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[The Real Abed]

Lol, I was just saying cause I think it's ridiculous that Apple will replace the whole top case instead for $500-600, when it's literally sheet metal + trackpad (probably $80 at most) + keyboard (which is $40 at most).

It's Apple. We all know they'd charge $600 if they could.

My bigger fear however is turnaround time. Have they ever been able to do a full replacement same day in-store? Maybe I'll try the local authorized Apple retailer next to work first. I'd hope they'd have the same prices. Though they'd be more likely to have a 2-3 day wait than an actual Apple Store.

Plus I could finally test out the new shallow keyboard and force trackpads and see if I'm going to like them when the time comes that I'll be forced to use them.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

It's Apple. We all know they'd charge $600 if they could.

Labour rate was super cheap at the local Apple Store when dad had his old 27" iMac's HDD swapped. They charged $40 for the labour and $140 for a 1TB drive. This was the last pre-Fusion drive model so involved suction cups and adhesives.

 

[Pinewood]

Labour rate was super cheap at the local Apple Store when dad had his old 27" iMac's HDD swapped. They charged $40 for the labour and $140 for a 1TB drive. This was the last pre-Fusion drive model so involved suction cups and adhesives.

Yea but $140 for a 1TB drive...

 

[The Real Abed]

Labour rate was super cheap at the local Apple Store when dad had his old 27" iMac's HDD swapped. They charged $40 for the labour and $140 for a 1TB drive. This was the last pre-Fusion drive model so involved suction cups and adhesives.

Yea but $140 for a 1TB drive...

I'd be afraid to ask what they'd charge just for a 128GB SSD. Or an upgrade to a Fusion Drive (Which I suspect would either require a new logic board, or just that Fusion adapter. I don't know if they use different boards for the non-Fusion versions.)

 

[Anion]

It's Apple. We all know they'd charge $600 if they could.

My bigger fear however is turnaround time. Have they ever been able to do a full replacement same day in-store? Maybe I'll try the local authorized Apple retailer next to work first. I'd hope they'd have the same prices. Though they'd be more likely to have a 2-3 day wait than an actual Apple Store.

Plus I could finally test out the new shallow keyboard and force trackpads and see if I'm going to like them when the time comes that I'll be forced to use them.

When I went in to the apple retailer in Pittsburgh, they told me ~1-2 days at most I think. And yeah haha, thats the thing about the price lol. At least youll get a whole new top case haha

I thought the PayPal dispute window has been bumped to 180 days recently.

Oh damn. Ill have to look up in that. I thought that was starting in June/July

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Yea but $140 for a 1TB drive...

... Canadian, and not a cheap one. Still, 30% markup.

 

[jts]

I would like to try to get to the bottom of this:

There is no way I can get spotlight to search for my music. This is the case for as long as I can remember. Music is checked in spotlight's settings. I’ve even unchecked and checked it again.

I even forced spotlight to completely reindex, but nothing seems to work.

MBP 13” 2010 running OS X 10.11.4

Any clues?

 

[CraigMcD]

Got an appointment at the Genius Bar for my MacBook Pro tomorrow. It's been randomly turning off for months now and only comes back on when it feels like it.

If they can't isolate the fault and repair it, am I likely to get a replacement? Or would they send it away for further testing?

What's the best way to backup my stuff? Not too bothered about my files as they're spread across Dropbox and OneDrive, but it'd be nice to not have to setup my apps again.

 

[giga]

Got an appointment at the Genius Bar for my MacBook Pro tomorrow. It's been randomly turning off for months now and only comes back on when it feels like it.

If they can't isolate the fault and repair it, am I likely to get a replacement? Or would they send it away for further testing?

What's the best way to backup my stuff? Not too bothered about my files as they're spread across Dropbox and OneDrive, but it'd be nice to not have to setup my apps again.

Backblaze, but a time machine or superduper backup and restore will be much faster.

 

[mrkgoo]

Got an appointment at the Genius Bar for my MacBook Pro tomorrow. It's been randomly turning off for months now and only comes back on when it feels like it.

If they can't isolate the fault and repair it, am I likely to get a replacement? Or would they send it away for further testing?

What's the best way to backup my stuff? Not too bothered about my files as they're spread across Dropbox and OneDrive, but it'd be nice to not have to setup my apps again.

If it's under warranty or AppleCare, it's likely a part replacement. Whole unit replacements are reserved for repeated issues.

Time machine is the most straight forward because you already have it.

 

[chadskin]

OSX 10.11.5 and iTunes 12.4 are out.

iTunes has a slightly simpler layout now which I really dig. Feels like it's a lot more responsive, too.

 

[ElTorro]

OSX 10.11.5 and iTunes 12.4 are out.

iTunes has a slightly simpler layout now which I really dig. Feels like it's a lot more responsive, too.

It's definitely improved. The context menu, for instance, now has "Go to album" and "Go to interpret" items, which I really missed.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Brought back the persistent sidebar too. Will definitely be interested in downloading.

 

[mrkgoo]

I miss being able to quickly flip panes between movies music etc...but maybe I'll just have to get used to shortcut keys instead.

Is it possible to view things like apps in list view?


Hopefully 10.10.5 resolves some hard freezes I've been getting on wake. like my whole machine locks up in finder, and force relaunching does nothing.

 

[Ambitious]

Five minutes of using iTunes 12.4.

 

[Vashetti]

Five minutes of using iTunes 12.4.

I know it's anecdotal, but I've never had any of the issues you regularly complain about.

Have you considered your hardware being at fault?

 

[EmiPrime]

I know it's anecdotal, but I've never had any of the issues you regularly complain about.

Have you considered your hardware being at fault?

The stuff Ambitious complains about has nothing to do with hardware.

I forgot to wait for Nvidia to release a new version of their graphics drivers before updating to 10.11.5. Oops.

I say that and a minute later the update pops up.

 

[Ambitious]

I know it's anecdotal, but I've never had any of the issues you regularly complain about.

Have you considered your hardware being at fault?

No, layout issues like that aren't caused by faulty hardware.

edit: Actually, it looks like the issue was that the view wasn't redrawn properly, so it was probably caused by the GPU driver or some low-level graphics library. Nonetheless, it's a software issue.

 

[mrkgoo]

Well, technically speaking anything could still be hardware. Like a gpu flaw that makes it read the drivers incorrectly. Maybe Bad RAM.

Everything passes through RAM, so bad ram can cause all sorts of weird manifestations.

But I would say it's more likely to be a software thing. Just that computers are complex and a marriage of software and hardware. It takes one to have the other function. Sometimes one side might not technically be at fault but be the one that manifests the issue due to fault in the other.

 

[The Real Abed]

Could also be a corrupt system file that never gets replaced by updates and seems innocuous.

Who knows.

But I've never had any of the problems Ambitious has either.

 

[Deku Tree]

Five minutes of using iTunes 12.4.

Clean install

 

[Vashetti]

Siri

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/05/18/siri-for-mac-os-x-10-12-dock-icon/

 

[Anion]

Bad ram is the worst.


Even after you replace the ram, the horrors of OS corruption exist. I've had that issue on both OSX and Windows

 

[jts]

100% my Mac will not support Siri, but it's to be expected.

Come on 256GB baseline MBPr with USB-C.

 

[EmiPrime]

I wonder if "Hey Siri, pause" will be tied to the iTunes function or the media key function.

 

[Enter Here]

It has been a full year since Macbook Pro Retina was updated. I have my credit card waiting. iGPU has vastly improved compared to last iteration of Macbook Pro Retina.

 

[The Real Abed]

100% my Mac will not support Siri, but it's to be expected.

Come on 256GB baseline MBPr with USB-C.

How old is your machine? I'd hope Hey, Siri would work on anything with a microphone. I mean processors are pretty fast enough. Macs have had voice recognition since the '90s and it uses the internet. They're not cell phones.

But it is Apple. If there's some special technology they can use that fragments its user base, they will. Dual microphones or something? Doesn't make sense why though. It's just a mic. It just needs to hear you across the room. My phone can make out what I'm saying in a loud area. I'm sure a Mac from the last 10 years could support it too. If not the last 5 or so.

I wonder if "Hey Siri, pause" will be tied to the iTunes function or the media key function.

What do you mean? Are they different?

 

[giga]

I wonder if "Hey Siri, pause" will be tied to the iTunes function or the media key function.

Let's hope so. I think I speak for everyone when I say that Siri should only be accessible through itunes, and only when it's the active application. It'll be like handing a person in hell a glass of ice water.

 

[jts]

How old is your machine? I'd hope Hey, Siri would work on anything with a microphone. I mean processors are pretty fast enough. Macs have had voice recognition since the '90s and it uses the internet. They're not cell phones.

But it is Apple. If there's some special technology they can use that fragments its user base, they will. Dual microphones or something? Doesn't make sense why though. It's just a mic. It just needs to hear you across the room. My phone can make out what I'm saying in a loud area. I'm sure a Mac from the last 10 years could support it too. If not the last 5 or so.

2010 MBP C2D. Wouldn't be shocked even if it doesn't get next OS X version.

Besides normal specs they can also claim the dual mic setup they started to implement later on.

 

[The Real Abed]

2010 MBP C2D. Wouldn't be shocked even if it doesn't get next OS X version.

Besides normal specs they can also claim the dual mic setup they started to implement later on.

Possibly. My old 2010 MBP can't do Handoff because of its old BlueTooth. Nor can my Mac mini.

However the past few versions of OS X have had the same specs, but if 10.12 has some big stuff I could see it requiring a new machine. But it would need to be big changes. The last cutoff was 64-bit support which is nothing since we're still on 64-bit and will be for a long time. I don't see them really needing a huge hardware change like their phones usually need. (The phones evolve much faster than the Macs so their cutoff keeps moving forward.)

We'll see in a month.

 

[Vashetti]

What're the bets that the new MBPs have a dedicated Siri button on the keyboard?

 

[Zeyphersan]

What're the bets that the new MBPs have a dedicated Siri button on the keyboard?

I can see them doing a special key combination, like with Voice Dictation currently

 

[EmiPrime]

What do you mean? Are they different?

Yeah they can be distinct just like volume up/down can be controlled on a system level but also iTunes has its own slider.

Let's hope so. I think I speak for everyone when I say that Siri should only be accessible through itunes, and only when it's the active application. It'll be like handing a person in hell a glass of ice water.

Now you're talking!

Seriously though good Siri integration could get me back into iTunes.

 

[Deku Tree]

What're the bets that the new MBPs have a dedicated Siri button on the keyboard?

I'd say it's a lock. F5 or F6 maybe?

 

[Enter Here]

Which is more useful for a Macbook Pro Retina (hopefully mid 2016 version)

Samsung Micro SD EVO+ 128GB Memory Card w/ Adapter $59.99
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MB-MC128DA/AM

or
Samsung USB 3.0 Flash Drive FIT 128GB (MUF-128BB) $34.99
http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MUF-128BB/AM

I have a $50 credit. I plan on getting a 32GB EVO+ Micro SD with the 2nd option, total of $49.98.

 

[The Real Abed]

I'd say it's a lock. F5 or F6 maybe?

F5 and F6 are keyboard brightness on MacBooks so it's not going to be that. Well not as dedicated.

There aren't really any free keys right now. Everything is taken on a MacBook keyboard. (The empty F5 and F6 on the external keyboards don't count since they are indeed used on MacBooks.) They'd have to retire either the dedicated Mission Control or LaunchPad keys. And don't forget, you'll probably be able to set any combination you want like Spotlight. It'll probably be Something+Command+Space or something by default. I'd probably make it double-tap Fn myself. Right now I have that set to Dictation but never use it. I'd probably use it more if it did Siri.

I just want it to be unobtrusive. There's no reason she should listen to you while taking over the screen. We'll never get to a Star Trek future that way.

Hopefully you can extend it with Automator and AppleScript and such. Make your own commands and change the command you need to say like you can now. "Computer, execute program Riker 1".

And hopefully she can access stuff without apps needing to be open like on iOS. Stuff like notes, text messages and emails. Mail really needs a background mode.

 

[jts]

I don't know about a key wouldn't be surprised if there will be a specialized chip in Macs for 'hey, siri' while on battery power, much like iOS devices.


Regarding keys, can we even change the Fn keys functionality at all? (not the F keys). I was trying to assign the useless Dashboard key to something else but couldn't.

 

[X-Frame]

In anticipation of potentially new rMBP's soon, I had a question on the processor speed options when buying.

On my current 2010 15" I elected to get the highest processor speed option at the time in order to "future proof" my machine. In actuality I ended up having to double my RAM to 8 and get an SSD which had significant benefits, but I can't really tell if my i7 I got at the time is or was ever a bottleneck.

I am not someone who would need super fact processor speeds I think, outside of probably making gameplay videos or something.

I was planning on maxing the next processor option with the highest speed again to future proof as I will likely have it for another 5 years, but now I am not so sure I should. I feel I'd rather max SSD space and RAM before processor. Agree?

 

[Deku Tree]

In anticipation of potentially new rMBP's soon, I had a question on the processor speed options when buying.

On my current 2010 15" I elected to get the highest processor speed option at the time in order to "future proof" my machine. In actuality I ended up having to double my RAM to 8 and get an SSD which had significant benefits, but I can't really tell if my i7 I got at the time is or was ever a bottleneck.

I am not someone who would need super fact processor speeds I think, outside of probably making gameplay videos or something.

I was planning on maxing the next processor option with the highest speed again to future proof as I will likely have it for another 5 years, but now I am not so sure I should. I feel I'd rather max SSD space and RAM before processor. Agree?

yep good plan.

If you've got a budget max

1) getting an SSD
2) RAM
3) Processor speed

All the processors are so fast now that I'm not sure the top end vs the next level one is gonna be a huge long term difference for a non power user.

Up to you if you want to get a huge SSD. IMO the 1TB SSD is still ridiculously priced. The 512 is still pricey but not as bad. And the SSDs keep getting faster. The ones apple puts in their machines are really really fast.

 

[TheCochese]

I'd say it's a lock. F5 or F6 maybe?

Why not double it as a fingerprint scanner?

 

[X-Frame]

yep good plan.

If you've got a budget max

1) getting an SSD
2) RAM
3) Processor speed

All the processors are so fast now that I'm not sure the top end vs the next level one is gonna be a huge long term difference for a non power user.

Up to you if you want to get a huge SSD. IMO the 1TB SSD is still ridiculously priced. The 512 is still pricey but not as bad. And the SSDs keep getting faster. The ones apple puts in their machines are really really fast.

Very true. The RAM for the 15" seems to come stock 16GB which is double what I have now, don't even see an option to increase that anyway.

I would need at least the 512GB SSD as I have 500 now, and I am sure the 1TB is overpriced but again to future-proof and since the new Macs seem very difficult to upgrade via third-party I feel I may need that.

Don't see the need though for the higher processor options for another $200 or so, I could save money there and get AppleCare.

Thanks Deku!

 

[Fuchsdh]

Yeah getting the laptops on 256GB and the desktops to at least fusion drives should be a requirement for 2016, but they also need to update their BTO pricing. Feels like the prices for PCIe flash storage is as expensive as it was in 2013.

 

[Ambitious]

Alfred 3 is out.

 

[Deku Tree]

Very true. The RAM for the 15" seems to come stock 16GB which is double what I have now, don't even see an option to increase that anyway.

I would need at least the 512GB SSD as I have 500 now, and I am sure the 1TB is overpriced but again to future-proof and since the new Macs seem very difficult to upgrade via third-party I feel I may need that.

Don't see the need though for the higher processor options for another $200 or so, I could save money there and get AppleCare.

Thanks Deku!

NP X-Frame. For me I used to have big HDD worth of stuff and I got an MB Air with a 256GB SSD and I thought it was going to be terribly small... but I looked at the stuff on my drive and figured out that there is a lot of large files that I basically never use... (1) I don't need to keep video on my laptop, (2) I don't need to keep music on my laptop, and (3) I don't need to keep old photo's on my laptop.

Once I got rid of those three and put them onto external storage I realized that the stuff that I actually use or really want to keep on my laptop is basically around 100GB and so a 256GB SSD is perfect. I might feel differently if I didn't also have a desktop as a home base machine with a 512GB SSD. I see no reason to buy the 1TB SSD as it is hugely overpriced and most of my large files are things that are rarely used and can easily go on a USB3.0 external HDD. Anyway that is a personal decision.

Good luck getting a new computer!

 

[Fuchsdh]

I'd also say having smaller local storage can be better as it (hopefully) forces you to back up your content more often, even if it's just via a cloud storage option.

 

[killertofu]

Are tower MacPros still decent for video editing/some gaming?

(Mid 2010 Mac Pro 2x 2.4 xeon)

 

[EmiPrime]

My need for a lot of internal storage went away when I stopped buying music and switched to streaming instead. USB3 is fast enough that running games off an external HDD isn't too much of a bother also.

Alfred 3 is out.

One of the best OS X apps out there.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Are tower MacPros still decent for video editing/some gaming?

(Mid 2010 Mac Pro 2x 2.4 xeon)

My 2010 Mac Pro is doing fine for Dota 2, Minecraft, Bioshock Infinite, and the like. I upgraded the processor to a 6-core 3.33GHz and it's got a Radeon 7950 in it; if you're willing to deal with kludging Nvidia web driver support or with flashing cards there are other better GPU options as well.

Handles 720p and 1080p video editing and compositing fine as well.

 

[killertofu]

My 2010 Mac Pro is doing fine for Dota 2, Minecraft, Bioshock Infinite, and the like. I upgraded the processor to a 6-core 3.33GHz and it's got a Radeon 7950 in it; if you're willing to deal with kludging Nvidia web driver support or with flashing cards there are other better GPU options as well.

Handles 720p and 1080p video editing and compositing fine as well.

What are the bottlenecks I should look out for? Thunderbolt I'm guessing. Can I put a GTX 1080 or something similar?

 

[Fuchsdh]

What are the bottlenecks I should look out for? Thunderbolt I'm guessing. Can I put a GTX 1080 or something similar?

At this point the main issues with using a classic Mac Pro is I/O and processor. The fastest processor you can stick in it is a single or dual 3.46GHz, but that's still the best workstation performance you can buy... from 2012. This is intensely game-dependent; some games it won't matter, some it will.

You can get faster flash storage or USB 3 via PCI add-on cards, although you need to do your homework with regards to Mac compatibility (or Mac/Windows compatibility if you're going to do dual-booting.) Thunderbolt is a no-go, period, although diehards would argue that with all that internal expansion it doesn't matter.

To use Nvidia's cards you need to use their web drivers, which at the moment haven't been updated for the 10XX line. You could throw a 980 or Titan X or whatever in there and it'd be fine, though.

It's worth noting that Thunderbolt 3 coming to Macs with the presumable next refreshes this year will bring the possibility of non-kludgy (or significantly less kludgy) external GPU support, in which most cases you're getting a sizable percentage of full performance off whatever card you throw in. So you could get a modern Mac and skimp on the expensive GPU upgrades and get an upgradable and transferrable upgrade path for the graphics down the line.