Apple Bits volume 31, issue 07
Northeast Ohio Apple Corps
WWDC Delivers A New 3G iPhone,
Exciting App demos, MobileMe
and More
Cover photo: The first Apple Store located in Australia opened in Sydney
NEOAC
Northeast Ohio Apple Corps
P.O. Box 31546
Independence, OH 44131-0546 Annual dues are $20.00 per family. To join or
contactneoac@mac.com renew your membership, you can either pay at a
meeting or mail a check made out to “Northeast
Officers Ohio Apple Corps” and sent to the PO box noted
President: above.
Marv Leventhal
Vice President: Dues include access to our listserv (an online
Dave Popeck bulletin board where you can post questions
and/or comments at any time), a PDF of our
Secretary:
Ron Abrams monthly newsletter and the opportunity to par-
ticipate in our monthly raffle for valuable Apple
Membership:
Christopher Dickey
and Apple-related products.
Treasurer: Unless otherwise noted, NEOAC meetings start
Fred Lotte at 9:30 a.m. on the fourth Saturday of each
Member At Large: month at the Strongsville Public Library.
Neil Radke Strongsville Public Library
Community Outreach: 18700 Westwood Drive
Mary Sue Eckard Strongsville, Ohio 44136-3495
440-238-5530
Valued Assistants (Directly behind the Strongsville Police Station)
Listserv Administrator:
Bob Abbott
Refreshments Coordinator:
Mary Sue Eckard
Next Meeting
The annual picnic! Show up after 1:00 p.m. on Saturday,
Website Administrator: July 26, 2008 at the Eckard’s home in Solon, Ohio. As al-
Marv Leventhal ways, family members of group members are welcome.
Each person is asked to bring a side dish or dessert. The
Newsletter Editor: club will provide meats, buns, mayonnaise-based salads
Dave Popeck and pop. If you would like to attend, please RSVP on the
NEOAC list.
Cover photo courtesy of Apple.
The MT Show: podcast re Apple and Mac related news Apple Bits - July 2008
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Last Meeting Skitch by plasq
Saturday, June 28, 2008 Ever find an app that materially
changes the way you work? Skitch
“Comings & Goings” is such an app for me. This little
Marty announced that Scott had resigned as president. program has run the gamut from
The board appointed Marv Leventhal as president for curious to fun to helpful to indis-
the remainder of the year term. Here’s a big thank you pensible. “Isn’t it just a screen cap
to Marv to stepping up to the plate for the group. program? Lots of programs do that!”
Well, “yes” it is another screen cap app, but “no” it’s not your run-
Marv demonstrated the program Animation-ish. The of-the-mill program. Simply put, you will keep discovering new
software maker generously donated a license for our uses for Skitch. Brought to you by plasq the
raffle. Animation-ish allows one to easily make small folks who make Comic Life, Skitch is sure to be a hit.
animations. For more information, visit their web site.
The toolset is what you want for capturing screens. You can
draw shapes, add arrows, and insert text right on your captured
Derrick lectured about home wireless networking. He images, or fetch pictures from iPhoto or Pictures folder and start
described his home network, including use of Time doodling away. Nice mustache, Jared!
Capsule, and gave general tips about running a secure
wireless network.
Raffle: a license for Animation-ish and (2) $25 Apple gift
cards.
In July, the regular meeting is replaced
by the annual picnic on Saturday,
July 26, 2008.
Coming in August:
A special presentation of an iMovie made by high school
junior Catherine Licina about Jewish children from One click changes the filetype extension then just drag to desk-
Germany during World War II. After the movie she will top or another folder. Webpost options let you send your image
provide us with some insight into what it took to make to, among other things, your Skitch account, .Mac (soon to be
this documentary. Following the presentation will be MobileMe), FTP or Flickr.
a representative from Quadstar who will describe their
Whether you are grabbing web images, writing notes on web
business and field your queries in a Q&A session. For
pages or making step-by-step instructions, you will love Skitch.
more re Quadstar, an authorized Apple service provider,
Currently in open beta.
visit their web site or go to their
store in Broadview Heights. .
Widget of the Month
$0.99 Movie of the Week on iTunes
Every week Apple offers a special 99¢ movie rental on iTunes.
99Rental.com keeps track of the $0.99 iTunes Movie of Week
for you. You can check the site or be notified automatically
through RSS, Email, Twitter, or Dashboard Widget.
The Macalope: A Blog About All Things Apple Apple Bits - July 2008
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Betty Bytes Bits
Dear Betty, iMac. I had to send them back and that was a hassle!
I got some burnable DVD disks recently that didn’t work. So, as you can see, this is very confusing, and you have
My Mac said they were unrecognizable. It’s a burnable to be very careful what you read to get something that
DVD disk, what’s the problem with that? will work with your equipment.
Burned Out Ahhhh, if it were only that simple!
Dear BO, There is a dual layer disk manufacturer called Playo. For
a year or two I got their disks, DVD+R DL, that came
The world of DVD has gotten strange lately. There are with a black top label, and they worked flawlessly. This
more types all the time, and they are not all compat- last time the disks came with no black top label on
ible with all machines. the box, just a side band with orange lettering. They
were also called DVD+R DL just like before, but NO disk
My Intel iMac has a super drive that is compatible with would work or even be recognized by my machine. I
the following disks according to the owner’s manual. went to the store and got some Memorex DVD+R DL
• DVD+R DL disks, to check the machine, and they worked fine. I
• DVD±RW have notified the manufacturer to see what comments
• DVD±R they have about this problem, and have so far received
no answer. Just be aware that while it SHOULD work,
The ± sign indicates both + and – disks are usable— sometimes it doesn’t against all logic.
more on that later.
Playo has been repeatedly notified of the problem
So, what are these disk types? According to Wikipedia and as of this publish date have made no comment,
DVDs have the following formats. other than the matter has been sent to their Product
Non-recordable formats Manager. The initial response from Playo came in a
• DVD-ROM—A format such as used for most movies few hours, and no other response in the following two
you buy weeks. My guess is that the disks were labeled wrong.
• DVD-D—A self-destructing format—shades of Until I get some kind of answer that makes sense I will
Mission Impossible—I kid you not! avoid all Playo disks.
• DVD Plus—Both CD and DVD technologies on the It was time to send them back—another hassle! This
same disk time I ordered Philips replacements. The Philips disks
Recordable formats supported by the DVD Forum perform flawlessly.
• DVD-R for Authoring—Used to make DVD masters The company I have been buying from, Meritline, has
• DVD-R—Standard usage, 4.7 GB. been pretty good about this with fast service, good
• DVD-RW—A rewritable DVD prices, and free shipping on selected items, at least
• DVD-R DL—Like DVD-R but dual layer for 8.5 GB until I have to send them back, hence the hassle! With
storage the problems I have had they have taken the mer-
• DVD-RAM—Old style cartridge disk chandise back with no restocking charge giving me
• DVD-AR—Recordable audio DVD full credit. I did have to pay return postage though, so
Recordable formats supported by DVD+RW Alliance that’s always a hassle. Give them a look-see, you might
• DVD+R—Up to 4.7 GB at 16x speed like them.
• DVD+RW—Rewritable version of above
• DVD+R DL— Dual layer for 8.5 GB
You can get on their mailing list and see specials 2-3
The whole article is at the site below. Be aware that it is times a week that have no shipping charges. Just
subject to change as the format evolves, so bookmark remember, Meritline is a distributor, so changes can
this one! happen that are not under their control, but they will
work with you to fix the problem.
My iMac super drive can handle the +R DL, +RW, -RW, By the way, the DVDs I have been ordering, also from
+R, and –R formats. Notice that a DVD+R DL is NOT Meritline, are the Taiyo Yuden which are supposed to
the same as a DVD-R DL. I guarantee that because I ac- be excellent. I have had excellent luck with them with
cidentally ordered some DVD-R DL disks, didn’t read as no failures using hundreds of disks.
carefully as I should have, and they didn’t work on my
Apple Phone Show: podcast re all things iPhone Apple Bits - July 2008
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WWDC Delivers The Goods
While the announcement of a 3G iPhone was considered a fait reveals the potential of the iPhone for those smartphone users
accompli before the conference began, WWDC proved full of mulling over their next phone. If games shown on the iPhone
important and exciting news: a re-branded .Mac became Mo- play as good as they look, the iPhone is now a credible gaming
bile Me and the iPhone apps store was made alive with several platform to challenge the standard bearers in the handheld
demos by software developers. gaming arena. Why buy a DS Lite when you can get the game
on your iPhone without having to carry an extra device? And
Fans of the iPhone must have cheered after reading about the let’s not forget, the iPhone is an iPod.
keynote. As expected, the 3G iPhone was announced. As sus-
pected, the new phone will be equipped with GPS. What came The biggest news for me was the rebirth of .Mac as MobileMe.
as a surprise to everyone was the drop in price of the phone: Describes as “Exchange for the rest of us,” this new initiative
the 3G iPhone with 8G of storage will be only $199. While some opens the door to enterprise customers and power users. The
will quibble abut the increased cost of running a 3G phone ability to seamlessly and nearly instantly sync your iPhone and
with a new data plan, the lower up-front cost nearly washes home computers is vital for many business users. Gone will be
out the effect of the data plan. The rumor that the plan will not the need to sync your phone as email and calendar changes
include text messages is a potential annoyance, but AT&T has get pushed to your remote devices. Available July 11, MobileMe
not released official word as of this writing. Let’s face it folks, will provide 20GB of storage for $99 per year for individuals and
the difference is less than $100 and you are getting a much $149 for a Family Pack.
improved network, better battery life and a thinner phone.
Caveat emptor: check your local 3G coverage before making The announcement of Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) went under
the plunge for the more expensive data plan. the radar of many news sources. This future update to the Mac
operating system will focus on security and stability. By not
Other changes to the iPhone reveal that Apple is indeed sweat- relying on eye candy but issuing a substantive update, Apple
ing the small stuff, items integral to a good user experience. For looks to be keen on not allowing the Apple experience to turn
example the crowd roared when it was revealed that users can into the public relations nightmare that has haunted Windows
now use their own headphones due to a simplified headphone Vista. Additionally Snow Leopard will introduce native support
jack. All the small changes add up in the end. As the video dis- for Exchange in Mail, iCal and Address Book.
played, the iPhone will be available across the globe.
The Apple vision for the future is clear: business users are the
Several software developers were brought on stage to show prime target. In an era of Apple gaining market share in both
what they could get running in a short development window. computing and phone markets, Jobs made it clear that the
I heard podcasts bemoaning this part of the keynote, but it gloves are off and he came out punching.
Apple Introduces MobileMe Internet Service Apple Bits - July 2008
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Podcaster Interview:
Victor Cajiao
Victor Cajiao first published the Typical Mac User podcast
on New Year’s Day 2006. Two and a half years later and 136
podcasts later, he is still going strong. On his web site one can find links to subscribe to this fun
podcast is published biweekly and covers Apple news, new
products, hardware and software. As an added bonus he has
started releasing short videos from his Flip Mino on the web
site, so be sure to check it out! Lucky for us, Victor was nice
enough to take the time to answer a few questions.
Q: What made you decide to do a podcast?
I was switching to the Mac and I wanted to share my experi-
ence of learning about Mac, Apple and to do it in a way that
I would be a contributor not just a consumer of information.
The show allows me to continue to learn and grow while I learn
about all things in the Apple community, software, hardware I recently had to put the live aspect of the show on hiatus while
and how “The Cult of Mac” is about people coming together I look for another way to do the live shows. They have been
and sharing their knowledge. That fits perfectly into my life and super fulfilling and I miss doing them. There is nothing like two
how I can contribute to it. way interaction in new media, I’m so much more interested in
what all of you have to say, than hearing my own voice. I will
Q: Despite the name of your podcast, you are not a typical user. find a different way to do live content again. Perhaps not every
Can you tell us a little about your IT background? week like I did for 18 months, however it’s too much fun to let it
go. For now I UStream myself almost every weekend and lately
Well I was very “Typical” when I started the show, and although
I have been doing some almost daily videos called Victor’s Mino
I may not be “Typical” today, I still tend to very much relate to
Moments, to keep in touch. I call it that because they are done
the early days of my switching to the Mac and what things
on a Flip Mino camera in my car while I drive home. I post them
baffled me, and what I wanted to learn. My IT background goes
on the blog and they have gotten great reaction. I’m such a
back about sixteen years where I have been anything from a
dork
systems administrator, a developer of IVR’s and Automatic Call
Distributors to a Director of development, QA\QC. This experi- Q: After WWDC I see MobileMe as a potential break out service.
ence in IT, managing and teaching have served me very well in “Exchange for the rest of us” is a major boost to iPhone sales.
doing the podcast and in delivering a show that I would want What are your thoughts on MobileMe (was .Mac)?
to listen to.
I think if Apple has the proper infrastructure to keep it available
Q: With so many episodes completed, do you have any long- then it will be great. I have always been a dot Mac member,
term goals for the podcast? however the dot Mac service is not always available. Apple
has to make that service completely solid so that it can be yet
Well to have the willingness to keep on doing it. It’s sometimes
another gateway for people who don’t use Apple products
difficult because there are so many wonderful Mac related pod-
today (other than the iPhone and iPods). If they can pull off
casts. I often have to really wonder and reflect as to whether I’m
Mobile Me with the ease of use, and dependency that is associ-
contributing something unique or just repeating what other
ated with other Apple products it will be yet another tool in the
do. I try to inject my personality and experience to the podcast
“Halo Affect” to draw more people into Mac computers and all
in order to keep it unique. I’ll keep it going as long as I enjoy
things Apple.
it. Of course another goal is to continue to grow sponsorship,
as the money I make from the show all goes into new gear,
Typical Mac User Podcast
software and all things show related. I have been able to start
a business Typical Media Group LLC, because of the podcast,
and that allows me to provide consulting services on all sorts of
Thanks again to Victor for the interview. The latest podcast,
new media related content.
TMUP 136: It’s all about MIDI with David Sparks, was released
Q: Audience participation is a game-changer. How have the this week: Tuesday, July 1, 2008. To listen visit the site and either
live-streaming programs been for you? use the web player or, better yet, subscribe in iTunes.
Apple Previews Snow Leopard at WWDC Apple Bits - July 2008
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Other Northeast Ohio Groups
NCMUG
Next meeting: July 28, 2008
CLEVELAND DIGITAL PUBLISHING USERS GROUP
Preflight versus Flying Blind:
Why FlightCheck Makes Sense.
Date: 7/31/2008
Meeting Type: Special Meeting
Reception Starts: 6:00 p.m.
Meeting Starts: 6:30 p.m.
Where: Lake Erie Graphics, Inc.
5372 West 130th Street
Brookpark, OH 44142
Driving and Parking Directions on the web site. Buy a Mac, Get an iPod
Speaker(s): Doug Rosen, Markzware
Cost: Free for both members & non-members. If you’re a college student, faculty, or staff
Raffle Prize(s): Markzware Q2ID (a $199 value) member and you buy a qualifying Mac and
Markzware provides a stand-alone tool designed to facilitate
iPod with your Apple education discount now
communication about the status of a print job. In this short through September 15, 2008, while supplies
session you will see FlightCheck in action and discover how it last, and be eligible for a rebate up to $299. I
can help you better communicate amongst yourselves and with will leave it up to you whether you tell your
your customers. parents or grandparents about the deal!
Mac2MUG For more information:
As is customary, there is no July meeting! The next meeting is
Tuesday, August 5, 2008.
Macbook image courtesy of Apple
How to resize images from digital cameras
by Lesa Snider King
In this article Lesa shows us how to resize an image using
Photoshop Elements, She offers tips as to what pixels and
resolution are best for printing. A very useful article for those
of us who are far from experts of digital photography printing.
Thanks to Emilie for the heads up on the article!
See the full article:
For more on Adobe Photoshop Elements, including how to ob-
tain a free 30 day trial version, visit the official Adobe site:
iTunes Store Tops Over Five Billion Songs Sold Apple Bits - July 2008
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Mac 911
By Christopher Breen
Adding 802.11n to older iMac
Drag the small icon of the Downloads folder that appears just
Reader Frank Blank has drawn a blank in regard to upgrading
to the left of the address into the Bookmarks Bar and name it
the wireless connection on an older iMac. He writes:
something like Downloads. Now when you want quick access
I have three Macs networked at home through an Airport Ex- to files you’ve downloaded, just click this new Downloads
treme Base Station. The MacBook and Intel iMac communicate bookmark. When you do, the Downloads folder opens in the
like greased lightning. Communication with the 2.1GHz iMac Finder.
G5 is much much slower. Since the laptop, Intel iMac, and Air-
Similarly, in Safari’s Downloads window you can quickly get
Port Base Station utilize 802.11n, and the iMac G5 uses 802.11g,
to your downloaded file by clicking the Magnifying Glass
is there a way to upgrade the older iMac to the faster wireless
icon next to its name. The Finder comes to the fore with the
speed?
Downloads window open and your file highlighted (unless it’s
The least expensive way to do this is to eschew wireless on the a disk-image file that was automatically opened, in which case
old iMac and run an Ethernet cable from the Base Station to the clicking this icon takes you to the window that shows you all
iMac. Your iMac’s network performance will increase dramati- the mounted volumes on your Mac). I also make it a point to
cally and its “g” wireless won’t slow down the rest of the wireless drag the Downloads folder into a Finder window’s Sidebar so
network. that I can quickly open it from any Finder window.
On the other hand, perhaps you don’t feel like completely rear- Sound off in specific applications
ranging your home so that the Base Station and iMac sit near Reader Alec Saunders sounds off on turning sound off for spe-
each other. If not, you can upgrade the iMac to 802.11n, but cific applications. He writes:
not internally. Apple’s n-flavored wireless cards don’t work with
older iMacs. I was wondering if there was a way to disable sound in certain
applications. Specifically in Safari so I don’t have to hear the
You can, however, add 802.11n via USB. For example, Other sound in games.
World Computing sells the MaxPower 802.11n/g/b Wireless
USB 2.0 Stick Adapter for $50. Jack it into a USB 2.0 port, install The cheap and easy way is to just bang on the Mac keyboard’s
the driver, choose it as the wireless adapter you’d like to use, Mute key when you have Safari before you. Regrettably, this
and your older iMac is communicating at 802.11n speeds. shuts everything up, which is probably not what you want.
Directly accessing the Downloads folder JoeSoft’s $50 Hear, in addition to enhancing your Mac’s audio in
Reader Charles Bilkin is unsatisfied with a Safari feature, he a wide variety of ways (equalizer and 3D effects included), pro-
writes: vides a mixer component that allows you to separately adjust
the volume of all the applications running on your Mac. In my
When I used Safari running under Tiger, my downloads would book, $50 is a lot to pay for just this single feature, but I also like
go to the Desktop. Now that I’m using Leopard, they go into the its other features which helps me live with the price tag.
Downloads folder. I know that my Desktop is cleaner now, but I
don’t like having to open my Downloads folder whenever I want
to get a file I’ve downloaded. Is there some way to turn this off?
Sure, just open Safari’s preferences, click the General tab, and, Read Chris’ columns and blog at Macworld. For more
from the Save Downloaded Files To pop-up menu, choose re Chris, try web searching for “bouffant of knowl-
Other. In the sheet that appears, navigate to the Desktop folder edge! Get special user group pricing on Macworld
in your user folder and click Select. Files you download will ap- Magazine! Subscribe today .”
But before you do that, consider this: Perhaps you can have
both easy access to your downloaded files and a clearer Desk- [Macworld Senior Editor Chris Breen is the author of
top. Like so: Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, fifth edition, and The
Enter an address like this in Safari’s Address field:
iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide (both Peachpit Press,
2005). Find Chris’ books at and
file:///Users/yourusername/Downloads .]
(Naturally yourusername would be the name of your user ac-
count.)
Macbreak Weekly: A Podcast from Pixel Corps and the TWiT.tv network Apple Bits - July 2008
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