OWC Blog - blog.macsales.com

Archive for » March, 2011 «

March Garage Sale up and running; Get the deals while they last!

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

It’s not quite Friday yet, but it’s never too early for a great deal, and you can always be sure our Garage Sales are a great way to get the peripherals and parts you you want at the best prices.

With new firmware and other product related events, this is getting up a little late, but there are still plenty of great deals available. If you want to get in on the ground floor and find out what’s going on special as soon as OWC Larry announces it, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to the OWC Tips & Deals Newsletter.

Before we lay all those great deals on you, we also want to let you know that, in addition to what these listings already offer, OWC takes care of freight on orders of $159 or more, plus offers extra savings when you use your Amazon account via OWC on orders of $199 and up.

So let’s see what we’ve got this time around: Article Continues…

Comment on this post.
Category: Special OWC Deals
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Firefox 4.0 Released

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

In case you missed it, the next version of Firefox was released yesterday morning. While version 4.0 has been in “beta” for quite some time now, this is now the full release version. It includes some interesting new features, such as:

  • moving tabs to the top of the window (not an aesthetic that I particularly like, but somebody may)
  • a unified stop/reload button
  • “App tabs” - for pages/sites you always keep open
  • “Switch to Tab” – great for those who keep about 50 tabs open at any given time, when you enter something in the URL bar that’s already loaded, this goes to the already-opened tab, rather than spawning a new one.
  • “Panorama” – Another one for “tab junkies.” Allows you to drag and drop tabs into groups, helping you keep things a little more organized.
  • There’s also improved HTML 5 support and other “under the hood” changes.

Even though I, personally, tend to stick with Safari for the vast majority of my Web browsing, 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 7 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 popularity and cross-platform compatibility are just two good reasons to at least keep a copy around.

You can get the latest version at the Firefox Web site. While the latest version doesn’t appear to be supported on PowerPC-based machines, you should be able to get the previous version on the same page. Firefox seemed to render complex pages faster than Safari under 10.5 on a PPC Mac, so grabbing Version 3.6.15 may be a good option for you if you have a PowerBook or PowerMac still in regular use.

OWC has no affiliation with this software and receives no benefit related to this support (other than a benefit we all share in the continued support of these applications). If you appreciate the function or functionality this software offers, we encourage you to support the authors.
This post has 2 comments.
Category: Tech Tips
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Other World – Episode 22

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Comment on this post.
Category: The Other World
Tags: , , , , , ,

OWC SSD Firmware Updated

Monday, March 21st, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

Good news! After nearly two months of testing, we’re pleased to announce we’ve approved a new updated SandForce firmware version for our SSDs.

Now every drive that ships from OWC as of last Friday will have that new firmware which 100% resolves any hibernation issue you may have experienced.

While this issue only affected around 10% of all our SSD customers, we’re 100% committed to everyone’s satisfaction.

So, you can get this new firmware update in one of two ways:

Visit our firmware update page

or you can contact us to arrange sending your drive to us and we’ll flash update the drive for you.

Now, let me head you off at the pass….we do not have a Mac based firmware updater yet. While SandForce initially indicated they were going to create a universal updater, we feel you have waited patiently long enough and have taken up the baton on this ourselves. We’re working diligently on this and will let you know when we have something ready.

OWC Note: As there has been some confusion between Sleep & Hibernation…

There have been two SandForce-related issues with some of these drives, both of which can be corrected at this time.

For those with hibernation issues, this firmware corrects those issues.
For those with sleep issues there is a physical parameter change that OWC can do in-house to correct.

Please call our Technical Support team at 1 (800) 275-4576 for further assistance with either issue.
—————————————

UPDATE 4/1/11: The firmware UPDATER TOOL itself has been determined to be incompatible with Mac Pro model ID MacPro1,1; MacPro 2,1; MacPro 3,1

To determine your Model ID visit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/memory/macpromem/model_id_screen.gif

If you do not have access to another machine, you have the option of having us update the firmware on your drive OR choosing not to update the firmware. Please note that the primary update to this latest firmware revision corrected a hibernation issue for MacBook and MacBook Pro owners. Hibernation is not an Apple supported mode with Mac Pro/iMac/mini machines and therefore the firmware update is not an absolute requirement for Mac Pro, iMac, and/or mini owners. Should you wish for us to update the firmware, please contact our Customer Service department at 800-275-4576

This post has 183 comments.
Category: Product Spotlight, Tech Tips
Tags: , , , ,

Not All SSDs Are Created Equal: The Story Continues

Friday, March 18th, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

We want to be very clear right up front about what goes into an OWC SSD and what you should expect from a Solid State Drive marketed as “high performance.” At OWC, we take your data seriously. It doesn’t matter if it is your corporation’s database, pictures of you family’s vacation, or a spam email. If it is on your drive, we have done everything we can to ensure that it stays there until you decide what to do with it. When we designed our SSDs, we spent the extra time to ensure that the circuits would work in any environment you may use the drive in, we use better quality passive components in our manufacturing process, and we always use first quality Flash storage devices. We could make a few more cents by using cheaper components, but it’s not worth risking your trust.

That’s why the product specification tables for OWC products exhaustively cover every aspect because we want to ensure you have all the information needed to make a properly informed purchase decision. OWC has nothing to hide and has always built our products for extreme performance.

Go ahead; check any of the OWC Mercury SSD models’ specs…you’ll see that we only use premium Tier 1/Grade A flash memory components. Then, check other SSD brands. Can’t find what type of flash memory they’re using? Perhaps there’s a reason for that.

We are always interested in being as competitive as possible against products that are presented as comparable to our own. OWC is the only company with volume SSD production and design in the USA and that in itself affords a level of control in the manufacturing process not typically found in other brands.

That said, another SSD manufacturer, OCZ, somewhat defies the norm. Some documented investigation on our behalf, however, may explain how OCZ can price the way they do and why they should not be seen as comparable….and if you’re an OCZ owner, you might not like what we found. Article Continues…

This post has 87 comments.
Category: Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

OWC SSDs Even Amaze The Geniuses

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

You just gotta love when the “über techs” in the world indirectly give your product major props. Seems as though one of our OWC SSD customers stopped by his local Apple Store to have the Geniuses check out why his MBP battery was bulging (shoulda bought one of our NuPower batteries…but I digress ;-) ) and got to showing off his OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD performance.

Perhaps the most satisfying outcome to this interaction was that while our customer feels the performance of his original Unibody MacBook Pro is now nothing less than breathtaking, it was very gratifying to know for him that “it was truly a treat to see that Apple employees had the same reaction.”

I’m not sure I’d call that “SSD envy” by those techs as much as appreciation for upgrading a machine to its ultimate capability.

So here’s hoping you have your moment of supreme acknowledgment someday….of building your machine the right way….and getting major respect for it.

This post has 32 comments.
Category: Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Get A Closer Look At Mercury

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

Image courtesy of NASA

If you’re an OWC customer, you likely own an OWC Mercury drive…whether it be an optical or hard disk drive solution….or a high-performance SSD. As the theme of this post is a closer look at Mercury (the planet), I thought I’d first give you a little history on how the name Mercury was chosen for our drive line…then blast off into the really cool space stuff.

As you may remember from past posts about space related topics, our founder and CEO, Larry O’Connor started what you know today as OWC back in 1988. Its first branded product was a processor upgrade called the OWC Rocket. In 2000, the Mercury Classic Elite was born. And then nearly every year since, we’ve come up with another drive under that banner name. Larry has always been fascinated by all things space related and when I asked him how he chose Mercury for our drive line, he said it “was a combination of aspects….the Roman God who was known for speed, the NASA program which launched the first Americans into space, and the uniqueness of the planet itself.”

Speaking of the planet’s uniqueness, were you aware that this Thursday you’ll have a first-of-its-kind opportunity to see it up close? Really close?

How does 125 miles away from a surface that can heat up to 800°F when facing the sun grab ya? Hopefully, there’s a happy medium somewhere; on the opposite side, it can dip down to -300°F. Article Continues…

Comment on this post.
Category: Random Thoughts & Topics
Tags: , , , , ,

MacBook Pro 2011: 12GB and 16GB Memory Upgrades Benchmarked!

Monday, March 14th, 2011 | Author: OWC Michael

Two weeks ago we blogged about how upgrading to Apple’s maximum supported 8GB of memory and an OWC Mercury Extreme SSD could speed up your machine to two and a half times faster then stock in the latest 2011 MacBook Pro Core i5 and Core i7 machines.

Two weeks ago, we were ecstatic about the performance numbers we were seeing. Like an average 25% faster performance with 8GB of memory!

Two weeks ago, we dubbed these machines with our upgrades as “screaming fast.”

That was two weeks ago…

Article Continues…

This post has 50 comments.
Category: Benchmarking/Performance
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Entries
Next Entries »