The Official Journal of the
Volume 23.09 September 2006 1 Meetings Update
ALL MEETINGS ARE HELD AT: (unless otherwise indicated) Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington When: Monday 25 September, 2006 Time: 7.10 pm till 9.30pm (doors open 6.50pm)
The first part of the September meeting will have new member Gabrielle Appleton, along with long time member David Denton, demonstrating how to sell a Spa Bath on the internet auction site, TradeMe along with a general demonstration of online shopping. We will follow suppper with the Mac Questions and Answers session as has now become the norm and those wishing to re- main for this can stay until all the questions are answered. Kapiti Area Meeting For those members living at or near the Paraparaumu area, our next Kapiti meet- ing will be at the Rita King Cottage at St Marks Church in Rosetta Road, Raumati on Monday 2 October 2006. This meeting will look at a similar topic as announced above for the Wellington meeting. Digital Video Users Group 7–9.30pm, Monday 16th October 2006 at Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington. Mac Help Desk 7–9.30pm, Monday 9th October at Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington. New Media Group Check
Hi folks. We will look at continuing this format for future Help Desk meet- Meet and Greet Af- ings, covering a different topic each ternoon month. If there is a particular topic In case you haven’t you would like to cover, please let a received the e-mail committee member know and we’ll invitation, we are run- include it in the schedule if there is ning a social get-together for mem- suffi cient interest. One of the topics bers and their families at Turnbull we are likely to cover as part of this House this Saturday afternoon (23 is general Macintosh basics. September), from 3 to 5 pm. New iMacs and Mac Minis Come along and bring your children Apple have released updated ver- and grandchildren for an afternoon sions of iMac and Mac Mini. I won’t of fun, food and gadgets. Got a new go into full details here - see the toy? Or just willing to let others have article elsewhere in this issue. the chance for a ‘hands on’ with you old favourite gadgets? We’d love you New Zealand price and availability to bring along the tools (or toys) you (all prices include GST): like to use. A great way to ask about • The Mac Mini costs about $1200 others experience of different mod- (1.66 GHz) or $1600 (1.83 GHz) and els and options without the sales- the new models should be available man stress. And a great afternoon in one to two weeks. tea and totally entertained kids as well! We’ll be screening a movie for • The iMac costs about $2000 for the kids. the new entry level 17” model with fewer features, $2400 for the fully Mac Help Desk featured 17” model, $3000 for the We’re trying something a little dif- 20” model and $3900 for the new ferent next month. At the next Mac 24” model. The 17” and 20” models Help Desk meeting (9th October, 7 are already available, the arrival of to 9:30 pm) we will be running two the 24” model is unknown at this sessions: a general discussion and stage. questions/answers (as normal) plus New iPods a mini-workshop looking at Microsoft Offi ce in detail for about half of the All of the iPod models have been meeting. Any members who would revamped. like to learn more about Microsoft The iPod Shuffl e has changed shape Offi ce are welcome to attend. After and is even smaller than before. It is the Offi ce session you are welcome now only available as a 1 GB model to join the main group for questions which clips onto a pocket or other and answers. piece of clothing, costing $149.
2 3 The iPod Nano now includes 2 GB, any CDs which play music continu- 4 GB and 8 GB models, with a new ously over the track boundaries, case design (hopefully more robust), previous versions of iTunes would brighter screen, longer battery life, always pause briefly at the change and the 4 GB model is available in of track, which is very disconcert- multiple case colours. Prices are ing if you are listening to something $289, $389 or $489 respectively. which is supposed to be continuous. The new version sounds perfect and The full size iPod with 30 GB hard I’ve been listening to some of my drive has got cheaper ($489), and favourite albums again. the high end model has moved up to an 80 GB hard drive ($649) with The gapless playback feature is also even longer battery life. There are supported on the new iPod models, also some new features, including and via a firmware update if you the ability to search the library even have the previous “5th generation” faster by going quickly to a letter of iPod model (30 or 60 GB hard drive the alphabet. with video display). Unfortunately it is not available for earlier iPod mod- Availability is variable. Some iPod els, which will still suffer from gaps Nanos are available now, but the between songs. other models may not be here in quantity for a couple of weeks. Many of the new iTunes 7 features are relating to the iTunes store, iTunes 7 which still isn’t available in New A new version of iTunes was released Zealand, and there isn’t any hint along with the new iPods. It is avail- when or even if we will get one. able as a free download from Apple, Apple are now selling movies on or via Software Update. Some of the the iTunes store in the USA and new features require also installing have improved the quality of video the latest version of QuickTime in TV shows which can be purchased (7.1.3). there. Another new feature is that iTunes can download album covers The user interface has changed from the iTunes store. yet again, moving some elements around and hiding some features That’s all, folks! in menus which were previously If you wish to contact me, your best available on easily accessed but- option is to send E-Mail to
by Frank Petrie If you look through the tool chest of have also been a number of bug practically any podcaster or vidcast- fixes and the inclusion of a much er that they all have one tool that requested feature by AHP users who use AHP with RadioShark, to help you fine tune even further.According to Rogue Amoeba’s press release, all this required “the biggest upgrade to the audio hi- jacker subsystem since the they uniformly consider indispens- rewrite for Audio Hijack Pro 1.” able - Audio Hijack Pro. With Audio Hijack Pro you can record the audio The press release puts it as succinct- of any source application’s sounds. ly as possible. “The default mode Including Skype and iChat conver- for Audio Hijack has always been to sations. Unfortunately, to record a capture audio output streams, typi- two-way conversation takes a few cally the first such stream in an ap- steps. plication. Thus, you play something in RealPlayer, Audio Hijack picks the “Despite its popularity as a Skype first audio output stream, and re- and iChat recorder, Audio Hijack cords it. Simple and effective. Pro was never really designed for the task. Because of this, setting it “But then you try to record a Skype up to simply “Record iChat” took a call, there are both input and output dozen or so steps. It worked, but it audio streams. Your caller’s audio should be much simpler. exists as an audio output, but your voice only exists as audio input An so, for v2.7, we’ve simplified it (and isn’t played locally). Audio down to the following: Hijack Pro thus ends up being blind Step 1. Create a new session for to your voice, and can only hear iChat, Skype, or Gizmo Project the caller. Step 2. Click Record” “To fix this, we added a new mode Now, wipe that smile off of your face to the hijacker in 2.7, called Mega- and read on. Mix. Simply put, MegaMix will cap- ture and mix every audio input and The Juice output stream from an application, all together. Thus if you have a con- For most people, the above is all ference call in iChat, it will correctly you really need to know. But there
4 5 record your voice as well as all other cutting down on post-production and parties involved. allow you to upload your finished podcasts/vidcasts in record time. “MegaMix is automatically enabled for new iChat, Skype, and Gizmo Cosmetically, you have the ‘MegaMix’ Project sessions, and can be enabled pane, which you access by clicking manually for other applications (or the ‘Advanced’ button in the Hijack existing sessions) through the Ad- window. And there’s now a sheet vanced Hijacking Options dialog.” that comes down to show you your
So, you want to do a podcast inter- recording in QuickTime format, al- viewing Dennis Sellers? Now, you lowing you to skip forward and back, don’t have to spend your pre-pro- anywhere in the entire recording duction time testing your rig. You allowing you to review certain sec- can spend it focusing on content for tions of your recording. the interview. And you can record in And, last but not least, they’ve stereo or mono. All with one click. updated the tuning to mimic what There is also a new toolbar but- the RadioShark software does. The ton, “Open In Editor”, allowing you frequency text is now editable, al- to quickly open recordings in the lowing you to super-fine tune the audio editor of your choice (set via Shark. If the station doesn’t come the Preferences window). All of the in well on 89.8 FM or 89.9 FM, you above will save you lots of time By can now try 89.85 FM.
6 7 The Rind only a rudimentary knowledge of production, will now be able to I can’t attest to the upgrade to the produce more professional program- RadioShark controls, as I don’t own ming without all those years of col- a Shark, myself. If you have one, lege (what was I thinking!?!). post your opinions in the ‘Com- ments’ section. Rogue Amoeba If you are serious about taking your states that this should prevent the podcast to the next level, you must rare, annoying roar that was occa- upgrade. And if you don’t already sionally heard. own a copy ... The Pits RATING: 9 out of 10 Comcast. The weakest link in the Product: Audio Hijack Pro v2.7 chain. Company: Rogue Amoeba
Illot Theatre, Wellington Town Hall 4:30 - 6:00 PM Saturday 30 September 2006 www.moviefest.org.nz
Admission by Gold Coin Donation Proudly Sponsored by: VISIT THE MOVIEFEST 2006 WEBSITE for more details
Finalists Screenings at 10.00am and 1.00pm
6 7 Comic Life Is For More Than Comics
By Bill Davies A product bundled with all new con- crop it first in Photoshop. It all just sumer Macs in 2006 is a little ap- works so seamlessly. (I should add plication called ComicLife. At first I that ComicLife does do multi-page dismissed this product as a gimmick layouts if you do want to write a application with little value to me, comic book, but I'm happy just us- but then one day I decided to try ing it for fliers.) playing with it. ComicLife then lets you resize panes I'm here to report that ComicLife is (and their associated graphics) just addicting. And I'm not using it to by dragging. Add text by using the make comics. For anyone who needs text bubble tool. Drag it, rotate it, to make a single-page flyer that con- re-size it. You have your flier. tains a lot of graphics, ComicLife is just about the perfect tool. You can Is this product suitable for a legal start by choosing a template, which brief or a filing with the Securities contains panes just like you would & Exchange Commission? No. That's see in a comic book. The twist here not the point. The point is that if you is that each of those panes on the think this product is just for making page can receive a graphic just by comic books, you're sorely mistaken. dragging a graphic on top of it. So I've done two birthday invitations and literally you can choose a template a flier for a fundraiser, and the results with five panes, drag a picture to are just so much more interesting each of the five panes, the graphic than anything I've ever seen done wraps inside of each pane and auto- with Appleworks or Microsoft Word. If matically crops itself. Then you add you thought you never had the talent some text by dragging out a text box, to design an interesting flier using and you're done. your own photographs, it is time to try ComicLife. Once your flier is done, Can you do more professional fliers in you can publish it to .Mac or export InDesign or perhaps Pages? Maybe, it to Quicktime, iPhoto, or to a JPEG but for me, I don't need or want a or TIFF. $600 program just to make a simple flier. And ComicLife is so completely For more information, buy a new Mac-like, letting me just drag in my Mac, or visit www.plasq.com. The graphics or pull them in from my product costs a whopping US$24.95 iPhoto library. (You can also capture if you don't get it free on your Mac. from your iSight camera.) I don't (c) 2006 Bill Davies, MacNexus, have to go to the menu and insert the Sacramento Macintosh User a graphic or object. I don't have to Group
8 9 — For Legal Advice, Service, and Results
Court cases •Mac Users Since 1983 Business Matters Tribunal cases •Member of MacLaw Property Law Employment Contracts Criminal Taxation Traffic JOHN DEAN Insolvency Family Law LAW OFFICE Family Trusts Wills & Estates Resource Law Tel: 04-472-9369 7/114 Lambton Quay P.O. Box 10-107 • Fax: 04-473-0784 E-mail: [email protected] LAWLINE Wellington, New Zealand 0900-5-8887
8 9 Random Bytes
Tables Spreadsheet tive, lists or reports and even add Available some photos and PDF documents to present your data with a great visual Daniel Schwill released the Tables impact. Learn more spreadsheet application last week. You can create your own named The spreadsheet supports cell for- styles in Tables to quickly assign matting, placed graphics and PDF the same formatting properties to documents, data organization, other cells and also receive a uniform look for your docu- ment. Tables requires Mac OS X “Panther” version 10.3.9 and above. Tabels 1.0 is priced at US$49, and is available for down- load at the Tables Web site
10 11 and site preference for user-defined the older Core Duo chip; Macworld’s style sheets. But OmniWeb 5.5 isn’t benchmarks rated a 10 percent im- about features - the real news is that provement. My guess is that the it’s now a universal binary, providing new iMacs with the Core 2 Duo will better performance on Intel-based be faster, perhaps noticeably so in Macs, and it’s based on a slightly some tasks, but not so much that it customized version of Apple’s would make sense to upgrade from WebKit browser engine framework, an existing Core Duo-based iMac to which means greatly improved Web a new Core 2 Duo-based model. site compatibility, rendering perfor- However, the second notable change mance, and stability. in the iMac line may be sufficiently In short, OmniWeb should now per- compelling to cause even a recent form like Safari, which also relies on iMac purchaser to consider trading WebKit. The $30 OmniWeb 5.5 re- up to a new model. That’s because quires Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, is a the top-of-the-line iMac now comes free update for owners of OmniWeb with a built-in 24-inch widescreen 5.x, and is a 10.1 MB download. display running at 1920 by 1200 pix- els (compare that with 1440 by 900 iMac Line Adds Core 2 Duo for the 17-inch display and 1680 by Chip, 24-inch Model 1050 for the 20-inch model). The by Adam C. Engst 24-inch display also offers a wider
10 11 Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT) in favor models includes a built-in iSight of the Intel GMA 950 (in the 1.83 camera, three USB 2.0 ports, two GHz 17-inch iMac) or the ATI Radeon FireWire ports, Gigabit Ethernet, X1600 (in the 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac mini-DVI out, built-in stereo speak- and the 20-inch iMac). Instead of a ers, a built-in microphone, optical pair of FireWire 400 ports, the 24- digital audio in/out jacks, Mac OS inch iMac features one FireWire 400 X 10.4 Tiger, and iLife ‘06. port and one FireWire 800 port. It Mac mini Speed Bumped also doubles the power of its internal digital amplifier from 12 watts in the Although the also-updated Mac mini 17- and 20-inch iMacs to 24 watts. doesn’t share the iMac’s switch to the Core 2 Duo chip, Apple has A Plethora of Possibilities speed-bumped the low-end Mac, Configuring an iMac is a bit more dropping the Intel Core Solo pro- confusing than in the past, since cessor entirely while keeping prices the low-end 1.83 GHz 17-inch at their previous level. The US$800 iMac, priced at only $1,000, can be Mac mini moves from a 1.66 GHz configured only with more RAM (512 Core Duo processor to a 1.83 GHz MB standard, up to 2 GB), with an Core Duo processor, and the $600 Apple Remote, and with a modem. It model drops its 1.5 GHz Core Solo comes standard with a Combo drive, processor in favor of a dual-core a 160 GB hard drive, Intel GMA 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor. All 950 graphics processor, and AirPort other specs remain the same. Extreme, but not Bluetooth. This basic configuration was introduced Parallels Desktop Updated in July 2006 for education buyers; for Mac Pro and Leopard it’s now available to anyone (and it by Mark H. Anbinder still costs US$900 for educational
12 13 “You can take a movie, download it Controllable by the standard Apple to a computer, put it on your ipod. remote, the iTV will come with an But what about that big flat screen updated version of the Front Row TV you just bought?” asked Jobs. interface that shares Front Row’s “You need a box to drive that big smooth 3D graphics, but differs in screen TV. How’s the box going to that it has a menu on the right side talk to the computer? Do I want of the screen. Jobs demonstrated to string cables throughout my it, going into the Movies menu and house? So I’m going to talk to it scrolling through floating artwork on using wireless network, to get the the left-hand side. content from the computer to the box, from the box to the TV.”
iTV will allow music, TV shows, and movies residing on a computer “Pretty cool, huh? These are the to play on a television in another same files, same exact files, pay- part of the house with what Jobs ing on my iPod, my computer and describes as instantaneous access. my flat screen TV,” said Jobs. It is slated to ship during the first quarter of 2007 and apparently Approximately half the size of the it’ll work with both iTunes on both Mac mini, the iTV will feature Eth- PCs and Macs, and will retail for ernet, 802.11g, USB ports, compo- US$299. nent video, optical audio, and HDMI ports.
14 15 WelMac Kids
Hi! My name is Kate, I’m 10 years old you can design and decorate. You get and we have a NEW Mac in our fam- 500 trollars (troll money) to start off ily! It’s been a really exciting weekend with and you can earn more by play- getting a new 20 inch iMac. The screen ing games. is HUGE! I use our Mac heaps and I Do you love Disney and the Disney really like to make things on it. I’m channel? into scrapbooking, and I have a few websites I like to create things on and http://disney.go.com/ print out. A great place to start for all you girls, is: http://www.everythinggirl.com This is the ultimate site for everything Disney. You can explore the Disney channel, inside Kids Island where there are heaps of games to play. They all use the Macromedia Flash Player and are quite quick to load (We have This is one of my favourite websites broadband). because there are lots of things you can earn like charms, digipoints and Are you subscribing to Tracy Beaker even your own powerpet! There magazine? This is a must read if you are links to a lot of Mattel sites like are a Jaqueline Wilson fan. Barbie.com and the Polly Pocket http://www.totallytracybeaker.com website. There are lots of links to stuff you can make and print. Another great place for getting a vir- tual person, is: http://www.trollz.com
The website is really cool and has heaps of activities to make and print like a fashion card and a board game and even your own magazine cover. You need a password to enter the website and this issues one is “holly- At this site, you can create your very wood”. (Just so you can check it out) own Troll which you can personalise Hope you have fun with these sites. with different hairstyles and clothes. Why not email in some of your faves You also get your own Troll pad that for next month?
14 15 PO Box 6642, Marion Square Wellington, New Zealand
Meetings held 7.10 pm last Monday every month January - November Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington
The Wellington Macintosh Society Incorporated is a non- The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily profit organisation formed in April 1984 with the following the same as the Editor or those of the Wellington objectives: Macintosh Society Inc. as a whole. Various trademarks • To exchange and disseminate information among and tradenames used in this magazine are the property the members concerning the computer arts and of someone else. They know who they are. Copyright sciences. remains with the owner at all times. • To publish books, newsletters, magazines and Advertising rates are (members): $35 per full page; periodicals for the benefit and education of the $20 half (non-members): $50 per full page; $35 per members and the general public. half full page (Vert). For more details, please contact • To conduct and sponsor seminars, lectures and the Editor courses relating to the computer arts and sciences. Executive Members Home Ph No. • To provide technical assistance to members of the Patron Steve Wozniak group. President David Empson 475-9755 • To seek privileges and discounts for members. Vice-President Joseph Booth 526-5141 Subscriptions Secretary/Editor Graeme Moffatt (04) 905-6321 Subscriptions are $30 per year from date of joining. Treasurer Mike Griffin (04) 388-7145 Website: http://www.welmac.org.nz WelMac Info Jim Adams 232-4270 Email: [email protected] Membership Secretary Shane Gordine 970-1730 (email addresses for committee members are available on the website) Committee Ed Hintz 233-9759 Please contact the WelMac Information Officer for all David Denton 499-1827 WelMac enquiries, such as meeting information and Kate Le Comte N/A other society activities. Membership enquiries should be Lesley O'Cain N/A directed to Membership Secretary. Peter Kirby 478-5386 Gabrielle Appleton