MacNewsBlog

I've been slowly moving my data from my trusty 12" Powerbook to a brandspanking new MacBook Pro. Usually I'd just move everything in one sitting but I'm taking my time on this one simply because I wanted to make sure that whatever I was using on my Powerbook would still work on the MacBook.

Yes I've been using an Intel iMac at work but since this is going to be my "production" machine, I wanted to be extra careful before saying goodbye to my beloved 12" PB. Turns out that everything runs just as it should, bar Toast 7 which seems to have a problem with verifying after burning. I'm not quite sure if this is a Toast 7 problem or a MBP problem and I'm investigating it now. As of this moment it seems like Toast 7 enjoys making coasters off and on of my DVD-R discs.

I've been reading the MBP Apple Forums as it always seems to be a good place to see what kinds of issues others have been having. I've heard of whining, and mooing of the processor, but the big issue recently has been heat. There are users on both sides of this issue surrounding the fact that it seems that Apple's MBP manufacturers put too much thermal grease on the processors. This leads to added heat build up as the processor cannot transfer the heat to a cooling tube in order for the fans to kick in. The end result for some is a MacBookPro that can cook eggs and pancakes from what I've read from some.

Apple claims that the heat being generated for most MBP is within spec, while some users claim its just too hot and have taken it upon themselves to open up their MBP to remedy the overdone thermal grease, potentially voiding their MBP's warranty. While I do not condone voiding your warranty, to each their own. I've owned a lot of Powerbooks through the years and each one has gotten hotter, not cooler as each has had a newer and faster processor as its heart. Faster usually equals more heat and or more cooling.

The Register has a story today about a chip start-up called PA-Semi that was in talks with Apple to port its software over to their chips set. Somewhere during those talks and some engineering time Apple decided to go with Intel and the rest is history. Now you can read the untold story of how Apple almost went with another chip manufacturer in this exclusive story.

I feel badly for PA-Semi but things are looking way up for Apple and in the long run the switch to Intel really does make a lot of sense.

Mozilla issued a "security and stability" update to Thunderbird email client, which also brings Universal Binary support to Intel Macs. Dowload a copy of Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 here.

Over the past few weeks I've been having issues with my airport card in my MacBook Pro. After some extensive reading of Apple's Discussion/Forum and other forums, while also searching Google I found that many people had varying experiences with the MacBook Pro's built in AirPort Card. Problems ranged from dropped packets and slow connections to the airport card just not finding any base stations at all.

My problem was a strange one that had bothered me for weeks on end. You see at home I have a wireless network (Airport Extreme) that I use constantly. I also have a beautiful 23 inch Dell widescreen monitor that I regularly plug into. Because the monitor is so big I never need to use the screen thats on my MacBook Pro so it stays shut almost always. I have the same configuration at work except for the fact that I don't use the airport card and opt for a ethernet connection. At work I have no problem accessing anything at all. My wired ethernet connection gives me fast downloads and allows me to do my work without a hitch. At home its hit or miss.

Many love to pay homage to his Steveness, the creator of the Macintosh, iMac and of course the iPod... but I found this to be just plain weird!

In an email from Lajo, a manufacturer of iPod skins and protective coverings for other electronic devices, was this picture and a short message claiming it to be a "Tribute to Steve Jobs":

I dunno about you but I find it a little funny but more creepy than anything else! I mean seriously... the "confirm" button is located right on his... um....

Anyway, I'm not sure if his Steveness will find this humorous at all... but who knows? Stranger things have happened.

If you'd like naked Steveness on your iPod, you can pick them up here.

Some people like to push the boundaries of what can be sold on eBay. Someone in the UK is selling their Mac Book BOX on eBay and currently as of this writing it's going for $189.19!

I'm assuming this would be valuable for anyone who doesn't have a MacBook Box for later resale but I dunno if I would pay THAT much for just a box. I'd probably just sell my MacBook with some sort of sleeve or wrap it in bubble wrap.

Thanks to Meg Matthews who sent this in.

Last night I found this cool interview with Steve Jobs done by someone over at EWOKY. The interview talks about whether or not Steve golfs, surfing back in the day and more.

Enjoy: Interview with Steve Jobs

Check out Macintouch's hack up of a MacMini with a Core2Duo processor and a SATA drive! Pretty cool warranty voiding hacks with step by step instructions on how to get things done.

A very well written guide for Windows or Linux users who want to switch to the mac. Includes items that I'd cover with any new mac user out there.

Read LifeHacker Guide to switching to the Mac.

So NBC and Apple are in a contract war over TV content on iTunes. Exactly what the real story is depends on who you believe.

Apple says that NBC is asking for exhorbitant price increases for content while NBC claims that Apple refuses to alter it's pricing.

To be honest, all I care about is the fact that the next season of Battlestar Galactica may not be available for download on iTunes! Gah! Time to by an EyeTV I guess...

Last night I was listening to Loveline online while working on a few projects. Turns out that Dr. Drew Pinsky is an avid Mac user and co-host Stryker has made the Mac a part of his life during the last year. Stryker told the tale of how his MacBook drive went dead and how he had to take it to an Apple Store. Well his drive was dead and he was told to take it to a drive recovery specialist. Two hours late, bad news! There was nothing that could be done to recover the stuff on his drive!

Needless to say Stryker was quite upset about the whole thing and decided to call SOS Apple. After being transfered to a few people he was told he'd be helped out. Later that day, someone from Apple called him and said they'd "help him out". Not sure what exactly was going to happen but it sounded like Strykers getting a new MacBook. The MacBook was only 12 months old according to him.

What I found funny was the fact that both of them thought that Apple's "never break". Dr. Drew didn't even know that he had to back up his stuff! Stryker vowed to back up his data and asked Dr. Drew if they would do it together. Let's hope these guys get something like SuperDuper or something!

Unfortunately it seems like Stryker, like a few of my friends has been bitten by the defective seagate drive. I sure hope Apple will do something to fix this problem or at least be proactive and figure a way to identify which MacBooks and MacBook Pros have these defective drives before theres a lawsuit.

To listen to Dr. Drew and Stryker give the Mac some love go here.

TuneCore is giving away free music via iTunes! Not just any music mind you, but independent artists from their "label"! Yep, TuneCore, the company that helps indie artists get their music on iTunes is giving away 34 select tracks via the US iTunes store (sorry international readers!)

To get your free code to download the 34 songs, go to their 34 stars album page here. The artists aren't nobodies either! Steve Vai, Izzy Stradlin, Suzy Bogguss and Public Enemy are just some of the artists featured. The one I can't wait to hear is Maureen McCormick's track (yeah thats Marsha Brady from the Brady Bunch).

I work as a Mac Tech at a local school for my real job. It's always fun to hear the stories from folks who switched from Windows over to Mac. Often, I will ask the recent Macintosh convert why they switched. The responses I get aren't always what I was expecting though.

A recent switcher told me that the best part of switching, and one of the main reasons for her to switch to Mac was service. If her computer ever broke down or if she had any problems, she felt good that she could simply make an appointment to see an Apple Genius and bring the Mac in for a check up. She couldn't do this with her HP laptop. Her biggest frustration with HP: "It always crashed and when I called for tech support, they were always talking about things that were over my head. With the Mac, there is a live human person right in front of me that can help me understand the problem and fix it for me too!"

That is a great selling point for the Mac! Having many Apple Store locations is going to be a huge plus for Apple.

Amazon.com has a special on the Apple Mac Book 2.2 GHz, 1Gig RAM, 120Gig HD, 8x Superdrive for $1219 after $75 rebate. This is the lowest price we've seen yet for this particular model so act now!

Amazon also has the iPod Touch 16gig for $368.99! That's a really good deal too!

And while you're there, pick up some gift cards for some music: iTunes $25 gift card

Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg has just completed his review of the new Dell XPS One and he seems to think it could be a threat to Apple's iMac. Did Mossberg drink too much egg nog this past Christmas or does a Dell really hold a candle to our beloved iMac?

The XPS One is Dell's answer to the iMac. A sleek, all in one LCD Monitor with CPU stuffed into the back. Critically I would say it was a smart move since Dell isn't able to license Mac OS X. If you can't beat um, join um, or do something similar!

Aside from calling the XPS One "an elegant, handsome, cleverly designed one-piece computer", Mossberg points to some of the features of the XPS One that are non-existent on the iMac: built-in card readers for camera memory cards, wireless mouse and keyboard packaged with the unit, Power off for the monitor only so you don't have to shut down the entire CPU, and side access for headphones and USB jacks. Granted, Apple does sell a bluetooth mouse and sleek keyboard but it's not bundled with the iMac.

Before you think Mossberg has drank the Dell/Microsoft kool-aid, he does give the final hand and recommendation to the iMac stating the superior Mac OS X operating system that is less vulnerable to malicious software and the fact that the iMac is actually cheaper than the XPS One.

"defying popular perception, the iMac costs less than the XPS One. The base, 20-inch iMac costs $1,199 — about $300 less. And even if you double the memory, and add a wireless keyboard and mouse to match the Dell, it’s still $1,399 — $100 less than the base XPS One (though Dell is currently running a sale that wipes out the $100 gap). Even the cheapest iMac has a dedicated video card with its own memory, something the base XPS One lacks."

via All Things Digital.

Fake Steve Jobs on CES 2008 Keynote:

As you probably know, the Consumer Electronics Show begins tomorrow in Las Vegas, kicking off with a big keynote by the Beastmaster where I'm guessing he will talk about all the new ways in which Microsoft hopes to add extra layers of frustration to people's lives by turning ordinary everyday experiences like making phone calls and watching television into annoying, confusing processes that require you to integrate multiple unreliable and incompatible digital devices into a Frankenstein system that needs a dozen different remote conrols (each one bigger and uglier than the others, with a zillion tiny buttons) and which freezes, hangs and crashes without warning. Or something.

We couldn't agree more! Check out more on what Fake Steve thinks about CES 2008 here.

Apple Discussion Forum is reporting of an Unknown error (-2) while accessing iTunes Store. No one is sure if this happened before or after iTunes 7.6 was released, but many people are being affected by this error, including yours truely.

When trying to access my account via iTunes I get this error. Turns out my account (Apple ID) is one that was created long before iTunes came out . That means I had been using a user name and not my email address as the account login name. Now I cannot get into my account, even after resetting the password all I got was the -2 error.

To test if this was due to iTunes 7.6, I got on another computer with an older version of iTunes and no dice. Still couldn't log into my account.

I have a feeling that something happened to our accounts because of the new rental system employed at iTunes or perhaps because they changed something and I've been using a user name instead of an email address for so long.

I emailed iTunes support via this page and I'm waiting and hoping for a fix.