macgizmoguy

With 3 out of 4 Apple Mac buyers opting for a MacBook laptop purchase these days - these AT-RISK lightweight computers deserve the peace of mind and expedited service an Extended warranty provides. But I shop around for DISCOUNT APPLECARE Protection Plans featured at this link. With Apple Care savings of over $70 possible from the Apple Store full-list pricing -- it's smart money to skip the high-pressure in-store sales tactics - and to shop for your protection plan later. Ditto for DISCOUNT MOBILEME activation or renewal opportunities. I no longer pay full-list $99 a year to keep my @mac.com / @me.com email address and web & sync services if I can help it. I jsut shop for cheap MobileMe - DotMac activation codes in discounted retail boxes from 3rd party sellers and save myself a serious chunk of change there too.

It's always been frustrating trying to live with my Classic White MacBook's built-in speakers. Small, rear-facing, uninspired frequency response... So finding the best Macbook speakers for desktop and portable use was a bit of a challenge. In the end I settled for Logitech's fantastic 2.1 AudioHub with built-in 3 port USB hub for my desktop, and a Tritton SoundBite USB bus-powered portable speaker for on the go audio you can hold in the palm of your hand - No batteries required.

Check out these and other speaker systems for your MacBook music and audio listening enjoyment. Oh and I haven't forgotten good speakers for Mac mini users, with a page dedicated to a fine selection of stereo speakers to compliment the Apple Mac mini's style and aesthetic.

I'm not a boob-tube Television addict - but MacGizmoGuy has loved to watch TV on a Mac since the 1990's using QuickTime video capture capture cards hooked up to a VCR for television tuning functions. But it wasn't till the first EyeTV USB Tuner for Mac was released that changed my world of television viewing forever. Beyond simply watching TV - the ability to TIME-SHIFT TV - to pause, skip back, rewind, fast-forward and record meant you didn't have to miss any part of a TV show. The TIVO hadn't even been invented yet.
ElGato has been delivering Mac compatible DVR - Digital Video Recording solutions for over 15 years now and an EyeTV Hybrid is still the defacto choice for those interested in TV on a Macintosh. But with the rapidly expanding Mac market share - there's room for others - including AverMedia with thier new Volar MAX Digital TV Tuner For Mac that's only about $50. Perhaps you'd like to explore a cheap Mac TV tuner option. Aver's Digital tuner for Mac is an affordable starting point for HD television enjoyment on your Intel Apple computer - tho do note High-Def tuners like these need an INTEL mac and running OSX 10.5 Leopard or later.
Which TV tuner for me personally? MacGizmoGuy loves his Equinux TubeStick Hybrid tuner and THE TUBE software. It's not as feature-laden as EyeTV 3 - but for what I wan't most: simple TV watching and recording - TheTube proves that sometimes less is more.

 My initial foray into the world of SSD - Solid State flash memory computer disk drive storage was awesome! I had no idea how much a bottle-neck the factory installed spinning platter hard drive was -- until I upgraded my MacBook with a low-end SSD about 6 months ago.

Fast-forward to summer of 2009 - Vastly improved SSD Drive Controller Chips with more cache onboard have taken 2009's SSD models to new levels, delivering even better real-word and SSD benchmark performance -- at the same price points.

So I dove in again with an affordable OCZ Agility SSD MacBook upgrade - This drive's Indilinx controller with more cache than my previous OCZ Solid series drive (using a JMicron controller) is performing more SMOOTHLY - notably to improved SSD Write speeds. All in all a great investment any DIY do it your-selfer would find very worthwhile - giving their aging MacBook, iMac or Mac mini a fast SSD

 Some days in the life of a webmaster sucks. Like when you work really really hard to build a 6 page website about SSD Solid State Drive Upgrades for Mac Computers - and weeks later - when site traffic just doesn't seem quite right - one realizes one forgot to put page Description and Keyword tags to help people find the info they were looking for.

So what to do? Well you GET SEO SMART and think of ways to tell Google 'Go look at that  15" 17" 20" 24" iMac SSD drive upgrade page' for those needing 3.5" disk drive solutions, as well as how to install a Apple SSD for Mac mini and of course let's not forget solid-state MacBook - Pro SSD install upgrade tips. With the blazing performance of flash memory drives - and the dropping cost per GB - Mid 2009 is proving to be a great time to absolutely breathe new SSD life into your Apple Computer.

So what is a MacGizmoGuy to do? What I just did here - and will do over at Wordpress too: Post an article - and in <24 hours Goog will crawl on over to those 'forgotten' SSD pages, slurp up the new Descriptions -- and up up up traffic will go.

 My local telephone co-op just upped thier long-distance calling rates to FIFTEEN CENTS PER MINUTE. So MacGizmoGuy is fighting back and getting free and cheap long-distance calls using a USB IP PHONE FOR MAC - specifically the FREE.2 Skype phone that has a built-in LCD display, excellent integration with Apple's AddressBook via Skype, and great sound quality.

Check out this MacGizmoGuy On YouTube Video I did about Apple VOIP Solutions:

 An evolving standard in USB 2.0 speed video-chat web cams is a standard called UVC - USB Video Class that is making over a decade of misery trying to Find and Buy A Mac OSX compatible USB webcam a heck of alot easier. Or would be - if every web cam manufacturer was clear about UVC compatibility in it's marketing and packaging.

The Appeal of this web camera standard is broad: Driverless USB Web Cameras for Mac Vista Linux operating systems - assures plug and play simplicity for ALL recent computers having high-speed USB 2.0 ports - with a modern OS (such as OSX 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard). Especially for Mac mini and MacPro towers recently purchased, or many of the older legacy G4 towers, G4 and G5 iMacs, there's still a need for an external webcam on these Macintosh systems that lack the not truly ubiquitious built-in iSight web cam that most but not all Macs have.

MacGizmoGuy spent the last few hours whipping up some Mac-model-specific SSD drive upgrade - replacement insights. Specifically: 
MacBook SATA SSD DIY
Intel Mac Mini Solid-State DIY
3.5" Mac Pro and iMac SSDs DIY

Other sites have already done a great job detailing step-by-step dissassembly/reassembly details - and have done so eloquently - some with how-to SSD videos as well, so there's no point reinventing the wheel. Hard drives CROAK - with alarming frequency. And when it happens to you, you should be thinking Solid-State drive to replace the mechanical one.

 Will Steve Jobs ever return to Apple? Or perhaps only a final farewell? iPhone 3.0 software is lurking around the corner - and will add more menacing meat to the monster known as the iPhone which seems to be taking over the ear-canals of the human race at an alarming pace. I'm interested in iPhone 3.0 only academically and intellectually to see if they finallly get Apple iPhone A2DP STEREO Bluetooth Speaker Support right this time around. (or will we have to wait for a new round of iPhone hardware as well?)  In the meantime at least 10.5 Leopard supports wireless Blue-In-The-Tooth speakers - and fine print has it the recent OS X 10.5.7 update had a slew of Bluetooth fixes and enhancements added to it's BT protocol stack. I'm pondering a Bluetooth speaker system for my MacBook so I can lounge around the room with my laptop in wireless audio freedom. Maybe the pieces are all falling into place. Oh and lastly, Expect to see some revamps as Back-To-School buying season always needs new products positioned BEFORE the actual buying crunch. Might be an interesting month or two ahead for the Mac and iPod lineup....

 We are being watched - by ever-more security cameras in ever-more locations. I don't remember consenting to this. Or on a bigger level, what happened in our culture that demanded an eye be kept out on all of us. Well, if you're into WATCHING BACK -- There's some pretty neat Apple Mac based security cams and web camera monitoring apps that can turn your Macintosh into a nanny-cam, pet camera, birdfeeder broadcaster, or backyard motion detector. There's some really great OSX apps for simple webcam management and FTP uploading -- to full-blown multi-camera surveillence programs with support for IP Wired and Wireless web cams you can monitor directly - or remotely using Safari or FireFox - and do web-based security monitoring.

 We started seeing them in the 1960's: Those little RED indicator lights on appliances and electronic things. And then we saw GREEN ones, and gosh it took quite a few more years - but then those first really, Really, REALLY intense BLUE LED's started showing up on the latest devices and the stage was set: LED LIGHTING WAS GOING TO KILL THE LIGHT BULB

RGB, Red-Blue-Green if you recall - added together - produces a WHITE light. Cuz mixing light is an ADDITIVE process. And the stage was set to transform our idea of what the 'light bulb' would be. Cuz once that first deep blue diode was developed, 'whitish' light became possible by building a multi-LED lamp by combining sets of R-G-B diodes together in clusters.

Well it took years after that to truly get a white WHITE super-bright LED diode. And a few more to get some the blueish tinge out of them. But you see them everywhere now. And the stage is set to kill those hot old inefficient incandescent tungsten filament bulbs off once and for all. And give CFL florescent lights a serious run for the money. The stage is set for a lighting revolution. And that stage will be lighted by LEDs.

 My 1st generation Intel MacBook was starting to show its age. The original 60gb hard disk started having read-write errors, so I replaced it with another. At the time, Solid-State SATA SSD drives were still priced $400 and up, and it just didn't make sense to upgrade to an SSD.

Fast forward to 2009: With many more state drive manufacturers to choose from, flash memory performance increasing dramatically in the past year, and as dirt cheap SSD's around $100 becoming more widely available - It was time to dive in.

$75 measly bucks for a 30GB OCZ Solid series SSD (after rebate) made it an easy-on-the-wallet no brainer. And with it's built-in mini USB 2.0 port (not all solid state drives have this handy feature) - it was easy and FAST to install a clean OSX 10.5 Leopard onto, transfer my critical files and apps in a third the time it would have taken otherwise.

This puppy is fast, Fast, FAST! From startup times to app launches to, well, just everything! It's like getting a new Mac - or at least a new lease on life for this aging MacBook.

A quarter century of Apple Macintosh computer support will do a few things to your brain. One of which is fill one's cranium with a zillion problems and solutions and an opportunity to meet thousands of great customers and thier dogs and cats. There's been waaaaaaay too much crawling under desks and untangling computer cables. Years of pointing and clicking until my hands were raw, answering a million and one Mac questions till I could barely talk anymore, lugging around and setting up some of the best Mac peripherals and accessories, gizmos and gadgets I could never afford myself, routine miracles of salvaging data off of dying hard drives like a Techno-God one moment, having to say "I just don't know how to fix-it or solve-it" in the next humbling encounter. That-Sort-Of-Thing.

The world of Apple is filled with some of the most amazing computer products, world-class, must-have Mac OS X software solutions, and empowering tools. It goes way past the elegance of the Macintosh user experience that Apple delivers - Because there some really brilliantly engineered and designed apps and peripherals from other tech companies that match and compliment the brilliance and standards that Apple inspires. I have nothing but admiration for "Canon Know-How" who engineer great products that go far past just digital cameras. HP spits out forests of paper splashed with a sea of ink - and no one does it better. Targus took the life of a road-warroir business person and designed a fleet of products for the mobile professional that MET THEIR NEEDS with aplomb. Customer's spoke, they listened, and for 2 decades have delivered great computer accessories. Logitech continues to deliver the highest quality webcams for Mac that money can buy: In many ways I admire Logitech as much as apple for the thoughtful design and engineering that goes into all their computer accessories - and their willingness to tailor and create products specifically for the needs of Macintosh users.

In short, My Mac Gizmo Brain is the sum total of this quarter-century of seeing Technology- and technology companies come and go, products that excelled, products that just plain outright sucked and made Mac users miserable. Some withstood the test of time, others ended up in landfills. OY! And yet I still feel compelled to keep up with it all, to find the diamonds in the lump of coal, to find the best and forget the rest unworthy of a place beside your computer.