Mar 31st, 2008
Photo courtesy of Exfordy
With the MacBook and Macbook Pro models, Apple has switched from Lithium-Ion batteries to Lithium-Polymer batteries. The Lithium-Polymer battery, like Lithium-Ion, will slowly lose charge capacity over time until it gets to a certain point. When it reaches that point, its lifespan is up and it will just go completely dead. Replacements are currently over $100. In order to have that battery last as long as possible, follow these eight guidelines as best as you can.
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Mar 27th, 2008
Photo courtesy of SanDisk
SanDisk’s Sansa series of .mp3 players are compact, well built (except for the scroll wheel..) and all around a good deal for the price. I bought my e280 about a year ago and I enjoy it. It works without problem and does what its supposed to. I enjoy the ease of just dragging and dropping folders of .mp3 files into the music directory. No PC iTunes, no weird proprietary software and best of all – no Windows Media Player nonsense. There’s only one thing that I can’t stand about it – No OS X support.
Fortunately, I dug and dug through forums and open source software and learned you can get the Sansa e280 to work under OS X.
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Mar 24th, 2008
Photo courtesy of Mozilla
The lovely dream of Email Client nirvana.. Wouldn’t it be great to have all my email accounts in one place, making checking them a breeze. Especially the dozens of free web-based email accounts from Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, Freemail, AOL, and others that I’ve racked up over the years. How great would it be to be able to check those emails at the same time! Also, with the new (bloated) interfaces of these webmail accounts, I could avoid all the unnecessary news and other nonsense that comes bundled in with them.
Unfortunately, its time to wake up. These services don’t make it easy for you to use an Email Client. The reason these accounts are free is because of all the advertisements that you see all over the page when you log in. This doesn’t mean its impossible.
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Mar 20th, 2008
Photo courtesy of Amazon
Portability is the greatest thing about working with a laptop. Not just the ability to take the computer to the coffee shop, airport or library. The ability to work with your laptop anywhere. Work while relaxing on the couch, in bed, at the beach, in a hammock, from your seat on the train, car or airplane. Its quite refreshing to change your scenery and perspective while working and it can benefit your creativity.
In order to go portable, and care for your laptop, (without burning your lap) you will need some sort of portable laptop desk. These range in price, shape, size and color. Some are small and designed to sit on your lap, others are full blown portable tables.
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Mar 17th, 2008
Photo courtesy of Cerealfan
Take something big and stuff it into a small space. That’s the essence of file compression. In the Windows world, it is common to use .Zip, .Rar, .Ace and now .7z file formats. The world is predominantly Windows based, and you might come across these filetypes often. If you are making the Windows to OS X switch or otherwise new to OS X, this article will show you how to handle these filetypes within Mac OS X.
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