ByMUG: The Bytown Mac User Group of Ottawa
Eleven years of Mac & iOS devices in a fun and social setting.
March’s meeting will be Sunday, March 6th, 1PM, upstairs at Patty Bolands Pub (101 Clarence Street).
This month Miro will demo Curio, then Tom will show Daisy Disk. Afterward, we will discuss the new iPad & OS X Lion, followed by the usual Q&A session.
djay for iPad demonstration by Jonathan Fingas
djay is by a company named Algoriddim. djay is an iPod app and Mac application that puts you in control of a virtual set of deejaying turntables. Scratching a record, auto-mixing, pre-cueing, and a lot more can be accomplished with djay. If you’re a deejay, or even a hobbyist, djay will surprise you with what it can do. (editor: providing the price doesn’t – see below)
Jonathan showed off the user interface, including the multi-touch dual-turntables, the audio waveforms display, and the visual cue points.
Auto-mixing and automatic transitions are possible. So that means you can transition from one song to another without doing anything but letting it be.
Music can be accessed in your iPod music library, but like Jonathan says, prepare your songs in advance so you don’t accidentally mix classical with dance music. But djay does support playlists.
He warns that the iPad’s 256 megabyte memory limit does cause issues at times when several songs are loaded where the system will warn you of low memory. This should be rectified once the iPad 2 comes out as it gains more memory. So it will be interesting to find out what it will be like on the new device.
AirPlay is supported for broadcasting to Apple TV, AirPort Express stations, or any AirPlay-supported speaker dock, AV receiver, and stereo system. But Jonathan warned that it’s best for auto-mixes.
You can record your performances and save them in high quality sound (AIFF for those interested) in an included organizer, then export them to your Mac via iTunes file sharing.
Split Output Mode: With the use of a stereo/mono split cable and a binaural signal, you will be able to play a song through your speakers while you prepare and preview the next song through your headphones.
For the low price of $19.99 CAN and a slew of video tutorials on YouTube, you too can scratch a record and become a deejay. (editor: Just don’t quit your day job right away.)
As mentioned above, there is also a Mac version of djay , but Jonathan said it’s better on the iPad due to the ability to use hand gestures on the screen for things such as scratches. There is a demo for the Mac that is available from the web site, and if you like it, the going price for the Mac is $49.99 US.
The Mac App Store, demonstrated by Thomas Leroux
With the success of the iOS App Store, it’s no surprise that Apple decided to come out with the free Mac App Store for your computer. It requires MacOS X 10.6.6.
While it’s only a few thousand applications right now, the Mac App Store is the current way of the future for Macs. The idea is, instead of leaving your house to purchase a piece of software at the store, you can stay at your computer and purchase your piece of software through the Mac App Store. No more software boxes. No more CD- or DVD-ROMs. You buy, download, install, and run, all in a few minutes.
This is also great for software packages like iLife and iWork where you may only want one item from the package as opposed to the rest. Why pay the full price for all three applications in iWork when you only want Pages?
Due to the lack of a physical package, many pieces of software available on the Mac
App Store are cheaper than if you were to walk into a store to buy the same item.
Another nice thing about the Mac App Store is, if you find yourself needing to reinstall a purchased piece of software, you need only go back to the Store and download it once more. The negative being if you don’t have Internet access when you need to do an update, you won’t be able to do it.
It should be noted that you do need an active Apple ID to access the Mac App Store, so once you’ve bought something from the Store, it’ll be remembered, and will be installable on all your machines that use the same Apple ID. There is no limit to how many times you can download and install your purchases. (editor: The Mac App Store Product Usage Rules state as long as you have no commercial plans, you can download it to as many computers as you own or control, as long as they’re using the same Apple ID. For commercial use, you can only install and run the application on your machines and used by yourself, or on one machine, and used by many.)
Insert a brief segue of Pixelmator where Tom suggested it for a future demonstration before returning to the Mac App Store demonstration.
Tom went through the process of installing the Fireplace (free) application from the Mac App Store onto his Mac, showing the ease of use of the process.
Q: How do updates work?
A: Once you’ve bought the application, the small updates are free. The next full update won’t be free unless otherwise specified.
Q: Will the update overwrite the version you have on your computer?
A: Yes, it will. Unless otherwise specified.
As Tom pointed out, the Mac App Store is a good idea for smaller applications. However, bigger applications, such as Final Cut Pro, would currently not be fun to download as some of these applications are over 10 gigabytes in size.
Warning: Always make a back-up of your application’s preferences and other related data before installing an update. Imagine losing your entire iPhoto collection. Permanently. With no back-ups.
Michael was supposed to demonstrate the Boxee by Boxee, Inc., but Michael was not available, and at the time of typing this, there’s no news on whether this demonstration will be rescheduled.
Jeffrey and Tom demonstrated some of their recent projects. Jeffrey’s was a slideshow of his trip to Spain. Tom’s was a video of the Flux and Fire at Winterlude and the opening fireworks.
And that’s all for the February 2011 meeting.
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Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the January meeting notes.
Tom waggles his finger at everyone about backing up their systems and asks everyone if they’ve been doing their backups. One at a time, the majority of the members said yes.
Tom mentions that while Time Machine can work between two partitions on the same drive, it’s not recommended since they are both on the same hard drive, and losing one automatically means losing the other.
Audio is then played of failing or dead hard drives. Sounds everyone should hope they never have to hear as it means
Rule of Thumb: If you turn on your hard drive and it’s making funny sounds, make a back-up immediately.
Tom warns people to stay away from LaCie hard drives due to frequent crashing issues.
The Seagate XT series is recommended for back-ups.
The Seagate Momentus series is also recommended.
An application which allows the user to abbreviate long and/or oft-used bits of text, whether Internet slang, an e-mail tagline or signature, or even a a paragraph or more. Individually, they are called snippets.
As an example, let’s say you like to type “in case of emergency, break glass”. You can assign the abbreviation “icoebg” to it, and each time you type the abbreviation on your keyboard, “in case of emergency, break glass” will replace it on the screen. It can do a lot more than this, and examples can be found in their FAQ.
You can program hundreds upon hundreds of items such as that one into TextExpander, but be wise when choosing your abbreviations so as not to confuse the computer. “is” is a word, and should not be used as an abbreviation for “internal system”
Requirements: v3 runs on MacOS X 10.6; v2.8.1 runs on MacOS X 10.4 and 10.5.
TextExpander is frequently included in bundles and has a 90 day money-back guarantee. If not happy after 90 days, you get your money back. On its own, it costs $34.95 US, and at the time of typing this, it was not available on the Mac App Store.
There is also a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch called TextExpander Touch, and according to Smile Software, the iPhone version will work on an iPad, but you should expect it to look and feel like you’re using it on your iPhone. It goes for $4.99 on the iOS App Store.
Both versions are updated fairly regularly.
Tom demonstrated how TextExpander could be used to insert certain information into a database, and he also demonstrated how to fill out an e-mail with pre-determined information.
Warning: Do not use it to store passwords. If you wish to store passwords, use an application called 1Password instead. It specializes in password protection.
Note: The developers love receiving e-mails pertaining to requests. They thrive to make TextExpander even better with each new release.
At this point, Dave Rostenne picks up where Tom ended.
Dave points out that there is a built-in feature on the Mac that allows you to do what TextExpander does, but “it’s not as good as TextExpander,” he adds. “Use one or the other, but if you want expandability and DropBox synchronizing, go for TextExpander.”
For those of you interested in checking out the built-in substitution feature:
Select the System Preferences > Languages & Text > Text
Question asked: Is there an easier way to view those substitutions?
Answer: If you go to the System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Source, there is an item called “Keyboard & Character Viewer” under input methods which you require to turn on. In your Menu Bar, if you select the nationality flag, you will see options for the Character and Keyboard viewers.
Character Viewer: Gives you a list of all possible character you can manually insert through this utility. When typing text, select one of the symbols, and press the Insert button. Possible categories include:
Keyboard Viewer: Displays a graphical representation of your keyboard. Keep it open when you type, and each key you type will be displayed. Pressing the special keys (Shift, Command, Option, and Control alone or together will reveal extra characters.
By inserting the special characters in TextExpander, you can define it to a special shortcut key. Here’s a quick example:
Select the “Create New Snippet From Selection” from the TE menu bar while a bit of text is selected. A window will pop up to allow you to define a shortcut for it. Anything from a fraction to a symbol. Press OK and you’re good to go. It’s that easy.
Produced by Hemisphere Games, the game Osmos is a simple to play game for both Mac ($10) and iOS devices ($4.99).
You are a mote (def. a tiny piece of substance), and your goal is to become a bigger mote. You do this by absorbing smaller motes than you. Your means of movement revolves around ejecting matter behind you which acts as a propulsion system. Elect too much, and you begin to shrink. The graphics are brilliant, and the gameplay starts easy, but progressively gets harder. Just remember that it is a physics-based game.
Dave proceeds to demonstrate how to play Osmos off a Mac for the next few minutes, showing everyone how easy it is. For those who were around in the late 1970s-eaerly 1980s, the physics behind the propulsion is very reminiscent of the game Asteroids.
Question: Does the camera kit for the iPad work with the iPod Touch?
Answer: No. The ports are of different sizes.
Question: is there some way that you can do a file compare on a Mac?
Answer: File Buddy
Question: Do I have to log off to log someone else in onto my computer?
Answer: No.
Dave Rostenne demonstrated the process, from creating the account, to switching to that account via the Menu Bar.
Select the System Preferences > Accounts
Select an account, then press on the Login Options.
Turn on “Show fast user switching menu as”
A menu with account names will show up in the upper right corner in the Menu Bar.
Select an account from that menu and enter its password.
Question: If you’re loading/playing a video on YouTube and you switch to another account then back, will the video stop?
Answer 1: No. The video will continue to load/play.
Dave demonstrated, loading up and playing a YouTube video, then switching back and forth between accounts.
Answer 2: What could be happening is that the account may be closing to open the new account. If that happens, in Safari, select History > Reopen Last Closed Window to reopen the closed window.
Question: Does MacTVision work in Canada?
Answer: No. An alternative is Netflix
Netflix is an Internet streaming movie and TV show service that became available in Canada in the latter part of 2010. The price is $7.99 / month.
Pros:
Cons:
It should be noted that these are just the pros and cons that were brought up at the meeting.
Oft-Asked Question: What is DropBox?
Answer: File synchronizing done properly which allows you to sync information between machines, be they only yours, or to share with friends.
Question: How do I get something into your DropBox?
Answer: You need to be invited to that specific folder. Here’s how to invite someone to your DropBox via your Finder:
Open your DropBox folder (located under your User account on your Mac)
Create a folder;
Select the folder;
Right mouse click on the folder. A pop-up menu will appear.
Under the DropBox sub-menu, select “Share this Folder”.
Your DropBox web page will open in your default web browser.
Under “Invite collaborators to this folder”, type the e-mail address of the person you wish to give access to this folder. Below that, you can even send a small message to the individual, maybe to explain why you’re inviting this person.
Click on the Invite button and you wait.
The invited person gets the invite and it’s up to this person to accept the invite by following the instructions. The sender will get a message upon acceptance.
Upon acceptance, both the owner and the invited will share access to any file that is placed into that folder, up to a maximum of the DropBox’s default size. Even a folder can be copied over, or even created within that folder.
At this point, you can drag and drop a web link from a Netflix movie to the shares DropBox folder.
Tom then showed everyone how to get DropBox by accessing the site.
And we are back to Netflix.
Tom mentions there is an RSS feed for Netflix which works with Apple Mail. If you click on one of the messages in the RSS feed, you can opt to view the movie from there.
You can actually drag the web link from the video’s header in the RSS feed to your system to create an alias.
Go to Watch Instantly RSS
Go to Apple Mail.
Add RSS Feed.
Copy/paste the above link and voila.
Question: Can you search by language?
Answer: No, but there is a foreign language section.
If you begin to watch a video and you pause it, it can time out and close. But it will remember where it was paused when you reopen the video. Netflix does all the remembering for you.
According to Tom, he has yet to see first-hand the removal of any movie or TV show from the Netflix service.
Dave Rostenne has ample Apple accessories for giveaways, and several members won iPhone and iPod accessories.
Tom showed how he uses a MiniDV case for an iPhone stand.
Terry showed off his blinking Bluetooth headphones by Shure which he got for Christmas a year ago. The headphones come with a microphone and exceptional battery life. They can be used wired and unwired with an audio device. Price:about $180 at the time of purchase.
Terry then showed off his JamBox speaker/speakerphone, a portable Bluetooth device with excellent quality sound. The device is from a company called JawboneIt comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery which lasts for a very long time with a battery failure warning built-in. It also comes with a USB/Mini-USB for charging, as well as a headphone jack. Price: $199 US.
Question: When did WiFi first come out for an iPad?
Answer: From the start.
Question: I want to buy a laptop – how would I sync two computers together?
Answer 1: When powering up your laptop for the first time, you will be asked whether you want to sync with another computer. But it’s not that easy. For small things, DropBox will do it.
Answer 2: Synk by Decimus Software will sync multiple devices’s contents. $40 US for standard / $60 US for pro
Question: Can I wirelessly connect a receiver via WiFi?
Answer: Not if it has no wireless capabilities, but you can get Apple’s AirPort Express where you can plug in speakers.
Question: Is there a drivers repository?
Answer: Go to Google and type in the driver and its exact number.
Quick Demo: Mark Bell shows a home-made video of his Christmas LED lights arrangement at his home, pointing out it took over 8,000 lights and some lasers. They all work to the sound of music. He said he pre-programmed the lights to work with several songs, and it takes 3-4 hours to program a new song. In total, 32 channels for the lights, 16 of which were for the tree itself.
Link to the video is pending. Come back soon.
Thank you to everyone who attended, and we hope to see you at the next meeting, on February 6th, 2011.