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TUAW TV Live, with special guest Josh Carr
When people in the Denver area have a smashed iPhone screen or want to upgrade an old iMac for the kids, who do they call? Usually it's Rocky Mountain Mac Repair, a business founded and run by Josh Carr. I first met Josh when he was writing for TUAW, and we've kept in touch over the years as his business has grown. Josh will be my guest today on TUAW TV Live, and we'll be talking a lot about Apple hardware -- past, present and future -- and about how Apple seems to be making their products less repairable. We'll also talk about the best upgrades to do to your favorite old Mac to extend its life, and any other topic that happens to come to mind. Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. You'll be watching the show in glorious HD! Fans of IRC can join us in our chat room: server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat. In addition, the live stream and chat will be available through our Facebook page. Just point your browser here to watch the show and chat with other viewers while you're on Facebook. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: All about repairing Apples
If you've followed any of our coverage of iFixit's latest adventures tearing apart Apple products to determine their ease of repairability, you've probably noticed that the posts have one thing in common -- they talk about how difficult it's getting to tear these things apart in such a way that they can be easily repaired. Today's guest on TUAW TV Live is Denver-based Apple repair whiz (and former TUAW blogger) Josh Carr. Josh is the man behind Rocky Mountain Mac Repair, a company that can take your ailing or underpowered Apple device and give it new life. Josh and I will be talking about Apple's latest products, a day in the life of an Apple technician, and just about anything else that comes to mind. Oh, and there will be unboxings... As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EST (2 PM PST / 10 PM GMT) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
Selecting the specs for your budget Mac mini
If you've been waiting for Apple to refresh the Mac mini line, so you could update your primary system, you're probably working on a budget. So which choices should you make when picking options for your new mini install? I talked with Josh Carr of Rocky Mountain Mac Repair to get his insights on where to get the best value for your money. Chip When it comes to mini, you have three basic CPU choices. According to Carr, the 2.5GHz Intel i5 is a "very capable processor", suitable for anyone looking to buy a budget Macintosh, but if you can spare the extra $200, the quad core 2.3GHz i7 is worth the upgrade for most anyone looking to buy. The better model offers extra processing zip. If you're a developer, as I am, or do any other kind of high-intensity processor-heavy work, Carr recommends the 2.6 GHz quad core i7. It's $300 above the base i5, but a great buy for those who live in the land of Xcode. Memory On modern mini's, RAM is officially user-servicable. Apple writes, "[T]hanks to a removable bottom panel, it's easy to add more. Just give it a twist, and you're in. Pop your new memory into the SO-DIMM slot, and you're out." That's important because a fully loaded 16GB install costs a cool $300 premium. Take that system to a nearby Apple Authorized Service Provider, and you could cut that cost to about $100. Or, if you're up for it, order and install the RAM yourself. This won't void your warranty, but if Apple ever said you had an issue with your memory, you'd be responsible for taking care of it. That's why you might be better off working with a provider you trust, who could follow up with any issues. Storage Apple's Fusion drive costs $250 over the basic 1 TB 5400 RPM Serial ATA that ships with the i7 mini. (Fusion drives are not available for the i5 dual-core Intel mini.) So should you spring for one? That's a bit of a conundrum because you have to decide whether the boot speed plus flexible internal storage is enough of a win to justify the cost. For me, it will be. I have to reboot a lot as part of my work day and the slow/fast access is perfect for what I need. Most users however, would better benefit from installing a third-party SSD drive internally for fast boots and using the USB 3.0 ports for extra storage. The 256 GB SSD adds $300 to your mini if you buy from Apple. That's actually a pretty good price value-wise, but many people don't need that much space on their boot drive. You can save some money by dialing the SSD down to 120 GB or so ($200 at a reasonable AASP) and make up the difference in space using a USB 3.0 external. Carr tells me that USB 3.0 drives are relatively inexpensive these days; a 3 TB external drive from Seagate retails for around $160. "Having the USB 3.0, there's really no bottleneck and you get the full performance out of the drive," Carr adds. If you're trying to balance speed and space, and that's what's making you think about choosing the Fusion drive, an internal SSD plus an external USB 3.0 drive -- possibly one you already have on hand -- may deliver the performance you need.
Dear Aunt TUAW: My Mac had a kernel panic. Now what?
Dear Aunt TUAW, My Mac has been experiencing kernel panics. I managed to grab an error log. Now what? I'm not sure how to use this to figure out what's going wrong... Please help! Your loving nephew, Esteban Dear Esteban, The preponderance of the time, kernel panics are hardware related and not software. Looking at the error log can help you figure out what issue may be causing it. Look for the last loaded and last unloaded kernel extensions as well as the items named in the extension backtrace. They can provide good indication of what's going wrong. For example, you might see the following. Here, the issue seemed to have been with a FireWire Drobo system. last loaded kext at 266503428590760: com.apple.driver.AppleFireWireStorage 3.0.1 (addr 0xffffff7f80920000, size 16384) last unloaded kext at 266064709148465: com.apple.driver.StorageLynx 3.0.1 (addr 0xffffff7f808ce000, size 8192) Or you might see the following trace, which was tied into the local USB system. Notice how the names of each item here gives you a sense of the role. IOKit is responsible for many of your system's device drivers. Names like IOUSBMassStorageClass and AppleUSBComposite tell you that you're probably working with USB issues. Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies): com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass(2.0.4)@0x593bd000->0x593c6fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily(2.0.5)@0x7ba000 dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.1.5)@0x596000 dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.5.5)@0x7d3000 com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite(3.0.0)@0x953000->0x956fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.1.5)@0x596000 com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.1.5)@0x596000->0x5bdfff Kernel panics aren't limited to hardware. For example, emulators can also cause kernel panics. VirtualBox can be quite nasty this way. If you pinpoint the cause of your issue (emulator or mass storage), you can usually work through the problem yourself. If not, you may want to book an appointment to take your unit to the Genius Bar or to an Apple Authorized Service Provider (ASP). Hope this helps! Hugs, Auntie T, who thanks cousin Josh Carr for his assist on this write-up
