New Jersey Macintosh users Group
NJMUG Meeting Archive:
January 2023 - December 2023
Older Archives Newer ArchivesJanuary 17, 2023
Rocket Book, AI based software like ChatGPT, Draw Things, Stable Diffusion and Midjoury, Pro Writing Aid, Wondershare’s Filmora 12 new features and interesting and unusal web sites.
Bruce Mittleman showed RocketBook a system which connects traditional handwriting surfaces with the power of the cloud. Combine their extensive line of reusable notetaking products with their free app to take off into the digital future!
Bruce also covered one of his favorite new topics, AI demonstrated Stable Diffusion, a latent text-to-image diffusion model capable of generating photo-realistic images given any text input, cultivates autonomous freedom to produce incredible imagery, empowers billions of people to create stunning art within seconds. He demonstated ChatGPT, which claims to optimize Language Models for Dialogue. Bruce also showed Lui Lui's Draw Things, which is based on popular Stable Diffusion models, Draw Things helps you create images you have in mind in minutes rather than days. Bruce also demonstrated Midjourney, a independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species. - What's next? World domination?
Our resident writer, Cathrine Mascis showed Pro Writing Aid, who say that Whatever kind of writer you are, ProWritingAid will help you improve your writing and get your ideas across more clearly.
Louis Perez showed some interesting and usually websites. Here are some of the web sites Louis discussed:
Lastly, Mark Astmann showed some of Wondershare's Filmora 12 new features. Filmora promises to be "Your Next Step to Becoming a Pro Video Editor"
February 21, 2023
LastPass Breach, BitWarden, Super Eraser: Photo Erase, Smart Storage Manager, a Raspberry Pi Flight Tracker, Interesting and Unusable Web Sites Part 2, Apple’s Freeform App and Free Cool Text Titles
Bruce Mittleman showed Super Eraser: Photo Erase which promises to magically remove unwanted elements and instantly fix your photos.
He will also discuss CluBees Tech's app called Smart Storage Manager, which allows is the easiest way to free up space on your Mac.
Bruce talked about the breach that LastPass suffered and walked us through the open source althernative, BitWarden, which effortlessly manages all your passwords and logins.
Scott Alenick will walk us through your own Rasberry Pi flight tracker.
Louis Perez showed some interesting and usually websites part 2. Here are some of the web sites Louis discussed:
Lastly, Mark Astmann demonstrate Apple's FreeForm App which helps users organize and visually lay out content on a flexible canvas, giving them the ability to see, share, and collaborate all in one place without worrying about layouts or page sizes.
Mark also showed you had to create your own cool text titles with access to hundreds of fonts absolutely free with CoolText.
March 21, 2023
Scribble Diffusion, Future Tools, Tome, CES 2023 Highlights and Rasberry Pi Flight Tracker Part 2
Bruce Mittleman continued his exploration in AI based apps with three new ones. Scribble Diffusion which turns your sketch’s into refined images using AI. Bruce also showed the web site, Futuretools.io which collects & organizes all the best AI tools so you too can become superhuman! Finally, Bruce demonstrated Tome which claims generative storytelling has arrived. Click here to get 50 free Tome credits from Bruce.
Formally known as the Consumer Electronics Show, Louis Perez covered some of the best annoucments from CES 2023. Louis looked at:
Lastly, Scott Alenick walked us through part 2 of building your own Rasberry Pi flight tracker.
April 18, 2023
ScribbleWord as Image, Catbird.ai, DiffusionArt.co, TV's of CES 2023, Us Treasury Bills for Dummy’s and Insta360 Flow
Louis Perez continuted his coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show which took place in January. What's new in TV's was on the agenda for our April meeting.
Having found out he can make substantially more interest then his bank provides, Jerry Gherardi walked us through the basics of US Treasury Bills.
Lastly, Mark Astmann showed some video and demonstrated the Insta360’s Flow, a phone gimbal from a company who has specialized in making creative 360° cameras. Many believe Flow has taken over the lead from DJI’s OM6 phone gimbal?
May 16, 2023
Profilepicture.ai, Diffusion Art, ClipDrop, Midjourney, Apple’s Notes, Auto’s of CES and FeiyuTech’s Pocket 2
In our monthly AI section of the meeting, Bruce Mittleman studies continued with a few new apps.
Bruce demonstrated Profilepicture.ai, which allows you to simply upload your favorite photo and let their tool do the work for you. With just a few clicks, you'll have access to hundreds of unique and customized profile pictures to choose from.
Bruce then showed Diffusion Art, who claimed that because they are 100% free, they are the best place to use Stable Diffusion Online!
ClipDrop is a tool which allows you to create stunning visuals in seconds by using their tool to clip subjects out of their background, then add them to a project on which you’re working. We got Bruce's take on this app.
Finally, Bruce showed the latest version of Midjourney. Midjourney’s web site describe’s them as “Midjourney is an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.” That’s a lot to digest so Bruce walked us through it.
Louis Perez continutes his coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show which took place in January. Whether it's electric vehicles, self driving cars or just exciting new auto technologies and concepts, CES 2023 had a lot to offer and Louis will walk us through it. Louis showed us:
Scott Alenick will show you why Apple’s Notes will let you do more then just “Take note of almost anything.”
Mark Astmann will show another piece of hardware, this time the Feiyu Pocket 2, a handheld gimbal stabilized camera, that won’t break the bank. For further information here are a few YouTube videos.
June 20, 2023
Apple's WWDC, Photoshop new features, How Apple Savings Works, AI and Copyright Protection, Apple Car and Arc Web Browser
Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference Keynote was held on June 5, 2023, where some really exciting products were announced. Bruce Mittleman shared a video showing the most important announcements from this event.
In our monthly AI section of the meeting, Bruce Mittleman took a look at Adobe’s latest version of Photoshop highlighting the new AI features such as Generative Fill.
Per a group member’s request, Bruce went through setting up and using Apple Savings.
Our resident legal advisor Alan Walter provided us with a brief discussion on AI and Copyright Protection.
Louis Perez will discussed the latest information on the rumored Apple Car.
Lastly, Mark Astmann took a look at a new Mac web browser called Arc from The Browser Company. It has gotten a lot of media attention over the last few months and Mark let us know if it lives up to that attention. Download Mark's Arc feature list here.
July 18, 2023
Due to vacation schedules there was no meeting in July
August 15, 2023
Use Midjourney to create your own videos, Apple wallet, Apple Car, Ai Credit Card Hack and Calibre ebook manager
Bruce Mittleman taught us how to craft our own custom video’s using Midjourney’s AI and shared some his own video creations.
Luis Perez shared the latest information on the long rumored Apple Car. Louis also shared a new AI scam that caused all his credit cards to be hacked.
Scott Alenick showed us how to best use Apple’s Wallet.
September 19, 2023
Apple September Event, Back to School Ai web sites, and Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do in Apples Keynote
Apple’s Wanderlust Event was held on September 12, 2023, where new iPhone 15’s and Apple Watches were introduced. Bruce Mittleman shared a video showing the most important announcements from this event.
In our monthly AI section of the meeting, Bruce Mittleman continues his exploration of some interesting apps. Ideogram.ai claims to “Help People Become More Creative”. - Ai.invideo.io can turn any content or idea into a video, instantly. Lastly Bruce showed Shortyverse which uses Ai to create a 1920 superhero movie video.
Louis Perez discussed some interesting Ai ideas to prepare for back to school including:
Lastly, Mark Astmann demonstrated some interesting features with Apples Keynote.
October 17, 2023
Apple's iPhone 15, Apple's iOS 17, Apple's Mac OS Sonoma, Open Ai's Dali-3 and Harper ai
Apple released the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro models in September. Bruce Mittleman will show off the iPhone 15 Pro Max and provide you with a review and help answer whether or not you should upgrade from your current model.
New Apple OS’s were released in September. Bruce Mittleman will demonstrate many of the features of iOS 17. Mark Astmann will demonstrate many of the new features of Mac OS Sonoma.
In our monthly AI section of the meeting, Bruce Mittleman continues his exploration of some interesting apps. Dali-3 which creates images from text inputs. He will also show Harpa ai is an Ai powered Chrome assistant designed to automate tasks on the web saving time and money.
Noverber 21, 2023
Apple’s new M3 Mac’s, Pinokio, FaceFusion, Holiday Gift Ideas and Blackmagic Camera App
Apple released a handful of new Mac’s on Halloween with the all new M3 chip. Bruce Mittelman played a short video showing the highlights of these new Macs.
In our monthly AI section of the meeting, Bruce Mittelman continued his exploration of some fascinating apps. Pinokio is a free browser that lets you install, run, and programmatically control ANY application, automatically. Pinokio may be more of a platform than a browser as once it’s installed you have access to a huge variety of modules such as, Stable Diffusion, Whisper (speech to text), text generation, FaceFusion. Bruce demonstrated what can be done with FaceFusion a next generation face swapper and enhancer. He showed a list of the more then 60 modules available within Pinokio.
Louis Perez showed us web sites featuring Holiday Tech Gift Suggestions. These included:
Lastly, Mark Astmann demonstrated the free iOS Blackmagic Camera app and discussed why you might want to give it a try and comparing it to Apple's built in iOS camera app.
December 19, 2023
NJMUG's Annual Christmas Party, Best Free Mac Software for 2023, Money Saving Ideas and Calibre ebook manager
We held our NJMUG’s annual Christmas party at the December meeting. Pizza, chips and dip, salads, lots of desserts, soda and water were served. Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who brought something which made this holiday party to best in recent years. We also were able to get to know each other a little better as there was ample time to smooze and shot the breeze.
Mark Astmann will demonstrate the free app Calibre, which promises to be the one stop solution to all your e-book needs.
Louis Perez shared his take on the Best free Mac Software for 2023. Here is what Louis discussed.
Lastly, Jerry Gherardi offered us some money saving ideas including his 9-month review of investing in T-Bills compared to the leaving the money in a traditional bank. Jerry also talked about saving on your car and house insurance with NJM insurance.
Best AI web sites
In 2023 we spent a lot of time talking about and demonstrating AI based software and web sites. Simeon Berman has put together a list of AI web sites he feels represents the best AI web sites at this time. Have fun exploring them.NJMUG wishes you and happy and healthy holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2024.
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New Jersey Macintosh Users Group
"Sharing Knowledge and Building Friendships Since 1984"
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