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[Mr. F]

Could I pick MacGAF's brain for some opinions?

Starting to think about what to replace my 2010 MBP with, considering either a desktop or another macbook. I'm having a hard time deciding between the portability of a mid-range macbook pro or the affordability of a higher end imac. Even though my work station isn't mobile anymore since I'm no longer in school, the idea of completely sacrificing portability is uncomfortable for some reason.

If it helps for power consideration, I work in graphic design and 3D/motion graphics.

 

[Rbk_3]

My wife just bought a 13 inch 2015 Retina MacbookPro, 256 SSD ... Over 2k CAD. I can't believe how expensive these things are :O

With that said I played around with it and man does it feel nice to use.

Yikes, I got last summers model with the 3 year warranty last summer for $1680.
I am glad I bought when I did.

Hell, I originally bought the 15" 256GB 16gb ram model for $2136 before I returned it for the 13"


That low dollar is a bitch.

 

[The Real Abed]

iTunes needs a Photos-like makeover. A complete iCloud based makeover where, if you pay for extra iCloud space, it will store all your music, including stuff you have that isn't on the store, on the cloud and just sync it down to whatever devices and Macs you optionally choose. When a song is played, the play count gets updated on the cloud. The data syncs to all the devices. If you delete a song completely it deletes itself everywhere. Add one and it's referenced everywhere. (And downloaded to devices with the option turned on) One could have a single device where all the music is just streamed from the cloud and no permanent storage usage. Or a device where all the music is downloaded. Maybe an option to only download certain albums or subsets of music.

But, for devices with the "download all" option turned on make sure the music is not obfuscated in some random folder. Keep it all organized like it normally is by artist/album/song. Same way photos are organized by year/month/day.

Just redo it. Maybe just call it Music. (If that name isn't somehow taken by another company.)

 

[Fuchsdh]

iTunes needs a Photos-like makeover. A complete iCloud based makeover where, if you pay for extra iCloud space, it will store all your music, including stuff you have that isn't on the store, on the cloud and just sync it down to whatever devices and Macs you optionally choose. When a song is played, the play count gets updated on the cloud. The data syncs to all the devices. If you delete a song completely it deletes itself everywhere. Add one and it's referenced everywhere. (And downloaded to devices with the option turned on) One could have a single device where all the music is just streamed from the cloud and no permanent storage usage. Or a device where all the music is downloaded. Maybe an option to only download certain albums or subsets of music.

But, for devices with the "download all" option turned on make sure the music is not obfuscated in some random folder. Keep it all organized like it normally is by artist/album/song. Same way photos are organized by year/month/day.

Just redo it. Maybe just call it Music. (If that name isn't somehow taken by another company.)

iTunes match is exactly what you're talking about, although it certainly isn't integrated into the fabric of the application like Photos.

Could I pick MacGAF's brain for some opinions?

Starting to think about what to replace my 2010 MBP with, considering either a desktop or another macbook. I'm having a hard time deciding between the portability of a mid-range macbook pro or the affordability of a higher end imac. Even though my work station isn't mobile anymore since I'm no longer in school, the idea of completely sacrificing portability is uncomfortable for some reason.

If it helps for power consideration, I work in graphic design and 3D/motion graphics.

You're going to get a lot more bang for your buck with a desktop. Personally I really missed having an option for doing remote editing or lounging on my couch when I worked, so I got myself an older MBP for that purpose, but I don't rely on it for the heavy lifting—that's what my Mac Pro is for.

(That said, I also needed the Thunderbolt port for capturing HD video, so it was easier to justify having two computers, and the cost of upgrading a cheese grater Mac Pro + getting a MBP is < than a midrange MBP + new iMac.)

Also, realistically I think you're best waiting for the next revision of either the MBP or iMac. My guess is that the non-retina models are likely to not be refreshed, same as the MBP line.

 

[bms2993]

It has been one month since I started using my 2015 13" Retina MacBook Pro. Coming from a 2010 15" MacBook Pro, I was a bit concerned with the size downgrade because I thought larger screens mean more work space. As it turns out, because this is a 2015 13" Retina MacBook Pro, I can fit just as much content on my screen as I could with my old 2010 15" MacBook Pro, albeit, just a little smaller. Not a big deal at all. I absolutely love the force touch trackpad to the point where as of today, I sold off my magic mouse. I am no longer a mouse user. The keyboard has good travel, I love the fact that the MacBook Pro logo is no longer visible on the front. Slimmer design (although I put a screen protector and a case on it) as well. It's blazingly fast with its internal SSD and 8 GB of memory and I love the new Intel processors inside.

9 apples out of 10.

 

[The Real Abed]

iTunes match is exactly what you're talking about, although it certainly isn't integrated into the fabric of the application like Photos.

I know but we really need an iTunes complete redo like Photos. Just start over. I dunno. Whatever.

Will iTunes Match let me use my iMac to play my Overclocked remixes from the cloud? Will it optionally download those to the machine itself? If I play those songs, will it update their play count on my MacBook? Will it update the last played metadata and rearrange the playlists on my iOS devices?

Speaking of which, I am disappointed that the new Music doesn't rearrange "last played" sorted playlists when a song is played. Why? How did they leave this out? It's all I want! I'll never have to sync my phone to my computer every night because that's literally the only reason I sync. To update the playlist sort order and play counts in my library database and get the playlist to rearrange itself correctly on my phone. This shit should all be handled over the cloud. It's 2015. I never want to have to connect my phone to my computer again.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

Will iTunes Match let me use my iMac to play my Overclocked remixes from the cloud? Will it optionally download those to the machine itself? If I play those songs, will it update their play count on my MacBook? Will it update the last played metadata and rearrange the playlists on my iOS devices?

It's been a while since I used iTunes Match, but from memory...
Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes.
Not 100% sure about rearranging playlists, but it definitely updated metadata. (I got a lot of double-scrobbles when using iOS Last.fm scrobblers that relied on iTunes Play Counts, because if I played on my Mac, it updated on my phone as well and the app saw that as a new scrobble).

 

[Fuchsdh]

It's been a while since I used iTunes Match, but from memory...
Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes.
Not 100% sure about rearranging playlists, but it definitely updated metadata. (I got a lot of double-scrobbles when using iOS Last.fm scrobblers that relied on iTunes Play Counts, because if I played on my Mac, it updated on my phone as well and the app saw that as a new scrobble).

iTunes handles syncing podcast playhead positions/played pretty well, and plays from my iPhone/iPod classic, so imagine iTunes match should do fine as well.

To me, the idea of a continual subscription makes me unlikely to use it. I can use iTunes in the cloud for free to get the percentage of my purchases that are from iTunes, and if I really want to stream my music over the internet I can set up some sweded options (Home Library Sharing is really all I use though.)

 

[The Real Abed]

See, I would rather just have a better thought out and redone cloud based solution. I don't really even want to listen on my iMac. But I do want my phone to update itself without me having to sync. Which seems to be the one thing iTunes Match doesn't do.

It does it on the iPad app though. (At least it did on the old Music.app last I checked. But I don't listen to music on my iPad at all either.) There's no goddamn reason it couldn't do it on the iPhone. It's a simple sort algorithm. It's the one thing I was hoping the new Music.app would finally have. And it doesn't. Granted it's still a beta so I'll try sending feedback about it but I can't see it being implemented even though it's as simple as hell to put in.

I wonder if it sorts on the iPhone 6+ since that's an iPad hybrid. It would be a travesty if it didn't do it there either.

 

[Laevateinn]

So, after 15 years of using Linux, I decided that my new laptop would be a retina MacBook Pro. I'm liking it a lot so far. It helps that it's a Unix system.

What I like: interface is clean and reminds me a lot of how I had GNOME set up. I can use the terminal and homebrew provides a nice package management system for all of my favorite open source programs.

Things I'm getting used to: I really miss being able to double click the window decoration and have the window roll up so I can see what's underneith. Clicking the maximize button makes things full screen. I know I can hold option and have it maximize but is there a way I can reverse this? On Linux, I can hold down Alt and drag a window. I can also hold down alt and middle click to resize a window? Is there anything like this on Mac?

Things I've hated: I have a Linux desktop I use as a file server and to play games on. I could not get the Mac to connect to the NFS shares on it unless I whitelisted its IP in UFW. For some reason, iTunes does not support FLAC. I installed Vox and it works well enough but there's a few files that pop up a message saying they cannot be played. I'm not sure what's causing that or how I can diagnose the problem. On Safari, I can't do anything like "alt+number" to switch directly to a specific tab. I've installed Chrome but I'd rather just have Safari if I could get away with it.

In all, I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. It doesn't make me want to kill myself like using Windows does and for the most part has been rather smooth.

 

[Mr. F]

You're going to get a lot more bang for your buck with a desktop. Personally I really missed having an option for doing remote editing or lounging on my couch when I worked, so I got myself an older MBP for that purpose, but I don't rely on it for the heavy lifting—that's what my Mac Pro is for.

(That said, I also needed the Thunderbolt port for capturing HD video, so it was easier to justify having two computers, and the cost of upgrading a cheese grater Mac Pro + getting a MBP is < than a midrange MBP + new iMac.)

Also, realistically I think you're best waiting for the next revision of either the MBP or iMac. My guess is that the non-retina models are likely to not be refreshed, same as the MBP line.

Hmm yeah, the lounging/convenience part is what gets me, I don't think a tablet would cut it for me personally. I was contemplating selling my current MBP to offset the cost of the new computer but maybe I'll just wait and save and keep it as my portable machine. As a lightweight machine the Air seems like an ideal solution but that would feel a bit excessive in addition to a new iMac.

 

[The Real Abed]

So, after 15 years of using Linux, I decided that my new laptop would be a retina MacBook Pro. I'm liking it a lot so far. It helps that it's a Unix system..

Windowshading (Rolling up to the titlebar) was in Mac OS in the '90s. But they dropped it in OS X in favor of minimizing. Back in the day you could get a Haxie from Unsanity but they died out with PPC. A lot of people didn't like how their hacks worked either because they injected themselves into memory and could cause problems. But for a long time they were the best way to customize your UI.

And in Safari, Command+Number switches to the top level bookmark of that number instead of the tab. I guess it's by design since it'd be less likely to change around. With tabs you'd have to remember the number of any given tab which could change at any time. But bookmarks would always be the same unless you change them yourself. I'd say try Safari for a while. You might get used to it. I can't go back to Chrome on OS X. Install SafariStand and EasySIMBL to get some features back too. (Just remember to re-enable SIMBL when an OS update happens. OS X likes to disable SIMBL when it is updated. So it's an easy fix when it happens.)

On OS X, all of Windows/Linux's Alt commands are pretty much replaced with Command+whatever. Command+Tab. Command+X/C/V/Z/F/G, etc.

OS X's networking is finicky I find.

I don't know about FLAC. I know I had to install an iTunes extension to get Ogg/Vorbis support a long time ago but don't even know if it still works because the music I needed it for hasn't been played in a decade. If it's even still in the library. Maybe there's an extension for FLAC but I don't know.

As for moving and resizing the window. I don't know about the first, but for the second you should look into BetterTouchTool. (Actually get it anyway) It will add so many features for you to play with. It's a must have. It might even help with some other problems you're having.

And look into some utilities called HyperDock and HyperSwitch. They add window previews to the Dock icons (HyperDock) like Windows has as well as to the Command+Tab switcher. (HyperSwitch) Not that it matters since you're from Linux, not Windows. But it's still pretty useful in some cases.

Welcome to the party! Just wait for WWDC and whatever 10.11 brings. It's exciting.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

I really miss being able to double click the window decoration and have the window roll up so I can see what's underneith.

This came from the classic Mac OS, actually; it was called window shade and it was amazing. One of the things I hated about OS X when I switched to it in 2002, though that bitterness has faded a lot in the intervening years. The Stickies app on your Mac still has this functionality, I think it's the only thing.

Just found WindowMizer that purports to do this, but haven't tried it. A negative review on the site suggests it is smoke and mirrors.

Exposé's arrival with 10.3 in 2003 fixed most of my usability concerns with new solutions, but it's currently worse in 10.10 on my 2010 Mac Mini with two 2400 MHz CPUs than it was in 10.3 on a single 350MHz CPU made in 2001. Maybe Apple will fix this shit someday?

Hot tip: make your Terminal windows semi-transparent for great joy. No need to roll them up. Doesn't help with other windows, of course.

Clicking the maximize button makes things full screen. I know I can hold option and have it maximize but is there a way I can reverse this?

Couldn't find anything, but I found this site: defaults write that's very useful for discovering all the hidden settings in OS X.

Things I've hated: I have a Linux desktop I use as a file server and to play games on. I could not get the Mac to connect to the NFS shares on it unless I whitelisted its IP in UFW.

The Mac will play a lot better with SMB or AFP shares (or it did, enough that I've never tried NFS with it again).

For some reason, iTunes does not support FLAC.

No, and for some reason Apple created their own lossless format called ALAC/Apple Lossless.

EDIT:

On OS X, all of Windows/Linux's Alt commands are pretty much replaced with Command+whatever. Command+Tab. Command+X/C/V/Z/F/G, etc.

Bash/Emacs ctrl-a/ctrl-e still work in most text fields (there may be others, but I use these constantly).

 

[Deku Tree]

ALAC is a very good format.
The only problem is that no one other than Apple uses it or really recognizes it at all.

 

[Fuchsdh]

ALAC is a very good format.
The only problem is that no one other than Apple uses it or really recognizes it at all.

I noticed Sony's Walkmen support the format, which is one reason I was considering getting an A17 (that and the physical versus touchscreen controls, although I'm still debating whether to get a new battery + flash memory and hack my classic.)

Apple didn't make ALAC free to license until fairly recently, which is part of the reason FLAC continued to be dominant.

Hmm yeah, the lounging/convenience part is what gets me, I don't think a tablet would cut it for me personally. I was contemplating selling my current MBP to offset the cost of the new computer but maybe I'll just wait and save and keep it as my portable machine. As a lightweight machine the Air seems like an ideal solution but that would feel a bit excessive in addition to a new iMac.

Throwing in an SSD into your MBP would do wonders to improve its use, if you haven't done that. They're still quite capable machines so if you're just going to use it as your secondary computer I don't think upgrading to a new computer would get you much beyond faster I/O in USB3/TB.

 

[Kimosabae]

Okay, so the newest OS update is cratering my 2011 Macbook Pro. It took me like 5 minutes to make this post. How can I revert it without using Time Machine?

Anyone?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Anyone?

*Without* a Time Machine backup? I don't think theres any option but a clean install.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Pretty much.

 

[Mr. F]

Throwing in an SSD into your MBP would do wonders to improve its use, if you haven't done that. They're still quite capable machines so if you're just going to use it as your secondary computer I don't think upgrading to a new computer would get you much beyond faster I/O in USB3/TB.

I've considered it, but at this rate I'm not sure its worth investing in trying to upgrade/improve this machine. It's kind of slowly falling to pieces (logic board is...half broken, I guess? keyboard backlight and ethernet port no longer function) and that kind of fix is way out of my price range, at 500+ bucks.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Place your bets now!

Will the next refresh of the top-end 15" Retina MacBook Pro:

A. Utilize a 2GB 950M
B. Utilize a 4GB 960M
C. Go AMD
C. Forgo a dedicated GPU altogether

?

I have the 750M and absolutely adore this computer. But while every other aspect of the device is still - in my opinion - absolutely best in class and holding up amazingly well; the GPU is getting a bit long in the tooth. It was never a high-end, or even midrange, gaming card... but it could play the occasional game at 1080p with low settings alright. But with new releases, it straight-up can't play half of them at a decent framerate.

Now, I get it - don't buy an Apple computer if you want to play games. But I'm willing to pay a premium to even get a little gaming performance. And while I can't see myself upgrading soon; if Apple did - against all odds - release a refresh with the 960M, I would absolutely upgrade on Day One. Here's the thing: The current 4GB 960M actually has a lower TDP than my MB's 2GB 750M, so the chassis and battery can absolutely handle the upgrade. I just know how anti-GPU post-PPC Apple has been for the last decade.

 

[Granadier]

Probably an 850m or 950m

 

[ShadowKingpin]

Hey all!! I am about to purchase my first MBP (For school) and need some insight. I am looking at buying the MBP 13" with Retina, but curious if it's worth buying a refurb earlier model? I'm not looking to go ape shit with gaming or anything, but want something that will definitely last me. Is it really worth saving the money for a refurb, or is the extra money for the base line 2015 model worth it? I've noticed it's pretty much a difference in the Iris Graphics and the extra 4GB of RAM (Which are nice).

 

[Fuchsdh]

Hey all!! I am about to purchase my first MBP (For school) and need some insight. I am looking at buying the MBP 13" with Retina, but curious if it's worth buying a refurb earlier model? I'm not looking to go ape shit with gaming or anything, but want something that will definitely last me. Is it really worth saving the money for a refurb, or is the extra money for the base line 2015 model worth it? I've noticed it's pretty much a difference in the Iris Graphics and the extra 4GB of RAM (Which are nice).

I think if you're looking to keep your computer through school, saving the money upfront on the refurb pricing isn't worth it. Buy a new 13" and you're getting better graphics, faster storage, the new trackpad with Force Touch, and better battery life; if you're getting an older model you're also getting 4GB extra RAM that you can't upgrade yourself, so it makes no sense to hurt yourself down the line for the sake of $100-300 extra upfront. That said, if you find a current-gen refurb in a config you like, that's a nice way to save $100 on an essentially identical item.

Also, I'd recommend getting AppleCare&#8212;from experience, trucking my computer around in my backpack did a fair number on my computer and AppleCare paid for itself several times over.

 

[serversurfer]

Hey all!! I am about to purchase my first MBP (For school) and need some insight. I am looking at buying the MBP 13" with Retina, but curious if it's worth buying a refurb earlier model? I'm not looking to go ape shit with gaming or anything, but want something that will definitely last me. Is it really worth saving the money for a refurb, or is the extra money for the base line 2015 model worth it? I've noticed it's pretty much a difference in the Iris Graphics and the extra 4GB of RAM (Which are nice).

Apple used to have fairly nice student pricing, even on BTO, as I recall. Have you looked in to that?

 

[vatstep]

Apple used to have fairly nice student pricing, even on BTO, as I recall. Have you looked in to that?

The student discount is $100 off the price of new units. Not bad, but it doesn't work on refurbs, and if you're gonna buy new, you can probably get a lower price from Best Buy, B&H, etc. given the timing.

 

[Caronte]

How do I make my blue tag show up when I right click on a file? As you can see it only shows the red one. I can add the blue it if I click on 'Etiquetas...' ('Tags...') but for some reason the blue circle isn't below it, like the red one.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

How do I make my blue tag show up when I right click on a file? As you can see it only shows the red one. I can add the blue it if I click on 'Etiquetas...' ('Tags...') but for some reason the blue circle isn't below it, like the red one.

Did you modify the tags? Go into Finder's preferences and see what tags you have.

EDIT: can't seem to replicate your problem.

EDIT2: got it, make sure the other colours/tags are in the 'favourite tags' section at the bottom of the tag section.

 

[The Real Abed]

Yeah, it's the Favorite Tags preference section.

I find I never use tags because they're not flexible enough. I just end up using the default 7 colored labels to prioritize favorites. If I could set a custom color to tags that wasn't one of those 7 colors I'd use it more. But you can't.

Plus I dislike that now that you can have more than one color, it no longer colorizes the entire file name line so it's harder to see at a glance.

 

[Caronte]

Did you modify the tags?

I didn't, I just deleted every pre-made tag and created those. Something weird must have happened, I don't know.

Fixed now, thanks!

 

[Ninja Dom]

Hi guys. Quick question. My girlfriend's MacBook Pro has started slowing down. Pin-wheeling/Beach-balling and apps taking numerous bounces in the Dock before opening up.

I tried one of those free clean up apps ranked in the Mac App Store top 10 but it hasn't really changed anything. Any software or clean up advice to get this to run quicker? She won't be adding more RAM or installing an SSD.

 

[The Real Abed]

Sadly, those symptoms usually mean the hard drive is failing. Is it a HDD based MacBook? Back her stuff up immediately just in case.

And definitely look into a SSD. Not only would it be much faster, but SSDs also die more gracefully. While a HDD will up and die suddenly without much warning, sometimes before you are able to save all your data, SSDs will do their damnedest to make sure they can save what they can so you have plenty of time to prepare for replacement.

 

[mrkgoo]

What real abed said.

Back up her stuff and consider an upgrade before she is forced to.

 

[Ninja Dom]

Yes it's an HDD based MacBook Pro. It's not even old, 2012/2013 I think it is.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

Yes it's an HDD based MacBook Pro. It's not even old, 2012/2013 I think it is.

Sadly, age doesn't really matter here. You can get drives that run flawlessly for decades, and you can get the same model of drive fail within a year. Luck of the draw.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Look in Console after beach balls to see if you notice a pattern in the sometimes-inscrutable messages that can help point to the cause.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Yes it's an HDD based MacBook Pro. It's not even old, 2012/2013 I think it is.

The plus side is it's easy to swap the HDD for an SSD, which will be much faster and more reliable going forward.

As said, sometimes hard drives go bad without much wear on them. Apparently Seagate was putting out a crop of really poor hard drives after the tsunami too—they'd all fail within 3 or 4 years.

 

[Ke0]

HDD to SSD is like the best upgrade you can give a mac to breath new life into it. Day and night difference in performance.

On a different note. I need a new messenger bag for my 13 MBP, anyone have any inexpensive suggestions?

Just got back from getting a Targus bag for $25 at Target

 

[The Real Abed]

Hard drives AND Solid State Drives can die at any time. Whether it's 10 years later or 10 days later. I bought a SSD for my old MacBook back in 2010 and it died after a month. After having it replaced by the company it's been going strong. I've also owned numerous various made hard drives since 2001 and have had a pretty big handful die at various times. These things happen. It doesn't matter if it's a 2012 model.

Either way, backup. Because if it isn't the drive right now, you never know when it will be.

 

[Magypsy]

I've been rocking my mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro for close to six years now, and it's time for a replacement. It's definitely going to be a new 13" MBP, because I need that power (for game development) but I'm sick of carrying a 15" around.

In 2009 I picked the 15" because of the dedicated graphics card. These days the integrated Intel graphics are good enough for me (and for heavy work I plan on getting a beastly desktop pc late this year), but with Intel's Skylake processors around the corner I'd love to take advantage of the graphics upgrades it brings.

So, my question for you: what are the chances of Apple upgrading the 13" this WWDC? I kinda expect them to upgrade the 15" with Skylake at WWDC (based on absolutely nothing), but the 13" has had it's upgrade like a month ago; so I'd say the chances are slim to none. I'd like your some other peoples opinion though. Should I wait a month?

 

[The Real Abed]

Yeah, even though it was a slight bump with some hardware tweaks, it's still to early. I'd expect November at earliest. Or at least fall. That was the standard time for the past few years for the new Retina Pros.

The real question is will the new MacBook eventually find its own cycle at the same time or will it be with the Air? Or will they all end up just being updated at once yearly at a special MacBook event? No one knows. Apple changes schedules all the time. The best you can do is go based on the previous time.

I'd get it now. Because if they updated the 13" again this early, I'd eat my Year of Luigi hat.

Or just wait for November if you want Skylake. (Which will hopefully be in them)

 

[Ninja Dom]

Hard drives AND Solid State Drives can die at any time. Whether it's 10 years later or 10 days later. I bought a SSD for my old MacBook back in 2010 and it died after a month. After having it replaced by the company it's been going strong. I've also owned numerous various made hard drives since 2001 and have had a pretty big handful die at various times. These things happen. It doesn't matter if it's a 2012 model.

Either way, backup. Because if it isn't the drive right now, you never know when it will be.

Is there less failure rate on SSD's compared to HDD's simply due to lack of moving parts?

Just now, my own iMac completely became unresponsive. Had to switch off directly with the power button to reboot it.

 

[SuperSah]

Hey all!! I am about to purchase my first MBP (For school) and need some insight. I am looking at buying the MBP 13" with Retina, but curious if it's worth buying a refurb earlier model? I'm not looking to go ape shit with gaming or anything, but want something that will definitely last me. Is it really worth saving the money for a refurb, or is the extra money for the base line 2015 model worth it? I've noticed it's pretty much a difference in the Iris Graphics and the extra 4GB of RAM (Which are nice).

I'm late to this, but get the new 13inch rMBP.

I got one for Uni and it's an absolute dream.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Is there less failure rate on SSD's compared to HDD's simply due to lack of moving parts?

Yes. They still have a finite life due to a limited (though large) number of writes of a given block. Overprovisioning helps with this, though.

 

[Deku Tree]

Is there less failure rate on SSD's compared to HDD's simply due to lack of moving parts?

Just now, my own iMac completely became unresponsive. Had to switch off directly with the power button to reboot it.

SSD Annual Failure Rates Around 1.5%, HDDs About 5%
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/12/2228217/ssd-annual-failure-rates-around-15-hdds-about-5

 

[ShadowKingpin]

I think if you're looking to keep your computer through school, saving the money upfront on the refurb pricing isn't worth it. Buy a new 13" and you're getting better graphics, faster storage, the new trackpad with Force Touch, and better battery life; if you're getting an older model you're also getting 4GB extra RAM that you can't upgrade yourself, so it makes no sense to hurt yourself down the line for the sake of $100-300 extra upfront. That said, if you find a current-gen refurb in a config you like, that's a nice way to save $100 on an essentially identical item.

Also, I'd recommend getting AppleCare&#8212;from experience, trucking my computer around in my backpack did a fair number on my computer and AppleCare paid for itself several times over.

I'll definitely nab AppleCare as I have had previous Apple products that didn't last as long as I had hoped and very thankful I paid extra to ensure I got it fixed (iPod Nano 7th Gen).

Apple used to have fairly nice student pricing, even on BTO, as I recall. Have you looked in to that?

I will definitely look into that. I also get an employee discount from work that gets $100 off of the 13" rMBP. I'll check out the student to see if I can get a little more out of it. ;-)

I'm late to this, but get the new 13inch rMBP.

I got one for Uni and it's an absolute dream.

I definitely want it. I already have the money to nab it, but I just have to finish my final payments for my tuition before I can buy it. I'm going nuts since I am so damn close to getting it.


I know I am asking a question in a thread dedicated to Mac, but is it definitely worth the extra money over a PC-based laptop? Also, does the Retina display allow for excellent viewing of 2K videos? I doubt 4k works out since I believe the Retina is lower than 4K.

 

[The Real Abed]

Flash also dies more gracefully than a hard drive because while a disk based drive will completely stop working if it's mechanical innards break, a SSD will die blocks at a time. You might lose files here and there but you'll notice early enough that something is wrong and it'll affect the computer differently. Where the symptoms of a HDD death is slowdown, the symptoms of SSD are more disk write errors.

Either way, always have a backup. This forum needs a sticky ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR DATA thread with links to deals and tips and software links. Threads pop up for this all the time.

 

[Lkr]

Just got a 13" rMBP 2015 model the other day. Needed a mobile Unix system and it came down to this or a dell xps 13 with Ubuntu. The screen on this thing is mind blowing. I don't really get the force touchpad thing but I'm not coming from a previous MBP to compare it to.

On another note, I tried out the new MacBook and while I liked the screen and build of it,

 

[Granadier]

Just got a 13" rMBP 2015 model the other day. Needed a mobile Unix system and it came down to this or a dell xps 13 with Ubuntu. The screen on this thing is mind blowing. I don't really get the force touchpad thing but I'm not coming from a previous MBP to compare it to.

On another note, I tried out the new MacBook and while I liked the screen and build of it,

Don't leave me hanging!!

 

[ShadowKingpin]

Just got a 13" rMBP 2015 model the other day. Needed a mobile Unix system and it came down to this or a dell xps 13 with Ubuntu. The screen on this thing is mind blowing. I don't really get the force touchpad thing but I'm not coming from a previous MBP to compare it to.

On another note, I tried out the new MacBook and while I liked the screen and build of it,

The suspense is killing me.

 

[SuperSah]

I know I am asking a question in a thread dedicated to Mac, but is it definitely worth the extra money over a PC-based laptop? Also, does the Retina display allow for excellent viewing of 2K videos? I doubt 4k works out since I believe the Retina is lower than 4K.

Not too sure about that, but it's 2560x1600, and man the screen is incredible.

My wallpaper has black elements and the black is actual black, and all other colours pop so well, not a single pixel in sight.

It honestly makes it hard for me to use my desktop iMac these days.