A New Hard Drive at a Great Price

Okay, so maybe you can't afford a new Mac right now. That doesn't mean that you can't make your Mac better. A great way to start is with a hard drive upgrade.

If you bought your Mac two or three years ago, the hard drive that came with it was probably only 80 to 160 gigabytes in size. Between videos, music and pictures, that space can get eaten up quickly.

If you let the free space on your hard drive drop below 10%, your Mac's performance will suffer. In fact, if you let it get too low, your computer won't run at all! And, of course, every hard drive will eventually fail and the older your drive is, the closer it is to failure.

Fortunately, hard drive prices crazy low right now, so I have put together a Hard Drive Replacement Package for my clients. The package includes:

• Pick up of your computer from your home or business
• Replacement of your hard drive with a 500GB drive.
• A fresh install of the operating system, updated to the latest version (or the version you had previously)
• Data transfer all of the information (files and applications) from your old hard drive
• Return of your computer and your old hard drive, generally within 24 hours.

All of this for only $199.

This offer applies only to the following models: MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac G5, Mac Pro, PowerMac G5. Due to the additional labor involved, upgrades for other models are available at a slightly higher price. Depending on the model, larger capacity drives, up to 2 terabytes, are available for a slightly higher price.

Your current hard drive must be good working order to transfer data to your new hard drive. Data recovery from a failing hard drive is not included.

That's all for now. Thanks for the read. Give me a call.

Your Genius

Why It's a Great Time to Buy a New Mac

Let's face it, these are not the best economic times and buying a new computer may not be in the cards for you right now. But, if you do find yourself in the position to get a new Mac, now is a particularly good time to do so. Here are a couple of reasons why.

The new Macs are here.

Apple recently released new versions of the iMac, MacBook and Mac mini models. The new iMacs, starting at $1199, are particularly stunning and, most likely, my next Mac purchase. The new MacBook has been greatly upgraded and is a solid buy at $999. Or, if your budget is even tighter, but you have access to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, the Mac mini starts at $599.

New Macs also mean new Apple refurbished products. Apple refurbs have the same warranty as the new ones and you can sometime save quite a bit on the price. New, previous generation Mac are also sometimes available. Check out what is available here.

In any case, getting a new Mac will insure a long computing life with a machine capable of handling anything that you can throw at it. Plus, you get the latest operating system and all of the newest iLife software (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iTunes).

As far as you PowerBook users are concerned, you may want to wait on your purchase of a MacBook Pro. There are strong rumors that new models with much faster processors, including a possibility of a quad-core (four processors on one chip) will be coming out very soon. As always, my advice is to get what you need when you need it. It's your call.

If you still can't see yourself affording a new or refurbished Mac, there are still more options. Try checking Craigslist for a fairly recent used Mac. Just be sure that the machine that you are interested in has at least a an "Intel Core 2 Duo" processor. If you're not sure what kind of chip the computer has, go to the Apple Menu and choose "About this Mac". It will say what kind of processor the machine uses. If you can, have someone check it out for you.

Also, a great source for the lowest Mac prices is dealmac.com. They scour the web for the best Mac deals around.

The G4/G5 is dead

If you have a Mac with a G4 or G5 processor, the good news is that, if you are using Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard", you will never have to upgrade your system software again…because you can't.

Apple's newest operating system, 10.6 "Snow Leopard", will only run on computers with an Intel processor, as opposed to the earlier PowerPC processors. If you're not sure what kind of chip your Mac has, see "About This Mac" above.

This is not to say that "Leopard" isn't a good operating system. It's perfectly fine and will be for years to come. So, if your PowerPC Mac is doing everything you need it to do, you should be in pretty good shape. However, there will still be issues that you won't be able to fix without upgrading your computer. Most of them involve the internet.

The G4 PowerPC processors and the video cards used in the MacBook, PowerBook and some iMac models don't handle Flash video well. Flash is used for many video sites, including YouTube. As computers get faster, web developers raise the bar as to what hardware is required to display video well. In this case, the G4 Mac is no longer enough. Have you noticed videos playback getting choppy to unwatchable on some websites? This maybe the reason.

Another example is Skype. Although you can use Skype with a 800 MHz G4 processor or better, in order to use the video feature, you need an Intel processor. As time goes by, more and more internet-related issues will arise for the PowerPC Macs.

The turnaround begins with you

So, if you can swing it, go ahead and pull the trigger on that shiny new iMac. As scary as that might be, I can almost guarantee that you will have a big smile on your face the first time you fire it up. You will enjoy the computer more, so you will use the computer more. You will become more productive and you might find that, in a year or so, the computer has paid for itself.

And, if you need help choosing a new Mac, setting it up, transferring/backing up your data or anything else, feel free to contact me.

Thanks for the read.

Your Genius.

Talking Points: New Unibody MacBooks

This week, along with several other product announcements, Apple released a new MacBook. This new MacBook completes the transition to the unibody for the entire portable line. Here's the skinny:

As Gizmodo said, "It's basically a white Macbook Pro". Both computers have the same 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of memory and a LED-backlit display with the same contrast ratio.

The new MacBook has also been given the one-piece, glass, Multi-Touch trackpad/button found on the Pro series.

Although, at a glance, the body of the MacBook looks similar to the previous model, this version is much more solid, thanks to the unibody design. The corners have been rounded for a more organic shape. The bottom now had a rubberized bottom plate that feels more secure on the lap.

As it is with the new MBPs, the battery in the MacBook is not replaceable by the consumer. However, this is one of the reasons that the new portable is more solid and stiff. Apple claims a run time of "up to 7 hours", which in the real world will end up being about 4 hours, which is still pretty good.

Oops! No more Firewire port. USB 2.0 only.

Mini-DVI port has been replaced with the Mini Display Port, so make sure that you get the right adapter to use for hooking up an external monitor/projector.

The new MacBook sells for $999.

Your Genius

Talking Points: The New iMacs

Apple has released the latest versions of the venerable iMac lines. Here are the talking points:

New processors, including Apple's first use of a desktop processor. Previous iMacs have used what are basically laptop processors from Intel. These "Core 2 Duo" processors are used in the all but the top-of-the-line 27" model. For the first time, the so-called Core i5 and i7 chips are available in the new iMac, including a quad core configuration. Yes, a quad-core iMac.

Display sizes are 21.5 and 27", up from the previous model's 20 and 24". The new displays are LED-backlit for brighter, truer color. The new displays are use a 16:9 aspect ratio, making them a bit wider than previous models.

Also, in case you need another reason to go with the 27" iMac, it has a display port that will send signal in or out. This means that, in addition to using a second monitor with the built-in display, you can get signal in from, say, a Blue-ray player and display it on your iMac's monitor, a first for Apple.

The iMac now has four slots for memory, meaning that they will accept up to 16 GB of ram. Wow.

The computers are now slightly thinner, the "chin" underneath the display is smaller. The formerly plastic back is now aluminum.

Apple has included an SD card slot under the optical drive.

The new iMacs come with the new Apple Magic Mouse.

Prices for the new iMacs range from a $1199 for a 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo model with 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive, to about $2200 for a 27-inch, quad core Intel Core model with 4GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive

Your Genius

The New Apple Magic Mouse

Apple has released a new mouse. The Magic Mouse uses the same Multi-Touch technology first introduced on the iPhone. Click anywhere, scroll in any direction, and swipe through images on its smooth, seamless top shell. It works wirelessly using Bluetooth, so you don’t have to worry about cables or adapters cluttering your workspace.

Alas, the Magic Mouse only works with the new iMac, but maybe we will see a software update that will let us use it with older Mac. Let's hope. You can learn more about the Magic Mouse here.

Your Genius