Wednesday, April 27, 2011

About Macs: What Do You Want in a New iMac?

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From Tom Nelson, your Guide to Macs
I always enjoy seeing Apple bring out new Mac models; I also enjoy reading the rumors that precede them. The latest rumors are about new iMacs. No matter what the rumors might say, I don't expect anything startling in new iMacs. More of a speed bump, with new Intel processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, and the addition of a Thunderbolt port. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess. What do you think we'll see in the new iMacs? More importantly, what would you like to see?

This week, we also look at troubleshooting, and preventing a catastrophe from overtaking you and your Mac.


What Do You Want in a New iMac?
Rumors say that a new update to the iMac product line will hit the shelves sometime before mid-summer, with late spring being the time most sources expect Apple to reveal the new models. Some sources think the first week of May is the likely date for delivery of new iMac models.

The impending arrival of new Macs always inspires creative speculation about new features. You can read about what I'd like to see in a new iMac, but what's on your wish list? Stop on by and let us know... Read more


Verify Time Machine Backups
Is your Time Machine backup ready to be used in an emergency? If you're responsible for one or Macs, that's a question that can keep you awake at night.

Time Machine is a pretty handy backup system for the Mac. I like it primarily because it's a set-and-forget system. Once you set it up, you rarely have any reason, other than curiosity or a disaster, to make use of a Time Machine backup.

But how do you know those Time Machine backups are actually good, that you can rely on them if your Mac's drives come crashing down around you?

Well, if you happen to use a Time Capsule as the backup destination for your Time Machine backups, you can have Time Machine verify that the most recent backup was completed successfully, without any errors that would cause you grief down the road... Read more

See More About:  backup  using time machine  time capsule

Update Your Safari Top Sites When They Are Corrupted
If you use Safari's Top Sites feature, you may have noticed that once in awhile it gets bogged down, fails to load some sites, or just displays old thumbnails of a site that are out of date.

Fixing this little problem is astoundingly easy, but I have to admit, it had me scratching my head for a moment. Then I remembered that the Top Sites page is just a composite view of multiple web sites. You can treat the page just like any other web page... Read more

See More About:  using safari  top sites 

Create an Emergency OS X Boot Device Using a USB Flash Drive
Last weekend, our home's Mac server crashed on us. We use it for hosting our mail server, web services, and file services for our local network. Having it offline meant that we were no longer receiving email, and of course, that no one could visit our web sites.

I had to get the server back up and running quickly. It turned out that the primary bootup drive had failed. For some reason, the secondary bootup drive didn't pick up the load as it should have. Luckily, I had made an emergency OS X boot volume using a USB flash drive. I only needed to plug in the USB Flash drive, and restart the Mac server. Back up it came, and I was able to diagnose what was wrong and restore the bootup volume. Without the USB flash drive, I would have had to break out the install DVD and go through a very long boot process. The USB flash drive was faster, plus I had installed a set of utilities on it specifically for recovering data from wayward drives.

If you would like to create your own bootable USB flash drive, you can find the instructions here... Read more


 


Macs Ads
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This newsletter is written by:
Tom Nelson
Macs Guide
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Mac News & Events
Rumor: New iMacs for Early May
Apple Steals & Deals: Sunday, April 24, 2011
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