Archives for July, 2006

Apple has yet to officially announce a firm opening date for the Atlantic City Apple Store in The Pier at Caesars but when they do I’ll post it here and also to the ACAMUG Discussion List which is where we’ll make plans for those wishing to attend it as a group. If you’re not already on the Discussion List click on the link and sign up. And please don’t be afraid to post messages in the meantime.

Looks like there are two factions: those who want to experience the joyful exuberance waiting hours in line to be the first in the doors (and get a free tee shirt) and the people who have more sense. Those of us in the former category can decide on an overall time to meet at The Pier and make carpool arrangements to cut down on parking hassles. You other spoilsports can arrange your carpools to arrive whenever you feel like getting out of bed. And no, we won’t get an extra tee shirt for you.

Non ACAMUG members who also want to attend are welcome to join in. Assuming Apple’s got their Wi-Fi turned on early we’ll hopefully have live updates and photos on this site.

06-Jul-31 Update

We still don’t have an official opening date (the rumored August 1st date would have been odd falling on a Tuesday but since we haven’t heard anything anyway its a moot point.) Best info we have is that it will be “sometime in August.” Apple typically opens on a Saturday so likely guesses would be the 5th, 12th, 19th or 26th. If it is this Saturday (the 5th) we should be hearing something in the next day or two.

Topic

Solve Your Problems & Make Plans for the A.C. Store Opening

When

Friday July 14th 2006, 7pm – 10pm

Where

Room M129, Building M, ACCC Mays Landing Campus

NOTE: The Wi-Fi Picnic has been rescheduled to August September! Carolyn has some health issues she has to deal with this week and isn’t sure she’d be quite ready for a horde of ACAMUG members at her home. For that reason we’re slipping the Wi-Fi picnic until the August meeting and the July meeting will be at the normal ACCC meeting room.

With the A.C. Apple Store scheduled to open August 1st we’ll can make plans for the members who wish to attend and there will also be time to discuss the latest rumors of new products (iPods, desktop Macs) and solve your problems. Bring along your laptops and we’ll run through a group “(Post) Spring Cleaning”. And afterwards we’ll adjourn to Applebees as usual.

Let’s all wish Carolyn a speedy recovery. But please, wait until at least the August meeting before asking to see her surgical scar.

Presentation topics may change so be sure to verify on the day of the meeting. Got questions you’d like to have answered? Feel free to post them as comments before the meeting so the presenters have a chance to prepare.

Flip4Mac, the Microsoft blessed set of QuickTime plug-ins that play most Windows media formats, has been updated to version 2.1 with the major addition being native support for Intel based Macs. To recap, Microsoft has officially discontinued development of Windows Media Player for the Mac and instead endorse Flip4Mac as the sanctioned method to play their media files on Mac OS X. Advantages of Flip4Mac over the old player include: play media embedded in web pages and using QuickTime Player; support for Intel based Macs; it actually works.

You can download the free playback only plug-ins from Microsoft here:

• Windows Media Components for QuickTime

or grab a trial version of the full package that also allows creating WMF files here:

• Flip3Mac WMV Download

Most people just need the free version.

Just spent a chunk of time deleting yet another batch of useless, annoying comment spam from web site posts so I’m turning the comment spam filtering back on. If you post a comment and its not shown after a day or so email the webmaster and I’ll make sure it gets approved. Also, if you post a comment with more than one URL it will definitely be held for approval so it could take a few hours for it to appear.

Now class, let’s all thank the nice parasitic lowlifes for screwing up yet another useful feature.

“Thank you parasitic lowlifes.”

Please note that the Wi-Fi Picnic has been rescheduled (again) to the September meeting date. The August date conflicted with some members’ vacation plans which won’t be an issue in September and we can expect a cooler, more comfortable evening as well:

• September Picnic Topic Posting & Discussion

The August meeting will be at ACCC and cover new hardware and software announcements from Apple during the annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC):

• August WWDC Topic Posting & Discussion

Assuming its happened by then, we can also discuss our experiences at the opening of the Atlantic City Apple Store at the August meeting.