Lion

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Re: iCloud Drive

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        Here John Carter jumps in to the discussion, "A major disadvantage of iCloud is that it does not allow sharing between users in the way that Dropbox does. However, iCloud has other features that aren’t available in Dropbox. So it becomes prudent to know what iCloud is for and to take advantage of those features in addition to using Dropbox for what it does best.

        "To get informed on what iCloud is for, get the eBook “Take Control of iCloud” by Joe Kissell (2nd Edition) here. (Click on “All Ebooks” in the left margin to find the title. A 30% MUG discount will be applied at checkout.)"
        John provides this further info:  "Here’s an outline of the major iCloud features:
   * Media syncing
   * My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing
   * Syncing documents and app data
    * Mail, Contacts, Calendar, browser data, Reminders, and Notes
    * iCloud Keychain
    * iCloud.com
    *  Find My Device and Find My Friends
    * iCloud backup
    * Apple TV
    * Back to my Mac
      And John summarizes,  "Some of those features require Mavericks, and some are available in Mountain Lion or Lion."
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Hearing from the Hales

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        Former PMUG Prez Bob Hale and his wife Sue head for Claremont, California. He writes, "Hope all is well 'on the prairie' and with all of our PMUG colleagues.  Please keep in touch.  We wish you all the best."
        Bob served as Prez from November 2005 until January 2008.  Sue spoke to PMUG, and they hosted a PMUG Christmas party at their home in Prescott Valley.
        He adds, "We have skipped the Lion upgrade, so we're still happily running the venerable Snow Leopard OS's on our Intel iMacs, as are our two sons here."

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Serious Bug Discovered in Lion

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        John Carter wants our attention now!  "I just discovered that LION has a serious bug that Apple isn’t recognizing as a bug yet.   Files disappear from the hard drive.  Do a search with the keywords “files disappearing on mac."

        "It happened to me, and it’s happening to others.  I’m still looking into it.
        "There doesn’t seem to be any fix in the future. Maybe Mountain Lion won’t have the bug. It’s totally random while at the same time appears to be completely selective. All the files in every subfolder of one of my folders are missing: e.g., folder A contains folders B, C, and D. All files in B, C, and D are missing.
        "Other folders that I know should be on the machine are now missing — stuff that I put there just two weeks ago.
        "Using Time Machine only helps if you actually use it. In my case, the folders and files in question were deliberately excluded from Time Machine — to save space in my Time Machine backup. What a shame on me!"
        John concludes for now with, "Now, I recently worked with a client who has Snow Leopard, and dozens of photos disappeared off his Mac. No Time Machine backup. Another client also claims to have missing files — and he is not using Lion. So when did this problem start, and how widespread is it?"
        Want to see John's posts on this problem on the Apple Discussion site?  Find it here.  He is posted as jrc39 and his comments are as of 7-15.  Keep up the good work, John, and let us know the resolution of the matter.  
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Upgrade Fever?

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        Can I upgrade to Lion and still keep my old, familiar, and useful Snow Leopard?  You'll find complete directions here, but with a warning.  If not done correctly you could lose all your data, everything on your computer!  Aaaak!  Read here for the info.
        Another nifty announcement on that same site:  Read about Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) events scheduled for June 2 & 3.  "Hack for humanity" is their slogan,  it's FREE, and being held at Burlington, VT.
        So, PMUG readers, anyone want to pass on info on any recent upgrades?

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eBooks on Sale

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        This, just in from John Carter:  "O’Reilly is having a special 50% off sale on ebooks.
$11.99 – Switching to Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition
$13.99 – Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual
$4.99 – Troubleshooting Your Mac, Second Edition
$11.97 – My New Mac, Lion Edition
$15.99 – Office 2010: The Missing Manual
$15.99 – Excel 2010: The Missing Manual No code required.
        "Visit the O’Reilly site before midnight tonight, (Pacific Time) April 26, 2012  to take advantage of this great offer!"

Lion Update to 10.7.3

        Got Lion?  You'll want to read Jim Hamm's experience with the latest update.  "If you're running Lion and plan to do the update, be aware that when clicking software update you may automatically get the Combo Updater (CU) instead of a regular update — at least that's what I think happened to me. The CU measured 1.32GB, which is a big download, and much bigger than what I would think a 'regular' software update would be. It took me one hour to do the update, and I've got a high-speed Internet connection.
        "The CU is what various blogs are recommending as the way to do the update and avoid problems that some people are experiencing with this particular update. My update turned out fine and I'm running with no problems," Jim concludes.

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Lion's AirDrop

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         John Carter asks, "Do you have Lion installed on your Mac? Have you tried to use AirDrop yet? Are you not even sure what’s its good for? Get a real good explanation about AirDrop here.
        "Note: AirDrop is only useful if you are attempting to collaborate with other Mac users in an environment where Internet access is not available.
        "As explained by the article in the above link, not all Apple computers running Lion (10.7) support AirDrop. It appears that a Core 2 Duo machine does not. My iMac is a Core 2 Duo. Bummer!
        John goes on to explain, "I confirmed this on my own iMac. My MacBook Pro clearly showed AirDrop in the Finder, but on the iMac it was not there, and it also did not appear in the Finder->Preferences-Sidebar window. Here’s what you should see:

        "But do not despair, there is a way to enable Airdrop on any Lion machine. The instructions are simple, but you do have to use Terminal and enter a couple of commands, which the instructions make perfectly clear.
        "Even after I enabled AirDrop on my iMac which then showed my MacBook Pro in AirDrop on the iMac, when I went to my MacBook Pro and looked at AirDrop, the iMac wasn’t there. So, I decided to do the same two commands on the MacBook Pro and — voila! — the MacBook Pro showed up. I tested transferring a file between the two machines and it worked as advertised.
        "So despite the fact that my iMac supposedly does not have the right hardware, the 'fix' made it possible to use AirDrop anyway."
        John Carter wants us to know that Prez Art Gorski was co-author on the above.  Thanks to both of you! 
     

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Here's Some Mac Fans

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        "How do you use your Mac?" is always a good question to ask because our PMUG members and friends have unique and interesting info, and they like to share. David Passell innocently mentioned about a choral production coming to Trinity Presbyterian Church on December 4.  After a few questions we found out what good Mac fans he knows at TPC.
        "Joe Place, our facility manager, is a real Mac fan. All the computers at TPC are Macs, except some that had to remain Windows for compatibility with older Church software, and (I think) our telephone system.
        "I operate the video camera and record all the services and special events on DVD. Joe also duplicates the sound on CDs from a digital Edirol recorder. He uses an iMac (now running Lion), and we have a stand-alone CD duplicator.
        "Spike Foley, a professional sound engineer (Sound on Site Arizona), runs the main services. We have a 36 channel board, and orchestral-choir presentations are multi-miked. A MacBook Pro is sometimes connected to the board for mixing editing for audio CDs. I also run the sound board and record Memorial Services."
        And, about that choral production, David?  "Here's the link."

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Take Control of Lion

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        To PMUG members who want the free books we offered at the November meeting, but didn't have a thumb drive, Bobbie Pastor has the solution you need.  She sends the books on her iDisk, and tells how to access the iDisk.  Click on the screen shots to enlarge them.
1.  Click on an open space on your Desktop.  In the Finder menu > click on GO.  In the drop down menu click on iDisk and over to other users public folder. 

2. My Member name is: bopastor

3. Click on Connect.
4. The next window will ask you for my password: bopeep45

5. After you do that, you should find the .pdf files.

Click and drag to your Desktop or files.  "That's all there is to it," says Bobbie. 

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Sandboxing: What? Why?

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        Maybe you've already heard the word, "sandboxing." Jim Hamm finds something that explains it.  He writes, "Sandboxing is here in Lion, and soon will be for apps as well. A prime example of Sandboxing in Lion is that Safari no longer connects directly to the web. Another process does that. Sandboxing is meant to be an additional security for a Mac user. I think this is a good step by Apple, but there are other thoughts on this. Here's an article that provides further insight into Sandboxing."

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Making the Transition from MobileMe to iCloud

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        Have you been reading about the transition to Lion, the move from MobileMe to iCloud and how to deal with some issues?  Ward Stanke sends this helpful info.
        "This article from Ars Technica talks specifically about the problems some users are having managing the transition from MobileMe to iCloud, specifically problems with multiple or shared AppleIDs.
        "This article from Apple User Group Resources includes a handy chart which shows the differences between MobileMe and iCloud and what is supported or not under each. It also show what alternate applications could be substituted for the old familiar ones which won't work under Lion (such as AppleWorks and Quicken). It also lists a number of helpful links to help walk you through some of the issues."

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iCloud on Snow Leopard?

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        Prez Art Gorski clarifies questions about Lion,  Leopard and the iCloud.  "I've got Lion installed on my new MacBook Air, but my 4 year old Mac Mini still runs Snow Leopard. Rather than upgrade the memory (which I think will be required for good performance with Lion), I've decided to leave Snow Leopard on the Mini until I replace it within a year or so.
        "In Apple's announcements today, the iCloud presentation only mentioned Lion, and not Snow Leopard, and there is no solid information on the Apple web site. However, over on the MobileMe discussion forum (Apple Communities), there is a thread with a screenshot that's interesting. A developer testing iCloud opened up the old .Mac system preference on a Mac running 10.4 and the dialog said he couldn't activate .Mac (remember, this is 10.4, so it wasn't called MobileMe yet) because he had upgraded to iCloud. The interesting part of the dialog said he needed to upgrade to 10.6.9 to use iCloud."
        Art summarizes, "So it looks like Snow Leopard may very well be supported, and that there will be a 10.6.9 update coming out before iCloud goes live this month."

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Lion: The Bad News & the Good News

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         Bright and early, this comes from Jim Hamm.  "In Lion OS, first the bad news. Occasionally, for me anyway, the Mail App will quit unexpectedly, for no apparent reason. If, say, this happens after writing an email, perhaps with links and an image (ie., some work involved on my part), and before I can send it,  it suddenly disappears as the app quits. Darn, what to do—start over?
        "Now the good news. Apple, perhaps (hopefully) in the design engineers' wisdom, has included an auto-save feature in Lion. If I look in the Drafts Folder, there is my email, ready to be sent. And I hadn't even thought to save it as I typed the email. This auto-save is a nice, new feature in Lion.
        Jim concludes, "A notice is automatically sent to Apple on the Mail failure so this bug can be corrected in a future OS update."

Problems Noted with Lion Server

        David Passell noted this link with info on problems being experienced with the Lion Server,  It "may not be of interest to us clients, but someone might take notice."
        John Carter has found some solutions!  He writes, "It should be noted that David’s note about bugs with Lion is specific to Lion Server, not the standard release of Lion.
        "I am having only one problem with Lion. When running Mail in full window, it is quite difficult to push my mouse to the edge to unhide the Dock. It is easier to switch to Finder and then unhide the Dock.
        "Okay, another problem with running Mail using the new look is that if I am starting a new message, like this one, and want to check out some other message I either have to cancel the current message, save it, open the other message, read it, then grab the saved message in the Drafts to continue where I left off. Or, I can open a new viewer window which then complicates things if I forget which one I’ve been working in. There doesn’t seem to be a way to switch between the different viewer windows using just the keyboard, so the mouse is necessary for that operation.
        "A little practice can make things perfect - it’s all a matter of getting used to the new features and not caring about how complicated they have made your life."