MacMania 14 Seminars

• • • JOE KISSELL • • •

Getting to Know Your First iPad

Whether you’ve just received an ancient, 2010-vintage iPad as a hand-me-down or picked up the latest feature-packed model on your way to the cruise, your first few months as an iPad owner are a time of discovery. What exactly can I do with this thing? Is it a tool, a toy, or both? Am I using it to its full potential? In this information-packed session Joe Kissell, author of Take Control of Working with Your iPad, begins with a quick tour of the iPad’s features and capabilities — with an emphasis on the less-than-obvious things that make it much more than a large iPod touch, and even better (in some ways) than a laptop. You’ll then learn the nuts and bolts of customizing your iPad’s preferences, syncing personal information, and using the iPad for entertainment, communication, and day-to-day work. Plus, you’ll discover the latest apps and accessories that can make your iPad even more powerful and easier to use.

Here are the slides (1mb file).

Coloring Outside the Lines with Your iOS Device

Of course you can make phone calls and read email with your iPhone, play tunes and games on your iPod touch, watch movies and surf the Web on your iPad, and run hundreds of thousands of entertainment and productivity apps on any iOS device. But what makes these products even more exciting is that you can put them to all sorts of unconventional uses that can enhance your personal and professional life. This intermediate-level session will cover interesting and novel ways to use your iOS devices that range from the playful to the powerful. Joe will demonstrate how to run Windows and Linux applications on an iPad, use an iOS device as a remote control for nearly anything, perform stunning artistic feats, use multiple iOS devices together, increase your productivity in clever ways with Siri, work around irritating network and media limitations, and much more. You’ll amaze your friends and confound your enemies with the tips, tricks, and techniques we cover here.

Here are the slides (1mb file).

iPad Kung Fu for the Extreme Mac Geek

Are you a true iPad junkie — or would you like to be? Whether you’re looking to leave your laptop behind and use your iPad for complex business tasks, create the ultimate home media experience, or push this gadget to its limits just because it can be done, this session is for you. After donning our propeller beanies, we’ll start where ordinary apps leave off and march directly into serious geek territory. Jailbreaking? Check. Flash? No problem. Unsupported features? Hardware hacks? Warranty violations? Oh yes. You’ll even learn how to hedge your bets and restore a hacked iPad if you get into trouble.

Here are the slides (1mb file).

Speeding Up Your Mac

Does your Mac feel like it’s lost the zip it had when it was brand new? Do you wish you could squeeze extra life out of an older but still functional Mac rather than investing in the latest model? Or are you a power user looking to put together the ultimate high-end Mac configuration for work or play? Nearly every Mac’s speed can be boosted considerably and inexpensively if you know what you’re doing. In this practical, hands-on session, best-selling author Joe Kissell offers you the results of his extensive research and experimentation in the area of Mac performance. He’ll show you how to identify the exact causes of slowdowns and measure your Mac’s speed before and after making changes so you know exactly what their effect was. You’ll systematically root out the gremlins that chew up CPU cycles, RAM, and disk space; discover numerous tricks to improve responsiveness; and learn how to speed up your email, Web browser, network, and peripherals. You’ll also explore the benefits of hardware upgrades such as SSDs and extra RAM, and get to the bottom of some of the most common and pervasive performance myths.

• • • JOSIMAR KING • • •

iCloud, the new iTunes

Of course, iTunes is not going away, however, it’s finally being relieved of a major burden. Once, it was the primary way of keeping your Mac and iOS devices in sync with each other, but now, iCloud is in charge. Learn of its full capabilities and limitations as this new, free service will allow you to begin severing all those cables, and help you regain your sanity.

You Don’t Know Lion

With so many shiny, new features, and that pretty, iPad-like interface, you may feel right at home with Mac OS 10.7. However, are you thinking you probably aren’t as efficient or effective as the OS has been designed to allow you to be? Josimar will lead the way with his favorite and deep functions which are guaranteed to make you feel like a professional.

Advanced iPhoto and iMovie, Not For Dummies

For the first time in human history, we’re effortlessly able to immediately capture an event then instantly share it with the world. iPhoto and iMovie for Mac, iPhone, and iPad allows us to do this in a variety of ways. But which method is useful for which purpose? With so many choices, each process has its advantages. This class will cover using the advanced functions within iPhoto and iMovie, how they work back and forth with their counterparts on iOS, and the best workflow from capturing to publishing.

iWork Double Vision

Mac and iPad aren’t all fun and games. Sometimes, we gotta work too. We have evolved from expecting to only be productive at home or the office as we sit at a desk and type away for hours, but with iWork for iPad, we can get work done anywhere we are. Though it’s not intended as a computer replacement for productivity, it does play nicely with iWork for Mac to allow us to take advantage of the strengths each platform offers to get tasks done faster than ever before. Come harness the power of making iWork for Mac and iWork for iPad work together for you.

Let Me Tell You a Story ...

Anybody and everybody can make a home movie now, just look at YouTube. The problem is, it feels like barely 2% of what’s on YouTube is even worth watching. Time to learn how to separate your vacation memories from everyone else’s, whether it is meant for the world, or just the people you care about. Watching home movies and photo slideshows shouldn’t be a chore for any viewer, and this class will teach you the importance of arrangement, and above all, timing to tell a captivating story and truly engage your audience.

• • • WALLY CHERWINSKI • • •

Video To Go

Today’s camcorders are better, smaller and easier to use and video is now built into most mobile devices. With little more than your Mac’s editing tools and a dash of creativity, you can easily recapture your travels and adventures in an elegant way. In two sessions, Wally will cover some hands-on techniques you can use to plan, shoot, and shape images into lasting memories. We'll start out with tips to use during your trip and find out how to see and capture the best clips. Plus, you'll learn how to set your own video style and mood to create a polished product to share with family and friends.

Here are the slides (30mb file) for Part 1.

Here are the slides (13mb file) for Part 2.

• • • CHRIS MARQUARDT • • •

Introduction to all four sessions: Photographer Chris Marquardt is best known for his international photo seminars and for producing the longest running photography podcast, Tips from the Top Floor. Together with film maker Jon Miller, he has also repeatedly taken photographers to the Himalayas, holding the Highest Photo Workshop in the World at the foot of Mt. Everest. His seminars cover many genres, including travel, portrait, and street photography. Join the class and add some new tools to both your technical and your creative photographer's toolbox.

Session 1: The Perfect Picture?

In this session you will learn what makes a great picture. We will discuss image composition and why certain ways of placing things in your picture will work better than others. You will find out how light is one of the key elements to beautiful photography; how to make the available and artificial light work in your favor; and how location and timing not only impact the composition of your pictures but also have a lot to say about what the light does to your photography.

Here are the slides (9mb file).

Session 2: The Tech Side of Photography

Find out how to get the most out of your existing equipment. We will explore the strengths and weaknesses of your camera and of your lenses. You will learn about the advantages and specifics of the RAW, TIF, and JPG formats; and we will discuss the two “magic triangles” that center around exposure and depth of field which are essential tools for your creative toolbox.

Here are the slides (7mb file).

Session 3: Post Processing

You will learn the general concepts of a good digital workflow that will enable you to speed through hundreds or even thousands of pictures in a very short time, helping you to manage that nagging image backlog. This covers everything from importing your pictures through effectively managing them on your Mac, tickling the highest possible quality out of your photographs, and exporting them to the destination of your choice, be it a live slide show, a website, a video, or even just a simple collection of JPG files. We will use Adobe Lightroom for this session — there is a free 30-day trial available.

Session 4: The Creative Side of Photography

Photography has two sides, a technical craft and the creative side. We will take a step back and look at some of the rules that many of us use when shooting. You will learn how you can bend these rules to add new facets to your photography. We will also explore the fascinating psychology of photography, and how we can use simple methods to influence what the viewer will experience when looking at our pictures. Finally we will explore how we can help our creative photography side by looking back at where this medium originally came from: the analog side of the equation.

Here are the slides (8mb file).