appleJAC Users Group

President’s Corner

by Sue Snell, aJ MUG President

“It’s May, It’s May, the lovely month of May,” as the song from Camelot proclaims, Well, almost lovely. I know rain is good for Earth, but . . . Maybe by the August picnic things will have dried out.

However, before worrying about August, let’s slow down to look more closely at the present. April appleJAC meeting was a grand presentation on Podcasting. Tom Piper and Chuck Zimmerman, along with commentary from Steve Mays, shared a look at the how-tos and wherefores of this new phenomena. We gained insight into the creation of podcasts, how to locate good ones, and even hints on the best practices of using them.

Winners of door prizes for the April meeting were as follows:

- George Kopp Zimmcomm iPod Speaker

- Jim Stevenson Leopard monitor cleaner

- Steve Archer Photoshop CS3 One-on-One book

- Tom Vaughn The Cult of Mac book

- Alice Kopp Apple mug

- Gale Fuller Apple notepad

- Julie Koenigsfeld Craft book

- Julie Smith Apple pen

- Jim Cooper Eccentric Cubicle book

May’s meeting, on Tuesday, the 6th, at Lewis and Clark Middle School, promises to be just as informative and useful. During the first session, Peggy Landwehr will share information on “iPhoto, Storage, Manipulation, and Distribution”.

After a short break, good refreshments, and social chat, George Kopp will present a program on “Light Room: A Step Beyond iPhoto”. He will cover various topics such as transition from iPhoto, and features and benefits of Lightroom

Summer season of travel and visits is almost here, along with the ever-present explosion in “picture taking.” Granted, this winter provided us with some fabulous landscape scenery opportunities (even as we huddled in multi-layers of clothing), but I bet many are still in the camera’s memory. So with the upcoming opportunities for photo enhancement of your life memories, why not join us for some prime-time learning this Tuesday when we delve into this pertinent topic?

Also, don’t forget to reserve your calendar dates for our summer meetings. June 3rd will be our annual gathering for “Macs in Business”. This year we will be visiting Capitol Eye Care, hosted by Drs. Matthew Lewis and James Luetkemeyer.

July 1st will find us at the annual fix-it, swap-it, give-it-away plus a discussion of Mac OS X Leopard, focusing on maintenance. We will wrap up our summer schedule with a celebration picnic in August at the North Jefferson City pavilion.

Make plans to join us every month.

May Meeting Agenda

eMedia Piano: Training Fingers to Dance

a review by Tom Piper

I’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano, and even got a Yamaha keyboard with a Midi interface to work with my Mac. I learned from Alice Kopp that there was some great software available that would work with this combination, and that resulted in the special offer that was posted in our January newsletter.

eMedia . . . Play Music Made Easy! More than a marketing phrase that has reached over a million aspiring computer users, it is software that really works because it starts at the very beginning with learning how to read music, and apply it to a keyboard. I have started the process of training my fingers to dance across my keyboard, and the system works!

eMedia Piano and Keyboard Method CD-ROM offers over 300 step-by-step lessons starting from the basics including hand position, rhythm, and playing on black keys. This is followed by music notation, sight reading, scales, and much more. Piano teacher Irma Irene Justicia, M.A., who has taught at the renowned Juilliard School of Music, guides you with video demonstrations of techniques.

Songs and exercises are enhanced by live recorded audio, MIDI tracks you can slow down or speed up, and colorful MIDI accompaniments. Interactive review and ear training screens help reinforce new concepts and develop your ear. This new version includes larger easy-to-read screens, enhanced audio and video, progress tracking, and an updated curriculum. When used with an electronic MIDI keyboard, you can get specific feedback on playing mistakes, including wrong notes and rhythms.

I am learning how to play, and learning a lot about music that I missed when I was younger. It is still time-consuming, and the hands are taking a while to train, but this is a patient teacher whose lessons I can easily revisit whenever I need to. At $59.95 for the new version 2 of Piano Method, this is a very good investment . . . watch out Liberace!

By the way, the eMedia product line also includes Intermediate Piano; Guitar Method, Intermediate and Rock Guitar, Bass Method, and EarlMaster 5. Programs are available for both Mac and Windows, with downloadable extras and other support. I recommend a visit to http://www.emediamusic.com/ if you would like to bring more music into your life.

Skobos: Internet Television on the Mac

a review by Tom Piper

Ever wanted TV on your Mac? You’ve already seen me review analog and digital television using a converter from cable and antenna systems, but what about directly over your high-speed Internet connection? Now we have a company who has put all the pieces together into one software package that does all the work for you, and no extra hardware.

As their website says, Skobos is the the first major broadband, all digital, software television for the Mac. I can travel the world, one channel at a time. This is not Video-On-Demand where I receive broadcasts that I must pre-select in order to view. This is real TV in every sense of the word.

Skobos is a software television that allows me to view preset and updateable channels via a high-speed Internet connection on a Mac computer. The software has been in development for the past few years (beginning with the Widget Television VF1 through VF3) and is now a stand-alone package. The television programming design of Skobos, was written in its entirety in Applescript using Apple's Xcode environment, Applescript Studio.

The program's viewing capabilities relies on the user's installation of the top three (free) video players available over the Internet: QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player. The channels are encoded using one of several technologies and then are broadcast over the Internet using specific video codecs.

Skobos is designed completely with the end-user in mind. From the ease of channel selection, volume control, and full-screen viewing, to the ability to set favorites, channel voting, and instant messaging, this program is easy and convenient to use. As you click across the headings, a new array of channels the appears (see below). Great variety!

To show that Skobos is a grow product, it is currently under development in four versions: Version one (v1) which is now available; Version two (v2) for most educational institutions and commercial business; Version three (v3) a combination of v1 and v2 plus the ability to broadcast any live event to all other registered user's 'Live' specific channels; and Version four (v4) the creme of the crop includes all previous versions plus built-in system tools for the Mac savvy person, as well as a browser, a notes section, PDF output from notes, and several other items for the experienced Mac user.

To their credit, this is not an annual subscription, but rather a product purchase including all future upgrades. I think this software is lots of fun, extremely educational, tremendous variety, and a great value. Even better, for a short time, they are giving us as user group members, a special discount (see below). And, as if that’s not enough, they have lots of opportunities of input to expand their product, as well as 10% of their sales that go to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. This is a good buy that I highly recommend.

Skobos Personal Television for the Mac: 20% Off

Own a Mac computer? Like to watch television? Want to watch television on your desktop or laptop anytime or anywhere there's a high-speed connection? Whether you're plugged in or on wireless, interactive television will never be the same, and Skobos can prove it to you.

Skobos, regularly $29.00 (US), is available for an introductory Apple user group member price of $23.20 (US).

Get information and purchase: https://www.skobos.com

This worldwide offer is valid through July 31, 2008.

Legacy Battery Quest

by Sister Josetta Eveler

The battery in my wonderful iBook G4 has worn out, but I can’t give up my trusty laptop. Can anyone help me find a good replacement battery at a reasonable price?

Contact me at josetta.eveler@amormeus.org, or call 573-893-4776.

ScreenFlow: Mac Motion Capturing Made Easy

a review by Tom Piper

I have long been fascinated with the tools which can capture things that are displayed on the Mac screen. Of course, a simple Command-Shift-3 with take a snapshot of the whole screen, or Command-Shift-4 any portion of it. But, what about capturing movement, sound and sequence of activities in real time? I was absolutely blown away by a brand new product that does it all in a most eloquent way.

ScreenFlow, new from Vara Software Inc., is a “professional screencasting studio” for creating amazing screen recordings on the Mac, only in Mac OS X Leopard. Using a unique new screen capture system, powerful enough to capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer's audio, you'll be creating incredible screencasts in no time. The finished result is a QuickTime movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog.

As their website describes, you can record from desktop, a video camera, microphone and computer's audio simultaneously, use powerful editing tools, highlight using Callouts, place video in 3D, produce highest quality exporting, and include easy narration of presentations. Here is a detailed outline of features:

• Record Everything: You don't need to pick an area of the screen for capture, ScreenFlow has advanced algorithms that only encode areas of change on your screen. The application is powerful enough to simultaneously record from your iSight or DV camera at the same time as your screen (and your microphone and computer's audio!).

• The Best Capture: ScreenFlow has the best screen capture available. Using a custom multithreaded SSE & Altivec accelerated, 64-bit enabled compression system, ScreenFlow can handle everything from capturing DVD video & audio to fast moving Keynote presentations.

• Edit: Once your screen capture is complete, you're transported to the ScreenFlow editor. Using a familiar timeline interface, ScreenFlow lets you easily add zoom & pan effects, trim clips, add drop shadow & reflection, adjust audio levels etc. You can even combine existing media into your screencast.

• Highlight: During your screen capture ScreenFlow tracks where your mouse cursor is, when you click and when you press a key. This allows you to add mouse click effects (both visual and audible), an overlay showing your key strokes and even lets you zoom the mouse pointer up & down.

• Callout: Callouts let you highlight & focus in on the mouse or frontmost window. Want to circle the area around the mouse? What took an experienced user minutes or hours in Final Cut Pro or After Effects is now a couple of clicks away.

• Motion: ScreenFlow introduces actions to the editing interface. These make it very quick & easy to modify parameters of your screencast over time. For example, adding a video action lets you put zoom & pan effects on your clips, while the audio action lets you adjust volume at different points in your screencast.

• Export Quality: When resizing high resolution screen content into a QuickTime movie, ScreenFlow uses custom GPU algorithms to give your finished movie the best possible quality. You'll find even small text suddenly becomes legible for your viewers.

The initial controls are simple and straight-forward with a small camera image in the top menu displaying a drop-down menu with the commands: Record, Configure Recording... , and Stop ScreenFlow. Click on Configure, and the image at right appears showing that I can record either my left or right screen, the ADD video from my iSight camera (or other video source), as well as sound from my computer and/or another outside souce . . . all at the click of a button. The red dot button starts a 3 second countdown and the recording begins. I go back to the same button to stop the recording. Once stopped, the recorded image comes up with a panel of controls at the right (see below) for video, audio, screen and callouts:

Across the bottom of the captured recording are the standard playback controls, as well as the ability to edit the size of the recorded track. Most impressive to me was the “zoom” ability that allowed me to capture just a portion of the screen (yes, you can even grab and shift the screen under the recording “window” to get to the right place), AND you can resize and distort the recording window with the corner and side buttons. Editing is actually FUN!!!

When done, you can save it in any number of formats that will play back on your Mac, iPod, iPhone or other device. Its a great way for me to capture everything from YouTube videos to instructional movies for other users.

There are a number of descriptive videos on their website at: http://www.varasoftware.com. You can download it and evaluate it first to see if you like it before buying it (remember, Leopard only). If you do like it, it can be yours for $99.99. They also have other programs like Wirecast and Videocue for high-end users. If you like to capture video, this is a product that may well meet your needs.

Roxio Toast 9: Premiere CD/DVD Burning

a review by Tom Piper

As you know, the Mac already has built-in software that allows you to burn music and files onto CDs and DVDs, so why buy a specialized program to do that? Quality, features and incredible benefits is my first thought . . . here’s how.

Roxio has long been a pioneer in CD/DVD burning. Toast is a CD and DVD authoring and media conversion software application for Mac OS X. Its name is a play on the word 'burn', a term used for the writing of information onto a disc through the use of a laser. Toast was originally developed by Dr. Markus Fest and his company Miles Software GmbH in the early 1990s, and distributed by Astarte. In 1997 the product was purchased by Adaptec, and later transferred to Roxio (then a division of Adaptec).

Discs can be burned directly through Mac OS X, but Toast provides added control over the process as well as extra features such as file recovery for damaged discs and cataloging and tracking of burned disc contents. Major features include:

Burn: Catalog and burn all your files across multiple CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs formatted for both Mac and PC. Schedule backups with the new Get Backup application, and much more!

Watch: Import and create high-def video from TiVo, EyeTV, AVCHD camcorders and burn to Blu-ray and standard DVD discs! Watch your movies and TV shows over WiFi on your iPhone or any net connected Mac or PC, and more!

Listen: Expand your music library by recording streaming audio directly from the Internet. Use Toast 9's new audio fingerprinting technology to identify songs and tag with titles, artists, album and more. Create great sounding mixes for burning to CD or even create music DVDs

Share: Create Director's Cuts of your favorite TV shows and movies; fit 9GB of dual-layer DVD video onto a single standard DVD, use time saving batch DVD-Video compression/conversion, and single click copy of CDs

So, if the past versions were so good, why spend $79.99 (after mail-in rebate) for version 9 of Toast? The chart below compares the new features to the last two versions of Toast:

So, whether you want to archive your files, rip your music, create a video for your iPod, or do something else with media files, I can’t think of a better tool to do it than Toast 9. Visit their website for more details and interesting videos: http://www.roxio.com.

appleJAC on the Radio

As you see from previous posts, appleJAC was on the Radio. On April 19, Sue Snell, Peggy Landwehr, and George Kopp appeared on the KWOS morning show to tell people about appleJAC. We were interviewed for 30 minutes and described what the club was about, what we do at our meetings, and a little about technology in general. Here are a few photos from the event.

Gadget Recycling Programs: Turn Your e-waste to $$$

Constantly buying new gadgets is both hard on your wallet and the planet. Here at dealnews, we typically try to help with the former, but in honor of Earth Week, we've decided to start helping with the latter as well. So rather than toss your e-waste to the side, we've gathered a variety of earth-friendly services that can rid you of yesteryear's tech.

These services will recycle your old tech for free.  Read more at dealnews.
Thanks to Roz Moulton for the tip.

Apple User Group Discount Offers

USGlobalSat Bluetooth GPS: Limited-Time Incredible Offer

The GlobalSat BT-368i is a Bluetooth GPS receiver that is as powerful as it is stylish, embedding reliability and performance into a thin profile housing which uses GlobalSat's mature micro-technology based around the SiRF Star III GPS chipset. At a smooth and rounded 2.75" x 1.57" x 0.36", the BT-368i makes a fashion statement and adds powerful GPS functionality to your laptop, PDA or Bluetooth-enabled system.

Regularly priced at $110.99 (US), a $60.00 (US) customer appreciation mail-in rebate is immediately available while inventory lasts. (You need third party navigation or GPS software to use this receiver.)

Get connected: https://www.usglobalsat.com/p-537-bt-368i.aspx
Download rebate form: http://www.usglobalsat.com/downloads/usg_rebate_368_60.pdf
This worldwide offer is valid through April 30, 2008.

Bibliographies Made Easy: Save 50% on EndNote

Maximize your research time with EndNote from Thomson Scientific. Use EndNote to manage your references, images and PDFs, and create bibliographies instantly in over 2,800 publishing styles. Save retyping references for research papers, grants, dissertations, CVs and more! Compatibility with Mac AppleScript lets you automate and extend EndNote functions between applications.

This $149.95 (US) special offer to U.S. and Canada Mac user group members is a 50% discount from the regular price of $299.95 (US). Full-time students should check the student prices available for EndNote.

Learn more and purchase: http://www.endnote.com/enmug08
This U.S. and Canada offer is valid through July 31, 2008.

Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery: 25% Discount

Stellar, a leader in data recovery since 1993, proudly announces a discount offer for "Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery for Mac" which provides quick, simple and powerful data recovery software for crashed or unresponsive Apple iPods. It helps recover data from damaged, deleted or corrupted iPods.

Stellar shows its love for user groups with this offer of $29.25 (US), a 25% discount off its retail price of $39.00 (US).

Buy now: http://www.ipoddatarecovery.net/buy-now.php
This worldwide offer is valid through July 31, 2008.

Skobos Personal Television for the Mac: 20% Off

Own a Mac computer? Like to watch television? Want to watch television on your desktop or laptop anytime or anywhere there's a high-speed connection? Whether you're plugged in or on wireless, interactive television will never be the same, and Skobos can prove it to you.

Skobos, regularly $29.00 (US), is available for an introductory Apple user group member price of $23.20 (US).

Get information and purchase: https://www.skobos.com
This worldwide offer is valid through July 31, 2008.

The MUG Store: Blowouts and More

Looking for a used iMac or a great deal on an internal hard drive? Just love sorting through discounts and closeouts? Then visit the Blowouts area of the Mug Store, where you will find great deals on all sorts of
new, discontinued and used products.

Remember that everything you buy means points for your group to spend any way it wants!

See this month's Blowouts: http://www.applemugstore.com/mugstore/blowouts.php
Shop the MUG Store: http://www.applemugstore.com
This U.S. only offer is valid through June 30, 2008.

Get the codes for these discounts in the Members only area on the left.

appleJAC on the Radio

On Saturday April 19th, appleJAC Officers will be talking about the club and the Macintosh in general on the radio.  At 8:30am, KWOS in Jefferson City will be broadcasting a short segment that talks about our club.  Be sure to tune in and listen.  The station website lets you listen through the web.

Favorite Podcasts - TWIP

Last month we discussed Podcasts at the appleJAC meeting.  One of my favorite podcasts is called TWIP.  This Week in Photography is a lively podcast about mid level to high end photography.  It discussed photo concepts, methods and equipment.  If you are a photographer trying to learn digital photo concepts, this is a great hour per week listen. 

One great part in this podcast is that when it becomes necessary to show something, the developer puts out a video version showing what they are talking about.  Really cool!

Looking for Mac Prices?

Here is a great website if you are looking for a Mac.  You can look at prices for new and used machines all on this website.  This is a great one stop shop for prices and deals.

Thanks to appleJAC member Rosalind Moulton for the tip.

VisualHub.... Universal Video Converter

If you have a need to convert video to and from multiple formats, take a look at VisualHub.

Converting a bunch of AVI files to a DVD shouldn't require a Computer Science degree.
Getting movies from your digital camera to your iPod shouldn't take hours.
Wading through a sea of video formats shouldn't pull you under.

VisualHub bridges the gap between numerous complicated video formatting standards, and people that just want to get the job done - just what you would expect from the Mac.

If you're looking for something a little more flexible, VisualHub's up for that challenge too. An extensive Advanced panel lets you change all pre-set aspects of encoding...and then some.

Based on the popular, award-winning "iSquint" conversion software for iPods. If you've used iSquint, you already know how to use VisualHub. If you've never used iSquint, you won't have a lot of catching up to do anyway.

Features:

• Fast conversion from nearly every video format to iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, Tivo, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash.
• Convert any file in three steps. Click, drag, click.
• Fit up to 18 hours of video on one DVD. Play it in any standalone DVD player.
• Xgrid support. Use the power of every Mac on your network for batch encoding.
• QuickTime Pro or special plugins not required.
• DivX/XviD AVIs, all forms of MPEG video, and many other formats QuickTime struggles with are supported.
• Batch Processing of multiple files. Save in-place, or to a different folder.
• Very comprehensive Advanced panel to modify every aspect of encoding.
• Dynamic Preview - See results before beginning a long encode.
• Stitch multiple files together to combine videos.
• Highly detailed, informative Users Guide.
• Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Watch out for New Mac Trojan Horse

From PCWorld UK on-line.......

Security consultant Sophos is warning of the appearance of money-grabbing Trojan Horse malware aimed at Macs.

Imunizator Trojan makes false claims that Macs have privacy problems as part of its attempt to install itself.

The Trojan tries to scare Mac users into purchasing unnecessary software by claiming that privacy issues have been discovered on the computer.

Windows users are no stranger to scareware like this, but it is rarer on the Mac.

This new Trojan horse is closely related to another piece of Mac scareware, MacSweeper, which was being deployed in an attack last month.

iPhones Don't Float...But They Do Dry Out

Yes, my iPhone got wet. It quit working. A hair dryer was not the answer, so it was thrown repeatedly at the bedcovers to get the water out and then put in a drawer. Later told that a baggie of rice dries out things electronic that get wet, that may have been a good action to take--perhaps something to keep in my bag of tricks.

Almost two weeks went by (three days short) and I plugged my iPhone into a wall charger and it worked! It took a full charge. The address book was still intact, the movie could be viewed, songs could still be played, email came to the INBOX via my WIFI network, Safari still cruised the web. Needless to say, the heart was ecstatic, life was good.

Then the mistake. The iPhone connected to the web via the dock and iTunes saw a need to activate the phone service and at the same time saw an iPhone update. The activation should have happened first, but the iPhone update downloaded and was applied. It failed with errors and the iPhone went to a white screen and would not turn off. The white screen stayed there until the battery died.

I miss my iPhone-again.

End of May appleJAC Digest

That's the end of the May 2008 appleJAC MUG Digest . . . if you're not at member, please join us TODAY.

Tom Piper, appleJAC Secretary/Editor