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Is It An Xbox or Mac?

Cory Bohon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:38:15 -0600

A new hackintosh might make some Mac users--and Xbox users--jealous.

Engadget reports on a hackintosh system built by Will Urbina that has an interesting case design. It is the power of a $4,500 Mac Pro in an Xbox case.

This hackintosh features a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s, NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card, 8GB of RAM, an 16GB SSD, and four traditional hard drives and was built for only $1,500 plus the many hours required for achieving this awesome mod.

Check out Will's website where you can find more information about this mod. You can also see a video below of the building magic happening.

Apple Denying Support to Smokers

Cory Bohon — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:58:50 -0600

Apple is snuffing out smokers and their computers when it comes to repairs.

According to the Consumerist, Apple has denied computer repair to at least two known Mac users after they took in their computers for repair. The reason? They're smokers and according to the Apple repair technicians, the problems may have been a result of second-hand smoke.

Both users took their complaints to the office of Steve Jobs where they explained the reason why they were denied service. Apple said that OSHA lists nicotine on a list of hazardous substances and Apple cannot require an employee to work on a device that has been intoxicated.

One of the affected users sent an email to the Consumerist detailing their response from Dena at Steve Jobs' office: "Dena set up an appointment at the same Apple store. They told me that they would take pictures of the computer - both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the 'bad news.' She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke!"

If this is, in fact, Apple's new policy and you are a smoker, then you might want to reconsider getting an AppleCare warranty. Both of the affected users couldn't find any reference to the smoking problem in the AppleCare terms. If this is the case, then Apple needs to make this point clear before charging consumers for an extended warranty that might be voided in a situation like this.

via Gizmodo

Evernote Raises $10 Million

J Keirn-Swanson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:05:38 -0600

It's a rare tech business that can score venture capital funding in this economy. Popular note taking service, Evernote, just managed a second injection of ten million dollars from Morgenthaler Ventures, along with Troika Dialog and DOCOMO Capital, donors from the first round of funding.

So what is in the works for this latest round of big bucks?

Improving the product and adding more options says CEO Phil Libin. More languages are in the mix, additional platforms, and general improvements to the GUI. Perhaps free users will see some additional document support and maybe some raised limits on uploads. It's a sure bet that their subscribers will begin seeing improvements.

And that's what's notable in Evernote's success in securing new funding. Unlike services such as Twitter or any number of online startups, Evernote already has a steady income stream. By signing up for a $5 per month or $45 per year premium user account, you receive a greater range of document uploading, better encryption and a much higher upload allowance. This subscriber base allows Evernote to pitch itself as self-sustaining, making the investment a more attractive use of venture capital.

According to a TechCrunch article in May, Evernote boasted almost 14,000 paying customers with a steady conversion of regular users to premium accounts. If projections hold, that ten million just might start looking like a very wise investment.

Build a Bootable Rescue SD Card For Your Mac

David W. Martin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:24:32 -0600

The latest MacBook Pros and iMacs sport a new port, a Secure Digital (SD) memory card reader. The immediate assumption is that you will use the SD card slot for transferring videos and photos from a camera to the Mac. That's what a majority of users will use it for.

For the hardcore users out there, Apple decided to give the SD port super powers -- you can use it to build a bootable SD card. That bootable card can then become an awesome tool for performing emergency hard drive repairs, data recovery, recovering deleted files, and much more. This how-to will get you started on building your SD card offering you a few ideas along the way, but potential uses for this SD card are practically unlimited.

Difficulty level:
Medium

What you need:
> MacBook Pro or iMac 2009 model with built-in SD card slot

> Mac OS X installation DVD that shipped with your Mac.

> Recommended high speed 16GB or 32GB SanDisk Extreme III SD card; Minimum 8GB SanDisk Extreme III. Note: Other SD cards may work, but will be considerably slower. See this Apple support document for more information on compatible SD cards.

> Installation Disks for your favorite Mac OS X recovery utilities, applications or other tools.

> 90 minutes or more of free time.

Note: This how-to focuses on creating a personalized bootable rescue drive. You can use the retail Snow Leopard to create a bootable drive for any compatible Mac with an SD card port. Check with your OS X utility of choice to make sure it will work on a variety of machines after installation.

Create a Bootable SD Card

1. Insert the SD card you want to use into the built-in card slot on your MacBook Pro or iMac.

2. Launch Disk Utility from Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities

3. Select the SD card inside of the left pane in Disk Utility.

4. Click on Partition; then under Volume Scheme change it to one partition

5. Under Volume information type the following:
Name: MPB13_SD_BOOT (13 represents the model MacBook Pro)
    Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    Size: 15.59 GB for 16GB SD Card (accept maximum the default)

6. Click the Options button and select GUID Partition Table and click Ok.

7. Click Apply and then click Partition.

Disk Utility will prepare and format the SD card. Afterwards, you are ready to install Mac OS X onto the card.

Installing Mac OS X onto the SD Card

1. Insert the Mac OS X installation DVD that came with your MacBook Pro or iMac.

2. Double click the Mac OS X installation icon.

Note: The installation screen, for Mac OS X Leopard, will tell you that the installation will take approximately 11.6GB of space. This exceeds the space on an 8GB SD card by a wide margin. We'll resolve that problem shortly.

3. Select a Destination in this case that will be the SD card you prepared above.

4. Click Continue.

5. At the installation summary screen click Customize.

6. You will be presented with check list of items that will be installed. Uncheck all of the following: Printer Drivers, Additional Fonts, Language Translations, and X11. This will reduce a Mac OS X Leopard installation down to approximately 6.2GB. Click Done.

7. Click Install and Mac OS X will start to install onto the SD card. The installation will take an hour or more. Once it has completed click through any other screens that appear accepting the defaults on each one.

You are now ready to boot your Mac from the SD card. Restart your Mac while pressing and holding down the Option key. You will eventually be presented with the Startup Manager -- select your SD card and your Mac will boot from it as shown below.

Installing Your Favorite Disk Utilities, Tools and Other Applications

Once you've verified that your SD card is bootable you'll have to decide what applications you want to install and how you might need to customize Mac OS X on your new tiny postage sized Mac hard drive. Yes, believe it or not, your SD card is now a full fledged bootable Mac hard drive and it will act just like one. In fact, you can take it with you and boot any Mac of the same model as it was built on, which in this case was a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

We went to my software library and installed the following applications on our emergency SD rescue card: DiskWarrior, Drive Genius 2, FileSalvage, and TechTool Pro 5. They all installed just as they would normally, updated automatically, and accepted serial numbers as needed for activation. We then dragged their icons to the Dock for easy access after booting off of the SD card. In addition to that, we added icons for commonly used tools for trouble shooting: Activity Monitor, Console, Terminal, Disk Utility, and System Profiler.

Apple Announces Reserve and Pick Up for Retail

Arvind Srinivasan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:47:08 -0600

Looks like Apple is gearing up for a busier than usual holiday shopping season. They announced a new buying method, "Reserve and Pick Up," which is exactly what it sounds like.

If you want to buy a Mac or iPod as a gift, you can reserve it now, and pick it up between December 15 and 24. The advantage over buying online is that you can delay payment -- clearly, this is going to turn into the new "pizza to neighbor" prank, and people are going to think it's hilarious to order 500 MacBooks to be gift wrapped. Our official advice is not to anger Apple retail. You never know when they will gleefully announce that the AppleCare on your broken iPhone is void.

Via 9to5mac

Verizon Offers FiOS Media Manager for OS X

Cory Bohon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:29:57 -0600

Last week Verizon offered up a Media Manager for OS X that will stream iTunes content to a FiOS DVR.

While the software has been around for Windows for some time, this is Verizon's first offering for Mac users.

According to the Media Manger page on Verizon's website, the application allows you to, "broadcast your iPhoto and iTunes media to your TV directly through your FiOS TV DVR."

The software allows you to stream playlists, share albums and slideshows, and view photo events directly on your TV. The requirements are pretty minimal, requiring you to have a FiOS set-top box, Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, iTunes 7 or higher, iPhoto 6 or higher, and QuickTime 7 or higher.

You can download the application for your Mac and view a video of it in action on the Verizon website.

Via Gizmodo

Amazon Bringing Kindle Software to Mac

Cory Bohon — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:20:24 -0500

Amazon has the e-Book market cornered with Kindle, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for PC, and soon to be Kindle for Mac.

Last week Amazon announced that PC users will be able to read their Kindle books on their PC, but Fast Company is now reporting that the same Kindle software will soon be heading to Mac as well.

An Amazon spokesperson told them, "Yes, we are working on a Kindle app for Mac."

This new way to read Kindle books will help Amazon stay the big dog when it comes to e-Books. It will be interesting, however, to see how the Kindle is affected by the Barnes and Noble Nook reader.

via MacRumors

Apple Details Windows 7-Boot Camp Compatibility

Cory Bohon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:58:09 -0500

Apple has announced that official Boot Camp support for Windows 7 will be coming by the end of this year.

According to a knowledge base article on Apple's support site, "Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."

Of course the compatibility of Windows 7 means that some initial Intel Mac models will not be supported, mainly the following models:

- iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

If you have already purchased Windows 7 and are wanting to run it on your Mac, we have found that Windows 7 does in fact run on some newer models like the unibody MacBook Pro. However, some features like the Multi-Touch trackpad are a bit finicky. You can also run Windows 7 in virtual machine software like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

Via MacRumors