August Featured Vendor: Eve’s Apple HomeKit-Enabled Ecosystem

While you may not recognize the logo, the company now named Eve was a long-time and much-loved supporter of User Group University and other community events under the name Elgato. With the incredible success of their Eve Flare (portable smart LED lamp), Eve Button (smart home remote), Eve Door & Window (door and window security sensors), Eve Light Switch (smart wall switch), Eve Motion (motion sensor), Eve Room (indoor air quality, temperature, and humidity sensor), Eve Smoke (smoke detector), Eve Thermo (radiator valve), Eve Aqua (smart water controller), Eve Degree (connected weather station), Eve Extend (Bluetooth wireless extender), Eve Energy (empower your appliances) and more, the company decided to focus on their smart home line of products that work perfectly with with Apple HomeKit technology.

In fact, Eve’s growing ecosystem of connected accessories, designed exclusively for the Apple HomeKit-enabled household, are simple to set up, easy to control from anywhere, and provide the convenience that automation can supply. Better yet, even when accessing your home remotely via your home hub, all data is end-to-end encrypted and stored on your iPhone or iPad. So, your privacy is protected.

This month’s blog has an amazing discount for Apple employees and Apple User Group members. Be sure to check it out!

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Macstock 2019: Better Every Year

Macstock 2019 . . . Best Yet!

by Tom Piper

Macstock V on July 28-29, 2019, was the fifth annual gathering of Apple faithful at the Luecht Conference Center on the McHenry County College campus in Crystal Lake, IL (near Woodstock, an hour northwest of Chicago). With a theme of CREATE!, it had over 200 Apple advocates in attendance with people from California to Tucson to New York to England. There were 10 featured speakers and 5 special speakers with over 13 hours of content (including OWC demos).

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Special Offer – Eve Products: 25% Discount

Eve ProductsWith a rich history of EyeTV and Elgato products, Eve Systems now includes Eve Aqua, Eve Flare, Eve Room, Eve Degree, Eve Energy Strip, Eve Light Strip, Eve Door & Window, Eve Energy, Eve Button, Eve Light Switch, and Eve Motion. Detailed descriptions about each of these fine products can be seen at evehome.com
These Eve products are now available at a 25% discount to Apple and Apple-authorized reseller employees, Apple Specialists, APRs and Apple User Group (AUG) members. An Apple or Apple-authorized email address, or AUG email address is necessary to purchase any product (limit of one per person of each of the products), each of which is not-for-resale.
See your Apple user group Ambassador for details on how to redeem this special offer.
This worldwide offer is ongoing.

How-To: Live Streaming Computer Group Meetings by Graeme Moffatt

[Note: The premiere of Graeme Moffatt’s ‘Mr Mainline Steam‘ documentary was shown recently and the documentary has received amazing reviews and organizational recognitions.]

Filmmaker Graeme Moffatt of Capital Video Productions Ltd. is a member of the Wellington Macintosh Society, and he is also the Apple User Group Regional Liaison for New Zealand, Australia, and Oceania. You can find more than a year of his group’s Wellington Macintosh Society (WelMac) meeting videos at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmJBMCRuX6iyV8smOu2iApw/videos

By Graeme Moffatt:

I became involved with a group in the United States that is doing live internet broadcasts, initially just using an iPad and soon they moved to a much more sophisticated system.

This new system allowed them to use multiple screens, cameras and microphones and the quality of the broadcasts became much more sophisticated and interesting. I sent an email to the person who was coordinating all of this, an ex Hollywood filmmaker, and asked him what software he was using and received a reply stating that it was an iPad app called Switcher Studio.

I did a search online and soon found the app and downloaded a free trial version and tested it out. I found it to quite amazing as to what it could accomplish (more…)

Meeting Idea: Apple Families

While parents love the ways that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV promote learning, exploring, and fun, parents also want to be sure that their children are using Apple products and related technologies in ways that are safe, healthy, and appropriate. Are your members aware of Apple’s Families page and how it can help parents make sure that their children are using technology in the ways that parents want?

The site provides tips and tools to keep track of family app usage, determine when devices can be used, limit or block applications and notifications at bedtime, choose which apps are available for their children, provide for internet safety and kid-friendly content, manage in-app purchases (including Ask to Buy), know where their children are 24×7, find lost devices, share apps and music with the entire family, create group chats to stay in touch, reduce distractions, provide for emergency SOS and ensure medical information is there when needed, help emergency professionals locate family members, protect privacy, and so much more.

Check it out!

https://www.apple.com/families/

Meeting Ideas: MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, Then and Now

Your members may be wondering about the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. If so, ASW has a great set of presentations that could make for a good meeting topic.

MacBook Pro – Then and Now (L578071A-en_US) and MacBook Air – Then and Now *L581386A-en_US) offer comparisons of previous and current generations, letting your members know what has changed and what is the same. Then, MacBook Pro – First Look (L578070A-en_US) and MacBook Air – First Look (L581388A-en_US) provide the full specs for the newest in the MacBook line.

Ambassadors, August is a great month to use Apple resources in your meetings.

ASW