On June 30, 2012,  Apple’s MobileMe service will no longer be available. Many have asked how to handle this change, and whether Apple will continue support for your MobileMe files and websites. Apple has released an FAQ on the entire iCloud transition which can be four here – iCloud FAQ

A Mac running Lion (10.7) is a required feature for iCloud sync services. While you can still access the web version of iCloud (iCloud.com), you will need to have Lion to sync Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Photo Stream, Documents & Data, and use the Back to My Mac and Find My Mac features. If your Mac is running Leopard (10.5), you will first need to upgrade to Snow Leopard (10.6) before upgrading to Lion (10.7) . You can get a free copy of Snow Leopard from Apple by following this link – Snow Leopard

What is not included in iCloud:

1) Gallery – Even if you have moved to iCloud, after June 30th, your gallery will no longer be available. You should save copies of all photos published to your gallery before that date.

2) iDisk - Even after moving to iCloud, after June 30th, iDisk will no longer be available. You should save copies of all files stored on iDisk before that date. 

3) iWeb Publishing -Even if you have moved to iCloud, after June 30th, websites published to MobileMe will no longer be available. However, with iWeb you can easily move a site published to MobileMe to another web hosting service.

Frustrating and a bit confusing? – MacWorks, LLC  serving the entire state of Connecticut can help.

If iCloud doesn’t seem like the right choice for you or your company, we will work with you to find a solution that does.

If iCloud  does seem like the right direction but you are afraid of losing your iWeb website or MobileMe Gallery we can find an alternative that is affordable and easy to use.

MacWorks, LLC can make your transition a smooth one with no data getting lost or unaccounted for. Call us today!

On April 24, 2012, MacWorks, LLC achieved Apple’s new MTC – Mobility Technical Competency designation.

The Mobility Technical Competency designation is designed to certify that Apple Consultants have the necessary knowledge of the Apple mobile platform. Consultants reaching MTC status can make valuable recommendations to their business clients who are integrating iOS mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad in a professional enterprise setting.

A major component of mobile integration for businesses or education is security: limiting or extending the functionality of the device, data security, and the ability to “remotely wipe” or disable the device. With our MTC designation, MacWorks can create a MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution, tailored to your administrative requirements.

We firmly believe that mobile integration of iPads and iPhones in business will be a key component to your companies future success. In addition MacWorks is committed to continuing education to provide our clients with the most up to date technical services.

(Membership in the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) is a prerequisite for the MTC designation along with reaching ACTC Apple Certified Technical Coordinator status. Candidates also are required to attend Apple mobility training courses.)

Though Mac sales have long been eclipsed by the sales of Apple’s mobile devices, the company is reportedly on track to break the 5 million Mac mark for the holiday quarter. A major factor in Apple’s sales growth is the svelte MacBook Air, which is slowly taking a larger part of Apple’s notebook sales and has lit a fire under Windows PC vendors who are scrambling to offer similar “ultrabook” machines.

While Apple still struggles with single digit marketshare globally among all PC vendors, sales of Macs have steadily increased over the last few years. Mac sales have outgrown the overall PC market for 32 consecutive quarters, and grown to 4.89 million units—a 26 percent year-over-year increase—in the most recent September quarter.

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(Via Infinite Loop.)

The stand itself folds and unfolds like a Japanese origami morphing between a quarter-of-an-inch thin piece of aluminum and a very “Apple like” high tech stand. You’ll never notice that it is in your laptop bag or case.

The construction, beside being very thin and lightweight, is amazingly rugged.

The best part of all is that this stand is on sale for a limited time, direct from the AViiQ website. Get is here:

Just use this special code:

10-TUV-03-MB-PC to get it. [Buy it here]

Earlier this year, Nuance Communications purchased the New Hampshire-based company MacSpeech. With that acquisition comes a brand-new version of MacSpeech called Dragon Dictate 2.0 for Mac. With the name change comes improved accuracy, faster performance, new editing commands and the ability to move the mouse on the screen with voice commands using a grid system. In addition, Dragon Dictate can perform commands on your Mac like opening applications, Spotlight searches and performing browser tasks like Google searches.

The software ships with either a standard headset or a wireless Bluetooth headset depending on which package you purchase. If you’d like to use your own headset, you can purchase and download the software directly from Nuance (although they do recommend using one of recommended microphones).  Setup was extremely easy involving about 5 minutes of time to train the software to your voice. From there you can just begin dictating and start to learn commands on an as needed basis.

The software performs as promised with extremely fast and accurate speech to text. You can work on your Mac in a relaxed, hands-free environment without being tethered to your keyboard. If you have limited typing skills or just an average typist, this application can be a tremendous boost to your productivity. Dragon Dictate for Mac will work with Apple applications including Mail, iChat, iCal, Pages, Safari and many third party vendors.

We think this software is terrific and will be using it as part of our daily workflow. For further reference, here is a great review by David Pogue of the New York Times who has been following speech to text on the Mac for many years.

Dragon Dictate requires an Intel-based Mac with Snow Leopard 10.6 (only) and an Internet connection for registration. The software will work with a variety of microphones, but it is best to use the Plantronics optimized microphone that ships with the product.

You can order Dragon Dictate for the Mac at the Amazon Store for $199.99 (ships with the wired microphone)  or Dragon Dictate for Mac – with Bluetooth Headset for $299.  Owners of the previous MacSpeech product can upgrade for a reasonable. $49.99.

Have you ever wished that the iPad, iPhone or Touch had better security than the four digit security code? A secure solution begins with a minimum six character alpa-numeric passcode.

With the Apple iPhone Configuration Utility we’ve built a profile that allows alphanumeric passcodes. All you have to do is open this link (on your iPad, iPhone or iTouch) and you will be prompted to pick a new passcode. Your passcode can be a mix of letters and numbers, with a minimum of six characters. The only restriction is you cannot use a consecutive order like “joe123″. You would have to do something such as “joe132.”

To remove this profile feature for longer passwords, go to your iPad, iPhone or iTouch Settings/General/Profiles/macworks/ then click remove and confirm. Next, change your passcode back to something numeric.

Of course, use at your own risk since it is possible to forget your password. If you do, you would need to reset your device. Happy security!

We recently had some fun with the Google Search Stories and created this MacWorks vignette. Although we do not build websites, we can consult with you for products like Google AdWords and SEO Search Engine Optimization. With a small amount of investment, we can have your company ranking organically in Google in a high position (just like MacWorks!).

If you are looking for reliable, experienced, information technology professionals, MacWorks can help

We specialize in working with clients who have either migrated from the Windows platform or desire to use the Microsoft operating system interchangeably. MacWorks can setup and install  Microsoft products so that you can use Apple Boot Camp or virtualization technology to successfully run both platforms

As a full service provider, we offer a wide variety of onsite and offsite backup solutions to make certain the your data is safe and secure. In the event of a data loss we offer data recovery services for Macs and PC’s. Additional information can be found at http://datarecovery-ct.com

Intel X25M 160GB Mainstream Solid State Drive

Since about the beginning of 2009, I have been considering an SSD (solid state drive) to replace the internal drive on my first generation Unibody 2.4 15″ MacBook Pro (the one with the express card slot). At a price point approaching $500 for 160GB, I remained on the side lines waiting for a price drop that really never came.

Aluratek Filemate 48 GB Solid State Disk ExpressCard

About mid-year i purchased a Aluratek Filemate 48 GB Solid State Disk ExpressCard (at the time, it was called SolidGo Filemate…same product) through Amazon for a mere $140. I migrated my applications and operating system 10.6 to the Filmate and used that as my boot drive. My User folder still remained on the internal 2.5 SATA drive. This actually worked fabulously well and really improved my OS boot time and application load times. The downside was that I had been using drive cloning software (SuperDuper) as backup and now my OS and Apps were not backing up to the same image.

Intel X25M 160GB Mainstream Solid State Drive - shown in retrofit for 3.5 enclosure

Having been spoiled by this foray into the realm of SSD I decided to splurge this December and purchase an Intel X-25M G2 160GB drive from Amazon for $479. My basis for purchase came almost exclusively from AnnandTech.com and the article “The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD”. Since installing the SSD and trimming down my data to accommodate the smaller drive size, I have been very impressed. Launch times of applications are almost instantaneous and it’s like I have a brand new machine with an extremely fast processor. All in all, a worthy upgrade even at a $500 price point if efficiency and speed help your business run.