Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mac and apple

Where can I find attractive powered speakers?

bryanlacksfocus — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:13:21 -0800

Does anyone know of any attractive powered speakers? Ones that look like they belong on a bookshelf and not next to a PC? I'm looking for speakers to put in my living room that I would beam music to through an Airport Express. It could be one speaker or a pair, but they should be powered and stand-alone—I don't have room for a "system" with a separate amplifier. I don't need a radio, CD player, or iPod dock—just a power switch, a volume knob, and one audio input jack. The only powered speakers I'm finding are designed for use with a computer and are, in my opinion, unforgivably ugly—at least for use outside a computer workstation. I'm hoping to find something simple and modern with straight, clean lines—possibly a cousin to this Tivoli or this GenevaSound radio or the wooden-cased (non-powered) speakers our parents had in the 70s.

With everyone doing so much from their computers these days, it seems like these ought to exist! Have you come across any? Any ideas are appreciated!

TOSLINK USB surround sound adapter + Mac OS X?

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:57:24 -0800

What is a good, working surround sound USB adapter for a Mac mini in a home theatre setup, which uses a TOSLINK connector? (I would be using this with DVD Player, iTunes, VLC, QuickTime Player, etc. if that matters for software support.)

What to do with a broken iMac G5?

crios — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:36:47 -0800

My mom has an iMac G5, 1.8 Ghz w/ superdrive and 2GB of RAM (I think). It's been a problem since they first got it with a logic board replacement and multiple power supply replacements (all free thankfully). Recently it started giving kernel panics on start up with the fans sounding like jet engines. It's a little over 4 years old and even though it's given us hardware problems, it has been a good computer and my mom likes it. What should we do with it now? I've tried all the troubelshooting suggestions (rest PRAM, remove peripherals, startup off of disk, etc...) and nothing is working. She's ready to throw in the towel with this one and get a new one. I'm thinking a mac mini, all we'll need to buy is a monitor.

My question is, what do we do with this iMac. I've tried rebooting off of the install disk and it's still panicking so it seems to be pretty broken. Should we try to sell it on ebay? Does anybody know any organizations in the Chicagoland area that would be interested in it? My other question is, what should we do about the hard drive. Since I can't even start up off of a disk I can't even format the HD. I don't think there is anything really sensitive on it but still I think it's probably a good idea to erase it before giving it away.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Quark Problems

aburd — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:58:21 -0800

My mom is a graphic designer and uses Quark. She just switched from a PowerPC based Macbook Pro to an Intel based MacBook Pro. Using the new Macbook Pro, she can't seem to open the Quark files she created using the old MacBook pro. It produces an error saying something about the processor. Is there a nice program for converting such files? I don't know much about Quark or design software but please let me know if I am skipping some obvious detail. I want to get her this software for Christmas so I can't be too obvious but I can probably get some details out of her without being too obvious.

How difficult is it to become a Certified Mac Tech?

sammich — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:13:45 -0800

Any Apple Certified Macintosh Technicians in the house? How difficult was it for you to get certified? This question has been asked before but I want to expand on it.

I manage all the Macintosh computers at my work. I also setup my office location as a Apple Self Servicing center, which means, among other things, I am allowed to access Apple service resources (order parts, look up service manuals, etc) just like a regular Apple repair store can. But the difference between me and a real repair place is that I can't do official warranty repairs, because no one on my staff has been certified by Apple to do them. Fortunately one of the perks of being a self servicing center is free access to on-line training to become certified.

My primary duties at work are managing software installs and servers. I deal with about 150 Macs at work, almost half of them are laptops, and I guesstimate no more than 10% of those need some kind of warranty repair during the 3 years of Applecare. I'll do the occasional repair but only if it's out of warranty. I've always tinkered with taking apart computers but only for the occasional hobby.

Looking over the course topics, the software side is pretty elementary to me, but the hardware topics seems (naturally) extensive and complicated. The training courses cover the ins and outs of the guts of every Mac of the past 4-5 years. In my job I've typically only work on Mac towers (G5/Mac Pros) and PowerBooks and MacBook Pros (when I mean work on, I mean things like power supply removals, cracked LCD replacements, etc). I don't have much hands on experience with lower end hardware such as Minis and iMacs.

So my question is, how hard core should I brush up on Macs i'm unfamiliar with? If I replaced a drive in a Macbook Pro would it be safe to say that the MacBook Air would be just as easy if i just glanced over the instructions? During test time, will they quiz me on every model? Will they do something like give me an iMac and tell me to take it apart and reassemble? Do you think it's worth it for an IT guy like me to get certified? I don't plan to be a technician.It's more of a job convenience for me than anything else.

Feel free to PM me if you feel that you're bound by an Apple NDA or whatever.

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help?

scazza — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:02:40 -0800

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help? I am looking for help with this issue AND/OR great resources to help. There are tons of forums, its difficult to find my answer.

It started with my photos. First iTunes would not sync my selected album. I would sync over and over, and it would say it synced but on my phone it would say "no photos or videos." Then it stopped showing any options or albums under "Selected albums."

Then I noticed that it triplicated my notes.

Most importantly, since I really only got this phone years ago for the calendar and never had problems until now, it has stopped syning my calendar. Like iPhoto it has stopped showing any options under "Selected calendars." I am afraid to restore because I don't want to lose the information on my phone. It says it's backed it up, but obviously it's lied to me in the past.

It looks like there's a communication breakdown between iTunes & these other programs; like iTunes can't see my calendars, photo albums, & notes. Do I downgrade my software? I never had problems before. I upgraded to the latest Mac OS as well and that has made a lot of programs crash that never crashed before, my computer crashed 3x yesterday. My calendar is the most important, vital part of having this phone at all. I am starting to panic. My phone is 3G and I'm wondering if Apple is just dropping the ball on supporting not the latest model of their products.

How can I tell if someone is trying to hop onto my wireless signal?

invisible ink — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:46:16 -0800

I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.6.1, and an Airport Extreme Base Station. Is there a user-friendly way to see if someone is trying to use my internet connection or hack into my network? I live in a large apartment building, and am curious to see if anyone has tried to hop onto my wireless signal. Thanks in advance:-)

How do I start using OS X Mail?

Junior687 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:46:45 -0800

How can I start using OS X .Mail App when I'm so in love with Gmail on the web? I recently purchased a Mac and I'm really interested in using OS X's Mail program. The only problem is Gmail is my bread and butter. It has a lot of different features and I love the labeling system. Is there a way to integrate labels, IMAP, and some other Gmail features with Mail? Will it hurt my current setup on the iPhone? What are the pros and cons? Thanks!

Stubborn MBP Display Problems

one_bean — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:42:23 -0800

I bring my MacBook Pro to school, and hook it up to an external monitor (with higher resolution) in clamshell mode. I come home and use it as a laptop. Often when I switch from clamshell to laptop, the desktop still thinks it's in the higher resolution, and all my icons are off the screen. Logging out fixes it. Is there an quicker way to fix this? This is a new problem in Snow Leopard.

ipod touch updating error

klangklangston — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:27:22 -0800

Unknown error 0xE8000001 from ipod touch; won't connect. OSX 10.4.11, powerpc.

Last night, I tried to update my girlfriend's ipod touch software so that she could run apps (she'd been wanting it for a while, and I thought it would be a nice surprise). So, I paid my 4.95, downloaded the firmware… and got an error connecting to the iPod (the aforementioned 0xE8000001). I googled around, and it seemed like maybe I needed to update my iTunes version from 8 to 9. OK, so did that. Still, same error.

Fuck.

Now my iTunes says that I need to update my safari so that it can connect to the iTunes store, but I don't believe Safari 4 will run on a powerpc.

How can I: Revert to the earlier version of iTunes and how can I unfuck my girlfriend's iPod before she stabs me in the face?

How can I create vCards from email sigs?

mfitz — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:05:40 -0800

How can I auto-magically create a vCard from an email signature? I'm growing tired of the repeated copy-and-paste operations required to make new entries in my Apple Address Book when I have a nicely formatted signature file right in front of me. Is there a script or other handy tool that will do this work for me, guessing which bit of info is the name, phone number, etc. and placing them into a new vCard for me?

I just accidentally broke my friend's ridiculously fragile brand new laptop. Please help me fix it.

iamkimiam — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:14:58 -0800

My good friend just purchased a $3k Apple laptop, which she received today. I spent four hours this afternoon installing software and setting it up for her. Once we were all done, and ready to go out and celebrate good times, new laptops, and Friday nights, we high fived, and I shut the laptop gently...with the tiny, clear, flexible, plastic charger cap unknowingly inside. Now the screen is completely cracked, fractalled, damaged, and very sadly colorful. What can I do? I am planning on going to the Apple store first thing tomorrow morning. What should I say? How can I make this right?

Additional info: I have been a loooong time Apple customer and purchaser. I am also currently extremely poor, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure my friend is good to go and happy. Please help me!

WHYOHWHY aren't the charger caps, A) fluorescent-colored, and B) attached to the cord!?!?

Memory upgrade for Intel Xeon Mac Pro?

austinlee — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:12:17 -0800

Memory upgrade for Intel Xeon Mac Pro? I bought the base mac pro a few months ago planning to up the memory right away. When I went to do this I got confused by a few websites that warned about using only certain kinds of memory and in certain groups. Can someone tell me what they think is the best way without spending more than necessary?

The computer is a 2.66 Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 3 GB 1066 MHz DDR3.

Thanks!

Contemplating getting my own server

sindark — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:59:43 -0800

How would the new Mac Mini server compare to a cheap shared hosting account? At present, my website is hosted on GoDaddy.com's 'economy' shared Linux hosting plan. I noticed that Apple has now released a version of the Mac Mini designed to act as a server, costing about $1,000 Canadian.

Does anyone have any idea of how it would compare with GoDaddy, in terms of performance? I have found myself frustrated by how slowly content loads from their servers, especially anything that depends on MySQL databases, such as WordPress and MediaWiki.

$1,000 would be akin to about 10 years of shared hosting payments, but there might be secondary benefits to running my own server, rather than farming the task out to someone else. Any thoughts?

Pick the Perfect Mac Laptop

misha — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:52:16 -0800

Which Mac laptop should I buy? Needs and specs inside. So I need a new laptop, and serendipity is on my side, as the Apple store has just updated! Well and good. Which model should I get, though, that's the question.

I am replacing this:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

What I use it for: blogging, word processing, some photoshop creation (illustrations for the blog, mostly), saving pics from the digital camera, social media, lots and lots of email, light gaming of the Flo's Diner and Tower Defense variety.

What I liked: speed, powerhouse of a laptop.
What I didn't like: heavy, bulky, heats up fast.

I'm thinking that I could go down to the 13", but are the new 15" versions significantly lighter than my version?

Is the Macbook Air a bad buy (meaning not cost-effective) because of the one-piece construction? In other words, does pretty much any repair mean the whole thing has to be taken apart, thus costing more in the end?

Is it significantly slower or less powerful than the Macbook Pro that I would notice it with my modest needs?

I DO want Apple Care, right?

Thanks in advance, hive mind!

Buggy finder OS x 10.5.8

cg2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:43:43 -0800

Buggy finder in OX 10.5.8 Recently my finder has gotten really buggy - even though I have disabled spaces and expose they will spontaneously launch. Also when I open folders in the finder they will flash repeatedly before stopping and letting me click into them. I also have a hard time renaming files by clicking into the file name on the finder. Does anyone have any ideas??? Thanks!!

Options for a small & cheap Mac laptop?

attercoppe — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:01:07 -0800

What are my options for a cheap, small Mac laptop? I'm on a tight budget, but would love to get a laptop. I've been looking at netbooks because I love the light weight and small size. However, I may be about to get a job at my school, which basically is an Apple campus, so now I'm considering a Mac instead. I'd still like to find something cheap, small and light, and with some serious battery life. Of course one option is to buy a used or refurbed Mac (maybe an Air?). Could I also buy a netbook and install OS X? Or install some *nix - how compatible (not look and feel but interoperability) would this be?

P.S. I could probably do some research and get some good info, but I thought I'd see what ya'll can tell me first. I've read other questions here, and they seem to be either out of date or about desktops (or both).

DHCP giving clients addresses with prior DNS record

jmd82 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:47:26 -0800

DHCP giving out IP address leases with pre-existing DNS entries for the wrong machine causing network chaos on a mixed windows & mac environment, and it's the macs who are having the problems. We have DHCP & DNS on a Windows 2003 server. Apple laptops (leopard) are bound to AD. The clients get a DHCP lease easily enough, but then at some point in the future (usually a few weeks, maybe less), they cannot log in or won't get settings from the server.

Have Apple support, and their response is the machine account is not authenticating with AD, so no log in. OK, so...

Upon investigation into DNS, it turns out that these client's DNS entry is actually tied to another PC's IP address. For instance, maclaptop.mydomain.com gets 192.168.1.1. However, the DNS record for 192.168.1.1 on the network is actually pc.mydomain.com. This is causing maclaptop.mydomain.com to try authenticating as pc.mydomain.com, which they are not and getting rejected. I am led to believe this from Console messages stating pc@mydomain.com cannot authenticate with kerberos.

Any thoughts or ideas on how to prevent this from happening? I can delete those individual DNS records and the clients can log in then properly, but at some point in the future, it'll loose its lease and get the address with a wrong DNS entry at some point.

Why is my Macbook Pro so slow to load applications?

shivohum — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:28:52 -0800

My 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro running OS 10.6 seems awfully slow to load applications. Any advice? I have a 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, and compared to a lot of other Macs - like the 2.6 Ghz/2 GB iMac I'm typing this on - it seems awfully slow to load applications. I'm running Snow Leopard, and the problem has not gotten any different or better.

For example, if I quit Word, after opening it, and then start it again, it takes 8 seconds. On this iMac, it takes 2 seconds. They're both running Word 2008.

Firefox 3.6 often takes 6 seconds to open, compared to more or less instantaneously on the iMac. It's true that if I open Firefox, close it, and then open it again on my MBP, it sometimes then loads instantaneously, but if I wait 30 seconds, it might take 6 seconds again. Similarly, it often takes 4-6 seconds for system preferences to open up. And on and on.

I have my graphics card set to "high performance," so it should be using the nVidia card rather than the integrated card, and I have the 7200 rpm hard drive.

What's the deal? I can't think of any exceptional CPU/memory-hogging application that I'm running in the background, and activity monitor shows 85-90% capacity idle. I do run Carbonite and Growl in the background, but they don't seem to take up any CPU power normally.

I have 170 GB of hard disk space free, too, if that matters.

I have installed all software and firmware updates.

Any idea what the deal is? Thanks!

Help Me Learn More About the MacBook Pro 17"

Effigy2000 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:38:00 -0800

MacBook Pro owners... tell me all about owning a MacBook Pro 17". Pros, cons and people suffering from buyers remorse all welcome. A bunch of questions are inside. I am seriously considering buying a MacBook Pro. I've decided that if I get one I'll want the 17" screen and the 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. I'll also get the anti-glare screen, which I understand is pretty much a necessity.

I won't bother getting 8GB of RAM (the extra 4GB from Apple costs far too much), and I wont bother with the solid state drive (again, far too expensive), opting to go with the 500GB SATA 7200RPM drive instead. I'll also get the AppleCare plan at the same time.

I plan on using it for drawing, writing, surfing the net and playing some games that my current PC is too slow to run (Neverwinter Nights 2, I'm looking at you).

My questions are;

1) In doing my research, I've read a lot of really good reviews for the MacBook Pro but I've really not read anything negative at all. What are the bad things about the MacBook Pro that no-one seems to be talking about? I want to know if there's any potential deal breakers for me here.
2) 4GB vs. 8G of RAM. Does the extra 4GB make a big difference in performance on the MacBook Pro, especially given I plan on using Windows 7 through Bootcamp?
3) Does using Windows 7 (or even XP) pose any issues on a MacBook? By that I mean is there any MacBook specific features that are only usable under MacOS?
4) Are there any potential problems migrating my PC files (documents etc) to the MacBook Pro, even if I use Windows 7? What about my PC games?
5) I'm thinking I may just end up getting third party RAM and a third party hard drive for more space. I assume doing so is frowned on by Apple. Is this something that could affect the AppleCare Plan I'm planning on getting? Can I get around this if I have an authorised Apple repairer put the drive and RAM in?
6) Portability; how cumbersome is it using a 17" MacBook while on the go? Much, or not at all?
7) My experience with Apple when my iPod broke down was quite positive. Will I experience a similar level of good service if my MacBook Pro breaks down, or am I in for a whole new level of hell?

Anything else you MacBook Pro owners feel is worth knowing, let me know. And also, if you bought one and regretted it, tell me why (but let's try and keep the Mac vs. PC fights out of it, if we can).

Thanks in advance!

How can I use a spreadsheet to track my accounts?

reenum — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:16:25 -0800

I want to start using a spreadsheet to track and reconcile my various accounts. How do I start? I've been using MS Money for years. Due to switching to the Mac, MS Money being discontinued, and generally hating the fact that my financial data is trapped in a proprietary program, I feel like I should use a spreadsheet to track my finances.

I have a savings account, two checking accounts, two credit card accounts, and a Roth IRA.

There are a couple of things I'm curious about: How does one reconcile accounts in a spreadsheet and are there any templates that have that checkbook entry system that MS Money has?

I've looked at some of the older posts on this topic and none seemed to answer my questions satisfactorily.

Links to templates, blog posts, howtos, general anecdotes, and anything else relating to this question are requested and appreciated. Thanks!

How to completely clear Apple Address Book in preparation for recovery?

odinsdream — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:22:22 -0800

Recovering Address Book data. Apple Address Book phantom entries keep returning, even after deleting the data files and prefs lists. Where are they coming from? How can I get the original data back? I'm trying to help someone recover their address book data after they upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard.

They started with around 200 address cards. After the Snow Leopard upgrade they have 20. These 20 don't seem to have anything in common with eachother.

Several online resources indicate that I could use the file:

~\Library\Application Support\Address Book\AddressBook.data.previous

...by deleting the AddressBook.data file, and renaming the above to sit in its place. I've sifted through the AddressBook.data.previous file with an editor. It's 1.9 MB, and appears to contain all of her 200 cards.

I haven't been able to get the replacement working, though, because of this oddity:

1. Close Mail, Address Book, iCal.
2. Delete the entire ~\Library\Application Support\Address Book folder, and delete all of the ~\Library\Preferences\com.apple.addressbook* files.
3. Re-open Address Book.

Result: Those 20 cards are back. The Address Book comes up empty first, then these cards magically appear. The Application Support\Address Book folder now contains data related to these cards, where before it didn't even exist.

MobileMe sync is disabled. There is no other Sync option in the Address Book preferences Accounts area. Where are these cards coming from?

I have a feeling that if I solve this part, I could probably get the recovery working, but I'm stumped.

Apple Airport Extreme or Express?

invisible ink — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:13:34 -0800

What is the difference between an Apple Airport Express Base Station, and an Airport Extreme Base Station? I have a tiny 500-square foot apartment. All I want is to be able to surf the web wirelessly. Can I go with the cheaper Express Base Station? Why is one cheaper than the other (in other words, what can the Extreme do that the Express cannot)?

Please recommend PDF indexing software for OS X.

NucleophilicAttack — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:41:35 -0800

Please recommend OS X software which can generate indexes from PDF files. Freeware is best, but shareware is also fine. I have a number of PDFs which are several hundred pages in length, for which I would like to generate indexes. Some wishlist features:

* indexes both rare words, and words from a list.
* can adjust the page numbers it outputs to match the actual numbering on each page of the PDF, rather than the logical page numbers.
* tweakable with respect to what kind of words get indexed, and what kind do not

This is not the universe telling me that I need new glasses.

honeybee413 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:16:14 -0800

My Macbook Pro display keeps randomly resizing to different resolutions. It started suddenly, about a month ago. What happened? Can I make it stop? I got a new MBP in April 2009. Everything else is running fine, but every few links clicked or pages loaded in Firefox, the display seems to change resolution. It zooms in a little, gets blurry, and will either resize to a bigger font size, or go back to where it was. Regarding the former, it is always fixable with the CMD + or -.

A little while ago, the resolution of the whole screen randomly changed - no provocation on my part, near as I could tell - and the whole screen resolution got HUGE! Things weren't fitting on the screen. I tried to change it through display settings in System Preferences, and even setting the display back to 1440x900 didn't help. I then decided to restart, whereupon my resolution shrank back to "normal," and all was right with the world.

What happened? Is there something wrong with my MBP? Have other people experienced similar problems? Is there a way to make this naughty behavior stop?