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[Hoo-doo]

Sometimes I wish I lived in the US, we don't have any refurbished Macs in my country (the Netherlands) Ah well, guess I'll have to dig deep and just go for it. I want my MBA!

We recently got a refurbished iPad and iPod section of the store, so maybe we'll get there.
Always apply for the student discount though, 40 euros of app store credit and a discount isn't bad.

 

[Zapages]

Is this site reliable?

https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-istack-mac-bundle

Parallel 7 for 50 dollars Good deal?

 

[Cudder]

How long did it take? I ordered mine last week July 12th and it says 10th to 16th August for its arrival.

Also would you guys recommend getting Office for Mac vs iWorks? I was wondering what should I get with 100 dollar App card for Macs.

EDIT: What is best alternative to Photoshop on the Mac. I have Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, but that is for windows only. :\ Gimp? I like to use the grid and place rulers for the work I do... The last time I checked with GIMP, that was not do able... How's Acorn or Pixelmator 2?

I placed the order July 2. It also estimated my delivery to be Aug2-Aug9, but it now says it should be arriving July 26. So you will probably receive yours earlier as well.

 

[scorcho]

Is this site reliable?

https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-istack-mac-bundle

Parallel 7 for 50 dollars Good deal?

yep, but that usually means the next version is around the corner, tuned specifically for Mountain Lion.

 

[The Real Abed]

Is this site reliable?

https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-istack-mac-bundle

Parallel 7 for 50 dollars Good deal?

Here's my experience. I bought a MacUpdate bundle early 2011 that came with Parallels 6 and some other apps. I bought it strictly for Parallels.

Parallels 7 came out about 5 months later. I paid the $50 to upgrade it because it was worth it. (Since it brought enhancements and Lion Fullscreen support.)

Parallels 8 is probably going to come out later this year too. I will pay $50 to upgrade that too because I'm a whore and like my software to be fresh and new.

They're on a mostly yearly upgrade cycle now. But do not quote me on that because it's not set in stone. Just be wary that these bundles will not always have software that's going to stay at that version for a while. And most of them have paid upgrades.

For instance, in the same bundle, I got Mac DVD Ripper Pro 2.x. It is great. It works great. But a few months later, 3.0 came out. But didn't have any features worth the upgrade price, but, and now I'm just going to rant about how stupid the company that made the program is, when the upgrade to 3.0 came out, the app UPDATED ITSELF TO 3.0 WITHOUT ASKING and when I launched it, it said "Oops! Now you have to pay, sucker!" I had to DOWNGRADE to 2.x and lose all the point updates that had come out since the bundle was released. Such a fucking bullshit move. You NEVER EVER update your program across whole version upgrades. ESPECIALLY when it's a paid update. That is a no-no. But this company did it. Now I don't ever trust them. What if Parallels had done that and made me pay the $50 instead of simply telling me that "hey, a new version is out! If you are interested, go to the website and buy it!"

But I digress.

I'll say another thing about those bundles. They're mostly crap. You usually only get one or two apps you actually end up using. Mine came with 90% crap, but was worth it for the 1Password and Parallels keys. I also use Hands Off! (Which comes in this bundle here) but am getting to the point I don't even know why I keep it on.

Disk Drill is an overpriced program with functionality you could get from a good external HDD and a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner or a good online backup system.

Paint Supreme looks like a PhotoShop clone that is probably underpowered compared to even Pixelmator.

The rest all look like useless shovelware. At least Hands Off! is newer than the one I have, but that's only for people who want to monitor in and outgoing network traffic. It gets annoying with apps like Chrome's updaters who check the internet all the time and put themselves in randomly named folders every damn time and make Hands Off! think they're new programs.

But $20 off Parallels is pretty good.. for now. I'd wait to see if version 8 comes out and pay full price unless you really want some of the other apps in that bundle.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I might break down and pick up a cinema display......

Wait for Retina, dude! You know you'll hate yourself if you buy it now.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Wait for Retina, dude! You know you'll hate yourself if you buy it now.

I'm not completely convinced that will be the case, at least, for the next year.

1) Apple has a boatload of products that will come first for Retina purposes. (Other Pros, eventually the Air, plus the whole iMac line)

2) Supporting any resolution higher than the current Cinema Display requires a Displayport 1.2 device. I think Apple has been supporting this at least for a gen or two now but would probably restrict full resolution to 2010+ models only (and probably with a significant performance problem depending on how far back you go)

I think a Cinema Display with the same resolution as the current MBR is inevitable (but not much higher than that; >4K displays would be pretty outlandish) but I definitely think Apple is not in a rush to do so until they solve their supply problems and bolster performance a few times over.

 

[Alchemy]

"Retina" desktop screens are going to be fucking expensive or they're going to be really loose with following the retina definition.

 

[Gary Whitta]

"Retina" desktop screens are going to be fucking expensive or they're going to be really loose with following the retina definition.

Or the technology will become cheaper over time, like it always does.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

"Retina" desktop screens are going to be fucking expensive or they're going to be really loose with following the retina definition.

All existing retina products are the same price (or comparable) as their previous non-retina models. Why would the price change now?

(Keep in mind the retina MBP has SSD, a thinner design, and other stuff to go with the screen to justify the higher price.)

 

[The Real Abed]

Just thought I'd bring this up. Carbon Copy Cloner is no longer free. It used to be donationware, but now it is a paid product. It costs $40. But right now is 25% off until August 19th. (For the "Get Ready for Mountain Lion" promotion.)

If you have DONATED to them in the past, it should know this automatically. But if it doesn't, and your copy turns into a trial, you can retrieve a serial code using your email address. Now, my copy somehow forgot I had donated and wanted me to pay for it, so I clicked the "Retrieve" button in the "Purchase" window and sent them an email with my information and the nice Sarah emailed me my new code within 3 minutes. I am now all registered. And I only donated $5 back in 2008. I really wish I had donated more because CCC has been a lifesaver. Shame they don't do donations anymore. Hopefully they'll still get lots of purchases because CCC really does kick SuperDuper's ass. Even if SD is cheaper. (Which is unfortunate. CCC should be $20 to counter competing products. But oh well.)

Even if you haven't donated, $30 isn't a bad price for something that will save your bacon. I've been a proponent of CCC for years and this doesn't change anything. I'm sad I won't be able to say "You should definitely use CCC for backing up because it's powerful and FREE" anymore because it was a real big plus. But things change.

Just a public service announcement as it only now came to my attention. So they must have just switched over. They just released version 3.5 after a long Mountain Lion beta period. Plus the app has come a long way since its early days as a simple AppleScript Studio wrapper for Rsync. (I used to use it even way back then too!)

 

[Azzurri]

Does anyone have 2 Apple LED monitors set up on a PC by chance?

 

[Alchemy]

Or the technology will become cheaper over time, like it always does.

Over time, which is not right now or the near future. There is a reason they stuck to a 15 inch display for now even though laptops have issues pushing those pixels fluidly. Even waiting a year is pushing it for costs to drop enough. If someone needs a new display now waiting is just a bad idea.

 

[njean777]

Just thought I'd bring this up. Carbon Copy Cloner is no longer free. It used to be donationware, but now it is a paid product. It costs $40. But right now is 25% off until August 19th. (For the "Get Ready for Mountain Lion" promotion.)

If you have DONATED to them in the past, it should know this automatically. But if it doesn't, and your copy turns into a trial, you can retrieve a serial code using your email address. Now, my copy somehow forgot I had donated and wanted me to pay for it, so I clicked the "Retrieve" button in the "Purchase" window and sent them an email with my information and the nice Sarah emailed me my new code within 3 minutes. I am now all registered. And I only donated $5 back in 2008. I really wish I had donated more because CCC has been a lifesaver. Shame they don't do donations anymore. Hopefully they'll still get lots of purchases because CCC really does kick SuperDuper's ass. Even if SD is cheaper. (Which is unfortunate. CCC should be $20 to counter competing products. But oh well.)

Even if you haven't donated, $30 isn't a bad price for something that will save your bacon. I've been a proponent of CCC for years and this doesn't change anything. I'm sad I won't be able to say "You should definitely use CCC for backing up because it's powerful and FREE" anymore because it was a real big plus. But things change.

Just a public service announcement as it only now came to my attention. So they must have just switched over. They just released version 3.5 after a long Mountain Lion beta period. Plus the app has come a long way since its early days as a simple AppleScript Studio wrapper for Rsync. (I used to use it even way back then too!)

What is wrong with Time Machine, that people use CCC?

Also quick question, I have a MBPr and was wondering if one dead pixel is enough for a return to the apple store? I read the policy and it said one dead pixel is not a call for a replacement, but the problem with my screen is there is one dead pixel in the middle of the screen and it only shows up when having a black background(which can get annoying). What do you guys think?

 

[Blackhead]

Just thought I'd bring this up. Carbon Copy Cloner is no longer free. It used to be donationware, but now it is a paid product. It costs $40. But right now is 25% off until August 19th. (For the "Get Ready for Mountain Lion" promotion.)

If you have DONATED to them in the past, it should know this automatically. But if it doesn't, and your copy turns into a trial, you can retrieve a serial code using your email address. Now, my copy somehow forgot I had donated and wanted me to pay for it, so I clicked the "Retrieve" button in the "Purchase" window and sent them an email with my information and the nice Sarah emailed me my new code within 3 minutes. I am now all registered. And I only donated $5 back in 2008. I really wish I had donated more because CCC has been a lifesaver. Shame they don't do donations anymore. Hopefully they'll still get lots of purchases because CCC really does kick SuperDuper's ass. Even if SD is cheaper. (Which is unfortunate. CCC should be $20 to counter competing products. But oh well.)

Even if you haven't donated, $30 isn't a bad price for something that will save your bacon. I've been a proponent of CCC for years and this doesn't change anything. I'm sad I won't be able to say "You should definitely use CCC for backing up because it's powerful and FREE" anymore because it was a real big plus. But things change.

Just a public service announcement as it only now came to my attention. So they must have just switched over. They just released version 3.5 after a long Mountain Lion beta period. Plus the app has come a long way since its early days as a simple AppleScript Studio wrapper for Rsync. (I used to use it even way back then too!)

Does that mean no more ads?

 

[Nitsuj23]

"Retina" desktop screens are going to be fucking expensive or they're going to be really loose with following the retina definition.

Wouldn't computers need to be better as well? I love my rMBP but it does lag when just scrolling through a Facebook or Twitter feed. A minor annoyance and something I can bare when using it though.

 

[Trojita]

Wait for Retina, dude! You know you'll hate yourself if you buy it now.

I didn't realize the Cinema Displays doesn't have the HD camera like the Thunderbolt Display either.

The one thing I am worried about and I think Apple might potentially do this; they'll get rid of the Cinema Display in favor of a thunderbolt only monitor now that most Mac hardware has thunderbolt.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I'm not completely convinced that will be the case, at least, for the next year.

1) Apple has a boatload of products that will come first for Retina purposes. (Other Pros, eventually the Air, plus the whole iMac line)

2) Supporting any resolution higher than the current Cinema Display requires a Displayport 1.2 device. I think Apple has been supporting this at least for a gen or two now but would probably restrict full resolution to 2010+ models only (and probably with a significant performance problem depending on how far back you go)

I think a Cinema Display with the same resolution as the current MBR is inevitable (but not much higher than that; >4K displays would be pretty outlandish) but I definitely think Apple is not in a rush to do so until they solve their supply problems and bolster performance a few times over.

Very good points. I wouldn't want to run a Retina-class 27" Cinema Display on an integrated GPU until at least Broadwell. (You could probably do it with Haswell, but the GPU would hate you at times).

 

[Blackhead]

I didn't realize the Cinema Displays doesn't have the HD camera like the Thunderbolt Display either.

The one thing I am worried about and I think Apple might potentially do this; they'll get rid of the Cinema Display in favor of a thunderbolt only monitor now that most Mac hardware has thunderbolt.

With the Mac Mini, and now rMBP, supporting HDMI out I'd be very surprised and disappointed if the next Apple Display

Spoiler

iTV

and iMac doesn't support HDMI in. It's long overdue...

 

[Crazymoogle]

The one thing I am worried about and I think Apple might potentially do this; they'll get rid of the Cinema Display in favor of a thunderbolt only monitor now that most Mac hardware has thunderbolt.

There is no "Thunderbolt only" for displays AFAIK - mini-Displayport is not only electrically compatible with Thunderbolt, mini-DP was also first created by Apple themselves (and later added to the DP spec).

 

[Blackhead]

There is no "Thunderbolt only" for displays AFAIK - mini-Displayport is not only electrically compatible with Thunderbolt, mini-DP was also first created by Apple themselves (and later added to the DP spec).

I don't think that's quite right...

9. What are the system requirements for using my Apple Thunderbolt Display in OS X?

A Thunderbolt-capable Mac (listed in question 3).

10. What are the system requirements for using my Apple Thunderbolt Display in Boot Camp?

A Thunderbolt-capable Mac (listed in question 3).

 

[Trojita]

There is no "Thunderbolt only" for displays AFAIK - mini-Displayport is not only electrically compatible with Thunderbolt, mini-DP was also first created by Apple themselves (and later added to the DP spec).

I was told multiple times that I couldn't use a thunderbolt display with a PC even if I had a thinderbolt to dvi cable.

 

[The Real Abed]

What is wrong with Time Machine, that people use CCC?

Time Machine is for incremental version control backups. I use CrashPlan in lieu of TimeMachine as it does the same thing, but online. Though without the pretty space-y interface.

Carbon Copy Cloner is for usable bootable backups that can clone everything into something you can boot from if you ever have an emergency.

Does that mean no more ads?

Yes. But then again, those ads would have gone away in the older versions by checking off a simple "I paid" checkbox. Now there are no ads, it's a 30-day trial and you need to pay $40.

 

[Utako]

Is the Retina MBP the best Mac one can buy (despite the lack of Ethernet)?

Any glaring issues? Any bugs and flaws like the iPad 3?

 

[The Real Abed]

Is the Retina MBP the best Mac one can buy (despite the lack of Ethernet)?

Any glaring issues? Any bugs and flaws like the iPad 3?

It's the most advanced new technology wise, but it does have some problems that can be fixed or will be fixed.

Lagginess will he fixed by Mountain Lion and a Lion update.

A batch of them had screen ghosting problems. But it was isolated and Apple is replacing them without problems.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I don't think that's quite right...

Yeah, sure enough. Interesting; I guess they just left out the switch circuitry. That's a huge bummer for such an expensive display.

 

[Bearded Dudebro]

Hey, trying to match up my resolution in Lion and Bootcamp, anyone know what scaled resolution "Best for Retina" is supposed to equate to?

 

[The Real Abed]

Hey, trying to match up my resolution in Lion and Bootcamp, anyone know what scaled resolution "Best for Retina" is supposed to equate to?

Well, if you normally use the default option in OS X, you'd need 200% scaling in Windows.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

There is no "Thunderbolt only" for displays AFAIK - mini-Displayport is not only electrically compatible with Thunderbolt, mini-DP was also first created by Apple themselves (and later added to the DP spec).

Thunderbolt computers can use miniDP monitors, but not the other way around.

 

[jcutner]

So I have a serious issue now - I opened up my MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2009) lid this morning, and the cursor was moving fine, but everything else was frozen. Icons were inactive, moving the cursor to each corner didn't activate Expose, etc. So I turned it off, turned it back on (with the button) and it makes the little boot noise and hangs on a Grey screen with NO apple logo. Holding option / command+r does nothing, cause I don't think it's far enough into the boot cycle to recognize commands.

What the hell
I've left it turned off all day and tried again just now, no change

Help!

 

[giga]

Your hard drive is dead.

 

[jcutner]

Your hard drive is dead.

I have windows on my secondary drive (I have the Optibay set up), wouldn't I be able to hold down option to boot from there, or is the equivalent of the master boot record on my primary with OS X?

 

[giga]

I have windows on my secondary drive (I have the Optibay set up), wouldn't I be able to hold down option to boot from there, or is the equivalent of the master boot record on my primary with OS X?

Hm you should be able to. The firmware isn't reliant on the hard drive. Try a pram reset.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

 

[scorcho]

I didn't realize the Cinema Displays doesn't have the HD camera like the Thunderbolt Display either.

The one thing I am worried about and I think Apple might potentially do this; they'll get rid of the Cinema Display in favor of a thunderbolt only monitor now that most Mac hardware has thunderbolt.

the latest ACD is thunderbolt only already.

 

[jcutner]

Hm you should be able to. The firmware isn't reliant on the hard drive. Try a pram reset.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Holding down Option + Command + P + R gets it to reboot, but it comes back to the gray screen and hangs. I popped in my snow leopard disc, and held down C while it powered on - but nothing there either

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

SMC reset? Getting into random voodoo, but might as well try it before declaring bad hardware.

Also, if you have two sticks of RAM, try pulling one and trying it in either slot. Repeat for both sticks.

 

[giga]

Holding down Option + Command + P + R gets it to reboot, but it comes back to the gray screen and hangs. I popped in my snow leopard disc, and held down C while it powered on - but nothing there either

Safe boot?

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

If that doesn't work, could be faulty ram or optibay.

 

[jcutner]

Safe boot?

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

If that doesn't work, could be faulty ram or optibay.

safe boot doesn't do anything - tried one stick at a time, no change there

yanked the SSD, and plugged it into my desktop - won't even see it in the BIOS. RIP Vertex 2 (there goes my music collection)

 

[Tabris]

Is it normal for the bottom left of the Thunderbolt Display to get pretty hot to the touch? That's where the power supply is I assume and I have it powering my macbook. If I leave it on for a couple hours playing a game or just surfing the entire time, I can feel the heat from the display.

 

[The Real Abed]

I say it a lot, but backups are nothing to sneeze at. And are crucial in this day and age.

 

[jcutner]

I say it a lot, but backups are nothing to sneeze at. And are crucial in this day and age.

yup, certainly learned my lesson. first hard drive to ever die on me since i started using computers. not sure what i'm going to do about syncing my iphone once i get a new hard drive. i assume things like my contacts etc are all fine now with iCloud

 

[Souless_PJ]

I say it a lot, but backups are nothing to sneeze at. And are crucial in this day and age.

Especially since Time Machine makes it so easy. Just plug in a USB drive every week or so and it's done automatically in the background.

 

[virtuoso88]

It's the most advanced new technology wise, but it does have some problems that can be fixed or will be fixed.

Lagginess will he fixed by Mountain Lion and a Lion update.

A batch of them had screen ghosting problems. But it was isolated and Apple is replacing them without problems.

Lagginess will be improved in ML not fixed.

 

[Trojita]

the latest ACD is thunderbolt only already.

They still market them different, even though they are both Cinema displays, only the previous truly has that in its name.

I guess the question would be whether they offer an updated Cinema Display with MDP and Thunderbolt Display separately (Which would be dumb), If they would only offer a thunderbolt only capable monitor (Which I think would also be dumb), or whether they would offer a MDP+Thunderbolt capable Monitor.

 

[Crazymoogle]

They still market them different, even though they are both Cinema displays, only the previous truly has that in its name.

Yeah, that's the confusion and it's been very poorly marketed by Apple right now. You buy the Cinema display if you want to use it with PCs or other devices...but you don't get the one-cable thunderbolt docking station tech. You buy the identical-looking Thunderbolt display if you want said cool tech...but it won't work with anything but TB-equipped Macs.

For a thousand dollar TV that's a brutal difference.

I guess the question would be whether they offer an updated Cinema Display with MDP and Thunderbolt Display separately (Which would be dumb), If they would only offer a thunderbolt only capable monitor (Which I think would also be dumb), or whether they would offer a MDP+Thunderbolt capable Monitor.

Where my original confusion came from is that it should be possible for the monitor to support both. TB/DP are using different transmission signals but the electrical compatibility is there - that's why you can still buy DVI/HDMI adapters for your Macbook, as the MB just has to change the signal being sent.

It seems Apple left out the ability for the TB display to accept a non-Thunderbolt signal, probably to (1) eliminate confusion (why do none of the USB/ethernet/etc ports not work when I plug in my PC?) and (2) reduce cost+complexity (no active switching chipset required). Maybe that would have been expensive; hard to say.

I think for Retina displays, however, anything but TB is out of the question. At best you can hope for a TB/DP switching display. But TB-only is most likely, especially if iTV is real (in which case the replacement for standard-interface Cinema displays would be whatever TV product Apple has in mind.)

safe boot doesn't do anything - tried one stick at a time, no change there

yanked the SSD, and plugged it into my desktop - won't even see it in the BIOS. RIP Vertex 2 (there goes my music collection)

Yeah, Vertex1/2 suffer from some random chipset problems. V3/4 seem to be okay due to new chipsets entirely (Sandforce, etc.) It's possible to resurrect the drive ( you need to put a jumper on one of the pins and then run some software you get from the OCZ support forum) but it may eventually fail again:

Vertex1: Failed twice, RMA, Failed twice more, randomly came back to life after #4 though. Since it's the chipset data is fine. But wasn't critical since I was only using it as a secondary drive.
Agility1: Failed twice, RMA, fine since

 

[Lord Error]

Hes talking about the Retina Pro not the MBA...

I was too! I was trying to counterpoint him on feasibility of using retina screen on next MBA.

 

[The Real Abed]

yup, certainly learned my lesson. first hard drive to ever die on me since i started using computers. not sure what i'm going to do about syncing my iphone once i get a new hard drive. i assume things like my contacts etc are all fine now with iCloud

Your first? Man, if I were to count the drives I had die that I can remember, I'd need to use all my fingers and probably toes and might need to get help from someone else too.

Okay, maybe not.

If you had iCloud set up correctly, your contacts, notes, reminders, calendars and purchased music will be there for you. I know some of these things need to be specifically set to iCloud like Calendars which by default uses "on my Mac" which is useless. I had to manually move all my calendars to the cloud. Same with notes.

 

[jcutner]

Your first? Man, if I were to count the drives I had die that I can remember, I'd need to use all my fingers and probably toes and might need to get help from someone else too.

Okay, maybe not.

If you had iCloud set up correctly, your contacts, notes, reminders, calendars and purchased music will be there for you. I know some of these things need to be specifically set to iCloud like Calendars which by default uses "on my Mac" which is useless. I had to manually move all my calendars to the cloud. Same with notes.

Getting back in shape over here, bought a 128 Crucial M4. Popped that in, bam - Apple logo. Going through reinstalling Snow Leopard from disc, now updating to Lion.

 

[The Real Abed]

Getting back in shape over here, bought a 128 Crucial M4. Popped that in, bam - Apple logo. Going through reinstalling Snow Leopard from disc, now updating to Lion.

Ah, good choice. SSD's are really nice. And they don't die as abruptly as HDD's do. You usually get a lot more warning before you can't access anything anymore. But you shouldn't guffaw backups still. I recommend at least one of the following.

I personally use a combination of local backups via CCC and online backups via CrashPlan. The CrashPlan backups act like Time Machine in that it stores my files historically and lets me restore any file from any point. And I can configure how often to keep them. Since my space is unlimited, I could conceiveably set it to keep every 1 minute from now all the way back to day 1. But that's overkill. But I could do it if I wanted to. I find this to be the best for me:

And my CCC clone runs every 6 hours. I don't need it as often as I used to since I got CrashPlan. I could change it to once a day if I need to as it's now just used for quick access to full clones rather than a complete backup system.

The online backup system could be useful if you don't mind redownloading your important files when a crash happens. This would require more work on your part since you'd then have to put the files in the right places.

CCC is better if you have the means. That is to say an external HDD. You can have your backup right there for when you need it. But if you don't have a second computer to use as an "always on" server, you'll need to remember to plug the drive in at night or during the day to let it do its thing if you are using a laptop.

 

[Crazymoogle]

What's the advantage to using CCC over Time Machine?