Diagnosing a fault MacBook Fan.

Argh! One of the fans in my Macbook is humming away on its last legs.

On the plus side, this fan controller is great for diagnosing the fan in question as there are two in the device..

Mine is a MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and the right fan.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

The app could do with some better auto adjusting profiles based on temperature. It has three 'modes': AC-Power, battery and charging which can have separate profiles.

I can happily turn up the fans on any GPU / CPU intensive tasks now and keep the system cooler than Apple seemed to want to, prolonging the devices life in the long run!


For repairs on this laptop see iFixit!:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_15%22_Retina_Display_Mid_2012

Nokia Purity Pro headphones.

I went and got some for a steal on eBay. Felt it was risky but got such a good discount on 'as new' ones it was worth the risk! 

They are amazing! My first proper ANC pair and although people say they are not the best in that area they are pretty decent in an office environment.

I'm just going to copy and paste handy bits out of the manual here for my quick reference.


Connect to two devices at the same time
Would you like to listen to music on your computer, but still be ready for calls? When
you've paired your headset and connected it to your phone, you can switch the
multipoint feature on and connect your headset also to another compatible device,
such as a computer.
1 Make sure Bluetooth is switched on in both devices.
2 Make sure the headset is switched on, and press and hold for 2 seconds.
3 Press and hold the volume up key and to switch the multipoint feature on.
4 Pair the headset with the second device.
5 Switch the headset off.
6 Switch the headset back on, and the headset connects to both devices.
To disconnect, repeat steps 1-3.

Manual found here

I was wrong, you can upgrade the SSD on a Macbook Pro Retina mid 2012

I just wish it wasn't so costly. Comes with a 3 year warranty.



http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/SSDAP12K480/

Live in the UK and want a Mac Pro, take a free holiday...

I could fly over there, pick one up and still have change to spare! 

I could see a fair few video editors / graphics designers etc taking a trip over to buy one, take it out the packaging and stuff it in their luggage (5kg) to bring home.... 

It really is a rip off considering America  is the home of UPS and FedEx even when you take taxes into consideration.

Surface 2 release date, news and features

See link for details on the product launch.

USB3 is a nice addition. Better performance and a better design. With a full Office suite on Windows RT (the version for mobile chips inside tablets) it might now be more appealing for businesses instead of only considering the more expensive Pro version with full fat Windows.

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/surface-2-what-microsoft-s-reddit-q-lls-us-about-the-next-surface-tablet-1129998

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7361/microsoft-surface-event-live-blog

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/

Mac Pro design!

They really did go to town with the design.

It didn't specifically say the 2 x AMD FirePro cards were running in cross fire which I found interesting....

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/10/apple-offers-developers-a-closer-look-at-the-new-mac-pro/

WWDC Preview: iOS 7, iRadio and Mac OS X 10.9

So this is going to be an interesting Apple Word wide developers conference. I'm most looking forward to seeing what they do with OS X. I have a lot of love for Windows 8, but in recent time OS X has become my main OS. Anyone who's become familiar with double tapping the fn key and talking away instead of typing anyone will know what I mean.

If they were to go with a radical change, we might see some merging of iOS or new features / layouts indicating we'll soon be getting touch screen displays on Macs.

I'm not sure Apple will have figured out the strategy on this yet though. They are gaining further market share and gamers are actually getting a good deal these days with the likes of Steamplay on Steam. Unless you count EA and SimCity....

iOS 7 will keep the iDevice users happy for a while but more importantly you'll have quicker access to settings and be able to edit the layouts from the rumours.

iRadio... Not massively fussed. Not really a fan of iTunes but it might be worrying a few other streaming services.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2273759/wwdc-preview-ios-7-iradio-and-mac-os-x-109

Looks like i'll be bootcamping a little less

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-guild-wars-2-for-mac-beta/

Apple Mac, Wheres the hash (#) key!

I can't believe that in the age of Twitter Apple hasn't got round to printing the hash # symbol on the number '3' key. At least for the UK rMBP (retina Macbook Pro) keyboard i'm using anyway! They've done it with the euro € symbol...

It's Alt + 3 for anyone wanting to know what it is! 

Apple MacBook Pro - opinion

I really like the look of the new Mac book pro, especially the cooling system, the display and the SSD design.

Although an optical drive is not included I'm still baffled that Apple refuse to throw in some major Blu-ray support anywhere, it'd be a dream in conjunction with the Thunderbold I/O

I would actually spend that amount on one as well (see pricing, expect it to be over £2k) because the design is truly intuitive and the specs are impressive. I would love to give the battery a run for it's money as well, 7 hours seems quite optimistic even with a lot of power saving involved at those specs. The graphics core would be working hard at those 'retina' resolutions!

See below for the video:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook-pro/#macbookpro