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!
TUAW reader Kim, who runs the Danish blog Kinablog,dk, sent us this piece he wrote about what he calls the world's biggest Apple USB mouse (a.k.a. the iMac mouse, a.k.a. the hockey puck). It's actually a building in China that houses the National Centre for the Performing Arts, with room for 6,500 people in three halls inside 2,000 square meters, designed by Paul Adreu. And he's right-- it bears a striking (though not quite exact) resemblance to the round little early iMac peripheral. Considering that construction started on the building in 2001, and the mouse was released before that, it's a little less of a stretch (though still a stretch) to think that one inspired the other.
But Kim is thinking even bigger-- not only does he dare us to imagine the sound of a click on a mouse that big, but he asks what an iMac that size would look like. Stop bending my mind like that, man! Apple is going thinner, not bigger.
Kensington today announced the sd200V Notebook Docking Station, which is apparently the first Mac compatible DisplayLink adapter. For a while now Windows users have been able to add a secondary display to their system via a USB device. This is the first time Mac users have been so lucky. The sd200V supports VGA monitors with a resolution up to 1440x1050 and also functions as a USB hub with audio, allowing you to connect a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers to your Mac with a single USB cable.
They will also be offering a display-only USB DisplayLink solution called the Dual Monitor Adapter later in the year with a DVI port. Although targeted at notebook users, I think this is particularly exciting for the Mac mini which gains genuine multi-display support for the first time (the Matrox DualHead not withstanding).
The sd200V Docking Station is available now for $139.99, while the Dual Monitor Adapter with ship in April for $99.99. Both devices will be Intel Mac only.
Apple has released Time Capsule, a NAS (network-attached storage, I'll admit I'm so far from an IT guy that I had to look it up) unit that will wirelessly sync with multiple instances of Time Machine, all the while also working as an 802.11n base station (there are three included ethernet ports as well). Time Capsule has wireless backup, wireless networking, and even a USB port for networked printing, a networked hard drive, or both with a USB hub.
And perhaps most amazing is the sheer size available-- it's $399 for a 500gb hard drive, and $499 for a 1 TB hard drive. Sure, that's a little pricey if you've got only one or two computers at home, but $500 for a complete (and completely wireless) backup solution for a house full of computers is a pretty nice setup. This definitely won't cause as much of a stir as the iPhone updates or the MacBook Air today, but for someone who's been seeking a backup solution for a whole house of computers, Time Capsule has to be pretty good news.
Once upon a time the Mac vs. PC debate found a kind of synecdoche in the FireWire vs. USB debate. FireWire had been invented by Apple way back in 1986 essentially to replace SCSI. USB 1.0 arrived on the scene in 1995 from Intel, Microsoft, and a few others. Somewhat ironically, however, it was the original iMac that gave USB a needed kick-start in adoption. In any case, for a while there was a clear sense that FireWire was the Mac peripheral interface in contrast with the Wintel USB, and even now FireWire 400 tends to outperform the higher-spec'ed USB 2.0 on Macs in the real world. Nonetheless, with Apple moving to Intel there has a been a notable shift in Cupertino away from the interface Apple invented (witness the USB-only iPods), and with the forthcoming USB 3.0 standard and the increasing prevalence of eSATA the future looked somewhat bleak for FireWire.
But FireWire is not going down without a fight. The industry trade group has announced a new standard, FireWire S3200 which will use the same connectors as FireWire 800 but deliver approximately 4 times the performance. What's interesting to me is the question of whether and how far Apple will go to support the new standard. Is FireWire destined to become the bastard stepchild or will Apple once again reclaim its old standard and live happily ever after?
I think we somehow missed this at TUAW, but I have no idea how. Just in time for everyone to head home for the holidays (and forget their iPod chargers), here's a quick fix solution to get that battery back up and you back listening to The Cars' Greatest Hits. Household Hacker put this together, and unfortunately they say on the same page that you should not attempt this at home if you're not an expert, but all of you TUAW-reading iPod owners out there are experts, right? If you do try this, don't hurt yourselves or your iPods.
How does it work? Beats us-- the electrolytes in the Gatorade might be breaking down the individual cells of the onion, and releasing excess energy as electricity of some kind, but obviously that's just a guess based on my many years of watching Bill Nye, Beakman's World, and more recently, Mythbusters (pop science for the win!).
There is one major problem with this plan, however, and that is that as of right now, onions do not properly install updated firmware for any iPods of any generation. Hopefully, Apple will fix this oversight in the next Software Update.
Victor's Mac 101 yesterday gave you the basics of the Keychain, so we all know what it's good for -- keeping your passwords and credentials in a convenient, automatic and protected file. Still, that's an awful lot of passwordy goodness to keep in one place, especially if some of those passwords are controlling access to your financial or professional information. Y'know, what would be really cool -- if you could do it -- take that keychain, and put it on a portable drive, and then you'd have physical control of your passwords even when you aren't with your computer... nice.
Conveniently enough, there's a great walkthrough at nevali.net to accomplish this exact task. The basic steps: make a new keychain (with a secure, complex password) and save it to your removable media; once that's done, set your default keychain (where Mac OS X will put new password saves automatically) to the new, portable keychain. From that point on, you can take your passwords with you -- just don't forget to back up that USB drive somewhere safe.
I have found that strange USB problems creep up occasionally, often with no obvious cause (see, for instance, this week's Ask TUAW comments). I myself have a USB hard drive that sometimes just randomly disappears from my desktop and I have heard quite a few other folks report similar problems. Well MacFixIt has a nice tutorial up that offers some good suggestions from the obvious (unplug and replug) to the not so obvious (replace the relevant kernel extensions). So if you've ever had USB problems, this would be a good one to file away for future reference.
While Griffin's new $70 AirDock might sound like it's a contender to the wirelessly syncing WiDock's throne, don't let its name fool you. It doesn't sport 802.11x for syncing with a Mac or PC, but it does include an RF remote for controlling the AirDock, even through walls (Infrared, like in the Apple Remote, needs a direct line of sight). It also has an A/V out port for running your iPod media out to an entertainment center, but it doesn't have any kind of on-screen menu navigation like the more powerful $129 TuneCenter accessory. The other decent advantage for its price, however, is the inclusion of Griffin's PowerBlock, their compact $30 AC-to-USB charger that should be able to sync nearly any iPod with a Dock connector, as well as the 1G iPod shuffle due to its USB interface.
The AirDock is shipping now, and more details are available at Griffin's site.
According manufacturer Alesis the iMultiMix 8 USB is the "first mixer to fuse together professional quality mixing, 3 band per channel EQ, guitar/line inputs, built-in FX and iPod recording in a single, intuitive package." The cool thing is that once you've completed your recording you just sync the iPod as normal and your new masterpiece is automatically added to your iTunes library, where you can find it for further editing, etc. The recordings are made in stereo at 44.1 or 48kHz either direct to iPod or to your Mac via USB. Anyway, for the budding musician or multi-channel podcaster this looks like it could be a great piece of kit. The Alesis website lists the iMultiMix 8 USB as "coming soon," but according to iLounge it "is scheduled to ship in Q3 2007 for $499."
Here's a nice, easily overlooked tidbit from the release notes to the 10.4.9 update that we mentioned before: Apple has added support for USB Video Class cameras in iChat without the need of a third party driver a la iChatUSBCam from ecamm. A user in the MacRumors forums reports that the the Xbox Live Vision Camera (~$40) now works natively with the Mac. This should presumably be the case with other USB Video Class cameras as well, and while I would probably prefer a model from Logitech, the Xbox camera is widely available and relatively inexpensive. With iSights now unavailable this lends credence to the rumor of some sort of USB iSight replacements (or maybe Apple is just going to stay out of the webcam business altogether, given that iSights are built-into so many models now).
Ecamm Network has updated its popular iChatUSBCam software to version 2.2. The updated iChatUSBCam, which allows you to plug a USB webcam into your Mac and use it in iChat, includes support for many new USB cameras and a bunch of fixes and enhancements. For just ten bucks, the software lets you bypass having to track down a now non-existentiSight, and use an inexpensive camera from your local CompUSA or Walmart instead. You can pick up a Logitech Notebook QuickCam, for example, starting at under forty bucks.
The SpaceNavigator from 3Dconnexion is a tres cool USB peripheral for navigating in 3 dimensions in certain 3D software. Until now the SpaceNavigtor was Windows only, but 3Dconnexion has announced beta OS X support at Macworld.
Attention Logitech mouse and keyboard users: the Logitech Control Center has been updated to version 2.1.2. This system preference pane enables you to program special features of various Logitech mouse and keyboard combinations. Above are the setting for my Logitech MX Revolution. Some have reported problems with this upgrade, but there has been nothing but smooth sailing on my MacBook.
The Logitech Control Center is free and supports OS X 10.2.8 through 10.4.8 on both Intel and PPC Macs.
What would we do without Germans? Well, we wouldn't be crafting our own hand make USB cables for our iPod shuffles, that's for sure. As you are most likely aware, the 2nd gen iPod shuffle is tiny. So tiny, in fact, that Apple had to eschew the normal USB port for a propriety solution that makes use of the headphone jack. Fear not, since the iPod shuffle does come with a dock, but people don't want to tote that thing around.
Enter iPodFun.de and their tutorial (in German) that shows you how to make your very own travel USB cable for your shuffle. After you make it you can stick it in your homemade case and rock on.
Kensington today announced the 
Once upon a time the Mac vs. PC debate found a kind of synecdoche in the FireWire vs. USB debate. FireWire had been invented by Apple way back in 1986 essentially to replace SCSI. USB 1.0 arrived on the scene in 1995 from Intel, Microsoft, and a few others. Somewhat ironically, however, it was the original iMac that gave USB a needed kick-start in adoption. In any case, for a while there was a clear sense that FireWire was the Mac peripheral interface in contrast with the Wintel USB, and even now FireWire 400 tends to 
Victor's 
I have found that strange USB problems creep up occasionally, often with no obvious cause (see, for instance, this week's 
While Griffin's new $70 
According manufacturer Alesis the 
Here's a nice, easily overlooked tidbit from the 
Ecamm Network has updated its popular 
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