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News & Opinion
MacBook Pro with SSD 'Cured My MacBook Air
Lust'
"Twitter entity" Remiel says it used to take 28 seconds for his 13"
MacBook Pro to load the folders on his desktop after he logged in. Now
it takes five seconds, and large-footprint apps like Photoshop and
Dreamweaver now load near-instantly.
The transformation is thanks to the machine now a solid state drive
(SSD). Remiel says the mods have cured his MacBook Air lust, concluding
that he's getting a "ridiculous amount of value" out of the two pounds
of additional weight in his MacBook Pro.
Remiel opted to replace his MacBook Pro's optical drive with MCE
Technology's OptiBay hard drive chassis, which used that space for an
additional 1 TB hard drive, and he has posted a detailed,
walk-you-thorough-the-process tutorial on how he installed an Intel
X25-M 160 GB SSD Drive, contending that the performance gains are so
great that even at over $400, the price/performance ratio feels totally
worth it.
Link:
Making the Leap to SSD on a MacBook
First Data on SSD Reliability
Hardmac's Lionel says that in addition to their high price, the
other main factor limiting the adoption of SSD is the lack of long and
serious reliability reports. The French website Hardware.fr published
an article (below) providing the failure rate recorded
for the main SSD manufacturers:
- Intel: 0.59%
- Corsair: 2.17%
- Crucial: 2.25%
- Kingston: 2.39%
- OCZ: 2.93%
Lionel says those figures may look high to some readers, but they
are actually lower than for most of the best platter-based hard drives.
For example, the 2 TB WD Caviar Black WD2001FASS reportedly had a
failure rate of nearly 10%.
Link: SSD Failure Rate:
First Data on SSD Reliability
Hard Drive and SSD Failure Rates
Hardware.fr's Marc Prieur notes that while past performance is no
guide to future performance, he's posted PC component failure rate
metrics based on the databases of a large French e-retailer, which are
of course, limited to products sold through that e-retailer
The failure rates reported are on parts sold from October 1, 2009
and April 1, 2010, for returns created before October 2010, six months
to 1 year of operation and on models with a minimum sample of 100
sales, and the figures in parentheses from a previous report last
April
Hard drives
- Maxtor: 1.04% (against 1.73%)
- Western Digital: 1.45% (against 0.99%)
- Seagate: 2.13% (against 2.58%)
- Samsung: 2.47% (against 1.93%)
- Hitachi: 3.39% (against 0.92%)
Failure rates for 1 TB HDDs:
- 5.76%: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B
- 5.20%: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C
- 3.68%: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
- 3.37%: Samsung SpinPoint F1
- 2.51%: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
- 2.37%: WD Caviar Green WD10EARS
- 2.10%: Seagate Barracuda LP
- 1.57%: Samsung SpinPoint F3
- 1.55%: WD Caviar Green WD10EADS
- 1.35%: WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS
- 1.24%: Maxtor DiamondMax 23
Failure rates for 2 TB HDDs:
- 9.71%: WD Caviar Black WD2001FASS
- 6.87%: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000
- 4.83%: WD Caviar Green WD20EARS
- 4.35%: Seagate Barracuda LP
- 4.17%: Samsung EcoGreen F3
- 2.90%: WD Caviar Green WD20EADS
Prieur observes that one would not really want to entrust 2 TB of
data to these discs without a backup, and notes that as might logically
be expected, 7200 rpm disks are less reliable than 5400/5900 rpm
units.
For the first time, Hardware.fr was able to include stats for SSDs
in its report:
- Intel: 0.59%
- Corsair: 2.17%
- Crucial: 2.25%
- Kingston: 2.39%
- OCZ: 2.93%
Actually, that's not a bad showing compared to some of the hard
drive records.
Link: Les
Taux de Pannes des Composants (English
translation via Google Translate)
Year's Best Laptops Include Two from Apple
The Register's roundup of this year's most outstanding notebooks and
netbooks is bookended by two Apple machines - the Late 2010 MacBook Air
and the 15"
MacBook Pro. Author Nick Hawkesmoor declares that the MacBook Air,
especially in its compact
11.6" form, was undoubtedly the standout notebook of 2010, even
though the bigger, 13.3"
model is the better of the two: not a lot less portable, faster,
more functional, and with a longer battery life. But it's the 11.6" Air
is that spans the gap between notebook and netbook, although Hawkesmoor
notes its asking price is considerably more than you'd expect to pay
for either.*
In larger laptops, Hawkesmoor says the Reg is "very keen" on the 15"
MacBook Pro "because it's so nice to use, looks the business and packs
in a decent spec for what you pay. And don't forget how resilient that
aluminium casing is to knocks and bumps."
Other standout laptops honored are Dell's Alienware M11x, Asus' Eee
PC 1215N, the Acer Aspire One D260 (last generation but non-glossy
display), Dell's Inspiron M101z (1366 x 768 display, a full version of
Windows, and a dual-core CPU), Acer's economical 15" Aspire 5741
(dual-core Core i3-330M CPU) and Timeline X 4820TG (12 hour battery
runtime on a Core i5 machine with a 14" display), HP Envy 17
(multimedia desktop substitute overachiever), Dell's XPS 15, and
Toshiba Portégé R700.
* To put it another way, you could buy a well-equipped netbook and a
base iPad and have change left over. cm
Link: The Year's
Best Laptops
Should the iPad Count as a Mobile PC?
ZDNet's David Morgenstern notes that industry statisticians are
prepping their year-end totals. But the introduction of Apple's iPad brings some ambiguity into the
previously finely-drawn categories. Where do they put the iPad: Mobile
PC or mobile computing device?
Morgenstern notes that DisplaySearch slots the iPad into the PC
category in its
Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report, which ranks Apple
in Number 3 position worldwide and Number 1 in North America. Without
the iPad, Apple's category share would be 4.8% for a worldwide 8th
place ranking.
Link:
Should the iPad Count as a Mobile PC?
New Apple Patent Has the Flavor of Light Peak
Hardmac's Lionel reports that Apple has deposited a very
interesting patent describing a single interface for charging a
portable and also transferring data via a fiberoptic cable associated
with the copper wires. He notes that this charger that has cables of
different thickness than used for USB, network, DVI, and so forth,
deducing that the described functionality sounds like basically - or
even exactly - what will be possible to do with Intel's coming Light Peak optical single
interface technology, with which it should be possible to connect just
one cable to attach all peripherals and interfaces.
Link: A Patent of Apple
that has the Flavour of LightPeak
MacBook Pro: 7200 RPM Hard Drives May Vibrate
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says that if you have a hard
drive that runs at the 7200 RPM speed, you may sometimes feel a
vibration when you touch your MacBook Pro.
Apple notes the obvious - that 7200 RPM drives have a faster platter
rotation speed than standard 5400 RPM hard drives, and that due to the
faster rotational speeds, you may notice a vibration when the hard
drive accesses data, reassuring that this is "normal behavior."
Hmmm. The only 7200 RPM drive your editor has personally is an
external 3.5" USB hard drive, which doesn't noticeably vibrate, but
does sound like a jet engine spooling up.
Link: MacBook Pro: 7200 RPM Hard Drives
May Vibrate
Reviews
13" MacBook Air 'a Must-Have Laptop'
PC Mag says the SD Slot, extra USB port, and a staggering increase
in battery life make the 13" MacBook Air a strong
contender in the ultraportable space compared with the original MacBook Air, which
sacrificed too much in the thinner, lighter process, observing that
what the new Air added in terms of features and performance sets the
precedent for what's to come, with Steve Jobs calling the latest
MacBook Air, "the future of MacBooks."
The reviewers note that Apple could've easily kept the MacBook Air's
previous dimensions intact while packing in the extra features, and it
still would have been the thinnest in the world, but that would have
been one less thing to gloat about on stage. They also note that the
13" Air's 1440 x 900 resolution display puts it in the same category as
the Sony VAIO VPC-Z1390X (a $3,000 laptop), the full-size keyboard
delivers a typing experience few people would complain about, and the
glass touchpad is not only enormous for a laptop, but it also clicks
and supports numerous multi-finger gestures - the best "clickpad"
implementation, period.
While the second USB port and an SD Card slot might seem like "been
there, done that" compared with Windows-based ultraportables, they're
game changing for Apple laptops, indicating that future 13" Apple
laptops will be thinner without having to sacrifice ports.
In summary, the reviewers says that Apple turned the 13" MacBook Air
into a must-have laptop for this holiday season.
Link: Apple MacBook Air
13-inch
MacBook Air Less Powerful than Similarly Priced
Windows Laptops
PCWorld's Alex Wawro reports: "Lab tests prove that many Windows 7
laptops having a similar price offer better performance than the 2010
MacBook Air models."
Although the thin-and-light Apple laptops outperform most
Windows-based netbooks and ultraportable notebooks, against similarly
priced (but bigger and heavier) notebooks, not so much.
Wawro notes that many of the better-performing Windows laptops are
bigger and heavier than the Air, and some have poorer battery life, but
if you're interested in getting the most pop possible for your buck,
it's clear that the MacBook Air isn't the best way to go.
Editor's note: This is like arguing that a bus is a better way to
transport people because it can hold a lot more people than a Prius or
a Smart Car. A bus is great for heavy lifting, but you can't park it at
the grocery store, and it's far from ideal for taking six bags of
groceries home. The focus of the MacBook Air isn't "getting the most
pop possible" but getting the best small laptop available. And it's sad
to think that bigger, heavier Windows notebooks put so little focus on
battery life compared to Apple. dk
Link: MacBook Air
Performs Poorly Compared with Similarly Priced Windows Laptops
Apple Updates
EFI Firmware Update 2.0 for 2010 MacBook Air
The MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.0 update resolves a rare issue
where the MacBook Air boots or wakes to a black screen or becomes
unresponsive. This update is recommended for all 11-inch and 13-inch
MacBook Air (late 2010) models.
Boot ROM or SMC Version Information: After this update has
successfully completed, your Boot ROM Version will be:
MBA31.88Z.0061.B01.1011181342
The ROM itself is: 0061.01
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6.5
Link: MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update
2.0
Tech Trends
Google Chrome OS Laptops Coming Mid-2011
Fox Business reports that Google Inc. will release its first wave of
notebook computers equipped with Google's new Chrome OS in mid-2011
bundled with with two years of free Verizon Wireless connections up to
100 megabytes data transfers per month for two years.
Link: Google Chrome OS
Laptops Coming Mid-2011
Intel Gearing Up for Netbook and Tablet Wars
The New York Times' Ashlee Vance blogs that Intel has created a new
business unit it calls the netbook and tablet group, whose mission will
be fending off competition in the burgeoning market for PC
offshoots.
The article notes that while Intel has enjoyed a lot of success with
netbooks, the table market is proving more challenging, with the iPad
becoming the dominant device in this category running Apple's own ARM
A4 chip. At next month's consumer electronics show in Las Vegas,
several Intel Atom-based tablets should appear, with Intel expecting
more than 100 netbook and tablet designs based on Atom to hit the
market over the next six months.
Link:
Intel Girds for Netbook and Tablet Wars
Products & Services
PhantomSkinz Carbon Fiber Protection Skins for New
MacBook Air
PR: PhantomSkinz, manufacturer of the original Ultra-Clear
Protection Film for Cell Phones and Electronic devices, announces the
release of Black Carbon Fiber and White Carbon Fiber Protection Skins
for both the new 11" and 13" MacBook Air computers.
PhantomSkinz has rapidly gained notability as a
trendsetting provider of protection films for electronic devices. The
original Ultra-Clear has become an industry standard for clarity and
smoothness for touch screen devices. The matte finish version combines
Full Body Protection with a finger print proof texture, hiding most
preexisting scuffs and scratches after application. The newest line,
called Chromatics by PhantomSkinz, offers individuality through 10
metallic colors and 3 Carbon Fiber skins. The Carbon Fiber products act
as a super-tough barrier against everyday scratches and dings while
adding personalization.
Now available for the MacBook Air line of notebook computers by
Apple, Chromatics Carbon Fiber by PhantomSkinz not only offer amazing
protection, but also offer a realistic 3D look and feel to the
device.
"Much more that just a sticker or decal, PhantomSkinz customers
have given rave reviews regarding the Carbon Fiber product line." says
Patrick Dixon, General Manager of PhantomSkinz, based in metro Phoenix,
Arizona,USA, "We often receive emails praising the durability and
protection offered in real-world instances where our products have
saved a device from certain damage."
All PhantomSkinz Chromatics Full Body Protection Kits for the new
MacBook Air notebooks have been specifically designed to cover the Top,
Bottom and Wrist areas. PhantomSkinz protection skins leave no sticky
residue, cause no damage to the device itself, and do not interfere
with normal operations.
Chromatics by PhantomSkinz for the new Apple MacBook Airs' have a
MSRP range from $39.95 to $79.95, depending on the coverage package
selected.
Link: PhantomSkinz
Tandem Speakers for Macs
PR: Stem Innovation,
LLC has announced Tandem USB Digital Desktop Speakers for Apple desktop
and notebook computers. Tandem features proprietary Stem:Sonic iQ
technology - a DSP-enhanced amplifier and performance tuned bass-reflex
ports.
Tandem's elegant design features a sleek enclosure, cloth
grille and black acrylic top to perfectly complement any Mac. In
addition to the USB digital pathway that delivers ideal audio
throughput, additional audio sources may be connected using the
auxiliary audio port on the back.
Tandem's high-performance speakers enable the main unit to be placed
on either the left or right of a Mac notebook or desktop by taking
advantage of a simple left/right swap switch. A headphone port on the
main unit makes the transition to personal listening quick and
easy.
Tandem is currently available through Apple retail and online stores for
the holiday shopping season. Suggested retail price is $99.95.
Link: Tandem
Speakers
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