by Lynn Wegley, InfoManager, with co-editor Fred Showker
What’s Here:
01 Another great year with you!
02 A bit of Christmas history
03 Geek Holiday Songs
04 Put The Words In Order To Solve Puzzles And Earn Rewards
05 Audio Switcher for Mac OS X – Menu Bar Applet for Managing Audio Devices
06 Top Mac Apps of 2014 per Apple
07 User Groups on Facebook for Week Ending 12/20/2014
08 First Movie-Maker App that Lets Users Add Video Stickers
09 Add Zoom Effect To Existing Videos
10 The Virtual Business Card That Exchanges Info Electronically
11 PDFpen 2 Embraces iOS 8 with New Professional-level Features
12 PhatWare Unveils Penquills: 2-in-1 Custom Keyboard for iPhones
13 Top 100 most shared articles of 2014
14 Quotes: Barbara Tober and Albert Einstein
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01 Another great year with you!
We’ve enjoyed bringing you more than 548 new content items in the UGN library. Our “updates” and “collections” like Games, iPad, iPhone, etc., represent nearly 2,000 news bursts with links.
It’s been a busy year and we sincerely hope you have enjoyed some benefits from the last 50 weeks of InfoManager.
Fred and I send our very best wishes for this holiday season – and urge you to be safe, and remember others with generosity!
Here’s to your health and prosperity in 2015…
We’ll see you back here in the pages of Infomanager beginning in January, with your InfoManager e-mail Newsletter arriving early in January 2015.
Lynn & Fred
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02 A bit of Christmas history
George Engel writes:
Few and far between are the denizens of the industrialized world who can escape the secular trappings of the Christmas season, perhaps best exemplified by Santa Claus and his loyal team of nine enchanted (or, at least, telekinetic) reindeer… and here’s the rest of the story!
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03 Geek Holiday Songs
The holidays give us a chance to hear some of our favorite old familiar songs, and this year, in the spirit of all things tech, Jennifer L. Jacobson has taken a stab at a few classics, in the hopes that throngs of joyous carolers will herd around, outside big-box stores, and in the glens and doorways of towns everywhere, to sing the tech-version of holiday standbys. Enjoy.
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04 Put The Words In Order To Solve Puzzles And Earn Rewards
GoPhrazy 1.4 GoPhrazy 1.4, a new word puzzle game for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices that displays words of a famous quote or funny phrase and challenges players to solve each puzzle by tapping on each word in the correct order. There are hundreds of different puzzles to solve and players also have the option of creating their own puzzles.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/gophrazy/
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05 Audio Switcher for Mac OS X – Menu Bar Applet for Managing Audio Devices
Audio Switcher allows you to quickly switch your audio input and output between different audio devices. Originally released in 2007, it supports a wide range of devices such as, Griffin Technology’s Powermate and other USB audio devices, Apple’s Thunderbolt monitors, AirPlay devices, such as the AirPort Express or Apple TV, along with Firewire devices and, of course, the built-in audio hardware of your Mac desktop or laptop.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/audio_switcher/
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06 Top Mac Apps of 2014 per Apple
According to LaptopMag.com blog, Apple has announced the top Macintosh apps of 2014. (I can’t seem to find Apple’s press release., but nevertheless, the list is pretty good.)
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/top-mac-apps-of-2014-per-apple/
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07 User Groups on Facebook for Week Ending 12/20/2014
This week’s subjects on UG’s Facebook pages are listed below. If you know of any user groups on Facebook that should be mentioned, please let us know. This week we saw:
[_] Tim Cook “deeply offended” by BBC allegations of poor working conditions in iPhone factories
[_] …“thank you apple gods.”
[_] Apple Corps of Dallas 2015 Meeting Dates
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/1214-20_facebook_user_groups/
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08 First Movie-Maker App that Lets Users Add Video Stickers
People who love taking videos with their iPhone – but aren’t thrilled about the amateur production values – can now download the groundbreaking new VOOL Animated Movie Maker & Editor with Stickers: the first and only professional movie-maker app that lets users easily add a set of animated movie stickers directly into their movies.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/first-movie-maker-app-that-lets-users-add-video-stickers/
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09 Add Zoom Effect To Existing Videos
Video Zoom is the first app on the App Store which let user apply zoom to videos from iOS Photo Library. Do your videos look boring? Did you forget to use zoom during recording? Use this app to add Zoom effects to existing videos. Or just crop a video. Use it as a normal app or Photo Extension.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/video_zoom/
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10 The Virtual Business Card That Exchanges Info Electronically
gCard 1.0 gCard 1.0 is a new business tool for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. Available in a wide range of colorful backgrounds, gCard is a virtual business card that allows users to electronically share their information.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/virtual_business_card/
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11 PDFpen 2 Embraces iOS 8 with New Professional-level Features
PDFpen 2 is a PDF editor developed for iPhone and iPad devices. PDFpen 2 is fully optimized for iOS 8 with an all new look and feel which runs on both iPad and iPhone.
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/pdfpen/
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12 PhatWare Unveils Penquills: 2-in-1 Custom Keyboard for iPhones
PhatWare has a revolutionary two-in-one custom keyboard for iPhones which utilizes PhatWare’s state-of-the-art handwriting recognition. Penquills combines two different handwriting recognition technologies in a single application
http://www.ugnn.com/2014/12/penquills_keyboard/
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13 Top 100 most shared articles of 2014
Mainstream news and online sharing stimulates conversations for some of the most “talked about” research articles this year. Alternative metrics provider Altmetric LLP has looked at the top 100 academic papers receiving the most online attention in 2014 – and the conversations happening around them.
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14 Quotes: Barbara Tober and Albert Einstein
Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
– Barbara Tober
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
– Albert Einstein
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…and have a great week!
Remember, I invite all user groups to use this column in full or in pieces in your newsletters. Or add a link to your Web sites.
Pau
* Participate: http://www.ugnn.com/post-your-article/
* UGN Facebook Group: http://goo.gl/ksAm (come join!)
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* Subscribe: http://goo.gl/aKcC
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** THE INFO MANAGER
A weekly column from the mice of Lynn Wegley and Fred Showker.
Lynn is a UGN veteran (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. He’s been a supporter and volunteer on many, many UGNet and User Group Academy projects. As a long time user group member, he’s been a volunteer from Honolulu to Boston and beyond.
Currently working primarily with the Cowtown MUG of Ft. Worth but also works with the Apple Corp of Dallas and is a lifetime member of TUMS, the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society.
Fred has been active in UGs since 1986, first the AOL UG Forum, then the User Group Network. He spoke at the original AppleWorld in 1987, and served as Apple User Group Advisory Board Member for three years. He founded the User Group Academy and the Appleseeds Foundation
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© 2014, All Rights Reserved. Affiliate User Groups are granted permission to reprint the InfoManager column or excerpts thereof so long as proper credit is given, and a clearly-stated Web link to: http://www.UGNN.com/.
Thanks for reading! We’ll leave the modem on for ya!
