New laptop suggestions

[A. Smith]

7 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

I never got to experiment with the touch bar, but I do like Touch ID in my MBA. Makes Apple Pay a breeze on websites.

 

I just recently gave away my super-speedy 12" PowerBook G4 with a roomy 80GB hard drive. Surprisingly, when I had Accordance 9 on it, it ran as fast as Accordance does on my iMac Pro. Shows how good the speed of Accordance engine has been over the years!

I loved my tiny powerbook G4. My first apple hardware. That keyboard was just dreamy! Crisp, click-y, scalloped keys. Perfect.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, A. Smith said:

I loved my tiny powerbook G4. My first apple hardware. That keyboard was just dreamy! Crisp, click-y, scalloped keys. Perfect.

 

There was a day you could get good keyboards on a laptop. Not so much anymore. At least the current crop of Apple keyboards are better than the ones in previous years. But I keep a Keychron mechanical keyboard at my desk for extended typing.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Robb B said:

I remember paying extra to upgrade from 4MB to 8MB of RAM in high school. My first iBook had a 40GB hard drive. 96GB is RAM is on another level! You're going to love that.

 

My first Mac purchase--a Wallstreet II in 1998--had a 10 GB hdd, the largest Apple offered at the time. Adjusting for inflation, that Powerbook was technically more expensive than my new maxed-out MBP that has an 8 TB drive.

 

I was telling someone earlier today that I remember spending over $1000 for a 1.6 GB external drive in the mid-90s.

 

21 hours ago, Robb B said:

What do you have planned? I'd be curious to see your video content.

 

Well, I don't have an 8K camera of any kind yet. Still shopping in that regard. And I've already spent more money this year than an unemployed person should 🙂, but I'll probably get something next year (and hopefully prices will continue to drop). I will initially probably just experiment with outdoor/nature/scenic video capture, but I've got some other ideas, beyond that, that I'll keep to myself at the moment.

[Michel Gilbert]

My first PC was an Amstrad PC1512, with 512 KB of RAM and a 20 MB hard drive. In 1988 I upgraded the RAM to 640 KB for around $130. Rounding it out to $1/kb = $1,000/MB = $1,000,000 per GB, I’m glad prices have dropped since then. 🙂

[Guest]

9 hours ago, R. Mansfield said:

 

My first Mac purchase--a Wallstreet II in 1998--had a 10 GB hdd, the largest Apple offered at the time. Adjusting for inflation, that Powerbook was technically more expensive than my new maxed-out MBP that has an 8 TB drive.

 

Actually, this is not correct. That Wallstreet II came with a maximum 4 GB HDD, which I got. Later, I bought a 10 GB drive and upgraded it--back when you could do such things yourself. 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

22 hours ago, R. Mansfield said:

 

As soon as the case is changed, the TouchBar is no more. If trends follow, the 13” MBP will be the first to get the M3 chip, but if they go with the new case designs, it will go back to physical keys—again, based on everything done in the last couple of years. ..

No pun intended, but if that's the case I wonder how Apple will differentiate the 13 MBP inch from the MBP 14 inch since they are almost the same size and would both have the new case designs? The 14 MBP is a little bigger and has more ports, but I still imagine an updated M3 MBP 13 inch would make it tough to decide between it and the 14 inch model. 

[A. Smith]

3 hours ago, Brian K. Mitchell said:

No pun intended, but if that's the case I wonder how Apple will differentiate the 13 MBP inch from the MBP 14 inch since they are almost the same size and would both have the new case designs? The 14 MBP is a little bigger and has more ports, but I still imagine an updated M3 MBP 13 inch would make it tough to decide between it and the 14 inch model. 

There is a legitimate question as to why the 13” mbp exists and how—other than the Touch Bar—it is meaningfully differentiated from the mba. I’ve suspected it’s somehow a matter of moving old stock. 

[JonathanHuber]

9 minutes ago, A. Smith said:

There is a legitimate question as to why the 13” mbp exists and how—other than the Touch Bar—it is meaningfully differentiated from the mba.

The biggest difference is that the 13" pro has an active cooling system with a fan, so it can sustain peak output longer than the Air. But it does feel like a legacy product that will phase out soon. 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I also loved the keyboard on my PowerBook G4. It was my absolute favorite notebook keyboard. Solid as a rock. While MacBook keyboards now aren't as bad as the "butterfly" ones, they're still not as solid as those hefty old PowerBook keyboards. I should pick up a mechanical keyboard sometime as a spare.

 

If Rick gets an 8K camera, I wouldn't recommend putting it on a drone. I'm still chuckling at that video you made years ago. The tech news guys at our local TV station voted it best video of the year. I haven't played with a drone yet, but I probably wouldn't do any better.

[Rich]

On 8/11/2023 at 8:36 AM, A. Smith said:

Has your impression of this changed? I don't keep up with the specifics but I think there is now strong support, even official support. At least I don't know anyone running parallels on an apple silicon chip that is concerned anymore. 

 

So, actually, I think it has!  While I have a home built custom PC to run Windows, so I haven't had a need to run Parallels/Windows on any of my Macs, it does appear that between Parallels improvements and Windows support of Intel to ARM code translation, pretty much anything outside games and some edge cases appears to run well on the speedy Apple Silicon chips.  So, it sounds like it really has become a non-issue now for most folks, which is great news.

 

[Teddy24]

I plan to upgrade my laptop as well and I was looking at the m2 MBA, wondering if that is a good computer especially the 15 inch or should I wait for the m3 MBP? 

[Kristin]

Hi @Teddy24,

Are you upgrading from the M1 or Intel? I have an M1 and like it a lot, so I have not really seen a reason to get the M2 and would wait. However, if you are still on Intel, I would personally get the M2 now, as I know the most recent OS coming out will have some features that only work on M1 or higher, and not on Intel.

 

So I don't know if that helps at all, but just in case it does.

Kristin

[JonathanHuber]

4 hours ago, Teddy24 said:

I plan to upgrade my laptop as well and I was looking at the m2 MBA, wondering if that is a good computer especially the 15 inch or should I wait for the m3 MBP? 

My m2 MBA is a 13 inch and i think it's the perfect portable computer. I've used 15 inch laptops in the past, and I prefer the smaller 13 inch. The M2 is terrific. As Kristin mentioned, the difference between the Intel chips and Apple's M series is pretty big, but the difference between the M1/M2 is much less, so I don't think there's a significant reason to wait for an M3 mba. Basic rule for upgrading is that there will always be something better in the future, so upgrade now if you need to upgrade now and don't if you don't. 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I went for M2 now and didn't wait for M3. Glad I didn't wait. M2 has been plenty fast enough for my work, and when the M3 Macs do come out, there'll probably be some kinks with the first crop anyway that'll need to be straightened out.

 

If you need a Mac now, get one now.

 

I did put AppleCare on it, but I'll have to say AppleCare Support is getting dimmer by the day. I found a couple of bugs in Ventura I can reproduce across multiple Macs, and I called into AppleCare Support to report the bugs to Apple's engineers. All they recommended was I wipe all my Macs clean and start from scratch, or send in my Macs for a "repair" for a software issue.

 

I've filed the feedback on Apple's feedback website and moved on.

 

I'm glad I still did AppleCare in the event I do have a hardware issue that needs repair, but I'm not wasting my time with them for anything software-related. I bought a rock instead, and I'll just air my grievances to it next time. I won't get any better support or any worse support, but at least it's pretty to look at.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:12 AM, A. Smith said:

There is a legitimate question as to why the 13” mbp exists and how—other than the Touch Bar—it is meaningfully differentiated from the mba. I’ve suspected it’s somehow a matter of moving old stock. 

This does make a lot sense as the MBA is both lighter and cheaper than the 13" mbp not to mention the MBA comes with a more modern design and better camera.