Re: the Apple Users Group meeting of April 27th.

Hello Apple Users Group Members,

It was good to see quite a few members today even though we lacked access to the Internet this month, I think we accomplished quite a bit with questions and answers.

Some of the things we discussed today were worthy of putting up on the blog as I don't think everyone was able to hear a few of them.

Using a PayPal account to pay for purchases on the Internet

A good source of information which came up at our meeting was the use of  PayPal which is about the safest way to pay for  purchases on the Internet. More and more vendors are giving you the choice to use PayPal. When using PayPal, you give PayPal the permission to pay the vendor for purchases instead of you giving your credit card information to the vendor. In turn you are liable to pay for the item or items to PayPal who already has the information  concerning  the credit card you choose to use. The point is, no one else sees your credit card information but PayPal,  making it a safer way to purchase anything on the NET.

Adding items to your iPad calendar

Yes, you can add items to your iPad calendar by tapping on a date and then tapping the plus sign in the lower right hand corner. A menu will pop up to enter the information which will then appear on your calendar. You can also add a reminder and choose which reminder suits you best. e.g. 2 days before, on day of event, etc and if it is repeated. Check it out.

If anyone does not see a plus sign in the lower right hand corner, you should get in touch with Apple tech and ask why you don't. It may be that your Calendar app possibly just needs an update to the App.

Free seminars for Apple and Mac at Best Buy on 27th Ave in Ocala
Thank you Rita Breeding

Check out the latest Mac Computers, Software, and more. Experience what Apple has to offer with our own Apple Solutions Consultant (ASC), Jonathan Muse. He is a trained Apple Employee and every week our ASC will cover a new topic related to Apple products, Mac-based solutions, tips and tricks – everything you can do on a Mac and more! Come into our Apple Shop and speak with Jonathan, or we can offer you an in-home training with a Geek Squad Agent.

Stop by and visit our Apple Shop and sign up for one of his seminars that are held weekly in our store.  The seminars will cover a variety of topics for the beginning Mac user and are a great interactive way to learn more about your Mac.  We look forward to seeing you in the store and helping you with all your Apple needs.

Weekly Seminars:

 Wednesdays from 5:00PM to 6:00PM

Check the Best Buy Website under seminars for Mac/Apple subject of the current week. It differs weekly.

Project Gutenberg

Richard joined our group to help members out and gave us a web site where we can download free ebooks. However, he said don't expect to find best sellers there due to copyright restrictions, but we could probably find some good classic ebooks.

The web address is: http://www.gutenberg.org/

You might check to see if there is an App for this in the App Store also. There are a few apps for free ebooks you might want to check out in the App Store.

ebook from the Library.

Another web site is a must to check out is Over Drive for downloading ebooks from your library. I have yet not investigated this yet, but I think you can go to the site and download from any public library.  The web address is:  http://overdrive.com/#1 

Thank you again Richard.

What is babylon.exe doing on my computer?

Although this subject has nothing to do with Apple, one of the group members asked me if I knew what Babylon was as it was automatically installed on his computer and he assumed it was a virus of some kind. Although I didn't exactly remember what it's function is, I had remembered seeing it somewhere on my own computer. When I got home I googled it and this is what I came up with.

"Babylon.exe belongs to the Babylon Translator software. It provides you with an easy way to get instant translations and information for selected words. Non-system processes like babylon.exe originate from software you installed on your system. Since most applications store data in your system's registry, it is likely that your registry has suffered fragmentation and accumulated invalid entries which can affect your PC's performance."

I am not sure, but I think babylon.exe may be associated with the FireFox browser or FaceBook. As I explained to the member, since our group is concentrating more on Apple products, I couldn't really go into too much, but I hope this information gives him the answer he was looking for.