At the May 20th meeting, MacNexus will host Prosoft ---- publishers of an award-winning line-up of utilities including: Data Rescue II, Drive Genius 2 and Data Backup 3. These programs allow you to back up, recover, maintain and manage your important data. They will also be introducing JoeSoft...”Software for the Average Joe,” which is a new division of Prosoft that is dedicated to developing great software that is easy to use and reasonably priced. All of the products will be available to purchase after the presentation with special pricing for MUG Members.
The meeting will be held at the Sacramento Association of Realtors auditorium, 2003 Howe Ave, Sacramento, at 7:00 pm. This is part way between Alta Arden Way and El Camino Ave and across the street from Home Depot. Click on Meeting Locations at the left for directions. There will be the usual raffle, announcements and such. Please come and join us!
If you have trouble sending eMail you probably have DSL with Pacbell, SBC or ATT. Gene Knepprath seems to have found a solution here and Marganne Meyer's solution is here:
Using Safari type in mail.yahoo.com.
On the top right side of the page are two links: Mail Upgrades and Options.
Select Options.
Under center column Management, select Mail Addresses. This shows a list of emails you can use with your DSL account. Select the Add button and follow the instructions that add your MacNexus email address to the list of accounts which you can send email through. On the Edit Account page, put in your macnexus email address....nothing else on other fields. Tech help said they are aware of the problem and are trying to fix it so we won't have to do this manual addition of third-party servers.
Apple did a quick refresh of its MacBook and MacBook Pro models on February 26, 2008. The salient change is that these machines now contain the same newer and smaller (45 nm) Penryn Core2 Duo processor as found on the MacBook Air. That allows them to run cooler, and offers improved battery life. However, before you rush out to buy one, be advised that certain of the new models will actually be slower than their counterparts. Yes, you read that correctly. Models of these computers containing the high end Penryn's may have marginal improvements in performance due to higher L2 cache (6MB vs 4MB), though the low-end Penryns (2.1GHz and 2.4GHz) used in the entry level MacBooks and MacBook Pros actually have less L2 cache (3MB vs 4MB) than their Merom counterparts. So while everyone will benefit from less heat and better battery life, if you were thinking that you would actually see a performance improvement over last Fall’s models, it is only a theoretical improvement and you would need to buy the most expensive model to get the version of the chip with more cache.
O’Reilly Publishing has recently issued several updates to prior books to add discussion of Apple’s new operating system “Leopard” (aka MacOS 10.5). Since some of these books are updates to prior editions, you will need to ask yourself if it is worth shelling out $35 or $40 to learn what has changed since the last book was issued.
Apple released the first major update to Leopard on February 11, 2008. The update brings the new operating system to version 10.5.2. While most of the changes are things going on under the hood, there are a few gems in here that you may wish to be aware of. (Continues)
Starting with Leopard, we are now able to help members of MacNexus with various problems as long as they have Leopard, an AIM or .Macaccount, and are at least able to connect to the internet.
By connecting to the internet and opening an iChat session with one of the MacNexus Triage helpers, a member can activate screen sharing, thus allowing the helper to control the member’s computer remotely!
When you get the new OS or a new computer, you can easily get a .Mac account. Or go directlyhere for a trial account. After the trial account runs out you can keep the iChat screen name even if you do not renew the .Mac account.
Or you can go hereto AOL and get an AIM screen name.
After you get your screen name, you can open up iChat and connect with one of our Triage helpers and share your screen (and computer). They can then see your problem and help solve it without either of you having to leave home!.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is finally here, and we at Tidbits can now share with youthe fruits of an incredible amount of work over the last few months:five of our most popular ebooks completely updated for Leopard, andthey're all available right now, led by Joe Kissell's essential TakeControl of Upgrading to Leopard.
Packed with more than 300 new features, Mac OS X Leopard goes on sale Friday, October 26, at 6:00 p.m. at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, Apple announced today. And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Apple’s online store. “Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.” [Apple press release, Oct 16, 2007]
Click on the Amazon graphic to order and MacNexus gets Credit!
In yet another special event on September 7, 2007, exactly one month to the day following the i-event, Apple has “refreshed or replaced the entire iPod line.” The shuffle continues on, the iPod gets a new last name and design along with the nano, and they are joined by the iPod touch. The title refers to the phrase Steve Jobs used to describe the redesigned iPod nano and classic.
Starting off with the shuffle, it remains unchanged with new colors. No fancy names this time, however, just silver, blue, green, purple, and (PRODUCT)RED. (They really are still aqua blue and seafoam green.) Still 1GB and $79. (Editor note to grammar critics: Apple has renamed the shuffle, nano, classic and touch in all lower case.)
The nano received a complete overhaul with “a little video for everyone.” The 2GB capacity is gone while 4GB and 8GB remain. The video specs carry over from the larger iPod, but with a smaller 2-inch, screen to fit the compact size, which at 320 x 240 pixel gives it the highest pixel density screen on any Apple product at 204ppi. It does resemble a compressed iPod, and online sources have cynically dubbed it the phatty pod for its squat, square proportions. The new user interface features Cover Flow as in iTunes. Three games are included, with more on the way from EA. The new colors are sliver, blue, green, black and (PRODUCT)RED. It receives the “all metal enclosure” treatment, with an aluminum face and a shiny stainless steel back that readily shows fingerprints. From hands on experience at the Apple Store, it is much smaller, lighter and feels somewhat insubstantial. There was a noticeable delay in accessing music and video files on the several nanos that I tried, so much that at first it appeared unresponsive to commands. The prices have dropped one level, meaning the 4GB now costs $149 and the 8GB costs $199.
Those who pay attention to such things will note that in the MacNexus Member Listing (in the peach-colored box that appears below your name when you log into the MacNexus web site) some people have "send email" next to their name and some people do not.
What does it mean? This allows other members -- only those who are allowed to log into our web site -- to send you an email. It was designed to make it easier for members to contact one another. It has no bearing on whether MacNexus can or will send you email, nor is it something that a non-MacNexan would ever see since they cannot get to this part of our web site.
This function uses a PHP mail form, so your email address is never discoverable, even to another MacNexus member. The user types the message into a form and clicks "submit" and it is sent privately to your email address.
If you see people listed who do not have "Send email" next to their name in the MacNexus Member List then, whether they know it or not, our database has flagged them as not wanting email from other members.
If you need to change your preferences to make these words appear next to your name, or disappear from next to your name, Bob White and Bill Davies know how to do that.
Apple did a quick refresh of its MacBook and MacBook Pro models on February 26, 2008. The salient change is that these machines now contain the same newer and smaller (45 nm) Penryn Core2 Duo processor as found on the MacBook Air. That allows them to run cooler, and offers improved battery life. However, before you rush out to buy one, be advised that certain of the new models will actually be slower than their counterparts. Yes, you read that correctly. Models of these computers containing the high end Penryn's may have marginal improvements in performance due to higher L2 cache (6MB vs 4MB), though the low-end Penryns (2.1GHz and 2.4GHz) used in the entry level MacBooks and MacBook Pros actually have less L2 cache (3MB vs 4MB) than their Merom counterparts. So while everyone will benefit from less heat and better battery life, if you were thinking that you would actually see a performance improvement over last Fall’s models, it is only a theoretical improvement and you would need to buy the most expensive model to get the version of the chip with more cache.
