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.

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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.

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.

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If you remember the old Kojack TV show…the phrase “who loves ya” baby came to mind thinking about some features on and upgrades for the new iMacs released today.

A feature long requested for iMacs – the ability to use your desktop computer as a secondary display for your laptop – is finally a reality!

From the iMac Features section on the Apple website:

Mini DisplayPort.
The Mini DisplayPort lets you connect an external display, including the Apple LED Cinema Display, to your iMac. On the 27-inch iMac, the same port offers input, too. So you can connect any external source that has DisplayPort output — including a MacBook or MacBook Pro — and use your iMac as a display.

This means if you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro for mobile computing, you don’t need to invest in/provide the room for a secondary display…just connect to your iMac when you get back to the desktop.

Now that you know what really got our motors revving here on these new “smoking machines” as OWC Jamie called them, I can tell you how to really make them scream with these OWC upgrades.

MEMORY

According to Apple’s Tech Specs page, all the new iMac models come with 4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM and can support up to 16GB via four memory slots.

If you want to bump that to 8GB (4 x 2GB) via Apple, that will set you back $200.00. The OWC 4GB Upgrade Kit (2 x 2GB) can be added to the factory stock 4GB for a total of 8GB…but at a substantial lower cost of $87.99.

We’ve got more options too…the OWC 8GB Upgrade Kit (2 x 4GB) adds 8GB to the factory stock 4GB for 12GB total memory for $475.99.

That same 8GB (2 x 4GB) upgrade for the 27 inch models from the factory is $600…

While the factory doesn’t offer the ultimate memory configuration of 16GB for the 21 inch iMac models, we do (who loves ‘ya baby?) and at savings over what’s offered for the 27 inch models. You can put two of the OWC 8GB Upgrade Kits into any of the iMacs for 16GB total at a cost of $952 versus $1,400 for the same 16GB offered by the factory for the 27 inch models only.

And like all our memory upgrades, we give you up to $45 cash back for your iMac’s factory memory modules!

STORAGE

The base 21.5 inch model comes with a 500GB hard drive while the other 21.5 and both 27 inch models come with a 1TB hard drive. The only option offered by the factory is a 2TB for $250.00. Taking a quick look at our current iMac upgrade page, one can find a 1.5TB drive for $129.99 and a 2TB for $239.99.

With all the options and savings we offer for the new iMacs, I’m thinking we should do a commercial with as equally a memorable ending as these Chicago area favorites.

While I share OWC Larry’s disappointment in the mini not getting a built in memory expansion boost, there still is a silver lining here. I’ll be taking a closer look at the new Mac models and showing you where you can upgrade and/or get more for your technology budget with comparable high performance upgrades/accessories from OWC.

I’ll start off with the $599.00 2.26GHz mini because I’m a value hound. It comes stock with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive. OWC offers the following money saving upgrades to get the max from your mini:

4GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit (2 x 2GB) is $87.99 versus Apple at $100.00.

You can store more for less too! A 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive starts at $65.99 versus Apple at $100 while a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive starts at $92.99 versus Apple at $200. Man, other than the faster processor, you could match the memory and HD specs of the $799.00 2.53GHz model and save $46.02.

One more thing caught my eye on the Configure your Mac mini page…the Mini DisplayPort Adapters. And once again, OWC has the options you need.

Our Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter is priced at $19.99 versus Apple’s at $29.99 while our MiniDisplay Port to VGA Adapter is $24.99 versus Apple at $29.00.

And if you’re digging the new dual 500GB hard drive Mac mini Server model, but are looking for more options to the factory external storage and SuperDrive offerings, we got ‘em!

While the External MacBook Air SuperDrive is USB bus powered, it is $99 and burns rather slowly: up to 8X DVD, 4X DVD Dual Layer, and 24X CD-R.

It’s almost not fair to compare that to the  OWC “Value Line” USB2.0/1.1 SuperDrive with up to 22X DVD, 12X DVD Dual Layer, and 40X CD-R burn speeds at just $64.99

And last but not least…that SmartStor 4 x 1TB FW800/FW400/USB external storage solution for $799 doesn’t seem like quite the smart buy when you could have the 4TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 for $699 and get a “Quad Interface” of FW800/FW400/USB and eSATA!

So there you have it…a pretty thorough examination of how you can max your mini with OWC. Revisit the blog to see my takes on the iMac and white MacBook models and how you can get the most from them too.

Typo in ‘new’ Mac mini page or just marketing play on words?

As our team goes full bore on the new iMac and Mac minis that just popped on the Apple site, I’m sitting back a little disappointed with the ‘new’ Mac minis.

Apple is touting with ‘up to twice as much memory’, but it still only supports up to 4GB. That’s the same as the previous Mac mini line up….

Apparently it counts that they are with up to twice as much memory as before they came with 1GB or 2GB standard, 4GB optional. Because Apple now has a configuration which comes with 4GB  standard, that’s twice as much memory Standard as had been before.

The Mac mini would be an incredible powerhouse with 8GB, that’s what twice the memory should have meant. We were excited, at first, thinking Apple taken off the Mac mini’s memory ‘restrictor plate’, but alas – just a marketing play on words.

- OWC Larry

See All of OWC’s Mac mini Upgrades and Enhancements in our dedicated Mac mini section

The Apple Store should be back up and running soon! As alluded to in the Apple Financial Results Conference call yesterday, some of the “exciting new products in the pipeline” are here already!

Newly Available from Apple:

Apple today unveiled an all new iMac line featuring brilliant LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure. The new iMac line, starting at $1,199, is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance. Every new iMac ships with a wireless keyboard and the all new wireless Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with Multi-Touch technology.

Today Apple also introduced the new wireless Magic Mouse, the first mouse to use Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch technology. Pioneered on iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpads, Multi-Touch allows customers to navigate using intuitive finger gestures. Instead of mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, the entire top of the Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface. Magic Mouse comes standard with the new iMac and will be available as a Mac accessory at just $69.

If that wasn’t enough, Apple also updated its popular MacBook with a new, durable polycarbonate unibody design featuring a brilliant LED-backlit display, a glass Multi-Touch trackpad and Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to seven hours of battery life. Inheriting technology and design features from the MacBook Pro line, the new MacBook is an ideal consumer notebook for students and new Mac users, and is available for $999.

Apple has also given what seems to be a small facelift to the ever-popular Mac mini. Now with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, every Mac mini gives you outstanding graphics performance. In addition, The latest 802.11n wireless technology is built into every Mac mini.  However, we see that the memory and processor options went unchanged since the last release.

As you would expect, OWC does carry the upgrades for these new additions as well.  Give us a short while here to make the updates to our website and we’ll be back with further details…

This morning, the online Apple Store has been taken down temporarily stating “We are busy updating the store for you and will be back shortly.” This action usually indicates a new product being released.

Is Apple updating the iMac lineup?  Is Apple TV getting a facelift?  Perhaps the Mac mini will be getting a power boost?

We’ll have the details for you here on the OWC Blog as soon as we know.  Stay tuned.