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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
1st generation product just wait. Part of reason I decided to go back to the MBA.
I already have 13" MBA, but I think I need something a bit more comfortable for work. There's some issues identified, but none of it sounds even remotely deal breaking, and it's pretty nitpicky stuff. Unless something just starts breaking due to use, of course, but that's what warranty is for..
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Oh, sorry. Didn't even know about trackpad performance problems.

As for Mountain Lion: I didn't read anything specifically about the MBPR, but according to those who tried the Developer Previews (also on GAF), it works much faster than Lion.
There's a 1.5GB MBPR update for Lion on top of the trackpad update. I don't think this update will matter for performance hiccups though. You'll need to install ML for that to go away.
 

Ambitious

Member
There's a 1.5GB MBPR update for Lion on top of the trackpad update. I don't think this update will matter for performance hiccups though. You'll need to install ML for that to go away.

My MBPR will probably be delivered just a few days before or after the ML release. According to the GeekBench benchmark, it's nearly four times faster (~12.000 vs ~3.000) than my current one. Combined with the performance improvements of ML, that's gonna be really awesome.
 

mrkgoo

Member
MBPR order being processed, about 35 days until delivery. Ugh.
I'm thinking about selling my old MBP to compensate for the price of the new one a bit. It's Late 2007, the last non-unibody model. 15", 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 250GB HDD, upgraded to 4GB of RAM. According to Mac2Sell, the resell value is 630€. How reliable is this calculation?

Generally speaking, it's in a good condition. There's a small scratch on the 'N' key, the dvd burner doesn't work and the battery capacity has decreased severely. Apart from this, it's like new.

What do you think, would about 500-550€ be a feasible price for reselling?




I read somewhere on GAF that someone experienced this in an Apple Store too, and one of the employees quickly installed an update which solved the problem. Don't know if this update is publicly available. If not, Mountain Lion will certainly fix this.

That wasn't the last non-unibody MBP. I have an Early 2008 with similar specs, also non unibody, but it has an LED backlight and multi-touch trackpad capable of gestures. I know there was even one last model after mine which was only a spec bump (512MB graphics became the default model)
 

Ambitious

Member
That wasn't the last non-unibody MBP. I have an Early 2008 with similar specs, also non unibody, but it has an LED backlight and multi-touch trackpad capable of gestures. I know there was even one last model after mine which was only a spec bump (512MB graphics became the default model)

I had the impression that the first model with the multitouch-trackpad was also the first unibody model. Just had a look at MacTracker, you're right of course. Thanks for correcting that.
 

mrkgoo

Member
I had the impression that the first model with the multitouch-trackpad was also the first unibody model. Just had a look at MacTracker, you're right of course. Thanks for correcting that.

well, regardless of what mactracker says, I have the evidence... It's sitting front of me!

It had a rocky history. The multitouch was just like the macBook airs that had been released not long before. You know, pinches and rotate. just before Snow leopard came out. apple introduced a bunch of new gestures - 3,4 finger swipes.

They weren't available for my model, though, but hacks available allowed you to implement them totally fine. Then Snow leopard came out and activated them officially.

Also, having an LED backlight hopefully means the screen doesn't dim over time.


It's seriously an awesome machine. I love the old design, even though it,s not that robust.
 

Ambitious

Member
well, regardless of what mactracker says, I have the evidence... It's sitting front of me!

It had a rocky history. The multitouch was just like the macBook airs that had been released not long before. You know, pinches and rotate. just before Snow leopard came out. apple introduced a bunch of new gestures - 3,4 finger swipes.

They weren't available for my model, though, but hacks available allowed you to implement them totally fine. Then Snow leopard came out and activated them officially.

Also, having an LED backlight hopefully means the screen doesn't dim over time.


It's seriously an awesome machine. I love the old design, even though it,s not that robust.

I wasn't doubting you, I just wanted to know the exact release dates and specs.

I remember being pretty pissed when they introduced the ones with multitouch trackpads. After having used the most shitty notebook imaginable for years, I decided to get a MBP. I even waited for two or three months for Leopard and to save some money. And then after another four months, they introduced the new ones - not only with the multitouch trackpad, but also with a price cut of about 400€, I think.

I miss Leopard, by the way. Exposé and Spaces were incredible. Mission Control however...
 

njean777

Member
what benchmarks? spinning discs really fast? probably.

http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/12/macbook-pro-macbook-air-2012-benchmarks/

Just throw in an SSD and you have a better computer then the Retina if you want the most power and are not wowed by a pretty display. I am waiting for Anandtech's benchmarks personally, but just from these early ones the regular 15in MBP is still gonna give you more for your money. Not to mention it is user upgradeable,you can have twice the storage, and the same amount of ram as the over priced upgraded retina model.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/12/macbook-pro-macbook-air-2012-benchmarks/

Just throw in an SSD and you have a better computer then the Retina if you want the most power and are not wowed by a pretty display. I am waiting for Anandtech's benchmarks personally, but just from these early ones the regular 15in MBP is still gonna give you more for your money. Not to mention it is user upgradeable,you can have twice the storage, and the same amount of ram as the over priced upgraded retina model.

It's really tempting but for the price of a 250GB SSD you might as well get the better display?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...odeId=1&Description=SSD+500+GB+laptop&x=0&y=0

Unless I'm missing something isn't the video card limited to 500 MB video memory? Honest question not trolling, I'm just concerned about the gaming performance and I'm not super up to speed on my tech specs.
 
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/12/macbook-pro-macbook-air-2012-benchmarks/

Just throw in an SSD and you have a better computer then the Retina if you want the most power and are not wowed by a pretty display. I am waiting for Anandtech's benchmarks personally, but just from these early ones the regular 15in MBP is still gonna give you more for your money. Not to mention it is user upgradeable,you can have twice the storage, and the same amount of ram as the over priced upgraded retina model.

They didn't test the 3820QM Retina 15" here though, to be fair.
 

Jobiensis

Member
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/12/macbook-pro-macbook-air-2012-benchmarks/

Just throw in an SSD and you have a better computer then the Retina if you want the most power and are not wowed by a pretty display. I am waiting for Anandtech's benchmarks personally, but just from these early ones the regular 15in MBP is still gonna give you more for your money. Not to mention it is user upgradeable,you can have twice the storage, and the same amount of ram as the over priced upgraded retina model.

You are misreading the benchmarks, it doesn't beat the Retina, they didn't test the 2.7Ghz Retina, a 2.7Ghz Retina would be faster than a 2.7 non-Retina (by an admittedly miniscule margin).

edit: too slow
 

njean777

Member
They don't test the 3820QM Retina 15" here though, to be fair.

no they didn't but you can get the same processor in the regular 15in. Along with all that was said prior. No matter how you look at it you are paying a huge premium for the display, which imo is not smart seeing as it is a rev a product that will have problems as we already have seen with images. I don't mind the display and don't hate the retina pro, I am in the camp though that if you want to use the thing for any type of gaming the regular MBP is going to get it done better at native res then the MBPr will. That video card is not good enough to drive that high of a resolution and to not be able to use native resolution on a laptop you paid an hefty amount for just bothers me. If you are not into games then by all means get the retina, but if you are you should know that most games will run like crap at that resolution with that video card.
 

taoofjord

Member
There's a 1.5GB MBPR update for Lion on top of the trackpad update. I don't think this update will matter for performance hiccups though. You'll need to install ML for that to go away.

Do you think it's worth updating to the ML developer preview or should I just wait?
 

MrMephistoX

Member
no they didn't but you can get the same processor in the regular 15in. Along with all that was said prior. No matter how you look at it you are paying a huge premium for the display, which imo is not smart seeing as it is a rev a product that will have problems as we already have seen with images. I don't mind the display and don't hate the retina pro, I am in the camp though that if you want to use the thing for any type of gaming the regular MBP is going to get it done better at native res then the MBPr will. That video card is not good enough to drive that high of a resolution and to not be able to use native resolution on a laptop you paid an hefty amount for just bothers me. If you are not into games then by all means get the retina, but if you are you should know that most games will run like crap at that resolution with that video card.

Tempting again...do you think it would be worth it to go with the HD display upgrade on the 15 i7 2.3 model vs the retina? Just wondering if it's much of a difference.
 

WoolyNinja

Member
no they didn't but you can get the same processor in the regular 15in. Along with all that was said prior. No matter how you look at it you are paying a huge premium for the display, which imo is not smart seeing as it is a rev a product that will have problems as we already have seen with images. I don't mind the display and don't hate the retina pro, I am in the camp though that if you want to use the thing for any type of gaming the regular MBP is going to get it done better at native res then the MBPr will. That video card is not good enough to drive that high of a resolution and to not be able to use native resolution on a laptop you paid an hefty amount for just bothers me. If you are not into games then by all means get the retina, but if you are you should know that most games will run like crap at that resolution with that video card.

Try pricing out the regular 15in pro @ 2.6Ghz with a 512GB SSD and see if you still feel that way.
 
I still think I am going for that 500 dollar WD Thunderbolt 4TB enclosure. It's very pricey, but also has a large amount of futureproof-ness. Only thing that blows is the cable being 50 dollars. It makes me think I should just find something that uses USB 3.0.

Agh so hard to decide.
 

btkadams

Member
<3 my Time Capsule.

are these a bitch to set up if you already have a wifi router at your house? i'm not looking to replace my router, but i'd like to have a time machine set up. do my macs have to connect to it via the time machine wifi, disconnecting them from the regular wifi?
 
I still think I am going for that 500 dollar WD Thunderbolt 4TB enclosure. It's very pricey, but also has a large amount of futureproof-ness. Only thing that blows is the cable being 50 dollars. It makes me think I should just find something that uses USB 3.0.

Agh so hard to decide.

I have a 2TB Seagate drive that I bought for cheap a couple Black Fridays ago. It uses USB 3 so it's pretty nice
 
I still think I am going for that 500 dollar WD Thunderbolt 4TB enclosure. It's very pricey, but also has a large amount of futureproof-ness. Only thing that blows is the cable being 50 dollars. It makes me think I should just find something that uses USB 3.0.

Agh so hard to decide.

If it were me I would just buy a 2TB USB3 external hard drive. Once that is nearing full, or if I wanted redundancy, I would purchase another 2TB drive (maybe larger), at which point I assume prices would be lower anyway.

edit: not to mention internal drives, though that's a different conversation...
 

mrkgoo

Member
I wasn't doubting you, I just wanted to know the exact release dates and specs.

I remember being pretty pissed when they introduced the ones with multitouch trackpads. After having used the most shitty notebook imaginable for years, I decided to get a MBP. I even waited for two or three months for Leopard and to save some money. And then after another four months, they introduced the new ones - not only with the multitouch trackpad, but also with a price cut of about 400€, I think.

I miss Leopard, by the way. Exposé and Spaces were incredible. Mission Control however...

Yeah I can understand.

I obviously had a different experience. I had a PPC PowerBook for years and waited justify right amount if time. I didn't have leopard so when the new MBP came out, andnit had multitouch, and LED screen AND was cheaper, I just jumped on the chance. The cheapness was entirely duet exchange rates. I think the price in US remained the same.

Yeah I loved leopard/snow leopard. Expose was great! Used it ALL the time. I thought spaces would be useful, but the awesome window management technology in expose actually meant I didn't find spaces that useful.

Mission cOntrol is a bit of a step back. Too much info means much of it isn't that useful, requiring a second click to get somewhere. That said, it's built for fullscreen which is awesome. It like spaces took a huge upgrade with expose turnig into mission control beig a downgrade. It's not a big deal UNLESS you don't have gestures. Gestures make lion awesome. I basically use that as te decider. Upgrade to lion if you have gestures.

I still use expose inlion but onu because gestures allows me a bit more efficiency.
 
are these a bitch to set up if you already have a wifi router at your house? i'm not looking to replace my router, but i'd like to have a time machine set up. do my macs have to connect to it via the time machine wifi, disconnecting them from the regular wifi?
If you don't also need a router the Time Capsule is a waste of money. Just buy any reputable external HDD and set that up as your Time Machine backup drive.
 

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
Finally got to see the Retina MBP in an Apple store today. The screen is unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

Trying any other computer in the store after using it for 20 minutes was a bad experience. I thought it handled web content well (in terms of scaling) and graphics didn't look nearly as bad as I expected. Photoshop also looked very usable despite not being updated to support the display yet. 1680x1050 should be the default scaling option, imo. 1920x1200 is also very usable and probably what I preferred. Now if only I had $2500.
 

njean777

Member
Try pricing out the regular 15in pro @ 2.6Ghz with a 512GB SSD and see if you still feel that way.

Ok well which retina are we going with? The top of the line since that is what you will have to get to match the regular pro at least with the 2.6 i5 because if so, 2599 is what I would be paying for regular with a 512gb SSD. On new egg they have the crucial m4 512gb for 399.99 right now. Plus with the base pro I can take out the disk drive and have two hard drive as opposed to one which you cannot do in the retina pro. Either way you look at it, you are paying more for a laptop with a great display and no user upgrade options.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148444
 
Does anyone know how the Apple Store walks down their MacBook airs? I just noticed the other day that my 2011 MacBook air does not have a Kensington lock slot, so I was wondering how I would go about locking it down to a desk or something more solid. I've seen some solutions where you put a piece of metal in between the monitor and keyboard, that hinge, but I was wondering what Apple uses because I'm sure they have to keep them tethered.
 
If it were me I would just buy a 2TB USB3 external hard drive. Once that is nearing full, or if I wanted redundancy, I would purchase another 2TB drive (maybe larger), at which point I assume prices would be lower anyway.

edit: not to mention internal drives, though that's a different conversation...

Doesn't work. I need an external for my camera raws. I need redundancy in those those drives as a raid 1 config.
 

RangersFan

Member
I just inherited a free ipad 1 from my bro and his wife who have ipad 2 and ipad hd. i will be primarily be using it to read gbs worth of cbr, cbz, and pdf comics i have on my pc. i was wondering what is the best way to transfer the files to the ipad, and what is the best app to view them. so far i have tried using cloud readers app, and it is very nice, however transferring my files is a huge pain in the ass, cause they are all sorted into folders on my pc and so far the only way i've found to transfer them is via the app menu in itunes, and going into each folder in crtl+a all the files. and then once i view them in cloud reader it's all the file names listed. is there a better way? is it possible to just drag my organized folders onto the ipad? is there a better app that organizes and transfers files better? i'm pretty excited i read my first cbr file and it was fantastic the amount of control i had, the ease of page turning zooming panning in and out was astounding.

this seems to be alright at getting things organized, but still too convoluted for my tastes, just creating directories, only to have to "open with" another viewer app which will then download the selected file to it's "library", but it may have to suffice.

these seem ok as well on the "pc end" of things transfering to the ipad, but what app should I use on the "ipad side?" wish there was just an app like comicrack on pc, where u can just quickly add and organize all files quickly and easily. so far comicflow has been the best of the comic readers i've tried so far, but a major flaw is it has failed to read a couple of cbz files that i got icomic and cloudreaders to read.

would be nice if i could just drag and drop my comics directory to my ipad, through my computer, and then have a standard viewer app that can browse by directory as well as create attractive library archive like comicflow does.

resorted to buying comic zeal app and i'm glad i did, it's great, and most importantly it was able to read some files that the other apps weren't able to do, and definitely has the best organizing system i've used so far.
 
I am planning to go back to school in the fall and need a new laptop. I'm kind of torn between the new Macbook Pro with Retina display and the Macbook Air (probably 13''). Do you guys think an Air would be fine for a student? Is there any real advantage for me to pay more and get a Macbook pro?

Also do the macbook air's have a backlit keyboard or no?
 
I am planning to go back to school in the fall and need a new laptop. I'm kind of torn between the new Macbook Pro with Retina display and the Macbook Air (probably 13''). Do you guys think an Air would be fine for a student? Is there any real advantage for me to pay more and get a Macbook pro?

Also do the macbook air's have a backlit keyboard or no?

1) How long do you plan to use it

2) What are you using it for in school. Anything outside email, papers, and web research?
 

Alchemy

Member
Speaking of Time Capsules and AirPorts, what would be the best solution for networking USB printers and HDDs so that a Mac and PC could access them? We have a multi function printer/scanner that is USB only that I want to network so all our computers work with it, and I want to add a HDD for media storage if possible. I saw some USB printer servers but hardly any list OS X as compatible.

I was eyeing up an Airport of some kind for sharing the printer, but don't know if they play nice with HDDs or existing networks (would like to attach it to my current router). Any ideas?
 

chumps

Member
Good God man, it's like 4 pounds. Go do some curls or something. I've been taking my normal MacBook Pro almost everywhere (school, cafes, whatever) biking around, driving around for about 2 years now. While I would love the lightness of an Air, the Pro isn't that bad at all.

This. It's really about the display. Any kind of graphics or text heavy stuff begs for the Retina display. A Retina Air would be cool but how long is that going to take?

And to put things in perspective, by the time you load up a big with the charger and cables one lbs is not going to make much of a difference. My fully loaded backpack (13" MBP, Wacom tablet, headphones, various art supplies) weighs in at about 20 lbs and I take it everywhere, on my bike, etc.
 

r1chard

Member
Dammit, I finally updated the firmware in the SSD in my 13" unibody MacBook, but that didn't completely fix the problems I'm having with sleep (nor did it fix the intermittent Bluetooth or Caps Lock light issues.)

Looks like I'm in the market. And since I can't see the point of retina beyond bragging rights I guess it's a 13" Air for me. Yay! 100px more vertical resolution! And half the weight! Almost $2k though. Oh well :)
 

giga

Member
Transferring a dmg over USB 3, Air to external SDD&#8230;

S8NU5.png


1XbJV.jpg
 

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
Well...I never thought I'd be posting in here, but thanks to some schemes, I was able to get an iPad 3, 2012 mba 11", and the 2.3 ghz mbp 15" retina in the last 8 days with the mbp coming in today. I haven't used a mac since 1997 so I'm all lost and shit.

btw my eyes are bleed from this screen

jesus.christ.
 
Ok, I've never actually used an OSX Mac but I've been very seriously considering picking up a MacBook Air, mainly because I want to check out the OS and the MacBook Air seems reasonably priced compared to similar machines.

I feel bad because I have a feeling this question has been asked several times in the past but it's such a huge thread. I'm looking at a 13" and I'm wondering, is there a reason to go with 8GB ram over 4GB when it comes to normal usage with OSX? Also, is there any reason to hold off on the new Ivy Bridge MacBook Airs?
 
Ok, I've never actually used an OSX Mac but I've been very seriously considering picking up a MacBook Air, mainly because I want to check out the OS and the MacBook Air seems reasonably priced compared to similar machines.

I feel bad because I have a feeling this question has been asked several times in the past but it's such a huge thread. I'm looking at a 13" and I'm wondering, is there a reason to go with 8GB ram over 4GB when it comes to normal usage with OSX? Also, is there any reason to hold off on the new Ivy Bridge MacBook Airs?
For normal usage? No, 4gb is plenty.

I don't see any reason to hold off since the refresh just happened. It will be at least a year before the next one.
 
For normal usage? No, 4gb is plenty.

I don't see any reason to hold off since the refresh just happened. It will be at least a year before the next one.

Ok, thanks, that'll save me a few bucks. I have a beastly gaming desktop for any heavy computing. I'm surprised that I'm so close to pulling the trigger.
 
I'm also a college student in the market for a new notebook, and I'm reading a lot of posts saying the Air is the way to go. Do the new specs translate well to gaming at all? I've been slowly migrating to PC gaming from consoles and was hoping the Air refresh could tackle games well enough. I'm not looking to max them out, just have them be playable.
 
I'm also a college student in the market for a new notebook, and I'm reading a lot of posts saying the Air is the way to go. Do the new specs translate well to gaming at all? I've been slowly migrating to PC gaming from consoles and was hoping the Air refresh could tackle games well enough. I'm not looking to max them out, just have them be playable.
From what I understand the new Airs are pretty capable at gaming. Here's a video of the new 2012 model playing StarCraft 2 and Diablo III.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlrkkiMJoDk

Lots of other videos out there you can check out too.
 

lunch

there's ALWAYS ONE
I'm also a college student in the market for a new notebook, and I'm reading a lot of posts saying the Air is the way to go. Do the new specs translate well to gaming at all? I've been slowly migrating to PC gaming from consoles and was hoping the Air refresh could tackle games well enough. I'm not looking to max them out, just have them be playable.
I've seen some videos of people playing games on Airs, but even at 1366x768 with the settings on low, Half-Life 2 ran pretty awfully. There are other games I tried, like Trine and Bastion, that run well, but cause the fans to run extremely loudly.

Unless you're primarily an adventure game player, the Air isn't suitable for gaming.
 

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
I had more time with the Air and I love how tiny it is. It's almost like a tablet with a keyboard attached. The Pro's screen is just....MASSIVE.

Question: I turned on time machine and have it backed up to an external usb drive. Is it suppose to do a backup every hour? I don't see how to change the time to like once a day.
 

RangersFan

Member
what does this icon do in the mail feature of ipad?
Untitled.jpg

I pressed it on a few e-mails and they disappeared. They aren't in any other folder, and I can only see them if I click "All Mail" in gmail, how do I get them to appear in my inbox again?
 

Tuck

Member
My mom got a Macbook Air on Sunday.

Still hasn't opened it. Sigh. I hope she uses the damn thing - she was bugging me about buying a laptop for weeks.
 
what does this icon do in the mail feature of ipad?
Untitled.jpg

I pressed it on a few e-mails and they disappeared. They aren't in any other folder, and I can only see them if I click "All Mail" in gmail, how do I get them to appear in my inbox again?

That's the Archive button. It does exactly what you said. To move it back to the inbox click the folder with the little arrow pointing down and you should be able to move it back into the inbox.
 
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