Author Topic: Macbook/Macbook Pro thread (Read 474312 times)

24/7 · « **Reply #5720 on:** January 18, 2021, 04:30:07 pm »

Quote from: TepidT2O on January 18, 2021, 04:16:59 pm

I’ve never used a Mac... but I still find windows infuriating to use after 3 bloody decades of using it.

Would I get the same experience moving to a Mac? Ie it just works...

It just works - it's beautifully intuitive - I'm okay with both - and actually have found things like filing/archiving methodology in windows helped me organise my work well in the mac and found my experience with mac helped me navigate through the more fuckwittery nonsense in windows and find hacks - but the UX generally speaking on mac hasn't changed much since I started using them in 1992.......

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5721 on:** January 19, 2021, 12:07:34 am »

The interesting thing about this is that Apple users will quite often say that 'You can't say Apple is shite because it's brilliant and intuitve and great'

And then they go on to say 'But Windows is shite'

When quite clearly Windows is very good and has been improving year on year. I used it initially when probably many of you weren't born and we went from three monitors on the desk (One each for each type of Mainframe we worked on) and then one day this magic box appeared and the three huge monitors were removed (And these things were BIG)

On ONE machine you could open up a program called 'Outside View' and suddenly you had access to as many screens as you like - each coloured to the mainframe and the environment. It was like some kind of mad Voodoo and that was Windows 3.1

To many now it might look arcahic and 'shite' but at the time it was revolutionary. We went from desks loaded down with huge monitors to just a single machine that you could multi-task on, write documents on and each year Windows has got better and better. I thought Windows 7 was pretty good, but Windows 10 is even better and very powerful.

Yeah I probably went over the top having a go at Apples and iPhones - but to many they are like marmite - you tend to either love them or you hate them..

Personally I have a few Linux machines and if I wanted to do anything Linux-y then I would have used those and tend to use them on a more or less daily basis.

Each to their own..

CraigDS · « **Reply #5722 on:** January 19, 2021, 04:25:24 am »

Alrite Grandad.

Claire. · « **Reply #5723 on:** January 19, 2021, 06:57:38 am »

Quote from: Open the fucking pubs in Allerton on January 18, 2021, 12:54:04 pm

So after a few hours of dicking around have managed to get most stuff working.

Weird choices by Apple - the direction of scrolling on the mouse kind of sums it up - the opposite of Linux or Windows or anything I've used..

The one thing that seems to be impossible to do is to swap @ and "

Doing my head in now - I've tried going from a British keyboard to a US one and it seems impossible to get it to type the right key - can it be swapped?

Also - not having your disk drive visible? Scrolling the opposite way using the mouse wheel? Strange choices. Some apps you can double click the top to maximise and some you can't. Closing things with a close button on the left. No Start menu. Not opening actual tabs on Safari, but putting a weird thing that you have to press different keys to switch - all a lot harder and duffer than Chrome or Firefox or even Edge.. All a bit random.

The other thing I'm struggling with - when I have a window open and I'm trying to open another window on the same screen (Say Finder) - when you tab to it - it should display and it doesn't - I have to minimise the screen I'm looking at (Say Safari) to see the screen behind it? What possible use is that? Surely that can't be right?

Regarding the iPhone - just annoyed me because all the apps that I had on the Android all behaved differenty which I found annoying. Some things that seemed to work with one thing - side swipe - did nothing with others and some apps it seemed didn't want to be minimised easily. All randomly odd.

Have you not been in settings? You can change how your mouse/scrolling works. In finder options you can change what disks are shown. Safari does have tabs, so I don’t know what you’re talking about there! You can full screen an app and it’ll put it into its own desktop, start menu isn’t really a thing on macOS I guess the dock/app launcher/spotlight is the équivalent - I use spotlight 99.9% of the time. For windows and things, You can do a lot with gestures, look up mission control, it’s probably on your trackpad gestures to be honest and there’s also hot corners that are configurable.

TepidT2O · « **Reply #5724 on:** January 19, 2021, 07:38:49 am »

Windows isn’t shite... it’s just very frustrating... and it always has been.

But then I’ve never used Mac OS.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5725 on:** January 19, 2021, 09:07:09 am »

Quote from: Claire. on January 19, 2021, 06:57:38 am

Have you not been in settings? You can change how your mouse/scrolling works. In finder options you can change what disks are shown. Safari does have tabs, so I don’t know what you’re talking about there! You can full screen an app and it’ll put it into its own desktop, start menu isn’t really a thing on macOS I guess the dock/app launcher/spotlight is the équivalent - I use spotlight 99.9% of the time. For windows and things, You can do a lot with gestures, look up mission control, it’s probably on your trackpad gestures to be honest and there’s also hot corners that are configurable.

Thanks Claire - sorted all those things out, but much prefer Firefox (I use that on Windows and Linux as well)

Still not managed to get it to recognise my keyboard properly. It's obsessed with sticking the @ on the '2' key - US, British keyboards - makes no odds to it. Also it refuses to believe that a keyboard might have a numeric keyboard attached!

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5726 on:** January 19, 2021, 09:07:26 am »

Quote from: Craig 🤔 on January 19, 2021, 04:25:24 am

Alrite Grandad.

Aye

Claire. · « **Reply #5727 on:** January 19, 2021, 09:19:02 am »

Quote from: Open the fucking pubs in Allerton on January 19, 2021, 09:07:09 am

Thanks Claire - sorted all those things out, but much prefer Firefox (I use that on Windows and Linux as well)

Still not managed to get it to recognise my keyboard properly. It's obsessed with sticking the @ on the '2' key - US, British keyboards - makes no odds to it. Also it refuses to believe that a keyboard might have a numeric keyboard attached!

I switch between macOS and win10 all day, I have a dell laptop that I remote into from the Mac so I'm using the same Mac keyboard all the time and there's some other fun switcheroos - " + @ is the least of my worries!

24/7 · « **Reply #5728 on:** January 19, 2021, 02:37:30 pm »

Hotcorners is one of my fave trackpad features on a mac

Claire. · « **Reply #5729 on:** January 19, 2021, 02:45:41 pm »

Quote from: Open the fucking pubs in Allerton on January 19, 2021, 09:07:09 am

Thanks Claire - sorted all those things out, but much prefer Firefox (I use that on Windows and Linux as well)

Still not managed to get it to recognise my keyboard properly. It's obsessed with sticking the @ on the '2' key - US, British keyboards - makes no odds to it. Also it refuses to believe that a keyboard might have a numeric keyboard attached!

You can switch it to a PC layout in settings -> keyboard, input sources tab, press the + in the list and then you'll be able to select 'British PC' as a layout - there's a layout shown there and if you press modifier keys you'll see your " and @ flipped to match your keyboard for example. There'll be a way to set an extended keyboard with numeric cos you can get a Mac keyboard that has it.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5730 on:** January 19, 2021, 03:05:42 pm »

Quote from: Claire. on January 19, 2021, 02:45:41 pm

You can switch it to a PC layout in settings -> keyboard, input sources tab, press the + in the list and then you'll be able to select 'British PC' as a layout - there's a layout shown there and if you press modifier keys you'll see your " and @ flipped to match your keyboard for example. There'll be a way to set an extended keyboard with numeric cos you can get a Mac keyboard that has it.

Nice one cheers - yeah worked out that Keyboard and switching - I tried it yesterday, but it didn't work - so I added it again and deleted the other two and that seemed to do the trick

Also I've swapped around the Ctrl and Cmd key so my control keys work as normal now.

Just need to work out how to get the pesky Num Lock key to function - if i press it then it does a clear. Any combination of every other key I've tried just produces a 'Thunk!' sound..

The number and arthmatic keys work fine, but it's the page up/down and especially del key that I need to sort out

Currently typing lots of .... when I'm trying to delete stuff

24/7 · « **Reply #5731 on:** January 19, 2021, 03:59:16 pm »

Quote from: Claire. on January 19, 2021, 02:45:41 pm

You can switch it to a PC layout in settings -> keyboard, input sources tab, press the + in the list and then you'll be able to select 'British PC' as a layout - there's a layout shown there and if you press modifier keys you'll see your " and @ flipped to match your keyboard for example. There'll be a way to set an extended keyboard with numeric cos you can get a Mac keyboard that has it.

Blimey - I thought I knew all the keyboard settings - totally missed that one!!!!!

Riquende · « **Reply #5732 on:** January 21, 2021, 02:36:40 pm »

Quote from: Zlen on January 16, 2021, 08:19:15 pm

Or just install Windows?
It’s really not complicated to do via Bootcamp app (comes with Mac OS). If there are no specific Mac apps you need - why not?

The new M1 Macs (I'm not sure if the one in question is one) can't use Bootcamp (or install Windows via any other method) as it's no longer an x86 CPU.

But otherwise that would be my suggestion as well. Get rid of the janky OS (from a long-time Windows user's perspective) unless there are specific Apple apps that your work requires (and even then you can keep a shrunken MacOS partition to boot into through Bootcamp).

El Denzel Pepito · « **Reply #5733 on:** January 27, 2021, 12:42:06 pm »

Just gone from a MacBook Pro 13 inch (early 2015) to the MacBook Pro 16 inch. It cost me £1825, including postage, from eBay (brand-new, still in its shrink-wrap). I think that's about £500 less than the likes of Currys etc so definitely a good deal. I've got a mammoth tax bill coming so still couldn't quite afford all of it in one go, so using PayPal credit and paying off £160/month for the next year. I'll be in a position to pay it all off in a few months so thought it makes sense.

What a laptop though. Still taking some getting used to it as I've never been a fan of big laptops before, but now I sort of need the larger screen size for my work projects. Well chuffed with it, but wish the Touch Bar wasn't there. So gimmicky. I'm used to hitting the F3 key to show all my open windows and switch between them, now I keep hitting random keys on the top left out of habit.

Is there any way to put the Mission Control/F3 button permanently on the left on the Touch Bar?

Crimson · « **Reply #5734 on:** January 27, 2021, 01:01:14 pm »

Has the 16" got the new M1 setup?

24/7 · « **Reply #5735 on:** January 27, 2021, 01:03:34 pm »

Quote from: El Denzel Pepito on January 27, 2021, 12:42:06 pm

Is there any way to put the Mission Control/F3 button permanently on the left on the Touch Bar?

Not used the new model yet but would one solution be perhaps to program one of the trackpad's hot corners to do the F3 thing?

El Denzel Pepito · « **Reply #5736 on:** January 27, 2021, 01:43:17 pm »

Quote from: 24∗7 on January 27, 2021, 01:03:34 pm

Not used the new model yet but would one solution be perhaps to program one of the trackpad's hot corners to do the F3 thing?

I actually scrolled up after that post and enabled it. Definitely helpful, but I tend to use the F3 shortcut just after typing something so it'd be better if it were keyboard-based rather than having to go back to the trackpad each time.

El Denzel Pepito · « **Reply #5737 on:** January 27, 2021, 01:45:50 pm »

Quote from: Crimson on January 27, 2021, 01:01:14 pm

Has the 16" got the new M1 setup?

Nope, still using Intel's chips.

I'm not too fussed as the performance is ideal for my use-case. I do web development & digital marketing (no video editing), so I don't need to push the laptop's limits too far. All I needed was a bigger screen than the 2015 13" and increased RAM from the 8GB I had before, so this works well. Only got the base model (2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 RAM).

El Denzel Pepito · « **Reply #5738 on:** January 27, 2021, 02:11:41 pm »

Ah figured it out. Setting the Touch Bar to 'Expanded Control Strip' in the keyboard settings does the trick.

It turns the Touch Bar into the usual layout and doesn't keep changing it based on the app you're in. Just what I needed! Still think it's a very gimmicky addition by Apple though. I think it hurts the UX rather than help.

The layout looks something like this now (except no Esc key/touch ID as they're separate on the new model):

24/7 · « **Reply #5739 on:** January 27, 2021, 02:17:13 pm »

ah i love that keyboard layout - dreading the day i have to change mine and go to the 'swedish' one - the return key on the right hand side is like a backwards L - and since i hit return with right little finger, it's a waste of space on the keyboard to have return key that weird shape.....

CraigDS · « **Reply #5740 on:** January 27, 2021, 02:54:46 pm »

Quote from: El Denzel Pepito on January 27, 2021, 02:11:41 pm

Ah figured it out. Setting the Touch Bar to 'Expanded Control Strip' in the keyboard settings does the trick.

It turns the Touch Bar into the usual layout and doesn't keep changing it based on the app you're in. Just what I needed! Still think it's a very gimmicky addition by Apple though. I think it hurts the UX rather than help.

I think it has it's uses in certain apps, but think most are so used to working in certain ways with the same keyboard it is probably not used all that much. Sure I read somewhere it's rumoured to not be included on the new model later this year.

Zlen · « **Reply #5741 on:** January 27, 2021, 03:17:41 pm »

Quote from: Craig 🤔 on January 27, 2021, 02:54:46 pm

I think it has it's uses in certain apps, but think most are so used to working in certain ways with the same keyboard it is probably not used all that much. Sure I read somewhere it's rumoured to not be included on the new model later this year.

Yeah, many reports saying they are backtracking on the touchbar, magsafe charging ports and apparently also on spartan use of ports.
Paired with apparently well performing apple chips, could be a really good machine.

24/7 · « **Reply #5742 on:** January 27, 2021, 04:09:37 pm »

Quote from: Zlen on January 27, 2021, 03:17:41 pm

Yeah, many reports saying they are backtracking on the touchbar, magsafe charging ports and apparently also on spartan use of ports.
Paired with apparently well performing apple chips, could be a really good machine.

Hearing the same - ports and touchbar backtrack especially, plus they had replaced the keyboards with the previous system so the keys don't malfunction as easily - and also they apparently backtracked (or are backtracking) on the keyboard/casing structural tie-in which was just a way of maximising repairs revenue, the bastards.....or I might have misheard my apple tech mate cos he's always bitching about shit

Claire. · « **Reply #5743 on:** January 28, 2021, 08:59:02 am »

I've not been too bothered about the charging port being USB-C but I do miss the little light to tell me if it's charged or not.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5744 on:** January 31, 2021, 05:12:40 pm »

The thing that confuses me is that people saying "Macs just work"

There are several pieces of software that I must have for work and they routinely fail and have to be restarted.

I must say that my Windows and Linux boxes are far more stable.

I guess you can argue that the Apple stuff for the machine are stable and really good, but in the real world you need to use other software and Apple's decisions for stuff they endorse is bizarre.

What OS can't natively support MySQL Workbench for instance? Crashes regularly through the day. Every day.

CraigDS · « **Reply #5745 on:** January 31, 2021, 05:31:02 pm »

That’s not really Apple’s fault though is it. It’s down to those software makers to make it stable on those machines.

Plus, it’s not like there are loads of Windows/Linux software which will routinely crash either. And likewise that’s not Microsoft’s fault.

Riquende · « **Reply #5746 on:** January 31, 2021, 07:00:32 pm »

Quote from: Open the fucking pubs in Allerton on January 31, 2021, 05:12:40 pm

The thing that confuses me is that people saying "Macs just work"

There are several pieces of software that I must have for work and they routinely fail and have to be restarted.

Have you investigated Bootcamp? Unless it's one of the brand new M1 chip Macs then it should work.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #5747 on:** February 1, 2021, 01:01:53 pm »

Quote from: Riquende on January 31, 2021, 07:00:32 pm

Have you investigated Bootcamp? Unless it's one of the brand new M1 chip Macs then it should work.

Yeah I think I'm going to have to go down that road..

There are several things that I have to use and you can't run them without faffing around..

Riquende · « **Reply #5748 on:** February 1, 2021, 01:36:16 pm »

I've 'permanently' bootcamped 4 Macs now (ran through the process and then used Windows to nuke the Mac partition) so give us a shout if you need help on it. Bootcamp itself is a simple enough thing to run that will get hold of the latest Windows drivers automatically, create an NTFS partition for your install and even make bootable media if you have an ISO available. All stuff you can do yourself, but the Mac will go through it step by step for you.

I've found that the main downside to using Windows on Mac hardware is the keyboard. It doesn't have a Windows key for example, so you have to get used to pressing CMD which to the right of Alt, not the left. It also puts symbols on different keys, @ and " being opposite for example. You can download an Apple keyboard layout to use in Windows to make it more like what the keys physically say, or you can just stick with what feels natural after typing on a regular keyboard for so long.

Like I say, it doesn't work on the new M1-chipped Macs so if your MBP isn't earlier than 17,1 (or Mac Mini earlier than 9,1) then it won't work for you and you'll have to just lump MacOS and all the faffing involved.

Claire. · « **Reply #5749 on:** February 1, 2021, 02:46:43 pm »

Quote from: Open the fucking pubs in Allerton on February 1, 2021, 01:01:53 pm

Yeah I think I'm going to have to go down that road..

There are several things that I have to use and you can't run them without faffing around..

lol I'm only looking on here because visual studio is having one it's fits as I dared to get latest and I see this nonsense. Quick google says there's a bug in the latest version of that software on Big Sur. How a third party app behaves isn't Apples responsibility, unfortunately in my case it is Microsoft's responsibility but new version new fucking bug.

24/7 · « **Reply #5750 on:** February 1, 2021, 02:57:16 pm »

In Swedish, "sur" means "sulky" or "pissed off" - so anyone loading Big Sur and finding bugs is bound to be a bit pissed off

Claire. · « **Reply #5751 on:** February 1, 2021, 03:03:38 pm »

I've found Big Sur being one of the smoothest updates in ages, not had an issue with any software, *love* the seamlessness of devices - particularly with AirPods.

TepidT2O · « **Reply #5752 on:** February 1, 2021, 03:39:06 pm »

Is there anyway if blocking me from this thread to stop me buying one?

CraigDS · « **Reply #5753 on:** February 1, 2021, 03:42:04 pm »

Quote from: TepidT2O on February 1, 2021, 03:39:06 pm

Is there anyway if blocking me from this thread to stop me buying one?

Prob the Apple Store you need blocking from mate.

24/7 · « **Reply #5754 on:** February 1, 2021, 04:33:36 pm »

Quote from: Claire. on February 1, 2021, 03:03:38 pm

I've found Big Sur being one of the smoothest updates in ages, not had an issue with any software, *love* the seamlessness of devices - particularly with AirPods.

yeah i've not noticed any issues with either of my devices