iMac Line Updates
The iMac line has been refreshed. All the models received a graphics upgrade, on the low end we now have an ATI Radeon HD 4670 w/ 256MB of VRAM. On the high end we have an ATI Radeon HD 5750 with a whopping 1GB of VRAM. This is the first consumer level machine with this advanced of a graphics chip. In addition the Intel Core 2 Duo has now been replaced with the Core i3 which is a welcome and possibly overdue change. Please visit our sales page for the full detailed list of specs.
Limited Hours 7/5/10
We will be open only from 10AM-4PM on Monday July 5th. We are sorry for the inconvenience!
A Better Bottom Line
Learn how to increase your bottom line with Macintosh Computers and Mac OS X Server.
On Aug 19, MacMechanic will be holding a seminar, “A Better Bottom Line”, on Macs in the business world. We will be covering Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server. RAID storage, and cost affective strategies for Macs in a business environment. We will have Keynote slideshows as well as a Q&A.
In less than an hour, we’ll show you how easy it is to integrate a Mac into your business. And some surprising ways a Mac can help increase your productivity. Come to our Better Bottom Line seminar to find out how
Who should attend:
- - Business owners or entrepreneurs considering a Mac
- - Business users wanting to use a Mac with their existing Windows applications and networks
You will learn:
- - How to get started with Mac OS X
- - How to connect a Mac to existing workgroups and other office computers, including PCs
- - How to communicate, share files, and use existing printers as a shared resource
- - How iWork ’09 can help you create stunning documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
- - Feature set and true cost of running Mac OS X server.
- - Mac OS X in the retail space ( Lightspeed POS).
Sign up at:
Tech Tip: Evernote – A World of Knowledge at your fingertips.
So you are sitting somewhere you don’t want to be, and waiting for some thing you’re sure you will not care about tomorrow. What to do? Thinking swiftly, You pull out you iPhone from your pocket (or purse) and randomly search the web.
I believe I can speak for all of us, when I say this happens all to often, in this so called “Modern Life” we all seem to be trapped in. But what if, you could turn those moment of mindless web surfing into actionable, productive, and dare I say “edifying” moments of discovery. I know. . . sound impossible right. Well, not exactly, the collective knowledge of all human kind can be yours, if you only have the right Apps.
I know. . . sound to good to be true. And well, I may be playing it up a bit, but I do have a few suggestions on how you can turn minutes (or hours, you know who you are) of mindless web browsing into not so mindless web browsing.
The first app, is the Wikipedia iPhone app. A must have for those of us who love the random verbal tidbit, or the slightly odd meme of the moment. The second is not any app in particular, it can be one (or more) of the many news app, or any of the other site readers (Diggnation comes to mind.) It could even be one of the many eBook you can find at the app store. The source is not really the focus, it’s the collection of the interesting snippets, that we are concerned with.
The final App, is Evernote: http://evernote.com/. This application is not only on your iPhone, but on your Mac (and PC) as well. And get this. . . they sync. Now that the iPhone 3.0 software has copy-paste, you can save the things you want to remember on your iPhone, and it will sync to your Evernote account on line, then sync back to the Evernote application on your Mac (or PC) the next time you launch the app. It even allows you to have several different “NoteBooks” so you can categorize the thing you collect. It is free, but you can upgrade to a pay account.
I don’t care who are, a student, a lawyer, or just someone love to argue, and win. This application set will save you brain space, help with any project, big our small. With all the things the life can shoot your way, a little mental outsourcing can’t hurt.
Well that my two cents for this week. See in a fortnight.
-Seth
Tech Tip: Using File Sharing Services
One of the most useful functions of OS X is it’s powerful built-in file sharing services. You can easily set up custom shared folders for Windows file sharing, OS X file sharing, and the tried and true FTP file sharing. Virtually any platform is supported in some way. Simply turning on file sharing will allow anyone to connect to your machine and put things in your Drop Box without risking the integrity of your machine. Follow these steps:
1. Open System Preferences by clicking on your ‘Apple’ menu and selecting ‘System Preferences’.
2. Click on the ‘Sharing’ preference pane. Make sure the lock on the bottom left hand corner of the window is unlocked.
3. Click on the check box next to ‘File Sharing’. This will do two things – enable OS X filesharing (AFP) and share your public folder located in your home folder. Note: Anyone will be able to connect to your machine and have read access to this folder. They will not be able to delete anything from this folder and will only be able to copy items into the Drop Box folder. Nobody is able to READ the contents of your Drop Box folder except for you.
4. Now that you have enabled sharing for OS X users, you can easily enable Windows Sharing (SMB) or FTP sharing by clicking on the ‘Options’ button. You may also choose other folders to share by clicking on the ‘+’ button to the left of the options button. I would recommend leaving the default shared folders to minimize security risks.
5. Test your setup! Go to another OS X machine on your network. Open a new Finder window (click on File -> New Windows) and notice that your computer name shows up in the side bar under the ‘Shared’ heading.
6. Congratulations. Now when you are trying to figure out how to transfer that pesky Word document to another machine, you have a quick, easy solution.
WWDC 2009
Apple had their Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today and they announced much more then we expected.
1. iPhone 3.0 software available on June 17th. Free for iPhone users. (apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate)
2. Macbook Pro’s have been updated. There are no longer any Macbooks except the $999 white machine. (store.apple.com)
3. iPhone 3GS announced with faster processor, video recording, better battery life. (apple.com/iphone)
4. Snow Leopard due for release in September. (apple.com/macosx)
The full keynote should be available for viewing shortly at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/appleevents/
Tech Tip: Recover from a liquid spill
Spilling any type of liquid on a computer is not an easy thing to recover from. Even if you get your computer to a functional state, there is no guarantee that it will stay that way for long. Even so, here are a few tips that can maximize your chance of having a working computer.
No two types of liquid affect your computer in the same way. Naturally water is a best case scenario for a spill. Any sort of liquid with sugar in it (soda, wine, etc) is very dangerous and damaging to computer components. Be sure to be extra careful when handling these types of drinks near any electronic device. If a spill does happen, perform the following steps immediately. Time can be a factor.
1. Turn your computer off - This step is important. If you are on a laptop, pull the battery out as soon as you can. Once again, time can be a factor. On a desktop simply pull the power cord. Remember: shutting a machine down like this can be damaging in it’s own way, only do this in an emergency.
2. Put your computer in a position to facilitate drying - Position your laptop with the lid half open on a hard surface. You could use a fan (NOT a heater) if the spill is just water.
3. WAIT, take a deep breath, relax – The worst thing you can do is panic. Do not turn the computer on to ‘test if it’s working’ (can’t tell you how many times I have heard that). Your data is ok, unless you fully submerged your computer in water then this is not a cause to worry.
4. Bring the machine to someone who can look inside it – Ideally bring the computer to a computer place like us. Do not try and open the machine if you have never done so before, a laptop requires a specific take apart procedure and you may damage your computer further if you try this yourself.
In almost every spill case we recieve, a customer attempted to turn the computer on. Please do not do this for your own sake. For a water spill that is relatively bad let the computer dry overnight (with a fan) or two days (without a fan). In the event that you spill any type of other beverage then take the computer in to a repair shop immediately. Even if the computer drys, there is still evough junk left inside the machine to cause significant problems. If memorize these steps and act quickly – your computer could be ok.
MacMechanic Support Service Setup
We are launching a new support system dubbed, for now, @support.macmechanic.net. This service will allow us to literally show you how to fix an issue by using a service called screen sharing. This service works only when the customer initiates a ‘service call’. There is no way for us to control your machine in any way until you specifically accept the service request. Basically we will take control of your machine and you can watch exactly what we do. This allows for swift and quality service without you needing to leave the house!
The pay scale is as follows:
1. $20 per incident
2. $50 for 3 incidents
3. If the incident turns into a house call (Onsite) then all fees are waived
One incident gives you 30 minutes of service. If the incident takes longer you will be charged two incidents (up to the Tech’s discretion, we aren’t going to nickle and dime!)
To set up your machine to use our service:
A. Open iChat located in your Applications folder.
B. Go to the iChat menu in the menubar at the top of the screen.
C. Click the ‘Accounts’ tab at the top of the window. Click the +(plus) button on the bottom left hand corner of the window.
D. Set the account type to ‘Jabber’. The tech will inform you of which username and password you should use.
E. Click ‘Done’
That is all! You will receive a request to share your screen shortly afterwards.
Tech Tip: Diagnosing software issues Part III
One you have determined that your problem is related to your System and not your User then follow these steps to replace your system only. This will not erase your personal files but you may need to reinstall some drivers and such.
Performing an Archive and Install:
Step 1: Insert your Original Install Disk or The disk you used to upgrade to another version of OS X. Restart your machine and hold down the ‘C’ key on your keyboard. NOTE: If you do not have the correct disks you will need to obtain replacement disks from Apple.
Step 2: Click past the Introduction/Language Selection screen and any successive screens until you reach the area where it asks you to choose the Volume to install on.
Step 3: Click on your hard drive (most likely called Macintosh HD) and notice the exclamation point hovering above the icon.
Step 4: Click the ‘Options’ button on the bottom left hand corner of the window and select ‘Archive & Install’ with ‘Preserve Users and Network Settings’ checked. Click the ‘Ok’ button.
Step 5: Continue with the install as normal.
BONUS: Resetting your password:
Step 1: Insert your Original Install Disk or The disk you used to upgrade to another version of OS X. Restart your machine and hold down the ‘C’ key on your keyboard. NOTE: If you do not have the correct disks you will need to obtain replacement disks from Apple.
Step 2: Click past the language selection/introduction screen. Notice the menu bar that appears at the top of the screen.
Step 3: Click the ‘Utilities’ menu and select ‘Reset Password’.
Step 4: Click on your hard drive (most likely Macintosh HD) and choose the user to reset the password for from the drop down menu. Enter your new password twice and click save.
Step 5: Restart the machine.
OPTIONAL Step 6: The user account password is now changed but your keychain password is not. This will cause OS X to bug you for this password (which you do not know) whenever it tries to read from the keychain. You will need to generate a new login.keychain to solve this issue.
A. Go to the ‘Go’ menu from the Finder and select ‘Home’. Navigate inside the ‘Library’ folder to the ‘Keychains’ folder.
B. Delete the login.keychain file.
Before bringing in a machine, one will usually call us and ask us if there is any way possible to fix the machine before bringing it all the way down to the shop. These were a few simple ways to fix some of your most basic problems. Everyone hopes that their problem will just be a quick fix, but honestly most of the time there isn’t a cut and dry solution. If you want to avoid bringing in a machine then research your problem, someone has likely had the same issue as you before.
Tech Tip: Speed up Firefox and Safari
Firefox and Safari are both wonderful browers. They are fast, elegant, and most importantly standards compliant (*cough* Internet Explorer *cough*) but did you know that you can make them BETTER? First off Firefox has a couple tweaks that will speed up your web page loading times dramatically with a hidden feature called pipelining. Pipelining increases the amount of concurrent connections your browser has with a webserver and allows it to load content without waiting for any previous content to finish downloading. While this seems a bit confusing, the bottom line is: FAST.
You have no ability to alter the pipelining preferences in Safari, unfortunately, but to enable pipelining in Firefox…
1. Type ‘about:config‘ in your address bar and hit return.
about:config
Careful!
2. Type the word ‘pipelining‘ into the ‘Filter’ field.
3. Doubleclick ‘network.http.pipelining‘ and ‘network.http.proxy.pipelining‘ to set their values to ‘true’
4. Doubleclick ‘network.http.pipelining.maxrequests‘ and set the value to something like 8 (NOTE: if you make this number too high it can end up slowing down your browser and putting a heavy load on the web server. Be considerate 
).
Settings
You have enabled pipelining! But theres more. Browers have a built in delay that it will wait to draw the website on your display. They do this so all the website content (hopefully) loads at once and to make sure the stylesheet is downloaded so you don’t see an ustyled website. While this can be nice, I prefer to see whatever content I can as quickly as possible. To turn this delay off in Firefox:
1. Hold down the control key and click anywhere in about:config
2. Select New -> Integer from the pop-up menu.
3. Enter ‘nglayout.initialpaint.delay‘ as the preference name and click ok.
4. Enter the number 0 as the integer value and click ok.
In Safari:
1. Quit Safari (Safari must not be open during these steps so copy and paste these directions into TextEdit or another word processor).
1. Open the ‘Terminal‘ application in your Utilities folder located in your Applications folder.
2. Copy and paste the following ‘defaults write com.apple.safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.1‘
3. Hit return
Enjoy your new, fast, browser!