Photography, random posts and very little about kebabs.
….to install. But thought what the hell, why not I’ve got a bit of time to kill.
Slightly worried that the installation on my MacBook didn’t ask if I wanted an Upgrade or new install.
So 5 minutes to find out if I’m going to be reinstalling applications all night. Just hope this update doesn’t break the Canon software again.
/edit seems to be fine.
My 200gb hdd is now 214.75gb
Now have 155.25gb spare compared to 135.96gb
Used space dropped to 59.5gb from 64.04
Install took around 50 minutes.
What? Well MySQL of course. It wasn’t broken, just didn’t like to start properly. I really should buy a book on it, so I know what I’m doing.
Turned out it was just permissions on some data.
Now time to restore missing posts and comments. SQL hacking here I come (will backup first).
….yet another one.
I have a dilemma, well I don’t actually but to humour me lets say I have.
My MacBook is over 2 years old, still it’s great does what I want it to do. It still looks in good condition (apart from the hairline cracks – but that’s normal for a Polycarbonate MacBook). The only thing wrong with it is it’s not new, shiney, aluminium and doesn’t say MacBook Pro on the front.
Now for the totally predictable sums weighted in favour of me buying a MacBook Pro*
RRP £899 – I should get it for around £808
Norwich Union/Aviva want to give me £736 for voting yes to something.
Leaving me £72 to find.
After this I could then flog my original MacBook for £400 or so (based on Ebay prices).
So I’ll be £328 up on the deal.
Though potentially I’ve now lost any future voting rights with Aviva, but that’s financials and to be fair I’ve always been crap at them.
Anyway……..
……nice shiney objects. Maybe I was a magpie in a previous incarnation. Not that I believe in such stuff, but if it exists then I may have been a relative of the Crow family. Which is probably better than being a member of Lighthouse Family.
* This is the 13″ MacBook Pro, which is probably like the BMW X3 of laptops. Whilst it’s fully functional, it’s just not a real Pro. So if I was to be a pimp/drug dealer then the MacBook Pro 17″ would be fine in my hypothetical BMW X5 (aka TosserCar). Still I’m not one of those, but I may consider the 15″ MacBook Pro, but that’s a silly £400 more.
/edit Just read the voting stuff and it seems that I’ll get the money later in the year. So Gadget hunt may be on hold for a bit 🙁
So, new iPhone is announced today. And yes I want it. However I still have 5 months left on 3 Mobile and today I broke my Nokia. So do I wait 2 weeks and join the queue for an iPhone? or just get a cheap PAYG from 3.
Personally I can see the iPhone selling out (as usual) for the first month or so. Anyway, the phone can make and receive calls, so long as I can remember the number. Also the earpiece has buggered, so I have to use the speaker phone (or in ear headphone). Look out for a Sledgehammer Vs Nokia 6500 slide post soon.
Readers of the Unibody Macbook rant will be familiar with the content of this post.
Now, I don’t care about the iMac but I did look forward to the MacMini update today. Just so you get the idea, here’s the spec of the old kit.
Core 2 Duo 1.83ghz, 1gb, 80gb hdd, Intel 950 Graphics, Combo (DVD-R/CW-RW) £390
Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz, 1gb, 120gb hdd, Intel 950 Graphics, Superdrive £488
Now new spec is better…….
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1GB memory 120GB hard drive 8x double-layer SuperDrive NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics £499
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB memory 320GB hard drive 8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics – £649
….but the price. Christ on a bike.
I did expect a price bump, as the pound is weak against the dollar. So price wise it’s close to parity with the USD. But once the pound gets better (and it will), I can be assured the price will not go down.
So, what does £100 extra buy?
A Superdrive, 40gb more HDD, better Chipset (inc DDR3 memory, faster bus and NVIDIA Graphics), FireWire800 and 5 USB ports. In this respect it’s probably worth £100.
Also the update sports two display connectors, MiniDVI (Mini DVI to DVI converter included) and the new Mini DisplayPort – which is the new Apple video connection (Steve Jobs said it would appear on all new Apple computer products). So look as if we can at last dual screen on a MacMini. I won’t hold my breath for a cheap Apple monitor though.
The top end costs another £150 on top, and that is for an extra 1gb of memory and 200gb of HDD. I really can’t see the justification for that price. For £13 (Crucial) I can get another 1gb of memory and a 300gb hdd is around £50.
You can customise the Mini on Apple’s store, main option is a speed bump on the processor, but to be honest it’s not worth it. I just hope that John Lewis stock the entry level Mini as I like the 2 year guarantee.
/edit: John Lewis are stocking the useless more expensive model(MB464) instead of the better value version(MB463). I still hope it turns up a little later as the Mini appeared in the store much later than the iMac.