Gizmodo: Apple Macbook

Seagate 2.5-inch Hard Drive Flaw Affecting MacBooks?

Jason Chen — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:40:00 EDT

Retrodata, a data-recovery company, has just issued a warning for Apple MacBook owners with Seagate hard drives that were manufactured in China and have a firmware version of 7.01. Apparently these have a fatal flow that cause their read/write heads to fail mechanically, scratching up the hard drive surface as pictured and making data unrecoverable (even by professionals such as themselves). If you've got a MacBook, you should check to see if your internal drive is a Seagate and back up your data accordingly. There's no official word yet from Apple on whether or not this actually a problem, but better safe than crying over lost nudie photos. [Retrodata - Thanks Eric!]

Mac Notebooks Suffering from Stretch Marks, Swollen Batteries?

Louis Ramirez — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:59:28 EDT

Perhaps this is a sign that we're overdue for some new Mac portables. A very caring MacBook owner recently found unsightly stretch marks along his Mac's derriere, despite pampering it like it was his first-born. Earlier we heard reports of swollen batteries on MacBook Pros—one of them even went up in flames. Sounds like some of them are starting to fall apart. Anyone out there experiencing similar troubles? – Louis Ramirez

Hairline MacBook Cracks Appearing [The Apple Core]
Apple Defects

Apple MacBook Battery Goes Up in Flames

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:04:51 EDT

It's still unclear how this MacBook caught fire, but Matty from Australia claims that his MacBook's battery started "hissing like a steam valve" just seconds before bursting into flames. The MacBook was charging overnight while in sleep mode before it started smoking and as you can tell from the pics, it's the battery compartment that got charred the most. Good thing it was still under warranty. – Louis Ramirez

MacBook Inferno! [New Launches]

Axiotron ModBook Manhandled by Macworld

Louis Ramirez — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 13:02:09 EST

Now that the iPhone's gotten its chance to bask in the limelight, it's time to zoom in on Macworld's other big announcement—Axiotron's ModBook. The ModBook is a MacBook that's been morphed into a Mac tablet, and the guys at Macworld got some one-on-one time with an early pre-production unit. The first half of the video focuses more on the features of the ModBook, while the second, which we found more interesting, demos some of the ModBook's capabilities, particularly its ability to read your John Hancock. Starting at $2,279, the ModBook is one pricey beast, so unless you really need a tablet with OS X, you may want to consider buying an entry-level MacBook Pro instead. – Louis Ramirez

First Look: ModBook [Macworld]

MacBook Keyboard Gutted to Support Dvorak Layout

Louis Ramirez — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:42:14 EST

A crafty MacBook owner has gone through the tedious act of switching his MacBook's QWERTY keyboard for the Dvorak layout. The Dvorak layout (named after Dr. August Dvorak, not that Dvorak) was created to let people type faster. It places the most common used letters in the middle row and the least used keys on the bottom row. Getting your Mac to recognize the Dvorak layout is a simple matter of tweaking the input settings in your system preferences and from the looks of the photo gallery, getting your keyboard set up isn't that much harder. – Louis Ramirez

sjwalsh384's Photos [via New Launches]

DIY Carbon Fiber MacBook

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:50:27 EST

While it may look like the Giz was visited by one of Apple's little elves, what you're looking at is actually an ordinary MacBook. Albeit one that's in disguise. Tired with the MacBook's lack of color options, an inventive Apple fan customized their MacBook with Carbon Graphix, an easily attainable $20 vinyl sticker that looks like real carbon fiber. The sticker can be easily applied and removed from your MacBook to give it that MacBook Pro look. This definitely beats the alternative, and looks more polished too. – Louis Ramirez

World's First Carbon Fiber MacBook [via New Launches]

Apple Macbook Marionette

Brian Lam — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:04:05 EST

Tapping the Macbook Pro's internal accelerometer, this digital artist got an onscreen marionette to react to the tilting of the laptop by puppet strings.

As long as they don't use the Mac's sudden-drop sensor to further the art of digital mimes, I'm all for it. Silent comedy, sheesh.

Video:

–Brian Lam

Macbook Marionette [Make]

Apple Macbooks Get Core 2 Duo Chips, I Yawn

Brian Lam — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 09:24:40 EST

Before the first cup o joe, Apple dropped the word on fresh Macbooks. The major improvement come in the form of Core 2 Duo chips clocked at the same 1.87 and 2.0 GHz speeds as the old Core Duo CPUs. They claim they're 25% faster than the old Macbook's chips, but lets see...When the Macbook Pros were said to be 39% faster after the upgrade from Core Duo to Core 2 Duo, they turned out to only be 10% faster. So, I am expecting these chips to be little more than the typical speedbump-like refreshes that PC laptops go through. My guestimate? In overall performance, we see less than 5% in speed jump.

The other upgrades: Larger allotments of RAM in the standard configs, up to 200 GB of HD, and a dual layer DVD-burning Superdrive. That's it.

I will declare it: The golden age of mind blowing Apple computer hardware announcements are dead...until the next keynote. –Brian Lam

Macbooks get Core 2 Duo [Apple]