Recently, word went around that the only way to get 256GB of RAM in an iMac Pro was at the factory. OWC paid no attention to that, and is now offering to upgrade this powerful desktop to the maximum amount. Even better, its 256GB of RAM modules go for 52 percent less than the cost to have the same upgrade done by Apple.
Upgrading this desktop to 128GB of RAM with OWC DDR4 Kits is also significantly cheaper.
Google released Android 9 (Pie) to the public today, which should completely thrill the tiny percentage of Android users who can install it. For many, the wait for an upgrade will be months. For others, buying a new device is the only option to access this version.
Contrast this with iOS, which is always available to virtually everyone who wants it on the day it’s released.
Of all the carriers you could possibly get your iPhone 6 through, AT&T is one of the worst. But starting on Sunday, signing a new two-year contract with AT&T is going to get a little more attractive, especially if you use a lot of data: for a limited time, Ma Bell is offering double the data for Mobile Share Value Plans.
Americans reportedly spend more than $5 billion upgrading their iPhones — or switching to Apple from a competing brand — each year.
Forget RAM, forget a faster CPU, forget a beefier graphics card. If you are still running a Mac with a spinning, physical hard drive, the best upgrade you can possibly make is to drop a solid-state flash drive into the machine. The immediate effect on perceived performance is stunning: it’s the difference between seeing a spinning beach ball every hour and not seeing one for months at a time.
Unfortunately, for a long time, what has kept most people from making this update to their older Macs has been price. SSDs are more expensive than physical HDDs. That’s still true, by the way, but it’s less so now than it ever has been, making this a perfect time to finally take the plunge.
Unlike the majority of my esteemed colleagues here at Cult of Mac – indeed, unlike almost everyone in my profession, it seems – I’ve not upgraded to Lion just yet.
Sometimes, even Macs get laggy. Logging in can be sluggish, and even just routine tasks can start to crawl. Whether you know it or not, resource hogs can be lurking in your system and slowing down your work. After following these five simple steps though, your Mac can be almost as good as new.
Apple’s increasing use of tamper-resistant screws is a form of planned obsolescence, says one critic.
As previously reported, Apple is using proprietary five-point security screws in the iPhone 4 and new MacBooks Airs. The special screws were first used in the 2009 MacBook Pro to stop users from replacing the battery.
The screws are unique to Apple and serve one purpose only: to keep users out.
The plan, says iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens, is to force customers to upgrade their gadgets sooner than necessary. They also make them reliant on Apple for expensive repairs and upgrades.
“It’s a form of planned obsolescence,” says Wiens. “General Motors invented planned obsolescence in the 1920s. Apple is doing the same thing.”
When owners of the iPhone 3G started reporting massive performance issues with iOS 4, we knew it was only a matter of time before the first lawsuit dropped, and here it is, lodged by plaintiff Biana Wofford in the Superior Court of California for San Diego.
The lawsuit’s even crazier than what we expected though: it thinks Apple conspired to make iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G suck so that users would be forced to upgrade to a new model.
Not six days after we reported on a rumor that the next Mac Pro would run dual Intel Core i9 CPUs, Apple has quietly updated its Mac Pro … with 3.33GHz Quad-core Xeon Processors.
(A meaty smack of the palm on the expanse of forehead above the pineal gland, and then the hand trails downward to shield the eyes, as if from a bright light, leaving only the grim rictus of a man self-repulsed still exposed. “Oh, jeez, thanks, Apple!” the blogger says. “Now I look like an idiot!”)
In addition to offering the new processor configuration, Apple has also expanded the hard drive space, now offering up to 8TB of storage in the Mac Pro, spread evenly between four hard drive bays. And while the quad-core 3.33GHz Mac Pro will add another $1,200.00 to the price of your machine, the 8TB of hard drive space is now standard.
While they were at it, Apple’s Xserves also got a bit of a beef-up, with the hard drive options again being expanded to 6TB across three hard drive bays. They’ve also updated their build-to-order RAM options on the Xserve, offering 4GB RAM modules which double the capacity of the quad-core Xserve to 24GB and the octuple-core Xserve to 48GB. Apple also states that the X-Serves will support up to 96GB of RAM under Snow Leopard, so 8GB RAM modules should work in these machines.
Despite the rumor of a dual Intel Core i9 Mac Pro configuration making a lot of sense (my guess is we’ll still see it at some point), Apple needed to patch the Mac Pro quick if they didn’t want the highest-end Core i7 iMacs cannibalizing sales, due to the latter machine’s superior price-to-performance ratio. A slight bump to the CPU frequency is a swift and easy patch to make while Apple looks into a more drastic refresh… although it also resets the countdown timer to the next Mac Pro refresh. My guess is we’ll see the Core i9 Mac Pros sometime early next year.
