David M, happily plaigurising Barry Guyer's recent Salisbury talk, ran through the use of dictation across Apple devices, communicating with Siri via speech and having text read out loud. Dictation on the Mac can be activated two ways, one a lot more sophisticated that the other and it would be difficult to explain better than via a MacMost video.
Georgia, with newer members is mind, showed us a short Apple video on features of the…
Read more…
Eight members came to Warsash for a hopefully energising presentation on rechargeable batteries from Stuart. As we've all got lots of them- everything from the humble AAA to cars- he thought it might be useful to explain the main technical issues (battery ageing and charge cycles), and good practice to maximise useful battery life. After that, John (eventually, impromptu technical issues with his iPad being resolved) showed off some of his photos of Dubai. Due…
Read more…
It was our Open Evening to which members and anyone interested in having help to address any problems using iPhones, iPads or Macs were invited. There was a good turnout of members and another 50% of guests. Drinks and nibbles were provided with table service! The entire evening was fashioned as 1:1 between those who sought help and those who could give it. I don't think there was even a moment when anyone was…
Read more…
Thirteen members attended this evening's presentations. Barry first showed how to dictate to the Apple Watch, iPad and iPhone and followed this with a detailed video explaining the differences between two ways of using dictation on the iMac which gave one a very sophisticated way of using a multitude of voice commands.
As a bit of light relief, he followed this with a video containing excerpts from a number of classical music compositions…
Read more…
Mick introduced us to the Health App on the iPhone showing how as well as holding health data it can also track exercise, sleep etc. Most importantly the information under the heading Medical I.D. is accessible in an emergency even when the phone is locked. When the PIN number request is displayed on the locked screen, tapping on the word emergency bottom left opens the phone keypad with access to the emergency call number…
Read more…
Eleven members came to Warsash for a general Q&A session. Topics included passwords, how to connect a Bluetooth speaker, a somewhat unusual case where an attendee's friend had a problem with email on his iPad (said friend being unwilling to attend in person), a continuation of the audio-related questions of last month, the Health app in iOS, and preserving battery health on portable devices. As per usual with Q&A, everyone…
Read more…
After a bit of trouble with the projector we discovered how to mirror a phone to a laptop so as to project the phone screen (direct projection of the phone had eluded us). The group then shared details of frivolous, time-filling, grandchildren amusing apps they had on their devices. We learned that dominos has hidden depths, that mancala, versions of which date back past the 3rd century and evidence suggests the game existed in…
Read more…
This first meeting of 2023 was attended by thirteen members and two guests, and most availed themselves downstairs of either the dinner menu or light refreshments prior to the main business upstairs.
Barry opened the meeting by paying tribute to Helen, who died suddenly at the end of last year. She had been a valued member, had helped on several occasions with the distribution of promotional material, and had made her garden available…
Read more…
Eight members endured the wet & windy weather and came to this meeting. Stuart talked on 'Teaching an old Mac new tricks'. His Mac Pro dates from 2010. Official Mac OS support ceased with Mojave. It has one-seventh the CPU power of a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and it's slower in every way. You might think it's only good for running old software, and…you'd be wrong. It can, with a few…
Read more…
David M gave an explanation and demonstration of Apple’s new Freeform App. As this is designed to be used for collaborative brainstorming with more that one participant David P joined in adding items to and writing on the board via his iPad. As well as writing and sketching with an Apple Pencil you can add pictures, videos, sound tracks, links , clip art etc. across an almost limitless area, zooming in and out and…
Read more…