menu bar

Sep 1 2010

How to respond to the Service Battery warning

Last weekend, while testing some battery conditioning software for a future story, I noticed a distressing alert in my Battery menu in the Menu Bar. It said “Service Battery” accompanied by that nasty triangle with the exclamation point in it.

Not a happy thing. NOT awesomeness.

Fortunately, I’m spending most of the week creating videos at Mac Station in Abbotsford, so I have access to skilled and certified Apple Specialists who are able to check out my battery and see if it’s really finished.

Fortunately for you, this level of service as not reserved just for friends and family of Apple dealers. If your machine is under warranty1 this service is free and, quite likely, any repair required thereafter.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»


Don’t be afraid of bringing your Apple products in for service—that’s what the warranty is for.

Thanks to Jeremy Wedel ( @az1de ) for running the diagnostic on my battery and talking with me today on camera so that I could share this technological life lesson with you. My battery failed under warranty and before its time, so my replacement will be free of charge.

Awesomeness.

Follow-up video here

  1. and I cannot recommend highly enough that you get AppleCare with your Mac purchase [↩]

By RickMacMerc • Featured, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, tips, troubleshooting • 6 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

Your New Yearís iCal

Pump up your iCal for the coming year with great freeware.

iCal World

Okay, the first step youíll want to take in bulking up your iCal is to visit the (fairly) new website iCal World to find and download your iCals of choice. Submit one of you own and have a chance at winning an iPod!

icalshare.com Sherlock Plugin

Didnít find what you were looking for at iCal World? Download the icalshare.com Sherlock plugin and search their archive of iCals with Sherlock!

iCal Sidekick

Every good iCal needs a sidekick, whether it be an iPod or a Palm. If your iCalís sidekick happens to be a Sidekick (from T-Mobile) then this app will help keep them in sync.

NOTE: At press time the download link was acting a bit shifty. You may have to try back for this one.

MiCal

What better way to ready to your iCal for the new year than to make it more accessible. MiCal gives you a fabulous menu bar item that lest you check your upcoming schedule without opening iCal. Still in its 0.9 beta form, this app has plenty of promise in the coming year.

Donít let your iCal hit 2003 without the coolest in free enhancements.

Brian

By admin • Articles, Freeloader Friday Download of the Week • Comments Off • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

More Menu Extras

Menu extras have become the hack of choice for many OS X users looking to add convenience to the Aqua interface. This week I’ll show you a few new ones worth adding to your menu bar.

tvMenu 1.0b1

This is the first of two cool Menu Extras from Hunter Interactive. This menu Extra, once set up, shows you your local TV listings. You can set up favorite stations as well as program notifications. Very useful in getting you off one boob-tube and on to another.

DesKalc 1.0b1

If you are tired of the ridiculous hunt for the Calculator, you’ll find this a must-have. DesKalc, another gift from Hunter Interactive, is a simple drop-down calculator. My one complain: it doesn’t seem to work with the keypad.

MenuPrefs 1.0.1

This one is pretty easy to figure out. Go directly to your preference pane of choice by selecting it on the menu. Supports system and 3rd party panes. Preference options allow you to customize the order and even which panes are listed.

Sharing Menu 1.0

This one is useful if you are frequently changing your Sharing status. You can start up and shut down all kinds of file and printer sharing, including web and Windows sharing without taking a time-consuming trip to the Sharing preference pane. Sharing Menu is a very convenient way to manage your file sharing.

I hope you’ve managed to populate your title bar nicely. If you still have some white space left, you’ll have to keep tuning in for more great freeware add-ons.

It’s good to be free, isn’t it? Until next week,

Brian

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