Aug 30
adminApple, Tech
Many folks with a first generation MacBook laptop are well aware of the list of issues that have shown up on them over the past three years. Some of the top things I have seen are the staining that occurs on the wrist wrest due to Apple’s poor choice in a plastic, and the habit of iSight cameras to stop working in these models. Other known issues are CD drives having difficulty reading discs, touchpad button problems, and very noisy fans (holy cow).
Recently, a friend of mine who has experienced the staining and iSight issues decided to upgrade to the new Unibody MacBook. After helping her move data from the old to the new, got the “opportunity” to figure out how to solve some issues. More
Aug 17
adminApple, Tech
Apple’s move to make the unibody MacBook become the low-end of the MacBook Pro line marked a few changes. Most notably, the addition of FireWire 800 and the “non replaceable battery”.
The change of the battery made upgrading a hard drive slightly more difficult, as there is no panel that opens to do that anymore. The solution now is to remove the whole bottom casing. There are 10 screws involved, and 3 of the back screws are longer than the others. It is important to keep track of where the screws go.
Once removed, you have access to everything, including the battery with a sticker saying Do Not Remove.
On the lower left, you see the hard drive, positioned in the same place as the original Unibody MacBook.
There is a small black bracket More
Jun 28
adminApple, Tech
Have you ever upgraded the hard drive in your Windows PC? It’s usually not a big deal, right? You open the side of the case, undo the data and power cables from the drive, and remove some screws. Moments later, you’re installing the replacement.
Mac’s have not always been the most friendly machines to perform such upgrades on. Powerbooks were notorious for the thousand plus screws necessary to make any sort of upgrade. There have been some exceptions where Apple made hard drive installs not so bad, such as some older iMacs and the latest generation of Macbooks.
I recently decided to upgrade the hard drive in my Aluminum 24″ iMac. I assumed it would be relatively straightforward, much like the ram install was. I was wrong. I had to remove the glass, remove the aluminum top, remove the LCD screen, and work underneath it to reach the hard drive. Good times.
In the end, the upgrade went fairly smooth. I did run into a couple problem areas, that I made some notes on.
I followed the instructions made available at Amfiteatar.
Some things to be aware of:
- The magnetic pads around the aluminum rim that hold the glass in place are a bit poorly designed. I had one fall off because it’s sticky adhesive was no longer useful. I had to improvise.
- Be very careful handling and storing the glass top. Nobody wants to break it, but equally important is not getting ANY lint or smudges behind the glass. If you do, you end up noticing after the reassemble, and you’ll have to remove the glass again.
- Be equally aware of how you handle the LCD screen. Similar to the glass, it easily attracts dust and finger smudges.
Follow those instructions, and you’ll have a faster and bigger hard drive in no time.
Jan 25
adminApple, Tech, iPhone
There are many useful and fun applications in the App Store. There are also many pointless apps that seem to catch public attention. While the list of available applications is long, there are two apps I am still waiting for. First, I am hopeful that Adium will release a chat client for the iPhone. Word on the street was that they would release one, but it seems apparent that was just a rumor for the time being. Second, I have wanted a way to remotely monitor my Mac server. This is easily the most important machine in my home network, and it provides many useful functions.
iStat widgets and menus have long been available for the Mac, and are a very popular suite of apps for many Mac users I know. The fact that they are free makes them an even better deal. If you like them, please donate. The one weakness is that these programs are focused on local monitoring, and don’t have a mechanism for remote monitoring. More
Nov 30
adminApple, Media, Tech dvd decrypt, handbrake, videolan, visualhub, vlc
Handbrake is a wonderful, open-source, utility for converting DVD movies to other formats. In my case, I use it to convert my DVD collection for use on my Apple TV. It works great.
Today, a new version (0.93) was released. It includes a long list of improvements from GUI updates to fixes for the lingering errors in 0.92. Among the list of changes was the news that Handbrake will no longer decrypt DVDs! This is no shock to Windows users, who are accustomed to using more than one application to rip a movie. For the rest of us, this is quite the change. I have never needed anything other than Handbrake.
Fortunately, it is an easily fixable issue, and the Handbrake developers include the solution. Simply install the VLC player. Handbrake will automatically leverage the necessary library to do the decryption, if needed.
What makes this news interesting to me is the “why” associated with this change. What was wrong with the built-in solution? Was it fear of some legal pressure? Is it based on a collaboration of those two teams? Is it assumed that the VLC team will continue to develop and manage the necessary library(ies) needed to keep this solution working? Is it possible that VLC is working to have Blu Ray decryption soon that Handbrake would now be able to leverage? In my dreams. 
The possibilities are both exciting, and slightly disconcerting, as this is a relatively important change for Handbrake users.
The more prominent change in their release, while not as interesting to me, was the addition of converting files and sources, other than DVD’s. This is similar in capability to the now open-sourced project VisualHub.
Aug 04
adminApple, Tech, iPhone App Store, iPhone, NetShare, tether, tethering
When I bought my first iPhone, and read the many reviews online, there was the occasional murmur from geeks wishing for a tethering solution for their iPhone.
Tethering is the process of linking your phone to your computer, and using the phones data connection on your laptop.
While i thought it would be kind of cool, I didn’t really care. The first gen iPhone is EDGE only. We all know that EDGE means SLOW. It’s fine for most iPhone tasks like checking email, getting RSS feeds, and mobile-formatted sites. Otherwise, it is slightly painful to use. That’s really not a good tethering solution.
Fast forward to today, we have the iPhone 3G now. If you are one of the lucky folks who have 3G in your area, tethering becomes a much more plausible thing. The problem is, AT&T still doesn’t have a solution for us iPhone users.
This past week I read an article about a new application in the iTunes App Store. It’s called NetShare – and it let’s you tether your iPhone. More
Jul 13
adminApple, Tech, iPhone App Store, Apple, iPhone, iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch, iTunes, Multi-protocol chat
(source)
Like most iPhone owners this weekend, I was having a blast with the new 2.0 software. Also as a .Mac user, I have watched the painful Mobile Me transition unfold (well, it still is). While waiting for the Mobile Me rollercoaster to stop, I spent a lot of time experimenting with or reading about many of the 500 applications now available for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Interestingly, I noticed one important application not on the list. More
Jun 12
adminApple, Tech, iPhone .Mac, Apple, iPhone, Mobile Me, MobileMe
The day apple released the iPhone, and in the process, provided only minimal support for its own .Mac service – I was perplexed. What the heck were they thinking? Every other Apple solution allowed for total syncing of Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, and more. Why didn’t the iPhone? In the age of ActiveSync, Blackberry Enterprise, and other solutions offering full sync of at least email, contacts, and calendars it makes no sense. The iPhone seemed a perfect match for .Mac services, and therefore a point of discontent as a .Mac user. More
Apr 06
adminApple, Tech Lots of apps, Maximum Applications on OS X, OS X
I read an article today on Gizmodo (actually, It was more of seeing a screenshot), about someone claiming to have 150 applications going on their Macbook Pro with 4GB of ram. They included this screenshot to “prove” it. Several commenters pointed out that there weren’t 150 different apps going, and not even close to that number of things actually showed in the dock.
I thought to myself, “I wonder what this little laptop can do?”. More
Apr 02
adminApple, iPhone Fix iPhone, iPhone, iPhone Broken, Jailbreak iPhone, Recover iPhone
I have had my iPhone since the product was first released. I have really enjoyed it, and I have always been interested in the updates Apple brings. I have also played around with the “Jailbreaking” process, which allows you to apply 3rd party applications and modifications to the iPhone.
For a while now, Apple has been secretly working on the iPhone 2.0 software. Not secretly in the sense that nobody knows, but secretly in the sense that there is no real detail about it, short of some screenshots.
Tonight, I did a search online for iPhone 2.0 beta. For the first time, there was a copy of the new beta firmware out. “SWEET”, I thought. I downloaded the file. More
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