During my time here at OWC, I have cultivated my love of the Mactintosh independent software community. In the past, I have shared some software gems with you, be it here on the OWC Blog, in various QuickTips and in full-blown reviews. What I’ve always liked about independent software companies is that they often put out software that’s just as good as (and sometimes, better than) the larger software companies at a fraction of the price, so I’m generally glad to toss a few bucks their way and/or give them a featured write-up.

It’s a part of that support for independent developers that I feel the need to draw attention to a great deal going on over at MacHeist. These guys somehow manage to get together high-quality pieces of software from independent developers and bundle them together for additional savings over the already affordable prices of most independent software. For a limited time, though, they’ve got an even better price on their bundle than they usually do – FREE!

Yep. that’s right. For the next six days or so, you can register and download the MacHeist nanoBundle at absolutely no cost.

So what’s in this free bundle? Let’s take a look. more…

Continuing on with our series of instructional videos, this week we take a look at another common upgrade for the 2009 MacBook—putting in a new hard drive. You can always use more storage space, so adding a new hard drive is something you may want to consider if you’re “feeling the pinch” of too little room.

Fortunately, unlike with the new iMacs, upgrading the hard drive on the new MacBooks is easy to do. All you need are the right materials and the knowledge of how to perform the upgrade.

First, you’ll need a compatible hard drive.

You’ll also want to have the appropriate tools – in this case, a #00 Phillips screwdriver and a Torx T6 screwdriver (both of which are available in the NewerTech 11-piece Toolkit).

If you plan on transferring the data from your old drive, you’ll need some way of accessing it, either via a docking device like the NewerTech Voyager Q or S2, an external drive enclosure, or a simple USB adapter, such as the NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter. Personally, I’d suggest the enclosure, as it lets you continue to use the old drive for other purposes.

The final thing you need is knowledge, and that brings us back to where we came in. Our latest instructional video will walk you step-by-step through the installation process, and you can find it both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube Channel.

NewerTech’s Guardian MAXimus® is the Plug & Play solution that keeps your data safe with real-time data redundancy via hardware RAID-1 Mirroring. Connect to any Mac or (or PC) with FireWire 800, FireWire 400, eSATA, or USB 2.0 and it does the rest. Perfect for the ultimate Time Machine backup too!

Fast, Easy to Use, Priced Right too!

The NewerTech Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 FW800/400+eSATA+USB2 ‘Quad Interface’ solution provides high performance, exceptional data protection/reliability, and plug and play simplicity with its Oxford936 based bridge interface. This solution is a hardware RAID 1 ‘Redundant Mirror’ which automatically and real-time keeps your data backed up to protect against a hard disk failure. LED indicators on the front of the solution indicate the status of the two drives. Should a drive ever experience a malfunction, normal data operation continues seamlessly. If the malfunction if a recoverable ‘soft’ type, the Guardian MAXimus will rebuild the mirror (also without data interruption) automatically. If the disk failure requires a drive to be replaced, once the new drive is installed – again, the Guardian MAXimus will automatically rebuild the Mirror without loss of data to time.

Available in capacities of up to 2.0TB + 2.0TB Mirrored, the Guardian MAXimus is a sleek, compact Aluminum design of only 9.0″ Long x 2.8″ Wide x 5.8″ High. In addition to the benefits of Hardware RAID 1 Mirroring, these solutions are full certified for Audio/Video, Backup, Graphics, Music, General Data needs and more! With 2 x FW800, 1 x FW400, 1 x USB 2.0/1.1, & 1 x eSATA Ports – units are fully Bootable and provide excellent access flexibility to stored data based via whatever interface choice(s) are available on systems solution may be connected to.

NewerTech Guardian MAXimus FW800/400+USB2+eSATA RAID 1 prices:

• 320GB + 320GB Mirror 7200RPM w/32MB total Data Buffer –  now $219.99 (a $10 Price Drop)
• 500GB + 500GB Mirror 7200RPM w/32MB total Data Buffer –  now $229.99 (a $10 Price Drop)
• 750GB + 750GB Mirror 7200RPM w/64MB total Data Buffer – remains at $299.99
• 1.0TB + 1.0TB Mirror 7200RPM w/64MB total Data Buffer – remains at $319.99
• 1.5TB + 1.5TB Mirror 7200RPM w/64MB total Data Buffer – remains at $399.99
• 2.0TB + 2.0TB Mirror 7200RPM w/64MB total Data Buffer – now $519.99 (a $30 Price Drop)

Solutions all include connecting cables for FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB, and eSATA + Intech HD Speedtools Utility Suite for Apple OS X, Prosoft DataBackup III – Full retail application for Apple OS X ($59 retail value), NovaStor NovaBackup – Full Retail Application for Windows ($49 retail value), everything you need to plug and play and go. Solutions are further backed by a full THREE YEAR NewerTech Solution Warranty.

Also Available – do it yourself GMAX RAID-1:
0GB Kit – build your own Guardian Mirror available now $139.99 (an $8 price drop) – software bundle & cables included.

Special Offer: NewerTech Guardian solutions qualify for Prosoft Drive Genius OWC Exclusive Special Offer!

Buy Drive Genius now for as low as $25 with purchase of a qualifying storage product – That’s up to 74% off retail price, up to 37% off OWC’s lowest normal selling price! Details online here: http://eshop.macsales.com/special_offer/prosoft_Drive_Genius

During the course of a normal day here, I see/hear/read a lot of customer correspondence. The majority of it is very complimentary which is very gratifying and really pumps up the team morale here. Sometimes one comes by though that is a bit unique in nature/subject and I dive into those with much curiosity. Such was the case yesterday when I saw an exchange between a customer and none other than OWC Larry…the CEO here for you newbies. Now before you say, “well sure, probably a long time customer who has spent gazillions with OWC!”, what sealed the deal for me was that this customer was two years new to us.

It turns out Scott A. from Saint Paul, MN, was looking for a bigger Cinema Display for a legacy MacBook Pro. He had stopped by an Apple store and was told to contact us. While we didn’t have anything that Scott could purchase, OWC Larry researched it enough to refer Scott directly to another source as his best option and provided a link to the exact listings.

And while Scott summed up his appreciation for this action as:

“You guys are a great source of expert, practical,  helpful information about Mac products…you must be if the Genius Bar at the Apple Store recommends you.”

the entire interaction got me thinking that truly is one of the OWC Differences…we aren’t about selling products as really anyone can create a storefront and do that. We do, from every corner in our LEED Platinum designed building, truly exist to serve you. Is that a “Genius” approach to running a successful business? I dare say it’s surely better, and more soul fulfilling, than putting the bottom line on a pedestal. And I think the man in the poster looking over my shoulder in my office would agree.

We’ve received four configurations of the 21.5″ and four configurations of the 27″ machines so far.  The quad core i5 and i7 machines aren’t due out till later this month.  Between the advancements in Snow Leopard and adding additional memory to these computers, they sure can go fast!

In fact – we found up to a 46% performance boost by installing the OWC 16GB Memory Upgrade Kit versus the factory installed 4GB.

We’ve run the machines through a rigorous battery of benchmark tests to test not only the pure processing speed of these machines, but also show what adding OWC memory to the setup can do.  Additionally, the different video card options have also been pitted against each other, so if you haven’t purchased your iMac yet, we now offer a definitive tool for making an informed decision on which graphics card to order.  Both of the Radeon HD options prove to generate twice the gaming frame rates than the Nvidia equipped model.  Not too shabby!

Unlike the prior generation of iMacs, these models have a total of four DDR3 memory slots. You can add an additional 4GB kit and have 8GB total or an 8GB kit and have 12GB total without removing  the standard factory 4GB.

Should you want to max the memory up to 16GB, you will need to take out those original modules. While Apple officially supports up to 16GB in all the new iMac models, they only offer up to 8GB in the 21.5″ model. Not only does OWC offer you the options for up to 16GB total, but even if you just need an additional 4GB, we’ll save you 50% compared to the same installed by Apple.

The results make our company mantra ring true.  ”More Memory = Faster Mac!”

As additional machines are run through the same tests, they will appear on the same page as our overall goal is to have every Snow Leopard compatible machine tested using the same process.

Sometimes even the best educated guesses can be thrown for a loop when an unforeseen “X-Factor” comes into play. Such is the case with the Late 2009 iMacs.

As we were getting information together for the new iMac instructional videos, we came across a little tidbit that, apparently, hasn’t been covered anywhere else: Apple has switched the iMac’s method of hard drive temperature sensing. They’ve gone from an external sensor that attached to the outside surface of the drive to a connector that seems to use the drive’s internal sensors. more…

Every now and then, you may find that your startup seems slower than normal or that some things are just not working the way they used to. When that happens, it is usually best to be proactive, rather than putting it off until the problem potentially gets worse. There are numerous things that can cause problems with your Mac, both hardware and software. When working with computers, it pays to not only have a physical toolkit, but also some good software tools to help with various situations. Having the right options at your disposal can help save time, which most people do not seem to have enough of.

One great little maintenance utility you can use is Onyx. Onyx takes several important maintenance tasks and puts them all in to one easy to use package. Even better, though, this software is free! more…

Just last week, Apple released a bunch of new Macs. You know what that means; it’s time for more upgrade videos!

To start out this new batch of upgrade instructions, we’re going to show you how to upgrade the memory in the new MacBook.

If you’re a regular reader of the OWC Blog, you should know by now that—dollar for dollar—adding more memory to your system gives you the best performance boost for the investment. Combine that with Snow Leopard’s ability to utilize memory better than its predecessors, and you have very little reason for not putting as much RAM into your Mac as you can reasonably afford.

Fortunately, Apple made upgrading the memory in the new MacBooks incredibly easy to do. Just remove the bottom cover, replace the memory and then close it all up. In no time at all, you’ll be able to upgrade the stock 2GB of memory to 4GB or even 8GB!

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? See for yourself by checking out the video in our Tech Center or on our YouTube Channel.

Often these lists are pretty boring or cover a very narrow niche of sites. So, when I came across this “50 Kick @$$ Websites You Need To Know About” created by MaximumPC, I was pretty dubious I would find anything too captivating.

Wrong.

Being frugal and a deal hunter, the entry about Craiglook.com caught be by surprise. The lead in “Craiglist Gets Unstuck from 1995″ and a visual of what the results look like will now have me using that portal for all my buying and selling needs. For me, Craigslist is a blast…I’ve bought and sold such a variety of items that it truly is a one stop marketplace. So anything that improves that experience is a Top Site in my book.

As I only had a brief moment to check out the entire list, the other selection that caught my eye was What The Font. Now while the MaximumPC lead in was “Because Not Everyone Uses Helvetica”, any site that has something to do with fonts always catches my eye. The reason for that is because I have deemed OWC Chris here a “fontaholic” for his hobby/interest/whatever in collecting fonts. To me, that’s a pretty cerebral pursuit and really an appreciation of visual nuances that many of us just overlook on the superhighway of daily tasks.

So if those two sites are new to you or you’re interested in what you might find equally captivating, check out the list. And if all of this hasn’t been too thrilling then I suppose this might suffice for some real geek interest.

About a year ago, OWC CEO Larry O’Connor revisited a recurring topic in his Tips n’ Deals Newsletter and OWC Chris covered that in a post on how the Rules of Upgrading rarely change.

Both of them explored five different ways you can upgrade your Mac to extend its useful life. Since some time has transpired, some new machines were released by Apple, and Snow Leopard has now become a reality, it’s time we take a fresh look at some “old” rules of upgrading:

#1 – Upgrade Your Memory
I think we’ve lost count of how many times we’ve talked about how upgrading your memory gives you the best performance boost for the investment. Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 is a 64-bit (along with its applications) which allows each application to address more than 4GB of RAM at a time. OSX’s memory management now is a lot more flexible in keeping its cached instructions, lessening the need for a hard drive hit.

The bottom line is simple: Your OS and Applications can certainly run on the minimum memory, but having more memory installed makes for a whole lot more enjoyable and productive experience, all for a low investment. With upgrades ranging from $44.97 for a 2GB module for a MacBook, through 16GB of RAM for an iMac, up to a full 32GB of memory priced at $27.25 per GB to max out your Mac Pro, a memory upgrade is dollar-for-dollar the best investment you can make for your Mac.

You can find memory (and other upgrades) for nearly every Mac produced over the past two decades with our easy online upgrade guide. In addition to the instructions you’ll find in just about any Apple computer manual, we’ve got easy-to-follow free installation videos that further illustrate how easy it is for you to get that memory into your Mac. And if you need further help, it is just a click a way in our online tech center.

#2 – Upgrade Your Storage.
The big news for 2009 was the rapid pace of developments in storage capacity, speed, and overall performance. Now we’re talking up to 2.0TB for 3.5″ drives, up to 1.0TB for 2.5″ drives, and SSDs have truly emerged as a legitimate consideration. Since we promised SSD benchmarks in our last coverage of this upgrade, we’re going to focus on them here. I did a comparison of how SSDs measured up to hard drives and SSDs were the speed, reliability, and quiet running champs. Just how much faster are SSDs? Check it out: more…

It’s a fact the files we work with on a day-to-day basis are getting larger. As digital cameras grow more advanced, so do the sizes of the pictures they take. Music is now available in near-pristine, lossless formats and movies are now are in high-definition video with multichannel soundtracks. Then, there are the various applications themselves, many of which can take up multiple gigabytes. All this data takes up space and before you know it, your hard drive is maxed out.

When you find yourself in this predicament , you have three options: clean out some accumulated files, get an external storage solution to move files to and provide more storage capacity, or use our free instructional videos to put a higher capacity drive into your machine.

Cleaning out older files isn’t really a viable option. Eventually, your drive will continue to fill and you’re back to square one.

Transferring older and/or duplicate files to an external drive is often the easiest route to take and we make that option simple with Plug and Play solutions for Macs and PCs. Unfortunately, if you’re highly mobile and using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, carrying around that extra drive and the connection cables (even with a bus-powered pocket-sized drive like the Mercury On-The-Go Pro) adds a few more things to pack and keep your eyes on.

Which brings us to upgrading your Mac’s internal drive. While the thought of “opening the hood” on your machine sounds daunting, it’s actually very straightforward with our instructional videos that walk you through the process.

After upgrading your internal drive, transferring your data over from your “old” drive to a new, faster, larger one is just as easy when using Migration Assistant in conjunction with a fresh install of OS X. To show you how to get it done, OWC Chris has created step-by-step instructions in our Tips & Reviews archives.

And when you’ve got everything up and running with all the data you had from the previous drive, we even make it easy to retask that “old” drive, by either putting it into an external enclosure or using it with one of our Voyager hard drive docks. If you choose the enclosure route, we may even have an installation video to show you how to do that too!

It doesn’t get any easier than OWC for the tips, tools, and products you need to get more from your technology investment.

Back in August ,when Apple updated their MacBook Pro line of laptops, the ExpressCard slot was replaced with an SD cardslot.  Here in October, Apple again has added this feature to the entire iMac lineup. It’s located just beneath the optical drive on each machine.

This would be a good time to revisit my prior article: What good is the MacBook Pro SD card slot anyway? to learn how to make the most out of this added feature.  It goes into detail on making a boot drive out of an SD card as well as an emergency startup disk.

Additionally, the widescreen form factor of the new iMac lends to using the machines for multimedia displays.  An SD card makes a great medium for transferring your multimedia data between computers.  A DVD quality movie takes up about 2GB per hour of playtime.  With SD cards ranging from 2GB to 32GB currently, one could store up to 16 hours of footage on a single card.  More exciting is the introduction of the SDXC format which as early as 2010 could have us storing from 64GB up to 2.0TB on a single card.

I for one wouldn’t be surprised to see movies, TV shows and other media being distributed on SD cards just the same as we see CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs currently. Time will tell on that one.

As mentioned in one of my blog posts last Friday, we’ve been busy testing the limits of the 2009 Mac mini models.  In late August, Apple released Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.2 which improves compatibility with the latest Apple memory kits on Mac mini computers.

It did a little more than that though.  It improved compatibility of OWC brand memory as well.  As all of our memory meets or exceeds Apple’s requirements for RAM, it’s no surprise that, yet again, OWC can support memory expansion beyond the maximum installed amount suggested by Apple.

We have fully tested all 2009 release date Mac mini computers with both Leopard and Snow Leopard and found no issues regarding which OS was used for testing a full 8.0GB of RAM installed.  Under both operating systems, the memory was fully utilized and no system detriment in speed was observed.

Keep in mind, this information is for Mac mini model identifier macmini3,1.  Intel Mac mini machines released prior to 2009 (macmini1,1 or macmini2,1) have hardware limitations that only allow those machines to max out RAM at 2.0GB and 3.0GB respectively.

Want to take your mini to the maximum? OWC has the Mac mini upgrades you need to make your machine screaming fast.

I really couldn’t wait on this… this news is just too juicy to bottle up for the whole weekend.

While we’re not completely finished with our compatibility testing, early signs are pointing to 8GB of memory supported in not only the new October 2009 Mac mini models, but prior generation mini models as well.  We believe we found the “secret ingredient” that makes exceeding Apple’s recommended 4GB maximum in these machines possible.

Previous testing revealed prior generations of the Mac mini were able to boot with 8GB of memory, but sadly either did not utilize the extra memory installed or – even worse – made the entire machine slower when accessing more than 4GB of memory at a time.  In Late August, Apple released Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.2 and this allowed these generations to boot without kernel panic. However, we still found that most systems slowed to a crawl when exceeding 4GB of memory in the system.

So far, here’s what we recently found though: our OWC 8GB Upgrade Kit works in the latest Mac mini 2.26 and 2.53 machines and are consistently and completely utilized by the machines.  We then tested these same modules on the prior generation Mac mini (early 2009)… and found them to work consistently as well! All units tested were running Snow Leopard.

We do have more testing to do using the same memory modules with prior Mac mini generation models running OS X 10.5. We also need to do performance tests to make sure that the additional memory actually gives a solid performance boost when more than 4GB is installed. But at this point, we’re feeling pretty confident that our “secret ingredient”…namely the quality of OWC brand memory… delivers the reliability you desire.

Be sure to check back Monday as we’re hoping to complete our testing at that time and be able to confirm that we will support over 4GB of memory in the Mac mini, or if my excitement got the better of me.

With Apple’s new machine releases, we’re hard at work in the OWC Test Labs seeing just how fast we can make the machines go.

Our first machine that we’re looking at is the October 2009 2.26GHz MacBook.  This machine is pretty tight on the inside – meaning there isn’t much extra unnecessary space inside.  Like the iPod and iPhone, conservation of space seems to be a high-priority of Apple’s design teams.  So even though the machine is lighter and sleeker, it does pose some drawbacks in upgrading.  This Macbook has no problem running either a 5400rpm, 7200rpm or SSD drive for the fastest speeds, however; the physical height of the drive is limited to the 9.5mm form factor.  The 12.5mm drives are too tall to fit in the space provided.

I should reiterate that point.  The drive doesn’t officially fit.  Sure, we were able to cram it in, and screw the cover closed (with a little bowing of the bottom) but we don’t suggest or will support actually running the drive this way.  Too much physical pressure on a drive can certainly contribute to early drive failure – it’s just not worth risking your data or the expense of a warranty compromised drive.

We’re pleased to announce our findings that our OWC brand memory certainly takes the cake in these machines!  While Apple lists 4GB as the maximum amount of installable memory, our 8GB memory kit OWC8566DDR3S8GP is now tested and fully certified for the full 8GB utilization – a real performance benefit for memory intensive application loads. While we were at it, we also tested another brand 8GB memory kit and found it consistently caused kernel panics and non-boot issues. Even though both are the same spec of DDR3 1066MHZ SO-DIMM, sometimes quality does have its result.

Thus, when we talk about how OWC brand memory meets or exceeds all Apple requirements for memory, it’s not just idle chatter or marketing-speak. Our on-premise testing lab enables us to physically confirm this fact for every machine listed in our compatibility charts.  Then, we back our quality assurance with a lifetime warranty.  How can you go wrong?

In case you missed it in our other posts, there’s an important change in the new 13.3″ 2.26GHz MacBook White that Apple announced earlier this week: FireWire compatibility has been removed completely.

This is an important thing to note, as this means that if you have any older FireWire-only devices, you’re not going to be able to use them with the new MacBook.

This is not an entirely surprising development, though; we’ve been given glimpses of this direction for quite a while. Apple has reduced FireWire’s presence to a single FireWire 800 port on most models (though the Mac Pro has four) and has completely eliminated FireWire 400. Given this reduction, removing FireWire entirely on the “consumer” models seems to be the next logical step.

In fact, we were given a preview of this step this time last year, when the aluminum Unibody portables were first introduced. The 13″ model was labeled as a “MacBook” and had no FireWire ports, just USB. Does that sound slightly familiar? Sure, the 13″ aluminum ‘Book eventually did get FireWire back, in the form of a single FW800 port, but it is also important to note that when it did, it was also reclassified as a “MacBook Pro”.

So, really, Apple removing FireWire from the $999 13.3″ 2.26GHz MacBook White is nothing to be all that shocked about. We’ve ridden that ride and purchased the souvenir t-shirt.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not happy about this development at all. I liked FireWire and still find it superior to USB 2.0 for most data transfer purposes. Unfortunately, though, its popularity seems to be on the wane, and we – as Mac users – should probably get used to it.

Fortunately, most of the newer storage solutions and consumer electronics have USB 2.0 functionality built in, so you still have options for external storage and data capture.

It just won’t be quite as fast.

When it comes to redesigns, the new MacBooks have the most external changes. The case is now a Unibody design, only made of a polycarbonate material, rather than the aluminum of the MacBook Pros. As part of that change, the battery is now non-removable, keeping it in line with the rest of Apple’s portable line, and, as an added touch, the bottom is now rubberized, to prevent it from sliding around while in use.

Of course, as with many Apple updates, we wind up losing something, too. This time around, was the final death knell for FireWire on the MacBook. This isn’t much of a surprise, however. About this time last year, when Apple announced the original aluminum Unibody portables, the MacBook model had no FireWire, either. That was an interface found only on the MacBook Pro models, and the older-design MacBooks. When they finally did add FireWire to the 13″ aluminum MacBook, Apple also tacked on “Pro” to the end of the name. In light of all this, losing FireWire on the new MacBooks really isn’t all that surprising. Disappointing? Yes, but not surprising.

Despite the outward appearances, though, when it comes to upgrading, there’s not a whole lot of difference in options between the older MacBooks and this new one. Your main upgrades will be the memory and the hard drive.

more…

I for one think its about time that the Apple remote received a bit of a facelift.  While most of the Apple line went from white to Aluminum, the apple remote itself remained white.  Until now.

The play/pause button has been relocated on the remote to the lower right next to the menu button, making it a bit easier to press than the center button on the previous model.  I for one kept accidentally turning down my volume while trying to use the functions of that button.

While functionally the same as its predecessor, the new look to match the MacBook Pro, iMac, and outer edge of the Mac mini is a welcome change.  It is even compatible with all the Apple products that the prior remote is compatible with, so no issues with backwards compatibility.