will give you connectivity to the Internet just about anywhere. There is a cost associated with 3G. As of this writing, AT&T will be offering two 3G data plans: $14.99/month for 250MB data transfer and $29.99/month for unlimited data. What’s nice is that you don’t need a contract as you do with smart phones, like the iPhone. You can “pay-as-you-go” for the monthly plans as you need them - and authorize your plans directly from the iPad; no need to visit a store to activate or deactivate. Again, which model to purchase is based on your own requirements, but you should examine carefully how much access you need to the Internet and how much you travel away from your home or office network.

For More Information ...
Check out the abundance of iPad information on Apple’s Web site - www.Apple.com. There you will see many more specifics as well as short videos demonstrating several apps that are available for the iPad. Again, do yourself a favor, and visit an Apple Store or Best Buy for some hands-on evaluation.

Today we did an in-depth feature review of Safari. We discussed the preferences, security features, and we talked about Safari plugins. The ClickToFlash plugin for Safari will block flash animations, but you get the chance to play them if you want by a simple click of the mouse. You can also “white-list” those sites that you permit to automatically load their flash animations.

We looked at the premier (and free) RSS reader for Mac - NetNewsWire, also available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Today we demoed excellent software by Smile On My Mac - in particular, their product Disc Label, a full-featured application for creating all kinds of custom labels for CD/DVD discs and jackets.

Disk Drive utilities were also discussed. These utilities are used when troubles develop with disk drives. They have remarkable success rates at resuscitating disks that no longer mount or that have seemingly lost files. Products discussed: DiskWarrior by Alsoft and Drive Genius by ProSoft Engineering.

IF IT’s THE FIRST TUESDAY, IT MUST BE iPHONE and iPOD TOUCH!

Today we went over a bunch more cool apps for our devices.

In particular, we discussed Evernote. You use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free.

Back for another semester of Macintosh and iPhone goodness!

Today we spent the entire meeting talking about the leading password management application: 1Password by Agile Web Solutions. This is a highly secure method of maintaining all your sensitive information including logon and authentication for all your accounts. Use 1Password to assist with automatic fill-in of personal data, credit card information and more. Also use 1Password to help generate and store strong passwords for you. All you need to do is to remember ONE password to access the application and your private data. I have been using 1Password since it’s version version, and am now using the latest Snow Leopard compatible version 3, as well as the version for iPhone/iPod Touch.

You can use the DISCOUNT CODE “iSlayer” for a 20% discount, but download it first for a free trial period.

December 8 - Our last meeting for this semester. We meet again during our Spring 2010 Semester -- same time and room.

Today we looked at the new free public beta, and highly anticipated, version of Google Chrome for Mac. This is a web browser that competes for space with Safari and FireFox. It is said to be very fast and secure. This is a BETA version, meaning that there may still be some bugs in it and not all promised features are yet available. So far, this first public release is working well, it IS fast, but indeed, many features are not yet active. If you would like to try it out, visit www.google.com/chrome/

December 1 was our “iPhone/iPod Touch First Tuesday” meeting for December. I am now able to project my iPhone demos thanks to some special apps used in conjunction with my 1st generation jail-broken iPhone.

All apps can be perused and downloaded from the iTunes App Store. Search by names listed. Here’s a list of the apps shown (thanks to Gerry for the update):
Amazon Kindle app allows you to purchase, download and read Kindle eBooks from Amazon.com
Dictionary.com dictionary app for your device
Wkipanion Pro (or Lite) gives you access to Wikipedia
Playlist Alarm Clock - set your sleep time and wake alarm to your iTunes playlist
G-Park - helps you locate your car using cell-tower triangulation or 3C/3GS GPS capabilities
Tipulator - smart tip calculator for multiple-paying guests
Converbot - complete measurements converter with unique interface
Postman - Postcard creator you can email or upload
Postino - a service which will print and mail picture postcards you generate on your device
Photogene - editing tools for your pictures
Solitaire City - lots of solitaire games with instructions
iPhlix - manage your Netflix account
Fandango - Movie info, times, etc
iDisk - Apple’s app that allows you to access your iDisk files
Remote - Apple’s app that allows you to remote control your iTunes running on your Mac via WiFi
Keynote Remote - Apple’s app that lets you manage your Keynote presentation wirelessly

By popular demand, we will be covering all-things iPhone and iPod Touch once a month -- every first Tuesday of the month. Our next iPhone Tuesday will be December 1.

If you are interested in an RSS READER (RSS=Real Simple Syndication), the free NetNewsWire is the application of choice. With NetNewsWire, you can subscribe to any number of the thousands of RSS feeds out there on the Interwebs ... I keep updated with technical blogs and Web sites so that the very instant that an update is made to one of these sites, my news reader will pick it up. Later, I can peruse all the updates. If I want to read more about an update, I simply link directly to the actual web page. By the way, Safari can acf as an RSS reader as well, but it doesn't even come close to the power and elegance of a dedicated news reader like NetNewsWire. You can get it here: (http://www.newsgator.com/INDIVIDUALS/NETNEWSWIRE/) By the way, there is a companion app for the iPhone/iPod Touch, AND you can keep it in sync with your Mac.

Here is a list of apps I briefly showed at the last iPhone Tuesday ...

Zagat Restaurant App
Things (a To Do list manager)
Fandango (movies)
iTV (Television guide)
Amazon (lets you look up amazon.com, and take picture of a book and have amazon report back the pricing to you)
Red Lazer -- a bar-code reader (needs iPhone with camera)
Postman to generate picture postcards and send via email
Postino generates picture postcards and service prints it out and mails it for you
Conversion (a conversion calculator) .. also Convert It, and ConvertBot
Vicinity (find local businesses based on your location)
MacGourmet to store your recipes and sync with Mac version
Navigon ... a GPS-based navigation system (iPhone 3G and 3GS)
Skype (internet telephony)
Tipulator (simple, yet powerful tip calculator for complex multiple payers)
Yelp (restaurant reviews)
G Park helps you locate your car in huge parking lots
AAA Discounts (find locations nearby that honor AAA member discounts)

Today, we held our semi-annual session on YOUR BACKUP STRATEGY! We like to cover this topic each semester at ALLMUG because it is so importanat. There still are many people who do not make backups. It's going to take a hardware failure (and hard disks do eventually fail) or accidental deletion of files for all computer users to wake up and make those backups!

We talk of the typical ways a Mac user can backup files ... simple drag-and-drop of the Home folder to an external devie, using Time Machine (available in Leopard and Snow Leopard), and cloning your hard disk drive to an external drive using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

There is a handout for this session called "Backing Up Your Critical Mac Files." It talks about the various backup scenarios, and explains where your data is stored on your Mac. In particular, the article discusses your Home Folder and what the sub-folders do. You can download a copy of the article by clinking here!

More Q and A's this week ...

A couple of issues came up:

Many new users don't realize that a lot of Mac programs that list tabular data --- like Mail, iTunes, Numbers, Excel, and others --- give you the ability to sort according to column. This is a very common feature across all computer platforms, operating systems, and applications. The feature has been around since the days of the abacus!

Let's take Apple's standard Mail application. When looking at your list of emails, see that header bar at the top with the the little sections for "From," "Date Received," "Subject," and "Mailbox" ? If you single-click right on the word, for example on DATE RECEIVED, you are now able to sort your emails either in ascending order or (click again) descending order. Similarly, if you click on the FROM field, you can sort (alphabatize) the list according to who sent email. I frequently do this if I want to group all of my emails by sender for, say, looking for a particular email I know a particular person sent me.

Speaking of Mail, another question came up about the value of deleting email, when, and how often. This is completely a personal matter. Actually, I don't worry too much about it because the built-in spam filters my email providers use (Apple, Comcast, and GoDaddy) are more than adequate at stopping any that I might receive. Any mail that comes through that I am remotely interested in just remains in my email. Except for attachments, emails take up a minuscule amount of space, and besides, you never know - the day may come when I wish I could retreive that certain piece of mail I discarded long ago. I tend to archive my emails periodically using a program called MailStewardLite (MailSteward.com) which also gives me a very powerful query interface for powerful searching through my archives of not only emails but attachments as well. Additionally, because the search and smart mailbox features on the Mac and in Mail is so fast and powerful, I just file almost all the mail I have read into a catch-all folder I call "Filed." There are just a few exceptions ... for example, folders for Academy mail and for Humor emails...

I briefly mentioned that while I still do not recommend the standard use of anti-malware applications on the Mac, I am playing around with a program called MacScan (macscan.securemac.com) by because I am curious about the recent reports of the occasional trojan horses attacking DNS configurations from the Internet. No need for concern (except to use common sense, be aware of what is happening, what you're being asked to do, and stay away from the under-belly of the Internet).

I get asked a lot about the possibility of upgrading to Snow Leopard directly from Tiger. Can it be done? Legally, you need to purchase the Mac Box Set (Amazon price is $129.99) which includes OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and iLife '09 and iWork '09 -- the whole enchilada! Remember, you can only run Snow Leopard on INTEL machines!

People have asked my what that little bar is that shows up on the top of my screen when I do demos of applications. It's generically known as an applications launcher (as the Dock is). This one is called LaunchBar by Objective Development. I love it because I type one or two letters, and hit return to launch an app. And, it learns from my usage! I also use it to quickly search and bring up an Address Book entry and other documents.

No set topic today ... there are always tons of Q&A (well, tons of Q, maybe a few A).

Finding Your Mac’s Model Designation
It may be handy to know what your Mac model “designation” is in order to get support from Apple and other hardware vendors. Also, it’s useful because when you shop for parts, and drives, and RAM memory, places like OWC (www.macsales.com) sell these based on your mac model designation. For example, my MacBook pro’s official designation is “MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008).” All you need is your Mac’s serial number. Where to find it? Go to the APPLE MENU and select ABOUT THIS MAC. In the dialog box that pops up, click on the MORE INFO button at the bottom. This launches a utility called System Profiler. Select the Hardware Overview page from the top of the index bar at the left (usually the page that comes up by default). Towards the bottom of the Hardware Overview page, you will find your Mac’s serial number. Simply select the number and copy it into your clipboard. Then, go to Apple’s Service and Repair Page, and paste the serial number into the field there and select your country from the pop-up menu. This will generate a page with information about your specific Mac, and the official model designation.

Posterous for Blogging
Someone asked me about my blog, www.sandrocuccia.com. It’s hosted by a free service called Posterous (www.posterous.com). If you want to create a blog for your family and friends to get your updates, or just to share your pearls of wisdom with the rest of the world, it couldn’t be easier with Posterous! I demoed how easy it is to set up a Posterous account and start blogging. I set up a new Posterous account with a fictitious name Joe Babooch. As happens sometimes, the little demon in demonstration reared his ugly little head, and I couldn’t get my confirmation email to activate the new account and proceed with the demo. If you’re were witness to this, it all worked out, and you can check it here. Try out Posterous ... it’s easy, and there is no obligation whatsoever!

iWork ’09 Updates
We discussed the iWork ’09 software update (9.0.3) that was just made available via Apple’s software update mechanism. There seem to be several important updates here. Check out the details here.

iPhone and IPod Touch Users
Seems like more and more of our ALLMUG members are getting and enjoying these devices. If there is interest, we might have a session just covering iPhont/iPod Touch. Let me know ...

Invitation to Stop By the Photo-Tech Special Interest Group
Tuesday afternoon are for ALLMUG. But did you know that on Mondays at 3:20, I also facilitate a user group for digital photography? It’s called the PT-SIG - The Photo-Tech Special Interest Group (www.ptsig.org). One October 5 we will talk about Scanning plus I will report on my experiment with an online scanning service. On October 12, we will talk about cleaning D-SLR camera sensors. I am tentatively planning a discussion of Adobe Lightroom for October 19. More exciting topics to come! .... Meeting at 3:20 each Monday, Room 117.

TidBits is maintaining a great Snow Leopard software compatibility list. CLINK

A question was posed to me by an ALLMUG member about the difference in FireWire cable types and connectors. I wanted to address this here, but then it actually generated a full-blown article with illustrations.

The article is called FireWire Demystified and is located in our Downloads page.

Don’t forget - retail stores will charge an arm, a leg, and a couple of hands and a foot for FireWire cable. I buy my quality cables (and save lots of $$) from www.MonoPrice.com or www.CablesToGo.com.

Today, we went into some of the “visual” new features in Snow Leopard.

Remember that Snow Leopard is more about changes in how the existing components and applications are programmed to take advantage of new hardware technologies. The end result is that as you upgrade your hardware over the coming years, your computing experience will be dramatically enhanced. Apple’s OS X is also streamlined and optimized because it is no longer laden down with computer code that supports the older non-Intel Macs (the G5, G4, and so-on). So, even though Snow Leopard is a massive upgrade, you don’t really see much at the surface. And, this is my theory as to the reason for the $30 upgrade price. Don’t get me wrong, the benefits we will eventually reap from the upgrade are far more valuable than a mere $30.

So, today we demonstrated the “eye-candy:” the 512 pixel icons, the new icon view, seeing your actual content in the icons, new Dock features, new Stacks features, new Exposé features, the new QuickTime X and more. I haven’t covered it all and will do so over the semester (for example, the new Spaces features, the new Preview application, and the enhanced Services features).

I intend to discuss and demonstrate Spaces on the Mac at the next meeting.

This week marks the 20th Anniversary of the Macintosh Portable. See my reminiscence on my Digital Deliberations blog.

I just remembered that at the last meeting I demonstrated an application that helps you remove applications and other resources from your Mac. Why this is useful is that it shows you all the various related files to an application and you have the ultimate say on whether or not to delete these.

The one I showed is AppZapper. There is a competing product that lately has been getting lots of attention and updates - AppDelete.

As with all software, make sure you check the system requirements and that they match your Mac. AppDelete, for example, has one new version for Leopard available, and one for older systems.

We had another great turnout of enthusiastic and happy Mac users ... and even more “switchers!”

Today’s meeting was devoted to discussing preparation for the move to Snow Leopard.

SNOW LEOPARD
I invite you once again to check out a couple of Snow Leopard articles I wrote to help you with the process. These can be found on our Downloads Page. Look for two articles: “Getting Ready for Snow Leopard” and “What You Need To Know About 64-bit Computing.”

Once again, I highly recommend the “Take Control” PDF manuals for clear explanations of technical matters. In particular, they have two brand new e-books on Snow Leopard -- “Take Control of Upgrading to Snow Leopard” and “Take Control of Exploring and Customizing Snow Leopard.” These and all the other Mac e-books are excellent!! They’re $10 - and well worth it. These includes free updates to new editions. All are downloadable as PDF files. I also recommend their titles on MobileME, networking (Airport), and security. Visit www.TakeControlBooks.com

BACKING UP YOUR DATA - Redux
Preparing for a new operating system includes complete backups prior to the upgrade -- but, I want to be clear about this, you must always back up!! At the very least, the data files that reside in your Home folder.

A topic that thankfully comes up a couple of times a semester is the whole backup subject. Today, several of us spent some time talking about making “Clone” backups of your Mac’s main hard disk drive. A clone backup is an exact duplicate of your main drive, but it requires specialized software in order to end up with a bootable cloned drive. There are two pieces of software available for the Mac. The one I recommend is called SuperDuper! by Shirt-Pocket Software (www.shirt-pocket.com). It’s free for making a clone drive, but there is a nominal charge to obtain the full version which allows you to do incremental (periodical) refreshes of the cloned drive -- to bring it up to date, as it were. Another popular product (but I have no direct experience), is Carbon-Copy Cloner. It’s from Bombich Software.

The beauty of a cloned backup is that, as long as you keep it fairly current, you can immediately boot into it to restore your computing should your main hard drive meet with some disaster. In no time at all, you are back in business.

The Time Machine backup that was introduced with Leopard, works on a different principal. It’s beautifully simple and intuitive, yet very powerful. You set it up, and you just let it do it’s thing. It backs up your files on the hour, every hour while your Mac is awake. Every once in a while, you should check it to make sure it’s working!! And, you should be familiar with how to restore your files should you need to. What’s the difference between a Time Machine backup and a cloned backup? Two things: Time Machine allows you to go back in time to restore the various versions of files that you may have accumulated, and a Time Machine backup does not include system files, so it is not a bootable drive.

I also presented an additional backup scenario -- backing up to “the cloud.” (Fancy new moniker for the Internet.) This is big now. It’s also very important to consider offsite storage in case of a disaster at your home or office. Companies have been sending backups to undisclosed “vaults” offsite for years. Now, with the ubiquity of the internet and inexpensive and fast storage solutions, a number of companies are offering very affordable - and secure - backup services.

I have been using Backblaze. (www.BackBlaze.com). I am very pleased with it. For about $5/month for unlimited storage, I sleep better at night knowing that my valuable photos and data is safely ensconced in some far-away location. By the way, check out their site to see a pleasant young lady light a Windows PC on fire! But do check all the facts to see exactly how it works. Another off-site storage facility is Mozy.com ... and I use it on one of my machines, but in general, I prefer Backblaze. Also, a long-time off-site storage service for Windows users - Carbonite - is now catering to Mac users (very forward-looking move on their part!)

Here’s my backup strategy for my machines ... (warning, it’s pretty extreme!)

My G5 Desktop Computer
1. Nightly SuperDuper! clone refresh to a second internal e-SATA drive.
2. Continuous Time Machine backup
3. Scheduled Mozy.com backup of some selected data files.
4. Some critical files are being backed up to my MobileMe iDisk, on a schedule using Apple Backup (available to MobileMe members only.)
5. Once a quarter, I will make a SuperDuper! clone onto a bare e-SATA drive for storage in a bank security deposit. (told you this was going to be over-the-top).

My MacBook Pro
1. Continuous all-data backup to offsite via BackBlaze.com
2. Periodic SuperDuper! clone to an external drive (about twice a month)
3. I synchronize critical work files (like my class files) to my G5 using another excellent program - ChronoSync by Econ Technologies - The G5 acts as a backup for my MacBook Pro.

My Wife’s Mac Mini
1. Currently I just make an occasional SuperDuper! clone backup, but now that I just upgraded her machine to Leopard from Tiger, I’ll outfit a Time Machine backup for her.

OK, I’m in the business of tinkering with Macs and software, and I have a particular interest in all things security (which includes backup). I don’t recommend you go to the lengths that I do, but please be sure you at least use one of the methods I covered above. At the very least, you could go out and purchase a name-brand external USB drive (eg; the Western Digital My Book Mac Edition) and at a bare minimum drag-copy your document and picture files over from your main hard drive.

We had a huge turnout for our first meeting of the new semester -- over 20 happy Mac users hungry to share and learn more about our favorite computer platform!

Today we just had some general discussion mostly about bargain hunting online. Next week I plan to devote most, if not all, the entire hour talking about - and showing - Snow Leopard.

Here’s what was discussed today:

ONLINE DEALS
The site that I recommended for purchasing cables and related connectivity accessories is www.monoprice.com. I have saved hundreds of dollars ordering from this online company. Don’t get taken in by the big box stores that are happy to take your money for computer cables!

One of our members recommends www.dealmac.com as a place to visit frequently for great pricing on things Mac. I have heard good things myself about this site on various tech podcasts I listen to (I know, I don’t have a life!)

Don’t forget that if you are in the market for a new Mac or other piece of Apple hardware, check out the Apple-refurbished products that are always available - and that are refreshed daily. These are Macs that may have been returned to a store for whatever reason, and that have been completely repaired and checked out by Apple. They come to you in and as-new condition with full warranty. You don’t necessarily get the latest products, but you are certain to get some great bargains. Go to store.Apple.com and scroll down to the very bottom of the page to see the clinks for refurbished products.

MALWARE (viruses, trojan horses, adware, spyware, etc)
The question of malware always comes up. That’s a good thing because it demonstrates awareness of the problem on your part. Almost all malware today is targeted to Windows machines. Most of it is now in the form of a Trojan Horse (a seemingly benign program that harbors evil intent). There have been a couple of trojan horses out there that have targeted Macs. These are obtained by engaging in questionable habits. Visiting porn sites is a typical example. You should never willy-nilly download applications without specifically knowing what you are downloading, and that you are obtaining the download from a legitimate developer or manufacturer site. When you install software, Mac OS X is likely going to ask for your permission by password entry. As you can see, most people who get into trouble with Malware on the Mac do so because they are careless - not because the Mac is not a secure system -- which it is.

I do not use anti-malware software on my Mac (except for my Windows virtual machine running under VMWare Fusion and Parallels). I do believe that there will be a time when we may encounter stronger vulnerabilities and danger from malware. I recommend that you keep vigilant. That said, if you want to explore the use of anti-malware software, there are two places you can look to: ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac, and MacScan, is an anti-spyware utility ($$).

OS X 10.6 SNOW LEOPARD
One of the things you need to make sure of when considering the upgrade to Snow Leopard, is to check to see if your third party apps are going to be compatible, and if not, which versions you need. You can certainly visit the the developers’ websites, or you can go to the Snow Leopard Compatibility Wiki at snowleopard.wikidot.com

[NEW 9/10/09] Another site to check to see if your favorite apps are Snow Leopard ready is www.doesitworkonsnowleopard.com

If you are contemplating an upgrade to Snow Leopard, you need to determine if you can upgrade. There are additional things you need to know about upgrading. There’s also all the news about the “64-bit” capabilities in Snow Leopard and newer Macs. What’s all this mean to you? To find out more about all this and to get you started, I have written a couple of articles. These can be found on our Downloads Page. Look for two articles: “Getting Ready for Snow Leopard” and “What You Need To Know About 64-bit Computing.”

APPLECARE
Finally, several of you reported that over the summer you purchased shiny new Macs. Congratulations!! Just a reminder that if you did not purchase the AppleCare extended warranty - and I recommend you do for laptops especially - you have one year from date of purchase to sign up. For more information, visit Apple’s page at www.apple.com/support/products/.

Well, it’s the start of a new semester at the Academy, and we have lots of new, exciting stuff to cover at our ALLMUG Mac User Group meetings - every Tuesday at 3:20 PM in room 219.

Of course, the big thing everyone wants to know about is Snow Leopard! That will certainly be one of the first topics we’ll cover. In the meantime, check out an article called “Getting Ready for Snow Leopard” that I wrote to help you decide about how (or if) to proceed to a Snow Leopard upgrade. Go to the DOWNLOADS PAGE.

See you at our first meeting of the Fall semester!

• • • In today’s meeting we took a close look at Apple’s Address Book ... how to establish GROUPS in Address Book, how to manage groups and individual contact entries in Address Book. We looked a SMART GROUPS which is really nothing more than a way to save search queries. Question came up about importing addresses from 3rd party address books, like Entourage. Best advice is to do a GOOGLE SEARCH on “OSX Address Book import” [without the quotes]
• • • Everyone was reminded that when printing, by default the Mac shows a REDUCED VERSION of the PRINT DIALOG BOX. Look for the little blue button with the down-pointing triangle next to one of the top lines in the print dialog. Click on that to reveal all of your printer formatting options. Similarly, when SAVING or OPENING files for any program, you may just be seeing a reduced version of the file dialog box. Click on that button to give you expanded capabilities for navigating your files and folders right from the SAVE or OPEN dialog box.
• • • Ian Whitlock asks: Can the Mac’s startup sound be disabled? Yes! There is a free preferences pane called, oddly enough, StartupSound.prefpane. Here is the clink: www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/software.en.html Be sure to read the README file, and have you backed up? This will install into your System Preferences pane, and from there you can set the startup sound volume or mute it alltogether. Be advised that this is beta software.

• Here’s what we discussed this week:
• > Apple has released a new wired aluminum keyboard. This one doesn’t have a numeric keypad. See HERE
• > Speaking of keyboards, I have been using the Matias Tactile Pro keyboard for quite a while. Why? It uses the same Alps key switches that were used in the classic Apple Extended Keyboard from back in the day. This keyboard has a noisy clank to it when pressing a key, and a nice tactile feedback. Check it out at www.matias.ca
• > The online training company that several of us use to help us teach classes is www.Lynda.com ... check it out, there are many many excellent online software classes by industry experts. You can also order DVD versions of the courses. You can subscribe on a monthly or annual basis. Highly recommended.
• > TAKE CONTROL e-BOOKS - I’ve mentioned this company before. They produce fantastic books in PDF format that cost about $10. Subjects are all Mac related (with the exception of “Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner”). The books are frequently updated and free. Go to www.takecontrolbooks.com -Check out the website to see topics that might interest you. By the way, they also handle the series of MacWorld Superguides.
• > If you have downloaded Apple’s PUBLIC BETA of Safari 4, keep in mind that THIS IS A BETA version of an unreleased program. You can therefore expect some problems and slow-downs. Some have been reported, but for the most part it is quite fast. When you install Safari 4, it has to remove Safari 3 ... but, what most people don’t realize is that that the package also comes with an UNINSTALLER which will restore the current version Safari 3. Get the beta from the Apple website: www.Apple.com/support . You will see another clink there for downloading the software.

> Two pieces of software were briefly demonstrated. These are of particular value for those of you who use a Mac laptop to teach a course. The first one is DeskTopple (http://foggynoggin.com/desktopple). This one does a few things with your desktop, but I use it really for one thing only: to temporarily hide all the clutter on the desktop when projecting it to the class. Actually, I need to REMEMBER to use this more often!! The other great little application is called MousePosé (http://www.boinx.com/mousepose/overview/). I use it as an aide when teaching a program on the big screen; it allows me to help point out certain areas of the screen by dimming the entire screen except for a configurable circle around the pointer which clearly shows the content beneath -- kind of like a spotlight on the screen detail that you want to emphasize to the class. But, there are several tools built into MousePosé which are more assistive to users who might have trouble seeing the cursor - or for those of you with humongous monitors, tend to LOSE the pointer!.

• > We discussed at length what you can do to prolong your laptop’s battery life, and the proper care and feeding of your battery. A PDF article I wrote is available for you to download. This also discusses the steps to take when troubleshooting battery problems. The file is located in our DOWNLOADS PAGE. Look for the article called “Mac Laptop Battery Maintenance.”
• > Finally, we went over some tips on how to prolong your laptop session when working under battery power (eg; on a plane!). REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION-- you can do some things to reduce your power consumption if you don’t have access to power.

• • Turn off Bluetooth (via System Preferences or menubar icon),
• • Turn off Airport (WiFi). Easiest via the menubar icon or via the Network System Preferences panel
• • Dim the Screen
• • If applicable to your machine, turn off keyboard backlighting.
• • Under system preferences you can select “Better battery life
• • Reduce your system sleep time and display sleep time settings in the Energy Saver Systems Preferences.

• [Thanks for Gerry Hapka for taking notes on the goings-on at the meeting!]
• > For ripping (copying) DVDs --- FOR MAKING LEGITIMATE BACKUP COPIES OF YOUR PURCHASED DVDs -- you can download and install DVDremaster which includes Fairmount. This is a two step process. You first use Fairmount to mount a special version of the disc onto the desktop. You then make a finder copy of the mounted disc into another folder. Then, you can unmount the image and the original DVD disc, quitting Farimount. Next, you launch DVDremaster and you duplicate the disc copy you made previously and burn it to a blank disc. It takes a bit of time, but it works fine with 99% of the copy protections schemes out there. This is from Metakine, and HERE IS THE CLINK!
• > There is a You Tube video that everyone liked - some guy made a GarageBand song completely out of the various bleep and bloop sounds that Mac OSX makes.
• Check it out here ..
• > We discussed a recent article “The Five Most Underused Finder Tools.” These were demonstrated during the meeting. You can download your own PDF version from our ALLMUG Downloads Page.
• > We talked about the new Leopard feature, QuickLook. This is a very handy new feature in Leopard. It allows you to view - to do a quicklook - into a file without actually opening it. It works with all the iWork file formats plus Word, Excel, text files, JPEGs, PDFs and more. You simply go to the file listed in a Finder window, SINGLE-click on it to select it, and either click on the little eyeball icon at the top of the finder window, or press the spacebar. This will open up a panel with your view into the document. You are given options to page through it, to view movies, and to do slideshows of images. Leopard only!
• > Question: What is the “Shared” item in the Finder sidebar (the sidebar located on the left side of each Finder Window). This section shows you any other Macs or PCs located on your network, or the network you are currently connected to (eg; the UDEL network when inside Arsht building). Just because you see other machines, or other machines see your machine, doesn’t necessarily mean that files and other resources are accessible. One would have to specifically go into System Preferences and turn on Sharing (the Sharing Preferences). There is more to be said about this subject, but by default, your Mac is still locked down with sharing off (except for a default shared folder for everyone).
• > Related to the question above, you can share out your iPhoto albums and your iTunes music. To turn this capability on, you need to go to the Preferences for each of these programs to turn on the feature. You can set up restricted access and password controls. If you are on a network with other users sharing their iTunes and iPhoto, you will see them listed in YOUR iTunes and iPhoto browsers.

> One topic that comes up often is the issue of system updates. In general, the best advice is NOT to jump to run the updates as soon as they are released by Apple (or for thrid-party software). There have been occasions in the past when there were problematic releases, after which Apple quickly pulled them down. Best to let the techie types run their update firsts and wait out any issues! I would recommend that for system updates, two weeks is a good minimum wait period.

> As far as the periodic Security Updates are involved, I generally hold off a couple of days before downloading and installing.

> The BEST way to update your System “point” updates (eg; 10.5.4 to 10.5.6), is to download what’s called the COMBO Updater from the Apple Support website. The Combo updater will refresh you operating system (OSX) with all of the updates that were released from the first one of the cat series. For example, the 10.5.6 Combo Updater will refresh all the updated components that were released starting from update 10.5.1. This ensures that any corrupted system files are always updated, and has proven to be effective as a troubleshooting aid. Combo updates must be sought out at the Apple website as the update that your Software Update mechanism on your machine will only download the “Delta” updates which just contain new files since the last update. Note, though, that the Combo updates are large and get larger with each new point version update. If you have high-speed internet, this is not much of an issue. The Combo update for 10.5.6 can be downloaded by visiting this clink. All Combo updates can be gotten to from any page on the Apple site by clicking on the DOWNLOADS tab at the top.

> We talked about exporting Address Book data in order to then import it into a spreadsheet. There is no direct way to do this from within the Address Book app (c’mon Apple!) but I did find a neat little piece of free software called Address Book Exporter. You can download this from Gwenhiver.net

> Apple recently released the Mac System Box Set --- you get OSX Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for an incredible bargain price of $169. Here’s the clink.

> Question came up ... what is the AppleTV? Best way to learn about this very interesting device is to visit Apple’s product page on the AppleTV.

> And another question that frequently, and inevitable comes up: Should we run Antivirus software? Here are the points I make:

• - Macs currently are not faced with virus issues, however a couple of Trojan Horses have been obtained by folks who insist on visiting “family unfriendly” websites and succumb to “social engineering” tactics, and those who obtain illegal pirated commercial software like iWork or Photoshop
• - If using Windows on the Mac, then your Windows partition or virtual machine should run Windows antivirus, anti-malware softare
• - If you regularly exchange email attachments with Windows users, you should consider it so you don’t propagate malware to your Windows buddies even though there would be no effect on your Mac
• - Do not willy-nilly enter an Admin password when your Mac system asks for it. Know why it wants your password (eg; when installing software)
• - Antivirus scanning may needlessly slow down your system
• - In a corporate or educational environment, you may be REQUIRED to install antivirus AND KEEP IT UPDATED. Note that the University of Delaware does have this requirement for any personal computers that connect to its network.
• - Stay on top of developments. The day is getting near when we may well need to run antivirus software regularly

> A member asked last week how to export Address Book data to a spreadsheet (Numbers or Excel). I found a free, handy little application called Address Book Exporter which does one thing, and does it well .... exports your address book to a tab-delimited file. You can also choose which fields you want included. Once you have the file, you can then open it directly in Numbers --- there’s your address book data in a nice table for you to massage as needed!
Here’s the link for the download: gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html

> A reminder that the recommended source for all things Mac Hardware (disk drive upgrades, memory, and lots more) is OTHERWORLD COMPUTING. They’ve been around for many years and have an excellent reputation for support, service, fast shipping, and assortment. Go to www.MacSales.com/

> We talked mostly about the new iPhoto - part of the iLife ’09 suite. The Apple website has tons of information, tutorials and video introductions for not only iPhoto but their other applications which are part of the iLife and iWork suites. Go to www.Apple.com/iLife

> iPhoto ’09 allows you to upload your photos to Flickr.com and FaceBook.com ... these are extremely popular social websites where you can share your photos, ideas, commentary and more with either the public or folks you choose to keep in contact with. Setting up accounts for these is free. I recommend them! If you’d like to view my photo portfolio on my Flickr page, go to www.flckr.com/photos/cuccia

> One important thing to remember when considering an purchase of iLife 09 or iWork 09: Make sure you check the SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS for these applications up on Apple’s website. One thing is certain: You need to have OSX Leopard 10.5.6 on your machines!! There are some other stringent hardware requirements if you are a big iMovie user.

> Apple has introduced a new “Mac Box Set” -- OSX Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, for $169 ... a huge bargain! Remember to check your minimum requirements!
Visit the Apple Store for more info.

Seagate recently issued an alert that several of its drives are affected by a defect that will likely cause premature failure.

The drives in question are the Barracuda 7200.11, ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22 Drives [207931]

To check to see if you have a drive that is affected go to the Apple Menu, select About This Mac, then click on the MORE INFO button in the About This Mac pane. Scroll to the SATA section to check your internal drive.

For complete information go directly to the Seagate knowledge base page that describes this issue. They have a couple very handy links there that will allow you to input your Seagate drive model or serial number (both available via the MORE INFO described above). This will tell you if your drive is affected. Here is the clink to the Seagate page.

Today we talked about - and demoed - a number of items.

> There are several “Smart” features on your Mac that are designed to help make your computing easier, faster, and automated. You have “Smart Folders” which you create by going to the Finder’s menu:NEW SMART FOLDER. Based on a number of search criteria you essentially can create a complex, customized search device that looks like a folder -- that is, when you open these special folders (they have a gear on them), they will present you with files that meet your particular search criteria, but note that these are NOT the actual files moved or copied into this smart folder. These are really references to the real file -- like aliases, but not quite. You can double-click these to actually go into the file.

One Smart Folder that I keep handy on the desktop is one I call LAST 7 DAYS ... and it simply collects the names of all documents that I have modified in the last week ... essentially, the stuff that I am currently working on -- all in one nice little package.

There are several other “Smart” mechanisms on your Mac ... Smart Albums in iPhoto, Smart Playlists in iTunes, and Smart Mailboxes in Mail ... all work similarly. Many third party apps also use this feature.

> I showed a clock/calendar feature that I use which allows me to configure a menu clock in an unlimited number of ways ... it is MenuCalendarClock by ObjectPark Software.

> Here is the trick for DISABLING YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY!!!

1. Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES
2. Go into the KEYBOARD and MOUSE Preference Pane
3. Click on the KEYBOARD tab
4. Somewhere in the KEYBOARD pane, you will see a “Modifer Keys” button. Click it!
5. You can now set the Caps Lock key to NO ACTION

> Today, we concentrated on a full-blown Time Machine demo in the form of a ScreenCast which was made from my desktop Mac at the home studio. This particular screencast is an early attempt on my part to get into this form of training, however I am making changes because this video is hard to see due to the size of my screen. You can see this yourself by going to the Downloads Page. The link for the Screencast is about halfway down the page.

> If you want to update your OSX version (the interim updates that come out periodically), those “in-the-know” will download the COMBO UPDATER, rather than the standard ‘Delta’ update that your Software Update feature recommends. The COMBO UPDATER, of course, is a much larger download, but it will completely refresh all your system files all the way back to the first system update for the particular cat family (eg; Leopard) up to and including the latest. This technique may very well fix anomalies that occur do to corrupted system files. You need to go to the Apple downloads section of their website.

As of this date, you can download the 10.5.5 Combo Update HERE.

> Today we were all over the place with great Q&A. I was supposed to show the group a screencast showing Time Machine in action ... it will have to be next week!

> A reminder to check out the Take Control e-books (PDFs) at www.TakeControlBooks.com. A new title just came out: “Take Control of Your 802.11n Airport Network.” What a wonderful book to read at your leisure!

> We discussed and demoed the Mail Stationery that is available with OSX Leopard. Your Apple Mail application now comes with a number of colorful templates that allow you to create graphics-rich emails (eg; for cards, invitations, photos, etc.). I’ve tried it, and it turns out that it is not too compatible with Windows clients or older Mac software. The emails will also be larger due to the added graphics and HTML components. For myself, I am not interested in using it. But if you want to try it out, here’s Apple’s take on it.

> Folks, in just three more weeks, we’ll be on winter hiatus until the Spring semester. Where will you get help if you run into one of the rare problems you might have on your Mac. Well, don’t forget Google!! Just type in the problem in your Google search filed in Safari. If you get an error message of some kind, just type the text of the error message into the Google search field.

> Today we talked about using iTunes to obtain and listen to Podcasts. These podcasts give you a great vehicle for learning and hearing about thousands of subjects. Listen to them on your Mac, on your iPod or iPhone, or in the car.

> One of our members is interested in producing podcasts. Well, everyone who owns a modern Mac has GarageBand. Starting with version ’06 (but best with ’08), you have the ability to record and produce podcasts! Apple has a great tutorial on this subject. Check here and here. By the way, you can also use QuickTime PRO to produce audio and video podcasts.

> Remember that there are some great e-books (PDF format) on everything Mac at www.TakeControlBooks.com. They just released “Take Control of MobileMe” A must-read for all MobileMe users, or those who want to make an informed decision about it before subscribing to MobileMe. These books are fantastic resources. How do you think I learned everything I know about Macs? Now I’m in trouble; I just gave away my secret!!

> Kind of related to podcasts, we talked about what RSS means (Real Simple Syndication). Want to learn more? Check the Wikipedia Entry. A great FREE application that will aggregate your favorite RSS feeds into one convenient place is NetNewsWire. Oh, and by the way, you can also get NetNewsWire for iPhone.

> Finally, we talked about the wonderful world of Apple REFURBS - or, Refurbished Apple products such as iPhones, Macs, Airport devices and more. You get great products at great prices. Refurbished products can be overstock or items that were returned and repaired if needed. They may have some minor cosmetic defects, but are completely checked out by Apple and you get the same one-year limited warranty as any new purchase, AND you can get the standard AppleCare. Go to the online Apple Store at store.Apple.com, scroll all the way down to the bottom, and you will see a link “Special Deals” and refurbished products.

Today we began to explore Time Machine. This is Apple’s backup program that seamlessly and automatically makes backups of your Mac’s hard disk in the background while you work. In particular, we discussed the two ways to exclude data. One of these is where you can actually tell Time Machine which drives or folders you wish to exclude from the backups. For example, you may not wish to use up precious space on your Time Machine disk drive with podcasts or internet video. The other way of excluding data is to go into the Time Machine application and tell it to delete existing backups of specific folders that you really don’t need backed up. This procedure will be made available here shortly. An actual demonstration of HOW Time Machine works needs to be run at the ALLMUG meeting. Rather than bring the whole kit in, I am preparing a video ScreenCast of my Time Machine system at home and plan to bring it in to show at a meeting in November. In the meantime, if you want to know more, visit Apple’s Time Machine page.

For those wishing to read up on all things Mac - the Take Control eBooks are excellent resources. You purchase the books in PDF format for around $10 dollars and you are entitled to updates. The information is accurate, easy to read, and up-to-date.

I also mentioned that I like printing large PDFs directly to Fedex/Kinko’s over their website. I can then drive over and pick up the printout (or have it delivered for a fee). I am told that Staples offers the same service.

Today we spent the first half of our meeting reviewing the new Apple notebook announcements made a few hours earlier. For all information on the new products, visit www.Apple.com

Additionally, you can view a QuickTime movie of Steve Job’s announcements and demos. This is always a fun and interesting thing to watch. Plan on setting aside about an hour. You can either stream the video to your Mac, or download it. Go to the Apple Special Events Page.

Finally, we discussed MobileMe and, in particular, synchronizing data between your computers and the “Cloud.” For more information visit www.apple.com/mobileme/

There were some questions about updating your Mac to reflect changes to references from dotMac to MobileMe. Here is a link to an Apple Knowledge Base article that discusses this issue.

Here are highlights from some of today’s ALLMUG discussions and demos:

> Where do you find your Mac’s serial number? Go to menu:APPLE>ABOUT THIS MAC and then click on the MORE INFO button. This launches into a program called “System Profiler” (it lives in your Utilities folder). In the first window you see you will find your serial number. If you COPY the number into your clipboard, you can then go to this page on the Apple Support website. Simply paste in your serial number to see how much time you have left on your AppleCare.

> Sandy’s Sure Shots: I showed the three mice (mouse modules?) that I use and recommend. First of all, for my desktop machine, I use the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. This is THE mouse to use for the comfortable and natural placement of your forearm, wrist and hand. See the website for more medical and technical information. There is also a new wireless model, however I have no experience with this. They don’t have Mac drivers for this mouse yet. You don’t need a specific driver for the Evoluent. OSX will recognize it as a standard mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel, however you cannot program the other buttons on this mouse without a driver. There are third-party drivers available that allow for support of the Evoluent and many other devices such as game pads. Ron Yabroff recommends Steermouse. I use USB Overdrive. The other mice I showed was a small Bluetooth mouse great for travel. This is the BT-500 by RadTech. The third mouse is my newest acquisition. It’s a standard size (colors available) wireless, but not Bluetooth. It is an instant-response radio wireless mouse. It does require a tiny “dongle” that you attach to a USB port, and has great range. This is the Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Mouse for Notebooks.

> There was a question about whether to “de-frag” the Mac hard disk. This is a routine that has been around for ages, and is used to optimize a drive when the thousands of files present are broken up into several “fragments.” When there is too much fragmentation of files, it takes longer for the drive to read and write data, and overall computer performance decreases. Do I de-frag? No! When needed, OSX does some de-fragging of vital system files in the background. I also completely rebuild and reinstall from scratch my entire drive at least once a year, and this takes care of any file fragmentation which might otherwise be of concern. However, if you who work with many very large, multi-gigabyte files such as video files, and your disk is over 50% capacity, then you may want to consider looking into a file defragmentation and optimization utility. There is a program called iDefrag which has been around for some time and seems to be pretty solid from what I hear. Want to know more? See this article in Apple’s knowledge base.

> Ron and I mentioned a couple of disk and file troubleshooting and repair program. These are Disk Warrior and Drive Genius. The latter one is what Apple uses in their stores, for what it’s worth.

> Tip: To zoom in while viewing anything on screen, using MacBook and MacBook Pros, hold down the CONTROL key while scrolling up/down with TWO FINGERS on your trackpad. For other systems and earlier versions of OSX, you need to first turn on the ZOOM feature in the Universal Access system preference. Check out the keyboard shortcuts listed there. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse you can also use it to zoom in and out.

Even though there is a lot to be said for having open-format meetings, I think that a little bit of structure will serve everyone best. Therefore, I am going to use this new format to our meetings:
1. Any Industry & Apple news important to our little group here at the Academy
2. “Sandy’s Sure Shots” -- We will do one or two short software demos. This is a revived program from back in the days of the original Macintosh Users of Delaware, where I demonstrated the month’s top “Pubic Domain” software. (I used to be called ‘Sandy’ back then!)
3. Main Topic of the Week
4. Q&A

Let’s see how it goes!

Here are highlights from some of today’s ALLMUG discussions and demos:

> For those of you (particularly Switchers) trying to run .AVI files on your Mac (these are video files typically used by Windows users), be sure to try the free VLC program (Video LAN Client). This has been recently upgraded and improved.

> Today’s “Sandy’s Sure Shots” was on screen capture utilities. I use these a lot for generating screen captures for my various tutorials, presentations and technical documentation. My two favorite ones are Skitch (free) and SnapZ Pro X ($$). SnapZ Pro will capture video and sound as well and save it as a QuickTime movie. There is a cheaper version which does not capture the video.

> One member asked if there was a program out there that allows you to capture a picture of an entire web page that is longer than the screen. The typical screen capture utilities only capture what is currently displayed on the screen. Try the free program Paparazzi.

> Don’t forget that built into the Macintosh OSX is some simple screen capture functionality. First of all, in the Utilities folder (from Finder, go to menu:GO>UTILITIES) is a little application call Grab. Launch it and then look at your options under the CAPTURE menu. You can do a standard selection capture, a window capture, a screen capture, and a timed capture. Additionally, you can issue a couple of keyboard commands at any time without needing to be in Grab. To do a capture of the whole screen, press SHIFT-COMMAND-3, for a selection crosshair press SHIFT-COMMAND-4 and when the crosshairs appear on screen, simply draw out the area you want to capture. These last two will save your capture as .PNG files on the desktop (.PNG is simply another picture graphic format like .JPEG).

> Remember that these and many other free and shareware programs can also be obtained from the software clearinghouse that I use regularly the Versiontracker website ... www.versiontracker.com

> Today we talked about the REPAIR PERMISSIONS function that is found in the Disk Utility program. “Permissions” are a function of the UNIX-based operating system of OS X, and has to do with who is permitted to open files, and run programs and other routines on your Mac. Sometimes these can get confused or corrupted. There is a weekly maintenance routine that your Mac runs automatically which, among other things, will repair permissions, so this is not something you need to worry about running. However, if you ever run into a situation where a program or a file does not seem to open, or you are getting some sort of “access” errors, then just run the repair permissions in Disk Utility. Typically this should not take longer than 5 to 10 minutes. Want to know more? See this article from Apple’s knowledge base.

Here are highlights from some of today’s ALLMUG discussions and demos:

> We looked at a two new technologies called Cover Flow and Quick Look introduced in last year’s OS X Leopard. These offer new ways to “preview” your files without actually opening them. Cover Flow borrows its design from the Cover Flow view now found in iTunes where you can flip through a flowing visual selection of album cover art to select your tunes. Now, you use the same interface to peruse your files, movies and photos.

Cover Flow is a new VIEW format in finder -- along with ICON VIEW, LIST VIEW and COLUMN VIEW. When you are in the FInder and looking at a window of files and folders, you can either go to the VIEW menu to select which view, including Cover Flow, or there is a set of 4 little icons on the left half of the window’s tool bar which lets you choose from the four views.

Quick Look lets you actually quasi-open a file so you can see its contents without actually launching the file into it’s supporting application. This works with pictures, text files, movie files, song files, Pages, Keynote and Numbers files, and more. You simply select any file in the Finder and press the space bar to activate Quick Look for that file. Alternatively, use menu:FILE>Quick Look.’’

> There was some discussion about setting up Apple Mail to access the UDEL email system. I have not had a chance to review this as I simply have my UDEL email forwarded to one of my GMail accounts, however I did notice that there is a big help file up on the UDEL IT section taht explains how to set things up on the Mac .... here is the link: www.udel.edu/topics/e-mail/macosxmail/index.html

> We talked about how to force a file to open with a particular application. For example, this can be done with PDF files which might launch Adobe Reader on your system, but you would rather have the Preview application open instead. How do you change this behavior on your Mac? And, how do you set things so that from now on all PDF files will just open in Preview. The secret is in the GET INFO dialog box. Simply select the PDF file and go to menu:FILE>GET INFO to bring up a panel chock full of information and statistics about the file. There is a little section towards the bottom called “Open With.” You may need to expand this section to view your options. There will be a popup menu which will allow you to select an appropriate application for that file, or you may have to use the “Other...” selection to directly choose an application. Once that is done, that particular file you selected will now open in the desired application. If you want to affect all files with the same extension (eg, PDF files), then you would click on the CHANGE ALL button.

Want to learn about this in more detail? Go to the DOWNLOADS section on this site and download the PDF file called “Setting Your Default Application.”

> A question came up about how to monitor system parameters real-time, like memory conditions, CPU usage and more. This is done via an application already present on your Mac, called Activity Monitor. You can get to it from the Finder by going to the menu:GO>UTILITIES and then selecting Activity Monitor. There’s tons of information there, so peruse it at your leisure. The top section shows the actual processes running and the resources that they are taking up. A typical thing to do here is to click on the header row where it says CPU, and make sure that it will sort DESCENDING. This is indicated by a small arrow pointing DOWN next to the words “CPU.’ This will let you see the larger CUP “hogs” starting at the top of the list. It’s a troubleshooting device to see what is going on when your machine is mysteriously slowing down due to the fact that one or more applications may be taking up all the computational power of your Mac. There is also handy information at the bottom of the Activity monitor, and you can flip through the stats for memory consumption, CPU usage, and so forth. Hopefully in some future meeting we can spend some more time with this.

> There was one little piece of “Eye Candy” that I showed ... you know about the Genie Effect? That is , when you minimize a window by clicking on the YELLOW dot at the top-left, there is an animation effect where the window gets sucked down to the Dock. Well, if you hold the SHIFT key down while activating the minimize effect, you will see the Genie Effect in slow motion! Nothing useful, but it always generates “ooohs” and “aaahs!”

ALLMUG meetings continue with fantastic attendance, lots of interest and plenty of enthusiasm!

We spent a good deal of time discussing printer issues - particularly with inkjet printers. A couple of people in the discussion recommend Epson, Hewlett Packard and Canon printers. All three have been in the business for a long time and are all excellent printers. Epson's support for Macintosh has been excellent over the years, and the more recent HP and Canon printers provide good support for Mac as well.

Some tips regarding ink-jet printers were brought up:

- Keep the printer powered on 24/7 to help avoid inkjet clogging issues. Power consumption is negligible.
- Always shut off the printer with the ON/OFF switch as opposed to simply cutting power to the printer. When you switch off, a little routine runs to shut down and properly position the print head, and therefore, to avoid clogging issues.
- If you don't print often, and even if you leave the power on, print a test pattern or something small once weekly. This is yet another way to avoid clogging issues.
- Always use the manufacturer's branded ink as opposed to third-party inks. This helps avoid clogging issues, but also ensures the best color reproduction for photo printing. You should also consider using the printer manufacturer's own papers when printing photos.
- Printer “driver” software is updated periodically by the manufacturer. You should verify that you have the latest version by visiting the manufacturer’s software downloads page (usually in the “Support” section).

> The Mac OS X system update 10.5.5 was released just yesterday. Advice to all is to hold off a bit before downloading and installing the updates. This is just in case there is some serious issue with the update that crops up. It's rare, but it has happened in the past. I monitor the technical newsfeeds to see what's going on with the updates. One such place is www.macfixit.com . I usually wait about a week before I install it on my production machines.

> You can change the behavior of those windows that rudely pop up while you are working ... you know, the ones that tell you there are system updates and do you wish to download and install? If you go to System Preferences>Software Update, you can set or disable the regular checks. Most importantly, I would suggest you DO NOT enable the checkbox "Download important updates automatically.”

> We demonstrated the new and exciting screen saver found in 10.5 Leopard only ... called Mosaic. To get this to work, you must first have iPhoto populated with photos. You can view this by going to System Preferences>Deskop & Screensaver. Click on the "Screen Saver" tab at the top. Then in the list of screen savers on the left, select "Photos." Then, under the preview window, you will see three little icons called "Display Style." Try all three to see how you can use your photos as screen savers. The third one is the really neat one called "Mosaic," which will slowly render a random photo in your collection as a mosaic consisting of your other photos. Don't forget to click on the OPTIONS button to change some of the parameters of the sceensaver. The more photos, the better the effect. Quite spectacular!

We started out our new Fall semester of ALLMUG meetings, and we welcomed several new members. We had about 25 people in attendance; a record! Let's make this an interesting semester at ALLMUG!

I have enough content to discuss to last us about 9 years at this point. It's a great source in case there is no Q&A or if other folks don't have a demo or presentation of their own to make.

This week we discussed the happenings during the summer - in particular: the iPhone 3G rollout, the iTunes App Store (for iPhone), and the new MobileMe service - which replaces .Mac (dotMac). MobileMe will be detailed in a future meeting as will iPhone for those interested.

TODAY IS OUR LAST ALLMUG MEETING FOR THIS SEMESTER .... SEE YOU BACK HERE FOR FALL 2008!

Here are the major topics we discussed in today's meeting:

> Today we demonstrated the plug-in for iTunes called SRS iWOW ... this plug-in allows you to considerably enhance the sound quality and levels that are output by iTunes. You can control the quality based on types of speakers or headphones/earbuds you are employing, and the results are quite dramatic. Sandro uses this on his MacBook because the speakers on it are so small, he can hardly hear the output. But, they also significantly enhance the sound coming out of his "SoundSticks" speakers attached to his desktop G5. 14-day trial period available!

> Finally, Sandro demonstrated MacSpeech Dictate -- a dictation and voice recognition package for the Mac that takes advantage of the latest processing technology available only to Intel-based Macs. For a version 1 application, this works quite well in it's own word-processing environment, but still problematic when using the system with other applications like Microsoft Office or Pages.

SEE YOU IN THE FALL!

Here are the major topics we discussed in today's meeting:

> We looked at the wonderful world of Widgets on the Mac ... widgets are small, generally useful applications that are loaded by your Dashboard (look in the Dock or in the Applications folder). Several handy widgets come with every Mac, but many more can be downloaded from Apple's Widget site .. In particular, we demoed Package Tracker to track your UPS and FEDEX packages, Earthquake will alert you when an earthquake is registered anywhere in the world, Doppler for your live weather doppler radar view and iStat to provide you with valuable system resource information on your Mac.

> We demonstrated Exposé -- new to Tiger and Leopard

> We looked at how to set "Hot Spots" on the corners of your monitor so that you can activate various system features by just moving your mouse into these corner "hot spots.." This functionality is available to you by going to SYSTEM PREFERENCES, then selecting Exposé ... and refer to the section called "Active Screen Corners."

> General discussion of issues related to running Windows on an Intel Mac

> Demonstrated the use of GOOGLE searching to look up any Mac problems. For example, if you see a cryptic error message, just type in that error message text in Google to find out what it all means!

> Today we demonstrated the Icy Dock external drive enclosure. This includes a tray to which you attach a SATA drive (an internal hard disk drive -- like the one in your Mac). With the IcyDock, you can "swap" drives in and out for any number of reasons. Sandro uses his IcyDock this way: he makes a SuperDuper clone copy of his desktop G5 Mac onto a SATA drive that is inserted in the IcyDock, then he takes that clone-copy drive and stores it off-site in his bank safety deposit box. This is done on a quarterly basis. Sandro purchased both his IcyDock (model MB559UEA-1S) and the Western Digital SATA 500GB internal drives from NewEgg.com

> Sandro demonstrated iPhoto "round-tripping." This is where you can set up iPhoto to send your photos to PhotoShop Elements directly for advanced editing. You can set your editor of choice in iPhoto's Preferences.

> We discussed the importance of having your system connected to a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) - particularly in the summer months when you are most likely to suffer a power outage or brown-out. A UPS will keep your system going for a few more minutes on a backup battery so that you can safely close all your files and applications and shut down your Mac. UPSs are very affordable these days. The best one is from APC (American Power Conversion). There are many models to choose from depending on the number and types of devices you want to plug in to the UPS. You can get "consumer" versions at stores such as Staples and BestBuy.

> Using Safari and a .Mac account you can create an iCard with any of your own pictures. It's particularly easy to do if you use iPhoto (and if you aren't using iPhoto, why not?!!)

> The ColorSync utility is included with all Macs. It's a tool that helps you calibrate your monitor to get the best color rendition and output you can get. This is called Monitor Calibration and is not to be confused with the third-party hardware devices - such as the Huey or the Spyder - that do a more complete job of calibrating and profiling your monitor for optimal color output so that your prints come out matching what you see on the monitor. At the very least, you should periodically use the ColorSync utility -- located in SYSTEM PREFERENCES in the MONITORS preferences. Then click on the COLOR tab at the top. Depending on the version of OSX you are running you need to get into the COLORSYNC area or (as it's now called) the CALIBRATE area. Once you're in ColorSync ... just follow the simple instructions.

> Discussions always return to .Mac (the "dot Mac" service from Apple) .... many people do not realize how many services .Mac gives you - it's not just about email!! Check it out .. www.Apple.com/dotmac

After our Spring Break, we reconvened and talked more about video on the Mac. Question came up about how to capture video from the screen. We demonstrated an excellent application which has been around for quite some time -- SnapZ Pro by Ambrosia Software. By the way, this is what I use to generate all my specialized screen shots for documentation and presentations. While the new Grab program that comes with every Mac does a great job for screen captures, it is not as flexible AND it does not catch video. Also, SanpZ Pro will actually record any actions you make on screen, with sound. This is especially valuable for recording for the purpose of creating video tutorials.

We also demonstrated how to globally set file associations on the Mac. For example, say that your PDF files open into Adobe Reader when you double-click them, but you want them to open into Apple's Preview (much faster, and now with powerful annotation tools in the Leopard version). Here's what you do so that from now on anytime you open any PDF file, it will launch Preview: Go to any one PDF file and click on it ONCE to select it. Then, from the FILE menu, select GET INFO. In the Get Info dialog, where it says "Open With" (you may have to expand this option), click on the pop-up menu there to show a list of apps on your machine that can open a PDF file, and select Preview. But you're not finished! See just below where it says CHANGE ALL ... click that, and after some confirmations you will have set Preview to open your PDF files.

Today we focused on Font issues and we talked a bit about Apple's Disk Utility as well as the System Info dialog box -- located under the Apple menu, select About This Mac

Discussions this week:

> Resolution issues in QuickTime - how to set, when to change, etc

> There is an excellent series of e-books in PDF format, called Take Control Books at www.takecontrolbooks.com They publish many e-books on Macintosh topics: from Panther to Leopard, Apple and third party applications, and other things such as troubleshooting, email, spam, security, Airport, and much more .... all Mac-centric. These cost from $5 to $10 and some are available in print form.

> We touched on the creation of DVDs using iMovie and iDVD ... a topic to explore further!

> Conversion of Keynote presentations to QuickTime was demonstrated

For this week's meeting I brought in my own favorite mouse ... the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. A completely different design for a mouse, the Evoluent makes you use your mouse in a more comfortable and ergonomic fashion.

We also talked about establishing resolution settings for overhead projectors.

We demonstrated how to create and modify your own desktop images. The standard desktops are stored in ~/Library/Desktops. You can open these in Photoshop and edit them as needed.

This week we continued last week's discussions about Memory. We talked about why there are system slowdowns due to memory issues, how to clear them up, and how to manage memory. We covered the different classifications of memory - Wired, Active, Inactive and Free.

This week we looked at a number of things pertaining to Mac.:

1. "Zapping" the Parameter RAM is a maintenance technique that has been used since the very first model back in the 80's. This technique clears a number of hardware anomalies that may crop up from time to time. This is done by holding down the OPTION-COMMAND-P-R keys while restarting. Continue to hold down the keys. The Mac will cycle through restarts ... let up when the you hear the fourth start-up chime.

2. We demoed Exposé, and how to set it up.

3. We discussed Spaces -- the new "Virtual Desktop" feature found in OSX 10.5 Leopard.

4. We talked about how to program extra mouse buttons found on the Apple Mighty Mouse and other third-party mice. This is done via the Keyboard & Mouse System Preference.

5. We discussed memory issues that can crop up, and how to monitor memory usage via Activity Monitor - a system utility located in the Utilities folder .... accessible via the Finder's GO menu.

This week we covered a panoply of topics during our meeting.

1. How to set up your file window views in the Finder. Once you open any directory window, you then go to the VIEW menu (in Finder) and then select SHOW VIEW OPTIONS. This is available in both Tiger and Leopard.

2. We talked about creating and organizing MAILBOXES (folders) in Apple's Mail.app.

3. Smart Mailboxes in Mail.app , Smart Folders in the Finder, and Smart Albums in iPhoto are all powerful time-saving techniques available to Tiger and Leopard users.

4. The funny Apple Photo Booth program was demonstrated. This is a great program for having some fun with kids (small AND big)! It comes on all Macs that have a built-in iSight camera. We also showed how to use Photo Booth to capture your picture and setting it as your logon icon.

5. We discussed issues pertaining to the Linksys 802.11 (WiFi) home routers and Apple Airport (Express/Extreme). We looked at matters regarding channel selection and interference from wireless phones, microwave ovens, and neighboring wireless networks.

6. VersionTracker.com was demonstrated. This is a great place to obtain Mac software and to learn more about it. Free!

7. The AppZapper application was demonstrated ("The Uninstaller Apple Forgot"). This little utility aids in the removal of software, but the true power of it is that it also removes all resources and files related to the programs you want to remove from your Mac.

This week we began a new segment called "My Favorite Apps" where I invite others to participate at any meeting. Go to the Downloads Page for my first list of applications "I can't live without" to get things started.

Also ... we talked about the rich, new features found in Apple's Preview program which has been substantially updated in OSX 10.5 Leopard. What I like the most is that we can now annotate PDF files with callout boxes, circles, sticky-note comments and we can cross-out, and my favorite -- highlight text. Additionally, we can now reorder pages, delete pages and combine PDF files.

This week we discussed the actual Time Machine application and what happens in a situation where files need to be restored. This is something that users generally don't test -- while the MAY have a backup plan, they never really test to see how a RESTORE works. With Time Machine, it couldn't be any easier, AND it couldn't be any more intuitive, in Apple's inimitable fashion! For those new to Mac, Time Machine is included on every new Mac, and is part of the new Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard operating system.

Rather than bring in my external drive and cables, I created a SCREENCAST of my own Time Machine setup at my home Mac. If you haven't seen this, please download the QuickTime movie from the Downloads page and take a look. The movie is about 7 minutes.

Next week, we'll take a close look at Leopard's new Preview application which now supports annotations of PDF files and a whole lot more! Also, we'll start a new segment -- "My Favorite Apps."

WELCOME BACK TO A NEW SEMESTER OF A.L.L.M.U.G. Meetings!

This week we welcomed several new members to our Mac User Group meeting! Welcome, and please extend an invitation to other Mac (and Windows) users!

This week we talked about the MUG, and immediately fell into a conversation on the ever-important topic of making backups. We discussed the new Time Machine backup application found in Leopard OS X 10.5.

Next week, we'll look at a demo of Time Machine in action, and I'd like to start a new segment called "My Favorite Apps." I will start off by telling you about some of the apps and utilities I Can't Live Without! I invite others to participate in future meetings and tell us (and perhaps demo) what their favorite apps are.

Today we took a close look at the new Spaces feature in OSX 10.5 Leopard.

At next week session we will discuss offsite data storage, and in particular, the online services available for data storage. Additionally, we want to discuss and demo how Disk Utility is used to prepare an external hard disk drive.

NO MORE MEETINGS UNTIL AFTER OUR WINTER BREAK ... SEE YOU AGAIN in FEBRUARY '08!

At today's meeting we looked into the actual Leopard installation. We discussed the choices you have to make regarding the type of installation -- "Upgrade Mac OS X," "Archive and Install," or "Erase and Install."

Next week, we will look at Spaces in Leopard.

No meeting today! See you next week, when we will actually go through a Leopard installation process and discuss any issues ...

During today's meeting, we concentrated on some of the great, new features in Leopard. We brought in an external Western Digital "MyBook Studio Edition" 500GB Quadruple Interface Hard Disk Drive, and along with our Leopard-equipped G4 PowerBook, we looked at the new Time Machine feature which silently automates our backup of the PowerBook drive.

The MyBook drive was purchased at MacMall.com

Next time, we expect to go over an actual installation process, and discuss the issues there...

Today we spent the hour looking at a new Leopard installation on a PowerBook G4. We spent a good deal of the time looking at some of the Finder features -- in particular, the new file views called Coverflow and Quick Look. Next week, we'll have an external drive connected to the PowerBook so that we can explore the new Time Machine - Apple's new integrated backup technology. We also plan to run through a Leopard installation procedure from an installation disc.

So, today we took an initial look at the new OSX 10.5 Leopard on the new class iMac. There are plenty of new and exciting features to explore and to talk about in future ALLMUG sessions.

Meanwhile, we continued on our discussions about backup strategies and external hard drive recommendations. Clearly, there is much interest in this topic, particularly since Apple is including a revolutionary new backup technology called Time Machine in the new Leopard operating system.

We also talked more about setting up Apple Mail to fetch emails that you would typically go to a website to get. Let Apple Mail handle all your email tasks. It's just a matter of configuring your accounts correctly in Mail's preferences. We also looked at Address Book integration with Apple Mail, and we took a look at GMAIL (Google Mail) - an excellent free email service.

Next week's topic will be: "Your Options When Upgrading to Leopard (revisited)" plus a closer look at Leopard.

FYI -- we have renewed our space in room 219 for the CONTINUATION of our ALLMUG meetings through the Spring Semester! Same bat-time, same bat-channel!

This week we continued a discussion on backup strategies -- an obviously important topic. I am happy to see that there is so much interest and that our members recognize the importance of doing backups. The concept of CLONING (via SuperDuper) versus traditional backups were discussed. Whether or not to clone your drive is really dependent on how you work on your Mac, the importance of getting a crashed Mac up and running in no time (eg; running a business on your Mac), and other considerations. The backup software I use and recommend is called "Data Backup" by Prosoft Engineering. There is a free trial and is intuitive to set up and schedule for unattended backups. Also, if you have a .Mac Services subscription, you should really take a look at Apple's "Backup" application which is free with the subscription. It is very easy to use, comes with a lot of presets, and you can use it to backup your files both to your online .Mac account on the internet or to a local drive (or both!).

Today's topic was "What You Need To Do To Prepare For Leopard." --- Apple has announced that Leopard ships on October 26 and many of us Mac Geeks are looking forward to being "early adopters." You may want to hold off a bit and see how things go. Also, you need to consider the following before upgrading:

1. Backup, Backup, and backup again!
2. Have a good and capacious external drive for use with the new "Time Machine" software that will be included with Leopard. This program will automate backups and versions of your documents.
3. Check your hardware compatibility for Leopard. The minimum specifications are: a 867 MHz G4 Power Macintosh, 512 MB RAM, and 9 GB free disk space.
4. Check that your software is UP-TO-DATE and Leopard-compatible. The best place to check is at the software developer's website.

Next week's topic will be: "Your Options When Upgrading to Leopard."

Today's discussions started with questions regarding backup strategies and different media. A trend is towards external drives -- good drives are capacious and inexpensive. Always stick to well established brands, and look for ones with multiple interfaces (ie; Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and USB 2.0).

Today's topic was .Mac (dotmac) Services from Apple.

For our next meeting, we will talk about what to do to prepare your Mac for the new OSX 10.5 Leopard release coming up.

Today we followed up on last week's question: "Can I retain Safari history beyond one week?" The answer lies in entering UNIX commands in Terminal which write to Safari's preference file. You can specify how many days you want Safari to remember the link history. A couple of caveats - 1. Be VERY careful when using Terminal; you could do some damage if not attentive, 2. The longer time period you set for Safari's history will slow down Safari.

Our discussions and demos today delved into the world of BACKUPS!! We talked about SuperDuper! - a great utility for cloning your startup drive. This is just one of several ways to backup your data. There was much interest in this subject, I was happy to see .... clearly, we will be talking more about this in future meetings.

For our next meeting, we will cover and explain .Mac services and why you should seriously consider subscribing to it.

Today we discussed a number of issues, and answered lots of questions!

Topics included Apple Mail once again, and Safari ... best ways to use these applications.

Question of the week > "Can I retain Safari history beyond one week?" The answer next week!

Unless there are other pressing matters to present and discuss, we will cover backup strategies during our meeting next week.

In today's meeting we spent a lot of time discussing email issues -- especially Apple's Mail application. We decided to defer our discussion and demonstration of subscribing to and downloading podcasts through iTunes, as the members who were most interested in this topic were not present today.

Apple Mail is an excellent program that can manage multiple email accounts. In typical Apple fashion, it has a simple interface, yet is a powerful and feature-rich program. Many have found Microsoft Entourage for the Mac to be a bit overkill - it is really more appropriate in a corporate setting.

We also discussed the use of GMAIL -- a free web-based email service with no storage limits. For more information, go to www.gmail.com . We looked at how to set up Apple Mail to automatically retrieve emails from GMail. We took a brief look at setting up RULES in Apple Mail, and we will spend more time on this in a future session. We also talked about spam and phishing scams - these are email maladies that do, indeed, affect Macintosh users as well as Windows users.

A couple of our ALLMUG members brought up an interesting question: When entering a name in the TO: field in Apple Mail, how do we stop the application from automatically filling in an email address that is obsolete or incorrect? We spent some time going over this. The answer - access the "Previous Recipients" list under the WINDOW menu. The resulting dialog box allows you to delete previous recipient email addresses, or correct them. A full PDF tutorial called "Tip: Clearing Out the 'Previous Recipients List' in Apple Mail" can be found on the DOWNLOADS page on this site.

Our first meeting of the ALLMUG was a big success. We are starting out with about 10 people, and there is a lot of passion and interest in that room. Several people were not aware of the existence of this Academy extracurricular activity ... we will send out a notice to other IT classes and groups.

Here's what we covered:

> We talked about the importance of a computer users group -- ANY computer user group! Mac users are part of a community of computer users who are always ready and willing to help each other and people new to the platform.

> Our "meetings" are very informal get-togethers where we discuss anything Macintosh. Lots of questions come up on how to do this and that, and we all share techniques, tips and trips.

> Software updates for all third-party software can be monitored and obtained via two on-line services: www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com

> We talked a bit about the upcoming OSX release (October 30). Some people want to know if they should wait to get a new Mac until it comes with Leopard. Basically, the standard answer to this question is that if you need a computer now, go ahead and get it now. If you want to upgrade later on, Leopard is relatively inexpensive ($129) and fairly trivial to install. If you have invested in third-party software, you should begin to monitor the developer websites for upgrades and information on Leopard compatibility.

> We demonstrated how to bring in streaming radio through iTunes.

NEXT WEEK:
- Among other topics, we will talk about Podcasts and demonstrate how they can be subscribed to and downloaded via iTunes.