As usual, the above figure applies.

[via TUAW and Macworld]

Short version: A comfortable mouse whose main gimmick will take hours upon hours of dedication on your part to fully exploit.

Like a dork, I looked up the word “naga” in Wikipedia, and it turns out that it refers to “a deity or class of entity or being, taking the form of a very great snake—specifically the King Cobra, found in Hinduism and Buddhism.” That would explain the snake-like logo of the Razer Naga ($80, available now), a new mouse that’s aimed at people who play MMOs, specifically World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online. The biggest feature: 12 buttons on the left-hand side of the mouse.

Unlike last year’s SteelSeries World of Warcraft Gaming Mouse, the Razer Naga doesn’t come with the full Blizzard licensing. If that matters to you you’re a fool. And also unlike said SteelSeries mouse, the buttons here don’t stick like an old Sega Genesis controller after using it for a few hours.

It works, out of the box, with both Windows (tested on Windows 7) and Mac OS X (tested on Snow Leopard). Thank you, Razer. No need for my fellow Mac users to spring for a third-party driver just to use the mouse!

So let’s do this. I tested the mouse using World of Warcraft over a period of two weeks. That may seem excessive, but this mouse absolutely has a learning curve. The documentation that comes with the mouse—I actually read the instruction manual!—says to expect up to 18 hours to get used to the mouse. Yes, 18 hours. As Doug said in our chatroom, you might as well learn Russian.

The mouse’s raison d’être is the 12 buttons on the left-hand side, where your thumb would normally rest. The 12 buttons are designed to replace any number of keyboard keys that you’d use to play the game. You know, 1 is regular attack, then 2 through whatever for your spells and whatnot.

My latest character, an Affliction Blood Elf Warlock, has the following key-mapping:

1: Shoot

2: Shadow Bolt

3: Immolate

4: Corruption

5: Curse of Agony

6: Life Tap

7: Drain Life

8: Health Funnel

9: Drain Soul

0: Rain of Fire

-: Fear

=: Howl of Terror

These spells and abilities are mapped over to the 1-12 buttons on the mouse.

Razer has created an AddOn for both games that rearranges your on-screen icons, à la Bartender, to better visually correlate the 12 mouse buttons to your spells and abilities. (Here’s a screenshot of the interface AddOn. It’s the squares on the right-hand side.)

As I said, using the 12 buttons effectively will absolutely take you several hours, especially if you’ve been playing the game for a long time. It’s like trying to write your name with your left hand when you’re a righty.

I had gotten used to running close to a mob, then taking taking my middle finger off the “W” key, then hitting 4, 5, 6, 3, and 1 till the mob died. (See the above key-mapping for what those numbers translate to.) Now all of a sudden your left hand stays on the WASD keys, while your right thumb has to navigate the little button patch on the mouse.

After about of week with the new playing scheme, I had more or less acclimated myself. I now quest with the 12 buttons just fine, but I still find myself going back to the ol’ keyboard when PVPing. I find that the frantic nature of PVP doesn’t really lend itself to the 12 buttons. Practice makes perfect, of course, and you may be more patient than I am, but I couldn’t get used to PVPing with the 12 buttons even after several days.

And to allay a fear I read somewhere, no, I really didn’t find that pushing one of the 12 buttons would cause the mouse to move a great deal, if at all. It’s not as if you need to exact an incredible amount of force on the buttons to get them to click.

So it’s a fine mouse, yes, but you really do need to be prepared to fully re-train yourself on how to play the game.

Is it any better than using the plain on’ keyboard keys? Meh, I wouldn’t say so, and I expect that many of you are already used to your current setup. Still, it’s a fine mouse in its own right, and its use to you is 100 percent dependent on your willingness to learn how to effectively use it.

Product Page

Arrrr, I be an Apple pirate. I download me OS X even though it only costs $29. Arrr [Gearfuse]

So what kind of gain is Redmond looking at? Round-about a 1% increase in October. Now before you put your flaming hats on, Mac-lovers, that’s a 1% absolute increase, meaning that the percentage of computers running 7 in the world went from 1.75% to 2.82%. That’s a pretty significant gain, though I admit it is ripe for mockery by the ignorant.

The 1% gain, indicated by statistics collected by StatCounter, is accompanied by a 1.2% drop in Vista and .5% drop in XP installs. It’s worth considering that since these are based on computers browsing around the internet, a lot of business PCs and servers are probably left out of the count — though they too will take a while to ramp up as IT departments figure out just how they want to go about it.

OS X gained half a point during October too, so they’re not standing still either. 7 represents a bigger threat than the divided XP/Vista front. In a year that 2.82% will probably have the decimal point moved right one place, and its user-friendly features and critically-acclaimed status may actually put a bit of pressure on Cupertino. We’ll soon see, though.

First, a note on my current mousing habits. I’ve used a Logitech MX Revolution for about six months now and I’m hooked on its dual scroll wheels and various buttons. I am, obviously, not Steve’s target market. However, I’m happy to try any mouse for a few days and I often find that my hand and work-style changes to match the idiosyncrasies of the pointing device in question. I’m sure if you gave me a mouse shaped like a carrot (or just a carrot) I could get used to mousing on it. Sadly, if you give me a mouse the shape of an orthopedic shoe insert, I’m going to have a little trouble.

The mouse’s much vaunted multi-touch surface is a gimmick. At best you can do a two-finger swipe left or right to scroll through files and pictures or change from browser tab to browser tab. One finger, wheel-less scrolling is odd in that it adds momentum (you can turn it off) that will spin you past your desired point with an errant flick of your finger. There is no pinch or twist and you’d have to do something like a Vulcan salute to do a pinch or spread on this thing anyway since your thumb and ring finger always have to be clutching the mouse.

This brings us to the second point: you can never let go of this thing. The mouse resolution is very low so you have to pick it up often to get across a large screen (I have two screens, so it takes about three lift and moves to get the mouse over to the other screen). And you’re supposed to hold it with the afore-mention crab-grab with your thumb and ring finger and perhaps the pinkie. The mouse is too small for my man-hands to grab and cover so there’s always a bit of space between the surface of the mouse and the palm.

This all adds up to a frustrating departure from standard mousing procedure. While I’m sure some of you consider this the Delicious Mouse of Happiness, I just can’t wrap my head around this odd device.

Insult to Injury
Best of all, even if you install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard you can’t use this mouse without installing a specific mouse update. This isn’t explained at first so you flail at the mouse like a penitent until the update comes down the pipe. This is explained in the tiny, tiny twee little manual.

Bottom Line
I’m down with trying new things. I just ate ossobuco for the first time recently and that has marrow in it. However, as Sascha Segan pointed out, Apple seems to focus all their negative energy on making the worst mice known on the planet and then using delightful adjectives like “Mighty” and “Magic” that slowly become ironic.

If you do any serious mousing at all, avoid the Magic Mouse.

StellaRolla writes

Here are Atom users future options…
A) Stay with Leopard 10.5.8 (10.5.9 might have the same effect as 10.6.2)
B) Stay with Snow Leopard 10.6.1
C) Upgrade to 10.6.2 and use either the stock 10.0.0 kernel or use modded Snow kernels

The thinking is either that Apple is trying to stamp out Hackintoshes wholesale or they’re preparing a new update for an Atom-powered device down the line.

via OS X Daily

It’s been some time since I’ve written about Plex, the Mac-specific fork of XBMC that, well, is fantastic. It seems Snow Leopard somewhat borked the application, but the latest release is all fixed up. Have a peach.

So the latest version, 0.8.3, fixes an issue that plagued the Apple remote control. Apparently the driver was such that it didn’t totally disable the OS X hooks. Like, you hit play on the remote from within Plex and then iTunes would start playing. That’s a giant pain, yes. But it’s fixed so there.

There was also some sort of issue with non-5.1 audio sounding like garbage. Fixed, too.

Hello exactly!

via Lifehacker

UPDATE – Video after the jump.

The video is arguably pretty boring but it’s essentially proof of life.

First, download the software. MIRROR Burn the ISO to a CD ROM, boot it in the CD ROM drive, and select verbose in the set-up so you can watch it run. Just let it churn away and assume that it’s crashed if it takes longer than an hour to enter into the OS X install screen. We’ll report back on how our new Hackintosh(ii) run as we try this trick on multiple machines.

Here are the instructions again:

1. Download the Rebel EFI file, available here.
2. Burn the file to a CD.
3. Insert the Rebel EFI disc into your CD drive.
4. Start or restart your computer.
5. As computer boots up select, Boot Options or Boot Menu Key
**Boot Options or Boot Menu Key differ by motherboard manufacturer.
6. Select CD ROM
7. After CD loads press enter to run the CD
8. When prompted, Eject the CD and it will ask for the Snow Leopard DVD
9. Insert the Snow Leopard DVD
10. Select Main Language
11. Click Continue, if you want to continue with the installation of Snow Leopard.
12. Click Agree, if you agree.
13. Select the disk that you want to install Snow Leopard on.
a. If no disk shows, Click on Utilities on the tool bar, then select Disk Utilities.
b. On the left you should see your hard drive.
c. If not, a disk is not connected or cannot be read by your computer.
d. After selecting your hard drive click on Partition.
e. Under Volume Scheme, click current and select 1 partition.
f. Under Volume Information, name your hard drive.
g. Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
h. At the bottom of the window Click on the Options Button.
i. Select the GUID Partition Table
j. Click OK
k. Click Apply
l. Click Partition
m. Quit Disk Utilities
14. Select the disk that you want to install Snow Leopard on.
15. Click Install.
16. When Installation completes. restart the computer
17. As the computer starts up, insert the Rebel EFI CD
18. As computer boots up select Boot Options or Boot Menu Key
**Boot Options or Boot Menu Key differ by motherboard manufacturer.
19. Select CD ROM
20. Once CD loads you will see both the Hard Disk and the Rebel EFI CD
21. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Hard Drive
22. Press Enter to boot Hard drive.
23. Launch the Rebel EFI application from the CD.
24. Follow the on-screen authentication procedure.
25. Click Continue
26. Select your Keyboard
27. Click Continue
28. Select, Do not transfer my information now.
29. Click Continue
30. If, you have and Apple ID enter it now
31. If not, Click Continue
32. Enter your Registration Information
33. Click Continue
34. Create your Account Information
35. Click Continue
36. Select Time Zone
37. Click Continue
38. Click Done

You can almost hear Steve Jobs flipping out right now. Psystar, notable for its efforts to sell generic PCs with Mac OS X pre-loaded, has just released something called Rebel EFI. It’s software that allows you to install Mac OS X on generic PCs without having to Hackintosh said PC. (Hackintoshing isn’t for the weak of heart!)

How does it work? I have no idea, but Matt (or someone, it’s chaos here today) is buying it right now and should have something up in a bit. (I don’t have any PCs here, I’m afraid.)

Nearest I can tell, you download and burn the ISO, it performs some sort of voodoo, then you insert the Mac OS X DVD and install like normal.

So if you’re even remotely interested in this I’d say to download it right now because Apple’s lawyers will be all over this within a matter of seconds. You can count on that.

Update: Psystar’s site is down but here are the installation instructions if you managed to grab the trial version in time. Anyone get it to work yet?

1. Download the Rebel EFI file, available here.
2. Burn the file to a CD.
3. Insert the Rebel EFI disc into your CD drive.
4. Start or restart your computer.
5. As computer boots up select, Boot Options or Boot Menu Key
**Boot Options or Boot Menu Key differ by motherboard manufacturer.
6. Select CD ROM
7. After CD loads press enter to run the CD
8. When prompted, Eject the CD and it will ask for the Snow Leopard DVD
9. Insert the Snow Leopard DVD
10. Select Main Language
11. Click Continue, if you want to continue with the installation of Snow Leopard.
12. Click Agree, if you agree.
13. Select the disk that you want to install Snow Leopard on.
a. If no disk shows, Click on Utilities on the tool bar, then select Disk Utilities.
b. On the left you should see your hard drive.
c. If not, a disk is not connected or cannot be read by your computer.
d. After selecting your hard drive click on Partition.
e. Under Volume Scheme, click current and select 1 partition.
f. Under Volume Information, name your hard drive.
g. Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
h. At the bottom of the window Click on the Options Button.
i. Select the GUID Partition Table
j. Click OK
k. Click Apply
l. Click Partition
m. Quit Disk Utilities
14. Select the disk that you want to install Snow Leopard on.
15. Click Install.
16. When Installation completes. restart the computer
17. As the computer starts up, insert the Rebel EFI CD
18. As computer boots up select Boot Options or Boot Menu Key
**Boot Options or Boot Menu Key differ by motherboard manufacturer.
19. Select CD ROM
20. Once CD loads you will see both the Hard Disk and the Rebel EFI CD
21. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Hard Drive
22. Press Enter to boot Hard drive.
23. Launch the Rebel EFI application from the CD.
24. Follow the on-screen authentication procedure.
25. Click Continue
26. Select your Keyboard
27. Click Continue
28. Select, Do not transfer my information now.
29. Click Continue
30. If, you have and Apple ID enter it now
31. If not, Click Continue
32. Enter your Registration Information
33. Click Continue
34. Create your Account Information
35. Click Continue
36. Select Time Zone
37. Click Continue
38. Click Done

Windows 7 is your idea, friends. That’s what this new spot – along with some 7 second demos after the jump – is trying to say. It’s basically pointing out that Windows 7 is a nice, clean update. Yes, I would agree it’s a Vista Service Pack and, in a way, it’s kind of like Snow Leopard in that it changes little in the UI but improves quite a bit under the hood. But Windows 7 is Microsoft’s big product for 2010 so let’s let them have their day in the sun.

The marketing message here is quite clear: Windows 7 is all about you. After having a decade of updates thrust upon us, this new version is for you and you alone. Your laptop won’t suck, your PC won’t slow down, and you’ll get more work done, and that beautiful, handsome people want to help you make your life better.

Windows 7 has been a long time coming. In some ways it’s what Windows Vista was supposed to be back in 2006. It’s fast, super stable, but also clean and sleek. I love it and switch from OS X because of Windows 7. It has restored my faith in Microsoft and it feels good to be back on a Windows system after a five year hiatus. I don’t think I’m alone either.

Reviews and previews of Windows 7 have been posted ever since the first public beta in January of 2009. Everyone seems to love it. I haven’t seen or heard of any major bugs or flaws in the operating system. Microsoft nailed this one and should be proud.

Tomorrow, October 22, is the official launch date of Windows 7. Preorders are already shipping out from online retailers and I wouldn’t be surprised if the retail boxes are already on the shelves in some brick and mortar stores. In fact, TG Daily is reporting that Windows 7 has dethroned Harry Potter as Amazon’s most successful preorder item of all time. It’s clear that people want Windows 7.

But do you? Seriously, I’m asking. Do you plan on purchasing Windows 7? I’m not saying you should pay full retail for the system as there have already been a few deals for the OS including a student discount and the Signature edition found in the Windows 7 Launch Party packs landing on eBay for cheap. Or you can snag an OEM version on the cheap too if you can manage without the retail box and documentation.

But if you do have to pay full retail, at least Windows 7 rings up at a lot lower price than previous editions of Windows 7 with the most expensive Ultimate edition costing only $319, which is slightly less painful than Vista’s $399 MSRP.

That’s still a good chunk of change though. I can tell you that Windows 7 does provide a significant usability boost over Windows Vista, but besides that, even I have a hard time justify the price. I know Microsoft and Apple’s business model are totally different, but Apple wins people over when it prices new operating systems for $29 while Microsoft charges more than a cost of a netbook. Apple also doesn’t have 17 different versions of the same operating system. Its K.I.S.S. strategy obviously means hardware and software.

You already know how I feel about the OS. I’m using it right now and have enjoyed the free beta versions the entire time. I doubt anyone will actually line up at Best Buy for the chance to be the first tomorrow to purchase the OS. (Okay, maybe a few will) There’s a good chance that savvy Windows users already have the OS either through one of the beta programs or from one of those “torrent” sites I hear about occasionally…

So what’s your plan? Is your computer getting a Windows 7 upgrade sometime soon or are you still going to live in the depths of hell that is Windows Vista.

For weeks – months even – analysts have been telling Apple to make a netbook for the masses, a $299 junker designed for those who surf the web on the couch, their Cheeto-stained hands scrabbling for the TiVo remote while they incessantly refresh Reddit and hope against hope that their Craigslist Missed Connection emails them back. The Air, they said, was too expensive, designed for the frou-frou quiche-eaters of Silicon (V)alley while the MacBook Pros were too overpowered for the likes of Flyover Sally and her sad-eyed brood of younglings. They needed to sell something to the masses, something solid, American, and corn-fed.

Well, now Sally, the quiche-eaters, and the Cheeto dude – and the rest of us – have the new MacBook. It offers a bit less power and peformance than the Pro line, a little more of the styling of the Air line, and sells right at $999, a magic marketing number that is neither North of $1000 (before taxes) and South of corporate financial suicide.
[UPDATE - Added battery test.]

I recall in about 2003 when Wal-Mart first breached the thousand dollar mark in a laptop, a defining moment in the marketing of laptops. With the advent of cheap networks, that mark is now, in short, the high water one while sub-$500 is the norm. The breach of a $1000 meant that manufacturers had to cram cheaper hardware into cheaper cases in order to turn a profit.

Apple never went that route and for good reason. By selling lots of cheap netbooks for no money, big manufacturers like HP and Dell could squeeze profit out of a tight market. Apple, on the other hand, squeeze profit out of a constellation of products, iPhone included, and they hope that the social, societal, and mental pressures to make the earbuds match the laptop are enough to make people switch. For the most part their plan is working.

Designed for students and entry-level users, think of this model as the Mac Mini of laptops. The new design is quite smooth with rounded edges on the bottom – the old model was squared off – and an internal battery thart can hit about 7 hours on one charge. The ports were slightly changed in this model with two USB ports, a DisplayPort, and a combination headphone/line-in jack. The laptop also doesn’t have an IR sensor, presumably because you can now control iTunes with the iPhone or Touch. There is also no Firewire port. From an aesthetic standpoint, the battery/active light on the front which winks playfully through a slit in the metal in MacBook Pros looks like an accident on this model. Apple made it large and brooding rather than thin and charming and it seems like the materials limited their design choices.

Geekbench maxed out at 3258 (the 2008 models hit about 3139) thanks to a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM. This is more than acceptable for most users considering a new MacBook Air clocks in at 2762. The battery lasted for five full hours of video playback with wireless on. I noticed that the bottom of the laptop stayed cool throughout the test.

The large, spacious trackpad is just like the MacBook Pro’s and seamless aspect of the build ensures there’s little to break in a backback or laptop bag. A few caveats: there is no external battery indicator and the bottom panel can be removed but the battery, technically, cannot be changed by mere mortals.

Another caveat is that this thing will get dirty and scratched almost immediately. Polycarbonate is not related “carbonite” or “polyadamantium” – it’s related to plastic. As such, your beautiful white MacBook will soon be a beatiful gray MacBook if you’re not careful.

Obviously you get Snow Leopard with this version and it comes with a power supply, longer power cable, and little else. For example, this model does not include the remote although included remotes seem to be extinct allowing Apple to charge $19 for the new remote.

Bottom Line
This MacBook is not for everyone. It’s a great addition to the MacBook canon, an effort to appease the analysts with an entry level laptop, but don’t ever expect something like this to drop past the $500 mark. Apple doesn’t deign to play in those muddy fields, leaving that to the PC makers in their race to the bottom.

Here’s the rundown.

The $599 Mac Mini

• 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
• 2GB of RAM
• 160GB HDD
• GeForce 9400M
• 8X SuperDrive

The $799 Mac Mini

• 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo
• 4GB of RAM
• 320 GB HDD
• GeForce 9400M
• 8X SuperDrive

The $999 Mac Mini

• 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo
• 4GB of RAM
• 2x 500GB  HDD
• GeForce 9400M
• Snow Leopard Server

Or it could be that it’s just a tiny patch to fix an uncommon but problematic hard drive error (since it’s only 22KB more for Leopard). Either way, the update is there. Been having hard drive issues? This may just fix it.

While waiting for our music ban to kick in (again, you’ll all be receiving letters in the mail shortly detailing when and where you’ll be expected to hand over your music-related goods), I spent Thursday thinking to myself: “You know what I really want for some reason? A Zune HD.” Seeing as though I’m strapped for cash—you saw the lengths I recently went to in order to upgrade my three-year-old iMac—spending $236.79 for the 16GB model was definitely a decision I did not take lightly. (I actually had to calculate when my next student loan payment was due before I committed to buying the device! So if you think, as some of you do for some reason, that we’re “on the take‚” I can only reply: lol.) The thing is, I primarily use a Mac, and last I checked, the Zune software—which is great, by the way, and makes iTunes look like an old dog—only works in Windows. What to do? Sure, I have Windows all set up on a separate partition, but I really only boot into it when I want to play, say, Half-Life or Deus Ex for a little bit. That is, I had no intention of switching over to Windows full-time just to be able to use a Zune HD.

All that said, I’m happy (I guess) to report that using a Zune HD even though Mac OS X is my primary operating system really isn’t that difficult. Yes, I do need to boot into Windows to use the Zune software, but with a little forethought I can keep those boots to a minimum. The result is that I continue to use my beloved Mac OS X for my everyday computing, but now own and can use effectively what could be the best looking portable media player on the market today.

BORING!

So what’s my secret? I use iTunes. Yes, yes, like Chris Jericho insists, I’m a total hypocrite. Not two paragraphs ago I slagged off iTunes, but the fact is that it’s the easiest way to organize music on a Mac. (I understand that Windows users tend to hate iTunes, but I’ve never used iTunes for Windows for more than two seconds, so I can’t speak to that.) The simplest way to put it is: I let iTunes organize all my music on the Mac partition, and then tell the Zune software to look at “/Users/nicholas/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Media‚” for all its music needs. There’s a setting somewhere in the Zune software, something like, “Where is your music stored?” So I point it to that folder inside the Mac partition (I guess Windows 7 can read HFS+ partitions now), and then the Zune software adds it to its music index. It’s important to keep in mind that the Zune software never copies the music from my Mac folder to Windows, but rather builds an index that it uses to organize your music.

LESS BORING!

“Bottom line it for me, Deleon.” (Also, it’s “Deleon,” not “DeLeon,” as Newser wrote the other day. I also don’t write for “TechGear,” and yet somehow people accuse us of being sloppy!) OK, boss: I use iTunes within Mac as I normally do, and then simply tell the Zune software to look at the resulting, totally organized iTunes folder. That’s it.

What does this accomplish? For one, I can live in Mac completely as I normally do, making zero concessions or compromises, then boot into Windows occasionally to sync my music to the Zune HD. I don’t have two separate music libraries or anything, but rather the master Mac iTunes library, then the Zune software builds an index and syncs the music to the Zune HD based on said library. Is it an elegant solution? Maybe not, but it definitely works and is dead simple. What would be simpler? A Mac version of the Zune software, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Now, all of the above makes several assumptions. The biggest one, of course, is that you have access to Windows (maybe even Windows 7, I’m not sure about Vista or XP’s ability to read an HFS+ partition so according to that guy down there, we can thank Snow Leopard’s drivers for Windows’ ability to read HFS+ partitions, so presumably any Windows version that works with Bootcamp will be able to read your Mac partition). Those of you with a <.edu> e-mail address can buy Windows 7 for only $30, so if the Zune HD even remotely interests you I’d say to seriously consider buying it. The second assumption is that, Windows in hand, you’re comfortable with installing it on your Mac and setting up Bootcamp. My guess, though, is that if you’re reading us here at CrunchGear you’re probably advanced enough to figure that out. If dual booting isn’t your thing, and don’t mind spending more money, you could simply install Windows using VM Ware or Parallels and have a Windows virtual machine at the ready for whenever you’re looking to sync your music. In my experience, after the initial Big Sync at the beginning, I rarely have to go back into the Zune software to sync; I’m not adding new albums every 30 minutes.

In any event, I hope this has shown to you that it’s not so difficult to live in a predominately Mac world, and still be able to use the Zune HD. Now I’m off to play World of Warcraft till I pass out. Thank you for your time.

You know what’s a little more difficult than I first imagined? Upgrading the hard drive in my late 2006 iMac. I had initially wanted to upgrade the hard drive so I could finally dual boot between Mac OS X and Windows 7, since the old drive, a 250GB model, was pretty much filled to capacity. (Trying to run Mac OS X with only ~5GB of free space isn’t ideal.) And even though the iMac user manual clearly states that the only user-replacabable parts are the RAM, I figured, “Bah! I think I can handle a simple hard drive replacement.” I did, but not before wishing I had never so much had broken out a screwdriver.

Please note that the following is merely a description of my attempts to replace my old iMac’s hard drive. The primary purpose of this post is to kill time on a Monday afternoon, where even Drudge has had the same headline since this morning. It is, in fact, a slow day, in other words.

So why did I decide to subject myself to such nonsense? Why wouldn’t I merely buy a new iMac? Well, for one, new iMacs cost money, and when you owe Citibank the amount of money I do for the privilege of having attended college, well, money is tight. Besides, it would be a fun adventure, cracking open the iMac, going against the grain (the grain being the manual that says “don’t bother wasting your time, it can’t be done”). And if I ever buy a computer in the future, which is not a guarantee, it most certainly won’t be a proper Mac. Rather, I’ll buy a cheap PC, then Hackintosh it. I get to run Mac OS X, without having to shell out more money than I’m willing to these days.

So let’s get to it!

I decide to upgrade my hard drive. I do a little research just to confirm what type of hard drive the iMac uses (a standard SATA one, so nothing crazy). One trip to Newegg later, I have a nice 1TB hard drive heading my way along with an external enclosure for the old drive, just to make it easier to grab things like music and photos off my old hard drive.

I start searching around, trying to figure out if there’s any unreasonable steps involved. I find a description to replace a G5 iMac’s hard drive, and, wrongly, it turns out, I assume the directions are the same for my iMac. I search a little more, and find a thread on the Apple Discussion Board saying how hard it was to replace an Intel Mac’s hard drive. You mean the steps are different for an Intel Mac? Yes! While the G5’s hard drive could be replaced in what looks to be about five seconds (you slide out the old one, and then slide in the new one), the Intel Mac requires you to break into the iMac and perform a little surgery. Still, no big deal.

My hard drive and enclosure arrive in the mail, and I crack open the iMac as per any number of instructions you can find online. I manage to lift off the plastic cover; my next task is to unscrew the LCD and lift it away. I don’t know about you, but the thought of having to physically removing the LCD from the iMac was a little disconcerting. But we soldier on!

Or no we don’t! It turns out that the precision screwdrivers I had used to perform a little surgery on my PSP—several specks of dirt had gotten underneath the plastic screen protector, so I had to open it up and clean it—weren’t the proper tools for the job, and my other Torx screwdriver set was too big to fit into the tiny space where the screw was located. Fine, that’s my fault. I hop on eBay, because I just have the feeling that the local store isn’t going to have a precision Torx screwdriver set, and order a set. Several days later my shiny new screwdrivers arrive.

Keep in mind that about two weeks had passed between my ordering of the new hard drive from Newegg and my getting the proper screwdriver set from eBay. To say that I had lost interest in the whole project would be correct.

Stupid new screwdrivers in hand, I crack open the iMac again. Take this, LCD screws! Thankfully, the eBay-ordered screwdrivers were exactly what I needed, so that problem was solved.

Remember: all we’re trying to do is replace a hard drive.

Gently, I lift the LCD away, and very very carefully disconnect it all the related wires. LCD totally disconnected, I meet the enemy: that blasted hard drive.

Several screws later, the hard drive is, um, disconnectable. I pry away a temperature sensor, disconnect the SATA cables, then, with all my might, stop short of throwing the old hard drive out the window. Why I’m angry at the hard drive, I don’t know. I should be annoyed at Apple for making it easier to get a mortgage than it is to replace a mere hard drive.

I remove the hard drive; oh, but there’s two more screws on there that you still need to remove, in order to put the new hard drive in a cradle.

To replace a hard drive!

New hard drive installed, I put everything back together. There’s a few screws on the floor, but I don’t even care. They’ll be thrown out shortly.

I turn the iMac on… and it works! Well, it turns on, which is a plus. I then slide in the Snow Leopard disc, and after a restart, it starts installing. Only, well, things seem a little dim.

I mess around for Snow Leopard for a minute, install World of Warcraft, and am convinced that the display is a whole lot dimmer than I remember. In fact, yeah, I must have broken the darn thing during the hard drive install. Terrific.

So I crack open the iMac again, and check the LCD wires. As it turns out, I didn’t break it, I just didn’t plug one in hard enough. Snapped into place, I put everything back in its place. I turn the computer on, and…

Yes~! It’s bright again! The colors were never so bright! Praise Jehovah!

Total install time: I don’t know, like three weeks, give or take. Install time not counting the wait in between hard drive/screwdriver shipments: still a good two hours. It’s very tight inside the iMac, you see, and any sudden movements were liable to blow the whole thing up.

The moral of the story? The next time you upgrade your hard drive of your fancy pants PC, just thank your lucky stars that you’re not working with an old iMac, since Apple, for whatever reason, made it exceedingly difficult to perform such a basic upgrade. (It was easier to upgrade an old Bondi Blue iMac back in 2002ish!)

In most cases, it’s fairly easy to get around this, all you have to do is reinstall Safari and it’ll work. There have been some reported cases where that solution hasn’t worked, and for those unlucky people, there isn’t an answer yet. There’s also a problem with the Genius Mixes. Safari is again at fault, it’s causing the Genius Mix feature not to show up in the iTunes listings. In that situation, the best solution is to go to the iTunes store menu, and update Genius. If it’s still broken, you’ll have to turn off Genius and then turn it on again. Apple seems to have created quite a mess with their lastest software release.

[via Macworld]

Full fix list:

Improves compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
Addresses an issue in which some printer compatibility drivers might not appear properly in the Add Printer browser
Addresses an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
Addresses an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
Resolves an issue in which the Command-Option-T keyboard shortcut would sometimes bring up the special characters menu in applications such as Mail and TextEdit
Addresses instances in which auto account setup in Mail might not work
Resolves issues when sending mail with certain SMTP servers
Addresses an issue in which Motion 4 could become unresponsive
Includes an update to Adobe Flash Player plug-in version 10.0.32.18

via Giz

Once upon a time you dressed so fine, went out to the record store, and bought your albums. Those days are no more, although iTunes wants you to think otherwise. That’s why they added a few new features to add a little bit of that old record store attitude to the boring process of downloading tunes. Introducing iTunes 9.0 – it’s bright, it’s shiny, and it’s kind-of-sort-of new.

The first thing you’ll notice about the new iTunes is the clarity of the new user interface. First, everything is white. The backgrounds are bright and clear and the new iTunes Store carries this UI aesthetic into the shopping experience. The icons are cheery and a little more “open” and friendly.

As for functionality, we’re not looking at much. I haven’t found the Facebook integration yet but I did try the new LPs and was impressed. The LP I bought, Highway 61 Revisted by a young man named Robert Dylan (I think he’s opening for MGMT this year) included three videos and a number of alternate takes of the album material. Was it worth $16.99? Sure. You got the liner notes, written by Mr. Dylan, and a sense that you’re buying something more. Does it replace the LP experience? No. It’s a value add and may not be worth it for some.

Home Sharing essentially turns any computer into an Apple TV with full cross-syncing capabilities, a nice way to share your music with other computers.

Otherwise, we’re looking at a facelift and an a bit more media content in albums. It’s free, it’s available now, and it’s just like Snow Leopard: a few pieces of steak but not much sizzle.