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Set Time Zone Automatically in Snow Leopard

Frequent travelers may be interested to know that in Snow Leopard your time zone can now be set automatically by bringing up the Date & Time preference pane, clicking the Time Zone view, and selecting Set Time Zone Automatically. A progress spinner appears while Snow Leopard sends off information about the Wi-Fi signals in your vicinity and receives location data back.


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Watchlist | 10 Dec 2009 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article | Comment (6)

MacBook/MacBook Pro Optical Drive Firmware Updates

by Doug McLean Send Email to Author

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Apple has released three firmware updates, all of which claim to "eliminate the noise made by the optical disk drive during system startup and wake from sleep on your Mac." EFI firmware updates are available for recent releases of the MacBook (MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.4) and MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.8), and once the Mac's firmware has been updated, you must install the SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0.

More information on EFI firmware updates, including installation instructions, is available on Apple's Web site. Updates are available via Software Update or the Apple Support Downloads page. (Free, 18.35/3.14/3.36 MB)

 

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Comments about MacBook/MacBook Pro Optical Drive Firmware Updates

Bryan  2009-12-10 16:38
There are some complaints, mine included, that the update does not eliminate the sound during startup. Only the sound made when waking from sleep was eliminated.
Mac owner  2009-12-10 17:16
Yeah, but is that really worthy of a complaint? I thought this firmware update was kinda funny, because I always thought that the optical drive "noise" during startups and wake ups was perfectly normal and supposed to be there.
uhuznaa  2009-12-10 18:09
This noise was driving me crazy. If you were arriving in a quiet place (library or such) and opened up your Macbook people were turning their heads and not because it looked so good (although it does). Close it and open it a few times while doing stuff over time and it got worse. Infuriating. I started to *dread* that.

Talk about negative advertisement. You plop that Apple logo into view for all and the drive goes "brrzzeeeemzooom" with quite a bit of emphasis. Hateful. I was seriously thinking about ripping out that drive.

I'm more than happy that this is over now. Phew!
Dave  2009-12-10 19:26
The EFI update to MacBook Pro is only applicable to some models of MacBook Pro. Not my non-unibody version (2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo).
Adam Engst  An apple icon for a TidBITS Staffer 2009-12-11 08:04
Thanks, I've edited to clarify that it's only recent releases of the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
nlunsford  2009-12-11 13:09
This is sort of an FYI-type comment:

Following the update, which I installed last night, I lost all trackpad gestures (though I could still scroll). It took me zapping the P-RAM before I regained the 3 & 4 finger swipes. I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but I thought that I would mention it just in case.