Apple September Event Earlier Today

I’ve posted my thoughts about Apple’s September Event that was held earlier today over at MobileGenealogy.

I thought it was a pretty good event. We knew going in that it would be focused on mobile devices, and that’s exactly what happened. iTunes 10 adds some new features that I think they will be useful to a lot of people. The iPod nano, shuffle, and touch updates were really good if you are in the market for a new iPod.

Keep in mind this wasn’t a Mac event or a developer’s event, it was a music-related event with TV and movies thrown in, and the vast majority was focused on portable devices.

Anyways, if you’d like to read my comments and how the new devices/updates relate to genealogy, head over to Mobile Genealogy.

Apple’s September 1, 2010 Event, Plus Autocad

Apple has sent out an alert stating that they will be directly streaming tomorrow’s event live:

Apple.com – PR

What:
Live video stream of Apple’s September 1 event

When:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 10:00 a.m. PDT

Where:
www.apple.com

Requirements:
* Apple Mac running Safari on Mac OS X 10.6
* Also can be accessed on an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS/iOS 3.0 or higher or an iPad.

Basically it’s going to be streamed over HTML5, showcasing the standard that Apple chose for the iPhones and iPads over Flash.

Meanwhile, this week it was confirmed by Financial Times that Autodesk would be bringing AutoCad back to Macs. It’s a big deal since it dominates its market and is the first time AutoCad has been seen on Macs since the early ’90s. This is on par with Family Tree Maker for Mac 2011 coming back to Macs.

Update: I’ve posted my thoughts about the September Event over at Mobile Genealogy.

MacFamilyTree 5.7.8

I missed this update since it came out after the release of MacFamilyTree 6 and was overshadowed by that, but a few weeks back on August 10, 2010, Synium Software released an update to the MacFamilyTree 5.7 series, updating it to MacFamilyTree 5.7.8.

I’m not sure of where to download this – I discovered it when I opened up my MacFamilyTree 5.7.7 install and it was asking to update automatically. You could probably get the download information from Synium Software’s contact page or just run your auto-update feature within MacFamilyTree.

Changes in 5.7.8
* Many fixes in the Kinship Report
* Fixed an issue migrating older databases
* Smaller user interface fixes
* Improved auto update

I figured the update to 5.7.7 back at the beginning of July was the last 5.7 series update, but I was wrong. They even improved the auto update in 5.7.8 as well as user interface fixes, which could mean future 5.7.x releases for those who haven’t upgraded to MacFamilyTree 6 yet.

GEDitCOM II 1.5 build 2

GEDitCOM II 1.5 build 2 is now available from GEDitCOM.com.

This is a massive update. In addition to some bug fixes, it’s centered around one major new feature. It’s a format that is being called the “Address Book” format, and GEDitCOM II 1.5 Build 2 is required to use this format. In order for the new format to work, new features were added to GEDitCOM. You can down load the new format at GEDitCOM.com/interfaces.

The “Address Book” is not just something that tracks somebody’s name and other information. It literally adds in a format to add and edit events centered around specific residences. This extends to adding and editing information on multimedia objects that are tied to a residence. You can also search for, and find, all individuals that lived at a specific residence, or have a specific residence tied to them.

For a full list, see the Changes below.

Changes:
Read more

Apple iWork 09 9.0.4 Update – Adds ePub Support

While I’ve recommended Apple’s productivity suite, iWork to to plenty of people doing family newsletters or related documents, I normally don’t mention it here except in passing, but iWork 09 9.0.4 fixes some issues in all three apps – Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, including with tables.

More importantly the word processing app, Pages, now has the ability to export to the standard ePub file format. This is a very big deal as you can now export your documents and newsletters to a format that can be read across a lot of mobile platforms, including iBooks on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, Barnes and Noble’s nook, Sony’s Reader, plus Google’s Android platform.

Changes:
Keynote 5.0.4
* Addresses an issue when printing handouts with rule lines.
* Fixes an issue with the slide switcher.
* Resolves an issue when automatically resizing some images while changing slide size.
* Fixes an issue with tables.

Pages 4.0.4
* Fixes an issue with tables.
* Includes compatibility with the standard ePub file format (for use with iBooks) when exporting.

Numbers 2.0.4
* Fixes an issue with tables.

This is the official support article: Support.Apple.com/kb/HT4165.

If you already have it installed, check your Software Update – it showed up on mine this morning.

If you don’t have it, but are interested, you can pick up a free trial (30 days) from the iWork trial downloads.

It can be purchased through there for $79, however it’s on sale through a retailer on Amazon.com for $49.

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