Posted by Scott Hughes
Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:08:00 GMT
It’s usually pretty tough living on the bleeding edge, but Apple has made things a lot easier with their switch to Intel. Thanks to Rosetta, you can still run just about all of your PowerPC applications under emulation. Since the emulation is obviously going to be slower, I’m trying to stay clear of any PowerPC apps if I can, especially if they are meant to run all the time (daemons). Apple created a handy logo to identify apps which are Universal (containing binary code for both Intel and PowerPC architectures), but I’ve found that there are some apps that still aren’t using logo. This means I typically have to visit the changelog of my favorite apps and search for the keyword “universal”. Optionally, you can download the app, select it in the finder, and hit Command-I to get its information screen. From there, you can see if it’s a PowerPC app under the “Kind” heading. It’ll read either “Kind: Application (Universal)” or “Kind: Application (PowerPC)”. If I find that it’s a PowerPC app, the url for it gets dragged into my “Waiting For Universal” folder in my Bookmarks Bar.
I did get bit by an app recently and I didn’t see it coming. I noticed a frustrating amount of slowdown on my MacBook Pro, especially when switching tasks. I searched for a long time to figure out which app I had loaded that was slowing me down by so much. My memory usage was extremely low, so disk swapping wasn’t the problem. CPU usage was next to nothing, so I was stumped as to what it could be. I had a 5-10 second delay when switching apps or when bringing up the dashboard, so something was definitely misbehaving. I checked my Console (Applications/Utiilities/Console.App) and I found that I had several plugins for Quicksilver and Mail.app which were throwing linker errors. The errors came from the fact that they are PowerPC plugins that got moved over via the Migration assistant. Even after removing those, I still had the noticable slowdown.
Finally I tried the Activity Monitor (Applications/Utiilities/ActivityMonitor.App). If you right-click on the column headers, you’ll see a drop-down to select which fields are available. Select the “Kind” field. Now sort on that field and you’ll see all of the PowerPC applications (those running under Rosetta) on your machine. These are the most likely to be causing slowdown, especially the daemon apps who are constantly performing work in the background. I found my culprit easily: The Delicious Library Dashboard Widget. Delicious Library was a Universal app, so I wouldn’t have suspected it. But the handy widget included with it has a separate binary component and that’s built as a PowerPC application (either that or the installer for the latest version failed to overwrite my old widget). After removing it from the Dashboard, I was again cruising at full speed. I sent Delicious Monster some feedback about the widget; seems to be an easy enough fix that I’ll bet it’s corrected before my RSS feed is updated.
If your MacBook Pro (or other Intel Mac) is experiencing slowdown (so early in its life!), I’d suggest you perform the same investigation. As an aside, here are some of the apps in my current waiting list now:
Posted in OSX | Tags MacBook, MacBook_Pro, MacBookPro, MacIntel, MacOSX | 4 comments
Posted by Scott Hughes
Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:37:00 GMT
Documentation for the MacBookPro’s audio line-in/line-out say that it’s a combined stereo and optical digital plug. If you look down in it, it looks deeper than your standard stereo plug, so I believe them that there is something fiber-optic waiting for me at the end of that tunnel… The problem is: how am I supposed to get to it? If you take a look at the end of your standard optical digital cable, it’s immediately obvious that there is no way that it will plug into the same hole as a headphone jack. I’ve already purchased the DVI-to-S-Video adapter so that I can hook it up to my TV. But I don’t have a good way to get audio out without that plug. Granted, I could just use a stereo-to-RCA adapter, but my home theater setup isn’t easily wired that way. I have all my stuff switched through optical digital boxes, with no connection on the RCA plugs.
Anyone have any guesses about how I’m supposed to access that? I’m hoping someone will tell me that it’s a common enough port and that there are adapters readily available for other brands.
Update Well, thanks to the commenters, I now know that Monster sells exactly what I need.
Posted in Technology | Tags audio, MacBook, MacBook_Pro, MacBookPro | 3 comments
Posted by Scott Hughes
Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:21:00 GMT
Finally got my MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz…. And it is fast, fast, fast. It blows the piddly G4 in my Mac Mini completely out of the water.
I had a little bit of a fright when I first powered it on. I had read a review on TUAW that said there was a high-pitched hiss coming out of the back hinge area. I’m kind of sensitive to those sorts of hisses (my doctor tells me I’m a ferrari, high performance and very sensitive to improper care) and I tend to get headaches pretty easily. Well, as soon as I powered up the MacBook Pro, it was unmistakable. I could feel the whine in my teeth. For a second, I completely sank… But I figured once I cleared my desk and found a good place to dock it, I might not notice it anymore. Well, I’ve been using it for a couple of hours straight and I haven’t heard the whine come back since the first few minutes after startup.
The new iPhoto is crazy fast… Quicksilver is so fast that I think it’s reading my mind. I’ve had a little bit of fun playing around with Photo Booth (see pic above, click image to see a few more). Not much else to report so far… It took over an hour and a half to move my music, photos, and movies over. I do like the 2-finger scrolling on the trackpad. I do not like the fact that the bottom of this thing gets pretty damn hot… Kind of makes it a “laptop” in the loosest sense of the word “lap”. Won’t be in my lap during a Texas summer.
Posted in Technology | Tags MacBookPro, PhotoBooth | 3 comments
Posted by Scott Hughes
Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:51:00 GMT
Damn, they are shipping my MacBook Pro direct from Shanghai! If I’d known that at the time of shipping, I would’ve upgraded to something faster. Those 2-day air prices are a pretty good deal if we’re talking about international shipping.
Posted in OSX | Tags MacBookPro | 1 comment
Posted by Scott Hughes
Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:31:00 GMT
The very day before the day that my MacBook Pro is set to ship, Apple announces that the palsy 1.83GHz machine that I ordered is no longer the top of the line laptop… Now you can upgrade that machine to 2.16GHz!!
The day before the day mine ships, it is suddenly obsolete. Soon, machines will be obsolete before you can order them. Then we’ll have conversations like, “Yeah, the new Intel Kismet processors are supposed to be out in 3 years, but they are already obsolete”.
Update
Wait a minute, there is no 1.67GHz option anymore (formerly $1,999) and the 1.83GHz option has changed prices (was $2,499, now $1,999). Does that mean apple is going to ship me the 1.83GHz I ordered, but charge me the lower price? Or charge me the price I paid and ship me the new model which sells at that price (2GHz)??? I think I need to get on the phone.
Update
Apparently, my 1.83GHz order will be automatically bumped up to the 2.0GHz model. I guess I’ll ignore the $300 upgrade to the 2.16GHz proc, that way Erik will have a little window room to one-up me. I one-upped him on the Mac Mini purchase, so it’s his turn.
Here’s the official announcement from Apple about the new models:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/14macbookpro.html
Update
Just got the email from Apple:
Better still, prior to shipment we’ve improved the entire MacBook Pro family with configurations starting at 1.83Ghz up to 2.16GHz. We have upgraded your MacBook Pro from a 1.83GHz processor to a 2.0GHz processor at no additional cost! We anticipate shipping your upgraded order by February 28, 2006.
Those bastards! I’m all ready for my new arrival, then I found out she’s going to be better than I anticipated… Then they hit me with the shipping delay! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!
Posted in Technology | Tags Apple, MacBookPro | 2 comments
Posted by Scott Hughes
Sun, 15 Jan 2006 19:30:00 GMT
I just couldn’t resist its siren call… I’ve been looking for a good reason to upgrade and Steve Jobs finally announced it at the last MacWorld. An Intel-based Apple laptop, with a 4-5x power increase over the previous generation of PowerBooks. I’d been looking to upgrade the Mac Mini to something beefier, but the stats on the PowerBooks didn’t have me convinced that I would’ve noticed too much of a performance increase. I thought I was going to be stuck with one of the desktop G5’s, but I was really hoping that I could finally find a high-performance laptop as my next desktop replacement.
I went with the $2499 model:
- 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo
- 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2
- 15.4” Widescreen Display
- 100GB 7200 RPM HDD (upgraded from the 5400 RPM drive)
- 802.11g, Bluetooh 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, iSight, USB 2.0, Firewire 400
It’s an expensive machine, considering that I usually self-build my machines for well under $1000. I did get a slight discount on it, which basically equated to the retail price without tax. It’s my first real laptop machine (omitting a retired clunker or two that someone’s given me), though it will spend most of it’s time docked on my 20” lcd monitor at home. I am looking forward to the ability to undock it and bring some work with me.
The Mac Mini will likely become my HTPC (Home Theater PC). I’m not sure how that’ll work out, but now that you can install Apple’s Front Row on any Mac, I just need to find some way to remote control it.
Update:
The wait is killing me!
I can’t wait for this thing to ship. Apple is torturing me with the mid-February ship date. Some folks are reporting that they are getting their units the week prior.
I guess the demand is pretty high. Hopefully that translates into making the demand for all the apps that I want to run on an Intel Mac equally as high, so I’ll see Universal Binaries without much delay.
BTW, this obsessing over ship date contrasts nicely with my wife’s treatment of her Nano. She got it in before she received the screen protectors, so she just left it in the box and waited patiently for two weeks. I guess that makes us a good pair, technology obsessive vs. technology calm and accepting.
Posted in Technology | Tags Apple, MacBookPro, MacOSX | 2 comments
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