September Meeting 2005

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September Meeting 2005

IPOD NANO

Sheryl gave an overview of the new version of the iPod, marketed as the iPod Nano. This replaces earlier versions, and is available in 2GB and 4GB configurations, and comes in white or black. And has various accessories to enable it to be used in a car. Unlike earlier versions, it has a colour screen; however some reviews have noted a problem with the screen (and the case) being easily scratched.

iCREATE MAGAZINE

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Several questions relating to e-mail were discussed. One related to mail on the server:

FULL MAILBOX AT SERVER

My e-mail server keeps giving me a message saying that my mailbox is full. How do I remedy this?

Probably, there is a preference setting in your e-mail application which tells your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to leave a copy of each message on the server, even though you have received a copy yourself. Some applications (eg. Mail) ask for a copies to be removed, and others (eg. Entourage) ask for copies to be left - and default accordingly:

MacOS X Mail: Open Mail Preferences, click on Accounts/Advanced. The third checkbox ("Remove copy...") needs a tick in it, and the popup menu immediately below gives options regarding when messages are removed:

Entourage: Go to the Tools/Accounts menu, click on the relevant account, then click the Edit button. In the Edit Account window which opens, click on the Options button. Under "Server Options" if necessary, uncheck the box at the beginning of the "Leave a copy of each message on the server" line:

SESSIONS

ADDRESS BOOK

Sheryl explained how the MacOX X Address Book application is structured, and demonstrated how it is integrated with the Mail application. Addresses can be arranged in groups for sending to multiple recipients, and entries can also be labelled with alternative addresses. Using the Address Book Preferences panes, the template for the address car layout can be customised according to the user's requirements.
QUICKTIME

Tony showed how QuickTime, Apple's multimedia player application, can be used to display movies and slide displays, and also to play audio files in various formats. QuickTime Player is the version which comes with each Mac computer, and this allows basic features to be used, but this version can be upgraded to QuickTime Pro by purchasing a registration 'key' from Apple, and this unlocks a number of advanced features which enable a range of editing facilities to be used Ð the program actually contains these features already, but they cannot be activated without paying for the 'key'.

One of the features is the facility for editing so that multiple tracks are enabled, and Tony showed how he uses this in a classroom situation to simultaneously display song words onscreen while playing the song's audio track. The display of words (and sometimes related graphics and/or photographs) is synchronised with the soundtrack so that children can read the words as they sing each section of the song:

This makes an interesting, colourful presentation which can be saved as a QuickTime movie; in a single file both the songwords and music are contained, which makes it much easier to accompany singing sessions than it was when cassette tracks had to be found (and rewound!) and word charts displayed and pointed to. More on QuickTime at the next meeting.

AUDIO from the WEB

Barry Bluett presented an interesting session on using the Web as a source of various types of audio. He explained some methods of audio 'capture' and outlined a few of the types of listening materials which were available:

iTunes, of course, which is part of Apple's iLife suite of applications Ð its Podcast feature allows capture of available web-based audio.
Audio Hijack, which (similar to QuickTime/QuickTime Pro) is available as a freeware version which allows basic recording, or as a paid-for shareware version which allows for more advanced recording and editing features to be used.

Live365.com is free to join, and enables listeners to access a large number of different radio stations. Another source mentioned was www.garageband.com (not to be confused with Apple's Garage Band application!).

Regards to all....

Secretary: Tony Climo, Aoraki MacIntosh Users Group