Bournemouth — Jul 19th 2011

Last evening was the first at the slightly later time of 7.00 pm and while it is probable that themain attraction was learning about Lion, our main feature, nevertheless with 20 people in attendance this was the best meeting since the enthusiastic opening of the Bournemouth venue.

However an unveiling of the new operating system didn't happen. The guys at Solutions had still not received a copy to work with! But all was far from lost and we were given a very expert presentation on the main features,amongst which are the ability to use a track pad, with an armoury of gestures similar to those used on iPads and iPhones, the way in which the system will resume after any type of break exactly where you left off, and the Time-Machine like Versions, which creates backups of all versions of a document or file to allow the retrieval of any previous, well, version. And displays it alongside the current one. Then there is ability to work on a file in full-screen mode and so avoid distraction (and temptation!) There are many many other new things - far too many for the evening - and it is well worthwhile checking them out on the Apple Store web site - http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.htm. A couple of particularly useful developments are Airdrop, which allows Macs to communicate and share files without the need for a router or wi-fi connection at distances of up to 30 yards or so, and one not discussed last night - the ability to drag files from Spotlight into an email or document without having to open them first.


After a break for tea (wot, no biscuits!) we trooped up to the showroom to see a demonstration of an amazing little four rotor helicopter, with a camera , controlled by an iPad, which was flown around the showroom first by Jez, the Solutions manager, then by Trevor Hewson and Peter Shepheard. It proved very stable and looked great fun!

Finally Euan gave a repeat of his presentation on the best and safest method of installing Lion when it arrives (which it now has), by cloning exiting data onto a back-up drive, and and then doing a clean install on a partitioned hard drive to allow retaining previous versions of OSX in the other partitions and with them the ability to run older software that will no longer be able to run under Lion. He also showed us how simple it is to see what we have in our Applications folder in terms of kind - i.e. Intel, PPC, etc. Very useful in avoiding bringing unnecessary stuff into the new partition.

And then on to that friendly and reasonable Italian restaurant to complete a very good evening.

Comments

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Roy Rainford said…

Two interesting and helpful presentations. Thanks to Solutions staff and to Euan. Good to see the attendance up. Thanks to Michael for arranging everything.

David Fleetwood said…

I fully endorse Roy's comments, best Bournemouth meeting so far.

Mark Ford said…

Yep, an excellent meeting. The enthusiastic involvement of the Solutions staff both during and after the meeting was a bonus.
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