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jail·break n
a forceful escape from jail or prison
a program to unlock your iPod or iPhone

Why I would not  recommend to anyone to “jailbreak” his or her iPod Touch.

• Apple does not sanction it. Apple has been very careful with how they have developed their hardware. You run the risk of it not working, as it should, conflicting with the device itself, or just all-around bricking that iPod/iPhone

• My pod just works already. So why mess with something that already works?

• There is now a Software Development Kit from Apple. This will allow developers to create more things for your pod. With the enthusiasm already shown for this, I am confident some very cool things will be created in no time.

• Hacks can lead to major problems. I need my device to work, not be screwed up because I installed something the device was not expecting or necessarily designed for.

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Question: I am preparing for an update from my old Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar to the new Leopard system, but before I do I just want clarification on a couple of things:

1. I am nervous about this not working and losing all my info so here are my questions:
2. How do you save emails to a DVD?
3. Will all my photos, videos, music from iPhoto and iTunes be lost or should I back them up?
4. I have several non-Apple apps (mainly adobe stuff) installed, will I loose those?
5. There is OS 9 installed on the computer, do i need to delete it first? ( I never use the apps that need it)
6. Would it be best to do a full archive to an external hard drive?

Your help is appreciated.

Answer: First off, updating to a new version of the operating system should not (and usually does not) delete anything, unless you specifically choose Erase Destination Disk from the options available by clicking the Options Button about four windows into the installer. I recommend using the Archive and Restore option to install a clean version of the operating system without carrying any artifacts forward from the previous system, while at the same time preserving all existing data. The previous system is disabled and put into a folder of that name on the hard drive for subsequent manual deletion. Nothing is deleted.

That being said, it is always a good idea to back up any critical files before running a major system update. In fact, you should always make a backup of all critical files anyway, since a hard drive can fail at any time.

Step one, before doing anything else, is to check that your computer meets the minimum requirements for installing Leopard. That means it has a G4 867 Mhz or faster processor, at least 512 MB of RAM (Memory) installed, and at least 5 Gigabytes of free space on the hard drive. I would say 10 Gigabytes is a more realistic minimum, since you will need some free space to use the computer after installing the new operating system. Next, open the Disk Utility application located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on your hard drive. Run the Repair Permissions routine to make sure the computer has assigned the correct ownership & permissions to all files. It’s a good idea to do this about once a month as routine maintenance.

Assuming you have a DVD or CD burner, you would use a program like Toast or Dragon Burn or Liquid CD to open a drag and drop burn window and drag and drop the desired files into it. Then click on the Burn button and insert a CD or DVD when prompted. If none of those programs are installed, you can go to the File Menu and choose New Burn Folder from the drop down menu. Drag the items you want to burn into the new Burn Folder and from the File Menu choose Burn new Burn Folder to initiate burning the CD or DVD.

How you back up your email depends on which email program you are using, as the various programs keep their data files in assorted folders with different names in various locations. Apple Mail keeps the data in a file named Mail in the Library folder in your user folder. Eudora keeps the mail in a folder named Eudora in the Documents folder in your user folder. Microsoft Entourage keeps the mail in a folder named Microsoft User Data in the Documents folder in your user folder, Firefox/Thunderbird, Mozilla, and Netscape keep their mail in a folder named Mozilla in the Application Support folder in the Library folder in your user folder, and so forth.

None of your Applications from whatever source should be affected in any way. Photos, music, video, and so forth are not affected by a system update, but sometimes the newer versions of iPhoto can cause problems. This does not delete the photos, but on rare occasions iPhoto will fail to update the photo format correctly and will refuse to open them. The actual photos are still OK, and can be opened with other programs such as Preview or Graphic Converter. They can also be restored into iPhoto, but it takes a bit of time and patience to manually load them back in if this (very, very rare) problem occurs. I have upgraded iPhoto at least 300 times in the past few years for various clients, and have seen this problem about 4 or 5 times.

I have also on a few occasions seen the Apple Mail program corrupt the contents of the Inbox following an update. Only the Inbox is affected, for whatever reason, so if you want to be really sure about saving your mail if using this particular program, you can simply create another Mailbox (folder) named whatever, and drop the mail in your Inbox into the new folder before updating. You can drag it back to the Inbox later. To move all the letters in one shot, after creating the new Mailbox (folder), click on ONE letter in the Inbox and from the Edit Menu, choose Select All to highlight all the letters in the Inbox. Drag one letter onto the new save folder, and they will all come along for the ride.

If you have an external hard drive, doing a full archive would preserve everything. I would recommend using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner for that purpose. Either of them will make an identical bootable clone of your hard drive onto another hard drive. Both programs are available free from http://www.versiontracker.com. The destination drive must be large enough to accommodate all the data on the source drive.

If you are no longer using OS 9, you can delete the OS 9 System Folder and Applications (OS 9) folder before installing the new system. You may have difficulty doing this if your present system is 10.2.8 or older, as those files have System ownership, and the computer will tell you that you don’t have permission to move or delete them. In that case, just run the Tiger installer first, and then delete the OS 9 folders off later, at the same time you delete the Previous System folder. The computer will ask for your password before deleting them.

When you are ready, insert the Leopard DVD and restart the computer, holding down the “C” key on the keyboard to boot from the DVD. After the computer starts from the DVD, open the Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu and click on your hard drive icon in the list on the left to select (highlight) it. Click on the First Aid tab and click on Repair Disk. See screenshot. That will check for and (hopefully) correct any problems in the drive directory before installing. Also run the Repair Permissions routine while you have the Disk Utility open. After running those maintenance routines, quit the Disk Utility and return to the Installer window. Click Agree, Agree, Agree a few times until you get to the Choose a Destination Drive window. Click on the desired destination drive, and then click on the Options button. From the options, choose Archive and Restore.

In the next window, click on the Customize Button and deselect (uncheck) all the Fonts, Languages, and Printers that don’t apply. This will save about 3 Gigabytes of space on your hard drive and considerably speed up the installation process. No point installing software for a bunch of Asian fonts you can’t read, languages you don’t speak, and printers you will never own. Click Next a couple of times and go get a cup of Tea while the installation proceeds. Installation takes about 30 minutes, or half an hour if you watch it.

After restarting and deleting off the Previous System folder from the hard drive, (don’t forget to empty the trash), go to the Apple Menu and choose Software Update. Run all available updates. You will need to do this several times, as some updates like Java code and some Security updates trigger subsequent updates. Eventually it will tell you no more updates are available. That’s it. You’re as up to date as you can get.

Terry

This meeting will cover Macworld 2008. All thing New @ Apple

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld Conference & Expo is a trade show dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform with conference tracks held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January. Macworld is the most widely read Macintosh magazine in North America, and is a trademark of its publisher Mac Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group. IDG World Expo is also a subsidiary of International Data Group. At one time, the show was known simply as Macworld Expo.

The Conference & Expo features educational conferences taught by leaders in their field, which require large admission fees to attend, and last for a few more days than the Expo. The Expo is open for a number of days (generally three or four), and attendees can visit the exhibits set up by hardware manufacturers and software publishers that support the Macintosh platform.

All meetings are held in the Surrey School Districts Conference Centre

9260 - 140th. Street, Surrey, BC
Room 400
starting at 7:30 p.m.

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DisplayLink is set to introduce its USB network display technology for Mac OS X at the Macworld Conference & Expo next week. This technology will allow Mac users to connect additional displays to their computer using USB. For users of the Intel-based Mac mini, iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook and Mac Pro, this marks the first time they can expand their workspace with two or more displays using the easy “plug & display” of USB. According to reports, Kensington will be the first with products to support the technology.

General Meeting notice.

This meeting would normally be our MacWorld review, but since MacWorld does not start until January 14th, we have to wait a week for that meeting.

We will instead have our First Byte meeting this week and help everyone out with their new Mac things they got for Christmas. Last month we had some very good questions about iPhoto and a couple of them stumped everyone there, which is very unusual strange as we have many computer experts at these meetings.

We will have our usual raffle as well.

All meetings are held in the Surrey School Districts Conference Centre

9260 - 140th. Street, Surrey, BC
Room 400
starting at 7:30 p.m.

We are a Macintosh User Groups (MUGs) . We are dedicated to the relentless pursuit of Mac excellence. Centered in Surrey BC. Our membership is open to the public. If you have a desire to learn more about Apple Computers and the Macintosh, Please feel free to drop in at any one of our meetings.

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