Mini'app'les Newsletter — June 2012

Website: http://www.miniapples.org From the Editor: June 2012 minrapp'les I lewsletter i the minnesota apple computer users’ group, inc. Forums: http://miniay Many meetings so no comments... Tom Ostertag, Publications Director les.7.forumer.com Email: miniapples@mac.com Meeting Calendar This information was compiled as this newsletter was being assembled and is subject to change. As always, confirm the Special Interest Group (SIG) date, time, and location with the SIG Leader or the mini’app’les website: www.miniapples.org. Meeting Calendar — June 2012 Tuesday June 5 7:00 pm Mac OS X SIG Thursday June 7 7:00 pm Mac Applications SIG Tuesday June 12 7:00 pm iOS SIG Wednesday June 13 7:00 pm. VectorWorks SIG* Wednesday June 13 7:00 pm TC Photoshop User Group* Monday | June 18 7:00 pm | Board Of Directors Meeting Thursday June 21 7:00 am Mac Consultants SIG | Wednesday June 27 6:30 pm Mac Q&A SIG Thursday June 28 6:30 pm FileMaker Pro SIG Meeting Locations and Leaders Meeting Location Leader Mac OS X SIG Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Drive, Bob Demeules 763-559-1124 Minnetonka, MN Mac Applications Southdale Library, 7001 York Ave. S., Edina Tim Drenk, 952-479-0891 SIG Board of Directors Byerly's, 7171 France Avenue South, Edina, MN | Tim Drenk, 952-479-0891 Meeting iOS SIG Brookdale Library, 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway | Joel Gerdeen, 763-572-0148 Brooklyn Center VectorWorks SIG* CJR Office, 4441 Claremore Dr., Edina Charles Radloff, 952-941-1667 TC Photoshop User Group* Mpls College of Art & Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue So, Minneapolis Jeff Tranberry, Mac Consultants SIG Good Day Cafe, 5410 Wayzata Blvd., Golden Valley Bob Demeules 763-559-1124 Mac Q&A SIG Merriam Park Library, 1831 Marshall Ave., St. Paul Harry Lienke, gasig@miniapples.org FileMaker Pro SIG Erik’s Bike Shop Corporate, 9201 Penn Ave S. #1, Bloomington Steve Wilmes, 651-458-1513 * This SIG is NOT sponsored by mini’app’les; the listing is provided as a service to members. Page | of 16 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2012 Board of Directors (BOD) Election Results Q&A SIG Minutes * 25 April 2012 Apple ID Horror Story Google Drive and SkyDrive Take Aim at Dropbox......... PhotoSync Bridges the Mac/iOS Divide for Images Let’s Sing Connects People by Voice Reunion 10 Offers Better Genealogical Overviews, Web Search ......ccceeeseeseeeseseseesseeeseeeseeessenseeeseeeeseeseeeeeeees 10 Hot Links: Members Helping Members...... Mini’app’ les Membership Application and Renewal Form Benefits of mini’app’les Membership 2012 Board of Directors (BOD) Election Results by Harry Lienke and Les Anderson As the mini’app’les BOD Election Committee, we are pleased to report the following results. We received eleven ballots. The slate of candidates selected by the Nominating Committee was elected without opposition. Tim Drenk, President; Jeff Berg, Vice President; Joel Gerdeen, Secretary; Bob Demeules, Treasurer; Mike Bertrand, Membership Director; Tom Ostertag, Publications Director; Kevin Strysik, SIG Director. Congratulations to everyone elected to the mini’app’ les Board of Directors for 2012-2013; thanks for your willingness to guide the mini’ app’ les organization this coming year. Thank you also to the members who demonstrated their commitment to the mini’app’les by taking the time and making the effort to cast a ballot. Harry Lienke and Les Anderson mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Q&A SIG Minutes « 25 April 2012 by Harry Lienke The Question and Answer Special Interest Group (Q&A SIG) troops met on April 25 at Saint Paul’s Merriam Park Library. One of the attendees posed two questions for us. * How can the labels on the desktop be changed to make them more readable? + What can be done to prevent system crashes that are occurring several times a day when a variety of programs are running? The drop shadow on the desktop labels and the lack of contrast between the letters and the background can make the labels hard to distinguish. Changes that are easily implementable are to use a larger font (also establish a grid, set an appropriate grid spacing, and utilize View > Clean Up to spread the icons) and to change to a dark background to improve the contrast ratio. One of the experts said he thought TinkerTool and/or TinkerTool System allowed the desktop font to be changed; after some investigation, this capability could not be found. Another utility program that might have the ability to change the font is MacPilot, which claims on MacUpdate to be able to change over 1000 hidden features in OS X; it costs $20. Cocktail and Onyx are other applications which might have the font changing capability. Page 2 of 16 The background color on the display machine was changed from “Solid Mint” to “Solid Kelp” and the labels on the desktop folders and disks appeared to be easier to read. Because there was not any information available on the circumstances when the crashes occurred (for example, what programs were open before the crashes), all we could do was offer a number of things to be done to try to eliminate the cause of the crashes. * Repair Permissions—OS X’s Disk Utility can be used to repair the permissions on many of the files; incorrect permissions can cause file handling problems for the applications. + Check the Structure of the File Systems—Since the boot file system cannot be repaired, the OS X installation DVD or an external drive containing a clone of the internal drive (produced by a copy utility such as SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner, for instance) must be booted. Once the alternate system is running, a disk repair utility program such as Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, or TechTool can be used to verify and repair the file structure of the system which is crashing. ¢ Restore from the Cloned Copy—If a clone of the failing drive is available, the data on the clone can be copied back to the failing drive. The June Q&A SIG meeting will return to the Merriam Park Library. We will be meeting on Wednesday, June 27, at 6:30 pm. Are there any Macophiles out there in mini’app’ les land who would like to see the Q&A SIG move to a different time or location? If, for example, you would attend a meeting held at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, please let me know. If moving the meeting will improve attendance, I would sure like to know. Apple ID Horror Story by Chris Owen [Adam here. Chris Owen sent me this tale of woe as evidence that there are issues with the iTunes mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 account security changes that I wrote about in “Apple Extends iTunes Account Security, Confuses Users” (26 April 2012). What I find more perturbing, though, is that Apple IDs have become far more important than in the past, thanks to iCloud’s deep integration with Mac OS X for essential data like email, events, and contacts. Obviously, Apple has a vested interest in making sure iCloud services work properly, but since they’re largely provided for free (with payments only for iTunes Match and additional storage), Apple isn’t offering easily accessed technical support. After you read Chris’s story, think about how you might be affected if your iCloud account information were to be corrupted or deleted.] Thad heard anecdotally that some people had been having issues with Apple’s recent security upgrade for iTunes accounts, but it’s hard to know what to make of such reports until you experience the problems yourself. And, sadly, I can now understand what others have gone through. One morning last week, I went to my Mac to find two separate email messages, both sent at 2:00 AM, saying that changes had been made to my Apple ID. Keep in mind that these came out of the blue — I had not been asked the new security questions or had to provide a secondary email address. The first message said that my billing address and credit card had been changed. The second said my Apple ID and email address had been changed. Needless to say (or I wouldn’t be writing this report), I had made no changes to my billing address and credit card information, as the first message claimed. The second message was even more confusing, since as far as I’m aware, it’s impossible to change an Apple ID, much as it would be nice if Apple would allow us to merge them. It was 8:00 AM when I saw these messages, meaning that there had been at least 6 hours in between the time the messages were triggered and when I sat down at my Mac. Fearing that my account had been compromised, I tried to log in to my iTunes account, and was unable to do so. After resetting my password, I was finally able to log in successfully, and while I was still somewhat concerned about my account having been compromised, I figured that changing the password would at least prevent any more problems from occurring. Little did I know... Page 3 of 16 Shipping andor tuling address Credit card At 8:00 PM that same night, I received another email message from the iTunes Store, this time a receipt for a $40 iTunes gift certificate that I had supposedly purchased. Again, I had done no such thing, and oddly, the address (my address) on the receipt was in San Diego, even though I live in Wichita, Kansas, and have a billing address of Garden City, KS. But this wasn’t a simple matter of someone trying to buy an iTunes gift certificate with my credit card, since the receipt said the order was charged to my American Express card. I haven’t had an American Express card in years. Strangest of all was the description of the gift certificate itself, which read: “Gift certificate for foobar” (where “foobar” was actually my former Apple ID password). That’s right, Apple had somehow inserted my former password into the description field. Cue the Twilight Zone music. Before logging in to my iTunes account, I checked a few other Apple services and couldn’t get into any of mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 them. So I once again reset my password and logged in to iTunes. This time it appeared that I had a brand new account — it knew my email address was owenc @hubris.net, but everything else acted as though I'd never logged in before. My iTunes Store history was empty. Although iTunes said I had iOS app updates pending, when I tried to get them, I was told “You can’t update this app because you’ve never purchased it,” and the same thing happened when I tried to use the App Store app on my iPhone to download updates. I hopped over to the Web and tried to log in to my Apple developer account, only to find that I could no longer access any of the developer-specific iOS resources, and worse, all my iOS app provisioning data was missing. Lastly, I checked for updates to apps I had purchased in the Mac App Store, and received the same error as in the iOS App Store. But it also said something to the effect of “These apps are in your owenc]! @hubris.net account. Log in there to update them.” I’ve never had such an account with Apple, and owenc! @hubris.net isn’t even a valid email address. Despite these cascading failures, the one thing that continued to work was iCloud on my iPhone. When I checked into why, I saw that my iCloud settings had somehow been changed to use that phantom owencl @hubris.net address — at no point did I ever update my iCloud settings on the iPhone or enter owenc! @hubris.net anywhere. Nor had I entered a new password for iCloud on the iPhone, even though I'd changed my Apple ID password twice in the past 12 hours. Even now, I have no idea how Apple could have changed iCloud settings on my iPhone remotely. Luckily, I don’t rely on iCloud for calendaring or email; there’s no telling what havoc would have been played with my day if my events or email had become confused. Clearly, it was time to get help, but that was much easier said than done. As far as I can tell, there is no way to contact Apple about an Apple ID problem. After a few hours, I figured out that I could use Apple’s Express Lane service to open an iTunes Store-related trouble ticket. Unfortunately, this ultimately led me to a blank page, and only after several unsuccessful attempts did I think of using a Web browser other than Safari, and doing that — Page 4 of 16 ironically — enabled me to file a report at about 9:30 PM. At 2:00 PM the following day, I finally received an email response from Apple. Alas, it was simply a canned message that gave me a long list of ways I could avoid being tricked by phishing. Since that wasn’t my problem, I responded to the message, pointing this out. An hour or so later, though, Apple sent me yet another message saying that everything had been restored, and when I logged in to the iTunes Store, the Mac App Store, and my developer account, I did indeed once again have access to all my data. Apple provided no explanation for the problem, but at least everything was working as it had before. All but one thing, that is. Remember how my iCloud account on my iPhone had been inexplicably changed to the owenc! @hubris.net address that doesn’t exist? Even after Apple restored my account data, iCloud on the iPhone retained that incorrect address and stopped working entirely. Since it apparently isn’t possible to change the Apple ID associated with iCloud on the iPhone, I was forced to delete my iCloud account entirely and set up a new one using the proper owenc@hubris.net mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 address. Once I had done that, everything was again right in my Apple world. If there’s a moral to the story, it’s that Apple has put all our eggs into a single Apple ID basket, and while we can watch that basket all we want, if Apple messes something up behind the scenes, we’re the ones left with egg on our faces and no obvious way to get help. This article is copyright © 2012 Chris Owen, TidBITS is copyright © 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc. Reuse governed by Creative Commons License. Google Drive and SkyDrive Take Aim at Dropbox by Glenn Fleishman Practically since the launch of Google’s Gmail service, rumors have abounded that the search firm would offer a generic Internet storage service called Google Drive. On 24 April 2012, the company finally did, providing free access with a Google account, but without requiring an invitation or labeling the service as “beta.” Apparently hearing the beat of the same drummer approaching, Microsoft also significantly upgraded its SkyDrive system a day earlier on 23 April 2012. But will either offer a significant advantage over the popular Dropbox service? Google Drive works very much like Dropbox, focusing on a single folder (Mac OS X and Windows) and enabling you to choose which subfolders you sync on given computers. An iOS app is coming, and Android software is already available. Your Google Drive can also syne your documents from Google Docs, although you still need a Web browser and a live Internet connection to edit them. (You can view Google Docs files in an offline, read- only mode using the Google Chrome Web browser. For another way of getting local copies of Google Docs files in usable formats, see “Back Up Your Google Data with CloudPull,” 6 March 2012.) Google Drive includes 5 GB of free storage, separate from storage used for Gmail (which was bumped to 10 GB) and the Picasa photo-sharing service (which Page 5 of 16 gives you | GB). More storage may be purchased, starting at $2.50 per month for an additional 25 GB available to both Google Drive and Picasa. These pricing plans are new; the previous yearly plans are no longer available, though anyone with an existing yearly plan can keep it active. Meanwhile, a certain Redmond-based Google competitor coincidentally announced updates to its five-year-old SkyDrive storage and sync service. SkyDrive previously offered decent Mac and iOS support, but didn’t provide direct file-system integration and lacked a number of useful features. SkyDrive used to comprise two separate services: sync, called Windows Live Mesh, that enabled both cloud-based automated file synchronization and peer-to-peer file copying among your computers; and Web-accessible storage. Microsoft allowed 25 GB total of free cloud storage, 5 GB of which could be used for cloud-based sync among computers. Peer-to-peer sync has been dropped, and new SkyDrive accounts receive 7 GB of free storage. The update on several platforms (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Windows, iOS, and Windows Phone) brings Dropbox-like folder and synchronization features. SkyDrive also enables you to access remote files on your other SkyDrive-enabled computers. That’s a rather nice addition, and something found in few sync services; it’s typically part of remote screen access systems, like LogMeIn. To make up for the drop in storage to existing users, those who registered before 22 April 2012 and have less than 4 GB stored can upgrade to 25 GB by clicking a link on the SkyDrive site after logging in. Those registered users who already stored more than 4 GB have automatically received a bump to 25 GB of free storage. Additional storage may be purchased starting at $10 per year for an additional 20 GB of storage. It’s impossible to compare iCloud directly with either Google Drive or SkyDrive (or with Dropbox) because iCloud doesn’t allow arbitrary file storage and syncing, nor does it have any sharing features. Rather, iCloud syncs data between specific Mac and iOS apps, and provides centralized storage for Apple mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 services like iTunes Match, Photo Stream, and me.com email. On the other hand, Google Drive and SkyDrive compete directly with Dropbox, which includes 2 GB of storage with free accounts and offers paid accounts starting at $10 per month for 50 GB. However, as noted in “Get More Storage for Testing Dropbox Camera Uploads,” 29 March 2012 and “Dropbox Referral Bonuses Doubled to 500 MB. Retroactively,” 4 April 2012, using a new camera upload service (just out of beta) can bring a free account to 5 GB of permanent storage, while referrals can boost a free account to as much as 16 GB. (The overall combined limit of additional storage for free accounts is 16 GB.) The comparison to Dropbox is apt, not just because Dropbox beat both Microsoft and Google to the market by years with this sort of offering, but because of the tens of millions of people already using Dropbox, and the way in which its integration and features define what’s expected from these and a dozen other Internet sync/storage services. How Google Drive and SkyDrive will fare against Dropbox remains to be seen, not so much because of the feature set or the amount of storage provided, but because Dropbox is riding the network effect wave — since so many people use Dropbox happily to share files with colleagues, it’s hard to see what the incentive would be for switching to a largely similar competitor. Dropbox also isn’t sitting still. Simultaneously with the Google and Microsoft announcements, Dropbox finalized a feature previously available only in beta — read-only links to any file in your Dropbox folder, regardless of which subfolder it’s in. The feature is great for sending a file in a shared folder to someone who needs to see it, but doesn’t need to edit it. The update also adds the capability to share entire folders’ contents, and to revoke publicly shared links. This article is copyright © 2012 Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS is copyright © 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc., Reuse governed by Creative Commons License. Page 6 of 16 PhotoSync Bridges the Mac/iOS Divide for Images by Jeff Carlson Now that all of Apple’s current iOS devices contain decent cameras, people are shooting and storing hundreds or even thousands of photos on their devices. Getting the images off an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, though, can be tricky. Should you import everything into iPhoto or another photo management application? That works when your device is connected via a sync cable, but with Wi-Fi syncing enabled it may be rare to plug directly into the computer. And regardless, it’s fussy to have to plug in every time you want to transfer a photo. Maybe the key is to use iCloud’s Photo Stream feature to push images to your various devices and computers automatically? Photo Stream is a great feature, but it gives you little control over which images are shared. There’s also the question of moving images in the other direction: What if you want to copy photos to an iPad, but the computer to which the iPad normally syncs isn’t available? What’s needed is a utility that transfers images back and forth between a Mac and an iOS device, with little hassle. For the last several months, as I’ve worked on several projects that have required a lot of iPad imagery, I’ve saved a huge amount of time by using PhotoSyne, a $1.99 iOS app that works hand- in-hand with a free Mac client. The Screenshots that Litter the Stream -- I may be unusual in this respect, but my iOS devices are jammed full of screenshots. Granted, I write about technology for a living; I recently finished one iPad book (“The iPad for Photographers”); and I’m wrapping up another (“The iPad Pocket Guide, Third Edition”). So, I’m capturing a lot of screens. But I also need to get those images from my iPhone and iPad to my Mac, with as little friction as possible. I’m sure that there are plenty of people in similar situations with other types of images. I thought iCloud’s Photo Stream would be the answer, and it almost is. Any image saved to the mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Camera Roll — which is where screenshots end up — is automatically added to the Photo Stream. Within a few seconds or minutes, that image appears on other devices where Photo Stream is enabled. The copying happens automatically in the background. But once the file is magically transported to my Mac, like Mike Teavee zooming along the ceiling as millions of colorful atoms, it’s still trapped within iPhoto or Aperture. (Fortunately, unlike the TV- obsessed tyke from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the image doesn’t arrive downsized.) I still need to export it out of the application, which is a non-starter for an efficient workflow. In the past, I would connect the iPad to my Mac using the sync cable, and then fire up the Image Capture application included with Mac OS X. With that approach, I could copy selected files to a folder in the Finder, bypassing iPhoto entirely. This still works, but isn’t as convenient as PhotoSync. Instead, here’s what I do with PhotoSync. After taking some screenshots (by pressing the Home button and the Sleep button at the same time), I launch the PhotoSync app, which displays the contents of the Camera Roll. (You also can navigate to any album on the device.) Images that have not been synced appear outlined in light blue. I select the photos I want to sync by tapping them, which adds a red checkmark icon. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell from thumbnails alone which images I want to sync, so PhotoSynce also offers a Quick look mode (tap the eyeball button) to view Page 7 of 16 each photo full screen. In that case, the checkmark button appears in the lower-right corner for me to tap to select the image. (Here’s a tip: Double-tap a thumbnail to enter PhotoSync’s range selection mode, and then tap another thumbnail: all images between those two are selected. You can do the same by double-tapping a selected image to deselect a range.) When I’m ready to transfer the files, I tap the red Sync button in the top-right corner of the screen. This brings up the Select Action popover, providing the option to Sync New, Sync Selected, or Sync All images. I can also mark everything as synced, or switch to the Receive Photos/Videos mode (which I'll explain shortly). dG ; FRIESE : Next, the app asks where the files should go. In my case, I want the files sent directly to my Mac, so I tap Computer. (To make this work, I had previously installed the free PhotoSyne Companion utility on my Mac. A Windows version is also available.) After I tap the name of my Mac, the files transfer via Wi- Fi and appear in the Finder. The PhotoSyne Companion preferences let you specify where the files end up, either a Finder folder or imported directly into iPhoto or Aperture. mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Where do you want to transfer to? = Computer 0 iPhone-iPod-iPad | Bs Dropbox PhotoSync automatically creates its own folder hierarchy, which includes the name of the device and the album from which the images come. It would be nice if PhotoSync would dump anything I transfer into a single folder, but since I often need to massage image files anyway (cropping or converting to a different format for print, for example), having the images appear in a Finder window is good enough. also discovered a shortcut that streamlines that process even more, and that quickly became my favorite feature. In PhotoSync’s settings, I set a Quick Transfer destination (the same folder on my Mac, in this case) so all I have to do is touch and hold the red Sync button to transfer any new images —no other taps or dialogs required. That’s my setup in my little office ecosystem. But what if my Mac isn’t nearby? PhotoSync can also tie into a Dropbox account, so any photo you transfer appears on all machines on which you’ve set up Dropbox. You also end up with a backup on the Dropbox servers. If you’re traveling and have good Internet access, syncing photos to Dropbox is a great way to make backups of your photos in case your device is lost or broken. I’ve also found myself occasionally using PhotoSync’s Wi-Fi-based iPhone-iPod-iPad option Page 8 of 16 to transfer photos I capture with my iPhone 4S directly to my iPad, where I prefer to review and edit them. (This is similar to the Beam feature in Apple’s new iPhoto app.) A swipe of the Select Action popover reveals a host of other photo-sharing options: Flickr, FTP/SFTP, Google+/Picasa, FaceBook, SmugMug, iDisk, WebDAV, Zenfolio, and Box. Mac to iPad -- So far I’ve described my particular setup, which is great if you’re a technology writer who generates a lot of screenshots. But another great feature in PhotoSync pushes pixels in the other direction, sending images from the Mac to the iPad. Although I used this feature a few times to move a few demo photos from my Mac to my iPad, consider this situation, which a friend recently asked about on Twitter: His visiting mother wanted photos of the grandkids on her iPad so she could view them and take them home. The problem was that her iPad syncs to her computer, which was in another city. The way iOS syncing works, a device can be paired with just one computer. So, my friend couldn’t simply plug her iPad into his Mac and specify that some of his images be added to her photo library; iTunes would want to replace her data with his. PhotoSync bypasses all that. Instead, PhotoSync can act as a small Web server that accepts files and adds them to the iPad’s Camera Roll. Here’s how it works: 1. With PhotoSync open on the iPad, tap the red Sync button on the iPad and choose Receive Photos/Videos. 2. On the Mac, open a Web browser and point it at the address specified at the bottom of the iPad’s screen (such as http://10.0.1.11:8080). 6. Click the Choose File button to locate the image you want to send. Or, in Safari, you can also drag a file onto the album name pop- up menu. 7. Click the Submit button to transfer the file. 8. On the iPad, tap the Done button when you’re finished. Of course, this approach isn’t the only one my friend could have taken. He could have sent the photos to his mother via email, but photos are large and could run into message size limits. And even then, extracting numerous photos from email messages is awkward. Or, he could have stored the photos in a Dropbox folder and shared that folder with his mother, who could then have viewed the photos in the Dropbox app on the iPad and saved them individually to the Camera Roll. However, with PhotoSync he can install the app on his mother’s iPad and transfer the files directly. When she returns home, she can easily import the photos into iPhoto, because the pictures of the grandkids are in the iPad’s Camera Roll. I’m always in favor of tools that save time and avoid drudgery, but I was surprised at just how helpful PhotoSync has been with my projects. If you need to transfer images in any capacity between a computer and an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch (or all of the above), PhotoSync is far more valuable than the $1.99 it costs. This article is copyright © 2012 Jeff Carlson, TidBITS is copyright © 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc., Reuse governed by Creative Commons License. Let’s Sing Connects People by Voice by Glenn Fleishman You’re given a Web-based view of the iPad’s entire photo library. (Steps 3—7 all take place on the Mac.) 3. Click the Upload button. 4. Choose one of the iPad’s albums (or create a new one), or use the default Camera Roll. 5. Select an album as the destination, and then click the Select button. mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 I was a musical-theatre nerd in high school and still sing in the shower — and at my sometimes unwilling children. Let’s Sing, a new app, channels my singing bug. It’s a game that requires me to sing, whistle, or hum the melody of a song I want my partner to guess. The app, which comes in ad- supported free and paid ($4.99) versions, comes from friends-of-TidBITS Lex Friedman and Marco Page 9 of 16 Tabini, both of whom have contributed to our fine publication. To play, you connect with friends through your Address Book, Facebook, or by entering an email address or username. You can also request a random opponent. Pick among three songs offered from simplest (mostly kids’ tunes) to hardest (contemporary pop) associated with in-game coin values that correspond to the level of difficulty. Record a snippet of up to 30 seconds, and send to your partner. If you don’t know the song or need to jog your memory, listen to a preview or even purchase the song in iTunes. Your buddy sees a screen that has a series of squares and spaces corresponding to the letters in the song’s title that he or she needs to fill out. If your partner guesses correctly, you both earn the same number of coins. Each round alternates between players. The app includes the option when trying to figure out the song’s title to cash in coins to show the artist’s name or fill in vowels. Passing is also allowed, although that breaks a “streak,” or the count of continuous successful turns between you and that partner. (You can buy coins, too, which is part of the game’s business model, starting at 1,000 coins for 99¢.) mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 speaker 4) ajwie) Rit) yjul tjolP| A} s}D) F]a) 4} 4) K) > BBCuooo = 123 & | 8] space | return TidBITS’s Adam Engst says that the game frankly gives him hives, as he can’t abide the notion of making musical noise at other people. As an exhibitionist who never liked karaoke, I find it quite charming, and love hearing the voices of friends and acquaintances, and sharing my own attempts to hit the high notes on “Dream On.” This article is copyright © 2012 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc. Reuse governed by Creative Commons License. Reunion 10 Offers Better Genealogical Overviews, Web Search by Andy Affleck Genealogy buffs, take note! Leister Productions has released Reunion 10, a significant upgrade of their venerable genealogy tool, with a focus on improving navigation of complex family trees. Most obviously, the Family Card, the initial view showing the source individual, their parents, spouse, spouse’s parents, and all children, has been replaced with the far more customizable Family View. Along with numerous display options, every person’s card can now contain a picture as well as any event or fact you care to display. Page 10 of 16 ipiaperny Also notable is the new Tree View, which replaces the former Overview and offers a scrollable tree (either in hourglass or pedigree format) enabling you to explore the family tree in a more fluid manner. es A new right sidebar — populated by clicking items in the left sidebar — provides different lists including people, sources, multimedia, relatives (people sorted by their relationship to a specified individual), ages, places, treetops (the oldest known ancestors on every branch of the tree), and more. You can hide this sidebar to provide more screen real estate to the information-heavy Family and Tree views. The sidebar also serves as a source for dropping places into place fields in appropriate views, and you can drop people into Relatives, Treetops, and Ages sidebars to show the associated data. Reunion 10 also sports several new reports and charts, including a report that lets you see the makeup of an individual’s family on a particular date, an obituary report, and a chart showing the relationship between two specific individuals. Plus, non-blood relatives can now be shown in a mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 relationship report or chart (for example, someone who is the daughter of the spouse of your second cousin). Other new and improved reports include an events report that shows a list of events for people in the family and a multimedia usage report that helps you identify where files are linked. Although these new display and reporting features are welcome, they’re aimed at providing a better overview of data that’s already in Reunion. Instead, my favorite new feature is the built-in Web search that enables me to perform a quick search for a given person on a number of key genealogical Web sites, either one at a time or a set of favorites at all once. In just a few minutes of playing around, I found the death certificates and the names of the parents of my great-great-grandfather. Spouses & Children > Siblings Parents Ancestry.co.uk Ancestry.com Archives.com Emstsland.org Marked Remove from Bookmarks ‘Show im Sidebar < Edit Person. FamityLink.com Find Relanives ¥ FareilySearch.org Treetops > — FamilyTreeDWA.com Map alll places for this person < FindAGrave.com Fold3.com GenealogyBank.com GenealogyPlace.com GenealogyToday.com Genicom Google.com MyHeritage.com Rootsweb RootsWeb Site Search RootsWeb Surname List USGenweb Archives WorldConnect WorkdvitalRecords.com Wed Preferences Page 11 of 16 There are many other smaller improvements along with videos explaining Reunion’s top ten new features, which join a long list of genealogical goodies for those who aren’t yet familiar with Reunion’s existing capabilities. New copies of Reunion 10 are available directly from Leister Productions for $99; upgrades from earlier versions cost $49.95. Companion iPhone and iPad apps that work with both Reunion 9.0c and 10.0 are available for $14.99 each. This article is copyright © 2012 Andy Affleck, TidBITS is copyright © 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc., Reuse governed by Creative Commons License. Hot Links: Compiled by Tom Ostertag Apple, Inc. Week in Apple: Stalkers, Antivirus, And MacBook Pros. Oh My! | Infinite Loop Analyst Andy Zaky Issues Rare Buy Rating for Apple Stock, Predicts Share $750 Price | Cult of Mac Apple Reports Second Quarter Results | Apple Hot News Mac Software Product News: Apple Releases OS X Lion 10.7.4 with Four Bug Fixes | The Mac Observer Mountain Lion update includes automatic Mac app downloads | TUAW Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5 Update | TidBITS Reunion 10 Offers Better Genealogical Overviews. Web Search | TidBITS Security Update 2012-002 (Snow Leopard) | TidBITS mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Apple Releases Security Updates for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard | TidBITS Apple Releases OS X Lion 10.7.4 with Four Bug Fixes | The Mac Observer The future is forever: the state of IPv6 in the Apple world | Infinite Loop Apples amazing new Maps app will “blow your head off” | Edible Apple Resize OS X Lion Windows More Intelligently [OS X Tips] | Cult of Mac Keynote For Startups | Cult of Mac Caffeinated Gives Reeder RSS App A Run For The Money On The Mac [Review] | Cult of Mac Learn MS Office 2011 for Mac [Deals] | Cult of Mac Important vulnerability fix rolled out in Microsoft Office for Mac update | AppleInsider Safari 5.1.7 update disables out-of-date Flash versions | AppleInsider Microsoft Launching Office For iPad In November [Rumor] | Cult Of Mac Safari 5.1.7 and OS X 10.7.4, How Flashback Works, Free Lion Boot Disk Tool, and More | Low End Mac How Mountain Lion Will Make Managing Macs Just Like Managing An iPhone Or iPad [Feature] | Cult of Mac Changes | MacNews It's Looking Good | MacNews Mac Hardware Ivy Bridge Macs | World Of Apple Page 12 of 16 About Those MacBooks With The Retina Display | Understanding iTunes Authorizations | MacNews Edible Apple Apple HDTV Seen Doubling The Money Americans Woman ss iPhone Gets Stolen, Thief Uploads Pics To Photo Stream For World To See | Cult Of Mac Spend On Apple Products | Cult Of Mac Meta Watch Announces Bluetooth 4.0 Smartwatch Under The Hood Of Apple's IPhone, IPad Charger | C\Net iPad/iPod/iPhone/iTunes/iCloud Apple Reportedly Expanding iCloud with Photo Sharing, Personal Videos | The Mac Observer Resetting Forgotten Passcode on iPod touch | iLounge Adobe Photoshop Touch increases maximum photo resolution | iLounge Why Hackers Target Small Businesses Who Use Macs, iPads & iPhones | Cult of Mac Using Reminders On Your iPhone More Efficiently LiOS Tips] | Cult of Mac Recovering iTunes from an External Hard Drive | iLounge iOS 6, Google Maps, and Siri for iPad | Edible Apple Beam Your Photos From iPad to iPhone Using iPhoto [iOS Tips] | Cult of Mac Apple Still Dropping The Ball On iOS Training | For IOS | Shrine Of Apple Website Was IBM Right? Is Siri A Threat To Businesses? [Feature] | Cult Of Mac How The IPad Is Saving The Elderly From Dementia | Cult Of Mac The Best iPad Note Apps | Cult Of Mac Get Your Gmail Backed Up Where You Need It [Review] | Cult Of Mac IQS Travel Apps: How Ars Books, Executes, And Gets Around | Infinite Loop Miscellaneous When Time Machine Volume Fills Up... | MacRumors Record-Breaking Graphene Circuits | Chemical & Engineering News Lumix {2.8 12-35mm Is World's First Fixed Aperture Mirrorless Zoom | Cult Of Mac Rainbow Train teaches colours to toddlers | iLounge The Titanic's First Explorer Was Not Named After Cult of Mac ProCamera Makes A Decent Camera For Pros the Chipmunk [Video] | Gizmodo Get vour fix with CheckBook Pro 2.3.2 | Splasmata [Review] | Cult of Mac The Best iPad Text Editors [Best Of] | Cult of Mac Save Space And Stream Videos To Your iPhone or iPad [iOS Tips] | Cult of Mac mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Syne Reminders To Your Mac And Other Devices [iOS Tips] | Cult of Mac Page 13 of 16 Members Helping Members Need Help? Have a question the manual doesn’t answer? Members Helping Members is a group of volunteers who have generously agreed to help. They are just a phone call or an email away. Please Apple II / IIGS Software & Hardware. NV AppleWorks / Claris Work: Classic Macs Cross-Platform File Transfe: FileMaker Pro. IMACS ..scssesse0s NV Intel-Based Macs NV iPhoto. 3 i i 6 4 Mac OS Classic 3 D = Days, generally 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. E = Evenings, generally 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. W= Weekends, generally 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. NV = No Volunteer call only during the appropriate times, and only if you are a current mini’app’les member and own the software in question. Mac OS X Microsoft Exce Microsoft Word. Networks.. New Users PhotoShop QuarkXPre: Quicken.... QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro i Vector Works ......cceeceeceseeeeseeseeseeeseeeesesneeseeneseseee 1. Les Anderson 651-735-3953 anderslc@usfamily.net DEW 2. Tom Ostertag 651-488-9979 tostertag@q.com DEW 3. Bruce Thompson 763-546-1088 bthompson@macconnect.com EW 4. Pam Lienke 651-457-6026 plienke@aol.com DEW 5. Ron Heck 651-774-9151 ronheck@comecast.net DEW Please call at reasonable hours and ask if it is a convenient time for helping you. By the way, many of these volunteers can also be contacted on our forums. We appreciate your cooperation. Mini’app’les needs more volunteers for Members Helping Members — If you are willing to be a Members Helping Members volunteer, please send an email message to Membership Director Les Anderson or contact him on our forums with your name, telephone number, contact hours, and the software and hardware areas you are willing to support. mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Page 14 of 16 Mini’app’les Membership Application and Renewal Form Membership cost is $15.00 for one year. To pay electronically using PayPal, visit the mini’app’les website. If you prefer to pay by check, use the form below. Please make your check payable to “mini’app’ les”. Name: Company (if mailed to): Address: City, State, Zip: Phone # (home): Phone # (work): Phone # (cell): Membership ID # (if renewal): Email: Your email address will NOT be sold, shared, or distributed. It will be used only for official mini’app'les business such as distribution of the newsletter and membership renewal reminders. Check if this is a change of address notice Check if you want to volunteer Check if you want to be added to “Members Helping Members” Check if you were referred by a club member (if so, please give member’s name) Please mail this application and your payment to: mini’app’les P.O. Box 796 Hopkins, MN 55343-0796 Thank you for your support! Benefits of mini’app’les Membership + Access to the mini’app’les online forums. Post questions and/or answers about issues, trouble shooting, products, buying and selling, special events, discounts, and news about Apple and the mini’ app’ les club. + Access to our Members Helping Members network of professional and advanced users of Apple technologies. These members volunteer their time to help other members with software, hardware, and other Apple related issues. + A variety of Mac Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that meet each month. + Multi-SIG meetings and workshops to help members with computer problems. You can bring your equipment to these events and receive support from knowledgeable Mac users to help diagnose your problem(s). + Participation in drawings for computer hardware, software, and other computer related materials. + Discounts from vendors and manufacturers. Refer to the on-line forums for current offers. mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Page 15 of 16 mini’app’ les the minnesota apple computer users’ group, inc. Introduction — This is the newsletter of mini’app’les, the Board of Directors Minnesota Apple Computer Users’ Group, Inc., a Minnesota non-profit club. The whole newsletter is copyrighted © by President Tim Drenk mini’app’les. Articles may be reproduced in other non-profit 952-479-0891 User Groups’ publications except where specifically copyrighted ‘ ae by the author (permission to reproduce these articles must be timdrenk@miniapples.or: given by the author). Please include the source when reprinting. Vice President Jeff Berg The mini’app’les Newsletter is an independent publication not 781-350-0598 affiliated, sponsored, or sanctioned by Apple, Inc. or any other jeff@purpleshark.com computer manufacturer. The opinions, statements, positions, and 7 views are those of the author(s) or newsletter staff and are not Secretary Joel Gerdeen intended to represent the opinions, statements, positions, or views of Apple, Inc., or any other computer manufacturer. 763-607-0906 Instead of placing a trademark symbol at every occurrence of a jgerdeen@mac.com trade-marked name, we state we are using the names only in an editorial manner, to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no Treasurer Bob Demeules intention of infringement of the trademark. 763-559-1124 Questions — Members with technical questions should refer to 0Sx.sig@mac.com the Members Helping Members section or bring their questions ¥ . to an appropriate SIG meeting. Please direct other questions to Membership Director Mike Bertrand an appropriate board member. 651-772-3427 sis oe tubguy@mac.com Dealers — Mini’app’les does not endorse specific dealers. The club promotes distribution of information that may help Publications Director Tom Ostertag members identify best buys and service. The club itself does not 651-488-9979 participate in bulk purchases of media, software, hardware, and publications. Members may organize such activities on behalf of tostertag@q.com other members. SIG Director Kevin Strysik Submissions — We welcome contributions from our members. 651-489-4691 Perhaps you're using new software that you just can’t live ee ee without. Maybe you have a new piece of hardware that you find strysik@mac.com extremely useful and of high quality. On the other hand, you ~ Z might be strugaling with rroblemetie software or handiee, Director at Large Bruce Thompson Why not share your experience with other members by writing a 763-546-1088 product review? Doing so may steer others towards quality bthompson@macconnect.com products or help them avoid the problems you may be having. Submissions must be received by the 15th day of each month to be included in the next month’s newsletter. Please send contributions directly to our post office box (mini’app’les, PO Box 796, Hopkins MN 55343), or email them to miniapples@mac.com. The deadline for material for the next newsletter is the fifteenth of the month. An article will be printed when space permits and, if in the opinion of the Newsletter Editor or Publications Director, it constitutes material suitable for publication. This newsletter was produced using Apple’s Pages word processor. mini’app’les Newsletter — June 2012 Page 16 of 16