PAST MEETINGS

October 20, 2014 - Hammondsport Mac Users Group

ATTENDING : Tom B, Bob S, Dottie E, Al J, Nancy D, Michael B, George F.

TOPIC : GREAT DESIGN (A brief look at Apple devices, past, present and near future)

"Good design lies down and behaves"

 


We opened our meeting with a slide show of 20 Great Moments in Apple History, beginning with the original Apple computer and concluding with the latest Apple Watch.

1976 to 2014

(Watch demo of rare working Apple I motherboard recently auctioned for $905,000)


SOME SUBTLE ASPECTS OF APPLE DESIGN


Packaging ( some fanatics even make videos of "the joy of unboxing ")


Cursor - mouse/finger speed on trackpad exponentially increases distance covered on display
NOTE: cursor size can be changed - go to System Prefs > Accessabilty > Cursor size slide


Trackpad - one finger tapping


Scroll Pad - (two fingers) - Q: what caused the recent change in direction? A: the iPhone and iPad scrolling


The pulsating 'Hal' sleep light - waxing and waning (note that there is no opening for the light to shine through!)


MBPro Unibody sleep light (right front edge) and battery status (left edge on plug-in)


AC Power Adapter (cord wrap, duck head, extension)


Apple TV and luxurious Remote

 

DID YOU KNOW?


- - - a copy of the U.S. Constitution can be found on every Mac since 2001? Open the Dictionary application, then go to Dictionary Menu > Go > Front/Back Matter. Scroll down to find lots of interesting stuff.


- - - the story behind the 'X' in UI design? - first used in computer graphics in Windows 95 and Mac OSX - inspired by NeXT (1988) - read the whole story here.


Hovering over the Red Ball in a folder or application window produces an X


Works same in new Yosemite but green now enlarges window to fill entire display


COM-SHIFT-4 key combo will take a picture of any part of your screen


Boot Camp or Parallels enables you to run pure WIndows OS on your Mac (if you must). With Parallels, you can switch from one platform to the other with a single click (see example Desktop). Watch Apple video tutorial of how to run Windows on Mac.

 

INTERESTING ARTICLES ABOUT APPLE DESIGN

4 Myths about Apple Design - Mark Kawano was a senior designer at Apple for seven years, where he worked on Aperture and iPhoto.

John Maeda (former president of Rhode Island School of Design) - how art, technology and design inform creative leaders

Jonathan Ive - the head Apple designer who brought you the iMac, iPad and now the Apple Watch - Vogue article

 

YOSEMITE

Apple's newest Operating System can now be downloaded for free (5.16GB) using App Store and your Apple ID - can be installed over 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) through 10.9 (Mavericks) - read more about Yosemite's design.

OSX 10.10 Yosemite to launch Monday 10-20-14 - read John Sircusa's thorough review at arstechnica

What's New in Yosemite? - Gary of MacMost gives quick overview via video (6m45s) - very informative

How to Make Your Own Bootable USB Install DIsk for Yosemite - read article at arstechnica

 

APPLICATIONS

DIskmaker X - free app to make your own bootable install disk for Yosemite on 8GB USB (download 11MB) - requires 10.7 or up - or use the alternative Terminal code (almost as simple) described here.

 

DEMO

OWC 120GB HD ($35) + USB Express Silver Enclosure ($15) - using his 2010 MacBook Pro, Tom demonstrated how to boot up from an external HD on which he had recently installed Yosemite:

  1. Plug external HD into USB port
  2. Restart
  3. Hold 'Option' key at chimes until you see choices
  4. Select boot up OS

 

HELPFUL WEBSITES FOR TROUBLESHOOTING SLOW INTERNET

Test My Net - http://testmy.net/ - run a quick speed test (download/upload) for your current internet connection

Down Right Now - http://downrightnow.com/ - find out if your favorite website is currently operational or not

Is It Just Me? - http://www.isup.me/ - determines if the internet problem is with website or your computer

Public DNS Numbers - these numbers may be inserted into your Network Prefs to replace your current DNS numbers that were likely suppled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) - this may solve reoccurring problems with drop offs and difficulty connecting to on-line web servers - read how here.

 

 

Hammondsport Mac Users Group - Hammondsport, NY 14840 - www.hportmug.com