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Many mobile phones and inexpensive camcorders can now record HD video in either 720p or increasingly 1080p and online video services such as Youtube now allow upload of HD resolution video.
At our next meeting we hope to demonstrate some HD video devices and editing software on a number of platforms. Peter has recently been sorting through his camcorder and collection of HD recordings and will be speaking about the software he uses.
Gareth doesn't have a HD camcorder yet, but does occasionally shoot short video clips on his iPhone in 720p which can be edited on the desktop PC, or indeed even in the mobile version of iMovie.
If you have a device that can shoot HD video, or indeed have some software you would like to discuss please bring it along!!
Following Steve Jobs departure from Apple in 1985 he founded NeXT to develop workstations for Universities and industry. For these workstations they developed the NeXTSTEP operating system and it was on a NeXT Cube that Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first WWW browser at CERN.
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 when Apple bought NeXT, and faced with the outdated nature of the Mac OS at the time they crafted many of the features of NeXTSTEP into the new Mac OS X based on a BSD UNIX core and all new GUI.
The first version of Mac OS X was released in 2001 and was rough around the edges in some regards but showed the potential way forward and was able to run Mac OS Classic apps while developers ported to the new system.
We are now up to Mac OS X 10.7 codenamed Lion which is what was demo'ed at the meeting. Released every 12 - 24 months many of the OS X upgrades have been quite low cost, reflecting a drive to keep users up to date. Some updates such as 10.5 Leopard to 10.6 Snow Leopard were mainly under the hood improvements, but Lion brings many GUI tweaks and changes inheriting features from the iPhone iOS.
A slightly controversial new feature is that scroll wheels on mice and the trackpad on a laptop now scroll the opposite way. That is they mimic the behaviour of swiping the page up and down on a touchscreen. This is initially counterintuitive on a mouse, and can be reverted, but Gareth has left it enabled and quickly got used to it.
One GUI change that is readily evident is that there are no scroll bars, rather they appear when you move the mouse to the edge, or as soon as you start scrolling with a mouse wheel or touchpad. Again this mimics iOS on the iPhone and can be turned off but also becomes quite intuitive.
There are additional multi-touch gestures for touchpads, 3 fingers left and right to back and forward in browser history, 3 fingers up and down to show the other apps on the desktop and to switch virtual desktops. Also pinch to zoom and double tap to zoom.
Launchpad is a new icon on the Dock that when clicked shows all the installed applications on the system, very similar to the home screen on Android or an iPhone. You can move Apps about and make sub folders for them.
Lion also brings a full screen apps mode to any application that wishes to consume the new APIs. This allows apps to not only switch from windowed to full screen for certain tasks, but you can swipe between groups of full screen apps and the normal desktop. Windows 8 will also have a new full screen only desktop mode, in Microsoft's case using all new APIs which will be quite a fundamental change. This potentially makes it easier to make Mac versions of apps written for say the iPad as the underlying programming APIs are quite similar.
The Mac now has an App Store similar to the iPhone, Android etc. This allows you to install a lot of smaller free and paid for apps using a one-click style interface built into the OS. The business model is similar to the iPhone, with Apple taking 30% of the fee for paid apps.
Another new feature of Lion is AutoSave built into the OS. This provides a standard API for applications to consume to enable autosave of documents. This also provides automated versioning and history for documents, with a GUI similar to Time Machine.
Lion will only run on 64bit Macs and therefore requires an Intel Core2Duo CPU or higher. Older Intel Macs using a CoreDuo unfortunately have to remain on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
A significant change in Lion is that the server version of the OS is now available as a download from the App Store rather than a much more expensive separately boxed product. This installs all the server components including Instant Messaging and Calendar servers, Directory servers and more.
Lion is no longer available in physical DVD form. For upgrading older machines you simply update via the App Store from the previous OS, Snow Leopard. New systems with Lion pre-installed can re-install over the internet from Apple's servers or a rather expensive USB key is available to purchase. It is possible however to burn a physical DVD from the system although it is not endorsed by Apple.
The upgrade fee to Lion is £29.99 and covers all Macs in a household.
| 2011 | ||
| 16 November | HD video opportunities | Peter et al |
| 21 December | Party and Gadgets evening | All |
| 2012 | ||
| 18 January | Social evening - venue TBA | All |
| 15 February | Linux 2011 on ARM etc. | All |
| 21 March | Slide show evening | All |
| 18 April | AGM + extras | All |
| 16 May | TBA |
Meetings are now on the Third Wednesday of the month unless otherwise stated.
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website. http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com
The first visit is free and subsequent visits for non - members is £2·50. The membership fee is £20 due from the AGM date in April, but may be reduced for those joining late in the year.
Continuing our publicity for EAUG events, there is now a full list of meetings up to the end of the year on their website.
http://www.eaug.org.uk/mtg.htm
Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month
opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.
For directions see below (note the new web addresses)
http://www.eaug.org.uk or 'phone one of the contacts on http://www.eaug.org.uk/ppl.htm
Tea/coffee/biscuits usually available.
Visitors pay 2.00 GBP for the evening, which is deductible from the normal joining subscription if you decide to join at a later date.
See the Membership page of the website for more information:
They have now moved to the St. Andrew's Computer Club at Britannia Road, Ipswich.
They have a full programme on the parish website (http://www.ourstandrews.co.uk), We may be able to make new contact with them to arrange something in common.
"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."
However many household insurance policies will include cover away from home often with no increase in premium. (Ed.)
If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.
I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website.
Our website URL is
http://icenicomputerclub.users.btopenworld.com as a virtual domain,
it can also be reached using http://www.btinternet.com/~icenicomputerclub
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk