ben sutcliffe

Connecting a MacBook to an external display and closing the lid (going clamshell) is particularly useful for showing a larger screen but minimising desk space. If you do it the way Apple tells you, however, you will have to connect your MacBook to your AC power connection at the same time. Using my MacBook with an external display for days, if not weeks, at a time with frequent small trips away from the desk, I didn’t want the potential reduction in battery life that comes from recharging every couple of hours. I’ve found a way to display a MacBook on to an external display, without charging constantly.

Showing the display

1. Connect your MacBook to the external display
2. Plug in your AC charger
3. Wait for the external display to show up.
4. Shut the MacBook lid and wait for it to sleep
5. Trigger the display to show up using your mouse/keyboard.
6. Activate InsomniaX

7. Remove the power cable.

This has the advantage of keeping the screen at full external display resolution and sleeping the MacBook’s screen. If you enable Insomnia from the MacBook whilst it’s open and then close the lid, the resolution won’t adjust to your external display and the screen will stay on inside the closed MacBook. If you do that, you’re going to lose most of the benefit of using an external display and battery life will be decreased by keeping the MacBook’s screen running.

The only downfall is the fact you have to let the MacBook start charging whilst running through this sequence. But, if you get really quick at following the sequence, the only real time spent charging is during the sleep and wake. I’m not a battery geek, but from what I know this won’t affect the battery life. It’s a little like syncing your iPhone – it doesn’t have a detrimental affect on battery life.

I’ve flirted with Apple’s latest browser offering on and off for a couple of months now. The first time I had downloaded the Safari 4 beta was after hearing about all the cool features such as coverflow in bookmarks and history and the top sites menu. That same time I uninstalled it about ten minutes later, hopped on to the Apple web site (where would I be without Chrome – it’s my workhorse) and reverted back to version 3.2.2. Since then I’ve tried it a few times, hoping Apple had fixed it, but as yet they haven’t.

The main problem I see with it is the Windows native design. It looks okay-ish in Vista, but then Vista can’t support running a browser and you don’t get to see much of it. For those of us who stuck with XP, Safari 4 looks absolutely hideous. The tabs bar is horrid XP blue (or oliver or silver) and the close buttons are far too big. I don’t know about anybody else, but the reason I swapped to Safari in the first place is because of the Cocoa style interface and a slight passion of mine for hating everything Windows. Safari 4 does continue to use Apple fonts – such as Lucida Grande, but if you’ve already got them installed then you’re going to be welcomed with a Times New Roman interface … nice. A button to turn off the XP sillyness and force the Safari 3 interface would be a very welcome addition.

Even worse is Safari’s copy and paste job on the “Page” and “Settings” menus that have been in Internet Explorer since version 7. I would have been happy with them if I could have dragged them out of the menu bar and back in to the customize menu, but to date you’re forced to live with them. I know why, a user needs their functionality, but when I’ve turned on the traditional menu system (File, Edit…) then I really don’t need the repetition. It’s the same in IE, but I had credited Apple with a bit more intuition than that.

Finally, there’s work needed on the rendering engines. It’s not good when even Apple’s own web site doesn’t function properly. It probably looks lovely on a Mac, but why produce something for Windows if it’s going to be a half-hearted attempt. Safari 4 hasn’t moved on that much since 3 either. Sure, Apple have thrown in all your favorite iTunes functions and upgraded the Web-Kit and JavaScript libraries used but where’s the amazing new Apple features we’ve come to expect. With increased competition from Chrome and Firefox, as well as the launch of Windows 7 (unless that doesn’t work either), Apple had better get their thinking caps on.

Then again, Steve’s back.