Technology catch-all thread

[Jake]

Somewhat luckily, I do have some prior experience owning a Mac so it isn't a total paradigm shift for me. Both OSes have their pluses and minuses and in this case, it was the hardware as much as anything. I knew that this hardware and software combo was an incredibly safe choice - and that I couldn't afford what I consider a safe choice on PC right now.

 

My next step is setting up an external monitor for my home office, once the money for it materializes.

 

And I downloaded Yosemite on this bad boy - totally worth it for the interface refresh alone, as I found the prior iterations to be rather dated. This sucker is beautiful.

[Y2HH]

Somewhat luckily, I do have some prior experience owning a Mac so it isn't a total paradigm shift for me. Both OSes have their pluses and minuses and in this case, it was the hardware as much as anything. I knew that this hardware and software combo was an incredibly safe choice - and that I couldn't afford what I consider a safe choice on PC right now.

 

My next step is setting up an external monitor for my home office, once the money for it materializes.

 

And I downloaded Yosemite on this bad boy - totally worth it for the interface refresh alone, as I found the prior iterations to be rather dated. This sucker is beautiful.

 

I've still not installed Yosemite since I use this for work quite a bit and need to make sure everything works before I make the change (I'm sure it does, but not worth risking it considering it's going to be coming out soon anyway).

 

I grew up a Commodore kid, having a C64 and then moving onto their (amazing at the time) Amiga line of computers...in the mid 90's I made the switch to Windows 95 beta (I used practically every beta of W95 from the start), which forced me to learn it inside and out. That said, the PC hardware SUCKED back then, but of course vastly improved as time went on. It took until the late 2000's (2008 to be exact), to move on from Windows to OSX...and I haven't looked back. The ONLY thing Windows has that OSX lacks at this point is game support (and even that's changed over the years with Blizzard and Steam supporting OSX)...and as I got older and played less games, this really stopped being a concern. At this point, I see no advantages to Windows in a TCP/IP cloud world.

[Jake]

My first real interaction w/ OS X was (I think) Mountain Lion, so by then it was a lot like the OS it is now. And, of course, by then (just about 5 years ago) the irritations associated with moving away from Microsoft weren't all that significant. They still aren't. My gripes are very far from dealbreakers.

 

As someone who is locked into MS Office, my main hope at this point is for Microsoft to deliver on the promised Office for Mac 2014 update. Not only do I not have much choice in regard to using Office, I really quite like Office 2013 on Windows. I'm also missing the smooth OneDrive integration w/ Windows 8.1, as I'm basically locked into that via the 1TB of storage I have with them through my Office 365 subscription.

 

I'm thrilled that Microsoft brought OneNote to Mac and it really shows that it isn't built on decades of old code. I hope that is suggestive of how they'll deal with the next Office for Mac iteration.

 

My absolute favorite Mac feature, which is also something that Ubuntu/Linux Mint/others have been implementing, is the notification center. Likewise, I think it's among the biggest flaws of Windows 8. They brought in these wonderful toast notifications, but once they've happened, they're just gone.

[Jake]

Biggest disappiontment thus far has been battery life. I'm not even getting 8 hours despite sub-50% brightness, and nothing open except Chrome or Firefox (tried both to see if it would help with battery life). I even factory reset and went back to Mavericks to make sure it wasn't just something related to the Yosemite beta. The device is rated for 12 hours and lots of reports were saying it exceeded that 12 hour claim when web browsing. I'm not power using it at this point and it's falling far short of that claim.

[nitetrain8601]

Biggest disappiontment thus far has been battery life. I'm not even getting 8 hours despite sub-50% brightness, and nothing open except Chrome or Firefox (tried both to see if it would help with battery life). I even factory reset and went back to Mavericks to make sure it wasn't just something related to the Yosemite beta. The device is rated for 12 hours and lots of reports were saying it exceeded that 12 hour claim when web browsing. I'm not power using it at this point and it's falling far short of that claim.

 

That's weird. I would see if Apple was willing to switch out the battery for you.

[nitetrain8601]

I've run Parallels, but I prefer VMWare Fusion over it. You shouldn't have any ghosting problems and if you did, I'm sure it's fixable under warranty anyway.

 

You won't be a Windows fan much longer if you actually give OSX a real chance, especially Windows 8, which is a total suckfest OS on non-touch based systems. Just run a Google search for Windows users switching to OSX or Mac, there are probably 5000 websites dedicated to it. There are a few daunting changes, but after you get used to Apple's way vs Microsoft's way, you won't really notice it anymore. And for power users, OSX simply blows Windows away, as it's full UNIX.

 

I once made this same jump from Windows to OSX myself, and at first there were things I couldn't figure out how to do, etc...but anything you can do on Windows, there is a way to do it on OSX, and after you learn it all, I doubt you'll look back. I HATE having to boot into Windows at this point, and thankfully the way the world has moved on, there isn't a lot of need to do it anymore aside from the few games that REQUIRE directX.

 

Windows 8 isn't a total suckfest. Do you get the full capabilities if you don't have touchscreen or a Kinect? No. In the end, all you are missing is touch though. Not much of a deal breaker to anyone really as Apple, as far as I know hasn't introduced anything similar. And since he would be getting Windows 8.1(which improved greatly on whatever was wrong with 8), and a Surface Pro 3(which is touchscreen), seems like you were just fishing to take a shot at another non-Apple related product.

 

Last, but not least, isn't Parallels a program that allows you to install a virtual instance of Windows on a Mac? If Windows sucks so much, why would you want to do that?

 

In the end, both systems work differently and are best for different people. Both also have major flaws. No need to take shots at people who use Windows over Mac or even say an OS is crap when in reality, it's not.

[Y2HH]

Windows 8 isn't a total suckfest. Do you get the full capabilities if you don't have touchscreen or a Kinect? No. In the end, all you are missing is touch though. Not much of a deal breaker to anyone really as Apple, as far as I know hasn't introduced anything similar. And since he would be getting Windows 8.1(which improved greatly on whatever was wrong with 8), and a Surface Pro 3(which is touchscreen), seems like you were just fishing to take a shot at another non-Apple related product.

 

Last, but not least, isn't Parallels a program that allows you to install a virtual instance of Windows on a Mac? If Windows sucks so much, why would you want to do that?

 

In the end, both systems work differently and are best for different people. Both also have major flaws. No need to take shots at people who use Windows over Mac or even say an OS is crap when in reality, it's not.

 

Next time read before you reply.

 

First, certain software is only available on Windows, so maybe that's why you'd run Parallels or VMware?

 

You're right, Apple hasn't introduced a touch centric OS onto devices that don't support touch, probably because that makes no sense whatsoever?

 

I never said Windows 8 or 8.1 was a bad OS for touch screen devices (and if you actually bothered to read my post you'd have known that), such as the Surface, for which it was actually designed. For THOSE devices, it's a really good OS.

 

And last but not least, I never took a shot for someone using something they enjoy using. You're paying for it, use it. But I absolutely can have the OPINION that Windows 8 sucks, whether you like it or not, and share said opinion when asked...which I was.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Y2HH

[Brian]

I'm not a fan of the Windows 8 lay out. I switch to classic but on my laptop, I always do something, I don't know what, and it switches back to the new layout. Its frustrating.

[chw42]

I'm getting AT&T's gigabit internet once I move to my new apartment next week. Pretty excited. I have 50 mbps right now and I have trouble imagining something 20 times faster.

Edited August 31, 2014 by chw42

[nitetrain8601]

Next time read before you reply.

 

First, certain software is only available on Windows, so maybe that's why you'd run Parallels or VMware?

 

You're right, Apple hasn't introduced a touch centric OS onto devices that don't support touch, probably because that makes no sense whatsoever?

 

I never said Windows 8 or 8.1 was a bad OS for touch screen devices (and if you actually bothered to read my post you'd have known that), such as the Surface, for which it was actually designed. For THOSE devices, it's a really good OS.

 

And last but not least, I never took a shot for someone using something they enjoy using. You're paying for it, use it. But I absolutely can have the OPINION that Windows 8 sucks, whether you like it or not, and share said opinion when asked...which I was.

 

Seems like I struck a nerve there. The only valuable thing you said in the original post was VMware or fusion. Everything else was you talking about how Windows is the worst so hell love his switch to Mac.

 

Worry about Apples servers being hacked and what you're going to do once you find out your info was compromised.

[Jake]

It turns out that I do get reasonably close to promised battery life if I use Safari.

[nitetrain8601]

It turns out that I do get reasonably close to promised battery life if I use Safari.

 

What browser did you use before? Curious because we are implementing Macs at my job.

[Y2HH]

Seems like I struck a nerve there. The only valuable thing you said in the original post was VMware or fusion. Everything else was you talking about how Windows is the worst so hell love his switch to Mac.

 

Worry about Apples servers being hacked and what you're going to do once you find out your info was compromised.

 

The VERY post you quoted of me literally has me saying, "...Windows 8, which is a total suckfest OS on non-touch based systems."

 

So as stated, read.

[Jake]

What browser did you use before? Curious because we are implementing Macs at my job.

 

Both Chrome and Firefox were equally poor. Firefox was my preferred browser. Apparently I'm not the only to notice this

[Y2HH]

Both Chrome and Firefox were equally poor. Firefox was my preferred browser. Apparently I'm not the only to notice this

 

This should fix when Chrome moves to 64bit, but as to why Firefox is doing it I don't know...maybe because of it's lack of split process?

[RockRaines]

This should fix when Chrome moves to 64bit, but as to why Firefox is doing it I don't know...maybe because of it's lack of split process?

Firefox is a memory hog. If you look at the heap it's very clear. I never keep it on.

[Balta1701]

Firefox is a memory hog. If you look at the heap it's very clear. I never keep it on.

They're pretty much all struggling with flash for me lately, Chrome is the worst of those. I'll have Firefox around for flash things that are dying in Chrome.

[chw42]

They're pretty much all struggling with flash for me lately, Chrome is the worst of those. I'll have Firefox around for flash things that are dying in Chrome.

 

It's the opposite for me. FF crashes all the time when there's anything flash based on my work computer. Haven't had any issues with Chrome.

[Y2HH]

Flash needs to go.

[Steve9347]

Flash needs to go.

I can't believe companies are still developing websites with Flash. It's irresponsible.

[bmags]

Now that Google sent out that warning that flash sites will get a hit in the rankings it won't be long now.

[Y2HH]

Note 4 looks like a decent iteration on their Note series of devices...but WTF with that Note Edge? Are they honestly searching out gimmicks for the sake of nothing at this point?

 

As for the VR thing...cool looking but seems like the next 3D.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Y2HH

[chw42]

Note 4 looks like a decent iteration on their Note series of devices...but WTF with that Note Edge? Are they honestly searching out gimmicks for the sake of nothing at this point?

 

As for the VR thing...cool looking but seems like the next 3D.

 

Samsung likes throwing stuff against the wall and see what sticks.

 

I guess the Edge is their way of showing off their curved display technology.

[Jake]

I do think Samsung is happy to mass produce a proof of concept

[Jake]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/02/apples-tw...reams/?ncid=rss

 

While we don't know whether any of the iCloud recent hacking/theft victims had two-factor authentication, it wouldn't have protected their photos