Dorchester — Jan 13th 2015

Our meeting on 13 January was, as usual, opened by John, with 24 members, including two new members, present. Mick began by talking about the features which he found particularly useful in Yosemite (although some of these were also present in earlier versions of the OS).
• Finder window tabs
• Safari Favorites - these are, by default, in a menu on the left, although a helpful option exists to revert to the traditional location.
• Mail Drop which allows files up to 5Gb to be sent to Mac and non-Mac users alike.
• Mail has the ability for users to annotate .pdf attachments before sending within the application.
• Ability to phone or text from the computer using an iPhone linked to it (but not, at present, using an external microphone).
• Diary - can share calendars with others, Mac or non-Mac, and invite people to appointments, and show location on a map.

David then went through a similar exercise for iOS 8.
• Messages - can now take a photo, or record an audio clip from within an app for transmission.
• Camera - Pano(rama) and Time Lapse settings now available, the latter being made more flexible with (free) Hyperlapse app.
• There is now an app which allows remote control of compatible hearing aids!
• Mail - can drag draft email to bottom of screen, allowing other emails to be consulted / copied without losing draft version.
• Spotlight (available by dragging down from centre of screen) now much more flexible and useful.
• Multitasking apps can be ??shown up??? by double clicking, and quit by dragging active window upwards.

There was then some discussion on how to back up photos to DVD. The simplest way was suggested as making a folder of the photos, and then using Finder to burn the folder to a DVD. Apple no longer includes iDVD, although it runs perfectly well in Yosemite, and therefore if people want to use the facilities of iDVD, they should make a back up copy before upgrading.

After the break, Euan spoke about upgrading RAM and installing SSDs (Solid State Drives) as an alternative to Hard Drives. Some Macs come with these, usually with a PCIE connection, or using Apple’s Fusion technology; on others it is possible to replace an HD with a SSD, with the advantages of cooler running, greater physical robustness, better battery life, and (particularly if RAM is limited) greatly improved speed in particular on start-up, and in changing applications. He showed Activity Monitor screen shots to illustrate RAM use and data read-write transfer between Drives and RAM. Other photos showed the location of the HD (and one showing how dust can build up and destroy a computer if not occasionally carefully removed). David recently doubled the RAM and installed an SSD on his iBook Pro, and said that this, at a cost of around £90, had given him, in effect, a new computer starting up in 19secs compared to about 2 minutes with the previous HD. Crucial's, website http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en offers advice on RAM and SSD options available.

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