Mac forum - General chit chat/idle banter

speedfreak

Mr.S wrote: »

Ebay should do better. Adverts is full of people who just take the piss and offer you a swap of a bicycle for your iMac.

haha! true.

The Black Oil

Decluttering - a lot of old cables, but a spare lightning one you had forgotten about.

The Black Oil

WWDC is going online only.

The Black Oil

Managed to spill tonic water on my keyboard last night. OK ish, so far.

Spocker

The Black Oil wrote: »

Managed to spill tonic water on my keyboard last night. OK ish, so far.

You'll be fine, once there wasn't any gin in it :P

eeloe

Said i'd treat myself to some stuff from amazon while the exchange rate was nice.

Got a 1tb Crucial SSD and 16gb of ram, installed it last night in my mid 2012 macbook, and lads it's like ferrari right now.

The difference is legitimately night and day.

What an upgrade for under 150

The Black Oil

Should have known Crucial's stuff is on Amazon. :P

IamMetaldave

eeloe wrote: »

Said i'd treat myself to some stuff from amazon while the exchange rate was nice.

Got a 1tb Crucial SSD and 16gb of ram, installed it last night in my mid 2012 macbook, and lads it's like ferrari right now.

The difference is legitimately night and day.

What an upgrade for under 150

I swapped the hard drive out of my iMac 2013 (I
Think it’s that old anyway) and put a 1TB SSD in and I got the same result, crazy speed difference!

The Black Oil

I find Safari to be an arse at times. Won't show tweets properly, or Youtube comments. Force quit and reopen, same thing.

eeloe

IamMetaldave wrote: »

I swapped the hard drive out of my iMac 2013 (I
Think it’s that old anyway) and put a 1TB SSD in and I got the same result, crazy speed difference!

I kinda wish i done the ram and SSD at different times, so i'd be able to appreciate the improvements from both individually, but as it stands now, this is better than buying a new machine!

IamMetaldave

eeloe wrote: »

I kinda wish i done the ram and SSD at different times, so i'd be able to appreciate the improvements from both individually, but as it stands now, this is better than buying a new machine!

Honestly, I'm 100% certain SSD drive make the biggest difference to the normal stuff like boot time (when i actually shut it down), app opening.. file opening.. It's like a new machine for 100 euro in Argos. Adding RAM doesn't make the same impact in my opinion, maybe after an is openned, it's a little snappier to hop between stuff. SSD for the absolute win!

Shn99

Has anyone purchased a 2020 Macbook air with scissor keyboard? Is the keyboard reliable? Got a 2019 MBA in Feb and the butterfly keyboard is an absolute nightmare to say the least...

IamMetaldave

Shn99 wrote: »

Has anyone purchased a 2020 Macbook air with scissor keyboard? Is the keyboard reliable? Got a 2019 MBA in Feb and the butterfly keyboard is an absolute nightmare to say the least...

Yep. Mine delivered on Wednesday. It's awesome. It's a little monster of a machine.

Steak

Hi guys, I’m considering upgrading my MacBook, but first I have a few questions and would really appreciate general advice and feedback on my current thoughts.

I currently have a late 2011 13” MacBook Pro. It’s running macOS Sierra (can’t uprade to Catalina), has a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of DDR3 RAM (upgraded from 4GB) and a 500GB SSD.

I’m considering the new 2020 MacBook Air. The particular model I’m considering is the i7 quad core, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD. I was looking at the i5 processor but for the extra €80, it’s probably worth upgrading to the i7?

Am I correct in saying that it’s not possible to remove the 8GB of RAM and upgrade to 16GB at a later date? I did this with my MBP but from what I’ve seen online it looks as though this might not be possible?

If I go down the path of getting a new MacBook Air, I have a couple of questions that I hope some of you might be able to help me with.

1. I currently back up my MBP using Time Machine with an external hard drive. As I’m currently running Sierra, I presume I should easily be able to set up a new machine from my latest Time Machine backup? There shouldn’t be any problems if the new machine is running macOS Catalina? I presume it will simply remove Catalina, replace with Sierra and then I can go about updating to Catalina on the new machine?
   
2. I have Microsoft Office Home & Student 2011 on my MBP. If I restore my Time Machine backup to a new machine will this bring over Office too so I won’t need to worry about getting Office or 365?

Anyway, I’d be really grateful if someone could provide any support on the above. I’m willing to consider other options so please don’t be shy with feedback.

Type 17

You can't change RAM on new Mac laptops (or on the 21" iMac), so probably choose 16GB, as 8GB will get tight in the future.

If it's only €80 extra for the i7, I'd go for it (especially if you keep your Macs for a long time), but if financial limits mean a choice between i7 or more RAM than 8GB, go for the RAM.

Time Machine - If your old Mac was on a much earlier version of the OS, there might be problems, but Sierra > Catalina should be fine.

MS Office 2011 won't work with Catalina. If, like me, you don't want to pay an ongoing subscription for Office 365, you can buy a licence for Office Home & Student 2019 on the MS website (choose One-Time Purchase on the right-hand side).

Steak

Type 17 wrote: »

You can't change RAM on new Mac laptops (or on the 21" iMac), so probably choose 16GB, as 8GB will get tight in the future.

If it's only €80 extra for the i7, I'd go for it (especially if you keep your Macs for a long time), but if financial limits mean a choice between i7 or more RAM than 8GB, go for the RAM.

Time Machine - If your old Mac was on a much earlier version of the OS, there might be problems, but Sierra > Catalina should be fine.

MS Office 2011 won't work with Catalina. If, like me, you don't want to pay an ongoing subscription for Office 365, you can buy a licence for Office Home & Student 2019 on the MS website (choose One-Time Purchase on the right-hand side).

Hi Type 17, thank you very much for this.

My current MBP is coming up on 8.5 years old so I would be planning on keeping a new Mac for quite a while too, therefore I probably would go with the i7. Although, since I'm not a particularly heavy user I'm not sure if I'd actually need the 16GB of RAM vs 8GB? Do you really think it's worth the extra €250? Is it the case that having the extra RAM could see the life of the Mac extended by a few years?

Also thanks for the heads up on Time Machine and Office. I would be similar to yourself in just paying for the application and not paying a subscription. Is €149 the best price for a one-time payment?

Type 17

Steak wrote: »

Hi Type 17, thank you very much for this.

My current MBP is coming up on 8.5 years old so I would be planning on keeping a new Mac for quite a while too, therefore I probably would go with the i7. Although, since I'm not a particularly heavy user I'm not sure if I'd actually need the 16GB of RAM vs 8GB? Do you really think it's worth the extra €250? Is it the case that having the extra RAM could see the life of the Mac extended by a few years?

Also thanks for the heads up on Time Machine and Office. I would be similar to yourself in just paying for the application and not paying a subscription. Is €149 the best price for a one-time payment?

I would pay the €250 for the RAM if you're keeping the Mac for a long time - each MacOS version / generation of App gets a little more complex / hungry for RAM and, because you can't increase it yourself any longer, you have to consider the future more carefully.
For example, I'm using a late 2013 27" iMac (3.5GHz i7) with 24GB of RAM and a 3TB fusion drive. In 2013, I was a professional photographer, so it was a decent spec for that, but now, seven years later, it's still flying along at full speed on Catalina, even though these days I'm usually just running Safari/email/MS Office and sometimes a bit of 3D layout stuff.
However, after just looking, I can confirm that it is currently using 12.6GB of RAM with just Mail and Safari open. That is after uptime of 12 days (sleep when not in use), but even after a reboot, it uses about 8-9GB with those two apps running. It would probably run on 8GB, but it would be slower and not future-proofed.

That's the cheapest legit version of MS Office (and it was new in 2019, so will be compatible/useful for a long time), but if you can claim the VAT back, it comes in around €121.

IamMetaldave

Steak wrote: »

Hi Type 17, thank you very much for this.

My current MBP is coming up on 8.5 years old so I would be planning on keeping a new Mac for quite a while too, therefore I probably would go with the i7. Although, since I'm not a particularly heavy user I'm not sure if I'd actually need the 16GB of RAM vs 8GB? Do you really think it's worth the extra €250? Is it the case that having the extra RAM could see the life of the Mac extended by a few years?

I have the 2020 MBA i5 and 16GB of RAM and I am much happier I went with the RAM upgrade over the i7. The i5 is ample, particularly if you are not a heavy user. The extra RAM will stand to you more so than the power between the i5 and i7. There's a bunch of folks on the MacRumors forums saying the wished they had done the RAM upgrade over the processor one.

Steak

Type 17 wrote: »

I would pay the €250 for the RAM if you're keeping the Mac for a long time - each MacOS version / generation of App gets a little more complex / hungry for RAM and, because you can't increase it yourself any longer, you have to consider the future more carefully.
For example, I'm using a late 2013 27" iMac (3.5GHz i7) with 24GB of RAM and a 3TB fusion drive. In 2013, I was a professional photographer, so it was a decent spec for that, but now, seven years later, it's still flying along at full speed on Catalina, even though these days I'm usually just running Safari/email/MS Office and sometimes a bit of 3D layout stuff.
However, after just looking, I can confirm that it is currently using 12.6GB of RAM with just Mail and Safari open. That is after uptime of 12 days (sleep when not in use), but even after a reboot, it uses about 8-9GB with those two apps running. It would probably run on 8GB, but it would be slower and not future-proofed.

That's the cheapest legit version of MS Office (and it was new in 2019, so will be compatible/useful for a long time), but if you can claim the VAT back, it comes in around €121.

IamMetaldave wrote: »

I have the 2020 MBA i5 and 16GB of RAM and I am much happier I went with the RAM upgrade over the i7. The i5 is ample, particularly if you are not a heavy user. The extra RAM will stand to you more so than the power between the i5 and i7. There's a bunch of folks on the MacRumors forums saying the wished they had done the RAM upgrade over the processor one.

Thanks folks.

With the i5, 16GB RAM and 256GB I'm looking at €1,529. Obviously I want any machine I purchase to be as future-proofed as possible but find it hard to justify spending €1,529. I know Macs hold there value so maybe that can somehow justify it.

The 13" MacBook Pro with the i5, 8GB RAM and 128GB comes in at €1,549, €20 more than the above MBA. If I do decide to pull the trigger on this should I consider a MBP? It looks a much lesser machine on paper?

whiterebel

I wouldn't go for the MBP with those specs. If you don't need the horsepower, get the Air.

IamMetaldave

Steak wrote: »

Thanks folks.

With the i5, 16GB RAM and 256GB I'm looking at €1,529. Obviously I want any machine I purchase to be as future-proofed as possible but find it hard to justify spending €1,529. I know Macs hold there value so maybe that can somehow justify it.

The 13" MacBook Pro with the i5, 8GB RAM and 128GB comes in at €1,549, €20 more than the above MBA. If I do decide to pull the trigger on this should I consider a MBP? It looks a much lesser machine on paper?

Here's a head wrecker for you There's a new MBP expected imminently.. so buying one now would probably bad idea..

But like whiterebel said, if you're not looking for horsepower, just go get the MBA.

Sad Professor

I moved some posts into the Catalina thread in case anyone is looking for them. The site is so slow!

My job provided me with a laptop with remote access to work from home recently and the trackpad is terrible! I had to connect a mouse. It made me really appreciate the trackpad on my MacBook.

pleasant Co.

Sad Professor wrote: »

I moved some posts into the Catalina thread in case anyone is looking for them. The site is so slow!

My job provided me with a laptop with remote access to work from home recently and the trackpad is terrible! I had to connect a mouse. It made me really appreciate the trackpad on my MacBook.

The trackpad on apple laptops over the years have always been so much better than alternative brands, it's just something that they've oddly never addressed on a wide scale.

The Black Oil

Was thinking of a recording a voice message for my friend who lives in Canada, rather than writing a long email. Voice Memos solid enough?

whippet

I’ve a new MacBook Pro arriving next week (fingers crossed) .. 13” i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD to replace my 2017 MBP 13”

One thing I didn’t think about - I’ve parallels running on the current machine with a copy of Win 10 Pro ... and I’m not sure I still have the license details for Windows - it was installed with a genuine key but I’ve no idea where it is.

Am I snookered and need to buy a new license for the new machine or is there any hope of restoring the new mac from timemachine and the licences just coming across ?

Sad Professor

whippet wrote: »

I’ve a new MacBook Pro arriving next week (fingers crossed) .. 13” i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD to replace my 2017 MBP 13”

One thing I didn’t think about - I’ve parallels running on the current machine with a copy of Win 10 Pro ... and I’m not sure I still have the license details for Windows - it was installed with a genuine key but I’ve no idea where it is.

Am I snookered and need to buy a new license for the new machine or is there any hope of restoring the new mac from timemachine and the licences just coming across ?

It's years since i used Parallels, but the licence should be linked to the virtual machine, not the Mac. So all you should have to do is copy the virtual machine files over to the new Mac and away you go. What you are describing would only be an issue with a Bootcamp installation of Windows.

whippet

Sad Professor wrote: »

It's years since i used Parallels, but the licence should be linked to the virtual machine, not the Mac. So all you should have to do is copy the virtual machine files over to the new Mac and away you go. What you are describing would only be an issue with a Bootcamp installation of Windows.

Will time machine do that for me - or should I manually copy them over?

Sad Professor

whippet wrote: »

Will time machine do that for me - or should I manually copy them over?

It should do so, yes.

RobTheLad

In a predicament, and need a bit of advice. I have a Late 2013 MBP 13" from release, and I damaged the screen over the weekend. It owes me very little at this stage, was used everyday for general stuff, but I work in Software development, so like to dabble on some of my own stuff on the side, and it served me. At the time when ordering I opted to upgrade the RAM to 16gb and SSD to 256gb, which I feel is the reason it has still performed well almost 7 years later. I got a few quotes to repair the screen, but 450-500 euro on a laptop of this age feels like a waste, and the battery could also do with replacing.

I was really interested in a refurbished 16" MBP from the official store , but I saw this morning the release of the new 13" model. There is very little difference in price, but I am wondering if it is worthwhile spending the extra few quid on the 16" refurb(circa 300 euro difference)? I bought a refurb iPad a few years ago and it was great, never any problems and it was like new. Just the release today of the new 13" has made me re-consider. 13" is an ideal size for me, but I see on the 16" it actually feels closer to 15" with the thin bezel. Would also be jumping from i5 to an i7 and a dedicated graphics card.

JL555

RobTheLad wrote: »

In a predicament, and need a bit of advice. I have a Late 2013 MBP 13" from release, and I damaged the screen over the weekend. It owes me very little at this stage, was used everyday for general stuff, but I work in Software development, so like to dabble on some of my own stuff on the side, and it served me. At the time when ordering I opted to upgrade the RAM to 16gb and SSD to 256gb, which I feel is the reason it has still performed well almost 7 years later. I got a few quotes to repair the screen, but 450-500 euro on a laptop of this age feels like a waste, and the battery could also do with replacing.

I was really interested in a refurbished 16" MBP from the official store , but I saw this morning the release of the new 13" model. There is very little difference in price, but I am wondering if it is worthwhile spending the extra few quid on the 16" refurb(circa 300 euro difference)? I bought a refurb iPad a few years ago and it was great, never any problems and it was like new. Just the release today of the new 13" has made me re-consider. 13" is an ideal size for me, but I see on the 16" it actually feels closer to 15" with the thin bezel. Would also be jumping from i5 to an i7 and a dedicated graphics card.

The just released version of the 13" has the scissor style keyboard, as does the new 16". The butterfly keyboard experiment was a disaster, so as you're coming from a 2013 MBP, you won't have to go through that pain. By all accounts the new keyboard is pretty good. I've my eye on the 16" and might go for the refurb version. As for my late 2016 15" MBP, not sure what to do with it, I can only get €230 for a trade in.

ps. I'd say go for the 16".

whiterebel

Anything from refurb store has always been pristine condition. Plus you can send it back within 14 days if you don't like it.

whiterebel

JL555 wrote: »

The just released version of the 13" has the scissor style keyboard, as does the new 16". The butterfly keyboard experiment was a disaster, so as you're coming from a 2013 MBP, you won't have to go through that pain. By all accounts the new keyboard is pretty good. I've my eye on the 16" and might go for the refurb version. As for my late 2016 15" MBP, not sure what to do with it, I can only get €230 for a trade in.

Sell it on adverts, or have a look and see what CEX would offer. Apple's trade in values are demented.

whippet

OSI wrote: »

They've literally just released a new one this morning, if you can I'd either cancel that order or return it on delivery.

Yep !! The machine is already in the country .. it ordered through work so can’t cancel it now !! Not too concerned mind you

IamMetaldave

I was at odds before ordering my 2020 MBA knowing the MBP was imminent, however, I am glad I went with the Air. I would have thought they'd bump the processor to the 10th gens for it...

RobTheLad

I think the reason for 8th gen CPU's is probably down to the availability. There are well documented product shortages from Intel's end, so perhaps by having a mix in their line-up it reduces demand on one single generation . Plus of course it also gives Apple the opportunity to charge more for the newer 10th gen.

IamMetaldave

That makes sense. Classic Apple squeezing every cent out of everyone.

IamMetaldave

Mr.S wrote: »

I have a new Macbook Air arriving - are they still giving away a free year of AppleTV+ with new products? If so, how do you get it

Yep. Once you open AppleTV app with the same AppleID it's automatic:D

Enjoy your new Air! They're awesome!

The Black Oil

Did get a chuckle out of hearing about the Mac Pro Wheels.

IamMetaldave

The Black Oil wrote: »

Did get a chuckle out of hearing about the Mac Pro Wheels.

Here's another chuckle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LiDZFHsBzY

JL555

Finally bit the bullet and ordered the"16 MBP, i9 and upgraded the graphics option. The late 2016 15" I have will either become a desktop or get a new keyboard and give it to herself. She can deal with the butterfly I'm saying goodbye to it......

whippet

Sad Professor wrote: »

It should do so, yes.

I got the new Mac yesterday and decided against a Time machine restore - lots of reasons including the fact that I had a load of crap on the old machine and it would take too long to figure out what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to get rid of.

Moving the Win 10 VM over was simple - just install Parallels and drag and drop the VM.

As about 99% of everything I need is either in iCloud, OneNote or Sharepoint it made sense not to bring anything over and just install all the apps fresh and only as I need them - will probably end up ditching about 30-40% of the apps I had installed.

I'm not too concerned about the keyboard - my 2017 Mac never really gave me any problem at that end - but first time with the TouchBar and I'm not really sure what to make of it.

IamMetaldave

whippet wrote: »

I got the new Mac yesterday .

I'm not too concerned about the keyboard - my 2017 Mac never really gave me any problem at that end - but first time with the TouchBar and I'm not really sure what to make of it.

All the new (2020 and 2019 16" Pro) have the new keyboard.. so surely you shouldn't be worried.. unless its a new previous version?

whippet

IamMetaldave wrote: »

All the new (2020 and 2019 16" Pro) have the new keyboard.. so surely you shouldn't be worried.. unless its a new previous version?

it's a new previous version unfortunately - it was on order for about 6 weeks through work (build to order) so was winging its way from Apple via a UK distributor for weeks. So when Apple were launching the new ones mine was sitting in the office in Dublin waiting to be sent to my home !!

I'm happy enough with it - I only ever hold on to my work Mac for 3 years at most so will just time the next order a little better !

IamMetaldave

whippet wrote: »

it's a new previous version unfortunately - it was on order for about 6 weeks through work (build to order) so was winging its way from Apple via a UK distributor for weeks. So when Apple were launching the new ones mine was sitting in the office in Dublin waiting to be sent to my home !!

I'm happy enough with it - I only ever hold on to my work Mac for 3 years at most so will just time the next order a little better !

Ah, cool cool.. sure there are so many people who have had no issues with the keyboards (I know plenty), like everything we mostly hear the bad. I guess it's hard to time with Apple, the way they just put out updates sometimes, I know there are analysts that make all the claims of an imminent release, the 14 inch Pro is a good example.. and then Apple release the updated previous version.

whippet

IamMetaldave wrote: »

Ah, cool cool.. sure there are so many people who have had no issues with the keyboards (I know plenty), like everything we mostly hear the bad. I guess it's hard to time with Apple, the way they just put out updates sometimes, I know there are analysts that make all the claims of an imminent release, the 14 inch Pro is a good example.. and then Apple release the updated previous version.

My Mac usually sits in the dock 95% of the time and when I'm out and about I use the iPad Pro so the keyboard doesn't get much use !

I've been dealing with Apple for close to 2 decades at this stage and I tend to never take much notice of the rumours as 90% of the time they are wildly off the mark.

IamMetaldave

The only rumors I pay regular attention to is the iPhone as I update most years (although I skipped the 11). Looking forward to getting the 12 (IF) leaks are true to how it's going to look. The 4/5 shape was and is my favourite look of the iPhone to date.

Oafley Jones

IamMetaldave wrote: »

Ah, cool cool.. sure there are so many people who have had no issues with the keyboards (I know plenty), like everything we mostly hear the bad. I guess it's hard to time with Apple, the way they just put out updates sometimes, I know there are analysts that make all the claims of an imminent release, the 14 inch Pro is a good example.. and then Apple release the updated previous version.

Sometimes issues show up late, such as manufacturing tests (e.g. here's something you won't see on any Mac site: the MacPro "trashcan" had a glass housing that just failed at the final hurdle. Remember all those shots of it with it's cover off, they really wanted those internals on show.

I've no knowledge of the 14 specifically, but I guess it was coming and something didn't work out. If i'd to guess, it'd be do to with the microLED screen. What's more telling though, is that Apple still pushed out another rev of the 13 while squeezing in the new keyboard. I've said it before; the butterfly keyboard issue is underreported if anything and it's a wildly expensive problem for Apple to fix. If you've any doubt of that, just look at how quickly they phased out that keyboard once they decided they couldn't fix it.

The Black Oil

Time to put my 2007 Macbook into the WEE recycling centre, with HD removed. It's a pity in a way as it was a good workhorse for college. It's just sitting in the wardrobe, tbh.

IamMetaldave

That's a fine age! It served you well.

The Black Oil

IamMetaldave wrote: »

That's a fine age! It served you well.

She did indeed. Fond memories - wrote my MA thesis on it. Long days in the library. Charging brick held up well and is not mangled or anything.