Tag Archives: MacBook Pro

Another Mac upgrade: Adding a solid state drive

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A month or so ago, I installed a new, bigger, and faster hard drive in my MacBook Pro, the laptop which is my primary computer and blogging platform. It required opening the case and mucking around inside. It worked. It also left me somewhat emboldened.

So with my birthday looming, I decided to go the next step and ordered a 120 GB solid state drive from Other World Computing, along with a special mounting bracket that replaces the built-in optical drive. When the box came, I ripped into it and pulled out the written instructions. The various warnings and a description of the installation process almost caused me to pack it all back in the box and send it back. Luckily, I watched the video demonstrating the process, which wasn’t nearly as scary as the written description. So I plunged ahead.

It took less than half an hour to open the case, identify the series of screws and connectors that had to be removed, then take out the optical drive, put the new bracket and SSD in place, replace the screws, snap the connectors into place, and then put the case back together. When all was done, it was time to hit the button and hope for the nice chime….Bingo! It started up like a charm.

The next step was to format the new drive, then move all the system files and applications over to the very fast solid state drive. This wasn’t hard but did take a while. The final step was to set my user account on the new start-up drive to the existing user on the built-in hard drive. That was it. Up and running!

Now my computer boots quickly, and opens applications in seconds from the SSD. Reading and saving files is much faster, too, because of the earlier hard drive upgrade. So the two upgrades, taken together, make it seem very much like a new computer. I think the combination of the solid state boot/application drive and a larger/faster hard drive is just about perfect.

Anyway, I’m now inoculated against “new computer envy” for a while, at least.

Another iPad update–photos and books

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Here’a another brief update on my experience with my iPad.

So far, so good. I like it, and have been getting used to it. I’ve carried it, instead of my laptop, for several days of researching downtown. I also carried it on one short trip, where it drew a lot of attention from flight attendants, who wanted to know my opinion of it. But my laptop, an older Macbook Pro, is my primary computer, and the iPad is no laptop replacement. Not even close. So keep that in mind. At the same time, it’s amazing how well I can “get by” with it on a routine day.

iPadYesterday I loaded up a set of my dad’s old pictures and headed over to pay him a visit. It’s heft meant that he had to hold it with both hands in order to view the pictures, and it was difficult to hold without touching the screen with one or more fingers, which would change the picture or even the application. And the weight also meant that he had trouble looking at it for long. I had to take over and hold it for him several times before he picked it up again.

Then I hit an aggravating problem. To move pictures over to the iPad, I had to point iTunes to the folder they were in and then run a sync. What I failed to notice is that some of the photos were in the wrong orientation (horizontal photos standing on end). I saw it after the sync was completed but figured it would be easy to remedy. Just grab the photo with two fingers and turn. It seemed like a natural and simple movement for the touch screen interface. But it didn’t work. There wasn’t any way to correct the photos on the iPad. I could rotate the photo but it turned back to its original orientation as soon as I let it go. And rotating the iPad also rotated the photo, so it always displayed wrong. I will have to go back to the beginning, correct the photos on the laptop, and then sync them again to replace the first batch.

Why should this be so hard impossible to do?

Then there are the books. I have to say that Apple has a long way to go to catch up with Amazon’s Kindle.

For example, a comment yesterday referenced Jared Diamond’s book, “Collapse”.

Apple has it in its own iBook format for $14.99.

Amazon offers a Kindle version, which you can read using the free Kindle iPad app, for $9.99. There’s also a Kindle version of Diamond’s earlier book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel”. Same $9.99 price. Not available from Apple.

I’m also midway through a mystery by April Smith, “North of Montana,” found at a thrift store. So I went looking for electronic versions of any recent books. Apple? Nada. Nothing available. Amazon? Two books in Kindle format, one for $6.99 and the other for $9.99 (with a hardcover copy bargain priced at $9.58–go figure!).