Jonathan Ives, the British polytechnic graduate who became the design genius behind Apple was elevated to Knight Commander of the same Order (KBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to design and enterprise.

Ives has worked with Apple since 1992, initially commissioned as a consultant but then gained his current position as senior vice president of design in 1997 after Steve Jobs return to Apple’s helm.¬†

Mr Jobs described Mr Ives as his “spiritual partner” in the recent biography of the Apple co-founder written by Walter Isaacson.¬†

The knighthood is the second time Mr Ive has been recognised in the honours list. In 2005 he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE).

Want to take your memories to the next level and present them differently or even make the ultimate gift? 

Learn how iPhoto gives you the ability to create your own hard or softcover book, letter press cards and calendar.

Read more here.

How confident are you in your back up strategy? Have you checked it lately?

We’re about to launch a free data backup assessment for our business customers so keep an eye out for it in your mailbox. Simply put, if you’re interested, we can assess your back up strategy and advise on any changes or solutions that are suitable.

Read more here.

iPhoto is well integrated into the Mac ecosystem allowing you to do many things such as email, share on Facebook and Twitter etc very easily.

It also offers a way to present your photos not commonly found in software applications: iPhoto gives you the ability to create your own hard or softcover book,¬†letter press cards and calendar. You can easily change the arrangement of photos, input your own text or titles and there are a respectable amount of choices for the print size of books or cards.¬†This is perfect for preserving moments such as ones travels, family moments or even documents – it doesn’t have to be ‘photos’ per-say.

-Without getting into a step by step tutorial on the matter of creating a book or card- we’ll point you int he right direction first however.

Due to the number of options available we’re not going to get in a full blown step by step tutorial on the matters of book, card or calendar creation but I do have some pointers.

Perhaps the first thing you want to do in creating your book is either select a few as a start and/or¬†make an Album of the appropriate photos- this means you’re part way done already and you won’t have the potential issue I’ll address next.

If you do not have a selection or create an album, iPhoto will query you asking to add all or none of your photos. Adding all could take a while and it definitely will make it harder to sort through down the line.

But once you are ready to go, simply click the¬†+ button down the bottom left of the screen,¬†select Book or your respective choice in the pop up box, name it, choose the appropriate size and design, click create and you’re away.

You can find more information about the products at the following link or by simply ‘having a play’ with iPhoto.
http://www.apple.com/au/ilife/print-products.html

How confident are you in your back up strategy? Have you checked it lately?

We’re about to launch a free data backup assessment for our business customers so keep an eye out for it in your mailbox. Simply put, if you’re interested, we can assess your back up strategy and advise on any changes or solutions that are suitable.

Read more here.

Hats off to you Sir Jonathan Ives of Apple.

Apple’s¬†senior vice president of design, Jonathan Ives gets Knighthood.

Read more here.

Want to take your memories to the next level and present them differently or even make the ultimate gift?

iPhoto is a user friendly photo editor¬†and organiser that’s either part of Apple’s¬†iLife bundle or available separately on the App Store so there’s a very good chance it’s already installed on your Mac and maybe you’re using it already but if not, it is very easy and inexpensive to get or update.
It offers the usual services such as send as email, share on Facebook and Twitter and other integration with the Apple ecosystem but goes one step further by offering some intriguing print and presentation options available without leaving the application, let alone your desk.
Read more here.

How confident are you in your back up strategy? Have you checked it lately?

We’re about to launch a free data backup assessment for our business customers so keep an eye out for it in your mailbox. Simply put, if you’re interested, we can assess your back up strategy and advise on any changes or solutions that are suitable.
As data loss is such a common thing that we see here at Mac Aid we wanted to provide something to offer peace of mind or raise the ‘what if’¬†question.
Data loss tugs our heart or purse strings, or worse, both and we don’t want to see it happen to anyone.
Read more here.

Hats off to you Sir Jonathan Ives of Apple.

Apple’s¬†senior vice president of design, Jonathan Ives gets Knighthood.
Read more here.

Over the next few weeks you may find a letter in your mailbox detailing an offer from us;¬†if you’re interested, we can assess your back up strategy,¬†make sure it’s actually working and recoverable and advise on any changes, solutions or potential issues that there could be.

When you need your backup, it’s too late, so don’t wait until you have a problem to find out if it works!

Below is a sample of the letter so have a read and keep an eye out for the forth coming letter in your mailbox although if you’re interested feel free to contact us.

Click to view Backup Assessment Letter

Want to take your memories to the next level and present them differently or even make the ultimate gift?

Learn how iPhoto gives you the ability to create your own hard or softcover book, letter press cards and calendar.
Read more here.

Hats off to you Sir Jonathan Ives of Apple.

Apple’s¬†senior vice president of design, Jonathan Ives gets Knighthood.
Read more here.

John will be retiring to the North in his newly acquired house so we wanted to thank him for his excellent work while here at Mac Aid and wish him all the best for the future. He’s been a fantastic employee and friend in the last 5 years with us at Mac Aid and will be sorely missed..

Feel free to pass along any messages you want to get to him – I’ll make sure they find their way to John.

Tip of the Month

This months tip is for those of you who have late model laptops and have upgraded to OS X Lion.

As you’ve all probably experienced, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air range all have fantastic trackpads with multitouch capabilities.
One handy thing we’ve discovered is that you can enable ‘tree finger tap’ and use that to move windows and files/folders. This differs from the normal ‘click and drag’ method in the way the windows/icons behave when moving them, and that you don’t actually have to click the trackpad. The gesture basically replaces the ‘click and drag’ operation.

Read more here.

iTunes Match is now live in Australia, finally!

For those of you who don’t know what iTunes Match is, here’s a brief rundown.

Read more here.

iTunes Match is a yearly subscription that gives you the option to connect your iTunes library to your Apple ID. iTunes will then check and ‘match’ your library agains the millions of songs available in the iTunes Music Store. If some of your songs are not matched, they will instead be uploaded to Apple’s servers.

This gives you the benefit of having almost instant access to all your music in your music library at any time. Now you don’t have to load up specific playlists on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad before you leave home. If you have a song in your iTunes Match library, just download it when you want it!

It also works if you have a laptop with limited hard drive space. Just sign in to iTunes Match, see your entire music library and just download the songs that you want. When you’re done you can delete them off your device, but they will still be available for you via iTunes Match.

The cost for this service is $34.99 for one year and it’s limited to users with 25000 songs or less in their iTunes libraries.

To sign up, just open iTunes and go to the iTunes Store. To the right on the main page, in the ‘Quick Links’ section you will see ‘iTunes Match’.
Once signed up, your library will be scanned, your songs matched and finally the non matched songs will be uploaded.

Read more here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4914

Tip of the Month

This months tip is for those of you who have late model laptops and have upgraded to OS X Lion.

As you’ve all probably experienced, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air range all have fantastic trackpads with multitouch capabilities.
One handy thing we’ve discovered is that you can enable ‘tree finger tap’ and use that to move windows and files/folders. This differs from the normal ‘click and drag’ method in the way the windows/icons behave when moving them, and that you don’t actually have to click the trackpad. The gesture basically replaces the ‘click and drag’ operation.

Read more here.

John Proctor Retires

Now comes to time that we must say farewell to our beloved John Proctor

Read more here.

As you’ve all probably experienced, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air range all have fantastic trackpads with multitouch capabilities.
One handy thing we’ve discovered is that you can enable ‘tree finger tap’ and use that to move windows and files/folders. This differs from the normal ‘click and drag’ method in the way the windows/icons behave when moving them, and that you don’t actually have to click the trackpad. The gesture basically replaces the ‘click and drag’ operation.

With this feature enabled you just have to touch the trackpad with three fingers, while dragging, to initiate moving a window or a file/folder in the Finder. You can also ‘coast’ the windows/icons by leaving two fingers on the trackpad and ‘flick’ with the third finger which will move the window/icon in a similar fashion to the inertial scrolling in iOS. (It’s easier to try it than to explain it.)

To enable the feature, go to ‘System Preferences / Trackpad. Select the ‘Point & Click’ tab if not already active. Then make sure the option for ‘Three finger drag’ is ticked.

John Proctor Retires

Now comes to time that we must say farewell to our beloved John Proctor

Read more here.

iTunes Match is now live in Australia, finally!

For those of you who don’t know what iTunes Match is, here’s a brief rundown.

Read more here.

This months tip is for those of you who have late model laptops and have upgraded to OS X Lion.

As you’ve all probably experienced, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air range all have fantastic trackpads with multitouch capabilities.
One handy thing we’ve discovered is that you can enable ‘tree finger tap’ and use that to move windows and files/folders. This differs from the normal ‘click and drag’ method in the way the windows/icons behave when moving them, and that you don’t actually have to click the trackpad. The gesture basically replaces the ‘click and drag’ operation.
Read more here.

John Proctor Retires

Now comes to time that we must say farewell to our beloved John Proctor
Read more here.

iTunes Match is now live in Australia, finally!

For those of you who don’t know what iTunes Match is, here’s a brief rundown.
Read more here.

Though John’s a hard man to replace, we’re adamant that we’ll find someone with a natural flair and experience with Apple computers, great communication skills and the ability to deliver some of the best support around the city.

If you know someone who might be suited to the role Рhave them get in touch with us. In fact, if your recommendation is successful in gaining the role then you’ll be the proud new owner of an iPad 2 32GB.

You can find further information through this link
http://www.apple.com/au/employment/resellers.html.

Tip of the Month

Using Keychain for personal information.

Outside of Keychains first use of remembering your logins for websites and mail, wireless internet passwords and even address details, there are some more specific uses that are great for safe storage of personal information.

Read more here.

News From the Apple World

Speed bump to MacBook Pro laptops.

Apple #4 on Greenpeace’s annual ranking of electronic manufacturers by environmental criteria.

Read more here.

Keychain’s ‘know it all’ ability is something that I have always been weary of. I’ve never liked the idea of keeping too much personal information and passwords on a portable computer but as it turns out, it’s actually very secure.

Keychain is user specific and requires a password to access any specific information such as passwords and make any changes, so unless you don’t have a password on your computer (set one now if you don’t) it’s safe against other users of that machine.
In fact Keychain is much, much more secure than many commonly adopted methods of storing that personal info, from ‘little black books’ to that all important ‘sticky’ note with logins and credit card details.

A neat way to store your most valuable information is to create a new keychain, name it what you want, and then attribute a specific password to it. Whether it’s logins, passwords, or even secure notes this can become your personal little black book, hidden away and completely secure with an independent password from the rest of your system. .

News From the Mac Aid World + Win an IPad 2

The impending retirement of one of Melbourne’s favourite Mac Tech’s, John Proctor.

John has announced his retirement to the warmer climates of the north and though he may be with us for a while yet we must begin our search for a suitable technician to step into the role.
Read more here.

News From the Apple World

Speed bump to MacBook Pro laptops.

Apple #4 on Greenpeace’s annual ranking of electronic manufacturers by environmental criteria.
Read more here.