The CapMac Blog

For March’s CapMac Advanced Photography SIG meeting we will have a very special guest, world-class sports photographer, Elizabeth Kreutz will be speaking to our group about her documentary project with Lance Armstrong. Liz is the photographer behind the book Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal, a book chronicling Lance Armstrong return to the sport of cycling. Liz has also photographed the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Her work has graced the pages of numerous magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Texas Monthly, and Tour. She has also worked as a freelance photographer for Triathlete Magazine, The Austin-American Statesman, and Carmichael Training Systems.

Next Meeting: Thursday, March 25, 6:30-9:00 PM
Location: Episcopal Church of the Resurrection – Parish Hall
Address: 2200 Justin Lane (map)
Note that the Parish Hall is East of the church building and its parking lot is accessed from Justin Lane. The parking lot entrance is directly across from where Muroc St. intersects Justin Lane.

This event is free and open to the public. Bring your friends! Hope to see you there!

Our own Nancy Gravley was interviewed by Chuck Joiner of MacVoices TV on the floor of the Macworld 2010 Expo in San Francisco.

To see more of Chuck Joiner’s interviews from Macworld 2010 and other interviews and podcasts of interest to the Mac community, visit MacVoices TV.

The Apple Store at Barton Creek has issued the following invitation.

We’ll be hosting a Meet the Filmmaker event in our store.  The details are below, and there is no need to register.  This event will be included in the iTunes Meet the Filmmaker podcast (http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/meet-the-filmmaker/id301899522).  Also we’ll be confirming more events in the next few days, so check www.apple.com/bartoncreek for any updates.

CapMac is here to help.  Between 6:00 and 6:45 PM, prior to the 7:00 PM start of our General Meeting this coming Tuesday, March 9th, CapMac tech specialists will be available in the back of the room to answer your Mac questions or direct you to on-line sources to help you solve problems, or answer questions about our new server.

We are not going to work on your machines, but help solve those irritating problems that you don’t how to solve.

There will be a tip jar and all donations will go into the CapMac treasury.

From today’s Mac Observer -

IDG has posted videos of most of the major presentations and keynotes from Macworld Expo 2010 at the company’s Web site, and even more on its YouTube channel, including the iPad session, the highly regarded David Pogue keynote presentation, and John “Daring Fireball” Gruber’s presentation. You’ll also find a score or so of video interviews and other videos from this year’s Macworld on the on YouTube.

Click on this link and it will take you to the TMO article which will let you link to all the presentations.

I just posted a 20% discount for everything that iStock photo sells in the Members Only section on the CapMac forums.  Check out iStock photo.  There are wonderful, professional photos available there, including some from our own members.

This past Friday, CapMac President Nancy Gravley and Server Administrators Michael Sidoric and Craig Gowens took the new CapMac MacMini server to our co-location host, Midas Networks for installation. The new server is installed; however, CapMac will still be running services off of the old PowerMac G5 server until configuration and testing of the new server is complete. In the coming weeks, keep an eye out for more information as we update and add exciting new features to the CapMac server such as podcasting!

Ken Tooke of Midas Networks and CapMac President Nancy Gravley hold up CapMac's new MacMini server	Nancy Gravley does the honors, setting CapMac's new MacMini server on the rack.
The new MacMini server won't be lonely, sitting above CapMac's PowerMac G5 server and next to a G4 Cube.	Nancy Gravley inspects Mike Sidoric's configuration of the new server's network settings.
Mike Sidoric checks out the metrics of the new MacMini server from a server utility on his iPhone.	Mike Sidoric and Nancy Gravley stand infront of the newly installed server.

This month we have Bryan Chaffin, CapMac member and the managing editor of the Mac Observer. Bryan will be talking about magazine publishing in the digital era as well as his thoughts and musings on the forthcoming iPad.

Every year at Macworld, The Mac Observer hosts an invitation only party that features the Macworld All Star Band.  Alex Suarez took pictures at this year’s party and they are so good that TMO asked permission to publish them on their web site.  You can see Alex’s pictures here.  http://www.macobserver.com/gallery/cirque7set3

And take a look at Alex’s Photography and Technology Blog to see more of his work.  http://www.alexsuarez.com/cirquedumac

I’m heading home in a few minutes,  but a few final thoughts about Macworld, San Francisco, and more products.

Macworld was different from past years in some ways, but in most ways it was not.  Apple was not here, but the people were the same, the events were the same, and the Mac culture was the same.  People were enjoying themselves.  There were lots of events and lots of people.  The attitude was upbeat, the crowds were large and vendors were pleased with the turnout.  On the first day, some of them were sending back to their offices for extra staff to help cover the crowds.

San Franciscans really love to eat well.  They call really strange things barbecue sauce. San Francisco cab drivers are all a little crazy.

PRODUCTS

YAPPER

YAPPER stands for Your APP makER.  This company has been in business for two months and the owners were almost overwhelmed with the interest they were getting at the show. They create an iPhone app for you or your business and get it through the Apple approval process and posted to the App store. It seems incredibly easy to do and you use your own company or organization logo. The regular price is $499, but the show price is $99. CapMac may use this application to make a CapMac iPhone app that allow everyone to have instant access to CapMac news and events. If you want to check it out, their web site is http://yapper.sachmanya.com

NAVIGON 1.5.0 Software

I have covered NAVIGON before and anyone who knows me personally knows that I think this is the greatest iPhone app going because it keeps me from getting lost. You can read my review at The Mac Observer.

NAVIGON AG, has introduced three updated features to it’s GPS system for the iPhone.  The first is an in-app connection to Facebook and Twitter, the second is Panorama View 3D with 3D terrain views powered by NASA data, and the third is personalized route delivery via NAVIGON MyRoutes, an intelligent direction provider.

The connection to Facebook and Twitter allows a user to broadcast current position, destination and ETA without navigation interruption.

The Panorama View 3D uses digitized cartography that delivers an accurate depiction of environment and landscapes using NASA’s height and terrain data, independent from the phone’s data connection.

My Routes analyzes individual driving data and designs customized routes, giving up to 3 choices with distance and ETA displayed in-map for each.

Special pricing is in place until Feb 15. Check their web site.

Power Outlet: U-Socket, Dual Socket/Dual USB 110V

This product won’t be released until the second quarter but can be pre-ordered now at the introductory price of $19.95.

Simply put, once installed you have two USB sockets added to your normal electric  sockets.  The company representative assured me it was very easy to do and that I could do it following the easy instructions and the on-line video.  I said uh-huh out loud and “That’s why God gave me children.” to myself and order three.  These will be auctioned off as soon they arrive.

Scosche

Scosche introduced two new products that will be shipping in early spring with pre-ordering available now.  The first is the flipSYNC – USB 2.0 charge and sync cable for iPod and iPhone.  It attaches to your keychain and flips open for use.  It’s priced at $19.95.

The second is the Docking travel charger with nightlight for iPod and iPhone.  It is priced at $24.99.

The Scosche web site is http://scosche.com/.

I have successfully fulfilled my prescription for a year’s worth of parties.  I did it in 4 days, but the prescription didn’t say when.  Alex has taken some awesome pictures and I have not.  Well, I took some, but they weren’t even close to good, much less awesome, so Alex will post his when he can I won’t post mine at all.

Products of note.  iPhone applications that allow you to send picture postcards.  There were two that I saw.  One is Postage.  It comes in a premium version and in special versions, such as Valentines day.  Another by frog design is called Postcard Express.  frog design also has a free app called tvChatter that lets you keep up with all the discussions that are happening about current TV shows.

Retro Recorder (retrorecorder.com) has an app that “dramatically improves recording quality on your iPhone”.  The app is called ALX.

ShowWX introduced a Laser Pico Projector.  It fits in your hand and projects laser images from an iPod, iPhone, digital camera, or DVD player.  I saw this in a demo and it was amazing.  It would not work for our SIG meetings because it would not project big enough, but the quality of the image and color was perfect.  It will be available in mid March and sells for $550.  You can see it at microvision.com.

PDF2ID is made to work specifically with the iWorks bundle.  It allows you to move any PDF document into Pages, Numbers, or Keynote and edit as needed.

The wifi connection in my hotel is really, really slow.  Reminds me of dial up.  Must have something to do with 35,000 Mac users in town.  Speaking of which, there were only 300 less people in attendance today than there were the first day of last year’s Macworld.  Vendors on the show floor were caught totally off guard and were calling in reinforcement staff to help with the crowds.  There were less give-aways.  No free tote bags at the door, no free pens in all the booths — economy is evident everywhere (there aren’t even free lunches in the press room), but attendees are buying.

The new products I have seen are awesome and I will mention them tomorrow when I have time to pull info together.  This morning we heard David Pogue speak and what a hoot he is.  I had no idea he was such a performer.  He performed several parody songs that I understand are available on uTube.  One makes fun of long waits for phone tech support, another is about wanting an iPhone.  He also held a contest on Twitter for fake iPhone apps and shared some of them – such as an app that lets you watch paint dry.  Ten years ago he wrote a column based on the movie I’t A Wonderful Life in which he starred Steve Jobs instead of George Bailey – showing how bad things would be if there had never been an Apple Computer.  David turned it into a play and had several people act it out on stage.  The part of Steve Jobs was played by the actor LaVar Burton.

The next big event was a preview of six outstanding products.  Again I will talk about them tomorrow, but I will say now that the one thing I have observed about this whole conference is that there are a lot of little companies with innovative products that are really exciting.

Oh yeah, and the TMO party was a blast.