Hardware
How to Check Your Apple Bluetooth Keyboard's Battery Life
Matt Cone January 7, 2021
The Apple Bluetooth keyboard is one of those rare, indispensable devices I couldn’t live without. It’s wireless, it’s portable, and I love typing on it. There’s only one problem: When the keyboard’s batteries run out of juice, it stops working. This can be an issue when I’m working away from home or trying to meet a tight deadline. Fortunately, there’s a quick way to check the keyboard’s remaining battery life. Here’s how to do it:
Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's Hard Drive
Matt Cone June 2, 2012
Upgrading the hard drive is a cost-effective way to increase your storage space and speed up your MacBook Pro, especially if you purchase a solid-state drive. Hard drives are like processors and other electronic components - their capacity doubles approximately every two years. If you plan on keeping your MacBook Pro for longer than two years, you’ll want to consider upgrading your hard drive at least once. Finding a New Hard Drive There are two different types of drives available: Hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD).
How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive
Matt Cone June 2, 2012
Tip: Do you own a MacBook Pro? Check out two of our other articles: How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s Hard Drive, and How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s RAM. Upgrading your MacBook’s internal hard drive is a simple way to store more documents, music, movies, applications and other files on your new Apple portable. Hard drives (or hard disk drives) are large capacity storage devices which store all of your data - everything from Mac OS X to your latest iTunes music album.
How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's RAM
Matt Cone June 2, 2012
Upgrading the RAM is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to boost your computer’s overall performance. RAM, or random access memory, stores the code and instructions for OS X and any applications open on your Mac. Installing larger RAM modules in your MacBook Pro will allow you have more applications open at once and perform more tasks simultaneously. For example, you could open a bunch of memory-hogging applications while ripping a CD, watching a DVD, and uploading photos to the Internet - all at the same time.
Mac Your Xbox 360
Stephen Korecky October 31, 2007
If you’re a Mac user who owns an Xbox 360, you’re probably hankering to get your computer and game station talking to one another. After all, both of these powerful machines are capable of playing games, music, and video content. Why not share content between your Mac and Xbox 360? If you’re looking for solutions, we have some answers for you. These tips aren’t perfect – there’s still a lot that can be done in the way of developing applications that can facilitate communication between the two devices.
Import MiniDV Tapes with Broken Timecodes
Dave Strom October 2, 2007
Video cameras and camcorders have become standard equipment for every barbecue, wedding, and family reunion. Unfortunately, these devices can sometimes screw up in a big way. One of the more common problems is known as the “broken timecodes” - a problem that results in your MiniDV tapes not reporting the correct timecode. If you record on a new MiniDV tape, rewind, play back what you recorded plus a little bit extra, and then record again, you leave a non-recorded section between your recorded sections.
Cool Down Your MacBook Pro
Arbi Karamians August 6, 2007
I’m a member of a small group of individuals who believed they were falling victim to the now infamous MacBook Pro overheating problem. In hindsight, I now believe my false alarm was fueled more by the barrage of media reports concerning the issue than an actual problem. But I decided I was going to take some preemptive measures to counteract the looming problems I would face if I allowed heat to ravage my system.
Mac System Monitoring Apps
Matt Cone August 3, 2007
There are millions of car owners out there who will probably never look under the hood and see their vehicle’s engine. They don’t care whether or not their engine is overheating or their oil pressure’s jacked up or their car battery is about to conk out on them. As long they can drive, they’re good to go. And in the same vein, many Mac users don’t care about their computer’s inner workings.
Use Your iPod as a Portable Hard Drive
Matt Cone July 26, 2007
If you own a Mac (or any computer for that matter), chances are you’ll eventually have to transfer files to another computer. And you’ll probably want to back up your irreplaceable files and data, too. For these relatively trivial tasks, we recommend that you use your iPod. After all, your music, movies, and pictures probably take up less than half of your iPod’s hard drive space. You can use some of the free space as a storage device!
How to Make a Movie With Your iSight Camera
John Farr July 12, 2007
If you’ve recently purchased a new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or iMac, your computer has a built-in iSight camera. Veteran Mac users might still have the external iSight web cameras that were sold for years before being discontinued on December 16, 2006. Thanks to applications like Photo Booth (which allows you to take crazy pictures of yourself and others) and iChat (which lets you video conference with friends and family), you can have hours of fun with your iSight camera.