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Mac

Top 3 docks for MacBook users

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Desktop computers, for the most part, are a thing of the past. Most people, when they are searching for a new computer, are looking for a laptop. The world is becoming more and more mobile, and desktop computers like the new Mac Pro just can’t be lugged around that easily. That doesn’t mean, however, that the usefulness of a desktop computer has gone away. If you’re looking for a way to get the best of both worlds, a MacBook and a MacBook Dock may be your best solution.

The point of a dock is to expand the capabilities of your MacBook so that you can attach a bunch of extra peripherals. You can then simply attach the dock to your laptop, and it transforms into a desktop. When you want to pack up and leave, just unplug the dock, and go. Everything else stays there for the next time you want the big screen experience. So we’ve searched long and hard for the best MacBook docking stations. Here’s what we found.

The Matrox DS1

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Matrox Dock

This is a Thunderbolt-enabled dock, which makes it ideal for a plug and play desktop solution. Plug in your display, printer, and hard drives to the dock, and then plug the dock into your computer via Thunderbolt. Not only does this give you the advantages of the desktop computer, but also it allows you to keep the speed you’d see using internal hardware ($229.00).

LandingZone DOCK 15″ Secure Docking Station

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The DOCK is an amazing piece of hardware. Unlike the DS1, it is actually a dock for your computer; slide the computer into the DOCK and it connects to all of your peripherals. Of course there’s a downside, in that you have to buy one specifically suited to your MacBook.

The benefit is that you get all the ports you’d get with a desktop computer. It has a ton of extra USB ports, VGA, and more. The DS1 has some ports, but is a bit limited since you have to expand it with Thunderbolt devices, plus there are cords everywhere ($199.00).

Henge Docks

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Henge Docks

We came to a problem when we found Henge Docks. They make some awesome products and we just couldn’t choose. They have a vertical dock, which you slip your MacBook into like a sleeve. They also have a horizontal dock, which allows you to keep using your Mac while it is plugged into the dock. They also make some wonderful docks for the iPhone that go along with their other products ($59.00-$79.00).

The downside of their products is they are a bit pricey. They start at around $250, and they are Mac specific, so you’ll need to make sure you buy the one that was made for your Mac.

Bottom Line

The Henge Docks are really cool, so we’d probably recommend those over the others, but it’s all going to depend on what form factor you like best. The Henge gives you more desk space, the DOCK is great for when you need to keep using your MacBook, and the DS1 is great when you just want to stick to a minimal profile and expand via Thunderbolt.

News

AirPlay mirroring could have issues on Macs with OS X 10.9.2

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Almost every OS X release has its problems, and OS X 10.9 Mavericks is no exception. From the security problem they discovered a couple weeks back, to the continued Power Nap woes of the new Mac Pro, Mavericks has seen its fair share of problems. A new problem has sprung up. There have been several reports that the latest Mavericks update, 10.9.2, completely breaks AirPlay mirroring.

Here’s one complaint from Apple’s support communities:

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Apple Forum Discussion

AirPlay Mirroring is something that many professionals rely on for presentations, and it is also something a lot of people use to stream entertainment to their big screen televisions.

There doesn’t seem to be an apparent cause of this particular Mavericks bug. It seems to work on machines that were updated to Mavericks from an old install, and ones that were wiped clean and had Mavericks installed fresh. Some are speculating that it is in the code of Mavericks itself.

Mavericks has had, it seems, an inordinate number of bugs when it comes to built in Mac features. 10.9.2 itself was meant to fix both the aforementioned security problem, and a huge problem they’ve been having with Mail.app and Gmail.

Slow Updates

It seems that this update cycle has taken longer than usual. By this time of the year we’re usually on the third update to a new version of OS X, while we’ve only seen two so far with Mavericks despite its problems. 10.9.2 does seem to have finally fixed the Finder problems on older machines, so there’s that.

OS X 10.10 or OS XI will probably get shown of at WWDC in June. Almost always in the past, most of the big problems with the previous year’s release have been taken care of by WWDC. The question is whether or not Apple will keep that tradition. They seem to be stretched pretty thin, what with the number of bugs that iOS 7 has, and Mavericks, they have to be trying hard, but things seem to be happening slower than usual.

With the AirPlay Mirroring bug, Apple hasn’t yet acknowledged the problem, but will probably take care of it in the next update, especially if users keep talking about it in the forums.

Have you had this problem? Have you found a workaround?

How-To

How to enable a guest user for Mac OS X

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Desktop computers aren’t the most popular anymore, it used to be that if you had one, you’d want a guest account on it so that visiting family and friends had access to the computer and Internet. Nowadays where we all use laptops the guest account isn’t as important, since you’re less likely to share your laptop. If you do want to set up a guest account so you can share your computer with a friend or a family member, Mac OS provides a great and easy way to set up and manage an account that doesn’t have a password or access to system files. Here’s how to set one up.

1. Open System Preferences by going to Apple Menu > System Preferences.

2. Next, click on the User and Groups icon in the System Preferences window.

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3. Then, click on the lock in the lower left hand corner of the window, and enter your Administrator Password when OS X prompts you. This will allow you to make changes. Apple automatically locks things down so that you don’t change things unintentionally.

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4. Next click on the Guest User item in the left hand pane of the window.

5. The next step is to check the box for “Allow guest to log into the computer”. This part will explain that a guest user will be able to temporarily log onto your computer. It does not require a password, or allow users to access any non-system specific files.

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Below that, you will be presented with options to enable Parental Controls. If you choose to do so, you’ll have access to the Parental Controls panel. In that panel you’ll be able to control what files and folders, and more importantly applications, the guest account can access. This is great if the guest user on the computer will be a kid or someone you don’t trust with your info. You may want to access this panel just do get rid of access to the App Store.

Back on the Guest User panel, there is one more option: “Allow guests to connect to shared folders”. This, if selected, will allow people logged in as guests, to access any folders you have shared on the network while logged into your own account.

Conclusion

And that’s it. It is a relatively simple way to give someone temporary access to your computer. You’ll want to make sure you fully manage it with the parental controls in case your computer gets stolen. That way the thief won’t be able to access the App Store at all, which could save you loads of cash.

The Parental Controls are also great if you don’t want to enable full account access for your child. All they’ll have to do is access the guest account, and they’ll have access to whatever you permit. You can set parental controls for standard accounts as well, if you’d rather set up a full account for family members.

News

Emergency update for Flash released by Adobe

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Can we please live in a world where Flash becomes obsolete? Wasn’t that the whole point of iOS? Are there really websites out there that still use this broken and buggy web software? Apparently there is, or so it seems. Adobe has found and patched several zero-day exploits over the last couple months, and they just announced that they’ve found and patched another one. Every time they do this they have to release an “Emergency” update for Flash which has to be installed. It’s getting a little tedious.

More Problems for Flash on the Mac

According to fireeye.com:

This threat actor clearly seeks out and compromises websites of organizations related to international security policy, defense topics, and other non-profit sociocultural issues. The actor either maintains persistence on these sites for extended periods of time or is able to re-compromise them periodically.

This actor also has early access to a number of zero-day exploits, including Flash and Java, and deploys a variety of malware families on compromised systems. Based on these and other observations, we conclude that this actor has the tradecraft abilities and resources to remain a credible threat in at least the mid-term.

The exploit affects all of the latest versions of the Flash plugin, including those in use on the Mac. It allowed hackers to execute malicious code by taking control of the virtual function table pointer object. Whatever that means.

Apple Was Smart

The good news here is that Macs don’t come with Flash installed automatically anymore. In order to get Flash users have to go out and get it themselves. This will save a lot of computers. The problem with all of these “Emergency” patches is that non-technologically inclined people will either ignore the warning, or will get tired of the warnings that seem to come every few days. That could lead to a state of ambivalence, which would be bad for everyone.

If you’re running Flash, but don’t really use it all that much, the best thing you can do is get rid of it altogether. If you need Flash, then make sure you have auto-update turned on, so that you’re always up to date.

If you’re the tech support person for someone like your parents, you should help them avoid flash at all costs, and if you can’t, make sure they are always up to date.

Conclusion

Hackers are never going to stop trying to ruin our computers and steal our money. The issue isn’t that Flash is terrible, or that it takes up every machine resource known to man, but that it is a hacker-magnet. It has so many holes in it you might as well call it a sponge.

Flash can’t die soon enough. Not only is HTML 5 more reliable, and more stable, it will also solve a lot of these zero day exploits, which seem to pop up over and over again.

You can find more info on this exploit on Adobe’s security page.

News

Apple’s North Carolina data center sees another expansion

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Apple isn’t known for its Internet services. It started a social network this one time and it wasn’t very successful. Mobile Me was pretty terrible at launch, and iCloud hasn’t been all that well received. One of the things Apple is trying to do to make its Internet services department better is building huge data centers in the US to store and facilitate those services.

Back in 2010 Apple began construction on a North Carolina data center. Since then they have expanded it a couple times. On Thursday they announced they are yet again expanding it.

The facility is already very big, at 100 acres of solar farm, plus a 500,000 square foot data center. This announcement plans to double the data center space. The Hickory Record adds:

Like the previous tactical data center, plans for the new one shows banks of computers in the main portion of it and 11 air units to cool it. Two more air units will supply the office and other occupied area of the data center. Its security measures appear to be similar to that of the previous data center, including what’s called a man-trap door — one door closes before the second one opens.

Siri Is the Future

Siri hasn’t been what you’d call a revolutionary success. When it first came out it was buggy, unstable, and lacking in features. Over the last couple years Apple has added features and fixed the bugs. It is still quite unstable, despite the added power of the North Carolina data center.

That’s why it isn’t surprising that Apple is focusing so much money and time on building additional data centers to improve the quality of one of their key features.

Google Has Them Beat

Apple is a hardware company that tries to compete with services. Google is a services company that tries to do hardware. Google Now has seen rave reviews over the last couple years because it doesn’t have the same problems Siri has. It’s stable and has a ton of pretty awesome features. It’s even on iOS, so you can try it out if you haven’t already.

The point is that Google seems to have the service bit down, whereas Apple continues to struggle, despite putting tons of money and effort into improving the infrastructure. A possible solution would be to hire as many Google employees as possible, and use their expertise to improve the existing and future services.

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Aerial photos via wired.com
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Aerial photos via wired.com
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Aerial photos via wired.com
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Aerial photos via wired.com

Apple is spending a lot of money to expand its North Carolina data center, it also has two more planned or built in Prineville Oregon, and Reno, Nevada. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them expand their data center efforts outside of the US in the coming years since a large portion of their user base is outside of the United States.

Apple is going to have to use some of its huge cash pile to change the perception that it’s bad at services. It could take years, but here’s hoping they show everyone they know how.