Tips and Tricks

36 'Tips and Tricks' stories August 2009 - March 2011

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Whoa! Micron SSD doubles Apple's BTO SSD speed

Seth Weintraub Mar 24 2011 - 7:56 am PT

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The new MacBook Pros, along with all of their other speedy goodness, have SATA3 interface for storage access (but not to the optical drive). Apple’s build to order solid state drives are SATA II and are very speedy.

However, Macotakara popped in a Micron RealSSD SATA III drive and got some pretty incredible speeds. In fact, it benchmarked at about double Apple’s BTO option(!!) on read speed (450MB/sec) and 50% faster writes (260MB/sec). That means it takes just over 2 seconds to read a Gigabyte and under 4 seconds to write one. That is fast.

For you speed freaks, the 256GB version is available here($440). 512GB is here ($1000 retail).

The OCZ Vertex 3 – which is even faster (with new Sandforce controllers) can be found for slightly more, 120GB- $300.

See SATA3 vs. SATA2 BTO vs. HDD below:
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iFixit: iPad 2 glass is 27 percent thinner

Seth Weintraub Mar 11 2011 - 10:06 pm PT

iFixit does a roundup of the iPad 2 teardown with their Teardown Highlights. Most notable in their summary, the iPad 2’s glass is significantly thinner than the previous iPad. Obviously that helps for weight loss but it also could theoretically make it more fragile. We noted the weigh loss in our LCD screen preview a few months ago. More from iFixit:

We did a quick glass and LCD thickness comparison:
- iPad 1: lcd = 3.2 mm glass = .85 mm
- iPad 2: lcd = 2.4 mm glass = .62 mm
The thickness of these components — especially that of the glass — could drastically reduce the durability of the device, especially the glass’ resistance to shattering. We’ll see in due time if the percentage of folks with broken iPad 2 front glass is dramatically different than that of the original iPad.
Lifting off the LCD exposes the iPad 2′s battery. We found a 3.8V, 25 watt-hour unit. That’s just a hair more than the original iPad’s 24.8 watt-hours, so any improved battery performance should be attributed to software and other hardware improvements.
We confirmed via software that the iPad 2 indeed has 512 MB of RAM.
The markings on the 1 GHz Apple A5 dual-core processor appear to be Samsung’s, but Chipworks will investigate in the forthcoming days to find out for sure.
Other components that power the iPad 2:
- Toshiba TH58NVG7D2FLA89 16GB NAND Flash
- Broadcom BCM5973KFBGH Microcontroller
- Broadcom BCM5974 CKFBGH capacitative touchscreen controller
- Texas Instruments CD3240B0 11AZ4JT touchscreen line driver
- Broadcom BCM43291HKUBC Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM tuner combo chip
- S6T2MLC N33C50V Power Management IC
- ST Micro AGD8 2103 gyroscope
- ST Micro LIS331DLH accelerometer
There’s also an Apple-branded 338S0940 A0BZ1101 SGP chip. This looks like the Cirrus audio codec Chipworks found in the Verizon iPhone, but they’ll have to get it off the board to make sure!

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OWC offers 16GB RAM for new MacBook Pros – Just $1600

Seth Weintraub Mar 9 2011 - 5:42 pm PT

Those new MacBook Pros – the ones released last month – are not only as fast as last year’s Mac Pros, they can also take 16GB of RAM. That puts them a pretty rarified world of computing, at least as far as laptops are concerned.

OWC has the brand new OWC133DDR3S8GB 8GB modules currently at $100 per GB price of $800/each. While some may be able to justify the price now, it will come down dramatically as production ramps up. 4GB modules were just as expensive when they debuted and now they can be had for under $50/each. This may be the same part for $320 less (no guarantees!)

PS, they also work in last year’s 27-inch iMacs and some PCs.

Best comment: “For $1600, they must be fashioned by Samurai sword makers.”
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XCode 4 goes final, available in the Mac App Store for 5 bucks

Seth Weintraub Mar 9 2011 - 12:03 pm PT

If you are a Macintosh application developer but don’t want to spend the $99 to get into the Mac Developer program (and don’t mind missing out on early OS builds) Apple might just have the program for you. You see, now that XCode 4 has gone final, you can now download it at the Mac App Store for only $4.99. (Yeah it is free otherwise but Apple has some accounting issues to deal with).

Collected: What we know about the Mac App Store (9to5mac.com)
Mac App Store Downloads Top One Million in First Day (9to5mac.com)

Bought an iPad in the last 2 weeks? Apple will refund the price drop

Seth Weintraub Mar 3 2011 - 5:36 am PT

Electric Pig and other sources have confirmed to us that Apple is giving back the $100 price difference between prices last week and today on recently purchased iPads. In the US, Apple dropped prices at least $100 so it is a healthy chunk of change. The window is 14 days or February 16th (or thereabouts).

Also, as of yesterday, Apple has new significantly lower prices on refurbished iPads
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Transparent iPhone 4 kit has us drooling

Seth Weintraub Feb 28 2011 - 11:28 am PT

Here is new look on a nine month old iPhone. A Chinese parts manufacturer offers up a kit to replace those iPhone glass panels with transparent ones. Click below to see the finished project and twice click on images for full sized glory. Downsides include possible “less than Gorilla” glass strength and transparent glass letting in light for degraded picture quality (same issue with orig. white iPhone 4).

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OSX Lion hits the Torrents while developer adoption explodes

Seth Weintraub Feb 25 2011 - 10:33 am PT

Mac OSX Lion just hit the Torrent sites but obviously it isn’t wise to download and use software from there. In fact, since Lion was downloaded from the app store, it likely has a developer’s signature which might lead to his/her banishment from the developer program. The software also talks to Apple at swscan.apple.com (not to be a little snitch)

It really makes little sense to download it from a shady site however when Apple offers a Mac Dev account for just $99. Access to the dev account has traditionally given developers access to not just the current version of the Mac OS Client and Server software, but also to the newest builds including timely Lion updates.

As for us, we’re seeing a pretty heavy influx of Lion users. Interestingly, the explosion started two days ago when we saw about 20x increase (perhaps Apple had an internal rollout) and then of course yesterday we saw almost 1000 Lion visitors. So far today, that percentage has increased to almost 2% of our overall Mac traffic.

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OS X 10.7 Lion's Recovery Partition changes the way the OS repairs itself

Seth Weintraub Feb 25 2011 - 7:02 am PT

From Lion’s Install notes:

– The Recovery partition may not be created when installing Lion on a drive with an unsupported partition scheme.

This is a pretty interesting addition to the OS. When you install Lion, it puts a little partition on the boot drive with some of the OS utilities. If something goes wrong with your Lion build, you restart with the option key pressed and you boot into this new partition.

For me this worked a bit different. I installed Lion on a Firewire hard drive. The recovery partition was installed on my Snow Leopard internal disk(!). So when I turned off my Mac and rebooted with the Firewire Lion disk removed, it defaulted to the recovery partition (scary). Changing the startup disk fixed this pretty quickly but installer beware.

The repair partition is basically all of the repair/utilities you find on a OSX Installer DVD.

The obvious reason that Apple does this is because Apple will soon be going to more devices without optical media. Having the repair partition built-in makes it easier to fix your machine if things go bad. And who wants to keep a OSX Install/repair disc or USB stick with them wherever they go?
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Apple iTunes and the home insurance blame game

9to5 Staff Jan 24 2011 - 8:38 am PT

COMPUTERWORLD: We love music. We play it on our Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads and iPods. iTunes sold its 10 billionth song in February 2010. What’s wrong? You should check your digital music is insured, as many insurers don’t offer coverage for your digital music collections within their standard policy — and Apple won’t help you get your music back if it gets lost or stolen — even though it could.

Dual SIM Cover gives the iPhone 4 two phone numbers

Jake Smith Jan 17 2011 - 5:22 am PT

A company called Vaveliero has developed an iPhone 4 case that gives you easy access to two different mobile accounts.

The kit replaces the iPhone 4’s microSIM tray with an external dual SIM adapter to give the iPhone 4 the capabilities of using two phone accounts from two different carriers. The external SIM is attached inside of the case, making the extra SIM appear like it isn’t even there. The two numbers can be switched in the settings or set on a timer to change as you wish.

Unfortunately, both can’t be used at the same time. We’re also uncertain from the literature if you need to be unlocked to use this with non-supported networks. Vaveliero operates in Europe where locking phones and other douchebaggery is frowned upon. Perhaps in the US, this could be used for a separate AT&T Work and personal account.

There had been some sketchy rumors that the iPhone 5 would do this natively but we’re doubtful Apple has anything like this cooked up.

This case works with UMTS, HSDPA, WCDMA, GSM, GPRS, and EDGE. Head on past the break for more images.
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OpenJDK code lands as Mac Port Project springs to life

9to5 Staff Jan 12 2011 - 9:20 am PT

November saw Apple and Oracle confirm the loss of built-in Java in future Macs in favor of a jointly developed open source Java implementation, to be maintained by the OpenJDK project. Now the first code under the deal has landed.
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Verizon iPhone has different antenna design

Seth Weintraub Jan 11 2011 - 8:34 am PT

Like was demonstrated earlier (And later taken offline by Apple) the Verizon iPhone has a different antenna design than the GSM version. Above is AT&T’s design. notice the breaks in the antenna on top…

And on Verizon’s below there are no antenna breaks at the top but instead on the left side:

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No, you can't update previously-installed software via the App Store

9to5 Staff Jan 7 2011 - 4:57 am PT

Consider this a general tip: The Mac App Store won’t update third-party applications that you’ve bought elsewhere, despite recognising that they are installed.

It will tell you if software you acquire through the store is updated, but existing installs from outside the store won’t be noted in this way.
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Quark offers two-for-one deal on XPress 8

9to5 Staff Jan 7 2011 - 4:00 am PT

Something for our professional DTP and publishing readers (we know you’re out there) Quark today announced that customers who purchase one new, qualifying full license of graphic design and page layout software QuarkXPress 8 between now and 31st January 2011 can receive one additional full license of QuarkXPress 8 for free.
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Apple drives Mac App Store sales with huge Aperture bonus!

9to5 Staff Jan 6 2011 - 7:05 am PT

Psst: Professional photographer? Keen amateur? It really doesn’t matter — head over to the Mac App Store now and you’ll be able to purchase Aperture for a fraction of its normal $199 price — it’ll cost you just $80 —that’s even cheaper than Amazon!! Here in the UK it costs £44.99 — that’s a whole lot cheaper than the £173 retail store price.

I’m willing to bet someone at Adobe just started sobbing.

Mac OS X 10.6.6 ships — App Store is open

9to5 Staff Jan 6 2011 - 5:53 am PT

Apple has confounded industry watchers who expected the rumored noon launch time and the Mac App Store is available immediately, with over 1,000 apps available to download. Fire up Software Update and go grab it, people…(and read this while you wait). Update: No iWork 11, but you can get the individual apps and Aperture here. Press Release after the break.
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CES: Light Peak ain't ready for prime time

9to5 Staff Jan 6 2011 - 4:45 am PT

We’ve been hoping Light Peak might make an appearance in new Macs since the technology first made an appearance working with a lab demo Mac Pro in 2009. We’ve been excited for the super-fast and super-flexible connectivity standard ever since — now it seems there’s a way to go before its ready to hit the market, according to Intel.

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Tips and Tricks

Apple updates iWork 9.0.5, bigger update coming tomorrow?

Seth Weintraub Jan 5 2011 - 1:51 pm PT

Apple released an update to its iWork suite of applications today. No not that update.

Today’s is ‘just’ for the current ’09 version which is starting to feel long in the tooth in 2011.

With the Mac App Store opening in less than 24 hours and iWork applications shown on the mockups of the store, it would seem likely that a totally new version of iWork is in the cards.

What’s included in the update…
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Apple's Snow Leopard prowls on Intel's Sandy Bridge

9to5 Staff Jan 5 2011 - 3:51 am PT

It had to happen — Intel introduced its Sandy Bridge processor this week and already intrepid Mac OS X hackers have managed to install Apple’s operating system on Intel’s new chip.

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How to (almost) use FaceTime on your iPad 3G

9to5 Staff Dec 30 2010 - 4:22 am PT

You know it will happen when Apple ships iPad 2.0 next year, but clever coders are already seeking slick tricks to bring a little something like FaceTime support to existing iPad models.

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MacTech: Parallels smokes VMWare

Seth Weintraub Dec 17 2010 - 3:16 pm PT

We haven’t put the two head to head (been on Parallels exclusively for about a year personally), but the folks over at MacTech had a chance to run the latest versions of VMWare for Mac against Parallels 6 which was released just a few months ago (VMware Fusion 3.1.1 and Parallels Desktop 6.0.11828.615184) It appears that Parallels is the winner in both general and 3D tests.

Parallels 6 is available in Box form ($63) or for immediate download.

Full results will be posted in MacTech magazine next month. More below:
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Apple’s Mac App Store to Open on January 6

9to5 Staff Dec 16 2010 - 5:51 am PT

Apple this morning confirmed it intends opening its Mac App Store on Thursday, January 6.

The store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature both paid and free apps in various categories.

“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”

Oh and Devs? You need to submit apps by Dec 31 to be in the grand opening.

Press Release follows:
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Six of the best Apple books — ever

9to5 Staff Dec 16 2010 - 4:07 am PT

Apple generates more column inches of coverage than any other firm on the planet. Love or loathe, millions worldwide are fascinated by what happens in Cupertino — and that’s probably why the company is now one of the biggest in the world dominating the smartphone and tablet industries.

What follows are some of the most essential titles any Apple watcher should read and own if they really want to build up their understanding of the company.

We’ve been watching Apple at work and play for a long, long time. We consider these to be the key titles to help boost understanding of the history and philosophy of the company.

We know that Mac website editors across the planet have a few books forever in the shelf behind their desk, and we figured it would be of some interest if told you which books they are.

So, whether it’s to satisfy your own curiousity, or for a Christmas or birthday present for an Apple fan, we think you really can’t go wrong with any one or all of these titles. Read on…

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Spotify upgrade, faster, auto-play, retina display, more

9to5 Staff Dec 16 2010 - 3:51 am PT

Good morning, while I apologize to our US readers as Spotify isn’t available in your area yet, for European 9to5Mac visitors news that Spotify has updated its applications for OS X, iPhone (and Windows) could be interesting.

The new version introduces the customary bug fixes, but also adds support for Mac media keys without interfering with iTunes. The new version also supports auto-play for all track links when clicked on from Twitter, Facebook, feed, etc. Existing users will see their install automatically updated in the coming days.

The big news is for iPhone users,
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