Hello There Macintosh User!
If you are getting this email you have sometime been a client of mine — Thank you for your past custom!
1. iPhone/iPad: Skype now has video calling. Free. Word Lens translates from Spanish to English and vice versa when snap a picture of the words you need translated and giving you a text translation of the text in the picture! Amazing. $5 each way. Things is a bit pricey at $12.99 for the iPhone and $23.99 for the iPad, but I have spoken to one person who loves it. It has won awards for ease of use. Get yourself organised! Penultimate lets you draw on the screen with your finger to write notes, draw pics or plans etc then email or SMS them to anyone. $1.19 Learners Test for learning the driver’s test. Free Beachsafe has info on over 11,00 Aussie beaches, tides, swell, etc. Free Intelligent Life is a free quality magazine from the English Economist. Long articles, not much multimedia bling.
2. The Mac App Store Opens: Once you have updated to 10.6.6 you will find an extra app in your Applications folder and also in the Dock. This is the App Store for computers. Unlike the iTunes App Store it is a stand-alone app and the intention seems to be to make buying, downloading and installing applications as simple as is it on iPhones/iPads, rather than the varied ways that getting a new program onto your computer is at present. Currently some are on CDs, some are downloaded and offer no instructions to install and some just seem to disappear when they are downloaded! I see heaps of re-downloaded installers in the Downloads folder of the machines I visit as people wonder why it didn’t work and click to download it again, unaware that they have already got the installer but must perform additional tasks to get it working. The App Store on the other hand, following the iTunes Store model, does everything for you. You click to but the app and everything else is done for you including putting the app into the Dock with a cool animation. Makes a lot of sense — and dollars!
3. faceTop: On the Mac App Store is faceTop which turns your Facebook page into your desktop! For those of us who check our Facebook page regularly… $2.49 http://www.xinfinite.nl/facetop.html 4. Convert Audio Files: All2MP3 will convert any type of audio files to MP3 for free. http://www.tresrrr.com/All2MP3/ENGLISH.html 5. Local Film and TV School Open Day: Mark Piper’s Byron Bay Film and television School which opened in July 2010 and has been very successful, is having an open day on Saturday 22 January between midday and 6pm. The third semester begins at the end of the month. More info from the website. http://markpiper.com/
6. Poor Man’s Photoshop?: Acorn will do much of what the vastly more complicated image editing program does, but for $50! It’s focus is on simplicity and ease of use and lets face it, most people only ever use 10% of Photoshop‘s capabilities anyway. http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
7. Evernote: Notes and synching them with your various devices is a common aim and these guys reckon they have it licked — for free! More complex synching uses the premium version for $5 per account per month, but you most likely don’t need it! Watch the video on their home page to see if it’s for you. http://www.evernote.com/
8. RoboPostman: This $20 program sends personalised emails to your address list so they all get their name and any other relevant details in the email so each person gets a customized, personalized email message. http://www.koingosw.com/products/robopostman.php
9. Clam XAV Antivirus: There seem to be an ever increasing amount of ‘threats’ reported and I get a lot of enquiries about protection so I thought I would re-mention Clam antivirus. This is free Open Source software that you download and install into Applications. When you feel threatened you open it, click the button to Update Definitions to the latest versions, select you Home folder and click the Start Scan button. It will tell you if there is anything untoward installed on your Mac. Usually its a No… http://clamxav.com/
10. A Reminder of My Rates: I charge $88 per hour including GST. No call-out fee or travel charge in the Byron Shire. Half hour minimum. Telephone support costs the same in 15 minute increments. Email support is still free! Please include plenty of detail in your email inquiries. Serving the Byron Macintosh community for over 10 years.
Items for Sale is a free monthly service for my Mailing List. If you want to list something for sale send me the full description/specifications and contact details. Goes out around 14th of the month. Until next time, Thank you Tommi ;>)
Mr Macintosh Tom Hain http://www.mrmacintosh.com.au PO Box 1040 Byron Bay NSW 2481 6685 5504 041 840 8869