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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

C

Crazymoogle

Member
Vibri said:
Looks cool - you could use it as a bootable Windows gaming drive.

But large Micro SD cards tend have have real world transfer rates of around 5 mb/sec, which seems unusably slow?
Click to expand...

Speed for Class 10 is 10MB/s minimum as it is meant for Full HD video recording. Speed tends to go up with capacity as well so I don't really see a point of buying a card until this project ships.

I doubt you could boot Windows off of it, but it seems to be ideal as a Time Machine backup or as a media drive.
 
D

DeadRockstar

Member
TheDrowningMan said:
Anyone using Mountain Lion & a Retina MBP who can confirm that the GUI lag / jerkiness has received a decent improvement?
Click to expand...

I've tried it personally and yes there's an improvement. It's not as fast as a non-retina but it's more acceptable.

Also here's Anandtech's comment on it from the MBPR review:

Anandtech said:
The good news is Mountain Lion provides some relief. At WWDC Apple mentioned the next version of Safari is ridiculously fast, but it wasn’t specific about why. It turns out that Safari leverages Core Animation in Mountain Lion and more GPU accelerated as a result. Facebook is still a challenge because of the mixture of CPU decoded images and a standard web page, but the experience is a bit better. Repeating the same test as above I measured anywhere from 20 - 30 fps while scrolling through Facebook on ML’s Safari.

Whereas I would consider the rMBP experience under Lion to be borderline unacceptable, everything is significantly better under Mountain Lion. Don’t expect buttery smoothness across the board, you’re still asking a lot of the CPU and GPU, but it’s a lot better.
Click to expand...

The full review is very thorough and worth reading.
 
D

Dazzla

Member
Do any of you guys have any opinion of 2011 vs 2012 MacBook air?

I was looking to pick up a 13" refurb from apple for £789, the 2012 model is £999.

For that extra £210 I could pick up a wired apple keyboard, magic trackpad and HDMI adaptor. Just wondering if the 2012 model is worth the premium.
 
T

TheDrowningMan

Member
DeadRockstar said:
I've tried it personally and yes there's an improvement. It's not as fast as a non-retina but it's more acceptable.

Also here's Anandtech's comment on it from the MBPR review:



The full review is very thorough and worth reading.
Click to expand...

I just hope Apple care enough to iron it out completely! It's obviously to do with the software optimisation; you're not seeing ludicrous spikes in CPU/GPU usage when using it, and it's blazing fast at actually running most programs.
 
H

HammerOfThor

Member
Hey guys, how many monitors can the new Macbook Pro Retina support? Just one extra or more than one?

On the same note, how many monitors can an iMac support?
 
C

chumps

Member
To put the ram thing in perspective: Zbrush, which handles millions (sometimes billions) of polygons, used throughout the industry on movies and whatnot, is a 32bit (64bit comes with Zbrush5) app, which means its only used 4gb of ram all this time.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
JackEtc said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how would this help make apps look better?
Click to expand...

The sad secret about the retina displays is that apps actually look worse on the new screen if they aren't optimized for Apple's HiDPI mode. Apple only offers resolutions in HiDPI mode on the rMBP. SwitchResX offers the option of those resolutions in non-HiDPI. Thus you can use Safari in 1680 x 1050 (HiDPI) and enjoy the retina display and then run Microsoft Word in regular 1680 x 1050 like it were the old MBP with the high-res screen (except this is an IPS panel with better contrast etc).

Another option SwitchResX provides is to to use non-HiDPI resolutions higher than those offered by Apple. It offers higher resolutions from 2048 x 1280 through 2880 x 1800 to 3840 x 2400! Of course, everything is tiny at the extreme end of these higher resolutions but you can either use Apple's Zoom options from Universal Access to get back bigger UI elements or use each application's own native zoom options. Because the app's customized anti-aliasing tricks aren't working at odds with Apple's HiDPI in these non-HiDPI higher-resolution options, the text looks a lot sharper. For example, at 1400 x 900 HiDPI both Pages and Microsoft Word look fuzzy, at 1400 x 900 non-HiDPI they are decent, yet at 2048 x 1280, with either app set to its 200% zoom option, the text is practically as sharp as TextEdit at 1400 x 900 HiDPI.

What truly elevates SwitchResEx above the rest—you can after all switch to these resolutions with a script or via Terminal—is that it can make the resolution switches automatically. You can set it to always change the resolution to 1400 x 900 non-HiDPI when Firefox is running and then back to 1400 x 900 HiDPI when the app closes, all the while asking it to save your desktop settings, and it'll do it all seamlessly.


I probably won't get the use this utility to its full power but I'm sure glad Mac OSX is still an open platform so nice things like this can exist.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
Dazzla said:
Do any of you guys have any opinion of 2011 vs 2012 MacBook air?

I was looking to pick up a 13" refurb from apple for £789, the 2012 model is £999.

For that extra £110 I could pick up a wired apple keyboard, magic trackpad and HDMI adaptor. Just wondering if the 2012 model is worth the premium.
Click to expand...

Why do you need those peripherals? Are you planning to run it as a desktop primarily?
 
J

JackEtc

Member
Greyface said:
The sad secret about the retina displays is that apps actually look worse on the new screen if they aren't optimized for Apple's HiDPI mode. Apple only offers resolutions in HiDPI mode on the rMBP. SwitchResX offers the option of those resolutions in non-HiDPI. Thus you can use Safari in 1680 x 1050 (HiDPI) and enjoy the retina display and then run Microsoft Word in regular 1680 x 1050 like it were the old MBP with the high-res screen (except this is an IPS panel with better contrast etc).

Another option SwitchResX provides is to to use non-HiDPI resolutions higher than those offered by Apple. It offers higher resolutions from 2048 x 1280 through 2880 x 1800 to 3840 x 2400! Of course, everything is tiny at the extreme end of these higher resolutions but you can either use Apple's Zoom options from Universal Access to get back bigger UI elements or use each application's own native zoom options. Because the app's customized anti-aliasing tricks aren't working at odds with Apple's HiDPI in these non-HiDPI higher-resolution options, the text looks a lot sharper. For example, at 1400 x 900 HiDPI both Pages and Microsoft Word look fuzzy, at 1400 x 900 non-HiDPI they are decent, yet at 2048 x 1280, with either app set to its 200% zoom option, the text is practically as sharp as TextEdit at 1400 x 900 HiDPI.

What truly elevates SwitchResEx above the rest—you can after all switch to these resolutions with a script or via Terminal—is that it can make the resolution switches automatically. You can set it to always change the resolution to 1400 x 900 non-HiDPI when Firefox is running and then back to 1400 x 900 HiDPI when the app closes, all the while asking it to save your desktop settings, and it'll do it all seamlessly.


I probably won't get the use this utility to its full power but I'm sure glad Mac OSX is still an open platform so nice things like this can exist.
Click to expand...

Awesome explanation, thanks a bunch!

A question about one of your first points, about running Safari in HiDPI and Office in regular at the same resolution, would you be running those at the same time in both of those modes? Can you set a resolution for each individual app? Or do you just switch in from HiDPI to Normal when you are done running Safari and want to switch to Office, using the automatic options you mentioned in the last paragraph?
 
A

Alchemy

Member
Does anyone actually know what the memory cap for OS X applications is? Because I believe 32bit Windows caps applications at 2GB, with most 64bit applications being currently restricted to 3GB unless you actually set up Windows to break that restriction.
 
F

falconzss

Member
Hey guys,

even though I was basically already set on getting the 13" Air, I am now pondering if I should go with the 11" model because of its awesome form factor.

As a university student in need of a portable device, the weight and size of the 11" Macbook Air seem so appealing especially if you compare both models side by side. It's going to be mainly used for programming (for now MS Visual Studio through Parallels, Xcode at some point), web browsing and doing text work while on the go. Note that this will be my primary machine, an external monitor is available.

Is the screen real estate on the 11" enough to at least to some point comfortably write code on it? Another point of concern is the battery life since I don't know how much of an impact running Visual Studio through Parallels will have. It wouldn't be much of use if it only lasted for 3 hours under these conditions. I'm sure it probably has been already discussed in some form but I would be grateful to hear some opinions and user experiences from people who use the 11" Macbook Air in a similar fashion. Thanks in advance.
 
E

Enco

Member
falconzss said:
Hey guys,

even though I was basically already set on getting the 13" Air, I am now pondering if I should go with the 11" model because of its awesome form factor.

As a university student in need of a portable device, the weight and size of the 11" Macbook Air seem so appealing especially if you compare both models side by side. It's going to be mainly used for programming (for now MS Visual Studio through Parallels, Xcode at some point), web browsing and doing text work while on the go. Note that this will be my primary machine, an external monitor is available.

Is the screen real estate on the 11" enough to at least to some point comfortably write code on it? Another point of concern is the battery life since I don't know how much of an impact running Visual Studio through Parallels will have. It wouldn't be much of use if it only lasted for 3 hours under these conditions. I'm sure it probably has been already discussed in some form but I would be grateful to hear some opinions and user experiences from people who use the 11" Macbook Air in a similar fashion. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I would definitely say go 13".

I can't imagine using anything smaller. 13" is already pretty small. I'm used to a 24" desktop though so that may skew my opinion a bit. The 13" is pretty light and slim so I wouldn't worry about that.
 
G

giga

Member
Alchemy said:
Does anyone actually know what the memory cap for OS X applications is? Because I believe 32bit Windows caps applications at 2GB, with most 64bit applications being currently restricted to 3GB unless you actually set up Windows to break that restriction.
Click to expand...
32 bit app can only address 4GB. 64 bit are 4GB+. Most are 64-bit now though.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
JackEtc said:
Awesome explanation, thanks a bunch!

A question about one of your first points, about running Safari in HiDPI and Office in regular at the same resolution, would you be running those at the same time in both of those modes? Can you set a resolution for each individual app? Or do you just switch in from HiDPI to Normal when you are done running Safari and want to switch to Office, using the automatic options you mentioned in the last paragraph?
Click to expand...

Yes both can be running at the same time with a resolution picked for each app. Here's a setup I was trying out:
Default resolution —> 1680 x 1050 HiDPI
Safari —> 1440 x 900 HiDPI
Word —> 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI)

Under those settings I start off with my desktop empty (only Finder running) in 1680 x 1050 HiDPI. I then launch up Reeder, Sparrow and Tweetbot
just kidding :p
and start clicking on links. I have those apps set to open links in the background, so Safari launches in the background and loads those links into new tabs while the resolution is still in 1680 x 1050 HiDPI. Having loaded up a couple of interesting articles, I select Safari to read them and SwitchResX then switches the resolution to 1440 x 900 HiDPI.
For some unfathomable reason I now decide to open Word. The resolution then changes to 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI).
I now have Word, Safari, Reeder, Sparrow all running on the screen. If I bring Word to the foreground then the resolution changes to 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI). If I switch back to Safari then the resolution is set to 1440 x 900 HiDPI. I click on Sparrow or Reeder, or quit all apps, the resolution changes to 1680 x 1050 HiDPI.
And of course you can experiment with fullscreen apps, run apps in different spaces etc
 
R

r1chard

Member
falconzss said:
Is the screen real estate on the 11" enough to at least to some point comfortably write code on it? Another point of concern is the battery life since I don't know how much of an impact running Visual Studio through Parallels will have. It wouldn't be much of use if it only lasted for 3 hours under these conditions. I'm sure it probably has been already discussed in some form but I would be grateful to hear some opinions and user experiences from people who use the 11" Macbook Air in a similar fashion. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
If you're expecting to run an IDE on it then 11" will probably be too small. I had an EEE PC 701 (7" 800x400 resolution screen) which I programmed on for some time but then I was using a full-screen vim editor window...
 
D

Dazzla

Member
Crazymoogle said:
Why do you need those peripherals? Are you planning to run it as a desktop primarily?
Click to expand...

Equal measures really.

I will be taking it into work almost every day but I also work a lot from home. I currently have my HP laptop set up in my office with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I'd like to do the same with the Air.

I'm also thinking about an Airport Express. That way I can skip on plugging audio and ethernet into the Air. Plus the other PCs in the house (as well as iOS devices I guess) can print to the printer.

Again, going for the 2011 refurb will allow me to pick up the Airport Express as well. I'm not sure if Ivy Bridge is worth all of the extras that a refurb will allow.
 
J

JackEtc

Member
Greyface said:
Yes both can be running at the same time with a resolution picked for each app. Here's a setup I was trying out:
Default resolution —> 1680 x 1050 HiDPI
Safari —> 1440 x 900 HiDPI
Word —> 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI)

Under those settings I start off with my desktop empty (only Finder running) in 1680 x 1050 HiDPI. I then launch up Reeder, Sparrow and Tweetbot
just kidding :p
and start clicking on links. I have those apps set to open links in the background, so Safari launches in the background and loads those links into new tabs while the resolution is still in 1680 x 1050 HiDPI. Having loaded up a couple of interesting articles, I select Safari to read them and SwitchResX then switches the resolution to 1440 x 900 HiDPI.
For some unfathomable reason I now decide to open Word. The resolution then changes to 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI).
I now have Word, Safari, Reeder, Sparrow all running on the screen. If I bring Word to the foreground then the resolution changes to 2048 x 1280 (non-HiDPI). If I switch back to Safari then the resolution is set to 1440 x 900 HiDPI. I click on Sparrow or Reeder, or quit all apps, the resolution changes to 1680 x 1050 HiDPI.
And of course you can experiment with fullscreen apps, run apps in different spaces etc
Click to expand...

Woah, that's crazy awesome. Again, thanks for the amazing detailed explanation.

Before I jump on it....So Word DOES look better using SwitchResX?
 
M

Metroid Hunter

Banned
What are some cool or interesting Mac apps (doesn't have to be from the App Store).

Also, how does everyone have their dock set up on here? Here's mine:
lol-2.png
 
Z

Zapages

Member
Hey guys,

I am thinking of getting the Mac Book Pro Retina for school (research - bio-informatics). I was wondering is there a way to push the resolution to full Retina with OSX and with either Windows 7 running on parallel or through bootcamp?

Thanks. :)
 
S

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
Any body have any experience using Air display to use an older iMac as a second monitor? Is it too laggy or functional?

I would be using it as a monitor for tool pallets and alternate view ports for modeling so response time isn't high priority (not gaming on it). It will save me a bunch if money not to buy a 24 inch monitor
 
D

DeadRockstar

Member
Dazzla said:
Equal measures really.

I will be taking it into work almost every day but I also work a lot from home. I currently have my HP laptop set up in my office with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I'd like to do the same with the Air.

I'm also thinking about an Airport Express. That way I can skip on plugging audio and ethernet into the Air. Plus the other PCs in the house (as well as iOS devices I guess) can print to the printer.

Again, going for the 2011 refurb will allow me to pick up the Airport Express as well. I'm not sure if Ivy Bridge is worth all of the extras that a refurb will allow.
Click to expand...

The 2012 Air SSD is at least double the performance of the 2011. It's basically the difference between SATA 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s drives.

Here's a quick example google gave me: OSX Daily. That's worth the price difference if you ask me. Ivy Bridge brought USB 3.0 support with it as well, if that matters to you.
 
A

Ambitious

Member
Having (again) seen those incredible HD screenshots of Wind Waker in the RTTP thread, I wonder if Dolphin could run GC games with acceptable performance on the Retina MBP? (on Windows 7 via Bootcamp, 1080p. Though I guess even 720p would be enough for me.)
 
D

Drewsky

Member
I'm thinking about selling my 2010 iMac for some extra cash. What are some things I should know about selling a Mac? Best places to sell online? I was thinking Craigslist, but I don't really know shit about this sort of thing. Any advice?

If there's a whole thread for stuff like this I'm sorry, any help would be appreciated.
 
R

Rusty Shackleford

Neo Member
Guys, how easy will it be to install Mountain Lion? I'm about to buy a Macbook Pro and I was thinking about waiting until the Macbook Pro's came with Mountain Lion already installed. Should I just buy one now and install Mountain Lion when it is released?
 
E

Enco

Member
Rusty Shackleford said:
Guys, how easy will it be to install Mountain Lion? I'm about to buy a Macbook Pro and I was thinking about waiting until the Macbook Pro's came with Mountain Lion already installed. Should I just buy one now and install Mountain Lion when it is released?
Click to expand...
Extremely easy.

If you can use a computer to download a program you can upgrade easily too.
 
A

Alchemy

Member
giga said:
32 bit app can only address 4GB. 64 bit are 4GB+. Most are 64-bit now though.
Click to expand...

Being able to address up to and having access to memory is different, Windows currently restricts most application memory pools below the total they can address. Wasn't sure if OS X did the same.
 
F

falconzss

Member
Enco said:
I would definitely say go 13".

I can't imagine using anything smaller. 13" is already pretty small. I'm used to a 24" desktop though so that may skew my opinion a bit. The 13" is pretty light and slim so I wouldn't worry about that.
Click to expand...

r1chard said:
If you're expecting to run an IDE on it then 11" will probably be too small. I had an EEE PC 701 (7" 800x400 resolution screen) which I programmed on for some time but then I was using a full-screen vim editor window...
Click to expand...

Thanks guys!
 
T

Talon

Member
Jarmel said:
Logic board is probably dead on my MBP. This is the last notebook I'm getting from them.
Click to expand...
Have you taken it into the store?

I got my 2006 MBP replaced with a brand new unibody when I had the same failure back in 2008. Seemed like the manager had the discretion to make that change for me.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
njean777 said:
How many times has it died? If it is more then three you can ask for a replacement and they usually will give you one.
Click to expand...

Just once, it's under extended warranty so that's not the problem.

Talon- said:
Have you taken it into the store?

I got my 2006 MBP replaced with a brand new unibody when I had the same failure back in 2008. Seemed like the manager had the discretion to make that change for me.
Click to expand...

I already took it in. The issue might be there is liquid damage although the guy didn't check the LIs and wasn't sure if there was liquid damage or not. He thought there might be some on the MagSafe but wasn't sure. So they're doing a complete breakdown to see if there's liquid damage before replacing the logic board even though I know for a fact it can't be liquid damage.

I'm just more pissed off how out of the last three MBPs I've gotten two now have died from logic board related issues.
 
T

Talon

Member
Jarmel said:
I already took it in. The issue might be there is liquid damage although the guy didn't check the LIs and wasn't sure if there was liquid damage or not. He thought there might be some on the MagSafe but wasn't sure. So they're doing a complete breakdown to see if there's liquid damage before replacing the logic board even though I know for a fact it can't be liquid damage.

I'm just more pissed off how out of the last three MBPs I've gotten two now have died from logic board related issues.
Click to expand...
This is true. It seems like the iMacs suffer from display issues and the laptops suffer from logic board failures - based on online movement and from my friends/acquaintances. And, of course, the mag safe issues, but I think that's more due to user error (coiling/not straightening out when plugged in) than anything.

Apple does a better job of taking care of customers with their stores, so I think it engenders a fair amount of good will even when your machine bricks.
 
V

VPhys

Member
Thinking about getting my first Mac ever, the MBPR.


I've been a desktop guy my entire life. I switched over to a laptop this past year so I can get work done on the go as well as home. When at home, 100% of the time I have my laptop connected to my 1900X1200 IPS monitor. I can't sand the low res as well as the TN panel on my midrange dell laptop.

I'm looking to consolidate my notebook and external display to do two things:

1) free up desk space and have a cleaner setup at home
2) have a better display on the go

Has anyone switched from using a high resolution 24"+ monitor to the 15" RMBP. For the first time in a decade I'm thinking about using my laptop screen as my primary viewing device and I'm wondering if I will miss the screen size of an external display, as well as the lost vertical resolution. The RMBP can do 1900x1200 but most likely this will not be a usable text size so I'll be using 1680x1050 or possibly even the default "retina" mode.



Also, how great are the trackpads on Macs? Is it even better than using an external mouse?
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
VPhys said:
Also, how great are the trackpads on Macs? Is it even better than using an external mouse?
Click to expand...

This is going to sound mildly ridiculous to anyone who doesn't use a Macbook, and even I had a huge amount of doubt as a big proponent of the Thinkpad nub but...yeah, it's pretty damn great. The only thing I use a mouse for is Photoshop, and really if it's something quick I won't even bother then.

The real thing at least coming from being a Windows user is the gestures to switch desktops. The whole idea that you don't have to min-max windows and can just switch desktops instead is just f'ing brilliant and has completely changed how I work.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
tl;dr — get a rMBP

Skim PDF
Resolution settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI
Reading experience: great
Preview PDF
Best settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI; no further adjustments needed
Reading experience: decent
HyperPDF PDF
Resolution settings: 2048 x 1280. Not ready for HiDPI and rendering can't scale at higher resolutions.
Reading experience: broken (decent UI otherwise)

Bookle ePub; doesn't support DRM
Resolution settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI.
Reading experience: poor (no book mode)
Murasaki ePub; doesn't support DRM
Resolution settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI.
Reading experience: poor (no book mode)
Barnes & Noble eReader ePub; doesn't support DRM
Resolution settings: 3840 x 2400. Font size 36
Reading experience: decent
iReader ePub; doesn't support DRM
Resolution settings: 2048 x 1280. Font size is not adjustable!
Reading experience: decent in window. poor in fullscreen mode

Nook for Mac ePub; supports DRM
Resolution settings: 2800 x 1800 (broken at higher resolutions); Font size at max
Reading experience: good
Adobe Digital Editions ePub; supports DRM
Resolution settings: 2800 x 1800 (2048 x 1280 better for embedded diagrams); Font size at max
Reading experience: decent
Kobo ePub (only from Kobo store); supports DRM
Resolution settings:
Reading experience:

Kindle azn, mobi; supports DRM
Resolution settings: 2048 x 1280 (glitches at higher resolution). Font size set at middle of slider
Reading experience: decent

DjView djvu
Resolution settings: 3840 x 2400.
Reading experience: good

Simple Comic cbr/cbz etc
Resolution settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPi.
Reading experience: good

Zinio Reader 4 proprietary format (magazines); supports DRM
Resolution settings: 3840 x 2400.
Reading experience: stunning

Press Reader beta proprietary format (newspapers); supports DRM
Resolution settings: 2048 x 1280 or 3840 x 2400 doesn't matter
Reading experience: shitty broken app. Fixes perhaps coming soon?

Zapages said:
Hey guys,

I am thinking of getting the Mac Book Pro Retina for school (research - bio-informatics). I was wondering is there a way to push the resolution to full Retina with OSX and with either Windows 7 running on parallel or through bootcamp?

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...
Er, what do you mean by "full Retina"? Perhaps Anandtech's section on Bootcamp in his rMBP review will answer your question.
 
G

giga

Member
Skim PDF
Resolution settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI
Reading experience: great
Preview PDF
Best settings: 1400 x 900 HiDPI; no further adjustments needed
Reading experience: decent
Click to expand...
What's the difference?
 
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