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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Number45 said:
Surely an Air with no attention paid to its form factor is a Pro? oO
Click to expand...
It is. People don't seem to realize this. An Air as it stands is not powerful enough for Retina. So you have to add power and thickness and price. Which makes it a Retina MBP. If you want lightness, get the Air. If you want power and Retina, get the Pro. You can't have the lightness and the Retina yet.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
The Real Abed said:
It is. People don't seem to realize this. An Air as it stands is not powerful enough for Retina. So you have to add power and thickness and price. Which makes it a Retina MBP. If you want lightness, get the Air. If you want power and Retina, get the Pro. You can't have the lightness and the Retina yet.
Click to expand...

Macbook Air 11 (Laptop) Height 0.3-1.7 cm, Width 30 cm, Depth 19.2 cm, Screen 11.6" 1366 x 768, Weight 1.08 kg = Price $899

Dell XPS 11 (Touchscreen Laptop/Convertible) Height 1.1-1.5 cm, Width 30 cm, Depth 20.1 cm, Screen 11.6" 2560 x 1440, Weight 1.13 kg = Price $699
 
C

CrudeDiatribe

Member
The Real Abed said:
It is. People don't seem to realize this. An Air as it stands is not powerful enough for Retina. [...] You can't have the lightness and the Retina yet.
Click to expand...

The 2012, 2013, 2014 Airs can drive two 27", 2560x1400, Thunderbolt displays, so I'm not sure what else they've got to do besides putting a good screen in.

Greyface said:
Macbook Air 11 (Laptop) Height 0.3-1.7 cm, Width 30 cm, Depth 19.2 cm, Screen 11.6" 1366 x 768, Weight 1.08 kg = Price $899

Dell XPS 11 (Touchscreen Laptop/Convertible) Height 1.1-1.5 cm, Width 30 cm, Depth 20.1 cm, Screen 11.6" 2560 x 1440, Weight 1.13 kg = Price $699
Click to expand...

Only gotcha is that Dell gets half the battery life of the MacBook Air
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
The Air is still sleeker and smaller than the Dell and the Dell is ugly as sin and has some worse specs. That's not the Apple Way™. When Apple can make a Retina Air that doesn't change its design drastically, they will. Maybe this rumored 12" replacement for the 11 and 13" models will be that. Whenever it comes out.

Problem is at a resolution that high under Windows, you're going to have problems with UI scaling on any older apps that aren't designed for 8+.
 
M

Mr. Wonderful

Member
Greyface said:
?! Dell claims about 9hr battery life as well. And this Dell XPS is from Fall last year so the fair comparison would be to the 2013 MBA 11"...
Click to expand...

From what I remember Anand saying on a podcast last fall, only some of Sony's ultra books have figured out, even with Haswell, how to get similar battery life as a MBA, where you're actually getting 10-12 hours of battery life, real world. Of course, that was a year ago.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Indeed. Apple's combination of finish, thinness, speed, battery life, and decent price are pretty much unparalleled. Some companies have gotten damn close on many of those points, but still fallen short.

With that said, I can see Apple saying that all-day battery life on the MBA doesn't need to increase, and putting that battery into driving the better screen and/or being thinner (but I still don't understand how you could make it any thinner uniformly unless there are no standard TB/USB ports--the latter is possible, the former seems unlikely..
 
E

EmiPrime

Member
My mum's white Macbook is having big problems connecting to the wifi network at home. Some days it will connect okay but others it will keep asking for the wifi password. This is on Mavericks.

Any ideas? Doing tech support over the phone is rough so this is a bit vague I know.
 
G

giga

Member
The Dell GPU is half as fast as the Air's. That, combined with that high resolution display and Windows' awful DPI scaling, is a match made in heaven.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Simple question. Do new iMacs still include HDMI or otherwise video input? Or did they drop that years ago? I remember when they made a big deal out of it. Don't really talk about it now. So is it gone? I know iMacs don't have HDMI anymore rather DisplayPort.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
The Real Abed said:
Simple question. Do new iMacs still include HDMI or otherwise video input? Or did they drop that years ago? I remember when they made a big deal out of it. Don't really talk about it now. So is it gone? I know iMacs don't have HDMI anymore rather DisplayPort.
Click to expand...

Inputs? I can't think of any mainline series Mac in the past decade or more to have that. There were some Macs made to work as TVs in the 90s...
 
M

Mr. Wonderful

Member
You would think they're going to have to update the AppleTV somewhat soon, simply because they're not going to want to be limited by a single-core version of the iPhone 4S processor anymore.

An A8 with the h.265 decoder would be a killer feature. Hello 4K Netflix.
 
P

Pinewood

Member
So what word processors do you use? I have been using LibreOffice for the past 2 years or so and decided to use something smoother. Did my last 2 papers in Google Docs for example, which seems quite sufficient for my needs at the moment, although I had problems with tables last year, as it didn't have a proper split/merge option.

It's an old White Unibody Macbook I got used 2 years ago, so it's not a performance powerhouse (C2D 2,26 GHz, 4 GB RAM). It came with NeoOffice but Libreoffice seemed better. It also came with a bootleg copy of Windows Office (don't remember the exact version) but that seemed really clunky do it got scrapped.

Hopefully the free Microsoft Office program will expand to my uni as well when it goes worldwide (we don't have dreamspark for example, albeit being a uni of technology) so I can give that a go as well.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
Question about the battery inside a macbook pro or air.

Once it is fully charged, does it hurt the batteri if I keep the macbook plugged in to the power cord?

The batteri life in my macbook air is SHIT
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
robertsan21 said:
Question about the battery inside a macbook pro or air.

Once it is fully charged, does it hurt the batteri if I keep the macbook plugged in to the power cord?

The batteri life in my macbook air is SHIT
Click to expand...

Leaving it plugged in for long periods does hurt the battery life.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
robertsan21 said:
ok... why havent Apple decided to use some sort of thing that will break the charge once the batteri is fully loaded?

Seems really strange that they wouldnt have such a feature to save the battery
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure at least the newer models do have that feature; don't know how long the tech has been in the line. But if you keep your battery at full all the time, you'll start eroding the charge capacity over time. Other stuff like cases and hotter temps can also hurt capacity faster than normal.

That's why they always recommend you store batteries long-term at around 50% capacity--store them full, and their total capacity erodes. Store them discharged, and there's a chance the battery simply won't charge up at all again.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
Fuchsdh said:
I'm pretty sure at least the newer models do have that feature; don't know how long the tech has been in the line. But if you keep your battery at full all the time, you'll start eroding the charge capacity over time. Other stuff like cases and hotter temps can also hurt capacity faster than normal.

That's why they always recommend you store batteries long-term at around 50% capacity--store them full, and their total capacity erodes. Store them discharged, and there's a chance the battery simply won't charge up at all again.
Click to expand...

yeah I think that apple should have some sort of program that switches between battery and power cord while you have the laptop plugged in to the power cord. To optimize the batteri.

Guess if I buy a new macbook air, I will have this feature, I am currently on a mid 2012 macbook air
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
The way Apple laptops work is when the battery fully charges to 100%, it will stop charging and let it drain to 95% before it reenables charging to take it back to 100%. This helps keep it from wearing out fast.

Keeping it plugged in isn't as bad as you're fearing. But keeping it unplugged isn't going to help either as that can also wear them out over time. Best to keep it plugged in. The laptop already handles it as best it can.

Same goes for iOS devices.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
The Real Abed said:
The way Apple laptops work is when the battery fully charges to 100%, it will stop charging and let it drain to 95% before it reenables charging to take it back to 100%. This helps keep it from wearing out fast.

Keeping it plugged in isn't as bad as you're fearing. But keeping it unplugged isn't going to help either as that can also wear them out over time. Best to keep it plugged in. The laptop already handles it as best it can.

Same goes for iOS devices.
Click to expand...

ok, good to know.
thanks for the info guys, will take it to an apple store and have the battery replaced as its on its last legs.
 
P

Pinewood

Member
2 year old Air and the battery is on its last legs? Wow.

Hoe many cycles do you have? When I got my Macbook it had 1100+ cycles and 70% of battery capacity. Right now it has 1300+ cycles and I can say the battery is utter shit.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
My 2011 MacBook Air had a battery problem. It pretty much started to die terribly within a year. Or was it my 2012? Damn, I can't remember. It was one that I didn't get AppleCare for in time.. or was it the other one?

Okay. It was my 2012 model. I just found a photo of the "No battery" icon on the screen I used to get from October of last year right before I got this rMBP. That was the one I didn't get AppleCare on because I missed the cutoff date, and the reminder email, by one month.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
CrudeDiatribe said:
PCI-E flash storage available. Better GPUs. New cheap model that's only $500 (but with a shitty HDD).

That's it.

Here's what's bad:

Replacement for the former entry model is $100 more.

Worse CPU at the top end.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Don't like the worse CPU at the top end. I think I should wait for Broadwell... My 27" core 2 duo is still pretty good for my usage even on Yosemite.
 
M

Mr. Wonderful

Member
^It would be worth waiting for Broadwell at this point, though if you're waiting for a Broadwell or better Mac Mini, you're probably in for a long wait.
CrudeDiatribe said:
PCI-E flash storage available. Better GPUs. New cheap model that's only $500 (but with a shitty HDD).

That's it.

Here's what's bad:

Replacement for the former entry model is $100 more.

Worse CPU at the top end.
Click to expand...

Altogether a much more balanced machine, however, thanks to the Intel Iris 5100 GPU, rather than the HD4000. The PCI-e-based SSD should also make an appreciable difference in speed.

If they gave us a quad-core Iris Pro Mac Mini, I don't think anyone would ever upgrade again, haha.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
I went looking at prices and while I can see being annoyed that its potential as a server might be reduced... the prices for the lower end aren't outrageous at all. You can argue Apple shouldn't sell 4GB RAM as a base anymore, and you might be right, but it's not any more expensive than Dell or HP machines at those price levels.

Will be interesting to see when they finally switch to 8GB for their consumer low-end and SSD-only, though. Apple seems to repeatedly be saying with their low-cost Macs that apparently customers would rather have the disk space than a faster experience...

As for pros, it's hilarious to see MacRumors lamenting the death of FW800, but that extra Thunderbolt port is a great addition.

Wondering how long we'll have to wait to get a teardown. Conflicting signs as to whether the RAM is soldered or just esoteric LPDDR3, and whether or not there's room for a second drive in there, or if the PCIe drives are interchangeable with existing laptop parts for upgrades.
 
C

CrudeDiatribe

Member
Mr. Wonderful said:
Altogether a much more balanced machine, however, thanks to the Intel Iris 5100 GPU, rather than the HD4000. The PCI-e-based SSD should also make an appreciable difference in speed.
Click to expand...

There are Haswell quad-core mobile i7s with that GPU at nearly same TDP (47W vs 45) as the outgoing quad i7 with the HD4000.
 
K

kennah

Member
The Thunderbolt to Firewire cable doesn't provide enough power for a lot of the pro gear that needs it. So yeah losing it is annoying.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
Is it for heat reasons that Apple doesn't put a quad core in the Mac mini? I have a quad core in my rMBP.... Why does Apple keep limiting the Mini's processor upside?
 
C

CrudeDiatribe

Member
Deku Tree said:
Is it for heat reasons that Apple doesn't put a quad core in the Mac mini? I have a quad core in my rMBP.... Why does Apple keep limiting the Mini's processor upside?
Click to expand...

As I said above, the maximum thermal energy of a new quad-core (with the same GPU as the new dual-core) is 47W versus the old quad-core's 45W. In contrast, the hottest of the new dual-cores is 28W— so, certainly there's an argument in favour of less heat letting them do other things with the limited space inside the Mini. Recall that the 2011 Mini was available with a discrete GPU chip, which would have been more heat to dissipate.

I do think this is more about marketing/positioning than engineering, so I'd need to see a take-apart showing otherwise before my irritation begins to subside.
 
M

Memento_Mori15

Member
Can someone help me choose between a mac mini 2012 quad i7 vs a new mac mini the $700 version? I can get the former for $589(refurbished) and save some money, I think this might be a good option. I mainly want it for iOS development and maybe replace my crummy PC while I look to build one down the road.

Edit: Actually, Fry as one for $500 (2012 quad core). That might seal the deal.
 
K

kennah

Member
Memento_Mori15 said:
Can someone help me choose between a mac mini 2012 quad i7 vs a new mac mini the $700 version? I can get the former for $589(refurbished) and save some money, I think this might be a good option. I mainly want it for iOS development and maybe replace my crummy PC while I look to build one down the road.

Edit: Actually, Fry as one for $500 (2012 quad core). That might seal the deal.
Click to expand...

If you can get the i7 for $500 that's a heck of a deal. The CPU alone is worth like $300
 
M

Memento_Mori15

Member
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Actually because of the disappointing Mac mini update I bought a refurbished 27" iMac last night for $310 off. Since they didn't update the iMacs at all, just added another grid space like they did last time, and I can't wait for the 2014 update anymore.

Maybe I should have just gotten a maxi Mac mini instead but I'll be very happy with this iMac when it comes. Shame it'll take a week. I should have paid $30 for faster shipping.
 
A

adroit

Member
Is anyone else who follows this thread thinking about getting an iMac 5K? I'm going to check our local store on Monday to see if they have a demo unit on display. That store is a freaking zoo on weekends (a million people all talking very loudly like in a crowded restaurant) so I'm not even going to try until Monday. The mall is basically dead but the Apple store is an insane asylum. It's probably the only store making any money.
 
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