Inside a MacBook Pro 13''

2880 x 1800 = 5184000

2880 x 1800 = 5184000

The future of computer displays is here!

Formatting my MBP

In a while I am going to format my MBP in order to give it to its new owner. I did not intend to give it so soon, as I have it less that one year and a half, but when the new iMacs came, well, I just wanted one of them!

The MBP served me well and reliably but, as both a photographer and a programmer, I really need the extra speed (I will get the 3.06Ghz version) and screen of the new 27'' iMacs.

Hopefully, I will get my new iMac before Christmas.

My iMac

Yesterday, I sold my MacBook Pro and ordered a new iMac!

I want the 27'' model (the screen is HUGE), but it may take some time to be delivered so if I do not have it by the end of next week I will probably buy the 21.5'' iMac.

Being a photographer, I need the extra space of the new 27'' iMac as well as the extra power of a 3.06Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU. Also, I was constantly using my MBP with an external monitor (that is also sold) and therefore the MBP was mainly used as a desktop machine; so my thought was "why not sell it and get a real desktop machine instead?".

I will let you know when I get my new iMac.

Note: the 27'' monitor is also good for iPhone programming :)

MBP memory usage

As you can see, I keep my MBP pretty busy the last few days. I wish it could handle 8Gb of RAM.

Macessity LapTuk Stand!

Bought one of these for my MacBook Pro. I bought it from OWC because it was cheaper :) (actually, shipping was cheaper)

Its official web site is @ macessity.com.

Apple Portables: Resetting the SMC

The battery of my MacBook Pro behaves a little strangely lately (according to iStat Pro -- look at the Health percentage).

After reading some posts (this and that) I found out that resetting the SMC may help.

I then followed the instructions found at Apple's site.

How is the battery of your MacBook Pro?

6GB of RAM on a MacBook Pro!

According to this article from TibBITS, recent Macbook and MacBook Pro models (including my MacBook Pro!) can support up to 6Gb of RAM!

Please note that this is an unsupported configuration!

Firewire devices that I use

This is the list of the Firewire devices that I regularly use:

• Lacie brick USB2/FireWire 400 hard disk (80 Gb)
• Lacie Rugged USB2/FireWire 400/800 hard disk (320 Gb)
• FireDisk 800-s Unibrain external hard disk (300Gb)
• SanDisk FireWire 400/800 CF card reader

Will the single FireWire 800 port of the new MacBook Pro will be enough for me?

What do you think? What is your opinion?

Note: I do not have a video camera but if I buy one I will possibly buy a MiniDV one.

New MacBook and MacBook Pro!

MacBook Pro
+ Impressive Graphics Card
+ Big Hard Disk
+ Improved battery life
+ newly designed trackpad

- No screen type selection (Matte or Glossy)
- Where is the FireWire 400 port?
- I prefer the old MacBook Pro keyboard

MacBook
+ LED backlit display
+ fast graphics
+ aluminum case
+ illuminated keyboard
+ Improved battery life
+ A $999 White MacBook with a slot-loading 8X SuperDrive!!

- No FireWire port

New Apple NoteBooks!

Apple to hold special NoteBook event | October 14.

AppleYukon2 - en0 link down

Today, I found out a strange problem that I have. I had the feeling that my Internet connection was a little slow so I checked my logs. I found the following message appearing all the time: 

Sep 23 14:39:09 Monastery kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - en0 link down
Sep 23 14:39:10 Monastery kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - en0 link active, 100-Mbit, full duplex, symmetric flow control enabled port 0
Sep 23 14:39:11 Monastery kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - en0 link down
Sep 23 14:39:12 Monastery kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - en0 link active, 100-Mbit, full duplex, symmetric flow control enabled port 0

This has to do with my Ethernet port (en0).

Any ideas? Please? Do you have similar problems?

Note: my Wireless card works just fine.

Read the comments to see the solution that I found.

Fink and MacPorts

When I was first start using Macs, I wanted the GNU command line tools. I first started using Fink and I was very happy with it.

Lately, after getting my Intel MacBook Pro, I decided to update Fink in order to have the Intel binaries. Unfortunately, after trying a little bit, I could not update or re-install Fink to get Intel binaries.

It was then that I thought that I should try MacPorts. I am now happily using MacPorts and I should say that I am totally satisfied.

Lacie rugged hard disks

After selling my PowerMac G5 and getting a Macbook Pro, I decided that I should also get USB and Firewire powered hard disks (for lowering the noise as well as having more portability).

I now have two Lacie Rugged portable hard disks. A USB-only (250Gb) and a USB/Firewire 400/800 one (320 Gb).

I also have a FireDisk 800-s Unibrain external hard disk (300Gb) that is not bus-powered.

My new MacBook Pro

After 3+ years with my PowerMac G5 DP @ 2GHz, I now have a 15'' MacBook Pro 2.4GHz!

My reliable and trusty PowerMac G5 DP is in the hands of another Mac user as I could not afford to have two machines.

My new machine is quieter and more powerful so I should not complain. I only hope that it will be as reliable as my PowerMac G5!

SpeedMark 5 results

Macworld magazine updated its SpeedMark results for SpeedMark 5 (the latest version of SpeedMark).

I am publishing a small part of the results for reference:

• Power Macintosh G5/Dual 2.0GHz: 166
  
• 15-inch PowerBook G4/ 1.67Ghz: 92
  
• Mac Pro Xeon/3 GHZ Quad Core: 274
  
• 15-inch MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo/2.2GHz: 185
  
• 24-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.8 GHz: 262
  
• Mac mini Core 2 Duo/2 GHz: 172
  

Of course, the results do not show that my PowerMac can have up to 8Gb of RAM whereas a Mac Mini can have up to 2Gb of RAM.

The important thing to notice is that a MacBook Pro is as powerful as my PowerMac G5 DP @ 2GHz!