1 month

[v-600]

I had my first experience with the apple store yesterday. I had a couple of issues with both the mac and the ipad and found myself going into the city anyway to do a bit of shopping.

I have to say the experience was brilliant. I could have solved both problems myself with a bit of googling, but the fact I didn't have to was really pleasant. The staff were welcoming and helpful and didn't seem to think that either of those problems were a waste of their time (something I've not always come across in more traditional PC stores).

While not strictly something to do with the devices themselves it is a service that neither google nor microsoft offer or can compete with.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So, you remembered to make an appointment in advance, I take it?

I'm sure you'd get similar service at a Microsoft store, but contingent on what your problem is and from whom you bought what stuff.

An unfortunately large chunk of troubleshooting in the Windows world if figuring out who to blame. With Apple's ecosystem, Apple is always to blame, which simplifies things tremendously.

 

[v-600]

Do microsoft stores exist? I've never seen one in the UK?

 

[weevilone]

I saw one when in Boston. They were pushing Xboxes at the time, probably pushing Surface now.

 

[Ichinisan]

Microsoft stores exist in some malls. Usually upscale ones. They aren't as common as Apple stores, that's certain.

They're kinda copying the formula that worked for Apple, but that's not a bad thing. I'm glad they're supporting Surface devices since they're trying to compete with Apple.

 

[v-600]

Newest amazing discovery. I turned on my old desktop for the first time since being home. After a lot of updates I found out I can run my whole library of steam games on that machine and play them on my macbook.

While this seems a bit of a gimmick as I could just play them on the desktop with a bigger screen and better keyboard, you get a sense of smuggness to play everything on the mac.

 

[v-600]

Next newest less amazing discovery The mac doesn't play nice with HDMI when connected to my TV. The picture appears on TV but the formatting is all over the place. It seems like the edges of the screen are missing, with no menu bar at the top, and the close and full screen icons missing to the left and right.

I ran through all combinations of automatic, best for TV, and all available resolutions on the mac, and all settings on the TV for 16:9, 14:9, 4:3 and auto settings to no avail. It was missing the edges of the display. I'm not dragging my TV to the apple store to will have to google this one myself I fear.

 

[Ichinisan]

Next newest less amazing discovery The mac doesn't play nice with HDMI when connected to my TV. The picture appears on TV but the formatting is all over the place. It seems like the edges of the screen are missing, with no menu bar at the top, and the close and full screen icons missing to the left and right.

I ran through all combinations of automatic, best for TV, and all available resolutions on the mac, and all settings on the TV for 16:9, 14:9, 4:3 and auto settings to no avail. It was missing the edges of the display. I'm not dragging my TV to the apple store to will have to google this one myself I fear.

Almost all TVs simulate overscan by chopping-off the edges. Most have an option in the TV menu to disable the overscan. My old Sony TV calls the option "full pixel."

I noticed that my Apple TV had a black border around the 16:9 image when I was doing AirPlay mirroring from an iPhone 5, 5s, and iPod touch 5th gen in landscape orientation. I found an option in the Apple TV menu to disable its overscan compensation. Since overscan on the TV is disabled and overscan compensation on the ATV is disabled, now it's taking full advantage of all 1920x1080 pixels.

[edit]
Because old CRTs televisions always cut-off part of the picture, some TV stations broadcast garbage stuff you don't need to see there. Also, old games on NES took lots of programming shortcuts to make scrolling screens possible and you see all kinds of strange stuff going on at the sides of the screen on a modern TV when simulated overscan is turned-off.

 

[Ichinisan]

...so the moral of that story is: "You should have purchased an Apple TV. Then you could use AirPlay.

...but you'd probably never know you weren't taking full advantage of all the pixels on your TV screen."

Also this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5841

 

[v-600]

Thanks, I found the overscan option in the menu settings and turned it off. I also found an underscan slider in the display preferences. Now I have sound and video over HDMI, I just want to figure out how to close the lid while leaving the video playing to save a bit of battery life.

I think its called clamshell but it needs a mouse plugged in.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I think its called clamshell but it needs a mouse plugged in.

Or a keyboard. Close lid, plug in external monitor, tap keys, laptop wakes up with built in display disabled.

 

[v-600]

On an unrelated note I found a little app called Scroll Reverser that allows you to choose separate natural/tradition scrolling independently for vertical and horizontal scrolling.

 

[v-600]

Its been a while since I updated this due to my busy schedules of going to a music festival and then flying to Sweden (I know, its hard being me ). I didn't take the mac to the festival but it is here in Linkoping.

Over the last 3 weeks I think I have grown to accept my mac. I don't love it yet though. I know friends who will proselytize about OS X but I am not feeling it yet. It works as a computer well and lets me do the things I wanted to do but beyond any changes in the UI its not that different from a PC (or linux - though I will concede that I've not needed the terminal once with my mac).

Beyond games there isn't any software I've missed and the apple software included rivals or surpasses that provided by microsoft in many areas. What I have grown to love is the hardware. Even at 13" it just fits nicely. I think if I was to buy a discrete laptop myself I would plump for 15" (the size of my own current one). It is incredibly sturdy and feels reassuringly dense to hold.

I have noticed it needs more USB ports. 2 is not enough for a machine that needs to do everything. I've not got a Thunderbold USB drive, though I know they exist. I've never seen a T.B. 3G/4G modem, all my cameras connect via USB, my phone charges by USB (I don't know if Lightning to Thunderbolt cables exist to service iOS users), my mouse connects by USB, but obviously not all at once. Drop one of the TB ports (you can daisy chain TB devices after all). HDMI and TB out are enough and 3 USB would be more useful. Magsafe is a blessing and a curse but I like the idea.

The ipad has basically been used to read the news on the loo, play music in the kitchen and take the odd photo.

When I am in my house the laptop lives downstairs by the couch and is easier to surf the internet on so I have tended to use the macbook over the ipad for casual browsing. I did use it a couple of times to check recipes in the kitchen and play music. The spotify app on iOS is nowhere near as good as the android one though and seems dated (which comes as a shock when people say that ios gets updates and new apps first). I think all android apps work the same on tablet and phone, and ios requires discrete apps for iphone (my GF has assured me her iphone spotify is similar to androids) and a tablet optimised version which makes more hassle for developers.

The camera is meh but ok in a pinch, though I can't think of a time I had my ipad and not my phone.

Not really gelled with the ipad as much as the macbook.

 

[TuxDave]

...though I will concede that I've not needed the terminal once with my mac.
...

When I found out about the terminal, it was good for giggles. I felt like I was back at work again and was debating if I needed to churn out a script or two just because I could. Then I went back to watching Netflix.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I remember when I bought my wife an iMac back in late 2011. This was a move off of W7. I was stunned Apple had no equivalent of a 'shortcut'. I stumped the blueshirts, including the supposed brainiacs behind the counter in the back of the store.

I wound up writing a script to do the equivalent of what was native in W7. I wonder if Apple ever evolved enough to understand the basic needs of users migrating from M$ to Apple. I doubt it, but then again ...

BTW, since then I've built the wife an at-home work computer (not for personal use) and opted to go back to W7. She's delighted and seems to be minimally operating in both environments. Good for her!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I remember when I bought my wife an iMac back in late 2011. This was a move off of W7. I was stunned Apple had no equivalent of a 'shortcut'. I stumped the blueshirts, including the supposed brainiacs behind the counter in the back of the store.

I wound up writing a script to do the equivalent of what was native in W7. I wonder if Apple ever evolved enough to understand the basic needs of users migrating from M$ to Apple. I doubt it, but then again ...

BTW, since then I've built the wife an at-home work computer (not for personal use) and opted to go back to W7. She's delighted and seems to be minimally operating in both environments. Good for her!

Trolling an Apple thread on a Friday night? I don't think you're actually married.

If you're not trolling, they're called "aliases." Join Apple's discussion forum for questions like that - don't trust the blueshirts.

And I'm kind of amazed you could figure out how to build a computer and install Windows.

 

[v-600]

Just a thought on a similar note. Does osx have separate hard and soft links/aliases similar to linux?

 

[Zaap]

I remember when I bought my wife an iMac back in late 2011. This was a move off of W7. I was stunned Apple had no equivalent of a 'shortcut'. I stumped the blueshirts, including the supposed brainiacs behind the counter in the back of the store.

I'm not sure I'm understanding this, as the Mac has both desktop shortcuts (aliases- older than Windows shortcuts) and keyboard shortcuts.

Is there some other kind of shortcut I'm missing?

 

[TheStu]

Just a thought on a similar note. Does osx have separate hard and soft links/aliases similar to linux?

Yes, but I think that only the soft links are easily user exposed. IIRC, they broke HFS+ best practices by using hard links for Time Machine.

I'm going to be honest, I don't really understand the difference, and don't actually use aliases/shortcuts/links too terribly much.

I'm not sure I'm understanding this, as the Mac has both desktop shortcuts (aliases- older than Windows shortcuts) and keyboard shortcuts.

Is there some other kind of shortcut I'm missing?

A workflow shortcut. You know, like how instead of hitting Eject, you just pull out the thumbdrive. And instead of pressing the power button, you just unplug the power cable. That sort of thing.

 

[Ichinisan]

"The notebook people love."

 

[v-600]

Yes, but I think that only the soft links are easily user exposed. IIRC, they broke HFS+ best practices by using hard links for Time Machine.

I'm going to be honest, I don't really understand the difference, and don't actually use aliases/shortcuts/links too terribly much.

I know on linux a hard link points to the location of data on a disk and a soft link points to the location of data in the file system.

I guess there would be similar definitions in windows and osx. I have use them occasionally to move data between drives seemlessly. In my desktop I have an SSD and a couple of HDD. My steam install is to the SSD, and in there is a link that redirects all installs to the HDD.

In cases where you only have the one drive in a laptop I think they might be less useful, but I guess if you want to have multiple users with files in their home folders all editing the same data on the drive it might be useful (just guessing, probably difficult with user permissions under osx).

 

[v-600]

I just discovered my macbook lacks smb support out of the box. Or at least an obvious way to turn it on. Research begins.

Also USB tethering of my phone.

 

[TheStu]

I just discovered my macbook lacks smb support out of the box. Or at least an obvious way to turn it on. Research begins.

Also USB tethering of my phone.

System Preferences > Sharing

USB tethering: what phone do you have?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I just discovered my macbook lacks smb support out of the box. Or at least an obvious way to turn it on. Research begins.

Also USB tethering of my phone.

SMB serving, or connecting to an SMB server?

Connecting is easy: Go menu -> Connect to Server -> "smb://serverip/share"

It should prompt you for a username/password.

To work as a server, like dude said above. Settings -> Sharing -> File Sharing. There's an options button for selecting protocols.

 

[v-600]

I want to browse files on my own computer from my mac. Preferably without knowing the IP of each computer.

I'd already worked out where the setting for sharing files was by going to settings and sharing (gotta love logical naming from apple), but couldn't see anything in there about viewing other computers on the network. In windows explorer you can see all the other computers available. Finder appeared to be lacking an equivalent of network places. The guy in the apple store said it needed some 3rd party software to do it (which kinda made me feel apple dropped the ball on this one).

Tethering a Nexus 4 to the mac to share internet access without using bluetooth or wifi. I realise I can easily use wifi to create a hotspot, but this decimates the battery, and even on plugged in, the mac can only just keep the battery from dropping. BT uses less power but if I can do it over the cable I will be happier. I did find a website that mentioned installing a kext that lets all this happen behind the scenes, but wanted to do a bit of further research.