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Get Free Mac Apps Worth $154 from MacHeist

By Victor Goh | Published: November 7th, 2009

6 Mac Apps for Free

Here’s a nice piece of information to you hackintosh laptop owners out there. MacHeist.com is offering 6 Mac Apps worth $154 for free. It’s a limited time offer, so head on over to MacHeist.com to get them.

I’ve signed up for the free apps and received the apps serial number except for Mariner Write. Mariner Write will only be unlocked if this free offer reaches 500,000 participants. So sign up now and get your Mac or hackintosh friends to sign up too, if you want to get a free copy of Mariner Write.

Twitterific looks useful. Since, I don’t have a Twitter client for my hackintosh yet, I’m gonna be using this.

ShoveBox is a tool for capturing, collecting and organizing scraps of information. I’m forever collecting files, links and snippets of online information and leaving them everywhere. Maybe this will help me keep everything in a single place. It’ll be wonderful if I can hook this with my DropBox account and synch the ShoveBox database between my hackintosh laptop and my MacBook.

I don’t have any games on my hackintosh laptop. Horde of Orcs will be the first. It’s 92MB and taking a long time to download at 4.0 KB/sec. There are some good reviews on their website. Guess, I will only know when I get this downloaded in 6 hours time. :(

As for the other apps, WriteRoom, TinyGrab and Mariner Write, I don’t need them. You may find them useful though.

Before you leave, remember to grab your free Mac Apps bundle at MacHeist nanoBundle.

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Posted in Mac OS X, Review | No Comments »

What Is A Good Wireless Keyboard for My Hackintosh PC?

By Victor Goh | Published: October 23rd, 2009

See the Apple specific key labels!

When I first started using my Hackintosh PC, I had tough time learning to use the Mac OS X specific keys with a Windows keyboard. There were a lot of trial and error involved in figuring out which key was supposed to be the Apple command, function, control or option key. Remembering the Mac OS X short-cut keys was frustrating to say the least.

Recently, I decided to use my aging three and a half year old MacBook as a desktop machine. I have a 22″ Dell LCD Monitor that’s been idle for a few months since I connected my Hackintosh PC to my 42″ Philips LCD TV. What I needed was an external keyboard and mouse to complete my MacBook to desktop transformation. I love Apple products; and their new wireless keyboard and magic mouse looks lovely. But I didn’t want to spend so much on a keyboard and mouse.

Past Experience with Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

I’ve been using the plain entry-level Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 keyboard and mouse with my Hackintosh PC for over 2 years. Though some letters on the keyboard has faded, everything else works fine. I still use it everyday with my Hackintosh HTPC from my sofa, 6 feet away, without any problems. Thumbs-up to Logitech.

I had a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo before the Logitech. It was an entry-level combo, but compared to my Logitech entry-level combo, the Microsoft keyboard and mouse performance was horrible. The keyboard and mouse batteries needed to be replaced every few weeks and it had lousy wireless reception. The keyboard or mouse wouldn’t work at the distance of 6 feet.  After that experience, I said, “No more Microsoft hardware for me.”

The Search For A New Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo

And so, I started my search for a new Logitech Cordless keyboard and mouse combo. After some googling, I narrowed my search to two models of the current Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combos.

These were the two models available at a nearby computer mall. I finally decided on the Cordless Desktop Wave because of it was designed for comfortable typing and it has labels for Apple specific keys. The cushioned palm rest and contoured keyboard really makes typing comfortable and natural. This reduces the stress on my wrists and should lower my risk of getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

The Logitech Control Center for Mac OS X

The Logitech Desktop Wave Set comes with the software, Logitech Control Center for the Mac OS X. The Mac OS X user gets to use all the extra keys on the Desktop Wave keyboard with this software. The extra keys mapping is configurable. I mapped the extra keys to open Expose, iTunes, Google Chrome, FrontRow, and iPhoto. The keyboard also has special keys for volume control; volume up and down, mute; and for iTunes play, pause, stop, skip forward and back. When used with the Mac OS X, some Windows specific keyboard has extra keys that does nothing, but all of the extra keys on the Desktop Wave are fully functioning.

A Satisfied Logitech Customer

Logitech has done it again. I continue to be a satisfied Logitech customer. The Cordless Desktop Wave is excellent as an external keyboard for my MacBook. For the hackintosh owner looking for a Mac OS X compatible keyboard, I would heartily recommend the Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave.

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Posted in Mac OS X, Review | 3 Comments »

Performance Benchmark: Hackintosh Netbook vs MacBook

By Victor Goh | Published: October 19th, 2009

Your netbook options – Light, cheap and fast. Choose two, but you can only choose light and cheap. Fast is not an option with the netbook. Netbook owners who bought their machine hoping for a fast machine will be sorely disappointed. If you’re getting a netbook and expecting it to perform like an entry-level laptop, you’re in for a big letdown.

If netbooks are not fast, then what kind of performance can we expect? Most netbooks from Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Asus, Acer and Samsung, available today come with the Intel Atom 1.66GHz CPU. My Dell Mini 10v with the Intel Atom 1.66GHz CPU is less than half as fast as my three-and-a-half year old entry-level MacBook. How did I get to that figure? Look at my Geekbench and Xbench results below.

Geekbench benchmark score:

MacBook 1.83GHz: 2473


Dell Mini 10v Hackintosh 1.66GHz: 1042

Xbench benchmark score:

MacBook 1.83GHz: 113.75

Dell Mini 10v Hackintosh 1.66GHz: 48.10

Does this mean netbooks are bad? Of course not. They are not meant to replace laptops. A laptop is like a general purpose workhorse while a netbook is a pony for having fun. This “pony” was designed to access the web and web-based applications. Remember that, and your netbook performance will not be a problem for you.

I for one, am happy with my Dell Mini 10v netbook’s performance. Are you happy with your netbook?

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Posted in Review | 2 Comments »

The Best Free Open Source Software for The Hackintosh

By Victor Goh | Published: October 15th, 2009

What are the best and most essential open source software for a Mac? Since any application that runs on the Mac OS X, should run on a hackintosh, the same question can be asked of a hackintosh too. What are the best and most essential open source software for a hackintosh?

Infoworld has just published their selection of the 10 most essential open source applications for a Mac, selected out of the thousands of open source tools available. They included the following applications in their list:

  1. AppleJack – a tool to trigger the standard housekeeping chores that makes your Mac run faster and smoother. I installed this on my Dell Mini 10v hackintosh, ran it and got ‘applejack: command not found’. Applejack 1.5 is not compatible with Snow Leopard.
  2. Boxee, Plex or XBMC – these applications are extensible Front Row alternatives. Plex which is optimized for the Mac looks really slick and smooth. I installed and tried out a few video channels from the Plex App Store. Plex looks great on my 42″ Philips LCD TV. Plex is a keeper for me, on my Hackintosh HTPC.
  3. Fink project – this is the tool that opens up the 10,000+ open source Unix/Linux packages to your Mac. You use Fink as the tool to manage and install these packages that enables you to utilize the powerful hidden Unix core of the Mac. I don’t use Fink.
  4. Firefox – web browser with plenty of powerful plug-ins. My favorite plug-ins are Web Developer and Firebug.
  5. GIMP or Seashore – free Photoshop-like replacements for Adobe Photoshop. I use Picasa for my image touch-ups. I like the simple and easy to use interface of Picasa.
  6. jEdit – Text editor for programmers. I prefer Textmate, even though it’s not free.
  7. OpenOffice – a free alternative for Microsoft Office for Mac OS X. My word processing, spreadsheet and presentation needs are pretty basic. I use Google Docs, Spreadsheet and Presentation as my Microsoft Office alternative. Everything is stored online, so I can work on different machines without worrying about versioning.
  8. RSSOwl – RSS feed reader. I use Google Reader to read and track my RSS feeds. Again, I can read my RSS feeds on different machines and Google keeps track of what I have read and haven’t.
  9. Thunderbird – email client from Mozilla. I use online web-based email exclusively, mostly Google Mail with a bit of Yahoo Mail.
  10. VLC Player – the best media player for Mac OS X. There are versions for Windows and Linux too. I have this on all my Macs.

Out of the 10 most essential open source applications for the Mac, I only use 2 of them, Firefox and VLC Player, or 3 if I include Plex into my list. Most of these software just don’t fall into my category of essential application.

How many of these essential applications do you have on your Mac or Hackintosh? What do you think is the one application that needs to be in that list?

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Posted in Mac OS X, Review | No Comments »

Using a Hackintosh Laptop for iPhone Development

By Victor Goh | Published: October 13th, 2009

Xcode and iPhone Simulator

Can I use a hackintosh laptop for iPhone development? Will Xcode run on a non-Apple laptop?

I’ve been asked questions about iPhone development using a hackintosh quite often. I have no doubt these questions are triggered by stories of the $$$ to be made in selling iPhone apps on AppStore. What about me? I did think about getting into iPhone development, but the thought of learning Objective-C and the iPhone SDK was too much for me. For the past few months, I’ve been learning Ruby on Rails and picking up the Django web framework, Google App Engine and Yahoo User Interface library. My brain will overload if I start learning another programming language.

So, I’m not starting on iPhone development any time soon. But to satisfy my curiosity on whether the Dell Mini 10v hackintosh can handle iPhone development, I decided to try out Xcode and the iPhone SDK.

iPhone Development on a Dell Mini 10v?

Will the 1.66GHz Intel Atom Dell Mini 10v with 1GB RAM be able to handle Xcode and iPhone development? What kind of performance can I expect from the Mini 10v? I have Xcode and the iPhone SDK on my MacBook. The MacBook with a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo CPU and 2GB RAM handles Xcode with the iPhone SDK smoothly. Will I be able to say the same about the Mini 10v hackintosh?

Getting Xcode and the iPhone SDK

Installing iPhone SDK

Xcode is available in the Snow Leopard Retail DVD. You can download the free iPhone SDK from the Apple Developer website. You’ll need to sign up for a developer account first. If you want to submit your iPhone app to the AppStore, then you’ll need to pay $99 to join the Standard iPhone Developer Program.

Surprisingly Good Performance

I was surprised that 1GB RAM is sufficient to run Xcode and the iPhone Simulator without any noticeable slow down at all. For my initial test, I wrote a Hello World application. The application compiled and started instantly on the iPhone Simulator.

Hello World on a iPhone

The iPhone Simulator is too tall to display fully in the Dell Mini 10v LCD display. You can rotate the iPhone simulator sideways to get the full display.

iPhone Simulator Rotated Sideways

iPhone Simulator rotated sideways and running Safari.

Next, it’s time for a real world test on Xcode. I downloaded an open source Twitter client for the iPhone, Tweetero and built it from scratch. A clean build of Tweetero took 32 seconds to complete and start in the iPhone simulator. I’m impressed. Subsequent build and run was instantaneous.

Twitter Client on iPhone Simulator

Tweetero on the iPhone Simulator with Xcode and Google Chrome in the background.

Poor Usability

Programming on a netbook with a small keyboard and trackpad takes a lot of patience. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. While using Xcode, I spent a lot of time switching between windows and moving windows around on the small netbook screen. Using an external monitor made things easier. If you’re going to use the Dell Mini 10v for iPhone development, get an external monitor.

Xcode on a Dell Mini 10v

Xcode on the tiny Dell Mini 10v display

iPhone Development on a Hackintosh Laptop

Running Xcode on a Dell Mini 10v connected to a 22″ Dell LCD Monitor,

My Conclusion

If you want to try your hand on iPhone development, the Dell Mini 10v hackintosh should be good enough for you to get your feet wet. For any real work, I would recommend upgrading the Dell Mini 10v to 2GB of RAM, connecting it to an external VGA monitor, keyboard and mouse. Using the tiny screen, keyboard and trackpad for programming may drive you crazy. Once the big bucks come rolling in from the sales of your iPhone app on AppStore, you can get yourself a nice MacBook Pro.

Are you using a hackintosh laptop/PC for iPhone development? Share your experience with us in the comments below.

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Posted in Mac OS X, Photo, Review | 8 Comments »

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