Power Outage Info

In view of the alerts about a possible power outage in the Lehigh Valley and other areas surrounding areas, make sure all your electronic devices (iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, tablet, etc.) are fully charged. 

Also, if you are a PPL customer, in case of a power-related emergency, including downed power lines, immediately call 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775). Press 1 for “Power Problem" when prompted. Also, you can get lots of info about power outages in the Lehigh Valley by logging in to PPL's Outage Center at Outages  https://www.pplelectric.com/outages.aspx. Here is where you can view an online map of power outages in your area and sign up to receive status alerts or report a power outage in your home or neighborhood via phone, email, or text. 

You do not have to be a PPL customer to access this info which is very useful for anyone, regardless if you are a PPL customer. Besides, if you're not a PPL customer, contact your electric country which  no doubt provides its customers with similar helpful info.

Also, remember, you can use your iPhone's flashlight (in the Control Center) if you need lighting. I don't bother using an actual flashlight or lighting candles. I find the flashlight app on my iPhone and iPad is sufficient.

If you need to recharge any of your devices, consider going into your car and charging your devices from your car charger, if you have one, but be sure you're in a well-ventilated area if you choose to do so.

ApplePower January 27 Meeting

First ApplePower meeting in the year 2018 will be held Saturday morning, January 27, at 10 a.m. at our usual venue:

Lehigh Valley Active Life
1633 Elm Street
Allentown PA 18103

Agenda includes:

• Your computer-related questions and answers
• Little-known or never-published iPhone and iPad tips
• Hands-on Apple Watch
• Another look at Mike's teeny but powerful Raspberry Pi computer

Mike's amazing $5.00 Raspberry Pi

Specs include 4 USB ports, HDMI port,

WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and 1 GB RAM

Meetings are free and open to all interested persons. Reservations are not required.

Light refreshments available but BYOB. (Bring your own beverage.)


Free gifts to first-time visitors.

For more info about the meeting, email applepower@ptd.net.

(Note: If meeting must be re-scheduled or cancelled because of inclement weather or any other reason, we will try to notify everyone on our ApplePower mailing list via email ASAP. If you are not on our list for ApplePower newsletters and bulletins, you can subscribe by emailing a request to applepower@ptd.net.

Cancellation notices will be posted here so please check this blog before heading out to the meeting.

ApplePower October 28 Meeting

Great ApplePower meeting yesterday (October 28, 2017) featuring member Mike Ring demo-ing his $6 Raspberry Pi and his slightly larger Raspberry Pi with wifi, bluetooth, Ethernet, 4 USB ports and lots more, about $24 with extras, like, for example, a case, extra power supply, and lots more.)

The Raspberry Pi Zero model (above the playing card) is less than half the size of the card. The Raspberry Pi 3 inside the case is just about ¾ the size of the playing card. 

Too bad for you if you missed the meeting. Don't miss the next one.

For more info about our next meeting (date time, place, agenda, etc.), email applepower@ptd.net.

Looking Back

Frieda Simonsen

During these past several months of my ups and downs, I’ve done a bit of

reflecting on my past and, to tell the truth, I’ve been somewhat wistful about

what should have been or might have been. Still, among my pleasures and

treasures are the friends I’ve made and how my horizons have broadened,

thanks to my serendipitous encounter with Apple as far back as 1984.

Among my Apple friends, I was pleased to include Frieda Simonsen. We first met when she became a member of ApplePower.

Whenever Frieda attended our meetings, she had something delightful to show us. Generally, it was something that she had created with the help of her Apple computer, like her beautiful Christmas cards or her gift wrapping paper with the name of the gift recipient gaily emblazoned multiple times on the paper.

Soon our friendship expanded beyond our shared interest in Apple. Although we never

saw each other except at ApplePower meetings, we spoke to each other frequently by

phone and not just about things related to computers.

After a while, Frieda stopped coming to our meetings because her beloved husband

Dick was too ill to drive her from their home in Kempton to our meetings in Allentown.

Still, she remained a loyal ApplePower member and, of course, a dear friend of mine.

Although, as I said before, our telephone conversations were not just about computers, Frieda

frequently phoned me about problems she had using her iMac. As the result of my

helping her solve a truly vexing problem that she was having with her computer, she

sent in a letter to the editor of our newsletter, Apple Update. 

Since I was the editor of the newsletter of the ApplePower user group, in addition to being its founder, out of respect to Frieda, I shamelessly published it. In part, the letter said:

“…I am unable to attend meetings but have bothered Shirley many, many times with

my problems…Always helpful and so patient. She has to live as long as I do or I have

to stop using my computer.”

Coincidentally, Frieda and I were both born in December in the same year and I’m still here. Frieda stopped using her computer September 26, 2017. I shall always miss her.

ApplePower Open House

ApplePower, Apple premier user group in the Lehigh Valley area, invites all Apple enthusiasts to attend an Open House on Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to noon at Lehigh Valley Active Life (formerly Lehigh Valley Senior Center), 1633 W. Elm St., Allentown. It's free!

Highlight of the Open House will be a demo of how to use your Mac, iPad, or iPhone to access and experience free entertainment without getting confused or bogged down with techno-babble. This demo by host, Dr. David Webb, encompasses a huge variety of entertainment—movies, TV shows, video, and more. Watch. Listen. Learn. Enjoy.

Other activities will include a Question-and-Answer session and little-known or never published Mac, iPhone, and iPad Tips and Tricks.

Walk-ins are welcome any time between 10 a.m. and noon but reservations are requested. RSVP via email to applepower@ptd.net or call (610) 967-2020. Come early and, if you are a registered visitor, receive a free gift, compliments of a world-famous high-tech company.

Horrors!

Did you ever have a nightmare so vivid that, when you awoke, you thought it actually happened?

Well, I had one of those…last night.

I dreamed my iPhone was cracked.

When I awoke, I  leapt out of bed, dashed to my iPhone, and checked it out front and back. Huge sigh of relief. It was intact.

Must be something wrong with me that, even when I  sleep, my iPhone takes over such a big chunk of my life.

Who are these women and what do they have in common?

From left to right, these women are Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and Hedy LaMarr, all three who are remarkable for major accomplishments in computer technology.

A  gifted mathematician, Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852) is considered the first computer programmer. She wrote instructions for the first computer program. She also wrote down her thoughts on how codes could be created to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. Ada was also a compulsive gambler and the daughter of the famous poet, Lord Byron.

Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral who invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. (A compiler is a program that transforms a set of coded instructions into a machine-readable language.) Hopper also developed COBOL which was one of the first computer programs. On the lighter side, she is well-remembered for her humorous demonstration of the length of a nanosecond.

Considered one of Hollywood’s beautiful movie actresses, Hedy LaMarr (November 9, 1914 – January 18, 2000) was also an inventor who, because of her accomplishments,  was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. At the beginning of World War II, she developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes which used technology to defeat jamming of wireless communications by the enemy, Elements of the design are among the most important now incorporated into Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and CDMA technology.

3 Ways to Scroll: the usual and the quicker

Many Mac users scroll a web page by using their mouse to click on the scroll bar and drag the arrow that appears on the bar up or down. But you can scroll faster if you use your keyboard to scroll. Just tap the space bar and the web page will scroll down a page. To scroll up, hold down the shift key while you tap the space bar. Another way to scroll in smaller increments is to tap the arrow on your keyboard that points in the direction that you want to scroll.

February 2017 ApplePower Meeting

The next ApplePower meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 25, 2017, at our usual meeting place, Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 West Elm St., Allentown, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Meetings are free and open to all interested persons. RSVP via email to applepower@ptd.net or phone 610-967-2020. Come visit.

Here's the proposed agenda (times are approximate):

10 a.m. - Sign in and socialize, plus a Q and A session. (Here's your chance to mingle with other Apple enthusiasts and to ask and/or answer questions.)
10:15 a.m. - Announcements and commentary.
10:30 a.m. - Computer Horror Story (true story of an non-pro DIY computer repairman)
10:45 a.m. - Awesome Freebies on your Computer, Smart Phone, or Tablet
Noon- Raffle. (Free raffle tickets to all in attendance. Your chances of winning are insanely better than your chances of winning the lottery. Bring a friend and receive an extra raffle ticket.)

Find my Apple

Yes, indeed, Apple has lost its way. Time for Apple to look to its beginnings when it was so beloved because of its software—not for how big, small, light, thin, beautiful, colorful its hardware was. Time for Apple to forget about integrating its software for its multiple devices at the cost of its software's excellence. Apple should now be looking to improve its software that will rival those of companies like Adobe and Microsoft. At one time, Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote programs appeared to be headed that way but lurched backward when it dumbed them down for the sake of integration.  An iMac is not an iPhone, a MacBook Pro is not an iPad, etc., etc. Individuate; don't integrate. And what about Safari? Time for a more sophisticated, bug-free, crash-proof browser.

Oh, Apple, how you have strayed!

ApplePower Meeting – April 23, 2016

The next ApplePower meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 23, 2016, at our usual meeting place, Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm St., Allentown, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Here's the proposed agenda. (Times are approximate.)

10 a.m. - Sign in and socialize, plus a Q and A session. (Here's your chance to mingle with other Apple enthusiasts and to ask and/or answer questions.)

10:15 a.m. - Announcements and commentary.

10:30 a.m. - "Kindle Reader–iBooks Shootout"  between sharpshooter Dr. David Webb, forensics anthropologist and gunslinger Shirley Hershey, ApplePower Prez. David will show off the marvels of his Kindle Fire (a $49 tablet) and try to convince all spectators that the Kindle e-reader is better than Apple's iBooks. Shirley, a diehard Apple fanatic, will try to prove that David is wrong, wrong, WRONG. All present will referee the battle.

Noon: Raffle. (Free raffle tickets to all in attendance. Your chances of winning are insanely better than your chances of winning the lottery. Bring a friend and receive an extra raffle ticket.)

Meetings are free and open to all interested persons. Reservations are not required. Come visit. 

Meeting Cancellation

I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you that the ApplePower meeting for this coming Saturday, January 23, is cancelled because of the big snow… lots and lots of snow.

At this time, we are planning to re-schedule our monthly meeting for Saturday, January 30, starting at 10 a.m. at Lehigh Valley Active Center, Room 104, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown, PA, depending, of course, on weather and driving conditions.

Here's hoping that we won't be snowed in for too long and that we don't suffer any power outages. Note that, if you need a flashlight, just tap on Flashlight in your iPhone's Control Center. (To get to the Control Center, swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone.) 

Try to keep your Apple devices fully charged so that you can keep in touch with the outside world or otherwise keep occupied. Last time there was a prolonged power outage in my home, I managed to keep my iPhone, iMac, and MacBook Pro charged by getting into my car with them and running my car's engine while charging my devices from the car charger. A side benefit was that, while I was waiting for them to charge, I turned on the radio and listened to local and national news or music on my favorite radio stations.

If you're a PPL customer, in case of a power-related emergency, including downed power lines, immediately call 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775). Press 1 for “Power Problem" when prompted. Also, you can get lots of info about power outages in the Lehigh Valley by logging in to PPL's Outage Center at Outage Center. Here is where you can view an online map of power outages in your area and sign up to receive status alerts or report a power outage in your home or neighborhood via phone, email, or text. 

We look forward to seeing you on January 30. Meanwhile, stay safe and keep warm. 

…and a happy, healthy, peaceful new year!

December Workshop Rescheduled

Sorry but the ApplePower workshop that was scheduled for December 12, 2015, is cancelled owing to an unexpected circumstance. If all is well, the workshop will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2016. Same place, same time.

Free Workshop

ApplePower Meetings

Thanksgiving is only one week away. Consequentially, we have decided to cancel ApplePower's November meeting so as not to interfere with post-Thanksgiving activities.

Also, we have decided to meet two weeks earlier in December—Saturday, December 12, 2015—because this year Christmas comes only one day before the day we would normally meet that month. Thankfully, we will be back on schedule for our January meeting which, unless it snows or some other unexpected hindrance befalls us, will take place on January 23, 2016.

Meetings start at 10 a.m. at Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown. 

All interested persons are welcome to attend without obligation.

Giving the finger to email

One of the least publicized features of  iOS 9 is, for me, one of the most welcome. It’s the ability to trash all my email with one tap.

Instead of deleting each unwanted email message one by one, all I have to do now, after reading only the email that interests me, is tap on the Edit button at the top of the page where my emails are listed. Then I tap on “Trash all” at the bottom. Voila! All the emails are whisked to the Trash.

For a guided tour of more features of iOS 9, come to the ApplePower meeting on Saturday, October 24, 2015, starting at 10 a.m. at Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown. All interested persons are welcome to attend. Email applepower@ptd.net for more details.

September 26 Meeting

This coming Saturday, September 26, the ApplePower meeting will be hosted by a surprise guest, known as the Anonymous CyberCrimeBuster, aka the Pesty Ad xTerminator. Learn how this crafty invisible man eludes hackers, identity highjackers, and other malware miscreants. 

The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at our usual meeting place, Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown PA. Besides the featured presentation, we will present a select assortment of little-known tips that will enhance enjoyment and productivity of your iPads, iPhones, and iPods. In addition, if there's enough  time, we'll take a look at the new operating system, iOS 9, for iPads, iPhones,  and iPods.

ApplePower meetings are free and open to all interested persons. Light refreshments will be available but bring your own beverage.

August meeting cancelled

Time for us to take a summer vacation while it's still summer and so there will be no ApplePower meeting this month of August.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, September 26, starting at 10 a.m. at our usual meeting place, Lehigh Valley Active Live, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown PA. Remember, all meetings are free and open to the general public. Hope to see you then.

Meanwhile, enjoy these final fleeting days of summer sun and fun.

July ApplePower Meeting

Our next ApplePower meeting will be held Saturday, July 25, 2015, starting at 10 a.m. in Room 102 of Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm Street, Allentown. 

You surely won't want to miss it if you want to be in on some truly amazing and little-known iPad, iPhone, and iPod tips. Included among them is one that I shared with a tech and his supervisor at Apple headquarters that they never knew about before and for which they thanked me over and over. It's so great that, except for the two Apple employees, you will be the only other folks to whom I will divulge  this hidden incredibly useful tip. And, to make it an even more special reward for your attendance, I won't breathe  a word of it to anyone else who does not attend the meeting. There! Is that incentive enough for you to show your face?

Of course, we'll have our usual light snacks and our raffle with free tickets for all. Call 484-547-6583 or email applepower@ptd.net if you want more information.