appleJAC Users Group

August 2023 appleJAC Presentations

The August 1, 2023, meeting videos about Shortcuts, Notes, and Reminders presented by Peggy Landwehr, George and Alice Kopp can be viewed by seeing the video of the first half of the meeting (Tips & Tricks by Joe Mertzlufft, Apple Announcements, Q&A) is available at https://www.facebook.com/appleJAC.org/videos/509765458005435); and for the second half (Q&A continued), click on facebook.com/appleJAC.org/videos/837802857775987 (it may be necessary to click on the resulting image in order to hear the sound with picture).

PDF versions of the Shortcuts presentation can be downloaded by clicking on Shortcuts, and the Notes presentation by clicking on Notes.

The next appleJAC meeting will be September 5, 2023, about AI and ChatGPT at Kennedy Hall in IC Schools.

 

Watch Out for Adware

by Tom Piper, aJ Secretary

One of our members recently reported the receipt of the message you see at right (it didn't look legitimate, and even had a voice-over that said he had a virus in his computer) . . . every get one of these? WATCH OUT, this is a hoax that can cause you a lot of time and money from which to recover.

DO NOT call this number nor contact them in any way. It is a scam and not simple to eliminate. One solution is to download and run AdwareMedic:

   adwaremedic.com/index.php

This program is free (a donation requested), and can be quite effective. But, as one of our club gurus says, you may need to look at removing Safari extensions and resetting your home page in Safari too. (thanks to George Kopp for advice)

 

Not Enough iCloud Storage

Have you ever seen the message on your iPhone or iPad that tells you it was unable to back up to iCloud?   This is a common message that seen often and there are a couple ways to deal with it.

The simplest way is to simply go to the iCloud storage settings and purchase more storage. Apple makes additional storage available at an inexpensive cost. You can update from the 5 GB Apple provides to 20 GB for only $.99 a month.

Alternatively you can’t remove items from your phone to make your storage needs smaller.

 You can use these steps to see how much iCloud storage is available in your account:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:If you’re using iOS 8 or later, tap Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage.

If you’re using an earlier version of iOS, tap Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup.

On your Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Manage.

The next thing you should probably do is to go into Settings > General > Usage and see what is using up the space on your phone.

Apple has a great technical note describing what gets backed up that’s called, “iCloud: iCloud storage and backup overview”.  From this note here’s what iCloud backs up:

• Purchase history for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books

Your iCloud backup includes information about the content you have purchased, but not the purchased content itself. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your purchased content is automatically downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. Some types of content aren’t downloaded automatically in all countries, and previous purchases may be unavailable if they have been refunded or are no longer available in the store. For more information, see the Apple Support article iTunes in the Cloud availability by country. Some types of content aren’t available in all countries. For more information, see the Apple Support article What can I buy from the iTunes Store in my country?.

• Photos and videos on your iOS devices

• Device settings

• App data

• Home screen and app organization

• iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages

• Ringtones

• Visual Voicemail

• Your iOS device backup only includes data and settings stored on your device.

It doesn’t include data already stored in iCloud, for example contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail messages, notes, shared photo albums, iCloud Photo Library beta, My Photo Stream, and documents you save in iCloud using iOS apps and Mac apps.

The bottom line usually comes down to this. If you don’t have room to back up your phone it’s likely because you have too many pictures, or you have received many pictures and messages and have not deleted those messages. Generally if you clean out those two items you’ll have enough space in iCloud to be able to back up.

How to Add Widgets to iOS 8's Notification Centre

Here is  another useful tip (submitted by Marian Petrides).

You read the article, just click on the link below . . .

http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/features/how-to-add-widgets-to-ios-8s-notification-centre-597680

 

How to Get 'Handoff' Working in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8

by Richard Padilla

Apple is heavily pushing its new "Continuity" features in OS X Yosemite that improve cross-platform integration between iOS and the Mac. The most significant of the Continuity features is Handoff, which allows OS X and iOS users to start a task on one device and swap to another one nearby to continue work.

Handoff can be used for a number of different activities, including email, web browsing, messaging, and more. Users can begin composing an email on their iPhone and finish it on their Mac. Maps and websites work in a similar fashion, as users can load up content on one device and look at it on another. Currently, Handoff works with Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts. A number of third-party apps including Pixelmator, Wunderlist , PCalc, and Things also contain support for Handoff.

Requirements

You will need iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite in order to use Handoff. You also need to make sure that both your Mac and iPhone are logged into the same iCloud account, and check that your Mac supports Handoff. You can check if your Mac is compatible with Handoff by clicking the  symbol in the top left-hand side of the Menu bar, going to About This Mac, clicking on System Report and clicking on the "Bluetooth" section. You should then see information about whether your system is compatible with Handoff. 

Handoff is limited to Macs with Bluetooth 4.0, which leaves many older Macs unable to access the new features. Additionally, even though the 2011 MacBook Air and 2011 Mac mini include Bluetooth 4.0, Apple has chosen to make both devices incompatible with OS X Yosemite's Continuity features. To solve this issue, a number of talented members of the MacRumors forums have come up with a set of instructions and a Continuity Activation Tool that should get Continuity working on Macs unable to support the feature.

Setting Up Handoff

1. Turn on Wi-Fi on your iPhone (Settings -> Wi-Fi) and Mac (Menu Bar -> Wi-Fi -> Turn Wi-Fi On.

2. Turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone (Settings -> Bluetooth) and Mac (Menu Bar -> Apple -> System Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Turn Bluetooth On).

3. Turn on Handoff on your iPhone (Settings -> General -> Handoff & Suggested Apps -> Turn Handoff On) and Mac (Menu Bar -> Apple -> System Preferences -> General -> Recent Items - > Turn On "Allow Handoff Between this Mac and your iCloud devices")

4. You may now begin using Handoff by launching a compatible app on your Mac or iOS device and swapping to another to see your content. For example, try launching Safari on your Mac and then switch to your iPhone. On your iPhone's lock screen, you should see a small Safari icon in the lower left corner. Slide up to launch Safari, and the iOS app will display the same website as seen on your Mac.

You can also see a Handoff-enabled app through the multitasking switcher by double-pressing your home button and scrolling to the left.

Handoff works in a similar fashion when transitioning from an iOS device to a Mac. On the Mac, a Handoff-compatible app will be displayed on the left-most side of the dock. Clicking on the app in the Mac's dock will load the same content as seen on an iOS device. 

Troubleshooting

Since the launch of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 earlier this month, many users have had issues getting Handoff to work with their devices.

Users on our forums seem to have found that the most common solution is a combination of logging out and back into iCloud on their devices, disabling and enabling Handoff, disabling and enabling Bluetooth, and restarting devices. But even amongst those who found success, it may not last forever. Handoff clearly remains buggy in this early release.

If those steps don't work for you, members on Apple's own support forums have also suggested that deleting Bluetooth preferences in OS X and then restarting Bluetooth can also solve problems with Handoff, but we haven't been able to get that to work on our end.

Any of these steps may help if you are having trouble with activating Handoff on your devices, but ultimately, Apple may have to release an update to allow Handoff to work consistently for everyone.

(article provided by MacRumors, Monday October 27, 2014 3:17 AM PDT)

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 [email protected]
    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

Mac Data Recovery v.6: Regain Just About Everything

a review by Tom Piper

Backup, backup, backup . . . this is the mantra of computer volume protection! Yet, even backups get corrupted, and boot drives fail to boot . . . this is when you need reliable data insurance to bring back those precious files. I’ve been using Stellar recovery products for many years, and their latest release does it all.

The all new Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Version 6 software recovers just about everything, ranging from files, folders, music, photos, videos to other important documents that may have been lost due to accidental deletion, corruption or formatting. It is one solution for my data recovery requirements after almost all instances of data loss. I can restore lost data from volumes that are corrupted, damaged, deleted and even reformatted.

This powerful Mac data recovery application provides a good balance of simplicity and advanced recovery features to suit a broad spectrum of Mac users like me. Here is a quick description of the many functions Mac Data Recovery software handles:  

• Mac Data Recovery: Stellar Mac Data Recovery brings me plenty of functionality at my fingertips to help safely recover everything I lost on my Mac. I can retrieve irreplaceable files on my hard drive lost due to media formatting, accidental deletion, malicious software attack or other similar issues. The tool's easy-to-use approach coupled with the ability to perform different recovery options (Quick Recovery, Deleted Recovery, Formatted Media & Search Lost Volume) helps me make the most of this data recovery application. 
• Deleted File Recovery: This software makes it exceedingly simple to undelete all your my, folders, documents even after completely emptying the Trash or by hitting 'Command+Shift+Option+Delete'. The software works flawlessly to scan any large Mac volume or drive for deleted files. This utility can now recover all my recently deleted files with their original names.  
• Deleted Volume Recovery: I can now recover lost or deleted volumes on my Mac with minimum fuss using this Mac recovery application. If I no longer see existing volumes on my iMac and MacBook Pro (or Mac Pro, MacBook Air, or Mac Mini, if I had them), the software can locate and rebuild those deleted volumes conveniently to help you get your valuable data back. The software can recover entire volumes deleted from any HFS, HFS+, FAT, NTFS, or ExFAT formatted drive.  
• Raw Recovery: This application has a built-in fingerprint of every common file type that helps better recognize different types of files stored on my hard drive and conveniently perform data recovery based on file signatures. With advanced Raw Recovery feature, I can recover more than 122 different file types with the software.  
• Mac Photo Recovery: I can even recover lost, deleted or formatted photos from any internal or external Mac hard drive, USB drive, digital camera, memory card, SD card, flash card, or others. • System Startup Disc: This tool acts as a data rescuer even when my system fails to boot. Mac Data Recovery is available with a Bootable system startup DVD that comes handy in times of boot failure. 
• Recover Data from NTFS Partitions on Mac: The ultimate usability of the software is realized with its support for Boot Camp partition recovery. The software supports data recovery from NTFS partitions on Mac and gives me a hassle-free experience when recovering files from Windows Boot Camp partition.
• Create Image: This software includes a suite of free additional utilities for data safety, one of which is 'Create Image'. When my media develops bad sectors, and there are chances of impending drive failure, I can create and keep a mountable image of my Mac hard drive, volume, or selected region so that even in case of media failure, I will have a complete backup.
• Recovery from FAT and ExFAT Formatted Drives/Volumes: This software can safely bring back files lost from FAT or ExFAT formatted drives and volumes. The software introduces two levels of scans for FAT and ExFAT volumes including Quick Scan and Deep Scan for either extremely fast scan or time-intensive scanning, which performs a thorough sector-by-sector scan to dig out all the data lost from the drive.
• Resume Recovery: This is very helpful and important feature to recover data from the image file (. ) created at any LATER point of time. This user-friendly software allows me to restore lost or deleted data from any previously created image file of the corresponding Mac media.
• Optical Media Recovery: With this Mac recovery solution, I get the ability to easily grab all my seemingly inaccessible files stored on damaged or improperly burnt optical media (CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc etc).
• Preview During Scan: While the software scans my media behind the scenes, I can see my images, songs, and videos displayed in the main interface on the fly. If I want, I can hide this on-the-fly preview by deselecting the option from preferences. In addition, after completion of the scanning process, the software allows to right click on any recoverable file and see its preview using Quick Look.
• iPod Data Recovery: As if Mac volume recovery is not enough, I can also recover my lost or deleted music files, videos, photos, pod casts and other files from any Mac-supported storage media, including iPods, USB drives and such, including even the iPod Classic and Shuffle.  
• Simple and Interactive GUI: This new version of the Mac recovery software has a simpler and more appealing graphical user interface. With detailed instructions for each step of data recovery, this software can be used by of us without needing any further technical assistance.
• Selective Recovery: On completion of the scanning process, the software lists all recoverable files and folders in a tree-view, from which I can check mark the required ones to perform selective recovery. Here, the software provides an easy recovery option with which I can simply right-click on the selected files or folders to recover them.

This is very awesome software with lots of features while remaining easy to use (see the initial operating screens at right). It can be used on any Intel or PowerPC (G3 or later) Mac running Mac OSX 10.4.1 or later which has at least one gigabyte of RAM and 50 megabytes of free hard drive space. Even with more features than before, this version runs 30% faster than former versions. It is designed even for the novice user, and provides 24-hour online support, if needed. And, just to give you an added level of confidence, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Version 6 is available by download for $99.00 from www.stellarinfo.com (a premium version also available for $114). Add $20 if you want have them ship you the Recovery CD. And, if you want to try it out before buying, a free download and evaluation version allows you to preview any of their 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.

Make iTunes 11 look like iTunes 10

Fixing Safari Problems

How to Repair your Permissions

Recent Malware: What To Do About It

by Randy B. Singer (see attribution at bottom)

There are a couple of new Trojan Horses going around that are quite nasty. The one that is receiving the most press is called Flashback.

Article: Mac Flashback Trojan: Find Out If You’re One of the 600,000 Infected <http://gizmodo.com/5899352/mac-flashback-trojan-find-out-if-youre-one-of-the-600000-infected> Find out if you are already infected by the Flashback Trojan, and it tells where to go to find instructions on how to eliminate this malware if you are. (Don't be too upset by the title of that article. I've yet to hear a single firsthand account of someone being infected by Flashback.)

A simpler method (i.e. non-command line) than the F-Secure steps to check to see if you are infected by Flashback is this little app that runs the test for you. It just posts a dialog that says whether or not you're infected. It does not make any attempt to remove the trojan. You can download it here: <http://rsdeveloper.com/downloads/test4flashback.zip>

Apple has already pushed out an update to Java that includes a patch to make your Mac immune to Flashback. Once you either find out that you aren't infected with Flashback, or you find out that you are infected with Flashback and you eliminate it, it would be a very good idea to go ahead and update Java to acquire immunity to Flashback.<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5228?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US>

There is another Trojan Horse going around that is carried via a Microsoft Office document. Don't confuse this with the Flashback Trojan. Apple has already pushed out a patch to protect you against this Trojan also. Apple updated XProtect with a definition to catch the Office vulnerability. They refer to it as "OSX/Mdropper.i." This should have happened automatically in the background on your Mac if your are running OS X 10.6 or higher (i.e. Snow Leopard or Lion).<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT465> (There is no version of XProtect included in versions of OS X prior to OS X 10.6/Snow Leopard.)

In addition, if you have Microsoft Office installed, it's a good idea to install the Microsoft updaters for Office. These include a patch against this Trojan also:<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads>

Now, the question that always comes up is: Do I need to install anti-virus (AV) software at this point? Most ordinary Mac users do completely without any AV software, and yet you just about never hear about a Mac user being infected with Malware. There are still no actual viruses (defined as self-propogating software) for the Macintosh. I’ve told you, above, how to deal with the latest malware threats without the need for AV software. So not much has changed that would require that we all run out and purchase AV software.

I’ve run what is usually the most highly rated (in magazine comparison tests) AV software program for the Mac for over a decade: Intego’s VirusBarrier ($50) <http://www.intego.com/virusbarrier> just to be able to tell clients that I am running AV software. (Clients don’t understand that a Macintosh isn’t the same thing as a Windows computer. And I don’t want to bother to try explaining the difference to them.) In all that time VirusBarrier has never actually protected me from anything of any consequence. While VirusBarrier is excellent, some users have (rarely) reported that it can cause nasty software conflicts (as can any AV software that runs constantly in the background). And since VirusBarrier always running in the background on your Mac, even though it is mostly unnoticable, there is some (minor) level of performance degridation (and once again, this is true of any AV software that is always running in the background).

So, instead, you may want to download and regularly use this free product: ClamXav (free) http://www.clamxav.com/. ClamXav doesn’t run constantly in the background like most other AV programs. (So it shouldn’t cause any software conflicts or slowdowns.) It can, however, be set to run on a schedule. It is easy to use, and it is comprehensive. So it is a good choice to install on your Mac, even if AV software really isn’t necessary for your Mac.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer (via Apple User Group Digest)
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________

President's Place

by George Kopp

Oh, for the dog days of summer. They seem so wonderful until the thermostat stays above 100 for 5 days in a row! Yuck!! We can only be thankful for air conditioning, and lots of new Apple and Mac stuff to talk about. 

The big story this month is MacOS X Lion. Lion is the 8th version of Mac OS X and looks like it will be the shape of things to come from Apple. Lion integrates much of the interface built in iOS for the iPhone and iPad into the Macintosh user experience. Everything from Launchpad to the use of swiping gestures is now incorporated into the computer operating system we know and love. There is lots new to talk about here so appleJAC will be hosting a Mac OS X Lion demo at our regularly scheduled meeting in September. Plan to kick off the fall with a look into Lion. 

Lion not only brings us new interface, it also leads us to the new method for software delivery that Apple has in it’s plans. A few years back, Apple introduced the MacBook Air without a DVD drive, and we all thought that was crazy. Everyone needs a DVD drive to install software and play movies. Fast forward to today, and we see ourselves downloading a new version of the operating system and getting movies over the Internet from NetFlix. No DVDs need apply for this gig; it is an online-only world. 

Now we see the latest MacBook Air with a fast processor. This time just as fast as a MacBook Pro for all practical sense. And now the Mac Mini looses it’s DVD drive. Get ready folks, my next prediction: DVDs are going the way of the floppy. Some will cry and some will refuse to go, but expect a Mac in your future to be DVD-less. 

The other real story in line is the elimination of Rosetta from Lion. Rosetta was an emulation layer that allowed older software written for a PowerPC processor to run on Intel-based Macs. Apple contracted this software from IBM (who sold it the PowerPC processors), but the PowerPC has run it’s course, and even IBM is moving on. SO must Apple. For about 5 years it maintained this emulation to allow software developers time to bring their products forward into natively running on Intel. Unfortunately, some developers did not listen.

But, the vast majority of software you have issues with in Lion falls into two categories: 

1. Software that has been sunset – this is software the developer chose to end development on; this may be because it was replaced with a new product or it may be the developer just did not want to continue it’s development 
2. Software that has an upgrade - some of these are as simple as downloading a new version, but many, if not most, of them will be products that have a fee for the upgrade; users may not have been aware of this upgrade or chose not to pay; either way, these products will not run in Lion without the upgrade. 

It is funny to watch the complaints on the Internet about these two types of software. Some people believe that, if they purchase a product it should work forever. Others chastise Apple for not maintaining this emulation for 5 more years. Either way, these PowerPC applications join the Mac OS 9 applications that have been orphaned by new technology. 

The key thing for a user here is to be sure the applications you need will run before updating to Lion. If you do the update, and the files need to be exported, you may have just lost all those files to the old ‘bit bucket’ in the sky. Don’t let this happen to you. Remember, while Lion adds a lot to the user experience on the Mac, it is NOT a required upgrade. If what you have works for you, then you can still keep using it. Just don’t expect the world to stay behind with you. 

 

The other big story this month is the August appleJAC meeting. This year we are going back to the Yanis Coffee Zone on August 2 at 7:00 pm for a evening of iOS applications. Bring your iOS device (iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad) and learn about great applications for these devices. Just like the last time, the proprietor of the Coffee Zone will be there keeping the coffee on for you to order your favorite coffee drinks and great sweets.

I hope you can make it this month. Be sure to bring your iOS-using friends too. You don’t need to be a member to come see all the fun. 

Lion is here, but Rosetta is NOT: What no longer works?

by Tom Piper

On July 20, 2011, Mac OS 10.7 Lion became available for $29 as a huge (3.79 GB) install from the App Store. Many have rejoiced at over 250 major and minor improvements over its 10.6 Snow Leopard predecessor, but others have cried over the loss of legacy programs.

A number of previous features not only won’t be updated, they’re being dropped entirely. One of the OS X features getting dropped in Lion is Rosetta, Apple’s PowerPC software compatibility layer which originally shipped with OS X 10.5 Leopard. The simple angle here is that Lion will be native 64-bit and Rosetta supported 32-bit Universal and PPC code.

What programs will be affected? AppleWorks stands out first, and other notables like Quicken 7, Contribute, AOL, FilmLoop, Internet Explorer, MacLink Plus, MacTheRipper, OmniWeb, ReadySetGo, Thunderbird and others. For a complete list of the programs on your computer that would not work in Lion, follow these steps:

• Under the Apple at upper left of screen, click on “About This Mac”,
• Click on the “More Info...” button to get the System Profiler,
• In the left sidebar under “Software”, click on “Applications”, 
• Wait for the report of application titles (could take several minutes),
• In the “Kind” column, look for “Classic” and “PowerPC” designations . . . these programs will NOT work with Mac OS 10.7 Lion!!!

Once you have upgraded to Lion, it will show you which files no longer work by placing a white “circle slash” over the icon. If you double-click on one of these applications, it will report “You can’t open the application _________ because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.” I’ve grouped all of my old Classic and PowerPC applications into a single “Incompatible” folder for easy identification (and to avoid unnecessary errors).

What to do if you still need these old programs? Some would suggest dividing your hard drive into two partitions, one of which would boot from Snow Leopard, and the other from Lion. Another quick solution is to duplicate your old hard drive using a free program like Carbon Copy Cloner to a new external hard drive from which you could boot whenever needed, then upgrade the internal hard drive to Lion. It is even possible to install Snow Leopard to a bootable USB flash drive as a convenient alternative.

As for AppleWork 6, the word processing files will easily import into Pages, and spreadsheet files into Numbers. The draw files will easily import into EasyDraw 4. AppleWorks database files cannot be imported into anything else which retains their format; the only solution is to export the contents as an ASCII text file, then import into Bento, FileMakerPro, Numbers or something else.

Progress oftentimes comes at a price, so it is best to be prepared before you take the next step. We will discuss this much more at our September 6 meeting when we focus on Lion. We will even do a poll to see if a special class will be needed.

TechTool Pro 6: Superior Diagnostics, Repair & Maintenance

a review by Tom Piper

The core of your computer’s long-term memory is its hard drive . . . how well do you take care of it? Whether your internal boot drive, or one of your external backups (you do have backups, right?), regular and dependable attention is important to their ongoing health (and effective recovery, should their health fail). This is an expansion on the presentation I recently made at our user group meeting.

MICROMAT has a long tradition of outstanding products, with its flagship TechTool Pro 6 setting the standard of excellence in hard drive support. Their motto  “Designed for the Novice, Yet Powered for the Professional” epitomizes an effective approach with a very powerful utility.

As their website (www.micromat.com) says, “Using TechTool Pro, you don't need to be an expert. With an easy-to-use interface, single-click diagnostics scan critical CPU, memory, video hardware and more to identify impending problems to help you prevent costly repairs. New in version 6, TechTool Pro ships standard in a 3 user Family Pack, yet provides a comprehensive suite of tests that also delivers for the Mac professional.” The three principal functions include: 

• Drive Repair and Data Recovery which repair damaged volumes, identify files in bad blocks, recover deleted files, clone exact duplicates of drives for backup, and create an emergency startup partition without requiring a physical boot DVD, exclusively via eDrive. 
• Testing, Maintenance and Optimization using SMART test drives (including internal ATA, SATA or SSD's) to identify potential problems before a potential crash, prevent file access conflicts, monitor LAN activity, services and device availability, and optimize to help speed up your Mac.
• Single-click Diagnostics through easy-to-use, one-click diagnostics that scan critical CPU, memory, video hardware and more to identify aberrant behavior, providing ongoing protection to help you mitigate issues and prevent costly repairs.

In recently working on a damaged hard drive for a client, I created an emergency startup partition on the active system volume using TechTool Pro's eDrive, without ever having to boot from the DVD. I performed a SMART test on an internal SATA drive to detect changes in reliability, and was able to repair corrupt (damaged) HFS+ volume -- this also works on newer solid-state devices (SSD's). I could have used TechTool Pro's Volume Cloning to create exact duplicates of my volumes for trouble-free archiving (a good idea for all of your drives). Plus, TechTool Pro helps me recover deleted files and lost data when needed. If bad blocks are found when scanning my hard drive, I can identify and restore the corrupted files within them from previous backups I have archived.

To help keep my Mac running at peak performance, I use TechTool Pro to optimize my volumes after defragmenting files, and even use it to repair disk permissions which may prevent problems accessing applications or files on my Mac. In addition, TechTool Pro also helps with device management within my local area network (LAN). To monitor the configuration or security of my LAN, it displays Bonjour-supported devices and active services, and helps track devices no longer available to the monitored network. As if that’s not enough, TechTool Pro provides continuous protection by monitoring my system, alerting me when aberrant behavior is detected, and helps me maintain top performance for my Mac every day. This is one solid utility that is very dependable.

A new boxed version of TechTool Pro 6 is available for $99.99 (also downloadable as a 57MB application, or a 1.8GB Boot DVD), or an upgrade from previous TechTool Pro, TechTool Deluxe and AppleCare users is $39.99. A Business Pack (10 users) can be purchased for $299.99. The Lion Update is also coming soon, as well as an updated TechTool Protogo. Minimum system requirements are:

• PowerPC G4 867MHz processor or newer,
• Mac OS X 10.4.9 or greater, including Snow Leopard,
• Mac OS X 10.5 or greater for eDrive creation on active startup volume,
• DVD-ROM drive, and
• 512 Megabytes RAM or higher. 

I can’t imagine my utility toolbox without TechTool Pro as one of my primary tools. You should consider this as a valuable investment in the maintenance of your hard drives and solid state drives.

IK Multimedia’s Summer NAMM Products

by Tom Piper

Ever wonder what goes on at the big music product conventions? The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) held its 2011 Summer Show at the Nashville Convention Center with the introduction of some cool new products from one of our favorite innovative vendors. IK Multimedia showed their newest pro-audio iOS products and peripherals for keyboardists including a new iOS interface for keyboardists, and the iKLIP MINI for iPhone and iPod units. 

The iKlip MINI is a universal microphone stand adapter for the iPhone and iPod touch to support iOS devices on stage, in the studio, at school or in the office. iKlip MINI securely attaches to any standard mic stand, pole or tripod with diameters ranging from 11-20 mm placed on the floor or tabletop.

The iRig MIDI is a Core MIDI interface that connects MIDI-equipped instruments and devices to an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad using the 30-pin connector. It includes IN, OUT and THRU ports, has 2 LED lights, and 5’  MIDI cables. For keyboardists and producers, iRig MIDI has IK's new SampleTank free app for iOS, the mobile version of IK’s leading virtual sound workstation for Mac and PC. It is a 4-part multi-timbral instrument with a sound set of over 1 GB of samples for over 500 acoustic, electric and electronic instruments plus a selection of over 1,000 melodic and rhythmic patterns that span every musical genre. 

Pricing will be $39.99 for the iKlipx MINI and $69.99 for the iRig MIDI. For more information, visit www.irigmidi.com, www.sampletank.com/ios, and www.ikmultimedia.com/iklipmini. IK Multimedia continues its fine tradition of creative musical interfaces for iOS devices.

Flexiglass: Control Your Screen Windows

review by Tom Piper

Do you get frustrated by the limited ability (title bar or lower right corner) to modify the windows on your desktop? Want to stretch, and relocate at will? There’s an app for that . . .

Flexiglass 1.3 from Nulana (http://nulana.com/flexiglass) offers a convenient way to move, resize, maximize, and close windows on a Mac with a mouse, trackpad and keyboard.

• Move or resize the active window by placing the mouse cursor over it, press definable key (I use the Option key) and start dragging windows with left or right mouse button.
• Arrange windows on your screen any way you like by moving a window to the right, left or top, and it will automatically resize and move itself to fill the half of the screen or full screen.
• User-defined shortcuts allow you to move windows to halves or quarters of the screen and back to original size (place a window in the center of the screen or move it from one monitor to another).
• Finger gestures used on your macbook trackpad or Magic trackpad to move and resize, and save different settings for a trackpad and a mouse, then automatically change them when you plug or unplug devices.
• Double-click on window title bar is the easiest way to expand it to full screen.
• Change the default behavior of standard Mac OS X buttons like using right-click on the green Zoom button to maximize a window to full screen, and right-click on Close window button to quit the whole application.

This nifty little utility can be installed from the App Store for only $9.99 (15-day free trial allows you to try before you buy). You will find yourself smiling (maybe even a giggle) when resizing and relocation of a window becomes so easy . . . it has been fully upgraded for Lion.

 

Prosoft Data Rescue: Do-It-Yourself Data Recovery Software

a review by Tom Piper

Your computer won’t boot -- all you see is a flashing question mark -- you did not back up your hard drive -- what, oh what, do you do? There are products to help you recover from this awful situation.

Data Rescue 3 is the best digital data recovery software on the market for recovering files from a problem hard drive or that have been previously deleted. It is specifically designed for computer data recovery and works where other tools often fail.

As described on their website (http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php), Data Rescue 3 is completely safe to use since it does not attempt any risky repairs to the drive it's scanning. It is the same software used by many data recovery services, law enforcement, all major branches of the U.S. Military and major intelligence agencies.

As I experienced when I recently worked on a 160 GB damaged hard drive, you will need to save your recovered files to either an internal or external hard drive (USB or FireWire), removable media device, or a networked drive. It comes with a bootable Emergency DVD, so there is no need to disassemble your computer, and you can even get free technical support via phone or email.

Data Rescue 3 focuses on data recovery, instead of hard drive repair, so it will work in more cases, recover more effectively, and deliver your files in better condition than other utilities you may have tried in the past. Data Rescue 3 analyzes your entire hard drive looking for your data, then it meticulously re-assembles your files and stores them to a different location. This is very time-consuming (over 8 hours in my cases), but very effective.

If a drive is reformatted, usually the original file catalog is permanently lost and thus recovering files by their original name and directory location is not possible and thus files are recovered by content. If the file types you are looking for are among the supported types, there is a good chance that Data Rescue 3 will be able to find it. In addition to all of this is FileIQ which allows you to add your own file type to Data Rescue 3 to further increase it's capacity to recover your important files. 

Data Rescue 3 will recover pictures from a digital camera media card, that have been deleted, reformatted or a corrupt media card, as well as hard drives. It also allows you to preview a single file before recovering it, and you can select the individual files without recovering the whole drive. In the worst case of a physically-damaged hard drive, Prosoft has a new Data Rescue Center that can provide you with a free diagnosis (including free shipping to our facility). This is their full-service drive recovery service where they can do hard drive failure recovery (find out more at www.TheDataRescueCenter.com).

Prosoft Data Rescue 3 is a $99 investment that is well worth it if you need to recover lost data, and most technical professionals keep it in their tool chest. A special Data Rescue 3 LE version is also available for $59.99 at http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data-rescue-le.php. It is important to backup your precious hard drives, but even backups will occasionally fail, so it is good to be prepared. This is an excellent tool in the hands of an experienced computer user.

 

President's Place

by George Kopp

Back to School . . . a Different School this time

With summer comes our appleJAC Meetings hitting the road from our normal home base of Lewis and Clark Middle School. This month we will be heading to Calvary Lutheran High School in Jefferson City. Calvary Lutheran is located at 2525 Route B just south of Jefferson City (see map at right). The easiest way to get there is to continue through Jefferson City toward the Lake of the Ozarks on Highway 54, then take the exit onto Rte 179 toward Wardsville. Continue south onto Rte B (at the Tanner Bridge Road stop light), and on to the school a half mile beyond. The school is marked on the map with the letter "A".

This month's theme will be computer and hardware maintenance. We will cover some good tips for maintaining your Mac including routine service and backup. We will also address the options when it comes to backup, and why you may need more than a single backup method to ensure you are safe. We are also planning to touch on printer maintenance and maintaining your iPhone and iPad devices. It definitely promises to be a great set of presentations.

Traditionally at this meeting, we also offer to assist people with minor Mac upgrades. So, if you have an interest in adding memory, replacing a harddisk, or just adding software to your machine, feel free to email us at [email protected], and we will talk with you about parts you may need to bring with you to ensure you have what is necessary to accomplish your goal.

iPad Class a Great Success

This last month, appleJAC held it's first ever iPad class with a full house of over 30 participants. This class covered the basics of iPad use and delved into the settings of the device to help users customize their iPad's to meet their needs.  

The class continues a long line of appleJAC classes. As your Board of Directors plans for the fall, we would like some input on what additional classes might be worthwhile to offer. Feel free to send us your interests and ideas at [email protected], and we will see what topics have a critical mass.

Upcoming Meetings

In August we continue with our coverage of iOS devices when we address iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch applications. This regular meeting will be held August 2 at 7:00 pm at Yanis Coffee Zone in Jefferson City. Since many of our Mac-Challenged (ie... windows users) friends use iOS devices, so feel free to bring them along to this meeting. We promise to be "operating system agnostic" and only talk about our handheld devices that evening.

Then in September . . . hold on to your hats . . . MacOS 10.7 Lion will be featured. Learn about the new possibilities in Lion, and if Lion is your next step in Macintosh nirvana.

And, one last thought . . . those of you running AppleWorks may want to reconsider Lion seriously before an update. Lion is reported to finally kill Appleworks (it won't work anymore without Rosetta), so a move forward may be a setback to you. But, your appleJAC leadership warned you of Appleworks demise over 2 years ago . . .

Be sure to join us for a skyrocketing time on July 5 at 7:00pm.

 

 

MacKeeper: 911 for Your Mac

a review by Tom Piper

Mac maintenance is more and more important as we see more and more powerful operating systems in support of a wide array of useful software. But, what needs to be maintained, how often should it be done, and which utility programs are best to accomplish it? 

MacKeeper from ZeoBIT is an integrated bundle of the most important system utilities for performing different tasks on your Mac. It is like 911 for your Mac since it’s an easy way to manage routine tasks and keep your Mac secured, clean, reliable, fast and attended. It’s functions are easily separated into the following categories:

Security (2 apps): Antivirus protects the Mac from security threats including viruses, identity theft, phishing attacks, passing on viruses to friends, fraud websites, unsafe downloads, threats from external devices, e-mail threats, Mac spyware, and Mac malware. Anti-Theft, if your Mac is ever stolen, will track down its location and make an iSight snapshot of the thief during generation of the report.

Data Control (5 apps): Data Encryptor makes your personal data invisible on the hard drive by using a password so that the data cannot be retrieved through Finder or Terminal . . . just create a password, add files or folders, and click the Hide button. Undelete scans your hard drive for deleted files that can still be recovered, and you can preview all found files using the Quick Look button, then recover those you need with just one click. Backup creates reserve copies of your files and folders using your desired schedule and choice of destination including USB Flash drive, external hard drive, FTP upload, and ZeoDisk. Shredder deletes files or folders without any chance to recover them where you drop the files you want to permanently remove and click the Shred button. ZeoDisk is an online storage to backup and store data, share files with your friends, and sync data between multiple devices on varied platforms including Mac OS, Windows, iOS, Android and Web in any browser.

Cleaning (5 apps): Fast Cleanup is a customizable set of drive clean-up utilities that remove unneeded parts and unused languages from applications, plus system and user log and cache files. Wise Uninstaller completely removes applications, widgets, preference panes, plugins, preferences, caches and logs from your Mac's hard drive. Disk Usage visualizes the size of your folders by scanning and marking them with different colors depending on size Red (1Gb-1TB), Orange (1Mb-1Gb), Yellow (1kB-1Mb), Green (>1kB), White (not scanned), and Gray (scanning) — this is the easiest way to detect large files on your hard drive. Duplicates Finder looks for file copies that take up space on your Mac's hard drive and enables you to remove these duplicates if you don't need them. Files Finder scans your Mac's hard drive for all files of the selected file type and shows only those files for which you've specified the settings (like video, audio, photos, applications, others).

Optimization (3 apps): Update Tracker checks each application installed on your Mac for a new version available so any out-of-date application can be updated by clicking the Update button. Login Items allows you to control automatic startup of selected applications, and thus manage the list of applications that you want to launch upon login. Default Apps allows you to define which application will open each file type by showing the associations between all file extensions and applications that open them; all you do is click the application name next to the file type you want to change and select an appropriate app for it.

Geek on Demand: This service will give professional answers via telephone to all your technical questions. If you describe your problem in detail and schedule a phone call for any suitable time, then during the call, the MacKeeper expert will give answers to all your questions. 

You can also call them toll-free with MacKeeper questions, use their online manual for a step-by-step tutorial of how to use it effectively, and access their internet blog for more information and live online chat. They also have a major presence on both Facebook and Twitter.

MacKeeper is a robust utility program with most of the essential maintenance features integrated into one location (see the main window at right). It took a while to get used to having everything within easy reach, not to mention having features that I ordinarily would not even be concerned about. The ability to get help at any time of the day or night by phone online is an unexpected bonus (my call was on hold for quite awhile with nice music, so be prepared for a wait for free advice, or you can leave a number for them to call you back).

With its 16 Mac utilities, MacKeeper is now available for only $38 as downloadable software from http://mackeeper.zeobit.com/ where you can also learn much more about the capabilities. ZeoBit offers a 15-day fully-functional trial with all features available including 24/7 personal support with a money-back guarantee when you buy it. This software could be an important tool in helping to effectively maintain your Mac.

 

iPhone and iPod touch: Disabling digital camera notification in Mac OS X

When the iPhone or iPod touch is connected to Mac OS X, a dialog is presented with choices for connecting as a digital camera and working with the digital pictures stored on the iPhone or iPod touch.

This is the default behavior under Mac OS X for digital imaging devices. Mac OS X provides a way to disable this notification.

Mac OS X 10.6

To disable this notification:

1. Connect the iPod or iPhone.
2. Open Image Capture (located in Applications).
3. Select the iPod or iPhone in the Devices list.
4. Click the "Show Device Settings" buttonin the lower left corner if Device Settings are not visible.
5. Select "No Application" in the pop-up menu in the Device Settings.
   
   
   

Mac OS X 10.5

To disable this notification:

1. Open Image Capture (located in Applications).
2. Choose Image Capture > Preferences.
3. Choose No application from the "When a camera is connected, open" menu.
   
   
4. Quit Image Capture.
   
   Information an apple support article