Technology Apple

[masta247]

My new GF downloaded iOS7 and hates it though. Says it looks so gay and she's mad at the changes to basic apps. Only the back swipe is a nice addition, but Android has a back button which is more useful. She doesn't want to update on her personal Iphone.
People like iOS 7 I think just because it's FINALLY something new after a 7 year old design.

In China and Hong Kong it's all about Samsung, Lenovo, and Xiaomi, right? (In terms of mobile phone market share).

Edit: I forgot to mention Huwaei and ZTE.

Well, it's funny you mention that. Pretty much yes, it's mostly about Samsung and then Lenovo, ZTE (for lower end, and lower end phones are the most popular ones in mainland China) etc. The market is different in Hong Kong compared to other regions of China. Lots of people using Iphones in Hong Kong, but not in mainland China. People in Hong Kong are generally rich and Apple products are cheap, thus easily accessible. It's not the case in mainland China where people don't earn much and there are high taxes, so on average you need to work for 2 months for an Iphone, literally!
To put it in perspective, an Iphone costs 1/4th of average monthly rate for an average apartment in Hong Kong. The difference is crazy. The Iphone 5S is also cheaper than not only the Note 3 (on pre-order), but even the Galaxy S4. Pricing changes a lot, the Galaxy series seem to be considered more premium solely because of higher pricing and bigger screens.

Korea is all about Samsung and Iphones, Japan is all about the Japanese Android phones which are often really great but Japan-only (mostly Sharp, also Panasonic, Toshiba and Sony). Asia is pretty patriotic about their countries' brands. Even though for example Samsung phones are more expensive in Korea!

 

[dilla]

I agree, I think most of the hype is that the UI has changed drastically for the first time since the iPhone launched.

I'm going to stick to Android for my phone. For tablets, it's a bit different because I think I use more apps on my TouchPad (When I had it) than I did on my phone. On my phone, it's quick apps, like Facebook and Messenger and ESPN apps. But the games and productivity apps, like Office suites, was on my tablet. And if iOs apps have more functionality and more features than the same Android app, I'm gonna want to think about that.

I pirate all my apps, though, so Android is definitely easier to pirate for than iOS. That's why I am still leaning towards the N7, now. Screen resolution be damned, the N7 is good enough.

 

[masta247]

I grew to accept OS X for what it is. It's not a power user OS at all, but because it's more basic it's more efficient than Windows. To me Mac OS, however is something between a full fledged power user OS and a basic mobile OS. It runs apps (programs) and that's basically it. It doesn't have much built in (I like that) so it starts up quick, launches things relatively quick, is nice on the battery and is relatively snappy and responsive.

I miss having full control over what's happening, but it's not bad. I don't like Apple's ecosystem but I can live with just hiding Apple-specific apps I don't need (although Skype doesn't work after the latest update making the camera exclusive to Apple programs, hopefully due to a bug and not Apple going this crazy). That said I also don't like Microsoft's ecosystem.
I would be better if iTunes and Facetime did not exist too, but they are just redundant things coming in my way and not deal breakers, even though iTunes comes close sometimes.

The thing I miss the most is that most programs are not available apart from very popular ones or imperfect copies of less popular ones and finding things that could replace lots of things is sometimes hard and things I end up with are sub-par. Still, it's fine enough for casual usage, which is what I've bought it for and the new Macbook Air itself is a very good piece of hardware. The 13 inch pro with retina (especially the upcoming updated version) are probably even better if you care about having awesome hardware but don't need stellar battery life and the most travel friendly laptop (but still very good in those aspects). Pro with retina is either best or second best at almost everything. Apple stepped their game up with laptops, that's probably the best hardware they make and they should continue although their fate without Jobs worries me.

There are probably technically better Lenovo laptops, Windows 7 is the better overall OS. It's just that for a casual user for casual tasks Macbooks are most probably good enough, and in some aspects they are better (such as design, display quality, touchpad, battery life, being quick to adapt newest hardware). Mac OS sometimes comes in my way but not as much as Windows, which is another good point for Macs for casual users. That might be the most important factor for casual users, as they shouldn't be bothered with passwords, prompts, too many decisions in order to make basic things and while Mac OS overdoes it, Windows overdoes it to a worse extent. Mac might be somewhat more convenient at times after you get used to it a little because of how Microsoft bloated their OS.
Macbooks are never seriously lacking in any important aspect (although I'd like an Ethernet cable slot).
Also they're a better choice now than ever because Microsoft released a failed OS that all other OEMs were forced to embrace putting them at disadvantage. While this was only one of the factors for me, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bought a Macbook if Windows 8 was a good product.

 

[dilla]

Good to hear. It's hard to rag on a manufacturer or OS without having really spent much time with it. After that, it's whatever.

What programs or tasks do you feel are lacking in OS that you would otherwise be able to do in Windows? And have you scanned the top OSX apps on Pirate Bay to see if there's something out there you may like that you just don't know about yet?

 

[masta247]

Good to hear. It's hard to rag on a manufacturer or OS without having really spent much time with it. After that, it's whatever.

What programs or tasks do you feel are lacking in OS that you would otherwise be able to do in Windows? And have you scanned the top OSX apps on Pirate Bay to see if there's something out there you may like that you just don't know about yet?

I immediately started missing 7zip or a good archiving alternative. I'm stuck with unarchiver which apparently is the best program but it sucks. The default Apple app only seems to handle zip on an extremely basic level. Operations on files are not convenient and apps don't add their context menus to lists of operations on files (so I can't for example easily compress something to anything other than basic 1 zip file).
Also Irfanview which is probably the best lightweight image and video viewer/editor/converted - there's nothing that comes close, I'm using Xee which at least allows me to browse images in folders in a relatively convenient way, but misses almost all editing options and doesn't open videos.
There's no really good codec pack, I'm using Perian but I found videos that still refuse to play or play with no sound so it's missing some things.
That's just after a few days of using the computer for basic tasks while traveling.

I miss having alternatives too. Seems like there's only 1 or 2 apps that are remotely useful for most tasks. For Windows I could pick from dozens of much better made ones for whatever task I needed to do. There's usually nothing for more niche tasks too. On Windows there's always someone on the internet who made a tool just for what I need. That's especially true for editors for less popular file formats.

Most university/company programs and games are not there but I expected and accepted that before even getting the Mac. I will try Wine for that if I'll really need something but it sounds like some hassle and is often buggy apparently. I don't want to run Bootcamp as the SSD is only 128GB and I'd rather not complicate things by running the second OS.

Also I quickly learned that Pirate bay is the best option on a Mac, lol. It's hard to find things otherwise and everything worth using in the app store seems to be paid. But somehow I'm still handling myself with free apps or trials. I have to deal with some sacrifices anyway but nothing really deal breaking for casual usage I guess.

 

[dilla]

I see. I don't deal with most of the types of tasks you are looking for, so I can't really help. But I am sure there are alternatives out there for most of those, if not all.

Join this site, too, if you haven't already http://www.warez-bb.org/viewforum.php?f=105&sid=c76e28dd4cd89595af66f2f623f6e559

That's the Mac forum, which is pretty good.

Perian is a media player, right? Sounds familiar. I use VLC for video and I have never run into a problem.

If you were looking for video conversion, nothing beats Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/

I also recommend pirating iStatPro for your Dashboard widget. It's pretty useful. Here is a screenshot of what type of info it gives. This is mine, actually.

 

[dilla]

Quick edit, I have been streaming Breaking Bad on Netflix and downloading the latest episodes as well. So that would explain the lack of RAM and increased workload. The battery menu, second from the right is mentioning I am at 83% charge, but I am plugged in and it is 48 minutes remaining until 100%, not until it is completely discharged.

I figured that would contradict everything I have praised my MBP for recently.

 

[masta247]

I see. I don't deal with most of the types of tasks you are looking for, so I can't really help. But I am sure there are alternatives out there for most of those, if not all.

Join this site, too, if you haven't already http://www.warez-bb.org/viewforum.php?f=105&sid=c76e28dd4cd89595af66f2f623f6e559

That's the Mac forum, which is pretty good.

Perian is a media player, right? Sounds familiar. I use VLC for video and I have never run into a problem.

If you were looking for video conversion, nothing beats Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/

I also recommend pirating iStatPro for your Dashboard widget. It's pretty useful. Here is a screenshot of what type of info it gives. This is mine, actually.

Perian is a codec pack. On a second thought I think downloading VLC might be a great idea. I had that on Windows and it came with codecs.

Apparently there are problems with iStatPro and Mountain Lion as iStatPro is no longer maintained or supported by the developer. Now there's iStat Menu which isn't as cool. Thanks for the tip though.

I'm completely amazed by Air's battery life. I use it more like a phone than laptop - I just plug it in at night and never turn it off. I just close the lid and it drains almost nothing in that state.

 

[masta247]

Definitely my favorite thing about the new Air (apart from design and touchpad). Brightness level 7 (~40%). Browsing web with wifi on. 20 freaking hours.

 

[dilla]

I have used iStat Pro since Snow Leopard and I am running it on Mavericks right now. It works wonderfully. No issues.

It may not be supported, but it still works fine.

 

[dilla]

Oh, you noob. Did you take a pic with your phone? Do you know how to screenshot on OSX?

Or do you post on here using your phone?

 

[masta247]

Oh, you noob. Did you take a pic with your phone? Do you know how to screenshot on OSX?

Or do you post on here using your phone?

I took it just after buying the laptop and also its easier to take a pic with my phone as it automatically uploads itself to Dropbox.

Also, I wanted proof that I wasn't running at unreasonably low brightness to send to my tech buddies as proof of really strong battery life under normal usage scenarios.

I installed istat pro btw. Didnt know the fan on Air is on all the time as its inaudible. Still, I'd rather have it off considering how cool Haswell runs when not fully loaded and I had it off even on a Core 2 Duo Lenovo laptop, but apparently there's no way to turn it off here.

 

[dilla]

smcFanControl, I think lets you do that. http://www.eidac.de/?p=243

I run it, but I use it to just turn the fan up myself when I know I'm going to be doing something intensive, like streaming Netflix. My CPU hits about 171F, tops, but just to be safe, I turn the fans up to the max. Not sure if I'm hurting it, but....

I'm sure that by now you know what I was raving on about the gestures on OSX being better. Many PC OEMs imitated it in their hardware, but none come close to the MB's trackpad. I love them. I don't know if I could ever live without it.

I write my boards next year, hopefully. I may reward myself with a new MBA at that point, hoping that SSD prices come down a bit so that I can at least get a 512GB SSD in an MBA and still have it priced reasonably.

I could go for the rMBP, but I hear the parts are not user replaceable, which is stupid. I would like to have the option of at least upgrading the SSD or the RAM, both of which I believe are soldered on. Or whatever the term is. But your battery life is more attractive to me than the power of the rMBPs. I think the Retina display is really there for native apps, so Safari, Aperture, etc. I use Chrome and I'm not on Aperture that often, so it may not be that worth it to me. But I also made the same mistake before in buying a C2D MBP when the i5 was available. I don't know the power I was missing, but just knowing that the C2D was first introduced almost seven years ago made me cringe a little bit.

We'll see. I'm still toying with the idea of an SSD and 8 GB of RAM on my current MBP and hoping that brings it in the ballpark of today's MacBooks, in terms of battery life and boot time. I know there's no way to get around the GPU and CPU limitations when it comes to gaming (which I rarely do) or the CPU for running intensive tasks (also, which I rarely do). I feel the RAM will help the most with my programs while they are open and the SSD for booting said programs or even the notebook itself. I don't restart often, though, maybe once every two weeks.

I wouldn't get the 20 hour battery life either with this thing. Ever. Even with a new battery. Right now I'm at slightly over four hours of use just browsing and Word and PowerPoint, and maybe just under three hours watching video. On a three year old notebook, that's good. With 85% of its original battery capacity, too.

We'll see. I am jealous of your 20 hour battery life. While I would still charge my MBA every night when I'm sleeping and use maybe 50% of it (10 hours) throughout the day on a bad day, it's nice knowing it's all there if I needed it on a plane or something. Whatever. We are Mac Bros now.

 

[masta247]

Yeah I don't really get 20 hours normally, more like 11-12 of really honest normal use like web, some occasional heavier stuff for a moment here and there and some videos which drain the battery a little more. But I could reach 20 hours of just web browsing with text, which is a very comforting perspective.

It's also possible to deplete the battery in just over 5 hours when heavy gaming non-stop or in about 7 hours when just setting brightness high while watching streaming videos.

I tried exactly smcfancontrol - it doesn't allow to completely turn off the fan because of Apple settings that specify the minimum and maximum and smcfancontrol only allows to set different temperature thresholds for fan speeds within that range. That said, the fan runs on minimum all the time, unless I'm gaming. I just feel like it's not necessary when I'm not gaming, but no way to turn it off. It's impossible to figure out it's even working and I would be convinced it's off if it wasn't for istatpro, but with time it might become audible as most computer fans do with time. Good that it's rotating slowly. On 2012 Macbooks minimum is 1800 rotations per minute, on this year's air it seems to be 1200.

 

[dilla]

I can tell you, if they are at idle speeds, which smc is telling me right now is no more than 2000 RPM, you will not hear them. I barely hear them if they spool up to about 4K when loading some flash site. When it's up and going full blast, like while streaming Netflix or gaming, then it's a light whine, but definitely not the jet engine ones I hear from people at the library with their HPs and Dells.

MacBooks, in general, are great productivity notebooks. I don't game much, but I know the selection is still rather slim, but it doesn't bother me. The apps I want are there and I have no issues with them.

I definitely understand what you are missing from Windows, though. Android is set up in a similar way; there is an app to change just about anything to your liking, whether it be superficial, like color scheme, or something more technical, like CPU speed, VMheap size, etc. I definitely wish I could do that with my Mac a bit, even though I'm not really that good with the technical stuff like that. I could still manage to change some things to my liking. But that is a tradeoff. And I can live with that.

I just appreciate the build quality of the notebook, the battery life (still three years later), and perks like gestures and all.

I think I can deal with this because I have an Android phone that can allow me to do what I am trading off on my MBP on my phone. Apps are so much easier to check scores, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But you can't word process very well on a phone, nor can you edit pictures as easily. There is a place for everything, and if I do want to customize some things or run apps for more experienced users that iOS could not, I can on Android. My favorite is actually WiFiKill, which kills WiFi access to everyone on a network.

I am in a hotel now with about 30 classmates and our internet speeds are great as they are. But if I want that extra oomph, and get that 3 MB download speed for the torrents I'm getting, I can just block everyone off of the internet. It's like a network EMP, for those guys, where the internet is blacked out for them. And obviously you can allow certain people on it by checking or unchecking the boxes listed next to their device name, complete with IP and MAC address.

 

[Casey]

The thing I miss the most is that most programs are not available apart from very popular ones or imperfect copies of less popular ones and finding things that could replace lots of things is sometimes hard and things I end up with are sub-par.

This has always been the case.

I actually learned Mac (OS 8 and OS9) intimately before I was familiar with Windows - in the mid to late 90's.

When I switched to using Windows more, I just found a lot more freedom, control and options.

I still like OSX. Pretty much the only Apple software I like. But it doesn't give me the options I need for what I do. I'd consider using a dualboot Hackintosh machine. My cousins do this, they run OSX flawlessly on HP ProBook i7 laptops. But frankly I'm not sure I'd use it. I have Win 8 and Ubuntu dualbooted right now and I probably only boot into Ubuntu once every 2 or 3 months.

 

[masta247]

I don't think using OSX alongside Windows is needed as using Windows there's absolutely no need for OSX. OSX's advantage is that it's more simple but also it's more limited. Windows allows me to do absolutely anything and I think Windows 7 is the best all-around system that allows you to do virtually anything you might want to do with a computer.

MacOSX is more basic and works awesome for simple tasks. For casual web/typing/communication it's a great alternative and I really, really like it for that. You can do some more advanced tasks - photo or video editing or some chosen games. It's just not like with Windows where you can do literally everything though.
As my laptop is mainly used for more basic tasks now I feel like I'm not missing much from Windows other than apps I prefer for some tasks being unavailable and alternatives being inferior. Other than that it's great - performs quick, the battery lasts long and the OS doesn't bother me much - it's at least as good as Windows for those very basic tasks and as far as they're concerned I would even say Mac could be a tiny bit more convenient and there are less annoyances than in Windows.

I also think for less than 1000$ MBA is probably one of the best laptops you can get, if not the best. I grew to like it a lot. The quality is very good, the design is great, the display is better than 90% of other laptops, including probably almost all other ultrabooks, even though the panel is still not IPS. I'm yet to see a laptop or even a tablet beating it in battery department.
It's a very good piece of hardware, probably the best from Apple alongside the Retina 13' Pro.
A lot depends on your needs but MBA doesn't lack anything serious (other than an Ethernet port imho). The Haswell platform makes it perform really snappy - the CPU is more than I expected while the new Intel GPU is strong enough to handle ANY game (still it doesn't mean much as there are like 20 games for Macs lol).

 

[Casey]

Over here the 13" Air costs £1000, which is like $1600. Which is utterly retarded. US price is about $1000, so £600 or so. Which is somewhat more reasonable, but still overpriced when you look at the spec and to use an inferior operating system.

I always just think about how much better spec'd system you can get for the same amount of money. You can get an i7 Ultrabook with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a touchscreen for the same price, whereas the base Air model is only an i5 with 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and no touchscreen.

 

[dilla]

I don't think using OSX alongside Windows is needed as using Windows there's absolutely no need for OSX. OSX's advantage is that it's more simple but also it's more limited. Windows allows me to do absolutely anything and I think Windows 7 is the best all-around system that allows you to do virtually anything you might want to do with a computer.

MacOSX is more basic and works awesome for simple tasks. For casual web/typing/communication it's a great alternative and I really, really like it for that. You can do some more advanced tasks - photo or video editing or some chosen games. It's just not like with Windows where you can do literally everything though.
As my laptop is mainly used for more basic tasks now I feel like I'm not missing much from Windows other than apps I prefer for some tasks being unavailable and alternatives being inferior. Other than that it's great - performs quick, the battery lasts long and the OS doesn't bother me much - it's at least as good as Windows for those very basic tasks and as far as they're concerned I would even say Mac could be a tiny bit more convenient and there are less annoyances than in Windows.

I also think for less than 1000$ MBA is probably one of the best laptops you can get, if not the best. I grew to like it a lot. The quality is very good, the design is great, the display is better than 90% of other laptops, including probably almost all other ultrabooks, even though the panel is still not IPS. I'm yet to see a laptop or even a tablet beating it in battery department.
It's a very good piece of hardware, probably the best from Apple alongside the Retina 13' Pro.
A lot depends on your needs but MBA doesn't lack anything serious (other than an Ethernet port imho). The Haswell platform makes it perform really snappy - the CPU is more than I expected while the new Intel GPU is strong enough to handle ANY game (still it doesn't mean much as there are like 20 games for Macs lol).

If you're looking for games, check the Pirate Bay. There are plenty of Wine ports and all that, that work really well, according to the comments. You will see a good bit of the big name games on there.

Also, check out Steam, but I'm sure you already knew that.

 

[dilla]

Masta, you claim on the rMBP's greatness.... http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/macbook-pro-retina-display-review/