Wednesday, July 28th

Handy compatibility tools for iPhone & older Mac users

While many Oake Communications network members and partner agencies, as we work in the ‘creative’ sector, are fellow Mac users, most of our clients work in a Windows world. Most of the incompatibility issues that used to regularly confront us have been distant memories for years, but some remain. Indeed, new ones have arisen with the introduction of new devices and operating systems. In today’s post I’d like to share two free compatibility tools with you that can make your life easier if you’re an iPhone user or use a legacy Mac computer / OS.

If I receive an Outlook calendar invite by e-mail like the one above from a client on my recent MacBook Pro, my e-mail program automatically deals with the ‘mime-attachment.ics’ by extracting the details and showing them as text within the e-mail – so no problem. But if I receive them on my iPhone, I can see the .ics icon but have no idea what the date and time of the meeting request is. If the sender doesn’t include a descriptive subject, I may not even know what it’s about.

It is actually possible to open the .ics file in TextEdit, but you have to be on your computer to do that. The solution I use is to forward the message containing the .ics file from my iPhone to the address given here by the extremely helpful and generous Mike Metzger. His service automatically parses it and sends you back another e-mail with the meeting date and time as good old readable text. The times are often wrong in parts of the message, caused by the sender’s client inaccurately interpreting time zones, so you need to use the time shown in the description section. In the recent case I show above (an actual meeting request, but with names and places changed to ensure anonymity) even the zone time indicated here is wrong (it should show GMT+02:00), but the meeting times are correct.

I also use this service from my e-mail program on my main office Mac. As it’s a G5 running an old OS that can’t run the newer version of the client that works, I have the same problem as when I'm on my iPhone. We need to keep the old system as it runs some critical programs that depend on it, so if you’re also using a ‘legacy’ Mac, the parser service will be handy for you too. As will the Open XML File Format Converter for MS Office…

If you’re using a Mac with Office 2004 or Office v. X, you’ve probably been faced with the problem of what to do when you’re sent Office files that end in .docx, .pptx etc. These have been created by people using Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 or later for Windows. As with the calendar invites, when I’m using my newer MacBook Pro, which runs a recent OS with Office 2008, I can open these files directly in the program with no problem. But on the G5, running an old OS with an old version of Office, the solution I use is the Open XML File Format Converter.

You can download the latest version from Microsoft here for free. When you receive a .docx, .pptx or .xlsx file, just drag it into the converter and it will automatically be converted and saved in the same location as the original and opened in your old Mac’s Office 2004 or Office v. X program. Now that Apple have announced that new Mac Pros and a new monitor will be coming in the next two months, I’ll be using those from then on as my main system, and this problem will be another I can forget about. My trusty G5 will have been 'written off', but only in the financial sense - we'll still be happily using it elsewhere in the office. For those of you who are happy to continue using ‘legacy’ Macs and software that still work perfectly well, I hope these two tools will make your life easier, as they have mine.

Friday, July 16th

Magnum in Motion

Magnum Photos, the renowned photographic agency founded in 1947, has been providing one of the world’s most important resources of photographs chronicling and interpreting its peoples, events, issues and personalities ever since. While I’ve always taken any opportunity I have to visit exhibitions of their members’ work, I hadn’t been aware of their online library of photographic essays and video documentaries until recently.

Set up six years ago, Magnum In Motion is their multimedia digital studio and assembles visual narratives for online and offline platforms, including screenings in museums, festivals, and workshops. A library of more than 100 short web documentaries has been built up so far. Magnum In Motion online essays add new dimensions to the traditional photographic narrative, using a combination of photos, audio, video, graphics, and interactivity.

The latest addition is a six-minute essay presenting Werner Bischof’s photographs taken during the Korean War, on its 60th anniversary. The images are presented together with the memories of those who were impacted by the conflict as young people. Less harrowing but equally effective is the recent two-minute compilation of images from Magnum photographers taking a look at football as a global game. Put together on the occasion of the first African World Cup, the photographs are accompanied by African music and commentary clips.

As well as watching them online at the site, Magnum in Motion also allows you to subscribe to their essays as video podcasts. These are provided in the QuickTime format developed by Apple for the iPod, but which can now be played on the iPhone and iPad as well as many TVs and devices from other manufacturers. They should look pretty good on the iPhone 4 display. They can be downloaded free of charge for personal use, which I think is very magnanimous of Magnum.

Friday, July 9th

A little bird told me...

Hugin is a pan-European press release distribution service founded in Norway in 1995. To the uninitiated, the name might bring to mind some kind of late-60s group cuddle session, but in fact it’s derived from Norse mythology. Hugin was one of two ravens sent out by Odin at dawn each morning to gather information from around the world. They returned in the evening, perched on the god’s shoulders, and whispered the news to him.

Hugin was acquired from NYSE Euronext last October by Thomson Reuters, who are now operating it as part of their Corporate Services business. Hugin continues to distribute press releases for over 1,200 companies based in 26 countries and has offices in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Hugin offers investors and journalists real-time news through its Internet portal and via free e-mail subscription. We’ve been using their e-mail service since February 2003, and I’ve found it to be a useful and easy way to check when the press releases we write are published and to keep informed about the companies for which we work, together with their markets and competitors.

The Thomson Reuters acquisition hasn't impacted Hugin's open availability and complimentary service (as yet at least...). To set up your free account, just go to the Hugin portal, click on the ‘Register now for free’ button and fill in the form. You only have to supply your name, country, occupation and e-mail address. Once the account has been set up, you can log in and specify which companies and/or industry sector lists you wish to receive press releases from. You can return and update this list at any time, as I do from time to time to add a new client company or their competitors. It’s a really simple way to keep tabs on companies and markets in which you’re interested and file them with your other e-newsletters. And it's a lot less messy than having a raven come and sit on your shoulder every evening.