category_name=blog%2Fhardware
iMac bluetooth problems gone, but how?
August 1, 2010 | Comments Off
My 27″ iMac has been having some very strange bluetooth problems lately. As mentioned in a recent blog post, all bluetooth devices were unavailable according to the operating system. Reboots didn’t fix the problem. Checking through the console logs turned up messages about the bluetooth drivers not working properly. Fortunately I had a USB keyboard so I was able to make a full backup of the system before scheduling an appointment with the genius at the Apple Store.
Now it has been a couple weeks and I have the machine back and Apple didn’t find anything wrong. In fact, they say the bluetooth works fine. I turned everything on and it works fine here too. I had a hunch that this might be the case. Last week my 13″ MBP had the exact same issue. No bluetooth devices would work with it. In this case a full reboot did correct the problem.
So, what bluetooth devices do I have, and which one is misbehaving and causing all of these problems? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect either the new iPhone 4 or the Plantronics Bluetooth Headset I have. The Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Magic Mouse seem to be working fine. I have noticed other issues with the bluetooth on the iPhone 4 when it syncs with the Alpine IWA-505 head unit in my truck so my money is on the iPhone 4 being the cause in all of these bluetooth problems. Time will tell.
Wireless Keyboards and Mice are Great Until….
July 13, 2010 | Comments Off
Tonight I sat down at my 27″ iMac to get a little work done. The first thing I do is tap the keyboard and move the mouse to wake the machine from sleep mode. The machine awoke and then quickly displayed the Connection Lost graphics in the middle of the screen for both the mouse and keyboard. My first thought; no problem, it’s just the batteries so I replaced them. Still no connection (and it did seem kind of odd for both the mouse and keyboard batteries to be dead at the same time.) Looking up at the system tray I see an odd Bluetooth icon. Here’s a closeup of what I found:
The Bluetooth: Not Available message in the system tray is not a good sign. Next I opened up Console.app to see if there were any indications of what the root cause for this behavior was. It appears there is truly something wrong with the Bluetooth Module. Here is what it showed:
![[AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController][FindInterfaces] some interface pipes were not found. Device is no good a a transport](http://www.idevelopsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Console2.png)
A visit to the support forums at Apple led me to an idea to reset the SMC on the iMac. I tried that and still nothing. At this point I’m not a happy camper. It is looking like the Bluetooth Module in my iMac has given up the ghost.
Next step, the iPhone Apple AppStore application to make a Genius Bar appointment.
If you have read this far then you might be wondering why I’m telling you all of this. The reason is simple. Without a USB keyboard and mouse laying around somewhere none of the troubleshooting above would have been possible. Having a wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse ship by default with the iMac is a really odd choice on Apple’s part.
Thankfully I have a keyboard and mouse from the Xserve in my garage. In case you forgot what these old fashion beasts look like, here’s a picture of the dynamic duo that saved my bacon tonight!
iPad Review – First 24 hours
April 5, 2010 | Comments Off
My experience with it so far is mixed. Like you I tried to touch-type on the keyboard and that really didn’t work at all. I have tried to do the two finger plus thumbs approach and am not that fast typing like that. The keyboard is big enough that I find it kind of weird to hold it in one hand and type with the other. My hand has to move too far to get all the keys unlike on the iPhone where everything is much closer together. I have not tried to hook up a bluetooth keyboard yet either. I expect that to work much better for things like typing e-mails.
I ended up purchasing the 64GB version instead of the 16GB version. The change was based on a recommendation I heard on MacBreak Weekly. They mentioned that based on their preview use (had it for about a week before April 3rd) they feel that if you are going to use it to read books then you will easily fill the 16GB and then have to pick/choose which items to sync to your iPad. With the 64GB version you can just dump all the books/PDFs you want on it and not worry about running out of space.
I have the Kindle for iPad application on it and pulled down all my Kindle books. Very cool! It just works! I also downloaded the iBooks application from the App Store. That application reads the ePub format. I have purchased a number of technical books in the past few years from Pragmatic Programmers. All of their books are available in ePub format so I downloaded that version and loaded them into the iPad too.
So far I really like having all of my technical books in one place like this. I have not tried reading out in full sunlight, but expect it will be an issue. For reading indoors it works fine. Not as easy on the eyes as the Kindle, but it shows all of the technical illustrations in the books in full color which is much better.
I purchased the Pages, Numbers and Keynote applications from Apple also. They really show off the sort of things you can accomplish with the iPad, but the crash a lot. I feel more like a beta tester of these apps than just a user. Sort of a let down, but then I have been here before with other Apple products. Eventually these will be great applications.
With the iPad I also purchased the Apple case for the iPad. I was really surprised when I opened it up at home. The quality of the case is really bad. It only cost $39, but it sucks compared to the case that Amazon sells for the Kindle. After about 2 hours of using the iPad in the case I got so annoyed with it that now I am using the iPad without a case. I am shopping for a different case now.
I have had Safari crash on me more than once now on the iPad. It seems like the crashes were always on very long (lots of scrolling) web pages so maybe it is a memory issue. I’m not sure, but the end result is you are just reading along on the page and all of a sudden you are back to the menu of icons wondering how you got there.
Even more surprising than the crashes of apps on the device is the crash I experienced this morning of the Xcode development environment on the desktop. Apple released an update to Xcode that includes all of the iPad development tools yesterday. I was working on a sample application this morning, following the instructions on how to build an app when all of a sudden Xcode just up and crashed on me. This is very unusual. Earlier versions of Xcode have been very stable for years.
Over all I think purchasing one as a developer at this point is a good move, but for basic consumers it is probably more sensible to wait about 3 months before jumping on the iPad bandwagon.
Podcasting Gear
April 18, 2008 | Comments Off
Recently a friend and I started talking about possibly doing some technology podcasts. Our general concept is to have a podcast that talks about how developers keep current with the never ending sea of new technologies, languages and developer kits (SDKs). It is both daunting and exciting to always be learning new technologies. The structure of a weekly or bi-weekly podcast that dives into a new technology or concept each time will give us a means for exploring new things that interest us, and might also be useful to other developers.
Well, if we are going to do a podcast we need gear. I didn’t have anything at all, but my friend already had a good microphone and preamp from other audio work he does. I spent a few weeks educating myself about the various alternatives and finally settled on the following setup to get started.
- Sennheiser HD280 Professional headphones for monitoring the audio.
- Edirol UA-25 USB audio capture and MIDI interface.
- Rode NT1-A Studio/Live Performance Condenser Microphone.
- Atlas Sound DS7E desktop mic stand.
- Shure Studio Mic Pop Filter.
- ProCo StageMASTER 10′ mic/audio cable, XLR.
I ordered everything from the folks at BSW since they sponsored the Gear Media Tech podcast which was very helpful as I figured out what to purchase. Here are a couple pictures of the initial setup.
As you can see in the first picture, the Rode NT1-A fits nicely in the Atlas desktop mic stand. The Shure pop filter attached to the mic stand at the base and was easily positioned in front of the mic. The only issue I have noticed with this setup so far is that unless the pop filter bracket is swung to the side it causes the whole stand to tip forward a bit due to the weight of the mic and pop filter. With a little adjusting I found a position for the pop filter that seemed to keep the weight distribution in check.
I had considered a more professional desktop swing-arm mic stand, but figured that I would only be recording about once a week. I didn’t really like the idea of having that swing-arm attached to my desk all the time. It just seemed like that would become a distraction. The desktop mic stand is very portable and I think that will make it easy to move it out of the way when not in use. My friend went the other route, getting a desktop swing-arm, in part because he has a limited amount of desktop space.
It only took about 15 minutes from the time I opened the BSW box of goodies until I had the whole setup running with me MacBook Pro. The Edirol UA-25 was recognized by the MacBook Pro right away. Here is a picture of the whole setup.
The desk is kind of messy right now. I will be experimenting over the next few days with how to better organize all of the pieces. My MacBook Pro is held up off the desk by a Ergotron laptop swing-arm, and is also hooked to a 24″ Samsung SyncMaster 245BW monitor. One issue I have right now with the arrangement of the equipment is that the mic gets in the way of the lower half of the 245BW. Since I expect to be recording some podcast screen casts using ScreenFlow I really want to workout a placement for the equipment that doesn’t get in the way of using the screen, but still keeps the microphone positioned for good sound pickup. Once I figure out a setup that works for me I will post an update here.
Computer Repair vs Auto Repair — Why they are very different.
March 13, 2008 | Comments Off
Computer repair agreements may not always guarantee that you get the old parts back. They also may not guarantee that the replacement parts are new.
When I go to the auto repair shop the paperwork you are asked to sign before the work is started always has a box on it that you can check if you would like to have all of the replaced parts returned to you. And, you always get new parts put on your car unless you make specific arrangements to okay the use of a remanufactured part.
For a car there really isn’t a security risk associated with not getting the original parts back or using remanufactured parts in a repair. With a computer the story is very different. It is commonplace for people to store sensitive information on their personal computer systems. If the hard-drive fails and the computer needs to be taken into the shop for repairs it should not be acceptable for the company doing the repairs to keep your original hard-drive. After all, it contains all sorts of sensitive information that you did not have an opportunity to erase prior to the repair.
Right about now you might be thinking
Hey, it doesn’t matter to me. The drive is dead. No one can read it, right?
Well, you would be wrong. Companies that repair these drives do exist, and remanufactured drives are used for repairs of other customer computers.
Just imagine your surprise when the computer you just got repaired now has your neighbor’s hard-drive in it, and the shop didn’t even bother to erase their information before installing it in your machine. Now you have all of their data! Ouch!
Also, the repaired drive in your computer may actually be older than the drive you originally had. It may not be new at all. Given that these drives do have a manufacture rated MTBF (mean-time between failures) that seems to be very accurate, you may be in for another repair within a few weeks or months.
All in all, this practice seems unacceptable on many levels. My suggestion is that whenever your hard-drive fails you should destroy it yourself and should replace it with another one from a reputable supplier. And, you should always make sure the drive is new, not remanufactured!
