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The 2012 MacBook Pro – What I Want
Anyone with even a passing interest in Apple’s laptop range is likely to know that an announcement about the new 2012 MacBook Pro range is (supposedly) imminent.
Mac forums are brimming with rumours, predictions and heated debates – a lot of which are due to the potential removal of the optical drive, something that I am personally rather indifferent about.
Rather than joining in the debates, I thought I would lay down here what I personally want to see in the 2012 MacBook Pro – if Apple ticks the majority of these boxes I may take my fanboyism to a new level and go and queue outside the Apple store.
2012 MacBook Pro - Loving the old but thinking about the new
1. RETINA DISPLAY. I’ll be honest – there ARE some days when the limited resolution on my 13″ MacBook Pro is restrictive. On the bright side, the low resolution has trained me to make effective use of Spaces, but before this I had a laptop with a 1680×1050 display. I want my pixels back.
2. USB 3. Make my backups quicker and I’ll be inclined to get round to doing them more often. Shameful but true.
3. CONTINUED SEPARATION FROM THE MACBOOK AIR RANGE. I don’t want a MacBook Air. My MBP is portable enough for me, thank you very much. Give us more “Pro” features instead, such as….
4. DEDICATED GRAPHICS. The 2012 MacBook Pro range needs dedicated graphics across the board. Integrated just ain’t “pro.” Although the integrated graphics in my current MBP hasn’t been a problem, it is getting frustrating seeing more and more games I can’t play, so the time has come….and if not, what’s going to drive all those lovely pixels on my new Retina display?!
5. HYBRID SSD/HDD DRIVES. A 256GB SSD just isn’t big enough for me I’m afraid, and I suspect a bigger one is out of the question for standard issue due to cost. So, let’s comprimise and have a hybrid drive so my OS and apps still have a speed boost and I still have enough storage space for a “Pro” laptop.
6. SOME FORM OF OPTICAL DRIVE INCLUDED. As I said above, I am indifferent as to whether Apple remove the optical drive from the 2012 MacBook Pro…..BUT…..if they take it away, I would like an external one IN THE BOX – take it away by all means, but give us a way to watch DVDs and import CDs if we need to without scamming us for an expensive part.
7. SOMETHING NEW AND UNEXPECTED. Surprise us please Apple. Let’s have a “one other thing” that makes buying the 2012 MacBook Pro ESSENTIAL.
What do you want to see in the 2012 MacBook Pro range? Share your ideas in the comments section!
My Mac Problems
Today I am going to tell you about my Mac problems. As this site is here to give a full and true account of my computing life after
Mac Problems - Flaky Hibernation
switching from Windows to Mac, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I weren’t as honest about the bad as I am about the good.
So, on that basis, here is a short list of my current Mac problems. Some are quirks, some are really rather annoying.
1. Flaky Hibernation
While my Mac is charged it performs wonderfully, and I love how quickly I can just open the lid and start working. If I let it run out of juice and then plug it in, there’s no telling what will happen. It may eventually resume to its previous state. It may start to resume and then hang before bleeping nastily at me, or it may look like it’s going to restart but then produce a kernel panic message and force me to restart.
This is probably the most annoying of my Mac problems.
2. My Dodgy MagSafe Adaptor
I can’t get too hung about the faulty MagSafe adaptor that I wrote about in this past post, as Apple quickly replaced it. But it should still be on a list of my Mac problems, or I am not giving you the full picture.
3. Disappearing Internet
This is new and so far only occasional. My Wi-Fi stays live, but the Internet connection goes away. Turning Wi-Fi off and on does not restore it, only rebooting does. Irritating.
4. OS X Cursor Jump
Mac Cursor Jumps
Sometimes when using my track pad the cursor jumps – always downwards towards the dock and always when I am clicking something. The usual outcome is that I end up clicking on an application that I don’t actually want to open.
This doesn’t happen more than a few times a week and isn’t the most annoying of my Mac problems, but it still exists. I have now moved slow-to-open programs such as iPhoto off my dock so they don’t slow me down when they accidentally open.
Now, listed together, these four Mac problems are probably enough to make committed Windows users shake their heads knowingly as if they prove all of their prejudices about Macs are true. So let me put this in perspective:
None of these things would even tempt me to go back to Windows.
It’s quite hard to quantify why. I probably now put up with more day-to-day Mac problems than I did day-to-day Windows problems (using Windows 7 on a well specified machine). However, things like wonderful battery life and hardware that is a joy to use outweigh them. And when I say “joy to use,” I mean this on a scale that I have never experienced with ANY PC laptop hardware (and as a long term IT worker, I have used plenty of all makes and prices).
The MacBook Pro is Still a Joy to Use
I should also point out that I am using an “in-place” upgraded operating system on my Mac (Snow Leopard to Lion). Every in-place Windows upgrade I have witnessed has turned the computer in question into a slow, flaky mess, so to come out the other end with only manageable quirks could actually be considered progress!
I do always have the option of doing a clean install of Lion, which I am sure to do eventually (if Apple don’t tempt me with a new, updated MacBook Pro first!)
Before anyone calls “Apple fanboy,” I would hope that you can recognise me as quite the opposite. I have gone from Windows to Mac before and went quickly back to Windows. But now, having taken the time to thoroughly learn the OS and build up a set of applications and tools that suit my workflow perfectly, I genuinely feel I have a computer that works alongside me better than any I have had before. I’m being honest about my Mac problems, but I’m being honest about that too.
Posted in Apple Hardware, Apple Mac Performance, Software Problems, Using MAC OS X | 
Tags: apple mac problems, mac problems, using macbook pro | 
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Magsafe Problem – Mac Charger Not Working
Magsafe Problem
As you can read here, my current MacBook Pro doesn’t represent my first attempt at switching from Windows to Mac.
My first attempt was some years ago with one of the very first white MacBooks.
It didn’t go well.
My battery failed just months in, and then I had a Magsafe problem – basically the cable on my snazzy Magsafe charger melted – something that judging by the forums at the time seemed extremely common.
I am therefore rather disappointed to report that, just eight months into the life of my new MacBook Pro, I have had to call Apple for a new charger.
To start with I thought the connector wasn’t sitting well in the socket – a quick nudge always got the laptop charging – but the situation has now deteriorated to the point that I have to sit and play with the lead for five minutes at a time to get the laptop to charge.
I can no longer work while the laptop is charging, as the slightest movement results in the charge cycle stopping. So I am having to time my breaks around charging my Mac.
Now, let’s keep in mind that I love my Mac, but it is certainly a blow to have similar charger problems on this Mac as well. And before anyone asks – no, I don’t treat the charger roughly – in fact my Mac rarely leaves the house.
This takes me on to why I ended up annoyed with Apple last time around, and why I am similarly irritated this time. A call to Apple quickly resulted in the dispatch of a new power supply – but with a key caveat. (What was less simple was getting one dispatched to my home when I live in Portugal but only speak good English – hence my wife collecting the PSU from London today – but that’s a whole other story).
Apple has a policy of taking credit card details and putting a hold on the replacement cost of the part in question. They then charge this to your card if you fail to return the faulty part within ten working days.
This bothers me. I have purchased a product and it has gone wrong within warranty. I have already been inconvenienced by being unable to use my expensive computer in the way it was intended, and by taking time out of my day to phone Apple. WHY should any of that result in my having to hand over my credit card details?
I know that Apple are basically protecting themselves from people blagging free parts, but they are the only company I have come across who do this. Certainly, in my dealings with HP and Dell, they are happy to send parts out on trust – and that is as it should be. After all, I trusted in Apple when I handed over the four-figure sum for my MacBook Pro.
Let’s be clear once again. I adore my Mac – using it pleases me every day…but this heavy handed warranty procedure marked the first stage in my falling out of love with the last one. I hope it doesn’t happen again – I really want this to be my last Magsafe problem.
PS. When I searched for an image for this article, guess what I found? Hundreds of photos of melted Magsafe adaptors….
Is the iPhone Really Any Good for Games?
Last week I completed my conversion to the Apple religion. I swapped my Samsung Android phone for an iPhone 4S.
If I’m being honest I always wanted an iPhone really, but I struggled to justify the cost. As I live between two countries, I really needed to buy one SIM free so I could use it in both places with different SIM cards – and a contractless iPhone is not a small expense.
So, I bought a cheap Android phone. Much as I tried to fall in love with it, it wasn’t to be. It was slow, the Android app store was filled with lots of crap that I wasn’t motivated to sort through, and, worst of all, it was rubbish as an Actual Phone.
It was time to give in, so I visited an Apple store while in London (hellish on a Saturday, by the way, but the service was fast and seamless – impressive). I took a deep breath and handed over my debit card.
iPhone 4s - My New Toy
Before I could use it, my SIM cards needed to be trimmed down to Apple’s MicroSIM size, and as I don’t really do “cut and stick,” I asked other people to help me with that – thankfully both cards survived their surgery.
I’m sure I don’t have to go on too much about the iPhone itself – after all, what is there that everyone doesn’t already know? It’s a joy to use, has far better battery life than my Android phone and works well as a phone. I don’t think anyone could deny that it is a superb device. My wife, not remotely bothered by technology and a committed Windows fan, badly wants an iPhone after playing with mine.
Needless to say, I quickly began filling it with apps, ranging from the incredibly useful (Instapaper) to the truly frivolous (a Keith Lemon soundboard).
I also added a range of games…and this is where I ceased to be quite so impressed.
I’m going to stick my neck out here and go against what seems to be the common consensus. I don’t think the iPhone is much cop as a gaming platform.
Now I appreciate that with the likes of Angry Birds, the light is burning brightly for the masses, but allow me to state my case.
Angry Birds - Meh
First off – control. Yes, there is the gyroscope, which is good for motion control (and I have had a bit of fun playing Real Racing), but iDevices don’t have any gaming buttons at all. So, games that aren’t motion or touch control all have these nasty virtual buttons on the touch screen. To me, games that use this (The Simpsons Arcade, Pix n Rush) are instantly unfair and frustrating.
Next, the games themselves; now I appreciate that they are mostly very cheap indeed, but they are all a little TOO disposable for my liking. Even Angry Birds seems a bit “meh” to me, once the novelty of its satisfying touch control has worn off. Ragdoll Blaster is the same – I went through 6 levels lasting about 10 seconds each and then couldn’t see the point. Fruit Ninja is great – but I spend two minutes on it and I’m ready to do something else.
Now there are some exceptions. Flight Control is enjoyable and absorbing, Touch Golf likewise, but these are still quite shallow experiences. A platform as powerful as the iPhone needs BIG games.
Real Racing for iPhone
I have a couple of these. The previously mentioned Real Racing and a Tiger Woods golf game. These are more like grown up console games, but both share a common problem that I find really irritating. When they provide instructions between levels, the onscreen text disappears so quick you can’t read it – presumably on slower, older iDevices, this is not a problem. That doesn’t help me though.
To frame my disappointment in context, I will disclose that I also possess a Nintendo 3DS. I appreciate that I have recently been spoiled with the likes of Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land. However, this is not the point.
I have also spent some enjoyable evenings downloading truly vintage monochrome Gameboy games such as Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong and a Kirby-based Arkanoid clone. All of these have kept me glued to the console for hours at a time with that “one more go” compulsion that gaming is all about. NOTHING on the iPhone has done the same, despite my deliberately choosing games from “The best iPhone games” online lists.
Mario Land 2 - Compelling
These are 25-year-old, black and white games, often only amounting to about 32k of code, and they are proving more compelling than the full-colour, full-HD efforts made today. That can’t be right, surely?
Is this ALL due to the lack of a proper D-pad and “A” and “B” buttons on the iPhone? Am I missing the point of these games and not giving them enough of a chance? Are there games out there that will change my opinion? Please share your views in the comment box below.
Mac App Review – Skitch
One of the things I often have to do on my Mac as part of my work is to take screenshots – both as part of producing articles, and to explain via email how to carry out certain tasks in order to assist my private clients.
When I first got my Mac, I was happy to discover that OS X had a built in way to take screenshots, both of the entire screen, and of a subsection of it. It was pleasing to discover that the process for doing so was more intuitive than the Windows way.
Recently though, I have had a need for more functionality when it comes to screenshots, so I had a search for cheap apps to help me. I never expected to find something as fantastic as I did for no money at all.
Enter Skitch, a wonderful free app from the people behind the popular Evernote.
Skitch - Running on a MacBook Pro
Skitch is a great example of why I love my Mac. It’s one of those programs that’s just so pleasing to use. Activated by a keyboard shortcut, the program instantly produces some crosshairs so I can take an accurate screenshot, and the shot then appears in the program’s interface, where it is super-quick to make annotations and add arrows and circles.
Once done, you simply drag a perforated part of the program window to wherever you want to save the screenshot.
Skitch offers plenty of more advanced features as well, such as the ability to save screenshots online for sharing, and add frames and shadow effects. Best of all, it seems to work seamlessly with the Windows installation that I have running as a virtual machine courtesy of Parallels – making this ideal for me when I need to screenshot a process for clients who still do things the Microsoft way.
I have also ended up using the program for other purposes. As it is so quick to access with Command+Shift+5, I have used it to grab portions of maps from the Web, and even to save a recipe I need to print out, without having to print out a whole Web page.
Skitch is such a perfect app, it’s a wonder that it is free – but like all the best things in life, it is. Download it now!
Quirks of the MacBook Pro
My lovely MacBook Pro is “part of the furniture” now. I would stop just short of saying that I take it for granted, but I am now marginally less wowed by its shiny lights and scrabble tile keyboard than I once was.
Before I proceed with a few criticisms, I must say that, all-in-all, I am very fond indeed of this laptop, perhaps more so than any I have owned before, and I now zoom very happily around OS X Lion. I am finding it increasingly difficult to compare OS X with Windows, as the OS X way is just the way I do things these days. Significantly though, I can assure anyone thinking of making the switch that, in time, you do completely adapt to the Apple way of doing things, and I never at any point feel like the OS is slowing me down.
All that said, my MacBook Pro does have some quirks, and I’m fascinated to find out whether they are common quirks or just unique to my machine. For that reason, if you have experienced any of the same things, please do comment and let me know.
1. My MBP is really funny about coming out of hibernation. Sleep mode when closing the lid is just fine, until the battery runs down. If I have to plug it in before switching back on, then exactly what will happen next is unpredictable.
After putting my password in, (I have full disk encryption enabled), I see a progress bar. Sometimes this gets to three or four bars and then beeps at me, sometimes it then turns into a white screen and I get a “Kernel Panic,” (you need to restart your computer), and other times it asks me for my password a few more times before eventually returning me to my session.
I’ve come to view this behavior with the kind of affection usually reserved for an eccentric aunt, but, in truth, it is really irritating sometimes when I am ready to start work and have to mess about for ten minutes before I have a booted computer. Any suggestions?
2. It may be just me, or my unergonomic, slouchy and semi-reclined working position, but my touchpad seems to be a bit flaky and periodically jumps my pointer to the bottom of the screen. This is annoying as it is usually when I am clicking and results in my starting an app I don’t want. If it’s iPhoto, then I am in for a long wait to close it again!
MacBook Pro - Annoying Random Dock Clicks
3. Apple’s Preview app is really slow. Is it that hard to show me a PDF or a JPG? Is this normal? I mean slow slow – i.e. slower-than-any-other-app kind of slow.
4. Every now and then, a load of undeletable numbered files appear on my desktop, only to disappear again when I restart.
5. Parallels, the virtual machine application I use to run Windows 7, still flatly refuses to remember which “space” to run within. A tiny irritation, but still.
So there you have it, the quirks of my 2011 MacBook Pro. None of them are deal breakers and none of them tempt me back in the direction of Windows, but I would love to find out more – are these common “Mac-ism” issues, or unique to me? If you can contribute, please comment below!
Posted in Apple Mac Performance, OS X Lion, Using MAC OS X | Tags: macbook issues, macbook pro problems, macbook pro quirks | No Comments »
My MacBook Pro(s and Cons)
As I discussed a few weeks ago on “Becoming an Apple Fanboy,” a few months on, I am pretty delighted with my switch from Windows to Mac.
Not everything is perfect though, so I thought now would be a good time to discuss exactly what I love and don’t love about my MacBook Pro, with a comparison to my old Windows 7 laptop in mind.
THINGS I LOVE
GESTURES: The touchpad gestures that form part of the OSX Lion experience are now such a huge part of my day-to-day workflow that using a Windows laptop seems positively primitive by comparison. I particularly love two-fingered scrolling, a three fingered swipe to go back on a web page, and a four fingered swipe to switch between desktop “spaces.”
OSX Gestures - A Wonderful Time Saver
BATTERY LIFE: Even though the battery life of my MacBook Pro is less since I upgraded to OSX Lion, it’s sill great. In the morning, I just have to press the little hardware button on the side of the laptop and if I see more than three green lights, I know I can settle down to work with hours to go before I have to go and fetch the charger. It’s the simple things.
PARALLELS: I don’t go into Windows 7 all that much, but knowing it is just THERE all the time is really handy. It has also come in useful when visiting friends have wanted to browse the Web. I just swipe across to Windows and let them use that, rather than have them “playing” with my Mac!
MUSIC: iTunes is fast and responsive, Traktor, my DJ software, just WORKS, and GarageBand is great fun for the odd creative couple of hours. All of this stuff works seamlessly, where it always used to stutter and stumble under Windows.
SCREENSHOTTING: A simple CMD+SHIFT+3/4 allows me to take a screen shot of everything or just a selection of the screen. I use this all the time, and it makes the Windows “PrintScreen” equivalent feel clunky and awkward.
THINGS I DON’T LOVE
PHOTO HANDLING: iPhoto, for my large library of photos, seems slow and flaky. Picasa is better, but I miss Windows´ simple image importation, easy browsing of folders and cursor-key flicks between pictures using the simple picture and fax viewer.
OSX - Missing an easy way to browse photos from the OS
APPLICATION SWITCHING: This is only a “post-Lion” criticism. I was happy with Expose, which showed me everything I had open with a press of F3. Mission Control seems random and only shows me active Windows. I get annoyed with the fact I often have to use the “”Window” menu within an application to get to a hidden window. It makes me miss the “peek” facility of Windows 7. Apple, please change this in 10.7.3…
RANDOM TOUCHPAD JUMPS: Perhaps specific to my MacBook Pro, about three times a day I will click on something, only for the cursor to jump to my dock and open a random program. Irritating.
MAIL COLLECTION: I am perfectly happy with the Mail App, in fact my transition to it after long term use of Outlook has been surprisingly easy, BUT if I select the option to synchronize all mailboxes, I would really like a progress window to appear consistently, rather than just show when it feels like it. I’m a techie, I like to know stuff.
So, there you have it. The pros and cons, so far, of my switch from Windows to Mac. Do any other switchers have experiences to share?
Posted in Apple Mac Performance, OS X Lion, Using MAC OS X | Tags: mac advantages, mac plus points, switching windows to mac | 1 Comment »
Day to Day Use of Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop is one of the programs I use every day on my MacBook Pro. I permanently have a Windows 7 virtual machine running full-screen on one of the “Spaces” within Mac OSX. A quick four-fingered swipe to the right or left switches me instantly between Mac OSX and Windows 7.
OS X and Windows 7 Under Parallels Desktop
In terms of the software I use regularly, my migration to all things Mac is nearly complete, so I thought it would be interesting to look at what I actually still use Windows 7 for, and also give my overall impressions of Parallels, after several months of daily use.
First, to fill readers in on the technical details. I am running Parallels Desktop 6.0.12094 on a 2011 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM installed. My Windows 7 virtual machine has 3GB of RAM dedicated to it, and one of four processor cores. In the end I decided to stick with just a 32 bit version of Windows, due to the better performance I discussed in a previous article: Windows 7 with Parallels Desktop for Mac.
The main thing I still use Windows 7 for is Microsoft Outlook. Not, however, for email. I am perfectly happy with Mail, which integrates beautifully with my hosted Exchange account. I am less happy with iCal as a substitute for the calendar and task functionality. Although I sometimes glance at iCal for a quick check of my calendar, whenever I am scheduling time or tasks, it is Outlook I still turn to.
I have tried to break away from this habit, even trying making use of Wunderlist alongside iCal, but it simply isn’t as nice to use – the main reason being that I love the combined view of the calendar with the tasks shown below each day.
Wunderlist - A good product, but not what I was looking for
Now, I know that I could purchase Outlook for the Mac. Indeed, I already own Word, Excel and Powerpoint, but sadly Outlook is only part of a far more expensive edition of Office for Mac, and as I already own Office for Windows I can’t justify the cost.
Other than my stubborn attachment to Outlook 2010, my Windows 7 VM is mainly used for my obsolete accountancy package, Microsoft Office Accounting. As this software is no longer supported I really should migrate, but as I discussed in my article on Apple Mac Invoicing Software, a good replacement has been surprisingly elusive. If any readers have any suggestions I would be most grateful.
Other than these two key applications, my other main use of Windows via Parallels is for providing remote technical support to some of my clients using Windows PCs and servers. I use terminal services and GotoAssist, and both work more smoothly this way than when using the Mac clients.
That is about it. I haven’t browsed the Web within the Windows environment for as long as I remember, and, all in all, I probably spend 98% of my time in Mac OSX, which I am coming to love.
I can’t see me ditching Parallels though, tempting though it would be to gift that extra 3GB of RAM to OS X Lion. For starters, Lion is fine with the 5GB it has, and because some of my work is still IT related, I really do still need access to a Windows environment.
I think I have settled into my “everyday use” phase with Parallels, and, operationally, I experience minimal glitches – certainly nothing that, as yet, tempts me to upgrade to Parallels 7, irritatingly released very soon after I purchased the previous version.
Parallels 6 - Version 7 is now available
What problems DO I have? Well, Parallels stubbornly refuses to remember which OS X “space” to run within, meaning I have to drag it to the correct space every time I open it. This, however, may well be an issue with OS X Lion, and not the software.
The other thing is that the Windows environment seems to be greedy with peripherals and input devices. If I put a DVD in the drive, then 9 times out of 10 it will start to play in Windows Media Play within Windows 7, when I want it to play in Mac mode. The same applies with my printer – I have to suspend the Parallels VM to print from OS X, which is irritating. Annoying, there is no real consistency to this. If I plug in my Kindle or any external storage device, Parallels immediately asks me which environment I wish to “Plug” the device into…it just doesn’t work with everything.
In the grand scheme of things, these are fairly small criticisms, and I am overall very impressed with Parallels Desktop. This overview of how I actually use it also reveals something else….I am quickly becoming a huge OS X convert—-EVEN with OS X Lion in the picture!
Posted in Reviews, Windows on Mac | Tags: parallels 6, parallels desktop, parallels for mac | 1 Comment »
Mac OS X Lion – The 10.7.2 Update
Well, this is good news. The 10.7.2 update to Mac OSX Lion seems to have resolved some of the problems I have previously moaned about.
Released last week, the main purpose of 10.7.2 was to launch the Apple’s iCloud data storage service, something that, I must confess, doesn’t really interest me one bit. However, I am a bit old school with computers and prefer to be responsible for my own data.
I was more interested in the big fixes and performance enhancements—basically anything that makes Lion feel a little more like Snow Leopard did in terms of speed and responsiveness.
So far I’m pretty happy. Most importantly, since it has installed I have had no big “hold the button down” system crashes, so, to me, the biggest bugbear is now resolved. I am also delighted that they have fixed the spinning beachball problem on the App Store which was really bugging me. The cloud surrounding that particular silver lining is that my credit card will once again take a hammering as I buy lots of tempting little apps.
OS X 10.7.2 - An Improvement
My other observation is purely subjective, but I THINK everything seems a little snappier…not that this 8GB MacBook Pro is ever slow, but it does seem quicker. There is no scientific basis to this view whatsoever!
Apple still has some work to do for 10.7.3. Startup and shutdown time is still not a patch on Snow Leopard, and, now two revisions in, I wonder if it ever will be. The other thing……Mission Control. Despite perseverance, this still seems pretty random to me in terms of what it shows me, and multiple windows of the same application should be stacked so that each can be accessed. I am tiring of having to use the “Window” menu to go back to an email or document that I am half way through working on. If I am missing the point of how this works somehow, someone please tell me – you will improve my working day no end!