GreenvilleMUG

Last night was started the meeting with our usual question and answer session.  Several items touched upon were backup procedures and remote networking.

During the main part of the program Patrick Greer gave a presentation on RSS: Blogging and Podcasting. As a surprise Patrick called into a Mac related podcast that was being recorded. The podcast is called, Help, iGot a Mac.  Patrick used the speaker feature on his iPhone to let the Greenville MUG group hear the hosts, Cliff Ravenscraft and Chris Biting.  As of the morning of Feb. 12th 2008 the podcast episode is available to listen to either on the Help iGot a Mac web site or a download via iTunes.

After the introduction and cross promotion of Greenville MUG on the Podcast and promoting the podcast during the early part of the presentation Patrick went on the explain what RSS, the advantages of RSS to the web experience and how it has made blogging and podcasting possible. Patrick showed how you could find out if a web site was RSS enabled by showing the icons and links on his own web site. and then shared several other Podcasts.

A couple of podcast links you might also want to check out are, Mac OSX Videos and  Quick Tip of the Week.

The 11-13-07 Meeting featured fast stuff.  Patrick Greer started off the presentation with a demonstration and introduction to Quicksilver. According to Wikipedia Quicksilver is A computer utility software program for Mac OS X. It allows users to use the keyboard to rapidly perform tasks such as launching applications, manipulating files and data, running scripts or sending e-mail. Patrick mentioned that he will use Quicksilver to launch applications he uses very frequently and save new or seldom used by needed item for the dock. Patrick also shared how you can do action on files a lot more quickly than using a mouse.  Patrick then shared a Google Talk video featuring the developer of Quicksilver talking about his application.  After viewing a part of the presentation Patrick fielded questions from those in attendance.  Patrick also mentioned two MacBreak videos that told more about Quicksilver and how to use it.  MacBreak Episode 12 and Episode 17.  Quicksilver can be downloaded from http://www.blacktree.com.

After the Quicksilver presentation Bobby Morrison gave a demonstration of Leopard showing the new user interface with Coverflow, Quicklook and then he told us about his 5 years with Apple as an employee. Bobby then took questions from those attending.

In the early part of the meeting we talked about album art, Automator, Applescript and the Services menu.  Later Bobby Morrison shared some highlights from his trip to Cupertino and we discussed the upcoming release of Leopard.  Stay tuned for news on a Leopard event.

From 6:30 to 7pm we talked about keyboard shortcuts. One site mentioned was danrodney.com/mac . It give a lot of good explanation on what a lot of the symbols, etc. means.

Starting at 7pm we explored some interesting free software. The first one shown was called MPEG Streamclip. MPEG Streamclip can be found at http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html It’s great if you don’t have software like QuickTime Pro or other video editing software.

Bobby Morrison then made a presentation on the latest annoucements from Apple concerning iPods. Some of the new models are at the CompUSA. He talked about the Starbucks partnership with Apple as well. We then went over the specs for the new iPods. We finished up speculating about the direction of Apple and discussion of other Apple products and ones we would like to see.

From 6:30 to about 7:20PM Dave Kline continued showing the applications in the Unity directory. We then fielded some questions from those in attendance about printer and connection issues.

We then started the iPhone presentation. We started by showing a presentation video about the iPhone that had been downloaded to Bill Kline’s laptop. After the video that gave an introduction to the iPhone was shown Patrick came up and gave a little background on why he made his recent purchase and his experience over the past week and a half.  Patrick briefly touched on some features but the fun part came when those in attendance got a chance to ask questions.

It was interesting that the thing people were most concerned about have already been addressed by Apple like the screen brightness, resolution and durability of the glass.  Patrick did make a point to say that features on the iPhone were a lot easier to use than on any other mobile device he has had however he did mention some things he wish was included and hopes will be in software updates soon.  The main thing he mentioned that he would like is  a good password management program like Keychain in OSX since he uses strong passwords that can not be remembered easily for forums and other web sites..  Patrick passed around his iPhone and everyone at the meeting got a chance to see what it was like. Afterwards their was a lot of post meeting discussions about Apple’s technology decisions.  It was a great meeting with a lot of good interaction.