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How to Prepare a Used Mac for Sale
If you’re planning on buying a new machine, it’s a great idea to sell your old Mac to cover some of the new computer’s cost. I’m currently going through the process of preparing my machine to replace it with a new MacBook Pro, so follow along with me as I make sure the process is as painless as possible for both me and my Mac’s next owner.

Back Up Your Content

What would you do if you sat down at your new computer one day and realized a desperately important file was still on your old hard drive? In order to prevent from happening, you should make a backup of at least your most important files. If you have an external hard drive, that makes it easy, but if you’re only copying text documents or small numbers of photos, even a USB flash drive might be enough. I’d suggest at least making copies of your Documents and Photos folders, since they’re the folders most likely to contain important files.

Or, if you’re not sure what you should keep, go whole hog and backup your entire hard drive. You can do this with a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner, which copies a drive’s contents to another volume to keep them safe. It’s a good idea to make sure you have a large capacity external drive if you’re doing this: one that has more than enough room for your files.

Deactivate or Deauthorize Software

Some applications, such as iTunes and Adobe products, require each of your computers to be authorized to use them. Before you wipe your data, make sure to deactivate any applications that need activating so they can run on your new machine. With iTunes, you can deauthorize a computer by going to Store > Deauthorize Computer. Adobe’s applications can be deactivated by going to Help > Deactivate. Deauthorizing iTunes isn’t as important as it is with Adobe’s applications, since you can deauthorize after the fact through your iTunes account.

Destroy Everything

Once you’re certain you have a backup of everything you could possibly ever need again, you’re going to want to erase your entire hard drive to ensure there’s nothing personal left on there. To do this, you’ll want to find the OS X install disc that came with your machine. Insert the DVD into your drive, and restart the computer holding down the C key. Instead of loading OS X from your machine, the Installer will load from the disc. Once it does, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. From there, you’ll be able to select your hard drive and erase it. In order to make sure there’s no way anyone could restore any of your personal data, I’d choose Security Options and select either Zero Out Data, or if you have more time and want to be extra sure there’s nothing left, 7-Pass Erase. Everything on the drive will be overwritten, so there’s a very small chance anything could be recovered.

Of course, if you don’t want to risk even using the security options, you could always spent a small amount of money on a new hard drive and destroy the old one completely. A large hammer will do the trick, and I’m not even joking. There’s no way anyone’s getting your data back from a hard drive that’s in pieces.

Reinstall OS X

While the OS X install disc is still in your machine, now is a good time to reinstall the operating system. Simply run the installer from the disc. When your Mac reboots, make sure you don’t start running the Setup Assistant. The new owner of your computer will be happier to set it up as if it were a brand new Mac than have to run from the setup you set up. Once the Setup Assistant appears, just hit Command-Q to quit and eject the disc. When the Mac is next turned on, the Assistant will run and the new user can set it up however he/she wants.

Give It a Cleaning

No one wants to open a box to find a grubby computer covered in fingerprints and old bits of food. So give your Mac a good cleaning using a soft, damp cloth (when it’s turned off, of course). If it’s a laptop you’re selling, you could also — carefully — turn it upside-down and shake out some of the crumbs in the keyboard and in the hinge. Use a different cloth to wipe away smears and fingerprints from the screen (a microfiber or glasses cloth works well).

Conclusion

Once you've done all of the above, your Mac is ready to be passed on to another user who will hopefully take good care of it. Did I miss any vital steps? Let me know in the comments.

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The New MacBook Pro — Buy, Sell or Upgrade?
With each new product announcement from Apple, users are faced with a choice between buying, selling, upgrading or just sticking with their existing computing solution. For the most part, the design of the new 2011 MacBook Pro is the same as it has been since 2008. And while the recent announcement of the new MacBook Pros may have seem a little underwhelming at first, there are some other factors to consider.

Comparing the key differences of the top MacBook Pro 15-inch (with no modifications) over the previous four years, one can make a well-informed decision of whether or not there was any value added:

Looking back, the release of the 2011 MacBook Pros does appear to be the most significant annual update since the redesign was first introduced. Don’t be so quick to discount the processor upgrade this time around, either. Early results popping up on Primate Lab’s Geekbench are proving Apple’s claims at being twice as fast as last years model are true. When compared to purchasing a used 2008 model online today, you’ll find that you can get twice the memory, three times the processing speed, Thunderbolt and an updated HD camera for only about $500 more.

Macs have historically retained their resale value really well compared to Windows PCs. So I went online shopping for 15-inch MacBook Pros from late-2008, mid-2009, mid-2010 and 2011 at Apple’s Refurbished Store, Amazon and PowerMax. For the most part, a 15-inch MacBook Pro used sells for about $1,500, and that includes the late 2008 model. Provided this used market holds up, you could, in theory, sell your current MacBook Pro and end up paying just $500 for a brand new machine. Anyone tempted to try it?

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How Do You Sell Apps When Advertising Doesn't?
According to a great blog post by TapTapTap principal John Casasanta yesterday, advertising your iPhone or iPad application is useless. TapTapTap has created and published some of the App Store’s greatest successes, and it says at least one of those apps, Camera+, did it without spending any money on advertising. That begs the question: If you can’t sell apps by advertising them, then what does lead to sales?

First of all, let’s go over the main points of Casasanta’s very convincing argument. He comes out against advertising on the basis that:
1. Returns, if any, don’t come anywhere near justifying the investment.
2. Brands don’t matter for small companies; products do.
3. Ads are terrible for short-term profitability.
4. The App Store is a dramatically different place (busier, with more expensive ad options) compared to what it was when ads were an effective strategy.
In general, advertising is a model that’s found it hard to gain purchase in the contemporary digital marketplace, and that’s not becoming any less true in the growing mobile market. Om talked a bit about the shortcoming of advertising in digital media in his predictions for 2011, and those statements ring true with Casasanta’s point: Your money, and your attention, is better focused elsewhere.

Other developers I spoke with echoed Casasanta’s thinking, too. Ken Seto, co-founder of Endloop studios, said this about his company’s advertising strategy:
The only ads we’ve ever tried was [sic] for iMockups. We did a 1 month targeted ad on a design blog ad network. I think we saw a little bit of a sales improvement for a couple of days (about 15% more sales) then sales went right back to normal. Needless to say we did not recoup our ad spending.

Saying a definitive “no” to advertising doesn’t mean shutting down marketing efforts altogether, however. Even if you have an amazing app, just dropping it in the App Store and turning your back will never be an effective strategy. Instead, the most successful apps I’ve seen have done a great job of doing what ads very rarely seem able to accomplish: generate real buzz and enthusiasm from the user community.

It’s not an exact science, but there are some ingredients common to strategies that manage to do this. The first, and most essential, ingredient is a quality product. That apps that gain lasting success don’t do so by being poorly designed and hastily thrown together. Angry Birds wouldn’t be the ongoing, massive success story that it is if its developers had settled for “good enough” when working on character art, animations and gameplay mechanics.

The next most important thing, and the place where most seem to get lost, is to foster the support of the Apple developer and user community by being an active, worthwhile participant. Casasanta’s blog post is a perfect example. He’s not just resting on his laurels, even having achieved a high level of success with his titles. Instead, he’s using his experience to give back to the community that made his company a success, even going so far as to actually share insight with potential competitors. EA and Gameloft can get away with plugging their apps into the system and moving on to the next, re-invigorating attention on occasion with bargain-basement sales. Independent developers most definitely cannot.

Community engagement has benefits beyond just getting your name out there, as it can actually help you make better apps. Look at Bolt Creative, the studio behind Pocket God. They’ve managed to consistently stay in and around the top 50 paid apps and spun off multiple products (comics, an iPad app) just by paying attention to community requests, and engaging with other developers to deliver value-packed updates to existing customers.

Being an active part of the community of users and creators surrounding the App Store may not be easy (definitely more time- and energy-consuming than handing a check to an ad agency), but unlike with app advertising, at least you’ll see a worthwhile return on your investment. But don’t take it from me. Check out the devs behind your favorite apps, and see how much they blog/tweet/generally engage with other devs, blog writers and users. It shouldn’t take long to see what I’m talking about.

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MacBook Pro Benchmarks Show Huge Performance Gains
Apple unveiled new MacBook Pros Thursday, and the notebooks came equipped with Intel’s next-generation Sandy Bridge processors. Primate Labs gathered results from its Geekbench hardware performance measurement tool to come up with some solid numbers showing the difference between the new MacBooks and their predecessors.

Geekbench 2, the latest version of Primate’s testing software, only measures processor and memory performance, and doesn’t take into account video card performance. Results are drawn from the Geekbench user community, and higher scores are better. Partial results are shown below; click on the image to see the full results.

As you can see in the full results, the new MacBook Pros outperform the previous models by a wide margin, which is to be expected when jumping from a dual- to a quad-core configuration. Note that even the 13-inch MacBook Pro outperforms the previous 15- and 17-inch Pro powerhouses released in early 2010.

The new notebooks even outperform some current Mac Pros, according to Primate’s general Mac benchmarks: definitely an impressive display of raw muscle from a portable computer.

That said, the ultimate test of any computing device is whether or not it meets your actual usage needs. Accordingly, I’m still inclined to wait until the next MacBook update rolls around. Do these performance scores influence your decision one way or another?

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Apple's Cloud Music Plans Don't Involve Unlimited Subscription
Apple has plans for putting iTunes in the cloud, but a subscription service that provides users unlimited access to Apple’s entire content library is not among them, according to a new report by the Financial Times. Instead, the company seems interested only in using remote storage to make sure users can have access to their own personal libraries on whatever device they may be using.

FT cited several music industry executives as the source of the information. Apple has apparently been making sure its music label partners have a clear view of how it intends to use the cloud. It’s likely the company is doing this to assure the labels it’s sticking to the pay-per track model, allaying any fears its subscription revenue plans may have raised.

Apple is still planning to make use of the cloud (Tim Cook basically said as much discussing the new N.C. data center Apple will be opening this spring), but those plans don’t involve unlimited streaming of Apple’s exhaustive library to subscribing customers. Instead, Apple wants to make it possible for users to back up their existing iTunes music collections online, making them available for remote access from any Mac or iOS device associated with the user’s Apple ID (which sounds a lot like what a revamped MobileMe media “locker” aims to accomplish).

Apple sees its strategy as a form of “insurance” for iTunes customers, according to one person who spoke with FT. Apple may be spinning it that way to record labels to avoid butting heads with them over additional royalties the labels want paid for remote playback.

Currently, Apple maintains a dominant presence in the music sales business. Until it begins to feel pressure from serious competition using a subscription-based model, there’s no real reason for it to endanger that position at present. Serious competition could be just around the corner, however, as Spotify and Google both appear to be ramping up to deliver cloud-based music solutions, and Sony continues to expand the reach of its Music Unlimited service. Mike Wolf paints a good picture of the overall landscape, detailing those and other players.

Will a cloud-based locker for your existing collection satisfy your remote music needs? Or is unlimited, subscription-based streaming the ultimate future of digital music distribution?

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