Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

Worth mentioning I'm doing design work quite happily on a mid-specced 2011 Mac mini w/ an aftermarket SSD.

As long as you get an SSD a Mac mini should zip along well for any but the high-end demanding tasks.
 
I'm still using my Late 2009 iMac 27" and it runs superbly I must say, latest OSX. Still very fast (12GB RAM & an i7 2.8GHz processor). Every week or two I stay a few days at my girlfriend's house and the question is...do I turn off the iMac when I'm away? Or sleep the iMac or simply turn off the display?? Currently I just turn off the display and leave the Mac still on (cmd, shift, =)

Also, has anybody made any tracks with GarageBand? What's the deal with using Apple's Loops in your own music? They're there to be used but can you sell your music with Apple's Loops in with no worries? Any good GarageBand tutorials or guides?
 
Ninja Dom said:
I'm still using my Late 2009 iMac 27" and it runs superbly I must say, latest OSX. Still very fast (12GB RAM & an i7 2.8GHz processor). Every week or two I stay a few days at my girlfriend's house and the question is...do I turn off the iMac when I'm away? Or sleep the iMac or simply turn off the display?? Currently I just turn off the display and leave the Mac still on (cmd, shift, =)

Also, has anybody made any tracks with GarageBand? What's the deal with using Apple's Loops in your own music? They're there to be used but can you sell your music with Apple's Loops in with no worries? Any good GarageBand tutorials or guides?
Click to expand...

I usually just sleep my computers to avoid the extra energy consumption.

You're fine to use Apple's loops royalty-free for whatever you want in your compositions.
 
I am thinking of ditching my retina macbook pro in favour of a 2012 mini and a custom windows PC.

Question, I have apple care until 2018 on my macbook, how exactly does this transfer to the buyer? I know its linked to the computer itself and not my apple ID but do I need to do anything?
 
thenexus6 said:
I am thinking of ditching my retina macbook pro in favour of a 2012 mini and a custom windows PC.

Question, I have apple care until 2018 on my macbook, how exactly does this transfer to the buyer? I know its linked to the computer itself and not my apple ID but do I need to do anything?
Click to expand...
no
 
Ive got a mid 2010 macbook pro, thinking about upgrading the hard drive to an SSD, been looking at the samsung line, is there much of a difference between the 850 evo and the 850 pro?
 
TheRealGrampa said:
Ive got a mid 2010 macbook pro, thinking about upgrading the hard drive to an SSD, been looking at the samsung line, is there much of a difference between the 850 evo and the 850 pro?
Click to expand...

For a 2010 Macbook Pro the only difference is price. You won't see speed benefits and I highly doubt the longer warranty will be relevant for you.
 
My iMessages has completely stopped working on 10.11.3

Can't seem to send or receive iMessages or SMS messages linked with my iPhone.

Anyone know of any solutions?

Edit: Solution
1. Sign out of iMessage on OSX - Messages > Preferences
2. On iPhone, closed the Messages app
3. Signed out of Apple ID (Settings>Messages>Send&Receive > Tapped Apple ID, Signed out)
4. Turned off iMessage using toggle switch (Settings>Messages)
5. Turned back on iMessage using toggle switch
6. Signed back in Apple ID
7. Sign back in on OSX
Click to expand...
 
TUSR said:
My iMessages has completely stopped working on 10.11.3

Can't seem to send or receive iMessages or SMS messages linked with my iPhone.

Anyone know of any solutions?

Edit: Solution
Click to expand...

Did that actually work? I have had my logic board itself replaced because they thought it was the cause of iMessages not working on desktop.

That was the nuclear option and it still did not fix it.
 
I have had to do that when it would't work on my iPhone and it sorted it out.

A different problem required an Apple support person to remote into my Mac Mini and nuke some keys in Keychain. I don't remember the specifics of the problem but there were confusing error messages when it tried to login in with my iCloud credentials for iMessages.
 
Hello Macs.

I'm reading a lot of stuffs on Internet because I want to buy my first notebook and the chosen one is MacBook.
But I'm all confused now.

I really loved the new MacBook keyboard and size/weight but seems like a very week machine.

I need a machine for coding/developer that is light to take to any place and possible 16GB of RAM to run some Win VM if needed.

Yeap... looks like the MacBook Pro is the best option but lacks the new features that the new MacBook has and the MacBook Air has 8GB RAM only.

I need some advice.

I'm worried about the weight of MacBook Pro too.
 
chadskin said:
^ New MacBooks are expected to be unveiled at the Apple event next month (rumor is March 22nd), so sit tight until then.
Click to expand...
The problem is that I'm quitting my actual work in two weeks and the notebook I use is the work one that I will return to them.

I want to buy one in early March.

I really wish to wait but I will need a new note asap :(

And the options are making me confuse.
 
ethomaz said:
The problem is that I'm quitting my actual work in two weeks and the notebook I use is the work one that I will return to them.

I want to buy one in early March.

I really wish to wait but I will need a new note asap :(

And the options are making me confuse.
Click to expand...

You can return a Mac up to 14 days after you bought it for a refund, if you wanted. Could tide you over until after the event.

Based on your needs a 13" Macbook Pro is probably the best option. It's really not heavy at all in absolute terms, and it's far more power than the Air and retina Macbook for very little additional cost.
 
ethomaz said:
Hello Macs.

I'm reading a lot of stuffs on Internet because I want to buy my first notebook and the chosen one is MacBook.
But I'm all confused now.

I really loved the new MacBook keyboard and size/weight but seems like a very week machine.

I need a machine for coding/developer that is light to take to any place and possible 16GB of RAM to run some Win VM if needed.

Yeap... looks like the MacBook Pro is the best option but lacks the new features that the new MacBook has and the MacBook Air has 8GB RAM only.

I need some advice.

I'm worried about the weight of MacBook Pro too.
Click to expand...

Hi Etho! The 13" rMBP is not that heavy. The MacBook and the MBA are probably not powerful enough for a main machine. The new Mac Laptops should have Skylake processors and other good upgrades though. It's a tough call. Can you borrow something for a few weeks?

You are still in Brazil? In the USA you can return up to 14 days, as Fuchsdh said. Don't know the return policy in Brazil.
 
Fuchsdh said:
You can return a Mac up to 14 days after you bought it for a refund, if you wanted. Could tide you over until after the event.

Based on your needs a 13" Macbook Pro is probably the best option. It's really not heavy at all in absolute terms, and it's far more power than the Air and retina Macbook for very little additional cost.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I will check this option in Brazil.

Another question how is the noise and heat in stress use?

Deku Tree said:
Hi Etho! The 13" rMBP is not that heavy. The MacBook and the MBA are probably not powerful enough for a main machine. The new Mac Laptops should have Skylake processors and other good upgrades though. It's a tough call. Can you borrow something for a few weeks?

You are still in Brazil? In the USA you can return up to 14 days, as Fuchsdh said. Don't know the return policy in Brazil.
Click to expand...
I will try find an Apple Store near here to check the rMBP with my hands.

I just want some experiences with it about heat and noise.

I worked in a Lenovo T430 and it was so hot running basic stuffs.
 
ethomaz said:
Thanks. I will check this option in Brazil.

Another question how is the noise and heat in stress use?


I will try find an Apple Store near here to check the rMBP with my hands.

I just want some experiences with it about heat and noise.

I worked in a Lenovo T430 and it was so hot running basic stuffs.
Click to expand...

I have a 2012 15" rMBP and it runs silent. I don't notice fan noise. The aluminum case is part of the heat dissipation mechanism of the laptop, and it can get warm sitting on your lap if your watching a 1080p movie or something like that... but nothing that I ever felt was a problem. I usually don't use it on my lap.
 
Anyone tried Nylas N1? Looks great.

JFx6TYf.png
Click to expand...

https://medium.com/@Nylas/nylas-n1-...ctions-emoji-and-more-561cd1e91559#.61es8z5gs
 
Apple Mail works good enough for me.

I find it dangerous to invest in these smaller company email clients because you never know when they will stop receiving support, or stop working with your next OS X update, and be unsure if or when it will get patched.
 
I only use Mail at work, and just use Gmail's webmail for everything else. Don't want to spend the room storing all my emails offline.
 
Quality control issues or just unlucky?

My 27" iMac after just over one year, goes black and now acts like the PSU is dead.
My iPhone 6, after 14 months, stops reading SIM cards.
The replacement iPhone 6 - which I had to buy at a discount as Apple told me the 1yr warranty on the above broken one was up - lasts a week now thinks the headphones are always plugged in.
My wife's 5c bought new, but on eBay, spontaneously reboots or freezes once a day on average.

Seriously wondering whether production quality is diminishing. Also al least around here Genius Bar appoIntments at six Apple stores are all booked up for over a week out....
 
Those replacement iPhones have at least a 3 month warranty, so you should be covered.

I would never buy an iPhone off eBay.

And if you bought AppleCare then you'd be covered for your iMac, or if you live in the EU then you have a 2 year warranty anyway. And sometimes if you bring the computer into the AppleStore then they fix it for free. But I would talk to Apple about it ASAP if I were you.

I'm sorry that you've had these problems. I buy lots and lots of Apple products and I've fortunately not had the same issues. And I haven't heard about other people with similar issues. Apple still has some of the best design, highest standards for parts, and highest build quality in the computer industry IMO. But things do break. So I would say your just unlucky.
 
that's what I thought,

but when I google the problems I have experienced in the last month, I see lots of hits for exactly the hardware issues I got, and the they are not fixable: you get a hardware swap.

The iMac should be covered because there is a two year consumer law in Australia which supercedes the apple 1 year warranty. I hope they give me the option to preserve my HDD.

And my impression from genius bar booking schedules being full so far out, is they are understaffed. While I was there for the phone, a bunch of people were getting hardware swaps left and right of me. It seemed like swapping nearly new phones was a pretty common event, and I left with an impression that the failure rate is currently quite high. I've no numbers of course. However I would not be surprised to hear their manufacturing has gone backward.
 
People go to the Apple Store to fix problems, and if you google "my X is broken" you always get tons of stories about how X broke. Apple sells massive numbers. The kind of anecdotal evidence about what you have seen is not conclusive.
 
Deku Tree said:
People go to the Apple Store to fix problems, and if you google "my X is broken" you always get tons of stories about how X broke. Apple sells massive numbers. The kind of anecdotal evidence about what you have seen is not conclusive.
Click to expand...
? Well neither is your own anecdotal evidence conclusive. Genius bar backlog and long wait times is something you can confirm objectively by checking the Apple websites...
 
But nobody went online and checked Genius Bar backlog overall.

If Apples hardware quality is going down the tubes I'd be one of the first to want to know about it.
 
Deku Tree said:
But nobody went online and checked Genius Bar backlog overall.
Click to expand...
Well if you're so concerned about anecdotal experience why don't you go do that?

Deku Tree said:
If Apples hardware quality is going down the tubes I'd be one of the first to want to know about it.
Click to expand...
Er, Apple's hardware quality has always been 'down the tubes' so to speak. The old adage was don't buy first generation Apple products, wait until the third gen. Apple has had lots of hardware recalls over the years. What separates Apple from other PC makers for the average consumer is that their retail stores are much better than shitty best buy for warranty stuff
 
For the record, hardware swaps for iPhones are typically how they handle "repairs". Not all repair agents are authorised to do component repairs and typically offer a replacement unit.

It streamlines the process and increases customer satisfaction by not lengthening repair times and reducing the probability of a bad repair.

On top of that, you're at a place where people go with problems. You're going to get a biased view of that. No-one is going on with working devices and no problems.
 
Hell it seems like the Genius Bar has always been packed, I remember having to go in the morning before opening for my Power Mac in 2003 and waiting around with a few others for repairs. And besides being the place to go for problems, there's only so many of them around, and afaik they're generally placed in high traffic areas.

As far as hardware quality in general though, if anything I'd say it's better, but I don't really have an objective basis for that. I'm talking a long term view too though, like before x86, everything is a lot tighter now.

That said I still generally follow the avoid rev. A thing, but it's always been a loose rule personally. It could be for a new design where everything changes, where I think they've gotten a lot better and fixed stuff faster nowadays, or just for new internal hardware, which is where the looseness plays in. A "rev. B" could be nearly identical externally and still be completely new internally. These days I feel like I wait for revisions more for wanting particular features (like TB3 currently) rather than being worried about issues with first gen hardware.

I'll have no problem getting the next Mac mini immediately if it's a full on redesign that has what I want (...not that I actually expect that).

(And for a general industry wide footnote, look up lead free solder problems)
 
Apple's got a well-earned reputation for solid hardware. According to Consumer Reports:

We estimate that only 10 percent of Apple laptops fail by the third year of ownership. The numbers for Windows laptop brands range from 16 percent to 19 percent. In addition, Apple laptops break down less often than laptops from other brands. Among laptops that fail, only 42 percent of Apples break down more than once, while more than half (55 percent) of non-Apple laptops break down on multiple occasions.
Click to expand...

Then add to that Apple consistently having the top-rated tech support. By any objective measure Apple products are among the best you can buy (whether or not that build quality and support is worth the price premium you generally pay is of course a more personal choice.)

There's no indication hardware quality is decreasing, and even among the Apple pundits saying Apple's software quality is decreasing (which is also debatable, albeit far harder to come up with any objective numbers) that's usually presented in contrast to the hardware. God knows I would run Apple differently if I were in charge, (update the Mini regularly! Don't make your products hard to upgrade for no good reason! Update the Mac Pro at least every two years!) for the vast majority of consumers it seems like Apple's doing what it needs to be.

And the "wait for Rev B." thing is I think just more a consequence of us tech nerds always wanting the best product to an unreasonable degree, because the fear of getting a product that becomes obsolete that much quicker can be intensely demoralizing. For new product categories like the Apple Watch and portables? Yeah if you can live without it now it's probably better to watch for another version. But with mature product categories like the Mac and (to me) the iPhone, just buy when you need it and stop caring so much about it.
 
How often do people go to Genius Bars these days?

The last time I had to go was for my Macbook Pro I bought in 08. Those got really hot and really loud! Also the bezels broke.

I didn't need to go back there for my previous two Macbook Pros 2013 and 2015.

I didn't need to buy Applecare, so that's money saved. The best warranty is one that I never have to use. It takes effort , fuel and time to go to an Apple store, which is usually a 30 minute drive.
 
Deku Tree said:
The current Mac Mini is about 1.5 years old from Oct 2014:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Mini

It is still a solid very fast machine if you do basic stuff, particularly if you put an SSD in it.

Seems to be on a two year upgrade cycle so good chance we get a new one in October 2016 or earlier (but no guarantee of that).
Click to expand...

Yeah my Mac mini is getting a little old even though there's nothing wrong with it (it's a Sandy Bridge mini) but I just want something a bit newer. Also the no guarantee just makes me eh...
 
Just to be clear, I wouldn't need to book a slot at the Genius Bar except that is how Apple appears to arrange the initial part of its warranty process.

When you call the toll free number with "my Mac broke" they ask you to do a basic reset on the phone then if that doesn't work, they find a Genius Bar appointment for you. I would honestly rather have the option to be sent a box to return it, or have it picked up, instead of driving across half the city to the least crowded Genius Bar so some blue shirt can call me by my first name, make a joke or two, and confirm that yes indeed it is broken (after peering into a slot with a led torch to check you are not trying to pass off a water damaged phone).

As an option, for uncertain things, it's just fine, but no surprise it's booked solid if it's full of people doing self-courier for warranty work.
 
Afro Samurai said:
How often do people go to Genius Bars these days?

The last time I had to go was for my Macbook Pro I bought in 08. Those got really hot and really loud! Also the bezels broke.

I didn't need to go back there for my previous two Macbook Pros 2013 and 2015.

I didn't need to buy Applecare, so that's money saved. The best warranty is one that I never have to use. It takes effort , fuel and time to go to an Apple store, which is usually a 30 minute drive.
Click to expand...
Last time I went for a Mac was uhh, my brother's white MacBook, I think first generation cause it wasn't a Core 2 iirc. He ended up buying a pre unibody C2D MBP I think (vs paying for a depot repair) so that would've been 07-08? Last time I went for my own Mac was my G5 in 2003 I think, not too long after it came out. I've had five Mac minis since then without issues (even my CPU upgraded one with the heat sink bolted on cause the original clips broke). Otherwise took my iPhone 4 in way back cause the home button was getting flaky...and I dropped it and jacked up a volume button.

Location wise I'm lucky, there's three malls within 15-20 minutes that have them.
Autumn Wind said:
Yeah my Mac mini is getting a little old even though there's nothing wrong with it (it's a Sandy Bridge mini) but I just want something a bit newer. Also the no guarantee just makes me eh...
Click to expand...
Same here, it's mostly fine still, main noticeable drawback is USB 2 for cheap storage. I have a TB-USB 3 + eSATA adapter for that...but that takes away my DisplayPort output. My screen died recently which left me in a bind (before it magically started working again?!), cause if I get a new screen I want a 1440p ultra wide, and most (all?) need DP.
 
Everything is all fucked up now. Last night out of nowhere my Quicklook stopped working correctly. Icons no longer showed previews and Quicklook would show garbled data instead of images. So I tried cleaning some caches.

It started working fine for a few minutes until it stopped again.

So tonight I did another cache clear and it didn't work so I tried removing all my Quicklook plugins. And it seemed to work. Except that it started showing errors since the plugins were suddenly missing. So I decided to reboot.

Big mistake. I've spent the last hour fighting the machine trying to get the machine to boot up because of the stuck T key causing trouble. Since T causes a Mac to go into Target mode, half the time it tries to do that when I boot up. So I hold option to try and get to the disk selection. Some of that time it will try to boot up the OS but something is broken in the system so it gets stuck halfway loaded. The rest it will show the selector. But rarely. I tried safe mode and it still got stuck. I tried verbose mode and it still got stuck. I tried single user mode (Command prompt only mode) and saw some new stuff that might explain my reboot problems maybe. But still couldn't do anything since I've already deleted caches. There's nothing else to reset.

So now I have finally gotten it to load up the recovery partition after a hundred reboots holding Option. So I'm reinstalling the OS. I assume it's going to install the current stable version. Hopefully that doesn't screw anything up. I should have reformatted.

Hahaha. It just rebooted during the install and went into Target mode. Ugh. This is literally the worst. So I've rebooted holding a "cancelling" modifier to make sure T isn't accepted. It's back to installing.

Guess I should finally make that appointment at the Apple Store for this. Hopefully it at least installs. I have a recent backup if I need it.

Edit: Ugh. No appointments until at earliest Thursday.
 
Hi!
Any fixes for camera issues on a 2014 Air? I get a message saying "no camera available" whenever I open FaceTime etc. It's been like this for a few months, and I've already tried a few terminal commands (sudo killall VDCAssistant, and sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant).

Running the newest OS, had the issue before I updated.
 
killertofu said:
A 17 inch 2011 MacBook Pro is probably too dated for now right?
Click to expand...

Some 17-inch 2011 models are also the subject of a bad graphics card and can potentially have a free repair, which usually mounts a logic board replacement. You have to bring it to an apple store to see, but if it gets a new logic board replacement, I'd say it would be a nice machine to have.
 
killertofu said:
A 17 inch 2011 MacBook Pro is probably too dated for now right?
Click to expand...
Are you purchasing or do you already own?

If you own it already, as said above you can get some more life out of it with more RAM and a SSD if you don't already have it.

If you're looking to purchase, I wouldn't recommend it personally. I mean maybe you want the 17" screen and since they don't even make them anymore it might be tempting but I dunno. A 15" Retina with the resolution bumped up to the 1920x1200 option seems fine enough screen-space-wise. It's also the equivalent to what the 17" model is anyway. Things would just be smaller. (And IMHO the perfect size)
 
Do we still think that Apple are going to be unveiling the new MBPs at the March event? Every time I read a rumour about it, it's about the new iPad and iPhone that appear to be all-but-confirmed now, but never anything about what could be coming in the new Pro line.

I've got the money for a new 13"er burning a hole through my pocket, but I'm increasingly thinking I'm going to end up disappointed.
 
Dachande said:
I've got the money for a new 13"er burning a hole through my pocket, but I'm increasingly thinking I'm going to end up disappointed.
Click to expand...

Same here. My MacBook Air from 2011 needs a rest. I can see the 13" MacBook Pro happening, but I assume they will keep the 15" version for WWDC and Polaris/Pascal GPU. Worst case we will both at WWDC.
 
I visited a couple of sites I hadn't before, and checked to see if they were safe beforehand. Both were legitimate sites, one of which was Mail.ru.

I scanned my computer just now, while I was out shoveling snow, and Avast is showing that there are two Win-32: Smadow [Tri] trojans. The files are dbr_str.map. MalwareBytes did not find it.

I don't know how I got them, because I didn't download anything from these sites, although I did view them of course. But, as I said, both were supposed to be okay.

Think there's any chance it's a false positive? And if not, what do I do? It directs me to the files in Finder, but there are other files there too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Sports betting |OT|
7
10K
Hideous Snake replied
ItalianGAF |OT| - Italia
3
964
Azzurri replied
Food |OT| GAFeteria
2
77
17K
SLoWMoTIoN replied
Are all American supermarkets like Costco?
13
2K
Afro Republican replied
  • Locked
My French assistant has a thing for me...
3
7K
Yoshi replied
Top Bottom