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Bear in mind that the driver is coming from Realtek, not MSI, and that this will always be an unofficial driver since it's not coming directly from Apple. As a result, it's unlikely to be supported in case of issues or problems. Somehow that never stops me from tinkering though.
I have decided that I am indeed going to sell my 17-inch MacBook Pro and use the new aluminum MacBook as my primary computer. To do that I will need to connect a big monitor to the MacBook at the desktop so I can have plenty of screen real estate. I ordered one of the new Apple 24-inch Cinema Displays last week for a number of reasons, primarily because I knew it would work well with the Mac. The display was back-ordered and wouldn't ship until next week and yesterday due to second thoughts I canceled that order.
The more I thought about the high cost of that Apple display the harder it was for me to justify paying it. There are many third party monitors available today that sell for less than $400 and it's just lunacy to pay $900 for an Apple-branded monitor. So I canceled the order and now I'm looking for a good alternative.
I have already spotted a number of good candidates online with Samsung leading the pack. They have a number of models, all under $400, that look like good monitors. I definitely want a 24-inch monitor and I would prefer to get one that I know will work well with the new MacBook. What I need from you are your recommendations. I am especially interested in hearing your thoughts on any monitor that you are actually using with a new MacBook or MacBook Pro/ Air. That means you are using the monitor with the mini DisplayPort on the new Mac. So let me hear your recommendations. I need to get this going before the holidays so I can settle down and concentrate on good times, not gear.
Sure Steve Jobs said not now to netbooks but Kevin Tofel isn't the only one who wants to see is talking about an Apple netbook. Kevin had three reasons we'd see a MacNet but Apple Matters came up with five reasons we'll see one soon. Of course they've had a lot longer to think about than Kevin. Like Kevin's they are objective reasons but #5 makes sense. Apple is always looking for ways to extend the reach of iTunes.
Yesterday, Microsoft launched Windows Live Sync, a new service that takes the place of the older FolderShare application that's been around for several years. While the cross-platform support of Live Sync is welcome, Mac owners saw immediate problems. A few hours after launching, it was apparent that the service wasn't ready for Mac OS X and the Live Sync team blogged an update last night that we shared:
"Hi Sync friends. We've found a problem that is causing sign-in to take longer than expected and in some cases causing sign-in to fail. We're actively working on fixing this problem and expect to have it fixed for most of our users very soon. We are sorry for the inconvenience. - The Sync Team"
A few hours ago, one of our readers noticed a more positive update. Terry Tigner noticed that the Sync Team posted the following message indicating that the issue was resolved:
"Hi Sync friends.Thank you for your patience while we investigated the sign-in issue. We have now fixed this issue and the service has now recovered. If you have the Mac client you should download the updated Mac client (http://sync.live.com/clientdownload.aspx) in order to connect. Thank you for your continued support."
I tried the old client just to see if it work but no such luck. Following the Live Sync team's instructions then, I grabbed a new version of the client and it's working perfectly fine. Good to see this get addressed quickly! One thing I've noticed in the settings but haven't had time to try just yet: remote access to devices. Live Sync is sounding more and more like Live Mesh, so I'm curious how it fits in to Microsoft's business and service model.
Ever since we found out that the latest Firefox 3.1 beta for Mac supports multi-touch trackpad gestures, I've been giving my fingers a work out. Just as a refresher, here are the commands that are natively supported:
- 3 finger swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
- 3 finger swipe Right: Go forward in history
- 3 finger swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
- 3 finger swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
- Pinch Together: Zoom out
- Pinch Apart: Zoom in
- Twist Right: Next tab
- Twist Left: Previous tab
Dave Zatz asked a great question in the comments from yesterday's post: "Whatever I've been doing accidentally has been zooming in and out of pages and occasionally flipping tabs. I seriously thought Beta 2 was buggy. Glad to know it's only multitouch. But how do I turn it off??"
After some digging, I can answer that question. In fact, you can not only turn these commands off, but you can customize them if you know how.
Continue reading "How to modify Mac multi-touch gestures in Firefox 3.1b2" »
The appearance of the Apple firmware upgrades released yesterday for late 2008 MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs was welcome news to me and other owners and many applied the upgrades immediately. I was one of those in that crowd and my experiences with trying to run my MacBook with 4 GB of memory were followed by many who also reported problems. Last night I grabbed the updates and applied them to my MacBook hoping I would be able to run with the 4 GB of memory I had purchased.
I left the MacBook running all night after popping 4 GB of memory in at 4 pm my time yesterday and it ran fine all night which gave me hope that the firmware patches had indeed fixed the problem. Prior to the firmware update my MacBook, like many are reporting, would get system freezes frequently every time 4 GB was installed. It would run fine with either 2 GB or 3 GB of memory installed, even using one of the RAM sticks that compromise the 4 GB loadout that fails.
This morning the MacBook was still running fine with no freezes and I was starting to feel pretty good about the fixes but that didn't last long. Just a while ago my MacBook froze up while sitting idle, exhibiting the same errant behavior that plagued me before the update and that has been reported by many in the Apple support forums. It appears that Apple still has some work to do to fix these system hangs which I have proven with my own testing only occurs when >3 GB of memory is installed. I hope they get this nailed, there are many of us who would like to run 4 GB in our MacBooks and MacBook Pros. It's important to note that failures are being reported whether Apple-supplied memory or third-party memory is used. The consistent factor is that the new Macs often cannot handle 4 GB of memory. Note that I haven't seen any MacBook Air owners complaining of this problem but then I haven't really looked for any.
It's important to note that Apple never said these firmware updates would address this 4 GB problem. They didn't say much of anything about what they fix but there are quite a few owners that were seriously hoping the patch would address this problem. I'm sorry to disappoint those of you affected.
Apple simply states the firmware update addresses "stability issues" but with any luck the firmware update version 1.3 released just today will address the problems some owners of new MacBooks and Pros are having that we reported about recently. Apple reps had indicated an update was forthcoming to fix the problem with using more than 3 GB of memory. I have installed the update in my affected MacBook and I just put the 4 GB of RAM in and tonight I'll see if it works or still exhibits the freezing problem. Note there are two firmware updates that are applied back to back.
I've only had my new MacBook for two weeks or so and one of the most immediate disappointments was that the extremely useful multi-touch gestures I was initially using in Safari weren't working in Firefox. I was just about to install the awesome Multiclutch utility that James raves about, but I just found thanks to MacRumors that I don't need to after all. And actually this is fact, not rumor.
Ever since I posted about the availability of Firefox 3.1 beta 2 the other day, I've actually been running it as my full-time browser. It's wicked fast and definitely stable enough from where I sit... or stand, whichever the case may be. Now and again, I've been jumping around a web page for what I thought was no apparent reason, but now I see why. Mozilla included multi-touch support for the Mac version of Firefox 3.1 beta 2. Here I thought the browser was glitchy because every so often, in the blink of an eye, I'd be at the top of web page. Call it a big case of user error in the form of accidentally using multi-touch without realizing it! Here's a listing of the swiping support:
- 3 finger swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
- 3 finger swipe Right: Go forward in history
- 3 finger swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
- 3 finger swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
- Pinch Together: Zoom out
- Pinch Apart: Zoom in
- Twist Right: Next tab
- Twist Left: Previous tab
I've been twisting, turning, pinching and swiping away the day in my browser and I'm definitely moving around much faster than before. It also illustrates to me that if this same feature-set were on the screen of my notebook, I'd be slower. With the touch features on the trackpad near the keyboard, it's far faster and much less of a stretch for my fingers. I'm sitting here with a dozen tabs and doing nothing but "twisting" through them just for fun. It's like turning an invisible dial or knob... this is sure to freak out my father when I tell him that's what I'm doing, using the newest Apple innovation: an invisible dial on my notebook.
How do you sell computers at a premium price in this down economy? Apple has the answer and just shared it with me via email:
If you were wondering what to get that person who has everything, including a MacBook Air, for a gift then look no further. The Orbino Aria case is made out of aircraft grade aluminum and leather and is custom fitted for the MacBook Air. It has a detachable outside pocket which is included for the starting price of $529. Hey it's for the person who has everything, right? They're worth it.
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