Author: Brandon

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How to: Keep your Mac up to date

You should know what updates are. Update means to bring something up to date. Apple releases new updates regularly. The new updates help improve your system software. Apple releases free updates to improve your computing experience. If there is a bug or error on your computer, updates can fix some of those problems. Updates are very important because updating regularly helps keep your computer safe from security threats. Mac OS X has a program called Software Update. It automatically checks for updates weekly or you can modify the schedule for checking for updates. The only requirement is that you have an internet connection.

If Software Update finds an update, it is put on the list. A description of the update is found below if you click on the update on the list. If there are unwanted updates on the list, you can click the Make Inactive button, which is on the Update menu. When there is something on the list you want to update, just check the box under the Install column. Click the Install button on the bottom right and after typing in the Admin user name and password, the update begins. After the update is complete, you may need to restart your computer.

The good thing about updates is that it is convenient, usually makes your computer more stable, and usually increases your computer performance. Updates can also provide you with more features and programs for your Mac. Make sure you update your computer often, or else you will never know what you are missing.

What do you think about Apple Software Update? Comments?

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How to: The Mac App Store

The Mac App Store is pretty much a marketplace for various apps ranging from games to news. The Mac App Store is very similar to the App Store on the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. If you have used the App Store on iOS, you would know what the App Store is like. Many of the apps on the Mac App Store are the same as the apps on the App Store. First of all, you need to get the Mac App Store. How do you get the Mac App Store? The Mac App Store is available for free. You need the software update for Mac computers running Mac OS X v 10.6 or later. Run a Software Update and the Mac App Store should come with Mac OS X Version 10.6.6.

After you update your Mac and restart it, the Mac App Store icon should appear on your Dock. Click the icon labeled App Store to open it. When it is opened, you will see the main page for the Mac App Store. You can see New and Noteworthy apps such as Angry Birds. On the right side, you can see Quick Links such as Sign In and Account. The main page is a good place to look for the hottest and more popular apps. If you want to buy or download an app, you need to sign in or make an account. You can click Sign In under the Quick Link buttons on the main page or click the Sign In button under the Store button on the top left of your computer screen. After you make an account and sign in, you can buy and download apps. If the app is free, click the blue Free button to download it. If the app is paid, click the blue Buy button with the Price Tag on it. After clicking it, the blue button should say Installing. After it is installed, it will say Installed. The app should now be added to your Dock. To see the apps that you have purchased, you can click the Purchases button on the top.

If there are updates, you can click the Updates button on the top. You can click the grey Update button for each individual app or click the grey Update All button on the top right of the page.

What do you think? Comments?

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What can you make with your photos?

What is iPhoto? iPhoto is part of Apple’s  iLife ’11. iLife ’11 is a program for Mac that consists of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, but I am going to focus on iPhoto. With the new iPhoto ’11, you can do more with your pictures. iPhoto can be very convenient for organizing and managing your photos. iPhoto has three great features called the Faces, Places, and Events feature. The Faces feature sorts your library of pictures by detecting identical faces and sorts them by matching the pictures with the same person. The Places feature takes advantage of photos that are taken by a GPS-enabled camera and helps you figure out the location of the picture by using reverse geocoding to convert the location data. The Events feature also organizes your photos by the date they were taken, so you can easily distinguish between a photo taken from a year ago to a photo that was taken recently. iPhoto also gives you the opportunity to add special effects to the photos, such as making the photo black and white, antique looking, or make the photo brighter. iPhoto also helps you email your photos to your family and friends by automatically making it a special template design and you don’t even need to open Mail. You can also post photos directly to your Facebook Wall or photo album. If there are names on the photo from iPhoto, they will be converted to Facebook name tags automatically. Comments left on those photos will also show up on iPhoto. You can also share those photos on Flickr by clicking the Flickr button. If you have a MobileMe subscription, you can make an online gallery for your photos. The photos you have on iPhoto can also be synced onto your iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV to view them. You can also make amazing slide shows with iPhoto to entertain and dazzle friends and family with.

iPhoto comes with many different features, but what is really cool is that you can make print products through iPhoto. Have you ever wanted to make something really cool with your photos? Well now you can by using iPhoto! You can make beautiful books for everyone to look through. iPhoto books are very unique. When making an iPhoto book, a dynamic Theme browser helps you create the book. You select images and the Theme browser automatically organizes your photos into a book and the key photo becomes the cover. iPhoto books come in a variety of sizes. You can choose softcover, wire-bound, or hardcover.

With iPhoto you can also make pretty letterpress cards. There are many different occasions where you can give a letterpress card. You can make a letterpress cards customized by your photos and text. iPhoto letterpress cards are made from premium paper, come with matching envelopes, and have a special, unique look. You can also create 12 to 24 month calendars that are custom made to have photos and captions for certain days and you can even import your iCal events into your calendar. How awesome is that?

Last but not least, you can also print your photos. Those photos can be put in frames, put in photo albums, given to friends, and much more. The best part about iPhoto is that it gives you many different ways to view your photos and store your memories. iPhoto conveniently helps you make many different print products so you can look at your photos all the time and so can your friends and family. Do you like iPhoto? Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

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Cool! A Mac App Store!

If you ever had an iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone, you would know what the App Store is. Now there is going to be an App Store for Macs, called the Mac App Store. It is coming January 6, 2011. The Mac App Store is a basically a marketplace for various Mac apps. You can look at the Mac apps through different categories. You can also use the search box on the top right to quickly search for the app you are looking for. When looking at app, you can look at the developer description, user reviews, and screenshots. If you decide that you want the app, just click to buy it. The Mac App Store allows you to download and install apps easily. You just need to type in your iTunes password to purchase and download apps. The app you decide to download and install goes directly to your Dock. If you bought the app, you can easily download it on every Mac that you use so you don’t have to buy the app for each Mac you own. You can also update your apps one at a time or all at once. The Mac App Store always keeps track of your apps and will inform you when an update is available to keep your apps up to date.

Apple also has a program called the Mac Developer Program. It costs $99/year to enroll in the program that allows you to distribute Mac apps on the Mac App Store. The program also helps you develop your apps. Apple is confident that the Mac App Store will be just as successful as the iOS App Store. What do you think? Are you looking forward to the launch of the Mac App Store? Do you think it will be successful?

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Take Your Web App Relationship to the Next Level

Gmail, Springpad, and Last.fm always occupy a tab on my browser, and I think we all know we’re doing more than just ‘browsing’.  These sites fall under the category of web apps, which is the trend on the net these days, as web developers take the attractiveness and usability they’ve unleashed in their iPad apps and adapt them to their desktop domains. Treating these as websites rather than standalone apps is a pain. This is where Fluid comes in to make the transformation from site to app.

A standard browser is not optimal for these apps when you’re constantly using them. They take up browser space, don’t stay loaded when closed, and don’t appear in your dock. Fluid is not the first site specific browser (SSB), (Mozilla’s Prism has been around for a while) but it is the only one designed specifically for OS X.

Simply launch the app and give it the URL and a name for each app you want. The web page is saved in your Applications folder, and treated like any standard app- ready to bounce in your dock, open at login, and take your relationship beyond the ‘browsing’ level.

Fluid has the standard browser features with tabs and the like, but options to change the theme to ‘chromeless’ (hiding the browser bars all together) turns your web app into a true application. You can lock an app to the desktop, change transparency, and there are tons of plug-in options as well.

Fluid uses the sites Favicon by default, which is pretty worthless as its insanely blown-up and pixilated, but you can choose a custom option, and their library of icons online even enables notification badges for sites like Facebook and Gmail.

The ability to set default window sizes and automatically find high-res default icons would be nice touches, and I’m not positive exactly what value plug-ins could add, but it’s really hard to find complaints for Fluid. The simple SSB provides easy and uncluttered access to your constantly used websites (apps).

Check Fluid out here — and as always, if you have any alternatives, share the knowledge in the comments.