Hi All,

We had the first Mac User Group (MUG) Meeting last Thursday. Many thanks to John Shafer for presenting, Ben Leung (our new IT Manager) for answering questions, and to those of you who were able to come out and support the MUG - I think it was a great success.

Sections in this email:
- Next meeting
- Recap of last week's meeting
- Apple rumors & announcements
- Useful Mac links

See you next week,
Katz


NEXT MEETING

Our next meeting will be a week from Thursday, 10/25, at 5:30 in room 101. Greg Haverkamp and I will be presenting on Notetaking and Outlining: Tips & Techniques.

If anyone else would like to show off their favorite tricks, please let me know. We can always use more presenters. Also, Apple's Sales Rep has apologized for missing last week's meeting, and has promised to attend the next one. She'll be bringing an Apple Systems Engineer (and some free Apple swag) with her, so if you have any questions, please bring them with you and feel free to ask.


MEETING RECAP

1) Ben updated re Macs and exams. Bottom line? He's testing, along with the help of a few guinea pig students, and expects to be able to offer support for OS X this semester. Nothing is final, but it looks like we'll be able to use Macs for exams this Fall!

A question was also asked re Macs being unable to print in the library. Ben said he'd look into it.

2) John Shafer presented on Mind Mapping software, showing the basics of how to use it and why it's helpful for wrapping your brain around complex legal problems and theories, as well as for organizing research projects. John recommended three mind mapping or flow charting programs...
    a) FreeMind (free, available for OS X, Windows, Linux)
        LINK
    b) Inspiration ($80 to buy, free to try for 30 days, OS X only)
        LINK
    c) OmniGraffle (free with older Macs, OS X only)

3) Sean, Chris and Dave offered to help out with the MUG. Many thanks.

4) Congratulations to Vanessa Wills, who is the first door prize winner! Vanessa has won a free license for MailPlane. (Note: I love this little program and have been using it to access gMail all semester). Many thanks to Ruben Bakker, MailPlane's creator, for donating the license. For more, see this review.


APPLE RUMORS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

1) It's confirmed - OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will be released on 10/26. We'll need to check with USF to see if we can buy it through them. Education institution pricing is still $69, including for Leopard. Institutional pricing is what departmental components of universities pay for the product. Universities can still choose to resell Leopard in their own stores for $69, since that is the institutional price.

By comparison, a license via Apple's store is $116 for students (!). Amazon is selling Leopard for less via pre-order - at last check, it was $109, and Amazon will give their lowest price by the time they ship (in case you're worried that they'll drop the price again).

For more on OS X 10.5, see this full list of new features and this list of new or little known features.

2) As is usually the case with any big Apple release, there is speculation that Apple may release new hardware  as well. The most interesting of these rumors revolves around the possible release of a slim, aluminum notebook. Super-light, compact, and fast, if these rumors are true (increasingly unlikely), these things are going to sell like hotcakes.

3) Other interesting rumors/announcements:
    a) Mac Nano?
    b) iPhone 3rd party applications coming soon
    c) iTunes now offering DRM-free songs for $0.99  
    

USEFUL MAC LINKS

    a) iWork review by ArsTechnica
    b) Tutorial videos for...
         - OmniOutliner
         - OmniGraffle
         - GoogleApps
         - Quicksilver
    c) Better in-class notetaking  by Merlin Mann
    d) Boo Westlaw (though I'm a West guy through and through)