Upon further investigation I’ve disabled it, because SSD based upon sandforce controller (like the Velocity3) do not require it. A very good explanation could be found at: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/25224/optimize-macbook-pro-for-internal-ssdhdd-drives.

I’ve included the following information if you do not have recent SSD, but please read the previous link before proceed:

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Last hacking I’ve made it’s related to the enabling of TRIM support. Lion enables TRIM support because it’s the operating system of choice for MacBook Air that has a SSD disk, but it’s hard coded to support only Apple designed SSD. To change this behavior you have to patch the file named IOAHCIBlockStorage. There are utilities that does it automatically but the best explanation I’ve found it’s the one in this post (http://www.mactrast.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-trim-support-for-all-ssds-in-os-x-lion/), that I shamelessly copy here with some further details.

You need to use the Terminal program to issue these commands and the admin password of your OsX to authenticate the sudo tool.

First of all do a copy of the original file (this is a single line command):

    sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage /IOAHCIBlockStorage.original

    sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x52\x6F\x74\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E\x61\x6C\x00).{9}(\x00\x51)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage

    sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
    sudo kextcache -system-caches

If everything is fine you can check if trim is enabled running the System Information tool and checkin if trim is enabled for your disk.

So I’ve done a further upgrade and replaced it with a new OCZ Velocity 3 Solid State Disk, in a 120 GB capacity.

The previous 7200 rpm disk, evaluated with the XBench program, had a performance index of 60.31, with  uncached read of 48 MB/Sec and 22.28 MB/Sec, sequential and random.

The new SSD disk has a new index of 197.52, with read rates of 225.79 and 599.97, performance was dramatically better.

Said that I’ve to say that the SSD usage of Lion OXS is not quite effective and it requires some tweak to work without issues, all requiring to use Terminal and sudo to issue command as root.

Here is the list of what I’ve done, to perform them launch terminal and copy the commands I’ve outlined here:

    sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

    sudo pmset -a sms 0

It’s a very nice engineered piece of hardware (for example the fact that do now have a power adapter and that the power cable goes directly from the power plug to the Apple TV is a very small thing but at the same time it’s very nice thing not to have another adapter connected) but, I have to say so, it’s basically useless without jailbreaking it (at least here in Italy where the Netflix offer is not available and so the only movie you can purchase are from Apple).

I was a little disappointed in the beginning because it does not have a full 1080p output like the WD TV it replaces in my setup but, after thinking about it, I’ve decided that it’s good enough, because my library of full 1080 HD video is quite short (just one movie!).

Jaibreaking it (a last generation Apple TV with the latest iOS from Apple) was quite difficult, because I did not find a way to put it in DFU mode that was predictable enough to describe here. The best suggestion I can give you is to use the Seas0nPass tool and try to reboot and put the Apple TV in DFU mode using in sequence the following remote control combination:

• Down Arrow – Menu
• Play – Menu

sooner or later Seas0nPass will see your Apple TV going in DFU mode and will perform its magic. The other suggestion is that, when you need to start Seas0nPass, you can alt-click (or option-click) on the button to avoid downloading the same ipsw file again and again from Apple if, annoyed because the DFU mode does not happens, you close Seas0nPass.

DFU mode works, you need to try and re-try, the timing between rebooting the AppleTV (Menu-Down Arrow on the remote) and pressing the Play-Menu combo on the remote and the timing to keep pressed the Play-Menu is critical and the window available is very, very narrow, so pressing the buttons with just a little delay can invalidate the procedure.

Once AppleTV was jailbreaked I’ve installed XBMC on it and the XBMC remote on the iPhone and so now I’ve a complete multimedia center connected to my network fully managed via iPhone.

In short:

• AppleTV: a very nice piece of hardware but (for me) almost useless without jailbreaking it
• AppleTV Jailbreaked: a very useful piece of hardware that, using XBMC, it’s one of the best media center combination available on the market

The first solution I’ve found was to use PlugPlayer to play music using the iPhone but the solution worked great but had a big problem: it required to connect the iPhone to my stereo to listen it, so if you play music you cannot, at the same time… well… make a call!

So I moved to another solution, I purchased an Airport Express device, connected it via WiFi to work as a remote speaker and connected it to my main stereo (a Marantz amplifier connected to a pair of Indiana Line speaker). This way you can stream music from your Mac to the main stereo.

Last piece of the puzzle was to install the Apple Remote application on the iPhone so that I can control the iTunes running on the Mac via the iPhone.

Now I’ve what I consider a very well engineered and polished solution: the Mac runs iTunes connecting to the WD music library, stream music on the AirPort Express to play it on the main stereo with a very good quality (thanks to Indiana Line speakers, that are very, very good and not too expensive) and I can control everything from every room of the house using my iPhone.

Only solution I’ve found so far (beside upgrading to the full Tuxera product) was to install a non official build of MacFuse, version 2.1.7.

You can download it here: http://www.phillo.it/MacFUSE-2.1.7.dmg.

Update: Also if the proposed solution worked for smaller files it failed every time with files larger than 200-300 MB. I’ve experimented some more and I’ve not found a suitable solution beside restarting Max OSX in 32 bit mode (booting it keeping the 3 and 2 buttons of the keyboard pressed during the boot process) to copy larger files. The problem seems in the 64 bit part and not on MacFUSE because the I’ve not downgraded MacFUSE from version 2.1.7.

Installation was flawless and very simple and, in just a few touch, I was able to connect my Mac to it, set it up to perform Time Machine on it (limiting the user quota for backup to just 250 GB). As a simple file server it works very well and without problem.

The fun started when I copied my MP3 collection on it and then shared it via the two options available for media sharing, iTunes and the standard Media Server available with the included TonkyServer.

The iTunes share can be seen from iTunes on the Mac but the overall experience is not so good, you cannot search for files or create playlists. Much more interesting it’s the media server option, that exposed data using the UPnP™/DLNA® standard, first of all because sharing is made also considering the various mp3 tag that are included in the files (so allowing browsing for artists, genres, albums and so on) but, above all, because I’ve found two very useful programs that allow me to browse the media server collection (both audio, videos and photos!) via my iPhone.

The first one is called AirPlayer (http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/airplayer/id369713694?mt=8. The first time you open it it scans the networks, find your media server and allow you to browse your media, listen or play them.

The second one is called PlugPlayer (http://itunes.apple.com/app/plugplayer/id293235450?mt=8) and works like AirPlayer buth it should also allow you to control other media players on the network, not only the iPhone.

None of this two is clearly superior to the other, AirPlayer has the strong point that manages all kind of video formats and so can be used to look also to video files (both keep in mind that you have high resolution files the video playback will suffer due to the performance of wifi network, unless you have a very good connection), but has a poorer user experience compared to PlugPlayer. PlugPlayer is definitively nicer to look at but wasn’t able to play any of the videos I’ve shared. A very strong point for PlugPlayer it’s the capability to manage Media Renderer device, unluckily I do not have one available and so I cannot test this feature.

Next step will be to purchase a BlueTooth receiver to connect to my stereo and see if one of this two tool can also send the music from by WD NAS storage to the stereo, so that I can listen to Christmas Music using my iPhone to control everything.

Post Christmas Update: After some testing I’ve decided to use PlugPlayer as my main player control. It has some feature missing from AirPlayer (basically it works with the back/forward buttons of my player remote) and because of its capability to control remote devices that should work with the next addition to my media rig, the WD TV Live I’ll use to replace my current WD TV. PlugPlayer misses the video capability of AirPlayer and to it’s basically useful just for music, but music it’s what I need, so as a guide line if you need a music player choose PlugPlayer, if you need a video player choose AirPlayer.

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome –enable-webgl http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/body.html

If you need it you can download from Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=68346e0d-44d3-4065-99bb-b664b27ee1f0&displayLang=en

I’ve tested GIMP but I do not like it and, above all, the time required to start every time because it need the X server to run is too much for occasional usage, I’ve also tested Seashore but I do not like it, so I’ve decided to purchase a commercial software, and the winner is:

It was quite some time I’ve seen a program polished and finished as that, a truly work of love from a group of passionate and competent developers.

I really do not have anything to say, Pixelmator it’s the best program I’ve found for Mac to edit photo, because it’s fast, it works, it’s seamlessy integrated in every aspect of the Mac OSX operating system and it values much, much more than the very affordable price required to buy it (thanks also to the very favorable euro/dollar exchange rate). Highly recommended, without any doubt.