HMAUS Signal 30 years of helping people with technology

You might be wondering if you should buy that cool, new iPad released yesterday by Apple. Sure, it looks beautiful, and you really would love one, but you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch so, do you really NEED one?

Let’s look at the iPad features you already have with iPhone: Safari, Mail, Video, Photos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, Spotlight Search.  Wow, seems pretty complete already doesn’t it?!

But, let me help you “upgrade” your current device to be just as fancy as the iPad, and all for under $50!

* E-reader Capability:

one of the biggest new features of the iPad is the ability to read books on your device, called “iBook”. Well, “Classics” app (free right now, usually .99 cents) has been around for a while for iPhone/iPod Touch and gives you the same kind of look/feel as the $500 iPad but on your smaller screen. Great app, get it now while it’s on sale!

* Excel, Powerpoint, Word Document Viewing and Editing:

iWorks on the iPad looks great, but costs $9/each and are “coming soon”. “Documents to Go” ($14.99)
– is available in the iTunes app store now, and waiting for you to give it a try. (I personally haven’t used it, so you’re on your own to review it.)

* Large 9.7″ screen:

OK, that’s kind of tricky to fix, but check out this accessory from Amazon — for only $29 you can now view your iPod Touch/iPhone with so much magnification it will be IN YOUR FACE without limiting your multi-touch ability! (Great for Grandma and Grandpa too!)

So you see, for under $50, your “yesterday’s” device is new again!

Leave a Comment | Posted under Humor, Opinion

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you probably know there are tons of great apps you can download from iTunes. Many of them fill your own heart with glee, but did you know that there are many that can fill your young son or daughter’s heart with joy too?

You may be wondering if allowing your $300 device in the hands of a three-year old is the wisest of moves. And, this I often wonder myself, as I watch my son shaking my iPhone rather violently to get the iGlowStick to light up — a definite fear of seeing your phone sail across the room removes some of the thrills for the parents. However, for the kids, they love it!

Here are some really fun apps for kids that build on an original post I wrote some time back: “Kid-friendly iPhone and iPod Touch“. I added “EV” for “Education Value” (how educational it is) and “PV” for Play Value (how interactive and fun it is). As any parent with active kids will tell you, getting 10 minute breaks that keep your son or daughter entertained, can make a huge difference. It’s wonderful if the app is educational too, but at least it has to have good, clean fun.

Educational:

Tickle Tap Apps have a series of very gentle learning apps for your toddler. CountCaddy ($1.99)
is a cat that helps kids with counting, while Field Flier ($1.99) is more free-form; allowing your child to help the birdy explore his surroundings while learning verbs. Both are well done, calming, and good for younger children (under 4). (Good support from the company also.) EV= high, PV = good

EliasABC and EliasZoo (was free, now $1.99 each) — simple, clean graphic and easy movement to help toddlers learn either ABCs or animal sounds. EV = high, PV = good

FeedMe (free) — Living in Hawaii, you know how important other languages are. Feedme is available in different languages, including Japanese. Interactive and educational, my son really enjoyed playing it with his mom. EV = good, PV = good
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1 Comment | Posted under Reviews

Introducing RSS Feeds into your life

Imagine getting updates from your favorite web sites delivered directly into your mail inbox. No more having to visit those sites in your browser to find interesting articles. With RSS those “feeds” of information come to you.  You “subscribe” to a feed and then get article summaries to view, almost like email messages. You decide if you want to visit that site or not.  All you need is an RSS “reader” (and for Mac OS X users, one is already built in.)

So by now you may be asking, “what is RSS?” Most commonly it stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a special format of XML (Extensible Markup Language) in which all the data is wrapped in tags. These tags allow the data to be understood very easily, which has allowed RSS to flourish worldwide.

For website owners who write content on their site, publishing RSS feeds can be just another path or channel to their site.  And now, many CMS (Content Management Systems) and blog software have RSS feed publishing built in, so there’s nothing extra you as the site owner have to do.  Wordpress sites, for example, are some of the easiest ways to have RSS feeds running for all “posts,” or “news updates.”

Sound interesting? Let’s see how easy it is to subscribe to the HMAUS feed in my three step process.
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If you do training for others, or just want to share a tip with someone, taking a snapshot of your desktop of the item is often the quickest way to show what you mean.   And, as a Mac owner, you probably already know the built-in way to take screenshots with OS X; simply click Shift+Command+3 to get a full screenshot. (For more options, here’s a great Apple “Quick Tips” video.) But what if you want to add things like arrows, comments, or highlights to the screenshot to really help the other person? Voila might be a great choice for you. Voila adds the ability to edit your screenshots and then mail or upload them (Flickr, FTP) to share with others.

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Comments Off | Posted under Mac Geeks Mashup, Reviews

Amazon has Snow Leopard Mac OS X version 10.6 (the upgrade to Leopard) available for pre-order on its sites for $29. Their Free-Shipping option works even to Hawaii! Hey, it’s either this or Windows 7, which one are you going to choose!

Comments Off | Posted under Tech News

May 23rd, 2009, HMAUS is putting on their annual MacSpringfest. This year will be at JAIMS in Hawaii Kai (Google maps). There is plenty of parking and lots of activities planned, so you can stay for the day or as long as you can. The event is FREE — though to help support the HMAUS organization, please renew your membership, or sign up as a member. (More membership details about HMAUS (Hawaii Mac & Apple User Society, Inc.) can be found HERE.)

The full list of speakers is HERE — highlights include; Peter Kay, Andy Bumatai, and Bert Lum on topics like iLife ‘09, Mac 101, Adobe Lightroom, and Social Networks and Livefeeds. You may want to arrive a little early for some of the speakers to get a good seat. The JAIMS buildings will be filled with Mac enthusiasts, experts, and “switchers” (PC users just starting to use Macs). So, no matter YOUR level of expertise, you’ll find someone there to learn and chat with.

You should bring some money with you, especially if you like bargains. The Professional Photographers of Hawaii and HMAUS will have a swapmeet — expect to find goodies for cameras and computers. And, if you plan to stay the entire day, order a little bit for the tasty bento meals now: link is HERE.

If you like to blog, bring your camera and computer to capture the events. HMAUS sponsored HawaiiGeekWeek last year and brought out lots of social networking fans; posting to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and videoblogs. We’re hoping to see lots of great posts about “MacSpringFest” this year!

As with HMAUS’s Mactoberfest, there will be some fun prizes and giveaways, and this time someone will win an iPod Touch!

If you’d like to volunteer to make this years MacSpringfest the best ever, just let us know, we could sure use extra help!

That’s pretty much it, be sure to review the days events HERE so you don’t miss the topics you are most interested in. Tell a friend and see you there!

Comments Off | Posted under Desktop News

Join HMAUS Saturday May 23rd from 9 – 4pm as we present our MacSpringfest at JAIMS (6660 Hawaii Kai Drive). Plenty of great speakers, ono food, and a camera and computer swapmeet by the Professional Photographers of Hawaii and HMAUS, just to name a few…

Place your lunch orders HERE -- Order yours NOW to make sure you’ll get one. Limited quantities except for pre-orders.

HMAUS presents MacSpringfest '09

You can read all the details of speakers and events HERE.  Get the a copy of the flyer HERE.

Sponsors

Hawaii Macintosh and Apple User’s Society http://www.hmaus.org

Professional Photographers of Hawaii  http://www.pphawaii.org

TAPA Communications  http://www.tapa.com

Peachpit Press  http://www.peachpit.com and

O’Reilly Books  http://oreilly.com

Hope to see you there!

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Getting Things Done, David Allen’s book, has inspired a lot of new websites, and, modifications to existing websites. There are many examples of these sites, from RememberTheMilk, to Nozbe, to GTDAgenda. The theme of these is “getting things done” by building “to do” lists to keep track of what it is you HAVE to do.

It all reminds me of when I worked at a Fortune 500 company a few years back and the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey came out. There were classes, books, training, etc., to go along with it. And yes, both of them boiled down to getting smart about (prioritizing) your action items (to-do lists).

Looking at GTDAgenda, there are some cosmetic difference between it and say RememberTheMilk. RTM is very simple to use; add a to-do in seconds. That simplicity is also one of the reasons it’s so popular, including on its iPhone app. However, that simplicity is also its downfall for those wanting more. For example RTM doesn’t handle to-do’s within projects that are related to goals — well, it kind of can, but not in a simple manner (using tagging).
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If you’ve never used or seen PayPal before, then you have probably been hiding under a rock, since PayPal is one of the top ways to pay online in the US. You can often find PayPal as an option for checkouts on many e-commerce websites. This article will briefly explain WHY PayPal is so popular so you can see if it might be right for your site.

If you have a web site now with some product and no e-commerce functionality, PayPal can add it in, very quickly and easily without the need for a new site. And, if you later decide to move into a full e-commerce website, PayPal can still be used as a payment option.

Paypal allows you to offer web visitors to pay for products on your web site with options other than mailing you a check or money order. You can accept credit cards transactions.
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