Lion Designer for Mac

In this video, I show you how to customize different elements of your Mac. By using one simple application, you can change the appearance of certain things on your Mac. I hope you found this tutorial helpful, and to get to the Lion Designer website click here. Enjoy!

How to make you Dock Transparent!

The video above is my latest video featured on my YouTube channel. The video demonstarates the capabilities of the Mirage app that allows you to make your dock background transparent. It is a fanstastic little app that is incredible at spicing up the look of your desktop. Liking the video and subscribeing helps me a lot and I really apprciate it. I hope you enjoy the video! :)

Connecting a MacBook Air to HDMI TV

At some point most Mac users will want to connect their machine to a HDTV.  

The Apple store offer a range of connectors including some in the iWires range.   Finding the right cable for the new MacBook Air was relatively straight forward as the Thunderbolt display port is also used to connect as a Mini DisplayPort.

The cable I therefore chose was a Mini DisplayPort to (female) HMDI connector with HDMI cable not included.

The box recommends the following connectivity:

Mac mini / MacBook (Post May 2010) / MacBook Pro (Post April 2010) and an iMac to a TV / Monitor.

Interestingly there was no mention of the MacBook Air. 

Initially connecting to the TV was easy and the MacBook Air recognised the TV quickly.  I did however have trouble establishing an audio connection.  A quick look online didn’t offer any help so I tried the obvious trick of rebooting whilst still connected to the TV and this cleared the issue.  

The video quality through the HDMI input was beautiful with very good colour range and definition - although I guess this will also depend on the quality of the TV being used.

If you are looking for a connector for your Mac there is a handy App for the iPhone (available from the App Store) called the "iWires connectivity guide". 

My iPhone 5 Predictions

About 5 or 6 months before every iPhone release, there is always a ton of iPhone rumors and leaks going around, most of which are bogus. But just because most of them are bogus, doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun, right? In this article I'll share what upgrades I think will be put on the next generation iPhone coming later this year.

#1. 4G LTE

I think it is incredibly obvious that the next iPhone will include 4G LTE compatibilities considering the 3rd generation iPad has 4G LTE capabilities built in. I'm not even going to explain myself on this one, it's just too obvious, but then again you never know with Apple. One thing is for sure though, the battery is definitely going to need to be upgraded.

#2. Upgraded Processor

I also think it is quite obvious that the processor in the next generation iPhone will be updated. However I still can't decide whether I think the next iPhone processor will be the Apple A5X or a new A6 processor. Oh the possibilities...

#3. Bigger Screen

I really hope there is a bigger screen coming to the iPhone. It would improve the experience so much! Sadly, I don't know if Apple is up to the hassle of rebuilding all of there apps and iOS, as well as getting all of the developers to redevelop their apps.

#4. Better Battery

The iPhone needs a new battery. Period.

#5. A Redesign

If Apple follows their usual upgrade pattern, the next iPhone should look different. I usually predict the redesign closer tot he estimated announce date, but all I can say is, curvy edge unibody design.

Well ,that's it for this article. I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a comment of drop me a line on YouTube or Tweet me on Twitter to tell me how I did.

Is The MacBook Air Overpriced?

In the beginning of my research for buying a Mac computer, the first one I did want to have hands on, was the MacBook Air. After using my friend's for a month, I didn't like it at all. For what it brings to the user it is way overpriced. To learn why, read the rest of the article.

First of all, if you didn't know, the MacBook Air is a netbook. As Steve said "NetBooks are best at anything", and I definitely agree. Its price starts at 999$. Let me give you a quick speck review of the particular MacBook Air model.

Screen: 11"

Processor: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel i5

Ram: 2GB

Storage: 64GB

Graphic Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000

After carefully reading this model specks, do you still believe that the MacBook Air's price is logical? In my opinion, no. With 999$, the consumer can purchase a quad-core Windows laptop with four times better specks, or build a custom one, which is going to be as powerful as the 27'", quad-core iMac. I know it 's made by aluminum, it's very thin and light and it's perfect for traveling, but there are hundreds Windows netbooks which are thin and  light (Not made by aluminum of course), and they are perfect for traveling too. Those Windows netbook's price is 300$-450$ and bring to the user exactly what the MacBook Air can bring too.

Now you will wonder "Then why do people buy it?”. The answer is simple; it's because of the OS. Let me give you an example. Would anyone buy the iPhone 4S if it run iOS 3? No. Before purchasing a product after reviewing the specks, the user also wants the device to have a good operating system. For business people Mac OS X is the best OS, and if they travel a lot those people need a small computer running Mac.

For the Apple fun boys also, who are going to hate on me, I never said that the MacBook Air is a bad computer. It's the best netbook in the market. What I said is that it's way overpriced. So before you start trolling on me, please, take those words into consideration.

Thanks so much for reading my thoughts on this topic. If you have a different opinion on this, or if you have any questions based on this article, feel free to leave them in the comment section below, or mention me on Twitter @OrestGPap.

Twitter