A Mini Keynote…
Indeed we got a newer, thinner and faster Aluminum iMac. A fancy glass screen that has generated a lot of discussion among the High End Photo editors. I must temper my comments as I have not seen it up close and personal yet.
Reflection seems to be the big issue. Several solutions to lessen the glare and reflection have provided some relief. Using an external monitor and turning the nice shiny iMac around facing it to the wall seems to be the easiest. Since it is only 1 inch thick, space is not a big factor. Wearing a black turtleneck shirt (like Stevie,) and perhaps a black mask is surely not the first choice of many. Apple is quick to point out that this is a "consumer machine" and not a professional high end unit. Feel free to buy the Mac Pro Quad core or Eight core model as it starts at slightly more than the 24" model. Well…
I'm sure Apple will report a zillion iMac sales this quarter. Stevie said that "their customers" wanted the glossy, shiny, highly reflective screen.
Leopard appears to be on track for the October release in time for the Christmas buying season. I'm ready for it.
That's it for now…
SLMUG Minutes 8-2-07
Esteban Zapiain, aka eSteve, demo'ed iWork 8 ($79). Pages 2 provides multiple templates for word processing (blank, letters, envelopes, forms, resumes, reports and miscellaneous). You can save (export) document as a pdf file, Microsoft word, rich text, etc. Mail merge is possible, too. eSteve pointed us to the Apple web site for a demo of Pages (go to iwork/tutorials/) and led us through it. The second aspect of Pages is Page Layout (includes blank, newsletters, brochures, flyers, posters, cards and invitations, business cards, and miscellaneous). This part is similar to Microsoft Publisher.
He then led us through the Keynote presentation process. There are 36 possible themes. Smart Build allows you to easily bring pictures and graphs in and out of the presentation. You can see what is on your screen and export to your iPod, create a QuickTime movie, create a PowerPoint document that can be viewed and edited in a Microsoft PowerPoint; create a pdf document viewable in a PDF application; create a separate image file for each slide; create a Macromedia Flash movie; create an HTML document for viewing on a web browser; and add a movie to iTunes to be played on your iPod. It is powerful and easy to use program.
There was general discussion about virus ware for the Mac. The district uses Sophos, which is quite effective. Another program, which is Mac only, is Intego's VirusBarrier. Check their web site: intego.com.
Ed Matlock reviewed this month's DOM. First he mentioned CocoThumbX is a freeware thumbnail creator for Mac OS X. It is capable of creating and removing thumbnails from the common image file formats as BMP, TIFF, TARGA, GIF (animated), PNG, JPG, PICT, PDF, EPS, ICNS, JP2, SGI … text files such as DOC, RTF, RTFD, HTML, CSS, TXT and QuickTime supported Movies. CocoThumbX creates a thumbnail from your image and adds the thumbnail as icon to your image file. To get more info take a look at the key feature list. Download or wait till next month's DOM. The August DOM includes Logictech Control Center updater (lcc222); Netscape 9.0; Safari303 beta; Safari lock (add on to block); Sea Monkey (based on Mozilla program) Security updates for PPC and Intel machines; Tech Tool Pro update; Thunderbird, iTunes 7.31; Graphic Converter 6.0; Firefox 2.0.0.6; Airport Extreme Update 2007004. Thanks Ed for another great DOM.
The SIG in two weeks will provide an opportunity to repair more iMacs … which will make 38 that have been put back into service.
The meeting closed and many departed for the Board Meeting at Bakers Square.
Dayle Scott, Secretary.
September 6th meeting features…
School is starting and we need to do some work on the lab. Think about a Saturday or two this month. We will surely discuss the new iMac. Who will bring their new iMac to demo at the meeting? Mr. President will have his report on the Hawaiian islands. Ed will do his magic with the CDom. We can discuss the mini keynote of Wednesday about the iPod release.