MacBook Air USB hacks
TUAW reader Rowan Pope pointed us to this insane MacBook Air hacking post. How many USB ports does the Air support? Apple says just one; this post says up to 7. Apparently, the Air has a few extra live USB port connections built into that thar skinny little computer. How do we know this? Because the guy downloaded developer documentation for the ICH-8 chip, which offers 5 low-speed and 2 high-speed USB controllers.
He popped open his Air and measured the voltage at each pin. He then used a hacked memory key with a modded USB extension cable (with an extra resistor just to be safe). After connecting the memory key to one of the pins, his MacBook Air system log reported a USB error. A few more tests and adjustments later, he actually got his laptop to recognize the drive. In total, he found three working USB connections plus an unused SATA controller.
TUAW is awed. Be sure to check out the other mod on this much-opened Air: a carbon-fiber bottom case. Sleek!
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TUAW reader Rowan Pope pointed us to this insane MacBook Air hacking post. How many USB ports does the Air support? Apple says just one;...
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Frankly I'm surprised that any body on a technical forum like this would be surprised at all by this. I mean simply that the AIR is made up of standard intel parts with standard Intel ports.
The only real surprise here is that they put iSight on the same controller as the external port. Seems short sited to me.
In any event I do wonder if AIR would offer enough internal space to put in place a 8 or 16 GB thumb drive? The storage limitations on AIR could be addressed this way. Sure not fast but certainly a backup solution or a good place for file storage.
Dave
does anyone know if the MacBook Pro has any spare USB headers? I fancy mounting an internal flash drive as a cheapo SSD boot device... ;)
March 22 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMaybe if the title wasn't so dang promising! Modding your MBAir to do this may be fun - but it doesn't make sense for anyone - ANYONE - out there, if you need that much throughput you bought the wrong machine.
So can we hack the titles? See lifehacker, they do it right.
Interesting. The SATA controller suggests future hard drive plans.
March 21 2008 at 6:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI didn't actually prove there are SATA signals on that connector, but it would make sense because of its location next to the I/O chip. The connector was too hard to probe - I was afraid I might short something out.
- John Maushammer
(p.s. trying to change my username here; sorry about the confusion!)
This is great!
I've located (and hijacked) unused internal USB ports in other laptops before (like my Eee - see links below), but doing this on a MacBook Air is pretty awesome - not sure I'd do it to mine...
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/modding-the-asus-701-eee-bluetooth/
Now we need someone to do a mod where they add the extra ports either to the side of the computer or on the top (next to the keyboard).
TEG
I was checking something in System Profiler on my MacBook Air about a week and a half ago and noticed a bunch of extra USB busses. Whoop-dee-doo.
Just another post to pad the post count for the Queen of Non-News
"Tuaw is awed"
I think it's not the first time you put this phrase here, but everytime I get a broken jaw trying to pronounce it.
I don't know why they didn't include more ports in the MBA, but I'm sure they have a good explanation, not unlike "the bay doesn't open if you make it larger" or "it's not nice enough anymore". I'll stick with my MBP anyway :)
Or you could plug a USB hub into the Air's USB port and turn your brain off about it.
March 21 2008 at 11:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI think we broke his server....
March 21 2008 at 11:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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