Get to know Lion!

We will help you use your Mac more effectively with OS X 10.7 Lion by:

Exploring major new features and changes of Lion

Showing you how to customize the interface to your liking

Going over basics like file organization and use of Apple applications such as Mail, Address Book and iCal and setting up your printer.

Then a really great Live Question and Answer Session with Jacqueline!

All Attendees get a copy of the great book Take Control of Using Lion.

This is a live online, interactive class. Once your register, you will receive instructions for connecting to the screen sharing and calling in via telephone. There is an option to use your own headset attached to your computer or ipad. 

This course is for:

Beginners who want a great start;

Comfortable users who want to know myth vs truth; and

Curious advanced users.

All attendees get a copy of Take Control of Your Mac: Maintaing Your Mac book.

Learn the secrets and strategies of a seasoned Apple- Trained technician and consultant.

Why do maintenance if Apple doesn’t mention it in their manual? Oh wait – you usually have

Why do maintenance if Apple doesn’t mention it in their manual? Oh wait – you usually have to buy a Missing Manual. (-;

It’s common to feel we are getting mixed messages from companies like Apple. They want most consumers to believe (in Apple’s case, it’s mostly true) that using a Mac is easy and doesn’t require tinkering or fuss. Personal Computers have come a long way, but they are still a package of very sophisticated electronic components with lots of digital instructions.

Simply, “How”

This isn’t going to be the why, it’s going to be the how. And how to do it simple and quick. And you can rest assured, that along with your Time Machine Backup, you’ve done all that you can to protect and care for your Mac to minimize failures and possible expensive repairs.

Dispel the Myths

We want to set it straight  and clear for you, based on experience and research to dispel some maintenance myths that have been around for many years.

Register HERE or below:

Related Posts:

Secrets to Preventative Maintenance of Your Mac

Benefits of Using a Mac with the Latest Operating System

Did you know:

16% of all cell phones have “poop” on them!

Computer keyboards are 5x dirtier than a toilet seat!

Here is some great info for keeping your work area clean. It’s a post from the American Cleaning Institute:

Think about all the “public” surfaces you touch on your way to work – railings, door handles, coins and tokens, cash machines, elevator buttons and more. Then, when you get to your destination, washing your hands probably isn’t the first thing you do. Instead, you probably grab a cup of coffee and turn on your computer. If you power up before you clean up, all the germs and bacteria that commuted with you are transferred from your hands to your workstation. Ugh! And then, if someone else sits down at your computer, you’ve got all the germs that tagged along with them, too.

Before you begin, remember the two golden rules of computer cleaning:

• Be sure the computer is off before you clean any part of it – keyboard, monitor screen, mouse, printer or housings.
• Never spray cleaner directly onto any part of the computer. Spray it onto a cloth, and then gently wipe.

Keyboard: Clean the keys with a cleaning wipe or a cloth sprayed with an all-purpose cleaner. Make this the first thing you do every morning before you turn on the computer. To remove the dirt, dust and other debris that gets caught between the keys, turn it upside down and shake gently to dislodge the particles. An air duster is also a great aid in removing all these bits and pieces that get lodged inside the keyboard.

Mouse: It’s also a good idea to clean the mouse before the start of the workday. Use a cleaning wipe or a cloth sprayed with an all-purpose cleaner.

Monitor: Use a microfiber cloth, either dry or dampened with clean water, or a product specially formulated for computer screens. If you use anything else, you run the risk of damaging the screen. Clean the monitor several times a week, as a dirty monitor can cause eyestrain.

Surrounding surfaces (including computer housings and desktops): Since there are probably coffee and food stains lurking amidst the dust, use an all-purpose cleaner with a disinfectant.

Printer: Consider how often you push the button on the printer and how seldom you think about cleaning it!

Telephone: Even if you’re the only one using it, it’s still transmission central for germs and bacteria that cause ear, nose and eye infections. Clean it daily using a hard-surface disinfectant cleaner or a wipe.

Monday, November 28, 2011 from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Free Webinar on New Apple Products, Holiday Gift Ideas & How to Choose a Mac

Special Guest Bob Gray of Voelker Research

Bob Gray (Apple expert on Macs and mobile devices – iPads, iPods, iPhones) will present the latest information on the many products Apple released this past year, and also give us some ideas on what to buy for holiday gifts in many price ranges.

A Q&A will follow where you can ask Jacqueline and Bob questions about the products and choosing the right product for you or your gift recipient.

Join us for a fun informative time!

We’ve compiled some holiday deals for you. Note that some are affiliate links, however we don’t get much but it helps to keep this site up. But we would not provide you a link that doesn’t save you money!
Save $10 on Parallels Desktop 7 – November 23st-28th
$10 off PD 7 Offer Expires 11/28/11
Cyber Monday at CorpNet® – Get $50 Off a Complete or Deluxe Formation (Valid 11/28-11/30) Use code: CYBERMON

Extra 25% Off + Free Shipping Over $75 at eBags!

Get Dragon Dictate 2.5for $129.99—Save $50!
$50 off Dragon Dictate 2.5 Offer Expires 11/29/11

Best of all, an applejuice tech Premium membership for training and support!

New Apple Products, What to buy for Christmas, and iCloud

Start:  November 3rd, 2011 – 6:00pm
End:   November 3rd, 2011 – 8:00pm

Colorado Springs, CO

Voelker Research Presents at the November 3rd Regular Meeting of Silicon Mountain MacIntosh Users Group

Rich Voelker and Bob Gray (both Apple experts on Macs and mobile devices too – iPads, iPods, iPhones) will present a broad program at the November 3rd meeting. They will discuss the many products Apple released this past year, and also give us some ideas on what to buy for Christmas.  Often they have some low cost options, not just Macs and iPads.

Rich will also cover the very interesting, recently released iCloud that we’ve heard about, but don’t know much about yet.  So come at 6:00 pm and stay till 8.

Nominations in November, Elections in December

Ask not what your club can do for you, but ask what you can do for your club.  It takes many volunteers to make the club run, and we would encourage you to think about what you could do next year to help.

To those who served on the Board of Directors this year, a big THANKS from the Board and the members.  We will have at least 4 open slots on the Board of Directors for 2012 whereyou could help.

Nominations will be accepted via email and at the next regular meeting on November 3rd.    Email your nominations to the 2011 Election Chair Joe Schaefer at joeschaef36@gmail.com.  Thanks in advance!

New Users & Saturday SIG on 5 November at 10 am

The Saturday New Users & Special Interest Group (SIG) will meet from 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon on Saturday, Nov 5, 2011, at the Colorado Springs Senior Center, 1514 N. Hancock Ave. in Colorado Springs.  This meeting will be held in the John & Catherine Smith Room (just follow the SMMUG signs).

In addition to the normal Show & Tell and Q&A at 10:00 AM, at 11:00 AM we will take a look at the new Apple iOS 5 features.  We will also review progress on creation of “holiday letters” using Pages.  This meeting is free and everyone is welcome.  New users are especially encouraged to attend.  Bring any tips & tricks or questions to share.

We’ve been using cloud based backup for critical files for many years and have tried many providers.

Currently, the most useful service that is also price competitive, is SugarSync – hands down. We still have the free accounts with Dropbox, Box.net, and Amazon Ss3 cloud service.

Sugarsync is the only consumer-oriented service we actually pay above and beyond the free 5 GB of space.

The apps for iPad and iPhone just work without fuss. All business files and PDF books are not only backed up off site (in addition to Time Machine backups), but it is easy to share large files and folders with people you designate.

Access to files on the iPad and iPhone is easy. It also saves time and memory by not having to store the files on the device.

SugarSync Online Backup, Sync, Share – Try FREE for 30 days

Register Here

Maintaining Your Happy Mac course on October 20 in Salida CO

Registration and info.

Maintaining Your Mac

This course is for:

Beginners who want a great start;

Comfortable users who want to know myth vs truth; and

Curious advanced users.

All attendees get a copy of Take Control of Your Mac: Maintaing Your Mac book.

Anyone not local contact us if you’d like to attend the class in webinar format. If there are enough interested, we’ll set it up!

Why do maintenance if Apple doesn’t mention it in their manual? Oh wait – you usually have to buy a Missing Manual. (-;

It’s common to feel we are getting mixed messages from companies like Apple. They want most consumers to believe (in Apple’s case, it’s mostly true) that using a Mac is easy and doesn’t require tinkering or fuss. Personal Computers have come a long way, but they are still a package of very sophisticated electronic components with lots of digital instructions.

Simply, “How”

This isn’t going to be the why, it’s going to be the how. And how to do it simple and quick. And you can rest assured, that along with your Time Machine Backup, you’ve done all that you can to protect and care for your Mac to minimize failures and possible expensive repairs.

Big repair bills and poor performance can be avoided by doing a few things your Mac is already programmed to do. Which is most likely why Apple does not tell you to do it.

Dispel the Myths

I won’t go into the details here, but based on my experience and research to dispel some maintenance myths that have been around for many years, I want to set it straight and clear for you, my readers.

Another thing that has prompted me to write this article is the number of utility applications on the market recently. I looked at many of them and I’m just saddened to see marketing ploys and scare tactics used to get nice Mac users to buy these products. Many of the products are just a combination of patched together free utilities of things that your Mac can already do. Some of them may be good products, but not something an average user should be tinkering with.

Most of the utilities are built in to Mac OS X but are scheduled to run regularly at night, when your computer is asleep or off. They aren’t critical though.  However once in a blue moon, they can be helpful. So my motto is, if it doesn’t take much effort, just do it to prevent problems.

There is another class of utility that is usually disputed, and that’s called disk defragmentation. Those who say you don’t need to do it on a Mac are correct. (Except in cases where the hard drive is close to capacity and therefore there is no large blocks of contiguous free memory that are connected physically which can be used when RAM memory is at capacity.) This happens mostly with people who edit large files, like video files. So again, I think it’s good to be aware and prepared.

Apple’s solution does in theory work: buy a new larger hard drive. Not everyone can drop what they are doing and replace their hard drive.  Eventually you’ll need to, but if you are holding off just a bit longer to buy a new Mac, it would be sensible to wait.

I recommend having a product that tests for fragmentation, then if it turns out you have the problem and do need to defragment, pay for the one that works the best.

By following the steps outlined below, Mac OS X upgrade installations go smoother.

That’s enough explaining, let’s get to the doing.

You should be able to do this maintenance in less than 10 minutes!

Here is what you’ll need:

1. Keep your OS X up to date.

Use the latest version of OS X and keep it up to date by running Software Update and applying all updates Apple provides. You can start Software Update from the System Preferences window, or from the top Apple menu on the top left of your screen.

2. A clean desktop.

The items in your desktop folder actually use system resources in more than one place including needing to be rendered as little images perpetually on your screen. There are many way to access files easily. Even if you put one folder on the desktop and drag them all into it, it will help. Even better, go into your finder window and move that “desktop clutter folder” to Documents, then drag the folder icon to the right side of your dock. You will then have a shortcut to it.  Ok done.

Cluttered Desktop

To keep from having slow email problems that many of us experienced in the past, and other difficulties; if you use Apple Mail or any other email software, each of your email accounts should be on the more modern, easier to sync IMAP protocol. Check with your email provider if you are not sure.

YASU

3. YASU (Yet Another Software Utility), which is free (a donation is requested) Download at http://jimmitchell.org/yasu/.

4. iDefrag (demo version) at http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php.

Place the apps in your Utilities folder inside of your Applications folder. Then drag their icons, one at a time, to your Dock so that they are always easy to get to.

Here are the steps for using the software utilities.

1) Launch YASU and make sure the following are Unchecked:

• Update Prebinding

• Reset Launch Services

• Clear Swap Files

• Remove Cookies

 Make sure that everything else in YASU’s main window is checked.

Choose: Restart After Done.

 Click on Start.

2) When your Mac restarts after YASU is done, immediately after the startup sound, hold down the Shift key until you see the spinning pinwheel.  Let go of the shift key and wait for your Mac to start up fully.  (Which might take noticeably longer than usual.)  Once your Mac is fully started up, choose Restart in the Apple menu and allow your Mac to restart again normally.  (This time don’t hold down the Shift

iDegrag

3) iDefrag, or the demo of iDefrag, have a look at the chart showing the data on your drive, and check to see that there is at least one large chunk of contiguous free space (in white) left on your hard drive.

You’re done! Almost.

Keeping your desktop clean is an ongoing task.  Try to run Yasu every couple of months or if it’s easier to remember, add it to something else you do regularly, like change the baking soda in the fridge (I do it every season change) or every time you change your oil.

There are more tips I will cover later but this is enough to clear up some confusion and get you going, while keeping it simple.

Maintaining Your Mac

If you want to go more in depth on this topic, register for our Maintaining Your Happy Mac course on October 20 in Salida CO, registration and info.

This course is for:

Beginners who want a great start;

Comfortable users who want to know myth vs truth; and

Curious advanced users.

All attendees get a copy of Take Control of Your Mac: Maintaing Your Mac book.

Please post your thoughts, reactions and results in the comment section below this article.

Register Here.

Something on this list may be nagging at you.

You’ve been wanting to:

  Be able to get a phone number in seconds from AddressBook.

  Find that certain photo in iPhoto and email it in just a few clicks.

  Spend less time in Mail

  Instantly find all email correspondence and documents relating to….

  Get some of your recurring events in a digital calendar so it can send you reminders by email

  Quickly look up the date you had your last appointment with…

  Get paid faster (if you’re in business) without spending hours sending out invoices

  See all your bank transactions and balances instantly on one screen without typing them in

  Not have to remember all your passwords

  Spend less time keeping up with people on your various social networks or see all your connections’ posts from those places in one screen.

  Create a snazzy graphic email invitation for a party in minutes and know who is coming before you order the food

  Start a blog (personal, business, or moneymaking)

  Set up a website (personal or business)

  Start a nice looking (and legally compliant) email newsletter with an automatically managed list

  Or, just get your Mac to do all those things you had originally bought it for to make your life easier?

And it seems like you can never make the time for these daunting projects or it now seems like it will take a lot more work on you than you thought.

How would you like to learn how to:

  Put all your friends family and business contacts’ phone and email into address book

  Get your email organized

  Set up a way to make sure your getting things done from those emails sitting in your inbox

  Get your finances up to date on your computer

  Set up a system to track your passwords or start using safer passwords

  Put all your photos from all over your hard drive into iPhoto and organize them

  Website, blog, social networking, email newsletters?

Don’t even know where to start let alone the possible tens of hours to figure it out?

What if you could accomplish these so you can actually do the things mentioned in paragraph 1?

What if the projects were turned into smaller chunks and you were provided some direction, knowledge and resources to do them in an efficient way?

Register Here.

Please hang on here with me while I tell you a short story, it will all come together in the end.

Something you might not have known about me. I left the corporate software world at what some would say the top of my career. Then my consulting company, started from scratch with a parter with $500 each, was earning more than seven figures annually without much overhead when I sold my ownership less than five years later to focus on raising my son.

Well I couldn’t stay out of the mix and took on roles at several tech companies that I was excited about. I really dived into projects and roles related to web 2.0 hosted software for Elearning. It was amazing what was being accomplished. It was expensive and seemed only the largest of organizations could afford it. This did not seem right to me knowing how inexpensive cloud computing was getting and how it was revolutionizing everything. So, after my last deal closed, selling a Fortune 500 company an annual license for hosted Elearning software at $1.5 million a year, I stopped.

There had to be a way to bring this great way of learning and combine it with live online sessions and some social functions for employee collaboration to smaller companies at an affordable price.

I wanted every company and it’s employees to enjoy the benefits of lower training costs, just in time access to learning, and the efficiencies gained from well-trained employees who get to collaborate.

Where am I going with this and what does it have to do with you getting your photos organized?

Technology and web standards have come a long way. There are now afforadble ways for a small organization or an entrepreneur to provide a great learning experience online.  applejuiceacademy.com is going to be a way for me to help many more Mac users like you, in a convenient time and place, no matter where you are located.

I want to get way into it and have people I know and trust in there with me. To make this happen course content must be created. You can’t just take a successful classroom workshop and replicate it exactly online. That doesn’t take full advantage of the benefits and possibilities of online learning and technology.

So, myself and other subject matter experts will need to create that course content. I want to test out some topics with you to find what you most want to learn. And in that process, collect information about what can be added to make a full online course from that topic, or know it’s not a topic that should be a course on its own, or even included in a course.

While the software is being set up for applejuiceacademy.com , I am going to produce a series of how-to videos with accompanying documents, links, recommendations and whatever I can compile for you from my research and experience.

I see this as a great learning experience for me. Not the production; I’ve been producing online learning since 2000 and worked since 1990 with the large software companies that pioneered computer-based training.

I want to learn from you:

What interests you

What solutions in the courses work for you,

what doesn’t

Get your feedback for future course topics and material.

Are you game?

I am. I’m so excited at the prospect of being able to assist and coach more people to enjoy using their macs.

Register Here.

I prefer to interact live, but I tried that last year with my clients and the majority around here (I did get participants from out of state) were hesitant to get online in a web classroom or conference. I think everyone benefits more from that experience, but I’m not going to push that just yet.

I promise to record my step by step clicks and movements on my screen and provide you with pleasant visuals in short, recorded video that you can watch when you can. You’ll be able to play along to try things yourself by pausing and rewinding. You’ll be able to ask questions. You will even be able to see my answers to others’ questions.

Here is all I ask of you:

1. Sign up
2. Participate
3. Provide your opinions

In exchange for your effort, I am going offer these early courses at a very low fee. The same courses when offered in applejuiceacademy.com will be at market rates which are currently $30-50 each.

To get things rolling, I’m going to bundle them into groups of 3 or so and charge $50 for each bundle. Applejuice tech support members get a discount. If you are not a member and are interested, let me know as we have opened up membership again for a limited time for just a few more individuals a no more than three more corporate members.

If you know anyone, located anywhere (that speaks English) that might be able to participate in these classes, please pass this on.

Click here to get on a list for further notifications and here to register.

Many thanks to clients and macJuicy news audience for letting me into your inbox.

First Bundle:

Mail, Address Book and iCal

(including integration with Google mail, Contacts and Calendar.

(3 modules over 3 weeks)

Register Here.