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.

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.

Want to share great student projects?

Apple has opportunities to take your class to a local Apple store for them to share their projects!  You can even do projects while you're there!  Click here for more info!

MacWorld 2009

MacWorld Conference and Expo is going strong this week in San Francisco.  The keynote was given by Apple Vice President Phil Schiller yesterday.  There were some interesting announcements!  An update to the 17 inch MacBook Pro featured a non removable battery that was eco friendly.  Interesting concept.  iWork was also updated, and a new feature in beta called iWork.com was unveiled.  It's like Google Docs, but specifically for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers files.  It is free while in beta, but they do plan to charge for a subscription.  Why not included that in the cost of a MobileMe account?

Also on the software side, an update to iLife, version '09, was unveiled.  iPhoto featured geo-tagging support and face recognition.  You can easily search your photo's for pictures of particular people's face!  iMovie saw some improvements, with the re-introduction of some features lost in the migration from iMovie '06 to iMovie '08.  GarageBand also had some new shine.  It offers to teach you to play instruments.  The instructors are what's really interesting.  How would you like to learn from Sting, Sarah McLachlan, Fall Out Boy, Norah Jones, Colbie Calliat, Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, One Republic, or Ben Folds?  You can.  It's an additional cost, but it will certainly sell some Macs!

iTunes also saw some changes.  It won't be long before the whole iTunes store is DRM (digital rights management) free!  This is a very welcome change!  There is also some new pricing.  You'll soon see older music for $.69!  New music may be as much as $1.29.

I can hardly wait to play with iLife '09 and use iWork.com to collaborate with my colleagues!

Windows on a Mac?

This post will only refer to a computer you personally own and is not CCSD property!

Need to run a windows application on your Mac? Want to buy a mac, but someone in your home has to have windows for something? This post is for you!

At the Georgia Educational Technology Conference, I saw a session called Best of Both Worlds- Running Windows on a Mac by
William Ingram, U. of Texas, San Antonio

He spoke about setting up your Mac so that it can boot right into Windows or Mac OS X Leopard, or using virtualization (VMWare or Fusion), move seamlessly from Mac to Windows and back at any time.

He has 1000 computers on their campus with 2 techs- ouch!

Advantages:
Dual Boot- boot into windows on individual partitions with boot camp assistant.
simple backup/recovery, test new software or configs, run windows only, reduce management & admin costs
On big, high intensity applications, go dual boot rather than virtualize.

This was a change in approach, in that they can run Mac, Win, or Linux.

On vitualization, you point it to the install on the windows partition.

In vitualization, he suggested some settings be tweaked: processors & RAM, network, sharing-
Networking-Bridged will give each OS it's own IP
Can set number of processors used, as well as RAM. This will allow you to tune your resources so that you can focus on a particular need.

Problems & tools:
mirroring desktops won't work in bootcamp.
can't write to ntfs partitions- stay under 32 G, & don't go ntfs
backup is specialized solutions
some hardware may not work same way as OS X
folder sharing doesn't work well.

The use Spaces to switch between OS- Windows is open full screen in one space & Mac in another.

Want to know how to....

do about anything on your Mac? Well, find out how!

The site looks helpful, but appears to be focused on new products, which may not be as helpful with most of you on iBook G4's running Tiger. For those of you on MacBooks & Leopard, what do you think? Leave me a comment!

Apple released iTunes 8

Apple released iTunes 8 today. I suggest holding off on letting any updates run for at least a few days, if not a week. I'd rather someone else be on that "bleeding edge", especially if iTunes working is critical to your lesson.