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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
MacKeeper is a placebo. It does nothing if anything. And if it does anything then other than nothing it does stuff other free cache cleaners do.

You might as well buy this rock I found. It keeps tigers away.
 
S

serversurfer

Member
Granadier said:
This works with the three-finger tap on non-Force Touch devices.
Click to expand...
Nice!

Here's my random tip: In Yosemite, there's a security feature which prevents you from running apps that aren't blessed by Apple. It's nice and secure, but it's also fairly restrictive, because there are a lot of useful, legitimate apps out there which haven't been blessed. Anyway, the setting gives you the options of allowing only App Store apps, apps from the App Store plus "identified developers," or unrestricted installation of any application at all, regardless of origin or pedigree.

That last setting obviously isn't very secure, but when I was prevented from running Universal Media Server on my new MBP, I assumed I had no other choice but to disable the signature checking completely. To my surprise and delight, when I got to SysPrefs > Security & Privacy > General, I saw a message which said UMS was the last app which was prevented from running by the system, and gave me a button allowing it to be launched anyway. After clicking that, I was able to run the app, getting the standard warning about launching an application for the first time.

So it turns out you're able to maintain the relatively secure setting while still individually whitelisting trusted "outsider" applications on your own. Pretty slick.
 
N

NinjaCatfish

Member
serversurfer said:
Nice!

Here's my random tip: In Yosemite, there's a security feature which prevents you from running apps that aren't blessed by Apple. It's nice and secure, but it's also fairly restrictive, because there are a lot of useful, legitimate apps out there which haven't been blessed. Anyway, the setting gives you the options of allowing only App Store apps, apps from the App Store plus "identified developers," or unrestricted installation of any application at all, regardless of origin or pedigree.

That last setting obviously isn't very secure, but when I was prevented from running Universal Media Server on my new MBP, I assumed I had no other choice but to disable the signature checking completely. To my surprise and delight, when I got to SysPrefs > Security & Privacy > General, I saw a message which said UMS was the last app which was prevented from running by the system, and gave me a button allowing it to be launched anyway. After clicking that, I was able to run the app, getting the standard warning about launching an application for the first time.

So it turns out you're able to maintain the relatively secure setting while still individually whitelisting trusted "outsider" applications on your own. Pretty slick.
Click to expand...

Does this do anything more than what happens when you just right click>open a new app? That's how I've always gotten around the signed developer thing.

It adds an Open button the the 'this app is from an unsigned source' dialog.
 
S

serversurfer

Member
Umm, maybe not. lol

I just got this box on Friday, and this is the first time I've encountered the issue. I'll try right-clicking next time, since that sounds easier. Thanks.
 
A

Autumn Wind

Member
Where is the cheapest place to get a 16 GB RAM kit for my 2011 Mac mini? I am preferably looking for brand name RAM. Best I seem to find is B&H at $105. Any place better?
 
B

bms2993

Banned
So, it's been a month since that stupid troll thread I did. Now to be honest, I wised up and sold the 2010 Air on eBay along with my iPad and iPhone 4. Now I'm ROCKING the 2015 MacBook Pro 13 inch with retina display and force touch trackpad. Also upgraded from the 4 to the iPhone 6. Holy balls I think I'm in love, guys. I have an Apple Watch coming that I preordered on the stroke of last Friday.

It's good to be back in the present. :)
 
R

robox

Member
gah, my 2010 mbp is dying. donno what's wrong with it as it has symptoms all over the place. all my compu troubleshooting knowledge is for windows circa 2008. gonna have to take it to them geniuses to take a look? i had trouble even firing up chrome and connecting a backup drive so i don't know if i can even install fixer apps.

it's prob time to get a replacement but i want 15in and the last update was last july... update could possibly july this year but don't think i can hold off that long.
 
B

bms2993

Banned
robox said:
gah, my 2010 mbp is dying. donno what's wrong with it as it has symptoms all over the place. all my compu troubleshooting knowledge is for windows circa 2008. gonna have to take it to them geniuses to take a look? i had trouble even firing up chrome and connecting a backup drive so i don't know if i can even install fixer apps.

it's prob time to get a replacement but i want 15in and the last update was last july... update could possibly july this year but don't think i can hold off that long.
Click to expand...

Well, as much of NeoGAF can attest, I have been stuck in the year 2010 for quite some time. I finally upgraded because my 2010 pro was dying as well. That's my advice to you. Four years is about the time Macs give up their ghost. Currently rocking the 13" retina MacBooK Pro with force touch and loving every bit of it!
 
R

robox

Member
i wanna like those cool kids who say they're still using a macbook from 2008.
mine costed me a pretty penny, and they still do
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
My 2008 was running fine until I decided to trade up for a Mac Pro a year ago. Got my current 2014 MBP refurb now, I don't really use it for anything beyond typing remotely, so it should last me as long or longer since I'm not relying on it for After Effects and Final Cut work.
 
V

vatstep

This poster pulses with an appeal so broad the typical restraints of our societies fall by the wayside.
Does Remote Disc work more often than not for installing software? Or is it better used for accessing files on discs? I tried installing my old DVD version of Photoshop Elements from my MacBook (with drive) to my rMBP, and eventually it got to a point where it asked me to insert the disc on my new machine, and I obviously couldn't continue. Just curious if this is a common issue.

Luckily I was able to find Adobe's download link for PSE8 even though it was de-listed from their site.
 
C

captjohnboyd

Member
I picked up a used iPad Air from craigslist recently (I know) and it was working perfectly for the first day but since then won't hold a charge. Now I can't even get it to turn on because the iPad won't charge at all.

In addition to this the screen was flickering blue for a moment before restarting itself. It did this several times, particularly when I tried to sign in with my apple ID. This was all before the whole charging issue

I searched the internet and the blue screen issue could possibly be a software issue with iOS 8 if apple discussion boards are to be believed so I feel like a restore may fix that if I can get it to charge again.

Anyway I'm just curious if anyone has any ideas. I'm taking in to the shop tomorrow but I'd like to know what I may be getting in to with either the blue screen or the battery issues.
I should also note that the battery icon did show the bolt it just wasn't going up. When I checked usage there was only a dash for time since last charge and time left, no numbers.

The charger obviously was working at some point because the guy who sold it to me had it charged to 89%
 
S

serversurfer

Member
captjohnboyd said:
I should also note that the battery icon did show the bolt it just wasn't going up.
Click to expand...
You're sure you're using the right charger? The little ones for the iPhone don't put out enough power to actually charge the iPad. You need one of the bigger bricks, similar to the laptop ones. Basically, I think you need to feed it like 2 Amps instead of 1 Amp. (I don't remember the exact numbers, but yeah, you need a "high output" adaptor, basically.)
 
W

Wolffen

Member
I'm currently a long-time Windows user that's been a Web Developer for quite some time. I've had the opportunity to work on some HTML5 mobile apps, but I'd really like to branch out into native development for iOS and Android. My budget is pretty tight right now ($450~$500 US), but I'd like to get my feet wet.

I'm currently looking at the refurb Mac Mini at the Apple Store for $419 (Oct 2014 model). Would that system be sufficient for getting started in Swift/Objective-C and building some apps? I'd prefer a laptop (I keep hoping our Web Dev group at work will get to switch to Mac this year so I can get a Macbook Pro, but no dice yet), but I don't have another spare $200~400 to spend on an Air or refurb Pro.

Thanks for any advice!
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Wolffen said:
I'm currently a long-time Windows user that's been a Web Developer for quite some time. I've had the opportunity to work on some HTML5 mobile apps, but I'd really like to branch out into native development for iOS and Android. My budget is pretty tight right now ($450~$500 US), but I'd like to get my feet wet.

I'm currently looking at the refurb Mac Mini at the Apple Store for $419 (Oct 2014 model). Would that system be sufficient for getting started in Swift/Objective-C and building some apps? I'd prefer a laptop (I keep hoping our Web Dev group at work will get to switch to Mac this year so I can get a Macbook Pro, but no dice yet), but I don't have another spare $200~400 to spend on an Air or refurb Pro.

Thanks for any advice!
Click to expand...

Only thing that puts me off from recommending those models is that they've got a 5400rpm spinner, and under OS X and with the base mini's amount of RAM, you will feel that bottleneck.

Frankly there's not a desktop Mac under $800 I would recommend for that reason.

For $639.00 you can get a refurb Macbook Air, and there you get fast flash memory, a screen, and portability.
 
W

Wolffen

Member
Fuchsdh said:
Only thing that puts me off from recommending those models is that they've got a 5400rpm spinner, and under OS X and with the base mini's amount of RAM, you will feel that bottleneck.

Frankly there's not a desktop Mac under $800 I would recommend for that reason.

For $639.00 you can get a refurb Macbook Air, and there you get fast flash memory, a screen, and portability.
Click to expand...

Thanks! How much of a bottleneck will the RAM be? One thing I hate about current Apple hardware is the inability to boost the RAM or replace the HDD later in the device's life, since everything is soldered on the motherboard now. We're already pushing for the 15 inch MacBook Pro's at work, but like I said, that's probably a long way off.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Wolffen said:
Thanks! How much of a bottleneck will the RAM be? One thing I hate about current Apple hardware is the inability to boost the RAM or replace the HDD later in the device's life, since everything is soldered on the motherboard now. We're already pushing for the 15 inch MacBook Pro's at work, but like I said, that's probably a long way off.
Click to expand...

4GB is fine for many use cases, but not all—and if you go over that, you'll start writing to disk, which is where the 5400 rpm drive will hurt you. Having more RAM means that some of the disadvantages of the drive are mitigated. On the Air, you've got a fast SSD to write to, so the slowdown will be much less.

In the new minis, the hard drives are upgradable and even a base model can take a PCIe SSD in the future—they did however make it a bit harder to do so. The other alternative is getting a cheap external USB3 external drive and SSD—that way you don't have to crack open the mini, and you could even create your own fusion drive using the two.

The RAM, meanwhile, is soldered and except for those with specialized kits, essentially irreplaceable. So if you only have the money for one upgrade, boost the RAM as much as you can.

A guy at MacRumors put together a fairly decent questionnaire to help you figure out how much RAM you'd need: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1756865
 
W

Wolffen

Member
Fuchsdh said:
4GB is fine for many use cases, but not all—and if you go over that, you'll start writing to disk, which is where the 5400 rpm drive will hurt you. Having more RAM means that some of the disadvantages of the drive are mitigated. On the Air, you've got a fast SSD to write to, so the slowdown will be much less.

In the new minis, the hard drives are upgradable and even a base model can take a PCIe SSD in the future—they did however make it a bit harder to do so. The other alternative is getting a cheap external USB3 external drive and SSD—that way you don't have to crack open the mini, and you could even create your own fusion drive using the two.

The RAM, meanwhile, is soldered and except for those with specialized kits, essentially irreplaceable. So if you only have the money for one upgrade, boost the RAM as much as you can.

A guy at MacRumors put together a fairly decent questionnaire to help you figure out how much RAM you'd need: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1756865
Click to expand...


Thanks! I'll check that link and make a decision from there. Thanks for setting me straight on the Mini's HDD. I didn't think that it was accessible to be replaced, but it's good to know I could swap it later. Thanks again!
 
S

serversurfer

Member
The $500 Mini is a solid machine, but the $700 one is basically twice as fast, comes with double the RAM, and the RAM is upgradeable. I know you're on a budget, but if you're in for $500 anyway, that's a fairly substantial upgrade for "only" $200.

Anyway, food for thought. <3
 
C

captjohnboyd

Member
serversurfer said:
You're sure you're using the right charger? The little ones for the iPhone don't put out enough power to actually charge the iPad. You need one of the bigger bricks, similar to the laptop ones. Basically, I think you need to feed it like 2 Amps instead of 1 Amp. (I don't remember the exact numbers, but yeah, you need a "high output" adaptor, basically.)
Click to expand...

That could certainly be right but I've read conflicting statements online. In fact on apples own site it says a smaller charger will work only that it will take a long time. Ill pick up the larger one today just to be sure. thanks
 
T

tr4656

Member
serversurfer said:
The $500 Mini is a solid machine, but the $700 one is basically twice as fast, comes with double the RAM, and the RAM is upgradeable. I know you're on a budget, but if you're in for $500 anyway, that's a fairly substantial upgrade for "only" $200.

Anyway, food for thought. <3
Click to expand...
To be honest the $500 machine is just a rip off
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
tr4656 said:
To be honest the $500 machine is just a rip off
Click to expand...

It's fine for what it is and it's still a valid machine, but it mostly seems like it exists to make the middle-of-the-road machine look better or to sell to education markets like the cutdown iMac.
 
T

tr4656

Member
Fuchsdh said:
It's fine for what it is and it's still a valid machine, but it mostly seems like it exists to make the middle-of-the-road machine look better or to sell to education markets like the cutdown iMac.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the performance is okay but you can buy a PC for significantly cheaper for comparable prices. While I normally don't complain about prices about Macs vs other stuff, its too big of a price margin for me to feel comfortable recommending it or not thinking of it as a rip off.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Yeah the Macbook is pretty straightforward for what it is—it's cheaper and far more powerful than the original Macbook Air was in comparison to its contemporary laptops. And you probably don't have to worry half of its performance will kill itself whenever it's warm outside.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
The Real Abed said:
Ha. I forgot about that one. It's like every Mac family except the Mac Pro has a low-end underpowered family member that's only made to be cheap.

Except that in the case of the MacBook, it's not cheap. It's just underpowered in every way.
Click to expand...

'Tis funny, because the Mac Pro would make a pretty great cut-down Mac if you popped out one graphics card and swapped the Xeon for an i7.

As it is, I'm wondering if my future Mac is going to be a mini with an external GPU plugged in.

tr4656 said:
Yeah, the performance is okay but you can buy a PC for significantly cheaper for comparable prices. While I normally don't complain about prices about Macs vs other stuff, its too big of a price margin for me to feel comfortable recommending it or not thinking of it as a rip off.
Click to expand...

What PCs are you looking at? I find that in general it's hard to find a good comparison to the mini. HP's machines, for example, come with i3 processors and weaker integrated graphics. Dell comes closest, although it's hard to precisely spec something out. Either way it seems the mini is within $100-200 of comparable desktops, and that's not counting the size and energy efficiency (if that matters to you.) At least to me, that's still a decent tradeoff.
 
T

tr4656

Member
The Real Abed said:
Ha. I forgot about that one. It's like every Mac family except the Mac Pro has a low-end underpowered family member that's only made to be cheap.

Except that in the case of the MacBook, it's not cheap. It's just underpowered in every way.
Click to expand...
I feel like that while it's expensive, it does provide some decent advantages like having a retina screen for such a small footprint. It definitely is overpriced when you can get a Macbook Air but I can see why some people would get it.
Fuchsdh said:
'Tis funny, because the Mac Pro would make a pretty great cut-down Mac if you popped out one graphics card and swapped the Xeon for an i7.

As it is, I'm wondering if my future Mac is going to be a mini with an external GPU plugged in.



What PCs are you looking at? I find that in general it's hard to find a good comparison to the mini. HP's machines, for example, come with i3 processors and weaker integrated graphics. Dell comes closest, although it's hard to precisely spec something out. Either way it seems the mini is within $100-200 of comparable desktops, and that's not counting the size and energy efficiency (if that matters to you.) At least to me, that's still a decent tradeoff.
Click to expand...
Intel NUCs.
 
K

kennah

Member
So, i've been going through and importing my everything to the Photos app. But it's not detecting duplicates properly and is importing some things 3, 4 or 5 times. I've tried to go through and find some of the files manually in the Masters folder but they aren't there. I've rebuilt the library, and I've tried running Gemini and some other 'find duplicates' apps in the app store, but no joy for fixing this problem. Anyone have any ideas?
 
T

thenexus6

Member
I have somehow misplaced my battery cap for my wireless apple keyboard. Seems the only way to get a replacement is some third party cap all coming from overseas. Argh very annoying.
 
W

Wolffen

Member
Thanks to everyone that provided me advice. I actually wound up grabbing the $639 MacBook Air like Fuchsdh suggested this evening. Looking forward to jumping into the OSX pool and learning Swift and Objective-C. Hopefully I'll have an app on the App Store later this year.
 
S

Shun

Member
I've been using CloudApp for my Macbook Pro for years and have liked the easy interface for uploading photos and files, but recently they've added more file restrictions and upload restrictions.

No file more than 10MB? Only 10 uploads a month now for free users? Are you kidding?

Has anyone else used CloudApp and is there another storage medium that is just as user friendly? Has a menu bar icon that I can easily access and drag and drop files? Can I access the files and make copy/share links through the menu bar icon?

For example, I could just open up, right click copy direct link and I get something like http://cl.ly/image/...

I'd prefer something similar if that's possible.
 
S

serversurfer

Member
mrkgoo said:
If a 15" MBP comes pre-installed with Yosemite, can you still install Mavericks on it?
Click to expand...
You can't install anything older than what was originally installed on it, so if you buy a used 'book that's been upgraded to a later OS, you can install the older version(s), but you can't go back any further than what it was "built" with.

Any particular reason you don't want to use Yosemite? I never used Mavericks, but Yosemite seems pretty nice.
 
M

mrkgoo

Member
serversurfer said:
You can't install anything older than what was originally installed on it, so if you buy a used 'book that's been upgraded to a later OS, you can install the older version(s), but you can't go back any further than what it was "built" with.

Any particular reason you don't want to use Yosemite? I never used Mavericks, but Yosemite seems pretty nice.
Click to expand...

So if the new MacBook Pros, even though not refreshed in anyway, start shipping with Yosemite you can't install Mavericks? Are Versions of OS X tied to serial numbers on the logic board or something?

Like if I bought a MBP 15" one week and it comes with Mavericks, but the next week they start shipping with Yosemite, that Yosemite model is in at least that one way less "capable" in that it can never be restored with Mavericks even though it is identical hardware wise?

Is the serial number or something locked to an OS x release? Or firmware?


Or is it just that if a machine ships with an older Is they won't actually ship it on newer is if that is released later?

Reason? Let's say a piece of software is only available or supported or functions better on Mavericks.
 
C

CrudeDiatribe

Member
mrkgoo said:
Like if I bought a MBP 15" one week and it comes with Mavericks, but the next week they start shipping with Yosemite, that Yosemite model is in at least that one way less "capable" in that it can never be restored with Mavericks even though it is identical hardware wise?
Click to expand...

If they don't upgrade the firmware it can be rolled back. Whatever OS the model shipped with on its release is the oldest it can use.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
I don't think there's much software that won't work on Yosemite that works on Mavericks. They're practically the same OS internally for all intents and purposes.
 
M

mrkgoo

Member
CrudeDiatribe said:
If they don't upgrade the firmware it can be rolled back. Whatever OS the model shipped with on its release is the oldest it can use.
Click to expand...

So even if it's shipping with current you can still restore to older? As I would have assumed, only if firmware hasn't been updated and requires Yosemite drivers or what not. I just wasn't sure if there would possibly be little updates to either hardware or firmware within a models, life time such that it would only work with the OS that individual machine came with (and not the entire line).

The Real Abed said:
I don't think there's much software that won't work on Yosemite that works on Mavericks. They're practically the same OS internally for all intents and purposes.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, but just on the presumption that there's that requirement.
 
S

serversurfer

Member
Stuff rarely breaks when Apple update the OS, and most Mac devs seem pretty good about updating in general. Is there a particular piece of software you're concerned about? Maybe one of us can test it for you.
 
V

vatstep

This poster pulses with an appeal so broad the typical restraints of our societies fall by the wayside.
F

Fuchsdh

Member
vatstep said:
Best Buy is selling the 128GB version of the 2015 rMBP 13" for $1100 – hell of a deal (even cheaper than the clearance price of the 2014 model). Use a .edu coupon or a USPS mover's coupon and get another $50-110 off online! You can use both of those coupons in-store, but I'm not sure how long this price will last.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-m...lver/8532557.p?id=1219343246941&skuId=8532557
Click to expand...

Damn. Very nice price, blows refurb pricing out of the water too.
 
A

Autumn Wind

Member
So I'm unsure what I want to do. I hope Apple doesn't go the Core M route for all minis. I want something with a little juice in it but not too much although a quad-core mini would be nice, it's not necessary. I like the $699 mini and with 16 GB of RAM and a PCIe SSD it ups the cost to $1099.

If Apple goes the Core M route or uses Core M and MacBook Air processors, I was looking at this.

http://www.thebookpc.com/product-p/de7200.htm
 
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