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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

D

Diprosalic

Banned
my 2011 Air got stolen and my insurance paid me the full amount back. now i'm looking to buy a new notebook, should i upgrade to a 13" retina mac pro? when do the new ones come out?

i really liked my air and the new one looks nice with the insane battery but i don't know if i can invest another couple of years in a screen this shitty. especially if everybody around me rocks 1080p and more.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Diprosalic said:
my 2011 Air got stolen and my insurance paid me the full amount back. now i'm looking to buy a new notebook, should i upgrade to a 13" retina mac pro? when do the new ones come out?

i really liked my air and the new one looks nice with the insane battery but i don't know if i can invest another couple of years in a screen this shitty. especially if everybody around me rocks 1080p and more.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that.

If to can afford the difference, would you be interested in the Retina Pros. Even the low end 13" will probably be better than the 2011 Air. It's only a pound more I believe.

Personally I don't see a problem with the screen, but I'm not in the field where I would notice such things. I'd highly consider a Retina unless the screens are bad too.
 
J

japtor

Member
Possibly relevant for the guy on the last page, and I've heard of it happening to others, affects the 2012 MBAs:

MacBook Air Flash Storage Drive Replacement Program
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

Apple has determined that certain 64GB and 128GB flash storage drives used in the previous generation of MacBook Air systems may fail. These systems were sold between June 2012 through June 2013.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) will replace affected flash storage drives, free of charge.

If you ran a firmware update and were directed to this web page, skip to Replacement Process section for next steps.

To see if your drive may be affected, go to the Mac App Store, click on Updates and choose the MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1. The firmware update will test your drive to see if it is affected. You will be directed back to this page for next steps if needed.

IMPORTANT: If your drive is affected, we strongly recommend that you do not install any operating system updates or new applications. We also recommend backing up your data on a regular basis until you receive a replacement drive.
 
O

Ovid

Member
japtor said:
Possibly relevant for the guy on the last page, and I've heard of it happening to others, affects the 2012 MBAs:

MacBook Air Flash Storage Drive Replacement Program
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

Apple has determined that certain 64GB and 128GB flash storage drives used in the previous generation of MacBook Air systems may fail. These systems were sold between June 2012 through June 2013.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) will replace affected flash storage drives, free of charge.

If you ran a firmware update and were directed to this web page, skip to Replacement Process section for next steps.

To see if your drive may be affected, go to the Mac App Store, click on Updates and choose the MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1. The firmware update will test your drive to see if it is affected. You will be directed back to this page for next steps if needed.

IMPORTANT: If your drive is affected, we strongly recommend that you do not install any operating system updates or new applications. We also recommend backing up your data on a regular basis until you receive a replacement drive.
Click to expand...
OH SNAP!!!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=79926069&postcount=9041

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! I knew there was a problem with the mid-2012 MacBook Air. I was so pissed when my drive died last month (month 14).

I bought the OWS 120GB as a replacement so it sucks that I'm out $180. I'm on pins and needles with this SSD because I'm not sure how long it will actually last. Anyways, I'm glad to see that Apple is resolving this issue.
 
G

Goldenhen

Member
Went to Genius Bar today and my SSD is getting replace by Samsung brand yay. The SSD cost $549AU to replace and AppleCare cost $240AU. Lucky my MBA is still within one year warranty. I'm considering getting AppleCare just I did 5 years ago for my old MBP.
 
L

Lucario

Member
bought a 2013 air, 13"/256gb/i5.

First mac. I dig the interface, parallels is witchcraft, and the build quality seems sturdy enough.

But what I paid for was the battery life, which I'm just not getting, and I feel like I've tried everything at this point.

I currently have Messages and a single browser tab open, brightness is at half, battery life is 81%.

Time remaining is stuck around 5:30. That's not acceptable, and the battery meter very rarely reports higher than 7-8 hours, even at 100% with brightness on low and nothing running.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled everything, stopped using skype (which I hear is battery hog), don't use dropbox, tried lowering the brightness, never use the backlit keyboard....

No boosts to battery life whatsoever. I'm getting 7 hours at the most, and that's if I'm extremely conservative with the battery.

Even more troubling is the fact that the new mac (~9-10 days) is already below the recommended battery capacity by around 100mAh, and is reporting far more charge cycles (17!!) than I feel are even possible at this point. If a charge cycle is a full discharge followed by a full charge, something's absolutely wrong here.

Should I return my MBA? Is the battery defective? I really don't have the patience to wait for a warranty repair right now...
 
J

jcutner

Member
Lucario said:
bought a 2013 air, 13"/256gb/i5.

First mac. I dig the interface, parallels is witchcraft, and the build quality seems sturdy enough.

But what I paid for was the battery life, which I'm just not getting, and I feel like I've tried everything at this point.

I currently have Messages and a single browser tab open, brightness is at half, battery life is 81%.

Time remaining is stuck around 5:30. That's not acceptable, and the battery meter very rarely reports higher than 7-8 hours, even at 100% with brightness on low and nothing running.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled everything, stopped using skype (which I hear is battery hog), don't use dropbox, tried lowering the brightness, never use the backlit keyboard....

No boosts to battery life whatsoever. I'm getting 7 hours at the most, and that's if I'm extremely conservative with the battery.

Even more troubling is the fact that the new mac (~9-10 days) is already below the recommended battery capacity by around 100mAh, and is reporting far more charge cycles (17!!) than I feel are even possible at this point. If a charge cycle is a full discharge followed by a full charge, something's absolutely wrong here.

Should I return my MBA? Is the battery defective? I really don't have the patience to wait for a warranty repair right now...
Click to expand...

Yep that sounds fucked. I bought a refurb'd MBA 11" and I get the 12 hours battery life.
 
L

Lucario

Member
The Real Abed said:
Have you calibrated it? Let it run down completely and then charged back up completely to let it learn?
Click to expand...

Yup, it didn't do a damn thing. :( Really upset that this isn't normal. The battery life is still far better than anything else I've used, but with the amount of troubleshooting I've done, I'm guessing I should bring it back to best buy for a replacement.

I really like this laptop and really don't want to, but maybe it's for the best. Hell, this way I have the option of waiting until the new MBP retinas come out!

It's reporting 5 hours at 68% now, so that's... better.... but it's still really freakin' bad.

EDIT: Woo, post timestamps to the rescue. I've been in this room for an hour since the last post, pretty much using the laptop the whole time (cataloging sheet music in excel). Brightness four clicks from max (same as in the battery tests yielding 12+ hours), some browsing gaf, no other apps open except Messages. Not even mail. The battery fell from 80% to 67%.

So if a single hour = 13%, my battery life is under 8 hours. And everyone online is reporting that the 12 hour figure is, if anything, an underestimate. Blah. Is there a solution to this that doesn't involve me bringing a laptop I've already licensed with Office, Windows 8, Paralells, etc back to best buy?
 
M

mrkgoo

Member
A charge cycle isn't a full discharge. Once it drops a certain amount (can't remember what, might be something like 50-70%), and back to about over 95, it records it as a charge cycle.
 
A

Autumn Wind

Member
Wasn't it Toshiba drives that were slower than Samsung drives a few years ago on either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? I don't understand the whole "lottery" concept. Apple ends up having to spend more money replacing and repairing people's computers than they would if they paid more in advance and not using some inferior components to begin with.
 
I

Iacobellis

Junior Member
Autumn Wind said:
Wasn't it Toshiba drives that were slower than Samsung drives a few years ago on either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? I don't understand the whole "lottery" concept. Apple ends up having to spend more money replacing and repairing people's computers than they would if they paid more in advance and not using some inferior components to begin with.
Click to expand...

Yep, Toshiba drives were worse. Same thing with LG screens on the rMBP.
 
J

japtor

Member
Lucario said:
Yup, it didn't do a damn thing. :( Really upset that this isn't normal. The battery life is still far better than anything else I've used, but with the amount of troubleshooting I've done, I'm guessing I should bring it back to best buy for a replacement.

I really like this laptop and really don't want to, but maybe it's for the best. Hell, this way I have the option of waiting until the new MBP retinas come out!

It's reporting 5 hours at 68% now, so that's... better.... but it's still really freakin' bad.

EDIT: Woo, post timestamps to the rescue. I've been in this room for an hour since the last post, pretty much using the laptop the whole time (cataloging sheet music in excel). Brightness four clicks from max (same as in the battery tests yielding 12+ hours), some browsing gaf, no other apps open except Messages. Not even mail. The battery fell from 80% to 67%.

So if a single hour = 13%, my battery life is under 8 hours. And everyone online is reporting that the 12 hour figure is, if anything, an underestimate. Blah. Is there a solution to this that doesn't involve me bringing a laptop I've already licensed with Office, Windows 8, Paralells, etc back to best buy?
Click to expand...
Open Activity Monitor, show all processes, sort by CPU usage. If nothing is sucking up CPU usage I guess return/exchange it. I half suspect you'll see mds there, or if not now, it may have been the culprit eating up battery before. It's the Spotlight indexing process and runs for a while initially on a new install I think.
Autumn Wind said:
Wasn't it Toshiba drives that were slower than Samsung drives a few years ago on either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? I don't understand the whole "lottery" concept. Apple ends up having to spend more money replacing and repairing people's computers than they would if they paid more in advance and not using some inferior components to begin with.
Click to expand...
Well you assume the stuff doesn't break in the first place. Otherwise usual business/supplier stuff, negotiate better prices vs the supplier having more power, and just having more supply to begin with. And replacement costs could be on Toshiba like the big Nvidia thing a few years back.
 
K

kidko

Member
If they don't come out on tuesday or the next week, I might have to get something else and that would make me super sad
 
A

Autumn Wind

Member
Maybe this is easier said than done but I think more research needs to go into what components are used in certain things. This is especially true if they allow less and less things to be changed by the user.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
Autumn Wind said:
Wasn't it Toshiba drives that were slower than Samsung drives a few years ago on either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? I don't understand the whole "lottery" concept. Apple ends up having to spend more money replacing and repairing people's computers than they would if they paid more in advance and not using some inferior components to begin with.
Click to expand...

Autumn Wind said:
Maybe this is easier said than done but I think more research needs to go into what components are used in certain things. This is especially true if they allow less and less things to be changed by the user.
Click to expand...

After all the rumors and pundits suggesting that Apple is, or should be, ditching Samsung as their components supplier it turns out that all the alternatives are much worse.
 
A

Autumn Wind

Member
And let me be fair and say that Samsung as a company isn't perfect but it just seems as far as the stuff they've made for Apple, it's been the gold standard you expect.

Their screens? No ghosting. Their SSDs? Fast and reliable. Their memory? Well they are the no. 1 memory supplier in the world. Even SK Hynix is a distant second to them.
 
T

TUSR

Banned
Autumn Wind said:
And let me be fair and say that Samsung as a company isn't perfect but it just seems as far as the stuff they've made for Apple, it's been the gold standard you expect.

Their screens? No ghosting. Their SSDs? Fast and reliable. Their memory? Well they are the no. 1 memory supplier in the world. Even SK Hynix is a distant second to them.
Click to expand...

Id also like to point out their screens have better contrast/colours
 
I

Iacobellis

Junior Member
Greyface said:
After all the rumors and pundits suggesting that Apple is, or should be, ditching Samsung as their components supplier it turns out that all the alternatives are much worse.
Click to expand...

I think I read that next year's A8 will also be made by Samsung. All of these Samsung and Google feuds started under Steve and should end with Tim. Who cares if your once-ally made a mobile OS or your competitor makes a phone that looks similar to yours?
 
P

PotatoeMasher

Member
Iacobellis said:
Who cares if your once-ally made a mobile OS or your competitor makes a phone that looks similar to yours?
Click to expand...

Well, the "once-ally" had its CEO sitting on Apple's Board of Directors during the development and release of the iPhone, taking all of that insider knowledge back to his own company.

And no company wants to be at the mercy of its competitor for components, so it's natural that Apple would at least investigate alternatives to Samsung for chip fab.
 
J

japtor

Member
Iacobellis said:
I think I read that next year's A8 will also be made by Samsung. All of these Samsung and Google feuds started under Steve and should end with Tim. Who cares if your once-ally made a mobile OS or your competitor makes a phone that looks similar to yours?
Click to expand...
Yeah I think Apple signed a deal with TSMC, but Samsung will still make the SoCs too. Right now (and since the beginning of the iPhone) Samsung has been the only one making the SoCs.
PotatoeMasher said:
Well, the "once-ally" had its CEO sitting on Apple's Board of Directors during the development and release of the iPhone, taking all of that insider knowledge back to his own company.

And no company wants to be at the mercy of its competitor for components, so it's natural that Apple would at least investigate alternatives to Samsung for chip fab.
Click to expand...
Beyond that, no company wants to be at the mercy of a single supplier. Samsung could raise the prices or have yield issues or not enough manufacturing capacity or whatever, you want multiple suppliers as a hedge against all that.
 
S

sikma42

Banned
The Real Abed said:
Sorry to hear that.

If to can afford the difference, would you be interested in the Retina Pros. Even the low end 13" will probably be better than the 2011 Air. It's only a pound more I believe.

Personally I don't see a problem with the screen, but I'm not in the field where I would notice such things. I'd highly consider a Retina unless the screens are bad too.
Click to expand...

I don't really think it matters what field your in....the screen resolution on the MacBook Air is quite noticeable in a bad way.
 
W

Water

Member
sikma42 said:
I don't really think it matters what field your in....the screen resolution on the MacBook Air is quite noticeable in a bad way.
Click to expand...
Up to about a year ago, the Air's 13" 1440x900 display was well ahead of the general market in resolution. It's only recently that 13" 1080p displays which beat the Air's have started popping up en masse in competing ultrabooks. There's a difference, but I feel you are exaggerating the significance of resolution.

I'm on my second Air now, and while the extra resolution coming from old Macbook's 1280x800 made a huge difference, going up from 1440x900 isn't all that critical for me. It's not that I'm ignorant of what higher resolution does; I regularly use 1440p and 1200p displays on the desktop. Naturally I'd take more resolution on the laptop if it was available, but it's quickly diminishing returns from here if the physical screen size doesn't also grow. I find the most important shortcoming on the Air display is the bad viewing angles and washed out color due to TN panel. That's what makes the competition look better. I'm not sure it translates to a ton of actual usability, though, assuming you don't do graphics work where color accuracy is legitimately important. Few of us do.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
It really depends on your workflow, too. As a software developer I'll tell you I'd much rather prefer a higher resolution for iPad work, but for iPhone the existing res is just fine. For writing it's fine. For the web it's fine.

But there is definitely room for improvement, and Retina could lead the way.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
corn_fest said:
It'd be nice if they had a high-res retina 3360x2100 option. Hopefully someday.
Click to expand...
Do you mean the actual resolution would be that or that would be an option? Is that a real option? 3360x2100 is not 16:10 or 16:9. They're not going to have it. Also, a resolution of that actual size would be way too hard to see on a 13" display. Even a 15" one.

But if you want to change to a different resolution that Apple doesn't allow, use an app called QuickRes. It actually works in Mavericks on my MacBook Air and lets me set my screen to a higher resolution than my 1440x900 display. The highest I can go on my 13" Air is 3840x2160. Which makes everything SO SMALL you can't even see it. Of course since it's not Retina, the text gets hard to read since the big pixels can't smooth it any better.

ibjAQTQFBsvSdr.png


The HiDPI options actually render the screen at twice their res and scale it to the native res. Like a Retina display does. It's pretty neat. I just wish it differentiated the 16:9 and 16:10 options from each other. I use this app to see an approximation of how small stuff will be when I get a Retina display and set it higher than normal. 1920x1050 is the resolution of my 2005 20" ACD.
 
C

corn_fest

Member
The Real Abed said:
Do you mean the actual resolution would be that or that would be an option? Is that a real option? 3360x2100 is not 16:10 or 16:9. They're not going to have it. Also, a resolution of that actual size would be way too hard to see on a 13" display. Even a 15" one.
Click to expand...

What I mean is that the current actual retina resolution is double the typical 15" MBP resolution in each dimension, so that at 2x everything looks like a sharper 1440x900 resolution.
But the non-retina MBP has an option for a 1680x1050 display. It'd be nice to have a retina version of that at 3360x2100 actual resolution, so that it could run in 1680x1050 HiDPI mode. It definitely is 16:10, by the way :)
And yeah, I use QuickRes as well.
 
K

kennah

Member
What's a good way to stress test a Mac Pro? I just changed some hardware to see if it could combat our kernel panics. Attempting my normal workload, but we never had a consistent cause for the problems.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
kennah said:
What's a good way to stress test a Mac Pro? I just changed some hardware to see if it could combat our kernel panics. Attempting my normal workload, but we never had a consistent cause for the problems.
Click to expand...
Are you walking about using all your cores and memory? I've always used BGRenderer in After Effects on a giant comp to crunch through. Will max your RAM and available cores.
 
K

kidko

Member
kennah said:
What's a good way to stress test a Mac Pro? I just changed some hardware to see if it could combat our kernel panics. Attempting my normal workload, but we never had a consistent cause for the problems.
Click to expand...

Geekbench is the one where prototype Macs keep showing up. I guess that means Apple likes it.
 
K

kennah

Member
Fuchsdh said:
Are you walking about using all your cores and memory? I've always used BGRenderer in After Effects on a giant comp to crunch through. Will max your RAM and available cores.
Click to expand...
I did a huge render in Premiere. Guess I'll make something up in After Effects though I dont' know the program all that well.

kidko said:
Geekbench is the one where prototype Macs keep showing up. I guess that means Apple likes it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.
 
J

japtor

Member
Geekbench doesn't test GPUs or storage or peripherals. It'll run the CPUs and I guess memory, but it's not a full memory test either, just a performance benchmark.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
For GPU testing use Cinebench. For disk speed testing use BlackMagic. Both are free. I wish Geekbench was too since it only does 32-bit on the free version.
 
F

Flek

Banned
has anyone here ever bought a replacement battery for an old MB Pro (the once in powerbook design). ? My Girlfriend still uses my old 2007 MB P but the battery is dead. Iam just not to sure about the after-market replacment battery. I dont want them to explode or something…
 
J

japtor

Member
Flek said:
has anyone here ever bought a replacement battery for an old MB Pro (the once in powerbook design). ? My Girlfriend still uses my old 2007 MB P but the battery is dead. Iam just not to sure about the after-market replacment battery. I dont want them to explode or something…
Click to expand...
It's a crapshoot unfortunately.

And I guess get it checked out at an Apple Store if possible to make sure there's nothing else wrong like the MBP's charging circuitry or something.
 
F

Futureman

Member
I'm thinking of returning my new iMac and going with the rMBP they announce today. If it's actually going to be available in stores then great. I have a feeling it won't be which could complicate things.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Futureman said:
I'm thinking of returning my new iMac and going with the rMBP they announce today. If it's actually going to be available in stores then great. I have a feeling it won't be which could complicate things.
Click to expand...
You are massively undecided.

I am pretty excited about this event--sounds like it's going to be one of the biggest in terms of updates Apple has done in a while.
 
F

Futureman

Member
Fuchsdh said:
You are massively undecided.

I am pretty excited about this event--sounds like it's going to be one of the biggest in terms of updates Apple has done in a while.
Click to expand...

my Mac history...

PowerBook G4 --> 20" iMac --> MacBook Pro --> 27" iMac

it only makes sense to go back to MacBook Pro!

but I'm settled, this is it, the rMBP will be my new computer.

Getting this config:

15-inch: 2.3GHz
with Retina display

Specifications
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage 1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
with 2GB GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (8 hours)2
$2,399.00 (EDU price)

when I go to return my iMac at the Apple Store tonight, do I need to wipe the HD beforehand?
 
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