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.

FAQ Added, Note-Taking Software Updated

Over the past few days, I’ve done a large update/revision of the Mac note-taking and journal software page. There was very little there before and now there is hopefully an up-to-date guide of sorts that can point you in the right direction if you are looking for information on applications to help organize and manage genealogy research. I’ll be expanding it and doing full reviews of some of the software mentioned.

More importantly, I’ve added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to the site, which you may have seen in the navigation menu above (“FAQ”):

Mac Genealogy FAQ

It’s going to cover a lot of the questions I receive in email and hopefully clear the air on some things. We don’t directly sell or develop genealogy software is one example of a question I get asked about a lot. The overall focus of the FAQ section is going to be on helping people who have migrated from Windows or older Macs and the genealogists migrating from Windows or older Macs section will be expanded greatly in the next few days.

There will also be FAQs for specific Mac genealogy applications and questions. Here are two examples:
* FAQ – Family Tree Maker for Mac
* FAQ – Personal Ancestral File (PAF)

I’ve got a lot left to do on it, but you can see the start of what it will be from the above links.

If there is anything you think that needs to be added or expanded, please contact us.

Family Tree Maker for Mac – It’s Back

Ancestry.com has officially announced today that they are bringing Family Tree Maker 2010 to Mac OS X. Yes, Family Tree Maker is going to once again grace Apple’s Macintosh lineup, only this time the OS is Unix-based and Family Tree Maker is not being published by Broderbund. It’s been over a decade since a version of Family Tree Maker built specifically for the Mac has graced our hard drives. I would like to pretend shock and surprise, but I was tipped off to this prior to today. I will admit I was only slightly skeptical, due to Ancestry.com’s Tree-to-Go software for the iPhone/iPad. All that can be said for now is that it will be available later this year and it’ll be built on the functionality of Family Tree Maker 2010.

That’s not to say that Mac users weren’t using the Windows version of Family Tree Maker 2010 – VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, and VirtualBox all provided the means for us to run Microsoft Windows and whatever genealogy software for Windows on our Macs that we saw fit. Many of us chose to go with native Mac OS X genealogy software for very good reasons, although some just couldn’t quite make the transition and held on to their Windows genealogy software.

It’s not too surprising when you think about it – Macs have been steadily increasing market share, and the iPhone and iPad have both taken off. With the Ancestry.com iPhone app (Ancestry.com Tree-to-Go Entry at MobileGenealogy.com), it would have been really odd to push out an iPhone/iPad app and ignore the Mac OS X market.

Just to take you a on a little trip down memory lane, this is the Family Tree Maker Deluxe Edition II for Macintosh Press Release from 1997, that was posted on MacGenealogy.org around four and a half years ago.

There’s got to be a couple of main areas that Family Tree Maker 2010 has covered, right from the start. Otherwise, there won’t be any reason for people to switch.
1) Straight-up 100% migration of the PC version of Family Tree Maker 2010 to the Mac version. This is not really an option – if you have somebody running FTM in Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion and you offer them a Mac version of FTM but don’t offer an easy way to migrate, they’ll have no reason to leave a Windows virtual machine for Mac OS X.
2) At least 90-95% of the functionality of the Windows version, or again, FTM users won’t switch. There are obviously things that will be different because of the OS differences.
3) Things that many Mac users take for granted such as iPhoto integration. Having been a veteran of many ports of software from Windows to Mac, some companies chose to ignore the benefits of Macs in order to keep porting streamlined. It would be very foolish to just slap a Mac-looking interface on it and push it out the door.

As for my personal opinion?
The more, the merrier. Competition is always good, especially for those of us end-users. I know plenty of people who got used to certain Windows applications that were held back from moving to Mac OS X. Some chose to use work-arounds, either going through a migration process, or holding on to their Windows genealogy software using VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. Should FTM for Mac OS X offer an easy migration path, you’ll see plenty of FTM users making the switch. I think Ancestry.com has to do the things I outlined above for it to be considered a success. Even though this is technically the first release of FTM for Mac OS X, they have the resources to make a strong showing out of the gate. We might even see people migrating data from their non-FTM genealogy software to the Windows version of FTM and then down to the Mac OS X version. Strange things happen when you have a lot of data to migrate and very limited migration paths.

What about other Mac genealogy software developers?
The Mac genealogy software market is incredibly mature and very competitive at this point. It’s probably more mature and competitive than it was back in the 1990s when Family Tree Maker was still being produced by Broderbund for Apple Macintosh computers (during the Mac OS/”Classic” days). Is Family Tree Maker for Mac going to be the proverbial 800 pound gorilla? (Wikipedia) I actually don’t think so. When the move to Intel CPUs was made several years ago, with VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, it allowed a lot of Windows users to migrate over to Macs, and even keep that Windows software they needed to keep. Over time many of those people eventually moved to Reunion, GEDitCOM, MacFamilyTree, etc. This is certainly going to help people new to Macs, but I think that people who have 100% switched to Macs, including their genealogy software, are not going to be running to Family Tree Maker for Mac in droves. Several of the current genealogy software developers for Mac are on top of their game and know what their customers and fans want and have been working for years to stay up with the evolution of the Mac platform. If Family Tree Maker wants to get those people on the FTM bandwagon, they’ll have to do quite a bit from the start. Family Tree Maker certainly benefits from Ancestry.com integration. There is no doubt about that – many users of existing Mac genealogy software are also Ancestry.com subscribers.
Read more

Macworld Reviews iFamily for Tiger 2.2

Macworld has published a review today of iFamily for Tiger 2.2. Once again it’s Jeffery Battersby, who has reviewed several other Mac genealogy applications as well.

It’s $30 and available at iFamilyforTiger.com

He gave it 3.5 out of 5 mice, saying:

iFamily for Tiger 2.2 provides a simple interface to create and edit your family data, includes great search tools, and integrates well with iPhoto

The New Digital Darkroom – Macworld

Since most of us have found ourselves dealing with a lot of photos, both digital and physical, Macworld has put together a really good article, The new digital darkroom, that briefly covers Adobe Lightroom, and Apple iPhoto and Aperture.

It delves into organizing and managing your photos, as well as publishing (slide shows, printing, web pages, etc.). It also looks at where Photoshop fits into the scheme of things.

Next Page »