appleJAC Users Group

President's Place: October 2013

by Tom Piper

School has started, summer is over, and iOS7 was recently released at noon on Sept. 18. As I prepared this message to you, I was downloading the great new update to my iPhone 5 (which I replaced with a black 64GB iPhone 5S on Sept. 20), iPad mini and iPad 3 (each is reporting at least an hour download). Ah, yes, these are exciting (and frustrating) times.

Our last meeting was all about "iCloud: How It Works" with me presenting Part I, followed by Joe Mertzlufft showing Part II. This meeting was at Callaway Rural Electric building in Fulton (thanks to Charley Bland and the Fullers for hosting) with almost 40 people in attendance. Door prize winners included:

• Greg Breuer                 iDevice stylus
• Sharon Hanson             Road Atlas from CRE
• Deb Sanfelipo              iCloud book
• Gary Garvin                 Cup from CRE
• Julie Smith                  iPod for Dummies
• Carol VanFranklin         Easy OS X
• Beverly Grangiacoma    iPhone 4/4S case
• Bonnie Friehlin             Lumina iPhone 5 case
• Phyllis Fuller                15" MacBook case
• Greg Perry                   iPhone 4/4S case with bottle opener

Final announcements were made for the iDevice Photo Contest which ended August 31 (Dr. Henry Domke has judged the first, second and third prize winners). There is still time to cast your ballot for the People's Choice award (see the entries shown a few pages below).

A special request was also made for people who would like to present a Gadget (app, software, or hardware) at the November 5 meeting. This opportunity is still available with only 5 items spoken for so far (15 more are available).

The next meeting (see agenda below) will be October 1 the topic "iOS7: A Whole New Perspective" to be presented by George Kopp. This is a revolutionary product with over 200 new features, many obvious, others more subtle. We will also be giving away a $10 iTunes card, and other special items at this meeting.

As you already learned in an earlier email, George also is presenting a special 2-hour iPad Class on October 16 (described more fully in an article a few pages down where you can click on our email address to pre-register for this event (seating is designed for 35 and more). We encourage you to pay at our next meeting (you can pay the evening of the class, but we are trying to shorten the waiting line).

We also have re-energized our Facebook presence with a new fan page. Just go to facebook.com/applejacmac to sign up. This is a great place to ask questions, learn new information, and dialogue with other members.

 

JUNA Portable Power Supply: Mobile Energy in Your Pocket

a review by Tom Piper

Between Letha and I, our iPhones, iPads and iPods (plus other USB micro and mini accessories) consume a lot of rechargeable power, particularly when we are travelling. When AC plug-ins aren’t available, we have used battery-backup boxes, sleds and other devices, but seldom does any one of these have enough juice (not to mention the extra cables we have to carry). We now have a new solution.

The Avantree JUNA portable power bank is a ultra-slim design with a wrap-around detachable micro USB sync charge cable. It easily fits into my carry bag or pocket. Its nicer to know that the cable can sync and charge my iPhone (with the proper 8-pin adapter). It is currently available only in green, but future colors will include yellow, red, blue or aqua.

This unit has a built-in 3400mAh lithium polymer and high efficiency circuit which can charge my devices anytime I want, regardless of where I am. It has a convenient button on the front that shows the charge status with 4 green lights (or blinking, if more charge is needed). Features also include:

• Support for most micro USB devices, such as GPS units, HTC, Samsung, BlackBerry, MP3/MP4 and others (you can plug the regular iPhone cable directly into its USB port)
• Ultra-slim design (only 120x67x12.6mm and 125g) which fits where you need it
• Protection for overheated, overcurrent, overload and more
• Input and output is DC 5V/1A

At 1500mAh and 2500mAh battery size for the iPhone and iPad, respectively, the JUNA power bank can give me an extra day of portable juice when needed. It is light and convenient, with an attractive and sleek appearance. The wrap-around rubberized cord makes it fit nicely in the hand too. 

This delightful little unit can be purchased from www.avantree.com for only $28.99. This one of many fine products (like Bluetooth speakers, headsets and carkit, music accessories, cases, screen protectors and more) from Avantree which can also be viewed at www.avantree.com. I have a number of their products, all of which have proven to be highly functional, dependable and economical.

Stellar Drive ToolBox: All-In-One Hard Drive Solution

a review by Tom Piper

I often preach about computer volume protection, with the first rule being the establishment of multiple backup volumes. Yet, even backups get corrupted, and boot drives fail to boot . . . this is when you need reliable data assistance to bring back those precious files. You also need reliable tools to maintain the health of these volumes, and shield them from prying eyes, even to the point of safely deleting data when a drive is retired. I’ve been using Stellar products for many years, and their latest release does it all and more.

Stellar Drive ToolBox 3 is an all-in-one package of Mac tools to optimize Mac OS X and speed up its performance. This easy-to-use Mac optimization application offers various indispensable modules in a single bundle, which is very useful in day-to-day maintenanceof your Mac. With 14 included modules, I can repair corrupt Mac volumes, resize Mac volumes without data loss, wipe unwanted data beyond recovery, monitor Mac hard drives, find large files and duplicates, and do many other tasks to improve my experience with my Mac.

• Drive Monitor keeps track of the health status of my hard drive to know about any impending failures and avoid data loss
• Smart Finder searches particular files and folders on my Mac and performs the desired actions
• Benchmark checks the performance level of my hard drive and compares it with other systems
• Smart Mac Care runs different modules of the application at a convenient time
• SpeedUp Mac improves the performance of my slow Mac by removing unwanted files, applications, widgets and plug-ins
• Wipe completely erases unwanted, personal, and sensitive data from my Mac’s hard drives (when needed), beyond the scope of recovery
• Drive Defrag enhances system performance by defragmenting severely fragmented Mac hard drives, volumes or large files
• Volume Repair verifies and repairs corrupt Mac volumes, without any further damage
• Drive Clone creates clone or image of the selected Mac drive, volume, or region and helps restore lost data
• Partition Manager manages Mac partitions with the options to add, delete, format, resize, hide, and reveal Mac volumes
• Drive Initialize initializes my raw Mac hard drives with the required partition scheme and file system
• Raw Data Editor manually repairs minor volume corruptions by editing file structure of the drive
• Shield keeps a backup image of the hard drive according to the defined schedule and helps restoring lost data
• Data Encryptor prevents unwanted access to my confidential data by encrypting and hiding files or folders

In actual operation, the interface is informative, yet simple to navigate. Similar to Apple’s Cover Flow view, the active window allows me to click on a right or left arrow to select the module I need to use, while providing a quick overview between the arrows describing the selected modules primary functions. Once selected, the subsequent detailed explanation allows me to Continue, or go Back (or get Help for even more description), then proceeds into selecting volumes, folders, options and information which is graphically pleasing and intellectually informative. In a note of caution, some functions can be very time-consuming, particularly when analyzing file and folder information (like duplicates and disk usage). It can also be daunting when getting the message “Drive Refreshing Please wait...” which stops program access until its done.

All in all, this is a wonderful collection of many of the most popular utilities, most of which are offered individually by other companies, which means more money and more hassle to track everything. The combined convenience and powerful products makes for a very attractive package in an easy-to-use format. Its comforting to be able to schedulemany of these activities so that they work in the background, in a manner that I prescribe, but don’t have to think about too often.

When I have any questions regarding Stellar products and services, I am welcome to call their Technical Team at the USA Helpline using 877-778-6087 (numbers are also available in other countries like Britain and Australia). There is also email access to the Team as well.

Stellar Drive ToolBox 3 is available in a boxed DVD for $99.00 from www.drivetoolbox.com (a technician version also available for $349). If you want to try it out before buying, a free demo download and evaluation version at the same website allows you to preview this products first.

Stellar offers a broad spectrum of other recovery software for Mac, Windows and other platforms, plus a hard drive or CD/DVD recovery service worldwide. This is a robust company with fine products that have been fully developed and are very reliable.

iPad Class: October 16, 2013

 

Getting the Most from Your iPad

George Kopp, Instructor

    Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
    Kennedy Hall, Immaculate Conception School
    1208 East McCarty Street, Jefferson City, MO 65109
    (enter off Clark Avenue behind the church)

 REGISTER TODAY TO ENSURE A SEAT IN THIS POPULAR CLASS 

The iPad is a mobile devise that you can use to watch movies, create documents, surf the Web, check email, use as an eReader, and more. This class will introduce you to the basic features and functions of the iPad. Join us for a one-night class which will cover the iPad, iPad2, iPad3, iPad mini, iPad 4 and more. Much learned about the iPad operating system and apps will also apply to iPhone use.

    • Getting familiar with the iPad
    • Using the virtual keyboard
    • Configuring syncing options
    • Syncing media files and info to the iPad
    • Syncing documents, contacts, and calendars
    • Configuring email accounts • Managing and editing files with third-party application
    • Shopping for applications, books, and music
    • Some of the best iPad applications
    • Troubleshooting

Signup your friends . . . class is open to everyone.
Register for this class by emailing us at applejac@mac.com
    Cost is $20.00 . . . appleJAC members pre-registered get a $5.00 discount
    Payment will be made the night of the class.

Sponsored by the appleJAC Macintosh Users Group