Here at Corpmac we’re fans of virtualisation - both Parallels in particular is in pretty much daily use. However, there are times where nothing other than Boot Camp will do the trick - so we also have a slice of hard disk dedicated to a Boot Camp partition.

Trouble is, its size was a bit of a guess. And, it turns out, quite a bit too large. Getting that wasted disk space back to the main Mac partition isn’t something that can be done with Boot Camp Assistant - well, not unless you want to do a complete backup / resize / restore. Not a pleasant task.

So, we’re glad to find out about CampTune from Paragon Software. This is a bootable CD that enables you to safely resize partitions, automatically dealing with any data that needs moved to cope with the resizing.

We’ve given this a work-out here - eventually settling on reclaiming the 7Gb we had over-allocated to out Boot Camp partition. CampTune performed perfectly each time, taking around an hour to move data and resize the partitions. The only small niggle we’d have is that once it’s finished, and you press OK, it just leaves you sitting at a final screen. All you need to do (and indeed can do) at this point is reboot, but it’d be good to have at least a message on screen telling you to do this.

So definitely recommended if you want to resize your Boot Camp partition. CampTune does exactly that with no fuss or drama.

CampTune is in pre-release at the moment, and is currently available for free.

Technorati Tags:
CampTune, partition, Boot Camp

Posted: August 10th, 2008 under Review, Stuff We Use.
Comments: none

This is what Apple should have released in the first place - this bugfix release of the iPhone’s OS fixes at least two of the three problems I mentioned in my initial post of my impressions last month.

The obvious feeling with this release is that it’s much snappier. Gone are the delays in the Address Book application, and I’ve been pushing Location Services quite hard to see if I could stall the phone again, with no luck. Also fixed are some other niggles that I came up against - Apple seemingly had broken Time Zone support again, which of course I only found out about when I was 8 timezones away from home.

Apple, of course, have not released a full list of fixed bugs, so I can’t tell you exactly what it fixes. But it’s certainly worth a go to see if it improves whatever small thing was bugging you about your iPhone.

Posted: August 5th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none

You will remember that wide channels are the method by which you can boost the throughput of your Airport Extreme access point to up to 300Mbps, if your local laws allow it. It used to be set by, in Airport Utility, going into the wireless options, choosing a country that supports it and ticking the “Use wide channels” box.

This functionality may have been recently removed, however. While testing network connectivity today using our favourite wLAN graphing software, AP Grapher, we noticed that our maximum bandwidth was 130Mbps. Yet we still had wide channels selected. We’re unable to find a way of getting 300Mbps right now, using the current 7.3.2 Airport Extreme firmware.

Can anyone else confirm they’re having the same issue, or is it unique to us?

Technorati Tags:
Airport Extreme, wide channels

Posted: July 16th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none

I’ve been using the iPhone properly now for 72 hours, and the my first impressions have set in. And while there is a lot of good about the phone, there are definite imperfections. Here are the top three:

It’s slow. Actions that took an imperceptible time before, such as selecting somewhere else in the Contacts list, or going to the SMS screen, now have a perceptible delay. This is going to irritate me more and more.

It’s buggy. I’ve had the location services freeze, requiring me to reboot the phone to get it working. I never needed to reboot my last one.

Battery life is terrible When out and about in the city centre last night, with moderate iPhone use over both Wifi and 3G, the battery got down to 20% from a full charge over five hours. That’s really not good.

For the moment, applications and flexibility are winning out - I do still like it. However my opinions may have changed after a few months’ use.

Posted: July 14th, 2008 under Review.
Comments: 1

Getting there eventually is not an experience I usually associate with Apple. Famously, their stuff Just Works. The launch of the iPhone 3G in the UK has been a clear and frustrating exception this week. OK, demand peaks like this are always terrible things to manage, but did Apple compound the issue by trying to do too much at once?

Read more »

Posted: July 13th, 2008 under Comment.
Comments: none

Good-ish news, for people wanting to upgrade - Microsoft have finally brought out the upgrade to Office 2004 that allows it to convert and read the Office 2008 file formats.

The Open XML File Format converter is the starting point - this allows conversion of documents saved in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for PC file formats. It can do single or batch conversion. After that, the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.0 update integrates with the format converter, allowing Office 2004 to seamlessly open documents from the newer versions of office. This allows you to run both versions in parallel, and exchange documents in the new Office file formats.

What we can’t understand is why these functions weren’t released at the same time as Office 2007. Or why VBA isn’t implemented in Office 2008 for Mac. We know that there are very many large companies for whom this is essential.

Us? We fall on the other side of the 80:20 functionality rules, and Pages is quite good enough for us. And faster. And it also reminds us of Ami Pro, still our favourite word-processor ever, even if it was on a PC.

Technorati Tags:
office 2008, office 2004

Posted: June 29th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none

These little wireless broadband adaptors are very common in the UK right now. Several of the mobile phone carriers - Three and Vodaphone at least - use them. The trouble is, the supplied application crashes out under the current Leopard build, 10.5.3, when trying to make a connection.

There is a trick to get it working, though. Do the following:

Firstly, run the “Mobile Connect” Make sure under “settings” there is a profile: I called mine “3 USB Modem”, with Access Point name of 3internet and Telephone number of *99#. You only need to do this once.

Secondly, go into System Preferences. In the Network pane, select the HUAWEI mobile device in the left pane. Now, in the right pane, under Configuration, select “Add Configuration”. I caled mine “Three”. Add *99# as the telephone number, make sure “Show modem status in menu bar” is ticked (for convenience) and you’re all set.

Each time you need to make a connection, firstly run the mobile connect application from the usb modem key. I don’t get reliable connections unless I do this. Then go to your menu bar, locate the little phone icon, and choose “Connect HUAWEI mobile.”

That’s it. That will make a connection to your wireless broadband service provider.

Huawei have recognised the problem and are expected to bring out a replacement application soon, but this will keep you working until they do so. I’d keep an eye on their forums for the announcement of the new app.

Technorati Tags:
leopard, Huawei, E169G, 10.5.3

Posted: June 20th, 2008 under Stuff We Use, Tips.
Comments: none

Around six weeks ago we wrote about why we thought using Google Apps Team Edition was no real substitute to having the same apps provided by in-house IT. The reasoning was, it has to be said, more gut-feeling than anything else - that it was a bad idea to have your corporate data anywhere other than on your corporate servers.

Now, it turns out that there is a very good reason indeed for keeping data in house only. The US PATRIOT act, allows data at Google - including your data - to be spied upon by the US Government with only the most limited of legal oversight. This is a clear conflict with any requirement your business for keeping its data confidential - that may be as simple as matters of competition.

Where it really strikes home though if you’re using data that can identify others. That could be for Marketing, information on clients, or even worse, processing information supplied to you by clients. Anything that you do that requires your use registered with the Information Commissioner? It’s pretty safe to say you must not use Google Apps to do it.

(Oh, and that’s whether you’ve actually registered or not!)

Be careful now. This is the article where the problem first emerged.

Posted: March 26th, 2008 under Comment, News.
Comments: none

It’s Tuesday, it’s changes happening at Apple. Three things happened today: two pretty much anticipated, and one that wasn’t foreseeen.

As expected, Macbook Pros got an upgrade: new multi-touch trackpads as recently introduced on the Macbook Air, and the 17″ Macbook Pro gained the LED backlighting introduced to the 15″ version some months ago.

What was unexpected that the processors inside both the Macbook Pro and the Macbook got a bit of a speed bump - Macbook Pros are available now with Core 2 Duos at 2.4 and 2.5GHz, the Macbooks at 2.1 and 2.4GHz.

Macbooks are in stock now on the UK Apple website, Macbook Pros are delayed by 4-5 days.

Technorati Tags:
Macbook, Macbook Pro, update

Posted: February 26th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none

New on Software Update: Keyboard Firmware Update for Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Ever had the situation where your laptop has been sitting idle, you press a key to wake it and nothing happens? We’ve had that many times, and we’ve never been sure if it was us or the computer at fault. We think it’s safe to say it was the computer all along.

Run Software Update now to get it if you need it. It doesn’t even need a reboot.

Technorati Tags:
Macbook Pro, Macbook, update, keyboard

Posted: February 20th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none