Regular reader will recall that I modified my MacBook Pro a few months ago and fitted an SSD.

I got itchy fingers again and I had the laptop in bits, this time to remove the stupid optical drive and to replace it with a standard hard drive. I now have 128 G SSD and a 160 G spindle drive.

The SSD is perfect for the OS and apps, it makes the machine uber fast. The spindle drive is more suited to my iTunes library and photographs.

The loss of the optical drive is irrelevant to me, I hardly ever use it. I can use the optical drive on another Mac or Windows computer on my network, plus I do have a USB DVD drive that I can use.

The original plan was to remove the optical drive, bodge up a cable to go from the very proprietary Apple connector onto my SATA hard drive, and fix the drive in place with a hot glue gun.

However I discovered that purpose built caddies are available to fit the MacBook that take an HDD and are pin for pin replacement of the slot optical drive. Not as much fun as hacking but probably a better, more elegant solution.

The optical is a so and so to remove, being buried under cables, Bluetooth and WiFi aerials and sundry other ‘stuff’. Once out it is relatively simple to put the HDD in the caddy, it just clips in place, and then reverse the disassembly process.

I was mightily relieved when the MacBook passed it’s POST with the customary ‘bong’ and the two drives appeared on the desktop.

This is a serious mod, not for the feint of heart or those concerned about warranty. It is completely reversible if needed. It took me about an hour to complete. Small pozi and torx drivers are required plus tweezers and needle nosed pliers. Static mat is a good precaution. I photographed the items as I removed them as a aide memoir when reassembling.

(This was easier than disassembling an iMac to clean out the fans of cat hair.)

The MacBook Pro with the Optical Drive removed.

The Optical Drive caddy with the 160 G HDD fitted ready for insertion.

Apple just released an update to Lion. This brings it up to 10.7.3.

This is a big improvement, I now have working sound! WiFi is more stable.
Looks like the 10.7 Lion is now at a point where I can recommend the upgrade.

The Apple TV is a so so kind of device. I bought one cheap from the refurb Apple store at a discount. As with most Apple devices it’s locked down and a bit crippled.

However with a bit of hacking it opens up and becomes quite a useful set top device.

The guys at appletvhacks.net have the details plus a Google search brings up lots more useful stuff.

My main motivation for hacking was to be able to dispense with iTunes for adding content; and sure enough the hacked device allows the use of an external drive connected by USB, so it’s easy to add content: put it on the external drive and hook it up then reboot the Apple TV. I can also FTP into the device as well over my network.

NitoTV, Boxee and XBMC are all installed. I was tempted to add Adobe Flash as well but so far have resisted as it may make the Apple TV run hot and probably crash.

I just need to get a keyboard and mouse working and I am totally fixed!

My Mighty Mouse has finally bitten the dust and died. It clicks no more. I bought it with my Apple Macbook Pro so it is covered by the Apple Care warranty.

I called Apple to check out the options for a warranty claim and I spoke to Adam, a very nice man with a British accent, who was able to assist me.

A new Mighty Mouse arrived by courier the following day, and I have despatched the faulty rodent back in the supplied packaging. All very easy.

So Apple’s service and support is very similar to all the products.
“It just works”

Apple launched some new products yesterday.

A gorgeous looking new range of the iMac, with superb high definition screens. The MacBook laptop gets a makeover and looks really nice. The Mac Mini gets a speed boost and now they do a server version. (I have had three Mac Minis, a firm favourite of mine.)

And a mouse.
What can I say? Apple can’t make pointing devices. I have a Mighty Mouse, it sucks. I HATE it. It does not click correctly, the scroll feature keeps clogging up and jamming, the side buttons are useless, IT’S RUBBISH APPLE!

The new mouse looks like it they put a Mighty Mouse and trackpad in a box and allowed them to breed. The result looks like the worst of both devices.

It’s really easy Apple:-

Go to PC World, pick up a cheap £10 mouse.
Take to the design labs and copy it.
Make it white plastic.
Don’t do anything else to it, less is more with a mouse.

OR

Farm out your rodent production to Logitech.

Apple Mac computers have a few quirks, one of the more annoying ones is the absence of a hash # key on the standard British keyboard. Hash does exists but you have to play a two finger chord on the keyboard to get to it. ALT and 3.

This really p*ss*s me off as a lot of programming requires the # all the time.

When I bought my new MacBook Pro I decided to fix the problem and wrote a new keymap for it. I have taken the § key, top left of the keyboard and remapped it to give me a #.

Instructions:

Download this file: piper.keylayout RIGHT click it and select save…

Open Finder and navigate to:

Macintosh HD/Library/Keyboard layout/

Put the Piper file in here.

Open System Preferences, go to International. Select the Input Tab. Find the Piper file in the list of Languages and select it. At the bottom of the page check the ‘Show input menu in menu bar’.

Shut System Preferences. On the Menu bar click the British Flag. Check the Piper option. # should now be on the § key and vice versa.

Simple!

UPDATE: I had a request for a keyboard layout that puts a € Euro symbol on the § button so here you are:

Download this file: euro.keylayout RIGHT click it and select save…

UPDATE: The Mac Geeb Gab have linked here so if you are after creating your own keymap use the Ukelele application linked to here.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!