Step one: Find out if your Mac can handle it

Not all Macs are eligible for memory upgrades, or at least not ones you can perform easily at home. Some might already be equipped with their maximum supported memory, and some might have more difficult to replace memory kits, like the MacBook Air does, for instance. But in general, you can find out if your Mac could take on more memory by checking your system stats.

In Lion, this is easy. Go to the Apple menu, click “About this Mac,” and then click “More Info…” Then, click the “Memory” tab along the top and it’ll show you how much memory you currently have installed, and the capacity of each individual module. In my example, I have 4 x 4 GB modules installed on my iMac, which is the most this model officially supports. Many base configuration models of iMacs currently available ship with two slots free, as mine did before I upgraded.

To find out the maximum memory your model supports, you can do two things. First, click the link in that Memory information page that says “Memory Upgrade Instructions” to be taken to the relevant Apple support site for your computer. So long as you know when your computer was released, you can find all the information you need, including Apple’s maximum memory capacity for your specific model here. If you need to find when your Mac was released, check our guide for finding that out.

You can also take a second option, which is to visit OWC, find your Mac of choice under the “Memory” section and see what options the site provides. OWC actually offers kits that provide memory in capacities that often exceed Apple’s official supported specs, but will still work fine with your hardware.

Step two: Figure how much memory you need to upgrade

OWC is a great resource for figuring out how much RAM you need to purchase to upgrade. Navigate to the Memory section on the OWC homepage, then find your model of computer. Now, the site will provide you with a number of options for memory upgrades and replacements. OWC had basically done the thinking for you, so you can just click on a combo package greater than your current memory configuration and not worry about whether or not the modules will work with each other or your machine.

The other benefit of going through OWC is that they have very fair prices, and they even offer rebate pricing on the memory that shipped with your Apple computer. You won’t get much, but it’s more than you’d make by throwing your old RAM in the garbage.

Step three: Install the RAM

Following Apple’s installation guides is the best way to go about replacing your RAM. Here are links to the instructions for upgrading iMac memory, Mac mini memory, MacBook Pro memory, and MacBook memory. It’s not difficult and requires a minimum of tools, but you will need a small screwdriver, like one you’d use for eyeglasses repair, in order to replace memory on iMacs and MacBooks.

Step four: Enjoy considerable performance boosts

When I upgraded my 2011 iMac from its basic 4 GB of memory to 16 GB, it was definitely like getting a new machine. Things never grind to a halt anymore; I can run Photoshop alongside other demanding applications without major slow-downs; and my computer seldom requires an actual restart or power-down to get things moving smoothly again. The entire upgrade cost me less than $100, too.

If you love your Mac but find yourself less than impressed with its performance lately, a memory boost could be just the thing to put the spark back in your relationship.

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The MacBook Air was the only notebook that saw increased shipments during the quarter, according to Digitimes Research, which said on Monday that notebook shipments slowed by 8.7 percent sequentially to 48.59 million units worldwide during the quarter.

In Apple’s last quarterly earnings report, it reported 4.89 million Macs sold, meaning if we use Digitimes’ estimate of 1 million MacBook Airs sold, the notebook represented roughly 20 percent of the total. We know Apple’s iMac is also performing well, but it’s logical to assume the Air is growing in influence in terms of the overall Mac picture. Expect that trend to continue, since analysts expect the so-called Ultrabook category to explode in the next six years.

Apple doesn’t usually break out sales of individual Mac lines from the overall Mac category total, but it will still be interesting to see if it has any official comment on the success of the Air during its quarterly earnings conference call on Jan. 24.

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“Thunderbolt” is turning up in my inbox quite a bit, with pitches for Thunderbolt docks, drives, adapters and expansion devices. No doubt that is helped in part by the news that Thunderbolt will be coming to computers from select PC vendors, including Acer and Asus, arriving sometime in the second quarter of this year. But it also helps that nearly all of Apple’s line of computers, including its popular iMac desktop, have put Thunderbolt into the hands of a much broader potential market of peripheral shoppers.

Some of the products on tap include more-traditional external drives than we have seen to date, with SSD drives from usual-suspect Mac accessory makers like Elgato and OCZ. These drives still are not exactly aimed at the average computer user, since they will reportedly come in starting at $400 for storage sizes of 128 GB and up. But they should be a hit with pro video and audio editors, as well as the semi-pro or serious hobbyist crowd.

Much more interesting to mainstream Mac users are devices like the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock, which should arrive in September and will boast three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 connection, a Gigabit Ethernet port, one 3.5 mm audio jack and two Thunderbolt ports. Basically, it provides a lot of what the Apple Thunderbolt Display offers but without the screen and for a heavily reduced price of $299. For users who want a quick and easy docking solution for plug-and-play home theater connectivity, this is a good solution and cheaper than many receivers.

Another solution that average users might get some use from is the Thunderbolt eSATA hub shown off by LaCie at CES. It features connections for up to two eSATA-connected drives via one Thunderbolt port, along with a second Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining. ESATA drives are loads cheaper than their native Thunderbolt equivalents, and with top speeds of 6 Gbps, eSATA is still plenty fast for most users. No word on pricing yet, but this one is coming soon: within the first quarter of 2012.

LaCie also unveiled a dual 3.5-inch drive enclosure called the 2Big that hooks up via Thunderbolt, with size offerings of up to 8 TB of total storage planned. I wouldn’t expect this one to be within the average consumer’s price range, but the more the tech is adopted at all levels, the better the potential of lower prices across the board.

Some of these items are still pro-focused and the others aren’t exactly cheap, but at least accessory makers finally seem to be embracing the possibilities that Thunderbolt offers. With cheaper third-party cables and maybe some USB 3.0 cross-compatibility, this should be the year we see the Thunderbolt port get used for more than just Mini DisplayPort connections.

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Doing it before it was cool

The iMac was an all-in-one long before the form factor was popular, although it arrived much later than its own predecessor, the original Macintosh computer. Still, at the time the iMac arrived, the competition was all about separate towers and monitors. All-in-ones had trade-offs that seemed considerable at the time, including fewer customization options and no opportunity to really get into the high-performance range of personal computing.

Fast-forward to today, 14 years after the introduction of the first iMac, and it is the computer with the lion’s share of the hottest growth area in desktop computing. According to DisplaySearch, as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the iMac accounts for 32.9 percent of the all-in-one desktop market, which itself grew 39 percent over the course of 2011 to 14.5 million shipments worldwide. DisplaySearch believes that the market will reach 23.3 million units by 2014, and Apple looks likely to lead the pack, since its next-closest competitor is Lenovo, with 22.7 percent of all-in-one sales.

Early investment pays later dividends

Apple doesn’t always strike a vein when it comes to early, unusual designs for its computers. The G4 Cube is a prime example. But that doesn’t mean they don’t bear fruit. The Cube formed the groundwork for the Mac mini, which succeeds as an HTPC and an inexpensive Mac desktop option. Likewise, the early MacBook Air, which was expensive, somewhat underpowered and mostly admired from afar, paved the way for the current generation of sleek, fast, awesome general-use machines.

Apple worked out its ultraportable teething issues early, while competitors either looked on in disbelief that anyone would want such a device (its downsides vs. traditional notebooks were similar to the iMac’s flaws regarding user customization and repairs) or offered even more half-baked attempts at competing, like Dell’s Adamo. The first iteration of the MacBook Air meant Apple was ready to come back cheaper, faster and stronger.

Playing catch-up

Now Intel is prompting other notebook manufacturers to jump in late and try to capitalize on the demand for ultraportables. CES pitches are littered with the term, and it seems like every PC maker is planning an Air-like notebook for release in the near term. But the iMac’s doppelgängers haven’t managed to dethrone it, and I highly doubt we will see the notebook market behave very differently.

With both the iMac and the MacBook Air, Apple managed to successfully skate to where the puck’s going to be, and in doing so it has put itself at the fore of growth areas in overall markets (desktop and notebook PCs) that are otherwise sluggish. For users, that means both the iMac and the Air will be among Apple’s most exciting products to watch in 2012 and beyond.

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iPhone

Apple’s next iPhone is one many probably feel we’ve already seen in previews, since the rumor mill prior to the release of the iPhone 4S was focused more on the so-called iPhone 5. A lot of what was said about that device should probably come to pass when we do get a new iPhone next year, which Apple could well call the iPhone 5.

A release in fall is probably in the cards, since Apple would gain little by releasing a new iPhone in the early summer so soon after unveiling the iPhone 4S, so it’s hard to pin down anything definite about the device at this point; a lot can change in mobile in nearly a year, after all. But there are a few safe bets regarding Apple’s next smartphone.

First, expect an A6 processor, possibly quad-core, powering the device. Also, a larger screen and a new physical case design are almost guaranteed. I don’t think Apple would go the route of the Android-makers with anything gigantic, but a respectable 4-inch display seems likely. And while LTE still isn’t a guarantee, it’s a good bet for 2012. Near-field communication (NFC) is less certain to make the cut, since that tech still has a long way to go before (if) it goes mainstream.

iPod

Making predictions about Apple’s iPod line is definitely tough. The media player got virtually no changes in 2011 compared to 2010, and its impact on Apple’s overall revenue picture continues to dwindle. The iPod touch is still an important part of the lineup, but even its future might become a question sometime in the next couple of years.

In 2012, I see Apple finally putting its iPod classic to rest, and maybe the shuffle, too. The iPod touch will likely get the spec bump it missed this year, bringing it closer to the current iPhone 4S in terms of wireless radios and processing power, and possibly a physical redesign, too. The real question mark, and maybe Apple’s greatest opportunity to shake up the media player market, is the iPod nano.

Users have been looking for an update that brings Bluetooth on-board with the diminutive nano, making it compatible with wireless headphones (better when worn on the wrist) and possibly enabling a live data connection between it and the iPhone. I suspect that Apple skipped a proper update for the nano this year because it’s actually working on making the nano the perfect connected companion for the iPhone, thanks to Bluetooth 4.0 tech, but we’ll see in 2012 whether or not that’s the case.

iPad

Rumors about the iPad 3 are already swirling, since it seems on track for an early 2012 release. I think we’ll see it arrive around the same time as last year’s iPad 2, so between February and March, complete with the Retina Display users have been looking for since the iPhone 4′s release.

What else will the iPad 3 offer? That’s a good question, and one that hasn’t really been addressed all that much in early reports. Its features will be dictated largely by what the market demands, which shouldn’t be much judging by the current tablet market picture. In 2011, Apple ruled the tablet market without a real competitor in sight. In 2012, it will have low-cost alternatives nipping at its heels, but it still isn’t looking at any competitors who are truly shaking up the space.

As a result, I’d expect to see an iPad 3 that resembles its predecessor in most regards, with the aforementioned improved screen, as well as a slimmer design and maybe a longer lasting battery. Apple has the right recipe for success in other regards, and the iPad 3 isn’t really crying out for camera improvements or additional wireless tech. Adoption of Bluetooth 4.0 is probably also on tap, as well as an upgraded A6 processor, but I wouldn’t expect much else.

Instead of making dramatic changes or additions to the iPad, expect Apple to offer a low-cost option in the form of the iPad 2, likely limited to either 8 or 16 GB of onboard storage. And as much as I and Kevin admire the smaller, 7-inch form factor, I think Apple might keep that one in reserve for at least another year.

Macs

In 2012, iDevices won’t be the only devices getting big upgrades. Apple’s Mac division is still a big revenue driver for the company, and in the new year I expect them to focus on the products that will have the biggest role in the future of computing. The MacBook Air is the crucial device here, but iMacs, too, should be in for big changes.

The MacBook Air is Apple’s most forward-looking Mac, and it has plenty of room to grow. In 2011, the 11- and 13-inch form factors got even better thanks to much-needed processor upgrades and the addition of Thunderbolt tech. In 2012, I expect Apple to expand the line as it moves to push aside the MacBook Pro in terms of its importance to Apple’s notebook offerings. So a 15-inch Air is likely, as well as more substantial improvements to the 11- and 13-inch devices, aimed at shoring up their remaining weaknesses: battery life and storage. Higher resolution displays are another definite possibility.

As Apple’s strongest desktop product, expect iMacs to get significant updates in 2012, both externally and on the inside, too. The current iMac case design is getting a little long in the tooth, and is overdue for an update. Intel has new processors that will likely make their way into Macs in the works, and we should see them in the second quarter of 2012, so expect new iMacs around then, too. Other changes might include high-res displays like those that could make their way to the notebook line, and solid state storage as the default option on some models.

As to the rest of the Mac line, I’d expect to see upgrades for the Mac mini, but not necessarily any big improvements for the Mac Pro. Apple is clearly focusing on consumer products, and it could let its more powerful desktops languish again as a result.

Apple TV

It’s the last big question mark for Apple’s 2012 plans, the mythical iTV. I think we’ll see Apple make its move here, and introduce a television set late in the year, complete with a full App Store, Siri controls and iCloud support. Whether or not we’ll see its set-top Apple TV gets a similar upgrade strikes me as less certain, but since it could act as a gateway device the way the iPod touch does for the iPhone and iPad, I think we’ll see that, too.

This is the rough roadmap I see in place for Apple’s 2012 product plans. Predicting Apple’s plans is likely a fool’s game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. Let us know what you think is coming out of Cupertino in the comments.

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a great story out on Friday illustrating the massive pricing, manufacturing and shipping advantages that Apple gets from having one of the most successfully managed supply chains in the world. Reading it, you see how having lots of money frees Apple up to do things other companies either can’t or won’t.

The report includes interesting details, like how Apple made that little green light appear next to the webcam in your MacBook. It was a manufacturing challenge that required $250,000 laser machines to cut tiny holes through metal, so Apple bought “hundreds of them.”

There’s also the tale of how Steve Jobs bought out all air freight for Christmas 1998:

To ensure that the company’s new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available at Christmas the following year, Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space, says John Martin, a logistics executive who worked with Jobs to arrange the flights. The move handicapped rivals such as Compaq that later wanted to book air transport.

The report illustrates two of the things that set Apple apart from its competitors in ways that are invisible to most of its customers: money and attention to detail. It’s all of those billions in the bank that give Apple the freedom to lavish gobs of attention on everything from massive manufacturing problems to insanely small but critical details. Some of the things the company does with that freedom range from buying out the world’s supply of smartphone displays to Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and some of his team staying near a manufacturer’s facility in China “for months” to closely monitor the design manufacturing and prototyping process for future products.

For next year, Apple appears to be pursuing the same tactics. It has already said via its annual report to the SEC that it will spend “$7.1 billion for product tooling and manufacturing process equipment.”

Locking down the supply chain is clearly a spending strategy that has proven itself. But it will be interesting to see how or if Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO and longtime supply-chain guru, will continue to use the company’s cash in other ways outside the strategy approved by Jobs. Jobs turned Apple into an extremely conservative company when it came to its spending and investments and resisted any calls for investor dividends or share buybacks. Cook, however, has indicated that he and Jobs differ slightly in their philosophies. During the company earnings call last month, Cook declared:

I’m not religious about holding cash or not holding it. I’m religious about a lot of things but not that one. We’ll continually ask ourselves what’s in Apple’s best interest. So it’s a topic for the board on an ongoing basis.

Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr user Tracy O

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Macs retain higher overall resale values than many other PCs, but they don’t last forever. But how do you know when to act? What are the symptoms of impeding Mac death or obsolescence, and when is a good time to consider replacing an old Mac with a new one?  The following seven points should help you make an educated decision about whether or not to invest in one of the new MacBook Pros unveiled Monday, or any other new Mac for that matter.

1. Will not run OS X Lion (or Snow Leopard). In the past, if you had a Mac running an older version of OS X, you could keep it running for a long time without much issue. But iCloud’s minimum specs have changed that. Your Mac must have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor to run Lion 10.7.2 which is required to use iCloud on a Mac. If you’re not certain your Mac meets these requirements, you can easily identify exactly what Mac you have and get the specs from there. Users hoping to update to iCloud from MobileMe will need a newer Mac, and those hoping to stay on top of what could become the core of Apple’s business will also want to upgrade.

Not everyone needs the convenience features of iCloud, but you should note that Apple has also stopped releasing security updates for older Macs as well.  To play it safe, you may need to have a Mac that can at least run Snow Leopard.

2. Battery no longer keeps its charge. While certainly not the primary reason to get rid of a MacBook that still works when plugged in, it’s a sign that you may be getting near the end of your machine’s useful life.  Apple does have a battery replacement program, even for MacBooks that do not user-accessible batteries, but the cost of replacing a battery can run anywhere from $130 to $180, and if your battery is past its prime, other system components might be nearing their end, too. It may be time to consider turning that laptop into a desktop, and get a new MacBook.

3. Most-used apps are sluggish. New software tends to get bigger and more demanding with time. With each new update comes a lot more features. These may not be features you need or care about, but sometimes they’re required in order to maintain compatibility with a particular file format. You can always try sliding back to an earlier version to preserver performance, but if apps you use time and time again are making your computer slow or unusable, it’s probably time to look for something new.

4. An iPad outperforms your Mac. It may surprise you to learn that the current iPad 2′s geek bench scores are about as high as the Mac mini G4′s scores from 2005. You could try to clean out your Mac, free up some hard drive space, or even add some memory or a solid state drive to help and improve performance. But at the end of the day, there is a limit to the gains in performance you can squeeze out of older hardware, and the cost of doing so might outweigh the benefit.

5. Difficult-to-replace component has failed. If you’re not comfortable replacing the internal components of you Mac yourself, service prices can become cost-prohibitive when compared to buying a new Mac.  You may also end up being very disappointed following a major upgrade when something else goes wrong, like a hard drive failure.  With MacBooks especially, when one part starts to fail, the rest are likely not too far from failing as well.

6. The Mac you want was just updated. Following the rumors about possible Apple product updates can become more obsession than hobby.  I have looked toward’s MacRumor’s Buyer’s Guide for years now in an effort to track down when a particular product is going to be updated.  The simplest rule to follow, however, is that if you need a new Mac, buy a new Mac. But if your need happens to coincide with a fresh product update, don’t hesitate.

7. You own a PC, but all your mobile devices are Apple. Like works best with like, and that’s particularly true of Apple products. Apple has a great guide to help with the transition from a PC to a Mac.  And with Apple’s Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels, you can keep on using Windows on a Mac if you like.

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Magma’s three-slot expansion chassis for Thunderbolt, the ExpressBox 3T announced by the company on Wednesday, is a perfect example of how Intel’s high-speed I/O port, which ships on nearly all new Macs, could bring back a greater range of customization options for owners of Apple computers. The accessory will allow you to use any PCIe 2.0 cards with Thunderbolt-equipped Macs, including video capture devices, media transcoding tools and high-speed data storage.

The ExpressBox 3T can be daisy-chained with up to six Thunderbolt devices, including the new 27-inch Cinema Display that Apple just recently began shipping to stores. It also could mean that PCIe graphics cards will let less powerful machines like the MacBook Air keep up with higher end devices for gaming and video editing applications.

It’s another step along the path of Thunderbolt allowing Mac notebooks to become powerful workstations through single-cable plug-in solutions, something which can’t come fast enough in my opinion. Portable computers already account for the bulk of PC sales, and if tech like Thunderbolt can ensure that we can have portability without sacrificing power, storage or speed when settling in to performing demanding tasks, we should be able to move closer still to Jobs’ Post-PC era.

Magma hasn’t announced pricing or availability info for the ExpressBox 3T yet, but the company will be showing off the device, and possibly releasing more information at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, which runs Sept. 13 – 15. Sonnet, which makes the upcoming ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt adapter, has also announced PCIe expansion chassis products, but no details about its release timeline have yet been unveiled. Let’s hope they all hurry up and get here so we can see what Thunderbolt is really capable of.

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1. Create a service-only account

Often repair work involves administrator-level access to your Mac’s operating system. While I’ve never heard about privacy violations at Apple Authorized Service Providers, I like putting an extra barrier to protect my personal data, since I’ll sheepishly admit my account password is used in a few other places, and I’d rather nobody know it.

For added protection, I have another administrator account prior to sending my Mac in for service. An extra administrator account is good for testing purposes, so I already have one. If you don’t, then go to System Preferences, and then to Accounts and click the plus button and under “New Account.” choose “Administrator.” Create a full name and unique password and then click “Create Account.”

When checking in your computer at the repair shop, give them this password. Yes, your original account’s password could be reset and your data read, but at least this makes it a bit more difficult to do so. Even if your primary account’s password is reset, they still won’t have easy access to your keychain or be able to find out where else you use that admin password.

Now that your Mac is safely backed up and ready for service, here are two tips for an often overlooked part of the job — physically transporting your Mac.

2. Dress your iMac in a t-shirt

The iMac’s screen in particular can be easily scratched when lifting it in and out of the car. Shirt buttons and jewelry are common items that could cause scratches on your person, too. A large towel is a common protector for transport, but it’s difficult to keep that in place. My solution is an old t-shirt. If your screen size exceeds your shirt size, go to a thrift store and pick up an XL. Old shirts tend to be extremely soft and stretch easily, thereby protecting your iMac screen and keeping that protection in place during transit. The bonus is that your computer looks absolutely adorable.

Once you’ve got the T-shirt wrapped around the iMac, lift it carefully, making sure to grasp it firmly with two hands at the bottom and press the protected screen against your body. Don’t try to carry it by the stand. Unless you’re a weightlifter with unusually long arms, avoid carrying an iMac under one arm.

3. Keep it in the backseat

Just like people do with their other most precious cargo (ie., children and pets), keep the Mac in the backseat. Have the screen face backwards and strap it in with the shoulder and waist restraints. I typically place the shoulder strap over the back of the iMac and then use the waist restraint close to the base. This will not keep it in place as well as it will a child in case of an accident, but it serves to slow the Mac down, and if it does hit the back of the passenger seat, the screen is less likely to crack and the hard drive is less likely to get jostled. For an extra ounce of prevention, I push the passenger seat as far back as I can and brace it with a pillow if needed. This will also help if you have to make a sudden stop, or if you hit a few potholes long the way.

Any other tips for getting your injured Mac to and from service-related visits?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user kaikajus.

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1. Know the computer’s serial number

Apple products are hot on college campuses, and can easily get stolen. Once stolen, it’s hard to retrieve your serial number after the fact, and it’s one of the first things a police officer will ask about. To obtain this information, go to the Apple () menu in the upper left hand corner, choose “About This Mac” and then click twice on the OS Version and the serial number will appear. Both student and parent should keep a copy of this information.

2. Know the computer’s warranty expiration and make sure Apple’s info is correct

Most Apple products have a one year warranty, extended to three years by AppleCare. Generally if you purchase both the computer and AppleCare at the same time directly from Apple, your AppleCare will be registered. It’s important to know if it was registered properly and the expiration date is correct before a problem develops. Go to http://support.apple.com and then click “Check Your Service & Support Coverage” in order to find out when the warranty expires. If this information is incorrect, contact Apple to get it corrected. Typically you need to fax them the receipt if there’s a discrepancy.

3. Get AppleCare if you don’t already have it

AppleCare is really a great value, especially for college students. Not only does it cover hardware failures, but it also gives you three years of phone support. That support will come in handy when a paper is due and you can’t figure out how to get iWork to play ball.

If you didn’t purchase AppleCare when you purchased your Mac, you can purchase it at anytime during the initial one-year warranty period. AppleCare is highly discounted in the educational market, either directly from Apple or from campus bookstores.

4. Insure your Mac against loss

Even if your Mac isn’t stolen, an inebriated roommate, an out-of-hand party, or plain carelessness can result in a damaged Mac. The two most common problems I see are liquid spills and laptops being dropped. Neither of these are covered by Apple’s original or extended warranty.

Most homeowners or renter’s insurance companies will allow you to specifically “schedule” a student’s computer while at the dorm. Typically this costs just a few dollars a year and results in a lower deductible and protection against more perils. Before you have problems is the time to talk with your insurance agent about it.

5. Bring a pound of uncooked rice

No this isn’t for an emergency late night dinner; that’s what ramen is for. Liquid spills are common in college environments, and the best known remedy for that is a bag of uncooked rice. Not instant rice, but the inexpensive uncooked plain white rice. Should a spill occur, immediately cut power to the computer and remove the battery. If the battery can’t be removed, shut it down. Put the device in a sealed container (typically a trash bag) with that uncooked bag of rice and wait 48 hours before trying to turn it on. The device may be okay after that. Though I shouldn’t have to say it, it is advisable to throw away the rice when you’re through.

6. Time Machine is required, but is just a first step

College is a significant investment, and a late or missed assignment can be the difference between passing a class and failing. Time Machine is a quick and effective primary backup system that comes with every Mac running Leopard or above, and enabling it will help you prevent delays due to data corruption.

However it really isn’t enough — again, college have a way of attracting “accidents.” If the Time Machine drive is sitting next to the computer, it could get damaged or go missing along with the computer. Students who use portable computers may go days at a time without connecting to their Time Machine drives, too. For the average going rate of $50 a year, I highly recommend that you buy an online and offsite backup solution. Read my recent articles for recommendations.

7. Know where to take your Mac when problems arise

In those years at college, a computer problem is likely to develop that may or may not be covered by Apple’s warranty. Before a problem occurs, it’s good to know who to call for Mac help. The obvious choice might be a local Apple retail store, but that might be far away, and in college, time is of the essence. Many campuses have college bookstores that also provide Apple warranty service, but you need to ask first. Additionally, you can use Apple’s Authorized Service Provider locator to find the closest repair center. If you have a choice between more than one, it’s a good idea to get to know them. Just ask a few questions and find out their procedures and turn around time.

8. Bring all recovery media that came with the Mac (if applicable)

Although Lion has recovery over the Internet, older Macs still need those DVDs or flash drives in order to reinstall or repair the operating system. These are typically in the box that came with the Mac and are often overlooked. When you call for support, the friendly Apple support technician will be expecting these to be close at hand. This can avoid a trip to a service provider if the problem can be diagnosed or repaired with a restore or reinstall.

9. Turn off automatic software updates

Although it’s rare, a software update can introduce new problems to a system. A recent example are numerous problems that came with 10.6.8 — enough that Apple introduced 10.6.8 v1.1. Apple eventually fixes problems with later software updates, but running software update right before a paper is due is a bad idea. Better to plan updates right before a visit home or scheduled downtime. Be sure if you don’t already know your Administrator password, you find it out now. You’ll need that for troubleshooting and updates.

10. Have a spare power adapter

This tip is for laptop users. Inevitably in the hustle and bustle of going about your studies, a power adapter is going to be left in class, at home, or at the coffee shop. A nice $1,000 + laptop can be rendered completely useless by the lack of a simple power adapter. Having a spare one can give you time to get a new one or retrieve your old one. I generally recommend keeping one at your residence, plugged in, and one in your laptop bag. If you lose the laptop bag, you can always retrieve the one from your residence.

Those are ten handy tips to make sure that you and your child never have to tell the prof “the computer ate my homework.” Got any others to add to the list?

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Lion’s system information

Right in your computer’s Apple menu (under ), the first item in fact, is the “About This Mac” utility. Clicking on it will bring up a small window that prominently says which version of Mac OS X you’re running, which processor your system has, how much RAM, and the name of the startup disk (the drive the computer boots from). There are two clickable buttons in this window: one takes you to Software Update, and the other, which we’ll be using, is labelled “More Info…” and takes you to the System Information app.

The System Information app provides you with the type of Mac you’re using (iMac, MacBook Pro, etc.) and also the specific size and original release timeframe of the computer. In the screenshot below, you can see that I’m using a 27-inch iMac from mid-2011 here.

Other information provided on the “Overview” tab of the System Information app includes your processor speed and type, the amount of memory or RAM installed on your system, the graphics card your computer has, and the machine’s serial number and operating system version.

Listed along the top of the System Information window are different tabs where you can find out more. “Displays” shows you the number and type of screens currently being used by your Mac, including the built-in display and any external monitors you have connected.

“Storage” provides a breakdown of any drives either connected to or built-in to your Mac, including a visual breakdown of what type of content and how much of it can be found on each drive.

“Memory” tells you how much RAM you have installed, and lets you know if you have any free slots available for more. You can also access Memory Upgrade Instructions from this tab for your specific model of Mac, if the memory is user-upgradeable.

Also available from the System Information app are Mac OS X and Mac hardware support resources, under the “Support” tab listed in the far right upper corner of the window. These provide useful links to Apple’s online help database, support contact information, and user manuals and specifications.

You can also check whether your Mac is still eligible for service, and check your authorized repair options under the “Service” tab.

Back under the Overview tab, you can click “System Report…” to get a more detailed look at your system and the hardware installed, but for most users, what you need to find should be listed in one of the tabs mentioned above.

Mactracker and EveryMac.com

If you’re still curious about your Mac or any other Mac out there, then there are a couple useful resources you can check out. Mactracker is an app on the Mac App Store that’s available as a free download. You can use it to browse or search for any Mac model ever built, as well as Apple-made peripherals, iOS devices, servers and even discontinued product like the Newton. It’s like a virtual Apple museum that’s both searchable and customizable.

EveryMac.com offers similar information, but in a website instead of in an app. It’s a little bit harder to navigate, but once you find what you’re looking for, it provides much more detailed information, including lengthy contextual descriptions of the Macs themselves, as well as Geekbench performance comparisons, and links to helpful articles about specific components and their uses.

Knowledge is power

For a lot of people, the motivation for moving to Mac can be that users simply don’t want to think too much about the system they’re using — hence Steve Jobs’ affinity for the phrase, “it just works.” But knowing at least the basics about the system you’re using means you’re that much likely to be able to handle problems well when they do occur. For most people, all that means is opening System Information once in a while to refresh your memory. For others, though, the deeper dive provided by Mactracker and EveryMac.com will be a rewarding experience.

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The budget iMac (which is available only to institutions, not school students or faculty) features a 3.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, a 250 GB hard drive and just 2 GB of RAM, along with a 21.5-inch display. It also offers an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card with 256 MB of memory and only comes with Mini DisplayPort, not Thunderbolt. Apple’s entry-level consumer iMac, by comparison, has a 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 6750M card with 512 MB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive, for only $150 more.

That may not seem like a great savings to some, considering the new education iMac’s considerably reduced specs, but for volume shoppers purchasing 10 or more machines for a computer lab or library, the extra savings will add up quickly. And if the computers are primarily being used for brief sessions made up of less-specialized tasks, the extra muscle in the $1,149 Mac (the standard $1,199 model, after a $50 education discount) isn’t necessary. Apple also still offers an $899 20-inch 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac which uses the previous aluminum and glass body design used on machines before the 21.5- and 27-inch models were introduced.

The introduction of the new iMac shows that Apple is still keen on attracting education customers, which is a great way of getting its product in the hands of students, one of its core demographics. Apple’s attempts to win favor with students also includes the yearly back-to-school deal and special pricing for individual educational customers, which usually knocks at least $50 off the price of any Mac. According to recent research, it’s a combined strategy that’s working very well.

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It turns out that Mac Intel chips have a built-in feature called THERMTRIP that will temporarily suspend the CPU when things get hot, and shut down the CPU altogether when things get too hot. Speculation is that this temperature is somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130ºC. While my Macs did not reach three digit temperatures, the increase did alarm me. Luckily, as you can see, the temperatures settled down to a normal range after a few days. This is likely due to the machines running a lot of initial tasks like Spotlight indexing of your entire drive just after the Lion upgrade.

Still, if you, like me, are concerned and want to do something a little more proactive than just waiting, here are a few precautionary measures you can take:

iStat Pro Dashboard Widget. One of the first (and lately the only dashboard widgets) I installed is iSlayer’s iStat Pro. This widget will allow you to monitor several of your Mac’s vital statistics, and with the optional companion iOS app, you can monitor your Mac from your iPhone when you’re attached to the same Wi-Fi network. Information reported includes systems various temperatures, and the speed of your Mac’s internal fans. The problem is that as your Mac keeps getting hotter, your fans aren’t spinning faster, something for which we turn to the next tool.

smcFanControl Menu utility for Mac. To manually modify the speed of your internal fans, you can install Hendrik Holtmann’s smcFanControl. For some of the older Macs that are still technically capable of running OS X 10.7 Lion, you may find that they are having some difficulty keeping up at times, and the default fan speed just will not provide the relief required. This menu bar item will allow you to change the minimum fan speed and effectively take control of just how fast your fan will blow. I created two custom settings: a midrange setting at 4000 RPM, and a high setting at 6000 RPM and will turn them on when I see things get a little too hot. I then set things back to Apple’s default levels once things cool down.

Purchase a laptop stand. Proper ventilation is key to allowing your Mac to cool down under normal conditions. Placing your laptop on a pillow or blanket because it is running hot may do more harm than good, especially if you end up blocking the vents that are trying to expel all that hot air. My personal favorite is the Cooling Bar from Just Mobile for $39.95US.  I find it convenient to carry with me and easy to set up.  Just Mobile has other stands for your MacBook as well. And if you tend to keep your Macbook closed when at a desk, consider Twelve South’s BookArc Pro for $49.99 U.S.

Let us know if you have other tips for keeping your Mac cool under pressure, or if you’re seeing temperature spikes under Lion that last beyond the first few days.

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Try this first

There are some good best practices to perform before running off and resetting your Mac at the first sign of strange behavior. This isn’t a step-by-step list; try each and all of the below separately when you’re having trouble:

• Quit (Command+Q) or even Force Quit (Command+Option+Esc) any and all running applications.
• Log off and then log back on to any and all logged on user accounts.
• Put the Mac to sleep and wake it up again.
• Restart the Mac.
• Shut down and unplug the Mac (and remove any battery if you have access) for at least thirty seconds before powering back on.

You may even have to press and hold the power button several seconds in extreme cases when your Mac is truly not responding or refuses to shut down and power off. But if you have tried all of this to no avail, then perhaps you do need to either reset your PRAM or your SMC.

Parameter random access memory

PRAM is used by OS X to store certain information that the system can access quickly. Macs will store settings like which startup drive to boot from, various display and video settings, startup speaker volume and even the DVD’s region settings. If you feel that you need to reset your Mac’s PRAM because of the issues you’re having, do the following:

1. Turn off your Mac. Don’t worry about disconnecting the power or removing the battery.
2. Turn on your Mac and hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys all at the same time (all four keys).
3. Keep holding down all four keys until you hear the startup sound for a second time.

If you do not hear the startup sound twice, then you most likely have not reset the PRAM.  If you find that your Mac is not retaining the information that is stored in PRAM when you perform a shutdown, then it might be time to replace your Mac’s main logic board battery.  This is sometimes referred to as the PRAM or Clock Battery. I hardly ever fully shut down and power off any of my Macs, and have yet to replace this battery on any Mac I have owned, so that should only be the culprit in very extreme cases.

System management controller

The SMC is an Intel-only feature.  There are so many symptoms that can potentially be solved by resetting the SMC that you’d think you would need to do this sort of reset all of the time. These include fans running out of control, lights not displaying correctly, the Mac does not sleep or wake properly, and just generally poor performance and high CPU cycles for no good reason. There are three ways to reset your SMC, based on what sort of Intel-based Mac you have:
Portable Macs with removable batteries

1. Shut down the Mac, unplug and remove the battery.
2. Press and hold the power button for five seconds before releasing.
3. Replace the battery (just put it back in), plug in the Mac and turn it back on.

Portable Macs without removable batteries

• Shut down the Mac.
• Ensure that the Mac is plugged into a power source.
• While the Mac is turned off, press and hold the Shift, Control and Option keys, as well as the Power button.
• Release all four keys at the same time (note: the Mac should not power on when performing this task).
• Press the power button to turn the Mac back on.

Desktop Mac Pros, iMacs and Mac minis

• Shut down and unplug the Mac.
• Keep the Mac unplugged for at least fifteen seconds.
• Plug the Mac back in and do not turn it back on for at least five seconds.
• Press the power button to turn the Mac back on.

This shouldn’t be considered a routine operation, like fixing file permissions in Disk Utility. It’s just something to keep in mind as a possible last resort solution to weird behaviors that your Mac starts to develop, which can often happen when you perform upgrades like installing OS X Lion, especially on older hardware.

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This review is meant purely to convey what living with Lion as your primary operating system is really like. I’m not going into exhaustive detail about all the new features, but that’s info you can easily find elsewhere anyway. What I will do is review in broad strokes how OS X 10.7 could change the way you use your computer.

Giving the boot to booting

Something that’s long been a feature of desktop computing is the boot process. You start your computer, the OS slowly loads, and then you re-open your documents, applications and services on an as-needed basis. At the end of the day, or session, or week, depending on your practice, you shut everything down and power off, and then get ready to start all over again.

OS X Lion aims to change that. By default, it re-opens all your applications to their state at power down. This means that with enough RAM and, if even better, an SSD, you can power on and off without really missing a beat. It’s amazing how well this feature works, especially with built-in Apple apps that are already designed to work seamlessly with Lion’s Auto Resume capabilities. At first, this felt like I was missing out on a key ritual, but after extended use, it’s something I definitely wouldn’t trade.

Combined with Auto Save and Version features which preserver your documents and document history as you work, which will likely gradually make their way into third-party Mac apps as Lion’s user base grows, Lion’s dramatically different boot process will definitely alter how you use your computer. It makes it easier to both pick up and leave desktop computing, which should be a welcome shift for most people who may feel tied to a computer once they endure the lengthy boot process.

Everything in its place

Some aren’t happy that Apple’s Exposé windows management system has given way to Mission Control, which, admittedly, offers a little more visual clutter. But I’m not really bothered by the new way of doing things, and it hasn’t really affected how I use my computer in any dramatic way. What has changed my habits are Launchpad and Full-Screen apps, both also new in Lion.

Full-screen apps, and the multi-touch gestures you use to navigate between them, actually achieve what Spaces sought to, which is the the compartmentalization of distinct work and leisure activities. Rather than keeping Facebook in a separate tab and trying to pretend its not there, I can actually make Facebook into its own Fluid app and keep it out of my browser. Plus, I can house Mail in its own full-screen implementation, which makes it easier to keep email out of my hair when I need it gone, and helps me plow through email backlog when I actually want to focus on it. Full-screen apps are so useful, they might actually be my favorite new feature of 10.7. Try them out for a little while, and I’m sure you’ll agree.

Mail

I’ve done a lot of searching around to try to find a better email client for OS X, since Mail is not without its quirks. That’s why the changes to the app in Lion merit their own subsection. Lion’s Mail overhaul brings to OS X email what others have tried to: style and substance. It achieves this primarily by copying a proven model, since it borrows a ton from the iPad Mail app.

It has full-screen support, as I mentioned, and a horizontal three-column design that provides you with tons of information at-a-glance. It also boasts threaded conversations, much smarter search and compact list previews that provide you with information for quick-hit overviews without even so much as a mouse-over. If, like me, you use email a lot, this may be the biggest change Lion brings.

A noble beast

Lion isn’t without its faults. I’m still not crazy about the Finder redesign for example, and I think Apple missed the opportunity to make some changes to that component of OS X that would’ve really resonated with longtime users. Some also seem to think that the some of the redesigned core apps are actually steps backward. But those apps actually aren’t all that important to the core experience, and overall, there’s no question in my mind that Lion represents a significant improvement to the Mac platform. At $29

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Step 1: Get up-to-date

Make sure everything on your Mac is up-to-date before upgrading to Lion. First of all, make sure you’re running the latest version of OS X, which is Snow Leopard 10.6.8, using Software Update. Software Update will not only check for updates to OS X, but also firmware updates or new versions of Apple applications such as iTunes or iLife. You can find Software Update under the Apple logo in the menu bar. You should also check that your applications are all up to date, but for that you’ll need to check in the apps themselves, since Software Update only works for Apple products.

Also note that you can only install Lion if you have Snow Leopard installed; you can’t go straight from Leopard to Lion.

Step 2: Backup

You’re about to replace the entire operating system on your computer with a new one, so it’s a good idea to make a backup, just in case something goes wrong. The best thing to do is to create an exact copy of your Mac’s hard drive using a tool such as SuperDuper!. SuperDuper! can either perform a regular backup, or create a bootable clone of your hard drive, meaning that if something does go screwy, you can boot from the external drive you made the backup on. From there, you’d be able to try to sort out the problems with the Lion install.

If you don’t want to, or can’t, make a full copy of the entire hard drive, then backup your most important files and folders. Your Home folder is a good place to start, since it probably contains a lot of files that are irreplaceable, like photos and home movies. The Home folder is the folder named with your username, and is found in /Users on your hard drive, or under Desktop in the Places menu in your Finder sidebar.

You can either use Time Machine or SuperDuper! to do this backup, or simply just drag and drop a copy of the folder onto another hard drive. You might want to look around in the Finder to check for other important folders which aren’t in the Home folder, as well.

Step 3: Remove incompatible apps

Lion is going to be the first version of OS X which doesn’t support PowerPC applications. That means any application without an Intel-specific version won’t work on Lion, and is best uninstalled.

In order to find which of your applications are PowerPC only, you can use System Profiler. Hold down the Option key, then click the Apple menu. The top item in the list should be System Profiler. Click that, and System Profiler will open. In the sidebar, find Applications under the Software heading. After a few seconds, a list of every application installed on your Mac will appear on the right. Now go through the list and for each application, look at the Kind in the bottom pane. Applications which say either Intel or Universal are fine; they’ll work on Lion. You’re looking for anything which says PowerPC.

If you find any PowerPC applications, you’ll want to uninstall them before you install Lion. You can also check your other apps as well to make sure they will work with Lion; some applications are bound to have issues, even if they aren’t PowerPC applications. A great way to check is using RoaringApps, a website which is gathering data about which apps are compatible with OS X 10.7.

Step 4: Make space on your hard drive

A typical install of OS X usually takes somewhere between 6 GB and 10 GB of hard drive space. You’ll need to make sure you have at least that amount, and preferably more, free on your hard drive in order to install Lion. To quickly check how much space is available on your drive, open a Finder window to any folder on the drive. The amount of free space available will be shown a the bottom of the window.

If you find that you don’t have enough space left, you can use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to find the biggest files and folders on your hard drive. Once it’s been through your hard drive, you’ll see a list of everything, sorted by size. Anything that has a large file size and you no longer need, delete in order to make room for Lion. Remember, the more space you have available when it comes to upgrading, the better.

Step 5: Install Lion

Once you’re sure that everything is as ready as it possibly could be, your Mac is now prepared for the upgrade to Lion, which should arrive sometime within the next couple of weeks. Are there any vital extra steps I missed? Shout out in the comments.

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