Let's hope we all get to meet up at some point at the 3 days of fun, facts & festivities now known as MacWorld/iWorld. We'll be debriefing from the event(s) -not certain what we'll be bringing, but there'll be facts, there'll be presentations, there'll be the usual prizes to raffle off. See you there!
December 10th 2012Among other things (did I hear pumpkin pie?), Apple iOS writer, developer & trainer KevinMcNeish will be joining us virtually from the East Coast to helpus unleash our own inner iOS Developer: based on the maturity of the latest iPhone and iPad App development tools released by Apple, it's finally within the reach of non-programmers to get into the rewarding work of App development. In this session you will see a demonstration of Apple's Xcode tools as an App is built while you watch. You will be amazed at how much you can do initially without writing any code. After a prototype App is built, you will see how you can learn the basic principles of Apple's Objective-C programming to create a fully functioning real-world App and unleash the programmer within! Kevin will be offering both a free copy of the first book in his new book series, "Book 1: Diving In", to raffle at the meeting (it's available on the iBookstore for the iPad or on Amazon for the Kindle (or any other device with the Kindle Reader App) as well as a discount on his January class: iOS App Development for Non-Programmers.
Wahta else? The usual seasonal goodies - pumpkin & pecan pie to eat plus some shareware to divulge and goodies from TopXNotes and Peachpit Press to raffle off!
October 2012
Smuggers may be relaxing at the Mac Expo in Petaluma this month( see our last post), but there are other events coming up as well, not least David Pogue's webcast on his reaction to Mountain Lion and the new iPhone 5. Those of you who don't have other things to do, or can get out of them, can tune in to the webcast on October 11 at 10AM Pacific Daylight Time - sign up here: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=519018&s=1&k=6CE55D0549E16854B449E9AB39858825
Those members of the group intertested in diving in to creating their own iOS apps may be interested in the free book by Kevin McNeish aimed at helping new developers writing for the iPhone and iPad - it's available free at the iTunes store or at the website http://www.iOSAppsForNonProgrammers.com on Oct 10 & 11.
Meanwhile, as promised, Apple in China:
Apple Store Beijing
Apple resellers were a lot more common than actual Apple stores
Shanghai had the coolest Apple Store
Apple ads are pretty much the same whatever the language-this was on the
Shanghai metro
Summer 2012
SMUG is on hiatus over the summer - watch for messages from Shanghai & Beijing coming soon! Meanwhile, if you're missing the Mac User interaction, you might want to think about attending the upcoming Mac Expo in Petaluma. The 19th annual Macintosh Computer Expo offers 15+ booths and a dozen informational sessions about applications, productivity, and entertainment on the Apple platform. Software and accessories are available for try-out and purchase at the booths. Speakers include noted Mac authorities Christopher Breen, Derrick Story, and Tom Negrino. Sessions include Parenting in the Internet Age, Getting Creative with Photoshop, Ditch Paper, Go Digital, Get Roaring with Mountain Lion, Online Reputation Management and much more.
May 7th, 2012
SuperSync will be here - learn how to manage you iTunes library across multiple computers! And we'll have Shareware and the chance to win Audio Hijack Pro and more!
March 12, 2012 Sandvox
Dan Wood from Karelia software will be here to talk about the latest version of their Sandvox website creator, a great alternative to iWeb now that MobileMe is about to disappear. Also, we'll have a variety of Shareware - photo apps and more - and some debriefing from this year's MacWorld Expo.
January 9, 2011 NO meeting
No meeting this month, but check out the newsletter for more info and.......see you at MacWorld!
December 5, 2011 MacSparky & Party!
Dave Sparks, aka MacSparky, blogger, podcaster & author will be here, in all-digital format, to talk about how to more efficiently get through some of the things you do most on your Mac: Writing and tackling your inbox; his new iPad book; and other related issues. Plus our famed end-of-year party and Santa's Smug giveaways.
November 7, 2011 iChat, Final Cut - the final cut?
We'll be attempting our first presentation via iChat this week, exploring some of the sometimes weird capabilities of the well used app. Plus, in the wake of the debacle over the "new" Final Cut, reminiscent of what happened when Apple brought out a new version of iMovie that took away many of the well-loved capabilities of the older version in the name of making it more user-friendly for the mass consumer, Nico Bellamy looks at what the fuss is all about there, demoing a few things, even showing the odd movie or two (they may be very odd indeed - you'll see what film students get up to when they get their hands on university equipment). And of course, we have Owen Saxton with shareware and we'll be giving away books on Steve Jobs, Lion and more!
For those of you who missed David Pogue's webinar on OS X Lion, it's available here, including all the technical hiccups!
And, I almost forgot, it's election time - see the latest newsletter for details.
So long, Steve, and thanks for all the insanely great stuff
There
have been many tributes to Steve in the past few days, but one that speaks
to me the most of the impact he made on all our lives is an
article David Pogue wrote for MacWorld back in January 1998 - as he says,
it seems to resonate now. It helps if you've ever seen the movie "It's A
Wonderful Life".
Of course Pogue wrote his NY Times
column on Steve this week as well. And there's a nice tribute from onetime
Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki at CNET
here.
Some scenes outside the Palo Alto Apple Store:
October 3, 2011 Lost in the iCloud
One
of the many questions raised by the imminent demise of Apple's MobileMe service
relates to photo and video hosting. Where will we put our photos and videos
now, not to mention our data and blogs and webpages of other kinds we've
happily got used to using Apple's all-encompassing service for the last few
years?
In this month's meeting we explore some alternatives - Yahoo's Flickr, Google's Picasa, SmugMug & Vimeo amongst them, and try to come up with some recommendations. Plus there'll be Shareware and a raffle of handy new guides to Apple's latest OS, the sometimes alarming Lion.
September 12, 2011 Steve Shepard with Storyist
No
meeting on September 5th, of course - on September 12th Steve Shepard will
be here with the latest iteration of his Novelist & Screenwriters development
tool Storyist for all budding
storytellers out there, now available for the iPad! Plus the usual Q & A, Shareware and
software raffle.
August 8, 2011 The Lion Wakes Tonight
This
month's meeting of SMUG will be on the 2nd Monday of the month as a result
of a conflict with a SLAC conference taking place this week. So on Monday
8th August we'll be discussing the new version of Apple's OS X - Lion, or
10.7, how it works with the apps you've already got, or not, how it complements
your iPhone & iPad in ways you may or may not like, what's new and cool
(or is different from what you already know and like), etc. And of course,
Q & A, Shareware & cool giveaways.
July 11, 2011 Keeping Your Identity & Your Stuff (and your Mac) Secure
Of course, the first Monday of the month is the 4th, when you'll all be attending a much louder event, so SMUG is moved to the 2nd week of the month once again.
This month we've got SMUG member Phil Geller on the hardy perrenial of computer and internet security, looking at AgileBits iPassword app - and there will be prizes! - as well as Shareware, Q & A and more - see the newsletter for details.
June 6, 2011 Bebo White takes a journey through the future of HTML
Why the Excitement About HTML? SLAC Emeritus, acclaimed Mac speaker, Jug Band aficionado & genuine ploymath Bebo White will explain.
"with the development of HTML5, Abode Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of Web content" - Steve Jobs, "Thoughts on Flash," April 2010
"Microsoft is announcing a new shift that leverages the interest in HTML5 to deliver 'Web-connected and Web-powered' apps that will run alongside legacy Windows apps on the forthcoming Windows 8" - AppleInsider, June 2011
"There's something happening here. What it is ain't
exactly clear." - Stephen Stills, "For What It's Worth"
Plus Q & A, Shareware from Dave Aston & a raffle of helpful bookware.
May 9, 2011
Yes, May 9, as SLAC will have pagan maypole dancing or something on May 2. Steve Bellamy will demo iPhone and iPad Obsessive apps for Photo Editing and more (no Angry Birds, we promise!). Plus Shareware for larger computers, and great raffle prizes!
April 4, 2011 Steve Rokov from Splashtop
Enjoy all that your computer has to offer – remotely
from your mobile devices. With Splashtop® Remote, you can fully access
and control your PC in any way imaginable. Access your full iTunes™ or
Windows® Media library to watch videos and play music stored on your
PC. Play online Flash, as well as PC and Mac games. Work on your computer
documents, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, from your tablet or smartphone.
Plus Q & A, Shareware from Dave Aston and our raffle of both software
and bookware.
March, 2011
Reports of SMUG's death were fortunately much exaggerated, and SLAC is allowing us back to the Redwood Room. However, we've learned this too late to organize a meeting this month - our next meeting will instead be on April 4. Watch this space for details! Meanwhile, Chuck Joiner's MUG Calendar has us reprising last year's meeting with Bill Atkinson on March 8 - we wish, but it's not happening!
February 14, 2011
Our first meeting of the new year will be our last at SLAC, so we're giving ourselves arousing sendoff from the Redwood Room with things we learnt at MacWorld, while our presenter Cocoatech will show Path Finder, a file browser for the Macintosh with such cool innovations as the dual pane browser, tabs and bookmarks, and file list sorting and editing, and we have prizes galore to give away in our raffle.
January 2011
Owing
to the holidays and the difficulty of booking the Redwood Room for a
later day, there will be no SMUG meeting in January. Don't forget MacWorld
Expo Jan 26-29 at the SF Moscone Center - hope to see you there! If not,
our next meeting will be on Monday February 14, 2011 (watch this page for
details, and/or of course wait for our monthly newsletter.)
