2014 Meetings

November 15, 2014: All About Dropbox

Ward Stanke is going to tell us all about Dropbox.

Do you have a Dropbox account?  What would you do with a Dropbox account?

How about send a bunch of pictures to family and friends?  Or large documents?  Your recipient does not have to have a Dropbox account.  You can send a link.  Learn how.

And you can help a family member or friend how to have their own Dropbox account, so you can directly hook them up to certain files you want to share back and forth.

Come and learn all about Dropbox and how it can add to your life. (Presentation Slides.)

October 18: My Favorite Apps by John Carter

John will begin with a short introduction to a few of his favorite apps and follow that with a request to the audience to show their favorite app. We will all be using the new Apple TV that will allow members to project from their device onto the overhead. A remote microphone will be available to allow people to speak from their position in the audience. No one is expected to be professional. Even a sentence or two would be adequate. “Hi. I’m John. My favorite app is Music. Here is how I use it.” And then go through a quick demo. Fellow with questions from the audience will take care of the rest.

Be sure to bring your device that has the app you want to demonstrate, installed.

September 27: Planning Road Trips: Apps and Hints

For the past sixty years Bob Kitterer had done a road trip almost every year. Some trips were only 4 or 5 days and others were eight months. He has been to all 50 states plus six Canadian Provinces racking up over a quarter million miles. He will be sharing his approach to planning road trips and some of the apps he uses for this purpose.

Bob spent most of his working career doing physics, which means he broke lots of things. While in college he learned IBM assembly, FORTRAN and PASCAL programming languages. Later he taught himself a few versions of the Basic programming language. His first computer was a Bally Arcade which soon lead to an Apple II in 1978 and later Macs of which he had had a fair number.

August 16Celebration of 25 Years!

That’s right, gang. Our little club has been operating in Prescott for twenty-five years now. Jeff Ian, one of the original founders of the club, graciously agreed to come to our meeting and tell us about days gone by. Jeff also talked about printers as well. You may know, Jeff is owner of Think4Ink, a printing supply company in Prescott. He is an expert on what to choose for a printer, depending on your needs. His talks are always so informative. We never know when we will be in the market for a printer!

July 19, 2014

John Carter was the only “genius” at the July Genius Bar. Ward Stanke was scheduled to appear, but was unavoidably detained. The complete set of presentation notes for this meeting are available by clicking here (opens a PDF file).

June 14, 2014

Photo Editing Software from Macphun Software

Long-time industry expert and photography software veteran Ivan Randall, (he came from California just to see us!), shared the latest in digital imaging technology and techniques.  Using innovative new tools from Macphun Software that reduce the need for complicated software like Adobe Photoshop, Ivan demonstrated how to make your best images ever in minutes. You’ll learn how to correct images as well as reveal incredible detail in your images with a few clicks, remove distracting elements that you might have missed at the time of capture, and finally direct viewer attention with creative focus and blurring techniques.

Based in Pasadena, CA, Ivan Randall has been involved with bringing photo and video solutions to the market for the past 15 years.  He combines his passion for travel and for photography, taking advantage of business travel to photograph and capture his personal experiences in places like Dubai, South Africa, Australia and others.  Recently, Randall has joined a team of former Nik Software employees at Macphun Software.  He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine.  He can be contacted at Ivan@Macphun.com.

Joint PCS/PMUG Meeting

Saturday June 21, 1 to 3 pm immediately after PMUG meeting in the same room

All About iCloud.

iCloud is much more than offline storage and emergency backup for your Apple device. Although it does have features in common with other services like Dropbox, Google Docs, and Microsoft 365, iCloud is designed to achieve different goals. If you don’t have a Mac or PC to connect to, iCloud serves as a repository for your data. Find out more at the Joint PCS/PMUG meeting on June 21 as John Carter explores the magic, mystery, and common sense about iCloud.

May 17, 2014

Do You Know Who as Been in Your Computer While You were Away?: Security & Privacy,  presented by Ward Stanke

Come to the May meeting to learn how to implement “private” web browsing as well as the pros and cons of how various marketing organizations keep track of where you browse on the web. We will also cover some of the security and privacy challenges inherent in using various devices, (computers, pads and phones), to access the Internet. This will include some recent news highlighting those challenges and some partial solutions that we can implement now.

You can find a copy of the presentation here.

Joint PMUG/PCS Meeting, April, 2014
Using Your iPhone and iPad, by John Carter

Come to the Joint PMUG/PCS SIG this Saturday and learn how to get the most out of your iPhone or iPad. The meeting is in the Founders Suite of the Prescott library and starts at 1 PM, April 26.

April 2014: Time Machine – backup drives – Disk Utility, John Carter

Hard drives fail. That’s a given. And that’s why it’s important to backup your computer. But if hard drives fail, then wouldn’t the backup fail too? Find out how to keep your important information safe from a catastrophic failure (which could be caused by a sun spot eruption), what hard drives are prone to failure and how to manage your backups. Come to the April 19th general meeting and let John Carter talk you through all this.

March 15, 2014: All About Making Movies, Ryan Ridge of CommunIT

Like the Academy Awards, the March PMUG presentation is all about movies, or specifically, “iMovie”.  First we’ll discuss current camera options, and learn some simple shooting techniques to enhance our videos. Then we’ll dive right into iMovie where we’ll decipher the user interface, edit a short iPhone video with titles and transitions, and then share it with others. We will also cover features like adding music tracks and voiceovers, and a discussion about what you can and can’t put on sites like Youtube.

Ryan has graciously shared his iMovie Presentation Notes, Keynote file, demo movie, Storyboard form.

Joint PCS/PMUG Meeting February 22, 2014

Do you know how to organize your photos in iOS 7? This applies to the iPad, the IPod touch, and the iPhone. Come to the Joint PCS/PMUG SIG on Feb 22 and find out what you could be missing! John Carter will be presenting.

February 2014 : Organizing Your Photos in iOS7, John Carter

iOS 7 brings a new look to photos and movies. Learn what apps can help you take great photos, what apps can help you organize your photos, and what Mac and iPhone/iPhone/iPod apps you can use to make it an even better experience. Click here for presentation notes.

John Carter has been an avid Mac user since 2002. He has recently discovered photography and astrophotography. To this end, John started the Digital Mac SIG (Special Interest Group). The purpose of the SIG is to introduce digital photography using a Mac and any camera of your choice, which may even be an iPhone or iPad. This presentation is not about how to take photos, but how to get them off the camera and into the computer, organize them, edit them, and share them.

January 2014: Genius Bar

Come ask our geniuses all your Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iPod questions. Can you stump our experts? Now is the time to get all those nagging questions answered.  Please submit your questions to Dave Rothgery, daverothgery@gmail.com by January 14, 2014.

2013 Meetings

December: No meeting. Enjoy your holiday and bring that holiday gift computer, pad or phone to our January meeting.

November: OSX Mavricks: Power to the Desktop

Ward Stanke, one of our one in-house gurus, will introduce us to Mavericks, the new Macintosh operating system (Mac OS X 10.9). He’ll also be showing us all the newest features. You can’t afford to miss this meeting!

October 19, 2013: Introduction to iOS 7

Ward Stanke will do a presentation on iOS 7. The presentation will concentrate on what is new or different in Apple’s latest operating system for iPhone, iPads and iPod touches.

September 28, 2013 Joint PCS/PMUG SIG

Are you getting your money’s worth out of your iPad? If not, then you haven’t discovered the many tips and tricks that the iPad has to offer. Not only that, a new version of iOS comes out on 9/18/2013 with some new features that you’re sure to want to know about. Maybe you don’t have an iPad, but you’re thinking about it. Come to the Joint PCS/PMUG SIG and find out what you’re missing!

September 21, 2013 Passwords and Password Protection

Jim Hamm will do a presentation on Passwords and Password Managers. During this session you will learn more about passwords, how hackers crack passwords, and how to protect your passwords by creating strong ones. Jim will also review several Password Managers, including two that he has selected for his own use, and the criteria he used in his selection. If you use the internet for shopping, banking, etc., you use passwords. Come to the meeting to learn more about this subject.

Joint PCS/PMUG Meeting September 28, 2013

Are you getting your money’s worth out of your iPad? If not, then you haven’t discovered the many tips and tricks that the iPad has to offer. Not only that, a new version of iOS comes out on 9/18/2013 with some new features that you’re sure to want to know about. Maybe you don’t have an iPad, but you’re thinking about it. Come to the Joint PCS/PMUG SIG and find out what you’re missing!

August 17, 2013

July: Digital Photos with John Carter

John Carter has been an avid Mac user since 2002. He has recently discovered photography and astrophotography. To this end, John started the Digital Mac SIG (Special Interest Group). The purpose of the SIG is to introduce digital photography using a Mac and any camera of your choice, which may even be an iPhone or iPad. This presentation is not about how to take photos, but how to get them off the camera and into the computer, organize them, edit them, and share them.

July 20

Mac Utilities

Art Gorski will take you on a tour of the mysterious applications in your Mac’s Utilities folder.

July PCS Developer’s SIG

The PCS Developer’s SIG meeting will be July 6 from 1-3 PM at the Library. The topic of that meeting is HTML and CSS for web developers. All are welcome.

July Prescott Web Developers

The Prescott Web Developers has scheduled a meeting on July 13 from 10 AM to noon at the Prescott Library. This is a general membership meeting for web developers. No specific topic has been established. All are welcome.

June Joint PMUG/PCS Meeting

June 22, 1 to 3 pm, Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, Leader: John Carter

Chris Maxwell will discuss tips and techniques to securely use Facebook and control access to both your personal information and information you share.

Chris holds a degree in elementary education and a Master’s degree in Computer Science. She retired from Bell Labs to volunteer in schools, serve on the local school district’s Board of Education, and advise a high school robotics team. She and her husband moved to Prescott Valley in 2009. Shortly after that, Chris succumbed to social pressure and joined Facebook. She now serves on the OLLI governing council and is active in AAUW.

PMUG June 15, 2013

Genius Bar, Art Gorski, John Carter, Ward Stanke

PCS  Developer’s SIG, June 1, 2013

The PCS club is starting a Developer’s SIG. The topics and tools used may often cross over to what Mac users can use, and even if the tools are not available on a Mac, the concepts will be the same for any Mac application.

First Hour: Ray DeCosta will discuss current free applications that streamline the work flow for coding and website design.

Second Hour: Rich Knapfel will discuss forming a new SIG. If enough people are interested, it will deal with computer and website programming at an introductory level.

PMUG, May 15, 2013

Using Dropbox to Simplify Your Life.

Art Gorski, our very knowledgable President, will talk about the advantages of using Dropbox. He will show us how to install and use the application. He has created a Dropbox-CheatSheet that you are free to download.

We also have nominations for PMUG Officers this month.

Give Away: 16 GB ThumbDrives with:

  • Take Control of Safari 6 (1.0)
  • Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal (1.1)

PMUG, Saturday, April 20

Topic: Assistive Technology, Ward Stanke. 

Apple has been providing assistive technology in their devices for over 20 years. This talk will cover some of the current solutions Apple has provided, not only in OS X on the Mac but also on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad, for assisting people with various disabilities. We will cover some of the options you can set to help people with visual, hearing, and/or motor skills impairment on Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad.

iPad Overview from John Carter