MacVintage.com

What’s in the box?

• Charger for two AA size batteries.
• Appropriate AC plug for the country where the charger was purchased.
• Six 1.2v 1900mAh rechargeable NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA size batteries.
• Quick start user guide.
• Warranty information.

According to the user guide, the charger requires 5 hours to fully charge a pair of AA batteries. There is a small LED light at the top of the charger in amber when charging which turns Green when fully charged much like the charger for Apple portables such as the iBooks, PowerBooks, MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

The light turns off automatically after 6 hours to conserve energy. If it flashes in amber when batteries are inserted, it could mean an unsupported battery type, faulty batteries or just not seated properly.

The AC plug is similar to those used for Apple portables and older iPod/ iPhone chargers. Thus this AA battery charger is compatible with the Apple World Travel Adapter kit making it easy for use during holidays abroad.

Most batteries come in packs of two or four but Apple chose to bundle six with the battery charger. Two went into a magic mouse while the next pair was used to power a magic trackpad. The last pair could be kept charged ready for use or for the newer apple wireless keyboards that use two batteries instead of three.

The batteries came fully charged and ready to use and should hold most of their charge for more than a year. It sounds similar to the Sanyo Eneloop batteries which I did consider buying except that the prices were similar to the Apple battery charger where I live.

I would love to buy more rechargeable batteries for use in other devices such as camera flash, torch lights and more but unfortunately Apple does not sell the AA rechargeable batteries on it’s own.

Listed below are the 8 reasons I bought an iPad instead of iPad 2.

1. Same resolution and size of LCD screen.

2. Same memory and connectivity options except for new CDMA model.

3. 730g for iPad 3G vs 613g for iPad 2 with 3G. Difference of only 117g or 16% less.

4. iPad is 13.4mm thick vs iPad 2 at 8.8mm but still thinner than MacBook Air’s 17mm or difference of 1.42mm of the Samsung Galaxy Tab at 11.98mm.

5. iPad 2 may be thinner and lighter than the iPad but if you are getting your first tablet, the iPad 2 will also have a slimming effect on your wallet.

6. Sure it’s fun having the latest gadget but it’s a 2 week waiting time for online orders of ipad 2 while I can waltz into a shop to get the iPad immediately.

7. Apple has announced at WWDC 2011 that iOS 5 is supported by the iPad so there’s still support and updates for more features.

8. And the last reason that is more a post justification when a friend commented on my facebook page on my new iPad ‘that’s so 2010, iPad 3 is coming out soon’. The iPad is still great for reading, email, web surfing and more. Technology keeps improving so there’s no point holding out for the next model if the older model serves your needs. More cash in the pocket means I can upgrade to the iPad 3 next year if it’s really compelling.

That’s enough typing for now, back to browsing through the Flipboard app on the iPad.

In 1983, Apple released the Lisa computer system. It ran on it’s own operating system called the Lisa OS. Fast forward to 2011 and Apple is preparing OS X 10.7 Lion for release.

So what else is new in OS X Lion? Marketing materials tout a new feature called Resume that allows applications to resume as it were when you last closed it. Another feature is Auto Save which automatically saves your work solving those annoying situations where a power failure causes data loss on open files.

These features are actually available 28 years ago with Lisa OS. Pressing the power button does not turn off the electricity to the Lisa. It instead sends a signal to the Lisa OS to save and close all applications and position of the desktop before going into a low power mode much like sleep mode on modern day Macs. Turning the computer on again, users are greeted with the same screen just as where they had left it.

It’s interesting how far technology has seemingly progressed. Monochrome screen to millions of colours, megahertz to gigahertz, kilobytes to terabytes and yet fuctionality remains largely unchanged.

After getting  a new 2010 unibody Mac Mini Server, it was time to look for an LCD monitor.

Having a matching Apple LED or Cinema Display would have been nice. The 24inch LED display has been discontinued as of 26th July 2010 and is available while stocks last. So has the monstor 30inch Cinema Display. Apple currently only offers a 27in LED display.

Due to a limited budget with the purchase of the Mac Mini, a Dell LCD monitor was considered. The are many rave reviews of the Ultrasharp U2410 24 inch LCD display which uses an IPS panel. There is also a cheaper 23 inch model U2311H.

When about to place the order for the 23 inch display, a good deal on the bigger 27inch 2009 model 2709w was found online.

With a resolution of 1920 x 1200, it is similar to the 24 inch U2410 and lower than the newer U2711 of 2560 x 1440. However, it is still higher than full HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixals.

The plus point of this LCD monitor over the 23 inch are the plethora of ports. Almost any vintage of computers that are in use can be hooked up to this display from VGA, DVI, HDMI to DisplayPort.

It also includes a useful media card reader on the left side supporting CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Secure Digital (SD), MultiMedia Card (MMC), SmartMedia and xD Picture Card. Located below this are two usb ports perfect for plugging in flash drives and other peripherals.

After using it for a month, I have to say there are no regrets. The extra screen real estate allows multiple documents, webpages and pdfs to be open at the same time and is a huge step up from a 13 inch MacBook. As my desk is quite deep, the similar resolution of this 27 inch to a 24 inch makes it easy for my eyes during extended periods of use.

As my primary computer, a first generation Intel Core Duo Black MacBook, starts to struggle in keeping up with my ever growing iPhoto collection a new Mac was on the horizon.

Earlier in the year when the new updated unibody Mac Mini was released, I was really tempted to get it as a media computer in the living room. However, a good deal on a used early 2009 Mac Mini was a better choice. It was half the price and had an upgraded ram of 4 gb memory but with a slower processor and graphics card. Functionality would not be much different but I would have extra cash in my pocket.

The iMac’s were tempting compared to the Mac Minis as once the screen, keyboard and mouse are included, the prices will be comparable. Plus the iMac would still be faster based on the specifications. Although I did not have a spare or old LCD screen, I did have a spare apply keyboard and mouse.

What swayed me to purchase the Mac Mini was it’s minuscule power consumption and Snow Leopard Server that came with the Server model. I would now be able to tinker with and setup a server and small home/ office network.

Now that the Mac Mini has arrived, it’s time to get an LCD monitor and start planning the network setup. The Mac Mini Server will store Time Machine backups of all the rest of the macs and act as a file server. It will also be setup to host email and websites for a start.

Performance wise, the two internal hard drives will be setup as a Raid 0. It will have the full 1 terabyte of storage and be faster for sequential read and write. However, failure rate is higher than Raid 0 where both hard drives are a mirror of each other.

An external 1.5 terabyte hard disk will be connected as a time machine backup. This could be alternated with another hard disk to be stored off site.

The memory is upgraded to the maximum 8 gb from the standard 4 gb in the Mac Mini Server edition and 2 gb compared to the stock Mac Mini.

AutoDesk has officially launched AutoCad for Mac and is now available for sale.

A free 30 day trial is available for download from their website. A form is required to be filled before downloading the trial version.

According to the product information, AutoCad for Mac will have similar functions as it’s Window’s counterpart. However, there is no cheaper Lt version at the moment for the Mac platform.

A few months ago, AutoCad for Mac beta was released under a code name called Sledgehammer. This marks the return of AutoCad to the Macintosh platform since the last compatible version at AutoCad R12.

With the proliferation of the iPhone and iPad in the business environment, AutoCad WS was released for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as a free application on 29th September 2010 before the launch of AutoCad for Mac. While Autocad WS is free, AutoCad for Mac will be priced the same as AutoCad 2011 for Windows PC’s.

The iPhone 4 design and specifications have changed significantly from the iPhone 3G. It’s form is now rectilinear and looks more masculine compared to the iPhone 3G smooth pebble look.

It now includes a front facing 3 megapixel camera and 5 megapixel with auto focus and an LED flash at the back. Included in an iOS 4 software update is the HDR function.

What it does is take two quick successive photos at two different exposures and combines it together. It results is nicer photos where there is a large contrast, the areas in shadow would otherwise be lost.

In fact, I hardly used my Olympus Pen EP 1 during a short trip. The iPhone 4 was smaller and easier to whip out and capture the shot.

Another area I found to have improved was the GPS chip. It could possibly be due to a faster processor and more memory. Using the Tom Tom navigation app, the iPhone 4 was the fastest to lock on the location. It also tracked the position more accurately and kept up even when making lots of turns.

For users on the original iPhone or iPhone 3G, I would recommend upgrading to the iPhone 4. However, users of the iPhone 3GS might want to hold out for the next version especially for those still locked in a contract with their mobile operator.

The iPhone 3GS is compatible with the iOS 4 upgrade and supports useful functions such as multi tasking and folders. Users like myself who upgraded the iPhone 3G to iOS 4 will be frustrated with a very slow interface and possible faulty wifi. So leave that iPhone 3G alone on iOS 3 and get the iPhone 4 if you really want to extra features in iOS 4.

One month after upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G, the wifi stopped working. It would keep searching endlessly for available networks but never pick up anything.

This happened just before I bought the iPhone 4. It might seem like Apple was trying to push people to upgrade. After all, the iOS 4 upgrade on the iPhone 3G caused it to run unbearably slow.
Next, the wifi was no longer working rendering it’s use limited as an iPod Touch equivalent.

No amount of restoring nor upgrading through the various iOS 4 updates solved the problem. In fact, the wifi problem surfaced just after the extended warranty AppleCare was over. The iPhone 3G worked fine over the two years and never required any repairs till iOS 4.

Here I was with an iPhone 3G that I bought on the official launch day and even spent another $99 on the AppleCare and now it’s a paperweight just after the warranty is over.

So for all you iPhone 3G users out there still on iOS 3, do not upgrade to iOS 4. Not only will it run unbearably slow but it will also cause damage to the wifi hardware.

So you’re a fan of the iPhone and every software update has brought about new functions and made the iPhone better like cut and paste or spotlight search with iOS 3.

And as there were not many problems with the earlier iOS software updates, your iPhone was quickly upgraded to iOS 4 the moment it was launched.

Now you’re slapping yourself thinking what have I done? The iPhone 3G is now crawling at a snails pace.

The temporary fix is to reset the phone while the other option is to downgrade from iOS 4 back to iOS 3 as discovered and detailed by other iPhone 3G users around the world.

To reset the phone, press the home button together with the sleep button and hold it there till the iPhone shuts off and begins to restart before letting go the buttons. Don’t worry about the information on the iPhone as data is not lost with a reset.

Rebooting probably clears the memory and possibly any cache. In my experience, it did help at times when the phone was extremely sluggish. However, it does not bring back the same level of response from ios3.

The next option is to downgrade the iPhone 3G from ios4 to ios3.1.3 if you prefer speed over the added functions.

Instructions can be found here. For me, I’m going to get the new iPhone 4 although there seems to be a big issue over the reception at the moment and restore the iPhone 3G when I find some spare time.