The Mac Show, the Internet radio show about all things Mac, is teaming up with the MUG Center, a resource center for Mac User Groups, to release “The User Group Report,” a monthly audio file of interviews, news, contests and prizes available in the QuickTime format as a downloadable .mov file.
User groups — usually called MUGs (Mac User Groups) — are clubs organized by people interested in sharing their love of the Mac. There are over 600 user groups worldwide, some with fewer than 25 members, others with over 1000.
Initially, the file will be available at the Mac Show’s daily report and MUG Center sites. However, it’s open to any Mac User Group that would like to include it on their Web site. The MUG Center will assist Mac User Group Web Masters in incorporating The User Group Report into their site’s HTML code. The inaugural User Group Report is now on the Web.
“Macintosh User Groups are an important and vital part of the Macintosh community,” said Shawn King, host of The User Group Report, and host/producer of the Mac Show. “It’s our hope that The User Group Report will be useful to that community and take its place in it.”
Chuck Joiner, Editor in Chief of The MUG Center, will serve as the co-host of The User Group Report.
“I am pleased and honored to be part of this effort to bring more User Group info to others and to help User Groups broaden the scope of their Web sites,” he said.
For more info on MUGs, go to Apple’s User Groups Web site. You can also find the user group nearest you there, as well as checking out what other user groups are doing.
Meanwhile, on tonight’s edition of the Mac Show, Andy Ihnatko is the featured guest. The well known Mac columnist has returned to penning the back page of “Macworld” magazine, taking over that responsibility from David Pogue. The Mac Show will talk to Ihnatko about his role and his thoughts about Apple.
In this month’s “User Group Focus,” Joiner will deliver a special announcement about July’s Macworld Expo in New York, as well as talk to Garr Reynolds, the new man in charge of the User Group Program at Apple. Plus, there’s also a contest exclusively for user group members.
Mark Stevens will have another segment of “Mac Media Pro,” Hilary Percy has “Mac Basics,” Peter Cohen of MacCentral will have the “Mac Game News,” and there’ll be another segment of “Tech Tips,” sponsored by Micromat’s Tech Tool Pro 3. This week, Mac Show producer/host Shawn King will be joined by Chris Breen of “Macworld” magazine, who will talk about how to turn Mac OS X into Mac OS 9 — or something that resembles it.
To catch the Mac Show, tune in this and every Wednesday evening from 6-8 p.m. (Pacific). And join in the chat rooms on the World Without Borders site or on the dal.net servers on IRC in the #macshowlive Channel.