Info Manager

Info Manager for September 22, 2003

[*]   New Photoshop

[*]   AOL to bring spam tools to Mac OS X.

[*]   Microsoft Sued Over Web Movie Technology

[*]   Verizon Speeds up Wi-Fi

[*]   Illinois sues sales tax evaders

[*]   More Google tips*

[*]   Give Macs TV functions, Apple urged

[*]   HP tries for the consumer

[*]   Tokyo-U gets lots of Macs

[*]   Camera phone images show on neighbors TV?

[*]   Electronic Ink Hits Video Speed

[*]   OCR comes to OSX

[*]   Auction iTunes?

[*]   Apple Pulls 10.2.8 Update

[*]   A Mac in your pocket

[*]   Open Firmware Password Gotcha

[*]   Free Font CDs

[*]   Quotes: Booker T. Washington; Robert S. Lynd

 

New Photoshop

Of course, the new Adobe Photoshop has been reported a number of places This one is at the San Jose Mercury's web sit, SiliconValley.com. How long has it been since Adobe has done a presentation at your MUG. They are quite willing, although if you are below the size that the National office approves, you may have to contact a regional rep to get it setup. Full story at: SiliconValley.com

AOL to bring spam tools to Mac OS X.

The new spam filters are available now for members using AOL 8.0 Plus, which I believe is Windows only and will soon be available to those running AOL 6.0 through AOL 8 and AOL for Mac OS X. The filters learn and adapt to the type of e-mail that each member considers to be spam, require no additional software, and no action on the part of members to install. AOL says it now blocks up to 2.4 billion pieces of junk e-mail each day. Full story at: Businesswire.com

Microsoft Sued Over Web Movie Technology

The Associated Press is reporting that Microsoft has been sued over its use of Movie technology that Burst.com says they invented. It seems that Burst has learned nothing from other people making deals with Microsoft. Basically, you should never show your technology to MS as they will steal it. Talk to Apple, DoubleSpace and Kodak for similar stories. Of course the motive could be money as Microsoft has been quick to settle law suites lately. The original story was from the New York Times and Fred has discovered that they are one of the greatest spammers around so, for this story go to the Burst website who quotes an article from the North Bay (San Francisco) Journal at: Burst.com

Verizon Speeds up Wi-Fi

In Washington and San Diego, Verizon Wireless has launched a wireless Internet service that runs data speeds of up to 500 kilobits per second. While at $80, it isn't cheap, if you are on the road a lot it could be beneficial. If you live in those areas, check with Verizon Wireless for details

Illinois sues sales tax evaders

Current law says that if a retailer has a presence in a state, it must collect sales tax from any one in that state that orders from them. This is true for catalog sales via telephone or via the Internet. Illinois is saying that 72 companies who have stores/offices in that state are not collecting those taxes. So thus the law suit. Expect to pay more and more sales taxes on the net. Story at: Internetretailer.com

More Google tips*

We have talked about Google's reverse lookup before. Now it is no longer necessary to use quotes around the phone number when doing this lookup. But I did notice that when looking for a number I discontinued in November of 2002, it still lists me and at my old address. So it may not be as up to date as we would like. Also to do "yellow page" look up, type in the item (one word) and then space and then your area code. You should find a number of places to call. For example, "Macintosh" in 817 area code resulted in 24,000 hits. One of the first three was the resume for the President of Cowtown MUG. Google.com

Give Macs TV functions, Apple urged

MacWorld UK is telling Apple that Macintosh computers need more video access to truly be a digital hub. They want Apple to do their own media player solution. Read that story at: Macworld UK

HP tries for the consumer

According to Business Week, Hewlett Packard is going to run a $300 million advertising campaign to convince consumers to think of them first for electronic gear. From digital cameras, to printers to DVD burners. Sounds like a lot of money to me. Full story at: Businessweek.com

Tokyo-U gets lots of Macs

According to the Nikkei Report, the University of Tokyo has ordered 1149 Macs and 69 Mac Servers for their campus. Unfortunately my source is Factiva, so I can't give out a URL. However, this is one more of several orders that have made the news lately showing that Apple is still big in the minds of the education market. According to this article, it is highly unusual for a state run school to order more than 1000 units in a single deal in Japan. These machines will be used by 30,000 students and staff in the Information Technology Center of the university.

Camera phone images show on neighbors TV?

CellularNews.com, one of the many news outlets I get info from each day, reported that in Finland a couple was watching TV when their screen went black and then was replaced with a series of snap shots. They recognized their neighbors in the shots. So they went next door to see what was going on. It seems that both couples had Nokia phones with cameras and had purchased a device to allow them to display the photos on their TV. Neither couple had changed the default password, so both TVs displayed the photos. So remember to change your passwords. Good idea on your computer/software items too. Full story at: Cellular-news

Electronic Ink Hits Video Speed

MIT's Technology Research News reported that some new developments mean that the days of having photos in books, magazines and newspapers, ala Harry Potter will soon come to pass. Several new technologies have come together that will enable the pixels to change fast enough to display video. So wall paper screens are getting closer. Full story at: Technology Review

OCR comes to OSX

I.R.I.S. has rolled out Readiris Pro 9 for Mac OS. Readiris Pro 9 is a fast and accurate OCR product for converting scanned documents to a variety of output formats including word processors, spreadsheets, programs, PDF files, HTML files, and more. Readiris Pro 9 recognizes and converts books, magazines, invoices, price lists, reports, etc. as well as read-only PDFs, into editable text. The layout of the original document is perfectly preserved; text, tables and graphics are correctly placed in the output files. It can also be used for traditional scanning of graphics. Readiris Pro 9 Standard Edition is $149 and needs a Mac G3 processor running OS 10.01, or 10.2.x and 110 MB of free hard disk space. irislink.com

Auction iTunes?

by Fred Showker
      You remember several weeks ago the InfoManager told you about the guy who was going to put a single music track from iTunes up for sale on eBay -- the rest of the story now reveals he successfully sold the tune for 50-cents, but in the process had to transfer control of his entire iTunes Music Store account! The process included changing his credit card information in his music account to a prepaid money card, running down the balance on the money card, then sending the user name and password for his account to the buyer.
      While (IMHO) this seems a little strange, and certainly not worth the effort, seller George Hotelling said that the process was primarily intended to "raise the issue in a lot of people's minds."
      Although the process was "blessed" by Apple as probably legal, it would seem more practical to just send the tune, then delete it from the system. You can follow the whole story at Macworld

Apple Pulls 10.2.8 Update

You probably already know about the Apple Update 10.2.8 debacle -- just about every news service carried the story last week -- MacCentral reported that by Tuesday afternoon, Apple had yanked OS X v10.2.8 update from circulation, citing some PowerMac G4s lost Ethernet connectivity after installing the update. This certainly reinforces the age-old rule not to use automatic updates. If you can't resist the urge to be on the bleeding edge, then sometimes you have to do some bleeding. Those who had it installed were forced to turn around and uninstall it. The best policy is to stay a version or two behind, and let everyone else take the hit. Macworld has the story.

A Mac in your pocket

Information Appliance Associates (IAA) has released the next generation of PocketMac, the original Mac-to- Pocket-PC sync solution. Now users can sync over Bluetooth, USB, and Airport -- sync your email; install most Pocket PC software directly from your Mac -- without CAB files. Best of all, the PocketMac Theme--PocketMac 3.0 transforms the Pocket PC into a Mac PDA-- it actually changes the look & feel of Pocket PCs with Macintosh buttons & backgrounds. PocketMac 3.0 offers integration with Apple's iSync; and even supports the synching MP3s with iTunes. PocketMac 3.0 can also mount the Pocket PC's memory and/or any of the Pocket PC's storage cards on the desktop for greater integration with Finder. Pocketmac.net

Open Firmware Password Gotcha

Heed the advice of Christopher Breen, Mr. Mac 911, about the procedure for protecting a Mac with an Open Firmware password. Seems a reader couldn't use Breen's technique, and got miserably locked out of his Mac to the point of sending it in to Apple. According to Apple KnowledgeBase article 107666, if an Open Firmware password includes a capital U, the password won't be recognized by your Mac. Read: article 107666

Free Font CDs

Some of you already subscribe to Fred Showker's (day job) newsletter "DTG" -- but for those of you who don't, the October edition launches the Design Center's annual "Fall Fonts Festival" and is partnering with Fonteam International to give away a font CD each week during October and November. Fonteam is also discounting their newest Fonts CD to less than half its retail price just for this 'festival' -- also, there's lots of freeware fonts for download, and an interesting story about how the Black Plague acted as catalyst to bring "typography" into being. You may want to check it out in the typography department at Graphic-Design.com

Quotes: Booker T. Washington; Robert S. Lynd

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him."
      - Booker T. Washington

"Every man of genius is considerably helped by being dead."
      - Robert S. Lynd

 
      pau

 
* From Neat Net Tricks, to subscribe to Neat Net Tricks send a blank email to info-neatnettricks@silver.lyris.net

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Also see: MUG NEWS bursts from the AACUG Mac User Guide (MUG)

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The InfoManager invites user groups to use his column in full or in pieces in their newsletter. Or add a link to their web site. He would appreciate word that you are doing so however and if you can, please send a pdf version of the newsletter for his perusal. Or provide him with a link. The address is InfoManager@user-groups.net. You can also use that address for feed back.

The Info Manager is a veteran of the UGN (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. He's been a supporter and volunteer on many, many UGNet and User Group Academy projects. As a long time user group member, he's served as volunteer from Honolulu to Boston and many points in between. Currently working with the Apple Corp of Dallas, the Dallas Mac Pack, Cowtown MUG of Ft. Worth and TUMS (the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society) doing newsletter articles and the monthly CD-ROM Update. Post a lead Info Manager should follow up on.

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