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Apple's Fusion Drive slashes boot times, boosts read/write speeds | ZDNet

Apple's Fusion Drive slashes boot times, boosts read/write speeds | ZDNet | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Apple's Fusion Drive brings Mac users the best of both worlds -- terabyte storage capacities with the performance of a solid state drive.

The tests pit a 2012 Mac mini with Fusion Drive -- consisting of a 256GB solid state drive, and a 1TB 5400 RPM hard drive -- against a 2012 Mac mini featuring a standard 5400 RPM drive.

Starting with the boot up, the tests found the Fusion Drive Mac mini booted up in a shade over 15 seconds, while the 2012 Mac mini with the hard drive took 34 seconds.

Like I said, this is a noticeable improvement. Very noticeable.

Speed tests showed that the Fusion Drive was capable of delivering write speeds in excess of 300 megabytes per second, and write speeds breaking the 400 megabytes per second barrier. In comparison, the Mac mini containing the 5400 RPM hard drive couldn't even hit 100 megabytes per second in either the tests.

While solid state drives are fast, they have been slow to be adopted because the cost per GB is much higher than that of a regular hard drive. Housing both types of drives in a single system, and adding secret sauce software that intelligently combines the two drives into a single partition, brings the best of both worlds to Mac users.

This technology will no doubt help to raise awareness for the benefits of solid state drives, and help boost adoption, both at home and in the workplace.

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Advance Searches In Finder and Spotlight | Mac Tricks And Tips

Advance Searches In Finder and Spotlight | Mac Tricks And Tips | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
How to use advance and complex search functions within Spotlight and Finder to search for specific items on your Mac. Using rules to narrow down your search.
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Mac tip: How to stop programs from launching automatically

Mac tip: How to stop programs from launching automatically | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
So, here’s a quick question: how long does it take for your Mac to start up? A minute? Two minutes? Five? Or just too long? One possible reason your Mac may be slow out of the blocks is that it’s t...
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Backup-Battalion-Saves-World-From-Intergalactic-Data-Disasters.jpg

Backup-Battalion-Saves-World-From-Intergalactic-Data-Disasters.jpg | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
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OS X keyboard shortcuts

Learn about common OS X keyboard shortcuts. A keyboard shortcut is a way to invoke a function in OS X by pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard.
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Repairing your iPad's network connection | Macworld

Repairing your iPad's network connection | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
If your iOS device suddenly turns a blind eye to your local network you can put things right with these tips.
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Online Ping, Traceroute, DNS lookup, WHOIS, Port check, Reverse lookup, Proxy checker, Bandwidth meter, Network calculator, Network mask calculator, Country by IP, Unit converter

Easy to use web-based service.
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Switch to Mac: Translating Windows to OS X | Macworld

Switch to Mac: Translating Windows to OS X | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
You've made the leap from a Windows PC to the Mac, but now that you're here, you might feel a bit lost. This chart will help you find the features you're looking for.
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Optical drives not working with Mountain Lion for some | MacFixit

Optical drives not working with Mountain Lion for some | MacFixit | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
After installing OS X Mountain Lion, some people are finding their internal optical drives are no longer functioning. Read this article by Topher Kessler on CNET.
David Anders's insight:

An ongoing issue for some people who have installed Mountain Lion is the inability to access their systems' internal optical drives. Once installed, inserting a disc results in a couple of noises before the disc is ejected. While this can sometimes happen for burned discs that are no longer readable, it appears to happen for all discs, be they home-burned or commercial.

If this is happening on your system, first try testing the problem with multiple operating systems to see if the problem is hardware or software based. If your system came with gray boot discs, try inserting them and restarting with the C key held down to boot off of them. If successful then this is evidence enough that the drive is working.

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When your Mac takes a fall | Macworld

When your Mac takes a fall | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
When your Mac laptop slips out of your hands, or your Mac desktop falls off your desk as you're shuffling things around, here's what to do once the feeling of dread dissipates.
David Anders's insight:

Alsoft’s DiskWarrior is a great application for taking a damaged hard drive and rehabbing it to a point at which you can recover its data. At $100, the app is pricey, but the investment pays off; I’ve rebuilt more hard drives with DiskWarrior than I care to mention.

 

Data Rescue 3

Prosoft Engineering’s Data Rescue 3 lets you mount and work with drives that may be too damaged to mount under OS X. It can also help you work around damaged sectors on the drive to recover every savable chunk of data. At $99, it’s another fairly hefty investment; but between these two apps, you can rebuild and recover an amazing amount of data, if the drive’s mechanical functions are still operating normally after the drop.

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Speed Time Machine Past 88MPH Over Your Local Network. | Other World Computing Blog

Speed Time Machine Past 88MPH Over Your Local Network. | Other World Computing Blog | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
The only thing I dislike about Time Machine is how long it takes to create its initial backup if you’re backing up to a shared drive over a network, however there is a workaround.
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Improve performance with a hard drive upgrade | PCWorld

Improve performance with a hard drive upgrade | PCWorld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Alloystory asked the Laptops forum about speeding up a PC by replacing the hard drive with something faster.
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8 essential features you need in a business router | PCWorld

8 essential features you need in a business router | PCWorld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
It's not enough to offer the latest wireless standard. Make sure the router that will support your office is up to snuff with these core features.
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Printing to an AirPort Extreme / Express Base Station or Time Capsule from Windows XP

Printing to an AirPort Extreme / Express Base Station or Time Capsule from Windows XP | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Learn about printing to an AirPort Extreme / Express Base Station or Time Capsule from Microsoft Windows XP.
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11 To Ways To Automate Your Daily Life | Mac Tricks And Tips

11 To Ways To Automate Your Daily Life | Mac Tricks And Tips | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
How to automate your daily routine on your Mac with a variety of built in system preference tools and options. Also use Automator to set up tasks to automatically run at a specific time and date.
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11 Mac Books To Read & Learn From | Mac Tricks And Tips

11 Mac Books To Read & Learn From | Mac Tricks And Tips | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
A list of books which are a great read for any mac user. A list of basic books to more complex topics, including terminal, applescript and under the hood commands.
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Start Your Mac From A USB Stick – MLion Recovery Only | Mac Tricks And Tips

Start Your Mac From A USB Stick – MLion Recovery Only | Mac Tricks And Tips | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Hot to create a drive to boot into when your hard drive has failed. Create USB boot drive to recovery your Mac and reinstall Mac OS X and recover from Time Machine.
David Anders's insight:

Once booted you can use the options to restore from a Time Machine backup, use Disk Utility to repair your hard drive, reinstall the OS, and get help online. It is the standard boot page which can be accessible from holding  Command + R on your Mac. Normally you can boot into this drive if you hard drive is working normally.

 
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iCloud: Why was I spammed?

Learn more about unsolicited bulk email messages and how to deal with this "spam."
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All about About This Mac | Macworld

All about About This Mac | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
With Mountain Lion, Apple presents a new view of your Mac's configuration in the About This Mac. Chris Breen explores the details in this week's Macworld video.
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Syncing calendars between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard | Macworld

Syncing calendars between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Problem: You have events in Mountain Lion's Calendar application and would like to share them with your Mac running Snow Leopard. iCloud is out. Chris Breen tells you what's in.
David Anders's insight:

This was a popular subject when Mac OS X Lion (10.7) first shipped, as Apple drew a firm line between the new and old ways in regard to data sharing. MobileMe was out and iCloud was in. At that time there were a couple of sneaky ways to make Snow Leopard’s iCal work with iCloud. Allow me to report that I’ve wasted plenty of my time so that you needn’t waste yours. These schemes are broken and it’s very unlikely Apple is going to do anything to make iCloud compatible with Snow Leopard.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use an alternative—Google Calendar. In order to have such a thing you must sign up for a Gmail account. For the six of you who don’t have one, hightail it on over to Gmail.com and set it up.

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How to migrate a user account to another OS X system

How to migrate a user account to another OS X system | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
There are several ways you can move a user account from one computer to another without having to set up the account again from scratch. Read this article by Topher Kessler on CNET.
David Anders's insight:

Conventionally, when you get a new system you are presented with the OS X Setup Assistant, which will guide you through migrating your data from an existing system or a backup.

 

In addition to Setup Assistant, you can use Apple's Migration Assistant tool at any time to transfer data from one Mac to another. This tool is especially useful for establishing your current user account on another system. Simply open the Migration Assistant tool on the destination system, and then follow its instructions for accessing your source Mac. Then you can check only the account you wish to transfer so its data and settings are integrated into the current setup of the destination system. This may be useful if, for instance, you are disposing of an older Mac and want to get all its users running on another more recently purchased one.

 

A final option for transferring user accounts to a new system is to do so manually. While backups and migration tools are the most convenient options, they might not always be usable. For instance, if you have deleted a user account from your system but preserved that account's data, and do not have a recent backup of it in other locations, you may need to restore the preserved data folder for the account to use.

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How to Create a 4GB/s RAM Disk in Mac OS X » TekRevue

How to Create a 4GB/s RAM Disk in Mac OS X » TekRevue | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
RAM Disks can be risky but also amazingly fast. If you accept the risks, here's how to create a 4+ GB/s RAM Disk on your Mac.
David Anders's insight:

The OWC SSD can achieve 490MB/s writes and 540MB/s reads, numbers that by normal standards are exceptional. When compared to the performance of a RAM Disk, however, the SSD’s performance isn’t worth a second look. The RAM Disk peaks at about 4.2 gigabytes per second in both reads and writes, and averages about 3.5GB/s throughout the transfer sizes. For disk-intensive tasks, this performance can be a game changer.

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Cloud Storage Speed Compared, Dropbox Comes Out On Top

Cloud Storage Speed Compared, Dropbox Comes Out On Top | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
The cloud storage wars are heating up and there are a lot of reasons to look at the alternatives. However, the big question is, "Which one is the fastest at syncing files?" Unsurprisingly, that title goes to reigning incumbent, Dropbox.
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How to sync an Android phone to your Mac | Macworld

How to sync an Android phone to your Mac | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
Syncing an iPhone to a Mac is simple. Syncing an Android phone may not be quite as easy, but it isn't hard. Here's how to do it.
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Clearing up Mac App Store confusion | Macworld

Clearing up Mac App Store confusion | Macworld | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it
The Mac App Store tells you that there's an update available for an application you own. Yet when you try to get it, no joy as you're informed that it's for a phantom account. Here's how to fix the problem.
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CMS Comparison: Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress |Rackspace Hosting

CMS Comparison: Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress |Rackspace Hosting | Mac Tech Support | Scoop.it

If creating a website for your business is on the horizon, you may be wondering which content management system (CMS) is the best choice for you. Here’s a look at three of the most widely-used ones. All three are open-source software, each developed and maintained by a community of thousands. Not only are all three free to download and use, but the open-source format means that the platform is continuously being improved to support new Internet technologies. With all of these systems, basic functions can be enhanced ad infinitum with an ever-expanding array of add-ons, contributed from their respective communities.

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