Bill George's Mac Blog

Macintosh App Store a Hit

2011-01-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I just installed the Macintosh App Store program and found it very stable and compelling. Last Wednesday (5 Jan 2011), the Mac App Store app became available after installing updates to the latest version of Snow Leopard and noticing the new Mac Store App Icon in my dock. (Snow Leopard IS required to install the Mac App Store on your Macintosh). I immediately downloaded a free utility Caffeine, that lets you temporarily suspend screen savers. Worked like a charm.

To test whether I could download one paid app to multiple Macs (I have 3 older Macs) with no extra charges, I downloaded 50% off Angry Birds at $4.95 to my ancient MacBook Pro. I moved to my second machine (an iMac) and started the Mac App Store download of Angry Birds. It's a little disconcerting because you have to purchase the same app, enter your password, THEN, it tells you you already have the app, and that the download is free. So don't make a mistake or you may make an unwanted purchase. I couldn't resist a Mac Web Site editor (Rapidweaver) that was 50% off at $39 and another $4.99 app Courier, a utility to simplify upload content to multiple Web 2.0 sites like Flicker, Facebook, Youtube, Mobileme and more.

The search for apps is similar to that experienced on the iPhone and iPad so I was using the Mac App Store very quickly and effectively. Apple claims over 1 million downloads the first day, so it looks like a hit AND it's a lot of fun! The 7.4 mb Mac Store App is called "App Store.app" in your Application folder.

Cinch, a Mac Window Utility

2010-06-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm obsessed with managing my Mac windows and this program seems to be the quickest and most intuitive, I've found. You can easily try it out, receiving a nag message every so often to purchase it for $7. Simply click/drag your window to the left-hand side of the screen to fill the left 1/2 of the display. Ditto for the right-hand side of the screen. To make your window fill the display, drag the window to the top of the screen. Very simple. It's said to mimic the way Windows 7 works. If so, good for Windows 7! You can download at http://irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/.

OMG the iPad!

2010-02-02T14:13:00.001-08:00

The iPad has arrived! It is producing manic depressive behavior like "It's the great new computing Paradigm!" vs "It's a Maxipad, (see the Mad TV parody of a Maxipad commercial", or "OMG I've got to get one, but it's got to be a 3G!" vs "It's only an overweight iPod Touch", or "Did you see they have a slot for a CAMERA?!", vs Apple stock plummeted the first couple days after the announcement" ... and on and on and on. Mashable.com is an excellent source of iPad news. One of the earliest and best article I've seen about the iPad says that the iPad category fits neatly between an iPhone and a Mac, being built to be a media consumption device, not a media creation device.

Merging Photos at Photofunia.com

2010-02-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

I just heard about this great web site http://www.photofunia.com on Leo Laporte's Net at Night Podcast #136. It's pretty awesome. You take a picture of yourself, or someone else, and merge it with another photos. There is a large selection to choose from. This internet-thing really has some fun stuff, eh?

Two Up Macintosh Window-Management Utility

2010-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

TwoUp is a great free utility I use to help with window-management on the Macintosh. It's actually a stripped down version of a program with more advanced features that's not free, which is a great way to market products. It's from Irradiated Labs at http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com.

It's very simple to resize an application window, pressing CTRL, OPTION and COMMAND keys all at once (they're right next to each other) and one of the ARROW KEYS. It causes the application window you're using to re-size to the left half, right half, top half or bottom half of your screen. If you want to work side by side with two finder windows or a finder window and a text window, for example, just select the window and press the appropriate keys. It works with most Mac programs, but check the exceptions in the documentation (two are Microsoft Word and Excel 2004).

It's worth a look, and it's FREE.

Macintosh Group DVMUG in Contra Costa County

2010-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

I discovered the Diablo Valley Macintosh User Group last year and thought I'd share it with you. They seem to be one of the most active groups in the East Bay, having a number of special interest groups (SIGs) and a web-based Bulletin Board with many forums on many topics. The SIG I've been attending regularly is the Genealogy SIG, headed by Verner Laursen. They also have an interesting iLife SIG.

Cartoonizer

2009-11-19T01:34:00.001-08:00

This Cartoonizer web site has been around for a few months. It allows you to upload images, modify and then download them to your computer for free. There are many effects available, the most useful is turning your photos into a cartoon-like image as shown here. There is a "watermark" on the free version that is easy to work with. This is not strictly speaking a Mac product, but it works perfectly on my Mac Firefox web browser. The website is http://www.befunky.com

http://www.macgen.org is born

2009-04-29T00:42:00.001-07:00

The April 25th meeting went well and we're planning the next one on June 27th. Read about it at the MacGen web site.

Macintosh Genealogy Meeting April 25, 2009

2009-04-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

I live in Castro Valley, Calif. and belong to four Bay Area genealogy groups. Each has a small number of people that use Macs to help with their genealogy research. There are just not enough people in these PC-dominated genealogy groups to have substantive meetings that cover the wonderful advantages a Macintosh can bring to your genealogy avocation. The best group for Mac Genealogists I've encountered so far is the Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group (used to be Silicon Valley Personal Ancestral File group) in Santa Clara. They have a sub-group headed by Mac Guru Pat Burrow (plumlady.com) who is a treasure of Mac information. Every second Saturday, they have their two hour Mac presentation in the South Bay. They also have a Getting Started Class taught by Pat Solomon. But, it's not enough for me. I think our East Bay Mac users deserve a way to share their two passions, genealogy and their Macs.

So, I'm exploring this month to see if such a need exists. On Saturday, April 25th, at 1:30 pm at the Oakland LDS Family History Center, a meeting will occur with as many genealogy enthusiasts that use Macs, as can be found. Please see a flyer I created with more details, and hopefully I'll see you on the Saturday the 25th.

...Bill

MacIntosh User Group in Livermore

2008-07-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

I just noticed this Mac User Group that meets monthly on the Third Thursday from 7-10pm, 1155 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton. They have a very informative Newsletter, "The TMUG Insider". See their web site at http://www.clubtmug.com/. I hope to attend their Thursday July 17th, 2008, meeting.

iPhoto Photo Books and Calendars

2008-04-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

I finally put some of my photos to work, publishing a two photo books and a photo calendar with iPhoto. They turned out great! The photo books are spectacular with the slip covers.

Steve Jobs 60 Second Keynote

2008-01-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

I was browsing Amber MacArthur's website and thought I'd pass this link off to you. It's a 60 second version of the 90 minute Keynote from MacWorld 2007.

My First iPhoto "Book".

2008-01-28T17:03:00.001-08:00

I submitted my first iPhoto "Book" for printing at Apple last week. If it looks OK, I plan to give it to someone special and print a second copy. iPhoto also allows you to make a PDF of your creation, that can be shared with everyone. Hmmm.. I'm starting to sound like an Apple commercial.

MacBook Air

2008-01-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

I was impressed with the MacBook Air's size and capability after reviewing a video of Steve Jobs Macworld address. The Time Capsule was cool as were the iPhone improvements. Gotta get a MacBook Air! Actually, I'm thinking of helping to start a new user group called IMP, short for iPhone, Mac and PC. Interested people would have a Mac that drives an iPhone and runs PC software. There is a lot that can be shared and learned. This is getting complicated!
My current project is putting together my first iPhoto "Book" from travel photos... next is to publish it on .mac... (http://web.mac.com/williamcgeorge/)

New Year's Resolution

2008-01-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

I resolve in 2008, to start updating this BLOG.

I'm starting to use a Mac-Mini, with hopes it can be my main computing machine. The problem is, I have some software that only exists for the PC. So I installed VMWare Fusion with XP Pro and upgraded memory to 2gb. I upgraded to Leopard and was very impressed with the Time Machine.