Next issue of the magazine

I will be releasing the next issue of the magazine some time in April. I will start work on that issue in the first weekend of the month. If anyone has articles they wish to submit then please do so at least a week before.

Mike Pfaiffer to take over Magazine production

As of 1 February 2008, Mike Pfaiffer is both the production editor of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine and the President of the group. Bill Martens, the former president will remain as the UG Ambassador but will have no dealings with the day to day production of the magazine or the group itself.

This change was brought about due to Bill's commitments elsewhere which have taken him away from having the time to perform the duties required by the production editor position. He also vacated the Presidency for the same reasons.

Online Catalog

We will be updating the online catalog this week to its final format. We have decided that all of the items sold by A.P.P.L.E. must be online in digital format. This will include auto delivery of ISO's for CD's and DVD's containing the clubs content. Come February, which will mark our 30th anniversary, there will be a big announcement concerning the group. Stay tuned for more on this one.

Virtual Apple gets upgrades

Seattle Omniworks web team has been busy upgrading the Virtual Apple 2 web site and you can seem the result of some of their work on the website now. They will be adding more disk images to the web site in the coming days as well as going to a complete PHP based database system to run the site.

They have added some advertising in order to produce more revenues as well as updated the SEO related items. You will see more changes in the coming days, including content related to the disk images, some hard to find games, more educational programs and a new magazine dedicated to the website.

The objective of this venture is for the Virtual Apple II website to become a hub for Apple II and Apple IIgs information. You can find more information about the changes on the Virtual Apple 2 web site at http://www.virtualapple.org under the headlines.

Seattle Omniworks takes over Virtual Apple 2

Virtual Apple 2 was taken over this week by Seattle Omniworks, Inc, a Seattle based internet product research and development firm. The take over includes all of the content, maintenance and the server that the houses the web site. This take over was facilitated by the need to have someone maintaining the web site 24/7 and to bring it to the forefront of computer emulation.

While the proceeds from the site will continue to benefit A.P.P.L.E. and Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine to some extent, the main focus and layout of the website will change based on the needs expressed in the takeover.

You can find more information on the Virtual Apple web site (http://www.virtualapple.org) as well as on the Seattle Omniworks web site (http://www.seattleomni.com)

Mail Plane 1.52

The latest version of the wonderful little GMail application, Mail Plane has been released. There is an abundant amount of work that has gone into the latest version and according to an email the author, Ruben Bakker, sent out this past week, contains the following new features and fixes:

MAC OS X 10.5 LEOPARD SUPPORT
Mailplane is ready for the upcoming Mac OS X release. The same Mailplane version now runs on both 10.4 and 10.5 releases of the operating system. I am still working on the iPhoto plugin, the screenshot function, and some minor (e.g. toolbar repaint) stuff. But, other than that all features work just fine.

FINNISH AND CATALAN TRANSLATIONS
Mailplane features two new languages: Finnish by Mikko Aarnio and Catalan by Albert Simo. Kudos to Mikko and Albert for their great work!
Use the "Help->Support and Feedback" window to send translation related feedback.

"DON'T OPTIMIZE" PHOTO DRAG AND DROP
Sometimes you need to send a picture without any optimization, and want keep size, file type, and picture quality. Just press the Command key while dropping the file. The mouse cursor will change to "Link" instead of "Copy" to indicate that no optimization will be performed.

LAUNCH HIDDEN MAILPLANE AT STARTUP
Do you like to launch Mailplane whenever you start your Mac or log into your account? Add Mailplane to your system preference account login items. If you check the "Hidden" option, Mailplane won't open any window when it starts.

CHANGES
- Download units changed from "k"/"m" to "KB"/"MB"
- Separate window progress indicator shows more accurate progress
- Removed Message Sent/Discarded alert when using Mailplane without Growl

BUG FIXES
- Initial main window position not in upper left corner
- Folder path layout problem
- No Growl: Annoying "Download started" message box
- Crash when closing an initializing compose window
- Double clicks instead of Single clicks in Talk window
- Folder path layout problem
- authentication of gmail email address with mixed case (e.g. MyName@Gmail.Com) interpreted as Google Apps domain. In case of Google Apps accounts, the inbox didn't load
- Some users experienced an offline indicator after successful authentication.

This application is one of the best little apps that I have seen come out for use with Google's online apps. It allows multiple accounts, moving from one account to the other with double click ease and addition of new accounts with a few short key strokes.

If you are going to use any application outside the Internet browsers, this would definitely be one you have to take a look at. The latest pricing scheme for the program also puts it well within reach of any computer user. With the Leopard release just around the corner, this application will be a nice accompaniment to your new OS.

You can reach the Mail Plane application web site at: http://www.mailplaneapp.com

Rating: 4.9 out of 5 Stars

Goings On

For those of you who were wondering what has been happening iwth us, we have been sorting things out in between illnesses and travels. It means that there have been no issues of the magazine, although there will be an October issue in about a week. We will be publishing a monthly issue again from this month. Stay tuned to the web sites.