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- Complete Guide to Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Mac
Computers get dirty, especially their human interface surfaces — keyboards and pointing devices.
In some instances, dirt can even affect input device performance as well as appearance. Some time ago the faithful SlimType gave me a scare when the F and W keys stopped responding properly. A keystroke would register only when the key was pressed more firmly than usual, and the subtle over-center click of the SlimType’s scissors keyswitch mechanism was missing — the malfunctioning keys feeling “numb” and offering higher than normal resistance.
The medicine that time proved to be blowing out the accumulated crud beneath the key console with compressed air. I successfully used an automotive shop compressor with a blow gun. For more cautious folks, or those without convenient access to a compressor, one of those little aerosol cans of compressed air used for cleaning photography equipment could do the trick.
But sometimes a bit of compressed air isn’t enough. So, here is our guide to cleaning everything from mice to laptops.
Getting Started: Apple’s Cleaning Recommendations
Apple has posted a Knowledge Base article covering recommendations and guidelines for cleaning Apple computers, displays, or input/ peripheral devices. Much of its advice should be common sense, such as before you start cleaning:
- Turn off your Mac.
- Unplug the power cord from the wall or power strip.
- Remove the battery (from products with removable batteries such as some Apple portables or from wireless devices such as mice and keyboards).
- Disconnect all external devices from the computer.
Other warnings some users might be less likely to think of are:
- Don’t use window sprays or cleaning products containing ammonia, chlorine, or abrasive ingredients.
- Don’t use rough towels or cloths to dry the plastic.
- Don’t spray cleaner directly onto your computer. Liquid could drip inside the case and cause an electrical shock or malfunction.
- Don’t use excessively damp cleaning wipes.
If more than dusting is needed, use a lint-free cloth slightly dampened to wipe away dirt or grime. Don’t over-wet the cloth. If you can squeeze drips of water out by wringing, it’s too wet.
Solvents and Cleaners
Plain water may not be effective on oils or grease residues, in which case a stronger agent will be needed. Try iKlear or mild detergent first.
Cleaning Laptops
Instructions specific to Apple laptops include not using isopropyl alcohol on bare LCD panels (or any type of alcohol or ammonia-based glass or window cleaner, I hasten to add). Use only a damp, soft, lint-free cloth or purpose-made, Apple-approved LCD cleaning product like iKlear.
Aluminum portables are best tackled with a damp, soft, lint-free cloth. Apple says it’s safe to use 70 percent isopropyl alcohol on them (I personally wouldn’t) or iKlear. Remove surface dust or loose dirt gently with your bare hand before proceeding with cleaner and cloth. After cleaning, dry the aluminum with a soft, lint-free cloth.
For plastic portables, the same applies as aluminum, but I would recommend a gentler, damp-cloth approach first and reserve the heavier-duty agents for stubborn stuff. As with the metal machines, remove any loose surface dirt gently with your bare hand before proceeding with cleaner and cloth. After cleaning, dry the plastic with a soft, lint-free cloth.
For the new unibody MacBook’s non-slip plastic coated aluminum bottom case, Apple recommends using a 3M Gray Microfiber or soft dye-free, lint-free cloth for cleaning, once again giving its blessing to 70 percent isopropyl alcohol or iKlear on the bottom case.
Mouse Cleaning
Mice get dirty. When your mouse becomes covered in fingerprints or its surface is soiled, you can gently wipe it with a clean, lint-free cloth. If necessary, moisten the cloth using plain water, making sure not to over-saturate it, and be mindful that the mouse’s internal electronic components may be damaged if water seeps or drips inside.
With Apple’s Mighty Mouse, the scroll ball can be cleaned using a lint-free cloth lightly moistened with water, making sure to rotate the ball itself to ensure complete coverage or you can use something like Wet One.
Drowned Keyboard First Aid
Moisture is potential death to electronics, as anyone who’s ever spilled liquids on a computer keyboard or laptop can ruefully tell you. Apple also warns against using solvents like acetone, alcohol, or alcohol-based cleaners on your computer, admonishing to never spray cleaner directly onto the machine, since liquid could drip inside the keyboard or case and cause an electrical shock (or more likely a component-frying short-circuit and/or residual corrosion).
Should you spill liquid on your keyboard, if it’s thin and clear fluid, immediately shut the computer down, unplug the keyboard, turn it upside down, and drain the liquid out, let it dry (inverted or on edge is best) for 24 hours at room temperature, after which it may or may not recover. If the liquid is greasy, sweet, sticky, or acidic, you’re likely out of luck. I ruined a MacAlly iceKey scissors-action keyboard a while back by sloshing diluted Grapefruit Seed Extract (extremely acidic) on it twice in a week — the only times I’ve drowned a keyboard in two decades of computer use. We disassembled the keyboard and cleaned the circuits, but corrosion had set in.
Computer Disinfection
With the H1N1 flu pandemic, computer contact surface disinfection has moved to the front burner, especially for machines accessed by multiple users. Apple support also has a Knowledge Base article entitled How To Disinfect The Apple Internal Or External Keyboard, Trackpad, And Mouse. The article recommends, in addition to regular cleaning of your computer and input devices, that disinfecting them may be desirable, noting that,”Multiple people using the same computer, people using the computer when they were ill, and the particular environment where the computer is used, are a few reasons you may wish to disinfect areas of the computer that people come into contact with the most.”
Using a mild soap with antibacterial properties will help, but Apple suggests properly disinfecting contact areas with products like Lysol Wipes, Clorox Disinfecting wipes, or Clorox Kitchen Disinfecting Wipes. I would be cautious about using them on the screen however (except for glass-covered aluminum laptop and iMac displays), and would stick with water or iKlear for that. Otherwise, follow the general rules outlined in the regular cleaning instructions above, with a special caveat to not use disinfectant wipes containing bleach, or disinfectant sprays in general.
What are some techniques you’ve used to clean those hard to reach and sensitive areas of your gadgets?
Переслать - iPhone Owners Suffer Stockholm Syndrome, AT&T is Actually Awesome (Just Don't Mention Friday's Outages)
It’s hard to know where to begin. The weekend has seen a series of events unfold that manage to combine — beautifully, perfectly — into a single glorious mutually-annihilating maelstrom of silliness.
On Friday the Wall Street Journal published an inflammatory piece by Randall Stross which began “I love my iPhone…” but barely a half dozen sentences (and some obligatory ‘AT&T versus Verizon’ white noise later) added “…the iPhone itself may not be so great after all.”
I’ll spare you the tumultuous (and largely inane) nonsense that follows, and just give you the bottom line; Stross thinks the iPhone is a flawed device; that Apple has mass-produced shoddy hardware; and that the iPhone’s poorly engineered internals lie at the heart of AT&T’s network problems.
In an example of utterly brilliant (but coincidental) timing, AT&T’s network in San Francisco’s Bay area ground to an awkward halt the very same day Stross’ article appeared on the WSJ website. AT&T acknolwedged the problem with a statement via Engadget’s website:
“We are seeing a hardware issue in downtown San Francisco that is causing some degradation in service. GSM and EDGE voice and data services are still accessible. Our experts are aware and working to resolve as quickly as possible. Further resolution is expected this evening.”
Perfect timing, right? And perhaps proof that Stross is right? Just ignore for a moment that his primary “source” is financially affiliated with AT&T. I’d love to rant some more about the whole stupid situation but I don’t need to, since I can offer you this perfect conclusion from John Gruber:
So on the one hand we have the simple theory that AT&T's network stinks, especially in large metro areas, and extra-especially in New York City and San Francisco.
On the other hand, we have the theory that AT&T's network is just fine because two network consulting companies say so, even though a Consumer Reports customer survey says otherwise, and it is the iPhone that is flawed, but the flaws are for some reason worse on AT&T than other carriers around the world, and just happen to be worse still in some cities than others, and Apple has been unwilling and/or unable to address these flaws in three model years.
Gruber debunks Stross’ claims with a few easy and, it appears, perfectly rational observations. But you can’t trust Gruber. And if you’re an iPhone owner, you can’t trust yourself, either. That’s because, according to a report from Strand Consulting (no, you’re not alone, no-one else has heard of them, either) we’re all delusional, suffering from a condition akin to Stockholm Syndrome. 9to5 Mac summarizes the most salient points from Strand’s report entitled “How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future?”:
It is no secret that there has been a great deal of hype surrounding the iPhone and it is also no secret that Apple probably has the most loyal and fantastic customers in the world.
Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings resulting in limitations in iPhone users' daily lives.
When we examine the iPhone users' arguments defending the iPhone, it reminds us of the famous Stockholm Syndrome – a term that was invented by psychologists after a hostage drama in Stockholm. Here hostages reacted to the psychological pressure they were experiencing, by defending the people that had held them hostage for 6 days…
…the iPhone is surrounded by a multitude of people, media and companies that are happy to bend the truth to defend the product they have purchased from Apple.
So there you have it. The take-home message from this weekend’s press is that, broadly speaking, the iPhone is a poorly-designed piece of junk that simultaneously inspires mindless fanaticism in its fans while callously destroying poor old AT&T’s data network infrastructure. That embarrassing outage in San Francisco on Friday? Nothing to do with AT&T. All your fault, you pesky iPhone fanatics, gobbling up all that precious bandwidth. Shame on you.
The good news for AT&T is that they’re still liked by some people — Business Traveller Magazine’s readers have voted AT&T the operator with the Best Mobile Phone Coverage in the World. Naturally, AT&T is keen to milk any positive coverage it gets (which isn’t in great supply these days). Bill Hague, the company’s vice president of International Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a statement:
We are truly honored that Business Traveler readers have once again chosen AT&T as having the Best Mobile Phone Coverage in the World. AT&T is committed to helping our customers stay connected to their world when traveling abroad.
Shame it’s not quite as committed to keeping its customers connected when they’re at home, too. That statement was released the very same day San Francisco’s iPhone customers lost SMS and Data services. Really, you can’t make this stuff up. There is a silver lining — Fake Steve has already had a chat with the Powers That Be. Let’s hope they listen…
Переслать - Apple Delays iMac Shipments, Says Sorry
Back in November we reported on the news that some of Apple’s new 27-inch iMacs were turning up with shattered screens and dodgy “flashing” displays. At the time, the most plausible explanation for the physical damage was that the packaging designed to protect the machines during transit was insufficient. The crazy flashing? Well, that’s anyone’s guess.
Add to the mix an already-lengthy waiting period for order fulfillment and you get a fair number of frustrated customers wondering what they paid $1,700 for.
Over on the Apple Support forums there’s a mammoth (80+ pages!) discussion raging about the very issue. As though that’s not enough, one disgruntled iMac owner created this web site for reporting and tracking other instances of damaged 27 inchers.
Yesterday Apple did what it so very rarely does — apologized. Really: “We apologize.” Wow. I almost fell off my chair.
The apology (I can’t stop shaking my head in wonder as I type that word) was delivered by an Apple spokesperson to CNET and reads, in all its succinct glory;
The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience or delay this may cause our customers.
Of course, there was no mention of the shattered glass problem. Not a word about blinking displays. But c’mon, you didn’t expect a full and frank confession did you? This is Apple. Still, as Engadget’s Vladislav Savov put it, “Some contrition is better than none.”
Переслать - Apple Looking to Have Record iPhone Quarter: Report
According to information gathered from parts suppliers for Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the handset is headed for a record quarter. Apple’s Taiwanese suppliers for the iPhone’s components have reported a 31 percent increase in volume of orders placed for the parts, which should indicate a very healthy spike in sales of the smartphone.
The report comes via Taiwan’s online tech industry publication, the DigiTimes, which has provided ample fuel for the rumor fire regarding various Apple devices in the past, as well as reporting on Apple’s business outlook. In the second quarter, the iPhone sold 7.4 million worldwide, but if DigiTimes’ information is accurate, total sales for the third quarter, which end in December for the Mac maker, could reach the 10 million mark.
Numbers are up all across the smartphone component supply industry, but according to information gathered by the Taipei-based market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), much of that increase is due to Apple’s strong sales. Which isn’t to say that Apple’s competitors aren’t having any luck challenging its market dominance, according to MIC analyst Edward Lin:
Samsung is currently the largest supplier in the market, as it supplies for the Apple iPhone series models. However, TI, which has exited from the baseband business and now focuses on AP development, has rolled out the OMAP 3430 series, which adopts the Cortex A8 architecture and features a clock speed of 1GHz. This offers processor options other than Qualcomm, enabling terminal vendors to pair together different communications systems, and it has been well received by many brand-name vendors, such as HTC, Palm, etc. As a result, TI’s share in the Taiwanese smartphone AP market increased in the third quarter of 2009.
The ability to use different wireless communication standards is something that’s recently come up in rumors surrounding Apple’s next-generation device, and it looks like that rumor is well in keeping with the pulse of the industry at large. Perhaps it isn’t so far-fetched to imagine that the next iPhone could use both GSM- and CDMA-based networks, allowing it to be offered on Verizon in the U.S. Of course, then some of Apple’s commercials would become factually incorrect.
Regardless of what’s coming, third-quarter sales of 10 million is a huge win for Cupertino. Looking at recent developments, its easy to spot the source of this late-game success. Apple has opened up sales of its device to many more carriers at the international level, expanding into new territory in the UK, Canada and France, to name a few. It’s also finally gained official access to the massive Chinese market, which paves the way for a lot of potential success, despite early setbacks.
Переслать
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