MacRyu – The Worst Mac Blog in Singapore, and Some Say the World

Nokia/RIM/Windows Phone 7’s enemy isn’t Apple, it is Android

Posted August 17th, 2011 by Ryu at 5:23 pm in Links. 1 Comment

Apple is likely to “strike back” by acquiring patents from rivals such as Nokia or Research in Motion as a response to Googleâ€™s purchase of Motorola Mobility. He also mentioned InterDigital, which has been widely viewed as a potential target for acquisition by Apple and other major players in the smartphone industry.

Google is, and has always been fighting a losing patent war, even with the Motorola purchase. RIM/Nokia/WP7’s enemy isn’t Apple, it is Google and Android. And they will make all the deals they can with Apple to eat Android alive. A puny Motorola isn’t going to deter things.

Google’s announcement just a day or two after Motorola announced that they are going to start suing other Android licensees (after losing out in market share to HTC and Samsung) makes the Google-Motorola deal sound like a sudden decision. Which won’t be surprising given Larry Page’s history as a CEO.

Appleinsider: Apple predicted to ‘strike back’ at Google with its own patent purchase

After the iHub/iHub 2, here comes the iCar Charger

Posted August 15th, 2011 by Ryu at 1:01 am in Accessories. 0 Comments

And here it is. It has a nice glowing blue Apple logo that lights up when you plug it into your cigarette lighter port in your car. Nice. Comes in black or white. Got mine already. ^_^

NUS Matriculation Fair Laptop Sales 2011

Posted August 15th, 2011 by Ryu at 12:47 am in NTU and NUS. 0 Comments

For those wondering where I am, I will be back in the regular August month-long Sapura booth at Yusof Ishak House from this Wednesday onwards. Am currently at the NTU Laptop Sales Fair 2011. Photos to follow in days.

My new pal the Dell guy using his personal MBP 15 on the job

Apple employee “No more 13″ MacBook Pros in the future”

Posted August 7th, 2011 by Ryu at 12:19 am in Rumors. 1 Comment

A little bird chirps, “chatted with someone (let’s call her A-san) from Apple South Asia/Singapore education sales. She mentioned casually that ‘they will do away with the 13-inchers (MacBook Pros) in the future’. ”

We all have heard the rumors about the redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pros, and bigwigs like John Siracusa have repeatedly mentioned on his shows (Hypercritical) that he thinks that the 13-inch MacBook Pro will be removed from the line-up to simplify it, but this is the first time anyone heard something like this coming out from the mouth of a non-retail Apple employee in a relatively high position (locally at least).

The current 13-inch MacBook Pros are actually designed, and marketed as MacBooks when they first debuted in 2008, but the higher than 999USD starting price made Apple rethink its strategy and they eventually relaunched them as MacBook Pros instead. It definitely won’t be weird for them to return to a “11-inch and 13-inch = Airs, and 15-inch and 17-inch = Pros” lineup, one that they have been adopting ever since the Intel switch in 2006, before the Aluminum MacBooks become MacBook Pros in 2009.

iCloud’s Web Apps

Posted August 2nd, 2011 by Ryu at 8:54 pm in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

iCloud’s web apps, which are only accessible by developers now, are 100 times better than anything for MobileMe ever was. If they can do something this polished, why the heck was MobileMe that crappy to begin with?

Probably the most elegant bag for the new 11-inch MacBook Air – Fabrix Cases’ The Satchel

Posted July 29th, 2011 by Ryu at 1:19 am in MacBook Air and Review. 1 Comment

I have been waiting to post this review for almost one whole year, and now is exactly the best time to release it – the 11-inch MacBook Air officially becomes Apple’s cheapest notebook, and with the Airs being the future of Apple’s notebook lineup, it seems very possibly that the 11-inch will easily become the most popular notebook on Apple’s line soon.

One thing about having a 11-inch notebook is how hard it is to actually find a bag that fits the exact profile of the notebook unless you actually had one custom made. Apple notebooks are probably the only ones with huge support from some of the world’s best notebook bag manufacturers. That said though, the 11-inch MacBook Air is relatively new, being in the market for only less than a year. Many manufacturers have been marketing bags/sleeves that were previously made for netbooks for the 11-inch Air, but few of these bags/sleeves actually perfectly fit the slim profile of the 11-inch Air.

I have been using Fabrix Cases’ The Satchel for almost a year now, since I first got my 11-inch Air last October, and must say that it is easily the best bag for the 11-inch Air and its slim profile. Continue reading ‘Probably the most elegant bag for the new 11-inch MacBook Air – Fabrix Cases’ The Satchel’

Thoughts about Lion – OS X’s evolution

Posted July 17th, 2011 by Ryu at 2:56 am in Editorial, Lion, Mac OS X and OS X. 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I wrote something of (questionable) substance on MacRyu.com, and since Lion is just days away from us, I figured I should put something up.

No, I’m not going to detail the changes in Lion and give you some kind of a technical walkthrough. That job should be left to the pros, namely, John Siracusa.

What I want to write about is what I think Lion represents, in the grander scheme of things I call “The Evolution of OS X”. I personally believe that there are two very specific generations of OS X releases that ended and began at 10.5. I will be using the cat names and the version numbers interchangeably throughout the writeup, so if you are confused just google the cat names from 10.0 till 10.7. LOL.

Here goes.

If there’s one specific theme that Lion represents it will be “the next generation”.

Yes, I know Lion is the next OS X, I know Lion is new, but those are not why I think Lion represents “the next generation” of OS X.

One thing casual users and recent switchers do not understand about the last 2 OSes, Leopard and Snow Leopard, is how they represent a major shift in OS X’s development. Continue reading ‘Thoughts about Lion – OS X’s evolution’

Top 4 Malware for Mac OS X

Posted May 28th, 2011 by Ryu at 9:46 am in Solid Advice. 1 Comment

Yes, malware does exist for OS X, and these are the top 4 malware on the radar today.

1. Norton Antivirus for Mac
2. Symantec Endpoint Protection
3. Sophos Antivirus Protection for Mac
4. McAfee VirusScan for Mac

In case anyone thinks I’m joking or that there are malware pretending to be these legitimate software, I’m not, and there isn’t (or at least from what I know so far).

Take for example, Norton Antivirus(NAV) and Symantec Endpoint Protection, both of which are probably the same thing, except that you get the former if you enter a certain polytechnic and the latter if you enter another one. Both products, upon installation, installs a kernel extension. This modifies the system, and from experiences of students who were forced to run them in school, makes the system extremely unstable, especially after system updates. In the case of Norton Antivirus, very often installing the package (note that I didn’t use the word App here, for Norton Antivirus is anything but a useful mac application)itself may cause the boot sequence to fail in the future (read: spinning indicator with Apple logo on grey background forever).

Installing NAV or any other Symantec products on your Mac will also almost definitely cause your system to have poor performance, although it might not seem apparent immediately after install, for a clean and new system can look and feel fast enough even after the performance cut. Six months down the road however, NP students and SDN/SDMC students from NYP will think they need a new Mac already.

Many users with the above malware do not have a choice in the installation. Often times when they purchase their brand new Mac from their schools, it is already preloaded with malware. And in the case of NAV and Symantec products, it is almost impossible to remove. Contrast that with the recent MacDefender non-issue, when you actually have to install it yourself, give it the correct permissions, before it will actually run. And removal is a simple process. Activate Activity Monitor, kill the process, and trash the app.

No matter how you look at it, malware like Norton Antivirus and the Symantec products are definitely some of the deadliest you will ever find on the Mac platform.

Thankfully the majority of Mac users are well-educated enough that they do not need to install the above products, and will probably never do so.

The only people who gets hit with MacDefender are the idiots who thought they needed an anti-malware/antivirus program on the Mac in the first place, and chose to install MacDefender onto their systems happily. These are also the same idiots who will install Norton Antivirus on their systems from day 1. And obviously Norton Antivirus isn’t going to protect them, since it can’t even identify MacDefender as malware.

If you are one of those unfortunate enough to have NAV installed on your systems unwillingly, GET HELP NOW.

iPad 2 case review: The Joy Factory’s SmartFit 2

Posted May 22nd, 2011 by Ryu at 1:25 am in Cases/Sleeves, iPad and Review. 3 Comments

This is the first review I am doing for iPad 2 cases. I will write about my whole iPad 2 setup in a later post probably sometime next week.

The iPad 2 cases are really interesting as compared to the earlier cases for the first generation iPad simply due to the existence of Apple’s Smart Cover. it’s viewed by many as one of the “features” of the iPad 2, despite it being a separate purchase. Thus the most interesting iPad 2 cases are those that work with it, or tries to emulate its functionality completely and offer a complete package. While I still like folio-type cases, the Smart Cover-accommodating or Smart Cover-inspired cases are definitely my favorite this year round.

And here’s my first iPad 2 case review. Continue reading ‘iPad 2 case review: The Joy Factory’s SmartFit 2′

Blue Microphones Yeti Unboxing

Posted May 9th, 2011 by Ryu at 1:50 am in Unboxing. 4 Comments

Been so busy with the General Elections (and cursing and swearing) lately that I have totally no time to unbox my Yeti USB microphone, which was delivered Friday.

The thing is MASSIVE, and saying that it’s heavy is an understatement. I have no freaking idea why a mic needs to be this heavy but I love the look already. Might do a short review if I’m in the mood to after playing with it.

P.S. This is a test sound file I recorded with the Yeti. Click here to download