First Meeting
By Jon | March 24, 2008
The date and time for the first Meeting of the Macon Mac Users Group, aka MaconMUG will be held April 10, 2008 at 7:30 P.M. It will be held on the Mercer University Campus in the Mac lab. Please contact Jon for directions, which will also be posted on this site. j o n c u r r e y @m a c o n m u g . c o m (without the spaces of course!)
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April 10 - Save the date
By Jon | March 21, 2008
Our first meeting is scheduled for April 10, 2008 at 7:30 PM. Please check this blog and our calendar for updated location details early next week!
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March Update
By Jon | March 2, 2008
Strike!
It’s that time of year again. Storms. I lost my first PC due to a either a lightning strike or a power spike. I never cried over it, but if anything were to happen to my precious Macs… I’d pull my hair out.
If you don’t control the amount of electricity that surges between your walls (and I know you don’t), I would highly recommend:
1) Shut down your computer and unplug all your other electrical appliances during a lightning storm , or;
2) Get a really fancy Surge protector and backup power supply that will shut your mac down when it’s juice is about to drain, or;
3) Move to an alternative energy community in the mountains and live off the grid, but that’s your choice.
Editors Note: Many of you know about the current condition of hair on my scalp, and the lack therof. Therefore, I would need to find alternative means of venting my frustration. I’ll probably just take a long walk and contemplate the meaning of life.
New MacBooks and MacBook Pros
I meant to mention this earlier in the week:
New Macbooks: faster processors, 2gb ram standard on higher two models, 4 gb ram max, bigger hard drives
New Macbook Pros: faster processors, imported multitouch trackpad from the Air, bigger hard drives
Yawn.
Apple to Hold Media Event This Week
Wednesday March, 5th. Apple is expected to hold a media event, most likely showcasing the iPhone SDK and other iPhone related news. Stay tuned (to Macrumours or AppleInsider - I’ll write up a brief recap next week).
Meeting Updates
You should look forward to hearing about the first group meeting within a few weeks. Have a Good Week!
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MaconMUG Update, OS X 10.5.2 Released
By Jon | February 11, 2008
I know it’s been a while since I last posted, once again I’ve realized my time is stretched far too thin. Chris and I have been looking into the members only area, an area we hope will bring a little oomph to obtaining a MaconMUG membership.
I think I have a location tagged for meetings, I just need to see when th area will be open for use.
In the meantime, Here is some more information concerning today’s Mac OS X update via AppleInsider.
I’m working on installing it now… I’ll let you now if I run into any hiccups.
Topics: Announcements | 1 Comment »
Macheads: The Movie
By Jon | January 31, 2008
Macheads - the movie (trailer)Uploaded by brunogarattoni
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Why Your Next Computer Should be a Mac
By Jon | January 31, 2008
Originally Written in December of 2007
Up until a year and a half ago, I wouldn’t have as strongly advocated any average joe to buy a mac. Mac computers and their users were still a niche market: digital video and desktop publishing. I would advise to buy the best system for the individual or groups needs and desires. Apple’s new line of computers changed my mindset.
At the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) during the summer of 2005, Apple announced the switch to Intel microprocessors for their hardware to replace the IBM PowerPC chipset that were in use then. Criticism over the format change was kept to a minimum, as Steve Jobs, Apples’ CEO informed the developers that the best interests of Apple, consumers, professionals and developers would be better served on the Intel platform. Lower energy consumption, faster speeds, lower prices and the ability to program/develop for the existing PowerPC base and future Intel systems where promises made and kept by Apple. To the surprise of many at the conference, Apple revealed that the Apple operating system, OS X (pronounced oh-s-ten), was being developed for intel processors and PowerPC chips since 2001, just in case Motorola and IBM failed to keep up with demand.
A year later, as the first intel based macs were being produced, Apple announced that the new macs would also be able to boot the competing Windows operating system as well as OS X through a feature called Boot Camp. This feature allowed a user to use their Mac just as if it were any other computer system, as long as they had a copy of Windows XP 2nd edition (or later on Vista) to use. Apple warned, however, that by doing so users were still vulnerable to viruses and other security hacks that plague Windows. ( I highly suggest you only use boot-camp or any other virtualization software only if you absolutely have to…to play games or for work). Surfing the web, checking email, SETI@home, spreadsheets, word processing and presentations can all be done in OS X (with a lot less fuss!)
That is the first reason why you should buy a Mac, OS X. (not to mention you are far less vulnerable to viruses and malware - and you get a slew of great software bundled in a suite called iLife to handle your basic multimedia needs, and the interface is much much better - easier to use, less strain on the eyes, more efficient…. ok, I’ll stop)
There is a nasty little rumor going around that Macs are more expensive. Dead wrong.
The second reason to buy: price. But where is the 300 dollar iMac on the Apple website or in the Apple Store? Check ebay for a good, used iMac G4. Seriously, when comparing Apples to app… Dells, you have to compare technical specifications on the hardware. You will find that Apples prices on a similar specced out Dell, HP or Sony are far less, in some cases by several thousand dollars (on the pro end of course). Starting price on a Dell XPS notebook computer $1199…similarly configured, but with a much slower processor than the 1099 Apple equivalent, the baseline Apple MacBook. Also, Dell does not offer dual layer dvd burners on these models as well. So right off the bat, Apple offers more bang for your buck. Did I fail to mention what you’ll save on software too?
First of all, you really don’t need antivirus software for Mac OS X (unless you really want it or are required to run a virus protection software- the average joe won’t need it). So there, you save on the antivirus software (and subsequent subscriptions). Malware attacks are also nil, if you implement OSX’s included security features as well. Productivity software - iWork o8- 80 bucks , Office 2007 -150 bucks: you do the math. Oh…create music, movies, dvd’s websites, edit photos…all included with the OS-and this stuff is very, very usable folks (ever tried Windows Movie Maker? - makes me feel dumb). By the way, Office 2008 for Mac is on the way - includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage (Outlook).
Another example: I walked into a Sony store and they are ridiculous…I kid u not they charged 800 dollars more on a computer with a much smaller screen (8 or 9”) with with a Centrino processor ( thats what you;ll find in that 300 dollar dell desktop….and the things look like they’ll fall apart if you stare at them the right way.
The third reason why you should buy a Mac: the aforementioned Boot Camp. This nifty feature available on the Intel Macs running Leopard (the Beta is expected to expire December 31st for Tiger users), as previously mentioned, allows you to run Windows XP, Vista, and Linux as well as OS X on your Mac. And if you wanted to run a windows app without rebooting into Windows, virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop or VMware fusion does the trick. However I highly recommend sticking to the virtualization software on machines with lots of extra hard drive space and ram.
Unless you HAVE to have a computer at this very moment and you don’t have 600 dollars for a Mac Mini (monitor, keyboard and mouse not included), by all means go ahead and get something from one of those big box retailers. You’ll regret not getting by without the Mac purchase later - probably within a week or two.
Topics: Mac Stories | No Comments »
There is Something in the Air
By Jon | January 28, 2008
Many of you may have already heard about the latest announcements and products from Apple athe the MacWorld Conference & Expo (aka MacWorld same name as the magazine), held a couple of weeks ago. Some of us have already planned to make purchases, or already have, based on the latest batch of goodies announced at the “Stevenote.” However, I feel obligated to report and give some insight into, what will hopefully, be only the first major product announcement from Apple.
MacWorld is held every year at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This past year an estimated 40,000 Mac Faithful attended workshops, the expo floor, the keynote and numerous parties. In case you missed it, fire up iTunes, go to the music store and search for Macworld 2008 keynote, click on subscribe. As long as you have 889.8 mb of available download space, within the next hour or so you’ll have your very own copy of the keynote to watch whenever, and wherever with an iPod or iPhone.
If you’ve been under a rock for the past three months or so, read no further…wait for the keynote to finish downloading and watch it. Then let us know how you felt about the presentation. If you have the time, and the hard drive space, go ahead and download the 2007 keynote. Many who attended regard it as better than this years’ presentation, but it is old news.
On that note, watch the keynote and share your comments below.
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Mac Stories: On the Fritz
By Jon | January 27, 2008
Yesterday I began running into a problem with being able to read mail on my laptop. I woke it from sleep, and opened Mail. I checked everything, minimized the window, then went about my business elsewhere. A short time later, I heard the usual chime alerting me that an electronic correspondence has arrived in my inbox.
I clicked on the Mail icon. Nothing. No fancy genie effect, no inbox, however the Mail menus in the finder appeared as normal. I couldn’t get anything to work with it, however I heard another chime come in. and the icon indicated the program was active. Even after I force quit Mail, it still would not appear. I rebooted my computer. Mail opened, appeared in the window, and I figured everything was running back to normal.
Alas, my misfortune returned this morning. I stepped into my office to further research the matter, when I noticed the same thing happening on my Mac Mini that happened on my laptop. I sat befuddled for a moment when I realized that I did make a change on one of my machines yesterday, in particular the Mini.
One of the great things about the .mac service is the ability to sync address book info, Mail accounts, Safari bookmarks, iCal calendars, etc. across multiple machines. Anyone who uses more than one Mac (and of course, is the administrator of both machines) would enjoy the benefits of a .Mac subscription (or an alternative service, but we’ll save that discussion for later). For some reason, when I upgraded my Mini to Leopard back in October, I didn’t turn syncing on.
Although I knew it wasn’t syncing, I just left it alone, until I finally really needed a setting yesterday morning. I turned iSync on, told it to sync up everything and I went about my merry business when the bookmarks I needed magically appeared in the Bookmarks bar after a screen refresh a few minutes later.
When I set up the sync, I just turned everything on, and didn’t think twice about syncing Spaces. I’ll backtrack for a moment again and say, yes, I once set up Spaces on my mini, which worked fine as long as I wasn’t doing anything other than iChat and listening to iTunes. It didn’t take me long to switch it off, however I didn’t clear the settings, one of which was putting Mail in its own separate window.
After my moment of enlightenment a short while ago, I reset my Spaces settings, then immediately, everything returned to normal. My world has retuned to normal for the time being.
So remember, next time your computer starts going on the fritz, the problem could quite possibly sit between your chair and the keyboard.
Topics: Mac Stories | No Comments »
New site in the works, meetings and more!
By Jon | January 21, 2008
Friends-
It is my pleasure to announce that our new site has been posted. A very special thanks goes to Chris Hood and 3 a.m. Design Studio!
Please take a look and let us know what you think!
Please be patient as some areas of the site are not fully up and running as of the writing of this email, however I expect them to be up very soon.
We are also running a little short on content… but more is on the way….after all, we’re only 20 days old!!! If you would like to help out with the newsletter or podasts, please let me know, my email is joncurrey@maconmug.com
Please bear with me, an organizational meeting is in the works, Time, date and location are TBA.
Please help spread the word out about MaconMUG!
– Jon
Topics: MUG News | 1 Comment »