September 2007 meeting
The big news is the ipod touch for $299 or $399, it is essentially an iphone without the phone and more memory.
The Iphone is now $200 cheaper.
The new imac:
They now have a microthin keyboard that some people like and the top
of the line model has an Extreme edition processor on it. The biggest
difference between the extreme edition processor and other chips is of course
the price. But if you do spend the money, it is a good increase in performance.
Extension manager:
Where did the exension manager that was in os 9 go in OS X???
Originally no one had written any extensions, so there was no need for an extension
manager, but nowdays, as an apple gets older, it's boot time gets longer and
the menubar no longer seems long enough anymore.
I have yet to find one good utility to manage the startup items, but
you can turn some of them off in System preferences.
Go to system preferences, Accounts, Login Items. You can check the
box to 'Hide' the startup item, or click on the - to delete the login item.
Be carefull though! Once you delete them, you will either have to manually
add them, or re-install to get them back.
This does not get rid of everything that loads when you boot.
For the harder to remove items there is a free program called Diablotin
It installs as a system preference pane. It lets you get rid of
context menu items, preference panes and other hard to remove items.
While they no longer call them extensions, they call them login items
in OS X, they still eat up some memory and CPU time.
Sometimes you want something to come on at boot. If you want your
Email program or Itunes to load when you run your computer, you can add them
with the + in the long items, or Control-Click the application and click 'Open
at Login' That program will not launch every time you boot your computer.
Ebay:
There are a few nice programs to help make ebay easier on a mac.
My favorite program is an extension for FireFox called MyEbayFox.
It's mostly a toolbar of good links that you would use to get to many places
in ebay, but the neatest feature it it will download the pictures for all the
listings on ebay.
There are 2 programs on the mac to help you sell items on ebay.
One is Garagesale for and
Isale.
There is a free program for the PC called turbolister, but on the mac, ebay
has not bothered to write a program. Garage sale is nice because they
tie into Iphoto and have a nice interface.
Prius:
Steve Wozniac was ticketed
for going 104 MPH in his toyota Prius, he said that the mileage goes down
the around 35 mpg at that speed, but it's still way better than his Hummer gets...
Iwork:
Apple just release Iwork 08, you can download a free trial here
If your into free, there is a new version of the neooffice, which
will now try to open Microsoft office 2007 file formats.