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iTunes and iPhoto updated!

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Following hot on the heels of the 10.6.3 update, Apple has released updates to both iTunes and iPhoto ’09. In case you hadn’t heard, there’s some sort of new device being released on Saturday that just happens to work with iTunes, so you can be pretty sure that’s the main impetus behind that update.

Apple managed to slip something nice into this update for those who are happy with the iDevices we’ve got: the ability to “rename, rearrange, or remove Genius Mixes.” This is actually a pretty big deal for those with exceedingly large, diverse music collections: we had to sedate OWC Michael, just to keep him from running home to play with this new feature.

The iPhoto update seems to be related to the release, as well. Officially, the update “addresses minor issues in the area of import and syncing to iPhone, iPod or Apple TV.” Of course, there’s no mention of that new device, but… well… you know…

Bonus for those not playing in the Snow.

For those who haven’t upgraded to Snow Leopard (either because you have a PPC Mac, have software that doesn’t work in 10.6, or just because you haven’t gotten around to it), there’s an added bonus to this round of updates, in the form of QuickTime 7.6.6. All we seem to be getting with this is a somewhat vague “general reliability improvements for iMovie” and possibly some security fixes, so it’s probably a good idea to update this, too.

You can find all these updates by selecting Software Update from your Apple Menu.

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Category: Fresh from Apple

Tags: 10.5, 10.6, iPad, iPhone, iPhoto, ipod, iTunes, Leopard, quicktime, Snow Leopard, touch, update

Lynx spotted on Olympic course: Coincidence or Apple Marketing Machine in action?

Monday, February 15th, 2010 | Author: OWC Michael

Last Wednesday an orange and black spotted lynx had made it onto the Olympic downhill skiing course during the men’s opening training session. No skiers were on the course at the time as the session was already on hold due to fog.

Makes me wonder, could this be the Apple Marketing Machine at work again by dropping clues into our subconscious and preparing us for the next big thing to come?

Mac OS X nicknames have all been in the big cat family so far: Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and now Snow Leopard as the current operating system. Could Apple be preparing us for OS X v10.7 “Lynx”? Was this cat released into public view in a carefully-calculated plot to steal the show at a world-wide venue to get us thinking its time for an Operating System update? Or, did a member of the local wildlife just happen to saunter onto the course where plenty of eyes would see this spectacle, but no Olympians would be in harm’s way?

Happenstance? I think not. But I have no way of proving it.

The cat was unable to comment on the events of the day. It is still unknown whether this was due to a non-disclosure agreement with Apple or the beast’s natural inability to speak.

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics

Tags: 10.7, 2010, cat, Cheetah, downhill, Jaguar, Leopard, Lynx, Mac, olympian, Olympic, OS X, Panther, Puma, ski, skiing, Snow Leopard, Tiger, Vancouver

Breathe New Life into your Mac with SSD!

Friday, October 2nd, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

stopwatch We’re continuing our diligent work here at the OWC testing lab benchmarking every machine compatible with Snow Leopard and should be ready to start posting some of the results soon.

In the meantime, however, we found some great nuggets of information that we’d like to share!

For our latest test, we took two machines in which the most memory that can be installed was 2GB, maxed out their memory, and checked the performance gains that installing a faster hard drive can provide. The results were quite impressive!

The Contenders:

MacBook iMacG5 The original 2006 MacBook 13″
1.83GHz Core Duo running OS 10.6.1

The 2004 iMac G5 20″
PowerPC 1.8GHz running 10.5.8

Heres what we found: DriveSpeedTests

The Photoshop Action Test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom action script comprising of 47 commonly-used, memory-intensive processes on a 21 megapixel image using Adobe Photoshop CS4. It is designed to represent an average photo editing session of a graphic artist. No other processes are running in the background besides those that keep the machine itself running. This is pure, linear computing where every available resource is on hand for the one test running. Lower times are better.
Our Stress Test is a variation on the Photoshop Action Test where the test is performed while iTunes is playing music with the visualizer running. This test adds one additional program to represent that additional light computing we do on the side in real life. With the Visualizer on, the resource draw on the machine is not limited to processor power and memory but to the video card and memory allocated for video as well. Lower times are better.
The 16 Program Launch test simply measures the time (in seconds) it takes for 16 common programs* from OS X and iLife to open simultaneously. Lower times are better.
The Boot Time Test is exactly what it sounds like – the time it takes to boot the machine. Again, lower times are better.

Considering the investment that a new Apple computer can cost, it makes sense to get all you can out of the machine you have before taking the plunge. Installing a Solid State Drive can certainly extend the retirement date of your existing Mac for a fraction of the cost of a new computer.

*Address Book, Calculator, Chess, Dictionary, DVD Player, GarageBand, iCal, iChat, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Preview, QuickTime, Stickies, and TextEdit

This test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom action script comprising of 47 commonly-used, memory-intensive processes on a 21 megapixel image using Adobe Photoshop CS4. It is designed to represent an average photo editing session of a graphic artist. No other processes are running in the background besides those that keep the machine itself running. This is pure, linear computing where every available resource is on hand for the one test running. Photoshop CS4 is a 32 bit program that has a limit of 3GB of memory that can be used by the program itself so timing should not differentiate greatly with additional memory added to the system.

When CS5 is released from Adobe as a true 64 bit program, we are expecting that any additional memory added to the system is going to speed up a single process like this, but once you have all the memory in the system that the single process can use, and you’re running no other processes, the differences in time are very slight. Lower times are better.

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Category: Benchmarking/Performance

Tags: Apple, Benchmark, benchmarks, drive, G5, hard drive, HD, imac, Intel, Leopard, Mac, macbook, OS X, Performance, PowerPC, Snow Leopard, solid, speed, SSD, state, testing

Another Use for Home Folder Relocation – a Dell Mini 9 masquerading as a Mac.

Friday, May 1st, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Netbooks seem to be all the rage today. Unfortunately, none of them are made by Apple, meaning none of them ship with OS X.

By amazing coincidence, though, it turns out there’s one netbook out there that you can apparently install OS X on with relative ease; the Dell Mini 9. I even hear that, once installed, OS X behaves as if it is running on a MacBook Air.

The main trouble with doing this is that the stock internal drive on the Mini 9 is, at most, 16GB. Even after pruning out things like extra fonts, applications like iMovie and iDVD which don’t work well (or at all) on a Mini 9, and other such items, an install of Leopard takes up about six gigabytes of space, leaving less than 10GB for all your files. That’s not a whole heck of a lot of room.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way of adding more space for your files. Just use our guide for relocating your Home folder to move it to a USB drive, be it a nice, large OWC External Storage Solution or a simple (though smaller) flash drive.

Now, your Mini 9 has much more room for your files, music and photos, making your “Mac Netbook” a little more convenient.

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics, Tech Tips

Tags: Apple Netbook, home folder, Leopard, Mac OS, Mini 9, relocate