Update Navigon GPS devices from Windows in Parallels
Navigon not only produces navigation software for the iPhone; their (probably) much bigger business is selling GPS navigation units for cars. These units can currently only be updated from Windows operating systems. However, an out-of-the-box Parallels installation running Windows may not be able to use the device. My newly-bought Navigon 7310 mounts on the Mac as a removable drive, and contains some awful Mac software which basically only opens the manual using a browser. To update the device and the maps, you'll have to download Navigon Fresh from Navigon's web site -- sadly, a Windows-only app. When I tried to run this via Windows in Parallels, it seems Parallels' SmartMount capability interferes with the Navigon USB device: if SmartMount is active, Windows only shows two drives with no data on them. Consequently, Navigon Fresh is not able to connect to the device. After disabling SmartMount, I was able to install updates on my Navigon unit.
published on Tuesday, the 24. November 2009, macosxhints
Kingston, Paramount to sell movies on flash memory
Kingston and Paramount unveiled an unusual deal today that will see the latter's movies made available on SD cards and USB flash drives. The partners haven't detailed the formats involved but say the movies will be available both in bundles as well as individually. Neither company has committed to a release date....
published on Monday, the 2. November 2009, macintosh-news-network
QNAP intros desktop-, rackmount 4-bay NAS servers
QNAP recently announced it has added two new Turbo NAS servers to its extensive lineup, including the TS-419P for desktops and the rack-mounted TS-419U. Their specs are nearly identical, including the same Marvell 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM and support for up to 8TB. Either can hold both 2.5- and 3.5-inch hard drives in four hot-swappable bays. Storage expansion is made possible thanks to four USB ports and two eSATA ports....
published on Wednesday, the 9. September 2009, macintosh-news-network
Sonnet intros D400QR5, R400QR5 RAID 5 storage systems
Sonnet Technologies has announced a desktop RAID system, the Fusion D400QR5, along with its rackmount counterpart, the R400QR5. Both devices build upon the companyís previously released D400Q and R400Q four-bay systems, adding a RAID 5 controller for improved balance between data protection and usable capacity. Both systems support eSATA, FireWire 800 and 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces, while enabling users to select a preferred RAID mode or configure each individual drive....
published on Thursday, the 3. September 2009, macintosh-news-network
Use a G5 as headless port/drive extender and MIDI server
The new Macbook Unibody has about five ports. In my case, all of them are full all the time. Unless you buy a hub, why not use that defunct G5 for additional ports and devices? You may save some energy by not relying on a large number of external devices (keyboard, monitor, hard drives, etc.) or AC power. I was also tired of the issues with a USB powered Oxygen 8 keyboard from M-Audio. Using my G5, the VNC access is actually somewhat tolerable for light operations at reasonable resolutions. If you have your Mac configured with a SATA II card and an internal drive mounting system, you can have access to more drives at decent speeds.These instructions cover setting up a FireWire 800 link, a MIDI Network Link, VNC access using Vine Server, which is much faster than ARD. Also, you can easily use your G5 as a bridge to connect to two-pin devices (most video-cameras). Latency is minimal and the data path is more than sufficient, if all other interfaces are disabled it is also some...
published on Thursday, the 9. July 2009, macosxhints
LaCie intros LaCinema Rugged HD media drive
LaCie on Wednesday announced the release of its LaCinema Rugged HD multimedia drive. An upgrade of the original, it can now play 1080p video through any TV with an HDMI port. The drive's 500GB capacity lets users store a large amount of both HD content as well as music and photos. Content is transferred onto the drive via a USB 2.0 connection from Windows and Mac OS X computers, with supported mov...
published on Thursday, the 9. July 2009, macintosh-news-network
Use a run-on-drive-connect SuperDuper backup script
I've put together information from several other guides (see references at the end) that I found around the web to create an auto-run SuperDuper backup script. The backup will start when you attach a USB (or FireWire) drive, and the drive is then automatically un-mounted when the backup is complete.This is very useful for me (versus scheduled backups) because I am at my home and office desks at variable times of the day. When I get to work in the morning, I just connect the drive and away it goes! A few hours later when I leave, I just check Finder to make sure the drive is unmounted and pack up.Read on for the details. Note that my script is designed for two different drives; it can be reduced for only one. First, create a shell script to unmount your external drives, and place it in ~/Library/Scripts. For USB disks:#!/bin/bashsystem_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep "BSD Name: di...
published on Thursday, the 19. March 2009, macosxhints
Aegis Mini 1.8in drive reaches 240GB, $25 rebate
Apricorn has launched a 240GB addition to its Aegis Mini line of storage products. The 1.8-inch, 3.7-oz external drive is available with USB 2.0 and FireWire connections and is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The 240GB drive is 50-percent larger than the previous 160GB model, which is also still available. The drive features shock-resistant mounting and an integrated FireWire or USB 2.0 cab...
published on Thursday, the 12. March 2009, macintosh-news-network
OWC debuts quad interface RAID rack-based storage
OWC has announced its latest Mercury Rack Pro Quad-Interface four-bay Rack Mount Hardware RAID at Macworld Expo (booth S-2218). Designed for audio/video production and data/network operation centers, the quad interface RAID storage server supports up to four 2TB 3.5-inch SATA I/II hard disk drives providing a maximum of 8TB total storage and works with FireWire 800/400, USB2, and eSATA. Simple co...
published on Wednesday, the 7. January 2009, macintosh-news-network
10.5: Unmount ZFS filesystems on USB drives
If you are lucky enough to be test driving ZFS on you Mac, you might find this useful. The latest ZFS build from Macosforge.com has a problem where ejecting a ZFS-formatted USB disk and unplugging it will crash Leopard.However, I wrote an Automator action [286KB download] that will sudo and run a ZFS export on all mounted ZFS filesystems, so you can safely unplug your USB drive with ZFS on it.[robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]
published on Monday, the 5. January 2009, macosxhints