I finally pulled my finger out and ordered on of these Apple MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop (Core i5 1.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB HDD, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories Basically it's the current spec MacBook Air with larger 13" screen, current 1.4GHz processor, 4GB RAM, the larger 256GB SSD HDD and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (not sure what gain the OS has though). It's on a 7-23 day delivery, so I'm wondering what I should buy to get the most out of it i.e. anything useful for the Thunderbolt connection, any essential software etc. I'm sure I'll have more questions when it arrives though as there are 4 iPad with individual iTunes accounts that will need Syncing with the Mac as we are all currently running out of iCloud space
Having looked into A macbook pro myself and talking to others I would not buy thundebolt External HD but go for a UBS3. it's still quick for uplaoding a lot of video But saying that after lots of looking I have been told to get the AirPort Time Capsule AirPort Time Capsule - 3TB - Apple Store (UK) easy to back up all your info also worth mentioning that if you try this you will get a good discount on anything Apple. How to get a 15% discount at the Apple online store from your own home (you’ve got to be a student though). - Mike Wilson and it works
Cheers. I looked at an older 1TB time capsule, much cheaper and assume it does the same job. Forgot to check if the Mac Air has USB3, but would come in handy as i've loads of USB3 sticks. Also looking at a wireless mouse and a caee, but probably won't bother with the DVD drive.
I HAD to get a superdrive (DVDR), CAT5 to USB (FAST NET etc), thunderbolt to Firewire 800 (for my CF card reader SUPER FAST), good bag, good case as bag not so smart, Seagate 1TB USB 2.5HDD for time machine and some other odds and sods, want a thunderbolt to SVGA so can use dual screen and maybe some other stuff. My mac is Mac Book Pro Retina i5 8GB 256GB SSD, with 96GB Windows 7 64 running under boot camp as well as MacOS, system is FAB and love the little mac, use it more and more even though I have a BIG image/video PC too, plus about 6 other PC's. Have an iPad retina too and a HTC one, they all get along just fine This mac with the Firewire 800 CF crd reader rips 100+ full res images from my 40D like they are GIF files! Oh and 3yr mac cover too is a must have so I am told so got that too, plus Office for Mac sadly 25+ years of PC don't yield much freebee mac software. Want Photoshop but its on the Windows partition but would love it for mac OS, love the whole mac thing so far.
Quick pic of the old girl... Only gripe with it is in low light the keyboard backlight flickers, a well know issue but Apple ignore it ha ha. Otherwise well happy, on reflection if you want to run windows in bootcamp avoid the retina display, I have not run windows with parallels that should do away with the small font issue that boot camp has with windows and retina, parallels has retina drivers so I am told and lets you run windows in a window on the mac desktop but it saps CPU time for the windows apps so can be slower, however windows on boot camp eats battery as power management is not so good so its a bit of a trade off. Anyway a bit of a ramble by me but I do love the little mac so far, great for moving around! Keyboard and trackpad are 10/10 and the system flys 99% of the time. Instant boot up etc whats not to like
Being new to the Mac any info is good info. I'll maybe get the Cat5 and HDMI adaptors, but don't need a massive HDD as I ordered the 256Gb SSD version and already have a 750Gb drive on my PC which i've struggled to get anywhere near full. No retina on the Air though, I think that's only on the Pro?
Cat5 is a must IMO, updates are considerably faster but I know many who don't bother and just use WiFi, put the mac book along side a ultra book and it will make the UB look slow even on the same WiFi, I have a del ultra book i7 here and it seems slow over the MBP, you will only see a defference in the retina if they are side by side, tbh the Air is what I should have got! 256gb as you well know is huge unless your filling with film, hires photos and music, you could get a WiFi NAS disk is you need more or your own personal cloud storage, post up how you get on, I'm new to mac too few things that are a little strange sometimes seems like hard work to post image links etc but once you get used to three finger drag, two finger click (right click equiv) and other mac short cuts you will be rippin in no time...lol
Well it arrived today and i'm really pleased with it so far, although there's a lot to get used to. Is it possible to duplicate the music on my iphone with itunes on the mac as when i tick the box to sync music a message pops up saying that it will delete the music on my phone, presumably as there is none in itunes?
I had the same issue on a new laptop and seem to recall getting around this by saving all the different music files on differing devices to a master folder on my PC, that's now the library reference. Recall there being options in library for sync, so can set up a playlist for the phone. Far from an expert so sure someone will have a simpler way around it. Interested how you get on, I’ve had ipad’s and iphones for years but now thinking of getting a new desktop and torn between Mac and PC.
I worked around it in the end Dave. I have a program on my PC called Copy Trans Manager, which other than serving as a replacement for iTunes on Windows that allows drag & drop, it also allows you to rip the contents of the phone to your specified folder, which I then transported to via a USB stick and dragged into iTunes on the Mac. It was then a case of recreating my smart playlists, but at least I now have my music collection replicated on the Mac now, so if I need to Sync then I'm ok. In the mean time I've been playing with the editing software to see how well the current Macbook Air can cope with 1080 video, it also served as a test for using the GoPro on my helmet while Go Karting (better to test the mount here than on the bike first). It's basically just a bunch of middle aged men racing Karts, but here's a few laps of the qualifying before a 45 min race. Unfortunately the cam stopped recording after a couple of minutes, but you'll just have to take my word for it that I got pole position on the grid and came 2nd in the race (to a guy half my age and more importantly half my weight)
Good to see your getting on ok with the Air, once you get used to the finder etc and where files are stored etc its great, a few things seem like more "clicks" but over all its worth it imo. I take my MBP most places with me and now I have settled in with it all I am very happy with my move to the Mac after so long with PC's, I still use my PC's and love them just the same but I am chuffed that I have the Mac as my day machine as its been great!
So the answer to your question is a PC to sort the problems caused by the limitations imposed by (cr)Apple
That's the irony, after all, there are more Windows emulators for the Mac than there Mac emulators for Windows. What does that tell you :0
This works really well if you don't mind the yearly subscription iTunes Match You can even upload any of the weird stuff you might have that they don't. I had it for a year and was useful to have my tunes wherever i was in the entirety with no storage issue on my iPhone or iPod.
There are loads of transfer apps out there! That way you wouldn't have to move the paperweight (PC) back into action, lol
I'm far from being a mac man, but isn't Tiger a bit long in the tooth now... Positively sabre toothed...
That's what I don't get! I read few posts on various sites about newer and better OSX. I have Mavericks, but have no idea how that makes mine better the earlier ones???
(Prepare to get a slagging from the Applegensia) People always complain that the newest incarnations of Windows are buggy at launch, but Apple seem to have this thing about releasing a new build of their OS before they tell any of the peripherals manufacturers that they're going to need drivers for them. I hate selling new kit to colleges during summer hiatus. Chances are I'll go in to install them at the beginning of term to be confronted with a bank of brand new shiny iMacs, none of which have a clue what an Epson printer is. Then, once everyone has caught up, they'll bring out Honey Badger, or whatever, that simply refuses to be backwards compatible with anything else. When I upgraded to IOS 7, half the stuff on my iPad didn't like it. I told my missus to hold off updating hers until the online moaning had stopped.
My iPad(ret) was buggy as hell at first, wait it may have been the rest of the internet that had the bugs, maybe the iPad was ok? Who knows but its better now and has been great for some time, mind you its a little slow, not that it has anything to do with the apps or the 9,567 hi res images I have on it,,,
