Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

nib95 said:
Which doesn't work. Shit gets viruses and slows down, just at a slightly slower rate than PC's (without virus software).
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No it doesn't. And I'm not just saying that. I don't have any idea what you are basing this on. Viruses are not the same thing as Trojans, which do exist, but are so rare and high profile that as soon as one appears, people know about it and how to avoid and get rid of it. And slowdown can be prevented or fixed quite easily by cleaning up caches and regular maintenance. Even a quick reinstall, which doesn't even require reformatting at all these days and takes an hour tops if you really really want to.

Therefore, the answer to the question "What's the best Virus software for OS X" is OS X. Because any virus software would actually slow down the computer for no reason at all except to maybe protect other Windows computers on a network from Windows viruses that happen to be taking a trip though the internet and decide to park in your email inbox for a little while until you forward them. And even then, the Windows computers on that network would probably have virus software anyway so it's just overkill to even bother.
 
The Real Abed said:
No it doesn't. And I'm not just saying that. I don't have any idea what you are basing this on. Viruses are not the same thing as Trojans, which do exist, but are so rare and high profile that as soon as one appears, people know about it and how to avoid and get rid of it. And slowdown can be prevented or fixed quite easily by cleaning up caches and regular maintenance. Even a quick reinstall, which doesn't even require reformatting at all these days and takes an hour tops if you really really want to.

Therefore, the answer to the question "What's the best Virus software for OS X" is OS X. Because any virus software would actually slow down the computer for no reason at all except to maybe protect other Windows computers on a network from Windows viruses that happen to be taking a trip though the internet and decide to park in your email inbox for a little while until you forward them. And even then, the Windows computers on that network would probably have virus software anyway so it's just overkill to even bother.
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My campus forced everyone to have an anti-virus program to connect to the internet. I was livid.
 
I just dropped my iPhone 4 at the edge of my MacBook Air while it were closed, now some aluminum came off. Isnt it unibody? So I probably won't be able to repair it, and it's not even a year old. We don't have Apple stores here. =/
 
Anastacio said:
I just dropped my iPhone 4 at the edge of my MacBook Air while it were closed, now some aluminum came off. Isnt it unibody? So I probably won't be able to repair it, and it's not even a year old. We don't have Apple stores here. =/
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I like to think of it as battle scars. Gives the machine character. Anyway, how much came off?
 
The Real Abed said:
I like to think of it as battle scars. Gives the machine character. Anyway, how much came off?
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A tiny little bit. I guess I can live with it but it's still on my mind as I take good care of my things. Some aluminum also geared off on my iPad 2 a week ago when I walked into a wall, not the best of luck these days.
 
I've had every single iteration of OSX since it was introduced (in, what, 2000?) and have never had a single experience of a virus or the like.
Neither have other long term Mac users that I know.
I was surprised that anti-virus software was even available for Macs.
Seems the equivalent of burning my money or something...
 
The Real Abed said:
No it doesn't. And I'm not just saying that. I don't have any idea what you are basing this on. Viruses are not the same thing as Trojans, which do exist, but are so rare and high profile that as soon as one appears, people know about it and how to avoid and get rid of it. And slowdown can be prevented or fixed quite easily by cleaning up caches and regular maintenance. Even a quick reinstall, which doesn't even require reformatting at all these days and takes an hour tops if you really really want to.

Therefore, the answer to the question "What's the best Virus software for OS X" is OS X. Because any virus software would actually slow down the computer for no reason at all except to maybe protect other Windows computers on a network from Windows viruses that happen to be taking a trip though the internet and decide to park in your email inbox for a little while until you forward them. And even then, the Windows computers on that network would probably have virus software anyway so it's just overkill to even bother.
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I use virus loosely, I think what affected me might have been a trojan or malware, but I'm not really sure. I was never able to solve it. It came in some codec pack (I think) and I just could not get rid of it. Slowed everything down and messed up my Quicktime and browser too. Only a re-boot fixed it.
 
nib95 said:
I use virus loosely, I think what affected me might have been a trojan or malware, but I'm not really sure. I was never able to solve it. It came in some codec pack (I think) and I just could not get rid of it. Slowed everything down and messed up my Quicktime and browser too. Only a re-boot fixed it.
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Whoa, a whole reboot? I'm glad you're still with us.

For it to have done anything, you had to give your password to an application that didn't need it. So OSX is the best anti-virus protection on OSX.
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Whoa, a whole reboot? I'm glad you're still with us.

For it to have done anything, you had to give your password to an application that didn't need it. So OSX is the best anti-virus protection on OSX.
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Ditto. Anything that can do anything to your system will need a password first. Which is why they're mainly trojans. Malware that pretends to be something else to get you to let it in so it can do its work. Basically it wants you to unwittingly give it permission to do bad things.

A rule of thumb on OS X is if something asks for your password, and you didn't request it, i.e. you didn't try to install something or it just pops up out of nowhere, just click cancel. Also, if a Flash updater appears, even if it's probably the real thing, always go to Adobe's site directly and redownload the newest installer yourself. A lot of trojans these days seem to masquerade as a Flash updater. (Just another reason Flash needs to die off.)

Basically, use common sense and you're fine. Keep backups. Keep multiple backups. Don't download any programs that aren't well known or look shady. In the Mac community, an application will get a good reputation if it's awesome, and a bad one if it sucks. A quick Google search of an app will turn up any good or bad reviews of it. You can even Google the names of processes running on your system (Applications/Utilities/System Profiler.app) to make sure they're something that belongs there.

Personally I have both a local network backup that runs every 6 hours and an online CrashPlan backup for all my machines and some family ones that runs every 15 minutes and keeps a history. This gives me peace of mind that I will never lose anything due to stupidity, disaster or whatever, plus CrashPlan's mobile apps let me access my files from anywhere as well so I never worry about having forgotten to bring a file with me.
 
I have a question, maybe someone could help me out with this. I Just recently upgraded to Mountain Lion, I was previously using SwitchresX to output to my monitor's native res of 1366x768. ( I know it's not ideal but it's my tv/monitor). Once I upgraded it Mountain Lion deleted the SwitchresX which I sort of anticipated.

I reinstalled it and everything was fine except I've noticed that the output looks different and it's causing me to have pain in my eyes and some kind of weird motion sickness ( scrolling). I am not sure exactly what is causing this but I can only assume it is some kind of setting in Switchres. If anyone has any suggestions about what may be causing this or what I could do to fix it I would appreciate it greatly.
 
Ryck said:
Yeah Im sorry I didn't mention I am using a Mid 2011 Mac Mini and I am outputting to a Vizio Led Tv through HDMI.
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I'm using the same thing but to a Polaroid TV and my resolution is also the same. I just use the 720p option because I can't be bothered to use an alternate program to get native resolution. But yes it does look blurry out of the box because of the resolution. I don't know how SwitchResX would handle it though. Is it taking into account the proper overscan? This is why I just use the stock 720p option. My next TV will be built to work right I can tell you that.
 
The Real Abed said:
Is it taking into account the proper overscan?
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Yeah there isn't any overscan issues. The best way I could describe it is that under Lion the picture was a bit softer. I changed the Tv Temp settings from cool to custom and it might be all in my head but for the time being it has alleviated it a bit.
 
Ryck said:
Yeah there isn't any overscan issues. The best way I could describe it is that under Lion the picture was a bit softer. I changed the Tv Temp settings from cool to custom and it might be all in my head but for the time being it has alleviated it a bit.
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What about changing the color from within OS X? Mine had a profile for my TV already.
 
The Real Abed said:
What about changing the color from within OS X? Mine had a profile for my TV already.
Click to expand...
That didn't work but so far changing my color setting on the tv did. I am sure I could mess with the calibration settings in the System Preferences as well. My back up plan was to go to the 720p setting which didn't hurt my eyes but it just looks so bad.
 
Ryck said:
That didn't work but so far changing my color setting on the tv did. I am sure I could mess with the calibration settings in the System Preferences as well. My back up plan was to go to the 720p setting which didn't hurt my eyes but it just looks so bad.
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Yeah, it does suck to be losing so many pixels, but I'd really rather not screw around with SwitchResX anymore. My TV actually lets me send it 1080i video as well and it's funny to switch to it and have everything on my 32" TV a lot smaller. So I stick to 720p with stretched pixels instead of 1080i with shrunken ones. My next TV will have a native 1080p resolution.
 
I could handle losing pixels if it didn't look so bad. I have a Sony at home and it looks fine at 720p but for some reason my VIZIO at work just looks bad. Guess its just a cheap screen :-/
 
So I'm getting a MAcbook pro retina.

Couple of questions.

1. What are my best options to run windows side by side?
2. Should I go for 16gb ram since I want to run them side by side? Can the ram be upgraded later?
3. Is there a way to do file and sharing between my home network (windows) and the Mac?
4. Will be getting the 512gb version

Anything else I should be aware of? Must have accessories?
 
I currently have a 2011 27" iMac w/ the i5 2.7GHz and 16 GB RAM.

I'm always switching back and forth between iMac and MBP (last four computers have been PowerBook G4, 20" iMac, MBP before Sandy Bridge, and now 27" iMac).

how would the performance of my current iMac compare w/ the rMBP core i7, Gefore 650M w/ 1GB?

I would need to buy from Best Buy and would only be able to afford the lower model. I'm a little worried about the 8 GB of RAM (I do Photoshop and After Effects w/ pretty demanding projects).
 
RukusProvider said:
So I'm getting a MAcbook pro retina.

Couple of questions.

1. What are my best options to run windows side by side?
2. Should I go for 16gb ram since I want to run them side by side? Can the ram be upgraded later?
3. Is there a way to do file and sharing between my home network (windows) and the Mac?
4. Will be getting the 512gb version

Anything else I should be aware of? Must have accessories?
Click to expand...
1. BootCamp with a physically installed Windows partition. Plus Parallels using the BootCamp partition as a VM so you can have the best of both worlds.
2. Yes. You can't upgrade later. If you want this to be your machine for a while, and you want to run Windows at the same time most of the time, 16GB can't hurt. You can dedicate 8 to each OS for when Parallels is running. Plus if you're spending all that money on the Flash, you might as well spend a little more for the RAM and max it out completely.
3. Not sure. Let someone else answer.
4. Perfect. Expensive, but perfect. More future-proofing. And you can dedicate more for Windows.
 
Anyone own the 27 Thunderbolt display? I'm looking to get one and see what those who have one think. They look amazing at the Apple Stores, and I owned one of the old matte Apple Cinema Displays.

I just got a 13 inch MBP and it's a great machine save for the poor resolution. Definitely need more screen real estate.
 
Just installed preyproject.com on the macbook. Anything special i should know here, or is it pretty much set it and forget it?

Find my mac is nice too, but prey can do so much more. They're both free though, so i'll just run both!
 
entrement said:
Anyone own the 27 Thunderbolt display? I'm looking to get one and see what those who have one think. They look amazing at the Apple Stores, and I owned one of the old matte Apple Cinema Displays.
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I've never heard anything negative about the screen itself, but thanks to earlier pages of this thread I discovered why they sell both a TB Display and a Cinema Display.

1. Obviously, you get one-cable thunderbolt support to pipe your TB-equipped macbook in with. That's pretty damn cool for dock reasons since the display has ethernet, USB, etc all on the back.

2. It's not truly a "1 cable" solution - the cable from the back of the display actually splits out into two: a Thunderbolt Cable and a Magsafe charge cable.

3. The Thunderbolt Display has no other inputs; it's a nearly $1k display that will only live as long as you use Thunderbolt-compatible computers. (And even then I'm not clear if a TB-PC would be compatible?)

The Cinema Display, on the other hand (despite having the same panel), has mini-DP instead of thunderbolt (same port shape, just no data transfer capability) and Magsafe, plus you can get HDMI support using an Apple adapter ($)

I think the TB display is a great idea, but without being open to other devices I think it's really difficult to justify. Maybe if you need it for Mac-exclusive business and need to daisy chain other displays or big Thunderbolt backup drives or something...
 
What can be done with the useless firewire port in macs? I do not want to buy an external drive, and I'd much rather have USB3 ports. Is there a firewire to usb converter that plugs into the firewire port on a macbook pro and gives female usb inputs?
 
coldfoot said:
What can be done with the useless firewire port in macs? I do not want to buy an external drive, and I'd much rather have USB3 ports. Is there a firewire to usb converter that plugs into the firewire port on a macbook pro and gives female usb inputs?
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Apparently so; a few pop up on monoprice for almost nothing. Not sure which one you'd need exactly but sounds like they do what you need.

What doesn't exist AFAIK is some kind of slick semi-permanent solution; these are really just dirt-cheap plug adapters that you'll have to haul with you or leave it connected to the USB device in question.
 
Crazymoogle said:
Apparently so; a few pop up on monoprice for almost nothing. Not sure which one you'd need exactly but sounds like they do what you need.
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Those are not USB adapters, they just change the shape of the connector. You need a chip with actual logic to convert from firewire to USB. I'd be fine with such a solution as long as it did not require external power. So far the best thing I have found is this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007RB28U/?tag=neogaf0e-20
 
coldfoot said:
Those are not USB adapters, they just change the shape of the connector. You need a chip with actual logic to convert from firewire to USB. I'd be fine with such a solution as long as it did not require external power.
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You're right, of course, that's just a firewire port shape adapter. >_< Hmm. Will keep looking...

EDIT: I guess you're looking for 4pin, hence the power requirements? I'm seeing plenty of firewire->USB female adapters on eBay but so far all of the Firewire 6pin variety. Also a lot of 4pin male FW -> USB male, I guess you could use a male to female converter after that but not sure if 4pin delivers power at all?
 
Crazymoogle said:
You're right, of course, that's just a firewire port shape adapter. >_< Hmm. Will keep looking...

EDIT: I guess you're looking for 4pin, hence the power requirements? I'm seeing plenty of firewire->USB female adapters on eBay but so far all of the Firewire 6pin variety. Also a lot of 4pin male FW -> USB male, I guess you could use a male to female converter after that but not sure if 4pin delivers power at all?
Click to expand...

You can't convert firewire to USB with a simple plug, the protocols, the power requirements, everything is different. I am looking for a firewire male (to plug to the macbook pro) to usb female adapter pretty much. I would like something bus powered instead of being powered by an AC brick.
 
coldfoot said:
You can't convert firewire to USB with a simple plug, the protocols, the power requirements, everything is different. I am looking for a firewire male (to plug to the macbook pro) to usb female adapter pretty much. I would like something bus powered instead of being powered by an AC brick.
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Macbook Firewire = 9 pin, most of the PC stuff is either 4pin or 9pin, fwiw; even if you found one it seems like 4/6 pin is so prevalent wouldn't you need 9pin-6pin stepdown cable too? (ugh)

Reading up on the crapload of firewire-to-USB adapters out there is interesting. There are apparently a few legit ones (Pixela, and some sort of custom job on Toms Hardware come to mind), but $100+, and some of them only work for DV, probably because of the driver requirements. The mini ones that are rife on ebay/amazon/monoprice seem to be either:

1) current converters (basically, you can charge your device if it supports that), or...
2) Sanyo/Panasonic DV cams apparently use 1394 plugs for their USB connections (lol)

While I understand what you meant by "simple plug", some adapters these days just build the chipset into one of the plug ends. (It's not completely insane to think somebody could market one with buffering/stepdown hardware in the plug) That's not $5 realm, though. In any case I was clearly mistaken in thinking somebody would try this as opposed to just dump firewire in the bin and move on to TB/USB devices instead.
 
I did some research and that firewire port on the macbook pros is basically deadweight just like the optical drive. I can replace the optical drive with another hdd, or get raid 0 ssd's, but that firewire port will just never be used in my case.

What I ideally want is a mac without irrelevant tech such as optical drives and firewire. The airs are nice but I require something with a higher TDP CPU, the rMBP is expensive and I don't need one. If they made all 15" macbook pros the same chassis as the retina version but kept the 1680x1050 screen with a much cheaper price I'd be happy.
 
coldfoot said:
I did some research and that firewire port on the macbook pros is basically deadweight just like the optical drive. I can replace the optical drive with another hdd, or get raid 0 ssd's, but that firewire port will just never be used in my case.

What I ideally want is a mac without irrelevant tech such as optical drives and firewire. The airs are nice but I require something with a higher TDP CPU, the rMBP is expensive and I don't need one. If they made all 15" macbook pros the same chassis as the retina version but kept the 1680x1050 screen with a much cheaper price I'd be happy.
Click to expand...

Same, the "retina display" means very little to me. The Macbook Air's display density is great IMO. Something similar for the new pro chassis would be perfect.
 
What are the next "big" things that will or should arrive in Mac's within the coming years?

I have a mid-2010 MBP and am just gauging how many years I can hold out before I want to upgrade, since as of now no new Macs have anything compelling me to upgrade.

Since I don't follow this stuff, what should or might be included in future Macs? Custom Apple-built chips like in the iPhone 5? Different ports? Any new technology just being introduced this year?
 
Spoilers.

Oh wait, wrong thread.

No one knows. Thunderbolt is new. USB3 is already in newer Macs. Ports won't be changing soon. I don't see them dumping Intel any time soon. All that will be new next year is Retina in a few more machines and the next step in Intel processors. I forget if we're on a Tick or a Tock right now. *Googles* Seems Haswell is a Tick, i.e. the next processor class. It will be 22nm. The year after next will be Broadwell which will be Haswell but with 18nm. There's really no good time to buy anymore. Every year Intel's going to release new processor architectures. Every other year it's a new architecture followed by a smaller more compact and faster version the next year with a new architecture the year after that and so on and so on. So buy now. Or buy next Summer. Just remember it won't be until next Summer.
 
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