[Closed] Any Mac Experts Here??

What I have a problem with is people telling people like my parents that they NEED a Mac and Windows simply won’t do. Well, it will, and it does. They would’ve found the grand or so required for a Mac if they’d let their (rich) friends talk them into it, but it would have required significant compromises elsewhere. Then they’d have had a harder time integrating their cheap Android phones to it, and their friends would have gone “oh you simply MUST get an iPhone for £600” and so on. As it happens, the £350 Windows laptop I helped them buy was fine until someone spilled a drink on it some 6 or 7 years after it was bought.

Aren't they free to make their own decisions though? Nobody is forcing them to buy a Mac.

Again this assumes people have the money. If you are on a budget, a £1000 Mac is absolutely not better than a £400 PC, especially if you are just surfing and writing the odd document etc.

If you only have £400 to spend on a computer you buy a £400 computer. Simple really. If you have a £1000 to spend, you buy whatever suits your needs/you want to. Again, simple.

What I do care about is the spreading of propaganda and misinformation. The fruity fans routinely compare a £2,000 Mac to a £300 PC and go “look, the Mac is so much better!” Of course it is, you could replace the PC five or six times over for what the Mac cost.

Who is saying this? Where have they said it?

A £2,000 PC would grind a Mac into the dirt.

“Non-upgradeable memory” and storage too I believe, on a machine costing north of four figures, you’re having your pants pulled down.

Lol! Triggered, much? 😉

I’ve no idea what point you’re trying to make here? They aren’t products I use but if I did I expect I’d get on with them just fine, thanks.

You were banging on about how your 2008 laptop runs Windows 10 fine. I was making a point about using a 2008 laptop with demanding software such as Premiere Pro and After Effects.

But you obviously missed that.

Gosh, folk have strong feelings about operating systems don’t they?

Some do. But some of use use Macs, so we have happier, more fulfilling, more contended lives. We enjoy better health, are better looking, and are sexually superior. Which is why we flaunt our Apple logos at the üntermensch. 😀

@bridges - I use both, am I only half as superior?

Gosh, folk have strong feelings about operating systems don’t they?

No, I'm trying to say that I don't. What I do have strong feelings about is people talking bollocks.

If you only have £400 to spend on a computer you buy a £400 computer. Simple really.

Er, no - have you ever had to budget for anything? Typically, people have a set amount of money and what they need to spend on something necessary, they cannot then spend on something else. Like my parents, they could have come up with a grand for a Mac but they would have struggled in other areas - and needlessly. And as for making our own decisions - yes, but how do we inform those decisions in an area when we know little about it? We listen to advice from others. And when that advice is poor (as in their case) they end up making poor decisions. And when you are old, and uncertain about a lot of things, it's easy to do. Your empathy needs a bit of work I think.

Your empathy needs a bit of work I think.

We're getting advice from IT specialists, a lack of empathy comes with the territory for some of them!!

You need to read this thread in a Harry Enfield "You didn't want to do it like that" style.

Er, no – have you ever had to budget for anything?... Your empathy needs a bit of work I think.

I've had to make choices between buying food or paying bills. Have you? I don't think I need any condescension regarding 'budgeting', thanks.

Sent from my expensive and superior Apple device.

@bridges – I use both, am I only half as superior?

Yes, I'm afraid so. Sorry. 🙁

Lol! Triggered, much? 😉

I like the word "triggered." When used as an insult, it's a handy shibboleth as to the measure of the person you're talking to.

with an SSD swap-to-disk is quick enough.

yeah, when I say I hit the orange red on the memory pressure on m1, it's not the same a hitting it with intel, the ssd that comes in the new macs is rapid, so swap is very good.

Although, one thing with to remember with the new m1s is that that graphics share the memory, so that's a consideration in the opposite direction though.

as for mac pricing, yeah it's undenyable that they rip you of for memory and hdd space. 200 quid for 4gb of ram or 200 quid for 256gb of storage is ridiculous. but ultimately if you are wanting mac, worth the upgrade. ram more than disk space.

Anyway...

I ordered an iMac a few weeks ago, but delivery is still not expected until late July/mid August. 🙁 Very high demand, major supply issues globally. So many foolish Mac FanBois who've had their pants pulled down, it seems. What a load of idiots we are...

as for mac pricing, yeah it’s undenyable that they rip you of for memory and hdd space. 200 quid for 4gb of ram or 200 quid for 256gb of storage is ridiculous. but ultimately if you are wanting mac, worth the upgrade. ram more than disk space.

For sure. But then, we're all idiots for wanting Macs instead of vastly superior and far cheaper PCs. It's all our own fault. So we deserve it. Nobody forced us to drink the Kool Aid.

Nobody forced us to drink the Kool Aid.

I forced my Mum to piss my inheritance on an iMac.She managed to suppress her hatred of me for years by using it cheerfully and managing to operate most features without once ringing me up. Furthermore I abused my Dad by getting him an iPad which he had the temerity to login to and send me an email from it. There's evil wherever you look in the Apple world. Millions and millions of users feigning happiness when they know that in reality they've been properly shafted.

You evil, evil bastard.

Back to the OP's question and because I may be buying one too - consensus is that it's worth the £200 for 16GB. I can only find this via Apple themselves rather than resellers such as PCWorld and John Lewis. Has anyone else found larger memory elsewhere?

I'd only ever consider JL as an alternative to Apple themselves, if buying Apple products. I'd never buy anything like that from PC World. It's called 'PC World' for good reason...

The 16GB versions are special order items, so perhaps JL etc only have the standard off the peg versions of products.

If you know a student then Apple 😀👍

My 2 cents - having ran a fully topped out spec retina MacBook pro for around 6 and a half years, which performed flawlessly for graphic and industrial design work every day at uni, I was still able to sell it and cover the majority of the cost of a new 8gb M1 MacBook air to replace it, now the demands of uni work have reduced somewhat.

That said I still use this new machine to do some pretty heavy photo and video editing, graphics and light CAD work. Even with 8Gb it absolutely flies, memory pressure never gets too high and it outperforms my old intel machine by leaps and bounds. Whats more I can happily go a full day in the office and work all evening at home before needing the charger and now don't even take the charger with me to work on occasions. Couldn't recommend it enough.

I took the plunge recently myself. I went for 8gb. I thought about the upgrade, but decided that in 8 years time or whatever when it does start to struggle with the operating requirements of the future then it makes more sense to have £200 in the bank to put towards upgrading at that point. The device will still be worth something to sell too.

It’s a really great machine. The new ones do sound nice too, I’m a sucker for fancy colours.

@bumpy what will you use it for? Did you like the tablet bit of the Surface?

Ipad Pro's are M1s now, one of those with a Magic keyboard would be a thing of beauty. Eye wateringly expensive for a big phone really. But still great for photo/movie editing, sound engineering, making nice drawings etc. Now they share a chip with Macs they're only going to get more capable too.

If you want ports and power, I'd wait till Autumn to see if the new M1X Macbooks are released.

If you want a bombproof laptop for anything up to doing light software development then an M1 Macbook Air (base 8GB model) would be absolutely fine.

If you or a household member has an .ac.uk address (e.g. higher education student, teacher, or someone that works in higher education) then theedustore.co.uk are cheaper than Apple Education sometimes I think.

@thebunk Thanks for that, I was considering the iPad but it gets a bit pricey once you add the keyboard.
The edustore link looks like a winner, I've got an ac.uk email address so the Macbook Air comes up at £830 with a four year warranty rather than £900 with two year warranty at John Lewis!

Happy to help @bumpy! £830 makes it almost Dell prices, maybe that will appease the Windows admirers *ducks*

Just on the Educational pricing, you can use the Apple store with a Unidays log in to get cheaper prices as well. They are more expensive than Edustore (an Air is £898 for instance). The benefit of using the Apple store is that you can use their trade in, and you have more options for RAM upgrades etc. But for a standard build without trade in Edustore looks better.

If you know a student then Apple

Seriously; who actually pays full price for Apple computers? I don't know anyone who does, and that's quite a lot of people. All of whom have drunk the Kool Aid and had their pants pulled down, of course. 😉

Edustore does look good, but how do they get around Apple's strict price controls? I'm always wary of deals that appear a bit too good to be true. I'm happy to buy from Apple directly, as having to get after sales support is much easier, but Edustore looks good for those in education who want to save money. But how does it work with warranty claims, etc?

I've bought probably 10 Macs from the official Apple Refurb store over the years. All have been perfect, the discount is good & if you're prepared to wait a little while the spec you're after always pops up sooner or later!

@bridges (to be clear I’ve never used them) Edustore are an Apple approved reseller for higher education. Legit!

Yes, seems a good option for students etc. They don't do the custom spec options though. And you do need a recognised education email account; Apple will give a discount to anyone who's ever been to school, it seems. 😀

Any Mac Experts Here??

Well I like her show and I know she is leaving Radio 1 but I wouldn't claim to be an expert

Is that her from Tomorrow's World?

Long term windows and Mac user. Current work tools are thinkpads old and new touchscreen, surface pro, and an imac. Also got iPads. So completely unqualified to have an opinion.

I was considering buying one of the new breed of apple silicon macs. Performance etc is hailed as being a revelation in personal computing and I thought this seemed like a good time to jump back in to OSx. Until I read this Forbes article which did stop me pulling the trigger, I’ll wait for the m2 version I think. YMMV.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2020/11/21/apple-macbook-pro-13-m1-reviewwhy-you-might-want-to-pass/?sh=4e02882b786a

I won a New MacBook Pro about 3years ago. Sorry i am not into laptops etc.

We are fully Apple in our family but what is the thing with Macbooks? My lad has used it for his alevels and his sister is now fighting for custody for her schooling. Both had access to a pretty good toshiba windows laptop with all the same programmes installed.

I have a look on the app store from time to time but havent seen anything that would change my life if i put it on the macbook. For home use, what apps etc is going to transform this machine for me?

Windows 10? (-:

<blockquoteFor home use, what apps etc is going to transform this machine for me?

Now apply that thinking to your washing machine 😉 . I view a computer like I do any other domestic appliance or tool.

I have found there to be little difference between W10 (work) and MacOS (play). Except I have a work iPhone and I quite like the integration. And my MBP works with my AirPods, but try as I might, I can't get my W10 work laptop to do the same on MS Teams.

Just stuck 16Gb of RAM and a 1TB SSD in my son's 2012 MacBook Pro.

It's £200 well spent.

I was considering buying one of the new breed of apple silicon macs. Performance etc is hailed as being a revelation in personal computing and I thought this seemed like a good time to jump back in to OSx. Until I read this Forbes article which did stop me pulling the trigger, I’ll wait for the m2 version I think. YMMV.

It's not absolute performance that's good - it's performance vs power. They are fast but they are still only laptops, nothing to get that excited about in performance terms.

And there'll be an Intel/AMD equivalent along soon, don't worry 🙂 It'll be interesting to see what comes of IBM's 2nm fabrication development.

It’s not absolute performance that’s good – it’s performance vs power. They are fast but they are still only laptops, nothing to get that excited about in performance terms.

But so far, the M1 Macs are outperforming their Intel Mac equivalents, by some margin, in all respects, and it's only the higher end (and much more expensive) models that are better in any way. But the M1 models so far are aimed more at the 'consumer' end of the market; pro machines will no doubt be even better.

But so far, the M1 Macs are outperforming their Intel Mac equivalents, by some margin, in all respects

Yes, the equivalent Intel that fits in a skinny laptop and has good battery life. They are the fastest chips within that application, not the fastest chips full stop, that was my point.

Yes, the equivalent Intel that fits in a skinny laptop and has good battery life. They are the fastest chips within that application, not the fastest chips full stop, that was my point.

and that's the first gen, most basic, toe-in-the-water version of the chip... who knows what performance we'll see when Apple release the pro/desktop version...