Mac Tricks And Tips » Hardware

How Long Has Your Mac Been On?

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:17:09 +0000

Hey

I was wondering the other day how long I could keep my Mac on before an update or crash of some sort would require a restart. Thankfully the update came first (Mac’s don’t crash). I managed to last 14 days before I had to restart. I was wondering how long have you kept your Mac on, and did you experience any problems.

To find your uptime. Open Terminal and type:

uptime

Believe it or not, that will show how long your computer has been turned on.

At the end of those 14 days I was seeing Finder get a little bit slow. Things did start to hand more and more. This is probably due to small bits of memory taking up space and not being cleaned up effectively by the apps. Firefox did start to get very slow.

How long have you had your computer on for. I am sure Mac’s can last a lot longer, but I like mine to be upto date so the restart had to be taken. Did take about a hour to start up again after.

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Cool iPhone Icon Sets

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:03:04 +0000

Hey

Sort of following on from a previous post about a cool Mac icon set. This post is about 35 free set for your iPhone. I don’t have an iPhone at the moment so I can’t test them out. But I do know what looks good. Some of those designs are very cool. Its been a very design centric day. This post is very similar.

If you head over to Speckboy. You can find the long list of 35 icons sets. It is a long page and very image heavy but if you give it time you can admire some of the designs. They vary in quality but some are really good. You just have to click on the images to view and download the full sets. You do need a jailbroken iPhone for this to work.

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Maintaining A MacBook’s Battery Life

admin — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Hey

MacBook batteries (including Pro’s) will eventually die out. As with any battery they need to be used in a sensible manner to keep the battery health as long as possible. I have mentioned before about calibrating batteries. But the this post is going to be about making sure you get the most out of your battery.

One program that you should download is coconut battery, it easily shows you the health of you battery as well enabling you to record the life of your battery. It is very useful to see how well you battery is performing.

Some tips:

1) Only use the battery as needed. For example the less you use the battery the long it will last. Instead of using the battery only a little and then recharging keep it plugged in.

2) Drain the battery down. Although it is not as need as much, it has shown (on my battery) that by draining the battery down and then doing a recharge it seems to make the battery last as long as possible.

3) Keep your battery cool. Batteries are designed to run at around 15 degrees Celsius. So if you keep your battery really hot, for example using it outside all day, or two cold (inside a fridge). By keeping your battery at a good temperature you may keep the charge longer and more healthy.

4) Calibrate your battery. It keeps it up to date with the maximum and minimum battery capacity and helps you computer work out how to use its charge more effectively.

5) Keep firmware the latest. Download the latest firmwares and it will help. Although you may not see an immediate difference. It will help you keep it in tip top shape.

Finally buy a new battery. If you battery has really died, and has become a lump of metal it might be time to buy a new battery. Until we develop a battery that always keeps its charge you may have to keep replacing them every 18months. If you are looking for a new battery check out Amazon, they usually have good deals which are cheaper than an Apple store.

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