Monthly Archives: February 2012

Apple has updated their product tech spec info

Posted on 05/02/2012 | Leave a comment

I noticed that all the battery life information on the Apple Mac Book products line has been updated. I remember previously they have listed the battery life of a MacBook Air is 10 hours. However, ever since their Battery Problem on Lion, a lot of reports/complaints about battery life. What happened now after they released 10.7.3?? IMO, They are unable to fix the battery problem, but changed their product spec from 10 hours to 7 hours.

I have downloaded the 10.7.3 on my 2011 MBP, when I was using 10.6.8, I could easily get 7 – 8 hours of battery life. After installed the 10.7 (Lion), my battery life dropped to 2 hours only. And then after applying the SMC reset fix, it can last up to 5 hours.

I am testing it with 10.7.3 with 50% brightness, fully charged, 1 hour of web browsing on WiFi, it dropped 15%. So 10.7.3 can improve a little bit of battery life. In my test, it can run for approximately 7 hours.

There are a lot discussions on the net about this Lion Battery Problem. Someone even test this by re-installing the OS, compare SL and Lion. In all the tests people have done, Lion uses more power and need more battery. I think this may be one of the reason, Apple updated the web site, MBA battery from 10hours down to 7hours (due to the bad Lion OS).

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Posted in Mac Stuff

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Mac OS 10.7.3 is released. Will that fix the battery problem?

Posted on 05/02/2012 | 1 comment

I’ve just realised Apple has released 10.7.3 update for Lion OS. I have been reading / searching for the update about the battery problem. I did mention that the SMC reset fixed my battery problem, that fix plus the gfxCardStatus Apps helps a lot to improve battery life. However, my MBP is never able to reach that battery life prior to the Lion upgrade.

I am going to download the new update, have the MBP reset back to factory and test the battery life again.

According to Apple, the 10.7.3 will fix the following….
Add Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support
Address issues when using smart cards to log into OS X
Address compatibility issues with Microsoft Windows file sharing
Address an issue printing Microsoft Word documents that use markup
Address a graphics performance issue after sleep on some earlier iMacs that use ATI graphics

Resolve a Wi-Fi connection issue when waking from sleep
Address an issue that may prevent Safari from opening before joining a wireless network
Fix a potential issue authenticating to an SMB DFS share
Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras

The graphics performance issues may be related to the battery problem, I will see if that fix the battery problem.

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Posted in Mac Stuff

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Print Screen (Screen Capture) on Mac OS X

Posted on 03/02/2012 | 1 comment

There are few ways to do screen capture in Mac OS X.
Follow the steps below and you will be able to do a screen capture in Mac OS X.

Switch to the screen that you want to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 and release all
then use your mouse to click on the screen
Done. You will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture.

You can also do a screen capture for a portion of your screen.
Switch to the screen that you want to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
You can start to drag your mouse to select the portion you wish to capture.
Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

If you want to do a screen capture for a particular application window, you can follow this:-
Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
Press the space bar once
You will see the mouse cursor change to a camera
Now you can use the camera to select which application window to screen capture
Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

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Posted in Mac Stuff

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Real Life Fuel Consumption on Lexus CT200h

Posted on 01/02/2012 | 4 comments

Before I get the CT200h, I have already done some research on the web about the fuel consumption. According to the owners in Australia, they are getting 5.2 – 5.5 L/100km. I also get some information from the overseas forums people in Taiwan and Hong Kong are able to achieve 4.1 – 4.5L/100km. There was an extreme case that someone in Taiwan filled up 44.75 Litre and drove for 1208km.

Now I have got my Lexus CT200h, it is time for me to find out the real fuel consumption. In Australia the official fuel consumption claim is 4.1L/100km. I have done 7000km since I had the car. I have driven that in all sort of situations. My experience of real world fuel consumption as follows:

Freeway drive (Hume Hwy from Sydney to Wagga Wagga) at 110km/h = 5.5L/100km

Metro Area Drive with speed limit at 70km/h – 4.2 – 4.7 L/100km

City Drive with always run out of battery and a lot of start/stop pattern 4.8 – 5.2L/100km

The above figure were my best achievement with Eco Mode and slow acceleration. I tried to minimize to put full throttle all the time and try to keep the car accelerate within the Eco section in the dash (you get blue light when you are within the Eco section).

My friend who drives the same car as me, his fuel consumption read 5.3L/100km. He accelerates normally and using normal mode without paying too much attention to save fuel. The Lexus CT200h can do over 800km a tank if you pay some attention during your acceleration, otherwise, the fuel consumption will be above 5L/100km.

Ever since I have my Lexus CT200h, the worst consumption record per tank was 4.9L/100km. The best consumption I have achieved per tank was 4.2L/100km.

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Posted in Transport

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My New Photo Album

Posted on 01/02/2012 | Leave a comment

I have been looking for a way to share some of the photos I have taken and allowing people to see them, rate them and make comment on them. Finally, I found a WordPress Theme to do that and I have created an online album to put not only my photos but also my friend’s photo online. For people from different part of the world to allow to rate and make comment on them.

The url is http://foto.howardtang.com

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Posted in Photography

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