Apple released the Mac OS X 10.6.7 Update this week, along with a
special version just
for the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models. This should address most of the
issues reported in last week's and this week's 'Book Review, except for
the 6 Gbps SATA SSD problem, which requires a replacement cable.
General Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review. iPad, iPod, iPhone, and
Apple TV news is covered in The iOS News
Review. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Reviews
Tech Trends
News & Opinion
2011 MacBook Pro Issues with iTunes Home
Sharing
MacFixIt's Joe Aimonetti notes that despite Home Sharing's more
prominent role in Apple's iOS and iTunes, some users who purchased the
latest revision MacBook Pros aren't thrilled with the feature, with an
Apple Support Discussions thread ballooning to over 213 comments since
the end of February from users trying to find a solution to the Home
Sharing bug.
This issue is resolved with Mac OS X 10.6.7, which was released
after Aimonetti's article was published.
Link: New MacBook Pros
Having Issues with iTunes Home Sharing
No DDR3 1600 for the 2011 MacBook Pro
Hardmac's Lionel reports that according to Intel specifications,
some Sandy Bridge mobile processors support DDR 1600, including the the
quad-core CPUs in the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros - except for the 2.0 GHz
variant (the ones in the 13" models are not compatible). After
installing two DDR3 1600 MHz RAM modules from Kingston in a 15" 2.3 GHz
MacBook Pro, the computer refused to address anything higher than 1333
MHz DDR3, leading him to deduce that Apple omitted the support of the
faster memory in those computers.
Link: No DDR3 1600 for
the 2011 MacBook Pro
6 Gbps SATA SSD Problem in the 2011 MacBook
Pro
Hardmac's Lionel reports that a number of people are having problems
with their 2011 MacBook Pro when used with a 6 Gbps SATA SSD installed
(C300, Intel 510, the very few SSDs with the new interface) and has
posted a summary of what Hardmac knows about this issue, including:
- The problem can occur on any Early 2011 model: 13", 15", or
17".
- The 13" MacBook Pro most consistently manifests the problem,
"almost systematically."
- The 17" MacBook Pro is second-most frequently affected
- The 15" MacBook Pro is most often spared by the problem.
Link: About the SSD SATA
III Problem in the 2011 MacBook Pro
Early 2011 MacBook Pro SSD Problem: The Lead on the
Defective Cable Was Right
Hardmac's Lionel updates his previous report about problems
experienced with 6 Gbps SATA SSDs in the new MacBook Pro and says he's
had an interesting lead on the cause of the problem - a defective SATA
connector, citing a MacRumors forum contributor who reported he had the
problem on his 2011 MacBook Pro and ended-up buying a replacement cable
from iFixit - everything went back to normal once the cable was
replaced, the computer supporting the SSD and working on it without any
problem.
Link: SATA III on the
2011 MacBook Pro: The Lead on the Defective Hard Drive Cable Was
Right
2011 MacBook Pros Overheating?
Hardmac's Lionel references a long thread on the Apple discussion
forums about a problem occurring on the 15" and 17" models of the 2011
MacBook Pro - in brief, the laptop freezes, preventing any access
through the keyboard or trackpad when an heavy workload is launched on
the CPU and the AMD GPU - but it does not occur while using the
integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000.
Lionel says that while it's too early to make any definitive
conclusion, it seems that the freezing is caused by the graphics card,
which shares a heat sink with the CPU, and manifests during the first
20 seconds that the laptop's cooling fans are running.
Publisher's note: It's possible that smcFanControl could help here, as it
gives you more control over the cooling fan.
Link:
Is the 2011 MacBook Pro Overheating?
2011 MacBook Pro Display Flickering, Lock Ups Under
Heavy Load
9 to 5 Mac's Christian Zibreg reports:
"More glitches for owners of Apple's latest MacBook Pros that sport
Sandy Bridge processor and the new Thunderbolt connection. Latest
reports have surfaced indicating problems with the machine causing
flickering on external displays. Additionally, it seems the notebook is
crashing under heavy load for some."
Link: 2011 MacBook Pro
Glitches Causing Display Flickering, Lock Ups Under Heavy Load
Freezing MacBook Pros: Excessive Thermal
Grease?
The Register's Tony Smith notes complaints about the latest
generation of 15" and 17" MacBook Pros locking up, with many pointing
the finger at the machines' discrete AMD Radeon HD GPUs. He observes
that Reg Hardware tested the 2.0 GHz, quad-core i7-based 15" MacBook
Pro and experienced no such problems, and also that Mac repair
specialist iFixit.com noted excessive application of thermal grease -
used to thermally couple the CPU and GPU to their heatsink - in the 15"
MacBook Pro, commenting, "time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste
applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the
road".
Smith also recalls that older MacBook Pros - particularly the first
of the line back in 2006 - were criticised for containing excessive
amount of thermal grease, and some of them also experienced freeze
issues.
Link: Fans Face Freezing
Apple MacBook Pros
Expect Software Fixes for 2011 MacBook
MacFixIt's Topher Kessler reports:
"Apple's updated line of MacBook Pro systems has encountered a
problem profiled on MacRumors and discussed in great length on this
Apple Discussion Board thread, where the systems have been locking up
when under heavy load. While the machines appear to be running, the
input to them seems to be frozen so users cannot do anything, and end
up forcing the systems to restart."
He says that Apple representatives are aware of the issue and are
working on a fix, which should come in the form of a software update in
the near future. In the meantime, if you are having problems with these
new machines, Kessler suggests trying some potential workarounds.
This issue is addressed in Mac OS X 10.6.7.
Link: Expect Software
Fixes for Apple TV and 2011 MacBook Pro Graphics Bugs
Mac OS X 10.6.7 Causing iTunes Woes for 2010 13"
MacBook Air
Macworld UK's Ben Camm-Jones says:
"The Mac OS X 10.6.7 update released earlier this week is causing
some problems for some MacBook Air owners, it has been reported.
"According to 9 to 5 Mac the update has caused issues for owners of
the new 13-inch MacBook
Air when attempting to run iTunes 10.2.1."
For more on the OS X 10.6.7 update, see this week's Mac News Review.
Link: Mac OS X 10.6.7
Causing iTunes Woes For Early 2011 13" MacBook Air
MacBook Pro: Replacing RAM or Hard Drive Won't
Void Warranty
Hardmac's Lionel says that several readers have contacted the site
after Apple service providers told them that changing the hard drive or
the RAM in their MacBook Pro would void the warranty, noting that this
is absolutely false, and that Apple authorizes both changes without any
void in the warranty, and for that matter provides instructions for
doing both in the user's manual provided with the computer.
However, Lionel notes that Apple does recommend that you have an
Apple-certified technician install replacement drives and memory, and
that if you attempt to install a replacement drive or memory yourself
and damage your equipment, the damage is not covered by the limited
warranty.
Link: MacBook Pro:
Replacing RAM or the Hard Drive Won't Void Your Warranty
Replacing an Old PowerBook's Hard Drive
Macworld's Christopher Breen, answering a reader query, has posted a
concise instructional on replacing the hard drive in older Mac laptop
models, specifically a 2005 vintage PowerBook, with some notes on data
recovery using Prosoft's Data Rescue, and referring the reader to the
experts at iFixit and their free, profusely illustrated Mac teardown
guides for all the instructions needed to replace the hard drive in a
PowerBook G4.
Link: Replacing an Older
Laptop's Hard Drive
Reviews
Weak vs. Strong: Three 2011 MacBook Pro Graphics
Processors Compared
Bare Feats' Rob-Art Morgan says, "Much of the email regarding the
2011 MacBook Pro goes, 'Is the top model's GPU really that much
faster?' To answer, we ran two tests on three different 2011
models."
Morgan concludes that the 2011 2.2 GHz and 2.3 GHz MacBook Pro with
Radeon 6750M graphics (1 GB GDDR5) is a "different animal" from
the 2011 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro with the Radeon 6490M graphics (256M B
GDDR5), and the 2011 2.7 GHz MacBook Pro with Intel HD 3000 integrated
graphics wasn't any faster than the 2010 2.13 GHz MacBook Air with
GeForce 320M integrated graphics in the two tests he ran, but based on
older test results he deduces that it would perform at least as well as
the MacBook Air with the same GPU.
Link: Weak vs. Strong: Three 2011
MacBook Pro Graphics Processors Compared
Tech Trends
Sony MacBook Air Challenger to Use a Thunderbolt
Docking Station?
Hardmac's Lionel reports that, according to sources, Sony will adopt
the Thunderbolt interface and is rumored to be making more advanced use
of it than Apple, which has done nothing with Thunderbolt - at least so
far.
He speculates that Sony could launch a new ultra portable laptop
this summer to challenge the MacBook Air, featuring roughly
the same size and weight, but able to connect to a docking station
containing an additional Radeon HD 6730 or HD 6770 GPU, since
Thunderbolt is basically a PCI-Express interface with a cable, thereby
much improving performance with external displays compared with the
computer's onboard integrated graphics, noting that if Sony also adds
eSATA and USB 3.0 connectors to the dock, it will have exactly what
many have always wanted for the MacBook Air - a contemporary iteration
of the 1990s Apple PowerBook
Duo.
Lionel does expect Apple to launch some innovative Thunderbolt
peripherals with the next MacBook Air upgrade, which will have to get
Thunderbolt support to use them.
Publisher's note: The PowerBook Duo is completely lacking in ports
without a dock - no networking, no wireless card, not even a floppy
drive. Without a dock, the Duo is pretty worthless - unlike a
smartphone. dk
Link: A Sony Laptop with
a Thunderbolt Docking Station?
Is Motorola's Atrix 4G the Future of Mobile
Computing?
In my latest 'Book Mystique column on MacPrices.net, I ponder the
new Motorola Atrix dockable cell phone:
"I've got to admit, Motorola's new Atrix 4G smartphone has me
intrigued. Motorola is starting 2011 on something of a roll, with the
critically well-received Xoom tablet in the channels and now the Atrix,
which was finally released in Canada where I live last week.
Motorola Atrix 4G with Laptop Dock
"The Android 2.2.1 and dual-core (operating on both cores only when
docked) Tegra CPU-powered Atrix's marquee feature is its ability to
essentially become a users primary digital hub from which they can
create, edit and interact with documents, media and content thanks to
Motorola's webtop application and with the handset docked in the
optional Laptop Dock accessory that that lets the little phone support
a larger, 11-inch laptop style display and a real keyboard and
trackpad, two USB ports, stereo speakers, and a rechargeable
lithium-ion battery, but also able to take along and access their data
from a pocketable device when they go mobile, since all data is powered
by and stored on the phone. It's more netbook than laptop or desktop,
and you're limited to Android software apps. or cloud Web apps., but
you can at least you can have multiple Android apps running with
multiple Web pages open simultaneously, something Apple's iOS doesn't
support even on the iPad....
"Motorola is touting Atrix as the first smartphone device
potentially capable of replacing a laptop . . . That claim
holds some water, and longtime Mac veterans may find the general
concept evocative of an Apple innovation from back in the '90s, namely
the PowerBook Duo Apple's dockable first subnotebook PowerBook."
Link: Is Motorola's
Atrix 4G the Future of Mobile Computing, Homage to Apple's PowerBook
Duo, or Both?
Asustek Launching sub-$250 Chrome or Android
Netbook in June
DigiTimes' Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report that Asustek Computer
is set to launch a new netbook priced at US$200-250 in June, in
cooperation with Intel, and hopes to achieve its goal of shipping six
million netbooks in 2011, according to sources from upstream component
makers.
The authors note that pushing back against the tablet PC revolution,
a 10" single-core Atom netbook with a price below US$280 has already
appeared in retail channels, while dual-core models' ASPs are only at
around US$405, but with more tablet PCs are set to launch in the near
future, market watchers are cautiously conservative about netbook's
future.
However, Chen and Tsai report that Asustek's new US$200-$250 netbook
will either adopt Google's Android 3.0 or Google's new Chrome OS in
order to achieve that price level, with the new device expected to
attract consumers who only need to perform office work and Internet
browsing.
Link: Asustek to Launch
$200 - $250 Chrome or Android OS Netbook in June (subscription
required)
Samsung's MacBook Air Challenger Costs $300 More
Than MacBook Air
Forbes' Brian Caulfield reports that Samsung's new Series 9 in a
sweet little machine. It's 0.04 millimeters thinner, and 0.01 pound
lighter than the 13" MacBook Air, but it costs $1,599 - $300 more than
the MacBook Air.
Huh? Thought Apple systems were supposed to be the "premium priced"
ones. In fairness, the MacBook Air uses two-generations-old Core 2 Duo
silicon, while the Series 9 comes with Intel's latest Core i5 processor
and 4 GB standard RAM to the MacBook Air's 2 GB.
However, Caulfield also notes that Apple is using its $50
billion-plus hoard of cash and short-term securities to lock up
long-term contracts with companies making components such as flash
memory and secure an OEM costing edge.
Link: Samsung's MacBook
Air Challenger Costs $300 More Than the MacBook Air
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