The iPhone SDK had always required a Mac with an Intel processor. While we have been able to successfully hack the iPhone SDK installer to make it work on the 12" Powerbook G4 we purchased last year, we knew that at some point it would be more trouble than it was worth. Now that the new unibody Macbooks have hit the streets, there are plenty of older Macbook Pros available on Craigslist. We managed to score a 2.12GHz unit a few weeks ago for just $500 cash. Anyone want to buy a used 12" Powerbook? We'll give you a good deal :-)
For $500, the unit was about 50% off the going rate. The main reasons for the discount price was because it only had 1GB of RAM, the battery was dead, and not all the keys on the keyboard worked. Ebay to the rescue. We got another gig of RAM for $10 and a new battery from BTI for $25. Getting a new keyboard took a little bit of work, but more on that some other time.
The first thing we usually do with a new laptop is to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. With this newly acquired used Macbook Pro, we wanted to avoid having to manually transfer all of the personalized settings, apps, and files on the Powerbook. Fortunately, the Mac OS installation process has a feature to automatically transfer all of that directly to the newly installed OS via a Firewire connection. The process worked flawlessly and saved us a lot of work in having to set things up from scratch. One thing that did not transfer was the activation code for Photoshop. We had to contact Adobe to reactivate our copy of PS3.
Another thing we noticed was that most of the pads at the bottom of the laptop were missing. Replacing them with OEM pads didn't seem worthwhile as they would just go AWOL again. We thought some silicone ones from Home Depot would be easier and at less than a dollar, a lot more cost effective. They raise the laptop a bit higher, but that is actually good as the unit tends to get quite hot during extended use.
This keyboard replacement project will not be as simple as the 12" powerbook one. Preliminary research indicates that the entire top of the Macbook Pro will need to be disassembled before the keyboard can be removed. We will tackle the project tomorrow. Full write-up to follow. [Permalink] -Upgrading a Macbook Pro
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