Mac software updates

[Gary]

I agree the iPad does make a laptop largely redundant, would a high performing iMac not be up to the task? Not the specs of the pro but maxing out the ram and video memory with a fusion drive should give impressive performance at half the price.

Lots of people don't like the fusion drives, they have issues and boot slowly or crash, seen more of them go bad than normal drives since release on forums, they are not up to the hype Apple placed on them, lots of complaints of them being dog slow too oddly enough. With a machine that's mostly glued together (screen to body even on 27 inch which has image retention problems as well) I think its a bad buy. Apple have showed that iPads and iPhones are their bread and butter, OS X is being left to fall behind. I have a late 2011, with a sandybridge i7 and 16Gig of ram and even with a 7200rpm hard drive it should perform fine, (base new iMacs now have 5400rpm) You have to pay £200 for a fusion drive and £100 more than the late 2011 models just for fun. The 21.5" units are totally glued shut unlike my model so you cant even add more ram, and they have no disc drive, and yes many people still use disc drives.

I'm fed up with wrestling with this OS too and hopefully in the new year this iMac will get sold. I don't need its power, I don't need the headaches of firewire 800 and thunderbolt not working as stated, having to delete and re-run spotlight on the external drive because Mavericks corrupts it. I just pick up and use my tablet, its simple. I would pick up an older Mac Pro if I wanted a serious desktop that you can actually upgrade, the new ones is another sealed shut Mac, but at a price point thats crazy. Yes I said most people wont go inside and fiddle, but on the old Mac Pros you could slot a new hard drive in or Graphics card, and not have to have a bunch of wires for thunderbolt trailing everywhere, and at £5k I would expect more. Its form over function yet again with a messy OS, and I cant see OS X getting better when Apple only care about $$$ especially now they have the Chinese market to sell iPhones in.

[zappaDPJ]

I'm not too concerned about the expandability of the Pro because rightly or wrongly I take it as read with Apple products that I need to get it right first time. It does tend to focus your mind prior to purchase though, I spent a few hours thinking about my recent iPad purchase before I took the plunge. What does concern me far more is whether of not the software I want to use will be rewritten to take account of the dual GPUs. That is by far the most important factor which makes the price tag and expandability largely secondary issues.

I've read enough to know that rendering and video editing software running across both cores puts the Pro firmly in a league of its own. However software that utilises a single core only runs marginally faster than it would do on the best iMac. That said I do get the impression that the Pro is not yet shipping so reliable benchmarking figures are hard to find. I suspect if I do buy one it won't be for many months.

[Gary]

iTunes 11.1.4 released. The usual whatever they are updates I imagine, as the apple site does not list changes yet

[Bill]

 

Nothing obviously new, but I haven't run it seriously yet.

[Tacitus]

Bit of a deviation from the topic, but does anyone know if the current 13" Retina MBk Pro uses the Haswell chip?  I know the MBk Air does but I'm not sure of the Pro.

Reason I ask is that I'm looking at replacing my existing MBk Pro which is now around 5/6 years old.  Still runs fine, if a tad slow.  It's probably worth replacing now whilst it has some residual value. 

[Steve]

If this is correct yes it does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Technical_specifications_3

[Tacitus]

If this is correct yes it does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Technical_specifications_3

Good find thanks Steve.  I Googled for it but could only find references to Core i5, with no reference to Haswell.  Looks like it's only the Retina version that has Haswell - the others are still on Ivy Bridge.

[Steve]

Isn't there only one Ivy bridge machine though of the current model range.

[Gary]

Isn't there only one Ivy bridge machine though of the current model range.

I think you are right, Steve. Haswell is great for power consumption but in normal use the difference between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge and Haswell is not that pronounced. Haswell didn't do a lot for raw pricessing power compared with Ivy or Sandy Bridge. From memory I'm pretty sure there has been a few suspension bridges too...

[Tacitus]

Isn't there only one Ivy bridge machine though of the current model range.

I've had another look and yes Steve you're right, it's only the base model that's still on Ivy Bridge.  For me it's the power consumption and extra battery life that are the attraction with Haswell, although I think you need to have upgraded to Mavericks to get the full benefit.  I'm told that amazingly a lot of Mac stuff still ships with Mountain Lion. 

Whilst the Air has great battery life it feels rather flimsy compared to the Pro. 

[Gary]

I've had another look and yes Steve you're right, it's only the base model that's still on Ivy Bridge.  For me it's the power consumption and extra battery life that are the attraction with Haswell, although I think you need to have upgraded to Mavericks to get the full benefit.  I'm told that amazingly a lot of Mac stuff still ships with Mountain Lion. 

Whilst the Air has great battery life it feels rather flimsy compared to the Pro. 

New iMacs etc are shipping with Mavericks now (it like a beta not a release product, its very buggy), so I imagine the the air and pro will soon. Tragically I'm sure both have soldiered in ram, which is just unforgivable.

[Tacitus]

Tragically I'm sure both have soldiered in ram, which is just unforgivable.

They do.  In effect you need to order with the maximum ram you can get.  And we haven't even mentioned the glued in battery..... 

I'm told by my local Apple dealer they are moving towards setting up a limited number of dedicated service centres.  These will be the ones with the resources to purchase the (expensive) specialist kit that will be needed to service this new generation of machines. 

I believe the luxury watch brands have done something similar.  I'm told it is very expensive if you want to set up to service Rolex - or probably Omega, Breitling - watches.  Some of the tools might get used once or twice in a lifetime, but you won't get official certification unless you have them.  Needless to say few of the official agents are doing it.

Apple service centres will go the same way, with perhaps one or two in a region.

[Gary]

I had a buyer for my old 2011 iMac, I turned them down, I became unsure of what to do. I can change the ram myself, and it does not have a glued in screen thankfully, its held on by magnets. Its not running right though and my Applecare runs out in August so maybe time to send it in for a look over. I'll be taking pictures as I have seen iMacs that have come back dented and scratched to bits. I was going to just use an iPad, but I need a proper OS so I can download updated for my Camera GPS assist data amongst other things. Also my iMac has a built in disc drive unlike the new ones so maybe its worth holding on to. Its not USB 3 but tbh I don't have any usb 3 devices, and its still fast (i7 Sandy Bridge) and 8Gb ram with a bog standard 1TB 7200rpm hard drive, which seems less problematic than the new fusion drives.

The thing is I'll never buy another Mac for the reasons you point out, but I really like OS X (not Mavericks its hateful) Firewire 800 is not working with Mavericks and it seems Apple may have decided to forget to support it properly in the new OS, Apples strangle hold is really bugging me. I wont move to Android/Windows for Phones or an OS so I may have to keep this machine going. The 5s is a great phone for my meeds and not stupidly large, but Apple wont be getting any more money out of me in the foreseeable future at all. 

[Tacitus]

The thing is I'll never buy another Mac for the reasons you point out.....[SNIP]..........Apple wont be getting any more money out of me in the foreseeable future at all. 

For me it's pretty finely balanced.  My attitude to Win8 is pretty much akin to your view of Mavericks; quite what MS were thinking escapes me.  Even if I built my own machine - something I've done in the past - the cost of moving software and other stuff against simply buying another Mac is pretty much even.  OK so the software hurdle is more or less a one off, but even so things don't quite work the same so there's also a learning curve to overcome.

I use Win7 at work so I'm not completely out of touch with the Windows world even though I've been a Unix user from back when I was designing motorways.  Once you add in the hassle of dealing with another OS - particularly the under the hood stuff - I conclude it's not really worth the effort.

Perhaps in a few years that will change as the computer landscape goes through even more convulsions.   

[Bill]

10.9.2 now in the App Store, and Safari 6.1.2.

[Bill]

More info here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2014/02/25/os-x-update-10-9-2-now-available

[Steve]

Thanks Bill

[Gary]

installed and so dar much smoother than 10.9.1. Waiting to see if my Mac will sleep with a firewire drive now  if not back to usb 

[Steve]

Fairly meaty update at 460 MB.

[Bill]

I just report it, I don't have to download it 


(Still on Mountain Lion)

[Gary]

10.9.2 much smoother and faster now than Mountain Lion, the update did not sort out the FW 800 issue at all  Apple I think are depreciating it as new Macs dont have it anymore. I would so never buy a Mac again. All in all a good update. Mine was 789Mb ish.

[Bill]

iTunes 11.1.5

"This update fixes a problem that may cause iTunes to quit unexpectedly when a device is connected and improves compatibility with iBooks for Mac on OS X Mavericks."

[Steve]

 

[Gary]

Because they could not have released that yesterday   

[Glenn]

They didn't find it until yesterday.