I've been on Windows since spring 2018 and it hasn't been all that great. It smoothed out until update 1809 and 1909 was even more rocky. The most recent updates managed to eat my drive data. Even after a visit to a repair service, I ended up with a reset all the way back to factory. At this moment, I can't really use the machine and it's a shame with all those games.
For two years, I haven't had my music or a recent backup of my music, which has led me to some frustration. I also left some projects undone and I just wanted to get an inexpensive Mac that would allow me to revive things. I've been searching a very long time.
On OfferUp, I wasn't sure whether the machines were stolen or not but the prices weren't all that good for the damged look of some of the machines and the distance I'd have to travel. Apple, of course, has only machines three years old or newer, which would be too much money for minimum wage me. Newegg has had machines, but they often have third parties with poor ratings, and I'm not very trusting.
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a mid-2012 quad core i7 with a GeForce 650M, almost like mine--one step down. The price was acceptable, but the 4 GB of RAM left me unsure as to whether it would be able to restore my final backup, although the 500 GB 5400 rpm disk drive was sufficient.
I ordered it on a Sunday night. By Tuesday, they had finished packaging and its status was "Label created". It stayed that way, even after it arrived several days later.
The machine looked almost new. The display hinges are a little weak, but since I've got my (dead) machine, I can probably have those switched. The machine has only 512 MB of VRAM, in contrast to my machine having 1 GB. It probably doesn't matter a lot because how many games are available for an 8 year old machine? GOG has some, though. What's more important is using that GPU to speed up photo and video processing.
Getting the machine up and running was a struggle. It complained about the backup being from a newer version of the operating system. Sadly, the Mac App Store pointed me to the current, rather broken, Catalina/10.15.4. I didn't realize that it was completely 64-bit, so nothing 32-bit would run. I complained about Apple not doing this in the past, so it's amusing that it was such a kick in the pants.
Loading Catalina wasn't awful. The 500 GB hard drive had to be converted from HFS+ to APFS. It didn't take long to be downloaded. The installation wasn't horrible, either. Trying to boot it with a hard drive from 2012 and only 4 GB of RAM was difficult, at best.
Once it was running, I was tossing out software and hoping that upgrades would be simple. Several upgrades were extremely expensive and I'm considering them still. Those things purchased through the Mac App Store didn't come with upgrade fees. However, getting things to run was almost impossible. Firefox would initially run and would fail, apparently because of the 4 GB of RAM restriction. It displayed some sort of dialog box, but I couldn't manipulate it to see the contents.
There were some system functions that were running constantly, possibly because the hard drive was converted from HFS+. It disabled the machine for all intents and purposes, especially with a file system that wasn't happy on a hard drive and a system with a shortage of RAM.
Enhancements Matter
I bought a 1 TB Western Digital SSD (2.5 inch) and 16 GB of RAM. Considering that eight years have passed, the total for the enhancements was negligible. I remember that the Other World Computing 6G Extreme SSD was something around US$500 for 480 GB and the RAM might have been about the same price in early 2013.
Just inserting the RAM made a huge difference in performance with macOS Catalina. I wanted to get an external enclosure in order to clone the drive and the enclosure had not arrived at that time. I ended up finding a compatible enclosure and macOS did all the cloning, once I could get the SSD partitioned and formatted properly. There was some error at first, which isn't a surprise with 10.15.4.
Making sure the SSD was set to be APFS made a positive difference. When I booted from the drive, the previous system tasks from when the hard drive was present were not taking over the system any longer. The system seemed about as fast as my Windows 10 system with the 7th generation quad-core i7 and 32 GB rather than the Mac from 2012 with a 3rd generation quad-core i7 and 16 GB of RAM, just as my other machine had been. Obviously the GeForce 1050 GTX versus the GT 650M difference is really displayed in applications which use hardware acceleration.
It's taken some time to update applications to current versions, but everything runs quite well. Most games are not possible because time has left the 650M with 512 MB in the past, and those games that could run need to be converted to work under 64-bit operation. I tried to get The Witness to work, but it got just past the graphics settings and died. The Epic Games Launcher seems flaky. Steam won't run even though it's the 64-bit version and ran once. GOG Galaxy 2.0 runs occasionally. MacGameStore can run. Obduction runs, if a bit glitchy! Things are running somewhat better and I've found more games.
Thankfully, the Affinity suite by Serif seems fine, along with Capture One Pro 12, Luminar 2018, Swift Publisher 5 and more. I was concerned with being able to retrieve projects, photos, and music. My music is up to date on my phone, but it's been tedious getting Finder (not iTunes) to sync things. My TV and movie downloads are currently not on the phone because Finder had them removed.
I didn't think that a machine from 2012 would be so useful in 2020, but for graphics work, it seems quite capable.
Update 2020.05.01: Is it sad that a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with flaky 10.5.4 is more stable than a late-2017 Omen by HP laptop computer with the latest Windows 10?
Showing posts with label MacBook Pro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MacBook Pro. Show all posts
Monday, April 20, 2020
Friday, February 15, 2019
1TB M.2 drive, 32GB RAM installation complete
Getting a laptop computer that is working well for me has been a struggle.
For years, people have told me how much cheaper it is to buy a Windows machine than it is to buy a Mac. For years, I told them to find one with the screen resolution and graphics hardware and it would be practically the same price. It had been for the longest time. Displays for laptop computers are not inexpensive but high quality displays are really expensive.
I got this 2017 Omen by HP laptop at about 25% discount. It has an Intel i7 7700HQ quad core processor, Nvidia 1050 GPU with 2 GB of RAM, and the system came with a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. It seemed to crawl most days. The mid-2012 MacBook Pro had 16GB of RAM and a 480GB SSD with an Nvidia 650M GPU.
I found G.Skill RAM that I trusted that wasn't too expensive at the time and bought 32GB in two sticks. I also found an HP m.2 SSD that seemed a good fit--an EX920. Given that I've been working in retail and Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day has been so brutal, I had few chances to get anything installed. (I actually thought that, having a decent background with computer hardware installation since around 1981, I might be able to do the work myself but was proven wrong rather quickly. It was much easier to modify each of my Apple Macintosh machines.)
I went to a phone repair store that was close, where I had some work done in the past, and the technician I knew was gone. The person who might be able to do the work wasn't there that day, and since time wasn't convenient, I didn't return. I went to a "computer services" shop (that looked like a pawn shop) and that shop's computer person wasn't there, either.
Last week, I decided to check another phone repair shop and found that they did computer work. I called and was told that it would be US$30 to install the RAM and m.2 drive. That was much lower than the $130-$250 I expected.
Wednesday, I went to the store and dropped off the computer. They didn't give me a receipt--scary--but they sent my phone text messages to inform me on their progress. US$30 to install the hardware and US$35 to clone the drive was given to me as the quote. Thanks very reasonable.
Today, Friday, I went to see about the computer. Things happened in the store and the progress was a bit delayed when "things happened", which was expected. Thankfully, it wasn't some catastrophe where the hard drive didn't work at all. He was "optimizing" it, so he told me that it would probably be three more hours.
I ate so-so VietNamese food at a new restaurant for way too much money, walked to a store to shop a bit, and got the text message that my machine had been finished. I returned as quickly as I could walk.
I paid and I started the machine. We looked and there was an update that required a restart. I checked to see if the RAM and drive had actually been installed. I wasn't accusing. I just worry a lot. If you can imagine something going wrong almost every time I do something, you'd be cautious, also.
Having the machine at home now, I'm pleased to say that my usual 51-66% RAM usage is around 19-22% now. I'll be able to get started on my skate park videos finally. I still need to select from thousands of clips. I won't have to worry about my software being unhappy with the environment on which it's running, though. Hopefully, Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus will be good.
As I've played a few games, the response is generally good but there are still delays. I wonder if the operating system needs to mold itself to the new drive. This machine is still labeled by HP as a casual gaming machine, which is all I needed anyway. It still seems strange that UT2004 was smoother on a 2012 MacBook Pro than it is on a 2017 Windows machine purposed for gaming.
Update 2019.02.16: Windows 10 seems much better, although it does seem to be off in Never-Never land far too often still. Who knows what it's doing? As soon as I launch Task Manager, whatever was happening stops. Defragmentation tends to continue, so I'm sure it's not that. Feedback Hub is running, but why? Microsoft does not want to know what I think of their collection of patches that they consider an operating system. Back when a machine was limited to 64KB (or even 4MB) of RAM, it seemed that everything had to be tight. Sloppy writers didn't make it. Atari's implementation of GEM and DR-DOS weren't great but they were quick and efficient.
Firefox and Chrome both seem to handle scrolling more smoothly.
Games still seem just a bit better, which doesn't seem enough for the difference of having 4 times the RAM and a much, much faster drive.
For years, people have told me how much cheaper it is to buy a Windows machine than it is to buy a Mac. For years, I told them to find one with the screen resolution and graphics hardware and it would be practically the same price. It had been for the longest time. Displays for laptop computers are not inexpensive but high quality displays are really expensive.
I got this 2017 Omen by HP laptop at about 25% discount. It has an Intel i7 7700HQ quad core processor, Nvidia 1050 GPU with 2 GB of RAM, and the system came with a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. It seemed to crawl most days. The mid-2012 MacBook Pro had 16GB of RAM and a 480GB SSD with an Nvidia 650M GPU.
I found G.Skill RAM that I trusted that wasn't too expensive at the time and bought 32GB in two sticks. I also found an HP m.2 SSD that seemed a good fit--an EX920. Given that I've been working in retail and Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day has been so brutal, I had few chances to get anything installed. (I actually thought that, having a decent background with computer hardware installation since around 1981, I might be able to do the work myself but was proven wrong rather quickly. It was much easier to modify each of my Apple Macintosh machines.)
I went to a phone repair store that was close, where I had some work done in the past, and the technician I knew was gone. The person who might be able to do the work wasn't there that day, and since time wasn't convenient, I didn't return. I went to a "computer services" shop (that looked like a pawn shop) and that shop's computer person wasn't there, either.
Last week, I decided to check another phone repair shop and found that they did computer work. I called and was told that it would be US$30 to install the RAM and m.2 drive. That was much lower than the $130-$250 I expected.
Wednesday, I went to the store and dropped off the computer. They didn't give me a receipt--scary--but they sent my phone text messages to inform me on their progress. US$30 to install the hardware and US$35 to clone the drive was given to me as the quote. Thanks very reasonable.
Today, Friday, I went to see about the computer. Things happened in the store and the progress was a bit delayed when "things happened", which was expected. Thankfully, it wasn't some catastrophe where the hard drive didn't work at all. He was "optimizing" it, so he told me that it would probably be three more hours.
I ate so-so VietNamese food at a new restaurant for way too much money, walked to a store to shop a bit, and got the text message that my machine had been finished. I returned as quickly as I could walk.
I paid and I started the machine. We looked and there was an update that required a restart. I checked to see if the RAM and drive had actually been installed. I wasn't accusing. I just worry a lot. If you can imagine something going wrong almost every time I do something, you'd be cautious, also.
Having the machine at home now, I'm pleased to say that my usual 51-66% RAM usage is around 19-22% now. I'll be able to get started on my skate park videos finally. I still need to select from thousands of clips. I won't have to worry about my software being unhappy with the environment on which it's running, though. Hopefully, Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus will be good.
As I've played a few games, the response is generally good but there are still delays. I wonder if the operating system needs to mold itself to the new drive. This machine is still labeled by HP as a casual gaming machine, which is all I needed anyway. It still seems strange that UT2004 was smoother on a 2012 MacBook Pro than it is on a 2017 Windows machine purposed for gaming.
Update 2019.02.16: Windows 10 seems much better, although it does seem to be off in Never-Never land far too often still. Who knows what it's doing? As soon as I launch Task Manager, whatever was happening stops. Defragmentation tends to continue, so I'm sure it's not that. Feedback Hub is running, but why? Microsoft does not want to know what I think of their collection of patches that they consider an operating system. Back when a machine was limited to 64KB (or even 4MB) of RAM, it seemed that everything had to be tight. Sloppy writers didn't make it. Atari's implementation of GEM and DR-DOS weren't great but they were quick and efficient.
Firefox and Chrome both seem to handle scrolling more smoothly.
Games still seem just a bit better, which doesn't seem enough for the difference of having 4 times the RAM and a much, much faster drive.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Buying enough RAM to make the i7 7700HQ happy
Okay, I've had this 2017 Omen (by HP) 15t for around six months. It's decent at most everything, making it a good successor to the mid-2012 MacBook Pro quad core i7 with 16 GB of RAM and 480 GB SSD.
When things get tough, it shows how slow it is. The 8 GB of RAM shows up as about half in use when doing simple things. When I go to edit photos, I'm in trouble, with RAM generally full and virtual memory has to resort to the 7200 rpm hard drive. Intolerably slow would be the key phrase but it's possible to remember with 4 MB of RAM was a full set and my Atari 1040 ST (with modification) would fly at 8 MHz. That was a monochrome system with a 640x400 display.
The MacBook Pro supported 1440x900 and this Omen has a 1920x1080 display--the not so good display, that is standard. Hey, if I can edit from lesser displays in the past, can I work with lesser displays in the present? Of course, I can.
However, using Phase One Capture One Pro has been a bit tedious, especially if I'm using Luminar 2018 at the same time. If I try to also use Magix Movie Edit Pro and/or Xara Designer Pro, things might grind to a halt.
I just ordered 32 GB, in two RAM sticks, with sales tax, etc. for just a bit less than the two pieces were by themselves just a few weeks ago. G.Skill RAM works well and is trusted. My needs may not be as specific or hard core as the gamers who would also buy products from the brand, but high performance, reliable products are necessary.
I considered 16 GB but half of my 8 GB is in use doing almost nothing. Trying to make video with 16 GB might leave me with almost nothing and virtual memory will ruin the performance and I'd be back to intolerably slow performance, plus I'd spent money to arrive there. Considering the drop in price, it didn't make sense to go with the lower capacity.
I also ordered a toolkit from iFixit, so I should be able to open the machine and put things right easily. Previously, I had two Husky drivers (from Home Depot) and two Kobalt drivers (from Lowes), which helped quite a lot. I made the modifications to the MacBook Pro quickly and easily, while being watched, just in case. It helped train them, also. I've watched the video reviews of this machine and they opened it fairly easily. It's just a matter of remembering which screws go where, just like always.
I will have to wait for drive improvements. The machine has an M.2 slot, so it's perfect for a Samsung 970 EVO drive. 1 TB is much more affordable than the 6 Gbps 480 GB drive I put into the MacBook Pro in 2013. I'm just wondering if I happen to have a Samsung 2.5 inch 512 GB SSD drive that I bought a few years ago. If I can transfer everything to a 1 TB M.2 drive and switch the 1 TB hard disk drive for an SSD drive, also, things will improve. However, saving money takes time.
Wish me luck!
Update 2019.01.08: I've got the RAM, but couldn't install it, due to a plastic plug covering one screw. I'm still working on solutions, but I'm about to have someone else install it, and the HP EX920 M.2 1TB I bought for very little. Hopefully, the cost of installation won't break the bank. I've had some noise lately, and I'm not sure whether it's one of the fans or the hard drive. In either case, a gaming laptop computer needs everything working at full throttle.
Update 2019.02.15: It's done. Both have been installed for US$30 and another US$35 covered cloning the drive data. That's actually less than I spent on tools to do the work myself.
The machine still doesn't feel faster than the mid-2012 MacBook Pro.
When things get tough, it shows how slow it is. The 8 GB of RAM shows up as about half in use when doing simple things. When I go to edit photos, I'm in trouble, with RAM generally full and virtual memory has to resort to the 7200 rpm hard drive. Intolerably slow would be the key phrase but it's possible to remember with 4 MB of RAM was a full set and my Atari 1040 ST (with modification) would fly at 8 MHz. That was a monochrome system with a 640x400 display.
The MacBook Pro supported 1440x900 and this Omen has a 1920x1080 display--the not so good display, that is standard. Hey, if I can edit from lesser displays in the past, can I work with lesser displays in the present? Of course, I can.
However, using Phase One Capture One Pro has been a bit tedious, especially if I'm using Luminar 2018 at the same time. If I try to also use Magix Movie Edit Pro and/or Xara Designer Pro, things might grind to a halt.
I just ordered 32 GB, in two RAM sticks, with sales tax, etc. for just a bit less than the two pieces were by themselves just a few weeks ago. G.Skill RAM works well and is trusted. My needs may not be as specific or hard core as the gamers who would also buy products from the brand, but high performance, reliable products are necessary.
I considered 16 GB but half of my 8 GB is in use doing almost nothing. Trying to make video with 16 GB might leave me with almost nothing and virtual memory will ruin the performance and I'd be back to intolerably slow performance, plus I'd spent money to arrive there. Considering the drop in price, it didn't make sense to go with the lower capacity.
I also ordered a toolkit from iFixit, so I should be able to open the machine and put things right easily. Previously, I had two Husky drivers (from Home Depot) and two Kobalt drivers (from Lowes), which helped quite a lot. I made the modifications to the MacBook Pro quickly and easily, while being watched, just in case. It helped train them, also. I've watched the video reviews of this machine and they opened it fairly easily. It's just a matter of remembering which screws go where, just like always.
I will have to wait for drive improvements. The machine has an M.2 slot, so it's perfect for a Samsung 970 EVO drive. 1 TB is much more affordable than the 6 Gbps 480 GB drive I put into the MacBook Pro in 2013. I'm just wondering if I happen to have a Samsung 2.5 inch 512 GB SSD drive that I bought a few years ago. If I can transfer everything to a 1 TB M.2 drive and switch the 1 TB hard disk drive for an SSD drive, also, things will improve. However, saving money takes time.
Wish me luck!
Update 2019.01.08: I've got the RAM, but couldn't install it, due to a plastic plug covering one screw. I'm still working on solutions, but I'm about to have someone else install it, and the HP EX920 M.2 1TB I bought for very little. Hopefully, the cost of installation won't break the bank. I've had some noise lately, and I'm not sure whether it's one of the fans or the hard drive. In either case, a gaming laptop computer needs everything working at full throttle.
Update 2019.02.15: It's done. Both have been installed for US$30 and another US$35 covered cloning the drive data. That's actually less than I spent on tools to do the work myself.
The machine still doesn't feel faster than the mid-2012 MacBook Pro.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Apple Update Day
There have been loads of updates today:
Most of these were up to an 8th beta test version.
I don't have an Apple Watch, so that isn't a problem, thankfully but there is a rather large load on the internet connection trying to update everything.
I've updated Apple TV and my iPhone but I'm not updating my MacBook Pro because I can't get a number on the size of the update, and I'd rather not pay overage charges.
Besides this, iWork has been updated on the computer and the phone.
The most significant change is the new file system: APFS. It's live on iOS devices. I wonder if it's working on the Apple TV or Apple Watch. It should be interesting to see how the phone changes with a modern file system, rather than some relic of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s with the electrodes sticking out of the neck to remind people of the creature they've been using.
I'm not noticing a huge difference at this point, and the phone seems to be working as well as it was--no glitches.
Better performance is always appreciated, so hopefully, that happens. When the file system can be implemented on my MacBook Pro, I'll probably be much happier. I'll be ready to update macOS Sierra in a few days.
- macOS Sierra 10.12.4
- iOS 10.3
- tvOS 10.2
- watchOS 3.2
Most of these were up to an 8th beta test version.
I don't have an Apple Watch, so that isn't a problem, thankfully but there is a rather large load on the internet connection trying to update everything.
I've updated Apple TV and my iPhone but I'm not updating my MacBook Pro because I can't get a number on the size of the update, and I'd rather not pay overage charges.
Besides this, iWork has been updated on the computer and the phone.
The most significant change is the new file system: APFS. It's live on iOS devices. I wonder if it's working on the Apple TV or Apple Watch. It should be interesting to see how the phone changes with a modern file system, rather than some relic of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s with the electrodes sticking out of the neck to remind people of the creature they've been using.
I'm not noticing a huge difference at this point, and the phone seems to be working as well as it was--no glitches.
Better performance is always appreciated, so hopefully, that happens. When the file system can be implemented on my MacBook Pro, I'll probably be much happier. I'll be ready to update macOS Sierra in a few days.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Apple's newest MacBook Pro lineup: what is it?
My eyes have been crossed ever since the Apple announcement last week. I'm just not sure what the company was trying to accomplish and how they ended up at this point.
The Touch Bar looks like great technology and in the video editing portion of the demonstrations, I was enthusiastic.
However, they removed some products, such as the 11 inch MacBook Air and the 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with only Intel graphics hardware. At least, I believe that's what they did. My eyes are still crossed.
I recognize that the MacBook Air has become less popular and they make the MacBook Pro line thinner and the MacBook exists just to draw people closer with its bling-y looks. Supposedly, my iPhone 7 is faster than the MacBook and MacBook Air. The MacBook with Intel Core M processors is slow indeed.
US$2399 and $2799 seem about right, but maybe a bit extra. My mid-2012 refurbished machine came at a slight discount in January 2013. It's difficult to believe that someone would pay $1999 for a MacBook Pro with Intel Iris Pro graphics hardware but there is one in the refurbished list for $300 off at $1699. I'm thinking that they were introduced at $1499. Then again, I remember paying for a Wall Street-era Apple laptop computer with passive display for $2600 something around 1998, and that was the cheap 233 MHz model.
It still feels as though the changes in specification aren't enough. However, I remember when 66 MHz or 133 MHz seemed as big a change as we were getting when Motorola couldn't enhance the PowerPC G3 or G4 further. Intel is mostly at that point now.
The updated Radeon graphics hardware is appreciated in the higher level machines. Switching to USB C for everything makes sense. Leaving the headphone jack does not. Where are the Lightning connectors, so I can use my ear buds, etc.? Does the new iPhone come with a USB C adapter? No.
If I had the $2399 to spend easily, would I replace my current machine with the newest one?
Update 2016.11.04: A lot of people are complaining that the RAM is limited to 16 GB. One person wrote Phil Schiller who replied that the current technology is such that more RAM would diminish battery life. It seems that Intel isn't very good at designing processors--or this is a situation of planned obsolescence.
Others are complaining about the ports. I'm finding it interesting to require a dock or a lot of cables to convert to the proper connector.
Further, a company called Plugable has noticed that their products are not compatible with Thunderbolt 3 in the new computers, because they use a Texas Instruments controller. This isn't the first time I've heard of TI doing a half-ass job but it certainly is a problem that will be rectified with new controllers from the company.
I'm just not sure these new machines are compelling enough, especially for the wait.
The Touch Bar is useful. For all the time that I used a touch screen Windows-based Lenovo Flex 3, I never really found the touch screen completely useful. The display housing would bounce at my finger pressure, and Lenovo has better hinges than most. In tablet mode, it could be useful, but who wants a 5 pound, 14 inch tablet?
Microsoft continues to make waves with their Surface lines, but will they actually sell many? I don't believe so. For the artist, Wacom has been the name for a very long time. Of course, that's like saying "No gets fired for buying Microsoft." and things have changed.
For most people, the tablet market is only for replacements now. I wouldn't expect to see more powerful tablets because of the heat, and the weight for heat dissipation hardware.
If Apple had announced a touch screen-enabled display, I would have expected the MacBook Air and MacBook lines to go away immediately, and a lot of "Macs don't need touch screens" kinds of quotes to be dug up from the past.
So, do you need an updated MacBook Pro that isn't much different? It may all come down to killer Touch Bar additions.
Thinking back to when I was a IRC channel operator and then, moderator for the world's largest Apple-related forums, I remember people building lists of unachievable things for Apple to do with their next revision of whatever machine was next. They had to be big and powerful and slim and light--at the same time. Oh, and they had to all be 12 inch laptop computers, similar to the one IBM Japan made for Apple.
Naturally, almost nothing came true because what they wanted wasn't realistic. This time, the machines are good and powerful, and didn't have anything that anyone wanted, of course. I gave up on the forums around 8 years ago (after iPhone arrived), although I made a cameo appearance as an Olympic torch bearer for 24 hours or so. I didn't understand it, so I can't explain it to you.
Why are brand fanatics so--fanatical?
Update 2016.11.13: Got my hands on the new 13 inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar.
The speakers on each side of the keyboard are, as they say, long overdue. The track pad is !@#$ huge. I can only think that the size of the track pad is to overcome the touch screen alternative. My experience with the capable Lenovo Flex 3 14 inch tells me that touch screen is a good idea but even the best hinges have trouble keeping the display steady when you're poking it. You can put it into a 14 inch tablet mode, which was seemingly heavy and hot. The new, huge track pad may be a good idea, even if it looks odd.
I can't say that it is much more powerful. These days feel like the days when Motorola was lucky to eek out an extra 66 MHz to the clock speed. For the most part, all of the i5 processors are powerful enough to handle most jobs. Handling video production is another matter. My mid-2012 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with 2.6 GHz i7 struggles at times--at 100 degrees C.
I'd be happy to try one of the 15.4 inch models. Certainly having a newer GPU would improve processing power when working on video.
Update 2016.11.23: Saw the Touch Bar-included MacBook Pro models, 13 and 15.4 inch.
There is a US$900 gap between the two sizes, especially since there is no Intel-only graphics 15.4 inch machine. It's unfortunate that there is no room for better heat dispersion in the 13 inch model since it's so (increasingly) thin. I'd be more than happy to have a thicker, small model to fit around US$1799.
The Touch Bar was usable, quick, and easy to understand for the function key replacements. I suppose I should have tried to see if Final Cut Pro was installed to see the timeline enhancements in the Touch Bar. Instead, I looked at the US$2399 of the 15.4 inch machine in front of me and considered that my mid-2012 machine was just fine.
The Touch Bar looks like great technology and in the video editing portion of the demonstrations, I was enthusiastic.
However, they removed some products, such as the 11 inch MacBook Air and the 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with only Intel graphics hardware. At least, I believe that's what they did. My eyes are still crossed.
I recognize that the MacBook Air has become less popular and they make the MacBook Pro line thinner and the MacBook exists just to draw people closer with its bling-y looks. Supposedly, my iPhone 7 is faster than the MacBook and MacBook Air. The MacBook with Intel Core M processors is slow indeed.
US$2399 and $2799 seem about right, but maybe a bit extra. My mid-2012 refurbished machine came at a slight discount in January 2013. It's difficult to believe that someone would pay $1999 for a MacBook Pro with Intel Iris Pro graphics hardware but there is one in the refurbished list for $300 off at $1699. I'm thinking that they were introduced at $1499. Then again, I remember paying for a Wall Street-era Apple laptop computer with passive display for $2600 something around 1998, and that was the cheap 233 MHz model.
It still feels as though the changes in specification aren't enough. However, I remember when 66 MHz or 133 MHz seemed as big a change as we were getting when Motorola couldn't enhance the PowerPC G3 or G4 further. Intel is mostly at that point now.
The updated Radeon graphics hardware is appreciated in the higher level machines. Switching to USB C for everything makes sense. Leaving the headphone jack does not. Where are the Lightning connectors, so I can use my ear buds, etc.? Does the new iPhone come with a USB C adapter? No.
If I had the $2399 to spend easily, would I replace my current machine with the newest one?
Update 2016.11.04: A lot of people are complaining that the RAM is limited to 16 GB. One person wrote Phil Schiller who replied that the current technology is such that more RAM would diminish battery life. It seems that Intel isn't very good at designing processors--or this is a situation of planned obsolescence.
Others are complaining about the ports. I'm finding it interesting to require a dock or a lot of cables to convert to the proper connector.
Further, a company called Plugable has noticed that their products are not compatible with Thunderbolt 3 in the new computers, because they use a Texas Instruments controller. This isn't the first time I've heard of TI doing a half-ass job but it certainly is a problem that will be rectified with new controllers from the company.
I'm just not sure these new machines are compelling enough, especially for the wait.
The Touch Bar is useful. For all the time that I used a touch screen Windows-based Lenovo Flex 3, I never really found the touch screen completely useful. The display housing would bounce at my finger pressure, and Lenovo has better hinges than most. In tablet mode, it could be useful, but who wants a 5 pound, 14 inch tablet?
Microsoft continues to make waves with their Surface lines, but will they actually sell many? I don't believe so. For the artist, Wacom has been the name for a very long time. Of course, that's like saying "No gets fired for buying Microsoft." and things have changed.
For most people, the tablet market is only for replacements now. I wouldn't expect to see more powerful tablets because of the heat, and the weight for heat dissipation hardware.
If Apple had announced a touch screen-enabled display, I would have expected the MacBook Air and MacBook lines to go away immediately, and a lot of "Macs don't need touch screens" kinds of quotes to be dug up from the past.
So, do you need an updated MacBook Pro that isn't much different? It may all come down to killer Touch Bar additions.
Thinking back to when I was a IRC channel operator and then, moderator for the world's largest Apple-related forums, I remember people building lists of unachievable things for Apple to do with their next revision of whatever machine was next. They had to be big and powerful and slim and light--at the same time. Oh, and they had to all be 12 inch laptop computers, similar to the one IBM Japan made for Apple.
Naturally, almost nothing came true because what they wanted wasn't realistic. This time, the machines are good and powerful, and didn't have anything that anyone wanted, of course. I gave up on the forums around 8 years ago (after iPhone arrived), although I made a cameo appearance as an Olympic torch bearer for 24 hours or so. I didn't understand it, so I can't explain it to you.
Why are brand fanatics so--fanatical?
Update 2016.11.13: Got my hands on the new 13 inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar.
The speakers on each side of the keyboard are, as they say, long overdue. The track pad is !@#$ huge. I can only think that the size of the track pad is to overcome the touch screen alternative. My experience with the capable Lenovo Flex 3 14 inch tells me that touch screen is a good idea but even the best hinges have trouble keeping the display steady when you're poking it. You can put it into a 14 inch tablet mode, which was seemingly heavy and hot. The new, huge track pad may be a good idea, even if it looks odd.
I can't say that it is much more powerful. These days feel like the days when Motorola was lucky to eek out an extra 66 MHz to the clock speed. For the most part, all of the i5 processors are powerful enough to handle most jobs. Handling video production is another matter. My mid-2012 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with 2.6 GHz i7 struggles at times--at 100 degrees C.
I'd be happy to try one of the 15.4 inch models. Certainly having a newer GPU would improve processing power when working on video.
Update 2016.11.23: Saw the Touch Bar-included MacBook Pro models, 13 and 15.4 inch.
There is a US$900 gap between the two sizes, especially since there is no Intel-only graphics 15.4 inch machine. It's unfortunate that there is no room for better heat dispersion in the 13 inch model since it's so (increasingly) thin. I'd be more than happy to have a thicker, small model to fit around US$1799.
The Touch Bar was usable, quick, and easy to understand for the function key replacements. I suppose I should have tried to see if Final Cut Pro was installed to see the timeline enhancements in the Touch Bar. Instead, I looked at the US$2399 of the 15.4 inch machine in front of me and considered that my mid-2012 machine was just fine.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Installed OS X 10.11.3 on Mid-2012 MacBook Pro
Given that I had almost 14 GB in my monthly internet allotment remaining, I decided to try to download the latest operating system and install it on a laptop computer that I've had since around the first of 2013.
In November 2014, I had Apple install 10.9.5 on my machine because I didn't have enough data available to download the operating system. I also remember all the pain of downloading 10.8 and the fixes and having to jump through hoops to get it to work, and then, I changed to an SSD and I couldn't just copy the operating system as in the old days. Gnashing of teeth was part of the installation process.
The time for the download was not horrible, although my Verizon mobile hotspot has some very variable service lately. Once downloaded, there were a couple of items to confirm and then, it restarted to actually perform the installation.
At some point, it asked me about iCloud--and took a very long time to complete. It also did this for a secondary user on the machine, but didn't seem to take nearly as long.
That was the big deal.
Performance is much better, although the interface is so flat (with sharp edges) that I suspect that the next major version will have concave features. It feels a bit as though children were tasked with the re-design.
Maybe, it's just that 10.9.5 was really awful--10.7.x was, and 10.8.x was also. In fact, the last time I really felt good about performance was 10.4.10 on the PowerBook G4. However, 10.11.3 seems a strong improvement.
I haven't seen a problem, other than having to update all of my iWork applications. Why they are so close to the operating system, I don't know but it feels like when Microsoft was using hidden APIs to "enhance" Microsoft Office since the compiler couldn't fix the code execution to be faster. Oh, and my 14 GB remainder is suddenly about 3GB.
Update 2016.04.05: There is a huge drawback that most people won't likely see. When I try to transfer over 500 photo files from SD cards using my USB 3.0 enabled reader, the Finder seems confused.
It seems to create ghostly icons of the files in the folder but never seems to actually copy the files. It doesn't report any progress. I end up having to re-launch Finder, delete the files' icons--or whatever it takes, depending on my level of frustration.
There is also a problem while transferring around 400 photo files, but this has been lessened by 10.11.4. Progress stalled quite a lot with 10.11.3 and shaking the Copy dialog box seemed to help. It's smoother now but once it's stuck, nothing helps. I could try using the inbuilt SD Card slot but it didn't seem to work in previous releases, so that's not a good idea.
Why is Apple having USB problems after all this time? I've thinking that the all-in-one iMac from the 1990s had severe USB problems but that was so long ago. Then again, every major release (including iOS) seems to have WiFi problems.
Why isn't Windows 10 such a problem? I'm surprised that things work so smoothly. I suppose Apple's problems could be related to their lack of procedures.
Update 2016.07.20: Up to 10.11.6 now. Finder has not been updated but seems somewhat more reliable, perhaps because of background processes. I've lost faith in Apple, but then, my faith in them has been diminishing since 10.4.10. 10.5.x for PowerPC was terribly broken and several applications stopped working. 10.6.x for Intel was acceptable finally, with the white 2.13 GHz MacBook. My Mid-2012 MacBook Pro is the only one I still have that can be updated. It was awful on 10.7.x and 10.8.x but 10.9.x was reliable.
The good thing with 10.11.x is that the App Store works reliably.
In November 2014, I had Apple install 10.9.5 on my machine because I didn't have enough data available to download the operating system. I also remember all the pain of downloading 10.8 and the fixes and having to jump through hoops to get it to work, and then, I changed to an SSD and I couldn't just copy the operating system as in the old days. Gnashing of teeth was part of the installation process.
The time for the download was not horrible, although my Verizon mobile hotspot has some very variable service lately. Once downloaded, there were a couple of items to confirm and then, it restarted to actually perform the installation.
At some point, it asked me about iCloud--and took a very long time to complete. It also did this for a secondary user on the machine, but didn't seem to take nearly as long.
That was the big deal.
Performance is much better, although the interface is so flat (with sharp edges) that I suspect that the next major version will have concave features. It feels a bit as though children were tasked with the re-design.
Maybe, it's just that 10.9.5 was really awful--10.7.x was, and 10.8.x was also. In fact, the last time I really felt good about performance was 10.4.10 on the PowerBook G4. However, 10.11.3 seems a strong improvement.
I haven't seen a problem, other than having to update all of my iWork applications. Why they are so close to the operating system, I don't know but it feels like when Microsoft was using hidden APIs to "enhance" Microsoft Office since the compiler couldn't fix the code execution to be faster. Oh, and my 14 GB remainder is suddenly about 3GB.
Update 2016.04.05: There is a huge drawback that most people won't likely see. When I try to transfer over 500 photo files from SD cards using my USB 3.0 enabled reader, the Finder seems confused.
It seems to create ghostly icons of the files in the folder but never seems to actually copy the files. It doesn't report any progress. I end up having to re-launch Finder, delete the files' icons--or whatever it takes, depending on my level of frustration.
There is also a problem while transferring around 400 photo files, but this has been lessened by 10.11.4. Progress stalled quite a lot with 10.11.3 and shaking the Copy dialog box seemed to help. It's smoother now but once it's stuck, nothing helps. I could try using the inbuilt SD Card slot but it didn't seem to work in previous releases, so that's not a good idea.
Why is Apple having USB problems after all this time? I've thinking that the all-in-one iMac from the 1990s had severe USB problems but that was so long ago. Then again, every major release (including iOS) seems to have WiFi problems.
Why isn't Windows 10 such a problem? I'm surprised that things work so smoothly. I suppose Apple's problems could be related to their lack of procedures.
Update 2016.07.20: Up to 10.11.6 now. Finder has not been updated but seems somewhat more reliable, perhaps because of background processes. I've lost faith in Apple, but then, my faith in them has been diminishing since 10.4.10. 10.5.x for PowerPC was terribly broken and several applications stopped working. 10.6.x for Intel was acceptable finally, with the white 2.13 GHz MacBook. My Mid-2012 MacBook Pro is the only one I still have that can be updated. It was awful on 10.7.x and 10.8.x but 10.9.x was reliable.
The good thing with 10.11.x is that the App Store works reliably.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
PC can... (fold in ways Macs cannot) ... and then, it is finished.
You've probably seen all these new PC can... advertisements from Intel.
They're almost all extremely accurate. In fact, Lenovo's Flex and Yoga lines of laptop computers have been extremely interesting to me.
I have a Flex 14 on the way. (Flex is apparently Yoga on a low cost diet.) US$749.99 doesn't seem bad for a dual core i7, 1920x1080 touch-enabled display with Intel 520 graphics, 8 GB of RAM and 1 TB hard drive. I've already seen this one work and it seems reliable, and a good (but not great) performer. It folds into multiple different configurations, including a convertible/tablet much better than the original IBM ThinkPad from the 1990s. It's about 1/3 the price of something refurbished I'd be buying from Apple. I'm not saying that they would be equivalent machines, though.
Now, I haven't been a Windows user, by choice, since Windows 3.1 on an IBM L40SX. I used Windows 98SE for a while because I had a machine given to me. I was like the PC manager in the Mac advertisements who went home to his Mac after an unhappy day handling Windows problems. 24 years is a long interval between a desire to use Windows but things have changed. To me, Microsoft had always been a pain, with their sloppy coding, anti-competitive attitude, and unwillingness to take care of bugs and security problems. With Windows 7, they started to change all that, and I considered what they did to be an opportunity to switch.
Windows 10 is good. Is it great? I'll let you know. What's not great is Apple's attitude toward my productivity. I'm currently using a machine that was introduced in mid-2012, a 2.6 GHz Quad Core i7 MacBook Pro. I immediately replaced the hard drive with a 480 GB SSD and put 16 GB of RAM into it, as well. Today, it's a good machine but three years is quite a long time for a computer. When I'm working it hard with hundreds of photographs or video processing, the CPU is reporting that it is hot enough to boil water.
That's not the real problem, though. Apple's attitude toward software quality changed quite a while ago during Mac OS X 10.5 when Avie Tevanian left the company. They became sloppy and careless. They didn't care about security. It has continued and has been exacerbated by the iPad and iPhone, and in the last week or so, there was an announcement from Blizzard/Activision that the latest game would not be available for Mac, unlike previous dual operating system releases from Blizzard. Part of the problem is that OpenGL has not been updated for a very long time. Apparently, the Metal game functionality is not friendly, ready, or perhaps, it just has a big learning curve.
I don't expect this newer 2.5 GHz dual core i7 in the Lenovo laptop will be faster than that of my 2012 MacBook Pro but it has the Turbo mode, even though there are only half the cores to compete against the older quad core i7. Considering that I want to use this for video creation and light gaming, it should be enough. Applications have certainly become more complicated. I need to learn whether it will accept a 16 GB RAM card in its single slot. I suspect it may need the extra working space, although Windows 10 should be efficient even though it is early in its commercial existence.
It should be interesting to see the various games from Valve Software that I have on Steam, work on Windows 10, if they're even compatible yet.
I was helping the person who got it first to get some extra browsers, register the machine, and get started with a video project. I was really unhappy with the trackpad because I would try to click and the cursor would move each time. He said to double tap the trackpad and that worked incredibly well. I'd seen reviews complaining about the trackpad, so maybe there isn't a real problem. Let's see how right-click works. Two finger scrolling works almost as well as with my Macs.
We'll see how I like it when I get it Wednesday or so.
Update 2015.11.18: Everything is here. I've downloaded Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, as well as loading Sony Movie Studio Suite.
I'm enjoying some frustration. Things have not worked as well as I would have expected but there is a new computer and a new operating system, plus the keyboard and trackpad are surprising me. I suppose that I will survive.
It seems that Lenovo isn't happy with the inbuilt Intel graphics hardware. I don't know if this is a problem with the diagnostics or if the graphics hardware is actually broken or just lacking. Another of the Lenovo applications was trying to download an update for their photo application and it wasn't able to do it for whatever reason. The good thing is that I checked for Superfish and it didn't exist.
I've used about 4 GB today getting updates. What's strange is that Windows says that it's getting critical updates but then, McAfee LiveSafe (I think that's what it is) managed to find 4 other updates, including 2 that were marked critical. Flash was included in those, but that's a weekly security update anyway. Die, Flash, die!
I'm guessing that this probably wasn't the whole big update that is available, so that will take more bandwidth from my monthly allowance. It's always tough getting a new machine going, isn't it?
I'm thinking about ditching McAfee for Bitdefender, especially since the McAfee suite is just a trial package. I know that none are perfect but there can be so many exploits that I need something truly strong. Bitdefender and Kapersky have the best ratings. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is suggested to be an excellent companion to anti-virus. It's not cheap to be safe but why let your machine be compromised and have it helping the bad guys take what they want and slow you down?
Update 2015.11.19: Software Update found system version 1511, I believe it was--the big one.
It used another 3 GB but completed. Hopefully, the stability will be improved and they didn't introduce too many new problems. It's a new Microsoft, right?
Actually, it didn't. I used an approximate total of 7 GB since I powered on the machine. That would be a lot of updates.
Update 2015.11.20: Switching between shapes/orientations is interesting. I wasn't able to use it in tent mode yet. It was sliding quite a lot, possibly because the rubberized material around the computer half was not used around the display half. It has a harder finish, continued from the cover.
I was able to use it in convertible/tablet mode. It is effective, but having used an actual tablet, using a 14 inch convertible is not comfortable. Using it in display only mode, with the keyboard upside down worked the best. The only real problem is that the on-screen keyboard is not automatically activated when needed. However, this is sometimes a problem with my 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet.
The physical keyboard has been a problem and is a problem as I'm trying to write this. It isn't necessary to jam so many keys in so little space. If the cursor keys would have been moved lower, they wouldn't be so actively in my way. Backspace either works amazingly quickly or the computer beeps at me. However, this is a new user problem.
Similarly, the split trackpad has a learning curve. I've been using a Mac trackpad since 2005. That one had a single button. The newer, mid-2012 model had no button. Both use 2 fingers to right-click. Accidental cursor movement while starting to type has been a problem.
One thing that works quite well, unexpectedly well, is the Windows Store. I have been unhappy with Apple's Mac App Store and sometimes, the iTunes store. The Mac App Store software often has a problem with downloads and purchases, for me.
e.g., I went to download One Drive, and it immediately failed. It suggested that I retry the operation from the Purchases page. The same thing happened. (It was interesting to see the word "Error", as this was forbidden in the early days of the Macintosh.) I waited a couple of hours and after two times, the download and installation was successful. Using the Windows store, updates worked immediately.
It's good to see that Microsoft has seen enough competition to re-think their desire to survive.
2015.11.27: Having bought the Malwarebytes Premium Anti-Malware, Anti-Exploit package, installing it was necessary, and slightly painful. The Anti-Exploit application was installed easily. The Anti-Malware kept saying "Downloading" but it never finished. The company gave me a link to a download and after this was installed, clicking "Activation" allowed me to enter the licensing information.
I've been noticing that the display is economical. Sure, it has a resolution of 1920x1080 but the refresh rate is 60 Hz. It has ten touch recognition. which is great, if you happen to use ten at once. Perhaps, two people could finger paint at the same time or play finger twister. The real trouble with the display is the depth of the color. I put up one of my photos from around sunset and there is nasty banding that isn't in the photo itself. At least, it doesn't display a posterization sort of effect.
Update 2015.12.02: I saw a Yoga model for the same price, which was approximately the same but allowed more RAM, had an m7 instead of I7, was thinner, and had an amazing surface texture. I don't really need thinner but 16 GB of RAM would be good for video processing. I keep looking and it seems almost completely the same inside except for the SSD and the maximum RAM.
I'd think a dual core I7 with 8 GB of RAM would be plenty for general speediness and it has yet to show that. Perhaps, it's just that Windows 10 is so new and that I'm accustomed to a fast SSD on Mac OS X instead of a 5400 rpm hard drive. Perhaps, Windows 10 needs to become accustomed to what I do.
I recently bought a new Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 lens and Adorama offered me a discount on the already discounted Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 14. I installed it on the Windows machine, as I'm still not comfortable with the Sony Movie Studio package and I want some familiarity with Premiere, even a junior version. Naturally, after installation, there was a 130 MB update.
I still haven't decided on anti-virus software because there are three versions of Bitdefender. The minimum is probably enough, as I removed the McAfee LiveSafe or whatever, and I'm now running Windows Defender for anti-virus and firewall with Malwarebytes anti-malware and anti-exploit.
Update 2016.07.10: That is finished. I gave away the Flex 3 the other day to someone whose laptop computer was destroyed.
I spent way too much time updating and not using it, so this is a better solution.
It's a bit sad that a machine from 2012 was faster and more capable. Thank goodness I didn't buy anything with a Core M processor. I'm sure i would have been upset. However, the touch screen technology was interesting. It occasionally made things more usable.
Update 2016.07.31: Newegg has refurbished models for around US$500, including the Flex 3 I had and the 15.6 inch model with a nVidia GT940M.
They're almost all extremely accurate. In fact, Lenovo's Flex and Yoga lines of laptop computers have been extremely interesting to me.
I have a Flex 14 on the way. (Flex is apparently Yoga on a low cost diet.) US$749.99 doesn't seem bad for a dual core i7, 1920x1080 touch-enabled display with Intel 520 graphics, 8 GB of RAM and 1 TB hard drive. I've already seen this one work and it seems reliable, and a good (but not great) performer. It folds into multiple different configurations, including a convertible/tablet much better than the original IBM ThinkPad from the 1990s. It's about 1/3 the price of something refurbished I'd be buying from Apple. I'm not saying that they would be equivalent machines, though.
 |
| Lenovo Flex 3 14 |
Now, I haven't been a Windows user, by choice, since Windows 3.1 on an IBM L40SX. I used Windows 98SE for a while because I had a machine given to me. I was like the PC manager in the Mac advertisements who went home to his Mac after an unhappy day handling Windows problems. 24 years is a long interval between a desire to use Windows but things have changed. To me, Microsoft had always been a pain, with their sloppy coding, anti-competitive attitude, and unwillingness to take care of bugs and security problems. With Windows 7, they started to change all that, and I considered what they did to be an opportunity to switch.
Windows 10 is good. Is it great? I'll let you know. What's not great is Apple's attitude toward my productivity. I'm currently using a machine that was introduced in mid-2012, a 2.6 GHz Quad Core i7 MacBook Pro. I immediately replaced the hard drive with a 480 GB SSD and put 16 GB of RAM into it, as well. Today, it's a good machine but three years is quite a long time for a computer. When I'm working it hard with hundreds of photographs or video processing, the CPU is reporting that it is hot enough to boil water.
That's not the real problem, though. Apple's attitude toward software quality changed quite a while ago during Mac OS X 10.5 when Avie Tevanian left the company. They became sloppy and careless. They didn't care about security. It has continued and has been exacerbated by the iPad and iPhone, and in the last week or so, there was an announcement from Blizzard/Activision that the latest game would not be available for Mac, unlike previous dual operating system releases from Blizzard. Part of the problem is that OpenGL has not been updated for a very long time. Apparently, the Metal game functionality is not friendly, ready, or perhaps, it just has a big learning curve.
I don't expect this newer 2.5 GHz dual core i7 in the Lenovo laptop will be faster than that of my 2012 MacBook Pro but it has the Turbo mode, even though there are only half the cores to compete against the older quad core i7. Considering that I want to use this for video creation and light gaming, it should be enough. Applications have certainly become more complicated. I need to learn whether it will accept a 16 GB RAM card in its single slot. I suspect it may need the extra working space, although Windows 10 should be efficient even though it is early in its commercial existence.
It should be interesting to see the various games from Valve Software that I have on Steam, work on Windows 10, if they're even compatible yet.
I was helping the person who got it first to get some extra browsers, register the machine, and get started with a video project. I was really unhappy with the trackpad because I would try to click and the cursor would move each time. He said to double tap the trackpad and that worked incredibly well. I'd seen reviews complaining about the trackpad, so maybe there isn't a real problem. Let's see how right-click works. Two finger scrolling works almost as well as with my Macs.
We'll see how I like it when I get it Wednesday or so.
Update 2015.11.18: Everything is here. I've downloaded Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, as well as loading Sony Movie Studio Suite.
I'm enjoying some frustration. Things have not worked as well as I would have expected but there is a new computer and a new operating system, plus the keyboard and trackpad are surprising me. I suppose that I will survive.
It seems that Lenovo isn't happy with the inbuilt Intel graphics hardware. I don't know if this is a problem with the diagnostics or if the graphics hardware is actually broken or just lacking. Another of the Lenovo applications was trying to download an update for their photo application and it wasn't able to do it for whatever reason. The good thing is that I checked for Superfish and it didn't exist.
 | ||||||||||||||
| Mathematical Operations? |
I'm guessing that this probably wasn't the whole big update that is available, so that will take more bandwidth from my monthly allowance. It's always tough getting a new machine going, isn't it?
I'm thinking about ditching McAfee for Bitdefender, especially since the McAfee suite is just a trial package. I know that none are perfect but there can be so many exploits that I need something truly strong. Bitdefender and Kapersky have the best ratings. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is suggested to be an excellent companion to anti-virus. It's not cheap to be safe but why let your machine be compromised and have it helping the bad guys take what they want and slow you down?
Update 2015.11.19: Software Update found system version 1511, I believe it was--the big one.
It used another 3 GB but completed. Hopefully, the stability will be improved and they didn't introduce too many new problems. It's a new Microsoft, right?
Actually, it didn't. I used an approximate total of 7 GB since I powered on the machine. That would be a lot of updates.
Update 2015.11.20: Switching between shapes/orientations is interesting. I wasn't able to use it in tent mode yet. It was sliding quite a lot, possibly because the rubberized material around the computer half was not used around the display half. It has a harder finish, continued from the cover.
I was able to use it in convertible/tablet mode. It is effective, but having used an actual tablet, using a 14 inch convertible is not comfortable. Using it in display only mode, with the keyboard upside down worked the best. The only real problem is that the on-screen keyboard is not automatically activated when needed. However, this is sometimes a problem with my 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet.
The physical keyboard has been a problem and is a problem as I'm trying to write this. It isn't necessary to jam so many keys in so little space. If the cursor keys would have been moved lower, they wouldn't be so actively in my way. Backspace either works amazingly quickly or the computer beeps at me. However, this is a new user problem.
Similarly, the split trackpad has a learning curve. I've been using a Mac trackpad since 2005. That one had a single button. The newer, mid-2012 model had no button. Both use 2 fingers to right-click. Accidental cursor movement while starting to type has been a problem.
One thing that works quite well, unexpectedly well, is the Windows Store. I have been unhappy with Apple's Mac App Store and sometimes, the iTunes store. The Mac App Store software often has a problem with downloads and purchases, for me.
e.g., I went to download One Drive, and it immediately failed. It suggested that I retry the operation from the Purchases page. The same thing happened. (It was interesting to see the word "Error", as this was forbidden in the early days of the Macintosh.) I waited a couple of hours and after two times, the download and installation was successful. Using the Windows store, updates worked immediately.
It's good to see that Microsoft has seen enough competition to re-think their desire to survive.
2015.11.27: Having bought the Malwarebytes Premium Anti-Malware, Anti-Exploit package, installing it was necessary, and slightly painful. The Anti-Exploit application was installed easily. The Anti-Malware kept saying "Downloading" but it never finished. The company gave me a link to a download and after this was installed, clicking "Activation" allowed me to enter the licensing information.
I've been noticing that the display is economical. Sure, it has a resolution of 1920x1080 but the refresh rate is 60 Hz. It has ten touch recognition. which is great, if you happen to use ten at once. Perhaps, two people could finger paint at the same time or play finger twister. The real trouble with the display is the depth of the color. I put up one of my photos from around sunset and there is nasty banding that isn't in the photo itself. At least, it doesn't display a posterization sort of effect.
Update 2015.12.02: I saw a Yoga model for the same price, which was approximately the same but allowed more RAM, had an m7 instead of I7, was thinner, and had an amazing surface texture. I don't really need thinner but 16 GB of RAM would be good for video processing. I keep looking and it seems almost completely the same inside except for the SSD and the maximum RAM.
I'd think a dual core I7 with 8 GB of RAM would be plenty for general speediness and it has yet to show that. Perhaps, it's just that Windows 10 is so new and that I'm accustomed to a fast SSD on Mac OS X instead of a 5400 rpm hard drive. Perhaps, Windows 10 needs to become accustomed to what I do.
I recently bought a new Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 lens and Adorama offered me a discount on the already discounted Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 14. I installed it on the Windows machine, as I'm still not comfortable with the Sony Movie Studio package and I want some familiarity with Premiere, even a junior version. Naturally, after installation, there was a 130 MB update.
I still haven't decided on anti-virus software because there are three versions of Bitdefender. The minimum is probably enough, as I removed the McAfee LiveSafe or whatever, and I'm now running Windows Defender for anti-virus and firewall with Malwarebytes anti-malware and anti-exploit.
Update 2016.07.10: That is finished. I gave away the Flex 3 the other day to someone whose laptop computer was destroyed.
I spent way too much time updating and not using it, so this is a better solution.
It's a bit sad that a machine from 2012 was faster and more capable. Thank goodness I didn't buy anything with a Core M processor. I'm sure i would have been upset. However, the touch screen technology was interesting. It occasionally made things more usable.
Update 2016.07.31: Newegg has refurbished models for around US$500, including the Flex 3 I had and the 15.6 inch model with a nVidia GT940M.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Leica T (Typ 701) too much, not enough, both?
I've been looking at various first impressions like this one at DPReview.
Each time Leica introduce some new piece of equipment, everyone who can't afford it and those who can but won't buy it comment about what a piece of crap it is. Does it matter?
I'm impressed that they've done what Apple (and HTC) have done with a solid block of alumi(num/nium) and carved out a product. I'm even more impressed that they could make their little block even more expensive than the big blocks that Apple produce through their third party manufacturing partner. I'm typing this blog entry using one of those 15.x inch MacBook Pro machines.
The feel of my MacBook Pro is interesting, so I can imagine how the new Leica Typ701 feels. Since I replaced my hard disk drive with a solid state drive, it feels as though I could toss the whole thing to someone else and, being caught, there would be no problems. That wouldn't be the case with the older machines, even with an SSD in each, I'm sure. Actually, the MacBook Pro still has fans and an optical drive, so there are moving, motorized parts remaining.
I can't speak for the image quality of Leica's latest machine, nor would I dare to buy one. It's not something I would feel comfortable using, similar to how I'd feel driving a Jaguar car. I'm sure they will work on the firmware and it will work so smoothly, people will not think to want something else. To me, the only Leica equipment I would want is the S medium format SLR and it seems to be wrapped around adapters to be able to use lenses from other medium format systems. When you get into the hallowed ground of medium format, does the name Leica shout "expensive" when you can easily spend US$80,000 on a camera body and digital back and maybe, get a lens?
In any case, I think those who regularly buy Leica equipment will buy the Typ 701 in due time, and enjoy it as they do their others. Hopefully, they'll get something really satisfying. There is more to a camera than just a sensor and pixels.
Update 2014.05.04: I saw something about embedded lens profiles with raw files--a forced correction. I can't blame them, if their customers want a very quick, very smooth way to a finished photo. I doubt people buying this certain model will care as much for photographic precision or extremely high image quality. The whole thing about forced correction sounds so Panasonic to me, but it's particularly sad that the Leica name is associated with lower quality lenses.
Each time Leica introduce some new piece of equipment, everyone who can't afford it and those who can but won't buy it comment about what a piece of crap it is. Does it matter?
I'm impressed that they've done what Apple (and HTC) have done with a solid block of alumi(num/nium) and carved out a product. I'm even more impressed that they could make their little block even more expensive than the big blocks that Apple produce through their third party manufacturing partner. I'm typing this blog entry using one of those 15.x inch MacBook Pro machines.
The feel of my MacBook Pro is interesting, so I can imagine how the new Leica Typ701 feels. Since I replaced my hard disk drive with a solid state drive, it feels as though I could toss the whole thing to someone else and, being caught, there would be no problems. That wouldn't be the case with the older machines, even with an SSD in each, I'm sure. Actually, the MacBook Pro still has fans and an optical drive, so there are moving, motorized parts remaining.
I can't speak for the image quality of Leica's latest machine, nor would I dare to buy one. It's not something I would feel comfortable using, similar to how I'd feel driving a Jaguar car. I'm sure they will work on the firmware and it will work so smoothly, people will not think to want something else. To me, the only Leica equipment I would want is the S medium format SLR and it seems to be wrapped around adapters to be able to use lenses from other medium format systems. When you get into the hallowed ground of medium format, does the name Leica shout "expensive" when you can easily spend US$80,000 on a camera body and digital back and maybe, get a lens?
In any case, I think those who regularly buy Leica equipment will buy the Typ 701 in due time, and enjoy it as they do their others. Hopefully, they'll get something really satisfying. There is more to a camera than just a sensor and pixels.
Update 2014.05.04: I saw something about embedded lens profiles with raw files--a forced correction. I can't blame them, if their customers want a very quick, very smooth way to a finished photo. I doubt people buying this certain model will care as much for photographic precision or extremely high image quality. The whole thing about forced correction sounds so Panasonic to me, but it's particularly sad that the Leica name is associated with lower quality lenses.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
2012 Refurbished MacBook Pro, One Year Later
It's difficult to believe that it's been a year since I ordered this MacBook Pro. After three years of daily use, my 2009 MacBook was showing its age and lack of capacity. Today, I bought an AppleCare extended warranty, just in case.
My main photo raw development software, Phase One Capture One 7, was pushing the system. 6 GB of RAM just didn't seem to be enough, and it would grind away at the hard drive swapping processes' information, leaving me with a few Megabytes of free working memory. The 750 GB 7200 rpm hard drive was still too slow to really do a great job when I handed it a basketball game with 1000 photos. The transfer of images over USB 2.0 didn't help.
I'd been watching the refurbished machines for a while. I choose refurbished machines from Apple because they've been through a bit of trouble and repaired and checked again. The prior two machines (late 2004 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 and 2009 2.13 GHz MacBook worked quite well as my main machine, and they still work well), so buying another refurbished machine was the best way to go. I didn't mind the savings, either.
I really wanted the 15.4 inch display but with the 1680x1050 resolution and anti-glare display. I missed buying the PowerBook with the 1440x960 display to save a bit, and with photo resolution becoming larger all the time, I could use a denser monitor. However, finding the higher resolution and anti-glare property at the same time was difficult, and the extra cash made me think twice. Still, it has the nVidia GeForce GT 650M, which is used by OpenCL to aid in computational math, a feature than Capture One Pro 7 uses.
As my photo processing was taking 3-4 times as long, I decided on a 2.6 GHz i7 MacBook Pro with the typical 1440x900 resolution and the glossy display. Inexplicably, the company chooses to use a 5400 rpm drive, and 750 GB or not, it's not fast enough for work or games, really.
The day after I ordered it, I placed an order with OtherWorld Computing for two 8 GB RAM sticks. They were "only" about US$100. Contrast this to 1993 when I bought a 72 pin SIMM with 32 MB of RAM (for the Quadra/LC/Performa 475/476) for $1040, or 3 rebuilt 16 KB Atari RAM cards (for the Atari 800) for $108 in 1983. 16 GB was the most the model would support and I wasn't going to be held back by the hard drive speed.
Apple managed to push me from Snow Leopard on the MacBook to Mountain Lion on the new MacBook Pro. It was very, very broken, and it was a pain in the ass because I had to download it all over again to put it on another drive, a 750 GB 7200 rpm drive that I'd been using in the MacBook. Thankfully, I was able to use the connection of a repair shop that was convenient, as I was familiarizing them with Apple technology.
When I'd got the thing running correctly, I noticed that my batch processing of photos was driving the machine to over 100 degrees C, with all four processor cores running, along with the extra 4 virtual cores. It's still close to that but under 100 degrees C these days.
After a month or two, I changed to a 480 GB SSD, which fixed a lot of the speed problems. Not only was photo processing much quicker, but games were loading reasonably well, and even Valve's games weren't stuck with "LOADING" long enough for me to get a drink.
Seeing the recent, new Retina-only models made me think that I'd bought the correct machine for me. I still need an optical drive. The nVidia 650M is strong enough for me, at the moment. Being forced into OS X Mavericks/10.9 doesn't seem like a good idea, enhanced battery life or not. Thin may be in, but Apple's machines become hot too easily. This one is indicating 40 degrees C and it's actually chilly to the touch.
I'm hoping to get 3-4 years out of it before I need to buy another machine. By then, photo resolution may have increased again, depending on the ability to miniaturize, and I'll need a stronger machine. I might even be on 10.9.x by then, because I know that they won't have fixed 10.8.x further. Maybe, they'll have the Mac App Store fixed by then.
I wonder if we'll even have typical laptop computers by then, or whether they'll mostly be hybrid tablets with keyboards at that point. In any case, I'll be sticking to a slightly older, 100% guaranteed to be refurbished machine, and I'll be happy with it because it will work well. Hopefully, this one will still be happy by then.
If you're wondering, I'm still using the 2004/2005 PowerBook G4 and the 2009 MacBook. They work just fine but they're not exceptionally powerful for photo processing.
Update 2015.08.15: It's getting close to three years that I've had this computer. It's still what I use daily. It's been through a lot, including having flipped into the air and it landed upside down on the floor. It's more several months since then, and it's fine.
In November 2014, I had the closest Apple Store update it to OS X 10.9.5 and it has been reasonable. I need to have it updated to 10.10.5 now that it is available.
Making videos with it, it seems to struggle a bit. I looked for a computer running Windows, but they were running about the same amount of money for similar resolutions and power.
I gave away the 2009 MacBook to someone who had helped me set up my apartment but it wasn't extremely powerful with those nVidia graphics.
I keep looking at the recent MacBook Pro models and I have to go with a Retina model to get something current. They're not easy to customize after the sale. It's better since they've been out a while, and OWC has had time to figure out some options. It still seems a guessing game as to what Apple will do next. The latest 15.x inch MacBook Pro models haven't had a good CPU upgrade for a while. Since the Back-to-School sale is in progress, updates should be out soon.
My main photo raw development software, Phase One Capture One 7, was pushing the system. 6 GB of RAM just didn't seem to be enough, and it would grind away at the hard drive swapping processes' information, leaving me with a few Megabytes of free working memory. The 750 GB 7200 rpm hard drive was still too slow to really do a great job when I handed it a basketball game with 1000 photos. The transfer of images over USB 2.0 didn't help.
I'd been watching the refurbished machines for a while. I choose refurbished machines from Apple because they've been through a bit of trouble and repaired and checked again. The prior two machines (late 2004 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 and 2009 2.13 GHz MacBook worked quite well as my main machine, and they still work well), so buying another refurbished machine was the best way to go. I didn't mind the savings, either.
I really wanted the 15.4 inch display but with the 1680x1050 resolution and anti-glare display. I missed buying the PowerBook with the 1440x960 display to save a bit, and with photo resolution becoming larger all the time, I could use a denser monitor. However, finding the higher resolution and anti-glare property at the same time was difficult, and the extra cash made me think twice. Still, it has the nVidia GeForce GT 650M, which is used by OpenCL to aid in computational math, a feature than Capture One Pro 7 uses.
As my photo processing was taking 3-4 times as long, I decided on a 2.6 GHz i7 MacBook Pro with the typical 1440x900 resolution and the glossy display. Inexplicably, the company chooses to use a 5400 rpm drive, and 750 GB or not, it's not fast enough for work or games, really.
The day after I ordered it, I placed an order with OtherWorld Computing for two 8 GB RAM sticks. They were "only" about US$100. Contrast this to 1993 when I bought a 72 pin SIMM with 32 MB of RAM (for the Quadra/LC/Performa 475/476) for $1040, or 3 rebuilt 16 KB Atari RAM cards (for the Atari 800) for $108 in 1983. 16 GB was the most the model would support and I wasn't going to be held back by the hard drive speed.
Apple managed to push me from Snow Leopard on the MacBook to Mountain Lion on the new MacBook Pro. It was very, very broken, and it was a pain in the ass because I had to download it all over again to put it on another drive, a 750 GB 7200 rpm drive that I'd been using in the MacBook. Thankfully, I was able to use the connection of a repair shop that was convenient, as I was familiarizing them with Apple technology.
When I'd got the thing running correctly, I noticed that my batch processing of photos was driving the machine to over 100 degrees C, with all four processor cores running, along with the extra 4 virtual cores. It's still close to that but under 100 degrees C these days.
After a month or two, I changed to a 480 GB SSD, which fixed a lot of the speed problems. Not only was photo processing much quicker, but games were loading reasonably well, and even Valve's games weren't stuck with "LOADING" long enough for me to get a drink.
Seeing the recent, new Retina-only models made me think that I'd bought the correct machine for me. I still need an optical drive. The nVidia 650M is strong enough for me, at the moment. Being forced into OS X Mavericks/10.9 doesn't seem like a good idea, enhanced battery life or not. Thin may be in, but Apple's machines become hot too easily. This one is indicating 40 degrees C and it's actually chilly to the touch.
I'm hoping to get 3-4 years out of it before I need to buy another machine. By then, photo resolution may have increased again, depending on the ability to miniaturize, and I'll need a stronger machine. I might even be on 10.9.x by then, because I know that they won't have fixed 10.8.x further. Maybe, they'll have the Mac App Store fixed by then.
I wonder if we'll even have typical laptop computers by then, or whether they'll mostly be hybrid tablets with keyboards at that point. In any case, I'll be sticking to a slightly older, 100% guaranteed to be refurbished machine, and I'll be happy with it because it will work well. Hopefully, this one will still be happy by then.
If you're wondering, I'm still using the 2004/2005 PowerBook G4 and the 2009 MacBook. They work just fine but they're not exceptionally powerful for photo processing.
Update 2015.08.15: It's getting close to three years that I've had this computer. It's still what I use daily. It's been through a lot, including having flipped into the air and it landed upside down on the floor. It's more several months since then, and it's fine.
In November 2014, I had the closest Apple Store update it to OS X 10.9.5 and it has been reasonable. I need to have it updated to 10.10.5 now that it is available.
Making videos with it, it seems to struggle a bit. I looked for a computer running Windows, but they were running about the same amount of money for similar resolutions and power.
I gave away the 2009 MacBook to someone who had helped me set up my apartment but it wasn't extremely powerful with those nVidia graphics.
I keep looking at the recent MacBook Pro models and I have to go with a Retina model to get something current. They're not easy to customize after the sale. It's better since they've been out a while, and OWC has had time to figure out some options. It still seems a guessing game as to what Apple will do next. The latest 15.x inch MacBook Pro models haven't had a good CPU upgrade for a while. Since the Back-to-School sale is in progress, updates should be out soon.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Apple: revised for 2014
A few things stand out from the Apple presentation today:
Of course, the iPad mini has been revised with a 2048 by 1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi) display. However, the price has also been revised US$70 higher, starting at US$399. That seems a bit much, especially when they're still selling the (electronically) ancient iPad 2 for US$399 also (and people apparently want a full-sized tablet, even with low resolution but why shouldn't the price be $299?). They have made their money back on the iPad 2, I'm sure, so why charge so much for the iPad mini revision? Could it be that inclusion of the A7/M7 pair has upped the cost that much, along with the higher resolution display? Alternately, they could drop the price of the iPad 2 to US$299 but that would disrupt iPad mini sales. It would seem rather high cost given that the 9.7 inch iPad Air has the same resolution in a less dense display. Also, there are still reports of low yields of the higher density 7.9 (what happened to 7.875, too much precision?) inch displays.
(Update 2013.11.06: I tried the iPad Air at the Sprint store and it was quite a comfortable beast. It seemed rather warm just sitting on the plastic display, running the demo, so I can't imagine how it would be running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD.)
Apple, the whole "thinner, lighter" thing has been overdone. My iPhone 4S has to wear armor to survive a fall, so it's bulkier and heavier, not thinner and lighter. I appreciate that you want to design things with more aesthetic value, but there is a point where the devices aren't going to a museum display, and will be used by everyday people. (I don't expect anyone from Apple to read this, and they don't seem to care anyway, but I thought I'd write it.) I expect that the new MacBook Pro that is thinner and lighter will get some lawsuit about the palm rest being hotter and unbearable.
I wonder how many people use a Mac Pro now. I haven't used one since the G4 days and I got mine at significant discounts. Both were originally US$3999 each. Of course, the base Apple II+ configuration was US$2495, as was the original Macintosh. I believe the Macintosh Portable was US$6499. Someone at work in 1990 had the Portable and I couldn't imagine spending that much money on any computer, short of a minicomputer system.
When people use Maya or other 3D software, or AutoCAD or various other technical design software, do they bother with Apple equipment now? I know that Linux-based systems are often used on the back-end of projects but commercial desktop software is slow to move there. As much as Apple and Microsoft and Google are herding us in a certain direction, we end up having to live with it because the commercial software we run isn't about to be moved.
The Macintosh operating system, (Mac) OS X, has been updated as Mavericks--something to do with a surfing spot in California. As 10.9, it should be better, but I'm concerned about their slipshod implementations. Look how long it took them to implement FileVault without losing data. Resolution Independence never really took hold, but can be used on a per-application basis. Memory Compression is their big, new technology and I think I'll wait, rather than having working memory corrupted, no matter how free they make it. I wonder if anyone else remembers RAM Doubler from Connectix? I used that quite a lot in one of my 1990s Macs, and it seemed to work flawlessly, but the Single-Tasking Mac OS 9.x (with Task Switcher) was much less complicated, although convoluted.
Let me remind you to take a moment or several moments to check the requirements and compatibility of your special, necessary software before you upgrade your operating system.
What I'm not saying is that I was ready for an iPad mini with the enhanced (but apparently not great, as far as color gamut goes) display--at US$349 but I'd want a 32 GB model, which would be US$100 more, and since reality hit, and it's US$50 more than what I expected, I'll be waiting. I'd prefer to put money into an enhanced phone like the 32 GB iPhone 5c that has enhanced LTE band (2 bands on Sprint, my current carrier) support. Since my iPhone 4S has no LTE support, and since LTE is starting to take shape, I'd like to be ready for 2014, when I'm expecting decent real-life LTE coverage and use. (Yes, AT&T and Verizon have coverage, but putting LTE on a tower and saying that a town has coverage is not useful. It has to work, and work well.)
Update 2013.11.17: I got the iPhone 5c and it's quite good, as you'd expect of what is mostly 1 year old technology. I also looked at the iPad Air and it's very desirable, but only for situations where I wouldn't be trying to use it at stores or restaurants. The Google Nexus 7 and EVGA Tegra Note 7 tablets are far more usable, if everything Android is in place and working smoothly.
- No more 15 inch MacBook Pro with the older displays
- iPad 2 continues to be sold, starting at US$399
- Mac Pro is finally being updated, starting at US$2999
Of course, the iPad mini has been revised with a 2048 by 1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi) display. However, the price has also been revised US$70 higher, starting at US$399. That seems a bit much, especially when they're still selling the (electronically) ancient iPad 2 for US$399 also (and people apparently want a full-sized tablet, even with low resolution but why shouldn't the price be $299?). They have made their money back on the iPad 2, I'm sure, so why charge so much for the iPad mini revision? Could it be that inclusion of the A7/M7 pair has upped the cost that much, along with the higher resolution display? Alternately, they could drop the price of the iPad 2 to US$299 but that would disrupt iPad mini sales. It would seem rather high cost given that the 9.7 inch iPad Air has the same resolution in a less dense display. Also, there are still reports of low yields of the higher density 7.9 (what happened to 7.875, too much precision?) inch displays.
(Update 2013.11.06: I tried the iPad Air at the Sprint store and it was quite a comfortable beast. It seemed rather warm just sitting on the plastic display, running the demo, so I can't imagine how it would be running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD.)
Apple, the whole "thinner, lighter" thing has been overdone. My iPhone 4S has to wear armor to survive a fall, so it's bulkier and heavier, not thinner and lighter. I appreciate that you want to design things with more aesthetic value, but there is a point where the devices aren't going to a museum display, and will be used by everyday people. (I don't expect anyone from Apple to read this, and they don't seem to care anyway, but I thought I'd write it.) I expect that the new MacBook Pro that is thinner and lighter will get some lawsuit about the palm rest being hotter and unbearable.
I wonder how many people use a Mac Pro now. I haven't used one since the G4 days and I got mine at significant discounts. Both were originally US$3999 each. Of course, the base Apple II+ configuration was US$2495, as was the original Macintosh. I believe the Macintosh Portable was US$6499. Someone at work in 1990 had the Portable and I couldn't imagine spending that much money on any computer, short of a minicomputer system.
When people use Maya or other 3D software, or AutoCAD or various other technical design software, do they bother with Apple equipment now? I know that Linux-based systems are often used on the back-end of projects but commercial desktop software is slow to move there. As much as Apple and Microsoft and Google are herding us in a certain direction, we end up having to live with it because the commercial software we run isn't about to be moved.
The Macintosh operating system, (Mac) OS X, has been updated as Mavericks--something to do with a surfing spot in California. As 10.9, it should be better, but I'm concerned about their slipshod implementations. Look how long it took them to implement FileVault without losing data. Resolution Independence never really took hold, but can be used on a per-application basis. Memory Compression is their big, new technology and I think I'll wait, rather than having working memory corrupted, no matter how free they make it. I wonder if anyone else remembers RAM Doubler from Connectix? I used that quite a lot in one of my 1990s Macs, and it seemed to work flawlessly, but the Single-Tasking Mac OS 9.x (with Task Switcher) was much less complicated, although convoluted.
Let me remind you to take a moment or several moments to check the requirements and compatibility of your special, necessary software before you upgrade your operating system.
What I'm not saying is that I was ready for an iPad mini with the enhanced (but apparently not great, as far as color gamut goes) display--at US$349 but I'd want a 32 GB model, which would be US$100 more, and since reality hit, and it's US$50 more than what I expected, I'll be waiting. I'd prefer to put money into an enhanced phone like the 32 GB iPhone 5c that has enhanced LTE band (2 bands on Sprint, my current carrier) support. Since my iPhone 4S has no LTE support, and since LTE is starting to take shape, I'd like to be ready for 2014, when I'm expecting decent real-life LTE coverage and use. (Yes, AT&T and Verizon have coverage, but putting LTE on a tower and saying that a town has coverage is not useful. It has to work, and work well.)
Update 2013.11.17: I got the iPhone 5c and it's quite good, as you'd expect of what is mostly 1 year old technology. I also looked at the iPad Air and it's very desirable, but only for situations where I wouldn't be trying to use it at stores or restaurants. The Google Nexus 7 and EVGA Tegra Note 7 tablets are far more usable, if everything Android is in place and working smoothly.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
A new computer
Okay, so it's kewl to hate Apple. I'm not an Apple fanatic anyway. The fanatics drive me crazy. I like the company's products, but don't own a huge number of them.
I've had Apple computers since 1993 when my IBM L40SX' mouse port died and they'd have to replace the motherboard to fix the problem. The company gave me almost $1000 for a two year old computer that originally cost me $1500, and sent me on my way.
I took a friend and went to the local OfficeMax. They had an Apple Performa 426 (LC/Performa 425 with a 250 MB hard drive). Yes, Performa was the budget line and for around $1500, you got a keyboard without the keypad, a mouse, and a 14 inch 640x480 monitor. It was a good deal, especially when the Quadra version of the same machine was more expensive (having the 68040 with inbuilt math coprocessor, instead lf the 68LC040) but lacked the keyboard and monitor. I'm thinking that the keyboard and mouse were included in the LC425 version.
19 years ago, the company was okay, but their operating system was craptacular in fundamental ways, i.e., it needed to be scrapped. Today, they have a good operating system that has some weird issues and they're trying to make it more mobile--like handheld devices mobile. Is something with a 15.4 inch display a mobile device, really?
At this moment, I'm transferring my data from a backup of my current mid-2009 white MacBook to a mid-2012 aluminium MacBook Pro. I'm thinking that I should have bought a USB 3.0 drive instead of saving a bit of money on the clearance item, as USB 2.0 isn't so fast. The previous time I did a migration, it was over a Gigabit Ethernet connection from my late 2004 PowerBook G4 to the white MacBook. I regretted not having a machine with discrete graphics but the nVidia 9400M graphics hardware was fast and with almost 5 years of technology between the two machines, the games I had ran very well on the MacBook.
This new machine has current graphics hardware: nVidia 650M with 1 GB of GDDR5 RAM. That's fairly extreme for a notebook computer. These days, desktop graphics hardware requires significant power, so it's nice to see that they can give good abilities to a mobile computer that doesn't require a long extension cord to do anything. For daily uses, it's got the Intel HD 4000 graphics chipset, which is, ummm, less underwhelming than the HD 3000 chipset. That's as generous as I can be. I expect that Fishlabs' Galaxy on Fire 2 HD will run fine at 1440x900, rather than the 1024x600 window it uses on the MacBook. However, I suspect UT2004 won't run at all, due to deprecated (retired) software in Lion/Mountain Lion.
Yesterday, I took the old PowerBook to have the backlight repaired. The machine is a pleasant design and doesn't give any feeling of being cheap but it's not a unibody design. Neither is the MacBook I have a unibody design, though it doesn't feel expensive or cheap. Certainly, remembering the late iBook family sitting in a store with half its keys missing is enough to make you think that any of the MacBook family are not cheap. However, this certain MacBook Pro is the aluminium slab unibody machine, and it felt very impressive pulling it out of the box. It should be interesting to compare the two side-by-side. Notably though, the 1440x900 vs 1280x854 display resolution and graphics hardware are the biggest details. Considering that the 1280x854 15.2 inch widescreen display arrived in 2001 when most of the world offered a 1024x768 4:3 display is still amazing. Of course, you pay extra for the better, higher resolution display and back then, Apple didn't have the sales numbers to push down the cost of the display with economies of scale.
I'm interested in how I'll function with Lion or Mountain Lion. I didn't get far enough to find out which it has, but the entry on the Apple store said that it qualified for the up-to-date program. I'm all for massive security improvements, as Apple has lagged the industry, even when the security improvements were free and available to them. I can't understand the need to suck people into their world without protecting them.
The operating system(s) is much different than Snow Leopard from what I've seen. A lot of it seems to be superficial eye candy, which doesn't do a thing for me, if the system is still broken when you use it. e.g., I have a problem when I'm not a System Administrator in Snow Leopard. I'll go from my default of the Applications folder to one of my photo folders, the Utilities folder, or some such. The Back button should be enabled and light up with a visual cue to let you know that you can click it to return to the previous folder. Nine of ten times, it does not, and clicking the button does zero. I'm sure it's someone else's fault because Apple never makes mistakes. Did your sarcasm detector just jump to 100 %?
I have about 2 hours, 21 minutes at latest count until the Migration Assistant finishes. The good thing is that this machine is not tied down since it's all being pulled from the Time Machine backup. It's odd watching the latest thermometer/progress bar work. It has sharp edges--no rounded rectangle there, but it still has the fluid effects and the ever-present blue.
Hopefully, it will handle my Phase One Capture One 7 Pro software well. If not, after the 16 GB RAM switch, it'll be even better. I'm being hampered by only 6 GB of RAM, and the system is often at a crawl. Isn't that crazy that so much RAM isn't enough? I'll find out in a couple of hours. Hopefully, it'll be a wonderful experience. I mean, it's Apple, yes? Nothing could ever be wrong. Yes, yes, there goes your sarcasm detector again.
It took about 3 hours for the Migration Assistant to finish. That's not terrible, but it missed a few settings or, I guess, they didn't apply correctly for Mac OS X 10.8. Just after that, I went to the shop where they're going to repair my PowerBook and used their internet connection to download 1.32 GB of updates to the operating system and other Apple-related software. When it wanted to restart, I clicked Restart (as opposed to Not Now) but it didn't seem to work. It was only much later, when I went back to the merged Software Update/Mac App Store that it updated correctly. It's confusing. As of midnight, the machine seems to be working reasonably well. I can't keep a Finder window but other things seem to be working, including my Capture One 7 Pro. That's a good thing.
Continuing, all of my updates have been processed, and I replaced the 8 GB of RAM with 16 GB. The combined Mac App Store/Software Update found a tiny update for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. It's been out a couple of weeks, so I'm surprised that it wasn't found already.
Of course, the 16 GB of RAM makes the re-launch of almost any application instantaneous. However, Capture One 7 Pro still lags when loading more than 1200 photos (and their associated change information) in one folder. The 5400 rpm drive has a lot to do with that, but of course, 1200+ photos are quite a lot. I started out with over 2100. The drive really does feel abnormally slow when I've been using a 7200 rpm drive for about 1 year but limited there to 6 GB of RAM.
In the standard user account where I have my photography, it mostly remembers my Finder window. In my administrator account, it almost never does. Of course, this is 10.8.2 and I'm not comfortable until any release gets to 10.x.4. Apple just don't figure out things correctly until around that time. I'm concerned about sync-ing my iPhone with iTunes 11. I can appreciate the enhanced user experience, but iTunes is generally flaky until the second patch, but they've been stopping at the first and releasing something new after that. I don't want the data on my phone scrambled.
I'm not saying that anything is unusable. It's just not as good as it should be, and things are moved around, probably for the sake of moving things, like with Software Update. Be sure to click on "more" at the end of the description, so you can see the whole list of updates and choose which you would like.
I've had Apple computers since 1993 when my IBM L40SX' mouse port died and they'd have to replace the motherboard to fix the problem. The company gave me almost $1000 for a two year old computer that originally cost me $1500, and sent me on my way.
I took a friend and went to the local OfficeMax. They had an Apple Performa 426 (LC/Performa 425 with a 250 MB hard drive). Yes, Performa was the budget line and for around $1500, you got a keyboard without the keypad, a mouse, and a 14 inch 640x480 monitor. It was a good deal, especially when the Quadra version of the same machine was more expensive (having the 68040 with inbuilt math coprocessor, instead lf the 68LC040) but lacked the keyboard and monitor. I'm thinking that the keyboard and mouse were included in the LC425 version.
19 years ago, the company was okay, but their operating system was craptacular in fundamental ways, i.e., it needed to be scrapped. Today, they have a good operating system that has some weird issues and they're trying to make it more mobile--like handheld devices mobile. Is something with a 15.4 inch display a mobile device, really?
At this moment, I'm transferring my data from a backup of my current mid-2009 white MacBook to a mid-2012 aluminium MacBook Pro. I'm thinking that I should have bought a USB 3.0 drive instead of saving a bit of money on the clearance item, as USB 2.0 isn't so fast. The previous time I did a migration, it was over a Gigabit Ethernet connection from my late 2004 PowerBook G4 to the white MacBook. I regretted not having a machine with discrete graphics but the nVidia 9400M graphics hardware was fast and with almost 5 years of technology between the two machines, the games I had ran very well on the MacBook.
This new machine has current graphics hardware: nVidia 650M with 1 GB of GDDR5 RAM. That's fairly extreme for a notebook computer. These days, desktop graphics hardware requires significant power, so it's nice to see that they can give good abilities to a mobile computer that doesn't require a long extension cord to do anything. For daily uses, it's got the Intel HD 4000 graphics chipset, which is, ummm, less underwhelming than the HD 3000 chipset. That's as generous as I can be. I expect that Fishlabs' Galaxy on Fire 2 HD will run fine at 1440x900, rather than the 1024x600 window it uses on the MacBook. However, I suspect UT2004 won't run at all, due to deprecated (retired) software in Lion/Mountain Lion.
Yesterday, I took the old PowerBook to have the backlight repaired. The machine is a pleasant design and doesn't give any feeling of being cheap but it's not a unibody design. Neither is the MacBook I have a unibody design, though it doesn't feel expensive or cheap. Certainly, remembering the late iBook family sitting in a store with half its keys missing is enough to make you think that any of the MacBook family are not cheap. However, this certain MacBook Pro is the aluminium slab unibody machine, and it felt very impressive pulling it out of the box. It should be interesting to compare the two side-by-side. Notably though, the 1440x900 vs 1280x854 display resolution and graphics hardware are the biggest details. Considering that the 1280x854 15.2 inch widescreen display arrived in 2001 when most of the world offered a 1024x768 4:3 display is still amazing. Of course, you pay extra for the better, higher resolution display and back then, Apple didn't have the sales numbers to push down the cost of the display with economies of scale.
I'm interested in how I'll function with Lion or Mountain Lion. I didn't get far enough to find out which it has, but the entry on the Apple store said that it qualified for the up-to-date program. I'm all for massive security improvements, as Apple has lagged the industry, even when the security improvements were free and available to them. I can't understand the need to suck people into their world without protecting them.
The operating system(s) is much different than Snow Leopard from what I've seen. A lot of it seems to be superficial eye candy, which doesn't do a thing for me, if the system is still broken when you use it. e.g., I have a problem when I'm not a System Administrator in Snow Leopard. I'll go from my default of the Applications folder to one of my photo folders, the Utilities folder, or some such. The Back button should be enabled and light up with a visual cue to let you know that you can click it to return to the previous folder. Nine of ten times, it does not, and clicking the button does zero. I'm sure it's someone else's fault because Apple never makes mistakes. Did your sarcasm detector just jump to 100 %?
I have about 2 hours, 21 minutes at latest count until the Migration Assistant finishes. The good thing is that this machine is not tied down since it's all being pulled from the Time Machine backup. It's odd watching the latest thermometer/progress bar work. It has sharp edges--no rounded rectangle there, but it still has the fluid effects and the ever-present blue.
Hopefully, it will handle my Phase One Capture One 7 Pro software well. If not, after the 16 GB RAM switch, it'll be even better. I'm being hampered by only 6 GB of RAM, and the system is often at a crawl. Isn't that crazy that so much RAM isn't enough? I'll find out in a couple of hours. Hopefully, it'll be a wonderful experience. I mean, it's Apple, yes? Nothing could ever be wrong. Yes, yes, there goes your sarcasm detector again.
It took about 3 hours for the Migration Assistant to finish. That's not terrible, but it missed a few settings or, I guess, they didn't apply correctly for Mac OS X 10.8. Just after that, I went to the shop where they're going to repair my PowerBook and used their internet connection to download 1.32 GB of updates to the operating system and other Apple-related software. When it wanted to restart, I clicked Restart (as opposed to Not Now) but it didn't seem to work. It was only much later, when I went back to the merged Software Update/Mac App Store that it updated correctly. It's confusing. As of midnight, the machine seems to be working reasonably well. I can't keep a Finder window but other things seem to be working, including my Capture One 7 Pro. That's a good thing.
Continuing, all of my updates have been processed, and I replaced the 8 GB of RAM with 16 GB. The combined Mac App Store/Software Update found a tiny update for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. It's been out a couple of weeks, so I'm surprised that it wasn't found already.
Of course, the 16 GB of RAM makes the re-launch of almost any application instantaneous. However, Capture One 7 Pro still lags when loading more than 1200 photos (and their associated change information) in one folder. The 5400 rpm drive has a lot to do with that, but of course, 1200+ photos are quite a lot. I started out with over 2100. The drive really does feel abnormally slow when I've been using a 7200 rpm drive for about 1 year but limited there to 6 GB of RAM.
In the standard user account where I have my photography, it mostly remembers my Finder window. In my administrator account, it almost never does. Of course, this is 10.8.2 and I'm not comfortable until any release gets to 10.x.4. Apple just don't figure out things correctly until around that time. I'm concerned about sync-ing my iPhone with iTunes 11. I can appreciate the enhanced user experience, but iTunes is generally flaky until the second patch, but they've been stopping at the first and releasing something new after that. I don't want the data on my phone scrambled.
I'm not saying that anything is unusable. It's just not as good as it should be, and things are moved around, probably for the sake of moving things, like with Software Update. Be sure to click on "more" at the end of the description, so you can see the whole list of updates and choose which you would like.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Apple really should give away their products
You can't satisfy all of the people, any of the time. Apple should give away their products, and even then, I don't believe they'd make some people happy.
I'm always amused in the weeks prior to new product announcements from Apple. People see the rumours and they add to them fantastic bits that would never happen. Then, when the presentation is finished, they feel betrayed that Apple didn't do what they wanted.
I'd think that most people would live in reality and understand from history that a company can only do so much. Many companies are in business to make money, not to make fantasy products. Am I correct?
Today, at World-wide Developer Conference, Apple introduced a new, slimmer version of the MacBook Pro, somewhat wedged in-between the form factor of the MacBook Air and the current MacBook Pro. It's quite thin, but still has awesome graphics hardware, plus a much higher density display.
Those of us who regularly use Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or similarly intricate languages will find the new display useful, as was the display on the iPhone 4 and newer (third generation) iPad. Of course, it requires a lot of graphics power to maintain the previous visual throughput and they included nVidia's GT 650M hardware to push 4 times the pixels. I predicted something like this when they introduced the original MacBook Air, so it's good to see that they're introducing it now.
I'm still okay with the current MacBook Pro line and of course, the refurbished machines have dropped in price so this could be a great time to get a model from late 2011. The newest MacBook Pro (regular size) has the same upgraded graphics hardware, so it would be more capable for 3D work and play, but my money is on the discount and not being sucked into the current, soon to be revealed, problems. There are always new problems!
It's a bit unfortunate that not much was changed with the MacBook Air but there isn't much room. Intel's pathetic integrated graphics hardware became a little less pathetic with the HD 4000 series, so the MacBook Air does better in graphics throughput that the MacBook Air that was using the Core 2 Duo and nVidia 320M integrated graphics, finally. Were those 2 years ago? Congratulations, Intel, you're only merely behind now, instead of really behind the rest of the world!
You have to wonder what would happen if Apple made AMD/ATI choices available. I wouldn't expect miracles but AMD have some integrated CPU/GPU packages that are quite nice. It might be interesting to consider what would happen if Apple completed their company by buying AMD, ARM, and Sony. If AMD wasn't always on the edge, they might do much better. Of course, buying ARM and Sony would lead to anti-trust issues, and someone might think that they were trying to eliminate the competition. However, as big as Apple have become on paper, they could still grow and be manageable.
What's not manageable are the fanatics. Since the announcement, some are crying, others are laughing, and still others are angry, but Apple never seems to leave people emotionally blank.
I'm always amused in the weeks prior to new product announcements from Apple. People see the rumours and they add to them fantastic bits that would never happen. Then, when the presentation is finished, they feel betrayed that Apple didn't do what they wanted.
I'd think that most people would live in reality and understand from history that a company can only do so much. Many companies are in business to make money, not to make fantasy products. Am I correct?
Today, at World-wide Developer Conference, Apple introduced a new, slimmer version of the MacBook Pro, somewhat wedged in-between the form factor of the MacBook Air and the current MacBook Pro. It's quite thin, but still has awesome graphics hardware, plus a much higher density display.
Those of us who regularly use Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or similarly intricate languages will find the new display useful, as was the display on the iPhone 4 and newer (third generation) iPad. Of course, it requires a lot of graphics power to maintain the previous visual throughput and they included nVidia's GT 650M hardware to push 4 times the pixels. I predicted something like this when they introduced the original MacBook Air, so it's good to see that they're introducing it now.
I'm still okay with the current MacBook Pro line and of course, the refurbished machines have dropped in price so this could be a great time to get a model from late 2011. The newest MacBook Pro (regular size) has the same upgraded graphics hardware, so it would be more capable for 3D work and play, but my money is on the discount and not being sucked into the current, soon to be revealed, problems. There are always new problems!
It's a bit unfortunate that not much was changed with the MacBook Air but there isn't much room. Intel's pathetic integrated graphics hardware became a little less pathetic with the HD 4000 series, so the MacBook Air does better in graphics throughput that the MacBook Air that was using the Core 2 Duo and nVidia 320M integrated graphics, finally. Were those 2 years ago? Congratulations, Intel, you're only merely behind now, instead of really behind the rest of the world!
You have to wonder what would happen if Apple made AMD/ATI choices available. I wouldn't expect miracles but AMD have some integrated CPU/GPU packages that are quite nice. It might be interesting to consider what would happen if Apple completed their company by buying AMD, ARM, and Sony. If AMD wasn't always on the edge, they might do much better. Of course, buying ARM and Sony would lead to anti-trust issues, and someone might think that they were trying to eliminate the competition. However, as big as Apple have become on paper, they could still grow and be manageable.
What's not manageable are the fanatics. Since the announcement, some are crying, others are laughing, and still others are angry, but Apple never seems to leave people emotionally blank.
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