As part of his Mid-Atlantic MUG Tour 2008, we will be pleased to welcome Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus for an evening of Mac information and entertainment. Bob’s visit is always one of the year’s highlights as he shares information from his most recent publishing efforts, including “Mac OS X Leopard For Dummies and “Office 2008 for Mac For Dummies (For Dummies.

Bob is a frequent, favorite speaker at Mac User Groups, columnist for The Houston Chronicle and The Mac Observer and a member of the MacNotables panel.

We will be taking Bob out to dinner after the meeting. If you would like to join us, please let us know so we can make appropriate reservations.

Mark your calendars now and don’t miss an evening with one of the brightest stars in the Mac universe, right here at HAC.

Video will be at the top of this month’s agenda. Whether you’re watching or creating, video remains on of the hottest Mac topic around. The latest version of iMovie, iMovie ‘08, brought with it a ton of controversy over what it can and can’t do. We’ll take a look at iMovie ‘08 from a project perspective, showing you how to access some of the new features and how easy it can be to take even rough footage and produce a polished video product.

If your video habits tend more to “watch” mode, the odds are that you don’t just sit at your Mac to do so. We’ll also talk about preparing video for your Mac, your iPod, your Apple TV or for the web, including a look at several utilities that can help you do it, and the Elgato Turbo.264 hardware utility that can turn almost any Mac into a video converting powerhouse.

Don’t forget to bring any items you want to sell in the GarageSale Nano part of our meeting. Just be sure to check the guidelines before you do.

(We happen to know that there will be at least a LaCie, 52x CD burner w/USB + Firewire cables and an iMaingo iPod speaker system on the table.)

We’ll also have our ever-popular Question and Answer session, our “Meeting-After-The-Meeting” dinner and more.

Spring may or may not have sprung, but you can always count on a night with your HAC friends as being fun and informative. Hope to see you there.

We’re excited to have Apple Senior Systems Engineer Dave Marra return to HAC. Apple has been quite busy over the past few months, and Dave will bring us all up to date, with a primary focus on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

If you’ve seen Dave’s dynamic, rapid-fire presentations before, you know this isn’t a meeting you want to miss. If this will be your first dose of Dave, you’re in for a treat. Mark your calendar now and don’t miss the March meeting of the Hershey Apple Core.

Stay home and rent a movie through your newly updated Apple TV!

Joel Persing and Chuck Joiner spent the full week (and a little more) in San Francisco at Macworld Expo, and will talk about their adventures, the products, the parties, and more. From the line in the keynote to the lights going down on the show floor, you’ll get to share the experience and hear about some of the products that turned the team’s head.

Don’t forget to bring any items you want to sell in the GarageSale Nano part of our meeting. Just be certain to check the guidelines before you do.

You can expect a raffle prize or two, our attempt to solve all your Mac-related problems in our Question & Answer session, the “Meeting After The Meeting” dinner at Fuddruckers and whatever else comes up (and something always seems to come up).

“What I Tricked Santa into Bringing Even Though I Really Didn’t Deserve It”
One of the HAC officers (we won’t say who, to preserve the safety of the guilty) will discuss his holiday Mac gifts, and we invite all HAC members to bring along theirs for a group show-and-tell session.

Macworld Expo Preview
With Macworld and the Keynote only 6 days away, we will discuss the show and conference tracks, and of course, the HAC “Top Ten Things We Want to See at the Keynote and What We Will Most Likely Get.”
The NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter
Need some extra storage for long-term backups or data storage but want to keep the cost down? We’ll show you the NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter, a hardware adapter that lets you connect a raw hard drive (one without a case) to your Mac.

Of course, we’ll also have our ever-popular Question and Answer Session, the “Meeting After the Meeting” dinner at Fuddruckers, and undoubtedly a surprise or two.

See you at HAC!

Joel Persing has been living with Leopard for some time now, and will talk about the benefits and challenges he’s found with Apple’s latest version of the Mac OS. Joel also has a business need to run Windows (we’re sorry to hear that Joel), and will also share his experiences with Parallels.

Don’t forget to bring any items you want to sell to the GarageSale Nano part of our meeting. Just be certain to check the guidelines before you do.

Of course we’ll start out with our informative and entertaining Question and Answer Session and will follow up the meeting with our “Meeting After The Meeting” at Fuddruckers, so plan to avoid the holiday shopping crowds and spend the evening with all your Mac friends at HAC.

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The rules are simple:

1. Garage Sale nano items must be in place on the sale table 15 minutes prior to the start of our meeting (that means by 6:15 PM).

2. Each item must be tagged with the Seller’s name and phone number, and the price of the item. Also, please provide information on the condition of any item that is not in 100% working order or is not complete in any way.

3. Business must be transacted either prior to the beginning of the meeting or following the end of the meeting.

4. We ask that, to help support the our MUG, that 10% of the sale price, or $1 (whichever is higher) be donated to the group. You’re on the honor system for this one.

6. Limit of two items for sale per member per meeting.

7. The Hershey Apple Core does not warrant nor guarantee the condition of any items in the Garage Sale nano. All transactions are between members and any disagreements or issues will be resolved between the buying and selling parties.

8. Sellers are responsible for removing any unsold items from the meeting room no later than 8:50 PM. Any items not claimed at that time will be collected and discarded as appropriate, and the Hershey Apple Core assumes no liability or responsibility for the discarded items.

There are only two HAC meetings between now and the holidays, so pick your two best items and bring them to HAC on Wednesday!