macBlogger - Apple Mac Blog

I’m in the mood for pimping my Macbook.

A few months ago I spotted a really cool hard case for a Macbook on Ken’s blog. Ken purchased a Green case from Speck Products for a measly €55 (approx).

I have taken a fancy to the above orange shell myself and I went about doing my ordering thing last week but I stopped short of a heart-attack before I entered in my credit card details.

Yes folks, they are charging $47.03 for delivery of a piece of plastic from somewhere in America to Ireland. $96.98 may not seem like too much, it’s only €67.21, but there is no way in hell I’m paying that much for delivery.

Time to go on Ebay me thinks.

It’s nice to be able to spoil yourself now and then but I do have a legitimate reason for wanting some new fancy speakers.

The built in sound on my Macbook echos too much of a whimper and not enough of a roar. It’s time to blast out some proper noise.

I have settled on getting a JBL Creature II Speakers + Subwoofer system from Komplett but I can’t decide whether to go for the red set or the white.

Both of these speakers are also available to buy from the Apple Store but Komplett are charging €14.30 less for the same exact product. Apple are charging €108.30 after tax while Komplett are only €94.00. However, Komplett are currently out of stock with the Red Speaker set while Apple are fully in stock (not that it’s a big problem or anything)

I’m leaning to the red speakers myself, they are damn swanky, but I wonder how they will look next to a white Macbook?

I knew when I purchased my MacBook that the 512MB of RAM which it came with wouldn’t suffice for my needs. I held off until I could justify upgrading the RAM as I have the luxury of owning two Macs. I use my iMac for anything intensive and my MacBook as a second machine. As my iMac is home alone in Cork and I’m up in the “Big Smoke” of exotic Dublin, the time had finally come to upgrade.

And thus began a little bit of research into the matter of upgrading RAM on a MacBook..

The first thing you need to do is to find out what type of RAM comes installed on your MacBook. You can check this by clicking on the Apple Icon and by going to ‘About This Mac’. The second row will indicate the type of RAM you have. In my case I have 2GB 667 HMz DDR2 SDRAM (previously I had 512MB).

Once you know what you need to buy you need to find a reseller. Steer well clear of Apple when buying RAM. A quick search for RAM at Applestore.ie indicates that 2GB of RAM would cost me €290!

Crucial are by far the cheapest supplier of RAM. I purchased the same 2GB of RAM which Apple had priced at €290 for €70. That’s more than a 400% difference in price.

The Crucial website is extermely user friendly when selecting your product. They have a step by step ’shop assistant’ which guides you to the correct product before checking out. Be sure to avoid any confusion by double checking your processor type when selecting your model as there are Intel Core Duo and Intel Core 2 Duo types available.

RAM has never been cheaper so go for as much RAM as you can afford.

I ordered my 2GBs of RAM on a Tuesday evening from Crucial’s American based store and I had the package in my hands on a Friday morning in Dublin! I was extremely impressed with their speedy delivery!

The actual RAM installation was an absolute breeze. The only thing you should be made aware of are Apple’s use of tiny screws. You will need a screwdriver such as a Phillips size 00 screwdriver to complete the job. There is an excellent guide on how to install RAM on a MacBook on apples’ site.

When placing the RAM within the slot be sure to apply firm pressure in order to get it into the bracket provided. If you place your fingers at either end of the inserted RAM and if you notice that you can slightly nudge the RAM then you haven’t applied enough pressure.

I have a single GB of RAM on my iMac and no doubt I’ll be upgrading that in the not too distant future as well.

Since i always forget when they’re needed… here’s some of the os x boot keys that do stuff

Command-S Boot into Single User Mode
Command-V Boot using “Verbose” mode (shows all kernel and startup console messages)
X Reset startup disk selection and boot into Mac OS X Server
Shift Boot into “Safe Boot” mode, which runs Disk First Aid. A reboot will be required afterward.
Option Boot into Open Firmware to select a boot device
Command-Option-Shift-Delete Bypass internal harddrive on boot
T Boot into Firewire target disk mode
C Boot from the internal optical drive
N Start from the Network (NetBoot)
Command-Option-P-R Reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
(mouse button) Eject (internal) removable media

ALSO: if you use open firmware password… you’ll need this:
Startup Manager -accessed by pressing the Option key during startup
Enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware -press Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482

How to troubleshoot a computer with Open Firmware Password enabled
If you cannot access the Open Firmware Password application and need to troubleshoot your computer by:

Resetting the PRAM
Starting up in Single-user mode
Starting up in Verbose mode
Starting from CD-ROM

Then follow these steps:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key. It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.

The computer restarts and you are now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from CD-ROM.

This weekend I ventured down to Waterford to visit some friends, I was accompanied by my Macbook. Chris has being contemplating splashing out on either a Macbook or Macbook Pro as a direct replacement for his laptop. One of his colleagues in work uses a Macbook Pro and he has fallen for its charms. My Macbook is the one with the lowest spec of the range and he had concerns as to whether it is powerful enough to use for development purposes, i.e for Photoshop and all that lark.

Mac enthusiasts harp on about the ease at which you can convert a Windows user to Mac by simply allowing them to explore a Mac’s features. If you give a toy to a kid and take it away they will probably end up in tears. Chris didn’t cry but he looked disturbed when Damien wanted to play with the Mac. Then Linda wanted to play with the Mac and Damien went into a huff. Larry got in on the action as well. He installed Vista on his Compaq on the same weekend as I visited; lets just say it didn’t go well. They were enthralled with the Mac. They each want one. It’s easy to fall in love with OS X. Damien has become so infatuated with the Macbook that it is on his hit list of purchases. He is trying to decide between it and a Dell lappy running Ubuntu. Get the Mac! We can be macBuddies.

The good news for Chris’s issues with the Macbook’s spec is the recent development which sees Apple  doubling the RAM on the least powerful Macbook. It now stands at 1GB. That’s more than enough for processor intensive applications such as Photoshop/Flash etc…

I’m going to upgrade the 512mb’s of RAM on my Macbook in the not to distant future. I have zero tolerance for egg timers or spinning rainbow circle things (I’m not sure what the egg timer is called on the Mac). Some boards.ie Mac users have recommended Crucial as a supplier of Mac hardware. It’s easy to know why based on these prices. Less than $90 for 2GB’s of RAM. I can’t believe it!

The Apple website provides some information on how to calibrate your Macbook’s battery for increased performance. The article on Apple’s site explains that the MacBook’s ‘battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate.’

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
4. Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Here are some more tips which will help preserve your MacBook’s Battery Life

1. Disable Bluetooth if it’s not in use. Simply right click on the Bluetooth icon and select ‘Bluetooth off’
2. Disable your Macbook’s Airport if it isn’t in use either.
3. Turn down the brightness levels.
4. Close unnecessarily opened applications.
5. Alter your Energy Saving settings. I have the display set to timeout after 30 seconds of inactivity and the Macbook to go into sleep mode after 2 minutes of inactivity.