Welcome to the mainstream, Geeks.
(Credit: Nintendo)Over the past few years, I've been amazed at the attention the tech industry has received in the single realm that some thought it wasn't fit for--the mainstream.
The video game industry has become a multibillion dollar industry that rivals film. The Nintendo Wii is being played by people aged 1 to 100. The iPhone has transformed the cell phone industry. The Amazon Kindle, a device that some believed was a niche product, is selling faster than even Amazon expected. And everywhere you turn, someone who you thought had little knowledge about computers is discussing the differences between a Mac and PC.
But it's not just hardware. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are attracting millions of people to their pages each month. And celebrities--the leaders of the mainstream--have recently made Twitter, once a destination for the geek, almost a household name.
Most of those products were once reserved for the "Geek." But now, the mainstream has entered the Geekdom, and conquered it. It's getting harder to find a real geek.
... Read More
My (once) beautiful iMac.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)Earlier this week, I showed you how to take apart your iMac and replace your hard drive. But I ended that with a promise to tell you the rest of the story. Here it is:
After I installed the new hard drive (a 500GB 3.5-inch internal Seagate hard drive costing $99), to replace the computer's nonfunctioning drive, I put my iMac back together and fired it up. I popped my Leopard install disc into the DVD slot, formatted the new hard drive, and installed the operating system. Within about 30 minutes, my iMac was back to life. I was ready to determine what happened to my old drive.
First, I bought a hard drive enclosure to convert my internal disk to an external hard drive. I bought an Antec enclosure for about $70 at Best Buy. It's a simple black box that connects to your computer via USB. It wasn't the most expensive enclosure on the shelf, but it did the trick.
After placing my internal hard drive in the enclosure, I plugged it into my iMac via USB. I waited (and waited and waited) for the hard drive to pop up in Finder. Eventually, it did. Unfortunately, only my Windows partition was accessible. My OS X files were gone.
... Read More
If you were following me on Twitter last week, you probably know of the disaster that hit me hard Tuesday night: my 24-inch aluminum iMac, sporting a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, failed.
I quickly determined that it was a hard-drive failure. I tried running Disk Utility off my Leopard install disc to repair it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I then tried repairing the invalid sibling link and invalid node structures. Once again, I failed.
Remembering that I also failed to pay for AppleCare, I decided that I needed to find a way to salvage my hard drive. So I tried connecting my iMac to my MacBook through a FireWire cable to get the contents off of it. That didn't work.
At this point, it seemed that I was out of options. I determined that it definitely was my hard drive that failed on me, so I could still use my iMac with a new hard drive, but there was one catch: removing the hard drive and replacing it would be extremely difficult, since unlike most other computers, opening the case with a few screws and popping out the hard drive was impossible with my iMac.
Believe it or not, that 24-inch aluminum iMac has only one screw on it, and it only gives you access to the RAM. To access the hard drive, I had no other option but to crack open my beautiful 24-inch iMac with the aid of suction cups. And I decided to share my experience with you.
Here's my step-by-step guide on how to crack open your iMac and replace your hard drive. (Disclaimer: Neither I, nor CNET, nor any of its affiliates is liable for any damage that might occur to your computer by following these steps. Follow them at your own risk.)
... Read MoreSteve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple. And although some shareholders may not be happy, we should applaud his courage.
Even better news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!
And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!
The announcement Apple made Tuesday was impressive. Steve Jobs and his cronies showed off some of the best notebooks I've seen in quite some time and even after coming down from the initial high of new tech goodness that I get with any product announcement, the impressiveness lingered.
But the real story here isn't that the notebooks sport nicer designs or better components. The real story is that Apple has drawn the line in the sand and told the world that it has tied its future to multitouch technology.
First, multitouch technology in one form or another cropped up on the iPhone, then it moved to the iPod touch, and now it has solidified itself in the entire Mac notebook line. The only products missing are the Apple TV, iMacs, and Cinema Displays, and chances are, the iMacs may be equipped with similar functionality at some time in the future, too.
Of course, Jobs hinted that such a move would become a reality last year. Speaking to The New York Times last year, he hinted that his company was on to something and more Apple products would feature multitouch technology in the future.
"People don't understand that we've invented a new class of interface," he told the Times.
... Read More
Say what you will, but as I've said numerous times on these pages, the MacBook is easily one of the best notebooks in the world. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's probably one of the best I've ever used.
And while I still have numerous issues with Windows and my utter distrust for a company that can't even release an operating system that's final knows no bounds, I truly believe the average consumer should go out and find themselves a Mac.
Luckily for us, it seems like most people tend to agree. As of this writing, theresults of Amazon's bestseller list shows Apple's 13.3-inch MacBook leads the pack of any and all PCs and computer hardware.
Sure, the results may not mean much to some and saying it has sold the best may not necessarily indicate that Windows PCs are on the slide and Macs are slowly making a trek to the top, but can you remember a time in recent history when a Windows machine wasn't sitting atop a list of bestselling computers?
Regardless of how you feel about it, Macs are coming on strong and 2008 could be the year of the Mac.
... Read More
24-inch iMac
(Credit: Apple)As a Mac Mini and MacBook owner, I think it's safe to say that I know my way around the Mac. My MacBook comes with me wherever I go and as for my Mac Mini? Well, the Mac Mini was an impulse buy that was designed to make my life a little more comfortable. Along with the purchase of the lowest-end Intel Core Duo Mini, I purchased a wireless keyboard and wireless mighty mouse for distant computing. Once home, I hooked it up to the HDTV in my bedroom and it has sat there ever since. Why in my bedroom you ask? Well, who really wants to wake up in the morning and get out of bed immediately? I'd rather flick the device on and do my morning routine from the comfort of my own bed. Trust me -- it's not a bad solution. Try it out if you think that sounds appealing. You won't regret it.
But enough about other computers I own. You're here to read about the new 24-inch iMac and I'm here to deliver.
After two days of debating whether or not I really needed another computer, only to discover that no, I really didn't, I went out and bought the 24-inch iMac with the 2.4GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. The hefty 320GB hard drive is a nice touch and while running Mac OS X, I've never had a better experience.
The new design
To be entirely honest, the old iMac design was just plain ugly. That awkward white look with an unattractive screen made it look like it was lost somewhere between the late nineties and early oughts. But the new design of the iMac is simply gorgeous.
Offering an attractive black bezel to accent the glass, reflective display, the iMac will immediately jump out at you. The Aluminum finish is a nice touch and the stylish black backing with the Apple logo adds even more character to an already appealing design. The right side still features the slot-loaded DVD-RW and on the back you will find a host of handy inputs, including three USB 2.0 and two firewire ports.
iMac Backside
(Credit: Apple)A hidden iSight camera is neatly tucked away above the screen and the same black Apple logo rounds out the most handsome design I have ever seen in a desktop.
The experience
When I talk about an Apple product, rarely will you hear me mention the functionality or the capabilities of the machine. Simply put, the iMac doesn't offer anything special in terms of specs and chances are, you might be able to find a similarly-equipped device running Windows for a fraction of the price. But what other Windows-based machines don't offer enough of is an experience.
The first day I brought my iMac home, everyone who saw it was taken aback by its design and overall usefulness. Mac OS X is still the OS heavyweight and on a device like this, it really shines. The new iMovie is quite appealing and it runs much quicker than the older version on my MacBook, but that can also be attributed to upgraded specs.
Regardless of what some might like to believe, Macs are still prone to freezes and the need for a shut down here and there, but the iMac is probably the most stable Apple computer I've used in a long time. In a matter of minutes, the OS was up and running and I have yet to witness any beach-balling or any other Mac abnormality. Simply put, Apple did a nice job with this machine.
Adventures with Boot Camp
Part of the (poor) justification I used for buying the new iMac was my need for another Windows machine. Sure, I could have gone out and bought a Windows-only machine that would have cost me less, but where's the fun in that?
So, in an attempt to run both, I decided I would go with Boot Camp instead of Parallels for one simple reason -- it's cheaper. Parallels is quite costly, I would need to buy more RAM, and to be honest, I wasn't in the mood for that after I just dropped all of that money for a new computer.
Installing Windows was a cinch. First, I downloaded the Boot Camp software from Apple and burned the Apple drivers to a disc. From there, I partitioned my drive and gave Windows a respectable 50GB of space. Next, I installed Vista Ultimate and in a matter of minutes, I was running Windows on a Mac. It was probably the most gratifying and stress-free twenty minutes I have ever spent partitioning a drive and installing a new OS.
If you're a possible Windows covert and you're still a little skeptical about the move, I recommend using Boot Camp to ease your transition. Running Windows on a Mac with the help of Boot Camp gives you the best of both worlds and trust me, you won't regret it.
Since I purchased the iMac last weekend, I've been using it exclusively as the computer that I write on, surf the web on and even do some photo and video editing on. Without a doubt, it's the best computer I've used for any of these situations.
While the iMac may not necessarily appeal to the serious video and photo people who have a strong distaste for the glossy, glass screen, it is, without a doubt, the best home-use computer I have ever used.
UPDATE: Thanks to Zeb who pointed out an extremely dim-witted mistake on my part -- Parallels is NOT free! Not sure what I was thinking on that one, but it's fixed now.
Check out what the CNET Reviews editors have to say about the 20-inch iMac here.
Check back each Friday on The Digital Home as Don performs a hands-on evaluation of some of the hottest home products around. Next week: The Samsung HT-TX75. If you want to see prior Hands-on Friday articles from Don, click here.
- prev
- 1
- next
