Dave Hamilton - Mac Geek Gab Podcast, Twitter, , App.net

Chuck Joiner – MacVoices, Twitter App.net

Don McAllister - ScreenCastsOnline, Twitter App.net

Steve Stanger – stevestanger.com, Twitter

 
Topics: 

Why is so much tech advertising stupid? 

Apple is quiet, very quiet. Do they need to come out with something that’ll “blow our socks off”?

Is this a temporary lull or will Apple have these long gaps between product launches moving forward. What are we expecting to be announced at WWDC.

What is the best leadership style, and who’s got it, for Apple?

Picks:

Chuck – Apple Pro Video Series – Final Cut Pro X – Second Edition from Ripple Training

Steve – AirParrot 

Don – Up wristband and App – The new version

Dave – Synology Diskstation DS 412+ 

Panel:

Chuck Joiner – MacVoices, Twitter, App.net

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast, @podfeet

Steve Stanger – stevestanger.com, @tmasteve

Topics include:

What Is Adobe afraid of? At NAB Adobe was giving away free copies of Premiere Pro. (Just one observation (of many) – article)

Are you all buying the Facebook phone?

Will there ever be an end to the Apple is dying stories?

Ambrosia Software layoffs

Apple streaming music service closer to reality – Do we really need or want another music streaming service?

Picks:

Allison: Viscosity and OpenVPN Connect from the iTunes App Store for iOS. Allison’s setup tutorial:
Chuck: The Padcaster. Interview with the Padcaster folks – MacVoices #13103: NAB – Josh Apter Turns Your iPad Into A Serious Video Tool with The Padcaster.
Steve: Forecast a great interactive weather iOS web app.

Katie Floyd - Mac Power Users, katiefloyd.me Twitter

Jeff Gamet - The Mac Observer, Twitter

Chuck Joiner – MacVoices, Twitter, App.net

Steve Stanger – My About.me page, Twitter

Topics include:

 - Google’s killing of Reader

 - Dropbox buying Mailbox

 - Does Apple need a bigger iPhone
 

Picks:

Katie – Dataman Pro

Jeff - IFTTT 

Chuck - CloudPull Free

          - CloudPull Premium

Steve – Clear for iOS and OSX 

Chuck Joiner - The MacVoices Group, Twitter, App.net

Katie Floyd – Mac Power Users, twitter

With special virtual appearances by:

John F Braun – macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun @macgeekgab

Jonathan Cost -Thinkmac.net, Twitter – MacTipsDaily

Dave Hamilton – macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ @davehamilton

Don McAllister - ScreenCastsOnline @donmcallister

Allison Sheridan - NosillaCast at http://podfeet.com @podfeet

David Sparks – MacSparky, Mac Power Users, twitter

The Panel:

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group, Twitter, App.net

Steve Stanger – SteveStanger.com, Twitter

Jonathan Cost -Thinkmac.net, Twitter – MacTipsDaily

Some of the topics discussed: Death of Netbooks – Anyone Surprised? Anyone care? BlueStacks – Android Mobile Apps on the Mac, Hackulous shuts down – Piracy on iOS defeated?…and much more.

Picks:

Steve – Alien Breed – iOS game

Jonathan – iOS Remote controls for TVs, Media controls, etc.
Viera Remote
TiVo Remote
Roku Remote
Apple TV Remote

Chuck – Google app

Bart Busschots – The International Mac Podcast, www.bartb.ie (Twitter, Flickr, YouTube etc. linked from there)

Adam Christianson – Maccast, Twitter, App.net

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group, Twitter, App.net

Topics covered by the panel include:

 - Windows’ Boss Steven Sinofsky leaving Microsoft

 - Experiences with Android, Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface

 - Pixel Density Wars

 - Linux on older Macs

 - Macs recognizing 3 TB hard drives

 - Apple’s changing culture – contribution matching, pet project time and more

 - Black Friday shopping – tech and otherwise

 - The challenges of multiple social media sites

Picks

 - Bart: Check The Weather (iOS Universal app) – cleanest and most elegant weather app I’ve yet seen –  (€1.79) ($1.99)

 - Adam: Byword

 - Chuck: dealmac, deal news, dealnews’ Black Friday newsletter, Black Friday App – dealnews.com, Inc.

Katie – Mac Power Users, twitter

David – MacSparky, Mac Power Users, twitter

Jeff – The Mac Observer, twitter

Adam – Maccast, twitter

Topic discussed:
Apple’s October 23 Special Event.

Chuck Joiner – Twitter, App.net

Tim Verpoorten – Surfbits, Twitter

Topic discussed:
iPhone 5 “purple haze” issue.
Apple maps hubbub.
iOS 6 features on iPad 3rd gen and iPhone.
How to report a problem with Apple Maps
The state of tech news reporting in general; Mac in particular.
Remembering Steve Jobs.

Picks:
Steve – 60 Mountain Lion Tips (eBook) by David sparks and Brett Terpstra

Tim – Spanning Backup.com

Chuck – Monoprice

Hardware Engineering

Tech Specs

Camera- Even better

Audio

Lightning Connector

iOS 6

iTunes

iPod Nano

iPod Touch

HeadPhones:

General Thoughts:

• Bart Busschots – IMP Podcast @bbusschots
• Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast @podfeet
• Don McAllister – ScreenCastsOnline @donmcallister
• Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group, Twitter
  

Apple v Samsung

Al – I know it’s been talked to death but I haven’t gotten to talk about it yet so I’d love to…
Maybe we could talk the FUD angle? What was REALLY in the case and what wasn’t?

Definitive list of the patents

The REAL source of the problem is neither Apple nor Samsung, both have feduciary duties to their shareholders. The real problem is the US Patent System:
1) patents are given too easily
2) patents are given for ideas
3) patents last too long for the fast-moving tech industry

Software idea patents are utterly un-necessary and they really stifle innovation. Trade dress and copyright law already prevent copying of code and of look and feel. If software idea patents had been around all along we’d not have Keynote because Micrsoft would own the idea of a presentation app! Europe does not allow software idea patents BTW.

Mini iPad Rumours

Looks fairly certain now… where do we see it fitting in?
Does a new Kindle Fire matter?
Many people want this form factor – some people have pockets?
Physical Books – not what they’re cracked up to be (personal opinion/experience)

Java Exploit

Bart was irritated that it was broadcast as a Mac problem (even CNET)
Java Zero-Day vulnerability surfaces – via US CERT
Links on podfeet on how to disable Java in your browsers:

• Safari
• Chrome
• FireFox

Picks

• Allison – Innergie 3 in 1 cable Micro, Mini, Dock to USB $20
• Bart – Always on top Calculator (OS X) €0.79 – (also an RPN version for those who are that way inclined )
• Don – iTunes Festival App
• Chuck – Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

Bart Busschots – www.bartb.ie & www.impodcast.com – Twitter
Katie Floyd KatieFloyd.me, Twitter
Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group, Twitter
Steve Stanger stevestanger.com (about.me), Twitter

Topics:

App.net
- Do we need it? Do we want it?

How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking by Mat Honan

How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community
- Journalism or irresponsibility?
- What lessons to learn from it?

Interconnectivity of Online LIfe?
- How do we detangle the web?

Katies blog post – Shared Data is No Bargain

Picks:

Chuck -Enhanced Bass Hi-Fi Noise Isolating Earphones by Monoprice

Steve - Snapheal
Remove extra objects, text, imperfections from images and perform photo enhancements in just few clicks. (Just like Photoshops Content aware fill)

Bart – Launch Centre Pro

Bart Plug – www.xkpasswd.net has been updated with some new features and V0.2 of the open source library has been released.

Katie – CEO Case for iPad

Mountain Lion

• Who’s Upgraded & Who Hasn’t?
  • Bart – I played dangerously and just upgraded all my machines – I’ve not yet noticed any problems (I did do two full backups before playing dangerously though)
  • Tim – My Mac Pro cannot be updated to ML without a firmware hack (jabbawok.net/?p=47), but I have an updated video card that can handle it, 16 gigs of ram, and an SSD drive. Should Apple allow users to install ML on a Mac if the user feels they can run it?
  • John – I upgraded on my MBP Early 2008 running Lion, all seems well
    • TIP…WHen installing, you can view installation log, save to disk, good to stay amused or diagnose install issues
  • Katie – yep running beta for weeks
  • Allison – Wirecast Studio won’t be ready till mid-August so my primary MBP can’t go yet, so I used my spare MacBook for the upgrade
  • Mountain Lion Supported Models: apple.com/osx/specs
• Disappointments
  • Angry about Airplay limitations – nothing pre mid-2011? (Allison)
  • My friend Kevin got a hand me down mac from his son. bought new RAM last week, installed Snow Leopard at the Apple Store on Monday so he could go to Lion on Tuesday…and Lion was gone. what the heck does he do? (Allison)
  • First app I tried to install I had to get rid of Gatekeeper (Desktop Presenter from Telestream.net)
    • Apps that are already on your Mac when you up-grade get grand-fathered in to Gatekeeper – this probably why I’ve not hit any snags
    • Apple said in the keynote that you could make exceptions – but I can’t find out how on the intertubes, and all my un-signed apps are grandfathered in.
    • Workaround – right click -> Open
  • Don’t like VIP implementation – isn’t just new messages
  • 802.11g Airport Express no longer works
  • Snapz Pro doesn’t quite work, Ambrosia yet again has an app that doesn’t quite work under new OS  (coming soon though: ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/snapz-pro-x)
  • None of my VM software (VMWare, VirtualBox) works, will need to upgrade, what did they change to kill all the VM software? It’s not a matter of ‘Killing’ – you can’t expect something so low-level to just work on a whole new OS without so much as an app update! BTW – the latest version of VirtualBox works fine according to roaringapps.com.
  • Odd screen color bug after upgrade, had to go to Displays | Scaled then manually choose resolution to fix.  In other news, there’s now a “Best for built-in display” option.  Big Brother is going ot make all the decisions for us now, eh? Or – they are making things easy for human beings?
  • Crashplan was disabled, had to select and reinstall JVM, seems to be working again.
  • No way to choose how long to snooze calendar alerts – some things I want to be reminded of in 5 mins, some in a day – why was this feature removed?

Favorite Features

• Love Safari 6
  • Cool “Ask websites not to track me” and “prevent search engines from providing suggestions” privacy options
  • Web site and search entry field are the same, BLOW MY MIND
  • Safari 6 killed the “Activity” section so you can’t use that as a workaround to download videos
  • Privacy – can tell sites not to track me
• You have to love the built-in security features. Gatekeeper + FileVault2 really gives a lot of protection.
  • Yeah what’s with warnings around accessing contact list, what are apps (so far I’ve had WeatherBug, DashBoard and SpamSieve request access) trying to do?
• I like the privacy controlls around the Addressbook APIs
• I think we are not seeing it’s full potential yet, but the Twitter & Flickr integration and the sharing panes are going to become really useful as more and more apps start to use these APIs
• Simiarly – I think Notification Centre has great potential, but ATM, most of my apps are still writting to Growl.
• New version of mail, why?  Disabled my mail plug-ins, again (is there official support for mail plugins? Or are these hacks? Hacks will break, that’s the nature of hacking!)

The Future of the Mac App Store

• Great article from Marco Arment: marco.org/2012/07/26/mac-app-store-future and followup: marco.org/2012/07/26/not-just-geeks (what’s great about it? No facts, no figures, no great insights that I can see)
• Mass exodus since Sandboxing <– no stats on what “mass” means, how do we know this is true? I have a total of 1 apps that left (TextExpander) out of 50 – I don’t buy this  OTT “mass exodus” scare mongering
• App Store use to be my “go to place” for Apps – but can we “trust it” with so many good apps being pulled. Makes me reconsider purchasing from the App Store
  • I can see how this is a problem for power apps that need to poke around in non-standard things that are not covered by the current set of sandbox entitlements – but for simple apps, I just don’t see the danger. Solitaire isn’t going anywhere
  • TextExpander have proven that having an app you bought leave the app store does not have to be a bad thing for users. The upgrade from V3 of TE from the App to V4 outside the App Store was painless. I was really impressed at how smooth the process was. If Smile can do it, so can other devs
• Still lack of Trials/Paid Upgrades – Likely Apple has just decided they don’t want to do this.
  • I just don’t get this. You can’t try apps before you buy, and if you choose badly based on just screenshots and reviews your only recourse is to open a support ticket and hope Apple are in a good mood. This is bad for users, and for Apple. Total waste of time and effort all round!
• I noticed that now if you go to Software Update… in the Apple menu, it goes to the App Store!

Picks:

• Allison: AirParrot from airparrot.com gives non Mountain Lion (or pre-2011 macs) Airplay. $10 for one license, $30 for a family pack of 5.
• Tim: Olympics iOS apps:
  • Reuters Photo app: reuters.com/london-olympics-2012/
  • NBC Oympics Apps: nbcolympics.com/
• John : Colloquy – Mac IRC Client colloquy.info & mibbit.com for embedded IRC browser plugin
• Bart: Carbon Copy Cloner – new version has been updated for Mountain Lion, and had transitioned from donationware to paid software. Those who donated get the new version free, and it is at 25% off ($29.96) for everyone until 12 August (full price $39.95). bombich.com/ccc_features.html
• Katie – Tweetbot for Mac (public alpha) – tapbots.com/tweetbot_mac/
• Steve Sheridan – Web Video Downloader for Firefox v6.8 now that Safari Activity trick is gone web-video-downloader.com

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group, Twitter
David Sparks – MacSparky.com, Twitter
Adam Christianson – Maccast, Twitter
Steve Stanger – SteveStanger.com, Twitter

Topics Discussed:
Getting ready for Mointain Lion
Tablets everywhere
Are fewer events, less news killing Apple’s buzz?
Our Social Media Strategies – Who uses what, why, and how?

Links:
App Compatibility Table
[Article] Are fewer events, less news killing Apple’s buzz?

Picks:
David – Cheatsheet
Steve – Scanner Pro
Chuck – 645 Pro
Adam – Dermandar (iTunes) – Website

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group @chuckjoiner
Jeff Gamet – The Mac Observer
John F. Braun – Mac Geek Gab @johnfbraun @macgeekgab
Bart Busschots – www.bartb.ie @bbusschots

Topics Discussed:

• Apple Stock Price Swings – what’s behind them?

• Facebook buy Instagram for one biiiiiiiillion dollars:

• what are people worried about?
• was it worth a billion dollars?
• a discussion on the rights you give away and don’t when you upload content to social media services

• Tangent – social media: Facebook -v- Google+ -v- Twitter

• The new Security Reality

• time to re-assess your situation
• we discuss Apple’s schizophrenic attitude to security
• what can people do to protect themselves (ALWAYS patch, consider disabling Java & Flash, consider free AV, or even paid AV)
• free AV from ClamXav – (AVOID the crippled Mac App Store version)
• Little Snitch is another tool people may find useful for watching what their computer is at

Picks:

• John’s Pick – Cloak – Free VPN.
• Bart’s Pick – silly but addictive iPhone game – Worms Crazy Golf
• Jeff’s Pick – Paper for the iPad
• Chuck’s pick – Seagate GoFlex Slim Performance Drive

The iPad that shall not be named

• Screen resolution
  • 2048×1536 – 3.14MP – 264 ppi
• 4G
  • Which carrier to select?

Size (wifi dimensions)

• Chart comparing iPad 1,2,3
  
• .37 in thick vs. .34 for the iPad 2 (9.4mm vs. 8.8mm)
• 1.44 lbs vs. 1.33 lbs for the iPad 2 (652g vs. 601g)
• still thinner & lighter than iPad 1
• bigger battery presumably? 10 hr battery is on wifi, not 4G
• Has iFixit taken it apart yet?

iOS 5.1

• 20MB download limit upped to 50MB
• Delete one photo from Photostream – but doesn’t really delete the photo in photostream
• New backgrounds
• Swipe up for Camera is AWESOME – will save my dying home button
• Japanese Siri

AppleTV gen 3

• $99
• Airplay video streaming at 1080p
• Airplay mirroring at 720p (https://skitch.com/nosillacat/8egk3/airplay-mirroring)
• new interface – will it come to gen 2′s? – yes
• Movies in iCloud
• Ken’s take on Apple TV and apps (macobserver.com)

iPhoto on iOS

• Universal app
• The loss-less editor with brushes is surprisingly Aperture like
• No ability to calibrate screen – so not useful for pros or serious photographers/videographers You can’t even use it to proof stuff without calibration
• To normal users it’s a very cool and useful app

iWork on iOS

• Don will tell us what’s new?
• What’s new? Not a lot – bigger graphics?

Picks

• Allison – FlyGrip (flygrip.com)
• Bart – Rubbernet (itunes.apple.com/ie/app/rubbernet
  (Rubbernet US Store: itunes.apple.com/us/app/rubbernet)
• Jeff – iPhoto for iOS (itunes.apple.com/us/app/iphoto
• Don – AirWings for iOS (itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-wings)
• Ken – New Apple TV (because i am unoriginal) (apple.com/appletv)

MacRoundtable #109 – Macworld | iWorld 2012 from MacRoundtable on Vimeo.

The Mac Roundtable had their very own Tech Talk at Macworld | iWorld 2012! Participating panel members included:

John F Braun – macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun @macgeekgab

Victor Cajiao – http://www.typicalmacuser.com @victorcajiao

Adam Christianson – MacCast @maccast

Jeff Gamet – macobserver.com @jgamet

Dave Hamilton – macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ @davehamilton

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group @chuckjoiner

Don McAllister – ScreenCastsOnline @donmcallister

Ken Ray – MacOSKen, Day 6, MacOSKen Live @macosken

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast podfeet.com @podfeet

Steve Stanger – stevestanger.com @tmasteve iSee, iShoot, iPhone & The Mac Attack podcasts

Tablets Everywhere!

Macworld | iWorld Plans

macworldiworld.com
* iFan Pass is SO inexpensive giving access to the Tech Talks that used to be hundreds of dollars to attend, now only $100:
* http://www.macworldiworld.com/packages-and-prices/
* Exhibit hall only is $30 – anyone heard of free passes yet? Traditionally there have been some
* What do you look forward to the most?
* presentations?
* exhibit hall?
* hanging out with other Mac geeks?
* Cirque De Mac? Friday 8pm Holywood Studios
* NosillaCastaways Party? 6-8pm on Friday @Jillians – register at podfeet.com listen to the show to hear the password!
* San Francisco itself?
* Who’s doing presenations, what about, and when? (check the schedule as it changes: macworldiworld.com/techtalks/)

• Allison – Blindfolded! 11am Th 1/26
• Chuck – Parenting in the Mobile Internet Age 1 PM 1/26; Mac, iPad and iPhone Essentials: The Stuff You Gotta Have 1 PM 1/27
• Jeff – iCloud’s Little Helpers 2pm 1/27
• Dave – Backing Up Your Mac, 11am, 1/26; Macworld RapidFire 5pm, 1/26, 5 minutes on using custom search to find pesky preferences.
• Katie & David – Podcast: Mac Power User Workflows 11am Friday 1/27
• David – 40 OS X Tips in 40 Minutes 10am Th 1/26
• Don – Hidden Secrets of Quicktime – 1pm Thursday 1/26
• Mac Roundtable Crew 10am Friday 1/27
• John & Dave – Meet the Podcasters, Smile booth, Thu 1/26 3PM
• John & Dave – Mac Geek Gab Live Fri 1/27 2PM
• macworldiworld.com/techtalks/friday-overview/friday-agenda/#986
• Final Cut Pro Super Users event supermeet.com

Holiday Tech Gifts

Allison

• Magic Trackpad (not everyone has one yet!) http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/
• iTunes gift cards are even better now – buy iOS apps and Mac Apps! Like them because we can buy the silliest thing just because we have the credits

John – New toys I like

• Magellen Premium Car Kit for iPhone ($99)
• Magellen Roadmate ($39.99)
• Lexar Echo MX Backup Drive ($54.99 for 16GB)

Steve

• Buy yourself (or a loved one) more RAM! Still pretty inexpensive.
• iTunes gift cards
• A year of online back up (sexy, I know…)
  * Free options to get you started http://dropbox.com, http://sugarsync.com, http://box.net, http://pogoplug.com
• Steve Jobs, Official Biography
• Cool laptop bag or iPad, iPhone case

Chuck

• Apple TV $100
• Individual iTunes item gifts
• A month or two of training from Lynda.com

Jeff

• PlugBug ($35 at Amazon) twelvesouth.com/products/plugbug
• Withings Body Scale $168 http://www.withings.com/en/bodyscale
• Custom Gelaskins for iPhone, iPad, Mac starting at $14.95 gelaskins.com/create

Mac Roundtable #107 from MacRoundtable on Vimeo.

Live at BlogWorld L.A. 2011, members of The Mac Roundtable gathered in person to discuss the show. In attendance were:

Victor Cajiao http://www.typicalmacuser.com @victorcajiao

John Chambers One Minute Tip Twitter: @tipman

Adam Christianson, MacCast http://www.maccast.com Twitter: @maccast

Dave Hamilton macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @davehamilton

Chuck Joiner macvoicesgroup.com Twitter: @chuckjoiner

Don McAllister ScreenCastsOnline – http://screencastsoonline.com Twitter: @donmcallister

Allison Sheridan NosillaCast Mac Podcast http://podfeet.com Twitter: @podfeet

David Sparks macsparky.com macpowerusers.com Twitter: @macsparky

iPhone 4S

Who upgraded who didn’t and why?
Difference in AT&T Upgrade Elligability
Option to move to a different Carrier

• Sprint offering some $125 credit to move (have to ask)
• ETF less than subsidized price
• Concerns about being out of cycle for iPhone 5 next year

Camera

• I’m impressed but some disquiet on Twitter on noise artifacts. Not the sky in the photo at full res: flickr.com/photos/mcallister_family

Battery

• Noticing very poor battery performance – need a few more recharge cycles? (Don)

Siri

iOS 5

General:

• Finding lots of nice tweaks everywhere
• Has really slowed down my original iPad – not QUITE as bad as iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G, but typing should NEVER be laggy! (Luckily it’s just for Bart)

Upgrade process – 10.7.2, iOS 5, iCloud, iTunes

• For me, iOS update failed repeatedly, data in Console log ~/Library/Logs/iPhoneUpdater.log ended with “iTunes: Restore error 3200″
• Apple Support article on restore helped some http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1275
• I heard reports that plugging cable directly into device, rather than using dock, helped.
• MacVoices #1190: John Chaffee of BusyMac Discusses the Transition From MobileMe to iCloud for Calendar Syncing macvoices.com/wordpress/macvoices-1190-john-chaffee-of-busymac-discusses-the-transition-from-mobileme-to-icloud-for-calendar-syncing/

iCloud

• Disappointed that the iWork suite wasn’t upgraded to take into account iCloud sync’ing. Expecting a huge release in the coming weeks with new versions of apps plus full iCloud support for Numbers, Pages and Keynote on the Mac
• Took several hours to make move (servers swamped)
• Lost 20,000 archived email messages in the proces
  • Apple recovered – then lost again
  • questionable support experience
  • MailSteward and Time Machine FTW!
• With a few exceptions like Photo Stream, this seems to be all just Mobile Me 2.0, but with loads of features REMOVED!
• I’m afraid to migrate to iCloud since I still have one machine on Snow Leopard.

Reminders

• Location reminders very cool – needs some setup in Contacts list
  • Can’t do location based reminders on an iPad or Exchange accounts
• Very basic functionality
  • No ability to share reminders (household to do list)
  • No start/end times
  • Limited categories
  • Everything syncs to iCal

iMessage

• So cool!  If recipient is capable, input field will say iMessage, otherwise, Text Message.
• Settings | Messages | Receive At shows phone and email messages can be received at, need to use email registered as Apple ID?
• Settings | Messages | Send as SMS will send via SMS if iMessage fails, I had this happen once with person who was iMessage capable
• I have no disabled MMS – this is so great for people who HATE those massive bills.
• Superb for people living in Europe with all those little countries!

Photostream

• Love having photos show up in Aperture
• No ability to selectively choose what syncs
• No ability to remove individual photos from stream

Wireless sync

• Settings | General | iTunes Wi-Fi Sync.  Says device must be connected to power, I found I could without power.
• Only automatic sync needs power.
• Problems with Podcasts – deleted off iPhone get re-synced with iTunes

Notifications
Text Tones by person
Maps alternate routes
Split keyboard on iPad
Camera

• Like new AE/AF lock feature, was able to take pic of neon theater sign at night that iOS 4 camera app would fail on.

New Apps – AirPort Utility, Trailers, Find Friends (requires iCloud), Cards
iCloud charging us $40 this year?

Picks

John – Rubbernet €30 macobserver.com/tmo/article/rubbernet_shows_whos_hogging_your_bandwidth/
Al – Jettison $2 – eject external drives & put Mac to sleep. credit to Allister Jenks of Sitting Duck Podcast for the find: Jettison : in the Mac App Store
Katie – MailSteward $20 : itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailstewardapp
Bart – iMapMyRide 1.59 Euro: itunes.apple.com (also a free version)
Chuck – AppleTV  amzn.to/nHCtAW
Don McAllister: Box.net – 50GB Free storage for iOS 5 users – themacscreencastguy.squarespace.com

Your humble hosts for this episode:
Steve Stanger
stevestanger.com Twitter: @tmasteve
John F. Braun
macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @johnfbraun, Twitter: @macgeekgab
Jonathan Cost
thinkmac.net Twitter: @MacTipsDaily
Chuck Joiner
macvoicesgroup.com Twitter: @chuckjoiner
Dave Hamilton
macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @davehamilton
Jeff Gamet
mamacobserver.com Twitter: @jgamet
David Sparks
macsparky.com macpowerusers.comTwitter: @macsparky
Ken Ray
macosken.com Twitter: @macosken

This is the “print your own postcard” app mentioned during the show:
Bill Atkinson PhotoCard (paid version)
Bill Atkinson PhotoCard (free version)

Topics in this show:
Steve retires!
OSX Lion, after a month
FCPX and iMovie
Come One Irene (Being prepared for natural disasters with your gear)

Picks:
John: http://www.virtualapple.org/ – Play Apple ][ games in your browser!
Joseph: Synthcam: https://sites.google.com/site/marclevoy/ FREE
Adam: Canyon Country National Parks (Free) Website: http://www.utah.com/ iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/canyon-country-national-parks/id458028890?mt=8
Steve: Snapseed – iPhone/iPad photo editing app. http://www.niksoftware.com/snapseed/usa/index.php?view
Bart: Trainz for iPad http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/trainz-simulator/id405824661?mt=8

Lion Hits the Virtual Shelves:

The Good:

• The app store download was painless, and you CAN easily move the PKG file around to the various machines in your house, so only have to DL once
  • If you know to move it to another drive before you run the installer
  • No problem burning bootable DVD
  • I don’t think I was charged, I had downloaded the developer’s GM version earlier, is it supposed to be free if you’re a developer?
  • Apple have announced a version of USB thumb-drive for those not on Snow Leopard or with bad internets – coming out next month at $69
• Full disk encryption with FileVault2 is an absolute breeze – you can even keep using your Mac while the disk is encrypting itself
  • Also, to protect your machine’s drive from being mounted Firmware Password Protection http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1352
• The OS-wide auto-correct is really nicely implemented – a great carry-over from iOS
• On the whole, I think the new ‘natural’ scrolling is a very positive upgrade, it takes us from controlling the scroll bar which controls the page, to just controlling the page we want to read. The iOS-like scroll bounce is a lovely little touch
  • Hard to switch between Macs
  • If you do want to change it back, System Preferences | Trackpad | Scroll & Zoom | Scroll direction : natural -> UNCHECK
  • There is an app to add natural scrolling to Snow Leopard – Scroll Reverser: http://pilotmoon.com/scrollreverser/
• Like the full screen apps a lot – more useful to me than Spaces ever were
• Zoom in window is cool for visually impaired (but I can’t find how to zoom the whole screen)
• Love love love email – threads so clean and crisp, I almost hope I get email from someone on aol!
  • Reverted to older layout (Preferences | Layout | Use classic layout -> CHECK) I prefer msgs on top content on bottom, not side by side – me too, so glad they left the classic option
• The iOS-like auto-save is both really cool and really disconcerting – will be confusing for a while as apps are updated, but sould soon become the new normal.
• Saving state when re-opened is nice, you can disable (hold down option to Quit and Discard Windows)

The Bad:

• The total lack of any indication of what does and doesn’t scroll is very annoying – particully on web pages where just parts of a page scroll – don’t need scroll bars, but surely SOME indication is needed!
  • Scroll doesn’t work in Help!
• Spaces has really been hobbled for power users – more people will use the feature now, but power users are taking a real step back
• The new monochrome Finder with the most important stuff at the bottom (hard drives) is REALLY annoying <— YES!
• Pitty you can’t do in-place encryption on external drives, has to be done when you format the drive (was linked to a Terminal hack – (http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/1935/lions-whole-disk-encryption)
• Changing definition of three-finger swipe BOO.  System Preferences | Trackpad | More Gestures | Swipe Between Pages | Swipe left or right with three fingers, disable Swipe between full-screen apps
• No AirDrop for earlier MBP (http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html)
• The mysterious hidden ~/Library folder, hold down “option” in Finder and you’ll see it in Go menu.
• Found some hiccups in Console, due to new Safari model, “sandboxd: ([323]) WebProcess(323) deny file-read-data … /Adobe/AIR/ELS/<file>” edited entries in com.apple.security.plist and they’re gone.
• No “obvious” way to hide the “message” pane in the new mail layout. When I delete a message it jumps to the next one and marks it as read which I may or maynot want. Can switch back to Classic mode which does allow hidding the message pane.

The stuff that makes you go, “huh.”

• There doesn’t appear to be Save-As any more – Save a Version doesn’t appear to do it, had to use Duplicate – and when you save your duplicate it does NOT remember where you were in the file system – REALLY annoying!
• Launchpad – meh. I use search to find apps on iOS, use Alfred on the Mac because I don’t want to have to search around visually
  • I think it’ll be great for Windows users used to a Start Menu-like this, and for people who think desktops should be cluttered with icons, they can clutter Lanch Pad instead!

What Died During the Upgrade:

• Existing MacPorts installations are destroyed by the upgrade – RC1 of Lion support released
• TrueCrypt was killed by the update, seemingly because FUSE was killed by the update
• iCal went nuts – entire duplicate calendars popping up, and then not disapearing when they were deleted
  • No problems here in iCal – 4 calendars syncing + 5 subscriptions
• There are bugs in some Automator actions – so the automator scripts I rely on every day in work died (the Get Contents of Clipboard action gives currupted output for a start)
• My Desktop changer app DeskLickr is no longer able to change my desktop wallpaper
• Cleared out all old PowerPC programs (view with System Profiler) beforehand, only item that was identified as incompatible was Default Folder X.  More info here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3258
• Mail.app and add-ons (SpamSieve and Signature Profiler)
• XCode upgrade (now free in app store? – yes) first install resulted in Xcode reporting inconsistent state, ran installer again and all is well.

Misc

• Anyone else reminded heavily of Window7 on some of the OS animations? Nope
• To really get the most out of this OS you need a mutlitouch trackpad – multitouch on the MagicMouse is a disaster – RSI-inducing hell!
• Neat little add-on in /System/Library/CoreServices, Wi-Fi Diagnostics, includes data capture as a pcap file.
• Also found Network Link Conditioner prefpane in Utilities folder, looks to be able to shape bandwidth based on pre-defined or user-defined profile.

Picks:

• Bart: Monopoly for iPad – http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/monopoly-for-ipad/id405634168?mt=8
• Adam: Zoom H4n Handy Recorder ($299.00 USD): http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/
• Adam (bonus pick): Ticket to Ride ($7.99 USD): http://www.daysofwonder.com/dow-online/en/t2r/ipad/ (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ticket-to-ride/id432504470?mt=8)
• John: Team Fortress 2!!!!! FREE http://www.teamfortress.com/ WE MUST PUSH LITTLE CART
• Allison: $8 VidConvert from http://www.reggieashworth.com/vidconvert Really efficient video conversion – amazing compression, especially shrinking .avi files from point and shoots
• Don: Moom from http://manytricks.com/moom/http://manytricks.com/moom/

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast podfeet.com @podfeet
Katie Floyd – Mac Power Users macpowerusers.com @katiefloyd
John F. Braun – Mac Geek Gab macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun @macgeekgab
David Sparks – Mac Power Users macpowerusers.com MacSparky macsparky.com @macsparky

Lion – Questions/Concerns

• Is there an ability to do a “fresh” install

• We know there’s a “hack for the boot CD”

• What if I don’t have Snow Leopard? What about grandpa, move him or not?

• What if I have limited Bandwidth?

• What’s with all the gesture stuff?  Will one *need* trackpad or touch surface to use OS X?   will this be too confusing? What about special needs users?

• FileVault 2!  Done right, and works on external drives too

• Windows migration, take that, Microsoft!

• Autosave & versioning – particular about window locations this is good…or is it?

• ForeverSave 2 (utility you can use now for auto-save)

• Will developers have to write to the APIs?

• 250 new features: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html

iOS 5 – Questions/Concerns

• Many of these offered on other devices/platforms (PC-free, WiFi sync) about time

• Hope Twitter won’t be a baby like they have been with third party devs when it comes to development of clients

• Are we marking the iPad as a PC replacement now? Can iCloud really replace a PC for Backup, Software updates and Sync?

• What about Podcasts? will they wirelessly sync

• “Wireless Sync” to your Mac still requires a power cable

• What about Game Center?

• Importance of iMessage – is it important?

• LOVE camera avail from lock screen

iCloud – Questions/Concerns

• Here’s the article with details on the transition http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597 (keep your me.com or mac.com email address and move your MobileMe mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks)

• What about my other MobileMe stuff?  Publishing photos via iWeb?  Back to my Mac? what about iDisk? is iWeb gone? (Hope not)

• Big Picture – Different visions

• What if cloud isn’t available?  How does this work on local networks?  Will this make DropBox obsolete.

• I think this will make the need for Dropbox even greater with no iDisk?

• Will people actually spend more money on other services to replace iDisk?

• Will people actually spend more money on other services to replace MobileMe functionality?

• Novice users at my MUG were very concerned about MobileMe going away, they don’t want multiple services for cloud storage (dropbox), photos (flickr, and others) and their own domains (homepage). They want something simple and “Mac like”

Picks:
Katie: CardMunch cardmunch.com , itunes.apple.com/us/app/cardmunch-business-card-reader – Free
David: Reeder for Mac - itunes.apple.com/us/app/reeder $10
John: Verbatim InSight 320 drive verbatim.com $119
Allison: Flexiglass from nulana.com/flexiglass $8