I'm Mac, and so am I..

Final AppleCare Post

I couldn't be happier with the service I received at the Apple Store at Lennox.

New Office Format & Mac compatibility

As I'm sure you've noted by now, with the re-image of the Dell laptops, everyone is using the new Office in the district and you can't read their files on your Mac.  There is a solution, & it is free:  Go to:  http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=&fid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7#viewer

You can download a file converter for free from Microsoft.  Look in the lower right corner for the link.  Sorry I can't seem to find a direct link for it.  If you can't do the install yourself, place a work order for a tech to do it.

The format is not really new- it's been out for a while.

PINNACLE on your Mac

I've been quite frustrated with the way Pinnacle works on my Mac.  I can't use enter to move from entry to entry (10 key).  As a lark, I tried FireFox- problem solved!  I can ten key to my hearts content!  Ms. Head would be proud!  She was my "typing" teacher in HS ; )

Genius Bar, Applecare, and buying a Mac- follow up

I dropped the computer off on Sunday morning, heard back from the tech that worked on it on Tuesday afternoon- pretty good service, don't you think?  Bad news/good news-  I'm getting a brand new computer!  Bad news?  It'll take up to two weeks.  Ouch.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

iPods, iPhones, & iTunes 9

Apple made some product announcements yesterday- iPod Nano with camera, anyone?  But no tablet Mac : (  bummer!

I'll send you to a better source than me for coverage:

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/09/09/apple-updates-entire-ipod-family-bringing-capacity-and-performance-bumps-to-ipod-touch-and-video-camera-to-ipod-nano/

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/09/09/apple-releases-iphone-os-3-1-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch/

I can think of some uses for the Nano with camera in my classroom.  How would you use it?

Genius Bar, Applecare, and buying a Mac

It finally happened to me.  After a flawless Apple IIc, IIgs, Mac SE30, PowerMac 7500, and PowerMac G5, my new Mac Pro didn't work as expected.  On start up, or at other random times, the fans prepared it for lift off (think of sitting on the runway and the pilot is gunning the engines just before he releases the brakes for takeoff).  I called Apple and they wanted me to bring it in.  I took it to Lennox over the weekend and met with a Genius, who took it through the same steps Applecare had over the phone, but also booting it off a known good drive.  No joy- still lifting off.  It's in their hands now and I feel sure it'll be well taken care of, but there is one thing I'm wondering...

The computer is only 3 weeks old- why not take it in and hand me a new one?  The only reason that I can think of is that I ordered it with extra memory, making it a build to order computer.  Hmmm- perhaps it's better to order stock from Apple & add memory yourself?  It would have been cheaper!

I'll let you know how my experience goes from here- but so far, it's exactly what I would ask for.

Yes, I'm still here...

Well, not here, but here teaching Physics at North Cobb HS.  It's been great to get back to my own classroom, though it does have some challenges this time- floating from room to room and teaching subject matter I haven't touched in 20 years.  Good thing Newton didn't come up with some new laws!  I do have to say I'd rather be the one taking on the challenge of floating from room to room instead of a rookie (I think!)

Snow Leopard is out soon.  It'll enter the district with the first purchase of a new Mac at some point I imagine.  It's a really cheap upgrade, which is a little different for Apple to do.  Many have said this kitty is simply an upgrade of the old kitty and that's why Apple isn't charging the usual Ben Franklin.

I'll be checking it out from home and will post here when I can.

PS-  You can reach Mike via email.  Don't know if he'll post here, but if you see him, ask him how's his pet roach ; )

backing up

A school recently contacted me when a teacher had a complete data loss after a work order was placed to fix a problem.  Unfortunately, through no fault of the teacher, other than she had not herself taken explicit action to back up, all of her work was lost.

The district does provide some space on servers to back up to.  You do have to take action, however, to use it.  I'm attaching a PDF called Backup to help you with this.  Please consider taking action now before disaster strikes!

Download Backup

Finally, if at some point you are forced to migrate to a Windows computer, much of your data will be fine.  The content in iLife applications is, for the most part, not.  Before that happens, go into your iLife applications and export into formats readable by Windows applications.  From iMovie, export to QuickTime.  From GarageBand, export to iTunes (you'll have to either move the library yourself or insist that it be moved for you).  Your pictures in iPhoto will be ok, but your slideshows should be exported to QuickTime.  Just be sure to copy the iPhoto library.  Finish up any iDVD projects and burn them.  Your iWeb sites will be difficult to continue to edit, but copy your content into text files at least.

As always, contact one of us if you need some help with these tasks.

HD Cameras and MacBooks

What happens when you connect a brand new JVC Everio model GZMG330AUS to a MacBook via USB?  The punchline to this joke unfortunately is; nothing.  I spent several hours puzzling over this particular camera, attempting to download footage into iMovie from it.  Let me share some background:

Hard drive and flash based video cameras are becoming more prevalent.  It's a good thing in that we will no longer have to worry about buying tape or mechanical tape mechanisms breaking or tape breaking.  It's a bad thing in that we can't get everyone to agree on a common file format that all the cameras and computers use.  It's even more frustrating with content trapped on a commercial digital video recorder such as a TIVO.  I enjoy my TIVO, but why can't I take a news report covering an event where my daughter's chorus performed and easily transfer it to my Mac and simply burn a DVD of just that part of the news?  I'm aware it's possible, as I purchased the software and have tried it, but it's not easy!  I digress.

Back to the VC Everio model GZMG330AUS camera.  It's on our bid list.  It's on Apple's site for supported video cameras.  When I hooked it up to my MacBook pro, not much seemed to happen.  At that time I tried something that never works:  I read the manual.  As expected, no help.  I kept playing with it, pushing buttons on the camera, different buttons in iMovie '08 when it suddenly worked and opened up to show me the footage on the camera!  Eureka!  I'm a genius!

Not.  I blithely shared the information with Dawn Alexander, the Media Specialist at a school I support that the camera would indeed work and left.  When she tried it later, of course, it didn't.

I met with her again, and after playing with it repeatedly with her MacBook, it just wouldn't work.  We called JVC.  Since it worked on my computer and not hers, it was obviously an issue with her computer- at least that's what they said.  For whatever reason, we kept at it.  Dawn suggested we try a couple of still shots and see if it would import them into iPhoto.  It did.  It also apparently "primed the pump", as we were then able to get the video into iMovie!

The bad news is that she needs to be able to get movies back onto the camera for playback as part of the morning news show.  We were never able to do that, so the camera will be returned.

For now, I suggest not purchasing a camera without FireWire.  If you do, make sure it has USB and FireWire, as the latest MacBooks only have USB.  Progress, right?

Running out of room on your hard drive?

I've been contacted twice recently by teachers running out of hard drive space on their Mac.  The teachers are being good stewards of public resources and have used their laptops to their fullest potential!  Unfortunately, when the hard drive is under ten gigabytes of space left, it's time to archive content off, as performance will take a hit in many applications with this little space left.

External hard disks are great in this circumstance.  First, they can be used to back up data.  This can be as simple a process as connecting via USB or FireWire and dragging and dropping the Documents folder, Music Folder, Movies Folder, etc onto a dated folder on the external drive.  I suggest a dated folder because it's a visual reminder of when you last backed up (in the initial rollout training for teacher laptops, we suggested doing this with a burn folder).  It can be as complicated as using a program such as Carbon Copy Cloner to completely clone your internal hard drive to an external device.  (The software is easy to use and is free for educators.)

Another use for an external drive besides archiving and backup is for an alternate iTunes or iPhoto library.  Here's a link to information on how to set up a move of your iTunes library:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

It's possible to have more than one iTunes library:  http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/multiple-libraries-in-itunes-7-202302.php

I am very hesitant to recommend either of these procedures, as I believe it would corrupt your iTunes library if the hard drive it's located on were accidentally disconnected.

I'm happy to help if you want to consider anything mentioned here!