Dude, what up? Why is my MacBook Pro just shutting off by itself? No warning, no pop-up from OS X, no nothing. Just off!

Seems like I’m not the only one having this problem as the battery looks to be the issue. Sean Bonner has been reporting his problem for some time now and even has an account of an Apple Store employee tipping his hand that they know about this problem…without actually admitting it is a problem.

In my particular case, I’ll be working and off goes my MacBook Pro. At first, I just assumed my battery was dead and I had ignored the warnings. But when it happened after yanking the green lit MagSafe power cord, I knew something was up and turned over my MBP to find a full row of green lights on my battery. ‘I knew it!’ I thought to myself.

Now it’s happening more often than not while running on battery and it’s becoming annoying. The problem with this is if I call Apple Care, I’m afraid of losing my Mac for a week. Ugh, a whole week without my Mac? Heck, a half working Mac is still better than a fully working PC! But, I want this fixed and maybe I’ll complain about the whining, too, and get a new fan and logic board. We’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted how this turns out and let me know if you’re seeing this on your MBP.

I sit in my air conditioned office that has been struggling all day to get to that 77° mark (it’s at 80° right now) as the outside scorches at 108°. Sure, those of you that live in Phoenix are use to this, but out here in California where the ocean is nice and close, we get humidity added to this and man, talk about hot! Add to the mix that you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro that like to run hot and your headed toward an AppleCare support call real fast!

Keeping your notebook, Mac or PC, cool in the heat of the summer is an important thing for any computer user. There are a few products out there that help keep your precious resource cool and SvenOnTech hopes that one of them will be a good choice for you and your computer.

A common universal solution is the USB fan cooler. These are plastic trays that have two or three fans built into them that help directly cool your Mac or PC laptop. Some come with batteries on-board while others suck its needed juice from your USB port. A couple of top end ones will actually power a computer with its own internal battery while others expand your USB with a built-in hub. Prices range from as low as $12 to just about over a hundred dollars. BuyExtras has an excellent selection to chose from if this quick fix interests you.

If you’re not into draining power from your already power hungry Mac, then you can consider a stand. Elevating the Mac to allow a flow of air under it will help keep things on the cooler side for sure. From offerings by Griffin Technology (iCurve), to Rain Design’s iLap, to Road Tools’ CoolPad, you have a few choices if you stand to go with this solution.

You can also keep track of just how hot things are really getting inside your Mac with the Temperature Monitor by Marcel Bresink. If your Mac is equipped with temperature sensors, then you’ll get charts, readings, and all sorts of information about the heat under your hood. Bresink kept it cool on the price as it’s a free download for your enjoyment.

Now if you could care less about your Mac and are more concerned with getting yourself chilled, then maybe you need an USB Beverage Chiller. It’ll keep that soda, water, or foo-foo coffee cold while you work hard!

Enjoy your summer.

Playing with MacSabber has been so fun that we here at SvenOnTech lost all hope of being productive and went searching for more fun Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) applications. Boy did we find some good stuff.

We found this great widget that turns your SMS Mac into a full out level. Now you’ll be able to tell if that table at Starbucks is truly leveled while surfing SvenOnTech. Carpenter’s Level Dashboard Widget is probably the most fun and honestly the most useful widget we have! (Ya, most of our widgets are games.)

Speaking of games, we found another SMS program that turns your Mac notebook into a full out game. Literally. Bubblegym is the first tilt-sensitive game for any notebook, ever. You use your PowerBook (yes, the old-skool notebook only) to move pieces of fruit around the screen and get it through the shrinking goal. Seems fun, but if you’re a MacBook or MacBook Pro user, you have to use your arrow keys and, aah, no fun. (We hope for an update soon!)

If you’re interested in other SMS applications, take a spin over to William Computer Blog. He has a great list of such programs, including the ones we’ve listed, for your enjoyment.

If the 120 GB drive that comes with the MacBook Pro option isn’t enough storage for you, then you need to upgrade to MCE’s MobileStor. With 8MB cache, a seek time of 12 ms, rotation rate of 5400 rpm, and a transfer rate (sustained) is 44 MB/s, with bursts up to 100 MB/s, this is no sissy drive! Since it is MCE’s Mercedes drive, it comes with a five year warranty. Again, since it is the Mercedes of MCE’s drives, it’ll cost you $300 before shipping and tax. Ouch. But hey, if you have the need for much feed, then get that priceless credit card out and start charging!

[Via Macminute]

We love the MacBook and MacBook Pros new Sudden Motion Sensor that helps prevent hard drive damage and data loss if your Mac falls off the table or from your lap from those moving quickly to prevent burns on their legs. Of course we love it for the protection, but we also love it for all the cool programs that are coming out for them. One new application is SeisMac.

According to the developer, Suitable Systems, SeisMac is a, “Cocoa application that makes your MacBook or MacBook Pro into a seismograph. It access your laptop’s Sudden Motion Sensor in order to display real-time, three-axis acceleration graphs.”

The freeware app will show you in real-time any vibration occurring from the simple tap of your foot to a sudden jolt to your table which holds your precious Mac. It’s a fun little thing to just have running on your Mac and since it’s free, why not download it?

[Via MacMegasite]

Hey, so you’re a bit bummed that your snazzy MacBook looks like trailer trash worked on it and want it cleaned, now, then there’s some hope. Go into the bathroom and grab your wife’s finger nail polish remover. Apply it to a cloth and do some rubbing and bingo, you’re back in business. With all the bad press Apple is getting for the dirty white MacBooks in the wild, hey, this may help keep you happy until Apple fixes your new baby.

[Via Lifehacker]

Looks like Tigers latest update, 10.4.7, didn’t just fix the Firefox font rendering issue but also added a new preference to the trackpad. MacBook users got to see this great feature ahead of the cutting edge crew as those with the iBook replacement have been enjoying the feature since its release. But no longer, MacBook Pro users now can place two fingers on the trackpad and then click the button and, presto!, up comes a context sensitive menu as if you had just hit a right mouse button! Woo hoo! How great is this?

All you need to do is download the update and then go to System Preferences. Go to Keyboard & Mouse settings and select the Trackpad button. Enable the “Place two fingers on trackpad and click button for secondary click” check box and you’re set. After that, simply put two fingers on the trackpad and then click the button (while your two fingers are still on the pad) and there you go. This trick also works if you click the button first and then tap with your two fingers; however, if there is an applicable left mouse button event, this won’t work as the left action will happen.

Enjoy the new added trick for all y’all MacBook Pro users!