|
teagone posted:Thanks for the tips! I don't know if I they'll replace the charger, despite being under warranty, because my cousin attempted to repair it by soldering it or something; it looks like someone hilariously tampered with it, haha. I had my dad do this with my last faulty charger. I'm on my third in 3.5 years, and I hadn't thought to go to the Fruit Stand until after I had it soldered.
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 21:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:00 |
|
|
OK, I removed CleanMyMac, Logmein (which seemed to be causing a major slowdown during boot) and Little Snitch (which complained about mismatched versions the first time it started after I restored from my Time Machine backup) and it seems to be MUCH better now. I am thinking LogMeIn may have been the culprit. I'm going to try to reinstall it from scratch in case a permissions file got screwed up during the transition.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 22:14
|
|
|
My turn to make a "Will this setup work for me?" post: Does anybody know how well the new Creative Cloud version of Premiere Pro would run on a 2013 Air? How about on a 2011? I was planning to wait for the new rMBP/iMac/Mac Pro refreshes before I made a decision on what to replace my 2011 i5 Air with, but circumstance has forced my hand and I'm going to have to use Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere in the coming weeks. If I have to buy a new computer this summer, I'd rather it be a new Air (hot drat, that battery life!  ) than something with Ivy Bridge [I'm also leaning more toward an Air/desktop (either Mac or PC, no clue yet) combo than an MBP anyway].My other option is to clear a bunch of space on my current Air and use that for the time being- at least until Apple releases the rest of their updated lineup. I already have a solid idea of how Photoshop and InDesign will do- and even a decent one of how they'll do on my current 2011- but I haven't the faintest idea if I could rely on this computer or the 2013 version as a Premiere rig. I'm going to be working with fairly simple "documentary-format" stuff shot in 1080p via DSLRs and iPhones, so I can't see it being massively taxing. Rubiks Pubes posted:OK, I removed CleanMyMac, Logmein (which seemed to be causing a major slowdown during boot) and Little Snitch (which complained about mismatched versions the first time it started after I restored from my Time Machine backup) and it seems to be MUCH better now. I am thinking LogMeIn may have been the culprit. I'm going to try to reinstall it from scratch in case a permissions file got screwed up during the transition. Yeah, I've used CleanMyMac for years on various machines and never had a problem with it. Particularly since it's not a background app or anything of that sort.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 22:31
|
|
|
Gnomedolf posted:Ran the Battery Health app on the refurb 15" retina I just got. It says my current max is higher than the original max. Congratulations, that's common on a new battery.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 22:40
|
|
|
Electric Bugaloo posted:Yeah, I've used CleanMyMac for years on various machines and never had a problem with it. Particularly since it's not a background app or anything of that sort. It never caused me any issues on my 2010 Air either, but figured it may be the problem. Reinstalled LogMeIn and everything seems to be OK still. We shall see.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 23:21
|
|
|
etalian posted:Not surprising since the newer batteries have a life of 1000 discharge cycles and hopefully you avoided bad things such as overheating the battery. What do you mean by overheating the battery? Is playing Starcraft 2 on my Air ruining the battery? 
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 11:28
|
|
|
Best wireless mouse? I would love to avoid AA, but it isn't a deal breaker.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:10
|
|
|
For non-gaming I really like the Magic Mouse. Apple sells a pretty cheap set of batteries + charger to go with it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:21
|
|
|
Joe Don Baker posted:For non-gaming I really like the Magic Mouse. Apple sells a pretty cheap set of batteries + charger to go with it. The magic mouse is actually pretty decent but every time somebody who has never used one before tries to use it they attempt to use it as a standard mouse and try to rest their entire palm on its surface. Push it around with your fingers whilst resting your wrist on the surface you are using, its much more comfortable.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:23
|
|
|
Prate posted:What do you mean by overheating the battery? Is playing Starcraft 2 on my Air ruining the battery? No it's doing bad practices such as charging the laptop in your car on a hot summer day. Of course it's pretty unlikely in reality since you need really high temperature to reduce the max charge.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:29
|
|
|
Duckman2008 posted:Best wireless mouse? I would love to avoid AA, but it isn't a deal breaker. Magic Trackpad.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 16:40
|
|
|
Electric Bugaloo posted:Magic Trackpad. Except if you're doing precision selection. I love the Magic Trackpad but I have to bust my mouse out when I'm tightening up graphics.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 17:17
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:Except if you're doing precision selection. I love the Magic Trackpad but I have to bust my mouse out when I'm tightening up graphics. I used to feel that way, but I am just about as accurate when I use three-finger drag as I am with a mouse. In Photoshop, it's super intuitive since dragging three fingers is the equivalent to click-drag.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 17:50
|
|
|
So the video failed a second time on my early '11 MBP, about a year after the first repair. Those Haswell MBPs can't come soon enough.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 18:52
|
|
|
Rubiks Pubes posted:I am seeing a LOT of lines like this: This indicates you're running very low on RAM, check Activity Monitor, enable All Processes, and sort by Real Mem, see if anything in there is using way more than is expected, and check the System Memory tab and see if your Page Outs rate is nonzero.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 21:42
|
|
|
chimz posted:This indicates you're running very low on RAM, check Activity Monitor, enable All Processes, and sort by Real Mem, see if anything in there is using way more than is expected, and check the System Memory tab and see if your Page Outs rate is nonzero. Kernel task is using over a gig and Java is using about 650mb. Page outs is 0
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 22:00
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:Except if you're doing precision selection. I love the Magic Trackpad but I have to bust my mouse out when I'm tightening up graphics. I'm weird with trackpads and mice, my right arm is slightly twisted, so using the trackpad on my mac air is extremely uncomfortable with my right hand, but works great with my left (I'm righty). So my right hand doesn't like gestures as a result. I'm good with a mouse, so I'll probably get the magic mouse. I also type only with my left hand at 50 words per minute ish. Anyway, that was a weird derail, sorry about that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 22:13
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:Except if you're doing precision selection. I love the Magic Trackpad but I have to bust my mouse out when I'm tightening up graphics. Oh definitely. I don't exclusively use the trackpad. I've got a fancy wireless Logitech mouse too. I just tend to use whatever's most comfortable at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 23:59
|
|
|
Ocrassus posted:The magic mouse is actually pretty decent but every time somebody who has never used one before tries to use it they attempt to use it as a standard mouse and try to rest their entire palm on its surface.  but at least I have no problems using those tiny travel mice that come with some laptops, right?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 00:18
|
|
|
Mercurius posted:Holding a normal mouse in a claw grip looks kind of If you game a lot, the claw grip is pretty well known and used.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 00:58
|
|
|
flavor posted:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battery-health/id490192174?mt=12 FYI, despite the similar visual appearance "Battery Health" isn't a newer version of Coconut Battery, it's a completely different app. And newer isn't better as neither is doing anything but reporting numbers gathered from an OS X API. Accuracy is really up to the OS. (Or, more likely, your Mac's SMC firmware -- in this case even the OS is probably just a middleman.) You can view many of these numbers without installing a 3rd party app. Open Apple's "System Information" app (formerly "System Profiler") and look under the "Power" pane. To me, the killer Coconut Battery feature is that you can have the app send your current battery capacity to an online database, which gives you a web page with a graph of your battery's life versus its age or charge cycle count, while also showing you the average curve for all Macs matching yours. Try "Open coconutBattery Online" under the coconutBattery menu. It could be done better, e.g. by automatically logging capacity whenever you open the app so that you get more points on the curve, but what the hell it's free. Finally, on the third or fourth launch or somewhere thereabouts Battery Health pushed me to buy one of the author's other apps instead of showing battery info, and it uses obviously wrong units on the realtime battery current graph at the bottom. (That might not annoy other people as much as it annoys me, I'm an engineer.) I don't think it's truly a bad app and it does a couple things a little better than Coconut Battery, but I uninstalled it anyways.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
teagone posted:If you game a lot, the claw grip is pretty well known and used. Of course, other people look at it and the way I sit my left hand on WSAD and go 'heh, you play games, don't you?'.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 02:25
|
|
|
I need some buying/upgrade advice. I am still using a 2008 Black MacBook that is running a 1TB spinner HD in an OptiBay, with a 120GB SSD as a system + apps drive. I want to upgrade to a laptop that can run Mavericks when it's available, plus hopefully a version or two beyond that. The catch is...I need that 1TB+120GB of space - preferably the 120GB on a SSD since I'm used to the boot and app launch speeds. This seems to rule out any new Macs in the Apple Store - the 2.9 ghz 13" has a 1TB spinner as an option but I don't think I want to void the warranty by sticking an OptiBay in there for the SSD. As far as I can tell there isn't a dual-drive option. What is the best option here? (A used/older laptop Mac is fine as long as it can upgrade to Mavericks and beyond.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 02:38
|
|
|
To jump in on the mouse chat, I love my magic mouse. And its a lot better using the MagicMouse app, custom gestures and all that. But if you get one, DEFINITELY get a set of rechargeable batteries too. Mine eats batteries like crazy, and lasts maybe two weeks at most before I have to change them out. My apple keyboard however lasts months on the same two AAs, so I have no idea why mouse feels the need to torture its batteries like it does.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 02:55
|
|
|
Are there any decent monitors that are cheaper than Apple's offerings? I've never really used a monitor (just used Exposé and creative use of multiple desktops, but my internship has one of those big apple deals, and I like it, but I don't like the idea of dropping a grand for a monitor.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 03:47
|
|
|
FYI, the buzz is that retina ACD's will be dropping soon, since the new Mac Pro is designed with 4K in mind and stocks of the current ACD lineup are out and not being reordered at a lot of retailers.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 03:48
|
|
|
GregNorc posted:Are there any decent monitors that are cheaper than Apple's offerings? Get two or three Korean 27's and never look back.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 03:51
|
|
|
fookolt posted:Get two or three Korean 27's and never look back. Yeah you just have to fish on Ebay for them, for models such as Yamakasi Catleap.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 03:56
|
|
|
Yep. Also, I forgot to mention that you'll have to shell $100 or so per dual-link DVI-to-mDP adapter because all the Korean 27 monitors only come in dual-link DVI (except for the Auria 27 at Microcenter).
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 03:57
|
|
|
At that point a refurbished ACD might be a bit more competitive.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 04:12
|
|
|
If any Aussies are looking for a good 27" display on the cheap there's this from Kogan It uses the same panel as the Thunderbolt display, and comes with a Mini-Displayport to Displayport cable.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 04:40
|
|
|
BobHoward posted:FYI, despite the similar visual appearance "Battery Health" isn't a newer version of Coconut Battery, it's a completely different app. And newer isn't better as neither is doing anything but reporting numbers gathered from an OS X API. Accuracy is really up to the OS. (Or, more likely, your Mac's SMC firmware -- in this case even the OS is probably just a middleman.) Right, so I was wrong, sorry. What I've noticed on my 13" mid-2009 MBP was that it sometimes had wild battery readings when the battery wasn't full (once it even asked for the battery to be serviced, but the Geniuses found nothing), but that the percentages were more aligned with the true capabilities of the battery when the battery was full. This may of course only have been my impression and could also be wrong. In any event, none of my other Apple laptops have shown any battery weirdnesses so far.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 04:49
|
|
|
So I've had my haswell 11" air for a few weeks now and I don't think that I"m observing the expected battery life that I've read about. It's good but it's not 9 hours good. I don't do "heavy usage" either. Web browsing/videos, 1 account synced on Mail (IMAP), skydrive and skype running. Also I'm noticing that it seems to run down the battery a bit fast when in standby (even with power nap off). Should I take it to the fruit stand?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 05:08
|
|
|
WarTribble posted:I need some buying/upgrade advice. *And isn't it ok as long as you don't break poo poo? Like if you need a repair as long as you can get it all back to the original state you should be fine I thought. etalian posted:Yeah you just have to fish on Ebay for them, for models such as Yamakasi Catleap. http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=1130703&p_id=10489&seq=1&format=2
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 05:18
|
|
|
shodanjr_gr posted:So I've had my haswell 11" air for a few weeks now and I don't think that I"m observing the expected battery life that I've read about. It's good but it's not 9 hours good. I don't do "heavy usage" either. Web browsing/videos, 1 account synced on Mail (IMAP), skydrive and skype running. Also I'm noticing that it seems to run down the battery a bit fast when in standby (even with power nap off). What's the specs on it? With the i7, I didn't see the battery life reported but with the i5 I've had good luck.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 08:06
|
|
|
shodanjr_gr posted:So I've had my haswell 11" air for a few weeks now and I don't think that I"m observing the expected battery life that I've read about. It's good but it's not 9 hours good. I don't do "heavy usage" either. Web browsing/videos, 1 account synced on Mail (IMAP), skydrive and skype running. Also I'm noticing that it seems to run down the battery a bit fast when in standby (even with power nap off). I've seen SkyDrive take 80% of CPU or similar for long periods of time on some machines, there must be something wrong with it. That being said, even without that kind of messed up software I tend to get about half the advertised battery life consistently on all laptops, past and present.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 09:24
|
|
|
rufius posted:What's the specs on it? With the i7, I didn't see the battery life reported but with the i5 I've had good luck. It's the base i5. Skydrive goes mental when syncing but generally it behaves when there's nothing to pull from the cloud...
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 09:40
|
|
|
shodanjr_gr posted:So I've had my haswell 11" air for a few weeks now and I don't think that I"m observing the expected battery life that I've read about. It's good but it's not 9 hours good. I don't do "heavy usage" either. Web browsing/videos, 1 account synced on Mail (IMAP), skydrive and skype running. Also I'm noticing that it seems to run down the battery a bit fast when in standby (even with power nap off). Battery life is very dependent on software behavior, and more so with Haswell than ever before. Programs which seem like they ought to be "light" can sometimes do dumb things that aren't as light as you'd think, even while nominally idle. Apple's own 9 hour "wireless web" rating is probably based on doing a clean OS install, running Safari, and using some kind of script to drive it through a predetermined set of websites. They're not going to be running Skydrive, Skype, Mail, etc. Mavericks will help keep background app power use more under control, but it's not here yet. So, open Activity Monitor and take a look at the CPU pane on the bottom. What's the idle percentage hovering at when the system appears to be idle? If it's not in the high 90s, look at the highest CPU use processes to see what might be eating energy. You mention web browsing / videos. Did you install the Flash plugin? It is still one of the worst enemies of battery life while browsing. If you want high battery life, do whatever you can to control it, such as installing ClickToFlash or ClickToPlugin. Safari can be a bit badly behaved for some things too -- most notably, when displaying webpages that have lots of animated GIFs. Such as the Something Awful Dot Com forums.  Generally speaking modern websites have a lot of Javascript code, etc., so open tabs/windows can use a surprising amount of CPU, and some websites are definitely worse than others. (The Mavericks version of Safari will help a lot by reducing CPU use of non-visible tabs/windows to zero, but once again, not here yet.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 10:05
|
|
|
japtor posted:Well if you need the 1TB drive the options are to get a new one and void the warranty* or get an old one...I guess I'd go for a refurb (since those MBPs been out for a while now) and void the warranty. There has never been a dual drive option and you already did the Optibay thing once, so you might as well do it again. I guess you could wait for the new MBPs to come out, and if/assuming they kill off the non retina models maybe you can hope to find some cheaper ones on clearance. Thanks - I guess my option is refurb+possible warranty void. Looking at MacFixit - it looks like retina models don't have any space for any optibay-type thingys - is that correct? So it looks like I will be limited to mid-2012 non-retina and earlier. Don't know about the warranty - all I know is that whenever I open a laptop some tiny thing always goes wrong, like a stuck screw that I end up stripping, so I assume I will void it. When I stuck the OptiBay+SSD in a while back I hoped prices for large SSDs would come down to an affordable range by the time I was ready to replace the MacBook so I could avoid this. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 13:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:00 |
|
|
BobHoward posted:Battery life is very dependent on software behavior, and more so with Haswell than ever before. Programs which seem like they ought to be "light" can sometimes do dumb things that aren't as light as you'd think, even while nominally idle. Apple's own 9 hour "wireless web" rating is probably based on doing a clean OS install, running Safari, and using some kind of script to drive it through a predetermined set of websites. They're not going to be running Skydrive, Skype, Mail, etc. Mavericks will help keep background app power use more under control, but it's not here yet. You can also watch the battery current graph using the Battery Health App graph to see if certain programs are driving up the power consumption. At least with Mavericks Apple will finally included a Android esque battery charge graph and monitor tool to help determine which programs are chewing up the most power.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 16:01
|
|