News for Friday, 2 November 2007

The company Retrodata, specialized in data recovery from crashed HD, sent a warning about Seagate HDs installed in MacBook, MacBook pro and Mac mini.
The faulty series manufactured in China, and featuring a firmware version 7.01, has a failed drive factor much higher (20-30 fold!) than similar HD models.
This is not a small issue, as the HD heads are literally scratching the disc surface. Retrodata suspects that Seagate did not perform the required quality control.
They also think that some of the failures are attributable - indirectly - to Mac OS X's Safe Sleep feature. This copies the contents of a laptop's memory to the hard drive whenever the computer is put to sleep. It could well be, but the first problem is with HD head technology.

Apple just released software updates for MacBook Pro and iMac:

MacBook Pro Software Update 1.2
This update improves graphics stability and is recommended for all 2.2/2.4GHz MacBook Pro Models.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookprosoftwareupdate12.html

iMac Software Update 1.2 (Tiger)
This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookprosoftwareupdate12.html

iMac Software Update 1.3 (Leopard)
This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imacsoftwareupdate13leopard.html

All European Apple Stores have been closed down for being updated. As expected, the new MacBooks based on Santa Rosa platform are now available on this side of the Atlantic. The Mac mini remains with the previous Intel Mobile platform, and Apple will either upgrade it soon or let it die...

Santa Rosa MacBooks have just been released yesterday, and Apple already published TechNote about problems with 3D graphics rendering.

Issue or symptom
The use of intensive 3D graphics in some advanced gaming applications may have difficulty running correctly on this MacBook's Intel i965 chipset, exhibiting issues with shading, textures, and performance. The MacBook is able to run a wide variety of consumer-oriented games.

There is currently no fix and Apple is actively working on potential solutions to MacBook graphics issues... It remains unclear if this is an issue with drivers or the graphic chipset itself. In addition, you can not boot those MacBooks from retailed version of Leopard, only the DVD provided together wit the MacBook has to be used.

After the success of its 250GB 2.5" HD, Western Digital decided to push the storage limit barrier even further with a series of SATA HD featuring up to 320GB. They feature 8MB of cache while spinning at 5400rpm. Installation should take only couple of minutes in a MacBook, and for the MacBook Pro, you can use the procedure we provided in a previous article (here).
Last but not least, let's hope that availability of this new super storage HD will be good, not as rare as its predecessor.

Apple published a TechNote describing modification between the new and the past MacBook models.
First key location and function:


Second, the air flow outputs are larger in the new MacBook model:

They were much thinner previously: