Dorchester — Oct 8th 2013

John introduced the meeting with 22 members present.

Mark told us about Saving stuff in the Cloud. This was not about backing up, just a personal view of using the Cloud for saving and sharing.
He discussed the benefits and drawbacks of using a Cloud approach.

Mark then presented more detail on iCloud and using it to save and share iWork documents, mail, calendars etc. He observed that problems could occur if sharing photos when you have more than one iPhoto library. It is also worth noting that Mavericks will bring iCloud Keychain - enabling access to passwords on all devices with one master password, and that above 5GB, you have to pay an annual fee. There is useful documentation atwww.apple.com/support/icloud.

There are alternatives to iCloud and a good summary is at http://thetop10bestonlinebackup.com . Mark uses Sugarsync, Dropbox and Box

Dropbox is free up to 2GB. See http://macs.about.com (search for Dropbox) for set up instructions. Dropbox stores in folder in finder as well as in the Cloud
You can then share data - save link to clipboard, and also access data, either as stored in the Cloud, or on your computer via a menu bar icon

In conclusion, and slightly off topic, he mentioned a new device for on site back up and storage - My Cloud from Western Digital. This enables back up wirelessly, and for 2TB costs £150 (one off cost). It can be used with Time Machine and is new on the market. It appears to have potential but still needs to be properly assessed.

Euan then told us about NoteSuite (see http://www.theory.io) which is on offer at £2,99. Euan prefers this research tool to Evernote as it is Mac only, and therefore avoids possible problems of format and user interface. It links to other Mac devices, e.g. iPad and iPhone, but at this stage of development majors on the iPad.
It can handle different types of data including typescript, to-do lists, photos, audio, and searchable web page clippings.
The user can very easily allocate items to different topic related folders, and attach tags.
Although this presentation was plagued by presentational problems with the displays, Euan was able to demonstrate some of the usefulness of this software.

Georgia then led a discussion around the questionnaire which she had designed to help the organisers to identify topics upon which people would appreciate discussions at future meetings, and also people who would be willing to present. This broadened into a discussion of possible future meeting formats, the aim being to arrive at an optimum mix to help everyone feel that they are getting something out of it.

Michael told us that the new Beaminster Group is now part of WAMUG so all can attend - see WAMUG bulletin and (soon) website for details

JSR

Comments

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Mark Ford said…

Sorry that this report is so late - Steve had it done within 24 hours - mine was the delay!
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