Oskar Groth has released a neat little utility that will enable TRIM for any Mac with an SSD.
Of course, any time you play with kernel extensions, you could accidentally blow something up. That said, I ran this with no issue. Hopefully, my SSD will last longer with TRIM support now enabled in Snow Leopard.
[Thanks Todd!]
My work machine is a 2.8 GHz Core2Duo 15-inch MacBook Pro with the matte screen and 8 GB of RAM. It’s the fastest notebook I’ve ever used. It gives our 3.2 Ghz Core i3 27-iMac at home a run for its money. Most articles I’ve read by people who have upgraded to a SSD have done it to older machines. I was skeptical of what kind of difference it would make in an already fast machine, to be honest.
Jon Hicks, on his new MacBook Air:
The Air is leaps and bounds faster than my Pro, despite having a less powerful processor and graphics card. The speed gains must therefore come from the SSD drive. All computers (especially Macs) feel fast when they’re fresh out of the box. Over the months things start to slow down though, so it’ll be interesting to see if that happens with SSD. At the moment, restarts are matter of a few seconds, and the biggest test for me, my Windows 7 virtual disk with aero enabled, runs incredibly smoothly. On the Pro it would drag everything down with it, now I can use it without any issues.
My only problem with this is that Dave Caolo is using the Extended keyboard, while the Extended II is a far better machine. Poor Dave.
Either way, go check out this video. It’s just awesome.
But then I read an interesting fact on MacRumors: Target stores expose their internal tracking information to the public. If you know the internal stock ID (DPCI number) of a product, you can use it to check for that product in all the stores near a given zip code. The stock system seems remarkably up-to-date (changes every few minutes), and it will even tell you where in the store the item is located (example: Digital Audio, aisle F20). Lucky for me (and anyone else looking for an iPad 2), a nice gentleman posted the DPCI numbers for all of the various models in both colors. He even included links to quickly check stock in your area.
Rob Waugh at Mail Online on Apple’s Jonathan Ive:
Ive is renowned for having an ‘alchemical’ sense for engineering, and the limits of what one can do with metal. As design expert Stephen Bayley puts it: ‘He thinks and thinks about what a product should be and then worries it into existence.’
Ive’s lab is Apple’s inner sanctum. Here, touch screens control the glass-sided machines in which new products take form. Desks are bare bar the aluminum sheets that slot together to form the familiar lines of iconic products such as the MacBook Air.
Federico Viticci, after his first day with his new iPad:
It isn’t a revolutionary device, but it outperforms the original iPad in every single aspect. I’ve spent a few hours with it, and I’m deeply satisfied of my purchase. So, yes: for now, this is the new iPad I was waiting for, and I think it will only get better from now on. We’ll see.
I finally played with an iPad late last week, and the performance is simply unbelievable.
Reader Joe Cassara sent this email to Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering:
Hi Bertrand,
Will OS X Lion still include the XWindow system? Since LION will no longer support Rosetta, my favorite Commodore 64 emulator (Power64) will no longer work. The only alternative (VICE) requires X11.
Kind regards,
Joe Cassara Miami, FL
Here was Selet’s response:
Maybe it’s time to move on from the Commodore 64 software…
-- Bertrand
Anand Lal Shimpi, in the AnandTech iPad 2 review:
I do most of my work on a desktop (these days a laptop pretending to be a desktop). When I travel I need a notebook of some sort. I’ve got a MacBook Air that I carry with me if I just need something lightweight to do work, and a MacBook Pro if I need to do a lot of work on the road. While you can technically write articles, prepare HTML, edit images and post all of it via the iPad, it’s still no where near as quick to do so as it is on a notebook for me. As revolutionary as touch is as an input form, the mouse is a very tough act to follow. Then there’s the issue of multitasking and the fact that switching between apps is still far too much of a pain compared to a desktop. Data sharing between apps is much better on a desktop/notebook.
Ben Brooks, on editing video shot with his iPad 2 at SXSW:
In less time than it has ever taken me to record and edit a video I produced a short clip with a voice over added after the fact in no time at all. The iPad did the encoding and converting quickly and painlessly.
[…]
What I learned is this: editing video on the iPad is the only way to go. I can’t see a need for ever wanting to edit on my Mac again. iMovie for the iPad really hits a sweet spot and that sweet spot is called user experience. It offers a grand user experience. I think the iPad is really starting to find its spot in my life.