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The Next iPhone? And Apple Ads

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        Jim Hamm starts us off with this, "Could these be pictures of the next iPhone? Only conjecture at this point. At first glance it looks very similar to my existing iPhone 4. A closer looks reveals differences: eg, the bottom has a smaller dock connector (as has been oft rumored) and speaker openings. Will be interesting to what Apple has done to the 'innards' as well."
        A look there leads to this link with other Apple info, including a 1 minute video, and an article about the Apple TV ads shown during the Olympics opening ceremony. 

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iCloud Conundrum

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        "I surely don't understand iCloud in Mountain Lion," declares Jim Hamm.  He goes on to explain,  "To wit: I open TextEdit for the first time (in ML) and what appears first is not a blank page ready to type on, as in the past, but a dialog box of iCloud. It explains that documents can be drug to the box and saved in iCloud. 
        "So, out of curiosity, I tried that. Instead of actually moving a document from my hard drive to iCloud, I wanted to move a copy of the document, the same concept (in my mind) as Time Machine. I would have a document on my hard drive and in the Cloud. 
        "Nope! The iCloud dialog box wouldn't let me move a copy of the document to the cloud, only the original. I didn't want to do that.

        "After dragging and dropping one document from the Finder to iCloud, just to see what happened, under the document it showed 'Waiting' for a bit, then the title of the document appeared. The document had moved from my hard drive. I assumed this meant it was stored in iCloud. So, in Safari, I log in to iCloud and look at what's in my iCloud. The document is not there. There's not even a heading for documents there. And yes, in the System Preference iCloud pane I have 'Documents & Data' checked."
        Jim closes with, "Would the knowledgable luminaries of this forum be so kind as to explain what I'm missing in this scenario? More elucidation very much appreciated. Thanks." 

Mountain Lion Messages

     Jim Hamm's impressed with Verge newsletter info on Mountain Lion;  he notes their comments on Messages, saying, "How Messages works is a bit confusing. Read the fourth paragraph. Looks like iOS 6 will solve the problem later this year when it's released."
        You'll want to read their whole report on all the features.  The Verge gives 11 pages of illustrated info on Mountain Lion, followed by 757 comments.  

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Mountain Lion Upgrade Notes

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        "Well, there's more," John Carter begins.  (Of course, with  200+ features!) OK, John: you're on! 

        "The Address Book is quite a bit different. More controls to change the appearance. One control places the group list in a column on the far left next to the address list. What's still missing is a column of A-Z tabs to quickly go to a section of the address book like there is in the iPad Contacts.
        "A Reminders App, list like the one in the iPad, is now in OS 10.8. Well, not exactly like it. OS X 10.8 has a few controls that iOS 5.1 doesn't have, like displaying a small monthly calendar in the left column.
        "TextEdit also has the two new buttons (iCloud and On My Mac) in the upper left of the Open window.
        "Stickies still exists, but now there is Notes. These are the same notes that you have in the iPhone and iPad. But looks a bit different.
        "The Open window for QuickTime doesn't have the two new buttons.
        "I still prefer MPEGStreamclip over QuickTime. QuickTime still chokes on .wmv files that MPEGStreamclip has no problem with. And the latest Flip4Mac release didn't help QuickTime at all – because it wouldn't install. With great difficulty I ejected the Flip4Mac installer and then had to restart my computer to get Mail to work again. Clue: don't install the 3.0 Beta for Flip4Mac."
        No sooner had John signed off, "No time for more. I'll continue this at a later time" – than he thought of more!
        "News flash!
        "X11 is not included with Mountain Lion. If you had X11 installed for use with Crossover, Crossover will not run. Attempting to run X11 forces you to an Apple website informing you that X11 is no longer supported.
        "Apple is now using XQuartz instead of X11, but XQuartz will not work with Crossover.
        "Crossover is not yet available for Mountain Lion. So, if you depend on a Windows application running under Crossover, do not upgrade to Mountain Lion until Codeweavers has created a Mountain Lion update.
        "If you have other apps that depend on X11, check to see if it has a Mountain Lion compatible version."  And with this John does sign off — for now. 
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Mountain Lion Installation: Read About It

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        John Carter jumps right in with Mountain Lion.  He tells us, "Like Jim Hamm before me, I dove right in and updated my iMac to 10.8 today.

        "The installation was painless. I started it and walked away for the rest of the day.
When I came back, several applications needed attention – mostly updates.
        "The first surprise was a new application: Messages. This popped up in the middle of the screen all on its own. Apple's way of telling me it's there. Messages allows me to text anyone with an Apple device or PC with 10.8 for free. Messages is already available on iOS 5.1. So this is just another step toward making all Apple products look and feel the same. I doubt I will ever use Messages – unless there is someone out there who doesn't want to use Mail. Mostly, Messages is for iOS devices to avoid phone charges for text messaging.
        "The next surprise was a string of short notices down the right side of the display. These were recent updates to Calendar. And each time Jackie added a new item to the Calendar on her MacBook Air, another notice popped up on my iMac. That's because she is sharing her Calendar with me to make sure I know what she's up to. And I have done the same for her.
        "Another that surprised me was that Total Finder – an add-on to Finder – said that it was not tested on 10.8. It worked anyway.
        "After performing just a few application updates – one was NeoOffice (3.3 Beta is out, available only to those who donated within the past year), I then discovered that the App Store had a few more updates waiting for me. These were iWork, iPhoto, iMovie, and Xcode. 
        "The update for iPhoto required a database update, and I haven't seen any obvious changes. 
        "iMovie thumbnails needed to be created for the project I was currently working on – that took quite a while. And oh, by the way - iMove is LOTS faster.
        "When I opened Mail, the database had to be converted for the new 10.8. No problem. Can't see anything new so far.
        "I expected some change in Preview. When I opened it, I saw a new window. It was telling me that I could now move my existing documents to iCloud by dragging them to that window from the Finder or other app. Before, what I would see was just a Finder window. Now, in the upper left corner of the Preview window are two new buttons: iCloud and On My Mac. Aside for a complete makeover in the Preview Menu, there is now a brand new Editor toolbar with an enhanced Adjust Color pane and a Smart Lasso. 
        "Move over, iPhoto! You may never use iPhoto again to make basic changes to a photo – unless, of course, the only way to access the photo is through iPhoto. The bad part of this is, now you have something else to spend time on. As with Lion, any change you make to a photo with Preview creates a version of the file – so you can always retrieve the original. And when you click on the filename, the menu now shows an option to move the image to iCloud. Clicking on Browse all Versions shows them in the same way that Time Machine shows your backups. Wow! I like the changes I just made to that photo.
        "Remember what I said about the new buttons in the upper left of the Finder window when I opened Preview? You get the same two buttons (iCloud and On My Mac) with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.
        "I have no idea what's new in Xcode, and even if I did, I'm sure you wouldn't be interested.
        And here John winds up his report with this, "All in all, it has been a good thing. Nothing really new to learn – except Messages. But then, I haven't read about all the new features in 10.8. I give this 10.8 upgrade a 10. Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion may be like trading Windows for a Mac, but going from Lion to Mountain Lion will be like adding more icing to the cake.
        "Where's my MacBook Pro? That's next!"   OK, John, keep us posted.  

Mountain Lion Roars!

You'll be seeing a lot of articles about Mountain Lion which was released this morning.  See Apple's site with a 5 minute video about the 200+ features.  Here's a USA Today's columnist's take on it. Jim Hamm sends us this link to author Galen Gruman's book.  Now, he's installed it!         "When Lion first came out, July 20, 2011, the very first day I downloaded and installed it. Not a good idea to do that the first day (let other people catch the problems), and I said "never again". Well, I must have a short memory, or not too smart (both, probably), because I just now did it again. 

        "I just finished downloading and installing Mountain Lion, and am using it now. Took 15 minutes to download and 20 minutes to install. When the install starts the screen says installing with 30 minutes, etc, remaining. As long as I can see the screen I feel comfortable that something is happening. Then, at some point, the screen goes dark. Uh oh, what's happening? A problem? The fans kick into high gear as the Mac seems to be heating up. I have to resist the temptation to start clicking keys to find out what is going on. Good sense prevails, and I do nothing but wait. Then, after 20 minutes, a screen appears, and I feel better.
        "At first glance, everything looks and feels the same as before. All of my apps seem to be working, which surprises me — even Avast, the anti-virus program works. And even a nondescript program like Radium works, which is an internet radio station, and I'm listening to it now. Mountain Lion pops up a display box and mentions that programs that are not compatible will be listed in a folder on the hard drive. I checked, and only Avast needed to be re-authenticated. As I progress along I may find some surprises, but so far so good.
        "Now I'll have to read the article to find out just what are the 25 'goodies' I got in Mountain Lion. Hope they're worth the $20 bucks..(grin)...." Jim
        And now, from the Prez Art Gorski:  "Personally, I'm going to wait a week or so before installing Mountain Lion to see if there are any critical flaws. But when I'm ready to install it, I'll refer to this guide:
        "If it's not mentioned in these articles, make sure you do a complete backup of your hard drive first. Time Machine isn't good enough, I recommend making a bootable clone using the Carbon Copy Cloner app."         Now, back to Jim Hamm who says, "Here is a very good, and simple to understand, review of the changes made in Mountain Lion. As the author states, the price is right and the upgrade process works well. No glitches observed yet -- by the author or me."           Stay tuned for more info from our PMUG members: the Mountain Lion roars! 
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Beware Malicious Files on Olympics

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        A warning about your security when you browse the Internet for Olympic sites is posted.  A San Jose tech security firm ThreatMetrix warns that a malicious file named "london-2012-olympic-games-day-by-day-schedule.pdf" has already been spotted.  This is a 2 page article from San Francisco Chronicle newspaper with info on the Olympics websites.

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Watch the Olympics

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Watch the Olympics in London via a free app for your iPad, Jim Hamm tells us.  And you can watch streaming video from any computer on numerous websites.  Read about it here.Jim Hamm also found this article about various ways to watch the Olympics this year.  This describes the Alert Me feature that will email you about a half-hour before every event that you select will start.

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Lessons Learned? OK!

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        "This is sort of related to 'Learning about the Mac'" begins Allen Laudenslager.  (Who?  when? you ask. Yes, Allen, a PMUG's Previous Prez, and his wife are back. And here's the latest lesson learned.) 

        "After Jeff Ian's great presentation on printers, I rushed right over to Best Buy and picked up that $59.95 Brother all in one printer before the sale ended. In attempting to connect it to my home Wifi network I had the following problems.
       "First, I was able to set it up with my home network from the printer panel front with no problems, second I was able to connect my Macbook to the printer with no problems. I kind of expected that cause the Mac is great! The problems started when I tried to connect my wife's Windows 7 laptop to the printer.
        "The instructions 'presume'  that you are connecting the printer for the first time and there was no reference that I could find in the set up guide to attaching the printer to a second computer. Like the dummy I am, I followed the instructions and the Windows laptop wouldn't print. No big surprise there, the big surprise was that my Macbook stopped printing too!
        "Tried to contact Brother and it seems that they only support the product during regular business hours Monday through Friday. I guess most of their customers don't try to install their products on the weekends or evenings. I did try their email support but gave up after receiving a set of Windows setup instructions to fix the 'can't print from a OS X 10 Macbook' help request.
        "Finally gave up after three hours Saturday and just waited till business hours Monday to call the Brother help desk.
        "First thing was that the Windows instructions told me to use a static IP address, and I should have used the dynamic IP address setting. Once I reset that to the factory default my Macbook started printing again. The Windows 7 problem was a 'printer busy' error and turned out to be a really unusually issue.
        "First a little background — we are staying in a friend's guest house till we find a permanent place following our return from Denver two weeks ago. Second, our hosts have another Wifi network for their computers. When I set up mine, I just connected to their DSL modem router and went back to work.
        "My wife came back earlier than I did and had logged her laptop into our host's network and didn't change the log in to our network after I set it up here!
        "Logged into the correct Wifi network with her laptop, and lo and behold, I could find the printer and get it to work correctly."
         Here Allen explains with a smile, "Lesson learned. A little embarrassing to share with all the computer experts in PMUG, but I finally decided that I'd rather spread the word and put up with the pointing and laughing."
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Serious Bug Discovered in Lion

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        John Carter wants our attention now!  "I just discovered that LION has a serious bug that Apple isn’t recognizing as a bug yet.   Files disappear from the hard drive.  Do a search with the keywords “files disappearing on mac."

        "It happened to me, and it’s happening to others.  I’m still looking into it.
        "There doesn’t seem to be any fix in the future. Maybe Mountain Lion won’t have the bug. It’s totally random while at the same time appears to be completely selective. All the files in every subfolder of one of my folders are missing: e.g., folder A contains folders B, C, and D. All files in B, C, and D are missing.
        "Other folders that I know should be on the machine are now missing — stuff that I put there just two weeks ago.
        "Using Time Machine only helps if you actually use it. In my case, the folders and files in question were deliberately excluded from Time Machine — to save space in my Time Machine backup. What a shame on me!"
        John concludes for now with, "Now, I recently worked with a client who has Snow Leopard, and dozens of photos disappeared off his Mac. No Time Machine backup. Another client also claims to have missing files — and he is not using Lion. So when did this problem start, and how widespread is it?"
        Want to see John's posts on this problem on the Apple Discussion site?  Find it here.  He is posted as jrc39 and his comments are as of 7-15.  Keep up the good work, John, and let us know the resolution of the matter.  
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Wondering About WriteBox

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        Now Jim Hamm finds something else to pass on:  "If you use Dropbox frequently here is a simple web app called WriteBox that can sync directly with Dropbox. Details are provided in this article.  Click here and start typing: https://write-box.appspot.com/ . Although it is a simple text editor, it does give you a count of lines, words and characters. Also, you can change the font size and type, but it does not accept images.
        "Be sure there is nothing confidential in your Dropbox account before allowing this app access. One never knows what or who WriteBox is all about." 

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Entertainment on the Cheap

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        John Carter finds this to pass along, "MakeUseOf keeps coming out with articles that talk about different ways to watch movies on your TV.  The latest article is "Entertainment On the Cheap: The Mot Affordable Ways to Set Up a Home Theater," includes information on Raspberry Pi, Apple TV, and an old Netbook.  Keep informed with handy tech tips like this by subscribing to the MakeUseOf newsletter."