Mac Mini displaying Full HD right out of the box

I just bought a new Mac Mini and I wanted to install it in my living room and use as a display a Sony KDL-40V4000.

Sony KDL-40V4000

The LCD is full hd and I didn’t knew how the Mini will behave. Mac Mini’s come with a mini-DVI to DVI adapter and my Sony has VGA and HDMI inputs. I bought the cheapest DVI to HDMI adapter I could find, since only the HDMI inputs can display 1920×1080. The VGA input is limited to 1366×768.  So now from the Mini to the TV I have mini DVI to DVI to DVI to HDMI. And amazing enough it worked from the first start of the Mini. I just pressed the power button and the grey boot splash screen appeared on my TV in a full 1920×1080 mode. TV confirmed it by displaying an 1080p text in the top left corner.

Makes me wonder why would anyone buy an Apple TV when with just a few extra dollars you can have a real computer and tons of storage. Mac Minis have 5 USB ports. With a wireless keyboard and mouse you’ll leave all those ports free. Add 1TB external drives each time you ran out of space and with 5 ports you’ll end up with a library of 5TB. Easy, scalable and more power than you’ll find in an Apple TV. 

Mac Mini - Back view

Now you can have an iTunes library as big as you want since the added hard drives are external and you can switch them with new ones easily so you could have a pretty unlimited library.

Moving my files from my MacBook to the Mini was easy as 1-2-3 with the Migration Assistant. The only problem I have with the image is that it’s not centered very well and because of that the Menu Bar is not visible. It is outside the top of the display. The actual image starts just below the Menu Bar so if I push the mouse pointer outside the viewing area I can click the bar. I’ll have to look into that. 

Mac on!

Spring bundle at MacUpdate

The full list of apps in this bundle:

• TechTool Pro 5 (98.00$) - TechTool Pro 5 will keep your Mac in top shape. Check the health of your RAM and hard drives, repair problems, optimize performance, and be ready in case disaster ever strikes!
• Parallels Desktop 4 (79.99$) - Use other operating systems and their applications concurrently with your Mac. Parallels supports virtual machines with up to 8 cores, 8GB of RAM, and 3D acceleration for maximum performance. Please note: Your license key will only work with U.S. English copies of Parallels and cannot be exchanged for other languages or regions
• Circus Ponies Notebook 3 (49.95$) - Take comprehensive notes with audio annotations, track your tasks, and collate you ideas, clippings, photos, and more with this versatile organizer.
• NetBarrier X5 (49.95$) - Make sure that online only what you want gets out of your Mac and that nothing you don’t gets in.
• DVDRemaster Pro 5 (49.99$) - The easiest and most powerful tool for duplicating DVDs, creating backups, and converting movies for use on other devices like iPod, iPhone, and AppleTV.
• Multiplex (35.00$) - Browse and watch your entire DVD collection from your Mac with a gorgeous interface.
• RipIt (18.99$) - Copy DVDs to your hard drive with one-click and create region-free, encryption-free backups. The perfect complement to DVDRemaster Pro and Multiplex!
• MoneyWell (49.99$) - Direct connect banking, envelope budgeting, transaction and cash flow management all in a simple, single-window interface. Coming soon for iPhone, too!
• Paperless (44.95$) - Manage your receipts and document collections from a single app. Great for expense reports, taxes, and dozens of other uses! Perfectly paired with a document scanner.
• Posterino (24.95$) - Put your photos to good use. Create attractive posters, stylish postcards, photo frames, greeting cards and more.
• BetterZip (19.95$) - Take Mac OS X’s built-in .zip compression tool to the next level. Extract only the files you want, create and encrypt archives, split large files, and more!

Bonus Apps for first 15,000 Buyers

• Jets’n'Guns Gold (29.95$)
• CuteClips 3 (15.00$)

The $49.99 bundle sale lasts for two weeks and it only includes full version apps. The discount for the package is 91% so it really is a nice deal.

Mac on!

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.7 and Safari Updates

Apple has launched the long-awaited 10.5.7 Mac OS X update to customers today through Mac OS X’s Software Update utility. The new update is said to provide general fixes to the operating system:

The 10.5.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3397.
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update (442 MB) - Requires OS X 10.5.6
Mac OS X 10.5.7 Combo Update (729 MB) - Upgrade from any version of OS X 10.5 Leopard
Mac OS X Server 10.5.7 (452 MB)
Mac OS X Server Combo 10.5.7 (951 MB)

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update

Some highlights include:

- Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.
- Improves Finder search results for network volumes that may not support Spotlight searching
- Addresses a situation that may cause issues when logging into Gmail
- Improves consistency with Parental Controls and application restrictions

Apple also released security updates for OS X 10.4 Tiger users:

Security Update 2009-002 (Tiger Intel) (165 MB)
Security Update 2009-002 (Tiger PPC) (75 MB)
Security Update 2009-002 (Server Universal) (203 MB)
Security Update 2009-002 (Server Tiger PPC) (130 MB)

Along with the operating system updates, Apple released updates to Safari 3 for Leopard, Tiger, and Windows:

Safari 3.2.3 for Leopard (40 MB) - Requires OS X 10.5.7
Safari 3.2.3 for Tiger (26.29 MB) - Requires OS X 10.4.11 and Security Update 2009-002
Safari 3.2.3 for Windows (19.69 MB) - Requires Windows XP or Vista

Safari 3.2.3 for Leopard

Finally, Apple released an update for Safari 4 Beta, bringing security changes outlined in this support document. The Safari 4 Beta update is currently available via Software Update for those users who have upgraded to OS X 10.5.7.

Mac on!

iLife ad on the front page of the New York Times

Yet another clever one. PC tries to booby trap the banner with the quote from it’s “own” Pc Magazine by electrifying it so that everyone who clicks on it will have a mild electric shock.

Here are a few snapshots of that page if you missed it. Probably there will be a video soon on youtube.

iLife Ad in New York Times	iLife Ad in New York Times
iLife Ad in New York Times	iLife Ad in New York Times

And there are 3 new TV ads in the Mac section of the Apple website: Customer Care, Elimination and PC Choice Chat.

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Mac on!

Apple highest in smartphone customer satisfaction

According to the last J.D. Power study Apple ranks highest among smartphone consumers, while LG ranks highest among traditional mobile phone consumers.

The studies measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones across several key factors. In order of importance, key factors in examining traditional wireless handsets are operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). Among residential smartphone owners, key factors are ease of operation (30%); operating system (22%); features (21%); physical design (18%); and battery function (9%).

Apple ranks highest among smartphone manufacturers with a score of 791 on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. LG (772) and Samsung (759) follow Apple in the rankings.

J.D. Power - Smartphone Satisfaction Index

Among smartphone users, overall satisfaction has increased considerably, compared with the U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study released in November 2008. Smartphone users report sending and receiving an average of 17 e-mails per day on their phone, and 82 percent of smartphone owners report regularly using their phone’s personal information management (PIM) capabilities—such as address books and to-do lists—to stay better organized.

Among traditional handsets, LG ranks highest in overall wireless customer satisfaction with a score of 733, performing well across all factors. Sony Ericsson follows with 712.

J.D. Power - Traditional Mobile Satisfaction Index

Overall satisfaction among traditional mobile phone owners has remained stable since November 2008, despite heightened awareness among traditional mobile phone owners of advanced features available on smartphones. On average, traditional handset owners pay $28 less per month for their wireless service, compared with smartphone owners. Traditional wireless users also pay $111 less when they initially purchase their mobile phone, compared with smartphone owners.

The study also finds several key wireless handset usage patterns:

• More than 40 percent of smartphone users report entirely replacing landline calling with mobile phone calling, while only 28 percent of traditional handset owners have done the same.
• One-third of traditional mobile phone owners indicate they would like to have some type of GPS software or capability on their next phone.
• Forty-two percent of traditional mobile phones owners received their phone for free after rebates and discounts, compared with just 32 percent in the 2008 Volume 2 study.

Source: J.D. Power and Associates Report