This user group meets once a month in the Multimedia Lab at All Saints Anglican School, Highfield Dr, Merrimac.Map.
The Multimedia Lab is situated in the Senior Library, directly down the stairs from the pedestrian crossing, near the main entrance of the school. Our meetings are held on the first Monday of the month, except January, starting at 7.30pm. (Unless this conflicts with a Public Holiday or the room is unavailable). For more information contact Steve Lewis 0412306100.
The user group meetings are a mixture of product reviews, tutorials and discussions. We aim to support and maybe inspire Gold Coast Macintosh computer users. We often invite guest speakers to address the group regarding a "macentric" topic. However, we encourage new Mac users to join us and now include a section at each meeting called MAC ESSENTIALS, designed to feature a useful basic tip. The group is a mixture of computer professionals, business owners, educators, students and seniors. Meetings include a tea or coffee break and a Q and A session.
Latest news...check here for links to the latest Mac related news...Macsurfer
Apple Store opening in Sydney. Click here to see a great Quicktime VR view of the new store.
Next Meeting: Monday 14th July 2008 (a week later than usual because of school holidays.)
Starting at 7.30pm...On the Agenda
iPhone 3G twice the speed half the price. Options, carriers, costs etc
Mac essentials: Using the dock
.mac replacement Mobile Me
Testing web pages you have built.
Jeffs Gadgets.
Tea and Coffee
Meeting Notes June 2008
A well attended meeting...special welcome to new members. It was a night of firsts. First Youtube delivered presentation. First presentation on Fire Alarms and first iPhone delivered movie as part of a presentation. 
The May meeting covered a plethora of issues as well as the EGM. We looked at iDisk access through a web interface. We had a lively discussion about Numbers v Excel, deciding that the serious number crunchers should stick with Excel but for the rest of us Numbers fits the bill. Bops showed us some interesting Widgets including Emit SMS for sending SMS from your computer. We looked at and heard text to speech options. Jeff shared some more gadgets and we looked at screen sharing before breaking for tea and coffee.
MacBook Air, Leopard hidden features, sharing files, wireless gadgets with Jeff and plenty of Q and A made for a lively meeting. The MacBook Air still manages to create an impression even after months of availability. Something that small surely can't provide all that is expected of a modern computer, but it does...well sort of...depending on your needs...its light, has a great screen and great wireless options...on the down side..no dvd/cd drive less connection options. But it is all about the next phase of computing which is obviously...wireless centric. Thanks to Luke for rushing down from Brisbane with the MacBook Air. Jeff shared his wireless networking setup using the Linksys wireless ADSL device. We looked at www.speedtest.net which is a great way to test your internet connection speed. A youtube video explaining some of the hidden features of Leopard was also shown. We looked at iDisk options including using a web browser to connect to an iDisk public folder. We then looked at the how to best choose your next Mac. Luke led us through the various options and configurations available. He also demonstrated how to check the age of your computer and warranty status by using the serial number on the Apple website support section. Plenty of good questions...and answers finished the meeting at 10.25pm.
A useful meeting dominated by discussion following the AGM. Meeting structure, membership fees and strategies for the future were discussed. It was agreed that membership fees would be $60 per annum or $10 per meeting for casual attendance with casual fees to be deducted off annual subscription. Jacques presented a detailed account of the financial situation of the club. The executive were re elected with Peter Jamieson accepting the position of secretary and Noel MacDonald joining the executive. We then looked at Bento, hearing from members who have used it for a while. We discussed Office 2008 and the new update as well as printing with the new Apple Australia options. We then looked at some of the wireless broadband options that are now available at reasonable cost and packages being offered by ISPs. Jeff then showed us some of the options available in the digital still space.
Meeting Notes from February 2008.
It was terrific to catch up with everyone again and get ready for an
exciting year
of Mac developments and surprises.
The meeting analyzed the announcements made at MacWorld San Francisco. We watched videos that revealed the size and connectivity options available with the new MacBook Air. We also discussed the other releases including Time Capsule, iTunes Movie Rentals (US only) and updates to iPod Touch and Apple TV. Luke then took us through strategies for reducing file sizes and alternatives for sending large files. Sam presented his angle on the iPod Touch and the value of the recent upgrade before we took a close look at the feature set of the newly released Microsoft Office 2008. Luke then provided us with a comparison between Office 2008 and Pages. It was decided that there seemed to be quite a few similarities between the interface on both products. Jeff then showed us some interesting new tripod designs and innovative video equipment.
Meeting Notes from 3rd December
A great night although not as well attended as the huge attendance of the previous month. It was an informative, fun evening. Jeff once again supplied a myriad of great prizes for the raffles. We thank him for his outstanding support. Luke took us through security strategies, using Pages to make Christmas documents as well as how to use iPhoto to make personalised calendars. We looked at issues with Leopard..most still feeling it is a worthwhile upgrade despite the occasional issue. We had a lively Q and A before breaking for food and coffee before Jeff showed us some more gadgets including the new JVC HD hard drive camera. We then had fun with the raffles which raised over a $115 for the club. Seasons Greetings to all....see you next year.
Meeting Notes from 5th November
Great to see so many of our long term members back with us for this meeting. Sam and Luke gave an excellent rundown on the features of Leopard including TimeMachine, Spaces and easy sharing.
We saw the new iChat and Photobooth (with video effects) in action as well as the new dock.The boys showed enough
features to make it look like a compelling upgrade. We then
looked at the incredibly thin new mac keyboards before Jeff
showed us a dead pixel solution and a some tricks with one of the new HDV cameras from Sony. We then launched into a Q and A session before looking at keyboard shortcuts and watching some entries from the Shindig Film Festival.
Meeting notes from October 1st
First up we discusssed the latest news in the Mac world including the iPhone update that has locked those phones that had been previously unlocked. We then investigated the huge iLife 08 update that includes some much needed changes to iMovie including the ability to adjust multiple clips. Jeff then showed us nifty gadgets including a tiny Panasonic DVD player and a new Sony Hd handycam. This camera has an interesting slow motion function that Jeff demonstrated for us. We then looked at some of the new features of iPhoto and iDVD. We then watched a video showing what is possible with the updated iPhone. Luke then gave a detailed presentation on budgeting software. This is available here Managingyourmoolah.pdf
Meeting Notes September
A
good attendance for this meeting. We started with an update on the
iPhone, iMac, .mac, Numbers and iLife. The group watched a video that
went through the major changes in the iLife suite. This focussed on
iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. We then looked closely at the iMovie
interface. This is quite different to what we have seen before in
editing applications. The emphasis is clearly leaning toward Web
delivery. Export options include .Mac, YouTube as well as iPod, Apple
TV, media browser and versions of quicktime.
Jeff then demonstrated some of his latest gadgets, a photo viewer and small screen TV device.
Meeting notes from August 6th
A busy night moving between 3D applications and new iPod stereo systems to iPhone discussions. We went on to discuss the place of the iPhone and which carrier might support it in Australia. We then looked at VM wares Fusion. This application allows users to run Windows applications on the Mac without some of the overheads that can cause machines to slow down. Sam and Daniel took us through the intricacies of Motion 3 followed by freeware from freeware.com we looked at apimac a timing application,vidalia for hiding IP addresses, freemind for mind mapping and surplusmeter a broadband monitor. Daniel then stepped us through Cinema 4D showing a plethora of examples including his Shindig Film Festival introduction. We then moved on to a look at some of the iPod speaker units that Panasonic and Sharp are making. Both allowed for easy docking of a range of iPods as well as charging.
Meeting Notes From Monday 4th June
Another well attended meeting with over 23 members present. We started the evening with a look at the Steve Jobs, Bill Gates interview. This provided an interesting glimpse into the minds of two of the most influential people of our era. Click here to watchThis led to a discussion about emerging technologies and interfaces, an area we demonstrated later with a glimpse at the Microsoft Surface technology.
We then covered the MAC ESSENTIAL item for the evening with Luke providing an indepth look at searching techniques. This included using SPOTLIGHT and the find option. He covered customising a search and made a reference to the searching systems existing within other applications such as iTunes and iPhoto. He also mentioned the very handy zoom view option made possible by holding down the control key while rolling the mouse ball. (Track pad on notebooks)
Jeff then showed us more nifty gadgets with a MP3 player from Samsung that has speakers built in and another iRiver all purpose player with built in recorder and 8gb drive.
We then went on to look at High Definition cameras with the Sony single CMOS and 3 CMOS cameras.
YouTube was next on the agenda. We discussed the incredible success of this system of video sharing. We looked at the uploading system and how to link to a movie on YouTube.
We finished up with everyone making a an iSight moves in iMovie. The most interesting will be linked to here soon.
Well we covered a great deal of territory from widgets to CS3 to http://freemacware.com. Great to see some new people attending along with many of the regulars.Sam and Daniel started the night with an excellent review of some of the more useful and bizarre pieces of freeware that are available to macusers. These included Remote Say for talking between macs, Copernicus for screen capture, Audacity for audio editing and capture, Cord, remote desktop for Windows and Smackbook for motion sensor activated functions.Luke then led us through a detailed examination of the Adobe CS3 package. He went on to show us via keynote, his top ten widgets. Jeff then demonstrated the iPod seat cushion MP3 Cush that includes speakers, warming pad and massaging functions. Next we explored the new functions in Final Cut including the new version of Motion that allows for 3D manipulation.We finished off with a discussion about "backing up" and the different solutions that are available including mozy
Meeting Notes from Monday April 2 2007
We started with a look at Apple TV before a quick Q and A. We then looked at the Google apps including spreadsheets, page creator and docs. Next we saw some interesting apple shaped speakers with Jeff. He never fails to came up with interesting gadgets. We then looked at how to morph images before a hands on tutorial on Themes in iMovie. We then had more Q and A before the AGM. Office Bearers were re elected with the exception of Bernie Woods who steps down as Treasurer. We welcome Jacques to the position. Thanks to Peter Jamieson for Chairing the AGM and of course to Bernie for his efforts as Treasurer!
Meeting notes from Monday March 5th 2007
Another well attended meeting, (23 present I believe). Great to see Dale Trevor and son. Dale is very well known in Gold Coast Mac education circles. Luke covered the new Airport Extreme (thanks to Next Byte), we had a Garageband hands on tutorial, saw some more great gadgets, including a Nano clone, with Jeff, used the shareware applications Morph and the Fish aquarium game and saw a demonstration of the iAlertu security software. We also discussed external hard drives with Luke showing his Lacie All Terrain Drive. We also discussed Monolingual, a utility that dispenses with unwanted language software and can free up 2gb of drive space....use with caution as a small percentage of users have had problems. We finished up with the traditional Q and A and reminded everyone of the AGM to be held next month. Other software mentioned included Inquisitor which is like spotlight for the web and a clever way of customising your Mac called Fan Control Budget software has been held over to next month.
Useful Macintosh links:
Macsurfer.....Current Mac issues
Macintouch.....Mac Issues and solutions
MacTalk.....Australian Mac news and forums
Call for help Tutorials tips and answers
Aus Mac Ed Explores an extensive range of Mac areas with an educational focus
Freemacware Free software
For more information contact Steve Lewis, slewis@asas.qld.edu.au
Meeting Notes from 5th February
A fun night flying from PhotoBooth to Google Page Creator to YouTube and a look at the iPhone. The laptop security software mentioned was called iAlertu. The disc burning software is called Burn by Kiwi Fruitware. Thanks Jeff for some more great gadgets including the compact iPod speakers and the tiny iRiver shuffle look alike. The image below shows the group having fun with PhotoBooth.