Hasta La Gadget!

MacBook Pro owners suffering from 7200 RPM noise pollution and performance issues, Apple has acknowledged your pain and wants you to know that it’s working hard to remedy the situation. According to CNET, the problem seems to be restricted to 500GB / 7200 RPM hard drives, with the likely culprit being code that’s somehow “causing the drive to sleep during use.” No word yet on a release date for the patch, but you’ll know as soon as we do. As you know, we’ll pretty much take any opportunity we can find to run a Lloyd Dobler Photoshop.

[Via Register Hardware]

Filed under: Laptops

Apple ‘fesses up to 7200 RPM HDD issues, aims to dispatch a fix forthwith originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Liquids and electronics don’t mix. Some of us have learned that the hard way. If you’ve got an Apple MacBook, look to iSkin’s new lines of ProTouch keyboard protectors to keep liquid, crumbs, and germs out of your circuitry.

All three lines fit MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs. They’re made of silicone and include bacteria-killing Microban protection. The lowest cost model, the ProTouch Classic, has a clear frosted look and sells for $24.99.

The next level up is the ProTouch FX, which lets your keyboard’s backlighting show through. Also, the keys are outlined with a glow-in-the-dark pigment so they’ll glow blue in the dark. The ProTouch FX sells for $29.99 and comes in three colors.

The top model is the ProTouch Vibes. This cover has keyboard shortcuts printed on the keys and has a larger font for easy viewing. Vibes comes in four colorful designs, each featuring big polka dots, and sells for $34.99.

All ProTouch models are sold only through the iSkin online store.

I’m not what you call a Mac-head. I own an Apple iPod, but that’s as far as I’ve ever gone into Apple’s product line. But Apple fans have probably visited the Apple Store or shopped at Apple’s online store at least once.

When you buy things from the Apple Store, you’re probably not getting the lowest price on an item; it’s just “cool” to shop there. So it’s safe to assume that you can find that iPod or pair of headphones cheaper somewhere else. But I decided to give Apple a fighting chance anyway, by challenging the company to my TechSaver Test.

Today’s picks include the Wacom Bamboo, the MacBook 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo – Aluminum, the iHome iP9 Dual Alarm Clock Radio for iPhone and iPod, and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac (Home and Student Edition).

Find out the results, after the jump.

MacBook Pro hard disk storage really seem to be down on its luck this generation. First was the 3Gbps SATA transfers (now fixed), which honestly didn’t affected but a marginal percentage of users upgrading to SSD themselves. Now comes word from a number of irate users on the Apple support forums that claim their HDDs, specifically those spec’d at 7200RPM, are suffering from performance issues and some audible clicking / beeping sounds. The folks at Other World Computing chimed in to say that it might have something to do with the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 G-Force drives, which takes anti-shock precautions that are possibly causing both noise and extra strain. If you’re not hearing anything now, we wouldn’t suggest you start getting hyper paranoid over the issue — it’s the internet, where things often get blown way out of proportion, in case you haven’t noticed. If you’re still worried / curious, hit up the read link for the full collection of anecdotes.

[Via Engadget Spanish and MacNN]

Filed under: Laptops

MacBook Pros with 7200RPM HDDs getting a touch too noisy? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Let’s be straight here: we’re a little perplexed by the new MacBook Pro line. On one hand, Apple didn’t really make enough changes to warrant a whole new review of the unibody lineup, and minor speed bumps aside, briefly using one of the new machines feels pretty much like using most any recent Mac: it’s OS X on a really nice, albeit extremely glossy screen. On the other hand, after a week in the trenches, it’s clear that all those seemingly minor changes will have a big impact down the line — especially the move to sealed-in batteries across the board, which is a decision with decidedly mixed consequences. What’s more, we think these changes impact the 13-inch and 15-inch models very differently — the $1,199 13-inch configuration might have a shiny new Pro label on it, but even Apple admits that it’s an entry-level consumer machine, and consumers and professionals don’t have the same needs.

So while this isn’t going to be a full-on review, we think just slightly more than just our usual bullet-pointed impressions are in order — and we think it’s important to actually break things down by model. How do Apple’s latest laptops stack up? Read on for more.

Continue reading MacBook Pro (mid 2009) in-depth impressions

Filed under: Laptops

MacBook Pro (mid 2009) in-depth impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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