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Regular readers of this blog will know that I managed to break off a key on my MacBook Pro keyboard. If you can find a replacement keyboard online they tend to run in the £70 – £80 range and of course you have to fit it yourself. I dread to think what Apple might want to do the repair…

Luckily you can sometimes buy individual keys from Ebay or other online sites (expect to pay around £4-£5 inc delivery). If you do so, it’s important to note that an individual key consists of two parts, the key cap itself (the silver bit you see) and a white plastic scissor mechanism that holds the key to the keyboard base. If you have only damaged the silver cap portion, then you can reuse the scissor mechanism, but to be safe make sure any replacement you get includes both parts.

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Just last week we launched our new laptop etching/engraving service for owners of anodised metal notebook computers such as the MacBook Pro and also for gadgets such as iPods and the metal backed 2G iPhone.  But what to do for the owners of plastic products such as the MacBook and the new 3G iPhone?

The solution is one of our full colour wraps!  These are self-adhesive, fully custom printed and custom sized skins.  They peel off if you fancy a change and while in situ offer great scratch protection for your precious laptop or phone.

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Up to and including your old iSight webcam…

Basically it ended up as 1-0 to the iSight camera.  It was a foregone conclusion I suppose what with it being made from metal and the keyboard being plastic…

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My MacBook Pro is a great machine, it’s the best notebook computer I’ve ever owned. In fact it’s the best computer I’ve ever owned. Period.

But since the day I bought it, in February 2007, it’s had an appetite for batteries. The battery life is very short. And by that I don’t mean the time between charges, I mean the battery has a short lifespan.

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EDIT:  We now also offer full colour wraps!

Thanks to a rather expensive laser marking machine we can now laser engrave laptop computer lids!  The only stipulation is that the laptop lid needs to be anodised metal.  Apple Powerbooks or MacBook Pro’s fall into this category, as do some Sony Vaio’s and others.  The fully computer controlled machine etches your image onto the lid by using a highly accurate 75W C02 laser to burn the anodising layer off at a super fine 1000dpi (dots per inch).

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I spent the majority of yesterday reinstalling all my apps on my new Leopard powered system.

It all went well except I discovered that Super duper is not yet compatible with Leopard although it should be shortly.
This is important as Time Machine does not make bootable clones of your system (as far as I can tell). It’s fine for file recovery and turning back the clock but less useful if you get a hard drive failure for example…

Some further observations:

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I picked up my copy from the new Apple Store in Lakeside shopping mall, Essex.  It opened last week and it’s quite nicely laid out, it’s about the same size as the Bluewater store.

The estate agent looking young guy who served me said no free t-shirt for me (boo!) as I was too late at 6:30pm, the queue outside the store for 6pm had been halfway down the mall apparently. (and processed that quickly, hmm, me smells something, that would be 500 people processed in under 30 minutes, I very much doubt it…).

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There’s been a fair bit of discussion online regarding the pro’s and con’s of glossy screen computers.
For the uninitiated LCD screens have always been matte, ie they have no shine to them. If you own an LCD television or monitor take a look at it, especially switched off, it’s a dull finish.

Recently laptops and iPods etc have started using glossy screens, basically a piece of glass or plastic in front of the screen to give it a glossy shine. This makes blacks look blacker and colours more vibrant.

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 It’s a little known fact that all monitors display colours slightly differently.  For example some have a bit of a blue tint to them, some an orange tint and so on. The brightness and saturation is often way off too, normally set far too high from the factory (to catch your attention in the shop).

So why should you care?  Well, do you share your photos by uploading them online?  If you’ve darkened down your photo because you thought it was too bright someone with a properly calibrated monitor will see it as being too dark.

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Filed under: Computing, Photography, Web Design
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