One More Tap

Apple recently launched some new MacBook Pros, touting them as a breakthrough, through and through. These new notebooks came with a revolutionary connectivity port known as Thunderbolt.

If you have not heard of Thunderbolt, it was previously known as Light Peak. Apple and Intel joined hands, collaborating and came up with somewhat a replacement for USB 2.0. Note that Apple has yet to implement USB 3.0 on any of it’s devices, and with the Thunderbolt MacBook Pros, it seems that USB 2.0 will be the last version. For more on Thunderbolt, check out this great piece over at Apple Insider.

Now, that brings me to today’s post topic regarding Time Machine and backups.

I’ve been using my MacBook Pro for about a year plus now. And Time Machine has been helping keep all my data intact. In fact, if I’d like to do some time travelling, Time Machine will gladly transport me back to some time in 2009! That’s amazing, isn’t it.

However, all these came at a price. My current backup drive, which is a 320 GB Western Digital My Passport external 2.5″ hard drive has already run out of space! All 320 GB of space is being occupied by nothing but my Time Machine backups. I can’t store anything else on this particular drive – it is not recommended that you store any other data on your dedicated Time Machine backup anyway. Overall, I’m a happy camper.

I have another Mac mini at home which I use as a backup machine. I have yet to set a backup for this machine, having used it for a year now.

Since hard drive prices has come down, I thought I’d just get myself a new backup drive for the Mac mini. As with my previous 320 GB drive, I tried hunting for FireWire equipped drives. It’s like looking for a needle in the haystack. Computer retailers seem to choose USB over FireWire anytime.

At long last, I resorted to simply getting a 500 GB USB 2.0 equipped drive. I do not have a need for anything faster (read: USB 3.0) for the fact that my Mac mini won’t be able to support it.

I store quite a lot of data on the Mac mini, including a large number of movies and tracks that I’ve downloaded from iTunes. With that in mind, I opt to have Time Machine perform backups on my data partition instead of the entire drive. This should give me more room to breathe as well as more backups. If you’d like to do that for your own Time Machine backup, then take a look at this forum thread over at MacRumors.

written by xcool \\ tags: backup, firewire, mac os x, thunderbolt, time machine, USB

It has begun. Well, since September 16 2009, that is when they first registered the account.

Apple’s @AppStore Twitter account is now finally alive and Verified. What does this mean? Well, that means Steve and Co would like your attention on Twitter – lots of it.

As of this writing, about 114,000 Twitter users are following that account which has so far sent out eleven tweets related to apps that are available on the iTunes Store. Aside to that, take note also that @AppStore follows five other iTunes-related property which are all, yes, Verified too.

If you are on Twitter, give @AppStore a hello and follow them. Oh, while you are there, do follow us @OneMoreTap, eh?

written by xcool \\ tags: App Store, Apple, twitter

Steve Jobs have just announced that he will take another medical leave to focus on his health. Avid Apple fans will know about Steve’s previous medical history—it’s plastered all over the web, just Google.

During his absence, Tim Cook will be handling most of the company’s heavy lifting. I am sure most of us knew about his taking charge the last time Steve was on leave. He did his job pretty well and he delivers.

On the other hand, it seems that investors are not confident with this announcement (medical leave and Tim Cook being in charge) and they showed their disapproval by beating the Apple stock prices. As usual, some people will gain, some others will lose.

Those things aside, I’d just say: let us all wish Steve a speedy recovery. And God bless.

written by xcool \\ tags: Jobs, leave, medical, Steve

This one’s been long awaited. The article was dated 27 April 2010 – I based this on the file name of the “Thoughts on Flash” image that appeared in Apple.com’s front page.

Read from the CEO himself after the break.

Continue reading »

written by xcool \\ tags: Adobe, Apple, Flash, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Steve Jobs

TechCrunch reported a varying number of iPhone 3G S devices sold over the launch week, starting June 19. Original news by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster claimed the number to be around 750,000 iPhone 3G S devices sold.

Apple, on the other hand, sent out a press release, adding an additional 1/3 to the original number, claiming to have officially sold over 1 million iPhone 3G S devices. This is also backed by word from Apple CEO himself, Steve Jobs who (reportedly) recently had a liver transplant.

Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.

Apple also reported that over six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone OS 3.0 software update in the first five days since its release on June 17, 2009.

Well, definitely unbelievable numbers, but it’s true!

written by xcool \\ tags: 3.0, iPhone, News