Ye Macce Threade

[Dusty Chalk]

If you're still running a hard drive, SSD's run much cooler.

 

That said, I use this X-shaped one on my Sony Vaio at home:

 

 

I forget why, probably just because it looked cool and didn't do any worse than any of the others I could find based on a quick survey of amazon ratings while standing in a MicroCenter.  The little nubs bother me, though -- I would have thought that you'd want full contact, rather than spacers.

[jvlgato]

About 2 wks on the MBA 11" i7, and I like it a lot better than the i5. It just feels more responsive,  with no more frustrating pauses. The i5 wasn't particularly slow, but it wasn't responsive - it had to 'think' on a regular basis. Slight pauses - nothing awful, but enough that I'd wonder if I had clicked the trackpad or not, then just as I went to click again, it would respond. Just a little annoying. The i7 just doesn't do that. I won't say the i7 is a speed demon, but it's a lot more responsive, and I've never felt that I needed more speed. Battery power has been perfectly fine, as well. I haven't worn the battery down to zero, but I've used it for routine computing (no video viewing, lots of surfing, word processing, large spreadsheet and database manipulation, virtual XP on Parallels) for several hours at a time and still was well over 60%. I think it'd hit 10 hours for sure doing what I'm doing. 

 

So Mavericks is supposed to fine tune power saving further, and maybe that will improve system responsiveness with the i5. Or maybe it's just the i5. Time will tell. In the meantime, I'm really happy with this one and don't feel any need to change things. For now, I would definitely recommend the Haswell i7 over i5 at least for the portable sets that I've tried.

[Knuckledragger]

After doing some digging, I think I'm going to get this laptop cooler, which is kind of similar to Dusty's. It has a 200mm fan, which should move a decent amount of air without making a racket.

[Grahame]

^And the all important Blue LED

[MexicanDragon]

Dusty, the spacers will be good for added airflow between the cooler and the bottom of the laptop.

**BRENT**

[crappyjones123]

Called b and h photo to buy 2 MacBook airs and see if they would match the price of the apple care I got a year ago. The guy said that b and h photo is not allowed to sell apple care to anyone in Florida. Wtf is this bullshit?

[grawk]

too much insurance fraud in florida

[Dreadhead]

Florida law only allows purchase directly from manufacturer apparently. (I'm waiting for a repair and bored so I looked it up, not an apple user)

[agile_one]

cj ... find AppleCare on eBay.  

[blessingx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn-8J2zZiRo

[Bigguy]

Went to see their so-called genius' at Apple to fix my external optical drive on my MBP.  Nothing mechanical wrong, just the F'D up OS wouldn't initialize the dvd player.   I could see the DVD but it wouldn't play.  I apparently know more than the genius so I came home and fixed it myself by finding a fix online.  I allegedly contaminated their product by upgrading to an SSD so they wouldn't be liable.  It is past any warranty anyway.  Only cost was wasting an hour at Apple store.

[Bigguy]

I like Apple.  I own many of the items they produce.  I was just disappointed that their genius couldn't solve a problem but I eventually could.  I guess I read too much into the title "Genius".  I demonstrated the problem to 2 different ones with no solution.  My inference to contaminated was his attitude about a non-stock MBP being beyond their responsiblitlity.  I think as others do too, that is came about when I did a OSX software update, because it worked before.   Anyway, it's works now so I am a happy camper until the next update.  BTW I am still running Lion because several of my key pieces of software do not work under Mountain LIon.  I can't wait to see what Mavericks will do to them.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Bigguy

[Bigguy]

 

 

If your software only runs with L, then your software is broken.

You are right, the software is from Adobe and Microsoft.  They are flaky companies at best.

[Bigguy]

Windoze 8!  NEVER!!  I know it is the software producers responsibility to make their packages work with new OS'.  I have similar issues with winders. 

[Bigguy]

My only problem was that apple's dvd player appeared to stop working after apple put out a software update.  Not a third party software.  The genius implied that because the MBP came with the optical drive installed internally originally and now it is external that the software was unable to initialize the DVD player.  Again, he had no solution and said he has never seen this issue.  I found a solution by searching the interweb and also found many other people with the same problem.  When I first moved the optical drive, last year, to external, I did have to reset a pointer to have it look for an external optical and all was good. 

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm not big guy, but I think he already answered your question, the problem is one of terminology -- they call themselves 'geniuses'!  Pfff...that's the mistake right der.

[Sherwood]

I worked as an apple genius.  The primary issue is one of time.  Your appointment, unbeknownst to you, was a 15 minute block.  Every minute over that was one the next person in line could not get back, and genii make that time up by skipping breaks and lunch.  Not an excuse, exactly, but an explanation.

 

In any case, I agree with Jacob here.  I get why you are upset that your issue wasn't solved, and that's fair, but you're the one who already modified the "pointers" on the OS to accept an external drive.  That's something you're now committed to maintaining.  I bet if they took it home and spent an hour reading about the problem online they could fix it as well, but you can't expect them to spend that kind of time.

[blessingx]

Nothing against past or current Geniuses specifically, but over the years I don't believe they've ever solved a problem I've had (except in being an unnecessary step in approving a replacement). Apple users, of course, are all over the map in technical knowledge (including many doing hours of homework first), but I certainly think the launch expectations and title indicates a level of familiarity of Apple and third-party Apple sold products that was never reached in at least the stores in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. And the Apple system still seems built around that expectation (or I suppose in majority of customers relative ignorance).

Edited August 1, 2013 by blessingx

[grawk]

My experience with the apple genius bar is they're great at solving normal problems and for approving hardware replacement. Way better than dealing with most companies' phone support for the same style problems. Given the general lack of cost associated with such support, that's about all that can be expected. $0 buys a lot more at an apple genius bar than it does from ibm support, for example.

You definitely shouldn't expect anything that isn't solvable with a google search or a cookbook.

[Sherwood]

You definitely shouldn't expect anything that isn't solvable with a google search or a cookbook.

 

Ding ding ding.  The original genius bar concept didn't even include troubleshooting.  Just sitting down at a counter and having someone who loved macs to bounce ideas off of.  People could literally come in off the street and be geniuses in residence.

 

Now of course, it's tech support.  I would say that folks I worked with were able to solve most problems, or greenlight a quick repair/replacement.  Complex stuff is a tall order.  Especially when you, as an enthusiast, are already at the end of your rope.

[blessingx]

For the record the last Genius I talked to was confused by USB powered hard drives.

[shellylh]

^

[The Monkey]

These drives...they're hard!

[blessingx]

what did they find confusing?

The power side. It was a last second question not related to the actual appointment about drive choices about 15 feet away and he gave an out of date/incorrect FW v. USB generic answers. Basically 'buy FireWire if you don't want to use AC.' I didn't expect anything after that on the issue so didn't pursue.

Listen, I don't want to pick on them too much. It's all perspective as Grawk said. Personally, I rarely use them for basic service (I was already talking with this guy so asked that question) so it ends up being an extra, time-consuming step in replacement. I think the first time I had a Genius visit was in Palo Alto with a well web documented charging issue with the 1G iPod (eventually fixed months later with a firmware update, though at the time cause unknown), and it was a hassle just getting the guy to agree the two hour charge was abnormal for a couple month old iPod. Most visits are like that. Fighting a bit on the recognition of the problem, then replacing. I know others have very different (even out of warranty) experiences.

But I must take back the comment about not "ever solved a problem." The non-unibody molded MacBooks (aka BlackBook in my case) had a habit of warping over time and the optical drives failing to read as the keyboard/sides shifted down and putting pressure on it. A Genius showed me how to use a knife inserted into the drive slot to force it back by applying pressure up every few months. I'm a little mixed on that fix, but it indeed worked for quite a while.

[blessingx]

"Let's build a statue of Steve Jobs!" | Indiegogo http://feedly.com/k/19lJrTa