NVMUG eNews 10/14/2006
Last updated 10/17/2006
iPod Sport Kit, Interesting Discussion, Video Chat and iRemember
Gene Levine showed his Nike + iPod Sport Kit. Daniel Hollister told us about working at Small Dog and the new store opening October 28., Gene, Daniel, and Berry Hayes attempted anÊimpromptu video chat. We discussed asking Small Dog to a meeting, and using the ÊiRemember program. And I have tossed in some info from Small Dog newsletters. .
1. Nike + iPod Sport Kit
Gene Levine thought you might be interested in the new Nike + iPod Sport Kit for running. He wore Salomon running shoes to the meeting with the new Salomon Quick Laces because he thinks they are a better shoe and he does not like some of NikeÕs policies. He had a Marware pocket case on the laces of the shoe ($10.00) and a Marware wrist strap ($30 including the shoe pocket case) for his iPod Nano. The shoe pocket case held the Nike + iPod Sport Kit sensor and transmitter which sends information to the receiver ($29 for transmitter and receiver at Small Dog).
Marware pocket case on the laces of a running shoe (not Salomon)
This combination with the new iPod packaging workouts shows the calories burned, the distance run in miles or meters, and the running pace for the last few minutes, and plays the PowerSong. The display on the iPod Nano is so bright that he can light up the trail with it for running in the woods at night. Needless to say, Gene is happy and enjoys his running more with it.
Daniel Hollister said he also uses his iPod as a flashlight. The new screen is bright enough.
I am not sure who said that he really liked Studio 60 and had found some programs on the Internet for $1.99 each. He said that he likes anything by theÊ producer, Aaron Sorkin, who also produced The West Wing, and he likes this show because it is all about artistic appreciation. (I used Google to find the correct spelling, and learned that Amazon.com sells videos of the show.)
This lead to the interesting discovery that 80% of the members there, who are all interested in technology, did not watch shows on TV. Midge and Richard do watch TV, but they record the ones they want to watch and play them at their convenience without commercials. Some others watch TV downloaded from the Internet. And, some just do not watch TV.
2. Small Dog
Daniel said the big Small Dog store opening will be on October 28. The store is near Eastern Mountain Sports across from the University Mall in Burlington. Everyone at Small Dog is excited about it. They will have specials, and some people from Apple will be there. There is a full time web camera there where you can watch the construction. It is available through http://www.smalldog.com
Daniel will not be working there because he is more involved with the Internet business and the service end. He really likes working at Small Dog. He said you should see the 24 inch iMac, it makes the 20 inch iMac look almost unusable. At $1999 with a gig of memory it is like for professionals and quite a bargain. Daniel says he loves Apple products, but does not like some things about Apple. As an example, the 56K modem is needed in Vermont, but they were backordered for four to six weeks. Small Dog could not get them, but they were available online through the Apple Store. When they include their costs, the price is set so low that they lose money on the lowest cost MacBook unless they sell AppleCare or something else with it. (I highly recommend AppleCare for laptop computers anyway.) The Apple Online store and other Apple Stores sometimes offer discounts that Small Dog is not allowed to offer. The education discount is cheaper than if the Small Dog store sold them at cost. But, Small Dog can give discounts on AppleCare.
Someone said that with its online store and its stores in major markets, Apple could be profitable without its independent dealers. (But the independent dealers add to sales, and to good will, that would Apple would not have in smaller markets like all of Vermont.)
Small Dog expects all of their employees to provide some public service. Daniel has permission to continue his iLife work with the grade school next spring as his public service. He will not charge the school.
Daniel said he was amazed at how fast his new MacBook with 2 megs of memory starts up. Gene has a little older 1 meg MacBook. They started the two together at the same time.
2 megs on left beat 1 meg on right
Gene likes his STM computer bag and recommends the other bags STM makes. Midge likes her computer case which is made in the US but has something written in it in French. You will have to ask her what it says
3. Impromptu Video Chat
There were three MacBooks at the meeting, the third being Barry Hayes black MacBook. Each had the built in video camera. Daniel and Gene decided to see if they could video chat.
Richard Lubot watching Gene Levine set up a video chat.
I know nothing about iChat or video chats except that it looked like fun. I know they tried to connect using bonjour. I know they were able to connect their two MacBooks, but I donÕt know how. I know they used Sharing in System Preferences to turn sharing on where you set up the Firewall, and they looked at connections on the Airport menu.
They were too busy figuring out how to do it and demonstrating to explain how they did it. Then they tried to set up a three way chat with Berry Hayes, but IÊ believe that May have called for more RAM thanÊ Gene or Berry had.
It was fun watching them talk to each other through their computers looking at each other on the computer screen, when they could see and hear each other directly when they just looked up.
Richard and Gene on Daniel Hollister's screen. Daniel appears in the smaller picture with me barely visible behind him.
(Barry Hayes told me if I used a flash, we would not see what was on the computer screen. Of course he was right. He is a real photographer and I should have listened to him and shot the picture without flash. Fortunately my little Nikon camera has an internal ÒflashÓ which you can use after you take a picture to lighten areas that are too dark which works on the cameraÕs image. And, Photoshop has a Shadow/Highlight feature to do the same thing on the resulting JPEG image. The combination rescued the this image from the black screen.)
The camera in the MacBook can even take a picture in a dark room. The screen acts as a flash.
4. Possible Future Meetiing
We discussed the possibility of inviting Small Dog to demonstrate some of the newÊ equipment, and demo some applications like home and small business wireless networking, iChat, and working with Windows data and applications on a Mac to show us what is possible. We also discussed possibly asking them to teach us how to do one or more of these things. There might be some expense involved, and we might need to hold it where there is more room and wireless Internet access. S far this is just tentative discussion. We do not know whether something like this can be arranged or not.
5. iRemember
Intriguing Development sent us two copies of iRemember, a Digital Scrapbooking program. Everyone received a copy of the literature they sent us. I suggested that we give a copy to someone who willÊ use it, or has a friend who will use it, and put the other in our NVMUG Library so members could borrow it to use and to determine whether they would like to buy the program.
Someone said that the program could probably be used for many more things than Digital Scrapbooking. We awarded one of the programs to Ron Lay-Sleeper who is interested in using it, He said he might let us know how it works out for him. Midge Lubot took the other copy for the library and said she has a friend who might like to use it.
Intriguing Development is offering 20 percent Off iRemember to user group members.
Turn digital photos into memories with iRemember Digital Scrapbooking 2.0. Easily create stunning scrapbooks your family will treasure for a lifetime. Use templates to create a page in minutes! Drag and drop pictures from iPhoto, crop, resize and arrange them on your scrapbook page with over 15,000 backgrounds, patterns, borders, corners and photo realistic embellishments. Sharing life's memories couldn't be easier. Better yet, iRemember is compatible with Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, Universal Binary.
With a regular price of $39.95 (US), Apple user group members can receive iRemember for the special price of only $31.96 (US), a 20 percent discount.
To get more information or to order a copy go to: http://www.macscrapbook.com
6. Info from Small Dog Newsletters
Small Dog weekly newsletters have a lot of good information. Here are two examples:
Easy Maintenance - Clear that Desktop
By Ed@Smalldog.com
Did you know that having many folders, images, old installers, and other files on your OS X desktop can cramp your MacÕs performance, including start-up time? This is because Desktop images are treated like dynamic windows, rather than static images.
Ideally, the OS X Desktop should only be used for temporary, short term storage. ItÕs best to keep all your files stored in their proper locations, as much a possible Ð documents in the Documents folder, photos and images in iPhoto or the Pictures folder, etc.
You can keep a junk folder in your Home Directory, or Documents folder, where you simply stash everything. You can drag that junk folder into your Dock, where it is always easily accessible.
There are a number of freeware and shareware apps to help you keep a clean desktop - Tinker Tools and sterCleanDesk are examples.
No go clean your room!
Google & Apple Sitting In AÊ Tree...
By Ed@Smalldog.com
Google and Apple are getting awfully cozy these days. A few years ago, Google's support for Macs and OS X was rather paltry. As Mac users complained about this, Google added a few Apple-friendly features. For example, you could go to google.com/mac.html to constrain your search results to Mac sites - useful for finding arcane Mac info. However, many of Google's services and software, like Google Earth simply didn't work on a Mac. This despite the fact that a huge number of Google employees reportedly use Macs every day on the job.
In the past year, Google and Apple have moved much closer together. Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's influential CEO, joined Apple's board of directors in August. He said "Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire."
Google has expanded the google.com/mac.html site with six downloadable software apps - including the powerful Google Earth and SketchUp (we used SketchUp for the layout of our new retail store.)
Google's free web-based productivity apps, Docs & Spreadsheets work well on a Mac, as long you're using Firefox, Camino or Mozzilla (but not Safari.)
We will not be regularly reporting information contained in Small Dog newsletters because we assume that many of you are signed up to get their newsletters. If you are not already signed up goto
http://www.smalldog.com and sign up for your own Small Dog newsletters including Kibbles and Bytes, and Tech Tails.There is no cost or obligation, and Small Dog does not use the addresses for any other purpose.
