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MacBook Pro tip: resetting SMC saved my day
Filed under: Hardware, Troubleshooting, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air
Here's a timely tip if the battery on your Intel based Mac laptop seems to be operating at less than optimum performance.

The other day I took my MacBook Pro off the charger and was surprised to see only an hour and 40 minutes of run time, even though the battery was fully charged and only a few months old. It didn't seem right, and I went immediately on the web to make a Genius appointment at our local Apple Store. Then I did a little digging around Apple support documents and found one that seemed promising.

Was it possible I needed to reset the SMC (System Management Controller)? Well, dutifully following the instructions, I shut down my laptop, removed the power cord and unhooked the battery. I held down the power button for 5 seconds, put the power cord back on, and inserted the battery. Surprise surprise, my computer started up and showed about 4 hours of time left on the battery when I went back off the charger. Better still, it really did hold up for that amount of time, so things were back to normal. I canceled my Genius appointment and spent the day congratulating myself for finding the tip, and getting my battery back in shape.

The SMC is a chip on the motherboard that can lose its way, and in my case it needed a little kick to get itself sorted out. This chip has been the focus of some controversy in the past, and Apple has updated the SMC firmware repeatedly. Anyway, this fix worked for me -- might work for you. Here's the link to the Apple Support Document. There are instructions for the Intel MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and the new MacBook Air. Be there or be square.
TUAW MacBook Pro tip: resetting SMC saved my day originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple t-shirt quilt available on eBay
Filed under: Humor, Retail, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, iMac, PowerBook, Apple

I don't know how comfy a quilt made out of t-shirts would be, but maybe the fact that they're all Apple t-shirts will help. That's exactly what this quilt is made out of -- it's up over on eBay right now, and while the price is only around $36 at the time of this writing, it's probably gone up since then. There are about 20 t-shirts in the quilt total, and they look like they range from the late '90s (there's a bondi blue iMac on there, I believe) up to the Tiger release (at least those are all the ones I recognize). And they do seem like official store t-shirts, which means whoever made the quilt probably is or knows an Apple employee.

If you can get over the fact that someone probably once wore your quilt, it might be a nice Apple-themed bedspread to grab. I've been looking for a good quilt lately, and while this is a little too patched together for my interests, maybe Apple is missing something here. What would an Ive-designed quilt end up looking like?

TUAW Apple t-shirt quilt available on eBay originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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First Look: Christmas with Weezer
Filed under: iTS, iPhone, Holidays, App Store, iPod touch, First Look
When Tapulous released Christmas with Weezer [iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch last week, I was pretty excited, as it combined three of my favorite things: Weezer, Christmas music and Tap Tap Revenge.

The tough economic climate, stresses over moving two days before I leave for Macworld 2009 and a hectic schedule have given me less holiday cheer than usual, but I'm happy to say, Christmas with Weezer is helping to turn that around.

Christmas with Weezer takes Tap Tap Revenge's addictive format and adds to it some Christmas cheer. Not only do Rivers and company perform a bevy of Christmas classics, the interface is all wrapped up for Christmas.

The Kids Mode is great for anyone starting out with TTR or for kids who want to get in on the fun. Christmas with Weezer also features the multi-tap and tap and hold game elements introduced in the recently released, Tap Tap Dance (iTunes link).

Check out the gallery below. Christmas with Weezer is $4.99 and available in the App Store.

Gallery: Christmas with Weezer
TUAW First Look: Christmas with Weezer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Analyst: Walmart will sell 4.5 million iPhones in 2009
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Apple Financial, Deals, iPhone
Which hardly seems believable, but you never know. Yes, Walmart, that bastion of crass commercialism, is going to be carrying the iPhone, that symbol of elegant commercialism, and what we're going to get is a whole lot of commercialism. Analyst Gene Munster (our favorite prognosticator other than the Groundhog himself) says that not only will Apple sell a whopping 45 million iPhones next year, but a tenth of them will be sold right here in America at good ol' Walmart.

Apparently he didn't change his numbers from before the announcement of the Walmart deal, since he had already planned on Apple finding other ways to sell the iPhone. But man, that's a lot of iPhones - enough to give everyone in my current city of Chicago an iPhone, and then some to spare (we'd send them to St. Louis, if we actually had a Walmart here to buy them from).

But no one's ever been proven wrong overestimating Apple sales we guess. If you think iPhones are commonplace now, wait until you see them at Walmart.

[via MacBytes]
TUAW Analyst: Walmart will sell 4.5 million iPhones in 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Happy birthday, mouse!
Filed under: Hardware, Apple History

It was 40 years ago this week that Douglas Engelbart gave the first public demonstration of what would become the modern computer mouse, affectionately called "The mother of all demos." With that in mind, we've decided to take a look at the evolution of the Apple Mouse.

The current version is the Mighty Mouse, of course. With its scroll wheel and touch sensitive clicking surfaces, it's loved by some and despised by others. I'll admit that a wired Mighty Mouse is my main mouse, which will undoubtedly make some of you gasp. Still, we can't fully appreciate the Mighty Mouse without acknowledging its predecessors.

When you think of old Apple mice, you probably think of the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) variety. But even those were preceded by the DB-9 connector mice that shipped with the Apple Lisa. In fact, those were the first commercially available mice. They were clunky, square-ish affairs that featured a single button -- a design decision that Apple has refused to abandon all these years (yes, the Mighty Mouse isn't a single-button mouse, but certainly looks it from an overhead perspective).

The boxy shape was kept largely intact until 1993, when Apple released the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II. I can remember using one of these with a Performa and being amazed by it. "it's not square! It fits in my hand! This is incredible!"

Also "incredible" was the amount of time I spent removing the ball and scraping the gunk off of the rollers.

The design stayed pretty much the same until the "hockey puck" was released with the iMac in 1998. Apple's first USB mouse, the hockey puck divided the Mac community. Some declared it the best thing since copy and paste. Others, like me, considered it an abomination.

Just two years later, Apple got the message, retired the hockey puck and introduced the Pro Mouse. The lozenge-shaped device was the immediate predecessor to the Mighty Mouse we all know and love (or despise) today.

There are Apple mouse fanboys, and those who'd never touch one. In fact, even your favorite TUAW bloggers are divided. Below is a gallery of our favorite and current mice, plus a few vintage examples. Finally, we threw in a few alternate input devices as well.

Gallery: TUAW Bloggers' Mice
TUAW Happy birthday, mouse! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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