Category: hardware
Can I zoom the MacBook Pro camera in a Zoom meeting?
Sometimes when I’m in a Zoom meeting I am a little far from my camera and wish that I could zoom in closer to my face without having to move the computer. I haven’t found a way to zoom or pan the built-in MacBook camera when you are using it as a camera in the…
Installing Home Assistant on a raspberry pi from a Mac
I recently purchases a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Home Assistant. It’s an open source home automation solution. All the instructions are here: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/raspberrypi It worked fine doing it from a Mac. The process was exactly as described.
How to fix your stained MacBook screen
The MacBooks from the 2015 era have a design fault where the anti-glare coating rubs off, leaving a very messy display. It’s most obvious when the screen is dim. It look terrible! Flaky. Dinted. Stained. Scratched. The glass screen is actually still in tact. It’s just the anti-glare coating that has rubbed off.
Why your USB-C cable may not work to connect your MacBooks together.
When I unboxed my new MacBook Pro I booted it up and followed the prompts to connect my old MacBook Air to transfer my old files across. For some reason it did not recognise my old MacBook Air. I used the USB-C cable that came with my new MacBook Pro to connect the two computers…
How to identify USB connectors.
I wanted to order a cable to connect my old KORG Midi controller to my new MacBook Pro. One end needed to be USB-C, and the other end needed to be an older USB connector that I wasn’t sure of the name of. Here’s a great chart from RS-components in Australia that names all the…
Time to get an SSD…
If you don’t yet have an SSD in your Mac, it’s time to upgrade! By far the biggest speed boost on a Mac comes with upgrading the Hard Disk to an SSD. A faster processor (i7 etc) will improve the speed of some tasks, more RAM can avoid a slowdown, but a faster SSD improves…
How to connect a firewire camera to a new Mac
I recently purchased a new Mac mini and it does not have a FireWire or Thunderbolt port. You will also have the same problem if you have purchased a very recent model MacBook Pro or iMac. The problem is I have quite a nice 3CCD Panasonic video camera that has a FireWire port on it.…
Adding an SSD to the new 2018 Mac Mini
The hard drives in the new 2018 Mac mini are PCIe which means they are very fast, but also expensive. Unlike previous models, you cannot upgrade the internal hard drive. It is soldered in. But thanks to the USB-C interface on the new Mac Mini, an external SSD drive is now a good option. I…
Apple repair programs
Apple have a number of free repair programs for faulty devices. Apple don’t communicate this directly to users of the affected devices so it’s good to occasionally go to their website and check your Apple devices. The repair programs do not run indefinitely. The list includes the SSD drive and battery on some 13 inch…
What’s a good monitor to use with a 2018 Mac Mini?
You can use any monitor with the new Mac mini 2018. (Except for an Apple one because they don’t make them any more!) The Mac mini has a HDMI port for a display, but you can also plug a monitor into any of the 4 USB-C ports. My strong advice it try to get a…
Adding Network Storage (NAS) to your Mac
This article is about how to get your large files off your main computer hard drive and onto some external network storage that is more reliable, longer-term, and doesn’t take up precious space on your laptop or desktop computer. Apple don’t make an external storage solution but I found Synology have some great devices.
How to speed up your mac with a Solid State SSD Drive
How to upgrad the boot drive on your Macintosh to an SSD drive.
How to use the LG Ultrafine USB-C Display on older Thunderbolt 2 Macs
Back in December I wrote this article about how Apple no longer sell any displays. Since then Apple have started selling a nice LG display that works with MacBooks. This has been designed in conjunction with Apple so that you can control the display’s volume and brightness from the Apple computer. It essentially functions as an Apple…
How to use an Apple infrared remote with your macbook
If you use your macbook to listen to music, here’s a great tip. You can use your Apple remote (that comes with Apple TV or that you can buy separately on the Apple store) to turn the volume up and down and also to skip, pause etc. But firstly you need to pair the remote…
How to add a software ‘home button’ to your iPhone or iPad screen
The home button is the button on the bottom of your iPhone that takes you back to the home screen. It requires a hard press to make it ‘click’. You can turn on a ‘soft’ equivalent button that appears on your screen. I can think of 3 reasons that you might want a ‘soft’ home…
What’s the best SSD drive for a Mac and how do I install it?
In 2015 I wrote this post about installing an SSD drive. Back then SSD drives were expensive and the whole process I described was a bit complicated. Now SSD drives have dropped dramatically in price and you can just replace your existing drive with an SSD one. I can’t think of any reason why you…
Apple AirPods and EMF – how bad are they?
Lots of people have commented on the possible increase in EMF exposure from Apple AirPods, but how bad are they? I’ve done some measurements with a field strength meter. Here is a graph to give you an idea. When you use the new Apple Airpods on a mobile phone call a you are getting approximately 10…
Does my mac need more memory?
When your computer is running a bit slowly, how can you tell if getting more memory will help?  The short answer is that if you have little or no ‘free memory’ or if your ‘page-out’ count is high, then you need more RAM. Here’s how to check those two things on any Macintosh running OS X.
Seagate Expansion and Backup Plus pull apart – what’s the difference?
Seagate make two external USB drives. The Seagate Backup Plus and the Seagate Expansion. They are both USB 3 compatible. They both come with a three-year warranty in Australia, although in the USA the expansion only has a 1 year warranty. The Backup Plus model costs $20 more. A lot of reviewers say that…
How to stop flickering on an Apple LED Cinema Display
The Apple 24 inch LED Cinema display and the Apple thunderbolt display have been a source of frustration for many people. They flickers, go black, the screens gets garbage on them, the fans turn on and off. After reading lots of forums and trying various things I have practically completely eliminated all the flickering on…
How to turn on expert mode in Display Settings in El Capitan
One of the features I use regularly in the display settings of OS X is the adjustment of the gamma setting of my monitor. This is useful because it can lighten up dark movies when you are watching them on your Mac. The gamma setting is only available in the “expert” mode of display settings…