Thursday, December 17, 2015

November 2015 Edition - Monthly Mini-Bytes

Slow Mac? It May Be Your Processor
Core 2 Duo Days Numbered

Is your Mac slow? Does it take a long time to boot up, load programs, or do just about anything? If you still have an iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or Mini with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, then chances are you are experiencing one or all of these symptoms.

Apple installed the Core 2 Duo processors in its machines from 2006 through early 2010 when the iSeries processors were introduced. They did a great job, but nowadays they don't have the punch that they used to. 

So what to do? Adding RAM or a Solid State Drive can help, but considering that most of these machines are older than 5 to 6 years, it's a good time for an upgrade. Spending the time, effort, and money to breathe a few more months out of a Core 2 Duo Mac is not really money well spent. Also, the cost of the upgrades would exceed the value of the Mac anyway.

Five or more years for a computer is excellent, since the industry life-span is three. The odds have been beaten, but now is the time to consider a new Mac.
Slow iPad Solutions
Don't Toss That iPad 2 or iPad 3 Just Yet!

Is your older iPad slow? It's true that the iPad 2 and newer can run the current iOS, but many of us that have had an iPad for the past few years notice them getting slower and slower. Well the good news is that it's not the iPad, it's you -- and all the stuff loaded on it from older iPads and older operating systems.

The solution? Erase the iPad, restore it to it's factory settings, and set it up as a new iPad. If you connect your iPad to iTunes you will have the option to Restore. This will erase the iPad and download the latest copy of iOS and the firmware for the iPad. When it restarts, it will be just like it was when it was new.

But here is the trick: DO NOT RESTORE YOUR OLD IPAD DATA. Set it up as new and all the cobwebby slowness should go away with all that old data. You can then choose what Apps to download and start anew!


Save Your iPhone Battery
Save the World! Actually, not really...

Battery life whether with your iPhone, iPad, or Tesla is always an issue. ZDNet has a great article on what works to save your iPhone battery and what doesn't. They don't mention anything about the Tesla, though.

You can read the article here: