—Mod Your “About This Mac” Entries To Make Your Hack Even More Convincing

—Found this guide on tonymacx86′s website after a serious crash (when will I learn). I had so much fun playing around with this I had to share.

[Video] BlackBerry Bridge Keyboard & Mouse in Mac OS X (How to)

—Return of the Mac!

Okay so we’re back in business. Trinity‘s roaring again. Fiddling with it after a long weekend, it turns out I was using the wrong HDMI port (doh). Once I switched to the HDMI port 1(?), below the VGA port, I was able to boot into Lion. That was a close one. The penalties of trying out the latest updates early on.  It was a serious headache reading through Toleda’s guide especially with so many recent updates and changes, but I learned quite a bit in the process. Here are Toleda’s Guides on the matter (& update). They taught me how high-definition sound is handled in OS X and how to do future edits on my own. This should come in handy when my new graphics card arrives (well first I have to choose one). HDMI audio works as before, as well as line-in (mic), line-out, headphones, and I’m told optical 7.1 surround sound, though I have nothing to test it with (yet).

—”If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”…

You know the saying… When I upgraded to the latest version of OS X (10.7.4) I brilliantly forgot to rollback Toleda’s audio kexts which made HDMI audio possible. I have copies so I could replace them, but in addition to HDMI audio I also want to enable all the other port & jacks ie: headphones, microphone, line out. You know, make this thing more functional. Pshh, can’t be that hard right?

—Controlling your HTPC with a BlackBerry via BlackBerry Bridge (Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, Android, & PS3)

If you’re familiar with RIM’s products, by now you might have heard something about linking your BB to the not-so-stellar 7″ device that is the PlayBook. I’m talking about the BlackBerry Bridge App, I mentioned its features before, but I’m trying to put that all behind me. All the disappointment’s been too much to bear. I wanted to think it was great and useful, but then I realized how cumbersome it is to have a device so inadequate you need a BlackBerry to *add functionality.

Anyway, one of my yearnings for Trinity is a shiny new wireless keyboard, with back-lit keys, and a solar-powered recharging feature. They’re coming to market (not back-lit), but I don’t see them coming down to my price range soon. It occurred to me when fiddling around with Bridge that there’s actually a fully-fledged keyboard and mouse buried in the sub-menus and key combinations. The Windows Start Menu key, Ctrl, Alt, F1 to F12, it’s all in there. It uses a bluetooth connection to link to the PlayBook… and Trinity has bluetooth… See where I’m going with this? What if… I could use Bridge to control Trinity? I mean bluetooth keyboards and mice have existed for some time now. Surely it couldn’t be that simple?

—Followup: Trinity, 6 months in (CustoMac Mini 2011)

So it’s been 6 months since I breathed life into the machine I’ve come to know and I’m immensely pleased with this project. For me it represents the culmination of several skills I’ve picked up over the years, and there’s still much to learn (can’t wait). There’s something really gratifying about turning a stack of parts and instructions into something that actually works. I guess anything one builds with their own two hands takes on special sentiment.

The “CustoMac Mini 2011″ is probably the easiest hackintosh project for beginners, all due of course to the good work of people like tonymacx86, MacMan, toleda, notshy, and a host of others. The price is low and the rewards are many. Sure I’ve had a few hiccups, but nothing catastrophic (yet).

—Trinity: The Build – Built-in SD Card Reader & 3 Port USB Hub Mod for the CustoMac Mini 2011

Soon after successfully getting Trinity up and running I was already thinking of ways to improve her. One of the things bugging me were those two front facing USB ports.
Plugging-in my keyboard and wireless mouse left me with no open ports up front for say, a quick external hard drive transfer. I noticed that the motherboard had an extra internal USB header and thought adding more ports should be a snap. While I was at it, I could throw in an SD card reader for off-loading my camera or phone. There was one problem: How would I implement it? Most SD card readers on the market come in the form of USB dongles or 3.5″ bay devices designed to fit inside the case. I was already using the one 3.5″ bay I had for the hard drive and I really hate dongles. This needed to be built-in.

—A “Brief” Note on Switching to Mac, from a (former) Windows Guy.

I have to say, in all my years of conflict with Apple, the designer/technophile in me feels a connection to their hardware. Just look at any of iFixit’s teardowns of late, and you can see how chaos is brought to order. No it’s not the products I have a problem with, just the company’s stance on certain things, and the way they slant information to the not so savvy in order to benefit their public appeal. I also grew to hate fanboy-ism, which… seems to be an Apple thing. (Seriously get a life)

Growing up, my biggest Apple repellent was incompatibility. It really wasn’t a choice. It just so happened that I was born into a world/region that used Windows. So naturally, that’s what I got used to. And being that most of the world used Windows, it kind of made the case for the Mac a little weak. The Macs I got exposed to in my youth didn’t have enough for me. They were cute, but not very useful, so I went on about my days mostly ignoring them. How ironic that a platform whose biggest detractor was a lack of applications, would one day be the world leader in mobile “apps”. Kudos.

—Trinity: The Build (CustoMac Mini 2011)

After making such a killing sniping great prices for parts, I was understandably eager to rip the cellophane and get to work. But actually, I was holding off because I intended to do the build with my little nephew. He… had other plans so I was on my own. As I mentioned previously, I was pretty much following the parts list provided in tonymacx86′s CustoMac Mini 2011 post with one small exception, the case.

MI-008

MI-100

MI-008 USB & Audio

MI-100 USB & Audio

He listed the Apex MI-008, but I chose the MI-100 instead. I stuck with the same manufacturer because I didn’t want any unforeseen fitting issues and their frames were pretty much identical. I really just found the face of the MI-100 to be more pleasing. The directions that came with the case weren’t exactly crystal clear, but after some trial and error I managed to put the right screws in the right places. I have to say, making all the connections to the motherboard was a little intimidating. Most of my experience so far was with laptops. But I knew enough to ground myself and avoid bending any of the pins on the processor (It seems now they have they pins on the motherboard instead). I also had Gigabyte’s instructions, which where a little easier to follow. The first thing I noticed

—Trinity: One machine to rule them all… Mac… Windows… Linux

Drawing upon what I learned with Silvia, I was beginning to think about building my own computer. Didn’t look that hard to build, the real hard part seemed to be finding the right parts for a good price with an upgrade path. I read a few posts over on lifehacker but the price just wasn’t right, not if wanted to use new components. So I put it off until I could either find a good deal, or maybe a decent bare bones kit that met my needs right now and could be upgraded later.

Around this time I had also read a few lifehacker posts on building a hackintosh. They referenced tonymacx86, so I started reading his blog as well. I was always curious about macs. We had a Mac lab in one of my high schools, and since I grew up mainly on PCs, they just seemed odd with their single button mouse and multicolored plastic. Obviously since then Apple has blossomed quite a bit (if only I bought stock). Now macs are in vogue or some sort of personal brand statement. I was always too counter culture to buy in, and as a tinkerer, I hate when companies put measures in place to prevent me from taking a look inside or tell me to leave such things to “professionals”. How insulting. I hate that almost as much as I hate the RadioShack guy suggesting I purchase $50+ HDMI cables. Enter the CustoMac Mini 2011.