Apple must be teasing as, once again, they’ve chosen the morning after our September LAPUG meeting to make some big announcements. They’ll be doing the big show from the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino and this is only the 4th time Apple has made an announcement from this location (with the first being the introduction of the Mac in 1984). The Flint Center seats 2,300 -- over seven times the capacity of Apple’s on-Campus theater and over three times the capacity of the Yerba Bu...
Sep 09, 2014•1 hr 46 min
At our last meeting, we took a little survey of topics members would like us to cover at future meetings. One of those topics had to do with networking and the explanation of IP numbers, how they’re given out, gateways, DNS, switches, routers, bridges, IP port numbers, port forwarding and all the mysterious stuff that Internet companies make you go through. It’s important you understand what all these things are so that you’ll be better equipped to troubleshoot networking issues with your comput...
Aug 19, 2014•2 hr 20 min
We're going to look at a few applications to help you get a little more productive in your personal and work lives. Apple provides some apps like Reminders to help you make lists of things to do. But, if you need to keep track of more things than simple to-do lists can handle, or if you need to manage multiple projects, there are lots of apps that can do that sort of thing. This month, we'll look at OmniFocus and how its ecosystem works between OS X and iOS devices. We'll also look at streamlini...
Jul 16, 2014•2 hr 17 min
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) announcements brought lots of new stuff for the Apple world. Announcements for OS X Yosemite, iOS 8 and more! Join us for a recap and discussion of what we will be looking forward to playing with in the coming months. Bring your questions about the new stuff and how it all might affect you and we’ll put it all in perspective. This stuff is cool!!!! And, of course, we'll go over some other current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool ...
Jun 11, 2014•2 hr 27 min
Moving forward with new releases of OS X sometimes means leaving things behind. With the introduction of Lion, Rosetta went away and we lost the ability to run old PowerPC apps (some of which never got updated to Intel). With the introduction of Leopard, we lost the ability to run Classic (OS 9) apps. Of course, pretty much everything is available to us in modern versions of OS X. But, what if you have data that needs to be read from some old app in an unsupported operating system or you need to...
May 16, 2014•2 hr 6 min
For those of you who have finished your taxes and won’t be up all night, come on over and join us. We’ll review the events from Macworld | iWorld and we’ll talk about new products from the show. This is one of our highlights of the year as our week in San Francisco gives us an idea of what 2014 will bring us for third party products in the OS X and iOS worlds. And, of course, we'll go over some other current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some t...
Apr 25, 2014•2 hr 22 min
Having an issue with your Mac or iPad? It happens sometimes and, generally speaking, it’s not your fault. We’ll go over some tips and tricks the troubleshooters use to help keep your devices in good working order. This is also an opportunity for your to come on by and ask some questions that have been stumping you so that you can get over that nagging OS X or iOS issue that’s been hounding you for a while. And, of course, we'll go over some other current events in the OS X world as well as revie...
Mar 20, 2014•2 hr 20 min
If Internet Companies were Countries http://jaysimons.deviantart.com/art/Map-of-the-Internet-1-0-427143215 North Korea’s Red Star OS http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right-click/north-korea-imitates-apple-os-x-latest-red-152414963.html iOS Tips (forwarded by Dave Whitby) http://overbidme.com/questions_and_answers/amazing-tricks-every-iphone-and-ipad-user-should-know Skybell Doorbell http://www.skybell.com Haiku Premium Themes free (2/day Mon-Sat) In-app purchase Olympics App Adonit Jot Script Page...
Feb 16, 2014•2 hr 23 min
It’s a brand new year and, with it, comes brand new stuff. Of course, the new MacPro is now shipping and some LAPUG users may have already received theirs. Within hours of it going on sale in late December, shipping dates were showing delivery in February so it may be some time before we get some real hands-on experience with it. Nevertheless, we’ll discuss what it offers and if it’s good time to get one. The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the week right before our meeting ...
Jan 15, 2014•2 hr 13 min
The dust is settling with OS X Mavericks and new things are upon us. One of those things is a whole new set of iWork applications. We’ll go over the apps along with the changes they bring. We’ll also show you how to get so much more out of templates with iWork apps that can be used with both OS X and iOS versions of iWork. iWork apps on OS X and iOS also share their data over iCloud and we’ll go over how that works as well as reviewing other apps that use cloud syncing as well. And, of course, w...
Dec 19, 2013•2 hr 3 min
New OS, New MacBooks, New iPads, Oh My! As expected, October brought us new stuff and we’re pretty excited. OS X Mavericks is out and it’s been a pretty good upgrade. Not only does it introduce several new features but it’s free! New iLife and iWork apps are out and we’ll go over those, too. If you haven’t upgraded to Mavericks yet, we’ll give you some tips for best practices of what to do before upgrading. If you have upgraded and you’ve upgraded iWork and iLife, too, we’ll give you some tips f...
Nov 12, 2013•2 hr 16 min
OS 7 is finally here along with new iPhones! You may have already upgraded to iOS 7 on your iPhone or you may be one of the lucky ones to have purchased a new iPhone 5C or iPhone 5s. We'll spend our evening talking about all the new features in iOS 7 along with a bunch of hidden new features and tips. Of course, we'll also discuss and show the new phones including the new iPhone 5s with it's new Touch ID sensor and new camera features. This will be one of our must attend meetings of the year to ...
Oct 15, 2013•2 hr 34 min
Keynote-Eve! As has happened a few times, we're meeting the night before new Apple announcements. We're expecting new iPhones and iOS 7 announcements for September 10. Could there be anything else? AppleTV Update? iPads? OS X Mavericks. Some of these rumors are more likely than others and we'll try to debunk some of the crazy ones out there. Come on by and we'll review what we know about what we expect will be announced. In addition to all this, presenting from an iPad and iPhone is very cool. O...
Sep 11, 2013•2 hr 16 min
Since people are using iOS devices more and more and they want to store documents on them for reference or need to edit them as they would on a notebook while on the road, it's really important to know how to get documents onto your iPad and iPhone. There are many apps that allow you to manage your documents (word processing, spreadsheets, PDFs, graphics, etc.) and it's important to know how to get them onto your iPhone or iPad in many different ways -- it's a lot easier than you thought and it ...
Aug 14, 2013•2 hr 33 min
Well, WWDC is behind us and we'll discuss a few follow-up tidbits that we didn't get a chance to cover last month. One of things that a has come up a few times is the topic of Apple IDs -- what they are and how to best manage them. We'll spend some time going over that in detail so if this has been an issue for you, please make it a point to come to this meeting. In addition, well talk about a few other things affecting Mac and iOS users including the demise of Google Reader. We'll talk about al...
Jul 11, 2013•2 hr 20 min
WWDC! Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is on the same day as our June meeting. That's great since it will give us some time to discuss all the announcements to be made that day. What will they talk about? OS X 10.9? iOS 7? New MacBooks? New MacPro? New iPhones or iPads? What about personal computing devices like a watch that the press has been talking about so much? What about a TV? Well….. We won't know what they'll actually announce until that morning but you can be sure that we'll cove...
Jun 14, 2013•2 hr 24 min
Rumors…rumors…rumors!!! Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is next month and you know what that means. New Mac OS X to be announced. New iOS to be announced. But, what features will they include? What have you heard? What would you like to see in the new operating systems? Think there might be new hardware announcements? What about new product categories for Apple? Bring your favorite rumors and let's talk about what would make the ultimate Apple announcements. Next month, we'll see h...
May 18, 2013•2 hr 21 min
Piggy-backing on last month's meeting, we'll talk about sharing data using the Cloud between iOS and your Mac. We'll talk about which apps are the most popular for sharing your data and your files and how you can leverage the strengths of various Cloud-based services. You shouldn't rely on just one on service and we'll show you how to integrate the Cloud into your daily work. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and le...
Apr 10, 2013•2 hr 36 min
Living in the Cloud! No, we're no becoming space cadets…we (and a lot of the industry) are moving the center of the computing world to cloud computing. At our next meeting, we'll talk about what cloud computing is all about and we'll talk about the different ways your Mac can participate. In fact, you might not realize it but many of the things you already do are based on Cloud technologies. It's not as terrifying as you might think it is and we'll discuss all the advantages of working with the ...
Mar 20, 2013•1 hr 57 min
Macworld | iWorld & MacIT have now come and gone and we'll spend some time at our February meeting reviewing some of the cool things we saw -- conferences and products. We'll have a nice wrap-up of the events from a bunch of us who spent some time in San Francisco at the end of January and beginning of February. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.
Mar 05, 2013•2 hr 18 min
We're caught between two large conferences this week. CES just ended and Macworld | iWorld comes at the end of the month. At our next meeting, we'll have a little recap of some of the activities that might have interested Mac and iOS users at CES in Las Vegas. The iLounge pavilion was fairly large and lots of iOS-related stuff was on display. In addition, many other companies announced products with a Mac or iOS tie-in and we'll go over some of the highlights. And, of course, we'll go over some ...
Jan 27, 2013•2 hr 6 min
It's Been How Long? Can you believe it's been 20 years since LAPUG was created? The group was originally created in 1992 as a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the old Los Angeles Macintosh User Group (LAMG) -- one of the largest user groups in the world with a membership of over 5,000 at its peak. Monthly meetings back in the early 1990s peaked at over 600-700 attendees per meeting!! For those of you who were with us back then (and there are quite a few!), remember our meetings at the DWP auditor...
Dec 26, 2012•2 hr 1 min
The new iPads are here! The hit is the new iPad Mini and we'll have a few to show. It's incredibly light yet powerful and it's just as powerful as its big brother. The iPad 4th Generation (full size) was also released and we'll talk about what's new. We'll also review some of the hit apps on the App Store -- productivity, social networking and some really cool games that will exercise your mind. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac &...
Dec 01, 2012•2 hr 14 min
(In the same voice as Steve Martin in "The Jerk") "The new iPhones are here! The new iPhones are here!". And so is iOS 6!! We'll review both of Apple's newest toys and we'll spend a lot of time going over all the new features in iOS. If you have an older iPhone, we'll tell you what features you'll have and what you won't so you'll know if it's time to upgrade or not. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some ...
Oct 08, 2012•2 hr 33 min
Security! We'll talk a bit more about securing your Mac and, more importantly, your data and your online profiles. You might have heard about a major security breach that affected a writer for Wired magazine recently. We'll talk about what happened (he was using a Mac, iCloud, iPhone, iPad and more) and how he might have avoided some of the problems and how some of it was beyond his control. We'll also discuss some techniques and utilities that can help you not only remember your login informati...
Sep 18, 2012•2 hr 24 min
So, the big news is that Mountain Lion is here!! Last month, we talked about getting prepared for Mountain Lion and making sure that you've not only got up-to-date software but whether your Mac would run Mountain Lion at all. This month, we'll dive in to Mountain Lion and show you all the ins and outs of this new cat! We'll also review some little known tips that we're uncovering that haven't been widely discussed. If you're about to jump on the Mountain Lion bandwagon, you'll definitely want to...
Sep 02, 2012•2 hr 49 min
Portable Digital Photography!! There have been SO many advances in digital photography in the last few years, it's almost like a whole new medium compared to just three or four years ago. With the advent of much larger CCDs (charge coupled devices), greater Megapixels and more powerful lenses, the images we can capture are incredible with the newer cameras. Built-in hi-def video, HDR (high dynamic range), panorama features, and other concepts are things we'll go over and we'll have some newer st...
May 25, 2012•2 hr 35 min
With the new iPad here as well as some updated apps to take advantage of that gorgeous Retina Display, we'll have some more fun demonstrating cool uses of the iPad. We'll also talk about Mountain Lion coming out this summer and what implications it might have for you and your Macs. There's some Java malware out there and we'll review what it is, how it may affect you and what you can do to avoid it altogether. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review ...
Apr 13, 2012•2 hr 9 min
There's lots of news this month! First and foremost, the new iPad has been announced and will start to arrive at the end of this week. If you haven't yet ordered yours or you're "on the fence", we'll discuss all the new features and we'll try to help you make a decision one way or the other. It looks really cool, though! A bunch of software updates have enhanced both the iPhone and iPad with iOS 5.1. We'll go over how to get this update (you don't need a computer!) and what it brings. We're disc...
Mar 13, 2012•2 hr 34 min
Macworld | iWorld, Mac IT and CES have all come and gone and we'll report on what we thought of the shows and conferences along with some demos, photos and discussions of some new stuff we saw. We've also been seeing a lot of discussion about speech-to-text apps with iOS. Siri on the iPhone 4S is Apple's built-in tool for converting your spoken words into typed text. We'll spend a little time on some Siri tips and tricks but we'll also review some other programs that will save you some typing on...
Mar 10, 2012•2 hr 24 min
