New MacBook Air 13" Reviewed

My old laptop was getting a little slow for my personal use, and so I donated it to my better half for her use. And I got myself a new MacBook Air for Uni/Blogging/Photo editing purposes.

First off the bat, let me say that this is a great machine. The slim design, the battery life and the display are all fantastic, and I am really happy with it.

The thing that impressed me the most was the resolution on the 13" display. My previous laptop was a 15" MacBook Pro, with the same resolution. 1440x900. However having the same resolution on a smaller screen makes everything seem so much crisper than before. I did consider for a brief moment the MacBook Pro with the retina display but the price tag was a little too high given the specification it came with. I felt I just couldn't justify purchasing it. Having a resolution like this on a small screen is kinda like the improvement noticed between a using an iPhone 3G (and 3GS) then using an iPhone 4. Everything is sharper. And when it comes to reading text, or editing photos, you can really see the difference. But enough about the display, what else?

The size is perfect. 11", the model below the 13" felt too small when I picked it up in the shop. And the display did feel a little cramped when opening a webpage or a document. It's lightweight, unlike it's brothers in the "Pro" side, and the battery life is really good. Lasts just long enough for a day at uni, without the need to bring a charger.

The SSD (solid state drive) which is the internal storage for the laptop makes accessing files instant, and the power on time is much faster. There is virtually no lag at all on the machine when in use, however I have noticed that when resuming from standby, i.e. opening the laptop from closed position, that there is a bit of a delay before the input is recognised. Although the display does light up and show instantly, mouse movements and keyboard inputs are not recognised for approx 3-5 seconds, sometimes up to 10 seconds. However when in use, everything is a snap, and multi tasking is a breeze. The laptop can quite easily handle multiple applications open at the same time. For example, I have at least 10 apps open at the moment (in addition to the other system applications) and switching between them is instantaneous and responsive, this is because of the SSD and the 4GB of ram that the computer has, allowing multiple processes to easily be handled.

I am very thankful that Apple has decided to include a backlit keyboard with the Macbook Air's as it makes working in low light conditions, like on an Airplane, or in a dimly lit coffee shop (like where I am posting this right now) great, without having to strain your eyes to see where all the keys are.

One noticeable change with the move the ultrabook computing (MacBook Air falling into this catagory) is that there is an absolute minimum on external connections and ports. The most obvious example is the omission of a CD/DVD drive. Most Apple software that previously came on discs is available through their new "App Store

This store sells a lot of software made by Apple and other developers, and even includes entire Operating System upgrades - which is a huge change in the way that users upgrade their operating system. Normally this would involve buying a disk with a unique code that would assign itself to your computer. However with the introduction of the App store, software is now sold and assigned to your AppleID, or email address which is used to identify yourself with Apple. This means that if your computer get's stolen or damaged and is no longer useable, once you get a replacement computer all the previously paid for applications can be re-downloaded to your computer at no cost, as you have already paid for them. All you need to do is sign into the store with your Apple ID (or email address) and you can view your purchases. When I was at the Apple store, I signed in to the App Store on my new laptop and I was instantly able to download all of my applications! This was a huge bonus for me. So the omission of the CD drive is significant, but much of the content from discs is now available online, movies and music included. In the rare case you do need to use a CD drive you can "borrow" the drive from a nearby Mac via wireless, or you can purchase a USB drive which attaches itself to your computer.

Finally the exterior. This was another reason I picked the 13" over the 11". The additional port for the SD card slot made the 13" a clear winner for me. Having a hobby in photography, being able to shove my SD card into the side of the laptop without the need to actually get the camera, and a cable plugged into the laptop is a huge help and saves time and effort in getting my pictures onto my computer for editing as quick as possible.

There is not a lot wrong with this laptop. At all. Apart from setting up bootcamp (read: installing windows) on to this computer which I could see to be a problem this laptop has it all. For the amount of power packed into this very lightweight machine, the two USB3 ports, the thunderbolt port and the SD port this machine is very reasonably priced especially with the latest 3rd generation ivy bridge processor.

For an everyday laptop with punch, battery life, and speed, this is an excellent buy and I have yet to complain about anything. 5 out of 5 stars from me.

For more info check out: http://www.apple.com/au/macbookair/specs.html

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Galaxy S III and iPhone 4S comparison (Australia)

The two hottest selling phones on the market at the moment are the Galaxy S and the iPhone. Both Samsung and Apple are battling it out for customers and market share, along with a more behind the scenes legal battle with respect to patents.

Three weeks ago the Galaxy S III hit the shelves in the Australian market, and as my contract expired I was up for a new phone. I had bought outright the 4S on the day of it's release in Aus replace my damaged phone I had prior, and since a lot of similarities between both phones are found, people are wanting to know - whats better? There are numerous videos on the YouTube and many other sites compare the phone, so this is an Australian perspective.

Galaxy S III Home Screen

In short, both phones have lots of strong points that they both share. The battery life is great, photos and videos are excellent, and being both smart phones they have a whole host of apps available to them. I used my iPhone quite a fair bit and took it overseas, and used it as my digital camera. Saved me having to carry around two devices. Photo's I've taken with my Galaxy in the few short weeks I've had it have also been excellent.


The range of apps on the Apple app store is second to none. And it's proabably the biggest selling point for an iOS device for me. The sheer range of apps and amazing list of things they can all do is quite simply huge. I have yet to find an app that can't do what I'm wanting it to do. Android has a bit of catching up to do in this area, and may never catch up due to the strong developer and ease of use focus that Apple has for their system. That said, many of the popular apps are available on both phones and my personal ones, such as my banks app, flipboard, facebook, etc can be found on both, and usually there is an app which will do similar things on Android that Apple has, and vice versa.


The most obvious difference between the two phones/platforms is the way the "home" interface is used. In iOS, the home screen contains your apps, and app folders. In Android you have a home screen which has widgets and apps on it. Widgets include things like weather, clocks, play/pause buttons etc. Things you'd normally have to open an app for in iOS but can see in a dashboard style look on the one screen. Live wallpapers, such as one that interacts with the weather, and changes the backdrop accordingly are part of Android compared to Apple's picture only wallpaper.

iPhone 4S Home Screen

In terms of functionality, there are things that one phone can do that the other can't. Some of the stand out comparisons for me include the sync'ing of your iTunes playlists to your phone. Because the iPhone doubles as an iPod, you can put your music from your iTunes playlist, via a sync to your phone. Android doesn't have an iPod, rather it has a music player, which does the same thing, but doesn't have the sync functionality. But the voice feature (Siri) on the iPhone doesn't know anything about local restaurants, or driving directions in Australia, where as S Voice recognises you asked for directions, and will open up Google maps presenting you with a choice, which then loads the driving directions through GPS. S Voice is more or less a carbon copy of Siri, and I don't really use either that often. Both can send messages and schedule appointments for you, but after a while the novelty wears off, and I pretty much stopped using it a few weeks after getting my iPhone.


If you're looking for features like cloud sync - i.e. keeping your photos, calendars, contacts, bookmarks, tasks, email etc all together, in one place and accessible from pretty much anywhere, the good thing is that both phones do just that. Android has GMail, Google calendar, tasks etc, and Apple has iCloud. You simply sign in when you first use the phone and both are freely available. On Android, it's all set up for you as soon as you sign in, you just accept the conditions, and iPhone will take you through the step-by-step.


Both phones are pretty similar in terms of functionality, and ability. The main differences are the cosmetics of the phone, the screen size, the interface, and what the phone can do without needing to download any additional apps for the same level of functionality. i.e. the Galaxy S comes pre built with a video player that supports a huge range of codecs that allow all sorts of videos to be played, whereas you need an app (possibly one at additional cost) for that on iOS. The built in task app wasn't to my taste on the Galaxy S, so I downloaded another.

If you're in the market for a new phone, my suggestion is to look at the phones, go to your carrier's shop and ask for the demo models. Hold them, and have a look in the flesh and see what you think, then compare the prices and plans. Both phones are really excellent and offer plenty of functionality. I have been very impressed with both.

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How to stop the iPhone's screen rotating

Was asked yesterday about how to lock the iPhone's screen from rotating when you view it side on. I thought a few of you out there might find this useful, so here is a step by step guide to follow. It's really simple!

Start by double tapping the home button.

This will pop the screen up and show you your recently used applications. Once this appears, swipe your finger right, and it will show this screen:

This screen has a few options. You can play and pause your music, you can go to the iPod, or you can lock the screen, by clicking on the icon to the left.

Once you've clicked it, the icon will change to a padlock, as shown below:

If you press the home button once more, your screen will now be locked. And a little icon indicating this will appear in the top right hand side of the screen in what is sometimes referred to as the "tray", but next to the battery icon.

That's it - it's that simple. If you decide you'd like to turn rotation back on, you can do so at any time from any screen your on.

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Wrong Date/Time on Mac after shutdown?

Your computer's clock is set to a date before Jan 1, 2008. This may cause some applications to behave erratically.

This happened to me about 15 minutes ago after my laptop ran out of battery last night whilst I was using my computer, and the power cut out.

The error on the screen looked like this:

When I clicked on to my time in the top right hand corner of the screen, I noticed that the clock's time had returned to normal.

However, this can cause problems for you if it's not automatically set back, so here's how you can fix it.

Click the system preferences icon in the dock, as shown below, or click the Apple Icon at the top left hand corner of the screen, and choose system preferences from the drop-down box.

In the system preferences pane, choose Date & Time, then tick the box to automatically update if it isn't already, and that should connect to the Apple servers to update the time.

That said, you can always leave it un-ticked, and set the time manually yourself if you like, and that will resolve the problem.

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