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Nautilus Laptop Prototype |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 24 July 2008 |
 MacMod member George the Second has been tinkering in his workshop again, this time on a laptop. He has been working on making a Jules Vernes laptop for the Nautilus. While it is not a Mac laptop, it is done by a MacMod community member, so we'll gladly post about it.
George used Krylon paint and steel wool to give the worn/battered effect to it. I definitely agree that a laptop in the Nautilus would be a little beaten up. While the pictures aren't huge, George has promised to upload a more detailed "how to" when he gets the main project done. This one is just a prototype for testing techniques.
Thanks for sharing George.
Nautilus Laptop Beta on MacMod.com
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Forklift for sale, worth a look. |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
 The application Forklift is your go to app for FTP transfers. Or renaming files, or removing applications, or just about anything to do with a file or transferring files. It's available for a 33% discount today only from MacZot.com. If you don't have a favorite FTP client yet, or you are getting tired of the one you do have, give ForkLift a look. I did and found that it now one of the must haves in my tool box.
MacZot.com offers good to great discounts 6 days a week to shareware and other Mac software developers that often go unnoticed. While most deals are okay or the applications are so-so, Forklift is definitely one of the apps you'll want to check out. It's reduced from $29.95 to $19.95 today only at MacZot.com. Get a free download with a 15 day trial to see if you like it or not (but the deal is for today only).
MacZot.com
More info from binarynights.com
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Internal to External Drive converter |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
 This is a must have if you work in a help desk or deal with computers on a daily basis. Thermaltake's SATA to USB hard drive docking bay allows you to take your internal SATA drives and plug them quickly into the bay to get access to them. The design is simple, a SATA to USB converter really. I know that I'll be picking one up for the office, as I have a stack of drives that I have no idea what's on them. This allows you to quickly go through without having to crack open a case for every drive. What a time saver!
This takes a big chunk of time and frustration out when you have a failing computer. Usually you would have to put it in an external case or another Mac to see if it was the hard drive. Now you can just take it out, put the questionable drive in the docking bay and see immediately if it is good or bad (or just what's on it).
Take a look at it over at zipzoomfly.com
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Coolest Mac Mini mount ever! |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
 The Mac Mini is the staple for the Mac Modder. It's size allows it to squeeze into almost anything. Some people take it apart, some modders leave it intact and add on to it. The Mac Mini has been used for things such as robots, digital signs, and web servers. H-Squared, LLC (www.h-sq.com) has a great product called the Mini mount that may come in handy if you are looking at ways of deploying a Mac Mini into awkward spaces (they also have mounts for the Apple TV, Airport Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule).
H-Squared's Mini Mount is designed to fit onto a VESA mountings, in nearly any configuration, at nearly any angle. The cast clear acrylic housing has hold the Mac Mini on three sides, with two arms fully reaching over the edge and a third bump holding the back (or front) side. The coolest part is the blue LED light that comes with the stand (optional). It allows you to mount the Mini in dark areas and still have enough light to work, while not distracting from whatever it is the Mac Mini is doing there.
Very cool product if you need to mount your small Mac / Apple products.
H-Squared's Mini Mount
H-Squared's website
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Popular Mechanics says Mac wins |
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
 Here's something that is infuriating the Windows evangelicals. Popular
Mechanics looked at a system running Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard. The Macs won hands down. Granted the systems were different
configurations (one had more RAM, one had a faster processor), but that
was not the point. The review was for the form factor comparison. The comparisons were about the computers as a whole, not nit picking about speeds or RAM. It's wasn't about the OS as much as the total package.
When it comes to the total package, the Mac is the winner. Yes, we are a website that deals with main Macintosh so we are going to be a little biased. But when you look at the overall package, the Mac is the better choice. It's a monopoly of sorts. Apple has complete control over their systems (despite PsyStar). Windows has to deal with countless combinations of new systems and old systems from countless vendors. Windows also relies heavily on those same vendors for their drivers. The Mac is more of a use this driver or it won't work, as we all know. In the end there are ways to work around for the Mac, it's called hacking (just search this site and you'll see plenty).
The interesting part of the article (and often complained about on the Windows forums) is that the review comes from a non-computer magazine. Many people are saying, what right does Popular Mechanics have to compare two systems, especially if they aren't the same. Well, to the end user they are pretty much the same. The end user isn't going to go out searching for hours to find two systems that are spec'd exactly the same. They are going to look at the system they want and at most compare them. That is what Popular Mechanics did. They found two system and compared them. Don't believe me? Go into a Best Buy on a Saturday and hang out in the computer section. Listen to the sales people and the customers. See for yourself.
Read it at Popular Mechanics
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
 OWC via MacSales.com has released their latest pocket firewire drive, the Mercury On-The-Go. This is a bus-powered pocket drive, so you don't need the extra cables to get it connected. This is also the first 500 GB portable bus-powered drive on the market. If you need more storage than in a Mac Mini, and it needs to fit in the back pocket of your jeans. This is your drive.
Most of the Mercury On-The-Go drives will handle multiple interfaces, FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, and eSATA. However, the 500GB only covers the 'Triple' (FireWire 800/400 & USB 2.0). MacSales also offers other drive size configurations, from 40GB to 200GB to the massive 500GB.
If you gotta have some major space in your pocket, take a look.
OWC's Mecurty On-The-Go Firewire Drives at MacSales.com
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
 The latest XBox Media Center (XBMC) software has been released for the Mac, it isn't at version 1 status yet, but it is getting closer, this is versin 0.4.5 (up from the previosu XBMC v0.4.0). This is another solution to the home media center Mac. XBMC is a stable media center solution for the old XBox's, and the user interface is nice. They are working on getting the Apple remote to work, so there will probably be a few more updates before it is at version 1. XBMC v0.4.5 has a few new features like a web server (to control it by
remote laptop), monitor blanking (main monitor display only) and better
support for the Mac and WMA files.
XBMC for the Mac is great solution. There are alternatives out there of course, Apple's Front Row, Adobe's new released Media Center, Lavasoft's Kenbushi. If you are waiting for that new Mac Mini to make your home theater compolete (like I am) then it is time to start investigating what software youw ant to run. Take the XBMC for a test drive and see if you like it.
XBMC for Mac home page
Download via macupdate
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Written by Chris Tangora
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
 Marco shouted over to me about a semi-new liquid cooling system. It isn't new, but it is continuing to gain momentum in both the DIY and corporate sectors. Asetek has a low cost liquid cooling (LCLC) that has been used by HP for a while now, and they have consumer level liquid systems as well.
One of the advantages of the Mac platform going Intel is that we can start to use these products that are designed for the Intel chips. Currentlly the LCLC is only available on the OEM, but they have enough consumer level products to warrant a peek. My favorite is the vapochill Micro. Such a cute little thing.
More about the LCLC
See Asetek's consumer brand liquid cooling systems.
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