AAUG Reviews

by Gary Miller, AAUG Member

If you value your iPod, you’ll immediately buy this amazing new evo3 case for iPod video ( comes in both 30 & 60 gig sizes ) with scratch resistant screen and face protector by iSkin. In a word, WOW.

If you care about your iPod’s well being, and that means a case that will keep out dust, protect the easy to scratch front side, has a special flap that guards the docking port connector, you’ll love the new iSkin evo3. I tried out their special limited edition all black silicone case, and inserted their tinted case and red click wheel protector. There’s even an instruction guide to help you make the tight, but perfect fit work easily. Imagine putting on shoes that you marvel at once on. You’ll smile.

This special limited edition case also has matching high end cerulean xlr earphones if you like for an additional purchase on iSkin’s website. This company, iSkin, thinks of everything. Did I say how well made their silicone is? Well, it has texture, so it won’t slip in your hands, is sturdy, and yet had excellent hand feel, has vents in back too. The eVo3 Visor ( Visually Intact Solid Optical Resin ) screen and face protector is made from a high-quality, ultra-clear resin coated with an optical finish that resists scuffs and scratches and it fits perfectly. There’s a special black RevoClip2 belt clip ( can be removed ) too. It’s clipping mechanism worked well on sweat shirts to pants. Most other manufacturers charge extra for them. And a common criticism is that cases won’t fit into the universal dock, well, this one fits, so no more taking the protective case off to use your Dock, (more…)

by David Enders, AAUG Member

Clicker for Mac is an indispensable software utility for remotely controlling your favorite applications on your Mac via a bluetooth or wi-fi capable device.

I wanted to be able to remotely control my iTunes audio to a pair of speakers in my house . I am using a Airport Express and the speakers are in a remote location in the house away from the stereo amplifier. I could use my laptop but these speakers were in a room where a laptop was not a practical choice. I had tried the Keyspan remote but it had some limitations that it was an IR remote which limited it’s useful distance , it was a one way remote that did not provide feedback or selection ability and that its control required it to be in the Airport Express location since it connects via the available USB port.

Enter Salling Clicker by Jonas Salling. This software enables remote control of iTunes and other applications via a bluetooth or wi-fi device. The developers website lists compatible phones and PDA’s from a vast group of manufacturers. Salling Software is mostly a one man business so when you see the number of supported devices and scripts this is truly a remarkable piece of software.

Installation of Salling Clicker was a breeze. The file is available as an electronic download from the developers website. The program installs itself in the System Preferences pane. The main screen is straight forward. The first thing you need to do (more…)

by Richard Alexander, AAUG Member

The Game Specs are as follows:

• Rated: Mature 17

Minimum system requirements:

• OS - Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
• CPU - PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel Chipset
• CPU Speed - 1.67 GHz or faster
• RAM - 512 MB or faster
• Hard Drive - 3 GB free space
• Video - ATI Radeon 9600 of NIVDIA GeForce 6600 or better
• Video RAM - 64 MB or higher
• Disc Drive - DVD drive required to install and play

Recommended System Requirements:

• OS - Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later
• CPU - PowerPC G5 or Intel Chipset
• CPU Speed - 2.0 GHz or faster
• Video RAM - 128 MB

Quake 4 is a military/violence-based game with outstanding graphics.
I recommend that you have the manufactures recommended system to truly get the most out of this game. I played the game several times and I could not really “get in to it”. The game was somewhat intuitive, and there was not very much in the users manual to help you, just some basic guidelines (more…)

by Carlene Brown, AAUG Member

Recently I felt compelled to purchase a Video iPod. I took it with me when I flew down to pick up my grandson. On the flight back I turned it on so my grandson could watch one of the programs I had loaded on it for him, but nothing happened. We tried everything possible to get it to work and finally decided the battery was dead. Evidently the case it was in did not give enough protection and the iPod had gotten accidently turned on during the trip and the battery ran down before we could watch anything. I decided to look around and see what else was available.

I like something tasteful, stylish, and good looking, that still provides protection for my iPod. The Pacific Design 5G Grandstand Case meets all these requirements. The Grandstand is very fashionable but also quite functional.

The Grandstand case comes in five colors, brown, green, pink, black and turquoise and is made of quality leathers and faux leathers. They have Lexan screen protectors for scratch and glare resistance. The case is attractively stitched together and the product is eye appealing.

The Grandstand case has a flip case design. My 60 GB Video iPod fit easily and securely into the body of the case. The plastic protectors perfectly cover the screen and the click wheel, but the covering is flexible enough to allow you to easily use the click wheel. Two flaps, one from each end, fold over to cover the front of the iPod and secure together with a magnetic snap closure. The port at the bottom of the iPod remains uncovered (more…)

by Richard Geiger, AAUG Member

This book covers iMovie 6, iDVD 6, QuickTime 7 (Free Version and Pro Version), and video camera equipment. The authors David Pogue and Erica Sadun (the author of the iDVD chapters) have written a clear and lighthearted book on the subject of movie making and editing. The world of movie making can be just as technical and complex as the world of computers.

The book weighs in at 498 pages long with 18 chapters and three appendixes. In addition the book has numerous colored figures which make it helpful to better understand examples especially the iMovie screen shots and each page has considerable white space so the pages are easy on the eyes. If you have used earlier versions of iMovie the authors spend considerable time discussing the differences between iMovie 6 and previous versions. If you are not planning on owning a video camera the authors have a discussion on how to make a QuickTime Movie from you iPhoto library or digital slides. It explains some of the limitations of creating digital slide shows and how to get around the problems that may arise.

The book is most useful if you have tried to create a couple of movies in iMovie which I have done and have hit some of the limitations of iMovie. By having some experience, I believe the book will give you better insights. Two examples of what I learned the reviewing the book are the undelete feature and the limitations on the QuickTime Slide show length. I would edit clips in iMovie thinking I would save space, but I did not realize unless you delete an entire clip you (more…)

by David Enders, AAUG Member

I picked up iManageIt because it looked like an interesting piece of software for the iPod. I was intrigued because it offered to provide seamless integration for OS X applications and Entourage. Also, it offered to deliver news and weather to my iPod and provided me some utilities to maintain the data on the iPod.

Before I installed iManageIt, I decided to checkout the website first to get an overview of the product. I was confused because I could find no information for iManageIt but I could for iPDA — and they looked very similar. A short email to Zapptek confirmed this that there was a naming conflict and the new name was iPDA.

On to the application, installation was a breeze and fairly intuitive to setup. iPDA does not come with a hardcopy manual or an electronic manual in pdf format but there is a website, faq and help available for your use which is very helpful in using iPDA. I just like a manual that I can print out and reference or read if I don’t have a computer close by.

Before you can transfer information to your iPod you need to put in hard drive mode. If you need help in accomplishing this you can check it out here.

Mac OS X has a built-in program to transfer information to the iPod. It is called iSync. iSync can transfer the Address Book,iCal information and notes to your iPod. iPDA expands this by being able to transfer a vast amount of information from within OS X, Microsoft Entourage, RSS feeds, news information from Google News based on a selection criteria and weather by city. (more…)

by Chuck Maas, AAUG Member

In the field of digital photography, capturing and developing “RAW” files is a very hot topic, largely because this is usually the route to the highest image quality attainable. The subject can be a bit opaque because each manufacturer mechanizes in-camera RAW files differently. Not only that, there are many different RAW converters (software packages for developing the RAW files into optimized images) from both the camera manufacturers and third parties. One of the most popular RAW converters is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), originally released by Adobe vas a plug-in for Photoshop 7 and Photoshop Elements, and now integrated into both products.

Adobe Photoshop is the undisputed king-of-the-hill in digital image editing software. It’s big, expensive, very complex, extremely capable, and has spawned an entire industry of “how-to” books. The subject is so vast and so technical it’s nearly impossible to put it all in one book that is actually readable, though many have tried. And those fervently seeking to master Photoshop are always on the lookout for new books with unique insight and true clarity of expression that can illuminate detail in the murky shadows of this continuously growing program. Since ACR is part of and well integrated with Photoshop, it’s logical that many people choose it as their RAW converter of choice, and will also then look for treatises that help unlock it’s capability along with (more…)

by Elaine V. Robinson, AAUG Member

The fun continues with Electronic Arts and Aspyr’s The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack. (See my Sims 2 review here.) The basic premise of Nightlife is to add pleasure to the lives of the Sims and to give them a richer social life. This is accomplished with many new additions to the game. There is a new aspiration in their lives by the added Pleasure Seeker aspiration. The Sims just want to have fun!

The Sims 2 core game is necessary to install the Nightlife Expansion Pack. Installation was easy as double-clicking the Installer on the DVD and following the onscreen instructions. Nightlife came with a 12 page paper manual which is all inclusive and very helpful. Nice touch! To start the game, double-click the Sims 2 icon in the Applications folder on your hard drive. Loading one of the three town locations, as does going downtown, takes a minute or two. The time taken was not disconcerting considering the richness of the resulting screens and actions. It is worth the short wait!

The Sims can now date, form groups to go out, have a good time, purchase cars, build garages, go out on the town to restaurants, bowling alleys and nightclubs. They don’t have to depend on the taxi or carpools. There are many new item objects, some of which include a DJ Booth, poker table, Electro Dance Sphere, photo booth and coffins. Coffins are needed to keep vampire Sims protected from the sun. Vampires roam downtown looking for victims so you should (more…)

by Jeff Menter and Krista Galyen, AAUG Member

A short history of PDF

Like microwave ovens, cell phones, and the web itself it’s hard to remember a time before Adobe’s Acrobat and PDF files. Just 10 short years ago, Adobe was still struggling to push its open but proprietary portable document format standard as a single solution to many electronic document sharing and distribution problems. That PDF is now so ubiquitous is a testament to Adobe’s vision and tenacity and “Adobe” and “Acrobat” are now used interchangeably in the common vernacular (for good or ill.) Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0 is the de-facto standard tool for the creation and manipulation of PDF files. This complex application is seemingly a double-edged sword as we weigh its price and feature set against its usefulness and overall stability.

Installation and Activation

The installation is uneventful although there are a few items to note. The first is the requirement of product activation (this controversial approach to curbing software piracy is relatively new to the Mac world.) After initial installation the software will stop working after 30 days unless the user validates the installation with Adobe either over the internet or over the phone. While a debate about product activation falls outside the scope of this review, we include this information for people who may be philosophically opposed to such “guilty until proven innocent” attitudes some software companies have for their customers. The second issue is that Acrobat is very steadfast in its insistence on insinuating itself into other software on the computer. Specifically, the plug-ins for web browsers and Microsoft Office. Acrobat sees my preference of the wonderful PDF Browser Plugin from Schubert|it as a broken install in need of repair (more…)

by Rob LeFebvre, AAUG Member

I’ve got nothing but good things to say about any of the Take Control e-books I’ve reviewed and/or purchased over the last couple of years. They are always of high quality, containing relevant information on specific topics. The price is right, too. At $10, an e-book is a good value, especially considering how fast you get the product (immediately).

This book, Take Control of Running Windows on your Mac, by Joe Kissel, is no exception. It is a solid book, with quality information written in an engaging and down-to-earth style. The author uses real world experience in both the Macintosh and Windows worlds, with good effect. I felt like I could run Windows on my Mac with very little difficulty because of this book.

The author begins the book with a “Quick Start” section, to give an overview of the options like Parallels and Boot Camp. He then takes the reader through more detailed instruction on how to install, run and optimize Windows on your Intel-based Mac. There’s even an Appendix to help those of us without an Intel Mac run Windows on a PPC platform.

Next, there are three chapters in a row, each devoted to a specific option for Running Windows on your Mac. Parallels, Boot Camp, and Q are all discussed in depth and without a clear bias. The author makes a point to give the reader a fair and honest opinion of the pros and cons of each of the options. A final touch is a chapter on how to create an up-to-date Windows Service Pack 2 disk from an older Service Pack 1 CD, which will save us all some money. Of course, licensing issues are important, so the author explains the differing legal ramifications of installing Windows in general.
(more…)