Apple Products Reviews and Newsletter Resources

IRIScan: Mobile Scanning and OCR Power

Do you have an optical scanner? Is it too big to travel with you, but you wish you had a small one? Wouldn’t it be nice to have one that could scan without being attached to a computer? I found the solution at Macworld 2011 to do this and much more.

The IRIScan Anywhere 2 is a stand-alone battery-powered single-sheet scanner that can help to archive and organize your documents, recognize and manage business cards, and save its output to a wide variety of storage options. With a default resolution of 300 or 600dpi, it will save JPEG files to its own 512MB of flash memory, or interfaces with SD, xD, MS, MS Pro, MMC, USB Slave (type-B Mini), and USB Host (Type-A) for USB Flash Drive . . . 

Read the full review from the appleJAC Macintosh User Group.

 

zBoost Repeaters: Amping Your Cellphone Signal

Ever have problems getting a reliable cellphone signal? Are you experiencing a lot of dropped calls? That has been my frustrating situation (0 - 2 bars average) for almost a year in my home-office duplex (only two miles from a tower on the ridge, but my place is at the bottom of the valley among the trees). I finally found a better candidate at Macworld 2011 which works with any of my cell signals.

zBoost by Wi-Ex (www.wi-ex.com) is described as the leading provider of consumer cell phone signal boosters for the home and office. They showcased their home and office solutions in San Francisco on January 26, 2011, illustrating their ability to help iPhone, iPad, smartphone, connected devices and mobile phone users with dropped calls and slow data. I was particularly interested in the zBoost-SOHO (small office/home office) and zBoost-METRO (urban single-story unit) . . . 

Read the full review from the appleJAC Macintosh User Group.

 

Graphic Secrets for MUGs: Printing Borderless Photos in Photoshop and Elements

A UGAB Feature Article by Lesa Snider King

Resizing your images to print borderless can be an exercise in frustration. Unless you know the trick, you'll end up with a nasty white border. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to do it quickly and painlessly in both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS. The best part is that both programs will figure the resolution for you automatically!

Read the article here.

Bio: Lesa Snider King is the author of "Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual" (O'Reilly), chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, and founder of GraphicReporter.com. She's a proud member of DACS, NCMUG, and WAP. You can catch her graphic tips live each Wednesday night on YourMacLifeShow.com.

Right-Click: The Often Overlooked Treasure

"I'd switch to a MAC, but I couldn't imagine giving up the right-click." This lament of a PC user is a broad and correctible misconception. Right-click functionality has been built into OS X since 2001, so third-party mice would work. Even though you don’t clearly see it, the Macintosh mouse has had built-in right-click since August 2005.

This article is only about right-click, so we will ignore the clickable customizable scroll-ball and side-button features of the Mighty Mouse. The magic of touch-sensitive technology transforms this seamless top shell into a two-button wonder, in wired or wireless versions.

Read the complete article from the appleJAC Macintosh Users Group.

A Sound Start for Capturing Audio

Most editors realize that successful post-production is built on solid production, and that capturing decent audio is just as critical - if not more so - than capturing good video.  Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to set up an external condenser microphone, a basic field mixer and a prosumer camcorder – specifically, audio-technica’s AT8035 Line + Gradient Condenser Microphone, Sound Devices’ 302 Compact Production Mixer and Canon’s XH-A1 high definition camcorder - to capture audio in the field.

Read the article from the District of Columbia Final Cut Pro User Group.