At our meeting on September 3rd, we talked about recent Apple news and Robert shared some handy tips.
Tips
Robert shared a few handy tips:
- Using search (Spotlight on Mac and home screen search on iOS) for calculations, live currency conversions and to start apps.
- DaveK pointed out that Command+Space is a useful keyboard shortcut to quickly open Spotlight on Mac.
- On Mac, you can change the volume in smaller steps by holding down Shift+Option while pressing the volume keys. Holding Option and tapping a volume key opens the Sound preferences.
- When resizing windows you can hold down Shift to resize the window proportionally (to fit an image for example). Holding Option while resizing moves both sides of the Window evenly but doesn’t allow it to go off-screen.
- Robert pointed out the search field at the top of the Help menu in Mac apps. This allows you to search for menu items and then highlights the found item’s location.
News Discussion
We discussed Apple news from the past few weeks including:
- Mac OS Lion and Mountain Lion now available for free download from Apple (they were previously sold for $19.99):
- Apple settles a class-action lawsuit with App Store policy changes and payments to US developers.
- GarageBand on iOS gets free sound packs from famous artists and producers (these can be downloaded from the Sound Library).
- The new dedicated Store tab on Apple’s web site.
- UK Apple App Store price tiers have been reduced by about 10% (£0.99 tier is now £0.89).
- The iCloud+ custom domain feature is now available in beta.
- Tim Cook’s 10th anniversary as Apple CEO.
Member Suggestions & Topics
- Liz mentioned a problem with iCloud Mail on Mac OS El Capitan which now seems to have been resolved by Apple as reported on the Apple Support Communities forums.
- Ann-Kay highlighed the British science festival being held in Chelmsford this September.
- Ann-Kay also mentioned Davinci Resolve, a video editing app with a free version available.
- Various medications that can be helpful to allergy sufferers were mentioned including Beconase, Flixonase, Actifed and Cetirizine.
- DaveK had watched La Commune (Paris, 1871), available on Archive.org. Apparently you’ll learn something about that part of French history but it’s quite a commitment at over 5 hours in length!