November

November 2008
Meeting Notice
All meetings, June through November, will be at
the Grande Prairie Library at 3479 W 183rd St.,
Hazel Crest. The December meeting will be
held at the Homewood Public Library.
it.
The new version of Firefox is supposed to be
even faster. I haven’t tried it because of my “No
Betas” policy. My computer runs better since I
adopted it. Maybe someone who has can let us
know how well it works.
REQUEST
What do you want to see in the newsletter? I’m
trying to gather information and clippings for
you and I need to know what you want to know
about. My email is [email protected].
Graphite 8.0 SP1 10/23/2008 | Demo
A user interface that lets creative people get
precision drawing and drafting done without
worrying about how to run their software.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
INJURED
Todd Smith, President of SSMUG, fell and
broke his femur. As I write this, he is in Ingalls
Hospital and is headed for Rehab – physical, that
is. Here’s hoping he is on the road to recovery
and reads this at the November meeting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BBEdit 9.0.2 | Demo
Powerful text and HTML editor, now with
integrated Automator support.
Synk Professional 6.4.2 | (Shareware)
Professional-grade synchronization toolkit.
(Must be good if this is featured by the makers of
TimeMachine.)
NEW SOFTWARE
www.apple.com
www.versiontracker.com
www.macdownload.com
iGet Mobile 2.0.1 | (Demo)
Securely access your Mac remotely from your
iPhone, iPod Touch, PC, or other mobile device.
Chrome Google Freeware
Stock Spy 1.6 | (Demo)
Visualize and track how stock news affects
stock prices.
Google is purveying a new web browser named
“Chrome”. Of course, it’s supposed to be
lightening fast and all good things – The
advantage is that it is designed to work with
Google. Available only for Windows at the
moment. That’s OK, let them test
iPhoto2Gmail 1.0 (Freeware)
An iPhoto plug-in that allows you to easily send
pictures using your Gmail account… all without
installing or configuring an email application.
L’Astrologue 6.4 (Shareware)
An astrological software for the Mac.
TrackRecord 1.2.2 Shareware
Polar RS200, CS200 and F6 SonicLink on Mac
OS X.
1 iGet 2.7.1 (Demo)
Secure tool for remotely accessing your Mac to
browse, search, manage, and transfer files.
Spotlight plugin extracts video, audio, timecode
and metadata information from MXF files for
use with Spotlight queries.
Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery 3.0 (Demo)
Recover Digital Photo / Images / Pictures from
all external storage devices such as Camera
cards, USB devices. Photo recovery from hard
drive and removable media as well
Synk Professional 6.4.1 (Shareware)
Professional-grade synchronization toolkit.
LightSpeed 2.7.1 (Demo)
Next-Generation multi-user Point of Sale system
built exclusively for Mac.
iWeb Backup Professional 10.6 (Demo)
Worried about losing your iWeb? No problem!
iWeb Backup can backup your iWeb so that you
never lose it ever again.
VectorDesigner 1.4.5 (Demo)
VectorDesigner is a vector drawing application
with raster image handling, flickr integration,
filtering and color correction
Clipboard Evolved 2.11 (Shareware)
Text. Colors. Images. Files. Clipboard Evolved
makes it fun and easy to organize your data in a
user-friendly clipboard.
Bundle and Distribute 1.0 (Shareware)
Do you need to move files from multiple folders
into one folder? Do you need to move file(s) to
several folders? If so, this program is for you!
MacJournal 5.1.1 | (Demo)
The world’s most popular journaling software
for the Macintosh. Easily create a personal
journal, record daily ideas, even generate blogs.
Promo-Pack Vol.3 3.0 (Freeware)
Download absolutely free fresh new music for
your projects. (Requires account formation)
PDF Merge 1.0 (Shareware)
This drag-and-drop program allows you to
concatenate multiple PDF files into one file. It’s
easy to use (like your Mac)!
Express Scribe for Mac 4.26 (Freeware)
Professional audio player software for Mac OS
X designed to assist the transcription of audio
recordings.
Treasured 1.0 (Freeware)
Treasured helps you recover corrupt movie files.
Accounted 1.1.2 (Demo)
Double-entry accounting application with a
sleek interface
PersonalBrain 4.5.1.6 | (Freeware)
10/23/2008 The digital home for your mind.
Organize Web pages, notes, and documents the
way you think in a visual map.
My Money 2.0.35 (Shareware)
A high quality personal financial software
written from ground up to work with online bank
statements.
Jisho 3.1 (Shareware)
10/23/2008 An easy to use is a Japanese English
Russian German French dictionary.
RationalPlan Multi Project 3.8.0 (Demo)
A powerful project management software
designed to assist project managers in
developing plans, allocating resources, tracking
progress, managing budgets and analyzing
workload.
Spell Catcher X 10.3.1 (Demo)
10/23/2008 Search your Spell Catcher
shorthands, learned words and macros using
Spotlight. Quickly find forgotten abbreviations
for shorthands.
SQLite Diff 1.18 (Demo)
A graphical comparison tool for SQLite
database files, comparing both the schema and
the data.
Delicious Library 2.0.5 | (Shareware)
10/22/2008 Create an on-line catalog of your
physical DVDs, CDs, books, software, games,
tools, and apparel.
TagebuchPro 1.1 (Shareware)
Cute, portable and secure digital diary. Your
digital diary.
iBank 3.3 | (Demo)
10/22/2008 An intuitive money management
application.
3D Ghost Manor 2.4 (Shareware)
Has 14 scenes including ghosts wandering
staircases, floating candelabras and a series of
spooky surprises from behind closed doors
Calibrated MXF Spotlight 1.0 (Freeware)
2 including a screaming skull, flaming jack-olantern, flying ghosts, tools of witchery and the
occult, tarant
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HINTS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here are two ideas I came across to
manage your (Safari) bookmarks.
NEWS
From the emails lists:
- Currently using Parallels, VMware Fusion,
BootCamp, or any other virtualization runtime
for using Windows on your Mac
- Currently using a standalone PC Running
Win2k or Later, including Vista.
- Know any of your clients who are using Win2k
or Vista.
“…found a post from several years ago
referencing a proposed solution on the
MacWorld website that gave a good workaround
solution, similar to what i was wanting to do
within Safari. For anyone else wrestling with the
same problem it works to open up the
Safari Show Bookmarks window and an
additional Finder window. Copy all of the
bookmarks into the finder window, sort them by
name or date or however you want them sorted
then delete your bookmarks in the Safari
window and menu copy the sorted ones in the
finder window back into your Safari bookmark
window. Works like a charm. Is a shame we
have to take them out to sort them but it does
work.
There is a patch from Microsoft already available
for this exploit:
The next one doesn’t deal with organization as
much as it does with backup. ed
There was a major vulnerability patched in
Windows today, for Win2k through Vista.
Specifically, it was a remote code exploit
needing *no username and password* to cause
havoc on your PCs. On a scale of Zero to Bad,
this one's up near Bad. You should pay this heed
if you are:
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bull
etin/MS08-067.mspx>
Delicious.com: Bookmarks are kept in the cloud
and sync automatically to any computer. I can
access from my desktop at work or my laptop.
(It’s) Always available from any computer. It
uses the standard Mac tagging conventions so
one bookmark can have many tags. Some
limitations but really worth a look.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HINT
When I print a document a little picture of my
printer appears on the screen and when the
printing stops the icon disappears. However,
since upgrading to 10.5.5, it has not and I have to
dismiss the printer list manually. This is not a
bug, it’s a feature.
NEW HARDWARE
If you option-click on the icon, you get a menu
comes up and one of the choices is to ‘auto-quit’.
If you choose this, the printer list will go away
after the printer is finished with the print job.
Arriva Earbuds
Or, as the post on MacFixIt said:
There’s a new style “earphones” from Arriva that
work with the iPod Shuffle – they look like
another step on the road to us becoming cyborgs.
They look good though – but that’s the point.
This is a FEATURE! Not a bug! By default
now, printers will stay in your Dock. (not
the best choice, I agree.) If you Click and
hold on the printer icon in the Dock OR
Control Click on the Printer Icon in the
Dock, you will see an option for AUTO
QUIT.
3 The iPod clips on the band which goes around
the back of the wearer’s head.
New MacBook and MacBook Pro
Both styles are $39.95
New iPod Nano
“Apple’s (edited) MacBook announcement
Until now, all notebooks were designed the same
way. By assembling multiple pieces to create a
single enclosure. To create the new MacBook,
the design and engineering teams devised a way
to replace many parts with just one. That one
part is called the unibody — a seamless
enclosure carved from a single piece of
aluminum.
A blurb from Apple follows:
Rock and roll over.
Tilt or turn iPod nano on its side, and you’ll
listen, watch, and play in new ways. You can flip
through your album art with Cover Flow. Or,
vertically speaking, see more albums and artists
on the screen at one time.
World’s biggest small screen.
Watching movies, TV shows, and videos is big
fun on iPod nano. And the high-resolution
picture looks crisp and vivid on the 2-inch
widescreen display.
Unibody Enclosure
Every MacBook starts its life as a single piece of
aluminum.
Of course, building only one part creates its own
set of challenges. When you have multiple parts
that are fastened together, tolerances don’t need
to be perfect. You have wiggle room, both
literally and figuratively.
Shake your groove thing.
Sometimes, we could all use a little
unpredictability. And now you can shake to
shuffle your music. Just give iPod nano a shake
and it shuffles to a different song in your music
library. You’ll always be surprised by what
you’ll hear.
When you pick up a new MacBook, you
immediately notice the difference. The entire
enclosure is thinner and lighter
Let the games begin.
Now you can get in on games made especially
for iPod nano and the accelerometer. They
respond to the way you move, so they’re
immersive, addictive, and a blast. iPod nano
comes with Maze, which lets you work your way
through vast mazes by tilting and moving. You
can find even more games on the iTunes Store.
$149.95
The new MacBook trackpad has no button
because it is the button. That means there’s more
room to track, more room to click — left, right,
center, and everywhere in between — and one
less part.
And that’s just the hardware. Apple software
engineers had a large part to play in the
development of the trackpad, too. They
incorporated Multi-Touch gestures, including
swipe, pinch, rotate, and the new four-finger
swipe.
Then there’s the sleep indicator light. An
indicator is functional only when it’s indicating
something.
There’s a new logic board. A new chipset. And a
new integrated graphics processor.
4 The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
processor provides up to five times the
performance of the previous-generation
MacBook without draining your battery.
Options:
None, at least directly. Unfortunately there is no
way to get the current MacBooks to directly
communicate with a FireWire device. The only
connectivity options for the MacBook are
ethernet, USB, Bluetooth, and WiFi.
A Greener Notebook
Made from recyclable aluminum and glass, the
new MacBook is greener than ever. It’s
ENERGY STAR compliant, which means it
meets the government standard for energy
efficiency.
(More) Options:
Although, without Target Disk Mode, there will
be a limit on certain troubleshooting and
diagnostic procedures, there are some ways to
continue a Target Disk Mode-like setup. The
new MacBooks have a very accessible hard
drive, which users can install and uninstall by
removing one screw after opening the access
hatch. With a third-party FireWire hard drive
enclosure, users can drop in the hard drive and
then plug it into any computer with a FireWire
port.
Flies in the ointment
They don’t mention that the only MacBooks with
Firewire are the MacBook Pros. It’s missing
from the lower end models entirely. Apple did
not announce that.
Early reports are that the “one button
touchpad” isn’t working reliably on some
computers. The classic “sticky key” syndrome
seems to have struck. The amount of effort
needed to ‘click’ varies in some cases.
Concern #3: MagSafe compatible with other
models?
Options: Luckily, the MagSafe adaptors are
standardized and there is no difference in the size
and shape. Both older MacBooks and the new
ones require 60 Watt adaptors, so users should
be fine with their current adaptors. Note that this
is true for the adaptors of old MacBooks and
new MacBooks only. The Pro MacBooks require
85 watt adaptors, so are not (fully) crosscompatible with the non-pro versions. The lower
wattage adapters will charge MacBook Pros, but
not as quickly, and may not allow instant booting
of a dead-battery system.
Speaking of cases, people have been reporting a
tingle when touching the case if the computer is
plugged in. MacFixIt is blaming the users for not
plugging things in properly, or badly grounded
buildings.
The biggest fly is the rumor that Apple is erasing
complaints about missing Firewire from the
Apple Help Forums – which does have a general
conversation sub-forum. This is not good – it
sounds like something Microsoft would do.
Ed.
An edited version of the MacFixIt article:
MacFixit
Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 06:00 AM PDT
Concern #4: Backlight on what models?
Options: While both higher-end aluminum
MacBooks as well as the new MacBook Pro
models have backlights in the keyboards, the
bottom-end aluminum MacBook, as well as the
plastic model, does not have a backlit keyboard.
Common questions about the new MacBooks
and MacBook Pros
The new MacBooks have been received warmly
by some users and coolly with inquiries
about the new systems by others. Many
potential buyers have flooded Apple's discussion
boards and other locations and what to expect
from them. Here are some of the common
inquiries that have surfaced about the new
laptops.
Concern #5: Removable drive and battery,
other components?
Options:
The new MacBooks have a large hatch at the
bottom for accessing both the battery and the
hard drive. While users will have to remove one
additional screw, the battery is easily accessible
Concern #1: FireWire options?
5 by just opening the hatch. The more difficult-toaccess components are the RAM and optical
drive.
(Review summarized from MacWorld)
Livin’ large
The Wired Enhanced Visibility Internet
Keyboard—the WEVIK, for short—is for the
most part your typical inexpensive desktop
keyboard, with a standard USB connection
and a body made of lightweight plastic. The
WEVIK doesn’t provide any downstream
USB ports for connecting a mouse or other
input device.
Concern #6: DisplayPort adaptors? Several
users have wondered about the availability and
options for the new mini-Display Port that apple
has included in the new laptops.
Options:
Currently Apple provides three adaptors for the
DisplayPort, which are DVI, Dual-Link DVI,
and VGA. These are available online through the
Apple store, though should be available at Apple
retail stores as well. The DisplayPort can support
S-video and component video, but these adaptors
currently are not available; however, if they are
not made available by Apple then there should
be options from third-party vendors such as
Belkin.
What makes the WEVIK unique are its
keys—or, more precisely, its key labels.
Each letter or number is nearly three-eighths
of an inch tall, and the white-on-black color
scheme further enhances visibility; VisiKey
says the keyboard’s keys are rated at
20/300 on the Snellen Visual Acuity Scale,
as compared to 20/70 for most standard
keyboards.
White Macbook
$999.00
Aluminum Macbook
$1299.00 (and up)
Aluminum Macbook Pro $1900.00
WEVIK’s keys do work with the Mac, thanks
to Mac OS X drivers provided by VisiKey.
keyboard provides no dedicated eject key,
although holding down the F12 key on any
keyboard sends an eject command to the
computer; this feature is built into Mac OS X.
New Colors for iPod Shuffle
VisiKey’s software lets you customize the
behavior of each of these keys via a VisiKey
pane in System Preferences. You can also
disable any of these special keys.
The keyboard also provides three powerrelated keys just above the directional-arrow
keys: sleep, wake, and power. If you use the
keyboard without installing its software, all
three of these keys act as a standard Mac
power key/
I forgot this is printed in back and white!
The new colors are Silver, (pale) Blue, (pale)
Green, Red, and Pink.
Everything else is unchanged.
$49.95
Once VisiKey’s drivers were installed
properly, I had no problem with the software
or the keyboard’s special keys. However, I
did run into one hitch: The VisiKey software
includes a background application,
VisiKeyEngine, but the software installer
didn’t add this application to my list of Login
Items. Because the application wasn’t
running, none of the special keys functioned.
Once VisiKey’s tech support had me
manually add the application to my Login
Items in System Preferences, the special
keys worked as expected.
$39.95
Two Mac Keyboards
Visikey Keyboard
[Dan Frakes is a Macworld senior editor.]
6 page in your preferred browser; or rotates or
zooms (in, out, or to 100 percent) the image
view in your preferred image viewer or editor
Razer ProType keyboard
All-in-one keyboard and iPod dock
by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com
There are also 10 macro keys—L1 through
L5 on the left side of the keyboard and R1
through R5 on the right side—that can be
assigned custom functions using the Razer
software. Each macro key can be configured
to launch a program or to replicate a series
of up to eight actions.
What’s especially unique about these macro
keys is that you can use the ProType’s
software to configure up to 10 keyboard
profiles, each with its own macro-key
settings.
If you’re looking for a new keyboard, and
you’ve also got an iPod or iPhone, Razer’s
ProType aims to clean up some desk clutter
by combining a full-featured keyboard with
an iPod dock. It’s an interesting idea that
mostly works well, but it does have a few
minor issues.
But that’s not all you get
The other unique feature of the ProType is
its built-in iPod dock. Once the keyboard is
connected to your computer you can charge
your iPod (or iPhone) and sync it with
iTunes by placing the iPod in the keyboard’s
dock cradle. The dock uses Apple’s
Universal design, so any recent dockable
iPod, or either iPhone model, will work with
the ProType using the dock adapter
included with the iPod or iPhone.
Wide load
At 20.2 inches wide by 8.7 inches deep, the
ProType is perhaps the largest keyboard
I’ve seen—so large that on at least one of
the keyboard drawers I tested it with, the
ProType didn’t leave enough room on either
side for sufficient mousing space.
However, if you want to use the ProType’s
dock, the keyboard takes up two USB ports
on your computer—one for the keyboard
and one for the dock.
Razer's ProType keyboard
On the other hand, like most keyboards
designed to work with both Macs and
Windows PCs, the option and command
keys have Windows labels: alt and start,
respectively, on the left side, with an alt key
and a Razer-icon key (a Windows menu key
when used with a Windows PC) on the right.
However, once you install Razer’s ProType
software drivers, covered below, these keys
work as properly placed Mac modifier keys.
The ProType also includes several
additional keys, in the upper-right corner,
that are mostly useless when the keyboard
is connected to a Mac: insert, print screen,
scroll lock, and pause break; the last key
has an eject icon, but, as with most Mac
keyboards these days, F12 is actually the
eject key.
Macworld’s buying advice
Razer’s ProType is a truly unique keyboard.
Its many specialized and programmable
keys offer both convenience and efficiency,
especially if you take advantage of the
macros and automated profiles to enhance
your workflow. And the integrated iPod dock
can help reduce the clutter on your desk.
However, the ProType makes some
demands of your desk and your Mac: it
requires a large swath of your desk,
overhead clearance for your iPod, and two
of your Mac’s USB ports.
$74.95 (Amazon)
$99.99 (MSRP)
The ProType makes up for these useless
Windows keys by adding 26 additional
special-feature keys. Along the left edge of
the keyboard are power, home, rotate, zoom
in and out, and 100 percent keys. Pressing
these keys, respectively, brings up the Mac
OS X sleep/restart dialog; opens your home
Dan Frakes is a Macworld senior editor.
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