When was the last time an operating system update gave you more battery life? I can’t remember that ever happening, but here I am running the dev preview of Mac OS X Lion and I have longer battery life than I do running another OS.

I can’t vouch for all Macs, but on my MacBook Air 11.6″ base model with the screen brightness set to half and running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion it’s squeezing out 8 hours of battery life with 91% charge remaining. That is about an hour longer than Apples suggested max battery life on the 11.6″ Air, and nearly 3 hours longer than I get in 10.6 Snow Leopard under similar usage conditions.

It was just last week that I took a screenshot of battery life in this menubar tip. This is the same MacBook Air, same brightness settings, same apps open, the only difference is Mac OS X 10.6.6, where it shows 5 hours of battery remaining at a 95% charge:

Is this just a fluke? Maybe Lion calculates remaining battery life differently, or maybe there is a fundamental change in how Mac OS X Lion manages power? I don’t have an answer, but my anecdotal evidence shows that I get significantly more battery life out of Lion Developer Preview than I do in Snow Leopard. I’ve continued to test this and even after increasing machine activity, CPU load, and screen brightness, the MacBook Air continues to show the same results.

The more I use the developer preview, the more I like it. If you’re a developer and you haven’t used it yet, install Lion on another partition and dual boot your Mac, there isn’t much to lose. For the rest of you, you can either register for the developer program and pay $99 for access, or you can just wait until Summer for the release and watch this 16 minute Mac OS X 10.7 video walkthrough in the meantime to get a good feel for the new OS.

Mac OS X market share is growing nicely around the world with some pretty impressive numbers in North America, Oceania, and parts of Europe.

As a continent, North America takes the cake at 14.09%, which isn’t too surprising considering it is the home of Apple. Next up is Oceania (Australia & New Zealand) at 13.71%. Europe as a whole is at a somewhat low 6%, but looking at specific countries gives a very different picture; Switzerland tops off everywhere in the world with a 17.61% Mac market share, followed by Luxembourg with 15.79%, Iceland at 15.18%, Norway with 12.14%, and Denmark’s 11.71%.
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Here’s one of the stranger tips I’ve seen to boost your iPhone reception; put it in a glass.

Yea, like a water glass. I can imagine a surge of funny pictures featuring people talking to water cups, but apparently for some people this actually works.

The tip was discovered by an author at TheNextWeb, who found that they had no reception in a dungeon-ish restaurant:

a few years ago one of the waitresses… discovered (how?) that if you put a phone in an empty glass it dramatically improves the reception. The Pasta e Basta restaurant is basically stuck in a concrete basement so reception has always been awful. But since they found out about this trick they at least have had enough reception to make and receive calls.

The waiter gave me glass, I put my iPhone in, reluctantly, and lo and behold: I got 3 bars and no 3G but some GPRS. Not perfect but a huge improvement from the ‘No signal’ message I got earlier.

Who would have guessed?

I decided to try it out myself. I have AT&T and live in one of those famous reception dark spots, so it’s pretty easy for me to find a place where the iPhone has no reception. I put the iPhone in a glass and… still no service. Just for fun I went to a place where I usually have a few bars and it did increase one bar of reception, but I get the same effect from setting the iPhone on a table and just not holding the iPhone at all. Not too impressive. The next step was to beat the dead horse, so naturally I took this a step further and tried to make a phone call with the iPhone in a glass. Big surprise, it’s a terrible experience. You can’t talk normally (hint: there’s a reason phones aren’t made to resemble a water glass) so I put the iPhone on speaker mode instead, this caused the calls recipient to hear themselves talk in a super annoying echo chamber.

No dice for me, but maybe it’ll work in a bind for you.

Oh, but it does make the iPhone speaker phone sound a lot louder, as the sound projects from the water glass. So I guess there’s that!

AT&T is beginning to crack down on unofficial iPhone tethering methods, including users of MyWi, the unofficial iPhone WiFi hotspot app that is popular among jailbreakers.

Customers are being notified that their service plans need updating to subscribe to a tethering plan, and that they will be automatically subscribed to a DataPro 4GB package that costs an additional $45 per month if they continue to tether. In the email, AT&T also notes that if customers discontinue the use of tethering, no changes will be made to their plan.

Here is the full letter that AT&T is sending to select iPhone customers who are suspected of using unofficial tethering methods:
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If you plan on getting the iPad 2 (if you can find one in stock) and you’re a gamer, don’t forget to grab the video mirroring cable. But don’t take my word for it, check out this video that shows the huge potential of the iPad 2 to be a game console. Combining the Digital AV Adapter with iPad 2’s video mirroring capabilities outputted to an HDTV gives you a very playable gaming rig.
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While investigating a story about the upcoming iPhone 5, I stumbled across several Chinese resellers who are selling what they refer to as “iPhone Nano” parts and accessories. Most compelling is an LCD screen labeled “for iphone NANO 5” but there are also several cases that are built for an iPhone that currently doesn’t exist.

I had a brief conversation with one of the resellers through online chat, they asked if we needed an LCD screen or digitizer, and confirmed to us that the “iPhone Nano 5” is an unreleased product:

I blocked out their full name from the screenshot for obvious reasons. When I asked about other parts, they said there is also a ribbon cable for the “iPhone Nano 5” available for purchase.

To make matters more interesting, the picture of the alleged iPhone Nano digitizer (screen) doesn’t have a home button, which corresponds with past rumors of an iPhone Mini with an ‘edge-to-edge’ screen. Here’s a larger picture of the ‘nano’ screen available:
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If you’ve been provided with an App Store promo code, here’s how to redeem it from the Mac App Store client and iOS App Store from iTunes:

Redeem a Promo Code on the Mac App Store:

• Launch the Mac App Store
• From the Featured or Top Charts tab, look at the right side under “Quick Links” for “Redeem” and click it
• Enter the promo code
• Click on “Redeem” to download the app

Redeem a Promo Code on the iOS App Store:

• Launch iTunes
• Click on “iTunes Store” from the left hand sidebar
• Look on the right side for “Quick Links” and click on “Redeem”
• Enter your promo code
• Click on “Redeem” to download the app

Remember, once you have redeemed a code or bought an app, any subsequent downloads of that same app are free.

I sense a new trend… iPad 2 Fridge Art! Yes you can stick your iPad to a refrigerator, if you are brave enough to trust the smart cover magnets, anyway.

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Haven’t had a chance to play around with Mac OS X Lion yet? Check out this 16 minute video walkthrough, it provides a nice look at the current 10.7 developer preview. It goes through the major changes and features, and gives a good overview of the next Mac OS X.

Want to run it yourself? Check out our guide to install Mac OS X 10.7 on a separate partition and dual boot with 10.6, it’s the best way to try out Lion without messing with your stable Snow Leopard installation.

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The MacUpdate Spring Promo Bundle is out and it’s got some awesome apps at a huge discount. For $49.99 you’ll get the following Mac apps:

• Parallels Desktop 6 – run Windows and Linux on top of Mac OS X
• Divvy – customized window and workspace manager
• 1Password – highly rated Mac password manager
• MacUpdate Desktop – keeps all your Mac apps up to date
• DVDRemaster Pro 7 – duplicate, burn, and convert DVD movies to iOS compatible formats
• Mac DVDRipper Pro – copies DVDs to your Mac for archiving and mobile viewing
• Hands Off! – monitor and control application access to networks and disks
• App Tamer – pause idle apps from consuming CPU cycles and reducing battery life
• TechTool Pro 5 – powerful maintenance and repair utility, includes a bootable DVD image
• Civilization IV – classic turn-based empire building game, single and multi-player
• Better Finder Renamer – file, photo, and mp3 batch renaming made easy

The price of all that software bought on it’s own would be $381, but the MacUpdate Bundle includes it all for $49.99. Great stuff, get it while it lasts!

It’s really easy to increase the size of the icons that appear on the Mac OS X desktop or anywhere in Finder by using an adjustable slider. This lets you select icon sizes as small as 16×16 pixels and as large as 512 x 512 pixels, which is really quite big, and of course, you can pick any size in between too.

We’ll cover both how to change the icon size of both Desktop items, and the icon size of files and folders shown within a Finder window of Mac OS X.

Here is how to increase the size of your Mac icons on the desktop or in a Finder file system window:

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Want a super cheap vertical stand for your MacBook Pro? Try this $1.99 Ikea FANTASTIK napkin holder, apparently it’ll hold a MacBook Pro just fine (looks like a 13″ judging by the SuperDrive). Sure, it’s not the super sleak BookArc, but it’s also $48 cheaper.
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There is no centralized way of checking iPad 2 stock online, the only way to consistently verify stock is to call your local Apple Stores and resellers. Yes, we update our iPad 2 availability section, but the demand is so high right now that stores sell out quickly after they get stock.

If you want iPad 2 as soon as possible, we’re going to advise you with what nearly every Apple Store told us: “check back first thing in the morning.”

Here’s a list of a iPad 2 resellers and store locators, pick your local stores and call them right when they open:
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Want to erase and reformat an iPad? If you recently upgraded to a new iPad and you’re either selling or passing along your old iPad, you’ll want to reformat the iPad before sending it off to live with it’s new owner so that none of your personal stuff is on the device.

There are two ways to do this, one from iTunes and one from the iPad directly using iOS settings, and both methods remove all of your personal data, songs, media, content, and settings from the iPad.

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We have independently confirmed with several Apple Stores that additional shipments of iPad 2 will be available to purchase tomorrow morning. Several representatives at different Apple Stores told us of the expected shipment, and two popular stores said they are planning to open an hour earlier than usual at 9AM to accommodate the sales.

Some Apple Stores to Open at 9AM, Not all Stores Getting Shipments?
It’s unknown if all Apple Stores plan to open an hour earlier tomorrow, and several refused to disclose any plans to open an hour early. Some Apple staff indicated uncertainty regarding additional iPad shipments tomorrow, with one Apple Store telling us they “don’t know yet” and instead to “check back in the morning.”

Expect Lines & Sell Outs… Again
One store representative told us that demand has been huge and they are getting a large number of store visits and phone calls inquiring about the new iPad, adding that they are expecting lines to form early in the morning. If long lines do form again, you can be sure this iPad 2 shipment will sell out rather quickly, so the earlier you can get to an Apple Store the better.

We will continue to update iPad 2 availability as we receive more information. If you want to check your local Apple Store, visit the retail store list and call them directly.

Looking for a killer deal on one of the highest rated SSD upgrades around? You can grab the Intel X25-M 120GB SSD for just $169.95 after a $30 mail-in rebate from Buy.com, free shipping is included. The Intel X25-M SSD deal is only valid for today (March 14th) and tomorrow (15th):

• Intel X25-M 120GB SSD 2.5″ for $169.95 – price after mail-in rebate (PDF)

For some price comparison, the drive retails for $275 and the cheapest price on Amazon is $227, where it has 33 five star reviews. The 2.5″ will fit right into a MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac Mini, but the drive comes with a 3.5″ bay bracket so that it will fit into a Mac Pro, iMac, or other desktops as well.

Why stop with an SSD? If you want to go all out while upgrading your Mac and get the ultimate in performance, combine the Intel SSD with 8GB of Kingston RAM for MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac Mini, and iMac, for just $69.95 after rebate from Buy.com with free shipping:

• Kingston 8GB RAM Upgrade for $69.95 – price with mail-in rebate (PDF)

To put that price in perspective, I paid $120 a few months ago for the exact same kit. You can read my MacBook Pro 8GB RAM review here if you missed it, but in short; 8GB of RAM rocks if you use a ton of apps at once.

Note: the Kingston 8GB RAM upgrade applies to 2010 models but will not install in the newest MacBook Pro 2011 refresh.

Seas0nPass is probably the best Apple TV 2 jailbreak and it has been updated to work with iOS 4.3. The latest iOS is well worth installing on ATV2, it brings AirPlay support, has MLB.TV and NBA live streaming, and includes Netflix surround sound. Sounds good huh? The only downside is Seas0nPass is currently a tethered jailbreak (learn about tethered vs untethered jailbreaks), but if you tend to leave your ATV2 running all the time you won’t need to do this often.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• iOS 4.3: you can download iOS 4.3 directly for Apple TV or update through iTunes
• iTunes 10.2.1 (required for iOS 4.3)
• Micro-USB cable: this is a tethered jailbreak, which means you will need to use the micro-USB cable on each reboot
• Seas0nPass: you can download the latest version here (direct link – Mac OS X only)

Now that you have everything ready, let’s get started:
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If you’ve ever wondered how much battery life is remaining on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air, you should set the battery icon in the OS X status bar to display some additional details, like the percentage remaining. This gives you an immediate idea of how much longer you can use a Mac.

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