appleJAC Macintosh Users

President's Place

by George Kopp

The year has flown by, and here we are at December again. It amazes me how much has changed in the Apple universe since just a year ago. New computers and iOS devices seem like the normal thing now, but just a year ago, the features we take for granted today seemed like just a dream.  

iOS 5 has made our iPads and iPhones much more like computers and Mac OS 10.7 Lion has even made our Macs much more like our iPads. I foresee this trend continuing. But, as in all aspects of life, some things do come to an end, and those include my term serving as your President.

At our December meeting, we will have our annual business meeting and election of 2012 officers. In addition to this, we will be making some long overdue corrections and modifications to the Bylaws of appleJAC. These changes make our group more like the group we have become. They de=emphasize the Macintosh perspective for an emphasis on the Apple prospective. If you attend meetings, you know this has been the way the group has trended for the last few years. In between presentations on the Mac, we often have presentations on other Apple products, primarily the iOS devices that so many of us use on a daily basis.

I want to be clear. We are still a Macintosh users group, but we are modifying our Bylaws to prepare us for the future with a more broad Apple centric approach. These Bylaws are on the website (immediately following the agenda) for you to review (thanks Tom Piper for his efforts in scribing these changes)

The Nominating Committee has also come up with what looks to be a great slate of officers for next year.  Many of our number are continuing to serve in a leadership capacity, but we also have some new people getting involved and some others that are returning to the Board to assist the group as we move forward. Listed below are the nominations so far; we will accept other nominations from the floor also.

appleJAC Officer Nominations 2012

President - Julie Smith
Vice President - Alice Kopp
Secretary - Trish Alexander
Treasurer - Mark Snell
Webmaster - Tom Piper
Librarian - Joe Mertzlufft
Member@Large (room setup and presenters needs) - Greg Breuer
Member@Large (refreshments) - Sue Snell
Member@Large (photos) - Dan Walsh
Member@Large (recruiting) - Peggy Landwehr
Member@Large (past president) - George Kopp

Last month we moved our meeting location to Kennedy Hall in Immaculate Conception Church at 1206 East McCarty St. in Jefferson City. This new location proved to be a fantastic meeting room for us, and we will be discussing our future meeting locations at the business meeting also.

But don't let the thought of a business meeting scare you away. Tom Piper will be filling us in and responding to inquiries on the features of iOS5, and I will be presenting (and yes, answering all your questions) on iCloud, Apple's new cloud service package available to all Lion users at no cost.

This will be another great meeting to get a few details so you can answer your families questions while sitting around the Christmas tree later in December.

I hope to see you all at the meeting this month.

 

Proposed Amendment to aJMUG Bylaws

The appleJAC Macintosh Users Group Board of Directors is considering a series of changes to its corporate Bylaws which it hopes can be approved at the December 6 Annual Meeting.

These changes are intended to achieve the following:

• Eliminate the emphasis on Macintosh and focus on Apple products ( we have been doing this anyway with the iPhone and iPad of late);
• Eliminate the maximum number of Members of the Board of Directors;
• Emphasize that Board Members may be asked to perform a focused function (ie... refreshments, recruitment....); and
• Miscellaneous housekeeping changes for consistency and clarity.

The last changes were made five years ago. The current Bylaws showing highlighted proposed changes (overstrike to delete, underline to add) are shown on the attached document (Download AppleJAC Bylaws 120611).

 

Taking your Photos Beyond iPhoto

by George Kopp

Do you want to do more with your photos than iPhoto can do? Perhaps make some edits to the photo itself or a portion of the photo? Do I have a deal for you . . . 

iPhoto gives you the ability to make some terrific modifications to your photos. If you need to adjust the color or saturation of a photo, it gives you great tools to be able to deal with these kinds of corrections. But, what if you need to make a change to the image itself? Perhaps you need to fix the color of only a portion of the image. To do this you need additional tools. 

The industry standard for such work is Photoshop which gives a professional photographer the ability make nearly any change to an image that could be dreamed of. But Adobe Photoshop is an expensive program at over $700 and has a steep learning curve. 

Fortunately, Adobe recognizes that the photo enthusiast cannot spend this much money to do minor edits to their photos. Adobe also sells a product called Photoshop Elements. Elements provides much of the ability to make modifications to photos that an amateur photographer might need. In addition, they also provide additional tools that make typical modifications you might want to make even easier. As good as iPhoto is, there are times it is just not quite enough, and Elements gives you those extra tools you need to save that all important shot. 

Some of the great features in Elements include: 

• Cookie cutter tool
• Smart brush tool
• Photomerge modes, like Group Shot, Scene Cleaner, Faces, and Style Match
• Guided Edits and Quick Fix mode
• Automatically divide scanned photos when using a scanner
• Photo creation templates for photo books, greeting cards, calendars, and more
• Easy online sharing options for Facebook, Flickr, etc. 

Adobe sells Photoshop Elements for $99 in a box, or for $79 from the Apple App Store. But, during the holiday season, you might be able to pick up a copy of Photoshop Elements 10 for as little as $49 on sale. 

If you are looking for the next tool to put into your photo-fixing bag of tricks, Elements might just be the one for you. At the lower cost, it is a great way to begin looking at serious photo editing and provide the easy-to-use tools to get those fixes right the first time.

If there was enough interest, appleJAC might be able to offer a class this Winter or early Spring in using Photoshop Elements. If you have such interest, be sure to let one of our officers know.

To find out more about Photoshop Elements 10, check out the features from Adobe’s web site at this link:  http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/features.html.

iSupr8 and AutoValve: Retro Views of Sight and Sound

a review by Tom Piper

Nostalgia is so heart-warming . . . reflecting back on the bygone era of 8-track players, skate keys, Kodachrome film, ducktails, and . . . oh, my gosh, talking about dating myself into primitive times! Yet, these selective memories seem more carefree and happier than the obligations and responsibilities of today. I’ve found a couple of apps that bring that wistfulness back to overlay some of our modern technology.

First is Instant Vintage Video iSupr8, the most advanced mobile Super 8 film filter in the world. You can rediscover the beauty of authentic vintage Super 8 film through this video recorder which grades each pixel based on exposure adding old school effects. The resulting film becomes a unique and retro masterpiece. 
This company is all about keeping the 8mm movement alive. iSupr8 is not just a fun novelty app, but instead an effort to revive and increase awareness of a commercially dying format to a new generation, as well as a production tool for filmmakers seeking an authentic, vintage look.

Second is AutoValve which adds retro analog love to your digital library. You can bring back the glory days of tube analog to the palm of your hand with real-time vinyl, reel-to-reel and 8-track effects. It is fun to hear the needle drop, and listen to the snap, crackle and pop of your musical library. Plug in your iPod and watch classic VU Meters bounce and reels spin with vintage glory.

AutoValve allows you to choose from multiple vinyl samples and mix it to your liking, or select an analog reel-to-reel to access that beautiful hiss you grew up on. You can take a trip to the drive-in and enjoy the ambience of that big metal mono speaker in your car window along with the sounds of summer. And, even better, you can choose a 1960′s or 1970′s skin to transport you back to your favorite classic decade. The glowing tubes, bouncing meters, cool knobs and reminiscent switches bring back the memories we all know and love. Its all done in real time with real music.

I’ve had a lot of fun with these apps, applying scratches and pops to modern renditions of various music. It puts a smile on my face to peer through the window of my iPhone at spinning vinyl (or swipe it to the rolling hissing reels, or pulsing 8-track, or flickering drive-in speaker, complete with people in the background), all fully adjustable according to my mood. It was also a delight to convert some of my videos to old 12/18/24 fps film with Tru8 100D filmstock (or any of 7 more film stocks at 99¢ each) yielding a quivering yellowish clip that could well have been taken 50 years ago (you can do the same with a live recording in either regular or zoom mode). It brings back a warm fuzzy feeling to new recordings. 

In order to purchase either iSupr8 or AutoValve ($1.99 each), just go to the App Store or use http://itunes.apple.com/app/isupr8/id413566476?mt=8 or http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autovalve/id461183638?ls=1&mt=8. To learn more about MEA Mobile (Auckland, New Zealand, and New Haven, Connecticut) and their full range of products, go to http://www.meamobile.com/sample-page/. Even with our modern iPhones and iPod touches, we can still bring back the sentimentality of our cool sights and sounds from years gone by.

Who Owes What app: Keeping Track of Divided Expenses

a review by Tom Piper

Every year when we’ve gone to Macworld, my friend Mark has taken on the laborious task of tracking who paid for what (meals, taxis, rail, tips, fares, and other) during the trip, then calculating the balances due from everyone afterwards. This type of exercise happens weekly for many of us when going to restaurants and elsewhere with friends, and its a chore. A neat solution is now at hand.

Who Owes What from DMS Interactive, Inc. can be very helpful, and ,with a few clicks, have the answer, tip included. This great iPhone app just calculated how much the tip should be and is about to do all the adding and dividing. This is a fast and convenient way to help keep track of shared expenses, track what people owe you, figure out who is buying the next round, split a bill evenly or allocate to what each person owes.

Who Owes What can monitor loans and debts with one or more people over time. Anytime you want, you can view a transaction list to see any outstanding monies owed to you. What about those outings where you and a friend take turns paying? This app can handle that, too. You don’t have to try to remember or figure it out because it’s all done for you, and it can add notes too, if you want.

This app uses a one-screen data entry that is a pleasure to use. It will remember the last tip rate you used, let you easily adjust rates and amounts, and even allows you to email the current status of an IOU. It is four apps in one: IOU, Whose Turn, Tip Calculator and Check Split. 

You can download Who Owes What for $1.99 from the App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/who-owes-what/id449051748?ls=1&mt=8), and learn more about the app and the company at http://www.dmsinteractive.com/main/iosapps.php. This is a nifty app that does what it promises in a pleasurable and effective way.

Prosoft DriveSlim: Putting Your Hard Drive on a Diet

a review by Tom Piper

Are you running out of hard drive space? Does it seem like performance is slowing down? Is your software getting redundant? It sounds like your computer needs to lose some “weight” by getting rid of unneeded content.

Prosoft Engineering, Inc. is the company I turn to for innovative and reliable utility software, and they have developed another great product called DriveSlim. It is specifically designed to free up more space on your hard drive with Duplicate Files Search, Large Files Search, Language Support Removal and Universal Binary slimming.

DriveSlim can search for all duplicates, show you their location and let you delete the unnecessary ones. It will automatically skip Adobe and Microsoft applications in order to avoid common issues known with slimming of those software packages.

Your Mac is loaded with thousands and thousands of files on the hard drive and most likely you have some very large files clogging up your hard drive? Whether it's a popular video or some funny email attachment someone sent you, chances are you have large files taking up space on your hard drive that you don't know about. You can easily find them and delete them from you hard drive quickly and effectively.

Then, there are the unnecessary multiple languages taking up lots of space. Unless you speak another language, that feature (and all the files to support it) are just wasting space on your hard drive. With DriveSlim, you can select which languages you want your Mac to support, and delete the others (that you don't speak).

When Apple made the transition to Intel-based Macs, applications had to be made in a way that supported the new Intel-based Macs, as well as the older PowerPC-based Macs from years back. If you're on an Intel-based Mac you are probably never going to revert back to an older machine that needs Universal support, so why not free up the hard drive space of those support files? This program makes it easy to trim all those down to only support the new Intel-based Macs.

The initial setup of the program is easy and straight-forward. The decision is simply which of the five searches you want to start, and it can be any combination or all five, with just the check of a box. Once the process begins, its a matter of waiting until its done -- the more files you have, the longer it takes -- with over 556GB on my 750GB hard drive, it took just over an hour having discovered over 240GB (10,610 items) that may not be needed, including 2,328 large files, 5,178 duplicates, 156 unused localizations), 395 universal binaries, and 2,553 cache/temporary items. I dumped the cache stuff first . . . then sorted through the duplicates and other files to check off those to throw away. It is a time-consuming task, but effective and easy using this tool. I ultimately regained over 50GB.

For more information, visit http://www.prosofteng.com/products/driveslim.php to get a complete picture of this great utility. To buy it from the Mac App Store for $19.99, just go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/driveslim/id474616644?mt=12. This is an economical and safe way to get rid of unneeded files, and improve the health of your hard drive.

Mac OSX Lion: The Missing Manual ~ Mac Becomes an iPad

a review by Tom Piper

By: David Pogue
Publisher: O'Reilly Media / Pogue Press
Formats: Print, Ebook, Safari Books Online
Print: October 2011
Ebook: October 2011
Pages: 928
Print ISBN: 978-1-4493-9749-4 | ISBN 10: 1-4493-9749-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4493-0905-3 | ISBN 10: 1-4493-0905-4

“‘Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.’ Dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs” . . . so begins the ninth in a series of Missing Manuals, complete with David’s wonderful and irreverent sense of jocularity.

As the online description says, with Lion, Apple has unleashed the most innovative version of Mac OS X yet. Once again, David Pogue brings his humor and expertise to this bestselling Mac book. Mac OS X 10.7 completely transforms the Mac user interface with multi-touch gestures borrowed from the iPhone and iPad, and includes more 250 brand-new features. This publication reveals them all with a wealth of insight and detail. Thankfully, it even examines closely iCloud, Apple's wireless, free syncing service for Macs, PCs, iPhones, and iPads.

This book is perfect for newcomers and veterans. The reader gets a crystal-clear, jargon-free introduction to the Dock, the Mac OS X folder structure, Safari, Mail, and iCloud. You can learn how to use key new features such as full-screen apps, Mission Control, the new Mac App Store, Launchpad, Resume, Auto Save, Versions, AirDrop, and more. Power users can learn how to set up a network, make a Lion flash drive, and even learn the basics of Lion's underlying Unix. There's something new on practically every page of this new edition, and David Pogue brings his celebrated wit and expertise to every one of them. Apple's brought a new cat to town, and “Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual” is one of the best ways to tame it.

A quick glance at the Table of Contents reveals a well-organized approach and sequence that takes the viewer from the desktop through programs and deep into the components and technologies of Mac OS X 10.7. Whether its a cover-to-cover read, or a quick reference tool, navigation is easy and effective:

The Mac OS X Desktop
     Chapter 0 The New Lion Landscape
     Chapter 1 Folders & Windows
     Chapter 2 Organizing Your Stuff
     Chapter 3 Spotlight
     Chapter 4 Dock, Desktop & Toolbars
Programs in Mac OS X
     Chapter 5 Documents, Programs, & Mission Control
     Chapter 6 Entering Data, Moving Data & Time Machine
     Chapter 7 Services, Automator & AppleScript
     Chapter 8 Windows on Macintosh
The Components of Mac OS X
     Chapter 9 System Preferences
     Chapter 10 The Free Programs
     Chapter 11 CDs, DVDs & iTunes
The Technologies of Mac OS X
     Chapter 12 Accounts, Parental Controls & Security
     Chapter 13 Networking, File Sharing & AirDrop
     Chapter 14 Printing, Scanning, Fonts & Graphics
     Chapter 15 Sound, Movies & Speech
     Chapter 16 The Unix Crash Course
Mac OS X Online
     Chapter 17 Internet Setup & iCloud
     Chapter 18 Mail & Contacts
     Chapter 19 Safari
     Chapter 20 iChat
     Chapter 21 SSH, FTP, VPN & Web Sharing
Appendixes
     Appendix Installing Mac OS X Lion
     Appendix Troubleshooting
     Appendix The Windows-to-Mac Dictionary
     Appendix The Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List

Because my shelves are full, and my iPad longing for more material, I chose to review the ebook version of this book (both in PDF and ePub). Admittedly, I am disappointed that this version is in black-and-white (I’m a sucker for color displays), but the illustrations are clear and concise, describing well the focus of that section.

This is yet another great book from O’Reilly which can be acquired at http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920014553.do. A variety of version are available with print at $34.99, ebook at $27.99, or both for $38.49. With all the cussing and discussing of the new Lion operating system, this is definitely the manual that you want that was missing from the download when you updated. I highly recommend David’s latest masterpiece.

Once Wary, Apple Warms Up to Business Market

By NICK WINGFIELD -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

Steven P. Jobs never cared much for selling Apple products to big businesses.

The late Apple chief executive so disliked the process of catering to the needs of business, rather than those of consumers, that he called chief information officers in corporations “orifices” at a conference in 2005. “There are 500 men and women in the Fortune 500 — C.I.O.’s — that you have to go through,” Mr. Jobs said then.

A funny thing happened, though, in the last few years. Big companies started buying Apple products — a lot of them — for their employees. The iPad and iPhone have given the Apple symbol a presence in workplaces that Apple never enjoyed when it was strictly focused on selling Macintosh computers.

For the rest of the story, download NYTimes Apple article by clicking on this title.

Where are our members?

appleJAC Macintosh Users Group now has over 80 members, mostly in central Missouri (and one in Chicago). A frequently asked question is "where do they all live?".

A new feature has been added to the left-hand sidebar that is updated monthly (below the Swap Shop). When you click on that link, you will see a map with all locations shown (see sample at right). Names pop-up if you click on a location, but addresses and other information is not provided here.

Isn't it fun to see that you are in such good company?

MicroVisionSHOWWX+: Cool Laser Pocket Projector

a review by Tom Piper

Have you ever found yourself wanting to be able to project the screen of your iPhone, iPad or MacBook for a small group of people. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to carry that projector around in your pocket, purse or bag? Shouldn’t such a device just be plug-and-play? There is a neat solution that fits all of this criteria.

The SHOWWX+ HDMI Laser Pico Projector from MicroVision allows you to break free from the masses and get a bigger screen experience from your HDMI-equipped smartphone, tablet or laptop. It will create a bigger display to share ideas, collaborate and present business analytics, videos, and other work-related content with plug-and-play simplicity, as well as enjoy movies, photos, streaming videos, and games on a big, bright screen.

This unit connects to iPhone, iPad and iPod products with a single cable, as well as composite adapter to other TV-Out devices via a dedicated adapter cable, VGA dock to most laptops, netbooks and MacBook via the VGA DOCK (sold separately), and 3.5mm stereo jack for audio pass-through. In addition to HDMI-equipped smartphones and iOS devices, it will also plug into BlackBerry Playbook and Windows 7 tablets, and HDMI-equipped laptops, notebooks netbooks, digital cameras and camcorders.

I’ve used it extensively with both my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 with excellent results. It is nice to have full screen mirroring when an HTML cable is used, but frustrating that its only movies, slideshows and YouTube projections when using the iOS cable. I also found that the resolution was not very good when reading small text, like the icon titles on the iPad screen. Yet, the portability and vivid colors are really enchanting for audiences. As mentioned when I reviewed an earlier version of this unit, finding a good white screen in public environments is sometimes a challenge, so I wish they also sold a 2’ x 3’ retractable tabletop screen.

SHOWWX+™ laser pico projector has many great features and benefits including an rich and vivid image which is always in focus, small and light weight, widescreen resolution (WVGA 848x480) with 16:9 aspect ratio, and HDCP compliant. The package it comes in includes the SHOWWX+ HDMI Laser Pico Projector, a Micro-to-Micro HDMI cable, proprietary cable for iPhone/iPad/iPod, micro-USB cable, rechargeable battery, wall charger, a wrist strap and a cloth storage pouch. Other specs include 15 Lumens of brightness, refresh rate of 60 Hz (nominal), color gamut above 200% NTSC, contrast ratio over 5,000:1, throw ratio of 1:1 (projection distance/image diagonal), image size of 6” to 100” diagonal, and measures approximately 0.5” x 2.4” x 4.6” (weight with battery 4.3 oz).

To learn more, visit http://www.microvision.com/ where this cool laser pico projector can be purchased for $369. It comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. This third-generation unit is one of the best of the micro projectors with its intense colors and always-in-focus laser projected images.

IRIScan Book 2: Mobile Scanning at your Fingertips

a review by Tom Piper

Being able to capture images from books, newspapers, magazines and other paper media has long been a challenge, particularly when you are always on the go. Now, there is a terrific solution which is handy and effective.

IRIS Products & Technologies recently produced the IRIScan Book 2 which scan everywhere without a computer. It will easily capture images from books, magazines, letters, receipts, bills, handwritten correspondence, photos, and so much more. This cool little device will scan anything, wherever you are and benefit from the best scanning quality (from 300 to 600 dpi, monochrome or color), which means you can forget your laborious retyping work.

Once an image is recorded, Readiris Pro 12 (powerful OCR software designed for businesses) will automatically convert your paper documents and image files into text files which you can edit and share. This will save an incredible amount of time when converting any paper document, PDF, or image files into digital files that you can edit, index and share using the SmartTasks buttons to scan, recognize, convert and archive all your documents in just a single click. You can automatically send the recognized document into your favorite application like Word, Excel, and Acrobat with supported formats of Word 2007 (DOCX), OpenOffice Document (ODT), and XML Paper Specification (XPS). 

Readiris Pro opens the most popular images formats (JPEG, BMP, TIFF) and PDF files and supports the compression formats DjVu and JPEG 2000 and easily handles multi-page documents such as TIFF or PDF file. You can even automatically send them by email as attachments, as well as despeckle, text/picture deskew, automatic page orientation detection, cleanup the image noise, improve the image colors, use the unique handprinted notes recognition feature (to transform your notes into editable text) and more.

A Micro SD memory card is included to which you can export your scanned documents to your iPad (assuming you have an SD card reader), mobile phone, smartphone, notebook, and other devices. Using the more advanced IRIScan Book 2 Executive, your scans even be saved automatically and ready to be shared via Bluetooth. 

Its easy enough to use . . . just hold down the SCAN button for two seconds to turn it on, click the DPI button for either 300 or 600 dpi (shown on LCD screen), click on C/BW for either color or black & white (presets may already be what you want), tap the SCAN button to start scan (green light turns on), slowly and steadily guide the unit across the scan area, and finally tap the SCAN button again to stop the process. Attach the USB cable to your computer (iPhoto will automatically pop-up, just like for a camera), then either save the file to your photo collection, drag into the folder of your choice, or use Readiris Pro to OCR and manipulate the image. In spite of its ease-of-use, I recommend that you use a firm and steady “drag” of the device across the paper to avoid any skidding (a problem on slick surfaces) which will distort the outcome. With a little practice, the results will be great.

The boxed package is very complete including the IRIScan Book 2 unit, Readiris Pro 12 software for the IRIScan Book 2, a free 2GB SD Card, a black flexible case, two AA alkaline batteries (IRIScan Book 2 only) or a 4.2 V rechargeable lithium polymer battery (IRIScan Book 2 Executive only), switching adaptor (CEE 7/16) European plug (IRIScan Book 2 Executive only), USB Cable, cleaning swab cloth, and a calibration sheet. Minimum system requirements for Mac OS are a USB Host port (USB 1.1 or 2.0), USB mass storage protocol, aMac computer with at least a G4 processor, 260 MB free disk space, a DVD-ROM drive and free USB port, and MAC OSX version 10.4 or higher.

I have acquired over the years many IRIS products including their IRIScan 2, IRIScan Anywhere 2, IRISPen, IRIScard, and CARDiris. Their scanning and optical character recognition software has always been excellent, and their products are very reliable. 

IRIS have many scanning-related products which can be seen at http://www.irislink.com. This IRISscan Book 2 can be purchased online for $129, plus shipping of less than $10 (the Executive model with rechargeable battery and Bluetooth connectivity is $199).

Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Data Recovery: Reliable Utility

a review by Tom Piper

Damaged digital media is a terrible situation. You hear about it from friends and associates; you read about it in the periodicals and online; and you see the costly results all around you. What do you do when you are the victim? Here is a product that can relieve your anxiety and fix your problem.

Stellar Data Recovery has released Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Data Recovery (SPCDR) which enables you to effectively reclaim your personal or business critical information, including important documents, files, precious pictures, videos, and more from damaged tracks or missing sessions located on your optical media. This software quickly mounts the optical media and scans the entire disc in order to safely restore every piece of lost, deleted, or fragmented data. It will scan the optical media for all file systems and provide a hierarchical representation of the recovered data. Supported file systems include ISO 9660, Joliet, ISO 9660:1999, UDF (physical: 1.02, 1.50, 2.00, 2.01, 2.50, 2.60; and virtual:1.50, 2.00, 2.01, 2.50, 2.60), UDF Packet Writing, IFO/VOB Video, HFS, HFS+ and Rock Ridge.

SPCDR incorporates various robust, indigenous algorithms to efficiently scan any damaged, scratched disc, and recover almost all data present on the corrupt media. The software provides all significant information about the selected disc, including disc number, drive, file system, media type, disc type, byte size, and block size. It performs a rigorous scan of the optical media and enables you to recover data from severely damaged CD/DVD/BD/ HD DVD using signature search (you can set your desired preferences and append additional file types to the list to include them in the search process). This utility will create an exact image of same size as the selected optical disc and save the image to a desired location. You can perform a reliable recovery using this image and get optimum results without the need of the source media (it is important to have sufficient space on the destination volume to save the image file).

There is also an immensely useful feature to save time and effort by allowing you to resume the recovery process either by using the saved scan information or a previously created image ('.img' file). Thus, you can perform the whole recovery process in two phases. In addition to Macintosh, the software performs optical media recovery for all discs burnt on Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems. It even supports recovery from multi-session discs, bootable disc, LightScribe discs, mixed mode discs, audio and video discs.

Learn more about Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Data Recovery and acquire it at http://www.macintosh-software.net/utility/mac-cd-dvd-recovery.php for $39 per user. Also available there as a free download to try it out. Stellar produces a wide variety of fine digital media recovery software and services which can be viewed at http://www.macintosh-software.net/.

 

Presentations from "30 Tools in 60 Minutes"

The following are links to the PDF versions of each of the six presentations provided at the November 2 appleJAC MUG meeting (just click, and go there):

• Download Overview Tools

• Download George's Tools

• Download Tom's Tools

• Download Alice's Tools

• Download Dan's Tools

• Download Peggy's Tools

• Download Greg's Tools