TOSHIBA Blade X-gale 256GB SSD for MacBook Air 2010/2011

If you want to use MacBook Air as a main machine, SSD volume should be 256GB or higher.  Now you can choose 256GB at most when you buy MacBook Air, but if you didn't, you can replace the SSD. You may want to choose third parity's SSD, that's one way. But you should consider reliability.
Probably, the best reliable SSD for MacBook Air 2010/2011 is Apple genuine one.

Toshiba Blade X-gale 256GB for MacBook Air 2010/2011 $299.95

This SSD is the same as Apple genuine one, and it's very reliable. If you don't want to lose your data, that's very important.

This SSD is compatible with all MacBook Air Late 2010/Mid 2011. Some sources say that the genuine 256GB SSD is not compatible with 11 inch 2010 model, but it's not true. We acctually tested it with the model, and no problem.

This is very good upgrade for all MacBook Air 2010/2011 with 64GB/128GB SSD.

Apple stock hits $500

On 2/13 Apple stock hits $500.
What if I have not sold the apple stock...
Today stock fell to 497.67 -11.79.
I wonder  the future of Apple without Jobs.

Change.org: Petitioning Apple to Protect Factory Workers

Today, protesters visited a half-dozen Apple stores around the world to deliver petitions calling for reforms in the working conditions at factories run by Apple's suppliers in China and overseas locations. A demonstration at Apple's Grand Central Terminal store was one of them. At the protest was Shelby Knox, organizing director with Change.org. When interviewed for the reason he was there, he responded: "I'm a big fan of Apple products, but I can no longer ethically support products that harm the people that make them. When people join together, we can hold companies accountable."

These protests held worldwide actually stem from the online social activist site, Change.org. The petition, created by Mark Shields--a self-described lifelong Apple customer--has drawn almost 200,000 signatures already, aiming for 300,000 petitions before submitting it to Apple. SumOfUs.org, another corporate accountability lobbying group, has also already gathered 50,000 signatures against Apple's supply chain conditions.

The petition writes of one of many examples of why the working conditions in the factory needs to be changed: "the men and women in these factories work very long days spent repeating the same motions over and over, which creates amped-up carpal tunnel syndrome in their wrists and hands. This often results in them losing the use of their hands for the rest of their lives. This condition could be easily prevented if the workers were rotated through different positions in the factory, but they are not. Why? Because there are no labor laws in China to protect these people."

So, getting to the bottom line: what are the changes that are proposed?
1) For Apple to release a worker protection strategy for new product releases [because injuries and suicides typically spike during this period due to incredible pressure to meet quotas timed to releases]
2) For Apple to publish the results of Fair Labor Association (FLA) monitoring, including the names of the suppliers found to have violations and what those violations are so that there is transparency around the monitoring effort.


Go here today to sign the petition and make a change!

"Elevation Dock" on Kickstarter

The Kickstarter record made by Lunatik a year ago has now been replaced by ElevationLab and its kickstarter product "Elevation Dock." It's praised to be the best dock for iPhone ever. You can first take a look at how it works through this video:

On kickstarter.com, with a pledged goal of $75,000, it has already reached $934,834 and still has 68 hours to go. It's backed by a stunning 8,625 people. It's the design that's so "Appleesque" (as the NYTimes says). It's funny that this dock didn't already exist!


The key distinctions of this dock from others out there in the market are this:
1. It allows for smooth and seamless undocking.
2. It allows for docking with or without a case.
3. It's not the ordinary mass production dock; it's tailored from solid aluminum and has gorgeous surface finish.

The website says: "Elevation Docks are individually CNC machined from solid billets of aircraft grade aluminum, no expense spared. The result is a level of precision that can't be achieved through molding or casting. They feel heavy, strong, durable and look gorgeous."

Read more about it here.

Apps Create Jobs, But Also Create Frauds

I read here that Apps for mobile devices have created 466,000 American Jobs since 2008. Of those 466,000, an estimated 155,000 people work in app development and tech support, while 311,000 people work in marketing and design. That’s a hefty support for our staggering economy.

But, the other side of the bloating App market is the rise of fraudulent App marketers. In the Touch Arcades forum, a post was made about an “ad network that guaranteed to get an app into the Top 25 in the app store for $5000.” The person who posted this, “walterkaman,” is an app developer and he went to go see this company, where he was walked down with all the apps in the Top 25 that were their clients. The list goes as follows: #4 – Tiny Pets, #5 – Social Girl, #6 – Fluff Friends, #10 – Pet Town, #12 – Crime City, #13 – VIP Poker, #16 – Sweet Shop, #19 – Top Girl.

These fraud apps are put in the Top 25 through automatic downloads generated by a bot farm.

  

Steve Jobs once said:

“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.”

App developers need to be proud of what they create. There’s nothing personal or aesthetic about those apps. So many people choose to take on a job that means nothing but rigging someone else, but a true job should be purely out of ones joy and excitement.

Our Mac Mini Install Kit was Featured on Mac People (March edition)

Mac People, a premier Macintosh magazine for Japanese Mac users, wrote a review on our Second SSD/HDD Installation Kit for Mac mini Mid 2011.

They highlighted, "Drastically Improves the Usability of Your Mac Mini," and gave it the following review: Out of 5 stars, they gave 3 stars for "simplicity of installing," 5 stars for "effectiveness," and 5 stars for "cost performance."

They further stated: "This install kit is a powerful tool to help you bolster the power of your Mac mini. If you want more speed, then you can choose to install a fast SSD. If you want more capacity, then you can choose to install a 1TB HD. Compared with the Apple BTO, you can freely choose your storage options, and the price is much cheaper."

Get it here today.

2 Rules in Installing RAM on your Mac Pro

I'd like to suggest 2 rules in installing RAM on your 8-Core/10-Core Mac Pro 2009/2010.
8 slots are available in these models: 4 in the front, 4 in the back.

Rule #1: Make slots 1-4 and 5-8 of identical set-up.
Rule #2: Put three memory modules of the same capacity and speed in slots 1-4 and 5-8 (i.e., to operate in triple-channel mode).


"Rule #1" precedes "Rule #2". You don't have to follow these rules in order for it to run. Following these rules will only help you optimize the speed.

Here is an example of when you have 6 x 1GB modules installed:

Installing 2 x 4GB modules

Front: 3 x 1GB + 1 x 4GB
Back: 3 x 1GB + 1 x 4GB
Total: 14GB
Works fine. Follows both rules.

Installing 3 x 4GB modules

Front: 2 x 1GB + 2 x 4GB
Back: 3 x 1GB + 1 x 4GB
Total: 17GB
Will work, but won't be that great. Both rules are not fulfilled.

Installing 4 x 4GB modules

Hmm...maybe I should install it this way to operate in triple-channel...
Front: 3 x 4GB + 1 x 1GB
Back: 3 x 1GB + 1 x 4GB
Total: 20GB
Wrong. Rule #1 precedes Rule #2, so it runs faster this way:
Front: 2 x 1GB + 2 x 4GB
Back: 2 x 1GB + 2 x 4GB
This fulfills Rule #1 but doesn't fulfill Rule #2. It's an average upgrade.

Installing 6 x 4GB modules

Front: 1 x 1GB + 3 x 4GB
Back: 1 x 1GB + 3 x 4GB
This is a great way to install your RAM.

Installing 8 x 4GB modules

Front: 4 x 4GB
Back: 4 x 4GB
This is the best way to install your RAM.

I hope this serves as a reference for your RAM upgrades in your Mac Pro 2009/2010.

Your Mac Store RAM upgrades for Mac Pro on sale here.

A Photo of Steve I Crossed Upon...

I found this photo somewhere. Jobs never donated anything big enough to be publicly noticed.
In fact, he's well-known for not being philanthropic. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/record-thin-on-steve-jobss-philanthropy/2011/10/06/gIQA3YKKRL_story.html

Some people go as far as to say he's monopolistic--almost like McDonald's when they monopolized the fast food market. See the pun in photo below:

But, in a interview back in 1985, Jobs replied the following as to this question: "in order to learn how to do something well, you have to fail sometimes...the problem with most philanthropy--there's no measurement system...you can really never measure whether you failed or succeeded...So...it's really hard to get better." He also added, "When I have some time, I'm going to start a public foundation."

This foundation he started in 1986 was closed after 15 months. The reason: "He clearly didn't have the time." After all, Steve's greatest way of giving to humanity was by sharing Apple around the world.

YourMacStore's News Updates: January 31st

HIGHLIGHT: Mac OS X finally gets ZFS support thanks to former Apple engineer

CRAZY: Republicans Are Voting Via iPads In Florida Primary

HOT: Cisco aims Wi-Fi access point at iPad profusion

COOL: Apple appeals iPad trademark decision in China

The result of Apple trademarks not passing in Chinese courts: "iPnoho6"

RAM Disk Utility "RAMDrive" by Scintilla

$4.99 in Mac App Store released 1/28/2012

The RAM disk utility “RAMDrive” is on sale in the app store. A RAM disk or RAM drive is what uses part of your primary storage as a disk drive. The app “RAMDrive” allows you to create your own RAM disk. That means, if your computer has a large amount of memory, you can use a part of it as the RAM disk. Even the Mac Mini today has a 16GB max storage, so RAM disks can be comfortably used today by the average person.

As the app store says, “the speed of such disk can be up to 5 GB per second.” That’s obviously faster than a standard disk drive and even faster than an SSD. Making the bank-switched RAM behave like disk drives harnesses this speed because it frees the RAM from the limitations of the data bus and CPU. 

The disadvantage of the RAM disk, however, is that it is created in the volatile memory. It means that if you turn your computer off, all the data is lost, thus making the functions of it limited. When RAM disks were a standard utility in the Mac OS of the past, several megabytes of the RAM disk would be used as a Photoshop scratch disk...perhaps it could be used in a similar fashion today.

RAMDrive has a number of functions that make the use of RAM disks more comfortable. The app store says, “RAMDrive supports automatic mounting on the disk when starting the system. Additionally, you can set the automatic backing up of the disk at logging off the system and recovery at logging in.”

We’ve gone a long ways since the old days:

256MB Daystar RAM PowerCard; RAM disk mounted on Quadra 950

Links:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ramdrive/id497452513
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk (for Windows)

YourMacStore's News Updates: January 30th

HIGHLIGHT: Cure for a nagging AirPort Utility

CRAZY: Watch: Ex-Apple Employee Claims Company Puts New Engineers on Fake Projects

HOT: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX300V Water proof camera supports Transfer Jet, GPS and wireless LAN

COOL: Verizon’s Getting Ready To Let Your iPad And iPhone Share The Same Data Plan

Tenosynovitis: The Health Issues of Pinching an iPad

Recently, there's been quite a few accessories for the iPad where you could hold it with just one hand. The whole point of it, though, is not design but health. Health issues are emerging in the design of tablets being too thin. The thin tablets are making consumers "pinch and hold" with one hand. But this pinching action could create an inflammation in the tendons called Tenosynovitis. It's an inflammation in the thumb side of the wrist and you could get it if you are pinching your tablet for a prolonged period of time.

If you are a pinch holder, here are some single hand grips you could get for your iPad:

http://www.handeholder.com/
http://www.freeonehand.com/
http://thehandstand.com/

YourMacStore's News Updates: January 27th

Have a nice weekend!

HIGHLIGHT: Tim Cook responds to claims of factory worker mistreatment: “We care about every worker in our supply chain”

CRAZY: Seen at Macworld | iWorld 2012: $68,000 diamond speakers 

YourMacStore's News Updates: January 26th

HIGHLIGHT: Review: NewerTech Power2U USB Wall Outlet

CRAZY: @rawsoncj on twitter

HOT: Macworld 2012: WDC Shows Off MyBook Thunderbolt Duo

COOL: Apple exploring MagSafe data, headphone connections for iPhone, iPad

 

One more thing...a $250 discount on iPads for Apple employees

Team,

Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we’re off to a great start in 2012. Last week in New York we launched a groundbreaking initiative for education with iBooks textbooks, and today we reported the strongest quarter in Apple’s history.Please join me tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Town Hall. We’ll review our record-setting results and discuss some exciting new things going on at Apple.The meeting will be broadcast live to many sites in Cupertino and other Apple locations. Please check AppleWeb for details.

Tim 

At the Town Hall Meeting held at 10AM yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a new discount standard for employees. It used to be 25% on all kinds of Macs (1 purchase per year; 15% off for friends and relatives up to 3 purchases per year). Now it's a $500 discount on Macs (except Mac minis) and $250 discount on iPads. The new discount can only be used once every 3 years. The amount of discount increased but the number of times you could use it decreased. Was it really that great of a change?

Nothing could have been more exciting when the Town Hall Meeting was first held in a long time by then CEO Steve Jobs in July 2007. It was the day before the iPhone was going to be released on the historic Friday (28th). He announced there that all full-time and part-time Apple employees who'd been working for more than a year (apprx. 20,000 employees) will get a free 8GB iPhone with a retail price of $599. That's basically a $12-million giveaway by the company.


 ---

Here's the message that Steve sent to his employees:

From: Steve Jobs
Date: June 27, 2007 1:47:55 PM PDT
To: [redacted]
Subject: Town Hall Meeting Tomorrow

Team,

We're launching the most revolutionary and exciting product in Apple's history this Friday. And given Apple's legacy of breakthrough products, that's saying a lot.

I'd like to get together and share my thoughts about this amazing moment for our company. So please join me for a company-wide communications meeting tomorrow, Thursday, at 11:00AM in Town Hall.

This meeting will also be broadcast to other Apple campus locations. Please check [redacted] for details.

See you there,

Steve

---

How discouraging it must have been for the employees who knew the Town Hall meeting in 2007 to go to the 2012 meeting and hear that they'll only get a $250 discount on iPads. Steve gave away free iPhones in anticipation of great revenue increases in 2007 (which did actually happen), but Tim's announcement came after one of the greatest revenues in history and all he did was give a $250 discount.

YourMacStore's News Updates: January 25th

There's sizzling hot news out there on Apple these days.
I couldn't help but also introduce them here on my blog.
I'm planning on doing it every so often. Here's something to chew on today:

Highlight: Copy a Bootable Mac OS 9 Install Disc

Crazy: Sireet Lets You Tweet From Siri On Your iPhone 4S [Jailbreak]

Hot: Firmware updated for MacBook Pros, MacBooks, Mac minis

Cool: Foxconn worker claims iPhone 5 in preparation for production

Installing an SSD to your Mac Mini (Mid 2011)

With the SSD support on the Mac Mini (Mid 2011)--it no longer has a superdrive--you could easily turn your mini into your main machine without spending heaps of money. You don't have to pay Apple's $600 for a 256MB SSD BTO, as long as you have a SSD and an installation kit. In addition, Apple's BTO is a SATA 2.0 drive, so it won't generate the same speed as a SATA 3.0.

Kindly enough, the Mac Mini already comes with a mounter for the second drive, but you need some other parts and screws to finish the job. We've got it for you:

Second SSD/HDD Installation Kit for Mac Mini Mid 2011, $49.95

The Core i5 CPU on the Mac Mini is already pretty good, but by using an SSD as your boot drive, you are guaranteed improved responsiveness and, above all, a super fast initial boot up time.

Intermediate skills are required for installation. You can see our online manual here.
Please press "like" if you do:

Installing an SSD to your iMac (Mid 2011)

The iMac Mid 2011's SATA 3.0 interface allows for an installation of an SSD much faster than that of the 2.0. You can add an SSD via BTO, but as you know, it will cost much more than if you install one on a standard iMac. The problem with this, though, is that the standard model does not have a built-in mounter and therefore impossible to install an SSD just by itself. (Other problems include: You cannot replace the HD with the SSD, because the fan will be too loud; even if you replace the superdrive (SATA 2.0) with the SSD, the speed of the SATA 3.0 will not be generated; the SATA ports on the logic board is male so modifications are needed with the installing side of the SSD; etc.)

At Your Mac Store, we sell an SSD Installation Kit for iMac Mid 2011.
It comes with an installation manual copyrighted by us.

Internal SSD Installation Kit for iMac 27" Mid 2011, $99.95

Important: Some iMacs may not have mounting points for an SSD. Please check if your iMac has mounting points as this image shows.

We are also a reseller of SOLIDATA 2.5" SSD's, which will be handy to have together with your installation kit. Check it out here: http://www.yourmacstore.com/2-5-sata-ssd/

Tonal Shaping through your iPad: AmpDock by Alesis

Use with app, dock connector, and pedal to produce guitar effects.

It's amazing how iPad Apps are being given real-life applications more and more over the years--an output and venue in the guitar/bass industry is just another example. Apps like GarageBand, AmpliTude, JamUp can now be used in sync with a real effects controls and a pedalboard through the AmpDock device introduced by Alesis in the "NAMM Show 2012" in Anaheim, California.  

Alesis states: "You can use the Program Up/Down buttons to instantly switch between your presets, and use the FX button to unload powerful effects. AmpDock's pedalboard even includes an expression pedal that can be used for volume control or to send MIDI control changes like wah, frequency, or delay. You'll also have instant access to Main, Headphone, Input 1, and Input 2 level controls with dedicated knobs on the AmpDock for easy adjustment of these crucial settings."

Includes:  1/4" high-impedance guitar input and an XLR-1/4" combo input, 1/4" outputs with Guitar/Mic and Ground Lift switches, USB MIDI port, headphone output with volume control, and more.

The pedalboard controller allows you to control volume, bypass, program changes, and other parameters.

Cheapest RAM Online

Tell me about stores I can add onto the list! I open to any suggestions! Updated by YourMacStore 01/20/2012
Item Name	YMS	OWC	DMS	18004	MemX	OEMPC
ECC
2GB DDR3-1333	$19.95	$20.99	$20.75	$39.00	$19.98	$25.85
4GB DDR3-1333	$34.95	$34.99	$33.00	$49.00	$45.98	$38.85
4GB DDR3-1066	$33.95	$33.97	$32.00	$59.00	$45.98	$38.85
2x2GB DDR2-800	$119.95	$119.99	$98.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
8GB DDR3-1066	$108.95	$109.99	$104.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
8GB DDR3-1333	$108.95	$112.99	$104.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x4GB DDR2-800	$259.95	$269.99	$238.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
4x8GB DDR3-1066	$399.94	$424.99	$416.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
4x8GB DDR3-1333	$399.95	$437.99	$416.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
SODIMM
1GB DDR-333	$35.95	$36.88	$33.50	$39.00	N/A	N/A
1GB DDR2-667	$19.95	N/A	$13.50	$19.99	$14.98	$12.85
2GB DDR2-667	$29.95	$29.97	$25.00	$29.00	N/A	N/A
2GB DDR2-800	$29.95	$29.99	$29.00	$29.00	N/A	N/A
4GB DDR2-667	$89.95	$84.99	$75.00	$119.00	N/A	N/A
4GB DDR3-1333	$25.95	$26.99	$28.00	$29.00	$22.98	$25.00
2x2GB DDR2-667	$58.95	$59.99	$58.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x2GB DDR2-800	$58.95	$58.99	$58.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
4+2GB DDR2-667	$119.95	$109.99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
4+2GB DDR2-800	$104.95	$104.99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x4GB DDR2-667	$174.95	N/A	$150.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x4GB DDR2-800	$149.95	N/A	$150.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x4GB DDR3-1333	$47.95	$49.99	$56.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
8GB DDR3-1333	$154.95	$157.99	$119.00	N/A	$199.98	$289.85
4x4GB DDR3-1333	$94.95	$99.97	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2x8GB DDR3-1333	$295.95	$297.99	$238.00	N/A	N/A	N/A