Reid Burke

Apple

Apple Computer, Inc.

  • Uncommon Observations about the VESA Studio Display

    I have used a Studio Display with a VESA mount and nano-texture glass for a bit over a week. Here are some uncommon observations about this particular model coming from an LG UltraFine 5K and two Intel MacBook Pros.

    macOS rotates the screen for you when the display is rotated into portrait. This works perfectly and automatically. In addition, the built-in camera will also rotate the image at the same time, which allows you to rotate the screen mid-call if you wish.

    Automatic rotation to portrait mode

    The screen is much faster to wake the computer than the LG UltraFine 5K. I normally use my computers in clamshell mode. I used to have to pop open the lid on my computer every so often because I could not wake the computer from the keyboard. This never happens with the Studio Display.

    I use wired Ethernet using a Belkin USB-C adapter sold by Apple (an older black one) and have a gigabit connection to the internet. This adapter technically did work when connected to an LG UltraFine 5K; however, the speed would be limited to a max of under 400 Mbps due to LG weirdness. When this same adapter is connected to the Studio Display, I get the full speed of my connection at around 940 Mbps. This means I can truly use a single cable from my computer to the display for everything.

    Belkin Ethernet adapter in black connected to the rear of the Display

    I ordered this display sight unseen and opted for the nano-texture without looking at an example of the texture in person. I dislike the texture.

    I work in a room with a lot of natural light; however, the texture is less desirable than any minor glare I had with the UltraFine. I miss the image quality of the UltraFine; however, I have grown to dislike the texture a bit less after several days of use. Given it takes 8-10 weeks to get a replacement display, I’ll keep this one, especially since my wife is now using the UltraFine 5K for her work.

    The polishing cloth is a perfect fit inside a Ziploc snack sized bag.

    Apple Polishing Cloth inside of a Ziploc snack bag

    You cannot clean the screen with anything except this cloth. We have the best cleaning lady who helps us keep our home clean, so I made a note which I printed out, put inside a sheet protector, and tape to the top of the screen while cleaning since it’s such an unusual requirement to remember.

    Cleaning NoteDownload

    I have yet for “Hey Siri” to work correctly. This might be an Intel thing. Setting up “Hey, Siri” when my computer is in clamshell mode does not work — the computer prompts me to open the lid because macOS probably doesn’t understand the Studio Display’s capability during setup of “Hey, Siri.”

    Many other parts of the experience are well documented elsewhere: image quality, so-so webcam, weird Center Stage framing, superb speakers and microphones, excellent build quality compared with LG, and so on.

    Overall, I believe the Studio Display solves some quality of life issues for a true single-cable “dock” for those who want wired Ethernet and a display on a single cable. The perfect sleep wake, perfect wired Ethernet, and the automatic screen and camera rotation on the VESA model make it the model to get.

  • Protecting Your Laptop with Undercover 2

    Undercover logoUndercover, a theft recovery solution for Macs, has been updated to 2.0 and is free to all existing users. This release includes a new “Plan B” feature: if you Mac is disconnected from the internet for two months, the Mac will become unusable until reconnected. This release also includes support for Leopard and takes up less resources.

    In the event your Mac is stolen, Undercover transmits iSight pictures, screenshots, and network information to Undercover’s servers, where the information is given to law enforcement to help recover your computer. If this doesn’t work, Undercover simulates a hardware failure to encourage the thief to either sell the computer or take it in for repair. Because Undercover knows when network information has changed, they can determine when the computer changes hands. When it does, they then tell the computer to display a “this computer is stolen” message and make the computer unusable.

    Fast User Switching menuPersonally, I have my MacBook setup with my personal user account and a password-less “Guest” user account with Fast User Switching turned on. (Note that this Guest account is not the “new” Leopard-style guest account: it’s a normal account that won’t delete data on logout.) When I want to put my MacBook to sleep, I select “Login Window” from the Fast User Switching menu extra, and then click the Sleep button at the Login Window.

    If my computer is then stolen, the thief won’t know the password to my user account, so they will have to use the Guest account. The Guest account will retain data, which will be helpful as further evidence when the computer is recovered. If the Mac is then connected to the internet, Undercover will activate and begin sending mugshots of the thief using the computer and screenshots of what the thief is doing. By using a firmware password, the thief won’t be able to wipe the disk, and he won’t be able to stop Undercover, even if he knew it was installed, because he won’t have the privileges as a standard user to do so.

    I wish this “Plan B” was adjustable to a shorter timeframe for even greater security, because my MacBook is connected to the internet at least every 2 days. Nevertheless, it’s a welcome addition, and with an upgrade price of free, it makes it even better.

    Undercover is $49, and they offers a $10 discount to students, which is nice if you’re in college like me.

  • Quickly Accessing Related Items in iTunes

    You know those little arrow links that appear next to track names and artists in iTunes? Typically, clicking them takes you to the iTunes Store page for that item. What I didn’t know is that Option-clicking them will take you to related items in your music library, a feature I’ve always wanted.

    The best part: you can invert the behavior so that the arrow takes you to your library’s items by default. Simply type “defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES” (without quotes) into a Terminal and restart iTunes. Enjoy!

    Thanks to John F. Whitehead for publishing this hack.

  • Hello MacBook

    I have spent a week with my brand new black MacBook now, and it is amazing.

    I set it up on Thursday while I was at work. It was extremely simple to set up. I had a external USB hard drive containing a backup of my Mac mini. I just plugged in the drive and the first-run setup assistant asked if I was transferring from another Mac. I selected the “transfer from another partition” and my USB drive came right up. An hour or so later, my user account, files, settings, desktop background… everything was back to normal.

    I also bought a DVI to Mini DVI adapter that works great with my external monitor. I now have 2 displays for my Mac… it has made me a lot more productive with everything. Definitely an improvement. Add the 3rd display from my Windows box, throw in Synergy and I have what could be the ultimate computer workstation.

    I take it to school a few times a week and carry it around all day. Although the MacBook was heavier than I thought it was initially, it really doesn’t feel very heavy in my backpack. This thing is very useful… it is so convenient to have everything with you all the time: being able to burn a DVD for someone on the spot, school files, music, movies, photos… all available instantly by waking the computer from sleep. It’s great.

    As far as usability, the keyboard is great, the key spacing isn’t as bad as I thought. The glossy display also is better than expected: the glare isn’t as bad as some pictures suggested. I have yet to run down the battery but I had 75% or so power remaining after spending an hour in Panera using WiFi last night. I typically keep it plugged in. The included power brick is worthy of praise all by itself: it’s square, with interchangeable “plugs” that allow for using a long cord or a flip-out plug for use on the go. Tangling up the wire never happens thanks to flip-out clips that you can wrap the cord around for easy storage in a bag.

    Finally, his thing looks gorgeous. I was initially concerned that the black case would not be as good as white, however, it is still distinctly Apple, gets attention, and after a week of use, is more durable that I expected. (Thanks to everyone at work who helped with the color choice!)

    So, these are some of my first impressions with my new notebook… and everything is good so far. I hope it stays that way!

  • Goodbye Mac mini…

    After 2 years of solid, reliable, trouble-free operation, my Mac mini suddenly experienced a hard drive failure.

    Yesterday around midnight I was busy working on a school project in Pages on my Mac mini G4. The songs I were playing were skipping like crazy and the computer gradually slowed to a crawling pace. I restarted the machine, but the computer appeared to be stuck at the grey boot screen.

    The Combo drive in my mini was half-working (a problem I couldn’t get Apple to fix under warranty over a year ago) but I was able to start from a Tiger CD (not DVD) and ran Disk Utility. Halfway through the repair, the computer froze. I restarted but this time it was really stuck. Booting in verbose mode exposed the nasty error IOATAController device blocking bus a few dozen times followed by a IO timeout on the hard drive, the journal replay failing, and the computer failing to mount the hard drive.

    About this time my Combo drive followed in my hard drive’s footsteps and refused to boot my Tiger and DiskWarrior CDs. I hooked up my LaCie FireWire CD drive and used OpenFirmware to clear my NVRAM and boot from FireWire. My DiskWarrior CD couldn’t even recognize my hard drive’s hardware and my Tiger CD failed to load its own kernel.

    In short, my mini was completely gone. I had a backup system in place and the only thing I lost was what I was working on that night. I’m thankful for that. Still, I need a computer. I would need to replace the Combo drive and the hard drive to fix the mini. However, I was intending to buy a MacBook later this year for college. After considering some of the annoyances the Rev. A mini gave me (flaky drives, including display artifacts when using DVI digital video, no Quartz Extreme) I decided that fixing the mini for about $200 wouldn’t be worth it considering I’d be migrating to a laptop in the near future anyway.

    So, I used my saved up money on a MacBook. I ordered the black one yesterday and can’t wait for it to arrive tomorrow. I wish that I could have waited until the next spec bump but I didn’t really expect my once-trusty Mac to just die. (In light of my experience, I bought 3 years of AppleCare and made sure with an Apple salesperson that I would not need to drive hundreds of miles to an Apple Store to get my computer fixed.) Here’s hoping that I won’t have any problems like this with my MacBook, because this thing is going to last me for the next 4 years.

    I’ll update when it arrives tomorrow.