iMacs are really great for a lot of reasons, but one of their biggest downsides is that, by design, they’re not easily upgradable. Tech blog Tested shows us how to get inside your iMac and replace the hard drive. More »
Blog Archives
How to Upgrade the Hard Drive in Your iMac [Video]
Posted on February 9, 2011
Roll a Powerful Media HTPC for Less Than $500 [How To]
Posted on January 28, 2011
The web is rich with streaming video, and there’s no reason you should limit yourself to enjoying it all on smaller screens. Here’s how to roll your own home theater PC and consolidate your media center components to one small, sleek box. More »
Replace a Dead iPod Hard Drive with a Compact Flash Card [DIY]
Posted on September 21, 2010
If the hard drive on your iPod video bit the dust, you can replace the old platter-based drive with a compact flash drive for lighter, faster, drop-proof music and media playback. More »
Turn On Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Chrome 7 [Chrome]
Posted on August 30, 2010
It’s only available in the Dev and Canary builds of Chrome, and very few pages support it—for now. But if you want to get hardware acceleration running in Google's browser, it's just a simple command line switch away. More »
How to Build a Hidden Home Theater PC Inside Your Entertainment Center [DIY]
Posted on August 23, 2010
Apple’s Batteries Over-Hyped
Posted on August 17, 2010
The Apple Battery Charger seems like the perfect product to sell to customers, given Apple’s mouse, trackpad and keyboard all require AA batteries while other manufacturers, like Logitech, sell hardware that charges via a dock. What rubs me the wrong way is that Apple decided to sell batteries for these devices with claims that its product is better than any other.
The Apple Battery Charger has one of the lowest standby — or “vampire draw” — of similar chargers on the market. That’s the energy that most chargers continue to draw even after their batteries are done charging. Unlike other chargers, the Apple Battery Charger senses when a battery charge cycle is complete and automatically reduces the amount of power it uses to 30 milliwatts – more than 10 times better than the industry average.
Not only do these high-performance batteries have up to a 10-year lifespan, they also hold a charge for an incredibly long time. So you always have power when you need it.
These two statements make any consumer feel as if Apple just reinvented batteries and battery charging. The battery charger is Apple’s first, and already it’s better than what companies like Duracell and Energizer (s enr) have created in 20 years of innovation. Man, I feel sorry for those guys. Apple just kicked all of their butts. Except, maybe it didn’t. Could Apple have simply taken off-the-shelf parts and put its typical Apple spin on it?
What the Batteries Really Are
SuperApple disassembled and tested these batteries and the charger. What it uncovered is that these batteries actually appear to be Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG batteries. Apple charges $29 for six of them plus a charger, but you can purchase eight and a charger for less at any retail store. All Apple appears to have done is bought decent batteries from another company and touted what those are able to do, which is hold a 75 percent charge for three years when stored, and continue holding a charge for 10 years. These batteries aren’t “magical,” just premium.
Vampire Draw
As far as that claim for an amazingly low “vampire draw,” Apple’s announcement owns the page rank for the term. So what is vampire draw?
Standby power, also called vampire power, vampire draw, phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode.
I did find this page, which outlines the vampire draw of popular household items. Apple’s Battery Charger uses 30 milliwatts,which is “10 times better than the industry average.” Of course, it fails to cite what group did those tests, so let’s go over a few vampire draw stats for house hold items.
- Cell Phone charger – 140 milliwatts
- Laptop charger – 4420 milliwatts
- Desktop Computer (turned off) – 2840 milliwatts
Apple’s product is certainly using much less than any of those. What’s Apple’s notebook charger vampire draw? What about the iMac? When I power the iMac down, is the vampire draw “10 times below the industry average?” Maybe Apple should work on that as well.
Over-Hyped
My guess is, the Battery Charger is just another example of off-the-shelf parts wrapped in a pretty case and sold at a markup. That’s not really a bad thing, but Apple’s spin on something as simple as a battery charger gets to me. Just say that you released a battery charger and do it without making the entire battery industry look like it’s been playing around for the past 20 years.
Apple’s recent history hasn’t proven much when it comes to hype vs. reality. During antenna-gate, Apple showed all smartphones had issues with an external antenna (I still say that wasn’t Apple’s finest hour) rather than addressing the real problem, so it’s possible that the “magical” battery charger could end up with the same fate if there’s ever an issue of exploding batteries or leaks: Apple will point fingers and say it’s the manufacturer’s fault because Apple is a small company that doesn’t make its own batteries. Until that happens, Apple will take ownership of these as if they were hatched in Steve Jobs head from idea to final product.
My take is that the Apple Battery Charger is over-priced. It does what other chargers do. It’s $29 because there’s an Apple Logo on it. The 30 milliwatts vampire draw means nothing if you have a microwave in your home, which is using 3,000 milliwatts: the equivalent of 100 Apple Battery Chargers all plugged in at once that aren’t charging batteries. My final recommendation? Don’t throw away your current battery charger; it’s probably working just fine. It’s not Apple-branded and glossy, but it works, and you won’t save any money on your power bill by switching.
Related GigaOM Pro Research: Better Battery Life Motivates Mobile Chipmakers
Secrets of the Camera Connection Kit
Posted on August 11, 2010
While it may be intended as a tool for adding photos to your iPad, the Camera Connection Kit can do more than Apple tells you about. Having had one for the last week or so, I’ve tested what capabilities the kit has, and what secrets are hiding under the white casing.
Importing
It’s clear what the main purpose of the Kit is: importing and managing photos and videos from digital cameras. What Apple doesn’t tell you is that you aren’t limited to using an SD card or the USB cable for your camera.
Most of the time, when you buy a MicroSD card, it comes with an adapter that lets you use the MicroSD in an SD card reader. Since part of the Camera Connection Kit is an SD card reader, this means you can, perhaps unsurprisingly, use it to read a MicroSD card as well. This also works with Memory Stick Pro Duo, the card Sony uses in its cameras as well as the PSP. All you need is an adapter to change it into an SD card.
The Kit also works great if you have an all-in-one card reader. If you do, you can use it in a USB port to read CompactFlash, MMC, Memory Stick Pro Duo and other types of card as well. One half of the Camera Connection Kit is a USB port, so, although the functionality is undocumented, a USB card reader will work. Reading the card isn’t as fast as when using a card directly in the slot or a USB cable, but it works and doesn’t break the iPad or the memory card, which is always a good thing.
One last thing that Apple does mention, but doesn’t push much, is using the USB slot in the Kit to connect your iPhone to your iPad. Unfortunately, you can’t do anything fancy like transferring apps or tethering, but you can import photos from your iPhone camera roll to your iPad. You can even use the iPhone camera while the devices are connected, and any new photos you take show up directly in the list on your iPad.
Saving Space
If, unlike me, you’re running out of space since your iPad is host to thousands of songs, videos, photos and apps, you can use the Camera Connection Kit to your advantage. Memory cards are fairly cheap nowadays; you can pick up an 8GB SD card for around $20. You can save precious space on your iPad by storing videos, such as TV shows and movies, on an SD card instead of directly on your iPad. When you want to watch them, plug the SD card reader into your iPad, pop in the card, and import the video (you can’t watch directly from the card). When you’re done, delete the video to make room again. The downside is keeping enough space free on your iPad to import the video. However, keeping about 1.5GB free still gives you more free space than you’d have if you had 8GB worth of video on the iPad.
Other Accessories
Since the iPad was released, people have been upset that it didn’t have a built-in USB port. Apart from a camera cable, USB keyboard or a headset, what would you plug into it? Probably not much else.
There are some keyboards that don’t work with the iPad; the Apple wired keyboard for one. If you try to use it, an error message will be displayed saying the accessory uses too much power, probably because of the keyboard’s two USB ports. However, a cheap Windows keyboard works just fine.
Headsets have the same issue. Some models work; others don’t. While I haven’t been able to test any personally, some users have been able to get them to work and say they work well.
To my knowledge, those are the only accessories that work with the iPad, but let us know in the comments if you’ve found any others that work using the Connection Kit.
Related GigaOM Pro Research: The Case For Removable Media on the iPad
Use a Cheap Bracelet to Fix Your iPhone 4 Signal Woes [IPhone]
Posted on June 30, 2010
You’ve got a new iPhone 4, but you’re a bit blue because apparently you’ve been holding phones wrong your whole life. No need to buy an expensive case to fix your phone-holding habits and weak-signal woes. Fix it with a cheap bracelet. More »
iPhone – Handhelds – Smartphones – Wallpapers and Themes – Shopping
How-To: Replace Your iMac’s Hard Drive
Posted on May 17, 2010
The iMac is a great machine that can last you a very long time. In its life, there are two things that you may find yourself wishing to upgrade, the memory and hard drive. Memory is easy enough to get to but the hard drive can seem a little daunting to some.
I’ll go through how to open the iMac up, just enough to replace the hard drive. There is risk involved with this but if you take your time, you should be just fine. If you want to transfer your data to the new drive before you begin, I recommend using a USB drive adapter such as this one by Apricorn and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Parts Needed
Suction cups: I am using suction cups from our server room floating floor but you can use any kind of suction cups you find at your local store.
Phillips Screwdriver: This is to remove the memory door on the bottom.
T8 Torx Screwdriver: The internal screws require this bit.
Canned Air: This is to remove any dust that may settle on the screen before you reassemble it.
Disassembly
- The glass is held in by magnets so use your suction cups to pull the glass off the iMac.
- Remove the memory door on the bottom of the iMac.
- Remove the Torx screws that are holding the metal case on.
- Pull the metal case off by starting at the top. You will see a connection by the iSight that you need to disconnect. After that, the case will slide right off.
- Now the remove the screws on the sides of the actual LCD screen.
- Gently rock the LCD screen forward from the top and you will see the hard drive behind it. You may need to disconnect the two wires running to the LCD.
- Pull on the back plastic bar on the left side and it will swing out.
- Remove the heat sensor by pulling off the foam and sensor carefully. Set the foam aside so we can use it to re-attach the sensor to the new drive.
- The drive is ready to be come out by rocking the top out of the frame and then pulling it up.
- Once out, we need to transfer the Torx screws to the new drive.
To reassemble, just follow the same steps in reverse. Go slowly and don’t force anything. All the pieces should slide back together without much effort. Some people like to take the LCD screen all the way off and that’s fine. You will need a T7 bit to disconnect the LCD screen from the board and just remember where each connector goes. Before you put the glass back on, use some canned air to blow off any dusk that may have settled on the LCD screen.
Top 10 Hard Drive Upgrades and Fixes [Lifehacker Top 10]
Posted on April 24, 2010
You should never feel like your hard drive is holding out on you. Anyone should be able to back up, recover files, boot multiple systems, upgrade, or otherwise improve their storage space. These tips explain the possibilities and procedures. More »