Apple Answers Questions About MobileMe Transition to iCloud

We've been getting a good amount of questions from our friends and clients about the new iCloud service Apple announced in June. (Yes, we're excited too!) As it turns out, along with iCloud, Apple will be discontinuing the MobileMe service. What does this mean for current MobileMe users? We figured it would be best for you to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

In a nutshell, iCloud is better, free, and Apple will be transitioning MobileMe users this fall. If you choose not to transition, you will have until June 30, 2012 to transition yourself. Why would you want to wait? You'll see in Apple's FAQs that three main MobileMe services will not make the cut: iWeb Publishing, Gallery, and iDisk.

We're looking forward to iCloud's debut this fall! Head on over to our Facebook page to join our poll by answering what your favorite iCloud feature is. While you're there, "Like" us to be notified of other fun stuff in the future!

Leaving Clear 4G for the iPhone's Personal Hotspot

A good amount of our business is done on the road. Whether we're between cross-town projects, or in dark attics we need to have an Internet connection to use many our our tools. For example, we use many of 37signals.com's products, as well as Onsip.com for our phone service (both highly-recommended), which all require an Internet connection.

Until recently, we've relied on Clear's 4G service. For the most part, we loved it. It's fast, and has decent coverage around ATL, albeit not as good as our AT&T iPhones. We decided last month to try the new Personal Hotspot feature from AT&T to see how it compares. Keep in mind the Personal Hotspot feature requires the iPhone 4, not any of the previous iPhones.

We just cancelled our Clear accounts today and I'll tell you why:

1. The AT&T 3G connection has surprisingly decent speed. Not as fast as 4G, but decent.
2. It's actually cheaper. Clear's services are around $40/mo per user, whereas the Personal Hotspot only adds $15/mo to a typical iPhone plan.
3. Less devices. No more USB dongle that sticks out of our laptops, getting Internet is built into the iPhone.
4. We can share the connection. Yes Clear has a hotspot service as well, but not for the $15/mo you'd be paying for AT&T. BTW, AT&T allows 3 devices to be connected to your phone simultaneously.

Of course, your city may vary on connectivity, and your iPhone plan may not be just like ours, so I'd call AT&T to get your specific rundown (Dial 611 from your AT&T iPhone). One downside to "upgrading" to the Personal Hotspot service is that we lost our unlimited data plan. We're now capped at 4GB per month per user. It turns out, I was only using about 1GB/month on average on my iPhone, and I've yet to get near the new 4GB limit. (Your online AT&T account can show your monthly data usage on a graph.)

What are you currently using? Do you like it? We'd love to know.

Switching to the Mac: What programs do I need to buy?

This question is one of the most frequently asked by our friends and clients, and with good reason. Since the "dark ages" of the Macintosh, much of the hesitation of making the Switch is due to the uncertainty of compatibility.

Thankfully a lot has changed since the mid-90s, and I think you'll be surprised at how few applications you'll need to buy for the Mac. I'll outline the applications that most people end up purchasing in order to continue using the same files from the PC. I'll also list applications that come free on the Mac.

You might consider purchasing these:

• Microsoft Office: Mac 2011 - These applications are almost identical to Office in Windows. Most of the keyboard shortcuts are even the same. If you're using it for home or schooling purposes, you can purchase the Home and Student version for $149, and you can install it on up to three Macs.
• iWork '09 - If you're ready to take the full plunge into the Apple world, iWork serves as an excellent alternative to Office. It can also open and save to Office files, however for more advanced documents, the conversion can be spotty. Tip: if you purchase it through the App Store on your Mac, it's only $60.
• Quicken or QuickBooks for Mac - Before making this purchase, there are some differences between the Mac and PC version. Depending on your needs, you might prefer switching to an alternative by Acclivity, or even running Windows on your Mac via Parallels and keeping your current software.

Now that list wasn't too bad, was it? For other tasks like email, Internet browsing and pictures, here's a list of Windows programs that have free alternatives on the Mac, and are what make the Mac "so easy to use".

• Internet Explorer: Safari (or Firefox or Chrome)
• Outlook: Mail, iCal, and Address Book. (These three applications will cover most features of Outlook.)
• iTunes: iTunes :)
• Adobe Photoshop Elements: iPhoto
• Windows Movie Maker: iMovie
• Solitaire: Sorry, no free alternative! You'll either have to purchase Solitair in the App Store, or use the free Chess game that comes with every Mac.

If you have specific needs that weren't outlined above, feel free to leave them in the comments. For some specific industries that require Windows-only software, you can always run a virtualization application like Parallels. Virtualization has come a long way since its inception, running Windows on your Mac is easier than ever.

What other applications did you need to purchase before making the Switch?

Export Daylite Contacts to CSV or Tab Delimited format

It's humbling when a client of yours shows you something new about a platform you teach, isn't it?

We helped Connie Carlson a Realtor in Cobb County, GA, dive into Daylite a few months ago to help her manage client history, leads, and sales opportunities. She returned the favor by letting us in on this "hidden" feature in Daylite. Daylite is a tool we often recommend, and at one point every Daylite user can probably benefit from this tip.

It turns out, Daylite can export a contact list into CSV format. You'd think a CSV export would be an obvious feature, but it's almost hidden, unless you do the following steps. For a video walkthrough, see Marketcircle's tutorial. Jump toward the middle of the clip for the feature we're writing about.

We've also listed the quick list of steps below:

1) In the Contacts, select the contacts you wish to export. (Create a Smart List to filter your contacts.)

2) Switch to column view using the view buttons at the top of the list.

3) Choose which data you'd like to export by clicking the blue triangle in the top-right corner of the list.

4) Drag the columns desired to the "Active Columns" section of the dialogue. (The "Email" column is actually labeled "Electronic" in Daylite.)

5) Go to File -> Export -> "Export Visible Columns and Selected Rows to File".

6) Depending on your end goal, choose the export options accordingly. For most applications, all you need to change is the format from "Tab-Delimited" to "CSV".

Now you're ready to send your contact information to your email service platform or virtually any Mac or PC database application.

Have questions? Let us know below!

Switching to the Mac - Do I have to drink the Kool-Aid?

While people love Apple because of the simplicity and refinement they place into their products, it doesn't mean you have necessarily live and breath the Apple culture like those "Apple Kool-Aid drinkers" do 24/7. To give you an example, here are few of our opinions that might shock you, especially coming from a member of the Apple Consultants Network:

• Microsoft Excel is the best software solution for building complex spreadsheets.
• Sometimes Microsoft Office is the right choice for a business, instead of Apple's iWork.
• Google Apps offers an amazing, low cost method of hosting your organizations email and calendars. Yes, even lower cost than a Mac mini Server.

We love Macs, iPads, and iPhones because they help us run our business more efficiently. We get to do our work, and not fuss with IT. However, Apple isn't the only good software maker out there, and we're happy to use tools that others have made. After all, there are (a couple) things Redmond has done well.

Switch to the Mac. Use O2M to convert Outlook.

One of the biggest hurdles keeping people from moving to the Mac is the idea of having to move all of their emails, all of their calendars, and all of their contacts over to the equivalent Apple applications of Mail, iCal, and Address Book, respectively. We have yet to run into a situation where we couldn't do this, but some circumstances are more difficult than others. If you're using Outlook for Windows, chances are you'll benefit from this $10 piece of software called O2M (Outlook 2 Mac). There are many alternatives, including the Belkin Switch-to-Mac cable, and using an IMAP mail service as a conduit (for your emails anyway), but if I could recommend only one method to convert your Outlook to your Mac, it would be O2M.

The basic concept is you purchase O2M which is Windows software and install it on your PC. After a few prompts, O2M will then convert every email, contact, and calendar in your Outlook. (Note Outlook Express is not compatible with O2M). This might take several hours depending on the amount of information you have.

After converting, it places your files in a folder of your choice on the PC. You'll then need to move the folder O2M created over to your Mac. Depending on the size of your converted files you can use a USB flash drive, USB External hard drive, or even a network between the two computers.

Once the files are on your Mac, you then go into the equivalent Outlook applications on the Mac to import the data. For example, in Apple Mail you can choose File -> Import and choose to import the mbox files O2M created. Both iCal and Address Book have the same File -> Import menu. You'll point iCal to the .ics file, and you'll point Address Book to the .vcf file.

In some instances, data may not come over completely perfect, however when converting from one data type to another it's tough to avoid some inconsistencies. One great thing about O2M is it leaves your Outlook files completely intact on the PC, so if something goes wrong, you can just start back from the beginning.

We'd love to hear any other methods you've used to convert Outlook files to Mac-readable formats. There are other things to consider before making the move to the Mac. They can vary widely from your business workflow all the way down to the printers you use, but if Outlook is any type of hurdle, we hope this helps.

Happy switching.

Workshops for Business Owners in October

We have several workshops scheduled in the next month that may interest business owners and IT managers in the Atlanta area. These workshops will cover some of the most popular questions we get from small businesses interested in integrating Apple's platform, and we're excited to be able to share some answers in a group setting with fellow business owners. All workshops will be held at Apple stores in the Atlanta area as follows:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on the Mac with Daylite - Wednesday 9/29 @ 3pm - 4:30pm - Apple Store Mall of Georgia

• Running Your (Residential) Real Estate Business on a Mac - Thursday 9/30 - 8am-10am - Apple Store Lenox Square

• Running Your Business on Snow Leopard Server Workshop - Wednesday 10/6 @ 3pm - 4:30pm - Apple Store Mall of Georgia

• Using Social Media for your Business - Tuesday 10/19 @ 9am-10am - Apple Store Perimeter

• Running Your (Residential) Real Estate Business on a Mac - Tuesday 10/26 - 3pm - 4:30pm - Apple Store Perimeter

Be sure to click the respective workshop link to sign up! We hope to see you there!

Our July Workshops!

We’re leading a few workshops at the Atlanta-area Apple Stores this month. We're always bringing more curriculum to the market so check back often. Additionally, what topics would you like to see? We hope to see you there!

Using Social Media for your Business - Tuesday 7/13 - 3p-4p - Perimeter

Using Social Media for your Business - Wednesday 7/14 - 6:30p-7p - Mall of Georgia

Working Faster on Your Mac - Tuesday 7/27 - 3p-4:30p - Perimeter

If you’d like to come, just click on a store link to be taken to the store’s website where you can register for the workshop. They like to limit the number of attendees to keep it interactive, so be sure to register soon!

Foojee + Coffee = Delicious + Educational Fun

We’re teaming up with Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee House in Roswell over the next couple weeks to do some FREE classes!  Come enjoy some of the best coffee in the city while we teach you some of the best Mac Tips in the world.  Each class starts at 10am and last for 1 hour. We'll be hanging out for an additional hour to answer any Mac related questions you may have too.  All you have to do is purchase a cup of coffee (delicious if you haven't tried it!) and the workshop is FREE. Info and their story via a YouTube video below. See you there!

May 1, 2010 (This Saturday) - Sharing memories with iPhoto - Trainer: Lucas May 8, 2010 - Mac Essentials - Trainer: Gene

Address: 352 South Atlanta Street  Roswell, GA 30075

More info here.

The story behind Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee