The MacBook laptop is pretty tough but accidents do happen and a repair becomes necessary. Some repairs are easily carried out under warranty or AppleCare (buy yours here) but if your MacBook isn't covered it can get pretty expensive to have a tech fix it for you.
Why not do it yourself? Repairing your MacBook is quite possible if you're careful, take your time, keep track of all the bits and follow instructions. And you've got the necessary parts
Where do you find instructions?
ifixit.com's brilliant Fixit Guide Series walks you gently through the whole process of dis- and re-assembly your MacBook (or iPod or iPhone) with excellent photos and instructions. Even if you don't actually need a repair they're well worth a visit just to see what's actually going on inside your MacBook. If you missed the link, ifixit is here.
Where do you find the parts?
Well, here's a shameless plug for our sister site MacBookSpares.com which lists every MacBook spare part for sale on eBay now (most of the items are Buy It Now so you can get them very quickly). MacBook components and replacement parts are categorized by model and component so you can find what you need fast.
All models of MacBook are listed so if you need a replacement LCD screen, a bigger hard drive, a spare Combo or SuperDrive, case parts or a new keyboard for your MacBook Air, 13" MacBook (black or white) or MacBook Pro you'll find it here. MacBookSpares also has a section for MacBook memory.
The link to MacBookSpares is here.
"If you're single and looking for love, here's a tip: Buy an Apple MacBook Air and start hanging out at Internet cafés."
Thus starts an excellent article by James A. Martin at PCWorld.com about "What it's like to take Apple's sexy new ultraportable on a cross-country business trip."
It goes into some detail about the MacBook Air's practicality and it's well worth a read,
Part One is here and Part Two is here.
Over at AppleInsider they have news of the new Samsung 256GB solid-state drive that might suit the MacBook Air down to the ground. Apparently it's twice as fast and twice as big as previous SSDs - and cheaper, to boot (boom boom!)
According to AS:
"...the Serial ATA drive reads in-order data at 200MB per second, or double the rate of Samsung's past 128GB drive. It also boosts write speeds, often a bottleneck on solid-state drives, from 70MB per second to 160MB."
Not only that,
"...it has a new approach to multi-level cell storage that allegedly solves the problems of the format. The technology allows data to be much more densely packed, but has traditionally been slow and short-lived."
Sounds like it would be great for any MacBook, not just the MacBook Air. No prices mentioned but, as an extension of Moore's Law, SSD drives will get cheaper.
For more details on the Samsung SSD go to appleinsider.com.
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The rumors continue to fly about a new 2008 MacBook this May, but there's no sign of it yet, so if you're holding off buying a new MacBook in case you miss out on the latest one, don't wait any longer.
According to macrumors.com's Buying Guide, now is as good a time as any to buy a MacBook. They maintain a database of updates and say that the MacBook is updated every 192 days and since it's now only been 74 days since the last MacBook update, you can buy with confidence that you won't be left with a brand-new outdated MacBook.
Macrumors also says the same for the MacBook Pro - buy it now - but hasn't the data to make a prediction for the MacBook Air, although it's been 116 days since its last update.
If you want to check out when to buy MacBooks, desktop Macs, iPods, iPhones or Cinema displays, check out macrumors.com here.
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Do you hook your MacBook up to an external monitor? What do you do with the MacBook display - close the lid or use it as extra screen real esate? With the lid open do you find it hard to use both screens because the external screen's up there and the MacBook is down there?
It's a problem Jason Snell of Macworld.com has found a solution for - the Ergotron Neo-Flex Combo Lift Stand. The name's a mouthful but Jason says it does the trick, putting both external and MacBook screens at the same (ergonomically correct) height.
Check out Jason's full review here.
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