"Here's a tip that might be helpful," says Jim Hamm. "If you get an email with a shortened URL through TinyURL.com, you can preview where it goes to, before opening it, by visiting the following website and enabling this feature: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php
"Once enabled, it will place a cookie on your computer. Then, just right-click a shortened URL and then click 'Quick Look URL.' It will show you where the link goes before you open it. This could be helpful if you are suspicious of a shortened URL and want to know where it goes before you click to open it," Jim closes with a grin.
And, we're all happy not to need a correctly-entered URL to go to many sites. Google has simplified our search.
What Happened to "Read More"?
This is the latest on http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/ -- yes, this blog. Apparently, on April 23 Blogspot made changes to their procedures and an aggravation has surfaced here. When you subscribe via RSS, clicking on the upper right hand side of the top bar, you'd be notified via your own email program when something new was posted here. About 4 lines would give the opening of the article, and then came those helpful words, "Read More." Clicking there took you immediately to this website and you could read the whole article and see the whole newsletter.
Now the "Read More" is missing. Until the solution is found I will start each new posted article with this http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/ in the first line, so you can click on that and go straight to the whole blog. That's the idea.....now to see if it works for you!
Considering Google Drive?
( For the benefit of RSS readers see if this works. Click on http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/ to bring up the whole first page of the blog.)
This CNBC article is headlined, "Suspicion, Confusion Swirl Around Google Drive." Take a look to keep informed.
Gmail Increases Your Storage
Jim Hamm says, "Here's some good news: If you have a Gmail email address, your storage has been increased to 10 GB to celebrate the release of Google Drive. Here's the announcement. I checked my account and, sure enough, I've got 10241 MB of email storage available to me. This is one of the reasons I use Gmail — I don't have to alert people to stop sending emails when I won't have access to the internet for awhile — I've got plenty of storage available. Another reason is Gmail's filters are excellent — I almost never get a spam email."As a side note: if you've thought about using Google Drive for storage of documents, it's not available for everyone yet — it's a rolling release. If you're interested, you can sign up to be notified when it will be available for you." New info: MailTab for Gmail, "the best Gmail app for free" is v7.5, dated 6-12-2015, is available. Read about it at iTunes.apple.com.
More About FREE E-books
Since our posting of April 6 here Jim Hamm has found another site, offering free e-books. He tells us, "If you enjoy reading e-books, here is an article describing various methods of getting free e-books. Also, the Calibre program discussed in the article is useful in converting a document into a format your device can use."
This just in: the last of April Amazon released a program for Mac, "Send to Kindle for Mac" that allows users to easily send personal documents and DR-free ebooks to Kindle ereaders and apps and the Kindle cloud archive from Mac computers. See more here.
MacMail: Missing Plug-in
John Carter springs this question, "Have you ever noticed that when you send an e-mail with an attachment, it shows up in your Sent folder with the attachment seemingly replaced with the words 'Missing Plug-in?'
" A few weeks back, some advice was given out to supposedly protect you from a Java related virus. The advice said to open 'Java Preferences' (this application is in /Applications/Utilities, or just search for it with Spotlight) and uncheck the box in the General tab: 'Enable applet plug-in and Web Start applications.' Unchecking that box causes your attachments to disappear from your e-mail in the Sent folder and maybe cause you to think that the attachment didn’t go through.
"To see your attachments in your Sent folder again, make sure that the box is checked and then click on the button 'Restore Defaults.' All will be fine again. As for the Java related virus warning, both Java and Apple have pushed updates that you should have installed, and those updates will protect you - until the next new virus comes along."
But John, we asked, "what about the Safari Preferences"?
Here's John's reply: "Not the same. What you show is for Safari, not Mail. Since I have installed all the latest Java and Apple updates, I have 'Enable Java' box checked in Safari Preferences as well. But that setting does not affect how Mail works."
Half-Baked Cloud: Read This
"Before you sign up for the new Google Drive," Prez Art Gorski gets our attention, "have a look at this review." Three paragraphs down you'll find a privacy warning spelled out.
eBooks on Sale
This, just in from John Carter: "O’Reilly is having a special 50% off sale on ebooks.
$11.99 – Switching to Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition
$13.99 – Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual
$4.99 – Troubleshooting Your Mac, Second Edition
$11.97 – My New Mac, Lion Edition
$15.99 – Office 2010: The Missing Manual
$15.99 – Excel 2010: The Missing Manual No code required.
"Visit the O’Reilly site before midnight tonight, (Pacific Time) April 26, 2012 to take advantage of this great offer!"
Want Lots More FREE Storage?
Jim Hamm immediately gets our attention with, "Would you like 7GB of free storage?" There's that word FREE. He goes on to suggest, "Take a look at Microsoft's SkyDrive, which is explained in the following article. I just set it up, and it functions just like Dropbox, only with a lot more storage:
"Or, you could consider the new Google Drive, which offers 5GB of free storage. See here.
"Or, set them both up. Coupled with Apple's iCloud free storage of 5GB, you now have 17GB of free 'Cloud' storage available. What's not to like about this? Of course, it might be a bit confusing remembering what you've got stored where....(grin)...." Jim
Malware Warning
Malware? There's more to come for Mac! Jim Hamm sends us this warning, "Unfortunately, I think the article has a point: more malware is probably headed towards Macs." Keep informed.
Gatekeeper in Mountain Lion
"One feature coming in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion, is Gatekeeper — an enhanced security feature," announces Jim Hamm. He elaborates, "Recently, Macs have been attacked by malware, and we'll probably see more attacks in the future. Additional security protection is always welcome. Here are some comments about Gatekeeper. From AppleInsider and from Apple.com
Here Jim goes on to quote from John Gruber of DaringFireball, posted 2-16-12. "My favorite Mountain Lion feature, though, is one that hardly even has a visible interface. Apple is calling it 'Gatekeeper.' It’s a system whereby developers can sign up for free-of-charge Apple developer IDs which they can then use to cryptographically sign their applications. If an app is found to be malware, Apple can revoke that developer’s certificate, rendering the app (along with any others from the same developer) inert on any Mac where it’s been installed.
"In effect, it offers all the security benefits of the App Store, except for the process of approving apps by Apple. Users have three choices which type of apps can run on Mountain Lion:
1. Only those from the App Store
2. Only those from the App Store or which are signed by a developer ID
3. Any app, whether signed or unsigned
The default for this setting is, I say, exactly right: the one in the middle, disallowing only unsigned apps. This default setting benefits users by increasing practical security, and also benefits developers, preserving the freedom to ship whatever software they want for the Mac, with no approval process.
"Call me nuts, but that’s one feature I hope will someday go in the other direction — from OS X to iOS."
iPhoto '11: Glitch or Not?
"I read somewhere a few months back that a feature that was available in iPhoto ’09 had been removed in iPhoto ’11 — and I believed it without doing some testing on my own." John Carter goes on to explain, "The story was that in iPhoto ’09 you could arbitrarily drop a pin in a map at a precise location where a photo was taken, and that in iPhoto ’11 the best you could do was specify the nearest city that was on the map. Not true. iPhoto ’11 allows you to first specify the nearest city and then move the pin to the precise nearby location.
In the image here, a photo was taken (using a camera that didn’t have GPS) in Jerome in the same building as the Post Office. When I tried to assign a place to the photo, the best I could do was enter Jerome, AZ. For some reason, I decided to just move the pin (click and hold on the red ball and drag it around) - and it stuck where I moved it! There you go! Precise positioning of the pin where the photo was taken."
Kindle App Released
Jim Hamm has discovered an app for the Kindle called "Send to Kindle" for Mac. He suggests it may be helpful. Read more here.
Google Drive vs. The Rest of Them
"With interest in the Cloud increasing with more competing services, this article may interest our members," remarks David Passell. "I don't see any mention of Apple's service (iCloud??? don't even remember what it's called). We use Dropbox." The article compares Google Drive, SkyDrive, DropBox, Box, and SugarSync.
Free Up Storage Space on iOS Device
Six tips on how to free up storage space on your iPad, iPhone, iPod are described at this site, sent to us by Jim Hamm. He includes this suggestion, "Another tip is to frequently close open apps, as they all consume memory as they run in the background. If, say, your iPad seems slower, I bet that available memory is about gone and this slows down the iPad. Many of us -- me included -- often forget to close apps after we open them, on an iPad or iPhone.
"Double tap the Home Button to view all the running apps along the bottom of the screen. Yes, they're all running and consuming memory. Close them and your device should run quicker."
iPad, iPhone Questions
Jim Hamm walks us through some questions for AT&T customers: "If you're an AT&T customer, suddenly in the new iPad a 4G icon appears, as it did in the iPhone 4 upgrade to the iPhone 4S. Are you really getting 4G performance? What is 4G anyway? Do you even care?
"Well, note that no matter what the icon shows, if you're really getting 4G your rate plan will be different. Ah, yes. AT&T likes to do a bit of a fast-foot-shuffle in marketing their so-called 4G service. The following article gives a good explanation of what's going on. If interested, read on. If something like this bores you to tears, tap the delete button and move on...(grin)"....Jim
Travel the World from Your Desktop
Struggling photographer or an expert? Either one, you'll enjoy these gorgeous 3-D aerial panoramic views. Thanks to Jim Hamm we can click to see amazing sights from AirPano, a group of photographers who have 90 famous places in the world linked to their site. Some views are available in iPhone and iPad formats; you can also choose high resolution or low resolution.
Electronic Pen Coming Soon
David Passell sends this link to a description of an electronic pen that replaces much more expensive interactive white boards, an "interesting idea for presentations." The BBC site says Penveu will soon be tried out in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Cost? $499, but read what all it can do!
Considering iPhone and IPad Speeds
Jim Hamm reports: "I'm quite pleased with the speed of 3G on my iPhone. Zee and I just tried an experiment with our iPads. She has the new iPad with 4G here in Scottsdale. I've got the iPad 2 with 3 G. We entered websites in Safari and clicked send at the same time. Couldn't tell the difference. As the article explains only in certain conditions will one appreciate 4G speeds. For everyday surfing the net and emails, 4G probably won't make an appreciable difference."
Why Macs Are Subject to Malware Attacks
"Now here's an interesting theory about why Macs are increasingly subject to malware attacks: because anti-virus programs for the Windows platform are getting better and better. Huh? Read on. Low market share for OS X was, I feel, certainly a factor, in the past, for few malware attacks. Why waste a bunch of hacking effort on small potatoes? But it's interesting to read this guy's theory on another reason." Thanks to Jim Hamm for sending along this info.