Big PC Geek Tech Blog

Psystar is a company claiming to have cloned a Mac computer but they are selling it cheaper than Apple. Called the "OpenMac," you get a 2.2 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of memory, 250 GB Hard disk, and a DVD burner to name a few for $400. Apparently there is software they have created that will allow OSX Leopard to install right on the computer. Psystar’s web site is already down which means they are scared sick or it all was a rouse to get Apple to pay them some money.

Im torn here, competition would drive the price of Apple’s goods down however if they became more of a software company with concern to the computer world, they might sell a heck of a lot more copies of Leopard. Don’t know what is going on but I cant wait to see what happens.

If you own a MacBook or MacBook Pro with an Intel Processor, you know how hot it gets. Seriously, sometimes I think I could fry an egg on my MacBook Pro. I could hold my hand over the keyboard and feel the heat without even touching the laptop!

I really hate carrying around extra equipment but the other day I decided to get a dual fan notebook cooler from Coolmax. I have always known a notebook cooler would help but I literally keep checking and felt very little heat after using this device.

If you own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, I suggest you get one of these because unfortunately MacBooks get too hot. That thin form factor has it’s price. I hope the new 45nm processors found in the new notebooks are cooler. You can buy the Coolmax cooler I bought here.

If you are in a household with many computers all with their own iTunes libraries, there is a great way to share the music from one computer to another. ITunes now allows you to share your library over your network. Once configured, you will see the library available in the shared section of the left hand panel in iTunes.

Here is how to set it up:

From iTunes, select "Edit" and then "Preferences." Once the Preferences windows opens, select the "sharing" tab, and finally "Share my library on my local network." You are able to select various types of music, videos, and much more. At the bottom, you can also require a password.

All music should stream fine over a 54G wireless connection but you will want a physical connection for video.

Do you have a collection of CD’s and need to rip them into iTunes to fill up your new ipod? There is a hard way and an easy way. The hard way is not changing anything in iTune’s settings and ripping music the way it is set to. The easy way is to change settings in iTunes so that you can pop in a CD anythime and have iTunes rip your music automatically.

First, click edit on the upper left part of iTunes and click preferences. A windows will pop up and you need to click the advances tab at the top of the window and then click importing on a new set of tabs within the advanced tab. The next part is key. You need to select "Import CD and eject" in the drop down menu where it says "On CD Insert." After the first CD is inserted in your computer when iTunes is open, iTunes will automatically rip the CD and then eject the CD tray when finished. This is important because you don’t have to stay at your computer, just look over at your computer and insert a new disc anytime you see the CD tray open.

There are other very useful options that you can use here too. You can decide what format you want your music to be imported with which can save space or make your music work with more devices. Next, pay attention to the quality settings because it is not worth doing all this if the music sounds horrible afterwards. It is also probably important to uncheck the option to play songs while importing music. Another important setting to check is "Automatically retrieve CD track names from Internet." This feature is really nice because you don’t have to create the names of the tracks saving time and making file management much better. Also make sure "Create filenames with track number."

Computers are made to make your life easy, it is time to make them do it. You can also do this in Windows Media player with similar options.

Here is a really cool tip! Ever been looking at something small on your Mac and needed the ability to zoom in? All you need to do is hold down the "ctrl" key and scroll up or down with your mouse.

If you have a MacBook, you need a mouse with scroll. If anyone knows how to do this with a keyboard shortcut so you don’t need a mouse, please let me know.

Ever received a zipped file or needed to send a zipped file in your PC or Mac and been told you need to buy a compressing program like Winzip? In most cases, you don’t need to buy any program. In most cases, when you receive a zipped file on a PC or Mac you can double click or click respectively and follow the instructions to get the compressed files.

If someone has requested you send them a zipped file in email or something, you don’t need to buy any software. Here is what you do:

On a PC, create a folder and put the files needed in it, then right click, select "send to," and finally "compresses (zipped) folder." This creates a zipped file you can use to send as an email attachment. If you need to add a password in order to open the zipped file you need to buy software and if you receive a file compressed by a proprietary program you may need to buy software.

In a Mac, the process is almost the same although the version of OSX might make the wording different. Ok… Create a file folder, then put the files in it. Then you need to do the same as a right click in Windows. Either hit "ctrl" and then click the mighty mouse on the folder or ditch the dumb Apple mouse and get a good windows mouse so you can right click. If you are using Leopard, then after right clicking you want to select "compress." Older versions of Mac OS’s may call this archive etc.

I just read on the blog www.appletell.com that they have a really reliable source that the Mac Book Pros will have solid state hard drives in them. I am glad I did not buy a MackBook Pro for Christmas. I have been waiting for Macworld to buy one and all the bloggers are making me think I was smart to wait.

What are solid state drives? Why is this good?

Well simple, if the hard drive in a notebook were flash memory, which has no moving parts, (the memory is stored on computer chips instead of a tradition hard drive with mechanical parts), they should be able to take a beating. Laptops have an issue of dying because if you drop one (and they are more susceptible to being dropped) you chance damaging the hard drive with all of your precious data. Your odds are much better that the drive wont break as easy with solid state. This idea suggests that the drives will last much longer but I am not sure about this since flash memory usually has a limit of read and writes, that is they might wear out sooner than the tradition hard drive.

Well either way, I cant wait to get a new laptop. I will be getting one soon and I hope to be able to try out one with solid state drives.