appleJAC Users Group

President’s Corner

by Tom Piper, aJMUG President

May is nearly over, the legislature has gone home, we’re in the middle of packing for our next office move (at least I get to keep our Macs), and we are anxiously waiting to see what Apple will come out with next. Meanwhile, we are getting everything ready for our very first appleJAC June Picnic (moved from our previous August hotspots).

Membership is expanding now with over 70 members, well on our way to reaching the December goal of 100 appleJAC MUG members! The MacBasics classes with George Kopp have been a great success (with attendees calling for an encore session), and my iWork classes will commence in September. The “Made on a Mac” photo enhancement competition has started, and DVD copies of the videotaped (Steve Archer) January, February, March, April and May meetings are available from our Library (see Bruce Heerboth to check one out). We have a lot going on to enhance your enjoyment of our Mac user group.

Next meeting we will enjoy the Annual appleJAC MUG Picnic (that’s right, in warm June, NOT hot August). Friends and family are all invited to attend (bring a beverage, side disk and lawn chair) this opportunity to relax at the lakeside home of Kathy and Joe Mertzlufft, and enjoy food, fun and friends. RSVP is requested (if you haven’t already). Directions to their house (just north and east of Ashland) show that they are less than 20 minutes away from most of where our members live (see map below).

Last month, we enjoyed the third review of iLife ’09 with Music, specifically GarageBand. Tim Breuer (Greg’s son) provided a trip through how to setup music, listen to new creations, and export it to iPods and CDs. Winners of the May door prizes were as follows:

• Ann Lane    Apple water bottle
• Brenda Hancock    USB mouse
• Tom Vaughn    Green carabeaner
• Neal Hubbard    MacAlly USB minihub
• Ken Zindle    iPod acrylic case
• Sue Snell    Apple luggage charm
• Larry Garvin    iPhone 3G (book)
• Ros Moulton    iPhone Fully-Loaded (book)
• Bonnie Culley    Getting Started with Your MacBook (book)
• Ann Lane    iLife ’09 DVD (the iLife series grand prize)

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the next appleJAC meeting on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 6:00 pm. See you by the lake . . . bring family, friends and new members . . . share the fun! (carpools may wish to meet to save gas).

June 2009 Meeting Agenda

May 2009 New Vendor Discount Offers

Stellar Data Recovery: Free Diagnosis and 20% Discount

Stellar, a market leader in providing data recovery services, specializes in salvaging lost data with over 1,000,000 customers in 137 countries. Equipped with trained and specialized data recovery professionals and an excellent Class 100 clean room facility, Stellar can recover data from almost all operating systems and storage media.
Stellar announces FREE DIAGNOSIS and 20% OFF on laptop anddesktop data recovery.

Request a free quote: http://www.datarecoveryservices.biz/quote-request.php

VueScan: Universal Software Image Capture Tool

by Tom Piper

How do you capture text, photos and other images into your computer? New scanners often come with enabling image scanning software, and companies like Adobe provide excellent tools. But, with older or less popular digital scanners, matching these models with powerful software is sometimes a challenge. I’ve found a solution that solves many such problems.

VueScan is the world's most popular third-party scanning program. It has over 160,000 users and supports over 1200 different brands of scanners on three operating systems. Available only online, VueScan offers over 50 advanced scanning features, vast improvements in speed, and enables many of the older scanners to work. It can be downloaded and totally tested for free.

My long-time challenge has been to use an IRIScan very small (but high quality) portable USB scanner that I acquired at Macworld 2008 with something other than the software that came with it. So, I downloaded VueScan, cranked it up, and it couldn’t find my scanner . . . a cross-check with the owner of the company confirmed that this software doesn’t work with my scanner . . . a disappointment.

The overall listing of compatible scanners is impressive. As shown in the example below, the controls for scanning and adjusting are easy to find, and simple to use, while offering many options to customize your scan and output. The interface is logical and intuitive, and it also has some great editing options to automatically correct for color, saturation and resolution on old photos.

Learn more about VueScan, and download it for testing, from http://www.hamrick.com/. You can purchase the standard edition for $39.95, or the professional edition for $79.95. It is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. This is a dandy tool when you are challenged.

Evouni Cases: Soft Protection for Your Portable Treasures

by Tom Piper

How do you protect your precious iPhone, or iPod? You see cases of all sorts everywhere you go in plastic, cloth, rubber, metal and more (actually, I haven’t seen wood yet). More than that, do they also protect those tangled earbuds?

Have you considered a pouch? Evouni Corp. offers a series of very elegant slip-in soft synthetic leather pouches with microfiber lining. It includes an aluminum logo frame (to wrap the earphone cord around), soft-padded material front and back, lanyard slot at top (lanyard available separately), light weight, and custom fit for our treasures. A small version is available for the iPod nano, and a large version for the iPhone (first or second generation) or iPod Touch.

In my experience with both of these pouches, I found them to be comfortable, secure, attractive and useful in not only protecting these treasures, but also securing the earbuds very nicely under the spring-loaded aluminum frame. It was also easy to quickly extract my iPhone and nano, both of which came out cleaner than they went in due to the microfiber liner . . . very clever idea.

More information is available at www.evouni.com, which also shows their full range of products. The prices are moderate. These are very nice and useful protectors for your electronic investments.

Uniea: Soft Protection for Your Portable Devices

by Tom Piper

How do you protect your precious camera, 2.5” hard drive or PDA? You see cases of all sorts everywhere you go in plastic, cloth, rubber, metal and more. So what do you use?

Uniea has introduced its Omniverse Universal Sleeve measuring W 5.6” x H 4.3” x D 3.1” with some great features including:

oversized case accommodates digital cameras, small hard drives and other small devices;
Shock absorbent inner lining protects devices from bumps and drops;
Unique, stylish silk fiber material and inner cushions are very lightweight;
Large front pocket holds cables, batteries, removable media, and such;
Belt loop and aluminum, carabiner-style ring for great portability; and
Secure, quality stitching and reliable smooth zipper for maximum reliability.

This is a very versatile case for small devices (including iPhones and iPod Touches) that provides excellent protection in a sleek, quality case that should withstand years of wear and tear. I need to get several of these cases to protect a wider range of my small portable devices.

You can learn more about this (and other Uniea products) at www.uniea.com. This case is available for only $17.95, available in silk fiber, or nylon . . . other sizes and materials are available, up to the universal tote for 13” notebooks. These all seem like very good values to me . . . more great protection for your valuable investments.

The Twitter Book: Learning About the Newest Tweets

 
by Tom Piper

Author: Tim O'Reilly, Sarah Milstein
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
First Edition: May 13, 2009  
Pages: 240 
Series: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-596-80281-3

Publisher’s brief description: This practical guide will teach you everything you need to know to quickly become a Twitter power user, including strategies and tactics for using Twitter's 140-character messages as a serious--and effective--way to boost your business. Co-written by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein, widely followed and highly respected Twitterers, the practical information in The Twitter Book is presented in a fun, full-color format that's packed with helpful examples and clear explanations.

A quick flip through the pages of my ebook (PDF version) showed me great color, easy reading, descriptive “jargon”, surges of information, excellent illustrations, twitter tips, business opportunities and much more. The volume is well-organized:

Table of Contents
Introduction.
Chapter 1: Get Started
Chapter 2: Listen In
Chapter 3: Hold Great Conversations
Chapter 4: Share Information and Ideas
Chapter 5: Reveal Yourself
Chapter 6: Twitter for Business: Special Considerations and Ideas
Index.

As their website says, this practical guide can teach you everything you need to know to quickly become a Twitter power user. It includes information on the latest third-party applications, strategies and tactics for using Twitter's 140-character messages as a serious—and effective—way to boost your business, as well as how to turn Twitter into your personal newspaper, tracking breaking news and learning what matters to you and your friends. This book can help you:

• Use Twitter to connect with colleagues, customers, family, and friends,
• Stand out on Twitter,
• Avoid common Twitter gaffes and pitfalls, and
• Build a critical professional communications channel with Twitter—and use the best third-party tools that help you manage it.

The practice of twittering is a relatively new communication tool that has emerged as a delightful and enthralling public discussion. There are many views of its effectiveness, opportunities and futures, as well as how to educate and train people in its most appropriate uses. This is a friendly, resourceful and knowledgeable book that introduces Twittering, explains its context, illustrates examples, reveals personal perspectives, and generally builds a delightful bridge to Twitter empowerment. A very good value for the money.

This handy book retails for $19.99 ($21.99 for print plus ebook, $15.99 for ebook alone), but can be found for $13.59 or less at Amazon and other internet locations. A complete O’Reilly description with purchasing details are available at: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802813/

Recycle your old Computers

Mid-Missouri Recycling, Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District, Cole County Commission, and the City of Jefferson City are co-sponsoring an electronic waste collection event. This event is open to the residents of Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Howard, Moniteau and Osage Counties. No Businesses.

The event occurs on Saturday, June 6th from 9am till 1pm at the Cole County Public Works Department, 5055 Monticello Road.

A $5 fee will be charged for each television, computer monitor, copy machine and microwave. All other electronic items will be accepted FREE of charge. For more information, please call 573-874-7574 or visit www.mmswmd.org.

Electronic items that are accepted at these collections include: desktop PC’s (CPU’s); monitors, keyboards, mice, cords & cables (power, USB, etc.); modems; laptop PCs; main frames; hard drives; CD ROM/Zip/Tape drives; handheld electronic organizers and games; copy machines; printers (laser, ink jet); televisions; VCRs/DVD players; video game players; joysticks and game controls; cameras (film and digital); camcorders; speakers; radios; stereos; portable CD players; typewriters; word processors; fax machines; adding machines; scanners; postage machines; calculators; telephones; cellular phones; answering machines; pagers; CBs and two-way radios; and microwaves.

"Made on a Mac" Contest Announcement

End of June 2009 Digest