Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Tag: apple

  • MobileMe

    My 60 day free trial of MobileMe will be expiring at the end of this month. MobileMe has worked well enough during the trial period, so I purchased a one year subscription last week. For me, the most important feature was the calendar synchronization. Secondly, I needed the ability to track lost iPhones and remotely wipe out data. So, I ordered MobileMe from Amazon last week for $69.99. For whatever reason, the price is higher this week. Here’s the confusing part. Amazon is currently selling MobileMe [OLD VERSION] for $75.00 and MobileMe Individual (Updated 2009 Version) for $95.00.

    In reality, the only difference between the two products is that the $75.00 version is fulfilled by Amazon and the $95.00 is sold by Amazon. The OLD VERSION and UPDATED 2009 VERSION labels are meaningless because MobileMe is not a physical product. The MobileMe box contains a sheet of Apple stickers and a pamphlet with an activation code. No CD/DVD. You enter the activation code from either “version” and you get the same MobileMe.

  • Apple Migration Assistant and Symbolic Links

    I switched to a MacBook Pro 17 inch 2.8GHz back in June when the older MacBook Pro suffered the infamous black screen of death. During the file transfer, I basically allowed Migration Assistant to do its thing on auto-pilot. I did encounter some errors during the process, but never bothered deciphering the error log since all my files apparently made the jump.

    I think I know what went wrong. I had some symbolic links (ln -s) set up on the older MacBook Pro. Migration Assistant doesn’t play well with symbolic links and didn’t re-create them on the new computer. So, while using Filemaker to output some data files, my script choked because the output path that relied on symbolic links was invalid. The other thing I discovered is that Make Alias, which works the same as a symbolic link in the point-and-click world, really isn’t exactly the same. Filemaker didn’t like paths that contain a Make Alias folder. When I recreated the symbolic link, the problems disappeared.

  • iPhone 3GS

    I recently upgraded from an iPhone (2G) to an iPhone 3GS. Wow! I heard nothing but bad news about AT&T after the iPhone 3G launch and was really concerned that I would be stuck with a 3G phone on an EDGE connection. So far, I have not experienced any major problems. I have been able to pick up a 3G signal whenever I am outside the house, which is basically when I need it most. Inside, if I turn off Wi-Fi, I am still stuck on EDGE, so no improvement there.

    First, the iPhone 3GS is significantly faster than the iPhone 2G. Applications launch faster and games appear to run smoother. However, I blame some of the lag on the iPhone 3.0 software. After I installed the iPhone 3.0 software on the original iPhone, I discovered a noticeable lag whenever I selected the iPod button. However, I was not about to revert back to 2.x. So, I will say that the iPhone 3GS is perceptibly faster than the iPhone 2G.

    However, the real improvement is in the data speeds. When I am out on the road and really need a piece of information, EDGE is better than nothing. Google, with its spartan interface, runs pretty fast on EDGE. So, I can still run some basic queries. Plus, I had grown accustomed to the limitations of EDGE and knew better than to give it more than it could handle. With 3G, the gloves are off. I can now exploit the full potential of the iPhone. For example, I needed to lookup the Apple Store on a map earlier today. I knew that I was only 1-2 blocks away, but was uncertain as to the direction. I think the iPhone 3GS was able to display a map of my location and stick a pin on the Apple Store in seconds. I was totally amazed because the iPhone 2G would have taken 20-30 seconds to download the map. I’ve been through more than my fair share of waiting for maps to download in the past two years. 3GS. Totally worth it.

  • iPhone Design

    iphone-bento

    Looks like a bento box. Yum.

  • MacBook Pro 17 inch 2.8 GHz

    Last week, I picked up a new 17-inch MacBook Pro because the previous one I had caught the black screen flu. Here’s my quick review.

    • Speed. Nothing exciting really happens when moving from 2.4 GHz to 2.8 GHz. Mathematically, the new MacBook Pro has a 16% faster processor, but I cannot perceive the difference. At one point in time, a 400 MHz upgrade would have been good news.
    • Keyboard. I really like the feel of the new keyboard. It provides the right resistance and offers a great tactile response. I was absolutely awed the first time I touched the internal keyboard. That said, I will still be doing 99% of my typing on an external keyboard.
    • Screen. Now that matte screens cost an extra $100, I picked up my first glossy edition instead. The screen is not as reflective as I had previously feared. Totally usable.
    • Hard Drive. Ho hum. Already had a 500 GB drive in my previous MacBook Pro. I’m glad Apple finally decided to upgrade the specs so I wouldn’t have to downgrade to a smaller hard drive.
    • Memory. No change, except that the maximum memory capacity is 8 GB instead of 4 GB. Not willing to shell out $1,000 from Apple or $634 from Other Word Computing for 8 GB. Maybe in a year or so when prices come down. The only time that 4 GB really feels inadequate is when I’m running VMWare Fusion, and I try to run that as least as possible.
    • Trackpad. I guess you get a larger trackpad when it’s not split between the trackpad half and the clickable half. Took me a few minutes to get used to this.
    • Function Keys. In its infinite wisdom, Apple decided to move the functions around. Not better, not worse, just different.
    • Ports. Ugh. Instead of ports on both sides of the MacBook Pro, Apple placed all the ports on the left-hand side. The front-loading SuperDrive is now a right-hand-side-loading SuperDrive. I was not pleased with this development since I previously connected a mouse to my MacBook Pro via a right-hand-side USB port. Fortunately, I still had an open port on my external keyboard or else the mouse would have to take a very circuitous route. That or learn to be a lefty.
    • Latch. I like the magnetic latch instead of the physical latch. The latch on my even older PowerBook G4 is failing so I know those parts can wear out. Who knows how well the new magnetic latch will perform 5 years from now. Have to wait and see.

    Of course, the most amazing thing for me was how Apple was faring during this so-called recession. The mini Apple store at the Stanford Shopping Center was absolutely packed during a weekday. Unbelievable. While other retail stores are closing or offering significant discounts, Apple is still cruising on.

  • MacBook Pro Black Screen

    Earlier this week, I tried to summon my MacBook Pro from its slumber. While the MacBook Pro turned on, the screen remained black. No problem. I know that if the MacBook Pro case is closed and I accidently touch the external keyboard or mouse, the computer will sometimes awaken with a black screen. So, I shut down the computer, restarted, and still saw the black screen. Now, I was worried.

    I reset the PRAM and tried a bunch of other tips offered online, all to no avail. Eventually, I concluded that my MacBook Pro suffered from a defective NVIDIA graphics processor. Although I had purchased my MacBook Pro two years ago, Apple recently announced that it will provide free repairs for this problem for three years from the date of purchase. Actually, before the NVIDIA graphic processor failed completely, the screen did start to behave strangely. Nothing permanent though. I had only noticed in Safari that when the browser was loading certain background images, the colors would be off until Safari had completely loaded the image.

    Anyways, I took a trip down to the local Genius Bar. The Genius saw the black screen and tried to hook up the MacBook Pro to an external monitor. That failed as well. He then took my MacBook Pro to a back room to run additional tests. After 15 minutes, he returned to tell me that my graphics processor was dead and that I would have to leave the computer with Apple for 3-4 days to change out the logic board.

    Well, since I could not work without a computer, I picked up a new MacBook Pro, transferred over my files, and left my old MacBook Pro behind. See you in a week.

  • PowerBook / MacBook: Half Keyboard Doesn’t Work

    Strange things can happen when the kids play with the computer. So, the kids managed to restart the computer. However, they couldn’t get past the login prompt. And, neither could I.

    When I tried to login, half the keyboard didn’t work. Only the right-side of the keyboard would work when I tried to enter the password. I restarted the computer again and it made no difference. I thought about resetting the PRAM, but that requires depressing keys on the left-side of the keyboard. While cleaning out the keyboard with a pressurized duster, I discovered that the num lock key was lit. 🙂 That explains why only the right-side of the keyboard worked.

  • Apple iPhone Biometric Security

    AppleInsider reports that Apple is developing biometric-based security features for the iPhone and Mac. While the concept sounds promising, I cannot help but think of how their current facial recognition efforts in iPhoto consistently triggers false positives.

  • iLife ’09: iPhoto Promises Face Detection and Face Recognition

    At Macworld 2009, Philip Schiller announced iLife ’09. For around $80, you get the latest versions of iPhoto, IMovie, Garageband and iWeb. $20 per program does not sound bad if you are actually using all four applications. In my case, I’m only using iPhoto, which was not worth the $80 upgrade fee.

    So, my reason for upgrading to the latest version of iPhoto was to take advantage of the new face detection and recognition features in iPhoto. My current process is to tag all my photos with the names of the persons in the photo using the keyword feature. By setting shortcuts for the most common keywords (or names), I can tag the photos pretty quickly. Then, I have several Smart Albums that pull in the most recent photos that have been tagged with a particular name.

    If Faces worked as well as Phil had promised, I could save a lot of time. So, I’ve had iPhoto ’09 up and running for over a week now and I am not impressed. After tagging over 1,000 faces in hundreds of photos, iPhoto still fails miserably. I recently tracked iPhoto’s success rate to see whether my perception was fair or not. Of the 20 faces in a series of photos, iPhoto correctly identified 8 of them, could not recognize 8 of them, and incorrectly identified 4 of them. So, a 40% success rate sounds about right.

    From my experience, iPhoto is better at recognizing the faces of adults. I think this occurs for two reasons. First, adults know to look directly at the camera. iPhoto works real well when a face is vertical, top to bottom. When a persons starts turning their head or completely lays down horizontally, iPhoto has problems detecting faces and recognizing them. Forget about the side profile. I have yet to see iPhoto even detect a face when the photo only contains one side of a face. As for children, kids being kids, their faces can be tilted any angle as they please, which confuses iPhoto. Secondly, the faces of adults do not change as dramatically over time. So, if you prolifically take hundreds of photos of your young ones, don’t expect iPhoto to bail you out with automatic face recognition. Too bad. This feature would really be awesome if it worked right.

  • MacBook Pro Upgrade with Hitachi 500GB Hard Drive

    After I purchased Dora the Explorer, Season One from the iTunes Store, I discovered that it was also time to upgrade the hard drive inside the MacBook Pro. With only 4GB free, I decided that I should not wait any longer. There were only so many file that I could delete without regret.

    So, I headed to Other World Computing and purchased a Hitachi 500GB Travelstar 5K500, which is suitable only for the MacBook Pro 17-inch. OWC also was selling a Samsung 500GB Spinpoint M6, which should fit inside a MacBook Pro 15-inch. I also picked up an OWC On-The-Go Firewire 800 case.

    When the hard drive arrived, I inserted it into the OWC case and connected it to the MacBook Pro. After I formatted the new drive using Disk Utility, I cloned my 160GB Fujitsu internal hard drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. This took about 3 1/2 hours. In retrospect, I think the Firewire 800 case was overkill. I would have been fine with a Firewire 400 case. Anyways, I designated the external drive as the Startup Drive (under System Preferences) and rebooted the MacBook Pro. With the MacBook Pro starting up without any problems, I knew that the hard drive was good to go.

    Next, I followed the instructions on iFixit for installing a hard drive on a MacBook Pro 17″. Just follow the instructions and keep your screws labelled. After each step, I placed the screws on a piece of white paper and wrote down the location and step associated with the screws. The only problem I came across was one screw that I couldn’t loosen. A friend stopped by and used a flat-head screwdriver to remove it. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.

    Once the MacBook Pro was reassembled, I started it up. System Profiler now shows a Hitachi hard drive with a capacity of 465.44 GB. Not quite 500 GB.