MacSurfer's Headline News™ - Hardware/Software

Hardware/Software

"Next-gen iPhone to sport MEMS gyroscope? Nintendo's Wii style advanced motion-sensing abilities coming in 2009?"" Macworld UK 12/12

"Apple Tweaking iPhone App Store: Good News For Shoppers, Developers" Silicon Alley Insider 12/12

"iPhone at Walmart Soon?, Best Way to Unlock iPhone, File Storage for iPhone, and More" Low End Mac 12/12

"Lowdown on Macs and Malware, OpenCL Spec Released, First Secure USB Flash Drive for Macs, and More" Low End Mac 12/12

AppleCare/Helps

"OK, so I got my first stuttering experience with my ATV. It was an EyeTV-recorded TV program, converted to H.264 just like thousands of others I have run through the AppleTV. After a bit of googling on the subject, and encountering many different suggestions, I came across one in an Apple support forum that was easy enough to test, and had the ring of Truth ... The fix is to set the Show only the synced items on my AppleTV checkbox in the iTunes summary tab for the AppleTV. This limits the entries consuming RAM on the AppleTV, at the cost of doing away with streamed content for the linked server. Other machines can still stream, provided that their iTunes libraries are not so large as to provoke the same behavior." MacInTouch 12/13

"My first-generation Macbook Air has always had frustrating problems with sound. I use it for Powerpoint presentations in an educational setting but couldn't get any sound via the line/earphone port. I finally resorted to using the iMic via USB which worked well. In November, I raised the lid one morning to see a kernel panic followed by all sound capability disappearing. The sound board had failed. After searching postings on the Apple boards I discovered several people who had experienced the same odd problem. Some wound up having the logic board replaced, others found various, odd software solutions (none of which worked for me)." MacInTouch 12/13

"I see the same issue on my Macbook (Late 2008) model on both a Viewsonic and Samsung display. I think it may be an issue with the new DisplayPort conversion to DVI. I had previously used the monitor with the last generation Macbook Pro with no issues. Also when I allowed the monitor to go to sleep in Energy Saver, it would not detect the monitors fast enough when coming out of sleep mode so it would move all the windows to the laptop screen. It became pretty annoying to move all the windows back to the external screen each time the machine woke up. I disabled turning off monitors and I see the issue you see almost on a daily basis now. The screen will flicker and I will see artifacts across the screen. Sometimes it will shut the monitor off. I have to unplug and replug the DisplayPort adapter to fix the issue, but I get the same issue of having to move the windows back to the external screen." MacInTouch 12/12

"Regarding failed capacitors in G5 iMac, I had the board replaced twice under warranty (as well as the power supply), but still developed the problem a third time. Looking at the second board when it was installed, I identified four capacitors that had the markings of the bad lot of capacitors and those were the four that ultimately failed. As noted above, I too contacted Apple and was told that they could do nothing for me. I also decided that, at this point, I might as well try to replace them myself. Unfortunately, I could find no soldering iron that was hot enough to liquify the solder. The ground and power planes were too much of a heat sink, so I just put the unit into storage and moved on." MacInTouch 12/12

"There is a bug in the iPhone 2.2 update that causes many photos that are e-mailed to an iPhone and stored to become pixellated or fuzzy unless they have previously been reduced to 400 pixels (some say 480) or less in height. There is apparently a hiccup in the resizing routine." MacInTouch 12/12

Price Trackers/Deals

"MacUpdate Promo Holiday Bundle - Make 2009 the best year ever for you and your Mac." MacUpdate Promo 12/13

"MacBook Prices & Availability -Currently Shipping -Up To $200 Off" MacReviewZone 12/13

"In The US Apple Store five refurbished items were restocked including the iMac 17-inch 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Combo Drive for $699, 61 were unchanged, and nine were sold out." While Supplies Last 12/12

"New MacBook Pro Prices And Availability -Up To $300 Off... Other Extras" MacReviewZone 12/12

"Apple Refurbished Product Watch....Mac Pros Up To $700 Off Original Price" MacReviewZone 12/12

"Apple Friendly Gift Guide... Best Selling iPod Speakers $30 To $600" MacReviewZone 12/12

"Apple Friendly Gift Guide... Best Selling iPhone Headsets -From $35 To $130'" MacReviewZone 12/12