Randy Madrid enlightened us on some of his observations about the new features in iTunes 6. First, Podcasts. Podcasts are radio shows that are downloaded over the Internet. You can find a wide variety of podcasts in the Podcast Direcory. Subscribe to them and iTunes will automatically download new episodes. Randy stated that podcasts are like “Inside Mac Radio.” Most seem to be free. You can bring podcast onto iPod. Randy has set up his computer to start up iTunes when he boots his computer. The downloaded podcasts are then copied to his iPod so he can listen to them as desired (at work or at home). The quality of podcasts vary. Randy went through iTunes preferences in the Podcasts dialogue box.
Another feature is Videos. Randy checked the Video menu box. He picked and played a musical video “weapon of choice”. Also available are Movies and TV Shows.. He used an app “HandBrake” to rip “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (it is also in Quick Time format). One can update (sync) with your iPod.
Randy talked about the app “Front Row” which controls DVD, iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes. The new iMac G5 includes the “Front Row” software. Apple is moving strongly to the digital hub with iTunes and Front Row. You can buy the Apple Remote to use with iPod Dock.
John Mitchell told of a school’s Hard Drive problems: died. His Mac Mini had a problem: Froze! And lost a lot of what he’d been working on. So, restarted and repaired permission. One solution to not saving project as you go along is to have Adobe’s End Design installed. It will automatically save up to the last key stroke made. Wow.
Bob Shayler stated that it is best to turn off laptops when carrying them around. One student at his school learned the lesson the hard way. The hard drive went down. When reformatting a hard drive direct it to write zeros.
Bob then shared info on iCal (he is really impressed with its power and usefulness). He told of how his school is using iCal via .Mac and demonstrated the process. He can sync iCal with his iPod and 3 computers. He suggested we check out www.icalshare.com for a wide variety of calendars that are available (from academic to TV).
He then demonstrated Wikipedia, a free worldwide encyclopedia. There are articles, discussion with opportunity to add your own comments. “fascinating, useful” says Bob. He showed how you can block the site. He also mentioned www.myspace.com as an interesting site to explore.
Elections. The current officers were reelected for 2006. President – Bob Shayler; VP – John Mitchell, Secretary – Dayle Scott, Treasure – Ed Matlock ($36 dues are due for 2006, fill in the form and attach a check).
eSteve shared that he had to stop using the keyboard (overuse sprained his wrists) so he is now using MacSpeach to operate his Mac. “it works fairly well.” He will demo the program at one of our next meetings, maybe January 5.
Ed Matlock put the contents of this month’s DOM on the screen and shared info about the various items on the disk. Included on the disk: updaters for Front Row, Security, DiskCatalogMake, and iPod; the latest DataRescue and DriveGenius; Firefox 1.5; SLMUG DOMs (use DCMaker to read); quick tours of Keynote and Pages; etc. Thanks Ed!
The meeting closed and many set off for the board meeting at Bakers Square.
Dayle Scott, Secretary.