World of Apple

This isn’t a guide on how to rip apart your PowerBook, its simply a right up of my experiences and a chance to show you some pictures of a this beautiful machine with no clothes on! After my stock hard drive got to a certain point I decided that an upgrade was required, my choice of upgrade; 120GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3. This is not only an upgrade in speed (4200RPM to 5400RPM) but also a doubling of capacity (you can work that one out).

The drive arrived in pristine condition and I began the process of collecting together the necessary tools, at this point I’ll say that this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the the PB FixItGuide its certainly not perfect but it covers enough basics to make the process fairly simple, not only that but the Screw Guide is a life saver, there being a large number of screws involved in the process.

After going through the guide step by step removing each screw with as much care as the next and placing them gently in the correct order in which they were removed I began to see the insider, lifting the keyboard panel is incredibly difficult but you eventually realise that its not as fragile as you think, just don’t yank otherwise you might have a mess on your hands. After removing the cables from the keyboard panel I stared in amazement at how beautifully arranged the inside of the PowerBook is, cables taped down and everything neatly positioned. Removing the hard drive was easy and installing the new one just as simple, no jumpers no mass of cables.

After putting all the screws back very carefully, following the guide backwards of course, I was happy enough that I could plug it back in and began the process of restoring. Obviously I had backed up to my LaCie before hand so restoring should be as simple as you can imagine. After booting up to check that the drive was working I was greeted by the Sad Mac picture flashing a question mark, all is good so far! I whacked in my Tiger disc and it booted immediately, a full install and optimisation not taking much more than 10 minutes. After reboot I logged in and copied over the necessaries, in less than 30 minutes I was up and running, truly amazing.

Overall time taken, just under 3 and half hours, estimated time to do on a PC, just under 2 days.

If you’ve had any happy experiences with tasks that would be hell on PC’s let us know by commenting.

View the gallery.

UBS Investment Research has posted information that it believes Apple will release some Intel Macs before the stated June 2006. According to “checks” they believe Apple could ship Intel Macs around January and that the first one will be the Mac mini.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple will introduce “eye catching” designs for both its laptop offerings. It appears Apple may be on schedule to release Intel machines much earlier than the stated mid 2006.

The report contains information that five Macintel projects are underway and moving at a reasonable pace and Steve Jobs is reportedly leading the pace.

Current information appears to point towards an Intel iBook around April - May and the possibility of a 13-inch widescreen model is high.

As to many peoples predictions AppleInsider reports that the PowerBooks will receive an update before the iBooks around January we reckon. The PowerBooks will reportedly sport built-in iSight cameras and the 12 inch model is too be dropped from the line up.

It appears CBS may be following abc’s example and allowing video content to be bought from the iTunes Music Store. The president of CBS has confirmed that he’s “had talks” with Apple.

Yesterday CBS confirmed that it will be distributing three episodes of “Threshold” through its website.

Now available in Software Update for all those on 10.4.3, the update is 1.4MB in size.

This update fixes reliability and resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for Mac OS X v10.4.3 and later.

Now available via Software Update, weighing in at around 97MB!

The 10.4.3 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.

- AFP, SMB/CIFS, NFS and FTP network file services
- AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access
- Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, and RAW camera support
- disc recording when creating and burning media
- .Mac sync services
- Spotlight indexing and searching
- Dashboard widgets: Dictionary, Flight Tracker, Stickies, and Unit Converter
- Address Book, AppleScript, Automator, Dictionary, Font Book, iCal, iSync, Mail, and Safari applications
- Disk Utility, Keychain Access, Migration Assistant, and Software Update
- compatibility with third party applications and devices
- previous standalone security updates

Advanced details after the jump.
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Apple today announced that customers of the iTunes Music Store had downloaded more than one million videos since they were launched on October 12th.

“Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,” said Steve Jobs. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”

On October the 29th 2005 World of Apple made a visit to Mac Expo London, based at a new location and advertised as bigger and better than ever, expectations were high. At first impressions the show floor didn’t disappoint and it felt like it always had, as you step through the doors you are barraged with free magazines and promotional material, but there was one very noticeable difference; the crowds. I’ve been to many Mac Expos yet this one was the busiest I have ever seen; so busy it was almost uncomfortable at times and really difficult to get a seat at theatre sessions.

But overall the expo did not disappoint and I was pleased that attendance was up by both visitors and exhibitors. On a very high note I watched a demonstration of Apple’s Aperture and was truly stunned by the quality of the product but also the knowledge of the presenter (name is unknown). Not only did the guy who was showing of Aperture really know how to pull in the audience but he used a few little phrases that Jobs himself likes to use, in fact he said, boom!

After the Expo I headed towards Mac Mecca; Regent Street Apple Store. Expecting to feel at home and incredibly fulfilled, I was grossly disappointed. If this looks like a rant then you’re dead on, it is. Much like the Expo I was surprised by the crowds, it was genuinely crowded in fact so crowded it was difficult to get near anything, But after some further investigation I was shocked that the majority of these people had no interest in the products, they wanted to check there emails or use MSN Messenger.

Not only were people abusing the facility but the surfaces looked cluttered, a brand new iMac was broken (looked like a dead graphics card) and for some reason the staff seemed to lack knowledge of their products.

I can’t help but think that if Steve Jobs were to visit this Store then he would be disgusted. On a final note, the flag outside the store was wrapped round its pole (or is that just me being fussy).

Visit the gallery of the day.

Apple has posted an update to Backup. The update is available via Software update although Apple has supplied no specific details.

[Update 1] “Backup 3.0.1 addresses file restoration and other issues and is highly recommended for all users of Backup 3.0. Significant areas addressed are: restoring files to alternate location and accuracy of iDisk progress bar when uploading files.”

Apple has posted updates that apply to Final Cut Pro 5 and its related applications, Cinema Tools 3, LiveType 2 ad Compressor 2. The update comes as a 85MB download and is said to provide “improved reliability” according to Apple.

Get it here.