LAPUG
It's Been How Long?
 
Can you believe it's been 20 years since LAPUG was created?  The group was originally created in 1992 as a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the old Los Angeles Macintosh User Group (LAMG) -- one of the largest user groups in the world with a membership of over 5,000 at its peak. Monthly meetings back in the early 1990s peaked at over 600-700 attendees per meeting!!  For those of you who were with us back then (and there are quite a few!), remember our meetings at the DWP auditorium in downtown LA? What about the meetings at the school in Santa Monica before that?! Of course, that was before the Internet got really popular and Mac users got their info directly on their computer. The LAMG and all the large user groups died out but the LAPUG group has only grown since then (we have a membership of over 300) and we've had a lot of fun.
In the mid-90's, the LAPUG became a fully recognized user group with Apple and we've focused on lots of portable technologies -- starting with the original PowerBooks (I've still got a PB 170 lying around), the Newton (got a few of those too), Palm and other related handhelds,Treos, MacBooks, iPods, iPhones and, of course, iPads. Who knows what's to come.
We're going to celebrate our 20 years with a special pot luck party for our December 10th (at 7:00 pm) meeting.
Of course, we'll have some tech talk! We'll talk about the new iMacs that were just went on sale last week as well as the new iTunes. The new iPad Mini with LTE is now shipping (we've got one of those, too) and we'll talk about a few really cool apps and utilities that have been introduced to make up for some missing features in Mountain Lion. And, of course, we'll spend some time with Q&A.
Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_December_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 7:01am PDT

The new iPads are here! The hit is the new iPad Mini and we'll have a few to show. It's incredibly light yet powerful and it's just as powerful as its big brother. The iPad 4th Generation (full size) was also released and we'll talk about what's new.

We'll also review some of the hit apps on the App Store -- productivity, social networking and some really cool games that will exercise your mind.

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_November_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 10:11pm PDT

(In the same voice as Steve Martin in "The Jerk")
"The new iPhones are here! The new iPhones are here!". And so is iOS 6!!  We'll review both of Apple's newest toys and we'll spend a lot of time going over all the new features in iOS. If you have an older iPhone, we'll tell you what features you'll have and what you won't so you'll know if it's time to upgrade or not. 

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_October_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 12:00am PDT

Security!  We'll talk a bit more about securing your Mac and, more importantly, your data and your online profiles. You might have heard about a major security breach that affected a writer for Wired magazine recently. We'll talk about what happened (he was using a Mac, iCloud, iPhone, iPad and more) and how he might have avoided some of the problems and how some of it was beyond his control. We'll also discuss some techniques and utilities that can help you not only remember your login information but also help keep all your secret data really secure.  This is probably one of the most important topics we'll discuss all year.

As we all know, Apple has an announcement coming up on August 12. Could it be iOS 6? Could it be a new iPhone? Could it be new iPods or iPads? New iMacs? New blenders?  We'll take a stab at guessing what might be released.

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_Sept_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 10:47pm PDT

So, the big news is that Mountain Lion is here!! Last month, we talked about getting prepared for Mountain Lion and making sure that you've not only got up-to-date software but whether your Mac would run Mountain Lion at all. This month, we'll dive in to Mountain Lion and show you all the ins and outs of this new cat! We'll also review some little known tips that we're uncovering that haven't been widely discussed. If you're about to jump on the Mountain Lion bandwagon, you'll definitely want to know what all the hoopla is about!

Also, continuing a bit on our photography theme, we'll show what might possibly be the best point and shoot camera made -- the Sony RX100. We'll also discuss management of images in iPhoto. We've often come across very large iPhoto libraries that have become slow, unwieldy and difficult to manage. We've also come across situations where people have stored their images in multiple iPhoto libraries -- often across multiple Macs! We've got some great techniques and tools to help you overcome iPhoto nightmares including dealing with duplicate images that are just taking up room. This will be great way to learn more about iPhoto, too!

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_August_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 9:22am PDT

Portable Digital Photography!!  There have been SO many advances in digital photography in the last few years, it's almost like a whole new medium compared to just three or four years ago.  With the advent of much larger CCDs (charge coupled devices), greater Megapixels and more powerful lenses, the images we can capture are incredible with the newer cameras. Built-in hi-def video, HDR (high dynamic range), panorama features, and other concepts are things we'll go over and we'll have some newer state-of-the-art cameras to talk about how all this is done. If you're looking to get a new camera, this month's meeting will certainly help you pick out the features important to you.

Still not on the social network bandwagon? We'll spend some time talking about the different networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and others. You certainly don't have to be on all of them but you should be on at least one to know what all the hee-haw is about and how you can benefit as a Mac user. Apple thinks it's so important that they're building Twitter support in iOS and the forthcoming Mountain Lion. We'll also talk about some of the newer apps for iOS and OS X that can connect to these networks to give you the best experience.

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_May_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 4:07am PDT

With the new iPad here as well as some updated apps to take advantage of that gorgeous Retina Display, we'll have some more fun demonstrating cool uses of the iPad.

We'll also talk about Mountain Lion coming out this summer and what implications it might have for you and your Macs. 

There's some Java malware out there and we'll review what it is, how it may affect you and what you can do to avoid it altogether.

And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_April_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 10:28am PDT

There's lots of news this month! First and foremost, the new iPad has been announced and will start to arrive at the end of this week. If you haven't yet ordered yours or you're "on the fence", we'll discuss all the new features and we'll try to help you make a decision one way or the other. It looks really cool, though!

A bunch of software updates have enhanced both the iPhone and iPad with iOS 5.1. We'll go over how to get this update (you don't need a computer!) and what it brings. We're discovering new little things each day.

iPhoto for iOS has been released and it rounds out Apple's iLife suite for iOS. We'll show it off and show you how you can replace some functionality for the defunct MobileMe Web Photo Galleries. And, we'll have a really cool surprise application that will change how we can demo software for the group. This is something you might want to get for yourself!

We'll also talk about Mountain Lion coming out this summer and what implications it might have for you and your Macs. And, of course, we'll go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_March_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 11:56am PDT

Macworld | iWorld, Mac IT and CES have all come and gone and we'll report on what we thought of the shows and conferences along with some demos, photos and discussions of some new stuff we saw.

We've also been seeing a lot of discussion about speech-to-text apps with iOS. Siri on the iPhone 4S is Apple's built-in tool for converting your spoken words into typed text. We'll spend a little time on some Siri tips and tricks but we'll also review some other programs that will save you some typing on the keyboard.

We'll also go over some current events in the OS X world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_Feb_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 4:59pm PDT

Happy New Year!  Got a new iPad, iPod or iPhone for the holidays? You'll definitely want to come to our meeting this month as we're the group that talks about Apple's iOS products and how they integrate into your daily personal and business life.

This month, we'll talk a bit about some alternative products to the built-in apps (Calendar, Music, Weather, Stocks, Notes, Reminders, Camera, etc). Although Apple provides some wonderful basic apps, there are many other applications available that provide more features and might fit better with your needs. Some of the apps that come on iPhones don't come on iPads so you might not even know what you're missing. This will be a great meeting to get to know the best apps to carry around for your core iOS needs.

We'll also go over some current events in the Mac world as well as review some cool Mac & iOS apps, talk about a few rumors before Macworld | iWorld and leave some time for Q&A.

Direct download: LAPUG_Monthly_Meeting_Jan_2012.mp3
Category:User Group Meeting -- posted at: 10:02am PDT

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