MacBook.

[po_boy_fuuma_hatesbargerz]

any thoughts on new MBP refresh?

same old same old.

i was about to pick up one of the new mbps but realized i loved my last-gen mbp waaaay too much. (dents and dings and slight fractures and all)

[phoenix]

Common enough. Have you tried a force eject? In my experience, if a force eject (restarting the computer and holding down the clicker before the Apple logo appears) doesn't work there's no way to retrieve it other than opening up the computer and opening up the optical drive. The new unibodies don't get compressed around the slot like macbooks, but you can also use a small flathead to make sure the catch isn't down by just running it side to side inside the opening.

edit: lol I just read your post in the marijuana thread. woops

[DüM]

I couldn't find a general Mac thread so imposting this here.

I have a 2007 iMac G5(1.8Ghz 2Gb RAM PPC) and i want to upgrade to Intel and Snow Leopard. eBay/craigslist say i can sell this jawn for $300-400 and im thinking about getting the new mac mini that was just released. It starts at $699 and i think the specs are pretty ,much the same as the MacBook but i could upgrade to 2.66Ghz and still keep it $150 under the base price of the Macbook. I've already got a Cinema Display so i think Id opt for the smallest screen if i decided on the macbook. My dad brought the Mac mini up and said he'd pay for the difference of whatever i sell my G5 for as a birthday present.

I'm living at home now saving to move out (hopefully to NY and hopefully to continue school so price is pretty important) Portability is not a big issue to me at the moment though it would help in class obviously. I use my iphone alot to surf and check shit and it serves me pretty well. The HDMI port on the mini is really dope while im living at home with access to a big tv. I watch way too many movies/shows.

So portability is the only difference to really think about, yeah? Any thoughts?

[pompadork]

I'm going to go with yes. The specs aren't too far off but it's hard to believe they're selling something with a core2duo in mid 2010 and with 2gb ram for snow leopard.

[freecat]

i've got the last mac mini, or maybe one before last, i got it new in february. it's very powerful, cheap with student rebate and if you really need to move it to someone's house it's actually kinda portable.

i replaced my dead macbook with it and i don't regreat it at all. though i got myself an old IBM x41 (for $180) so i can surf and take note in lecture.

go for it.

[Hocus Pocus]

I need a new external hard drive. Any recs. as far as brands go? Does it matter if it's preformatted for macs?

[phoenix]

I use all Western Digitals (3: 2 750gbs a 500gb. Even my NAS has WD drives in it), but really it doesn't matter. Get one that's well priced with at least a 1 year warranty and in a case you like. For the most part they're all the same and I would suggest using disk utility to erase and reformat it before using anyway.

[M4TM]

i've got 2 WD's as well. so far, so good. no complaints. i've got one that i've hooked up to my airport extreme and keeps my time machine backups as well as all of my media. then the other, i use to backup my media.

really need to get a NAS setup.

[gfunkdocta]

my ipod keeps getting wiped out

im thinking its wen it updates to new itunes

how do i prevent this 4rm happening?

[gfunkdocta]

no man, legit

u can jailbreak a ipod? 4 wut

[home]

i've had my MBP for not quite a year now, and thinking i'd be wise to purchase applecare (as the included warranty ends after one year, yeah?).

is ebay my best bet? it'll cover me for another two years, right?

[phoenix]

I highly suggest Applecare. It'll cover you for a total of three years from the purchase date, so two additional years after the limited warranty. Check amazon or eBay for deals. There's also a pretty decent educational discount from Apple (I remember it actually ended up being better than my employee discount on Applecare several years ago when I worked there). Applecare, especially on portables, is crucial because one repair can easily recoup the cost. Labor alone in the shop where I work is $95 an hour with some things taking up to two hours.

I'm an Apple certified technician and could fix my own stuff no problem, but I still buy Applecare because I think its a decent value. My mbp just finished its 3 year agreement and these are the things I've had replaced: 3 power adapters, 1 battery, logic board, fan, optical drive. I also replaced my own keyboard and hard drive - probably could've gotten them covered under warranty but I didn't want to wait on the keyboard and wanted to upgrade my drive.

[popeyejawns]

"educational discount" - where can i cop?

[phoenix]

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/findyourschool?mco=OTY2ODQzMg

Type in your school zip and shop away. mb applecare is 183 (instead of 249) and mbp is 239 (instead of 349). You can also walk into any Apple Store and show your student ID for the same discount. If I remember correctly, educational discounts won't work on things like ipods and iphones- just computers.

[Appleseed]

Anybody running a solid NAS setup on something other than an Airport Extreme Basestation? Need dualband, probably using a 2TB WD drive; haven't found any promising alternatives. I don't mind that the Basestation only has 3 wired Ethernet ports, but was looking to spend closer to $150 than $180....

[home]

just installed little snitch. what the fuck.

on applications that i trust (not that i know which ones to not trust), which option do i select?

-over any network connection

-on the same port

-to the same server

-to the same server and port

i don't get it. layman terms?

[phoenix]

Anybody running a solid NAS setup on something other than an Airport Extreme Basestation? Need dualband, probably using a 2TB WD drive; haven't found any promising alternatives. I don't mind that the Basestation only has 3 wired Ethernet ports, but was looking to spend closer to $150 than $180....

My first suggestion is to definitely NOT get a time capsule. Routers are already hot enough- whoever decided putting a hard drive in a poorly ventilated router deserves a throatpunch. Also they're not serviceable without completely tearing the thing apart so forget replacing or retrieving the drive if anything ever happens. /rant

My setup, which I'm pretty in love with, is a linksys N router with a DNS 323 attached. The 323 is basically just a network attached box that runs linux stock and allows you to plug in two 3.5" hard drives. Its also extremely customizable and I was easily able to find instructions for setting it up to run time machine. Currently have 2 750 gb drives WD drives. I do not believe my model supports 1 tb drives but its also a couple of years old so I'm sure D-link has started producing something that can handle these larger drives. The msrp is $199, but I was able to find mine on eBay with a terabyte of storage for about $150.

just installed little snitch. what the fuck.

on applications that i trust (not that i know which ones to not trust), which option do i select?

-over any network connection

-on the same port

-to the same server

-to the same server and port

i don't get it. layman terms?

On applications that I absolutely trust, I select forever and over any connection. If I trust an application but don't really see why they would need access to additional ports I choose forever and same server and same port. If it's a new application that I don't know much about, its allowed a connection until I quit and to the same server and same port. If I later find the app helpful and LS keeps bugging me, I may switch it to 'forever' instead of 'until quit'.

The only risk you run by choosing incorrectly here is that LS may bug you repeatedly as an application attempts to connect over multiple ports and to different servers. I have run into problems by accidentally denying connections though, so make sure you only use that if you know for sure that a particular application does not need outgoing communications. I just looked through my rules and I only have 2 things with denied connections.

Ports are just a communication endpoint. It allows your computer to communicate with multiple applications/ computers over a single connection without interference. The server is something that you connect to over the internet and it serves information or fulfills a request. So Little Snitch is listening on the ports for outgoing communication and allows you to see what applications are sending out information, where its going (the server), and how its connecting (the port). Hope that helped

[Caps Lock]

I need a new external hard drive. Any recs. as far as brands go? Does it matter if it's preformatted for macs?

G-Drive or Western Digital. As long as the drive is 7200rpm, you should be good to go.

[home]

I highly suggest Applecare. It'll cover you for a total of three years from the purchase date, so two additional years after the limited warranty. Check amazon or eBay for deals.

scoped ebay.com and .com.au and there are deals to be had but people on mac forums have claimed that the applecare they've bought off ebay ('serial only' stuff) has been vetoed when they go in for repairs because shit hasn't been purchased from an authorised reseller (ie. no receipt).

i'd almost prefer to pay retail than to drop a couple hundred and not know if it's legit until i actually need repairs.

having said that, apple au. charges ~420USD (even w/ edu. discount). beginning to think i might skimp and chance it..

On applications that I absolutely trust, I select forever and over any connection. If I trust an application but don't really see why they would need access to additional ports I choose forever and same server and same port. If it's a new application that I don't know much about, its allowed a connection until I quit and to the same server and same port. If I later find the app helpful and LS keeps bugging me, I may switch it to 'forever' instead of 'until quit'.

The only risk you run by choosing incorrectly here is that LS may bug you repeatedly as an application attempts to connect over multiple ports and to different servers. I have run into problems by accidentally denying connections though, so make sure you only use that if you know for sure that a particular application does not need outgoing communications. I just looked through my rules and I only have 2 things with denied connections.

Ports are just a communication endpoint. It allows your computer to communicate with multiple applications/ computers over a single connection without interference. The server is something that you connect to over the internet and it serves information or fulfills a request. So Little Snitch is listening on the ports for outgoing communication and allows you to see what applications are sending out information, where its going (the server), and how its connecting (the port). Hope that helped

thannnk you.

[snuff_daddy]

photography question:

how good will a new MBP 13" run photoshop cs5 and lightroom? i plan on using it for photography to process raw files from my 40D...and i'm going to use it on an external Dell IPS 23" Monitor when i'm at home

i'd rather not buy the 15" mbp i5..unless i really have to

[home]

what torrent site/s does everyone use? is demonoid still considered a good / safe option?

what precautions - outside of observing seeders / leechers / comments - can one take to avoid dodgy files?

[branespload]

my macbook's battery just died

has anyone bought non-apple batteries that they sell on ebay? hows the quality compared to the authentic apple ones? normally i wouldnt fuck with anything non-apple, but im strapped for cash and theyre half the price of the apple ones

this. any help?? thanks~

[home]

^ i wouldn't go there, personally. stick with the real shit.

[branespload]

that's what i was thinking too. thanks

[phoenix]

home, sorry i thought i responded a while back. i definitely don't want to give you the wrong information/ have you waste money, but I work at an authorized apple service center and used to work for apple as a sales jerk. The only time I've run into issues with applecare bought somewhere other than apple or our store is when the customer forgot to register it and they're out of their limited warranty. Then I have to have proof of purchase to make sure that the warranty was purchased within the first year of owning the computer - to keep people from buying the warranty only after they've had issues.

photography question:

how good will a new MBP 13" run photoshop cs5 and lightroom? i plan on using it for photography to process raw files from my 40D...and i'm going to use it on an external Dell IPS 23" Monitor when i'm at home

i'd rather not buy the 15" mbp i5..unless i really have to

It'll run it though you'll want to add some ram to increase performance. The big thing to consider between the 13 and 15" mbp is that the 13" has an integrated graphics card which might make rendering and processing large files a pain in the ass. imo the 13" mbp is just a pretty macbook with a firewire port. Supposedly the new integrated graphics in the current 13" is a significant performance increase over the last card they were using, but I haven't had an opportunity to test it out. ultimately, its way easier for me to spend your money for you, but I'd opt for the 15".

I'm able to use ps cs5 and aperture on my c2d macbook pro alright... I get a lot of pinwheels when first opening large files or making big adjustments but its tolerable, and the new 13" has better benchmarks than my old ass computer so its definitely doable.

[islandboi8204]

someone recommend me a sweet 13'' MBP case please

[phoenix]

hard cases:

Speck

InCase

sleeves:

Hardgraft

InCase

Booqbags

silly but I still like it:

http://www.twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook/

[Nostalgic]

that's what i was thinking too. thanks

honestly i use an ebay one as a backup and it works fine.

[derek_]

looking at purchase a mbp 15" and tossing up between i5 and i7. i'll be using it for casual gaming (sc2), photo-processing, movies, net. anybody able to point me in the right direction?

also should i be changing the hdd aftermarket to ssd or getting it together with the purchase? i've heard apple's ssd are outdated.

[polishmike]

I would get the cheapest i5 with the smaller 320GB hard drive and would eventually swap for a fast 500/1TB drive. Not that the mac ones are bad, I would still use the 320 until I could get a way better drive.

But what I would really do is swap in the SSD and have a fast 1TB external plugged in for all files/most software. SSD prices are going down and the speed is really worth it.