There are creatures of habit out there who just know what is best for their Mac to help protect it from scratches, getting dirty or gooey!  We get plenty of Mac’s in here for repair whose owners are clearly not the “creatures of habit” a fore mentioned.  The Mac’s are scratched, dented and grungy or the keyboards are encrusted with unknown particles.  These Mac’s have a shorter life and die an early, sad death.  To help preserve the life of your Mac, new or otherwise, keep it in a Neoprene or Case and get a keyboard cover to keep the crumbs out when your cramming during finals in a few weeks!

Inevitably, we get a few Students (Faculty and Staff too) who come in saddened or distressed that their Mac is “dying” during finals weeks due to issues related to liquid damage that may have been thwarted by a keyboard cover.  Often liquid can “destroy” the logic board which will rust up due to any liquid nearing it.

We sell keyboards in many colors including clear which makes it almost impossible to see one is the doing the job of saving your Mac!  Find them on the link below!

Keyboard Covers

The iPad 3 is here for sale!!

Apple’s newest iPad with the new A5X Chip with Quad-Core Graphics has arrived!! All that technical talk actually means better graphics with more pixels and a little “power brain” (the A5X chip) that drives power to all of the 3.1 million pixels to deliver outstanding graphics.  The response time of using your finger-tips to control everything is faster because of the Quad-Care graphics processing power.  Our Demo Models should be arriving by the end of the week so you can try them out for yourself to see the difference. until then, i am including a link below that shows a close up of just how beautiful the graphics are.

iPad 3 Graphics link

We recently had a Switching to Mac Workshop for those Mac users who needed to brush up on their Mac skills and for others who needed help from the bottom up, the beginners or the want-to-be Mac owners looking for some lessons before they entered into the new frontier of the Mac OS X simplicity.  We were told it was very informative.

The next day however, I was approached by an attendee who needed more in-depth help.  I showed some basics with our Mac’s at the Apple Desk in the Bookstore and then sent the individual to Mac 101- the Grand Tour Introduction.  You can actually start with Mac 101 which is a Getting Started with Mac tutorial assistance link provided by Apple. There is also a Mac 101- Mac Essentials which includes helpful pictures.

After you’re more comfortable with the basics, you can visit Mac 101- All Work and Play for help with different applications like TextEdit, Safari, File sharing, iChat, VoiceOver and many other fun apps.  So for those of you out there, who would like more tutorial instructional assistance, just follow the links provided for a look into the other world, allusive to some, the world of Mac OS X.

Have you ever noticed some people can open or close a window really quickly or perform quick tasks with a touch of the keyboard?

Some quick shortcuts that Mac provides are on the link you can click below.  For instance to minimize a window, hold down the command key while clicking M. To minimize all windows, use option, command and M. If you want to log out quick, it’s  shift, command and Q. Use command E to eject a CD/DVD, or command C to copy selected items/text to a clipboard, and option, command and  esc to force quit.

The trick is to allow yourself to enjoy your Mac and everything will seem easier. Have fun trying some of these keyboard shortcuts in the link below.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

Tech Note: from Ark Lemal, our Apple Authorized Certified Tech

 How should I protect my Mac?

The two most expensive kinds of damage I see are spills and drops. Even Apple’s extended Applecare service doesn’t cover “customer damage” so when this most common occurrence happens to you, will you be ready?

Many small spills won’t get down to the fragile interior parts if you have a keyboard cover*. These are cheaper than having me open your Mac, say nothing of having to replace parts.

A laptop case may help for small drops (not setting Mac down softly), as long as it’s not when it falls (falls are bad for Mac). The neoprene cases* are nice and protective, but usually are taken off when in use. The hard shell cases* are fun and colorful, but don’t help much when your Mac hits the floor (nothing does).

You should also check your (or your parent’s) homeowner’s insurance policy to see if it covers accidental damage to laptops. Often damage is done to the logic board, which cost almost as much to replace as buying a whole new Mac. If your deductible is close to the price of a new Mac, it won’t do you much good either.

An alternative if the homeowners option isn’t available to you is a SquareTrade warrantee. This is typically around $160 to cover equipment up to $1200. See details at squaretrade.com, and read reviews before buying.

Next time, we’ll talk about what to do immediately if a spill happens to minimize damage.

-Ark Lemal
VTMacIT.com
802-318-4657
Vermont’s On-Demand IT Department
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator  • Apple Consultants Network

*Keyboard covers, Neoprene Cases and Hard Shell Cases are sold in the College Bookstore located next to Apple Desk in a variety of colors.