One to One Training at the Apple Store

As someone who makes a living traning people how to use their Apple computers, it may seem counter-intuitive to talk about Apple's One to One program. But, if you are buying a new Mac, and you want to learn use it to your fullest potential, I highly suggest it.

When you sign up for One to One at the same time that you buy a new Mac, Apple will transfer your files from your old computer, teach you all the basics in face-to-face training sessions, and guide you through more advanced projects. You can make up to one appointment per week for a year. Quite a deal for only $99.

What's the catch? You must buy One to One at the same time that you buy a new Mac. Also, you may not be able to get training on some third-party applications. And, of course, you must go to the Apple Store for training sessions.

So, if you can't get One to One because you didn't buy it when you bought your Mac, want to work at your home or office or for any other reason that One to One doesn't work for you, you know who to call.

Yelp. The People Have Spoken.

Yelp is a website that can best be described as a cross between the Yellow Pages and a social networking site. It features information on local business from restaurants to dentists. The thing that makes Yelp special, however are the reviews.

Yelp users are encouraged to write reviews for business they have used. The business are, for the most part, unable to change the reviews and users are encourage to be as honest, helpful and even as entertaining as they can in their opinions.

In addition to reviews, Yelp users can rate business from one to five stars. When you visit a businesses page, the average star rating is prominently displayed, along with the reviews and other information.

The Yelp database is searchable, making it easy to find, say, best the sushi restaurant in the West Los Angeles area as judged by people who actually ate there. Yelp is a very fun and helpful website that should have a space on your browser's toolbar.

As you might have guessed, "I'm Your Genius" is on Yelp. So, If you would like to write a review, just click the red button at the top of this article, register with Yelp and write your review.

And, if you have a small business that could use some extra advertising, check out Yelp for Business Owners. As my girlfriend says, "Why not? It don't cost nothin'."

Rumor: Black Friday at the Apple Store offer extra deep discounts.

Last month, I explained why now is a good time to buy a new Mac. Well, get your credit card warmed up and your desk cleaned off, because the BEST day to save money on a new Mac is coming up.

With the exception of educational discounts, Apple normally doesn't do sales. However, you will find savings at the Apple Store on Friday, November 27th. The day after Thanksgiving is commonly known within retail as "Black Friday". It's the only day of the year that Apple offers discounts on computers.

This year maybe even more interesting. The Boy Genius Report website reports that there is a strong rumor, based on leaked advertising that Apple will be offering "...up to 25% off all Macs". Black Friday discounts are usually 10% to 15%, making a 25% discount very enticing. Of course, the wording means that there maybe only one model getting the big price cut. Still, 25% off, say, the least expensive MacBook would mean savings of $250, bringing the price of the $999 laptop to just $750.

But, even if the above is just a rumor, there will, without a doubt, be discounts on selected Mac models that you won't see any other time of the year. So, if you can brave the crowds, it may be very well worth your while.

Apple releases Safari 4.0.4 for Mac and Windows

Apple today released Safari 4.0.4 which is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

• Improved JavaScript performance

• Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items

• Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail

Safari 4.0.4 is available via Software Update and also via standalone installers for Mac OS X 10.6.1 or 10.6.2, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.5.7, Mac OS X 10.4.11, Windows Vista, XP and Windows Vista.

Your Genius

Apple Releases Mac OS 10.6.2

You know, I thought I was going crazy.

My computer would unexpectedly log me out and I wasn't sure why. It seemed to happen so seldom, that every time I would forget to look it up. I just got into the habit of saving constantly because I had project that I needed to complete.

Well, today Apple released 10.6.2 which, among many other issues, addresses:

"an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly"

Nice.

I'm definitely going to update this afternoon. Here the official Apple line on 10.6.2.

Your Genius

The 10.6.2 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes for:

• an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly

• a graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites

• Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts

• a problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user

• issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers

• the reliability of menu extras

• an issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture

• an issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server

• Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing

• a problem adding images to contacts in Address Book

• an issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet

• Safari plug-in reliability

• general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk

• an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3874