SitDown. StartUp.

I bought my first Unibody Macbook Pro in February of 2010. For cost savings, I went with the baseline 13 inch model with 2.3Ghz, 4GB of memory, and a 320GB hard drive. After hammering my machine for about a year and downloading tons of software I noticed my baby began to slow down a little.

I did a little research and found that you can spend under $200 to upgrade the memory and hard drive-parts that Apple or a local tech shop would offer for $1,000 or more- by just replacing the parts on your own. Best of all, it was relatively painless and all the parts can be bought on Amazon.

Here is a list of the parts I replaced and how you can supercharge your Macbook:

Upgrading the Hard Drive:
Part: Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500GB Solid State Drive
Price: $99.99
Replaces: the 320GB Hard Drive
How-to: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3419

Upgrading the Memory:
Part: Kingston Apple 8GB (2x4GB) 1066MHz DDR3
Price: $87.99
Replaces: the 4GB (2x2GB) memory cards
How-to: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1651#link1

What you’ll need:
Electronic Precision Bit Set
Non-Static Surface (i.e. sweatshirt or towel)
Steady hands

Total base cost to upgrade memory and hard drive: $197.98

Dear Apple Computer Inc.,

I am writing this letter to ask you to ban the sale and download of the application Angry Birds and Angry Birds HD in the Apple iTunes App Store. (see image below)

I have personally experienced and witnessed severe levels of addiction to this game, resulting in countless hours of counterproductive bird catapulting and smashing activity.

As a large corporation you have a responsibility to limit applications that enter the App Store, like Angry Birds, that can be harmful to society. It’s not responsible to be selling a product like this and think that people will become more productive members of society. You and Rovio Mobile Ltd, need to think about the impact this game has had on the Apple community and the 6.5M people that abuse Angry Birds.

Here are some of the irreversible affects your game has had on myself and others:

-Extreme euphoria and pleasure upon ejecting black, yellow, purple, green and red birds into the sky only to watch them ultimately obliterate green monsters; Extreme bouts of depression and anxiety if latter does not occur after 10-15 catapulting attempts;

-Repeated hallucinations of yellow triangular birds accelerating mid-flight and then smashing into wood planks, concrete barriers, or ice blocks at incredible speeds;

-Delegating important routine personal activities (eating lunch, shaving, brushing teeth, wishing my mom happy birthday) to spend more time playing Angry Birds;

-Feelings of euphoria and lack of judgment (sometimes disorientation) when Black-Bomb, Toucan-Slingshot, and Obese-Red Birds were unlocked for the first time;

-Evidence that Angry Birds on iPhone serves as a gateway drug to Angry Birds HD on iPad; Upon HD’s release on iPad for $9.99 {market value}, I have experienced a much more powerful reaction and resolution to the game. Its far higher quality with more addictive features…resulting in a more expensive high with twice the counter-productivity baked in;

With all this counterproductive bird catapulting and smashing; I feel its time to make a responsible decision and stop the madness.

A recovering Angry Birds player,

-Andrew

Every smartphone platform now has its own App Store, led by Apple’s iPhone. And while some software firms are busily cranking out apps for all of them — Apple, Google Android, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, etc. — many are choosing to stick with only Apple.

Why? The reasons are different for for every software company. Some prefer the technology that Apple offers, which competitors don’t offer. Others prefer the iPhone’s built-in payment platform. Others note that BlackBerry and Palm can’t support high-end graphics for games.

Here’s a nice essay by Marco Arment — the one-man shop behind Instapaper, the excellent iPhone app and Web service — about why he’s only building apps for the iPhone so far. In short: Because Apple’s audience was big enough at the get-go to support his development costs. That is not (yet) the case for platforms like Android or Palm.

Courtesy of: Dan Frommer and Business Insider