NJMUG Meeting Archive:

January 2024 - December 2024
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January 16, 2024
Meeting Cancelled due to inclimate weather causing library to close early.
February 20, 2024
Apple AirTags, Pika.art, Dream Studio and Blockade Labs

New software and hardware is being released at a record pace and we hope to be able to help you understand what’s available, why it’s important and how to use it.

Mark Astmann showed how to set up and configure Apple AirTags, and showed how to track the item it’s attached to with Apple’s Find My app.

In this month’s Ai installment, Bruce Mittelman showed three apps. Pika.art which allows you to generate and edit videos in diverse styles such as 3D animation, anime, cartoon and cinematic. Dream Studio is used to create

images using the latest release of Stable Diffusion. Finally, Blockade Labs can be used to create entire 360° worlds in just a few clicks.

March 19, 2024
Weather Apps, Best Free Mac Software for 2023, Part 2, Ideogram, Leonardo.Ai, RunwayML and Skylum’s Luminar for iPad

In this month’s Ai installment, Bruce Mittelman demonstrated Ideogram which helps you generate images. He also showed Leonardo.Ai which promises to create production-quality visual assets for your projects with unprecedented quality, speed, and style-consistency. Last on the AI front, Bruce demostrated Runwayml.com which claims it’s an applied AI research company shaping the next era of art, entertainment and human creativity. Bruce also previewed the initial release of Skylum’s Luminar for iPad which brings the power of Skylum’s photo editing to your iPad.

Louis Perez presented part two of the Best free Mac Software for 2023. And the latest on the new DeLorean EV. Here are some of the web sites Louis discussed:

  • PDF Reader - FoxIt
  • Note Taking - Microsoft's OneNote
  • Web Browser - Mozilla Firefox - Good privacy features and customizable
  • Web Browser 2 - Brave Browser - Best for security, works faster
  • File Transfers - TeraCopy - Enhances Mac's file copy and move functions

    • Checking weather is a daily task. With so many weather apps available which is the right one to use? Scott Alenick compared a number of weather apps from Apple, Yahoo, Accuweather, My Radar, Radar Scope, Hello and a few others.

    April 16, 2024
    Elevenlabs.io, Clipdrop.co, Wasitai.com, the US Justice’s Department’s antitrust case against Apple and Highlights of CES 2024

    In this month’s Ai installment, Bruce Mittelman demonstrated Elevenlabs.io which offers text to speech and voice cloning for free. Bruce also showed Clipdrop.co (Swap, Generative Fill, etc.) which helps you create stunning visuals in seconds.

    Last on the AI front, Bruce showed us Wasitai.com which claims to be able to tell you if an images was generated with AI.

    Our resident legal expert Alan Walter walked us through the US Department of Justices antitrust case against Apple.

    Finally, Louis Perez shared with us the highlights of CES 2024 including;

  • LG Signature OLED TV
  • Belkin Auto Tracking Stand Pro
  • Keeb TKL Mechanical Keyboard
  • Xreal Air 2 Ultra, smartglasses
  • JBL TWS Live 3 Series
  • Asus Zenbook Duo
  • GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
  • L’Oreal Airlight Pro, new technology hair dryer
  • Samsung S95D
  • JBL Quantum Stream Wireless Microphone

    • May 21, 2024
    Luminar Neo, the US Justice’s Department’s antitrust case against Apple and CapCut a free multi-plateform video editor

    This was the first time in the last 14 months that we didn't cover any Ai based software at our general meeting. Instead, Bruce Mittelman demonstrated all the new features of Ukrainian based Skylum Software's Luminar Neo on the Mac.

    Making up for the meeting he missed in April, our resident legal expert Alan Walter will walk us through the US Department of Justices antitrust case against Apple.

    Finally, Mark Astmann showed many of the features of CapCut which is a totally free app that runs on a Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad.

    June 18, 2024
    Apple’s WWDC 24, Ray Ban Meta Smart Glasses, Hot Summer Gadgets, Manuskript and Libby

    Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC 24) was held on June 10th. Bruce Mittelman showed a video highlighting the announcements made and their potential impact.

    Bruce also showed his newly acquired Ray Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

    Louis Perez talk featured hot summer gadgets for 2024 including:
  • Photo Stick Omni
  • Flex Vision Glasses
  • Electric Lighter
  • Neck Air Cooler
  • Waterbear phone cleaner
  • Xtra PC
  • Chiwell portable AC
  • Pizza Oven
  • BruMate Hopsulator 3 in 1 cooler
  • Minipresso GR2 portable Coffee Maker

    • Catherine Mascis demontrated Manuskript an open source tool which is a perfect tool for writers who like to organize and plan everything before writing.

    Finally, Mark Astmann showed us Libby, a free app that runs on a iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, PC, Chrome OS and Kindle and allows users to borrow digital content from our public library.

    July 16, 2024
    iDPRT Bluetooth Label Printer Thermal, Microsoft Surface Laptop with Copilot, Cloud Technologies, and Apple’s Passkeys

    Bruce Mittelman showed the inexpensive iDPRT Bluetooth Label Printer Thermal that can be connected using USB or Bluetooth and works any device supporting printing using these protocals.

    Something a little different in his Ai tool kit, Bruce just receive the latest Microsoft Surface laptop with built in Copilot and gave us an idea of the latest in PC technology.

    Louis Perez discussed the in’s and out’s of using cloud technologies. Louis discussed:
  • So What Is A Cloud?
  • Advantages and disadvantages
  • Cloud Computing Technology
  • What Are The Different Clouds?
  • Types of Cloud Computing
  • Tutorial
  • Private Cloud
  • Create your own cloud storage tutorial

    • Finally, Mark Astmann talked about Apple’s Passkey technology, a simpler and easier way to replace traditional login passwords. Here is the Keynote version of his presenation.

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