Tag: Apple

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One Mac to Rule Them All

As a network technician, I found myself in a unique position when it came to my Mac. How far could I take the task of administering my LAN’s user profiles and machines using my MacBook Pro? Turns out it is possible.

My Mac is on the same network as all the Dells on campus. It’s my job to remotely unlock user accounts, add new computers to the network, and manage the files on the four servers. Here’s what I’ve found:

1. Use OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

I know there are still those out there who love Tiger. Trust me, I’m one of them. But the fact of the matter is that Apple didn’t really incorporate the tools necessary for working on PC networks until OS X 10.5 Leopard. Snow Leopard improved upon those tools, such as notifying me when my network password is about to expire. In general, Snow Leopard is more stable.

2. Download CoRD

CoRD is a free download that will let you open Windows servers on your Mac. What’s great about this program is that it will open the server up in a window on your desktop. No restarting or logging off, or anything like that. Move your mouse around the server window, and you’re controlling the server’s interface. From here, you can easily get in to Active Directory to manage user accounts, or access any of the other tools on the server.


3. Use command+k to access the server folders

Browsing through folders on the server is no problem at all, though you may not see them initially. Open Finder and select Go > Connect to Server (command+k). From there, type in smb://YourServerName.YourDomainName

You’ll need to authenticate with your credentials, but after that you’re good to go.

If there are other Macs on the network, make sure to log on to them as an administrator. In Sharing under System Preferences, make sure to select Remote Management. That way you’ll be able to share the screens of the client Macs after authenticating. It’s not Apple Remote Desktop, but it can at least show you what’s going on with the user.

With the dawning of the Age of Intel, Macs have become better and better with working along side PCs. Being an administrator with a MacBook Pro hasn’t hindered me a bit.

If anything, I have to remind myself that Expose is not an option for me when I do use a PC. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve jammed the cursor into the corner, expecting something to happen.

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Apple’s Mac OS X Lion out by summer?

What is Mac OS X Lion? It is Apple’s latest operating system. Apple is going to take the best features from the iPad and implement them into the Mac with the new Mac OS X Lion. The Mac App Store, which is also available on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, will also be a feature on Mac OS X Lion. The Mac App Store will allow you to purchase apps and they will appear right on the new Launchpad that is also a new feature. The Launchpad is similar to iOS devices because it allows instant access to your apps. The Launchpad icon is on your Dock and with one simple click on the icon, a full screen display of all your apps appears. You can arrange your apps anyway you like by dragging them onto different locations or even into folders.  Mac OS X Lion gives you the opportunity to use your apps on the full-screen. You can also swipe the trackpad to switch to another app’s full-screen window or back to the desktop. Mission Control is another feature on Mac OS X Lion that allows you to view all programs running on your Mac and even click it to get to that program. Multi-Touch is also more responsive.

Other new features include Auto Save, which automatically saves your work by saving the changes made on the document, Versions, which lets you revert to older versions of a document, and Resume, which lets you restart your Mac and return to exactly what you were doing before you restarted your Mac. For checking your email, Mail 5 allows you to view messages in your inbox and let’s you see a preview of it. It also introduces Conversations, which groups emails together of the same conversation. AirDrop allows you to send files to other people nearby that are using AirDrop also. Your Mac is also more secure with XTS-AES 128 data encryption at the disk level. FileVault encrypt your external drives too. Lion Server is also a new feature that helps you set up your Mac as a server and enjoy the many benefits that it has to offer.

Apple is currently getting ready to release a Mac OS X Lion update to developers that may be called “GM1”.  “GM” typically stands for “Golden Master”. This means that the product is complete, but there can be a lot of bugs and performance issues that Apple has to work on. The launch of Mac OS X Lion will be released sometime in the summer, but it depends on how fast Apple can get rid of the bugs and other issues.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Rumor Roundup: iPhone 5

There are many people who are looking forward to the new iPhone 5. With a new Apple product on the look out, rumors are spreading like wildfire. One of the first rumors is that the new iPhone 5 will be made of metal, instead of the aluminosilicate glass used in the iPhone 4. Using metal for the back of the iPhone 5, added to the stainless steel band on the iPhone 4 would make the iPhone 5 completely metal based. Making the new iPhone 5 have a metal back would be much better than using the aluminosilicate glass for the back. The metal is more durable then the glass and wouldn’t shatter. The glass back would also add more weight to the phone and had stress-fracture issue due to sliding cases for the iPhone 4. With a metal back, the new iPhone 5 will be more durable and resilient. It would be similar to how Apple makes its Mac computers with a metal unibody. The metal would be thinner than the glass, so you can have a lighter feel to it. The iPhone 5 is most likely to follow the iPhone 4’s design and continue to have a flat back. There have been some iPhone 5 cases that were leaked to confirm this design.

There have also been some rumors that the screen will be 4 inches instead of 3.5 inches. The camera may also improve from a 5-megapixel to an 8-megapixel. Some other rumors are that the iPhone 5 will most likely be available in white, which is highly probably. The iPad 2 has dual-core A5 chips, so the iPhone 5 should also have it. One rumor that is very interesting is that the iPhone 5 will have NFC Technology, or near field communication technology. The iPhone 5 will use NFC to make your iPhone 5 act like a credit card. With all these rumors going around, you have to wonder, which rumors are true and which are false. You have to wait until the iPhone 5 launches to find out, which is rumored to be near June — September.

Feel free to leave questions or comments.

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How To Mod an iPad 2 Case

The Smart Cover for the iPad 2 is by far more advanced than the original iPad Case with its slim design, magnets, and an auto sleep mode. It’s crazy that the cover for the iPad 2 is as much a marvel as the device itself. I’m actually surprised Apple didn’t brand it with its logo. Yet the one area where the iPad Case beats the Smart Cover is in providing full protection for the iPad. The Smart Cover lacks a back. It’s easy to see why this is so, and until a third party vendor comes up with something, your options are limited.

However, with a second cover and an X-Acto knife, you can have the best of both worlds. The TPU Thermoplastic Polyurethane Resin Skin Cover from Hand Held Items is a flexible, yet protective back cover. It’s advertised as a special type of material that won’t crack. That property can be used to combine it with the Smart Cover. Once you have the TPU cover, place it on your iPad 2. Mark on it where the magnets of the Smart Cover will attach to the iPad’s left side. Then, using the X-Acto knife, cut out the marked lines. The top hole will be the easier of the two, since for some reason, there is already a hole there. Snap the Smart Cover on and check how it fits. Adjust as necessary.

iPad 2 with Smart Cover and TPU case

The beauty about this mod is that the Smart Cover’s functionality is not imposed upon at all. It still folds nicely for propping the iPad 2 and will put it to sleep when placed across the screen. The iPad 2’s slim design is not compromised at all with a bulky case. The only downside is that you might need to pull the Smart Cover’s edge slightly to make it perfectly line up with the iPad 2’s side (though that might not be the case with some fine tuning). For those wanting to mod the TPU even further, a standard hole punch tool will provide a nice opening for the iPad 2’s mic on top.

The TPU comes in a variety of colors, though it looks like clear and a couple of other varieties are out of stock as of the publishing of this article. For $5.99, the price can’t be beat.

Take fully protecting your iPad 2 into your own hands.

Special thanks to Lorie Lee for the idea.

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Average Joe's Tips

Going Retro With a PowerPC

Last year I went to my school district’s surplus warehouse, looking to pick up a Mac. I hoped to find a Power Mac G4 in order to relive my college days of cutting video on them. Sure, there are certainly faster Macs available for doing that, but certainly not at the cost of a used classroom one.

I found a pallet full of Mac desktops, but it only took a glance to tell they weren’t G4’s. The boxes were the same shape, but colored a light blue; something I hadn’t seen before. My friend who was with me told me it was a G3. I had no idea what specs it had, but all I knew was that I wanted it.

We fired it up there in the warehouse and found out that the hard drive worked, it had OS 9.2, and it clocked in at 300 MHz. I still wanted it. My friend told me how Tiger could be installed on it, despite its lack of a DVD drive. Forty bucks later, and the box and monitor were mine.

And so the obsession began.

I went from knowing little about Macs before the age of Intel chips, to scouring websites and discussion boards about Power PCs. Sites like Low End Mac and Other World Computing showed me that not only is it possible to keep an old Mac alive and kicking, but parts for upgrading it are still available.

In just a few months I installed OS X 10.4.11 Tiger, maxed my G3 out on 1GB of memory, installed a wireless card, a DVD drive, and a ZIF chip that took it from 300 MHz to 500. Thanks to Circuit City going out of business, I also got a Bluetooth dongle for only $20. Amazingly, what I found made the biggest difference was getting a new Radeon video card that bumped the video memory from 8 MB to 32 MB, which made a dramatic effect on the bus speed.

What at first I thought would be a hobby turned into a reliable workhorse. I write every morning on it, actually opting for it over my MacBook Pro. There’s a rewarding feeling about working on a desktop that I fixed up. Also, the fact that browsing the web or checking e-mail takes a little longer than usual helps keep me focused on just writing.

The G3 marked Apple’s turning away from beige boxes. Even ten years later, the G3’s exterior is a thing of beauty. Inside, it’s solid and reliable. I would highly recommend buying a PowerPC to any Mac fan who doesn’t already have one. As long as you get rid of the expectation to use anything past Tiger on it, and are willing to spend some money to upgrade it, you can own a reliable piece of Apple hardware. I can’t see Cover Flow in iTunes, and YouTube is more of a waiting game, but I’d take my 10-year-old G3 over a 10-year-old PC any day.

Macs age the way Harrison Ford does–improving as they get older. PCs tend to age like Carol Channing.