MacBook Battery Problem Solved

De Prez Allen Laudenslager found a solution for his battery problem. He relates, "My MacBook battery has been shutting down my computer in less than 15 minutes and is only 2 and a half years old. Should last longer. I also noticed that while the computer shuts down with a low battery message, when I check the manual battery level indicator on the battery it still shows a full charge

"I ran all the internal checks and tried everything on the Apple help pages. Then I found the directions to disconnect the power cord and let the computer run till it quit. Then leave it turned on for at least 5 hours. Yes, 5 hours after the battery died."

Allen continues, "Left it on over night after it quit and the next morning reconnected the power cord. After recharging, I have run for almost an hour and the battery shows slightly less than half charge which seems about right. The computer did not shut down and that's good enough for me.

"Try this if you are having short battery life in your laptop before you spend all that money for an new battery.

calibrating the battery
fully charge 2 hrs beyond green indicator on power cable
run on battery until machine shuts down or sleeps
leave computer off for 5 hrs or more
connect power adaptor, and leave connected until battery is fully charged.

resetting PRAM
(holding command + alt + P + R at boot time)

resetting SMC
remove external power
remove battery
hold down power button for 5+ seconds

Allen concludes, "From my Mac expert, the one that finally worked for me was the charge, run till shutdown and then recharge."

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Looking for iPhoto Solution

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After some questions we've received on problems with iPhoto John Carter sends this advice, "This could be an indication that the hard drive in the computer is starting to fail, or that you are running out of space on your internal hard drive.

"First, check to see how much space is left on the hard drive. If you have at less than 1GB of free space, I would be concerned. A small amount of available space on the internal hard drive clearly indicates that you need an external hard drive and need to move folders from the internal hard drive to the external hard drive to give the Mac room to work in.

"Check the internal hard drive available space by right-clicking on the 'Macintosh HD' in the 'Devices' section of the Finder, then clicking on 'Get Info.'

The popup should look something like this.

"If you are losing other files on the computer and not just photos in the iPhoto library, a failing hard drive is most reasonable.

"To help in isolating the problem, you could add a second, external hard drive anyway and move your iPhoto library to that hard drive. This is not a straightforward operation, so it is best done by someone who knows what they are doing. By moving the iPhoto library to a new external hard drive, if the problem persists then you will know it has something to do with either the Mac, the iPhoto application, or the way you are accessing or manipulating the photos.

"Having an external hard drive for your iPhoto library could actually speed things up when accessing iPhoto since your iPhoto library is quite large. The technical explanation for this is complicated. I have found that there is an initial time lag when accessing my external hard drives, but only when they have 'gone to sleep,' which is normal. If the external hard drives are active, then everything works fast. I use an external hard drive for all my videos and many of my photos.

"You could also have someone sit with you while you work with iPhoto to see if they can catch what might be causing the problem, but that could take hours to wait for the problem to show up, and this is why I think moving the iPhoto library to an external hard drive would be a better way to approach the problem."

Dealing With Mac Slowdowns

"Unfortunately, mysterious computer slowdowns can be difficult to diagnose," so states an article sent to us by Jim Hamm.  The writer goes on to explain ten suggestions of areas to check, urging readers to first make sure Mac is backed up properly before proceeding.  He goes into specifics and gives useful links.  Slow Mac or not, this would be information to check out for your own future reference.

Now De Prez Allen Laudenslager writes to say, "I've been having a problem with my MacBook locking up if left with the screen open and unused for more than a few minutes since I installed a new hard drive last May. I upgraded to Snow Leopard (Christmas present) but that didn't solve the problem.

"After following the instructions in Jim's post and running OnyX the problem seems to have been fixed!"

My Top Ten Suggestions for a Better Year Ahead

 1. Take care of what matters to you.
 2. Be thankful for what you’ve got.
 3. Watch for improvements you can adopt and adapt.
 4. Spend time on what brings a twinkle to your eyes.
 5. Encourage someone.
 6. Keep an eye out for trends.
 7. Don’t get snowed under with demands.
 8. Prepare for changes.
 9. Organize something: your desk, closet, kitchen, car.
10. Add Honesty to the journalistic ABCs, Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity
(Someone Else has already given the 10 Commandments; mine are Suggestions)
For Don and myself, Elaine, we add #11, Pray for wisdom for those in leadership.
Did I forget anything important, here?

Happy New Year!

Secretary Bobbie Pastor sends PMUG members and friends a cheery greeting and a wish for a Blessed New Year.

 She says, "The Prescott Mac User Group Board wants to take this opportunity to express their appreciation for your membership and acknowledge those of you who were our guests throughout the year.  We hope that our efforts have made a difference in your Mac experience. We are going to continue the SIG classes as long as there is an interest. We want to make our monthly meetings as interesting as possible. Allen is working hard to bring informative speakers to the group. If you have good ideas for speakers, please let him know."

"We wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. We look forward to seeing our friends again in 2010."  Your PMUG Board,
Allen Laudenslager,  Bill Williamson,  Bobbie Pastor,  David Passell,  Jim Hamm,   Elaine Hardt,   John Carter,   Roger Lakner,  Art Gorski

Benefits of Multiple Mail Accounts

"If you have several email accounts, and use Apple Mail as your main application, you can set up multiple account names," De Prez Allen Laudenslager reminds us.

The Apple instructions are right here for you.

"What this means is that when you send a new email, you can select from any of your accounts and the mail will be sent with that as the visible address and not from your 'primary' address.

"For example, suppose you had an account named xxx@mac.com as your primary but also had an xyz@gmail.com. With this system from Apple mail, you can send your message from either your .mac or .gmail account directly from your mail application!

"Cool, huh?"  Yes, Allen, and thanks for keeping us informed and inspired!

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Backing Up to Your External Hard Drive

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Save yourself some grief; De Prez Allen Laudenslager will walk us through getting ready to back up to an external hard drive.  This is a must!
He introduces the subject, "Because of the complexity I will be doing it in two installments. This is the first and is mostly about how to format the drive when you first get it home so it will work with your Mac."



"Many of you will remember my hard drive failure way back in May of 2009. I was relying on my Mobile Me account with Apple to keep my back ups. Imagine my surprise when the backups clear back to February of that year were corrupt!

"I can’t begin to tell you how much stuff I lost because Mobile Me didn’t have any way to tell me that the backups were corrupted. I’ve been putting off buying an external hard drive and backing up to several DVDs once or twice a month for the last 2 months.

"I just got a new external drive as a birthday present and now I’ll be backing up using Super Duper AND time machine. This will automate the process and provide a lot more security.

"So, now I’ve convinced you to buy that backup drive for between $60 and $150 there is one important thing you need to do as soon as you get it home.

"Format the drive.

"Almost any drive you buy will be formatted for Windows and that is incompatible with OS X. Just connect the drive, go to Finder Applications and scroll down to Utilities. Once you open Utilities, look for and open Disk Utilities. The process is the same in Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard.

"In the top left hand column, you’ll see the computer’s internal drive listed first, followed by your brand new external drive. Highlight the external drive and the right hand column will give you the options to format the drive to work with your Mac. Select partition and then rename the drive.

"Why rename? To make it obvious which drive you are selecting a few weeks from now when you’ve forgotten the details of the process. There is, also, always the chance that you will have so much stuff that you will be connecting more than one external drive. Seem unlikely? I remember my first hard drive, 20 megabytes. Yes, that’s right, meg, not gig. If you have lots of photos, you may very well need several drives depending on the sizes you buy.

"I recommend setting the drive up as one big partition and then creating folders if you need to organize further. Next, select Mac format, extended journal. Then click apply. The process will take several minutes but once done, the external drive will show up in finder and you can transfer files just like any folder on your computer.

"In the next installment, I’ll explain why I am using both Super Duper and Time Machine to back up my files and how to set up to use either or both."

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Free How-To Guides

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Here are 15 free guides available for download, or you can read them online. Jim Hamm sends us a link to makeuseof.com  and goes on to say, "I'll start out by reading the following three guides:
The Incredible Free Manual for Every Mac User; The Underground Guide to the iPhone; The Big Book of iTunes. I'm going to post a note of appreciation and subscribe to their newsletter for their handy tips."

How to Do Screenshots

Here are helpful tips on screenshots from Small Dog Electronics Tech Tails # 694, sent to us from Jim Hamm. He explains, "I've used these tips quite often to take a screenshot of something, but one tip that I wasn't aware of was adding the control key to place the image on your clipboard instead of on your desktop. This makes it handy to quickly paste the screenshot onto something else. The downside of this is a PNG image is large. I usually take the PNG image and convert it to a JPEG before using it--a drastic reduction in the size of the image."

Shopping Reviews

An interesting site to browse when you're shopping, says Jim Hamm.  He goes on to elaborate, "For example, I looked at USB Flash Drives and the article listed a review of the top four drives based on other reviews. If I wanted more info about each of them I could go to three more sites that did an in-depth review. Of the top two, if I wanted to use them on my Mac I'd have to download software first. Something good to know beforehand. Of course, Amazon publishes reviews on products as well. But this site gives yet another perspective.  Interesting and helpful site." ....Jim

Pictures Around Prescott

Have you discovered Granny J and her Walking Prescott blog? She takes pictures, and pictures, and pictures! De Prez Allen Laudenslager alerted us to her blog, and I wrote to ask if she uses Mac. Her reply, "Yes, I produce my blog on a Mac with a lovely HUGE screen running OS X 10.5.8," and "No, I don't belong to any local photography group. BTW, of the local bloggers that I know they're all Mac users." She gives us these links to local bloggers Foolswoode, Dagny's Desk, and Airstream Chronicles.

Now, adding to our info comes this from Jim Hamm this morning.  And De Prez has lined up one of Granny's friends to speak to PMUG.

Jim adds, "As I read Granny J's blog--and viewed her many pictures--I found that she is 80+ years young and has a way with words. And takes darn good pictures, too. Then, there's three other blogs to take a look at, as well. People like to express their thoughts--a creative talent urging to get out, I suppose--and a blog is one good way to do it.

"When viewing the 'Airstream Chronicles' blog take a look at the 'Image Galleries' then click 'Prescott' in the drop-down box for some images of Whiskey Row early in the morning, and of the Courthouse all lit up for Christmas.

"Each blog has its own distinctive style and means of expression. As time permits, browse around a bit."...Jim

And this morning, De Prez announces, "I asked Jenny if she would like to speak, but she begged off since she feels she only uses the simple stuff. I told her that many of our members would like to hear about that since many would be encouraged to try those simple solutions themselves.

"She referred me to the blog Airstream Chronicles, also local, and the author, Rich Charpentier,  agreed to speak at the February meeting. More details later."

On the Phone

Computing seems to be shifting more and more to mobile devices. This observation from De Prez Allen Laudenslager accompanies a link to Wired.com. The article compares Windows Mobile (on mobile phones) to Apple OS X and the chart shows that more phones now run OS X than Windows Mobile. Blackberry still outsells any of the others, but with the release of Android, Windows Mobile is losing ground fast.  And, speaking of the latest tech wonders . . .

How about that new word "vaporware" in the Wired info on Popular Science publishers, and the dorky product for fliers pictured here.  Hard to flip past some of this info, isn't it!

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Watch for Google Goggles Info

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Are you reading about "Google Goggles"?   It's a photo-based search in real-time.  This PCWorld article describes its features.  This article from the UK points out serious privacy concerns. Barbara Krasnoff, Computerworld points out, "So what's scary? The day when you can quickly point your smartphone at a person in the street and know within seconds that person's name and particulars may not be that far off."

Adobe Update

     A notice of advisory and recommended update for Adobe Flash Player was forwarded to us by Jim Hamm.  He says,  "To check which version you're running click the 'About Flash Player' link and it will show you which version you've got. Odds are it's the vulnerable version. To download the newest version click the 'Flash Player Download Center,'  then install the download."
     Now, Art Gorski and David Passell jump in with some important additions to this discussion.
Art passes along this warning: "Adobe has confirmed a critical vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. Yet another reason to use Apple's Preview instead. Note that many Adobe installers (Photoshop, etc.) will install Adobe Reader whether you want it or not."

Now David tells of his experience with the Flash Player security update:  "Thanks to Jim for the posting regarding Flash Player security, but statement in the blog "click the 'About Flash Player' link (blue) is misleading.

"When you click on that link you are taken to the Adobe Security Page. At first glance it is a lot of verbage and overchoice without clear guidelines. You have to go down into the second paragraph or so to find:

"Affected software versions:
Adobe Flash Player 10.0.32.18 and earlier versions
 Adobe AIR 1.5.2 and earlier versions
To verify the Adobe Flash Player version number installed on your system, access the About Flash Player page, or right-click on content running in Flash Player and select 'About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player' from the menu.  If you use multiple browsers, perform the check for each browser you have installed on your system.

"When you click on above link then you find out what you have.

"In my case when I first went to the page I didn't see that, but the Firefox browser popped up with an update to 3.5.6 which I installed. The Firefox description did not immediately tell me what had changed. If I wanted to dig around I might find that Flashplayer was updated.

"In any case I went back to the Adobe page mentioned in the link in the Blog posting, and then clicked on the 'About Flash Player page.'  I found that I had the secure version.

And David adds, "(Somewhere in the second go-around I got the message 'software update installed successfully' or words to that affect (poor short-term memory).:)"

Keeping Up With Apple

It's so easy to get the very latest Apple news, whether it's this new article about the University of Washington and their proprietary iPhone app — or the Quad-Core iMac — or the Nuru non-profit organization which uses MacPro and MacBookPro computers, iPhone, Final Cut Studio, iChat, and Mobile Me.  Just go to Apple here  and find at the right side of the sidebar  Actions: > Subscribe in Mail.  You'll be notified on your Mail page when there's an entry, giving you the headline and four lines of the article. Click to read more.