September 27th Meeting Highlights
By Keith Cooper
September’s Fingerlakes MUG meeting was a fun time. Courtesy of the Watkins elementary
school we had a lab with AirPort Internet connectivity, on site projection, even
access to some iBooks for hands on interactivity.
Kathy started out with a quick iChat demo showing off a new OSX Jaguar (v. 10.2.x)
technology called Rendezvous, which recognized the local
iChat users on the network allowing us to chat together. Since iChat also accesses
the AOL Instant Messenger network, I was able to chat with my daughter and some colleagues
at the same time.
We had planned a video conferencing demonstration but the OS X ready software that
is available today is not quite ready for prime time.
Next we took a quick tour of .Mac and explored the options you get for your $100
annual subscription to the next generation of iTools. We looked at webhosting, backup,
virus protection and iDisk capabilities of the new service. Check it out at http://www.mac.com
Then we moved on to iCal. Kathy demonstrated how you can subscribe to public calendars
or even publish your own. I posted my school schedule
to .Mac and Kathy showed us all how easy it is to subscribe to it. You can find out
more at http://www.apple.com/ical and find
a list of public calendars at http://www.apple.com/ical/library
We lamented that while iCal should synch to our other devices using Apple’s promised
iSynch software, iSynch was not yet available. Little did we know that this morning
would bring the release of the iSynch beta. Download it today at http://www.apple.com/isync
Our only other criticism of iCal (which I have found to be the best calendar app
I’ve used) is that we would like to have more color available to delineate our separate
calendars. Hopefully Apple will incorporate its color picker into the next edition
of iCal.
Kathy then showed us Address Book’s new makeover in Jaguar. Address Book is more
customizable and responsive. It’s also less confining and friendlier to look at.
Keith shared an inexpensive shareware solution to Microsoft’s pricy Office package.
A java-based application called ThinkFree Office. Its ability to open many MS Office
documents including PowerPoint makes it an attractive alternative. Find out more
at http://www.thinkfree.com
We spent the rest of the meeting discussing Jaguar’s features (including a short
discussion about the proper pronunciation of the word). Kathy, Keith, and I spent
much of the time chatting on iChat and sharing files back and forth. It was nice
to have online access at our fingertips, especially when
Jaguar is featured as many of its key features are Internet-centric.
Special thanks to Marianne, Bob and Watkins Central Schools for hosting us this month.
See you at next month’s meeting.
Keith
Finger Lakes Macintosh User Group
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