News for Monday, 17 November 2008

No computer maker, Apple including, escapes from the bad habit of making one pay inflated prices for repairs not covered by the guarantee. It is practically impossible to repair a portable without being invoiced several hundreds of euros, very far from the real cost of the parts and the labour. Thus it is not surprising that many people give up repairing their portable and prefer to repurchase new by adding (a little) money.
However the more courageous handymen launch out on a bit of do-it-yourself which sometimes arrive at very successful reconversions their machines.
One can see this at the site http://wolphbite.com where a MacBook has been transformed into a mini Mac Pro.

Attention, without being too complex, this " mod" nevertheless required delicate use of the soldering iron and a large amount of ingenuity. However it is a good way of keeping one's hand in with do-it-yourselfing, the only risk is failing of and dumping the machine in the garbage - which, in any case, was the destination.

We already mentioned a few times before how Apple , if mean for a lot of things, was generous with thermal paste in his notebooks. In this case, if more certainly is better than less, too much paste can also result as an issue in cooling components. Julian had that problem:

I own a 2ghz MacBook Pro 2ghz rev A and it's a real oven: one can't keep it on his knees without burning himself and the keyboard gets hotter than Hell.
Since a few weeks, I noticed graphic bugs and the computer was freezing because the fans wouldn't speed up when needed. SMCFanControl helped me solved a part of this problem but here's the guilty one:

After a whole week-end following this guide for MBP's disassembling, I applied a small amount of Artic Silver themal paste on the three chips.
Since then, It runs 25 degrees C cooler on normal tasks such as surfing the web (25 vs 50), but no changes on hard tasks (88 degrees C for Cinebench).
What's better is that the heat conduction is great now and the fan reacts immediatly when needed. The computer freezes no more (on lightroom or ableton live for example) even if it is noisier than before...

Apple reviewed that issue and the notebooks now gets the right quantity of thermal paste.

Once a year, some indie developers come together and decide to organize a special deal for all Mac users, so called: "Give good food to your Mac". For the third edition, applications are covering many categories, from home and learning to 3D imaging and production tools. Many renowned applications are included, but also new ones, or more unknowns which are nevertheless really powerful tools. So take your time to look at them and make your choice, keeping in mind that by purchasing 5 application or more you get a 50% discount.
For additional information: give good food to your Mac

Apple Preps MagSafe Rev 2
Apple filed a new system which should be the natural evolution of the current MagSafe. Differences are mostly affecting the magnetic part which will be replaced by an electromagnetic connector.

So, the magnetic filed will only be created when the power unit is connected, preventing your MagSafe plug to collect any metal parts lying around on your office desk. In addition, many have suspected that the current MagSafe issues affecting the junction between the MagSafe plug and the cords might simply linked to the magnet, competing with the magnetic field created in the cord when the current is going through. In addition, to avoid that the plug falls off if you have a short circuit or any power outage, the new system will use a bit of MacBook power to ensure the plug remains in place.
The new system should be introduced over time, or together with new MacBook Pro models.

More than one month after the release of the new MacBook Pro, it remains difficult to enter into any APR shops in EU and to get out with a new MBP model. Apple does not seem to be able to respond to the demand, and distributors are receiving units in small amounts. It is not the same thing for the new MacBook, and one can easily find them in shops. This is especially difficult to understand as the first MacBook Pro were manufactured and shipped 3 weeks priori the dedicated Keynote.
The new manufacturing plan might be the limiting factors, and the production of the enclosure might need to be scaled in order to be able to deliver the requested units on time. This could also explain why the new MacBook Pro 17" is still not available, and might be delay till the availability of the 15" model finally reach a steady state. In addition, Apple might be willing to prepare some specific stocks for Christmas time.

A new rumour implies that Apple could make a small revolution with its next range of iMacs.
Currently, these machines are designed by the engineers at Apple to be like 'office portables', using many the components intended for the mobile machines. This allows them to be very thin, making them appear as being just a screen.
This rumour announced that Apple could give up this approach and use the Core i7 architecture of the desktop machines. Although we are skeptical on this change of direction, it does make sense in the current context for the following advantages:
- For the first time since ages, certainly since Apple moved to the Intel processors, there is a marked difference between its two product ranges (office and mobile). If the desktop machines pass to Nehalem, the portables will still have to wait a year for this change of architecture.
- The Nehalem architecture brings a real plus in term of performances.
- It has the merit, even on the office machines to bring under control the use of its Intel components.
- These processors all have 4 cores, which will soon become the basic reference in data processing.
Approaching this from another viewpoint, progressively during its evolutions, the iMac has passed from the role of a toy machine - a poor man's Mac, to that of machine of the main office, while the Mac Pro has climbed more and more in the range so as to appeal only to the most demanding of the professionals. It is thus important that this iMac remains at the peak of power. In exchange, it would certainly be obliged to be thicker since one needs to place bulkier components and especially to re-examine the cooling system so that it can dissipates effectively and silently the additional heat.
If Apple goes in this direction, we would have another reason to be happy. The Mac mini would be different enough not to create a shadow on the iMac, thus the Mac mini would not have to stay as the poor relation and badly-liked model. It could thus have a normal life and evolve at the same rate as that of the portables with which it will continue to share its platform.

The health professionals using Macs have the great advantage of being able to have the excellent software OsiriX able to read and treat DICOM files.
An iPhone version able to view these files is now available at the following address:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296246375

Contrary to the basic Mac version, it costs € 15.99, a price largely acceptable for the services that it returns.

A new site joined the Francophone Mac Web. MacSign is very special since it publishes the Mac news using sign language.
We wish them good luck.

According to the latest leaks, Mac OS X 10.5.6 is almost finalized. The last build, the 9G38 distributed to the developers is not supposed to contain any bugs, the tests primarily are focused around MobileMe.
This update will be important because it will standardize the system over the whole range, since at present the new portables have a specific version of Mac OS X 10.5.5.