The main problem with doing this is that there are a lot of different distributions (or ‘distros’) of OSX86, and knowing whch of them will work fine on the AAO is a bit of guesswork. There are, however a few that have been used by quite a few people. The XxX, iPC and iAtkos distros have all been installed successfully, and I believe that all of these are available up to OSX 10.5.6.

Each distro has a very similar set of optional components, though if you use a guide for one for another, then you may have to go hunting through the options to find the things you need, and they’re not always named the same.

A great guide is available at :-

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=153352  

This is for the iAtkos distro, but works fine for the others if you can search out the relevant bits in the install. Its a good step by step guide with a lot of feedback from other forum users afterwards also.

One tip – make sure you install the ‘Shutdown Fix’, as if you don’t then your AAO will crash about 50% of the time when shutting down running on batteries. It’s not a big issue (just hold down the power button to switch off), but always feels better and neater when it doesn’t crash!

Insanelymac in general is a great source of info for anything OSX86-related.

Also, the OSX86 Wiki at http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page is also a godsend.

Cheers!

Aspire One - OSX Flavour

I’m always the same.  I get a device or gadget, and, when I’m getting used to it in the first few weeks, I always go into ‘What can I do with this?’ mode.  I’ll see what it can do, even if its things that I’d never use again.  I was happily playing around with Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire one, and actually getting very used to it and being very happy with it.  However, after using my desktop iMac for so long, I pined for something a little more mac-like.  I went hunting, initially for themes for Gnome.  However, I soon started to come across loads of stuff on the web about how people have installed Mac OS X onto theirs.

I’d read quite a bit in the past about so-called ‘Hackintoshes’.  Ever since Apple made the move to Intel x86 Hardware, those in the know (1337 Haxxorrs and the like) had been fiddling with OSX’s innards to get it to run on vanilla PC hardware.  Previously, I hadn’t really followed this up, as early reports were of nightmarish installs, and unstable environments, making it more of a hobby / experimental thing than anything.

Thing is, stuff never stands still for very long.

The stories I was now reading were much more tales of success, and how OS X on x86 PC platforms had become a reality that was no longer out of reach of the common (non-1337) user.  A project called OSX86 (http://www.osx86project.org/) has been brewing to a fine vintage quite nicely for a few years now.  This has now got to the point where several ‘Distros’ of OSX are now available (from various… ahem… locations), which can be installed on a wide range (though not exhaustively so) of PC hardware.

Although the quality (generally) of Apple hardware is very high, and the consistency good, not everyone can afford the admittedly high prices that Apple charge for you to take one of their machines home, but they still want to experiment with OSX.  In my opinion, OSX is an OS that I haven found equalled, both for speed, stability (apart from Linux and *nix-based OSs), and lovelyness in the usage stakes.

With netbooks being de rigeur at the moment, many have longed for a Mac-based version.  MacOS is the perfect Netbook OS.  However, Apple have never got closer to the Netbook form factor than the (extortionate) Macbook Air, and (oversized for this purpose) Macbooks.  This is what has prompted getting OSX86 up and running on Netbooks, particularly ones like the Acer Aspire One and the Dell Mini 9.

Now… the main issue with this is one of legality.  Apple have a EULA that, strictly-speaking, prohibits the use of OSX on anything other than Apple hardware.   Now, you can form your own opinion on this, but many believe that as long as you purchase a license, you should be ale to install the OS on whatever compatible hardware you want to.  One thing I would NOT condone is running OS X without a license.  It is a fantastic OS that has taken many years of development, and is a joy to use.  It’s WORTH THE CASH.  I am lucky enough to have a license for Leopard that I once used on my original iMac G5, but when i sold that, I restored it back to Tiger and sold it as-is.  I’ve had a spare Leopard license hanging around since then.  I repeat – if you want to use it, BUY IT. Due to the restrictions, I suggest that this is for experimental and educational use only.

Anyway!  After much faffing, scouring the net for hacks and tweaks, I got OS X up and running on my Acer Aspire One A150L.  All-in-all, it wasn’t too difficult (though took a bit of trial and error).  One of the finest resources for info on this is the InsanelyMac forums at http://www.insanelymac.com/forum.  Make sure you check it out. Tutorials a-plenty on this are available therein.

The verdict?  Well tickle me with a feather and call me Jeffrey if I wasn’t surprised…!  I must admit, I was expecting to install it, have a mess around, get frustrated and wish I hadn’t bothered with this in the first place…  I couldn’t have been more wrong!

After a few patches, everything now works!  That includes…

• The built in webcam
• Wifi (after the change outlined below)
• Mobile Broadband Dongle (and management App)
• Sound and Mic
• All graphical effects
• Keyboard layout
• Fan speed (no noisy MicroMac for me!)
• Battery indicator
• Card Reader (as long as you have it inserted on boot, and make sure you eject it before inserting another)

And if I’ve missed anything out… then its because basically, you can take more-or-less everything else as read…

Okay – let’s dampen the fires a little.  There is one thing that would be useful that Doesn’t work, and that’s sleep mode.  However, this, to me, is not actually that vital, as I don’t really use it that much.  In the end, I can easily live without it.  You CAN get hibernation working, but to be honest, I can’t be bothered, as the OS boots so damn fast anyway (about 30 secs or so…!).  Secondly, the in-built wireless (an Atheros PCI Express card) doesn’t easily or reliably work with OS X.  I changed it for an Dell 1490 Wifi card for a few quid off ebay, and OSX picked it up as an airport card with no issues at all.  There we go, that wasn’t so painful on the negatives front was it?

OS X runs like a dream on the Acer Aspire One, with it’s Intel Atom 1.6Ghz CPu and it’s 1Gb or RAM.  I don’t know how well it would run on the 8Gb SSD version – I reckon a HDD is pretty much a must, just for space’s sake.  Nothing stopping you giving it a go though, as a browse of the forums shows it has been done.

I thought, as I did a quick vid for the last post, I’d do the same for this one.  So… just to prove it, here’s a vid of the OS starting…

How good is that eh????

(Note to the noise-sensitive : for some reason you can REALLY hear the fan on this vid, especially after the OS starts. In all honesty, it’s not loud at all, and the power management seems to deal with the fan speed absolutely fine. Nothing to worry about! The condenser mic on my camcorder is waaaaaay too sensitive!)

Anyway.  I’ll sign off now, and leave you with the thought that for £250ish, you can get yourself an A150L plus a copy of Leopard, and experiment with a MicroMac of your own!

Cheers.

I use my Nokia 770 a lot. when I’m out and about and I don’t want to cart a laptop around, it’s a great form of internet access, if limited in a few ways. The ting that’s always got to me about it though, is t the text-entry interface. In the end, without a physical keyboard (like the new Nokia N810 for example), you’re a bit restricted when entering long entries like this one.

So – when I saw the offer for the iGo Ultrathin keyboard for just over 17 quid, I jumped at it. The keyboard is a fold-up device that attaches to the 770 by bluetooth. Its like a more compact version of the slightly older Stowaway’ keyboard. with it, you can use the 770 more like a mini laptop. When not required, the keyboard folds away neatly down to about the same size as the 770 itself.

When folded out and in use, the keybord includes a small stand on the back to support the 770 in a usable position. It’s HID compliant, which means that you can use it on any device that takes such a keyboard. This includes many smartphones, Laptops, PDAs etc too.

The keyboard itself is quite robust, and works very well. Seeing as I’m actually typing this sat in a Cafe, having taken a photo with my phone, transferred it by Bluetooth to the 770, uploaded it to my site, and published the article via my Phone’s data connection and bluetooth, I think I can finally say that mobile computing has come of age

It’s great

So – looks like you can go ahead  and get it if you’re looking for complete internet access.  Hopefully, yours will be the same as mine!

Unfortunately, the N73 isnt compatible with Three’s new ‘Turbo’ (or 3.5G) connection, which gives mobile broadband speeds of up to 2.8Mb/s in enabled areas (mostly currently Major Cities and around, but apparently gradually spreading out – much like the original 3G signal). To be honest, at the moment, it really doesnt bother me, as the speed I’m getting is by far enough. Also, with only 1Gb a month to play with, it’s probably better that the speed isn’t too high, as I’d be tempted to download a lot more, and quickly use up my data allowance! I can report that Skype works well over this connection too, which is a bonus.

I’d heartily recommend it for PC users, though I’m not too sure about Mac users. I gave it a go on the iMac yesterday, and it connected ok, though the speed was low. this is more likely to be becasue i dont live ina 3G enabled area though, ratehr than any problem with the connection itself.

All-in-all, very good, and I’ll definitely be using it more when I’m away.

Got my hands on somebody’s Ipod touch for the first time today. Very nice! You’ve probably already read about the iPhone and the touch everywhere, so I wont go through the features again here. Suffice to say, it’s very nice in use, and I’ll be investing in one at some point (though not yet – the iMac cleared me out!).

To elaborate – recently, in order to get my Three price plan over to 1Gb Data over Bluetooth modem (Mobile Broadband Lite), I had to change from X-Series silver to a non- X-series add-on. As a rule, this was not a problem, as I didn’t really use much in the way of X-series facilities (i.e. podcasts, youtube, etc etc). However, I did use Skype. Not a lot; but it was handy to have it when I needed it.

Anyway, the benefits that the Mobile Broadband Lite brought me outweighted losing Skype. Today, I came across a nice little app called ‘Fring’ (http://www.fring.com/). This wonderful little app allows you to use Skype, Google Talk, MSN, SIP, ICQ and Twitter, all on one client. The benefits of all this are obvious, but how well does it work in practice?

I fired it up and made a few test calls. The first were the obvious calls to the Skype test service and the Fring test service. Both worked fine, though the Skype call did break up a little, but not sure if that was a problem with signal strength. NEx came calls to other skype users, which again seemed to work ok, but were a little broken up. Whether this would be an issue in practice (i.e. enough to stop you using it), I will have to see. I then made some calls to landlines from Skype (via my SkypeOut credit). Again, it seemed ok. You can also chat via Skype, as well as being able to use this at the same time as your Mac or PC based Skype client (it sends a little intro message to the person you’re chatting with to tell them you’re on your mobile and cant type quickly or recieve files or video).

The only real disadvantage of this over the Three Skype service is that the voice to packet gateway is on your handset, rather that at the Three end. This means that in bad 3G Signal areas, you wont be able to call out, as it’s not a voice call as it was with Three. The tradeoff may be worth it though, as being able to call internationally on my mobile for about a penny a minute definitely is enticing…

All in all, it seems very interesting. I’m going to play with it over the next few weeks and report back on my experiences. Stay tuned.

This morning I tried something. Instead of a packet data connection on the 770, I set the connection to my N73 up as a ‘Data Call’. Now, I thought that a packet data connection would be the way to go, and still have that feelng, but aftert entering *99# into the phone number field, and no username and password, it did the unthinkable and CONNECTED!

Now I’m confused.

I’m almost 100% certain that I’m supposed to be using a Packet Data connection. I tested the download speeds, and was getting up to about 40k a sec, so I’m pretty sure its not using GPRS. I dont even know if GPRS is included in my data allowance… I’ll have to dig around a bit more and see what I can come up with.

UPDATE: Seems like it may be okay. I checked my data usage on the ‘My 3′ section of the tree website. It was at 1019.592Mb. I then did some downloading on the connection. I went back about 10 minutes later, and the data had decreased to 1018.185Mb. Looks like it’s working! I hope that this is right now, cos the idea of a big fat bill next month doesnt amuse me. Oh – on a seperate note, it also works whilst I’m in a call, which has never happened before on any network I’ve used!

Wrong!

It was activated on Friday. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to get my 770 to connect to the internet using my Nokia N73 as a modem. Every time, it initiates the bluetooth connection, causes the ‘connection’ symbol on the top left of the display to start flashin (as if its trying to connect), then after a few seconds, I just get ‘Remote Server Error – Try again?’. Not much use!

During the phone connection setup on the 770, you get asked for the username, password and access point name, along with a dial-up number. As far as I can tell, the access point name would be ’3′, as this is the name of the connection I use on the phone when I connect to the intenet on the phone browser. I’ve also tried to default of ‘internet’ on the 770, with no more luck. The dial-up number defaults to ‘*99#’ which seems to be the setting that most websites out there suggest (except for Sony Ericsson phones, which use a longer string), so I’ve left that alone. The username and password are a mystery. I’ve left them blank, tried ‘user’ and ‘pass’, as suggested on some sites, tried ‘www’ and ‘www’, and various other combinations.

Three were totally bloody useless when it came to tech support. It seems that their wonderful Indian support centre only provide support for laptops connecting via the ‘Nokia PC Suite’, where apparently you dont need to enter a username or password. They have told me they ‘cannot support the use of PDAs’ (ouch!), and cannot supply me with a username and password with which to connect manually. A massive oversight by a company which is trying to forge ahead in this field.

So at the moment, I have a frustratingly good mobile internet conection that I can’t access from the only device I actually want to use it from…

Has anyone else had any luck connecting with a 770 on this service? I’m at my wit’s end!

UPDATE: See the next post for the solution!