Category Archives: OS X

Snow Leopard upgrade surprise

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My work recently ordered our Snow Leopard DVD so we can upgrade our iMacs. I did my usual Time Machine backup and upgraded. I didn’t worry much about compatibility since my personal 13″ MBP has been running SL for a few months now and it had the same apps installed – no problems at all.

After I upgrade my work’s iMac, there were problems. I kept getting errors from my Symantec antivirus (I had to install it, work policy even though it isn’t necessary). I reinstalled it and it warned me to install Rosetta. I thought that would be the “aha” so I installed it. It looks like it fixed that problem, but now my Adobe CS3 apps crashes when I launch them. I Googled and it turns out there is an existing compatibility issue with CS3 and SL. It’s weird though since my MBP runs CS3 without a problem.

So now I got another external firewire hard drive. What I’m going to do is restore a backup that I made in Time Machine before upgrade onto an external hard drive. This way I can make sure that’s a clean copy before formatting and restoring it onto my iMac’s hard drive. This is why I love using Macs. When running into problems, I have several options to restore without losing data – as long as you back up data.

Once this is complete and I’m satisfied with the restored data, I will restore the backup onto the iMac. Then I’ll format the external drive and install a clean copy of SL and migrate my Leopard over to see if it’s SL or just my iMac configurations.

Our new iPads

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I stood in line in front of Best Buy to try and get myself and Abby an iPad. I had already planned on getting the 32GB model while she gets the 16GB. Why didn’t I pre-order it or go to Apple you ask? Because of Best Buy’s reward zone points plus Best Buy has no interest for 18 months, that’s why. There were about 20 people in line right before they opened. The manager came out and said that they normally handed out tickets but for the amount of people in line, they will have plenty – plus another truck arrived minutes before with more. So much for worrying about getting one but I was excited to get ours so I didn’t mind standing in line for 30 minutes. I was in 4th and the guy in front said he has been there for 3 hours haha.

Anyway, we got our iPads and it’s better than I thought it would be. First off, I have a 13″ Macbook Pro, a Compaq Mini netbook, a HTC MyTouch 3G phone – so why would I want or need an iPad? What can I do with it that I can’t already do now with my portable devices? And finally, many have made fun of the iPad asking “What is it for?”. Well here is how I look at an iPad device and how I would use it.

  • Instant start up. The iPad powers on with a touch of a button and is useable right away. No waiting for boot up. I do leave my Macbook Pro on and sleeping most of the time but the battery drains – slowly but surely.
  • Size. It is the right size for what it can do. It’s smaller than my laptop and netbook (weight) and it can do the common things like surf on the internet, check emails, read files, and some word processing – I say some because of the virtual keyboard, it can get tiring typing on it. You can however use a bluetooth keyboard if you don’t mind carrying another item. It is larger than my phone but my browsing experience is better on the iPad because it’s larger.
  • iPhone OS. I just love the iPhone OS. I had the first gen iPod touch and iPhone 3G and I missed the user experience after I got rid of them. The functionality and ease of use, no one has been able to match – although Google Android is getting there. But I’m a Mac user and I guess I expect to have a similar experience on other devices other than my computers.
  • Apps and games. Similar to the iPhone OS experience, there aren’t many apps or games you can use/play on mobile devices that give the same experience as they do in the iPhone OS.
  • Ebook reader. This is one that I didn’t care too much for but I’m glad it’s there. There are other ebook readers out there like the Amazon’s Kindle that do a good job. But the iPad not only can do what other ebook readers can do, it can do more , it can be more.
  • Portable video player. It is an excellent portable video player. You can play videos purchased from iTunes, videos encoded with Handbrake or other software, portable formats that come free when you buy the Blu-ray or DVD version, online videos from apps created by ABC network, Netflix (subscription fee), Youtube, etc. And I’m betting more to come, it’s just a great platform for developers to develop on.
  • Battery life. It last longer than my other portable devices even when watching video.

There’s so many things you can do with the iPad even if you already have other portable devices. Many compare it to the iPhone and iPod touch – but just a bigger version. It’s more than that. Yes it’s bigger so your internet surfing experience is better – close to being on a computer… still no Flash support. With HTML5 standards coming soon, this shouldn’t be a problem in the future. Also, the iPad comes with a more powerful processor. Typing on it is a lot more smoother than my iPhone 3G. Apps and games load quicker and more responsive.

I definitely recommend getting one.

iPhone 3G tethering with MyWi

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I recently jailbroke my iPhone 3G running OS 3.1.2. Then I installed MyWi to check out the tethering capabilities for the iPhone. With this app you can tether using USB, bluetooth and wifi.

Here is the speed test results.

The latency is pretty high but the connection seems consistent. I used to run a Verizon V740 internet card and was getting higher speeds – close to 2x faster download. I’m also getting a full signal on AT&T 3G – surprisingly.

Anyways, my Verizon contract is up and I terminated the service. I hardly found use for it. With MyWi, $10 seems like a good deal. Hopefully, AT&T doesn’t pull a “switch” to somehow disable this app.

Snow Leopard UTD finally arrived

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After 6 days since the release of Snow Leopard, my UTD discs finally came in the mail yesterday. I was somewhat upset during launch day when my order status said backordered. It’s puzzling that the company who made the software and distributes it, is backordered. I could’ve gone to the store and bought a full version. I heard they had a ton there.

My co-worker got his full version copy 10am that day. I couldn’t wait so I borrowed it from him after he upgraded his MBP and upgraded my MBP. So far I’ve gotten a few app crashes but it seems after the first crash, they tend to run normal again. I hear 10.6.1 is around the corner so it should fix some stuff.

Anyways, here are some pics I took.

As you can see from the 3rd pic, the UTD (Up to date) discs are upgrade only. The retail $30 ones should be full versions. Another thing I noticed is there is a Optional Install folder now on the disc. It has OS X applications such as Mail, iCal, Address Book, etc. Also has Rosetta. This is great coz in the past, if any of the apps needs to be reinstalled, you can either copy it from another working OS X and fix the permissions or reinstall OS X. Now just pop in the Snow Leopard disc and you can install it anytime.

Here’s a before and after pic of my hard drive on my Mac Mini MB138LL/A. Notice the changes to the hard drive size.

Here’s an article that explains about the capacity change – http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=589.

Logitech MX Revolution

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I just picked up a Logitech MX Revolution mouse and I must say it’s a great mouse. It’s a wireless mouse using RF. The USB receiver is small and it comes with a cradle that recharges the mouse. The shape is nice and my hand feels great when using it. There are a lot of buttons that can be customized to open different programs or websites. What’s really impressive is the scroller. There are 2 modes – hyperfast and traditional. The hyperfast scrolling allows you to “flick” up and down. This is beneficial when viewing tall and long documents and/or web pages. You can toggle between the 2 modes by clicking down on the scroller. Here’s a pic that compares the size and contour of the MX Revolution, MX 310, MX 1000, and a Rocketfish bluetooth mouse.