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How to Get the Most of Out of Mountain Lion Contacts

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Apple’s new OS, Mountain Lion, has been out for a while now.  One feature you probably use a lot is Contacts.  There are a few features you should know about in order to get the most out of this program.

Being in Sync

Mountain Lion’s Contact app allows you to sync all your contacts with your favorite web services.  Sync your contacts list with your Facebook and Google contacts.  Now all the people know can be codified and organized into one screen.

Put a Face to that Name

Now, you can click and drag an image into the Contacts and attach to someone’s information.  A meeting is a lot easier when you know who’s who.  If you don’t want to use actual pictures, the standard OS images like the parrot and penguin can be used.  If those don’t float your boat, you can click on the camera icon and take a picture of what you want with your webcam.

Did We Say Sync Already?

If you upload your Facebook and Google contacts information, you can also connect directly to those services through Contacts.  By clicking on headings on contact cards, you can see recent posts and updates.  It’s a good way to using just one program to deal with many.  You can even see their Twitter Feed.  If we live in the world of Too Much Information, at least Mountain Lion’s Contacts app helps us wade through it quicker.

 

 

The Rumor Mill: WWDC

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All the nerds and IT support consultants on Earth will be moving their eyes to WWDC, Apple’s tradeshow for their upcoming products, on Monday.  Though I won’t be there in person, I will be watching and listening to any bomb shell announcements.  Since the last WWDC, rumors have been swirling around about what’s to come and here’s a roundup of what’s slated to happen.

What’s Very Likely:

Mountain Lion

This new Mac OS X is believed by almost everyone to be unveiled on Monday.  It’s more than likely that this new operating system will not be compatible with older hardware.  Only machines coming off the production line from the launch onward will be able to run it.  As for other features like 3D app support and iPhone cross compatibility are all up in the air.  We’ll have to wait and see.

What’s somewhat Likely:

Macbook Pro Overhauls

The new Macbook Pros are rumored to be thinner and lack an optical disk drive.  Because of the lack of a disk reader on either the Pro or the Macbook Air, it’s rumored that Apple will release a new line of notebook that will fill this gap.  And if notebooks are to be discussed at WWDC, then what’s inside them will make headlines, nerdy, geeky headlines.  Anyways, a new chipset of Ivy Bridge Intel processors will probably be housed in the upcoming Macbooks.  They’ll also have to support USB 3.0 to keep up with the times.  And finally, they’ll have Apple’s famous retina display, more pixels than your eyes can see.  Why are you paying for them if you can’t see them?  Because you can.

What’s Possible:

Apple TV

Apple TV is like tomorrow; it’s always coming but never gets here.  If it does make an appearance it’ll probably be in the form of an SDK (software developer kit).  Apps seem to be the future.  They appear in our cars and our phones.  The arrivals of more and more smart TV’s are pushing for even more apps.  Apple will need to create a host of usable, useful, and cheap apps in order to take a dig in this market.  Apple TV will probably integrate itself with all itself seamlessly with all your other Apple products.

I’ll keep you all posted on the developments at WWDC.

 

UPDATE:

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, announced the Next Generation Macbook Pro.  It will boast a retina display, 8 GB of RAM, and an Ivy Bridge processor.