Published on December 28, 2007
in Mac.
I bought a 1st gen Macbook Pro 15″ last December, 16th to be exact.
I don’t usually use this laptop at work because I have another so it’s pretty much my home machine, and the 34 cycle count on my battery reflects that.
I took it with me on this mini Christmas vacations, and first noticed the battery problem when I booted Windows to play. Just after unplugging the power cord I saw 0:58 remaining battery time. No… Windows is playing tricks on me. Well, OS X must be a joker as well, because I got around the same time.
This was taken from the CoconutBattery widget. CoconutBattery assumes my battery has 5550 mAh Full Charge capacity and says I only have 35% of that. Well, that was taken at 3pm this afternoon. It’s now 6:45pm and the value has gone down to 32%. iStat Pro reports the same.
Looking at System Profiler to confirm the current Charge Capacity value:
Well, 1814 mAh is way bellow 5550 mAh. Apple suggests 80% charge capacity is normal after 300 cycle counts, I’m at 34 cycles just after a year with a 32% charge capacity :S
Called Apple’s new Support Line here in Portugal, a nice Brazilian lady asked me the necessary questions but will have to call Support again to talk to someone from the “Tech team” in order to get my replacement battery approved. More on this next week.
Published on September 6, 2007
in Mac.
My favorite client on Windows was Azureus and when I bought the Mac I continued using it. The thing is, Azureus has many nice features mas it is fat and recently was turned into something I definitely do not want. I just want to download some files on ocasion and want the process to be fast and light.
Then I found Transmission. It’s small, light and works like a charm. Perfect!
Here’s some screenshots (you can find more on the project’s homepage):
The main window:
The torrent inspector window:
With the download in the screenshot in progress the application used 26MB of memory 
Transmission is now part of my Essential Apps.
Published on August 1, 2007
in Mac.
Today Microsoft released the Beta version of its Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac, dubbed v2.0 .This release includes the following new features:
Universal Binary
Runs natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs.
Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0
Provides better compatibility with Windows Vista, improved security features, and many other improvements.
Multiple Sessions
Lets you connect to multiple Windows-based computers at the same time.
Improved User Experience
Provides a true Mac experience and improved usability.
Improved Customization Options
Lets you change application preferences, including keyboard shortcuts, while you are running a session. Changes take effect the next time that you connect.
Dynamic Screen Resizing
Lets you resize your session window or switch to full-screen mode during a session.
Improved Printing Support
Supports all configured printers on your Mac. No longer limited to PostScript printers.
This new version is now a Universal Binary and uses the latest Remote Desktop 6.0 protocol enabling better Vista support.
Another nice feature is the support for several running sessions.
Download available here.
Published on June 20, 2007
in Apple and Mac.
Another update to Tiger before Leopard comes out.
It’s appearing on Software Update but you can check all the details here.
Published on June 4, 2007
in Apple and Mac.
I bought a house (again) last Friday and went to see some shops today with my girlfriend at the local mall.
We we looking for some Wok cooking books and went to Fnac, which happens to be one of Portugal’s biggest Apple retailers.
Right next to the Apple zone it’s the kids zone and what do I see in a small “kids” table with small “kids” chairs? A pair of iMacs. What really got my attention was when I saw a kid playing Solitaire. Wait, but OSX doesn’t come with Solitaire… what gives?! You guessed right, it was running Windows! I went to check the other iMac and it was also running Windows. Not running Solitaire, but with a visible Windows desktop.
Want it with a cherry on top? On the side of the iMacs there was a flyer with something like “With support from Apple IMC Portugal”.
Now, who decided to promote Macs running Windows? Fnac? IMC? Does IMC know this is happening? Does Apple know?
Hello and welcome to my blog!
Actually this is my second blog, thus the “again”. The first one was mostly to test the then beta service from Google and I ended up not updating it too much.
One of the reasons for this blog is to have an online edition of my howtos, mostly FreeBSD stuff.
As a recent Apple convert in the form of a MacBook Pro I will also cover my life in the brushed metal side of the fence.
And for those of you wondering, I’m Portuguese but I chose to write in English as this blog subjects are not local.
Well, on with the posts!
