Oh, hello. You arrived just in time to be my parents’ next computer and to be the last stake in the heart of Microsoft Windows in this household.
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Archives for category: Mac
If you use a Magic Mouse or the multi-touch trackpad on a portable Mac, and you’d wished you could do more gestures, I think you’ll like this.
I’ve tried both BetterTouchTools and MagicPrefs, but jitouch 2 stands out a head above with its UI design and built-in gestures.
jitouch 2 is available here for US$6.
Sexy as Macs may be, their accompanying power bricks are simply unwieldy. The “ears” on the MagSafe power adapter for winding the cord may be well-intended, but I’ve lost count of the number of times the wound cord has slipped free of the “ears” and gotten itself tangled up with the rest of the stuff inside my bag. Then there is the problem of the plug end of the power adapter—there’s nowhere to wind it up, is there?
The Quirky PowerCurl solves all that. Both the plug cord and the MagSafe cord wrap around the PowerCurl, allowing for quick and easy unraveling, while the power adapter is elevated for improved air circulation and cooling.
Made for the 45W, 60W, 85W, and older rectangular 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, the Quirky PowerCurl comes in hot pink, lime green, baby blue, bright orange, and charcoal for the 60W and 85W models, and orange for the 45W and rectangular 85W models.
Head on over to Quirky to see all the other great stuff they’ve got.
Whoever wants to piggyback an order for the PowerCurl, drop me a email by Monday.
Say hello to Ceres, my new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
In continuing a tradition of naming the machines I own after planets and constellations (which is, in turn, naming them after figures in Roman or Greek mythology), I christened her a name that compliments those of her fellow stablemates Tethys, the jinxed 15-inch MacBook Pro she replaces, and Cyrene, the Lenovo S10 netbook I’d hackintosh’d.
When I got myself the iPhone 3G, I signed up for a data plan that gives me 30GB every month. Since I did not think I would be using up all that data on just a mobile device, and also that I had been looking for a long-term solution to the problem of not finding wireless access while on a shoot at some remote location, I was on the lookout for a 3G modem for my laptop.
Okay, okay… I wanted mobile broadband really only because all the ‘friendly neighbours’ around my local coffeeshop have wised up and password-protected their wireless networks. So there.
I took one look at the Huawei E220 external USB modem SingTel offers and immediately dismissed it; it’s ridiculous to have that thing dangling off my laptop. Inelegant. Impractical. I decided I wanted an ExpressCard solution.
I am a big fan of ExpressCard and its predecessor PCMCIA/PC Card. Being a slot in a laptop, it lets you keep a peripheral tucked away and have it accompany your laptop all the time. Take, for example, the ubiquitous multi-format memory card reader: it’s something I use daily, so I have one hidden away in the ExpressCard slot.
The data plan I signed up for was crafted for the iPhone, so SingTel didn’t think they needed to throw in the modem; I’d have to fork out more money on top of the monthly subscription. There was no option to purchase the modem separately. Not that I would have, any way, though M1 was more than happy to sell this modem to me for S$398.
S$398! I told them politely to go fly a kite. You can get the Huawei E220 for as low as S$180 if you knew where to look.
Well, I’m happy I didn’t settle for less, because I found the BandLuxe 3.5G C100S HSDPA Adapter.
The BandLuxe 3.5G C100S HSDA Adapter is both an ExpressCard and a USB device. By sheer clever design, a USB adaptor is provided with the modem; should you need to reposition the modem for better cell tower reception, you can simply slot the modem into the adaptor. And, in a very, very nice touch, a small plastic hook is included for you to snap onto the now-external modem so you can hang it off the screen lid of your laptop.
I have never heard of BandLuxe before (some manufacturer from Taiwan), but I sure am impressed with them. Little things like this matters, y’know?
I was up and running in no time. It took next to nothing to get the modem up and running in Mac OS X. The configuration scripts necessary for OS X to recognize the modem are baked into the device, so they are always there should you need them again.
The C100S is listed on plenty of online shopping sites, though the price, averaging S$300 before shipping, is way too much. I got mine for S$250 thru the classifieds forum in Hardwarezone. If you are in the market for a 3G modem, and are able to find the C100S for a reasonable price, I highly recommend it.
Oh, and speaking of which, has any one realized how difficult it is to get a 3G modem off the shelf here in Singapore? It’s next to impossible! Can you say “telco conspiracy”?
Those of you who read me with any regularity would, by now, be used to my occasional disappearance from this blog. My laptop sprung a show-stopper on me for the third time, after this and this. This time, it was no fault of Apple’s; the problem was a graphics card that had conked prematurely. Apple honored the cost of repairs even though it has run out of its warranty. To say that this MacBook Pro of mine is jinxed is an understatement of the highest order.
But it’s all good now. And somehow after updating to OS X Leopard 10.5.6, even the DVD drive is happily burning discs again when it would plain refuse to do so in the past three months or so.
With a new logic board, new screen and fairly new keyboard and trackpad, I am now typing on what is essentially a brand new laptop.
It took, oh, only all of a year and a half, and all of S$838′s worth of stuff I had to buy as stop-gap measures for this sucker to get its act together. There is peace in my computing world now.
Pui.
About
34, male and very Cancerian. Often irascible, even if he is prescient to his emotions. Lives for the resonance of beautiful passages, cinematic magic and aural bliss. Dabbles in fiction writing, photography, sketching and daydreaming in his free time, even though he is paid to do just those in a professional capacity.
He is, in other words, quite a geek.
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