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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

K

KharmaPolice

Member
This might be a stupid question but I am worried about the integrity of my MBA: So I just discovered a text file simply called TEST.txt in my top directory (is that how its called? I mean the directory that opens after clicking on your harddrive). The content of the file is simply 'TEST' and it got created today when I was logged in into my universities network.

I didn't create it myself so now I am worried that someone on the network accessed my mac. Is that even possible? How would I check that?
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
KharmaPolice said:
This might be a stupid question but I am worried about the integrity of my MBA: So I just discovered a text file simply called TEST.txt in my top directory (is that how its called? I mean the directory that opens after clicking on your harddrive). The content of the file is simply 'TEST' and it got created today when I was logged in into my universities network.

I didn't create it myself so now I am worried that someone on the network accessed my mac. Is that even possible? How would I check that?
Click to expand...

Make sure your firewall is active and you've turned off sharing.

People on my wired network in college didn't secure their computers and I ended up dropping text files on their desktops to tell them to close things up.
 
K

KharmaPolice

Member
Fuchsdh said:
Make sure your firewall is active and you've turned off sharing.

People on my wired network in college didn't secure their computers and I ended up dropping text files on their desktops to tell them to close things up.
Click to expand...

I checked the sharing section in system settings and everything was already disabled. I also activated the firewall. Is there a way to see if other people accessed my mac? Maybe some network connections log?
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
KharmaPolice said:
I checked the sharing section in system settings and everything was already disabled. I also activated the firewall. Is there a way to see if other people accessed my mac? Maybe some network connections log?
Click to expand...

Might be something in Console.app under Utilities. Not sure what you'd be looking for, though, someone with greater UNIX-fu might.
 
K

KharmaPolice

Member
I looked around in Console.app around the time the file got created but didn't see anything that seemed related. I think I'm just gonna leave it at, doesn't seem to be worth loosing sleep over. Thanks for your help!
 
M

Mortemis

Banned
So I got a macbook pro in the beginning of the year and I love everything about it. I've been having a problem with the screen though. At the bottom left corner of the screen, it's lighter in that corner than anywhere else, mostly being a bother whenever I'm watching something. Not really too big of an issue, but like I said it does get annoying when I'm watching something and that corner is distracting me. I've noticed too that if I apply pressure to the bezel, it goes away and comes back when I let go, so maybe it's a gap in the screen or something?

Question is, do you guys think I should take it to the apple store? Someone once told me apple doesn't really do shit when it comes to the screens, and you may have to pay a lot of money but I don't know how accurate that claim is.
 
C

chadskin

Member
Mortemis said:
So I got a macbook pro in the beginning of the year and I love everything about it. I've been having a problem with the screen though. At the bottom left corner of the screen, it's lighter in that corner than anywhere else, mostly being a bother whenever I'm watching something. Not really too big of an issue, but like I said it does get annoying when I'm watching something and that corner is distracting me. I've noticed too that if I apply pressure to the bezel, it goes away and comes back when I let go, so maybe it's a gap in the screen or something?

Question is, do you guys think I should take it to the apple store? Someone once told me apple doesn't really do shit when it comes to the screens, and you may have to pay a lot of money but I don't know how accurate that claim is.
Click to expand...

I don't have this issue with my MBP and it's hard to judge from afar but if you're still within warranty and it bothers you, it won't hurt to take it to the Apple Store. Hear what they say, they'll tell you if they can fix it or if they can offer you a replacement unit free of charge. If they can't they'll certainly tell you beforehand what a repair/replacement unit would cost which you can always decline.

In my limited experience, they've been extremely helpful and accommodating.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Looking like there won't be a new 27" iMac this year. :( I'm going to up my 2009 iMac from 12 to 16GB RAM as a stopgap, but I really hope it's not too long before new ones come out. Mine is definitely reaching end of life.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Servbot24 said:
Looking like there won't be a new 27" iMac this year. :( I'm going to up my 2009 iMac from 12 to 16GB RAM as a stopgap, but I really hope it's not too long before new ones come out. Mine is definitely reaching end of life.
Click to expand...

Any 27" refresh coming out this year, aside from maybe the GPU, wouldn't be much of an upgrade anyhow. "Wait for Skylake" feels like something people have been saying for two years now, but yeah... wait for Skylake.

Honestly unless you're hitting memory limits often the upgrade from 12GB to 16GB might not make your computer much speedier. Do you have an SSD?
 
M

Mortemis

Banned
chadskin said:
I don't have this issue with my MBP and it's hard to judge from afar but if you're still within warranty and it bothers you, it won't hurt to take it to the Apple Store. Hear what they say, they'll tell you if they can fix it or if they can offer you a replacement unit free of charge. If they can't they'll certainly tell you beforehand what a repair/replacement unit would cost which you can always decline.

In my limited experience, they've been extremely helpful and accommodating.
Click to expand...

Alright, gonna go for it. Didn't wanna waste time if they really didn't repair screens, but like you said it won't hurt to go if I'm under warranty.

Just made an appointment, thanks!
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Fuchsdh said:
Any 27" refresh coming out this year, aside from maybe the GPU, wouldn't be much of an upgrade anyhow. "Wait for Skylake" feels like something people have been saying for two years now, but yeah... wait for Skylake.

Honestly unless you're hitting memory limits often the upgrade from 12GB to 16GB might not make your computer much speedier. Do you have an SSD?
Click to expand...

Yeah I have an SSD, and I do tend to max out my RAM sometimes running Photoshop, ZBrush, Maya etc at once. It may not make much difference, but it should help a little bit. Also gonna reformat.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Servbot24 said:
Yeah I have an SSD, and I do tend to max out my RAM sometimes running Photoshop, ZBrush, Maya etc at once. It may not make much difference, but it should help a little bit. Also gonna reformat.
Click to expand...

Ah, okay then. If you've got a late 2009 model with a Core i processor your computer can also take up to 32GB.
 
Y

Yasawas

Member
Can anyone recommend a good mp3 tag editor I can use to manage files for my Android phone? iTunes can almost do what I want but what I really need is for it to be able to rename directories if I change the artist name field and it doesn't seem to do that.
 
N

Ninja Dom

Member
Servbot24 said:
Looking like there won't be a new 27" iMac this year. :( I'm going to up my 2009 iMac from 12 to 16GB RAM as a stopgap, but I really hope it's not too long before new ones come out. Mine is definitely reaching end of life.
Click to expand...

Hah!! I got the Late 2009 iMac 27" with 12GB RAM. I'm not having any performance issues at all (El Capitan). What are you suffering? Why are you adding more RAM?

EDIT: Just seen you run art packages. What SSD have you got in it? I never knew it was possible to add an SSD. How do you do it? I've still got the 1TB stock/default HDD.

EDIT 2: I've just seen this tutorial on YouTube and I don't have the tools, expertise or confidence to carry that out myself. http://youtu.be/Lp7_AP0wc7s
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Ninja Dom said:
Hah!! I got the Late 2009 iMac 27" with 12GB RAM. I'm not having any performance issues at all (El Capitan). What are you suffering? Why are you adding more RAM?

EDIT: Just seen you run art packages. What SSD have you got in it? I never knew it was possible to add an SSD. How do you do it? I've still got the 1TB stock/default HDD.

EDIT 2: I've just seen this tutorial on YouTube and I don't have the tools, expertise or confidence to carry that out myself. http://youtu.be/Lp7_AP0wc7s
Click to expand...

I can't say I've done an iMac repair, but the 2009 ones don't seem that bad (with the modern iMacs there's adhesive you have to cut and replace and other nastiness.) I ended up swapping the processors on my Mac Pro and cracking open my iPod classic and replacing the battery and the HDD with an SD card recently. I'd never done repairs of that caliber before. Just watching videos and making sure I had the right tools at hand was enough.
 
S

seventynine

Member
Mulling over the idea of a second computer. For the last few years I've been using an iMac and an iPad 2 for on-the-couch use but that's getting old and more crash prone with each iOS release and in truth I was never very productive with it.

I did think the iPad Pro would be a suitable replacement, but in terms of cost I think I'd be far better off getting the base level MacBook Pro instead. I presume it could handle Final Cut, Motion, photo editing and the like? Any heavy duty work could be offloaded to the iMac.

It would probably last longer too? My iMac is approaching three years old now and still works well, albeit could do with a clean install to clear out the crap I've accumulated, I think had a about two good years with the iPad before the rot set in.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
The HDD in my iMac is really really slow. I want an SSD in it eventually but I don't want to install it myself. Is taking it to an Apple Store an option? How much do they charge just for like a 256 or 512gb replacement? Or are there places that do it for you? I don't know if I trust myself to get it back together again without problems. Especially with a big piece of glass having to be stuck back on.
 
M

Mr. Wonderful

Member
The Real Abed said:
The HDD in my iMac is really really slow. I want an SSD in it eventually but I don't want to install it myself. Is taking it to an Apple Store an option? How much do they charge just for like a 256 or 512gb replacement? Or are there places that do it for you? I don't know if I trust myself to get it back together again without problems. Especially with a big piece of glass having to be stuck back on.
Click to expand...

If it's not the most recent thinner iMacs, upgrading the drive or installing an optibay drive isn't that difficult to do. The only thing you have to be careful of are all the freaking ribbon cables, which are incredibly delicate, and you don't want to just yank or tear.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Nope. It's a 2014 model. I've watched the instructions. You have to pry the screen off so carefully and so much stuff. I wish I had a friend I could just pay to do it when the time comes. I don't know if and when I will though. It's just really annoying the time it takes to launch stuff.
 
E

EmiPrime

Member
The Real Abed said:
The HDD in my iMac is really really slow. I want an SSD in it eventually but I don't want to install it myself. Is taking it to an Apple Store an option? How much do they charge just for like a 256 or 512gb replacement? Or are there places that do it for you? I don't know if I trust myself to get it back together again without problems. Especially with a big piece of glass having to be stuck back on.
Click to expand...

Any Apple authorised service provider worth their salt will do upgrades. Do you have one near you?

https://locate.apple.com/country
 
S

serversurfer

Member
Yasawas said:
Can anyone recommend a good mp3 tag editor I can use to manage files for my Android phone? iTunes can almost do what I want but what I really need is for it to be able to rename directories if I change the artist name field and it doesn't seem to do that.
Click to expand...
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > "Keep iTunes Media folder organized"
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"

Trash the original files once they've been added to your library; you don't need them. Just point your phone at your iTunes Media folder.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
Nope. It's a 2014 model. I've watched the instructions. You have to pry the screen off so carefully and so much stuff. I wish I had a friend I could just pay to do it when the time comes. I don't know if and when I will though. It's just really annoying the time it takes to launch stuff.
Click to expand...

Why didn't you get an SSD or "fusion drive" in it from the start? The fusion doesn't cost much more.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Deku Tree said:
Why didn't you get an SSD or "fusion drive" in it from the start? The fusion doesn't cost much more.
Click to expand...
It was refurbished. If I had an option I would have. But it wasn't an option. I'd probably have just gone with the SSD personally. I wouldn't willingly buy a HDD boot-drive in this day and age.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
As stated, authorized service provider's your best bet. Or you just plunk a SSD into a Thunderbolt enclosure and use that as a boot drive instead. Be slightly more expensive than the cost of an internal + doing it yourself, but I'd wager you'd probably still come out cheaper than paying someone to do it for you.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
I'll decide in time. But sometimes I really miss the days when it was dead simple to replace parts in a Mac. Especially these high-end 27" ones. At least the RAM was user accessible. But the least they could have done is put a HDD/SSD access bay on the back too. Question. In the 27", is there room and cables for a second drive (Since you can do Fusion as an option) or is it just the one? Because I'd be perfectly fine with adding a small SSD boot drive and keeping the 1TB for other files like I do now.

I remember when I had my first generation Mac mini in 2005 and the HDD was so slow even back then that I booted my machine off my external Firewire drive until I wore the port out. It was so much faster. (And this was before Intel)

HDDs are so fucking slow. I can't believe Apple hasn't just gone all out and switched every machine to Flash by default yet. Even if it's not standard drives, I don't care. I'd much rather have every machine be Flash and never see another HDD for booting in a Mac again. I'm sure other people will disagree though. Even the Mac Pro only does Flash now. All that's left is the Mac mini (Which really disappointed me when they didn't go the Air route with the redesign) and the iMac. (Which I guess is a Pro machine, but so is the Mac Pro.) Put some Flash sticks in these machines! Just go all out and drop HDD forever. Can you imagine? Apple being completely Flash? Not a single HDD bottleneck in the house?

Edit: Would the Thunderbolt SSD route really work well? Because it could be a really smart thing if it did. I did it with Firewire so why not Thunderbolt? (Especially since I don't even use the TB port on my machines as it is.)
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
You can boot from TB peripherals just like you could with FW, the difference being it'll be much faster and you'll definitely be able to saturate most interfaces.

Obviously you know what amount you're willing to spend, but for maximum speed getting a two-bay enclosure that you can RAID two SSDs together would be your best bet, although that probably means having a simple bus-powered option goes out the door.
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
Servbot24 said:
Looking like there won't be a new 27" iMac this year. :( I'm going to up my 2009 iMac from 12 to 16GB RAM as a stopgap, but I really hope it's not too long before new ones come out. Mine is definitely reaching end of life.
Click to expand...

Next year brings Nvidia Pascal. The gains are going to be substantial. It's been Maxwell for 2 generations now. So it's a big deal. The bad news? It might be Q3 2016. That is 12 months from now.


There is also the rumor that they are going to do a 34-inch 21:9 mintor Imac. Would be pretty incredible for a productivity viewpoint. I could have illustrator, photoshop and indesign open fullscreen at the same time. or watch a 1080p movie full size while working or browsing thanks the extra real estate.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
Next year brings Nvidia Pascal. The gains are going to be substantial. It's been Maxwell for 2 generations now. So it's a big deal. The bad news? It might be Q3 2016. That is 12 months from now.


There is also the rumor that they are going to do a 34-inch 21:9 mintor Imac. Would be pretty incredible for a productivity viewpoint. I could have illustrator, photoshop and indesign open fullscreen at the same time. or watch a 1080p movie full size while working or browsing thanks the extra real estate.
Click to expand...

What would the resolution on that be, though? They can't really go higher than 5K as far as we know, and they've thus far stuck to simple doubling for retina screens...
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
Fuchsdh said:
What would the resolution on that be, though? They can't really go higher than 5K as far as we know, and they've thus far stuck to simple doubling for retina screens...
Click to expand...

Maybe they would sacrifice the PPI and go to a 4K (reduce cost)?

In my mind?

Add more thickness. Cut the tapered design. On a 34-inch body, you have much better heat management. you have room for upgradeable HDD bays. you could have both a full 3,5 HDD bay, and a SSD bay, upgradeable by the user as well as ram. It could really be awesome.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
Maybe they would sacrifice the PPI and go to a 4K (reduce cost)?

In my mind?

Add more thickness. Cut the tapered design. On a 34-inch body, you have much better heat management. you have room for upgradeable HDD bays. you could have both a full 3,5 HDD bay, and a SSD bay, upgradeable by the user as well as ram. It could really be awesome.
Click to expand...

I dunno if there's a niche for that sort of computer in Apple's stable, though. The people who tend to want the level of upgrade options like that wouldn't really wanted to be wedded to a certain screen. A Mac Pro has greater expansion options and ease of upgrade (even in its new incarnation) over any iMac. The Pro market has been getting eaten up, but it's by current iMacs that are powerful enough.
 
H

Herbs

Banned
This may be too specific to get help here but I can't find anything online for this.

I have NFL Sunday Ticket and use a VPN to access it in the UK. It works fine on my Macbook, but for some reason, on the iPad the VPN is on but the Sunday Ticket app still recognizes I'm out of the country. Any ideas? Does VPN on an iPad function differently due to the location services option that needs to be unchecked?

edit:
I'm wondering if it's due to the GPS checking in? Is that how location services works?
 
M

Moreche

Member
I'm looking at buying a 2015 13" MBP 8GB with 128SSD for £800.
Would I be better to wait for the sky lake upgrade or would this be a decent purchase?
 
G

giga

Member
I'm guessing the reason they haven't updated the MBP with Skylake is because none of the 28W chips have launched yet. The 15W iris chips have been available.
 
C

chadskin

Member
The best iOS PDF app gets a Mac version:

pdfexpert_mac_beta.png


You can sign-up for the beta here: https://readdle.com/pdfexpert_mac
 
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