XLCR's tech blog

When the iPad was first announced, I really didn’t see the point. Like a lot of people, I was hoping for a tablet-style version of a MacBook; surely it wouldn’t be too hard to take a MacBook Air, put a touchscreen where the keyboard is, and sell that? But Apple had other ideas; iPhones have been so successful largely because they are so easy to use, so they decided to build on that instead.

So is the iPad simply “a large iPod touch”? After my first day of use, I’ve got to say that yes, it is-and yet, it isn’t… It’s all the good stuff we’re used to (apps, touchscreen, browser, email, ease of use) plus some extra good stuff (speed, larger screen area, better keyboard, increased battery life). There is a small amount of added bad stuff: it’s a bit heavier than I’d like; I can’t hold it in one hand for as long as I can hold my E-reader, for example. It only has one speaker, despite it being billed as an ideal way to watch movies on the go. And the dock connector is in the wrong place for using the iPad as a video player or photo frame- would it have killed them to put a second connector on the side so it could be docked in landscape mode? The last bad thing I can think of is the price- I know first versions of products do tend to be more pricey, so hopefully we’ll see the price drop by £100-£150 or so in the future.

All that aside, though, I’m pleasantly surprised by the iPad. It’s a fantastic way of surfing the web, doing email and updating a blog whilst on the sofa. I’m not convinced that it will make a good ereader- I’ve tried some sample books and as I expected, the screen is nowhere as good as the one on my Sony ereader. Add in the increase in size and weight and the dedicated ereaders have nothing to worry about.

I’ll post another blog once I’ve had some more use out of it, but so far, I’m impressed. And yes, this was written on the iPad, using the Wordpress app.

You're not tied to O2

My iPhone 3G contract with O2 ran out a few weeks ago, and while I wait for the next model to be announced, I thought I’d see if the other networks were any better. Now that O2 is no longer the only network for iPhone, there’s the opportunity to switch provider – O2 has been ok, but sometimes texts are delayed, calls don’t reach me, and 3G performance has not been great.

Fortunately, O2 have made it quite easy for iPhone owners to switch provider, so anyone can give it a try. And, since I’m not actually ready to switch provider just yet, I’ve got a couple of tips if you’re thinking of staying with O2 after your contract has expired.

Read on to find out how you can set up your iPhone with another provider, or switch your O2 contract to something cheaper. continue reading…

iHome IP99 clock radio

Looking for a decent clock radio that is iPhone 3G certified? So was I. So my wife gave me one of these for my birthday – but is it any good?

continue reading…

I have been trying to figure out how I can stop my iPhone from launching iPhoto every time I connect it. I love that it comes up when I slip in a memory card from my camera, but the extra time it adds on to an iPhone sync bugs me. The only solution I could find previously involved Applescript, but annoyingly it would only work with USB connected cameras – not memory cards in the MacBook Pro’s ExpressCard slot.

Finally, though, there is an answer. Get it here: http://www.flexibits.com/

Cameras, a preferences add-in, does exactly what I, and many, many other Mac users, have wanted. You connect a device (such as a camera, card or iPhone) and it will ask you what you would like it to do with that device in the future. If you want it to do nothing when you plug in your iPhone, but load an app (such as iPhoto or Aperture) or perform an action when you connect another device, then it will handle it for you.The best bit is it will even recognise the ExpressCard34 slot, so if you’re like me and have an SD card reader in there, it’ll work just fine. It can’t tell the difference between different cards (which could be useful if you use SD cards in your camera but MS Duo in your camcorder) but quite frankly I don’t care!

Download Cameras from the Flexibits website now.

Previously, I’ve blogged about the issues I’ve had getting 4Gb of RAM to work successfully in my unibody 15″ MacBook Pro. For a while, I ran with 3Gb using an original 1Gb and one of my new 2Gb sticks, but it wasn’t ideal for running Windows under VMWare at the same time as other stuff. In the end, I’ve given in and just bought the 4Gb RAM upgrade from Apple – not cheap, not ideal, but at least now it’s – so far – working. I definitely think that Apple should have taken more ownership of this problem, as it’s been reported and discussed at some length on their support boards, though.

As expected, Apple recently announced the next iPhone – the unexcitingly-named “iPhone 3GS”, the “S” apparently meaning “Speed”. Of course, the question on everyone’s mind now is… is it worth getting?

In short, I’m going to go with “no” if you already have the 3G, and “yes” if you still have the first iPhone, or indeed don’t have one at all. Read on to find out why… continue reading…

It’s been six days now since I put my 4Gb RAM upgrade back into my 15″ MacBook Pro (Late 2008, Unibody). So far, I have had one Kernel Panic, but no freezes or other issues. It wasn’t really being stressed when it had the Panic, but it had been on permanently since the memory went back in (I usually don’t reboot unless I do an update, the Mac seems waaay more stable than any PC so I never have to). That Panic was two days ago.

I’ve alsdo just done the firmware and SMC updates from Apple, although I don’t think there was anything in them related to the 4Gb issue.

Another issue I, and others, have come across, is that the new “unibody” MacBook Pros don’t wake up external displays after going to sleep.

I’m using a HP w19e LCD monitor attached via the mini displayport > HDMI adapter (I used it just fine on my previous MacBook) and it will usually not turn on when I wake the MBP from sleep (the laptop’s built-in display comes on just fine). Normally it’s as simple as the display staying in “no input signal = sleep” mode, but sometimes it will display brief flickering “static”, for want of a better word. Plenty of others on the Apple Support forums are seeing the same thing.

I’ve discovered a work-around which, whilst not ideal, does get the external display working again:

In “System Preferences”, go to “Desktop & Screen Saver” and set up a Hot Corner – I use the top left – to “Sleep Displays”. Then, if the external display doesn’t come on after the MacBook has been sleeping, I force the displays into Sleep again by using the Hot Corner, then wake them up after a couple of seconds by moving the mouse. This usually brings the external display back.

Other users have suggested setting the MacBook to use the 9600 graphics card (“Higher Performance” in Energy Saving preferences) or turning off the ambient light sensor. Some also suggest turning off the “Dim display before sleep” option, but turning it off hasn’t made any difference to me.

So, along with the 4Gb RAM problems, it looks like Apple have a bit of patching to do with these new laptops!

Having upgraded to a Macbook Pro, the first thing I did with it was upgrade the hard drive and memory, just like I did with my first Macbook. However, after a few days of use, it suddenly started suffering Kernel Panics and random freezes. After running diagnostics and swapping the hard drive back, all with no improvement, I checked out the Apple support site and found a number of people saying exactly the same thing was happening to them – they’d upgraded to 4Gb and now their Macbook Pro was crashing.

Some posts claimed that certain brands of RAM – Hynix & Samsung in particular – seemed to be OK, whereas others, even Crucial, would cause problems. My RAM is Transcend. On the plus side, a few posts suggest that 3Gb – an original 1Gb and an upgraded 2Gb stick – would work OK whilst we await news from Apple of a fix.

Out of curiosity, while I was buying a sleeve for my laptop in Albion, an Apple reseller on the Strand in London, I asked if they’d come across this problem, and was told they had and that it was a fault with the logic board in the late 2008 Macbook Pros. They also suggested that Apple might be recalling them, but didn’t give me any more information such as where they’d got that information from, so I have no idea if it’s true or not.

Anyway, just to check it was the memory causing my problems and nothing else, I put the original 2Gb back in, and the laptop was fine for five days. Today I decided to try the 4Gb again, just in case I hadn’t seated it correctly or something daft like that. So far, after about 12 hours of usage, it has been fine, but then it was fine for a few days after putting the RAM in the first time, so time will tell. If it does play up then I’ll drop down to 3Gb and see how that goes.

I’ve got a tough (well, from a geek point of view) decision to make – I’m going to upgrade my MacBook, but do I upgrade to a new aluminium MacBook, or go all out and get a MacBook Pro?

My wife has just bought herself her first Mac – one of the new aluminium MacBooks (the top one), and it is very nice indeed. A bit lighter and slimmer than my current MacBook (a late 2007 white one), and a touch more powerful – 2.4GHz compared to my 2.2GHz. The thing is, it used to be very easy to decide between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro – the Pro had a ‘proper’ graphics card, whereas the smaller one had ‘integrated’ graphics which weren’t really capable of 3D-type stuff.

Now, though, both MacBooks have 3D-capable graphics chipsets – the GeForce 9400M. Suddenly it’s harder to see why spending the extra £250 is worthwhile.

My first thought was to get the same MacBook as my wife – not for any soppy his’n'hers reason, but because it’s a stonkingly good spec for the money. Sure, there are PC laptops of equivalent spec for less, but they don’t have OSX (legally) and they don’t have the same stylish design as the MacBook. Plus the main reason why Peggy got her MacBook is because she was fed up of Vista and a bit jealous that I never had the same frustrations with my MacBook! So anyway, I was originally going for the 13″ 2.4GHz aluminium MacBook. The illuminated keyboard – previously found only on the MBP – is very handy; it’s well equipped in terms of processor, graphics and memory (2Gb); it’s got a decent, LED backlit, screen; it’s slim and lightweight; has a dual-layer DVD burner; and is generally a nice package.

But then…

There are some nice extra touches on the MacBook Pro. First off, it has a larger, higher-resolution screen. The 1280×800 of the MacBook is fine, but 1440×900 is better. I’ve been doing more video since getting my first MacBook and it would be nice to have a bit more screen to play with. However, although the larger screen means it has to be bigger than the MacBook, it’s not that much bigger. Then there’s the option of turning on the more powerful graphics card for some gaming – I was quite happy with the performance of my desktop PC for games – the MacBook Pro beats it hands down. Finally, on-the-go gaming is a reality. The MBP has a Firewire socket – that’ll come in handy for a Firewired Final Cut scratch disk.

All of that is nice. It’s worth a few extra quid. But there’s one thing on the MBP which, as soon as I realised it was there, made it a must-buy in my eyes – and it’s something I’d never paid attention to before.

It’s called an “ExpressCard/34 slot”.

If, like me, you hadn’t come across that before, you might be wondering what in blazes it is. Well, basically, it’s like a PCMCIA (also known as PC Card) slot – which has been around for years – only much faster. The MacBook doesn’t have it, and this means that the one flaw in the MacBook’s design can be overcome. There is one thing the MacBook is crying out for, and for some reason Apple still haven’t included – a memory card reader. However, stick an ExpressCard/34 card reader into the MacBook Pro’s ExpressCard slot, and memory cards are yours for the reading! No more having to lug around the USB cables for your camera and camcorder and so on – a feature that PC laptops have flaubnted for years is now available to Mac owners too!

So, for the sake of my sanity, it’s got to be the MacBook Pro. Are the larger screen, better gfx option and ExpressCard slot really worth £250? It’s a tough call, but I’m going to pay the extra anyway – I don’t want to go on holiday, realise I’ve left the stupid Kodak USB cable behind and wish I’d bought the Pro instead!