iFixIt gives new Mac Pro 8 out of 10 for upgrades and repairs!

mac pro 2013 disassembled ifixitGood news everybody! Apple has apparently figured out how to manufacturer a powerful and compact workstation which is fairly easy to upgrade and repair! Someone should tell their laptop and tablet divisions, but I digress…

iFixIt tore the sucker down and found a refreshing lack glue or proprietary screws. Opening the casing allows you to easily get to the RAM. The SSD is proprietary but easy to swap out, which hopefully might encourage some companies to build 3rd party solutions. Even the CPU, while buried deep into the internals, is a stock Intel socket. iFixit estimates you could save almost $1000 buying a low end Mac Pro, and then swapping out the processor yourself.

Maybe the harshest criticism came from the proprietary graphics cards. Flanking the triangular heat sink, Apple had to design their own connectors and shape so they’d fit in the casing. iFixIt worries that this might prematurely age the system if Apple can’t keep up with newer graphics chipsets and offerings.

All in all though, this assuages most of the concerns I personally had over the construction of the Mac Pro. No machine badged a “pro” should ever lock out the user. A workstation is a MUCH longer term investment than a regular destop, and this radical new design from Apple looked like it might have followed in the same footsteps as their MacBooks, glued shut and with RAM soldered onto the logic board. Happily this is not the case, and I’m surprised that Apple themselves didn’t make more noise about it. The ability to improve the system over time larger destroys the perceived “Apple Tax” and should make homebrew OSX systems a little less cost/time effective for those looking at Bang for Buck.

If you’re shopping a high end workstation, I’d highly recommend checking out the iFixIt teardown guide, as they detail the whole process of stripping the machine with their usual wit and humor.

Top 5 for the week starting Dec 1st, 2013 – LG G2 news, Batteries, and Cases!

ballistic hydra waterproof case iphone 5s test review somegadgetguyThese were the top read and most shared stories from SomeGadgetGuy last week! LG ruled the week, but we also got in a few accessories. Nice little round up as we wrap up 2013 and the holiday buying season!

Let’s jump in!

5 – Using a Ballistic Hydra Rugged case for iPhone 5 on an iPhone 5S

The nice thing about how Apple updates the iPhone with a tick-tock system, cases for the iPhone 5 largely work with the iPhone 5S. If you’ve been looking for a rugged case for the 5S, this waterproof case might do the trick!

4 – Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

003This week, Chris took a look at a handy little portable charger + flashlight combo. RAVPower has become a favorite here at SGG, offering up very good mobile charging solutions at great prices. Looking to extend your phone’s run time out in the field, maybe this gadget will help?

3 – Ask Juan: Why won’t my Moto X show up as a USB drive on my Mac?

An opportunity to play a little tech support? On a tech blog? Who’d have thunk it? Robin has a problem with his Moto X and his Mac playing nice together. Seems this is a pretty common problem seeing how popular this post was last week…

2 – Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low”

LG G2 Camera reviewI don’t do a lot of battery bench marking. It’s very time consuming, and usage is very relative. What’s heavy to one person is light use for another.  That said, when a phone comes along with exceptional battery life, I at least need to point out how it handled real world activities.

1 – Camera Test: The LG G2 on AT&T – video samples from a 13MP Android with Optical Image Stabilization!

And the number one story from last week was a doozy! LG made some pretty bold claims surrounding the camera on the G2. It’s only the second Android with optical image stabilization, and it has three times the resolution as the HTC One. Did the G2 camera live up to the hype?

We’re nothing without you readers, and we certainly can’t compete against the big blogs by ourselves. We always greatly appreciate not only the likes, but the sharing on social sites like Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. The more we get to talk with other tech fans, the better we get, and soon we’ll be able to reward that participation with some fun contests coming up soon!

Thanks for reading, and if you feel we missed a big story this week, or you have a hot tip, please drop us a line on our Contact Page!