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There’s not much comentary to give this, I’m amazed Jobs didn’t have all copies destroyed.

As promised Apple released updates to their Macbook and Macbook Pro lines. They were a little more than updates, they are completely redesigned. I was hoping for a price drop, but I guess that was wishful thinking. They really do look great, I’ll just have to decide if it’s worth the expense to replace my aging 12in Powerbook. I’m a little sad they dropped the firewire port from the Macbook, it makes it a little less desirable for me.

Check them out:

If you want to watch the event, apple has posted it on their site: HERE

Are you in need of a new Mac or iPod but want to save some coin? Their refurbished products are a great way to go. I’ve gotten a couple of different ones and they’ve been great, and at a great price. I know I would love to add a Mac Pro to my setup at home, and I don’t think I could find a better price.

The folks over at Apple have posted a new set on of online seminars. I’ve taken part in a number of their seminars in the past, they have always been well done.

A question I often get is “How can I start podcasting?,” and this should be a great introduction. It was fairly basic, but it covers all everything you need to get started. And it’s FREE. It does require you to register in their seminar system, but then you can get email about future seminars.

Sorry PC friends, but it only covers tools on the Mac, but you may still find it interesting.

Link: Start Podcasting in 12 Minutes or visit the complete listing of seminars

I originally posted this over at a new blog that I’m a contributor in, YouthMinistryGeek.com, I would love for you to check it out.

The great folks over at Mahalo Daily produced another great 60 seconds video. Enjoy all the iPhone 3G
goodness in just a minute.

Apple announced this week their summer day camps for kids 8 – 12 yrs old.  I stumbled across these camps last summer during a visit to my local Apple store.  They looked like super fun.  I know my daughter would love the photo one, but she still has to wait a year.  They offer camps in photography (iPhoto), video (iMovie), music (GarageBand), and presentations (keynote).

Could be a great opportunity to expose any Jr Highers you work with to media arts.

Check it out.

For everyone who couldn’t make it to Macworld, the folks over at Mahalo (my current search engine of choice) have condensed it to 60 seconds. Enjoy!

Well, Leopard is finally here. I wasn’t planning on being one of those guys who have to run down and get it right at 6 PM when it went on sale, but I just couldn’t resist going down to the Apple store at Fashion Valley here in San Diego and picking it up. It’s been a long week here in America’s finest city with all the fires, and my house has been a little out of control because my parents and their 3 cats have moved in since they were evacuated from their home on Monday.

The biggest surprise for me was my 6 year old daughter wanted to come along.

Sidenote: I setup my old iMac (the original LCD one, it’s one of my favorite computers of all time) for her earlier this year, and she loves playing on. And the best part is that it’s easy for her, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Back to our story…So we piled into the mini-van and headed off to the mall. I’ve never been to an OS release event so I didn’t really know what to expect. When we got there we got into the line, I was a little surprised that at 6:30 there was still a line. It was great having my six year old excited about a new OS and asking what would be different. It’s just fun to know I’m raising a little computer geek. I don’t think there are too many features that will really impact what she does, but it was fun explaining time machine and spaces to her anyway. When we made it into the store we got our t-shirts (they even gave one to my little one, which was awfully nice of them, then we were herded into line to make our purchase. That was it. Sure there was cheering when we came in, but other than that it was business as usually at the Apple store. (Complete with the windows mobile handheld POS system locking up and not being able to email my receipt.) So we spent some time playing games on the iMac setup for the kids in the center of the store and we were off to home.

I don’t know what I expected, but it was really nothing special. Even if the event was anti-climatic I did come home with a few great things:

• a free t-shirt – who wouldn’t want that?
• a great new OS packed with new features to enhance my computing experience
• a father who has decided his next computer is going to be a Mac, another convert — that’s never a bad thing
• a daughter who is more excited about her computer — and that just warms my heart.

So all in all it was a successful night, now on to installing. I will let you know what I think after a few days of playing.

Invisible Children is an organization (and a movie) dedicated to ending the war in Uganda. I’ve known some of the guys involved with it since they were in high school, and it’s been so cool to see what they’ve been able to do with their passion to help those who couldn’t help themselves.
They are being highlighted right now on Apple’s website about how their Mac’s help them do what they do. For those who were at the Mac users forum, this is definitely taking it to the next level.

Also checkout their website for more information about what they are doing and how you and your youth group can get involved.

I also recommend their podcast. Their videos are always so well produced.

It’s really made me think about the time we spend with students. I remember spending an afternoon with one of those guys teaching him some basics of video editing so he could make a surf video for his senior project. I hooked him up with someone who could teach him what I didn’t know, and now years later he’s trying to end a war. It’s just crazy to think about the plans God has for the kids that we work with, and humbling to think about the small parts we get to play in them.

Saturday night we had a Mac Users forum at the National Youth Workers Convention. It was a great time as about 40 of us gathered to talk about using Macs in youth ministry. As I promised here are the notes i took. I haven’t had a chance to go through and add links, but i should be able to do that in the next day or so. Thanks to everyone who came and contributed. Also don’t forget to check out the page of resources that is also under construction.

Macs in Youth Ministry Users Forum

Video Presentation – movies, presentations in general, pages for fast moving images (will allow for quick jumps), iPhoto slide shows,
No Talent Show – use webcams for live videos,
Pages is great brochure maker, postcards, (worth going to Apple Store training) ScreenCastsOnline.com
iWork is great package (pages, keynote), Find templates on the web (the print shop 2,
.Mac Syncing
iPhoto web galleries on .Mac
Delicious Library ($40) using iSight as barcode reader, allow for user to checkout books,

Thunderbird for email works with iCal
Entourage syncing with iCal
Google Apps (store documents online, share, collaborate)more private.

Blogger to post bible studies

Live Worship for worship presentations

Database — online youthtracker.net, filemaker,

Quickverse — bible study – macsword, accordance, lardian for iphone

talkinghead (LT) — free from YS website, crowdcontrolgames.com, YouthSpecialties.com/nywc after ATL

New to mac — use shortcut keys, search (apple – space), find in system preferences,

Screenshots – learn keys or widget (screenshot pro)

Quicksilver – program launcher, great shortcuts

Projectors – Eiki, Hatachi, NEC,
Keystoning,
ProresX – custom resolutions

iWeb – use domain forwarding for multiple sites hosted on .Mac

Megaseg – DJ program,

Rapidweaver – iWeb replacment

iWeb addons — 11mystics.com