On several occasions, my MacBook randomly froze. When it happens, the mouse pointer will suddenly stop moving, usually in the middle of typing. After I reboot, there are no unusual messages in the log around the time of the freeze, and hardware test finds no problems.
Macintosh
Parallels Desktop 4.0 is a big win
I own both Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion, and I’ve switched back and forth between them several times since each has its advantages. For a long time VMWare’s linux support was better and it supported more hardware features, including power management. Fusion 2.0 even made it possible to run Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine. However, running Windows in VMWare always felt sort of clunky with “Unity” and their integration was never quite as good as Parallels, even with the improvements in version 2.0
With Parallels Desktop 4.0, which was released today, Parallels is back on top. Their already excellent Windows integration got even better, with the ability to show Windows task bar notification icons in the menu bar. Desktop 4.0 also improves their Linux support with shared folders and it now lets you virtualize Mac OS X Server, which were the big reasons to use VMWare.
Other nice features include a new “modality” view, which shrinks the VM window and lets you float it over other windows, so you can keep an eye on lengthy operations like software installation while you work in another application. Parallels Desktop 4.0 can still show a screenshot of the VM in the dock icon, which is one feature I always missed in VMware.
Parallels’ new Adaptive Hypervisor really does live up to the hype. It automatically optimizes VM performance based on demand, so when you switch between Mac & Windows applications it will always give priority to the active application. They also reduced the CPU usage for idle virtual machines dramatically. Just having a virtual machine open no longer uses 20% CPU or more.
I had two virtual machines running Mac OS X Server and Ubuntu Linux 8.10 running at the same time on my MacBook with only a very slight slowdown.
You can get an additional 10% off all Parallels products with the coupon code MACM-VXKD-SALE .
Apple adds Nikon D90 RAW support
With all of the focus on the election, there was one very welcome bit of non-election news yesterday. Apple released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility 2.3, which finally adds RAW support for the Nikon D90 to Aperture, iPhoto, and other applications.
MacBook RAM and hard drive upgrades
I upgraded my new MacBook to 4GB of RAM and a 320G 7200 RPM drive, which I purchased from Other World Computing. The speedup is dramatic, since it was constantly thrashing with only 2G of RAM when I had 2 large applications open (like Aperture + Photoshop, or anything else with Parallels).
Replacing the hard drive in the MacBook is very easy – you just have to open the battery compartment and remove a single screw. The most difficult part is dealing with the 4 mounting screws on the side of the drive which hold it in place. They’re nearly impossible to remove from the old drive. Luckily I was able to find 4 screws that were exactly the right size. Unfortunately the screws still attached to the old drive prevented it from being mounted properly in the external case.
Replacing RAM is a bit more involved, since you have to remove 8 screws and the entire bottom of the case. It isn’t too difficult to open, and the RAM is easily accessible and very easy to replace once you get it open.
I highly recommend doing upgrades like this in two phases. First, I replaced the RAM, put everything back together, started up, and verified that the RAM was good. For the second phase, I replaced the hard drive. I then connected the old drive in an external case and used Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the contents to the new internal drive.
I’ve posted a full photo gallery of the upgrade here.
New MacBook
As I wrote a few days ago, I got a new 2.4 GHz MacBook today. I think it offers the best combination of size & performance. It isn’t much bigger than a MacBook Air, yet it feels a bit snappier than my old MacBook Pro. The only drawback is the lack of FireWire, but all of my external drives are either USB 2.0 or dual interface.
I’ll post a more in depth review at MacMegasite.
Adobe demonstrates their disregard for web standards
I went to Adobe’s online store to buy a Photoshop CS4 upgrade and the first thing that caught my eye was the ugly non-standard scroll bar. Right clicking anywhere on the page shows that the entire page is one big embedded Flash object.
Why Adobe, Why? Isn’t standard HTML & Ajax good enough for you?
New MacBooks
I’m considering replacing my MacBook Pro with a new 13″ MacBook, but I’m going to miss having FireWire. I’d really like something smaller & lighter than my MacBook Pro, and having a smaller screen doesn’t really bother me since I can use an external display with it. The new MacBook has a larger hard drive (250G) than my current one (200G). The CPU is the same speed & it will support 4G of RAM like I have now. I don’t need the better video performance of the MacBook Pro since I don’t do any intense gaming.
I really like the new design and easy access to the hard drive, which I also liked about the old MacBook.
I’ll probably get to try one out and decide this weekend when I go to get my iPhone adapter replaced.
XBMC on my AppleTV
I used atvusb-creator to install XBMC & Boxee on my AppleTV.
It’s very easy: create a patch stick with a USB flash drive, power down the AppleTV, insert the flash drive and restart the AppleTV. It will boot from the flash drive. You’ll see Linux startup messages and in a few seconds it will be finished. Shut off the AppleTV, remove the flash drive, and when you restart the AppleTV there will be a new menu item for XBMC & Boxee. You’ll probably need to run the update before using it the first time.
XBMC works beautifully. It lets you play additional media formats not normally supported by the AppleTV, including AVI, and adds some nice new features like weather & news.
Unfortunately I had some difficulty with Boxee – it won’t respond to the remote, so there’s no way to even log in.
Update: Restarting seems to have fixed it. I was able to log into Boxee, but now I found a different problem: it truncates file names on a SMB share, so it can’t open any files from my server.
Disk space eater
Today I suddenly noticed that the free space on my MacBook Pro was down to 7.6 GB. The culprit turned out to be caches in /private/var/folders, in this case Pukka. According to the author of Pukka, these caches are created by the system. He’s actively looking into it and working on a solution.
I'm going to Macworld Expo
Registration is now open for Macworld Expo 2009. I registered for the user conference, but I’ll probably get media passes for MacMegasite when media registration opens in November. Unless you pay $1600 or more for a platinum pass, you’ll only get to see the keynote in the overflow room, not the main hall, away from the effects of the Reality Distortion Field.