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Archive of Monday August 1, 2011     Go to Current News Page

Mac Upgrades/Mods | Storage | Video | Audio/Home Theater | Tips/OS Updates/WiFi
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Reader Tips for Lion/AirDrop compat. Airport Card Swap:
Really late posting this (from Jul 22nd mail, trying to catch up this weekend)

"AirDrop MacPro2,1
I decided to show some love to my MacPro(2,1) 8 core 3.0Ghz prior to upgrading to Lion. I installed a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD with a clean 10.6.8. This has now been upgraded to 10.7 and i am very pleased with the results. The SSD has added a nice edge to things and makes me think that there are a few more years in the old MacPro yet!

One things that did disappoint though was the lack of AirDrop on the MacPro2,1. The normal card for this MacPro is the Broadcom BCM94321MC. AirDrop does not like this card and won't play. However, i am happy to report that the Broadcom BCM94322MC is AirDrop compatible and also works perfectly in my MacPro.
So, swapping your non-AirDrop WiFi card with a BCM94322MC will add AirDrop compatibility.
Regards, Kevan G
www.fixmymac.co.uk"

Here's Apple's official list of supported macs (as usual no specifics on wifi card model)

  • MacBook Pro (Late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (Late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (Early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2009 w/AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2010)

IIRC there was some apple forum discussion on this - noting the problem is a lack of a Personal Area Network (PAN) function in some older card models.
(Update/FYI: The Aug 4th news here has info on supported Broadcom and Atheros card model numbers.)

Too long to post here, but a reader with a MacBook Pro with SSD sent a few Lion tips regarding the recovery partition, Clamshell mode and restart state. (I've not used Lion but included some comments/questions I had as well.)

OS X Lion on Core Duo Mini w/Core2 Duo CPU swap:
Another late post/question (that may be answered already elsewhere - sorry) - has any (original Core Duo) Mini owner that upgraded the CPU to a Core 2 Duo ran OS X Lion?
(Earlier this year with the dev previews you could take a lion install from a supported mac and delete the (hidden) "/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist" file. Not sure that works with later releases.)
(Update: A post from a Core Duo Mini owner that had swapped in a Core2 Duo CPU said the above still worked - i.e. installing Lion on a drive connected to supported mac model, then deleting the plist file before swapping the drive into the C2D upgraded mini.)
  

More reports on VirtualBox with Lion/2001 Macs
Updated the page of Mac owner reports on freeware VM VirtualBox with comments from another OS X Lion/2011 Mac user (Macbook Air 13"/1.8GHz i7, 4GB/256GB SSD).
  
2nd Gen Apple TV v4.3 Software Update Info

Apple TV Software Update 4.3 features
TV show purchases Purchase TV shows on Apple TV. Shows purchased on Apple TV can be re-downloaded on other iOS devices. Shows purchased on other iOS devices or with iTunes automatically show up as available to play on Apple TV.
Vimeo Browse and watch millions of user-uploaded videos found on the Vimeo service, for free.

  
Apple Support/How-To/Troubleshooting Doc Updates


  
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