I was recently invited to appear on episode 32 of Not Another Mac Podcast and had a great time chatting with Mark Greentree, Peter Upfold and Simon Bainbridge about Lion, iTunes vouchers, MacBites Learning and much, much more.

Check it out at everydaymacsupport.com.

My first Mac shipped with Tiger (10.4) installed and it was 18 months before Leopard (10.5) made it’s appearance in 2007. I eagerly queued at the Apple Store in The Trafford Centre for several hours before finally getting my hands on the DVD and rushing home to install it. Prudence dictated it was installed on my MacBook Pro first to assess the fallout in terms of software casualties but the very next day I installed it on my main iMac and Tiger was swiftly consigned to the annals of history.

Move on two years to 2009 and Snow Leopard was launched. Although the venue had changed and was now the Apple Store at Liverpool One the eagerness to get it installed ASAP had not. In fact on this occasion I went one better, I was first through the doors and actually installed it in the store! On returning home I repeated the process and updated my iMac immediately.

So with the launch of Lion much lauded what did I do this time?

Being available exclusively via the Mac App Store meant I was denied the inevitable pleasure of a trip to a physical Apple Store but undeterred I entered into the spirit of the first virtual launch and was downloading within seconds of Lion going live. At 3.8GB the download took a while and then there was the obligatory backup of the Lion installer before I could at last install but install I did.

At this point I should clarify that the installation in progress was on a secondary iMac and not my main machine nor my previous guinea pig, the venerable MacBook Pro.

The install was amazingly fast and after an initial disk scan I was delighted to find the machine running at least equally well as it had under Snow Leopard.

So on to all my other Macs?

In a word, no.

For the first time since moving to the MAC platform in 2006 I haven’t updated my main production machine to the new operating system on the day of release or even within the first month of release, nor do I have any intention of installing Lion on this machine for the foreseeable future.

Why? I hear you cry.

Well it’s not the inconsequential incompatibles that must be expected to abound when upgrading that bother me, it’s the absolute show-stoppers that prevent me completing mission critical jobs that do concern me.

I make extensive use of Apple Remote Desktop to manage multiple machines and while it’s extremely fully featured out of the box I rely on Airfoil to transmit the audio from remote machines to my controlling machine. While the majority of the Airfoil application works on Lion there are a few gotchas that I just don’t want to have to figure in to an existing, perfectly functional, workflow.

I had hope last week that the latest update would solve those outstanding issues but the update was pulled as it conflicts with many other applications but it’s actually working well for me so I haven’t rolled back.

Another audio tool I rely on is AudioHijack Pro, in fact that was the first application I bought for the Mac platform and it continues to be an app I use every day. From the same company as Airfoil the majority of the app is functional with Lion but there are the same gotchas as with Airfoil. I know the Rogue Amoeba team are hard at work ensuring full compatibility but we’re not there yet.

Worse still are the continuing reports of Macs freezing either generally or when playing videos and this seemingly includes the very latest models of iMac.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of Mail problems on Lion, upgrading mailboxes and random crashes.

As expected there are many reported incompatibilities between Lion and the Adobe Creative Suite products as outlined in the Adobe Knowledge Base.

One of the applications I use frequently is Adobe Acrobat Connect to deliver webinars. This has to be one of my most mission critical applications. First, the good news – if it’s already installed it seems to work. The bad news is that on Macs without the Connect Add-in screen sharing component I cannot seem to even force the application on to the system. Sadly a complete show stopper.

But wait … surely I was tempted by the new features?

If I’m honest I don’t see the new features as compelling for a power user. To address a random collection of new features:

iCal and Address Book

For example, iCal’s interface is hideous, only surpassed by the monstrosity that is Address Book. I understood Apple’s need to redesign applications for the iPad and accepted their explanation that a different form factor necessitated a different interface. However, if that’s true then retrofitting an interface designed for a touch screen back to the Mac is completely disingenuous.

Versions

One of the most lauded features of Lion, Auto Save, actually appeals the least to me. I’ve been saving my own files for over 20 years so a few more weeks won’t hurt

Launch Pad

Launch Pad appears to be perfect for a touch screen but to someone who is an ingrained LaunchBar power user I really don’t expect to be using it at all.

Mission Control

Mission Control at first glance appears to be the mongrel child of Expose and Spaces and not as controllable as the original version of Spaces. As I use Spaces all the time this is going to take some getting used to.

I’m more tempted by the new Resume feature especially as I usually have so many applications running that rebooting is something I put off until it’s an absolute necessity. It’s not unusual for my machines to have uptime in excess of 2 months!

The prospect of a Mac rebooting and reopening all the apps and documents I had open at shutdown is most appealing.

Strangely the other change that entices me more than I expected is the implementation of smaller scroll bars in the interface, the reduced chrome appeals to my minimalist nature. However, I must add that the draining of the colour from every facet of the interface is not to my taste. It’s an even greater shame that a rapidly increasingly number of third party developers are following suit as they seemingly race to comply with Apple’s stance that any colour other than a pallid grey is not to be entertained.

However, I’m still a hold out. It’s more important that my machine works flawlessly than it is that it has the latest shiny toy on it. I am using my machine not playing with it. So five weeks on I’m happily using Snow Leopard.

I’m not completely ignoring Lion though, in fact I know I will update at some point so in preparation I’ve installed the fantastic ScrollReverser on Snow Leopard to simulate the new natural scrolling in Lion. I’m working on the principle that getting used to that single change alone will make the switch much easier when I do finally install it.

I’d love to hear how you’re getting on with Lion, or not as the case may be.

The trouble is that the more I partake of such promotions at various outlets the more pitfalls I become aware of. After my latest experiences where some sleight of hand at the payment point resulted in an activated card being returned to the display and an unactivated card given to me I decided it couldn’t only be me that has to overcome the many and varied obstacles before retiring to tech nirvana, browsing the various online stores armed and dangerous with a credit balance to match.

Hence, writing this best practices guide for safely acquiring iTunes vouchers.

1. Wait for the Special Offers
Stating the obvious but do wait for a special offer and make your real cash go further in the virtual world of the App Store and the Mac Store. The offers are many and varied so check national newspapers and online bargain hunting sites like HotUKDeals for details of imminent deals.

2. Stock up!
When a deal comes around stock up on vouchers, well it would be rude not to , do be aware though that some offers have a limit on the number of vouchers you can purchase in a single transaction so plan accordingly.

3. Take Proof
The offers are many and varied and as I have found many times the staff often have no clue what the details are. Be sure to take a hard copy of any promotional materials you may have seen to backup your purchase.

In my experience trying to explain what a promotion entails at the point of purchase is at best a time consuming and at worst a fruitless endeavour. Staff are never made especially aware of current promotions and with offers including 2 for 1, 3 for 2, £5 off £15 and £5 off £25 confusion is to be expected.

4. Reserve online or by phone
If the store provides an ordering facility take advantage of it and reserve your vouchers for collection ensuring no wasted journeys.

5. Telephone to check specific store
- is participating in the offer
- has stock of the cards you want

6. Avoid Busy Times
There’s enough scope for errors without adding burgeoning queues to the mix so if possible avoid the busiest times.

7. Select Your Own Cards
Since iTunes vouchers are useless unless they are activated they are often available from public areas and not restricted to behind the counter locations. Use this to your advantage and select your own cards.

This ensures that you have the correct number and gives you the opportunity to avoid cards that look like they’ve already been activated.

8. Small Transactions
I always find it preferable to ask for each card to be processed separately thus ensuring I have both a specific activation receipt and a specific till receipt for each card or set of cards in the event that the promotion involves a multiple purchase.

9. Watch the Staff Closely
Sadly the complexity means there is too much opportunity for sleight of hand intentional or otherwise so be vigilant and watch the staff carefully. Tell them they’ll thank you for it in the end!

10. Check Your Purchases
It’s all too easy when you’re juggling cash, credit cards, iTunes vouchers, till receipts and all the other detritus a retail adventure involves to overlook the obvious. Check you have ALL the cards you’ve purchased before you leave the payment area.

11. Check the Activation Receipt/s Carefully
An activation receipt is the only proof you have that the card you’ve paid for is activated so check it carefully. It will show a minimum of 4 digits from the card’s serial number, sometimes more.

Be aware that the card’s serial number is NOT the code under the scratch off that you enter in the Redeem box in iTunes. The serial number is on the back of the card in either the lower left or lower right corner, per the images:

The code on your activation receipt MUST match the serial number on the card so check each one carefully.

I hope these points help you safely make your real money go up to 30% further online!

My first step is to install any updates available via the Mac App Store before I move on to updates available from the MacUpdate Desktop application.

Everything was working perfectly until it came to the Flash Player plugin.

Despite reporting that an update was available it wouldn’t install as it was insisting that the version I had was newer than the one I was attempting to install. It’s quite possible that this is true as I probably have had a beta version installed at some point.

More investigation resulted in the following:

1. My Mac reported as having 10.3.180.65 installed
2. The Adobe website reported my installed version as 10.2.154.27
3. The Adobe website reported 10.2.159.1
4. The MacUpdate Desktop application reported my installed version as 10.1.52.14 – in fact it insisted it was installed twice

So it appears that I have either 10.1.x, one of two possible versions of 10.2.x or 10.3.x depending on who you believe. However, it’s a moot point as notwithstanding what I may or may not already have installed it refuses point blank to update anyway.

Best Practice

For me best practice for any software application must surely dictate that:

1. There be a consistent and hopefully uncomplicated version numbering schema in operation
2. The installed version be easily discernible
3. There be a clear uninstall option
4. There be a simple way to upgrade to the latest version
5. Any beta installation not break the update process

Like I said there are days I hanker after the simplicity of a simple, logically numbered, combo update!

iPad 2′s evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes mean that those partaking of a purchase are often faced with hostility and their motives questioned. What is clearly not understood by those questioners is that it’s not the hardware that is the key to success in the tablet market rather it is the range of apps available, Apple know this, iOS developers know this and iPad purchasers know this.

It seems that the only people who have yet to learn this are the iPad doubters out there.

For me my iPad is an enabling device and what it enables me to do is what makes it a must have tool.

No matter what the promises proffered by manufacturer hardware specifications, no matter how fast it runs, if it has Adobe Flash capabilities or not, it’s going to be absolutely no use to me if it doesn’t have apps that provide the features I need. I can’t change platform if I would be forced to leave apps behind that I rely on to get my job done.

What are those Apps?

The built-in Calendar, Mail and Contacts apps that sync via MobileMe are a given of course but in addition to those: OmniFocus, 1Password, LogMeIn, TeamViewer, WordPress, BlogPress, a range of writing apps, another plethora of note taking apps, Bento, DEVONthink, iBooks, Kindle, gDocuments, Dropbox, Instapaper and ReadItLater. Scarily that is not even an exhaustive list, it’s just the absolute minimum and doesn’t touch on all the entertainment apps or in fact any other genres at all.

The differences between iPad 1 and iPad 2 are subtle but for me the changes were more than enough to warrant a purchase. In my professional life I make numerous presentations and conduct both training sessions and software demonstrations. Therefore the killer feature of iPad 2 is the ability to mirror the output onto external monitors and/or projectors. While iPad 1 could mirror certain applications this was not at OS level and relied on the developer adding the feature specifically.

I spent a very happy weekend setting up my iPad from scratch, I know I could have restored my iPad 1 to the new hardware but where’s the fun in that?

Setting it up in this way I was impressed with the improved speed and how much difference the slight reduction in weight makes to the device when in use.

The cameras are functional rather than stunning and pale in comparison to those on the iPhone 4. They are adequate for their stated function of supporting FaceTime and PhotoBooth but beyond that and especially in less than perfect lighting conditions they are not exceptional. The ability to edit video is a great feature especially when used in conjunction with the output of the better quality iPhone camera. Importing from an iPhone is simple when using the camera connection kit and the bigger screen really comes into its own when using the new version of iMovie.

However, the Smart Cover is a design marvel. Attaching magnetically, it seats itself perfectly when placed close to the left edge. More internal magnets ensure that closing the cover turn the iPad off and conversely opening the cover automatically turns the iPad on. As if that isn’t clever enough the four sections fold together to create a sturdy stand that is surprisingly secure in three positions, providing a comfortable typing position and both vertical and horizontal display settings.

Other manufacturers are acting in increasingly desperate ways to play catch up with Apple’s success in the tablet market. They understand at least privately that apps are key to success which is why they offer such impressive inducements to would-be developers on their platforms. Prizes for app developers even include free devices should they have an App accepted into the manufacturer’s App marketplace.

Apple has no need to offer inducements to developers on their iOS platform, in fact they charge for membership of their development program. Both Apple and the developers know that the iPad is where the market is.

Over the weekend of the international launch of iPad 2 Samsung were caught in an amazing deception, passing off actors as satisfied Galaxy Tab customers, which only emphasises their increasing desperation to gain a foothold in the tablet market. It’s just a shame they choose not to innovate their way to a market share but instead fabricate affection for their unreleased device.

Samsung are not alone. Many manufacturers have produced prototypes, mock-ups and made promises that have resulted in little shipping other than empty promises and missed delivery dates. So long after the announcement and launch of iPad 1 the competition’s inability to actually deliver a device capable of offering any meaningful alternative to the iPad is astonishing and must be a source of extreme disappointment to those just waiting for the iPad to fail or at least lose ground.

So should you buy? Well if you have iPad 1 whether it is a worthwhile upgrade will depend on your intended use. If you’ve waited for the new version then when you can locate stock of iPad 2 you’ll be getting a faster, slimmer, sleeker iPad at a lower price than you could have purchased a first generation iPad for just 3 short weeks ago.

The iPad 2 launch of course!

After the immensely successful launch in the US 2 weeks before the UK, where the iPad sold out within minutes of each store opening, and delivery dates for back orders slipping to the end of April, queuing was the only way to ensure I got my iPad 2 in anything like a timely manner.

The first brave souls in the queue arrived at 1am but I waited until a much more reasonable 10am to join them.

If you’ve never experienced an Apple product launch day then you’ve missed one of retail’s greatest experiences. Camaraderie builds quickly in sub-zero temperatures especially when all that stands between you losing your place in the queue, due to the need for a comfort break, is the good will of your fellow queuers.

One of the most heartening sights of the day was three businessmen having a meeting while one of them was in the queue. Sounds outlandish?

Believe me it was certainly possible and served to remind me of derision that greeted the first generation iPad when it was roundly dismissed as nothing more than a toy with capabilities to match and would never find a place in the corporate world. How times have changed!

Apple looked after us all as well as ever with free food and drinks from the local Pret and the queue quickly grew to a staggering length, forcing the Store staff to call for additional barriers to extend the official line.

There was plenty of time to keep updated on how launch day was going elsewhere, Razorianfly.com had excellent iPad 2 coverage including continually updating stock information and plenty of photos from those queuing across the country and internationally.

As well as meeting a whole range of new Apple users it was great to see Mark, a old friend from NWMUG, the local Mac Group, too. He took some stunning photos and these are on Flickr together with a whole range from other Apple events he’s attended over the years.

Anyway after much consideration and changing my mind several times I elected to go with a black 64Gb wifi and 3G with a red leather Smart Cover. Having acquired my golden ticket reserving the same at 13:30 the rest of the wait passed in the safe knowledge that I’d managed to secure the model I wanted.

A passing stag party was most bemused by the growing crowds, something I managed to capture on video as I attempted to preserve the extent of the queue for posterity!

Of course, as anyone who has followed the retail adventures of the MacBites Crew knows no purchase would be complete without a last minute drama and this time it was the inability of my Orange 3G sim to be recognised by the iPad 2. The Apple staff were great though and 4 iPads later confident the issue was with the sim they provided a replacement for use in new iPad while the first sim remained in my original iPad where it seemed much happier.

We then headed for Pret where in addition to the usual delights on offer we took the opportunity to rest tired legs and get acquainted with our new kit.

A fantastic if somewhat tiring day! As this candid shot, taken by Mike shows, someone was snoozing peacefully on the way home *coughs*

I’ve been having trouble reaching a decision regarding which Smart Cover to get with mine so I put the matter out to a Twitter vote last night, the votes and comments kept me entertained for hours!

Interim results are as follows:

• Grey: 1
• Pale Blue: 1
• Green: 2
• Orange: 3
• Pink: 3.5 (Someone was foolhardy enough to suggest it but not brave enough to stand by it!)
• Cream: 3
• Tan: 0
• Black: 5
• Navy Blue: 2
• Red: 5

And a late entry was suggested by several: the beautiful looking wooden cover from Miniot

Please feel free to add your preference to the comments or @reply me on Twitter.

I’ll update the final results later. Enjoy your iPad 2 day.

… right so now all I need to do is decide black or white for the actual iPad 2 … Mmm best head back to Twitter I think

Update:

By the time I had my Golden Ticket the final standings were as follows:

• Grey: 1
• Pale Blue: 2
• Green: 5
• Orange: 5
• Pink: 3.5
• Cream: 3
• Tan: 0
• Black: 7
• Navy Blue: 2
• Red: 8
• Miniot: 3

Luckily by the time the ticket’s were being handed out I had also managed to make my mind up about the colour of the actual iPad, despite being tempted by the new white model I eventually opted for the black version. The full story of launch day is at iPad 2 Launch – What a Day!

I have been disappointed that no new version of iWork has been released in the last few months. For a few years a new version was forthcoming every January at Macworld but last year marked a sea change in that release schedule. Last year was Apple’s first year of self imposed Macworld abstinence so it wasn’t surprising that no new version was launched in January but became surprising was that as the year went by no new version was released at all.

I’d pinned my hopes on the Mac App Store launch to augur an impressive new release fit for the Mac landscape of 2011 but again I was disappointed. Although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with iWork ’09 it’s starting to feel in increasing need of a refresh.

For me, one of the most overlooked areas is the Export options in Keynote. I live in Keynote, using it extensively for presentation creation, asset generation and much more. Since a lot of the materials I create need to be exported to other formats I use the Export dialog box numerous times each day. My primary wish has to be that it remember the last settings I used, there are many more improvements I hope for but that is my number one request.

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac has added some of the best features from the 2010 Windows version, especially so in the case of PowerPoint where the SmartArt and image handling options are fantastic. Although I have access to Office 2010 via my MAPS subscription using it running inside VMWare Fusion is not an optimal workflow. Nor does PowerPoint have all the niceties of Keynote, what I want is the best of both worlds … of course!

At least there is now a 30 day trial of the Mac version available from http://www.microsoft.com/mac

I still can’t see myself being tempted as the activation process is still reported to have “issues”, with colleagues reporting a wait of 13 days to resolve the issue. To a Mac using software purchaser frequenting the Mac App Store a serial number seems quaintly archaic never mind a compulsory activation process.

So Apple … what are you up to? Working on it I hope, working on it so hard that you might just have forgotten to release the thing may be?

I shall carry on waiting for an update that I’m hoping will blow me away with a plethora of features I never knew I needed, but the clock’s ticking Apple I need a software fix soon and iLife ’11 wasn’t it.

One of the tools I use frequently is ScreenSteps Pro from Blue Mango Learning Systems.

I’ve used ScreenSteps Pro since version 1 was in Alpha and really appreciate it’s flexibility in terms of the wide variety of output types it is able to create. Having a single source from which I can create PDF files, HTML, blog posts and editable files in Microsoft Word format is a great time saver.

Over the years I have used ScreenSteps Pro , I have created several customized templates for output via HTML, WordPress blog posts, PDF and Word format. To export Word files ScreenSteps Pro uses a DOCX format file with specific codes used to place the information where required. I created the templates I required using Office 2007 running in a Fusion Virtual Machine several years ago.

The templates I use have not required me to make any changes so the question of what I could use on the Mac platform to create and edit DOCX files had never arisen. In fact without the need to demonstrate the template creation process for a recent presentation on the use of ScreenSteps Pro the issue may well have remained moot for much longer.

However, my presentation required that I demonstrate the creation of a new template and the editing of an existing template. While the process is incredibly simple my stumbling block as a Mac user, who doesn’t use Microsoft Office, was finding an application that could create and edit DOCX files.

I know what you’re thinking: Pages in iWork can read DOCX files, OpenOffice can read DOCX files and indeed they can, the problem was that neither of them allowed me to save a file as a DOCX.

It is not uncommon for each iteration of Microsoft Office to introduce a new file format and while the 2003 version used an XML format starting with 2007 the default format for Word documents is DOCX. So what I needed was an application that could not only read Word 2007/2010 DOCX files but also write them.

Salvation came in the form of LibreOffice. If you have never heard of it don’t worry, it’s a brand new application born from the OpenOffice.org project which is now part of Oracle Corporation. It was the purchase of Sun Microsystems and it’s intellectual property by Oracle in early 2010 that led to members of the OpenOffice development community forming The Document Foundation. The raison d’être for the formation of The Document Foundation is stated to be to manage and develop a fork of the OpenOffice.org codebase provisionally to be called LibreOffice.

Always up for a challenge I downloaded and installed the first Beta of LibreOffice more in hope than expectation that it might just be able to create DOCX files and save me the ritual humiliation of attempting to effectively use Microsoft Office running on the only PC I have, an 8 year old laptop that lives behind the office bin!

You can imagine my unmitigated joy when I discovered that LibreOffice does support the creation of the illusive DOCX format. Within minutes I had created the required ScreenSteps Pro templates and was singing it’s praises to all within earshot.

I can’t see myself discarding iWork but until Pages can write DOCX files as well as reading them, LibreOffice is a perfect cross platform, cost effective way to be able to work with files that require more compatibility than available applications provide.

News was coming from Google thick and fast last week as they enjoyed their annual developer conference Google IO.

One of the most significant announcements for me was Google Wave being opened up to the masses. I’ve been using Wave since it’s developer preview release in early 2009 and I seem to be one of very few people who’ve used it for a sustained period of time.

Google Wave caused much comment and generated a lot of curiosity on it’s public release in 2009 but that initial interest was not sustained. Sadly the one thing Google failed to do was translate the initial curiosity about Wave into usage scenarios the average user could comprehend.

Even attempting an explanation of what Wave is and what it can do is difficult as there is nothing similar with which to compare it. Worse still were early reports drawing parallels between Wave and social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook. Such comparisons are both inaccurate and unfair. Sadly though those comparisons struck a cord with a large part of the audience that could benefit from the wonders of Wave and it has yet to recover from the stigma of the unfair comparison.

Let’s be clear Wave is not Twitter, it’s not Facebook, it’s not LinkedIn and it’s probably not like anything you’ll have seen before.

So having ruled out what Wave isn’t the next step is trying to define exactly what it is.

Wave is all about collaboration. A Wave, as it’s termed, is an online “document” that appointed users can collaborate on, seeing each keystroke made by other collaborators in real time. It does however do much more than mere collaboration. There’s threaded discussions, embedded applications to add interactive functionality to your online documents such as polls, embedded YouTube videos, maps and much more.

While seemingly a gimmick one of the most powerful features of Wave is the ability to rewind the Wave and replay it action by action to follow how it got to it’s current state. What better way for a new collaborator to get up to speed without lengthy team orientation sessions.

So what do I use it for?

That’s easy – everything I do that involves collaborating with others to get it done! In fact sometimes I start a Wave for a project just in case I may need to collaborate on the topic later.

As an experiment I’m looking at live Waving a couple of upcoming events to create a record of the real-time interaction, so if you’re coming along to any of my speaking engagements don’t be surprised to see me Waving and do feel free to join me!

In fact I’m delivering a demonstration of Google Wave itself online on 29 July 2010. You are most welcome to join me. If you are interested in what Google Wave can do for you, see http://nwiitt.org.uk/wave for details of how to attend.