appleJAC Users Group

MUG Discounts: Take Control of Sierra, iOS 10, and Photos with four essential books!

- Adam and Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

 

Good day!

Apple has released iOS 10 and macOS 10.12 Sierra, and we’re pleased to bring you four Take Control books to help you get started with the new operating systems and their shared Photos app.

Joe Kissell helps you perform a trouble-free upgrade to Sierra in Take Control of Upgrading to Sierra, Scholle McFarland covers what’s new in Sierra (and much more) in Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course, Josh Centers takes you on a tour of iOS 10 in his comprehensive iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course, and Jason Snell focuses on the new features of Photos in his Photos: A Take Control Crash Course.

The easiest way to pick up multiple books is to load our catalog, click the Buy button under each book you want, and then click one of the Cart buttons. All books are discounted by 30% for MUG members; you’ll see the discount once you click the orange Check Out button in our cart.

Thanks for your support — it’s great to be able to channel the excitement generated by Apple’s new operating systems into new books, and we couldn’t do it without you!

Take Control of Upgrading to Sierra, by Joe Kissell (98 pages, $7)

Experience an anxiety-free upgrade to Sierra as you follow Joe Kissell’s time-tested advice in this focused book, thoroughly updated for Sierra. You’ll ensure that your hardware and software are ready for Sierra, prevent problems by making a bootable duplicate of your primary drive, and decide on the best installation method for your particular situation. You’ll also find full installation directions, plus suggestions on what to do immediately after the install. The book ends with a look at how to handle a failed or problematic installation. Learn more…

Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course, by Scholle McFarland (100 pages*, $10.50)

You can head off into the wilds of Sierra with confidence when you’re equipped with Scholle McFarland’s new Crash Course. It kicks off with an overview of what's new, followed by a chapter about Sierra’s cool little features, like keeping folders on top of file listings, new text shortcuts, Picture in Picture, and link and video previews in Messages. Scholle devotes more space to teaching you about big new Sierra features like Siri, app tabs, Desktop and Documents folder syncing, and Universal Clipboard. Particularly important is the book’s discussion of Optimized Storage, which can save a lot of space on a Mac with a small drive, but should be enabled only when you understand its implications. Learn more…

*The 100-page 1.0 version of this book covers the changes in Sierra, but we’re still finalizing a handful of chapters about existing Mac features. We’ll give all purchasers the content-complete version 1.1 of this book for free very soon.

iOS 10: A Take Control Crash Course, by Josh Centers (143 pages, $10.50)

Quickly master new (and existing) features in iOS 10 on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch! TidBITS Managing Editor Josh Centers helps you come up to speed with extensive coverage of iOS 10’s key changes, including the redesigned Lock screen, Widget screen, and Control Center, and new ways for third-party developers to add features to Apple’s apps. You’ll also learn how Apple has radically revised essential apps like Photos, Messages, Mail, Maps, and Safari. Josh even gives you an introduction to home automation by way of iOS 10’s new Home app and Apple’s HomeKit specification for third-party devices. Additional special topics cover Family Sharing, accessibility, privacy, managing data usage, improving battery life, and more. Learn more…

Photos: A Take Control Crash Course, by Jason Snell (74 pages, $7)

Get the most out of Apple’s Photos app on all your Apple devices! Written by Jason Snell, publisher of Six Colors and former lead editor of Macworld, this book helps you understand Photos’ new machine-learning features like Memories, Categories, and the new version of Faces. It also teaches you how to import (and merge!) old iPhoto and Aperture libraries, set up iCloud Photo Library, organize and edit photos, share photos online, create cards and calendars, and much more.

The book focuses on Photos for 10.12 Sierra, but those who also use the Photos app in iOS 10 will appreciate the iOS-specific help at the end of nearly every chapter. Jason has also included a chapter about viewing your photos on an Apple TV. Learn more…

Thanks again, and we hope our efforts help you make significantly better use of Sierra, iOS 10, and Photos!

Save 30% on all Take Control titles with your MUG discount!

 

President's Place - October 2016

President’s Place
by Joe Mertzlufft

Our September 6 meeting was held at South Callaway High School in Mokane. Jeff Nelson prepared a variety of slides to give us an idea of how they use Macs and iPads in the day-to-day life of the school. They even use a handy program for teachers and staff to report problems they are having with equipment so they can track what devices need help.

We had handed out many Micro Fiber cloths to attending members in July. We will have more at the October 4 meeting for the members that did not receive one before.

Apple systems have changed a lot this month. I watched the keynote and have now had a chance to install the new iOS 10 and new macOS 12 Sierra. Our upcoming meeting will show you some of the new features and help you decide if you want to update your operating systems on iPhones, iPads, Macs, appleWatch and appleTV.

As we plan for next month's meeting, we are looking for anyone in our membership that would look to demonstrate any of your new gadgets. Let me or another board member know what you want to share so we get you on our agenda in November. We will do our best to show 30 gadgets in the time allowed.

Do you want to hang out with some of the gurus that put our meetings together each month? Just talk to any Board Member during the next meeting, and let them know you want to be plugged in and be a part of the planning. We go out to eat once a month on the third Tuesday, and we are always looking for new ideas.

The following people won door prizes at the September meeting:

Trish Alexander - First Aid Bag
Carole Van Vranken - Pen & Pad Mouse
Tom Piper - Flashlight
George Kopp - Stylus

Our upcoming October 4, 2016, meeting featuring Apple’s New Operating Systems takes us back to IC School (see agenda below). I will kickoff by showing how to to prepare for and install the new systems. Jason Piper will illustrate many of the new features of iOS 10. After the Break, he will also cover what’s new in macOS Sierra, Then, George will go over the changes in watchOS 3 and tvOS 10.

As always, there will be time for everyone to ask questions and share your tips and tricks to the group. Continue to visit our website for more updates and fresh information.

Mac/iOS Combo Apps: Maximize Wi-Fi Productivity

a review by Tom Piper (an update to a 2012 posting, see bottom for more info)

For the last two years, I’ve wanted (but have not been able) to record my iPad or iPhone screen to do training videos without using a video camera to capture it. It also seemed to me that we should be able to live broadcast my video camera to my iPad. And, when will I be able to touch-control my Mac screen (without using a Wacom tablet)? The power of AirPlay has helped to now make all of this possible.

AirPlay wireless streaming (originally called AirTunes 2004-2010) was designed to make it easy to tap into your iTunes library through Apple TV. You just open iTunes on your laptop or Apple portable device, and select Apple TV in the AirPlay menu. You can then control the volume remotely, and even stream the music simultaneously to additional AirPlay-compatible components. You can also send music or video from your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (even play games on your TV using your iPhone as the controller, hearing the soundtrack through your audio system). I have found that I can also play Internet radio stations through iTunes, or sound from my iPhone or iPad apps — including music services such as Pandora Internet radio, Rhapsody, and Last.fm. 

Apple TV gives you a virtually unlimited selection of high-definition movies, TV shows, video, and photos to explore. This wireless digital media receiver can play music from your computer, show photos from your iPhone, even access your media collection stored online in the iCloud. The newest Apple TV can stream full 1080p high-definition video and audio. You'll enjoy your favorite TV shows, movies and even photo slideshows in breath-taking 1080p resolution. And, with the ability to deliver Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, your movies and shows will sound as good as they look, all for only $99.99.

But, if you have an iPad 2, the new iPad or iPhone 4S, you're not just limited to audio. Your device also has AirPlay Mirroring functionality (introduced in 2011 as part of iOS 5) which means you can wirelessly stream what's on its screen to your TV screen through the Apple TV. Show everyone what's on your device, even when you zoom in or change from portrait to landscape. This concept has been adapted into some really cool apps, four of which I’m describing here because they are cutting-edge innovative multi-device approaches that expand utility and functionally in unique ways that enhance the thrill and excitement of our Mac and iOS device investments.

AirBeam turns your iPhones, iPod touchs or iPads into a realtime audio and video surveillance system. It streams live video and audio from the cameras and microphones of any number of iPhones, iPod touchs or iPads. You can watch the stream on any other iDevice, Mac or Web browser, even on multiple screens simultaneously. Use your iDevices as luxury baby monitors, for serious surveillance, to keep an eye on your pets, a FPV cam in your remote control toys, and hundreds of useful (and not so useful) things you can do with it. Even if you have just a single device, AirBeam is an awesome tool for motion-controlled video recording. This universal app is available on the iTunes Store for $3.99.

Air Display can satisfy your wish for an extra display for your Mac (or Windows) computer. You can use your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch as a wireless display, to extend your computer desktop. Air Display works in both landscape and portrait configurations (you just rotate your screen, and it automatically reconfigures). This makes a laptop much more useful by adding the iPad's 1024x768 display which nearly doubles the screen area of a laptop (except the 2009 15” /17” MacBook Pros) or netbook. Air Display not only gives you a wireless computer screen extender, but also works as a tablet input device. You can use your finger to draw directly on the screen's surface such as with a calculator, painting tool, music control surface, iWorks Inspector, email location, and more (simple gestures allow you to operate the right mouse button and scroll wheel too). This program is available at the Mac App Store for $9.99.

Reflector 2 allows you to use AirPlay to mirror your iPhone 4S, iPad 2 or new iPad to any Mac running OS X 10.6+, wirelessly. I can now easily demo iOS apps on any Mac running OS X Lion using AirPlay Mirroring on iOS 5, and record it using QuickTime, ScreenFlow or other screen recorders. I can now enable/disable an iPhone or iPad “wrapper” (this preserves the look of the device around the screen), change the color, record the screen, and more. Amazingly, I can also display any iOS game on either my 27” iMac or 17” MacBook Pro screen, even show my iPad  2 and iPhone 4S on the screen at the same time (no, you can’t “touch” them, is display). A free trial version (fully-function for 10 minutes) is available at airsquirrels.com/reflector, and the full purchase price is $14.99.

AirParrot will place our Mac's screen on your Apple TV. You can choose the display the AirPlay device will mirror to in order to enjoy your video and audio. Also adjustable is the quality versus speed performance, show the mouse cursor, and adjust that nasty overscan. This program is built from the ground up to support the great things in OS X Lion while also supporting OS X Snow Leopard. A free trial version (fully-function for 10 minutes) is available at www.airparrot.com, and the full purchase price is $9.99.

These are amazing Mac and iOS apps which fully utilize the power of Wi-Fi through Airplay and Apple TV to achieve a new level of productivity. And, they are FUN to boot!

I've also been recently informed of another comparative review of ways to record screen videos by JP Zhang which can be found at softwarehow.com/ios-screen-recorder-guide. Its just amazing what you can do with these great apps!