Washington Apple Pi

A Community of Apple iPad, iPhone and Mac Users

Productivity Apps

July 23, 2016 General Meeting, 9:30 a.m., George Mason University.

Note: we will be meeting in Room 80, same building as usual, but different room.

A Tour of Productivity Apps (PDF, 8.4 MB)

Once upon a time, when the Pi was very young, if you wanted a word processor, you wrote it yourself, in Apple BASIC or Motorola 6502 assembly language. But those days, when having more than 8K of RAM was a sign of vast wealth and files were stored on cassette tape, are long, long, long gone.

Today productivity apps range from general purpose word processing, database, and graphics programs to highly specialized applications that can track your blood sugar, or automatically sync your Twitter posts to Facebook and your Facebook posts to your WordPress site.

Productivity applications have changed in other ways, too: you can start a document on your iPhone, add information from your iPad, and finish it on your Mac, or collaborate with others to work jointly on a document across a room, or across a continent. The forthcoming macOS Sierra, in addition to tripping up spellcheck with the mixed-case name, will extend this multi-device, multi-user dimension in other ways by adding: robots. "Siri, write me a letter..."

App Store look at productivity applications.

For the July meeting, Larry Kerschberg and Jonathan Bernstein will explore the brave new world of productivity applications (leaflet, PDF, 971K) for macOS, iOS, and watchOS. Come, and play. Note the change in room, Enterprise 80.

We will also have our award-winning Question & Answer session, despite the increasingly embarrassing failure to deliver the awards. "Lost in the mail" is so, so yesterday.

Once again, we will attempt to stream the meeting over the Internet: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wap-general-meeting.

The General Meeting will be in our usual location, Enterprise building, Room 80 on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax VA. Check back closer to the meeting date for any updates or changes.

George Mason University map

Enterprise Hall, our normal meeting place, is #16. Click on the map for a much larger version of the George Mason University campus map.

George Mason University Essential Information

The meeting will be held in Enterprise Hall, Room 80.

Address: 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA (near Rte 123 and Braddock Road). Directions and Map: http://www.gmu.edu/welcome/Directions-to-GMU.html

Interactive map of campus: http://eagle.gmu.edu/map/fairfax.php

Important Parking Information: Two Options, Paid and Free

The Shenandoah Parking Garage (formerly the Sandy Creek Parking Garage because it is located on Sandy Creek) is fee-based facility. It is more convenient and closer to the meeting location. The Pi will subsidize the facility's parking fee by providing vouchers for donation request of $4.00.

If using the parking garage, park in Visitor's area; i.e., the lowest level. Take the elevator to the third floor (Campus Level), and exit along the sky bridge.

After the meeting, exit the garage using the exits marked for Validated Tickets. Your parking ticket goes in first. Then the validation ticket goes in next. If you have any problems, there is a speaker box for calling the parking lot attendant at the checkout point.

Free parking in Lot A

Park as close to Mattaponi River Lane as possible, then walk north along that road toward the main campus buildings. The sidewalk route takes you directly to the side of Enterprise Hall, on your left. The meeting room is located on the second floor, accessible via outside stairs or via an elevator on your right as soon as you enter the building through the doors behind the outside stairs. We will endeavor to have signs posted to help guide you to the right location. It is at least a five-minute walk from Lot A and up a slight incline. We will be using a golf cart along the route, to offer rides to those who want or need a lift.

Handicapped Parking: There are three handicap parking spaces next to Enterprise Hall that can be used by members, on a first come first served basis. Have your Handicap Sticker showing on the dashboard or on the rear-view mirror.