New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

Thinking of replacing my 2012 Air with one of the newer models from the refurb shop, but I notice they've got a really wide range of options, from more powerful machines with more features that are almost as old to less powerful (I guess) models from as recently as 2015. I'm not sure what distinctions I should be looking for, since most will be better than the model I have, and not helping things the differences between the Air and Pro (expandability aside) seem to be increasingly slim (pun intended). They all seem OK, but they're all slightly different from one another (re: RAM, core I5 or core I7 processor, etc.). Any guidance?

For buying, be sure to check bhphoto and adorama. Last year I picked up a year old macbook pro that was new, heavily discounted and they didn't charge sales tax...

You can get a sense of speed for each model over time here:
https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

at bhphoto

Pope Francis Visit to NYC and Philadelphia Could Delay iPhone 6s Deliveries on Launch Day

Josh if you're not sure what the spec differences mean, you'll be fine with a cheaper model

The more pricey models will be more suitable for professionals and gear geeks

Sorry, been away from internet. Thanks for the advice! I have a general idea what the specs convey, but I guess there is still some grey area. For example, irrc on benchmarks some mac airs perform better than pricier mac pros. Or, another example, typically maxing out on RAM is the way to go, which in Airs generally means 4mb v 8mb, but by many accounts the 4mb is more than enough, with the processor doing a lot of the heavier lifting. I'm sure all would offer improvements, though. These machines are just so ridiculously powerful.

You mean GB, not MB.

Yeah, sorry. I don't think it'd even be possible to install 4MB RAM! And if you could, the computer would probably just flip you off and then explode in disgust.

Just be sure to call up HIMEM.SYS in your config.sys file.

oh god lol

As predicted I love the new font now. Helvetica was always a little try-hard for a phone, especially such a light variant of it - it just wasn't visible and legible enough. The new font has a, for want of a better word, "fit and finish" to it that the iPhone has been lacking for a long time. (Remember when the '1' in '100%' battery life hung a little lower than the other digits?)

21.5" retina iMacs look super-appealing and only £1100. Wonder where the catch is

"1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive"

super odd, as switching to the 1TB fusion drive is $100 more and a much better option

qualifier: I haven't used fusion drive, although I probably will set it up via software on my desktop at some point. the hybrid drives the setup resembles are a good compromise and with the large caches these days you're going to get near-SSD performance (maybe better, considering they cheat and just wire the cache direct to the PCI bus iirc)

5400 1TB drive is ;_;

if you are working with caek-style datasets it's flash/ssd all the way or go home

Also, memory not user-replaceable on 21.5' models since 2012. So you're going to want to spring for the RAM upgrade.

on the bright side, they don't let you get under 8GB of ram

only having the option for discrete graphics on the 27" is ;_; too, but probably due to the need for cooling space inside that sucker

Yeah, wish you could get a better graphics card on the 21.5'. Even though it's already hard to see myself going below the 24' I'm running on now, I might've considered a 21.5' if they had better options there.

I am pretending I'd use my large, non-retina display as a second monitor if the 21.5" one had a better video card, but I'd probably end up whining about it

(once you go retina, it is painful to mix displays)

Yeah, the removal of discrete graphics, and lack of upgradability were totally worth it. Look at how thin it is!

at Apple they are saying that unironically

I had an iMac once and loved it but went to laptops forever. What if I want to sit on the couch?

qualifier: I haven't used fusion drive, although I probably will set it up via software on my desktop at some point. the hybrid drives the setup resembles are a good compromise and with the large caches these days you're going to get near-SSD performance (maybe better, considering they cheat and just wire the cache direct to the PCI bus iirc)

― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, October 13, 2015 3:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do it before you upgrade

http://mjtsai.com/blog/2015/10/13/disk-utility-in-el-capitan/

you can only create a third-party fusion drive via command line tools anyway

Yeah those are the catches right enough: no decent GPU, standard drive is painfully shit, no memory upgrades. And the Fusion drive has been made worse too: it's a 24gb SSD. Penny pinching cheapskates.

also I am holding off for a bit since I'm still using my tweaked old-ass mac pro that technically doesn't support any new OS

but I do have 802.11ac, SSD, bluetooth 4, and a reasonable graphics card B)

it's a weird nerdo pleasure to see a 2006 machine work perfectly with handoff

Yes - feeling the same here. I'm still using an 8 year old 20-inch iMac (250GB hard drive) which seems fine with El Capitan.

I had an iMac once and loved it but went to laptops forever. What if I want to sit on the couch?

This.

Tempted to get new iMac as wifey has been pestering me for a new desktop to replace an aging MBP. And yet, I really wonder if I could go back to a home desktop after only using laptops for the last 10 years.

'wifey' - Roger Adultery flashbacks

couch is what ipad is for, surely

Can't get used to trackpad.

my MBP is five years old now. waiting until the next gen (skylake?) then will buy one along with an external display that should last me forever (or until 3d or some such nonsense.)

Not *strictly* an Apple question here. Posted it on the Blu Ray thread just now but figured a copy/paste here couldn't hurt either:

Kinda of a random question here but: recently got a basic Samsung SE-506 ODD for my MacMini, partially because I just needed a new one, but also because it handles Blu-Ray. Now I know Mac and Blu-Ray aren't always happy with each other but I figured what the heck, especially since I am between TVs for the present. Anyway, the drive works perfectly with CDs and DVDs just fine, so clearly the Mac recognizes it -- I'm running El Capitan as well FWIW. However, it's not recognizing any Blu-Rays, and I did download a trial version of this as a test:

http://www.macblurayplayer.com/features.htm

As you can see from this:

http://www.macblurayplayer.com/how-to-play-bluray-on-mac-os-x-10-11-el-capitan.htm

The program is supposed to recognize a disc via step 3b, for instance, and recognizes a DVD as mentioned. But again, no BD disc appears either in the program menu or on the desktop. So is it simply best to assume that while SE-506 handles other discs just fine, it's just not recognizing Blu Rays at all and is simply defective? Answers on a postcard etc (and thanks in advance!).

Is the system recognizing the discs at all, as in seeing the filesystem on it? I haven't played any blu-ray discs directly on my mac, but I have copied their contents to my hard drive.

try playing it on a PC and see if it works? upgrade the firmware of the drive?

After having a 27" the 21.5" feels absolutely tiny.

Just bought a 6S after 4 years with a 4S. I like it, but I'm finding it more difficult to hold and type with, plus it's causing more eyestrain than usual.

Anyone have a similar problem - and did it get better?

switch to two hands permanently

you're holding it wrong

Yeah the 6s is uncomfortable to hold, will switch back to 5 form factor if they ever let me.

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/03/kuo-4-inch-iphone-2016-iphone-7-ram/

bigger phone = more power is not a trend i wanna see

It really needs more power just to have effective parity. The big-ass screen is already laggy and juddery compared to the 6s.

My advice about switching to the 6 or 6s form factor is to buy the Apple case (or a third-party one, I suppose). I found my 6 impossible to hold without it.

also, like, you can just fit more shit in a bigger phone, not really much anyone can do about that