This is a follow up to Joe Kissell’s great iChat on iCloud.  Each participant selects a section of the “Take Control of iCloud” book, then we will present to each other. Gregg Kamei will be our facilitator.

The second half of the morning from 10:30-12 will be iPhoto Slideshows. We’ll also show you how to use Animoto to  make another kind of cool slide show that loads to the web for you.

Signup is at http://tinyurl.com/epub-hmaus

Cost:  $6 for a beverage plus the ebook if you participate in the ePub activity.  Free if you just want iPhoto slideshows.

Location:  ING Direct Cafe 1958 Kalakaua Avenue 2nd floor.

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!

Date/time: December 4, 2010  Saturday 9:00 – 1:30 with a no-host lunch break.  Cost:  $7.  Includes handouts and a beverage.
Location:  ING Direct Cafe 2nd floor Ali’i Conference room. Free parking.
Bring:  Your laptop or iMac if you wish, or share one of 2 laptops we will bring to share.
Register:  http://bit.ly/bootcamp1-hmaus.   Minimum of 6 by 12/1 , Maximum of 12 so please register ASAP. Pay at the door.

Hope to see you!  This is just the first of 3 Boot Camps and is your base camp, all fun and surprisingly useful! Join us!

Picnik lets you do all the basic edits (crop, sharpen, lighten/darken, resize), like iPhoto.  But you can also add a picture frame, text, clipart and special effects to all or part of a photo. Upload – edit – download. Simple!  It’s web based so it works on Mac or PC.  We’ll also make a FREE drag and drop web page with tabblo.com, owned by HP.   Very cool! Very fun!

When:  Thursday Oct. 14 from 6 pm – 7:30 p.m. Bring your laptop if you have one or come and listen or share.

Where:  ING Direct Cafe 1958 Kalakaua Avenue.  Free parking.
Cost: $5 including a $1.50 beverage.

Register http://bit.ly/picnik_register
Bring a friend. Everyone welcome.

Too busy to come or want to see what Picnik is about? Click here for a preview.  http://bit.ly/previewpicnik

In the May “I’ve Got Photos!” MacLearn session on May 22 we went on a wild ride through 5 different free programs you can use to organize, edit and share your 1000s of photos.  It was fun but a mental challenge to remember everything.  So, here are some tutorials to help you!  Handout at http://drop.io/hmaus_maclearn

iPhoto - Jerome Koehler, Apple Solutions Consultant from Best Buy Aiea stepped us through the interface, keywording, faces, places, albums and web galleries. He also demo’d the cool editing tools you have for free in your iPhoto app.   The very best tutorials for this are at the Apple site.  http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#iphoto

Flickr is for storing, tagging, organizing and sharing pictures.  The free version works find but the paid version is very inexpensive and gives you unlimited space and uploading bandwidth.  Here is a YouTube tutorials to get you started. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaaS56QCkoU

Picnik is a free online photoediting site.  Do adjustments, add Photoshop styles effects, add frames and text, resize and save.  Very intuitive but if you want to see an overview click the link below. The paid version gives you more effects, frames and clipart etc.  But try the free version first.  No storage – work on one image at a time and save it.   http://web.me.com/joanmats/HMAUS/Picnik/Entries/2008/12/16_What%CA%BBs_Picnik.html

Tabblo.com is a cool photosharing site with drag and drop layouts and one click uploading.  Owned by HP, it brings comments from all over the world.  Very cool.  http://screencast.com/t/NThhMWYyMmEt

Smilebox is an e-card site made for Macs.  Again, drag and drop photos and videos into hundreds of animated card, collage, album template.  http://screencast.com/t/OTc2ZmE3ZjUt View the videos and let us know if they’re helpful.  If so, we’ll make more.  If not we’ll do something else.  Make suggestion so we can all learn better and faster.  SMTLSLT   So much to learn, so little time!  Mahalo! http://www.hmaus.org/meetings-workshops/maclearn/maclearn-registration/

Brian Kerber of Applemagic.net will show you how to find, file and view your files, search, customize your mouse, set your Time Machine and more.

Ross Rasmussen will introduce you to iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb) and show you what they have in common. This makes all the difference in the world when you’re trying to learn these powerful but fun programs.

Gregg Kamei will show you how to communicate from your Mac  using Mail, Addressbook, and iChat.  You have all kinds of tools built right into your Mac – Come learn how to use them.

ING Direct Cafe 9 am – 3 pm  (with a no host lunch break)

$15 for members, $25 for non-members.  Priority for seats is given to members until 7/15.

Please sign-up using the link below to reserve your place at Boot Camp #1!  Bring your fee on the day of the workshop; and please, because seating is limited, if you need to cancel let us know early so we can free up your seat!

http://www.hmaus.org/meetings-workshops/maclearn/maclearn-registration/

Driving directions here http://hmaus.org/INGDirectCafe

ING Direct Cafe Ali’i Room  10 am – 12 pm

Seating is limited, so please sign up to reserve your seat, using the link below. Please indicate you’re interested in the iPad presentation and include any questions you already have so Jerome can be sure to address them.   http://www.hmaus.org/meetings-workshops/maclearn/maclearn-registration/

Driving directions here http://hmaus.org/INGDirectCafe