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ExtraBITS for 10 March 2014

This week, Michael Cohen’s “Take Control of Pages” pre-book received a major update, Jean MacDonald left Smile for a higher calling, a mad genius learned to control his Mac with a smartwatch, Joe Kissell and Jeff Carlson both appeared on MacVoices, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer decided to retire, and Apple began rolling out its CarPlay automotive integration system.

“Take Control of Pages” Adds Lists, Sections, and Tables of Contents — We have now posted the second significant update to our “Take Control of Pages” pre-book at Leanpub. The update, available for free to purchasers of the pre-book, offers a new chapter on organizing your work by using sections, tables of contents, and list styles, including how to use list styles to create headings in structured documents. Subsequent free updates to the pre-book will include chapters on layout tools, file exporting, templates, and using objects in Pages documents.

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Jean MacDonald Leaves Smile to Focus on App Camp for Girls — Talk about bittersweet! Jean MacDonald, one of the partners behind well-known software firm Smile, is leaving the company to devote her time to the non-profit App Camp for Girls, which she founded in 2013. We’ve worked with Jean for years, on both TidBITS coverage and Take Control books about Smile’s PDFpen and TextExpander, and we’ll miss her calm professionalism. But App Camp for Girls is important in how it helps girls express themselves through apps and encourages them to pursue
careers in technology. We’re looking forward to seeing how Jean can expand the organization to make a difference in the lives of many more girls.

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Control Your Mac and iPad with a Pebble Smartwatch — Joseph Schmitt, taking a cue from Federico Viticci of MacStories, has figured out a way to control a Mac with a Pebble smartwatch. Combining Keyboard Maestro for the Mac with Command-C for iPad, Schmitt demonstrates opening his frontmost Safari tab on his iPad. He has also figured out how to use his Pebble to pause or resume Backblaze backups, restart iTunes, and restart Hazel.

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Joe Kissell Takes Control of Apple Mail on MacVoices — Joe Kissell joins MacVoices host Chuck Joiner to discuss his latest book, “Take Control of Apple Mail.” Joe explains why he sticks with Apple Mail, why he left Gmail, and offers tips for managing your own email.

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Jeff Carlson on the Road to Macworld — At this year’s Macworld/iWorld in San Francisco, our own Jeff Carlson will be giving a presentation and hosting two conference sessions on photography. He chats with Chuck Joiner of the MacVoices podcast about them and gives a preview of what he’ll cover, including topics related to his “Take Control of Your Digital Photos on a Mac.”

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Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer Announces Retirement — Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, has decided to retire at the end of September 2014. He started at Apple in 1996, and has been CFO for ten of those years, as Apple’s annual revenue grew from $8 billion to $171 billion. He will be succeeded by Luca Maestri, Apple’s vice president of finance and corporate controller, who joined the company in March 2013 and has been responsible for most of Apple’s financial functions since. Previously, Maestri served as
CFO for both Nokia Siemens Networks and Xerox.

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Apple Begins Rolling Out CarPlay — Apple has announced the rollout of its promised new feature, iOS in the Car, now dubbed CarPlay. The first manufacturers on board are Honda, Hyundai, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Ferrari, with BMW, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota slated to debut CarPlay-capable cars in the future. Compatible apps so far include Maps, Phone, Messages, Music, Podcasts, Beats Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Stitcher. You’ll need a new CarPlay-enabled vehicle, as well as an iPhone 5, 5c, or 5s.

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