Do you have an Apple aficionado that’s notoriously hard to buy for? Do you have an extra $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Well, you can do a number of things…

• Max out the memory in 40 Mac Pros.
• Buy 62 256GB Mercury On-The-Go SSD Triple Interface portable drives – 15.5TB of solid state storage is nothing to sneeze at.
• Buy 5000 single layer, recordable Blu-ray Discs, for over of 122.0TB of recordable storage space
• Buy 31 entry-level Modbooks – get a tablet that’s a real Mac, not just a big iPhone.
• Buy and drink 30,381 cans of Brain Toniq – at 2 cans a day, it would take approximately  41½ years.

All of these are great gifts (even in considerably smaller quantities) but for the ultimate in Apple fandom, you may want to rotate your eyeballs on over to eBay, where someone is selling an Apple I computer, complete with original invoice, shipping box, and letter signed by His Steveness, himself. There’s no bids on it as of this writing, and the starting bid is at fifty grand, so get your checkbooks out for this ultimate in Apple collectibles.

You can ship it to me care of OWC if the holiday spirit is upon you. ;-)

Now that we’ve got upgrade installation videos for the Late ‘09 MacBook and iMacs, we are turning our attention to the other upgraded model – the Mac mini. While we’re hard at work on the upgrade videos for the new Server model, those of you with the standard mini aren’t being left out in the cold. In fact, the videos for your mini are ready to go!

As it turns out, the internals of the Late ‘09 mini are identical to those of the Early ‘09 model. That means the take-apart is exactly the same, too. So whether you want to put in a larger hard drive or bump up the RAM, the free video instructions can be found both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube channel.

Of course, if you decide after watching the process, you’d rather have this upgrade professionally done, we can help you out there, too. Our Installation Service offers swift turnaround and professional results, all at a reasonable price.

Even though your Mac mini isn’t one of Apple’s “flagship” products, it doesn’t mean it can’t be a heck of a workhorse. Maximize your mini’s performance with upgrades and a little help from OWC.

One of the biggest changes in Apple’s lineup last month was the addition of two more memory slots to the new iMacs, giving them a total of four. This gives the new iMacs the capability to handle up to 16GB of RAM. While adding more memory will always improve performance, 16GB really makes a difference.

Apple has generally made the iMac’s memory easy to upgrade, and this revision is no different. Some people, though, like to see it done first before diving in themselves. That’s why this week’s addition to our Instructional Series of videos is all about adding memory to your Late 2009 iMac! It doesn’t matter if you have a 21.5″ or 27″ model, or whether you have a Core 2 Duo, i5, or i7 processor, the process is the same for all of them and we show you how to do it.

As always, you can find this video (and all of our instructional videos) either in our Tech Center or on our YouTube channel.

Four years ago today, Web users everywhere that were looking to escape from the mediocrity of Internet Explorer were treated to the official release of a new browser, Mozilla Firefox. Since then, It has since become one of the most popular Web browsers currently available, second only to Internet Explorer, which, of course, ships as the default browser for Windows.

Firefox started as an offshoot of the Mozilla Application Suite which, in turn, was built on the open-source code of Netscape Communicator. Since then, Mozilla dropped active development in favor of the standalone apps Firefox and Thunderbird, and the full application suite was spun off as the community-developed project, SeaMonkey.

Firefox is considered by most to be stable and safe, and is available in Mac, Windows and Linux versions. That compatibility, plus an extensive add-on architecture which allows users to customize Firefox, are the main contributing factors to its popularity.

Even though I, personally, tend to stick with Safari for the vast majority of my Web browsing (especially in Snow Leopard, where Safari 4 is a 64-bit application), I still keep an updated copy of Firefox handy; every so often, I’ll find a site that pitches a fit over Safari, yet handles Firefox just fine. However, on the two virtual machines (Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux) I have on my MacBook Pro, Firefox is the main browser I use.

Many other people I know, both Mac and Windows users, use Firefox almost exclusively. Its compatibility with many corporate and online banking sites is far better than Safari (without changing user agent strings); I don’t think we need to go into its security advantages over Internet Explorer. ;-) I’ve also found Firefox to be reasonably zippy on PowerPC-based machines, often rendering more complex pages faster than Safari, so it may be a good option for you if you have an older machine.

Overall, Firefox is well worth the download, even if you don’t use it every day. You can find the latest version (v.3.5.5, released late last week) at www.mozilla.org/firefox

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.

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…

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.

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…

After last month’s rather disappointing iTunes event, it’s good to see an Apple product announcement with some substance behind it.

This time around, the improvements were made to products that traditionally catered to the “consumer” end: the iMac, the Mac mini, and the MacBook. There were also a couple of tweaks to the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule, though nothing really worth noting. Rounding out the bunch was the introduction of a new multi-touch mouse.

As we get these new models in for testing (and, of course, videos showing you how to upgrade them) we’ll be going over them in a little more detail. For now, though, let’s reflect on what’s been announced and what potential they hold.

more…

OWC got a little greener today. Our new Vestas V39 Wind Turbine went online today and is now generating the electricity needed to run the OWC corporate facility, including its datacenter, with plenty of energy to spare, which will be sold back to the local power company.

By going the extra mile and planning to generate more than 100% of its total power needs on-site, OWC demonstrates its commitment to the future, its community and the environment.

For more information on the OWC Wind Turbine, as well as the rest of our “green” corporate headquarters, please visit: www.macsales.com/green.

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has acknowledged that there is a bug in Snow Leopard that can be rather devastating to your data. All the data in your Home folder has the potential of disappearing if:

1. you installed OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard over an existing installation of  OS X 10.5 Leopard.
2. you had a Guest account enabled in Leopard, which got brought over to Snow Leopard AND
3. you logged into your Guest account under Snow Leopard.

Damage Control

If all of those three pieces of the puzzle fit together, you may find yourself logging into your main account only to find all your data is gone.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick and simple way to get your data back—you’re going to have to restore from your backups.

By far, the easiest method is to do a full restore from the last time you had all your data. If you clone to an external, simply boot to that drive and clone back to your Mac.

If you use Time Machine, it will take a little longer. You will need to perform a fresh install of OS X on your machine, then choose to import information from your latest Time Machine backup with an intact System folder.

Don’t have a backup? Your data may be lost in the Snow.

Prevention

The first step to avoiding data loss—from this bug or from others—is to establish a backup strategy NOW. Seriously, I mean it…large external drives are dropping in price rather rapidly, so there’s no real reason for not having a complete solution.

The next thing to do: disable the Guest account. Unless you routinely have people temporarily logging onto your computer, leaving the Guest account active at this point is kind of like having a hand grenade sitting on the kitchen table—you’re not going to use it, but if it is accidentally activated, you could be in a whole world of hurt.

To disable the Guest account, go to the Accounts preference pane. You will need an Administrator password to unlock the pane. Once unlocked, select the “Guest Account” option and make sure the box to allow guests to log in is unchecked. Then, close the Preferences window.

Theoretically, if you go back in and re-check that box, you should be able to use the Guest Account normally. However, until an update is released that specifically deals with this issue, doing so is asking for trouble. If you absolutely need to have people logging into your machine, your best bet will be to create a managed (non-admin) account for them.

Simply unlock the Accounts preference pane as described above and click the “+” button on the left. Name the new account whatever you want and don’t give it a password. Make sure that you uncheck the box that allows that account to act as an administrator. Now you have an account that will behave similarly to the Guest account, except when the user logs out, it doesn’t erase their (or your) files.

Repetition

I’m going to say it again, simply because it’s so darn important: make sure you have (and use) a backup strategy. In the light of hardware failures, accidental deletion and now the OS itself threatening your irreplaceable data, failure to have one (or more) backups of your crucial data is an invitation to disaster.

There’s quite a bit of wind blowing around the OWC facilities here in Woodstock, and not all of it is coming out of our Marketing Department. Fortunately, we can put that wind to good use.

As part of our ongoing commitment to making our facility as “green” as possible, OWC has constructed a wind turbine, which should supply 100% of the company’s electrical requirements.

The structure, which can easily be seen towering over the surrounding countryside, was completed late last week, and is slated to pass its final inspections and go online within the next couple of days.

Once online, the turbine will generate approximately 1,250,000 kWh per year (kilowatt hours per year) – more than double the amount that the Other World Computing facility needs, or slightly more than the requirements for your average time machine. The anticipated surplus power will be sold back to local power providers to sell to other customers.

OWC’s power usage will be about 500,000 kWh per year, out of the total anticipated 1,250,000 kWh per year available from wind power generation. However, that usage already demonstrates energy savings, as the geo-thermal heating and cooling system used in the OWC facility is vastly more efficient than traditional means.

By setting our goals high and starting out “Green”, the resulting benefits will be far greater than merely financial. The payback is all around us, and with each new Green undertaking, people will see that they too, can take part in making the world “Green,” one project at a time.

All you hardware junkies out there who want to be in on the “new hardware take-apart” game, it’s time to rejoice. After a brief hiatus, we’ve got a new video in our Instructional Series for your viewing pleasure.

This time around, we’re taking a look at the brand-spankin’-new OWC Value Line 5.25″ Enclosure Kit for SATA Optical Drives. Whether you’re looking to roll your own external Blu-ray Disc recorder, make use of the SATA optical drive you removed from your Mac Pro in an attempt to cram as many hard drives into your Mac Pro as possible, or something else entirely, this enclosure is a great option at a great price.

Better still, it’s not just easy on your wallet; it’s easy to assemble, too. Don’t believe me? Check out the installation video, either in our Tech Center or on our YouTube Channel.

A month ago today, Apple released OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Coincidentally, my MacBook Pro arrived right around that same time. I took advantage of having a “pristine” system and installed Snow Leopard on it immediately.

Looking back on the last month, things went surprisingly well. One by one, I added new apps and utilities to my system, making sure to check their compatibility as I went. Fortunately, most of the programs I use every day were already 10.6-compatible. My only major losses were iStat Menus and iSync compatibility with my Palm Centro. Luckily, iStat was updated soon after the 10.6 release, and I’ve got some good leads for Palm compatibility, so I’m 99% good to go.

Sure, even a month in, there are some mild annoyances – I lost the use of the full drivers for my home printer. Sure, the Gutenprint drivers work, but they just aren’t the same. I haven’t even tried scanning anything, but I’m relatively certain that it will be an exercise in futility. However, as both the printer and the scanner are 7-8 years old, I really can’t complain a whole lot – they have far outlasted my expectations for $20 at a garage sale.

As far as “whiz-bang” new features, there really weren’t any, though adjustments to things like Image Capture, Exposé, Time Machine, QuickTime, drive and file size reporting and a number of other things were welcome changes.  While, normally, simply tweaking the system for better performance/compatibility might be considered as a “service pack,” what the Snow Leopard naysayers seemed to have missed in calling it that is the whole shift in the system’s focus.

This is the first “Intel Only” version of OS X. It cut out a lot of the older, bloated PPC code, resulting in a much smaller installation. On top of that, they’ve added easier implementation of support for multi-processor apps as well making the system 64-bit capable on hardware that supports it. While this may not be all that useful at the present time it certainly opens the door for things becoming faster as applications are rewritten to take advantage of this technology.

So what is all this saying?

Effectively, what I’m saying here is that, despite a few hiccups at the beginning, Snow Leopard is certainly heading in the right direction. There are a few missing pieces here and there, but nothing that I found to be insurmountable. Further updates, both on Apple’s part and those of software developers, will continue to improve the experience.

A month into the process, I’d say that unless you either have a machine that won’t support it or you rely on one of the applications not yet supported, it is an upgrade well worth your time and money.

I think that it is safe to say that the iPhone is fairly popular. It seems that as of late you can’t look at any gadget/tech blog without some mention of it. The App Store offers a myriad of programs, games and utilities, and there are all sorts of third party accessories available.

Even for those Mac users that don’t have an iPhone (like myself) this is a good thing, as it seriously contributes to Apple’s bottom line, which means more money in the coffers for Macintosh R&D as well iTunes/iPhone/iPod.

Unfortunately, with wild popularity comes increased scrutiny. As a result, when something goes wrong with the iPhone, there is often a large backlash.

Just this sort of thing has happened with the recent release of iPhone OS 3.1. It seems that many users are experiencing rapid discharging of the battery since updating.

In perusing Apple’s support forums, there are a number of threads, like this one, detailing the woes of those who have installed iPhone OS 3.1 on their iPhones only to experience rapid discharging of the battery. Even after turning off some of the noted battery-draining processes, such as wi-fi, bluetooth, and push notifications, people have been experiencing a reduction in battery life.

In some cases, it seems attached to a corrupt file or application in the iPhone. In these instances, restoring the iPhone and creating a new profile (rather than importing old information) seemed to resolve the issue. Unfortunately for many others, even after performing this procedure, the problem still remains.

Apparently, though, Apple has responded to the issue and has distributed a small battery tracking application, along with a short list of troubleshooting questions, to many posters on the above-mentioned thread.

Judging by the wide range of this problem and Apple’s response, is is very likely that we will soon see another update to iPhone OS that will resolve this issue. Until that time, though, iPhone users are left to deal with the problem themselves.

Fortunately, OWC is here to help. While we can’t fix the underlying problem —that’s Apple’s domain— we’ve at least got a temporary solution for your power problems: extended battery packs.

The most form-fitting option is the Energizer Energi To Go AP iPhone Charger, which integrates a protective sleeve with either a 1000 mAh or 1500 mAh battery for extra time between chargings.

For a less specific option, there are the Macally JBox mini and the Cellboost iRecharge. Both these items allow you to simply attach to your iPhone via its USB cable and charge it that way. While not nearly as slick an option as the Energi To Go, these items have the added benefit that they can be used with any device that can be charged via USB.

For more information on the iPhone OS and Software updates, check Apple’s iPhone Support center.

We’ve got a new Installation Video this week. This time around, we show you how to install a hard drive in the Newer Technology miniStack.

We all love the miniStack. Its small form factor, support for large SATA hard drives, built-in USB and FireWire powered hubs and all the most popular connections make it an affordable, easy-to-integrate storage solution. I should know; I have a pair of them at home connected to my AirPort Extreme as AirDisks.

Of course, not everybody needs a whole new storage solution; sometimes you just need to drop an existing 3.5” hard drive into a new enclosure.

Fortunately, you can still get all the features of the miniStack while using your own drive. All you need is a miniStack 0GB kit, your own SATA hard drive and this new video, and you’ll be up and running in no time.

Check out the new video, either in our Tech Center or at our YouTube Channel and see how easy it actually is to install, and stay tuned… we’ve got a fun new video in the works that we think you’ll enjoy; we know we’re enjoying putting it together.