MacBUS: the Macintosh Business Users Society has talked Apple since the 1980s

While most tech groups around Philadelphia were founded in the 21st century, the Macintosh Business Users Society, known as MacBUS, has been around since the Macintosh 128K computer in the 1980s.
Once a month, businesspeople, lawyers, engineers or retired persons convene to discuss the latest happenings around the Mac world and exchange tips and tech support from a business angle. The group usually meets the last Tuesday of the month in Center City. Membership is encouraged.
“MacBus was always specifically geared toward business users, it’s not so much for people who used their Mac for drawing, painting or writing, it’s for people using them professionally,” Chris Urban, the president of MacBUS, said. “They were doing pre-press, design, photography and anything else you can imagine using a Mac for professionally.”

At a recent meeting at the University of the Arts in Center City, some of the major discussion topics centered around Apple and tech industry news, such as Apple’s push to have its products integrate with cloud technology. Cloud technology is the concept of delivering and sharing resources, software and information between devices that can access the Internet, such as phones and laptops for example.
Another piece of news that hit home for members was the rise of external hard drive prices due to the recent flooding in Thailand. Urban advised members to wait if they wanted to purchase one in the near future. The group has a blog that offers Mac user advice here.
Running a personal business remained the main topic of discussion that night, such as when members discussed the Square, a device that acts as a credit or debit card reader that plugs into an iPhone or iPad. Over the years, MacBUS users have taken notice of the business applications of Apple products becoming more commonplace.
“If you look at it in the long term, there’s been a change in the way people use their Macs. It used to be for hobbyist or hardcore professionals, you really didn’t see people using their Mac for accounting. It wasn’t as mainstream,” Urban said. “Now it’s all across the board.”