Shuffle July 2007

TIVGGMF July 2007 issue #8

Monthly Newsletter from EmiratesMac User Group

Podcasting 101 All About Steve Jobs Par t 1

Podcasting: What you need to know Podcasting with Garageband

Reviews: > Apple TV > Podcast Maker > OmniOutliner

Contents A Word from the Editor Comic corner SmorgasDashBord Coda: a first look Podcasting with Garageband Family-friendly podcasts for summer Podcasting- what you need to know Mac911: solutions to your most vexing Mac problems All about Steve Jobs Part 1 Podcasting 101 Share a keyboard and mouse between several Macs Experiences of an Apple fan across the world - Part 3: Thailand EmiratesMac Reviews Peel the apple Switcher interview Weaving the web Photoshop tutorial Recipe: easy Swedish apple pie Join EMUG

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Shuffle is sponsored by:

For more information go to www.appleme.ae

Graphical design and layout of shuffle is done by Latifa Al Shamsi.

A Word from the Editor

About shuffle Shuffle is the newsletter of EmiratesMac User Group (EMUG). It is an independent publication containing news, commentary, tips and tricks, reviews, tutorials, and more, covering the world of Mac, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, and anything else Apple, with a focus on the UAE. Shuffle is also the official publication of EMUG detailing information about the user group and its activities. Editor in chief is Magnus Nystedt (emiratesmac@mac.com). You can send submissions to shuffle to emiratesmac@ mac.com. We do not promise we will publish what you send us, and we will at all times retain total editorial control over anything we publish.

There is a discussion forum dedicated to shuffle at EMUG’s web site (www.emiratesmac.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=50). There you can leave comments and suggestions and discuss shuffle with other users. All articles are produced by and copyright EMUG unless noted otherwise. Registered Apple User Groups may use some material for their own newsletters given prior approval from EMUG. Contact EMUG at emiratesmac@mac.com for further details. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content of this publication, we accept no responsibility for errors, omissions or changes to information printed. Views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of EMUG. You can contact EMUG at mailing address: PO Box 70263, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Phone +971508171164; Fax +97126664289; Email contact@ emiratesmac.com; Web www.emiratesmac.com.

WWDC in the shadow of iPhone By the time you read this, WWDC has been over for almost a month, and Steve Jobs’ keynote has started to fade in our memories. Especially since, as a keynote, it was quite forgettable. It’s not often I feel like “this is boring” when I watch an Apple keynote but this time I did. My first reaction was this is nothing new, but later I got thinking about some of the things and felt a bit better about everything. A big problem was that the whole business of the iPhone’s then upcoming launch loomed large over the keynote.

And even though a part of the keynote was about the iPhone, or more correctly how developers could put together their applications for the mobile device, everyone was anticipating the launch. That meant, I think, that Jobs would have had to come up with something really spectacular, something on the same scale as the iPhone announcement, and that was not going to happen. Leave aside that we didn’t really learn that much new about Leopard for a second, that there was no new iMacs or other computers, and give Apple a break. But when it comes to Leopard I think many of us expected something more and something new. All we got was a new Finder, a somewhat new interface, and of course Safari for Windows. And that last piece is arguably the biggest, and most important announcement, I think. But it’s not something that the average user gets excited about, but this was WWDC after all. With Safari on Windows, and what they revealed about application development for the iPhone, Apple is setting the stage for something exciting, So let’s give Apple a break over the WWDC keynote, and look forward to the next event.

Want to advertise in shuffle?

T

his newsletter is the only publication in the United Arab Emirates that is dedicated to Apple products, such as Macs and iPods. By advertising in shuffle you reach a dedicated audience of Mac and iPod users. We strive to make shuffle a high-quality newsletter that people will want to read because it’s so good. It’s written and produced by EmiratesMac User Group Members. Wouldn’t you want to be associated with that? If you’re interested in sponsoring shuffle, or buying advertising space, contact Crystal at +971508171164 or crystal@emiratesmac. com to request our Media Kit.

Want to write for shuffle?

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f you’re reading this and you’re a member of the EmiratesMac User Group we hope you will consider contributing. We’re looking for any type of articles you would be interested in writing, from something about the history of Apple and their products, reviews of hardware or software, essays, tutorials, or hints and tips. The people who write for shuffle now are users just like yourself. If you would consider writing something for shuffle, send us an email (emiratesmac@ mac.com) or leave a message with your idea at the site (www.emiratesmac. com).

Corrections

I

n the may issue of shuffle, on page 22, we incorrectly stated that the price of the uniea keyboard cover was $349. The correct price should be $21.

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Comic corner Blaugh.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter.

Go to www.blaugh. com to see a new comic strip every day.

Use the code “blaugh� when you shop at www.

Godaddy.com to get 10% off your purchase.

Geekculture.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter.

Go to www.geekcul-

ture.com/joyoftech/ to see a new comic strip every day.

Make sure you also check out all the other features on the Geekculture.com web site.

EmiratesMac shuffle 5

Sm rgasDashB rd

by Yasir

MadLibs This one needs some time to work on but what it does is turn a decent passage into something pathetically hilarious. What you do is you choose a so called Madlibs (a short famous speech) from the bottom drop list and then asking you to write a group of words for instance it asks you to write a noun then an adjective and so one, (or you can ask it to generate words on its own by random. Once your done it will insert the your text in the Madlib you have chosen, clarifying what I mean is pretty tough for you to understand so the picture should clear it up. Pretty nice idea, but makes time fly.

RANKING: Download from: www.apple.com/

downloads/dashboard/games/madlibs. html

acter but when you retype the exact link it takes you there. Pretty freaky and they will get a better ranking when they fix it.

RANKING: Download from: www.apple.com/

downloads/dashboard/networking_ security/imageupload.html

DashCounter Another widget for just no reason at all. It’s like one of those manual counters that count how many times you’ve pressed it but this one just keeps count of how many times you’ve opened your dashboard.

Its pretty good for those who are curios about how many times they open their dashboard.

There is a “remember count” button at the back which remembers the count even after shutting down or restarting the computer. It would be nice if they made the colour closer to the actual icon of the dashboard.

Image Upload This is a great one, pretty useful for those who are always uploading pictures to imageshack.com all you do is drag and drop, and just wait a few seconds to upload and when its done it automatically copies the link so all you do is paste.

But there’s a strange problem, when you paste the link the browser says the the link starts with an improper char-

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ton but when you download you get something totally different and pretty oversized for its job.

RANKING: Download from: www.apple.com/

downloads/dashboard/status/sleeper. html

Storij I think most of you can figure out what it means and for those who didn’t, well it means “storage”. Maybe “weight watcher” might of been a nice name!

RANKING: Download from: www.edot-studios.

It’s pretty simple straight forward, and small, but I kinda don’t really check up on my storage anyway, nor do I think that my free capacity changes that fast and needs to be watched.

Sleeper F12 > click > sleep thats it. But I don’t really see the point in this because what we usually do to make a computer sleep isn’t that hard anyway, and for some reason on the website it shows a screenshot of the tradition I/O but-

RANKING: Download from: www.apple.com/

com/downloads/widgets/DashCounter. zip

downloads/dashboard/status/storij. html

Coda: a first look

by Magnus

It’s not every day that I get really excited about a new application. But some weeks ago when Panic released their latest application entitled Coda (www.panic.com/ coda/), I was instantly excited as soon as I read a little bit about it. And since it came from Panic, makers of Transmit, one of the best FTP applications for Mac OS X, I was even more interested.

Four in one So what is Coda? It’s an attempt by the people at Panic to replace a set of tools and applications that many developers of web sites use. FTP for transferring files, text editor for writing and editing the code, CSS editor, and SSH client. So today you may be using Transmit for FTP, TextMate for text editing, CSSEdit for CSS editing, and Terminal for SSH. Coda replaces all of them in one application. Or at least it attempts to.

The site is the core To start working with Coda, you set up sites. Each site has it’s own URL, FTP and SSH login details, as well as a local copy of the files you’re working on. Once a site is set up you can double click to connect to it, and Coda will restore the files you had open from when you worked on it before.

Interface The interface is a bit different from many other applications and for the most part Panic got it right, I think. The main parts are the files, over on the left, which you can switch from local and remote view.

Then there are buttons along the top for

Sites, Edit, Preview, CSS, Terminal, and Books. What’s a bit confusing is that some of these pertain to individual files (Edit, Preview, and CSS), while Sites is obviously for setting up and connecting to sites, and Books is for reference. Let’s say you’re editing a remote file, and you click on Terminal. Would you expect the Terminal to open as a new tab or “over” the existing tab (which is the remote file)? I would say it would make more sense for the Terminal to be a new tab, but it “replaces” the tab that is already there. Then you have to click Edit to see the remote file again.

Little peculiarities like this makes an otherwise excellent user interface a bit lacking.

References If you’ve done any web development you probably know that you often have to look up something in a book or online. Panic thought of this as well and included easy access to online reference books in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. Share the load Programming and web development is often a collaborative effort. Panic thought about that and included functionality so you can share a document over a local network via Bonjour (see “What is Bonjour?” in the May issue of shuffle).

What’s lacking I’ve not used Coda for very long, in fact I’m still within the 15 day trial period, and most things are excellent. It’s a very nice text editor, the CSS editor is not quite up to CSSEdit’s class but it’s close, the Terminal is good for any SSH work, and it’s also a good, overall FTP program (but I won’t get rid of Transmit anytime soon).

One thing I would like to see is built in support for version control, like CVS or Subversion. Perhaps a special Coda server version that could be installed on a Mac, that would seamlessly integrate with Coda clients. That way you could collaborate with more people and over the internet, not just on the local network.

Final thought Coda is a breath of fresh air into a somewhat stagnating segment of applications.

The integration of different applications is well executed, and the individual tools are almost good enough to stand on their own. To some Coda, at $89, may seem a bit expensive, but if it can replace four applications, it’s well worth it.

EmiratesMac shuffle 7

Podcasting with Garageband

by Magnus Garageband, part of Apple’s iLife, is probably one of the least used applications in the suite. But it’s a wonderful application for making music and podcasts.

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Preparations Before you even start doing anything in Garageband you need to think about a few things concerning your podcast. First of all, what is your podcast about and who is going to listen to it? Decide on the main theme or topic for your podcast, e.g. gardening, racing, Macs, etc. Combined with that you should also consider who the intended listeners are. Where are they located, who are they, what do they do, etc. This is a bit of basic marketing research you should do before starting to record and edit. Something else to consider is a publishing schedule.

If you want to get regular listeners of your podcast, it’s good if you can publish on a regular schedule, e.g. once per week. All the work involved in making a podcast takes considerable amounts of time so you should consider what your schedule will be before committing to one.

Recording After the initial preparations, you come to the part of recording your raw material, most likely you and perhaps some other people speaking.

You want to make sure that you get as good quality recording as possible, so the output is as good as possible.

You can record with a mobile device like your iPod or even mobile phone, with a computer like your Mac, or with some other device. If you are using your Mac, consider an external USB microphone, like the Bluemic Snowball (www.bluemic.com/modules. php?op=modload&name=Products&f ile=index&prod_id=18). You can also connect a regular microphone with something like the M-Audio FastTrack (www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/ FastTrackUSB-main.html).

Edit for content Once you have the audio in Garageband, preferably different voices on different tracks, you start editing the

edited. Then it’s time to add loops, jingles, and effects. Like before you’re going to have to Split your tracks in the appropriate places, if you haven’t already done so. Garageband comes with many loops and effects which you can add to your podcast. It could be a jingle

audio for content. This means listening through it in order to remove the audio you don’t want. When you find a section you want to cut out, place the playhead at the start of the piece you want to remove, and select Edit > Split. Then place the playhead at the end of the section you want to remove and again select Edit > Split. Then you can click and remove the section.

You can also put two segments back together by selecting both of them and clicking Edit > Join.

Adjust volume Garageband has an automatic feature for ducking. Ducking basically means the volume of one track is adjusted according to the volume of another track. For example, the volume of a track playing some music can be automatically get a lower volume when

a voice comes in on another track. You can do this manually, and sometimes you have to, but Garageband does a pretty good job of adjusting the volume automatically via ducking.

Add loops At this stage you should have one or more voice tracks with the content

between two segments of the podcast, or a special effect for something. You can also buy Apple’s JamPacks (www. apple.com/ilife/garageband/jampacks/).

There are four JamPacks and they add thousands of jingles and effects. With all four JamPacks you’re well set to take on most any podcasting subject.

Enhanced podcast By default Garageband outputs M4A format files. Apple refers to this format as being enhanced podcasts. This means you can add features to the podcast file, that users can take part. For example, you can add photos to the podcast track of an audio podcast in Garageband simply by dragging a photo from the Media Browser over to the Podcast Track. Then you can add chapter titles, and even URLs. These will show on an iPod but also on a Mac, when someone listens to the podcast. It’s a way to make your podcast a bit more user friendly, and add some value to it. This only works for M4A format files, and not for MP3 files.

Publish Once everything is done, the simplest thing you can do is to select Share > Send Podcast to iTunes. Garageband

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then prepares the podcast, which may take a few minutes, and sends it to iTunes. From iTunes you can then listen to it. If you have a .Mac account you can send it to iWeb (Share > Send Podcast to iWeb) and it’s published for

Family-friendly podcasts for summer

by Crystal

you. You can also send it to disk (Share > Export Podcast to Disk) and later upload it yourself (see review of Podcast Maker in this issue of shuffle). If you want an MP3 file, you send the podcast to iTunes, then set iTunes import to MP3 format (iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing > Import using), and right click on the podcast in the playlist and select “Convert Selection...” Then you end up with an MP3 file which will play on pretty much any mobile device and computer.

Final thoughts Podcasting is exciting, and it’s a great way to reach a lot of people with little cost. That doesn’t mean little effort though. To get a regular audience you have to put in a lot of hard work into scripting, recording, as well as editing.

Garageband is a great application for editing audio, and Apple built in a lot of functions especially targeting audio podcasters.

Want to write for shuffle?

I

f you’re reading this and you’re a member of the EmiratesMac User Group we hope you will consider contributing. We’re looking for any type of articles you would be interested in writing, from something about the history of Apple and their products, reviews of hardware or software, essays, tutorials, or hints and tips.

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Summer travel is coming up and parents are always looking for a way to entertain their children on those long trips. One way may be by giving them an iPod and maybe some podcasts to keep them occupied.

Depending on the iPod, you can give them video podcasts or just audio podcasts. Since we do not have an iTunes Store in the Middle East to down load movies or shows for your iPod, I am going to try to find some fun free podcasts, that you can use instead, to keep your children and yourself happy on those long summer vacations.

1-2-3 Listen 2 Me (123listen2me.com) This podcast is for ages 4-15 and it has music, jokes, and is a place where kids interview kids. Sarah and Nina bring their podcast from South Africa, but it is really for children from all around the world.

Marina’s Kool Car Radio Podcast (marinaspodcast. com/car_podcasts) This is a happy go lucky podcast, that I am sure your children will sing right along with. You never know you might just find yourself singing along too. Marina is a motivation speaker, so I am sure

she can get the whole family ready for your trip.

My Baby Monsters (mybabymonsters.com) This is a great podcast where you and your child can write an amazing story for your trip and add it to the already great stories on this podcast. This website has much more than just wonderful stories that you can listen to with your child, they have games and all the ideas that you can get from this website is endless.

These are just three of the many great websites with podcasts that are suitable for kids and the whole family.

If you want to spend some extra time with your child and make some wonderful memories, you can make your own podcasts for that long trip. Have your child help you write a play and have them with their friends act out the play, or let your child write songs for the trip. If you want to record on the go you can use something like the Belkin TuneTalk for iPods (see the April 2007 issue of shuffle).

There are endless ways you can make your podcasts, all you need is your imagination.

For more information and discussion about family-life in the Emirates, go to www. emiratesbaby.com.

Podcasting - what you need to know

by Magnus

You may have heard about podcasting, and you may listen - and even watch - podcasts on a regular basis. But what is a podcast, and how does it really work? This article is not intended to go into any depth about podcasting, but we hope to be able to give you at least an introduction.

According to Wikipedia, a podcast is “a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like radio, can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting.” (en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Podcasting) That may be a technically accurate definition but what does it really mean and where did it all start? It all really starts with something called RSS (for more information about RSS, see “RSS 101” in the March 2007 issue of shuffle).

In 2000, David Winer came up with RSS as a means to “push” out content to subscribers. Think of it as you subscribing to a show on TV (the podcast “feed”) and whenever there is a new episode of that show, it’s automatically downloaded to your TV and you can watch it. Soon, and it seems to have happened in 2001, people started at add digital audio “enclosures” to RSS feeds. The feed then can point to audio or video files for new content. This means you can subscribe to a feed, and

when there’s new content, it’s downloaded to your Mac, and by extension, copied onto your iPod. Even though we currently don’t do any podcasting at EmiratesMac, we do offer several RSS feeds, for the blog, the newsletter, the gallery, and more. The name comes from a combination of iPod and broadcasting, but a common misconception is that podcasting requires an iPod. It doesn’t, in fact, it doesn’t require any sort of mobile device. You can listen to podcasts just with your Mac. The popularity of podcasting is arguably because for the first time it gives anyone the possibility to reach a mass audience with audio or video, and do it on a regular basis. It doesn’t cost much to create or publish a podcast, which obviously is attractive to many who were previously stopped by the high costs of traditional media.

Podcasting has also become popular in education, where you can find both student- and teacher generated podcasts covering many different subjects and pedagogical approaches. One podcast example in education is Abu Dhabi Women’s College (podcast.adwc.hct. ac.ae).

Mac911: Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems

by Christopher Breen From VHS to DVD Q: I have a lot of old home videos I want to transfer to DVD. What software or hardware do I need, and how do I get the process up and running?--Jerry Nichols A: Usually, the first step in burning your videos to DVD is to transfer them to your Mac. There are a few ways to do that. If you have a MiniDV camcorder, it likely has a passthrough mode, in which the camera will take care of the conversion for you. Plug your VCR’s outputs into the camcorder’s inputs, string a FireWire cable between the camcorder and your Mac, enable the camera’s pass-through mode, and capture your movie in Apple’s iMovie. Note that your results may be less than perfect--some cameras perform better than others (and some, I’m told, don’t work at all). Alternatively, you can purchase an analog-toDV converter box such as Datavideo’s $185 DAC-200 or Canopus’s $229 ADVC55 (). Plug the VCR’s outputs into the analog input jacks on one of these boxes, string a FireWire cable between it and your Mac, and then capture your video in iMovie. And if you have a Mac that supports USB 2.0, you can use an EyeTV- compatible video-capture device such as Elgato’s $200 EyeTV 250, which has an MPEG-2 hardware encoder. If you

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need to make only minimal edits--simple cuts to lop out extraneous material, for example--the included EyeTV 2 software will do the job, but it doesn’t let you add transitions or effects. Once you’ve captured the video (by any of these methods) and opened it in iMovie, you can edit it and then export it to Apple’s iDVD to burn it to disc. If you’re simply looking for a way to archive your video on a more durable medium and don’t want to bother with all those steps, you can skip your computer altogether. A number of manufacturers, including Panasonic, Toshiba, and Philips, sell VHS-DVD decks for under $200--your local electronics store is sure to have at least one of these units on the shelves (Amazon. com is another good source). These decks can dub tapes to writable DVDs (and vice versa)--and as a bonus, they operate like traditional VCRs. Later, if you decide you want to edit the video you’ve burned to DVD, you can always extract it from the disc with a tool such as the free HandBrake. Then pull it into iMovie and edit to your heart’s content.

Create the endless DVD Q: How can I burn a QuickTime movie in iDVD that loops but doesn’t have a menu?--Jane Williams

A: I assume that you need this setup for use in a kiosk. No sweat. Launch iDVD (/Applications) and open a new project (File: New). Click on the DVD Map button (the one just to the right of the Play button at the bottom of the window). At the top of the resulting pane is a box that reads, “Drag content here to automatically play when the disc is inserted.” Do as it suggests: drag your QuickTime movie into this box. Then click on the box to select it, and choose Advanced: Loop Movie.

Save your project and burn it. When you shove the disc into your DVD player and press play (or insert the disc into your Mac’s media drive, which is configured by default to automatically play DVDs), the movie you dragged into the automatic-play area will play, and play, and play.

Too much of a good thing?

Q: Does having too many applications slow down a Mac? System Profiler lists 375 on my G5 iMac. I could remove tons of them with Austin Sarner’s and Brian Ball’s AppZapper, but would that speed up my system?--Stephen Good A: It depends on a few factors: how much hard-drive space those applications consume, the amount of processing power their components use, and the resources your open programs are sucking when they’re supposed to be doing nothing. If your Mac is so crammed with applications (and other kinds of data) that you have very little room left on the hard drive, system performance will suffer. OS X uses free hard-drive space for its virtual memory scheme. At the very least, I

Mac 911 try to leave 10 percent of my startupdrive space free so the OS has room for those virtual memory chores. When an application runs a background job that’s placing demands on your Mac’s processor, the mere presence of that program could slow down performance. In Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities), see which background processes appear at the top of the list when you sort by % CPU. If you can do without any of the top ones, getting rid of those programs may improve performance. If an application requires a login item--if you have a backup program that requires a scheduling component to monitor your Mac behind the scenes, for example-your Mac may take longer to boot up. Again, getting rid of a program you don’t need (and its accompanying login item) may bring you to the desktop a little bit faster when you first start up your Mac. And don’t forget that open applications can suck on the CPU as well. For instance, I often have Microsoft Word open while I’m working with another application. Word’s doing absolutely nothing, as far as I

can tell, yet Activity Monitor tells me that it’s using between 3 and 4 percent of the CPU. I’ve found that if I leave a browser open for days on end, this has an impact on performance as well. So try quitting applications when you’re really and truly done with them. If you find that one of your programs is sucking more of your computer’s oomph than you care for, look for a less processor-hungry alternative. Finally, have

you looked at your Dashboard widgets lately? Third-party widgets can distract your processor, too. See what they’re doing in Activity Monitor. Clear out any processor hogs that you installed out of curiosity but never use.

Shift audio pitch and speed Q: I am a dance teacher and need some recommendations for Maccompatible music-editing programs.

The software must be extremely user-friendly (I’m a non-geek) and allow me to slow down the tempo of a track without changing its pitch. I also need to edit a track’s length and insert vocal narration between tracks. Any suggestions would be welcome--the simpler, the better!--Lorelei Coutts Luxton A: If you want the best sound quality in an easy-to-use package, I suggest Roni Music’s Amazing Slow Downer ($45). This Universal app’s name nicely describes what it does. Feed the program an audio CD or an audio file, and then adjust the pitch or speed.

When you adjust only the Speed slider, the track’s tempo changes without the pitch changing. Likewise, you can adjust only the Pitch slider to change the pitch without changing the tempo.

You can also adjust both, set the start and stop points of your track, and even loop your track. Once you’ve modified the music to your liking, save the track and export it as an AIFF, MP3, QuickTime, or AAC file. You can import tracks into Apple’s GarageBand (which you likely have in your Applications folder); there, you can array them in a sequence and record narration between them. You might also try HairerSoft’s $40 Amadeus Pro. This is a fullfeatured audio-editing application that includes a Change Pitch And Speed command in its Effects menu. This command’s results aren’t as polished as those of Amazing Slow Downer-audio artifacts are far more apparent.

But you can do everything you want to within Amadeus Pro without changing over to GarageBand. The application

can change the pitch and speed of your tracks, as well as sequence them and add narration between them.

Toss out unnecessary languages Q: I understand that I can recover hard-disk space by removing foreign languages from OS X. The problem is that I need foreign-language support in some applications but not others.

Is there a way to selectively remove language support from applications?--Lane Weiss

A: There is, but if you have a lot of applications, you’ll find the process tedious. Select an application and press 1-I to bring up the Info window. Click on the triangle next to the Languages entry to reveal a list of languages that the application supports (some applications support only one). Hold down the 1 key and select the languages you don’t want. Then click on the Remove button.

You’ll be warned that the program may not function properly if you proceed-so it’s a good idea to have a backup, just in case something goes awry. When you click on OK in the warning dialog box to proceed, the associated .lproj language folders will be moved to the Trash. To permanently slim your application, empty the Trash.

Senior Editor Christopher Breen is the author of Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, fifth edition, and The iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide (both Peachpit Press, 2005). Find Chris’ books at www.amazon.com and www.peachpit.com.

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A biography of the co-founder and CEO of Apple

All about Steve Jobs Part 1 Photograph by Graham Parker appears courtesy of Apple, Inc.

by Romain Moisescot Family background Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in the city of San Francisco. His biological mother was an unwed graduate student (and his biological father is said to be a political science or mathematics professor, maybe of Middle-Western descent -but this has never been confirmed). Back in the 50s, it was unconceivable for such a young woman to raise a child on her own, so she decided to put her little baby boy up for adoption. But she insisted that the adoptive parents had to be college graduates, just like she was. This was not the case of Paul and Clara Jobs, but Steve’s biological mother finally relented to let them her child after they promised he would be sent to college. Paul Jobs was a midwestern farmer’s son who had settled in the Bay Area after his war service in the USCG and married Clara in 1946. The couple decided to name their adopted child Steven Paul Jobs. Steve’s younger sister, Patty, was adopted 3 years later.

Childhood & Teenage years Steve was very bored in school. By his own words: “I was pretty bored in school and turned into a little terror” (Playboy Interview with David Sheff, February 1985) But this would soon change thanks to his

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4th grade teacher, Imogene “Teddy” Hill.

Steve would later say about her: “She was one of the saints of my life. She taught an advanced fourth grade class, and it took her about a month to get hip to my situation.

She bribed me into learning.” His skills became so apparent that the school allowed him to skip 5th grade and go straight to middle school. The problem was, the Crittenden middle school was not a nice place to be around. Steve, who felt left behind in the ambient chaos, insisted that his parents moved him to another school the next year, otherwise he would refuse to go to school altogether. The 11-year old’s thoughtful parents bowed and moved to Los Altos in 1967, so that Steve could attend the much cozier Cupertino Junior High School. This move is worth noting because the city of Los Altos, as well as the neighboring towns of Cupertino and Sunnyvale, distinguished themselves by the great number of engineer’s garages they hosted. A little history here. In

1957, the launch of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union rushed the US into what would later be known as the space race. Federal money was poured in the emerging electronics industry which can roughly be traced back to the invention of the transistor for which William Shockley (as well as Walter Brattain and John Bardeen) obtained the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956. It just so happens, Shockley set up the Shockley Semiconductor company in the Santa Clara County, 30 miles south of San Francisco, thus making it the world center of electronics research.

The area was soon filled with engineers and young companies started to appear in their garages. Such was the case of HewlettPackard. HP engineers played a major role in Steve’s life, as they were the ones who introduced the youngster to the world of electronics. This would become his #1 hobby as he would enter Homestead High the following year. At Homestead, he attended his first electronics class and befriended Bill Fernandez, who shared his passion for electronics. Fernandez happened to know an electronics whiz, 5 years older than Steve Jobs, whose name was Steve Wozniak, but that everybody called “Woz”. 14-year old Steven Paul Jobs Bill Fernandez and Woz, despite their differences of age, had bonded

together because they were working on a project of building their own computer with spare electronics parts, which they called the “flair pen & cream soda computer”.

They were so good at it that a local reporter from the San Jose Mercury News came to

Bill’s garage to interview them. Anyway, Steve took interest in the project and Bill introduced the 14-year-old Steve to his 18year-old friend. Although they met in 1969, a real friendship between Steve and Woz started developing a couple of years later, when Woz became a renowned figure in the small world of “phone phreaks”. These were a primal form of hackers who had found out a way to fool AT&T’s long-distance switching equipment, thus providing a way to make international calls for free. The hardware they used to do so was known as “blue boxes”. Woz’s blue boxes were the best ones around, and it fascinated 17-year-old Steve.

He soon convinced his friend they should sell the boxes, and they did so for a few months (the price varying form $150 to $300) before it started to become too illegal to be safe. After Steve finished high school, his parents, true to their words, asked him to pick a college. Steve chose Reed College in Oregon. Paul and Clara were dismayed: although a renowned liberal arts college, Reed was very far from home, and one of the most expensive institution in America. But Steve refusing to go anywhere else, all of their savings were spent in his tuition. After a few months spent at Reed, young Steve appeared to be much more interested in the lamination of mucus and

the path to a higher awareness through Eastern mysticism than his Physics & English Literature classes. His grades were extremely poor. Here’s what he said about it some 32 years later:”After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.

And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¬¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it.” (Stanford Commencent Adresss, 12 June 2005) Steve kept on hanging around Reed campus the following year as well, and it wasn’t before 1974 that he got his first job at a young video game company called Atari. He was hired despite his neglected look and bad smell because Atari was growing fast and because it was Silicon Valley, but, after a while, he was only allowed to work by night so he wouldn’t bother his fellow colleagues.

One day, he came to see his boss at Atari, Al Alcorn, and asked him for money to go make a spiritual journey in India. Alcorn agreed (only in

exchange of a little rewiring work for him to do in Germany). So in the summer of 1974, Steve left with one of his best friends from Reed, Dan Kottke. But after a month spent in the midst of poverty, visiting guru after guru without finding any spiritual enlightenment, Steve and Dan’s opinion about the search for truth had changed quite a bit.

“We weren’t going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened. It was one of the first times that I started to realize that maybe thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Kairolie Baba put together.” (quoted in Michael Moritz’s “The Little Kingdom”) After his return from India, Steve started working for Atari again and renewed his interest in electronics (which did not prevent him from frequenting the Los Altos Zen Center and spending time in the All-One Farm in Oregon where his hippie friends from Reed lived). He started to be more and more interested in Woz’s progress on a new computer design.

Credits This biography of Steve Jobs is published with the permission of Romain Moisescot.

You can find the original online at www. romain-moisecot.com/steve/biography/ html/biographyFR.html. You will find the next part of the biography in the next issue of shuffle.

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Podcasting 101

by Graham Day

The first thing you need to know about Podcasting is nothing! Well actually If you have never seen or heard a Podcast what I would recommend is you go and either watch one or listen to one before attempting this tutorial. Right, once that’s done then your well on the way to making your first Podcast. I recommend for the complete newbie that you first try making a simple Podcast using iPhoto & iMovie, before going onto Final Cut Pro Studio 2 with motion & soundtrack etc. I think it is always best to walk before we run.

I would also suggest that first you master importing stills/Photos or AVI’s from your camera into iPhoto. Now as reference will use the Podcast from this tutorial Surfs Up! St Ives 2006, this was edited entirely on iMovie with stills/photos from an IXUS 50 Canon camera and the music was composed in Garageband. So it is a combination of stills and graphics. (N.B. for the sake of this tutorial I will use the word “stills” to mean photos.)

From the Podcast you can see that I used a lot of Ken Burns effects from iMovie with the stills, especially the panoramic still as this gives the effect of motion. (I’ll cover photo stitching another day.) In TV we used to call this technique ’action stills’, because it gave life to the still picture/photo. We would rig a video camera up and point it at the photo and then Pan & Zoom the camera. Now you just need a Mac. So lets start as I said by importing some stills into iPhoto. First step is to create an album and call it “PodCast 101”.Then drag and drop your stills/ photos into the the Album “PodCast 101” we do this so it makes the searching for the stills easier when we are in iMovie rather than having to trawl through the whole of you iPhoto li-

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brary. Now once they are in the Album if you haven’t already done this name the stills. So we have in iPhoto a series of named stills like shown. Okay now it’s time to open iMovie, one of the most under rated applications in iLife ever, in my opinion.

Now a Project is really just like a blank document in word or pages. Your creating a place where all your resources and settings will be stored. (N.B. iMovie is based around Quicktime the same as FCP.)

The way this handles media files is quite impressive, and before you all run off to buy Final Cut Express try getting your head around this first. I assure you, as an FCP user and trainer, if I want to cut something quickly in DV or HDV I will use this first. It is a nice and simple application with good integration with the other iLife apps.

So quickly to get you familiar with the iMovie interface you should have a window that looks like this: On the Left Hand Side is a large viewing window, that looks a little like QT Player, and to the right hand side is a series of blank squares.

Okay first thing you need to do is create a New Project and choose a resolution. Seeing as we are making a Podcast which will end up as MPEG-4 lets go for MPEG-4 as our resolution and name our Project PodCast 101.

You’ll notice by default that iMovie wants to save it’s Projects in to the Movies folder, so let it. Click “Create”.

In the centre below the large viewing window is what is known as your transport keys (Go To Beginning, Play & Play Full Screen). And below that your Clip Viewer/Timeline.

To the left of the transport keys are two icons the camera & scissor Icon make sure the slider is over to the right next to the scissors. (It should be by default.) To the left of them is an icon like a piece of film and a clock, make sure the piece of film icon is active (blue). Now to the right hand side below the squares should be a series of buttons called “Clips, Themes, Media, Editing, & Chapters”. If you are seeing the squares then you will have the “Clips” menu active. Okay, now select the menu button Media. You will notice that the squares have disappeared and in it’s place is a window showing folders of either Audio or Photos.

Select Photos, this should take you directly to iPhoto. Scroll down the folder structure till you see the Album/Folder PodCast 101 and select it, the window below the folders should now show you your selected stills/photos.

Now click on a photo and it will appear in the big window to the left hand side. Make sure you have Show Photo Settings active in the lower part of the window on the right hand side, and make sure you tick the Ken Burns Effect box.

At this point save your project (Command + S or from the file menu). Now get used to doing this as it will save a lot of tantrums and tears later. Be creative explore the effect of the Ken Burns plugin, you can zoom in, you position the photo, you can adjust the speed of the zoom.

You can download Graham’s finished video podcast episode from EmiratesMac.com (www.emiratesmac.com/ newsletter/resources/july2007/podcast101.m4v). See for yourself what the end result looks like.

You use a Mac so let the creative juices flow. When your happy with the effect then in the Ken Burns box hit apply.

You should see your first photo drop to the beginning of the Timeline. You’ll also notice a little red line on the clip slowly move across the frame in the timeline, this is creating the rendered file of your picture and the Ken Burns effect. Now once your happy with your first clip hit save. Now select your second photo and do the same. Once you have hit save, select the icon that looks like a clock and it will transform the Timeline from a frame based view to a time based view. Now press Goto beginning in the transport keys and then press play, you should see all you clips play back with the Ken Burns effect on them.

To adjust a clips effect just switch the timeline back to frame view select the frame you want to adjust and hit Show Photo Settings.

This time you will see that the Ken Burns now says update rather than apply. Don’t forget to keep saving your project while you work. Now keep on adding your clips and reviewing the timeline sequence once your happy with the sequence try putting on some titles and effects by selecting the Editing Menu.

Right now you’ve completed your visual masterpiece it should look a little like mine. Now to add some audio go to the file menu and select share, and from the drop down menu select Garageband.

First thing you will notice it will import your iMovie sequence in to it’s timeline at the top, now you can start to rock & roll! Okay once you’ve done your Hip Hop or Artic Monkeys soundtrack you have two choices from here, as iLife is so well integrated, you can either select Share from the file menu and save the finished Podcast straight in to iTunes.

Or you can save your work in Garageband step back into iMovie and open Audio in the Media Menu and drag your music straight to the timeline and re-sync it to your pictures, you might want to do this if you need to trim some of the pictures to hit beats on your newly composed music track.

Check your pictures & music then select Share from the File Menu & choose iPod.

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Right how to get it out in the wild.

When you hit the Share button in the File Menu you’ll notice the line “Share” right at the bottom of the pulldown select that and it will show you all the options you have for your movie. In our case we selected iPod, but we could have selected iWeb and created a Podcast to be uploaded to your iWeb site.

Your movie will be exported and compressed straight in to iTunes ready to sync with your iPod. Congratulations to your first Podcast!

I will finish with some tips to remember when creating a Podcast, whether it’s video or audio. First, have a rough idea of a theme and perhaps even do

a storyboard. When starting, check how much space you have on your had disk and make sure there’s plenty of room for your creation. Don’t waste too much time refining your edits and instead get a rough cut together first.

Choose the MPEG-4 format as it takes up less disk space. And finally, and most importantly, remember to have fun!

Graham Day, a Director at TriMedia Middle East (www.trimediamiddleeast.com) has previously worked at companies like Granada TV, Avid, and Abu Dhabi TV. TriMedia Middle East offers a comprehensive Broadcast Consultancy comprising Channel Management, Project Management, Training and Recruitment services. They are based in Dubai Media City with clients throughout the Gulf region.

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Share a keyboard and mouse between several Macs

by Magnus I have an iMac on my desk, and most of the time I also have my MacBook connected to an external display on the same desk. I obviously have a keyboard and a mouse connected to my iMac, so why not use them with the MacBook as well? You’ve heard of KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switches, I’m sure, but they are for sharing one monitor, keyboard, and mouse between several computers. So what do you do if you want to share one keyboard and mouse between several Macs, each with it’s own display? You download Synergy (software. landryhetu.com/synergy) and install it on all the computers you want to share the keyboard and mouse between. One of them is considered the server, and the other the clients. The server is the Mac which has the keyboard and the mouse connected to it already, that you want to share with the other Macs. The server setup is not that complicated but it can

be a bit tricky. First you click “Share my keyboard and mouse” and you should then see the “Server configuration tab”. In the “Server configuration” tab you then have to add the clients that will connect to this server. You click “Add client” and then you enter the name the client has (taken from the “Sharing” System Preferences panel). After that you click “Turn Synergy on” and you’re set.

The server will now sit and wait for the clients to connect. Setting up the clients is easier than the server. You click “Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse”.

In the “Client Configuration” tab you enter the name of the server Mac, or the IP address. I had problems entering the name of it (found in the “Sharing” System Preferences panel), but entering the IP address worked fine. Once that’s done you click “Turn Synergy On” and it should connect. The keyboard and mouse on the

server should now work across. Synergy is only for sharing keyboard and mouse.

You cannot drag and drop files between screens, and you cannot copy and paste information between Macs. Those things would be very nice to have but they are no big issues, I think. Synergy, especially for being free, is a wonderful little utility. If you have several Macs each with a monitor, you can use one keyboard and mouse to control them all. At least for me that’s very helpful in my home office. And it’s not only for Mac. Synergy is also available for Windows and Linux. So if you work in a multi-platform environment, it can be an excellent solution to save some desktop space.

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Experiences of an Apple Fan across the world Part 3:Thailand

by Senthil For me Thailand is synonymous with Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya because these are the three cities in Thailand that I have visited frequently.

And Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya evokes images of fun, beaches, and late night partying. You must be wondering in a place like this could there be any signs of Apple? Few years back, the pre-iPod era, you could hardly find any Apple related products in the IT malls of Bangkok (there are three huge malls that I know of which are dedicated to only IT & IT related products). Now as you walk into these malls you can see the iPods hanging at almost all the shops in the malls. My favorite is the Pantip Plaza. Even thinking of Pantip Plaza gets me nostalgic, as I used to spend at least a day of my holiday roaming around this mall. If you are a IT nut, like most of us are, then Pantip Plaza is the place, a Mecca for all of Bangkok’s computer users (I must add it must be the hub for all of South East Asia IT users) as well as tourists. For me a trip to Bangkok is incomplete without visiting Pantip Plaza.

Here you will find more than five floors of the most competitively priced hardware and software in Asia. Rumors are that, it has been the target of several police raids for selling pirated stuff. But after a few hours almost all of them are back in business.

Plenty of software and hardware for PC, Mac and peripherals of all types are

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available for you to window shop or buy. Lots of things that are hard to find in UAE are available and that too at rock bottom prices. This is also a good place to bring any damaged equipment for repair; they are particularly skillful with notebook PCs and printers. Though they may not be as skillful with Apple stuff as they are with the Wintel world. Once I have done my browsing at the shops on the first two floors, I straight away hit the Apple store on the 3rd floor. Though this is not a true Apple store, I found the range of products quite amazing. Almost everything that is released in US is available immediately. I guess Thailand gets Apple products faster than other parts of Asia, with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore. Also at Pantip, you could lay your hands on all kinds of older Apple models. There is a floor dedicated to selling second hand stuff. I think I saw a lot of older Apple Macs during one of my visits here.

As soon as you walk into the store, you find some extremely helpful salespeople. Majority of the salespeople I found in this store were women.

They are polite, knowledgeable and extremely helpful.

You could spend hours in the store browsing the net, using the Apple notebooks, iPods.

Practically you can touch and feel all the products in the store. I like the way they treat their customers, never being pushy and at the same time

letting you know that they are there to help you when you need it and the prices are amazing. Though they may not be at par with Hong Kong prices, but very close to Hong Kong prices. My first purchase here was an iPod mini. I just walked in, checked out all the available models of iPods and then picked up a mini.

As soon as the salesperson knew that I was an Apple fan, use an eMac at home and am crazy about Apple, she downloaded almost 100 songs from her personal collection to my mini. I still have those songs.

I think it is the Thai culture, which makes them so friendly and welcoming. This could be felt in the store also. Imagine haggling on the list price of an iPod mini. This could happen only in Thailand. If you are planning a trip to Thailand, then a visit to Pantip Plaza is a must and the 3rd floor where the Apple store is located is a definite must. Not only is Apple present in Pantip Plaza, you could also find iMacs, MacBooks and iPods at MacBook Pros, which again is a big mall but only the 4th and 5th floors are dedicated to IT stuff. This is another great place to browse for Apple stuff. The other IT dedicated malls in Bangkok are Fortune Mall but there is not much of Apple stuff here. If you plan to go to Thailand, I am sure some of you might be planning a holiday to Thailand this summer, then a visit to Pantip plaza 3rd floor is a must.

You will surely enjoy it.

Review

EmiratesMac Reviews In this issue of shuffle, EmiratesMac reviews one of Apple’s latest products, the Apple TV. Is it any good, really?

We continue our look at iPod cases, with Mophie and Belkin cases. In keeping with the theme of this issue, we review the application Podcast Maker, and we also test out Omni Outliner.

FIND MORE ONLINE. You can find more information online and share your views about the items we tested in this issue or anything else on our web site at www.emiratesmac.com.

Apple TV Price 1399AED From Apple Inc. Distributor Apple IMC ME Web www.appleme.ae/ara/apple/ hardware/appletv/

Compared to the iPhone, the launch of the Apple TV was a somber affair. But Apple’s attempt at invading our living rooms is the latest in a long line of attempts by many companies, including Microsoft with their Media Center, to take computers into new areas of our homes. Sure, the Apple TV is not really a computer from the users’ point of view even if it from a hardware point of view contains all the required components. As you probably know, you can stream iTunes content from five computers, and synchronize with one computer. We tested both streaming and syncing and we didn’t have any problems with either way. The connection to our wireless network was also very easy. Apple’s done a great job making the Apple TV easy to use, even for people with little or no computer experience. I can admit I’m not TV and video expert, but to me the quality of the video that the Apple TV played was excellent. We played movies and TV from the iTunes Store, as well as a movie DVD, and it all looked very nice, crisp, with good color. It obviously depends on the type of TV set you have as well as other factors. If you want an easy, straight forward way of enjoying your iTunes content on a TV, the Apple TV is the best way right now to do it, and it’s affordable too. If you want to do more than enjoy iTunes content, then buying a Mac mini is perhaps a better alternative. The Apple TV is a slicker, more integrated solution, but the Mac mini can do more. We tested the 40GB Apple TV model with a Samsung TV and Airport Extreme (802.11n model).

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Belkin Brushed-Metal iPod case Price $29.99 From Belkin Distributor Ashley LLC Web catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_ Id=359316

Cases for iPods come in many types and we review many of them here in shuffle. One of my personal favorites is Belkin’s Clear Acrylic and Brushed-Metal Case (couldn’t they have come up with a better name?).

Belkin’s case has two parts. The first is the clear acrylic part, which covers the back and four sides. A front cover, the brushed-metal part, snaps into place into the back part. It leaves openings for the hold switch, earphones, and the dock connector. Especially the hole for the earphones is pretty tight, and I could see a situation where some plugs don’t fit. It’s not a problem with Apple’s plug, but it may be with some others. The plastic seems pretty thick, but not it doesn’t come in the way and it’s reassuringly protective of the iPod. The case comes in various colors: black, blue, pink, silver, green, and red. And the back cover comes in two versions, one for the slimmer 30GB iPod and one for the thicker 80GB iPod. Has a thin plastic cover over the click wheel which surprisingly doesn’t seem to affect handling at all. Although the case itself seem pretty easy to scratch, at least you’re not getting scratches on your iPod. Some reviewers online have reported that dirt can get in between the case and the iPod and I can see that happening. Perhaps it’s a good idea to take the iPod out once in a while and wipe it down, if you’re really concerned about keeping it pristine. To sum up, this is not a case for you if you need to hang your iPod on your belt, or take it running with you. But this is an excellent case if you, like me, mostly carry the iPod in a bag. It protects the iPod from minor dents and scratches, but at the same time it doesn’t get in the way of the iPods good looks and you operating it.

Mophie Relo Run Price $25 From Mophie Distributor Mophie Web mophie.com/products/relorun/?pod=nano2

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Apple’s iPod nano is a small and sleek MP3 player which many buy to use during exercising. The nano is arguably a better choice than the regular iPod because of its size. But there’s still the problem of where do you put your nano while walking, running, cycling, or whatever type of exercise you’re doing? Mophie is trying to help you out with that with the Relo Run iPod nano case, holder, and armband. The included Relo Base case is a silicone cover that you slide your nano into. There’s a hard plastic cover for the iPods screen. This is a very grip-friendly case that would give good protection to your nano should it be dropped or bumped into something.

It’s not waterproof however, so you still have to be careful with moisture and water. The nano inside the Relo case slips right into the holder on the armband, and it seems to be sitting there really snugly and securely. We put the Relo Run through some pretty tough movements and it didn’t drop the nano, and it didn’t even seem to move in it’s holder, which is good. The armband is wide and elastic, so you should be able to fit it to your arm without any problems. And even under heavy exercise it should stay in place, because it’s designed to be sweat-resistant. Another good aspect of the Relo Run is that the case swivels so you can point your nano in whatever direction you need to, up or down doesn’t matter, just twist it around.

OmniOutliner 3 Price $39.94 (std), $69.96 (pro) From OmniGroup Distributor OmniGroup Web www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/

OmniGroup’s applications are typically of very high quality, in terms of functionality, usability, and stability, and OmniOutliner is no exception. I’ve used OmniOutliner extensively for years for all kinds of uses, from taking notes at meetings, to planning articles, and developing web sites. On the surface it’s an outliner, a seemingly simple task, but dig a bit deeper and it’s much more. It can be a note-taker, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database and more. Sure, it’s limited in most of these areas compared to the specialized applications, but it’s this versatility that makes OmniOutliner special. At the core, OmniOutliner is still an outliner. It makes it fast and easy to enter items, organize them in hierarchies, attach notes, and move them around. You can add columns of specific information, thereby mimicking limited spreadsheet functionality. One little feature I like is that you can add URLs as items in a list. I use it all the time when I plan and research for articles. OmniOutliner comes in two versions. You can find a feature comparison on their site (www. omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/stdvspro/). For most users the most important features you get with the Pro versions are arguably Named Styles and Multiple Saved Templates. For a serious and frequent user those can be very valuable because they make the work with OmniOutliner faster and more flexible. But the Pro version is almost twice as expensive, which for many users is probably hard to justify. OmniOutliner is not a hard application to learn but it has a lot of depth. There are a set of excellent tutorials for OmniOutliner (www.omnigroup.com/ applications/omnioutliner/tutorials/). If you want an application that can help you organize your information, your thoughts, and plan something, OmniOutliner is a great choice.

Podcast Maker Price $29.95 From Lemonz Dream Distributor Lemonz Dream Web www.lemonzdream.com/ podcastmaker/

In other parts of this issue you can find various articles about how to conceive, record, and edit a podcast, whether it’s audio or video. Podcast Maker is an affordable application from Lemonz Dream which gives you an easy way to publish your creations. It’s a very nice Mac application, where you with an intuitive interface enter the details of your podcast episodes, then click to publish them. And if you create your podcast with something like Garageband, Podcast Maker automatically picks up the descriptive information you enter, so it’s already there when you’re ready to publish. You create a new podcast, enter the title, a description, a picture and more. Then you start adding episodes, the actual audio or video files, again with titles and descriptions. Then when you’re finished with that, you upload it all to a server. Podcast Maker gives you a range of options for uploading your podcast so that others can get to them. The simplest way is the (almost) one-click-publishing for .Mac. There’s also support for FTP and SFTP publishing which is also very. Once you’ve set up your FTP account information, to publish a new episode is just one click away. If I must have something to complain about, I’d like Podcast Maker to be able to upload in the background while the user can keep working on new changes, and for it to do several uploads at once. Many FTP clients allows you to do this, where uploads go in a queue. But that’s a small thing really, and Podcast Maker is an excellent application that will let you get your creations out to your audience with the least amount of effort.

EmiratesMac shuffle 23

Peel The Apple Get answers to your Apple tech support questions.

Email techsupport@emiratesmac.com Q: I’ve decided to leave .Mac and go to other alternatives. So I need to get my mail from .Mac to GMail, for example.

I’ve got a lot of mail, so how do I do that?

Send your Apple tech support questions to techsupport@emiratesmac.com. Your questions are answered by Magnus Nystedt, a Certified Apple Help Desk Specialist, with experience of Macs going back to the Mac Plus. Also with over ten years of teaching IT at college and university, he’s in a perfect position to help you sort out your problems. You can reach Magnus at magnus@ nystedt.org or at www. nystedt.org.

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A: This is not a straight forward operation. I’ve done similar things myself in the past and once I tried Mark Lyon’s GMail Loader (marklyon.org/gmail/) which is not for everyone. It requires you to download a few things, install them, and then it’s not a real Mac OS X application so using the GMail Loader will be awkward for some. You can also do this with just Apple’s Mail application. If you select an email and the chose Redirect in the Message menu, Mail will send that email on to the email address you enter. You can also set up a rule (Mail > Preferences > Rules > Add rule) that automates the process some. Add a rule that for “Every message” redirects to your desired email address. Then you can select all emails in a folder, for example, and by selecting “Apply Rules” in the Messages menu, they will all be redirected. In my experience Thunderbird is however a better choice for this. There is a redirect add-on for Thunderbird but it seems to only work in versions of Thunderbird up to 1.5 (www.mozilla.com/en-US/ thunderbird/all-older.html). Get the add on (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/ thunderbird/addon/550), install it, and you can then redirect all emails in a folder to a specific email address. When I’ve done it, it has worked a lot better than Apple’s Mail.

Q: I dont understand how to make my Airport Express bridge!! I bought the new Airport Extreme and it’s working fine, but I want to make my Express bridge. And I dont understand what to do.

A: No problem. Connect to the Express with Airport Utility. In the Airport icon, click the Wireless tab, then in the Wireless mode drop down, select Join a Wireless Network. Enter the details of the network you want the Express to join. That’s it. Your Airport Express should now extend the Airport Extreme network. Keep in mind by doing so you lower the potential speed of the network since the Express is “only” 802.11g while the (new) Extreme is 802.11n.

Q: I use Thunderbird for email. How can I back up my email?

A: All your Thunderbird emails are stored in one folder, so it’s as easy as copying that folder. In Finder, go to your home directory >Library > Thunderbird > Profiles. There is probably just one folder there, with a strange name, something like “8hhhttsp.default”.

Open that folder and you should see a folder called “Mail” inside of it. All you need to do now is to copy that folder to another hard drive, burn it to a disc, or even perhaps upload it to a server online. Whichever way you do your backups normally. It may be a good idea to compress it before copying it.

You can do that by right clicking on the folder and clicking on “Create archive of...”.

Switcher Interview by istara

Weaving The Web

>>

http://discussions.apple.com

Apple Support Discussions

Klaus Lovgreen 233-45-6544

Q: Why did you switch? What triggered the decision?

A: I was impressed with the design and was fed up with Windows always hanging. The fact that the new Macs were able to run Windows gave me the comfort to switch as I could just run Windows if I needed it.

Q: How did you find the Mac to start with?

A: Very easy and intuitive to use - I faced no problems at all.

Q: What were the best things about it?

A: It generally just works and you can focus on what you are trying to do on your machine instead of spending a lot of time figuring out why something is not working and patching.

Switcher

Q: What did you find difficult?

A: Converting all media to Mac friendly formats - not really difficult - but time consuming.

http://www.apple-history.com/

Apple History

Q: Do you still use Windows at all?

A: Not unless I really have to - which has been a while now.

Q: Would you ever switch back?

A: Not unless Apple suddenly loses it completely or Windows dramatically outperforms OSX - both scenarios highly unlikely.

http://www.macarabia.net/

MacArabia

Q: What would your advice be for other Windows users considering switching?

A: Just try it out - and if you are not impressed with OS X at least you will have a really pretty Windows box running it better than most PCs.

http://www.thinksecret.com/

ThinkSecret

EmiratesMac shuffle 25

Photoshop Tutorial: iPod Nano

by Zaid Sticking with this month’s shuffle theme, we have thought of using Photoshop tools to draw an iPod Nano. We shall start with an existing Photoshop document and add necessary iPod features to bring it to life. Please download iPod Nano.psd from www.emiratesmac.com/newslet-

ter/resources/july2007/ipod_nano.psd.

Zaid Al-Hilali is an Adobe Certified Instructor operating from Dubai. You can reach him on +971 50 736 2306. You can also find him hanging out at www. emiratesmac.com and www.digitalmediame.com

STEP 1 We will start by applying a rounded edges effect to the Nano so it appears as three dimensional. In the Layers Palette, target Base layer, then choose from the menu Layer > New > Layer‚ type “right edge” in the Name field when the New Layer window displays then click OK. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select right edge of the iPod but make it extends beyond the edge (see image).

26 EmiratesMac shuffle

STEP 2 Reset foreground and background colors to the default Black and White, then pick Gradient Tool. Make sure your gradient settings in the Option bar are Foreground to Background and Linear gradient is chosen. In the “right edge” layer, Drag with Gradient tool from right to left within the selected area, you should have black on the right side.

Tutorial

STEP 3 From the menu Select > Deselect . From the menu Layer > Create Clipping Mask to hide any unwanted areas in the “right edge” layer. While still in the same layer, choose Multiply from the Blending mode drop list. Reduce layer opacity if necessary, I have made it as Opacity: 80%

STEP 5 I have left few ruler guides for you, to reveal them visit the menu View > Show > Guides. We will use the outer guides to draw iPod’s click wheel. Create a new Layer and name it “white circle” (to create a new layer follow STEP ONE above) Choose the Elliptical Tool. Hold the Shift key down to make a perfect circle then start drawing a circular selection from the top left outer guides corner down until your selection reaches the outer right guide.

STEP 4 We need to mirror the curve effect to the left edge this time. From the menu Layer > Duplicate Layer then name your new layer “left edge”.

Use Move Tool drag the resulted duplicate to the left side of your iPod while holding the Shift key on your keyboard to constrain your movement. Last but not least, from the menu Edit > Transform > Rotate 180 to get the needed mirroring. Adjust left edge effect if necessary by dragging the effect further right or left.

STEP 6 From menu Edit > Fill, choose White from the Use drop menu for contents filling and untick the Preserve Transparency check box and click OK. Deselect before proceeding to the next step from the menu Select > Deselect.

EmiratesMac shuffle 27

STEP 7 This time is the small Click button in the middle.

Create a new Layer and name it “button”, then use Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw a perfect circle, hold Shift key and drag a selection from the top left corner of the inner guides to the right inner guide. To fill this button with the same color of the iPod body, use the Eye dropper tool and click on the middle of iPod body. The iPod green color now shows as Foreground color.

STEP 8 While the button selection still active, we will fill it with green. From the menu Edit > Fill and choose there Foreground color from the Use drop menu. Deselect and hide guides to remove any screen clutter. Since the “button” layer is still selected, we will apply an effect to it. From menu Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay, choose Screen for Blend Mode, reduce Opacity to 32%, and change angle direction to 124 and Click OK.

Want to advertise in shuffle?

STEP 9 Click on the Base layer to target it, from the menu Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow, reduce opacity to 32% and change Angle to 124 then click OK. Last thing left is to display the screen that I copied from and Apple advertisement and dial marks just click on the Eye box in the Layers Palette beside the Layers set “Touch wheel Type”.

28 EmiratesMac shuffle

T

his newsletter is the only publication in the United Arab Emirates that is dedicated to Apple products, such as Macs and iPods. By advertising in shuffle you reach a dedicated audience of Mac and iPod users. We strive to make shuffle a high-quality newsletter that people will want to read because it’s so good. It’s written and produced by EmiratesMac User Group Members. Wouldn’t you want to be associated with that?

If you’re interested in sponsoring shuffle, or buying advertising space, contact Crystal at +971508171164 or crystal@emiratesmac.com to request our Media Kit.

Recipe: Easy Swedish Apple Pie

by Crystal This is as the name says, an easy apple pie. In the summer heat, there is nothing better than warm apple pie, with a big scoop of some good cold vanilla ice cream. This pie will take around 20 minutes to prepare, 45 minutes to cook, and it makes eight servings.

Ingredients 1.5 Pounds Granny Smith Apples- peeled, cored and sliced 1 tablespoon Sugar 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Flour 1 teaspoon Cinnamon 3/4 cup melted Butter 1 Egg 1 Ready made piecrust.

Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Arrange ready-made piecrust in a pie plate.

3. Toss apples with 1 tablespoon of sugar, and arrange them into the prepared pie plate. Thoroughly mix together 1 cup of sugar with the flour, cinnamon, butter, and egg. Spread this

evenly over the top of the pie.

4. Bake in preheated oven until the apples have cooked and the topping is golden brown, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Crystal is the founder and editor of EmiratesBaby.com. She writes about various kinds of issues of interest to parents in the UAE. Crystal will be bringing us a new recipie based on apples in each edition of the newsletter. She promises it will be an exciting and mouth-watering mix of dessert, main courses, snacks, and more.

EmiratesMac shuffle 29

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To Join: www.emiratesmac.com/index.php?page=usergroup

Join EMUG

•

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EmiratesMac User Group is a non-profit, community organization which aims to spread knowledge about Apple products in the United Arab Emirates, and increase the knowledge and skills of its members.

Presently, membership in EmiratesMac User Group is 150 Dirhams per year.

Membership benefits and special offers are subject to change at any time and will be reviewed annually by EmiratesMac and participating businesses.

To see the latest details, go to www.emiratesmac.com/index. php?page=usergroup.

Memberships are renewed on an annual basis and the membership period is January to Decemeber. New membership cards will be issued each January for members who wish to remain in EMUG. After applying and paying for a membership, you can pick up your membership card at an EMUG meeting or other event.

t Want to meet other Apple users? t Want to learn more about your Mac, iPod, Apple TV or iPhone? t Want to help others with their problems? t Want to have some fun? t Want to save some money on your Apple purchases?

Membership Benefits • The right to come to EMUG meetings.

• The right to participate in members-only events, and discounts at select EmiratesMac-organized events.

• Access to a dedicated discussion forum on www.EmiratesMac.com.

• The right to submit articles for publication in this newsletter.

• Discounts at select businesses in the UAE. See our site for the most up to date information (www.emiratesmac.com/index.php?page=usergroup).

For the latest meeting information, check the site: www.emiratesmac.com/forums/about-emug/2125-meeting-location-directions.html EmiratesMac shuffle 31