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[macOS] Sierra is Online. "Hey Siri, I need to get rid of a body."

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Posts

  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    figured I would drop this here also:

    48ujuzxafjlj.png

    Is this officially the fastest single-drive speed of any hard drive on the market?

    Apple just smoked everyone.

    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Hmm. Did they remove drag'n'drop with three fingers in Sierra?

  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    Echo wrote: »
    Hmm. Did they remove drag'n'drop with three fingers in Sierra?

    Accessibility > Mouse and Trackpad > Trackpad Options > Enable Dragging with > Three Finger Drag

    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    Though why they put it there instead of under the trackpad settings themselves as an extra gesture is beyond me.

    Maybe their research and feedback showed it is most often used by people with accessibility needs?

    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Well, that's a weird place to put it. Pretty sure it was under the regular trackpad settings in previous versions.

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Does anyone have experience using autocad in macOS? I dont need it for anything too intense (all 2D modeling), but its unclear whether the macOS and Windows versions have the same features. Also whether the new MBPs will be sufficient (my assumption is they will be).

  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    edited December 2016
    emp123 wrote: »
    Does anyone have experience using autocad in macOS? I dont need it for anything too intense (all 2D modeling), but its unclear whether the macOS and Windows versions have the same features. Also whether the new MBPs will be sufficient (my assumption is they will be).

    http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/compare/compare-platforms

    The windows version is the "core" platform, and as such has some more features and gets updates faster. If you want the newest and greatest version of Autocad, get windows.

    That said, 99.9% of what you actually want to do can be accomplished on the mac version, so if you are familiar with the software just check to make sure the features you need are available.

    Also, yes - the 15" with the AMD dGPU will absolutely smoke autocad. The chip in there isn't a gaming chip so much as it is an OpenCL workhorse.

    syndalis on
    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    syndalis wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    Does anyone have experience using autocad in macOS? I dont need it for anything too intense (all 2D modeling), but its unclear whether the macOS and Windows versions have the same features. Also whether the new MBPs will be sufficient (my assumption is they will be).

    http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/compare/compare-platforms

    The windows version is the "core" platform, and as such has some more features and gets updates faster. If you want the newest and greatest version of Autocad, get windows.

    That said, 99.9% of what you actually want to do can be accomplished on the mac version, so if you are familiar with the software just check to make sure the features you need are available.

    Also, yes - the 15" with the AMD dGPU will absolutely smoke autocad. The chip in there isn't a gaming chip so much as it is an OpenCL workhorse.

    Finally remembered to respond to this; out of curiosity, have you used AutoCAD on a Mac? I know the new models easily meet the minimum requirements, but I'd be interested in real world experiences.

    Regardless, thanks for the info!

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Checked out the new MBPs over the weekend and ended up placing an order for the 15" with 512GB ssd and the Radeon Pro 460. My last Pro lasted me 7 years and is currently being used by my sister so I figured spending the extra $100 for the upgraded GPU is really only an extra $20/year if I only get 5 years out of it.

    Despite the 2-3 week quote on the website looks like it wont be available for pickup until 1/9 :/

  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    Just got my new 15" MBP today. Won't start doing real work on it for a few days, but it's amazing on first impression.

    -The build quality is phenomenal. The new screen hinge, especially, is a huge improvement. The hinge area under the screen isn't near as deep and wide, and it seems like it will catch much less gunk and be easier to clean.
    -Most of the reviews I've read don't cover how much smaller it is than the old 15" RMBP. It feels about the size of a 13" MacBook Air. It's not only thinner than the old 15", it's considerably narrower.
    -The screen is glorious.
    -The giant trackpad is also glorious.
    -The second generation butterfly switch keyboard is really good. I'm surprised at the hate that it gets, because it feels (and kind of sounds) like a mechanical keyboard but with short travel switches. It's very crisp and precise, possibly because the keys are slightly wider and spaced more closely together vs. the old MBP. It's just really fast and easy to type on. The arrow keys still suck, though
    -The Touch Bar is cool. I thought it would be a gimmick, and I guess it is. But it even if you don't use a single app that takes good advantage of it, it's by far the nicest set of multifunction controls (i.e volume, screen brightness, keyboard dimming, etc.) on any keyboard ever I've ever used. It also feels really nice. The glass it's made from has a different feel than an iPhone screen.
    -I don't really have strong opinions about USB-A, ThunderBolt 2, or SD card readers, so maybe I should be upset their disappearance, but... eh. The adapters work and USB-C/TB3 are the future. Four ports is also nice. The new machine ends up being a net gain of 1 usable USB port over my old setup, which will let me get by without a hub now.
    -I do miss MagSafe, but... being able to plug power into the right side of the machine might be a worthy tradeoff. It makes cable management on my desk much easier.

    Anyway, it feels like a really solid refinement of the core MacBook Pro concept. It's better than my old RMBP in pretty much every respect. My biggest disappointment is that Kaby Lake wasn't ready in time to go into this generation of MBP. An MBP with 32 or 64GB of RAM would have been amazing. Hopefully Intel gets their shit together and the next MBP speed bump finally pushes past the 16GB RAM limit.

  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    KCtyIkRl.jpg

    MacBook Pro is in the house!

    It arrived Monday afternoon but I was only able to get a hold of my time machine drive last night. Decided to set it up for Time Machine to do its thing while I'm at work today since it'll be pulling over 400GB of data via USB 2.0 as I can't interface the hard drive's FW800 port with the computer.

    This is my first portable computer, super excited. Next step is to find a nice sleeve for it. I won't be taking it out of the house, but I'd love to protect it from wear and tear when not in use.

    FU7kFbw.png
    Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    MBP came early, playing with it now...its pretty sweet. Its really quick and responsive, the keyboard has a really nice feel and an even more enjoyable sound. Its clicky but not obnoxiously loud. I didnt think I was going to love it when I was playing with it in the store since the keys seem/are larger than I'm used to, but just typing this out makes me feel like I've adapted pretty quickly. I really like it. The trackpad is also massive, which is nice, but I need to tweak it a bit as the default mouse speed feels a little slow to me. Also its large enough where my admittedly large hands will partially rest on it, but so far that hasnt resulted in any misclicks (although maybe that explains the slow mouse movement?).

    Screen is fantastic, very vibrant and probably the prettiest screen I've ever used. Brightness is also pretty great, this thing gets bright but remains super usable even on the dimmest setting.

    Touchbar is gimmicky, but so far I like it. Makes controlling volume and brightness fun, but that could quickly turn annoying. We'll see. I'm hoping third party applications start to use it, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I like Safari's use of it, but I use Chrome since thus far the laptop is my only foray into the Cult of Mac.

    That said, thus far I like it a lot and Space Grey is pretty cool.

    Is there a list of suggested software? I used to use a program to control the GPU on my 2009 MBP (I believe it was gfxCardStatus), is this something you're able to natively control on 10.12? Also, since they removed the time remaining indicator from the battery status dropdown, does anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Basically, I havent had a new Mac since 2009 and I feel a little in the dark about things.

  • UselesswarriorUselesswarrior Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    I'm jealous of the people with new Macbook Pros. I replaced my 2009 Pro in 2015 because I needed it when my desktop died, otherwise I would have held out longer.

    Now I probably won't get another one until 2021. Right before this model is replaced with something else :)

    Uselesswarrior on
    Hey I made a game, check it out @ http://ifallingrobot.com/. (Or don't, your call)
  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    emp123 wrote: »
    Is there a list of suggested software? I used to use a program to control the GPU on my 2009 MBP (I believe it was gfxCardStatus), is this something you're able to natively control on 10.12? Also, since they removed the time remaining indicator from the battery status dropdown, does anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Basically, I havent had a new Mac since 2009 and I feel a little in the dark about things.

    gfxCardStatus is still a thing and it works, though I recommend turning off its notifications, because it gets pretty spammy. Haven't heard of a battery time indicator, but... I haven't really looked.

    Otherwise, what software are you looking for? Some of my recent favorites:

    AdGuard or 1Blocker: these are the only two adblockers for Safari that use Safari's native content blocking API, which greatly improves performance compared to pure-Javascript adblockers like Adblock. AdGuard is free. 1Blocker costs $10 but is even faster than AdGuard and has pretty good fine-grained UI control over what it blocks.

    Soulver: pretty cool natural language calculator.

    1Password: online and offline password management that syncs with iOS. It's actually kind of an "everything" database app in which you can store autofill identity information (name & address, etc), autofill credit card info, notes, serial numbers, and some other stuff securely. Integrates will all major web browsers for autofill and password generation, too.

    Things: GTD task list app that syncs with iOS.

    Tweebot: better Twitter client than Twitter's client that syncs with iOS.

    Tower: pretty good GUI git client, if you're a coder and you hate the command line.

    Adium: chat client for things that aren't IRC or Slack (i.e gtalk, AIM, other legacy chat protocols).

    BBEdit: industrial-strength plain text editor.

    Padlock: screen lock menu bar widget that lets you lock your screen without sleeping your machine.

    Carbon Copy Cloner: really good utility for cloning, imaging, and backing up disk drives.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    Now some of you guys with 2016 MBP have been using it for a while, what's the word on them? Seems to be differing reports on battery life issues, have they been fixed? Is it worth getting a higher end 13 inch or putting extra and getting a basic 15 inch model?

    Thanks

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    I really like my 15". Keyboard is still awesome (although it does take getting used to), giant track pad is really nice, screen and speed are super impressive. Touch Bar is still gimmicky, but its nice being able to slide the sound/brightness.

    EDIT: For what its worth I havent had any issues with the battery life.

    emp123 on
  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Now some of you guys with 2016 MBP have been using it for a while, what's the word on them? Seems to be differing reports on battery life issues, have they been fixed? Is it worth getting a higher end 13 inch or putting extra and getting a basic 15 inch model?

    Thanks

    Battery life is finefor me personally, and I think that Safari's been patched to fix the issue in which some battery benchmarks were showing anomalously bad battery life for the new MBPs.

    Also, I'd say get the 15" if you think the 2 extra inches of screen space is worth the difference in price. I code a lot, so screen space is worth a premium to me. That might not be true for you.

    htm on
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Forgot to mention the speakers are noticeably better than the speakers on my '09 MBP. I don't use them much, but it's still a nice improvement.

    Going full USB C is both a blessing and a curse. I need to get an adapter to use my external hard drive and I miss Magsafe, but being able to charge from either side of the laptop is super nice and I'm sure at some point I'll have more native USB C equipment.


    This is also probably a weird complaint, but I wish I could make the screen dimmer. Brightness is amazing and it looks great when in a lit environment, but if I'm browsing the forums in bed before going to sleep even with Ye Olde Style and the screen all the way dimmed it's still a little blinding.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    emp123 wrote: »
    Forgot to mention the speakers are noticeably better than the speakers on my '09 MBP. I don't use them much, but it's still a nice improvement.

    Going full USB C is both a blessing and a curse. I need to get an adapter to use my external hard drive and I miss Magsafe, but being able to charge from either side of the laptop is super nice and I'm sure at some point I'll have more native USB C equipment.


    This is also probably a weird complaint, but I wish I could make the screen dimmer. Brightness is amazing and it looks great when in a lit environment, but if I'm browsing the forums in bed before going to sleep even with Ye Olde Style and the screen all the way dimmed it's still a little blinding.

    Would Flux help with the screen?

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    Forgot to mention the speakers are noticeably better than the speakers on my '09 MBP. I don't use them much, but it's still a nice improvement.

    Going full USB C is both a blessing and a curse. I need to get an adapter to use my external hard drive and I miss Magsafe, but being able to charge from either side of the laptop is super nice and I'm sure at some point I'll have more native USB C equipment.


    This is also probably a weird complaint, but I wish I could make the screen dimmer. Brightness is amazing and it looks great when in a lit environment, but if I'm browsing the forums in bed before going to sleep even with Ye Olde Style and the screen all the way dimmed it's still a little blinding.

    Would Flux help with the screen?

    Flux just changes color palette and doesnt actually alter brightness. I think MacOS is getting the iOS version of Flux soon so I might just wait and check that out, but last time I used Flux I wasnt in love with the color change (personally I didnt find the screen any less bright, I just ended up with uglier colors).

  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    emp123 wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    Forgot to mention the speakers are noticeably better than the speakers on my '09 MBP. I don't use them much, but it's still a nice improvement.

    Going full USB C is both a blessing and a curse. I need to get an adapter to use my external hard drive and I miss Magsafe, but being able to charge from either side of the laptop is super nice and I'm sure at some point I'll have more native USB C equipment.


    This is also probably a weird complaint, but I wish I could make the screen dimmer. Brightness is amazing and it looks great when in a lit environment, but if I'm browsing the forums in bed before going to sleep even with Ye Olde Style and the screen all the way dimmed it's still a little blinding.

    Would Flux help with the screen?

    Flux just changes color palette and doesnt actually alter brightness. I think MacOS is getting the iOS version of Flux soon so I might just wait and check that out, but last time I used Flux I wasnt in love with the color change (personally I didnt find the screen any less bright, I just ended up with uglier colors).

    Yeah, Flux filters the whole screen to warm up colors (more yellow/orange, less blue) the closer to bedtime it gets. The theory is that blue light promotes wakefulness, so Flux is supposed to help you sleep better if you spend part of your night in front of a screen. I tried it out and just found it kind of weird.

    Apple baked an equivalent technology into iOS 9 called "Night Shift". Apparently, Night Shift will be added macOS in an upcoming Sierra patch.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    I picked up the 13" 512gb with touch bar and yeah it's lovely but it's going back and I'm saving up for the 15" model. At that price the 13" just didn't feel that much an upgrade over my 2012 air.

    In other news I never got to try but what do people think of the touch bar support for Microsoft office?

  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    I picked up the 13" 512gb with touch bar and yeah it's lovely but it's going back and I'm saving up for the 15" model. At that price the 13" just didn't feel that much an upgrade over my 2012 air.

    In other news I never got to try but what do people think of the touch bar support for Microsoft office?

    Well, once you've gotten used to using a modern-ish laptop with a recent vintage Intel CPU and an SSD, nothing will ever really feel like an upgrade again. User-perceivable performance for the vast majority of apps plateaued a few years ago.

    As for MS Office, I'm sure they'll do a nice job on it. The MS Mac team makes a point of making their apps as native as they can.

    In a more general sense, I think that the Touch Bar is most useful for feature discovery. The things I use it the most for are UI actions that are buried, especially stuff that's usually only accessible in right-click menus. I'll see commands show up on the Touch Bar and remember, "oh yeah, I can actually do that". The TB isn't really a revolution in UI, but if you can manage to keep half an eye on it while you're working, it will expose new and forgotten features to you all the time.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    htm wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    I picked up the 13" 512gb with touch bar and yeah it's lovely but it's going back and I'm saving up for the 15" model. At that price the 13" just didn't feel that much an upgrade over my 2012 air.

    In other news I never got to try but what do people think of the touch bar support for Microsoft office?

    Well, once you've gotten used to using a modern-ish laptop with a recent vintage Intel CPU and an SSD, nothing will ever really feel like an upgrade again. User-perceivable performance for the vast majority of apps plateaued a few years ago.

    As for MS Office, I'm sure they'll do a nice job on it. The MS Mac team makes a point of making their apps as native as they can.

    In a more general sense, I think that the Touch Bar is most useful for feature discovery. The things I use it the most for are UI actions that are buried, especially stuff that's usually only accessible in right-click menus. I'll see commands show up on the Touch Bar and remember, "oh yeah, I can actually do that". The TB isn't really a revolution in UI, but if you can manage to keep half an eye on it while you're working, it will expose new and forgotten features to you all the time.

    I think it's a combination of the laptop being smaller and having another 13" device along with me recently wiping and reinstalling my air. I did appreciate being finally able to run Lightroom correctly on the pro so I'm looking forward to it.

    As for Office, the touch bar support is removing the on screen menu to clear the screen for your work. Which sounds awesome but might take a little getting used to. I'm generally seeing though that the TB is being used by the few third parties to remove on screen menus and leaving more screen real estate free, something which would also benefit 15" users better.

    On a final note I have a portable 500gb SSD with USB C connection, so I'm thinking to save a bit of money is it worth just going for a lower flash memory size on the 15" ?

  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
    DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    What I'm worried about, however I'm thinking if I use the flash drive for program data and just store all file as you said on the SSD should help keep the flash drive clear. As right now it's a £300 difference between a 256 and 512 configuration and I need to keep the price close to budget so shaving any cost is paramount.

  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    What I'm worried about, however I'm thinking if I use the flash drive for program data and just store all file as you said on the SSD should help keep the flash drive clear. As right now it's a £300 difference between a 256 and 512 configuration and I need to keep the price close to budget so shaving any cost is paramount.

    Yeah, this is a tough one. The Apple price for that extra 256GB is kind of exorbitant, OTOH it will make the machine far less frustrating to live with in the long run. If you plan on keeping it more than two or three years, I'd try to swing the bigger SSD. For a variety of occupational reasons, I buy a new MacBook of some flavor every year or two and pass along my old machines to family members. My admittedly anecdotal experience is that storage capacity is the greatest single determinant of how long a machine will be useful. A 2010 MacBook Air with 256GB? Still a pretty good computer if it hasn't been physically abused. The 128GB version of that same machine? Not so much.

    Photo, music, and video collections are always growing. Given that Macs last forever, you should think about what sort of capacity you'll need in four or five years unless you expect to be buying again before that.

    And as far as your external drive is concerned, you might investigate if you can disassemble it and get the actual drive out of the enclosure. If you can, then you could put it in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and eliminate USB as a potential performance problem. Not sure if TB3 enclosures are on the market yet, but I suspect it won't be long if they aren't.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    htm wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    What I'm worried about, however I'm thinking if I use the flash drive for program data and just store all file as you said on the SSD should help keep the flash drive clear. As right now it's a £300 difference between a 256 and 512 configuration and I need to keep the price close to budget so shaving any cost is paramount.

    Yeah, this is a tough one. The Apple price for that extra 256GB is kind of exorbitant, OTOH it will make the machine far less frustrating to live with in the long run. If you plan on keeping it more than two or three years, I'd try to swing the bigger SSD. For a variety of occupational reasons, I buy a new MacBook of some flavor every year or two and pass along my old machines to family members. My admittedly anecdotal experience is that storage capacity is the greatest single determinant of how long a machine will be useful. A 2010 MacBook Air with 256GB? Still a pretty good computer if it hasn't been physically abused. The 128GB version of that same machine? Not so much.

    Photo, music, and video collections are always growing. Given that Macs last forever, you should think about what sort of capacity you'll need in four or five years unless you expect to be buying again before that.

    And as far as your external drive is concerned, you might investigate if you can disassemble it and get the actual drive out of the enclosure. If you can, then you could put it in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and eliminate USB as a potential performance problem. Not sure if TB3 enclosures are on the market yet, but I suspect it won't be long if they aren't.

    Thanks, I suspect that I might be saving up for far longer but as you say it'll be more beneficial in the long run. I do want the improved GPU option but if I can help it, I could swap that out for the 512. I've been on the look out for a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD enclosure and theres nothing yet but I totally agree it will be something out very soon.

    Thanks again.

  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    htm wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    What I'm worried about, however I'm thinking if I use the flash drive for program data and just store all file as you said on the SSD should help keep the flash drive clear. As right now it's a £300 difference between a 256 and 512 configuration and I need to keep the price close to budget so shaving any cost is paramount.

    Yeah, this is a tough one. The Apple price for that extra 256GB is kind of exorbitant, OTOH it will make the machine far less frustrating to live with in the long run. If you plan on keeping it more than two or three years, I'd try to swing the bigger SSD. For a variety of occupational reasons, I buy a new MacBook of some flavor every year or two and pass along my old machines to family members. My admittedly anecdotal experience is that storage capacity is the greatest single determinant of how long a machine will be useful. A 2010 MacBook Air with 256GB? Still a pretty good computer if it hasn't been physically abused. The 128GB version of that same machine? Not so much.

    Photo, music, and video collections are always growing. Given that Macs last forever, you should think about what sort of capacity you'll need in four or five years unless you expect to be buying again before that.

    And as far as your external drive is concerned, you might investigate if you can disassemble it and get the actual drive out of the enclosure. If you can, then you could put it in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and eliminate USB as a potential performance problem. Not sure if TB3 enclosures are on the market yet, but I suspect it won't be long if they aren't.

    Thanks, I suspect that I might be saving up for far longer but as you say it'll be more beneficial in the long run. I do want the improved GPU option but if I can help it, I could swap that out for the 512. I've been on the look out for a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD enclosure and theres nothing yet but I totally agree it will be something out very soon.

    Thanks again.

    Well, if you're still saving up those last few hundred £/$/€, you can always return to the default state of a Mac user who's almost ready to upgrade: "I'll just wait till the next big Apple launch event before I make a decision". WWDC is coming up the first week of June.

    Supposedly, the current generation of MBPs was actually going to use Kabylake and not Skylake for its CPU, but Intel couldn't get its shit together in time for Apple to release before the end of 2016. Thus, there are lots of rumors that a Kabylake-based speed bump will happen sooner rather than later. Probably not worth waiting on in and of itself (unless you really need to go above 16GB RAM), but if it happens, it would do good things for refurb and used prices on the 2016 Skylake MBPs.

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    htm wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    htm wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    Depends on what you're doing with the drive. If it's just a file store, go for it. If you want to keep stuff like games and other things that need continuous access, even USB 3.1 doesn't quite match the throughput of the M.2 connector the built in flash uses.
    Also, you should consider that upgrading the internal storage won't be possible later, should it turn out to be insufficient after all.

    What I'm worried about, however I'm thinking if I use the flash drive for program data and just store all file as you said on the SSD should help keep the flash drive clear. As right now it's a £300 difference between a 256 and 512 configuration and I need to keep the price close to budget so shaving any cost is paramount.

    Yeah, this is a tough one. The Apple price for that extra 256GB is kind of exorbitant, OTOH it will make the machine far less frustrating to live with in the long run. If you plan on keeping it more than two or three years, I'd try to swing the bigger SSD. For a variety of occupational reasons, I buy a new MacBook of some flavor every year or two and pass along my old machines to family members. My admittedly anecdotal experience is that storage capacity is the greatest single determinant of how long a machine will be useful. A 2010 MacBook Air with 256GB? Still a pretty good computer if it hasn't been physically abused. The 128GB version of that same machine? Not so much.

    Photo, music, and video collections are always growing. Given that Macs last forever, you should think about what sort of capacity you'll need in four or five years unless you expect to be buying again before that.

    And as far as your external drive is concerned, you might investigate if you can disassemble it and get the actual drive out of the enclosure. If you can, then you could put it in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and eliminate USB as a potential performance problem. Not sure if TB3 enclosures are on the market yet, but I suspect it won't be long if they aren't.

    Thanks, I suspect that I might be saving up for far longer but as you say it'll be more beneficial in the long run. I do want the improved GPU option but if I can help it, I could swap that out for the 512. I've been on the look out for a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD enclosure and theres nothing yet but I totally agree it will be something out very soon.

    Thanks again.

    Well, if you're still saving up those last few hundred £/$/€, you can always return to the default state of a Mac user who's almost ready to upgrade: "I'll just wait till the next big Apple launch event before I make a decision". WWDC is coming up the first week of June.

    Supposedly, the current generation of MBPs was actually going to use Kabylake and not Skylake for its CPU, but Intel couldn't get its shit together in time for Apple to release before the end of 2016. Thus, there are lots of rumors that a Kabylake-based speed bump will happen sooner rather than later. Probably not worth waiting on in and of itself (unless you really need to go above 16GB RAM), but if it happens, it would do good things for refurb and used prices on the 2016 Skylake MBPs.

    I've also seen that supposedly the MBP was supposed to have the layered battery that the MacBook has to increase capacity but it was dropped at the last minute to reach launch. So you are right in that I could hold out until theres an upgrade worth getting or until my Air dies a death.

  • syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    We are probably on this form factor for a while.

    Which is fine, because the form factor is really sweet, and I feel no pain from USB-c now that I have all the right cables and adapters.

    Yeah, the battery life stuff is pretty overblown; after a few patches I always get 5-10 hours, depending on how crazy my workload is (5 hours is when I have multiple VMs, Chrome, photoshop, and an IDE with a shitload of dependencies running).

    All in all it's the nicest laptop I have ever owned.

    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    Ok so quick update, my very much amazing gorgeous other half decided to treat me by putting up the different for a 15" MBP with 512gb storage. This feel so much better than the 13" already

  • ThisThis Registered User regular
    Hey, do any of you fine people know much about how Time Machine works? I'm not a Mac user, but my dad is and he has a big problem I'd love to be able to help him with. Here's the story:

    My dad has had a string of really bad luck. First his beloved MacBook Air was stolen. The upside is that he had recently backed things up to an external hard drive with Time Machine.

    This was really lucky because he has been working on a geneology project for a number of years. All of his research and notes and documents, along with years of recordings of his own music were stored on the computer, as well as the backup drive.

    Here's the problem: He got a new MacBook, plugged in the external hard drive, and screwed up. I wasn't there, but as he describes it, Time Machine prompted him, asking if he'd like to create a new backup. He was confused and unfortunately clicked "yes" (his reasoning - this is a "new" computer, so "new" backup makes sense). So essentially, he backed up a brand new system and apparently lost the original backup which contained all of his important files.

    I know enough about data storage to know that often, things that have been "erased" are actually still sitting there and can potentially be recovered. But I don't know enough about Macs or Time Machine to know whether that would be true in this case. If anyone has any insight here, I'd really appreciate it!

    My dad has spent the last number of years researching his family tree, traveling the world on a limited budget to visit old archives, libraries, and even interview people. He had been compiling information to create a book about his family tree. If there's any way to salvage this work, it would mean so much to him.

    Thanks for reading.

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    so does anyone have an alternative to irapp ?

    Looks like they went out of business

    and I want something that's a wee bit more performant than VNC

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    This wrote: »
    Hey, do any of you fine people know much about how Time Machine works? I'm not a Mac user, but my dad is and he has a big problem I'd love to be able to help him with. Here's the story:

    My dad has had a string of really bad luck. First his beloved MacBook Air was stolen. The upside is that he had recently backed things up to an external hard drive with Time Machine.

    This was really lucky because he has been working on a geneology project for a number of years. All of his research and notes and documents, along with years of recordings of his own music were stored on the computer, as well as the backup drive.

    Here's the problem: He got a new MacBook, plugged in the external hard drive, and screwed up. I wasn't there, but as he describes it, Time Machine prompted him, asking if he'd like to create a new backup. He was confused and unfortunately clicked "yes" (his reasoning - this is a "new" computer, so "new" backup makes sense). So essentially, he backed up a brand new system and apparently lost the original backup which contained all of his important files.

    I know enough about data storage to know that often, things that have been "erased" are actually still sitting there and can potentially be recovered. But I don't know enough about Macs or Time Machine to know whether that would be true in this case. If anyone has any insight here, I'd really appreciate it!

    My dad has spent the last number of years researching his family tree, traveling the world on a limited budget to visit old archives, libraries, and even interview people. He had been compiling information to create a book about his family tree. If there's any way to salvage this work, it would mean so much to him.

    Thanks for reading.

    First, stop using the Time Machine drive immediately, if not before. The more data that gets written to the drive now, the more old data gets lost.
    Second, there's nothing magic about HFS+ – it's a well known and actually surprisingly old file system and well understood, so any forensic data recovery place should be able to handle this.
    Third, be prepared to spend money. The price has come down an incredible amount in recent years but professional data retrieval still costs on the order of several hundreds¹ of dollars per drive.
    Fourth, see third: do NOT try to use free software to do it yourself or similar. You might get something, or you might wipe the drive completely. Probably the latter.
    Fifth, find a couple of reputable recovery services, preferably near you, and get quotes for comparison. You're looking at what they think they can likely recover based on what you say happened, what guarantees against further data loss they offer, if any, and what they will charge extra if it doesn't go as planned. Then the final price.

    Basically if you want this doing, it's a costly professional service, not a DIY shelf set.




    ¹ yes, this counts as down; used to be a couple orders of magnitude more for most² places to even look at your drive.
    ² read "both"

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
    DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
  • htmhtm Registered User regular
    I personally haven't had to do VNC-ish in a while, but Screens seems popular.

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    absolutely 100% want to avoid vnc here

    the performance is garbage, even on gigabit LAN

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • ThisThis Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    This wrote: »
    Hey, do any of you fine people know much about how Time Machine works? I'm not a Mac user, but my dad is and he has a big problem I'd love to be able to help him with. Here's the story:

    My dad has had a string of really bad luck. First his beloved MacBook Air was stolen. The upside is that he had recently backed things up to an external hard drive with Time Machine.

    This was really lucky because he has been working on a geneology project for a number of years. All of his research and notes and documents, along with years of recordings of his own music were stored on the computer, as well as the backup drive.

    Here's the problem: He got a new MacBook, plugged in the external hard drive, and screwed up. I wasn't there, but as he describes it, Time Machine prompted him, asking if he'd like to create a new backup. He was confused and unfortunately clicked "yes" (his reasoning - this is a "new" computer, so "new" backup makes sense). So essentially, he backed up a brand new system and apparently lost the original backup which contained all of his important files.

    I know enough about data storage to know that often, things that have been "erased" are actually still sitting there and can potentially be recovered. But I don't know enough about Macs or Time Machine to know whether that would be true in this case. If anyone has any insight here, I'd really appreciate it!

    My dad has spent the last number of years researching his family tree, traveling the world on a limited budget to visit old archives, libraries, and even interview people. He had been compiling information to create a book about his family tree. If there's any way to salvage this work, it would mean so much to him.

    Thanks for reading.

    First, stop using the Time Machine drive immediately, if not before. The more data that gets written to the drive now, the more old data gets lost.
    Second, there's nothing magic about HFS+ – it's a well known and actually surprisingly old file system and well understood, so any forensic data recovery place should be able to handle this.
    Third, be prepared to spend money. The price has come down an incredible amount in recent years but professional data retrieval still costs on the order of several hundreds¹ of dollars per drive.
    Fourth, see third: do NOT try to use free software to do it yourself or similar. You might get something, or you might wipe the drive completely. Probably the latter.
    Fifth, find a couple of reputable recovery services, preferably near you, and get quotes for comparison. You're looking at what they think they can likely recover based on what you say happened, what guarantees against further data loss they offer, if any, and what they will charge extra if it doesn't go as planned. Then the final price.

    Basically if you want this doing, it's a costly professional service, not a DIY shelf set.




    ¹ yes, this counts as down; used to be a couple orders of magnitude more for most² places to even look at your drive.
    ² read "both"

    Thanks very much for your response. I had been about to get him to try a recovery tool like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard or Stellar Mac Data Recovery. I thought it might be a good step to see if anything is detected. Just got off the phone with a guy from a data recovery company, he seemed to think it wouldn't hurt as long as the software was on a different drive than the target one - but in your experience, that's a bad idea?

    This on
  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    Yeah, never had any home-software tool recover anything like as much as I wanted, plus a couple of catastrophic failures have made me gun-shy. Especially compared to shipping the drive off and getting back a link to a 90+% recovery image with way less stress.

    Five years ago or more, the answer would have been different but now the difference in cost between software you'll only use once and getting a professional to do it for you once is negligible (except for the "free" software that either isn't very good, isn't actually free, or is straight up malware) so I'd go with the pro every time.

    Maybe use the free version of stellar to do its scan and tell you what it can find before going to a recovery place? Might be good to have that comparison handy.

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
    DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
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