free

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The Convert's Guide to Mac and OS X

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        Switching from PC to Mac?  Or, just finding out more about what Mac can do? Don’t miss this recommendation from John Carter:  "Once in a while an interesting online article pops up that's really worth passing on to others — especially anyone who just switched from Windows to a Mac, or who are thinking about it, or who are still trying to figure out what their Mac can do.         "There are only six sections to this article, which should make it an easy read, and the PDF format is 51 pages — with lots of pictures. It starts out with some careful thoughts about which Mac to purchase. At the end, for those who think they want to switch back to Windows or run Windows on their Mac, there's a few words about that — very few. Read the full article at MakeUseOf.com here.

        "If you want your own permanent copy of the article, you can choose to download a FREE copy of either the ePub or PDF version. Amazon has it on sale for the Kindle for $1.99.”
         And here John emphasizes, “Don't forget now. Once you've started reading this article, don't put it down. I have dozens of ‘I want to read this book someday’ books and ebooks that keep getting put off for something else that at the time seems way more interesting. Like, I need to set up my telescope to get it ready for tonight, or, what about that article I wanted to write for the Mac newsletter, or, …”

       (And you know, John is right!) 

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Hard Decisions for Photo Editing Apps

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        John Carter sends this report that will interest the photographers:  "Photoshop Elements 11 is out. The upgrade price is $79.99. Adobe has added a whole lot of new features. There is no student price. For some, there probably isn't enough to warrant upgrading from Elements 9 or 10. But if you're still at Elements 7 or below, it's time to upgrade!

        "Photoshop CS6 is out. Student price for the extended version is $249. For the serious photographer, there's nothing really to compare.
        "Adobe Lightroom 4 is another photo editing contender. Only $149. Student price is $79. Personally, I'm not that impressed with Lightroom.
        "Apple Aperture is $79. Aperture interfaces perfectly with iPhoto, but you can't have both open at the same time. The advantages over iPhoto are few, but some are quite useful. Aperture is definitely easier to use than Lightroom. If you already have Elements 9 or above, don't bother with either Lightroom or Aperture.
        "GIMP is free, of course, and it has almost all the features of Photoshop CS. The latest version (2.8.2) does away with needing X11 (XQuartz) and has a very nice interface — more like Elements and Photoshop.
        "Pixelmator is $14.99, designed to work with the Mac, has all the Mountain Lion features, and has many of the same tools as Photoshop CS." 
        John's conclusion:  "You might find yourself wanting more in a hurry, so moving up to GIMP might be the way to go. Some of the Pixelmator reviews aren't too encouraging, but then the professionals wouldn't bother with this app.
        "If you need to work with Layers and Masks, the only viable choices are Elements, Pixelmator, GIMP, and Photoshop CS, in that order of usefulness."
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FREE Gmail Phone Calls

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       In case you didn't see this, Jim Hamm wants you to see that word FREE.  "If you have a Gmail email account, you can make free domestic calls  to mobile and landline numbers — at least through the end of 2013. Here is an article with further details. The person you're calling does not have to have a Gmail account — you're just dialing their regular phone number through Gmail on your end.  
        "If you don't have a Gmail account, it's easy to get one, and it's free. Click here to sign up."

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New to View

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        "Here is a free offer for ClipBuddy for the Mac. I've not tried it, but since it's free I will give it a try. Note that it's normally priced at $29.95. This offer expires on October 31st," writes Jim Hamm.  Earlier today he'd emailed with mention of a new iPhone - iPod Touch -  iPad app called MyRadar Pro which he saw someone use to monitor the severity of the storms in the Memphis area. See it here.  Jim will tell us more later . . . 

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Getting Your RSS

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        You used to see RSS at the top right corner of this blog.  When you clicked to subscribe to it you’d be notified via your email that a new posting had been made to PMUG newsblog.  In your Mail it showed you a few lines of the posting and then “read more” would open the site and bring up the entire article and the entire PMUG newsletter, actually linking you to all articles/messages here.  
        Prez Art Gorski suggests you try this:
http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
       
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Watch the Olympics

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Watch the Olympics in London via a free app for your iPad, Jim Hamm tells us.  And you can watch streaming video from any computer on numerous websites.  Read about it here.Jim Hamm also found this article about various ways to watch the Olympics this year.  This describes the Alert Me feature that will email you about a half-hour before every event that you select will start.

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How to Upgrade to Mountain Lion -- FREE

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        Well, it's the e-book that's FREE, but that's good!  The e-book that John Carter tells about will be offered as raffle prizes at our July 14 general PMUG meeting.  Here's the info:  "Apple is poised to release OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in July, and the people at Take Control want to help smooth your transition to Apple's next big cat. Because many of you will want to upgrade soon, Take Control is offering Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Upgrading to Mountain Lion" for sale now, with Matt Neuburg's "Take Control of Using Mountain Lion" available for pre-order as a single-page placeholder that you can use to get the full title once Mountain Lion ships."
        John sends the link to the article about it here.  The winner receives the e-book on an 8GB thumb drive.  

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Some Free Apps for Your Computer

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         There's that word FREE that gets our attention.  John Carter has found some free apps.  Read on.
        Are you a PC person besides a PMUG person?  You've probably noted that John is a PC officer who also heads a joint PC/PMUG Special Interest Group (SIG).  He's also our Webmaster for our PMUG site. John sends this link to a list of 50 alternatives to see if there's a free app that might be helpful for you.  When you open this page, do Command + F for Find and enter Mac in the search box.  There are 31 places where Mac is mentioned in this article.
       John says, "Don't forget to read the user-submitted comments at the end for additional insights."  Perhaps you also want to check out the Prescott PC site.

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Get More Storage via Dropbox

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Use Dropbox?  Jim Hamm shares this new info.  "Want more free storage — up to 3 GB more? Here's how: On your iOS device upgrade to the latest version of Dropbox, then upload pictures from your iOS device to Dropbox. Everytime you do that, you'll get 500MB more storage up to a max of 3GB. Even if you remove the pictures later on, you get to keep the additional storage. I just did this with my iPhone, and while I was uploading the pictures I got a popup box from Dropbox on my computer (which I was using while the upload was going on) stating good news: your account has just been increased to 'x' GB of storage. Don't forget to turn wifi on to speed up the transfer of pictures."  See this article.  

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FREE Books From Amazon

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Here's another listing of FREE books from Amazon.  Jim Hamm informs us, "A few possible downloads I saw, but most seemed to be romance novels. Apparently, one has to check back periodically to see if any books of interest have been added."  Then he added, "I like the daily email of free books from Amazon that I get from the following link much better.""Didn't I see something earlier about ebooks?" you're asking.  Look along the right hand side for the listings.  Click to bring up the category.  There are 13 postings already about ebooks. "But, Jim, how can I read these FREE books on Mac if I don't have an e-reader like iPad?" John Carter gives us this solution: For all your Amazon e-books, download and use Kindle. Works on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. And it keeps your place when you go from one device to another. Got time to experiment with it, somebody?  Let us know!

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Comparison of 5 Anti-virus Applications

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        Let's hear from Prez Art Gorski, "Here's a quick review of anti-virus applications for the Mac.  I won't be installing any of these myself, but if you're worried about malware and don't mind the overhead of running this kind of software, give one of the free ones a try."
        Read about these 5 apps; two are FREE, and the others run from $39.95 to $49.95 a year.
        This is just in from Bobbie Pastor about Sophos, "This is a free download for your Mac.  John Carter considers this a good product."  See it here.

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More Options for Cloud Storage

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        "Several options to store items in the Cloud have become available recently, and Amazon offers another one." See the article here.  Jim Hamm passes along these details.   "You can get 5 GB free, and Amazon even has a desktop app available. One good use of Cloud storage, as an example, is to store pictures that you want to keep in a couple — or more — of Cloud locations. This way, you've always got a backup of those important pictures you don't want to lose — and free up storage space on the disk in your computer."