2014.07 Tip: ICal Schedule Subscriptions

You may be thinking "What's with the 'iCal' moniker? Didn't Apple change the name of that utility to just 'Calendar'?". Yes, it did — to bring the desktop-computer utility (under OS X) into sync with the handheld-device app (under iOS). But the websites that were set up prior to that name change continue to use "iCal" as part of their identity, and the point of this tip is that you'd go to one of them, specifically
http://icalshare.com/calendars/6704to subscribe to the Green Bay Packer 2014 season schedule. Its author, Joshua Campbell, promises to update the listings with game scores as soon as they become final.

First up: pre-season game vs. the Tennessee Titans at their place, Sat. Aug. 9, 7:00 PM Central.

(Incidentally, I found this site quite easily just by googling "apple calendar subscriptions". There are others as well. Pick the one that tickles yer fancy.)

Update: If you tried to use iCalShare to do likewise for the Wisconsin Badgers, you'd have been disappointed, as the most recent listing was for 2006. However, if you go to the Badgers' own website, you can follow the "Schedule" path to the destination
http://www.uwathletics.com/schedule/icalScheduleList.aspxwhich allows you to download a football schedule compatible with your Calendar utility.

First up: Wisconsin vs. LSU in Houston, Sat. Aug. 30, 8:00 PM Central.

Note that a download (as for the Badgers) is a one-time-only deal. Once you've done it, it's done, and your Calendar listings won't change thereafter unless you consciously change them. A subscription (like the Packers), OTOH, can be dynamically updated by its original source.

2014.07 Celebration: Happy Birthday, Mibs!

Happy 92nd birthday today to SWAG's own Mabelle R. "Mibs" Ewald, who served as a US Marine in WW2 and only recently picked up a brand-new Mac laptop to further demonstrate that she's getting ready for her next century.

2014.07 News: Apple and IBM Team Up

Remember when Apple announced its partnership with Microsoft, and Steve Jobs stood on stage with the big head of Bill Gates projected on screen in the role that Big Brother occupied in the famous 1984 commercial? Macheads everywhere took it as a sign of the Apocalypse ("cats and dogs together", etc.). Well, it turned out OK.

Here's the sequel. Winston Smith is giving Big Brother a big hug — and Big Brother is hugging back!

2014.07 Travel: Apple Abroad

Our sleuthy secretary, Holly McEntee, couldn't find any listing for an official Apple Store anywhere in Russia, but evidently they have their own equivalent of a Best Buy where Apple products are available for sale, as evidenced by these June photos taken on Moscow's tony Tverskaya Street by SWAG's foreign correspondent, Barbara Leuthner:

A couple of years ago (late 2012), Barbara also encountered a real Apple Store in Ljubljana, Slovenia:

2014.06 News: Aperture and IPhoto Laid Off

Apple is migrating its photo-processing functionality over to the generically named "Photos", which is intended to wholly replace iPhoto and Aperture by the end of 2015. Photos is yet another step Apple is taking toward merging the way its programs work on computers (under OS X) and hand-held devices (under iOS). The program called Photos will run much the same way on your Mac that the app called Photos will on your iPad. At least that's the plan.

Furthermore, Apple evidently intends Photos to be the one and only image-processing tool it makes available to its entire range of users, from grandma's vacation photos up to intensive high-quality professional work. That's quite a range of capabilities to try to cram into a single program, and Apple will have to strike a delicate balance to deliver the desired power to the pros without overwhelming the neophytes.

Still, many people who've been frustrated with iPhoto's unreliable and utterly opaque library — which can produce a gargantuan file with all your images stored in it, God only knows how — will keep their fingers crossed and hope that there's a clear migration path over to whatever Photos will use as a storage system, hopefully one that gives the user more of a peek at (and control over) what's going on.

2014.06 News: Apple Taps Half-Century-Old Zeitgeist

Apple's technology may be on the cutting edge, but it reached back to the Kennedy presidency for the jingle that accompanies its ad for the new Health app for iOS devices.

fireworks

2014.06 Tip: Technology Reminder

Always back up your data, and … oh, yeah, what was that other thing?

2014.06 News: New iOS (8) and OS X (Yosemite) Unveiled

We've reached the point where we can reasonably expect a new release of Apple's operating systems (iOS for handheld devices, OS X for computers) every summer, and here they are again, right on schedule.

Should you upgrade? Well, you can't — not until the fall at the earliest; this is just an announcement of things to come. When fall rolls around, if you're an early adopter, of course you're going to upgrade immediately anyway, regardless of what we say here. For everyone else, give it a month for all the early adopters to finish the gamma testing for you and then download the +0.1 bug-fix release. This will all be available thru the App Store, and your currently installed operating system will undoubtedly remind you of it from time to time until you do.