Why serviceability matters

In the picture above is a late-2009 iMac GPU (graphics card) after being baked at 200°C (392°F). Baking it solves a problem that makes the computer unusable and manifests itself as vertical pink lines during boot that gets the computer stuck. My friends’ iMac suffered from this problem and after googling it I found out that its a rather common issue afflicting a lot of iMacs. It happens when an internal solder crack or break. [Read More]

Got a new MP3 player – iRiver X20

Lately my 3rd generation 20Gb iPod battery started to die very early. It barely lasted for 2 hours. Changing a battery through Apple’s israeli representatives is not a very nice thing or easy to do and I didn’t want to wait for a replacement do-it-yourself battery from eBay so I’ve decided it was time for a new player. In addition to that a 3rd gen iPod has only 32Mb of RAM (it optimizes the battery life by loading ~32Mb from the drive every time, thus reducing the need to go back to the hard drive every time) and Apple recommended to have files of 9mb or less for best battery performance. [Read More]

iPhoneDevCamp, iPhone, Safari and Microformats

I wish I could attend iPhoneDevCamp but unfortunately I won’t be in the area (or in the right country for that matter ;-) ). I just read Chris’ post about iPhoneDevCamp and I think these are the right reasons to make the iPhoneDevCamp. There are a few facts that support Chris’ view: In the first week Apple sold 700,000 units The iPhone is closed for outside application, but not for web applications Having a couple of million units out (after it is also sold in Europe and Asia) means there are a couple of million users using Safari on their iPhone and want to get the right experience in all/most sites. [Read More]

Universal Binaries

Is it just me or Universal Binaries for Mac are a world domination scheme to increase the bandwidth usage of the world? I know that the Apple folks didn’t want people to start figuring out “Do I have an Intel process or a PowerPC one?”, after all most people don’t really know what’s inside their machines, but in 99% of the cases, when downloading from the web most sites that do provide the software could tell quite easily if the the browser is running on an Intel Mac or a PowerPC Mac by looking at the “User-Agent” string that the browser sends. [Read More]

Mac Software Updates – I expected more from Apple

We recently got a Mac Mini to the office so that we can test Yedda better with Safari and in general how Yedda looks, feels and works on all of the various browsers on Mac (mainly Safari, FireFox, Camino and Opera). It’s a cute little machine. I can easily understand why people fall in love with Mac and Apple products in general. After setting it up and powering it up I ran the Software Updates so that I will have the latest, greatest and safest Mac software. [Read More]