Archive for December, 2008

Chrome No Longer Beta

Google announced today something that I didn’t realize they were capable of doing. They removed the “beta” label from Chrome and announced it was ready. Chrome is the search giant’s new browser and has been in a beta release stage since early September of this year and it was announced by Google today that it is ready and will remove the beta label. Google will also be working on Mac and Linux versions that are “coming soon”. Google is boasting better stability, speed, bookmark manager and privacy controls in the new non-beta release. They stated in the announcement that the 1.0 release is 1.4-1.5 times faster than the first beta at interpreting JavaScript using its V8 JavaScript Engine. The announcement also admits some of this early release’s shortcomings: missing form autofill, an RSS interpreter, an extensions platform, and support for other OS’s besides Windows.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Dec 12th, 2008

MacBook Firmware Update to Fix Memory Stability Issues

A few days ago a number of users reported issues with the new Aluminum MacBooks freezing while running 3rd party memory. AppleInsider has reported that a firmware update has been sent out from Apple via Software Update that supposedly fixes the memory reliability issues as well as an issue with the power indicator. Users of the new MacBook should be able to add 3rd party memory into their new laptops again. An issue that should’ve been caught before going into production, but fixed no, nonetheless.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Dec 11th, 2008

Uptime In Windows

One of the many things that has annoyed me about Windows is the lack of an “uptime” utility like UNIX or Linux machines. There are a lot of scenarios where I need to find out quickly the last time the system had been rebooting without having to grep through logs.. err.. scroll through the Event Viewer. One trick that I picked up recently was that the systeminfo utility will tell you the uptime and you can parse out all the extra junk. I know this tip works on Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP, but I don’t have access to a lot of other Windows platforms (and didn’t bother checking earlier ones). You can simply run from a command prompt: systeminfo | find “Up Time”.

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Filed under How-Tos / Tips : Comments (1) : Dec 11th, 2008

New MacBooks Reported Unstable After Installing 3rd Party RAM

Users of the new Aluminum MacBooks that hit the market in October have been reporting issues of instability after 3rd party RAM upgrades to their laptops. So far, the word from Apple support is to purchase Apple-branded memory upgrades until issues can be resolved. This is the first model of laptop that Apple has pushed out using DDR3 as main memory so the issues likely lie there, however many frustrated users have been forced to purchase memory from Apple to replace their 3rd party upgrade kits. The good news? Apple’s RAM upgrades have gotten much cheaper. A year ago, I helped my parents purchase an iMac which I bought a 3rd party upgrade for it. The upgrade from Apple from 1 to 2GB was a little over $100, but on NewEgg, I bought the kit I needed for around $30 and it worked just fine. For now, it seems that the prices have leveled off with the use of DDR3 (or Apple’s just lower their margins) which is good news to any potential purchasers of the new MacBooks. The Apple memory is Samsung memory with an Apple sticker and at the time of writing I hadn’t heard of anyone trying to use just standard Samsung memory.

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Filed under News : Comments (1) : Dec 8th, 2008

Apple Rumored to Have $99 4GB iPhone At Walmart

According to rumors over at Engadget, Walmart is expected to start carrying a cheaper model of the iPhone 3G for only $99 with a 2-year subscription contract. The phone will be offered in a 4GB model for the lower price rather than the 8GB or 16GB offered directly from Apple and AT&T or Best Buy. Rumors about the deal flew earlier this year with a guess at a November 15 launch date at Walmart but that date has long passed. Pictures floating around of a iPhone Reference guide with AT&T and Walmart’s logos on the front inidicating that they will be training employees on activating the phones. A commentator on the Engadget article claimed to work at Sam’s Club (a sister company to Walmart) and said that the iPhone was coming just after Christmas, on December 28. It would make sense for Walmart to not release the product in their stores until after Christmas (after all, Black Friday’s already over), but the date is purely off a commenter’s word. Bringing a smaller model to Walmart could boost sales for the device and bring it to those who couldn’t afford the larger models.

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Filed under News : Comments (1) : Dec 5th, 2008

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