September 17th will be the next meeting. The location will be announced later this month. I had to push the meeting a month later due to some events planned for Ramstein Air Base.

The next meeting will feature a quick presentation on AppleCare and why you should consider purchasing it with a new Mac. Following the presentation will be open floor question & answer period.

Redesigned in a very big way

Apple announced Tuesday a completely new MacMini. Most notable features are the addition of an HDMI port for connecting to a big screen HDTV, SD card slot, and an internal power supply. You can add up to 8GB of RAM to the new system by opening a door on the bottom. No more putty knifes to pry the case open.

More details can be seen on our site or visit Apple's web site for full technical details and photos.

Apple made several announcements yesterday including the expected iPhone 4 and iOS 4 and also released Safari 5 for Snow Leopard. The focus on mobile devices has left some of us wondering what Mac updates may lie ahead. Several rumor sites have posted that Mac OS 10.6.4 is scheduled to be released soon. Additionally, Apple released iOS 4 Gold Master candidate and iTunes 9.2 to developers. Release is expected later this month.

Main purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the future of the user group and what purpose it serves and what it should be doing for its members.

That's right, Apple will not be attending Apple Expo Paris this September. Read my thoughts on this on our web site.

The next meeting will cover Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) announcements. We'll also be having a general user Q&A as we have some members who are new to the Mac.

Also, be thinking about the summer meeting schedule and if we want to take the traditional summer break.

The special user group offers for May 2008 have been posted on the web site. If you need a promo code or login/password for one of the sites, please email ambassador@appleusersgroup.eu

I've been using a Drobo for about five months now. I've managed to upgrade it several times and test hard disk failures to see how it performs. Read my thoughts at our web site here.

Update - Psystar may not be what they seem to be. You can read the full article here.

I've updated the member discounts page with the latest special offers. Many of the offers from last month are still valid, so you still have some time to take advantage of them.

Christian Keil will show how to get video onto your Mac and into iTunes. He will talk about the various applications (MacTheRipper, Handbrake, etc), recommendations and pros and cons of the different codecs, pixel sizes, and bit rates. He'll also discuss the hardware (and processor power) required to play the videos.

Aperture 2.0.1 addresses issues related to performance and overall stability. It also fixes a number of other minor issues. This update is recommended for all Aperture users.

Some sites require a code in order to receive the discount - contact your Apple Ambassador if you need information for a particular vendor or product.

http://www.appleusersgroup.eu

Please update your bookmarks, etc.

Send questions/comments to info@appleusersgroup.eu

Stay tuned for Feb meeting updates. I will post to the web as well as email info out as soon as I have something definite.

Contact David Stempnakowski @ info@appleusersgroup.eu if you would like to attend on Saturday.

For more information see Apple's web site:Apple, Inc

Topic: Getting your DoD CAC to work with your Mac. If you need to access Outlook Web Access, or other .mil web sites which require the Common Access Card, then this meeting is a must attend. We'll show you how to configure your Mac to use the CAC card to access these services.