MAC Users Meeting 1 14 14

Meeting Contents 

Since your faithful servant was late to the meeting Tom Gottfried, who had taken good notes, emailed him the following capsulation:  

These notes are from 1 PM to 2:30 PM Attendance: 30

As I recall, there were 8 new attendees

Jack reviewed the basics with emphasis on System Preferences. Some of the things he pointed out. 

1. Command Q A short cut for getting rid of programs that you don’t need or use. 

2. For those who have not upgraded to Mavericks,you should click on your “Apple logo”

in the upper left corner and click on “About this Mac” if not at the current version of 10.9.5, make sure to click on “software update” and update your computer so that during the meetings you are on the same page as the rest of the class.

3. Since the operating system called Snow Leopard, all upgrades come through the internet. Getting them on a disk is a thing of the past.

4. Discussion continued on the reliability of Apple’s newest operating system, Mavericks. There had been several upgrades and early issues with G-mail and “Contacts” have been resolved. Jack suggested that we should not become overly concerned about negative comments on line. Tom stated that in a recent visit to Apple’s “Genius Bar” he was told that there were indeed early issues with Mavericks but now they seem to be resolved. Comments from several class participants who have upgraded to Mavericks have been positive.

5. Emphasis continues to be placed on backing up your machine. Especially before downloading a new system.  Only a few have not backed up their machines and they know who they are.  

6. When clicking on the Apple logo and then “about this Mac”, click on More info. Click on the various boxes to find out more information on your Mac. On the menu click on Memory to see how much RAM you have. Jack pointed out that you should put as much RAM on your computer as it will hold. RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory, and it makes your machine both faster and allows you to run multiple programs at the same time. On the menu click on “Storage” to see how much space you have left on your hard drive. If you have a program like iPhoto and you have a lot of pictures, and your hard drive is almost full, you may want to get a separate portable hard drive to keep them on.

7. The new Apple computers introduced in the summer of 2013 have solid state hard drives. The old “spinning disk” drive we are familiar with is gone. Solid state is much faster than the old drive and more reliable as well. If you are thinking of a new computer, now is the time, and get ready for “warp speed”.

8. System Preferences. Become familiar with this handy tool. It tells you how your computer is set up and allows you to make changes to suit your style. It is a great way to see how things work on your computer.

9. Jack spent time on the “Dock” and how and where to set it up and make desired changes. The “Dock”, like your desk top allows you to have short cuts to get into programs that you use regularly. All your programs are found in Finder under Applications, but Dock makes access only a click away.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS  This is a website giving a history of the evolution of the Mac OS if you're interested.  I get a kick out of wikipedia which always gives the disclaimer "don't believe everything you read here".  

Here is a list of the recent operating systems and their names.  

OS X v10.1 (Puma)

OS X v10.2 (Jaguar)

OS X v10.3 (Panther)

OS X v10.4 (Tiger)

OS X v10.5 (Leopard)

OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard)

OS X v10.7 (Lion)

OS X v10.8 (Mountain Lion)

OS X v10.9 (Mavericks)

Jack's Corner

Next week will be more on FINDER menus and what they can be used for.  

The iPad and iPhone meeting each Sunday in the Cholla Room at 1PM.  

Thanks to Larry for conducting the meeting and especially for keeping only one going.  Also Thanks again to Tom Gottfried for his excellent notes and to Jack McCleskey for imparting some of his vast knowledge 

See you next week.