Newsletter to Members
October 2006
In this issue:
- OCTOBER MEETING this Monday
- AUSOM MacBook Raffle
- Saturday Workshop
- Q&A from past Meetings
- News from Apple:
- News from the Net
- New Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro enhances CS2 Premium; now with Dreamweaver 8
- I.R.I.S.' OCR technology integrated into Acrobat 8 product line
- TidBITS Take Control News: "Macworld Mac Basics Superguide"
- Opt Out
Next Meeting Monday 9 October
NOTE VENUE: G17 MUSIC ROOM, LEVEL 1 (Near the stairwell, just past the lift)
Webster Building, UNSW Kensington 6:30pm
Presentation: Colin will show us how to get more productivity out of your Mac with Automator.
Our own Raffle Prizes include: Mac OS X Tiger full install; 1 Gb thumb drive; leather iPod covers; iPod-to-iTunes transfer software; luminous stick-on controls for iPod nano; blank recordable CD & DVD media; and more.
AUSOM MacBook Raffle
Tickets will also be available at the 9 October meeting in the AUSOM (Apple Users Society of Melbourne) MacBook Raffle – only 5,000 tickets are being sold through Mac User Groups Australia-wide, at $5 each. And, AMUG Sydney will earn a small commission from ticket sales, so support your club and the wider User Group movement, and be in it!
The prize is a brand new black Apple MacBook with 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1 Gb of RAM and 80 Gb hard drive. To be drawn in Melbourne on 2 December 2006.
If you are unable to attend the meeting, tickets can be ordered with this order form downloadable from our web site (PDF 150K).
Saturday Workshop
One-on-one help with Mac OS X basics in a friendly, informative environment. Presented by AMUG Sydney.
Saturday 14 October 10am-2pm.
Room 136C (Computer Lab), Ground Floor, Webster Building, UNSW Kensington.
- One Mac per person
- No questions too silly
- Use one of the Uni's eMacs or bring your own Notebook
- Get Apple's latest Software Updates on CD, without the big downloads
- Free for AMUG members
To book, phone Rob on 9387 2069 or email sydamug@mac.com
Q&A from past AMUG Meetings
Topics raised in the Q&A session at our monthly meetings are summarised on our web site for members’ easy reference. We have now built up a comprehensive set of Q&A topics, covering every meeting from March through September 2006. Links at the top of each Q&A page jump to other Q&A months.
Google Search
To make it more useful, we have added a Google's Site Search box to each of these Q&A pages, so you can search by topic or keyword. This functionality also searches the entire site, including PDFs of past issues of ‘Applecations’. So give it a try – search for anything we have talked about at meetings since March this year, or any topic published in 'Applecations' from Sept 2004 to Aug 2005 inclusive.
You can view Q&A pages by clicking the Q&A text link at the top of our home page.
News from Apple
- Beefed up iMac line includes huge 24-inch model
- Apple rolls out New iPod Range
- Apple Announces iTunes 7 with New Features
- Apple Releases Aperture 1.5
- Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update and Apple Software Updates
Beefed up iMac line includes huge 24-inch model
7 September 2006—Apple® announced that its entire iMac® line now features the new Intel 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor in every model, delivering up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous iMac. A new 24-inch iMac with a brilliant 24-inch widescreen display (1920 x 1200 pixels) for under $3,000 joins the 17- and 20-inch models, and iMac prices now start at just RRP $1,549 inc GST.
Apple rolls out New iPod Range
New iPod: Games and New Lower Price
13 September 2006—The new fifth generation iPod features a 60 percent brighter and more vibrant 2.5-inch colour display, perfect for watching music videos right in the palm of your hand. The new iPod features seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store which now includes popular video games designed specifically for the iPod. The new iPod is available in a 30GB model at the lower RRP of $380 inc GST and an 80GB model, which holds up to 20,000 songs or 100 hours of music videos, for RRP $499 inc GST.
New iPod nano: Features New Aluminium Design, 24 Hour Battery Life
Apple has introduced the all-new iPod nano with a new aluminium body, an incredible 24 hours of battery life and more than twice the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation. The new iPod nano features Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an even smaller, thinner and lighter design available in silver, pink, green, blue and black.
New iPod shuffle: Now Wearable with Innovative Clip
Nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is just eight cubic centimetres in volume, weighs just 14 grams and features a stunning all-new aluminum design and a built-in clip which makes it the most wearable iPod ever. The new iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, and is more affordable than ever at just RRP $119 inc GST. Images courtesy of Apple.
Apple Announces iTunes 7 with New Features
iTunes 7 delivers stunning new features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of music, enabling users to quickly find titles in their library as well as casually browse through and re-discover titles they already own.
The iTunes Store now also offers downloads of popular video games for fifth generation iPods, including “Tetris,” “Mahjong” and “Mini Golf” from Electronic Arts Inc.; “Pac-Man” from Namco Networks America Inc.; “Cubis 2” from FreshGames, LLC; “Bejeweled” and “Zuma” from PopCap Games, Inc.; “Texas Hold’em” and “Vortex” developed by Apple, all available for $7.49 inc GST each.
PHOTOKINA 2006, Cologne, Germany—25 September 2006—Apple has released Aperture™ 1.5, a major update to the all-in-one post production tool for photographers that delivers enhancements across each phase of the entire workflow. Aperture 1.5 delivers a powerful new open library, seamless iLife® ‘06 and iWork™ ‘06 integration, XMP metadata support, powerful new adjustment tools and an export API that makes it easy to extend the Aperture workflow to third party applications and services.
Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update and Apple Software Updates
Apple's recently posted 10.4.8 Update is recommended for all OS X users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for a number of applications and technologies.
Security Update 2006-006 (10.3.9) was released on 29 September.
Apple Software Updates
During September, Apple released a wide range of updates for its software applications including:
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Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update and Apple Software Updates can be downloaded and installed via Software Update (under the Apple menu top left of your screen), or from the Apple Downloads web page.
News from the Net
- New Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro enhances CS2 Premium; now with Dreamweaver 8
- I.R.I.S.' OCR technology integrated into Acrobat 8 product line
- TidBITS Take Control News: "Macworld Mac Basics Superguide"
New Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro enhances CS2 Premium; now with Dreamweaver 8
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Sept. 18, 2006 — Adobe Systems announced that Adobe® Acrobat® 8 Professional will be integrated into Adobe Creative Suite® 2.3 Premium.
This enables creative and print professionals to efficiently create, collaborate with, and automate output of high quality, validated Adobe PDF files. In addition to supporting industry-standard PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 files, Acrobat 8 Professional now outputs PDF/X-4 for native transparency support, as well as PDF/A for long-term archiving.
Users of the free Adobe Reader® 8 can participate in new shared reviews when enabled by Acrobat 8, as well as email- and Web-based reviews, digitally sign documents, and submit completed forms.
Adobe Creative Suite 2.3 Premium also bundles Dreamweaver® 8, the industry-leading Web design and development tool acquired from Macromedia. Future versions of Adobe Creative Suite will integrate Dreamweaver as a replacement for Adobe GoLive®. Adobe will continue to develop GoLive as a standalone product.
I.R.I.S.' OCR technology integrated into Acrobat 8 product line
DMS, Cologne, 19 September 2006 – I.R.I.S. Group, market leader in Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR), Electronic Document Management (EDM) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) announced the integration of its OCR technology into the Adobe Acrobat 8 software product line.
This new announcement is an extension of the agreement concluded between both companies at the beginning of this year.
The Acrobat® 8 product line, including text recognition, consists of Acrobat® 8 Professional; Acrobat® 8 Standard; Acrobat® 8 Elements and Acrobat® 3D Version 8.
TidBITS Take Control News: "Macworld Mac Basics Superguide"
Helps Users Solidify Mac Know-How
It's time for a Mac quiz! (Answers below.)
1) How do you change the default view for all Finder windows?
2) How do you make the Dock invisible?
3) How do you switch to a different user account without logging out?
4) How do you quit an application that's frozen and not responding?
If you're uncertain as to the answers to any of these questions, allow us to recommend the just-released "Macworld Mac Basics Superguide," a 78-page ebook from Macworld created in part by TidBITS and Take Control authors. Written in a friendly question-and-answer format, the ebook helps you find your way in Mac OS X, use the Dock, set System Preferences, set up and switch among user accounts, work with applications and documents, search your Mac, keep your Mac secure, troubleshoot problems, and get started with bundled Mac OS applications. Every Mac user should know this information. Pick up your copy today with the 10% MUG discount using this link.
Answers
1) Choose File > New Finder Window (Command-N), set it exactly the way you want without selecting any file or folder inside, and close it again.
2) Choose Apple Menu > Dock > Turn Dock Hiding On (Command-Option-D)
3) Turn on Fast User Switching in the Accounts preference pane, then use the Fast User Switching menu in the menu bar.
4) Force quit it by choosing Apple Menu > Force Quit (Command-Option-Escape), selecting the frozen app and clicking Force Quit. Or, click and hold on the app's Dock icon and choose Force Quit from the menu that appears.
Book Details
"Macworld Mac Basics Superguide" by Macworld
PDF format, 78 pages, free 17-page sample available
Publication date: September 13, 2006 Price: US$12.95
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