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Review. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Rumor Roundup
Tech Trends
Products & Services
Software
News & Opinion
Cheap RAM Makes RAM Disks Viable
Hardmac's Lionel notes that RAM modules are currently cheap, making
it relatively economic to add 8 GB to a MacBook Pro, with 16 to 32
GB not outrageously expensive. All of which reopens creation of RAM
disks as a practical proposition. RAM disks are virtual volumes,
located in RAM, offering very high performance level facilitated by
RAM's fast I/O data transfer speeds (even faster than SSDs), but which
evaporate with all data contained and not saved to storage media if the
computer is switched off.
The command line to create a 4 GB RAM Disk in OS X is:
diskutil erasevolume HFS+ ramdisk 'hdiutil attach -nomount ram://8000000'
Two freeware apps to create RAM disks in OS X are Make RAM Disk and Esperance
DV.
Publisher's note: There used to be a great RAM disk utility for the
Classic Mac OS, ramBunctious, which not
only created a RAM disk but also mirrored it to your hard drive. Any
changes to the RAM disk would be written to the disk image immediately,
and ramBunctious would also create a RAM disk from an image when it was
launched. I used it and loved it. ramBunctious 2.0.1 is
the current version of the $25 app, and it hasn't been updated since
OS X 10.3 Panther. I have
installed it and launched it on my OS X 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 Macs, where it appears to work,
although it almost certainly will not work with OS X 10.7 Lion, which no longer
supports the PowerPC code it was written in. I have contacted Clarkwood
Software about getting a registration code so I can fully test it on my
various Macs and review it, if it does indeed work. dk
Link: About RAM
Disk
Get the Most Out of Your Mac's or iPad's
Battery
Cult Of Mac's Jonathan Zschau notes that the new iPad requires a lot
more power than the iPad 2... So much that despite an astounding 70%
increase in the new iPads battery capacity (42.5 watt-hour up from 25
watt-hour), it will still only run for the same amount of time as the
iPad 2 on a single charge. Therefore, knowing a thing or two about this
power-hungry beast's battery is more important than ever.
Zschau has posted a handy a two-part guide on the battery basics
everyone needs to know about the batteries used by all Macs - including
the new iPad.
Part I offers a little bit of background on lithium-ion batteries
and covers the essentials of battery life and care. Part II provides
you with the fundamentals of maximizing your Mac's usage time through
optimizing power saving settings or supplementing your existing battery
with an external power source.
Link: Getting the Most
Out of Your Mac's Battery - Part I
Link: Getting the Most Out of Your Mac's
Battery - Part II
Rumor Roundup
15" MacBook Air Coming in April?
Electricpig's Adam Bunker reports that at the UK CU Exposed event
showcasing Mac accessories, he heard from an anonymous vendor that
Apple is likely to launch a 15" MacBook Air in April, "effectively
killing the MacBook Pro for the average consumer." Bunker acknowledges
that there have been similar rumors floating for some time, but allows
that he found hearing it affirmed in such a certain manner from a
premium Mac accessory maker specializing in MacBook docking solutions,
pretty convincing.
If the vendor's projection is accurate, Bunker says the 15" MacBook
Air will sport ports on both sides, no optical drive, and no ethernet
port, and while the source wasn't certain this new Air would completely
replace the 15" MacBook Pro (also saying Apple might continue the 17"
model for high-end pro users), he was fairly sure that the new machine
will debut in April.
Link: Farewell, MacBook
Pro: 15-inch MacBook Air Is Inbound for April, Says Source
Tech Trends
Reviewer: Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Is Pretty, but Also
Pretty Weak
Business Insider's SAI Tools editor Steve Kovach has posted a review
of Dell's new $999.99 13" XPS 13 Ultrabook, which he notes looks pretty
slick from the outside, proving that Dell actually can make an
attractive product - albeit borrowing liberally from Apple's MacBook
Air design - but he allows that in today's hyper-competitive laptop
market, the XPS 13 has to do more than just wow us with aesthetics and
in terms of power and functionality it falters.
There are some good things. Kovach says the XPS feels sturdy and
well-built - something you typically don't see in Dell hardware. He
likes the feel of the black rubbery material covering the XPS' body and
says the keyboard is decent, the machine boots up in less than 20
seconds, and it wakes up from sleep mode almost instantly. The unit
Kovach tested had an Intel Core i7 processor and 4 GB of RAM, so
it was pretty lively, but battery life was disappointing, as was the
display once it was turned on, Kovach pronouncing it "just plain
bad."
Another XPS abomination is its trackpad, he reports, saying whatever
software is driving the trackpad is just plain dumb, bad enough that he
would a tough time recommending the XPS to anyone unless it's
fixed.
Link: Dell XPS 13
Ultrabook Review
Products & Services
Muzetto Outback Bag for Laptops and iPads
PR: WaterField Designs has announced the Muzetto
Outback, a waxed canvas version of its popular Muzetto line of cases.
The Outback is available in dark brown canvas that gains character over
time, a choice of six accent colors and five sizes - two designed
specifically for the new Apple iPad. The Muzetto Outback is available
for preorder today and will begin shipping by March 26, 2012. All
WaterField Designs bags are made entirely in San Francisco.
Originally used for waterproofing sailing garments and popularized
by mariners, gamekeepers, and outdoorsmen, waxed canvas is a naturally
durable, time-tested fabric that brings a rugged and weathered look to
the new Muzetto Outback. The bag is sewn in small batches to take full
advantage of the material's unique characteristics; working the fabric
during production brings out its distressed quality, making it an ideal
match for the style-conscious, urban adventurer.
"What appeals to me about waxed canvas is the old world,
retro look," explains Gary Waterfield, company founder. "It ages like
leather, and each bag develops its own unique character. I like to
think it's something a modern Indiana Jones would use for his new iPad
tablet. Plus, scratches and marks can be softened by applying some heat
from a hair dryer, giving it that handsome, well-worn look."
The Muzetto Outback is a vertical messenger bag with one main
compartment to hold the iPad, a back pocket for easy-to-retrieve
paperwork, a pocket under the flap, a zippered interior pocket for
stashing cash, and an adjustable strap. A gold liner lights up the
interior making it easy to see contents. To reduce shoulder and back
fatigue, a removable, shoulder pad with a gripping underside keeps the
strap firmly in place. The bags flap length and angled sides add to a
svelte look. The Outback's urban rustic style complements anything from
casual work outfits to well-worn hiking boots.
Personalization options include six accent color choices and five
sizes: the Personal Size for daily necessities including a wallet,
cellphone, digital camera, and a naked iPad or an iPad in a minimalist
case; the 10" Portable Size for the iPad within a protective case; the
11" for the 11.6" MacBook Air, the Laptop Size for up to a 13" MacBook
and the 15" for the 15" MacBook Pro or similarly sized laptops - naked
or within a SleeveCase. All size options are small enough to provide
unrestricted motion yet large enough to stow essentials and digital
gear.
Pricing & Availability
- Personal Size (10.5" x 8.5" x 1.5") Price: $149
- 10" Portable Size (11.5" x 9.3" x 2.0") Price: $159
- 11" Size (12.25" x 9.75" x 2.25") Price: $169
- 13" Laptop Size (14" x 11" x 2.5") Price: $179
- 15" Laptop Size (15.5" x 11.75" x 2.7") Price: $189
Colors: Distressed, dark brown, waxed canvas with color accents in
black, copper, pine, green, flame, or pearl.
Available now for preorder. Shipping begins by March 26, 2012.
WaterField Designs manufactures custom-fitted, high-quality cases
and bags for a full-range of laptop computers, cameras, and other
digital gear. All products are manufactured to exacting standards in
San Francisco.
Link: Muzetto
Outback
Software
Free Battery Health App: Access Important
Information About Your MacBook's Battery
PR: With Battery Health, you can easily see all the important
information about your MacBook's battery, such as current charge level,
battery capacity, power usage, number of times it has been charged and
much more!
Be sure to check out the 'Tips' section within the app to learn a
host of useful ways to improve the life of your MacBook's battery.
System requirements:
- Intel
- Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later
Link:
Battery Health
BatterySqueezer Battery Performance Optimizer
Utility
PR: BatterySqueezer
throttles selected resource-hungry applications when in the background.
This can reduce their CPU load which many users find beneficial.
How Does It Work?
Applications, especially Internet browsers, can put a heavy load on
your system by demanding processing power even if they're running in
the background. BatterySqueezer throttles Flash animations, videos,
advertisements and virtually everything that your browser runs when it
is in the background.
When you visit web pages that have Flash animations, videos, or
JavaScripts running, or you have many open tabs in your browser, it can
take a substantial amount of CPU processing power. BatterySqueezer can
reduce this load significantly when you switch to another app.
BatterySqueezer currently
throttles: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and their plugins including
Flash, Office apps, Preview and App Store.
BatterySqueezer is a low footprint application. It runs discreetly
on the menu bar and its dock icon can be hidden.
Note: BatterySqueezer only stops apps when they are in the
background. For instance, if the user actively uses
Safari/Chrome etc. (their windows on the top) it will only reduce their
load when they become inactive. If the user switches from Safari/Chrome
to MS Word, then MS Word becomes active and Safari/Chrome will be
paused with their load dropping to almost nil. And vice versa.
If you watch a Flash/HTML5 video in your browser and switch to
another app, the video will be paused and its load drops to almost nil.
It is recommended to pause a video if you are not watching it.
New in Version 1.7:
- fixed bug when Auto throttling setting was reset at app start
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
$2.99
Link:
BatterySqueezer (also available,
BatterySqueezer Free)
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