No Black Friday nor Cyber Monday but …

applestore-offers

If you are looking out for a good deal to get a Mac or iPod this festive season and wish we had a Black Friday or Cyber Monday to get those discounts, look no further then the Refurbished section at the Apple Store.

The refurbished are pre-owned products that were returned and had underwent stringent checks and replacements of faulty parts, thoroughly cleaned, inspected and repackaged for sale – with large discounts. They all come with a one-year limited warranty and are eligible for AppleCare Protection for extended warranty.

The products available varies depending on availability but usually you can find MacBook Air, MacBook Pro , iMacs and various members of the iPod family. The discounts you get can range from 15% up to 51% – but in this case that is for an older generation of MacBook Air.

So don’t wait – the offers are ever changing, depending on availability! Check out the Apple Store’s Refurbished Mac and Refurbished iPods and get your Macs or iPods at a discounts.

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Resetting the SMC on mobile

TUAW brought to attention this knowledge base article on how to reset the SMC chip on your Intel-based MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

The System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

So some possible symptoms when the SMC becomes unstable are your machine not turning on, waking from sleep, not charging or like the article from TUAW, the battery not showing the correct run time even though it was freshly charged.

But do note that resetting the SMC should be your last resort after restarting the machine to clear the problems. It did solved the problem posted in TUAW, hopefully it will solved yours next time.

(via TUAW)

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Firmware updates for new MacBook family

If you own the recently released MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, there should be a notification to download two firmware updates for your machine. These include the EFI and SMC Firmware updates that improves stability and improves the sensing and accuracy of the MagSafe Power Adapter indicator light and the battery charge indicator lights respectively. Not much details from Apple, as usual, about such updates. But always good to apply them.

As always whenever you do such updates, make sure you are connected to the AC Adapter and remove any external devices that are connected to your machine. Lastly, close all applications and ensure you have your data backed up before you do the updates.

During the EFI Firmware update, do note the following:

  • Double-click the appropriate .pkg file to start the firmware update process. (The installer puts the Firmware Updater in the /Application/Utilities folder and opens it automatically.)
  • Read the onscreen instructions and click Shut Down to proceed with the update. The firmware image will be loaded onto your computer. Your computer will shut down, but the update will not be installed until the next step.
  • Turn on your computer but do NOT hold the power button down. The screen will turn black and remain in that state for up to 40 seconds. A gray screen will appear and a status bar indicates the progress of the update.
  • Important: Do not unplug, shutdown or restart your computer while the update is taking place.

For the MacBooks:

For the MacBook Pros:

For the MacBook Airs:

Do let us know if you observed any improvements or problems doing this firmware updates.

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Apple Store Refurbished Sale – iMac 2.66Ghz (Singapore)

For those who don’t need the newest and the baddest Macs that Apple come out with, you can always save a fair bit at the Apple Store’s Refurbished section. These machines are all tested and certified by Apple and also comes with a one year warranty. Do check back often as stocks are limited and not every Macs are available.

This weekend feature item is the iMac 20-inch 2.66GHz. This model has almost the same spec as the latest iMac at the Apple Store except the graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and not the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO. Other specs includes 2GB RAM, 320GB Serial ATA 7200rpm Hard drive.

The refurbished iMac is selling at S$1,948 (including GST) with a savings of 18% off its retail price whereas the current retail price of the 20-inch 2.66GHz model is S$2,388. Get it while this item is available.

Other items available at the Refurbished section are the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. There is also a list of refurbished iPods that are on sale though most of them are the older models. But they are great for Christmas gifts for the younger ones!

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