Apple Support on YouTube: Taking Selfies with Voice Control and Shared Albums

Need a quick topic to include with your meeting? Apple Support on YouTube often has quick, fun, and easy-to-implement tips that your members will enjoy.  For example, in under 1 minute your members can learn how to take selfies using only Voice Control.

How to take a selfie with Voice Control

Or, in right around 3 minutes your members can learn how to create and use Shared Albums in Photos.

How to create and use Shared Albums in Photos

Ambassadors, July is a great time to use Apple Support on YouTube

 

 

Plan for 2024: Focusing on Generative Artificial Intelligence at TCF

trenton computer festival

User group members enjoyed the 47th annual Trenton Computer Festival (TCF), the oldest computer festival in the world, sponsored by the College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Electrical/Computer Engineering Department and supported by multiple user groups. Now, there are plans underway for an exceptional 2024 TCF.  Next year’s theme is Focusing on Generative Artificial Intelligence and will be held on March 16, 2024 in 

As you can see, TCF is not just another computer show. It was started by (and is still run by) computer hobbyist volunteers as a non-profit educational event. Attendees can enjoy a full day of learning and fun covering Computers, Electronics, Ham Radio and so much more.

Check it out!

http://www.tcf-nj.org/

Enjoy past presentations on the TCF YouTube Channel.

Trenton Computer Festival on YouTube

Meeting Idea: Apple Vision Pro

wwdc 2023

If your members watched the livestream of last week’s 2023 Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) they were probably amazed by the Apple Vision Pro, a spatial computer you control with your eyes, hands, and voice to interact with digital content in a way that feels like you are physically present in an immersive environment. Wow!

Want to offer your members a first look at Apple Vision Pro? Check out these resources:

Discover visionOS

Apple’s first spatial computer

AWUGU Meeting Report about WWDC & Purchasing Advice by Tom Piper, Coordinator

AWUGU Meeting Report about WWDC & Purchasing Advice
by Tom Piper, Coordinator

This Apple World User Group University (AWUGU) online gathering of Apple user group leaders was held at 5:00pm CDST, on June 19, 2023, via Zoom. We had 35 participants for WWDC & Purchasing Advice. The 81-minute video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/nqfhHR6sY2s (unlisted on YouTube).

This session opened with my welcome, plus a quick review of the meeting protocols. This was followed by a long open discussion about the WWDC announcement of Vision Pro. This was followed by a British video shared by Steve Welsh (OMUG) about the new features of macOS 14 Sonoma.

Related to the topic of World Wide Developers Conference keynote announcements, numerous opinions were shared and suggestions were provided by user group leaders with the following links in the Chat Room: (more…)

Fun Blast From the Past: Macintosh Jeopardy

user group connection mug

 

The Apple User Group Connection Archives offer a fun look back at past announcements, products, and meetings. February 1991 brought one session of MacWorld Macintosh Jeopardy. Want to see contestants answer questions from categories that include Jobs, Woz, or God? and DogCow, and answers that include 7.0 in the cereal category, Virtual Interface Adapter, or what the Dogcow says? Check out a tough competition starting around 42 minutes.

See how many questions you can answer:

User Group Connection February 1991

News to Use: iOS 17 Preview

Your members probably want to know about iOS 17: what will the update look like? Are there features that make their iPhones easier to use or provide new experiences? The good news is that there is a lot to love in iOS 17, including updates to the Phone app, FaceTime, and Messages, a reimagined AirDrop for sharing, and new apps, including Journal and StandBy. Contact Posters lets users customize how they appear, Live Voicemail lets users see real-time transcriptions when someone leaves a voice message AND spam messages won’t appear in Live Voicemail. The Health app offers new mental health features too. In fact, there are too many features to list them here.

Check out Apple’s iOS Preview to learn more.

iOS 17 Preview

Timely Meeting Idea: Apple’s Privacy and Security Features

Your members have privacy concerns and a privacy and security meeting topic could be a hit. Apple builds in privacy at every level to help users keep their information secure. From Passkeys that can replace passwords with an easier and safer sign-in method, to Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Privacy Report to Password monitoring, Social widget tracking prevention, Fingerprinting defense, Private Browsing, Location fuzzing, Random identifiers, end-to-end encryption, and so much more, privacy is an integral part of the Apple ecosystem.

Start your meeting with the clever Privacy on iPhone video and go from there:

Privacy on iPhone

(more…)

AWUGU Meeting Report about AUG Speaker Bureau by Tom Piper, Coordinator

This Apple World User Group University (AWUGU) online gathering of Apple user group leaders was held at 5:00pm CDST, on May 15, 2023, via Zoom. We had 38 participants for AUG Speaker Bureau (see JPG image and PDF attendance list in the AWUGU shared folder). The 73-minute video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/YRl2IojuZ80 (unlisted on YouTube).

This session opened with my welcome, plus a quick review of the meeting protocols. This was followed by a wide-ranging open discussion about the previous 1Password presentation plus speaker and ChatGPT experiences by many.

Related to the topic of user group benefits, numerous experiences shared and suggestions were provided by user group leaders with the following links in the Chat Room:
There was also extensive discussion about whether members of any AUG could visit the meetings or access the archived videos and presentations from other AUGs. Numerous attendees listed information about how to acquire permission to attend their meetings on the Chat Room (download a copy of the chat text from our iCloud folder below).

(more…)

LACPUG: The Latest in Mobile Movie Making

LACPUGThe 6,000+ member strong LA Creative Pro community will hold their next meeting on June 28 at the Gallery Theater in Hollywood. And, the meeting will feature Sam Mestman, showing the latest in mobile movie making. Since Sam is now head of marketing for OWC, you just know he will feature the best of must-have equipment.

Still not sure? Stump the Gurus and the World Famous Raffle will be part of the evening’s entertainment.  (more…)

April Featured Vendor: RollingSquare

During Tom’s visit to CES, he met with RollingSquare, a Swiss company that calls themselves tech minimalists. Why? They focus on creating products that meet real-world needs, with an attention to high-end design, functionality, and premium quality. So, their products are beautiful, natural, and easy to use. 

And, their offerings are truly useful. From their keyring form factor TAU® emergency power bank that charges multiple devices (Lightning, Micro USB, USB-C), to their popular inCharge® multi-function cables, their fast-charging GaN chargers, HYPHEN® 2 ear buds, NAKEY cases (for people who hate cases), and their new Edge mount kit and accessories, each product is aesthetically pleasing and functionally excellent.

Better yet, RollingSquare is offering a limited-time discount to user group members. Check out this month’s offers for full details.

RollingSquare