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My Dell Mini Apple Netbook, Perfect
- Image via Wikipedia
As I wrote in a previous post I bought a very nice and cheap Dell Mini 9 netbook with the intention of converting it to an Apple Netbook.
The website http://mydellmini.com provided all the instructions required to install a functional OS X 10.5.6 based netbook… but not everything was perfect.
I started following and contributing in the forum and no more than a week later I now sit in my couch writing this post on my 100% functional Dell Mini 9 based Apple Netbook.
I can now put the netbook to sleep by closing the lid. It will then wakeup nicely with proper sound and mute fully working.
I can store tons of applications on my class 4 16GB SDHC card and keep using them after sleeping the netbook.
Wireless is fully functional and I can even tether my Apple netbook to my iPhone via the now defunct NullRiver Netshare.
I can connect my netbook to an external monitor and enjoy either mirror or dual screen.
I can connect to the network via cabled ethernet.
I can connect to a remote DVD shared from my other Macs or PC.
Name it, this netbook can do it.
Now if only Apple could come up with a sexier/tinner/lighter version with built in touchscreen and I will switch. Until then i will keep enjoying my Dell based netbook.
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I Got Myself A New Mac Netbook
- Image via CrunchBase
I am writing this post from my mother in law house using my new Mac Netbook from Dell. Yes, you are reading this right, I am using a Dell Mini 9 Netbook running OS X 10.5.6 coupled with my Apple iPhone running Nullriver Netshare app as my portable 3G internet access.
The whole thing run exceptionally well. I have been following threads from mydellmini.com to come up with an effective way of installing OS X 10.5.6 on the 8GB SSD drive of my Dell Mini 9. I decided to buy the unit at my local Best Buy store as they had it on sale for 379.99 (in white like all Apple MacBooks). This is probable like 299 US$ for an Netbook running OS X. Really not bad.
My biggest challenge was to find a way to make the OSX install to fit in the 8GB drive of the Dell… (I wish Best Buy had the 16GB version in stock). Believe it or not but the OS require 37MB more than is available on the Dell so a straight install from a retail OS X DVD is not possible on the 8GB Dell Mini.
I had to use my Apple iMac to install a bare minimum OS X 10.5.0 on an external USB drive. I then booted back on my iMac and applied the 10.5.6 combo update to the USB drive installation. The size of the whole thing was well beyond the 8GB limit.
I removed all the applications and utilities I never used, all fonts I never used and all voices and screen background (with the exception of one). That still was not enough to get enough headroom on the 8GB SSD.
I decided to buy a very useful application called Xslimmer. This application remove all non intel binary and undesired languages from the applications on your Mac. Using it I was able to reduce the installation by another 1GB or so.
As I write this post my Dell Mini 9 Mac Netbook sit at a comfortable 5 GB of disk usage with about 2 GB of free space for other applications and other goodies. Why 5 plus 2 does not make 8? Because there is roughly 1 GB lost in the conversion between HD vendor advertised disk space, the way the OS calculate actual GB and the overhead of the journalized HFS+ file system.
The current state of OS X hacking required to make this work on the Dell Mini 9 is pretty advanced. The state of the art solution is known as a Type11 installation and involve a bootable DVD that act as a boot loader to the retail OS X DVD. With this method you essentially use an unmodified Apple DVD to install the OS. The boot loader merelly provide a way to boot the retail DVD on the Dell Mini 9.
Because the Dell is so close to an actual MacBook most of the features are working flawlessly… thanks to a lot of research and development made by the OSX86 community out there.
The Dell Mini 9 is, in some aspect, a better Macbook than the real one I also own. For example, opening a CIFS share take quite a while to do on my real Macbook… but on my Dell Mini 9 Mac netbook it almost happen instantly… I really can’t explain why but it is a fact.
Most things work flawlessly… but others are not yet perfect… for example after resuming from sleep the sound no longer work. I am sure a solution to this will be found in the next few weeks. It is the price to pay for a 300$ Mac Netbook… and at that price I am willing to leave with it.
Is the Dell Mini 9 a threat to Apple? Most likely not. It is in fact more likelly to accelerate the coming out of a real Apple netbook as Apple might start to notice that people are hungry for such a thing.
Until then I will keep enjoying my self made version of it.
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My experience with Livestation on the iPhone
- Image via CrunchBase
As you know I am currently testing an alpha copy of Livestation for the iPhone. I can tell you that so far I am pretty happy with it and and that it will be a keeper!
Why will I keep this one application and why did I got rid of joost iPhone app? Because it make me smarter and Joost… well! How come may you ask… because I can now watch various news channels live as I ride the bus to and from work every day. This is about 1.5 hours I can spend educating myself about what is going on in the world while sitting on the bus bench.
And because there are many news channel I can watch various perspectives on things… like from Russia, France, UK, etc.
I wish more channels would be available, news channels from Canada in french for example… but those will certainly come if Livestation becomes a popular iPhone application.
Did I mentioned that I am watching Livestation over 3G while moving down the street on the bus with almost perfect reception? Yep! Good thing I took the 6GB plan from Rogers because at 100MB an hour I could be in for a major hurtal!
Livestation are cautious to tell you that you are about to consume a lot of bandwidth when they sens that you are running over a 3G network connection. This is very sensible of them.
The application still need some work before being ready fro prime time. Livestation is also working on different way of encoding the video stream… so some will play beautifully over 3G and others will look like digested dog food!
So am I pleased with the application? You bet! I bet it will have a huge success. I really wish Livestation network will be up to the task awaiting because it will be a flood gate of bits flowing out from it to thos iPhones. Their desktop application was popular but this will be at least 20 times more popular… and I am sure it will be more like 100 times more popular very soon.
Given the difficult economics one can ask how will they survive this huge bandwidth usage given very low publicity revenue…
I really hope they have the solution!
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Livestation iPhone app 1st impression
I finally was able to install the iPhone/iPod Touch Livestation application. A new version was sent out that took care of the dreaded “could not verify” issue of the previous one.
My 1st impression of the application is that it is simple, easy to use and good looking. The current video quality is quite acceptable for “live” tv watching over WiFi. Watching over 3G is a bit more hit and miss but appear to work quite well when enough bandwidth is available. I will have to try it when riding the bus to work in the morning and se how it will tolerate 3G network quality changes along the way.
You can see some of he current UI screen capture below:
The video quality of some of the channels (for example NASA) appear to be slightly on the low side. Low enough that I would chose not to watch it due to constant “pulsing” of the whole video. I am sure this will be addressed in the future.
I have experienced a couple of crash already but this is an early beta and is expected.
I will keep you posted on the development of the application.
Cheers!
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Apple News
My Dell Mini Apple Netbook, Perfect
Image via Wikipedia As I wrote in a previous post I bought a very nice and cheap Dell Mini 9 netbook with the intention of converting it to an Apple Netbook. The... Read more »
Joost News
My experience with Livestation on the iPhone
Image via CrunchBase As you know I am currently testing an alpha copy of Livestation for the iPhone. I can tell you that so far I am pretty happy with it... Read more »
Joost on the iPhone soon over 3G
Image byTrevor Ray Hart via CrunchBase Mike Volpi told beet.TV that Joost will be available shortly on the iPhone over 3G cellular network connections. ... Read more »
Web TV News
My experience with Livestation on the iPhone
Image via CrunchBase As you know I am currently testing an alpha copy of Livestation for the iPhone. I can tell you that so far I am pretty happy with it... Read more »
Livestation iPhone app 1st impression
I finally was able to install the iPhone/iPod Touch Livestation application. A new version was sent out that took care of the dreaded “could not verify”... Read more »
