And here are just three of the many neat things that caught the eyes of our HMAUS man in San Francisco, Capsun Poe:

One of the most interesting products I saw was an inductive rechargeable battery case for iPhone 4/4S. It won’t come out until late March, they think. www.kudos-power.com

 

I also met with Jeff Tidwell of SuperTwtr (and other visualization efforts). He’s willing to talk to HMAUS about his work and is a former resident of Kauai.

Another product that had lots of interest is a new battery pack from the HyperJuice folks. It’s not available yet, but has been announced.

 

More tomorrow!

Three authors, Art Murchison, Gene Parola and MacKinnon Simpson were given an impossible task, to explain why and how they create and publish in fifteen minute presentations.  They had much more to share and have each generated a list of their top writing tips based on their years of experience.  These tips are deceptively simple, but work. They are linked below.

Gene Parola is a successful author of place based mysteries, humor and hurricanes . His Writing Tips include examples of building content and context.  He adds a Commentary on Editing and Computers.

Art Murchison is transitioning from scientific academic writing to a historical tale about the founder of modern archeology. He offers Tips for New Writers

Mac Simpson‘s first historical pictorial book, which he co-wrote with Bob Goodman, Whalesong, actually made desktop publishing history.  His Top 6 Tips are practical and entertaining – Words • Curiosity • Skepticism • Spellcheck • Save • Learn to Type!

Mark Coker, President of Smashwords.com, shared perspectives on electronic self-publishing with services such as his.  Smashwords distributes your ebook to large number of vendors for free. If the book is sold they keep a percentage.  The risk of unsold volumes disappears. However, it raised an important challenge. How does the consumer filter the thousands of volumes to choose the right book? How does the author get his or her book to come up on top?

A special door prize was a copy of Scrivener 2.2 donated by Literature and Latte (Mac OS X $45).  This writing software helps you organize, rearrange with drag and drop, track and edit your work using outlines, note cards and layouts.  Another door prize was a copy of one of MacSimpson’s books about Hawai’i.

Everyone agreed…

• Books start with an inspiration, a need,  or perhaps a request, then evolve.
• The research process must be done cautiously, then you write, perhaps research more, rewrite and proof.
• A good work is yours alone until you get it’s successfully marketed and sold.
• Their computers, Macs to be specific, contributed increasingly to their efficiency and success.

A hug mahalo to our presenters and to everyone who came.  Keep writing!

Mactoberfest 2011 was over the top! Our special guest Christopher Breen, author, musician and Macworld.com columnist was informative, funny and encouraging.  His message was, there is no “no can”.  Not  enough knowledge, skill, time or motivation have a solution – just try it! The technology Steve Jobs and Apple have given us allow all of us to be creative, to live easier, more fun and productive lives.

Here are some of Chris’ highlights.

• Lion is the first step to melding iOS for mobile devices with Mac OS for iMacs and Macbooks.  With Airdrop open on your computer and someone else’s miles away, you can collaborate on docs by dropping them into a folder. Close Airdrop and the connection is broken.
• iCloud makes computing without walls possible. The ability to synch your computer anytime and anywhere, almost instantaneously is going to be big!  Find My friends lets you see your friends’ locations on a map.  Ok, that one’s spooky, but Apple will solve that.
• The new iPhone 4s brings Siri, the advanced voice control that learns what you want and helps you to do it almost magically.  Apps you buy at the App store download to all of your devices.
• 911 tips:  Backup, backup, backup!  For the rare occasion you have a problem Lion installs a backup hard drive partition automatically.  Restart your Mac holding down Command-R or Option key.  Select  Recover HD. It allows you to Restore from Time Machine Backup or Reinstall Lion. But what if you can’t even boot up. For that you can create a Recovery Disk Assistant file, available from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 and save it on a flash drive or DVD.

Then it was time to create.  As Chris said there is no no can.  One good presentation followed another. Mahalo to our photographer, Eugene Villaluz.

Chris Breen demonstrating Garageband

Chris Breen demonstrated creating a song using Garageband’s drag and drop loops (music clips) for all kinds of instruments.  Add a digital keyboard or play a virtual instrument.  The iPad has guitars, drums and other instruments you actually play.  The iMac has just the virtual keyboard. iPhone has no Garageband but it does have third party apps for drums and other instruments.  Chris and New Hope Church musician Bobby Clay helped folks to create a song and add their playing to it.  No reason not to be a musician anymore.

Doc and Jerome of NonStop Honolulu

Jerome Koehler and Doc Boyd were the energy twins. They demonstrated cool iPad and iPhone apps with a focus on making a Keynote presentation on an iPad that goes right into the computer.  Doc created a tribute to Steve Jobs that was awesome. This group was by far the biggest breakout.  The iPad is revolutionizing computer anytime anywhere. They invited folks to send questions and checkout their iniformative Nonstop Honolulu video tech blog   http://www.nonstophonolulu.com/tech/

Mike Harada

Mike Harada demonstrated Sketchbook Pro, a $1.99 – $3.99 drawing and painting app with multiple brushes and spray cans, color palettes and layers.  The results were  modest but gallery worthy as you can see below.

Mike's Students' works on exhibit - Katie Ozawa, Joey Johnson and Cynthia Oshiro. photofunia.com

Ross Rasmussen and Terry Takaki

Then Terry Takaki presented features of a camera you want to have for great pictures and Ross Rasmussen drag and dropped photos into an instant iPhoto slideshow or album.

Door prizes included Chris’s iPod and iPhone books for eight lucky winners, Apple bags, blankets and flashlights  and the grandprize, a pre-amp mixer donated by Royce Tanouye!

In all there were 85 folks in the Pagoda Hotel’s LaSalle Room, some even coming from the neighbor island. Clear Hawaii www.clear.com/hawaii provided high quality WIFI for the day.  It was comfortable, and there was plenty to eat. Many commented that they liked the venue and the day a lot.  We certainly did.

Mahalo nui loa

to all of our great presenters for their expertise and passion for not only using, but also sharing with us
to our faithful volunteers who came early and stayed till all the cleanup was done
to the Pagoda’s staff for being so supportive!
and to our sponsors ad donors – Clear Hawaii, Peachpit Press, Tapacom.net and Royce Tanouye

Steve Jobs

1955 – 2011

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

Lion, Apple’s latest operating system, was released this July.  This month Jerome Koehler, Apple Solutions Consultant presented some of its best features for HMAUS.  Here are a few:

• Finger swipe gestures can be used on your laptop trackpad or an attached Magic Trackpad ($69) on a compatible iMac.
• Launch Pad displays all of your applications as icons on your Desktop, just like an iPhone or iPod.  Drag one to the Dock to make a shortcut. Drag one over another to create folder. Delete it by clicking and holding until it wiggles, then click the “X”. 
• Mission Control displays your open documents and multiple Desktops you can create to open different sets of documents or applications instead of having them all in one window.
• Resume lets you leave windows and documents open when you Quit. Restart, and everything is just as it was.
• Double-click a word and the dictionary and its meaning displays.

Here are more features from the lifehacker.com blog  ”Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion” Watch the Apple Lion video here

Should you update to Lion? Perhaps you should, perhaps not.  As with any new OS there are bugs to be handled before maximal performance can be achieved. Lion 10.7.1 update has already been released. (Scroll to the bottom of the list on the downloads page).  Here are some built-in changes that also “bug” people.

• Not all applications are Lion compatible. Jerome recommended checking with Roaringapps.com, which has a fairly well updated compatibility table.
• Lion has a few default settings that irritate some people. For example, scroll bar on the right is hidden. Here is a fix.  Unhide Scrollbars
• “Natural Scrolling”:  Scrolling with your mouse is now the opposite of what you’re used to, unless you’re used  to an iPhone or iPad.  To move up on the screen you scroll up, just as you would with a piece of paper on your physical desk.  When you get used to it, it’s said to be more intuitive. If you do want to stop “reverse scrolling” anyway, click the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.  In the Hardware section click the Mouse icon. Uncheck “Scroll Direction: Natural”.  Do the same for the trackpad if you wish.

Can you update to Lion? Perhaps.

• It depends on your computer processor and available space.  Power Macs are no longer compatible, and perhaps some early Intel Macs. http://www.apple.com/macosx/how-to-buy/ Make sure you backup in Time Machine and/or an external drive or in cloud storage first. Jerome shared the backup 3-2-1 recommendation: 3 places, 2 kinds of media and 1 location in a different location (building) from your computer.
• Lion must be installed on top of Snow Leopard, which is also $29.  Lion is purchased from the App Store for $29.  Just search for Lion then click Buy.  If you can’t or don’t want to go online you can purchase a thumb drive with Lion on it, for $69.   The good news is you can install it on all of your computers.  Just login to the App Store with your Apple ID, locate Lion and click to download and install it again. .

So it seems Lion is well worth considering, and although it comes on all new Macs, your choice to upgrade depends on a lot of things.

Mac Apps You Can Use!

HMAUS will be presenting a number of interesting workshops.  Everyone welcome. Register by clicking the link for the workshop.

August 6, 2011 Create Project Lab 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.  This is an open lab just for HMAUS members to create their own projects using the iLife and iWork products.  There will be minireviews 9:45 -10:15  iPhoto, Keynote and 11:45 – 12:15 iMovie and Pages.  Join the review or just keep working on your project.  Free but please click the link to register for a seat.

August 6, 2011 Screen Capture 101 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.  Learn how to customize your built-in screen capture shortcuts to make them more practical, use SnapNDrag, a free screen capture software to drag and drop captures into your documents, and use Jing, another free capture program that also takes 5 minute videos.  Why?  To save things on your computer screen to share, ask for help, or save a video playing on your computer.  You upload it to Screencast.com and share with a link for free.  Snagit for Mac is not free, but you’ll see why its worth the bucks. This is a repeat presentation. Free but please click the link to register for a seat.

August 27, 2011 25DollarTravel with Marco Morawec.  1 p.m. – 3 p.m.   Are you a traveler? Do you want to know how to have a

good time but spend less money doing it? How does doing a day for less than the cost of two lunches back home sound? Marco Morawec, a shoestring travel expert, has traveled to almost 40 countries and just completed his around the world adventure.  He’ll tell you about catching a cab in New Dehli, eating steamed sheep head in Morocco and how to organize, finance and make your trip of a lifetime happen.  Marco also covers different travel blogging strategies, building and audience, tracking the traffic on your blog and goals measuring. 

If you like traveling, hearing funny stories from around the world and dig blogging, then this session is for you.

INGDirect Cafe.   FREE but please register for seating:  http://tinyurl.com/25dollartravel

September 24 2011 Mail, Addressbook and iCal 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. Ross Rasmussen. Learn to use Apple Mail, a convenient way to have access to your mail accounts, whether MobileMe, Gmail or UH Mail.  Mail autocompletes email addresses, can add addresses and phone numbers in messages to your Addresssbook.   iCal is Apple’s online calendar. Make as many calendars as you wish, and view them in a combined calendar if you wish.   $5 Please click the link to register.

Workshops are held at ING Direct Cafe, Waikiki.  Free parking in the adjoining lot off Niu St., or behind the Cafe.   Hope to see you!

Register at: http://www.hmaus.org/springfest-registration/

Download the Vision & Magic flyer at: http://mochi.tapacom.net/_X90r3W5ZR6EcmR

Download the Vision & Magic agenda at: http://mochi.tapacom.net/_S-07E6eI76Kc7R

Springfest 2011 is right around the corner.  Tech guru and popular broadcaster Tom Merritt of TWiT.tv is our featured guest. He’ll share ideas about our rapidly changing world in a conversation with local tech personalities Burt Lum, Ryan Ozawa, and app developer Brian Dote.

Doors open at 8 a.m. Arrive early, grab a cup of coffee, check out the Professional Photographers of Hawaii‘s photo equipment swapmeet.

Presentations and breakouts run until 2 p.m. — Jerome Koehler, Apple Consultant at BestBuy Aiea, and former Apple Store Genius, will demonstrate the latest incarnation of the iLife suite of apps; Leeward Community College art instructor Michael Harada, will show how to bring out your inner artist quickly and easily on an iPad. It’s iMagic!  Join a fun, informative round-table activity such as: Photography with Terry Takaki; Mac-user tips and apps with Windward School for Adults master-teacher Ross Rasmussen;  Social Media decoded with Neenz Faleafine, Alltop Hawai’i webmaster.

Lunch will be available to purchase.  Registration and lunch orders here!

The HMAUS Annual Members’ Meeting and Election wraps up the day at 2:30 p.m.  All members attending the meeting will be eligible to win an iPad 2!

Tip : Renew your membership or join HMAUS before 1:30 p.m. April 30th, and you could go home a winner! www.hmaus.org/membership

When and Where : Saturday, April 30, 2011; 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Ohia Building cafeteria and auditorium, on the campus of Kapiolani Community College.

Map:  http://kapiolani.hawaii.edu/object/ohiamap.html

Parking : The Open Market is staged on the lower KCC campus near Ohia Building on Saturday morning. To avoid the congestion, please park in the upper lot, at Kilauea and Makapuu, across from Leahi Hospital.

Mahalo to our sponsors!

Have you ever bought a computer, cell phone or electronic device only to discover later that you paid too much? If you have, join frugal guru David Tasaka and learn how to shop smart for tech and other items. People used to call him “dirty” names but now they call him for his money saving expertise.

David has been helping clients save money on everything from paper goods to high end cameras and computers for years. Using some simple but powerful techniques and systems, you too can learn to be a techno tightwad and save big on everything you purchase the rest of your life. Join us for this fun and informative event on Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 6pm – 7:30pm at the ING Cafe located at: 1958 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815. You deserve to be a frugal guru too.

Come to a first hand presentation on iOS 4.2, the latest mobile device operating system for iPad, iPhone and iPod.  Jerome Koehler, Apple Solutions Consultant at Best Buy will present its new features, the biggest being multitasking on an iPad, folders, air print and air play.  Then it’s sharing time.  Bring your favorite iapp and share around the table.  Share a good iapp for productivity, art, music, games, or something totally off the wall.  It’s all fun.  FREE.

Date/time: December 7, 2010 Tuesday  6 pm – 7:45 pm
Location:  ING Direct Café 2^nd floor Ali’i Room.  1958 Kalakaua Avenue
Parking:  Behind the Café or in the employee lot on Niu Street (adjoining lot close to Kalakaua Avenue).

In our latest episode, we had the opportunity to experience personal creativity from two angles.

First, we had a conversation with David Friedman, an artist who makes paintings of geometric or mandela-like abstractions of colored light.  David spent the last several years living in Los Angeles, exploring that city’s art scene. He recently returned home to Hawaii after realizing that where it was truly happening for him artistically was right here in the Islands.  We glimpsed into David Friedman’s art with a sampling of some of his Animated Paintings — video movies composed of digitally altered images from paintings; journeying into what he calls  “Z” space — Psychedelic, man!

Then, from the ethereal we took a step back, and with the help of Lynn Young, art educator, we got tangible…literally.  Each of us was given a paper bag containing a mysterious object, and with one hand in the bag, the other hand drew the object by just the feel of it. The ancient method of drawing on paper…with a pencil…worked just fine.  But of course there were those of us who, unable to resist the digital urge, did our sketches on iPads (using iOS art apps such as Brushes, Harmonius, Art Studio and Sketchbook Pro).  The results were really quite good and prizes were given for “Best of Show”.

If you missed November Mac Monday, don’t worry, stay tuned for notice of the next installment coming up very soon.

PS.  Know anyone who plays their iPad or iPhone like a musical instrument?  Wouldn’t it be cool if we tapped into the iOS music apps and tried an iThing jam session?  We could make digital music together!