Archive for the ‘Mac’ Category
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 |
First of all, my wife is wonderful. Without much arm twisting at all, she let me upgrade from my white MacBook to the new unibody Macbook Pro. I just wanted to list a few of the things that I have enjoyed since making the switch:
- Bigger, more brilliant screen - The difference between a 15.4″ screen and a 13.3″ screen is significant and so is LED backlighting.
- Illuminated keyboard - Not worth the price of the upgrade by itself but I think that it is one of the very best features.
- Unibody aluminum construction - The MacBook Pro is sexy and sturdy, enough said.
- Gaming - The graphics processors do a much better job with games.
I have missed a few things:
- Battery life - A new MacBook battery lasts about an hour longer than a new MacBook Pro battery.
- Portability - You just can’t beat the size of the MacBook for carrying to and from class/work. Netbooks, you say? Give me a break!
Posted in Mac, Radical | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008 |
I have toyed with the idea of buying several things from Apple for Christmas this year. The thing is, any combination of the following items doesn’t fit in the budget, (a budget!) so I can only choose one.
Wishes
- Apple Airport Extreme - our Dlink router just isn’t cutting it. I get disconnected from my home network several times a day and I am forced to turn off my airport and turn it back on to reconnect. It’s possible that this problem is an issue with my MacBook and not the router, I just choose to believe that it is an issue with the router.
- Time Capsule - a step up from the Airport Extreme, all of the Airport’s functionality with built-in storage space. I’m kind of an addict when it comes to gigabytes.
- MacBook Pro - hey, I can dream, right?
- Apple TV - I’ll throw Boxee on there and figure out a DVR solution and I’ll be one happy man!
Truth is, I probably won’t get any of the above items and I’ll end up getting a Barcelona chair for my wife. (I can say that because she doesn’t read this blog!) What’s on your Apple Christmas wishlist?
Posted in Mac | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 9th, 2008 |
Boxee is an open-source media center application for the Mac that allows you to network with friends and give recommendations on media that you enjoy. Your friends can also view your Boxee activity.
Installing Boxee
Installation is a snap, just go to boxee.tv and sign up as an alpha tester. Within a few days, you’ll get an email with a link to the download and then you will just install Boxee like any other Mac app.
The Boxee Experience
After installation, Boxee scans your computer for videos, music, and pictures. You can also access online sources, both for audio and video, including Hulu, Last.fm, & YouTube. My favorite part about Boxee is that you can navigate the entire interface with your Apple remote. The interface is much better looking than Front Row too.
Boxee allows you to add network media sources and I think that there is a way to add an FTP source, I just haven’t figured it out yet.
My Plans for Boxee
I went in to my local Apple store and was told buy an Apple genius that an Apple TV is not worth the money. However, this post on TUAW outlines a way to install Boxee on an Apple TV and voila! I now know what I want for Christmas!
Note: After writing this post, I remembered that I signed some sort of T&C’s with Boxee, if this post breaks those terms, just let me know. Please don’t take my Boxee away!
UPDATE: Here’s a step-by-step on installing Boxee on an Apple TV.
Posted in Apps, Mac, Radical | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 |
I recently opened an account with an online stock trading platform and made my first stock purchase. I know, I know- slumping economy, bad market, the end of the world- every reason in the world not to invest. I guess I’m just exercising some faith in capitalism?
Truth is, I just want to learn the process and educate myself. Lest you think I’m some sort of big shot Wall Streeter, I’ll just say that if you knew how many shares I bought, you would laugh! I purchased a few shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock. I realize that I don’t know jack about when is a good time to buy and/or sell, I just want to give it a shot.
Anyway, I’m really hoping that Apple’s announcement on Oct. 14th includes aluminum-encased MacBooks and I’m excited to find out what the “brick” is. Oh man, I’m gonna make bank!
Posted in Mac, Radical | 2 Comments »
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 |
Blue Screen of Death on a Mac?
I had my first major issue with my MacBook the other day. Before going to work, I shut down my computer instead of just closing it to sleep for the drive to work. When I got to work, I turned on my MacBook and after the Apple screen I saw a blue screen that didn’t look anything like this:
I gasped, “This is a Mac, there’s no blue screen of death!” After restarting the computer several times, I realized that I was not going to be able to get to the login screen and that I would be stuck staring at a blue screen all day. I asked my friend Dan (like I always do) for some advice on what to do. He suggested clearing the PRAM so we did, no luck. Because I hadn’t been using Time Machine, I used my Leopard disk and a 500 GB hard drive to make a copy of my hard drive to preserve my data and settings. This was a time intensive process but worked like magic.
After I had copied over all of my data, I reinstalled Leopard and then used the Migration Assistant to import all of my stuff back to the MacBook. The migration went smoothly and I was able to get to the login screen (no blue screen of death, w00t!). The problem at that point was that when I typed in my login password it told me that I had entered the wrong password. I was typing the correct password but I tried every password I have ever used for anything but to no avail. I ended finding an article on LifeHacker that showed me how to create an admin user from single-user mode and so that I could change my admin user account’s password. That worked like a charm.
6 hours and several evil thoughts later, I was up and running on my MacBook with everything the way it should be.
Lessons Learned
- Use Time Machine!
- Always have friends that are geekier than you are
I still have no idea why I was getting that blue screen of death.
Posted in Mac, WTF? | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 |
My wife had been dropping hints for quite some time about how badly she wanted a Mac and I knew that I had to get her one. She had tinkered around on my MacBook and had decided for herself that her Toshiba Satellite would no longer cut it. Once the decision between getting a MacBook or an iMac was made, we were ready to make a purchase.
We did some preliminary research before making our purchase. We went to the local Mac reseller and I asked one of the sales reps what the cons of buying a refurbished iMac would be. First he said, “I’ve never seen an Apple refurb, we don’t sell them,” then he said, “plus, a new one is only a couple hundred more. If it were me, I’d fork out the extra dough and get a new one.” Of course he would get a new one, that would give him his commission!
I have seen a couple of refurbished Mac products. I have a few friends who have purchased refurbished MacBooks and I have been pleasantly surprised when their refurbed Macs look and function just as well as a new Mac. Place a new Mac and a refurb next to each other and you’d never be able to tell the difference. So as far as I’m concerned, there is no significant difference between a new Mac and a refurb.
Here’s what you get when you buy a refurbished Mac product:
Apple Certified Refurbished Products
- Quality products/great prices
- Stringent refurbishment process prior to sale
- Covered by Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty
- AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased
- Supplies are limited
from Apple.com
And here’s what you get when you buy a new Mac:
New Apple Products
- Quality products/premium prices
- Covered by Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty
- AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased
The decision is up to you, but I was very happy to purchase a refurbished iMac at a 17% discount!
Posted in Mac, Radical | 4 Comments »
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 |
I recently purchased a T-Mobile Dash (a.k.a. HTC Excalibur) and I have been pretty happy with it, not because it is the fastest or coolest smartphone on the market, but because it is has a ton of cool features for not a lot of dough. I really wanted an iPhone for all of the same reasons you do, but I didn’t get one and here’s why:
- 90% of the people I call are on T-Mobile’s network. Mobile-to-mobile calls are free with a family plan, so it just makes cents for me to stay with T-Mobile.
- The Dash only set me back $99 after rebates, that’s like $300 cheaper than an iPhone.
- I can tether the Dash to my MacBook via a Bluetooth PAN and then broadcast my phone’s internet connection through my MacBook’s AirPort. Future post forthcoming…
That last feature was the real clincher for me, not only am I able to use my phone’s internet connection on my Mac, but I’m also able to use my MacBook as a router to broadcast said internet connection over a wireless network. Pretty cool, eh?
I do think that an iPhone ranks way higher in degrees of sexiness and innovation but if the iPhone follows the trend set by it’s cousin the iPod, then the next iPhone will be the one I’ll want to get. Maybe Apple will make the second-gen iPhone 3G compatible and maybe they’ll add the Bluetooth PAN feature just for me! And maybe Mike Huckabee will win the Presidency.
One major drawback of the Dash is that Windows Mobile 6 does not work with ActiveSync!
Posted in Mac, Radical | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 |
A friend of mine hooked me up with a new MacBook sleeve made with memory foam. Up until now, I was happy-go-lucky using my Neoprene MacBook sleeve (also from Isis Dei) for toting my MacBook to and from work but now I know the glory that is memory foam and I’ll never look back.
The case I got looks just like the one you see here and it’s just about as cool as they come, it has stellar graphics screen printed on it for style points and dual memory foam layers lined on the inside with velour (softer than a baby’s diaper) for crazy amounts of MacBook pampering and protection. My favorite part of the whole deal is that these things sell for $26, that’s cheap enough for me to feel comfortable recommending these MacBook covers to anyone and everyone! Also, Isis Dei releases new designs every couple of months and they let you trade in your cover for 50% off a new one. Very rad.
You’re supposed to be able to keep the MacBook in the cover while you use it, but I haven’t quite figured how to do that. The part of the sleeve that covers the top half of my MacBook just falls off because there is nothing to attach it to my computer. It’s probably not the best idea to use your MacBook resting in a sleeve for extended periods of time anyway, due to poor ventilation, but maybe you’re not as paranoid of overheating your MacBook as I am.
You can pick one up for your MacBook or MacBook Pro on Isis Dei’s website. Grab yourself a keyboard jimmy while you’re there, they are muy excelente!
UPDATE: I figured out how to get the cover to stay on my MacBook, you just don’t unzip it all the way and it stays just fine!
Posted in Mac, Radical | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 |
Problem: Downloads Folder Filling Up With MP3’s
I find new music everyday with the help of sites like The Hype Machine, I download mp3’s on a daily basis. My downloads stack in Mac OS X Leopard quickly turns from a stack, pile, to a big mess of mp3’s. I needed a way to keep it clean and organized without having to manually move my mp3’s from the downloads folder into my iTunes folder.
Solution: MP3 Cleanup
I created an Automator application that imports audio files from my downloads folder to my iTunes library and then deletes the audio files from my downloads folder. Please feel free to download MP3 Cleanup and give it a try. After downloading, just unzip the .zip and run the MP3 Cleanup Automator application.
This is my first time offering something like this to my readers, so I expect some criticism. Please leave comments below and let me know how you like the program.
Posted in Downloads, Mac | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 |
Thanks to Buy.com, I just painlessly upgraded to 2 GB of RAM in my MacBook. They were offering some sort of promotional discount through Google Checkout ($10.00 off the order if I used Google Checkout for the first time) and they offered free ground shipping so my grand total came to $49.99!
Installing the new memory in the MacBook was a breeze and the difference in performance was instantly noticeable. I should be ready for the Leopard release on Friday. I ordered a family pack on Amazon.com for $189.00 (that’s a whole $10 cheaper than you can get it on Apple’s website).
Posted in Mac | 1 Comment »
