We started off the June meeting with a detailed discussion of Apple’s many announcements at their World Wide developer conference. These included:
Upgraded MacBook Airs with improved battery life, faster graphics and some reduced prices.
The sneak preview of the new Mac Pro with a radical new cylindrical design and greatly improved performance.
Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks with upgraded Finder, Maps, iBooks and many other enhancements.
New versions of iWork including a full web version.
iOS 7 with a new look and sweeping changes and improvements.
iTunes Radio, Apple’s streaming music service with a free (advertising supported) option.
Following the discussion members brought along apps, hardware and tips for our first “Show and Tell” session:John kicked us off with Drafts, an inexpensive app for iPad which allows you to quickly enter text and then decide what to do with it later. Each time you open the app it presents a new page ready for you to type with no distractions. A version of Drafts for iPhone and iPod Touch is also available.
Ben brought along a classic clamshell iBook to show us, this was Apple’s portable alternative to the original colourful iMac. Ben is a Mac collector and plans to regularly bring classic Apple products to show us.
DavidK showed 7 Little Words, a free (with in app purchases) iOS game which challenges you to put together 7 words from a selection of tiles with 2 or 3 letters on each. There is a new puzzle every day.
DavidB then suggested Clueless Crossword Party for iOS, a crossword game with no clues, instead numbers in some of the squares indicate which have the same letter.
To complete the trilogy of iOS games, Denesh suggested a classic game of Solitaire.
DavidB also mentioned that he’d spotted a smudge on pictures taken with his iPhone 5 which couldn’t be removed by cleaning the lens. This seems to be a known issue that’s been widely reported. David visited the Apple Store who promptly replaced his phone.
We ended the meeting by answering questions on iOS backup and Finder shortcuts, find these on our Q&A June 2013 page.