Latest News
Meeting Report: 4th October 2011
Posted: November 8th, 2011
The meeting started with a discussion of the sad news of Steve Jobs’ recent death.
We then went on to cover Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 4S and in particular the new Siri voice control feature.
John demonstrated Geek Tool an app that allows you to place all kinds of live information on your desktop using plug-ins called geeklets.
The meeting concluded with our Workshop where memebers helped each other with various Mac problems.
No Comments »
Meeting Report: 13th May 2011
Posted: May 27th, 2011
The meeting started with our news discussion where we covered the new iMacs and the White iPhone amongst other topics.
An interesting discussion covered Mac Defender, a piece of malware disguised as anti-virus software which is targeting Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate web sites to a page that claims their computer is infeted with a virus. The aim of Mac Defender (which also goes by other names) is to get the user to enter their credit card information to buy the software which will then “remove” the fictional viruses. Apple now have a support article which covers avoiding or removing the malware if you are tricked into installing it.
It was noted that if you have the “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading” option set in Safari’s General preferences page then the installer for Mac Defender may open without intervention (the user still has to go through the installation process to actually install the program). It’s worth considering turning this option off so you have to open downloads manually.
SEAL members then discussed creating a flyer to publicise the group.
During our Workshop session we helped Alan find a memory upgrade for his MacBook and discussed some problems he’d been having with compatibility of iPhoto CD backups with different versions of the software.
No Comments »
Meeting Report: 10th December 2010
Posted: December 11th, 2010
During the news portion of this meeting we discussed Apple’s release of iOS 4.2 for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads. We also talked about the Mac Update December Bundle and Manomio’s forth-coming Amiga Emulator for iOS.
Nigel then gave a presentation about keeping various types of data synchronised between various computers and mobile devices. He recommended Firefox Sync for bookmarks, Soocial for contacts and Dropbox for files.
We also helped Alan with his MacBook which was failing to boot with a “no entry” symbol on the start-up screen. We found that removing an audio CD that was stuck in the optical drive allowed the computer to boot but it was still very slow and logins failed. We suspected that the machine also has a hard drive problem.
No Comments »
Meeting Report: 9th July 2010
Posted: August 13th, 2010
In our news section members discussed the iPhone 4 reception issues and Apple’s response along with the new, redesigned, Mac Mini.
The rest of the meeting was an extended workshop covering issues members wanted to discuss.
No Comments »
Meeting Report: 11th June 2010
Posted: June 12th, 2010
Two members brought their new iPads to this first SEAL meeting after the UK release so members got the chance to play with Apple’s latest.
We discussed the latest news including Apple’s iPhone 4 announcement and the recent release of Safari 5. Also mentioned were the winners of the Apple Design Awards for iOS (iPhone and iPad) apps and the Ars Design Awards run by Ars Technica for Mac Applications.
Dave brought along his G5 iMac which has recently succumbed we suspect due to the capacitor plague after 5 years of service. Dave opened up the computer so members could see it’s design and construction and also see the failed capactiors.
Robert gave an introduction to AppleScript presentation covering the basics of Apple’s scripting language and some of the uses it can be put to. He demonstrated some of his own scripts and showed members how they could find out more. Websites for more information on AppleScript include:
AppleScript, the language of automation (recommended by Apple)
MacScripter with tutorials and lots of example AppleScripts
Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes
No Comments »
|
