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Tinkering with the idea of making the full jump from PC desktop to iMac. What always held me back was the small amount of gaming I do on my PC. By gaming I mean skyrim. And since skyrim performs well on the 2011 iMac in bootcamp, I imagine it would perform well on whatever iMac refresh we get this year, which hopefully will have nvidia GPUs, which generally speaking don't suffer from the occasional skyrim stuttering issue that radeons do.

I just love the Mac ecosystem, especially now that iCloud is fully integrated with pages/numbers etc.

So I am patiently waiting for the assumed iMac refresh, but the rumor mill has been quiet since wwdc. Would be nice if we get a quiet spec bump when ML comes out.

Will probably sell my 2011 MBP to help fund an iMac purchase. I use my iPad 3 for 95% of my portable computing.

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7 years old computers not supporting the new shiny isn't exactly planned obselecense, it's legitimate "sorry dude, it's too fucking old". One of the reasons apple is able to progress the way they do is they don't support their older hardware forever. That way they can take advantage of new ways of doing things, and don't bloat the OS with a ton of crap no one needs. Your old computers still work, you just can't run the latest OS on them. Big deal...And the reason the 3GS is still supported is that the 3GS is still being sold.

Both are 64 bit core2duo models, and one was bought only 4.5 years ago new (late 2007 black book) - it can still support up to 6GB RAM for the next OS. The other was bought new 5 yr 2 month ago, but I agree it's 3GB max RAM isn't gonna cut it past Lion.

NEW Dilemma - glossy or anti-glare screen? Weigh in here. I'm partial to the antiglare but I've been using a Glossy MBP for 3 years and it hasn't bothered me much. But if I'm going for the 1680x1050 screen the anti-glare becomes an option.

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I've spent the evening comparing my glossy 15" MBP to my 20" antiglare iMac, and the kitchen lights are a distraction with the MBP, and the antiglare is still very nice and crisp and not too muted in comparison. The only thing I don't like is the silver bezel with the antiglare - I prefer black. I can always paint it evil.gif

Still curious what you guys think.

Edited by HeadphoneAddict
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tonight i installed google chrome and almost immediately realized it is not optimized to work well with the retina display. in nutshell, chrome makes text look blurry, choppy and noticeably pixelated. initially, i had thought there was something amiss with my display, but after switching back and forth Safari offers, without question, substantially better resolution and text clarity.

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RMBP owner here.

A matte finish is nice because it seems to blur or diffract the reflections to a degree, making them less noticeable. The retina screen is significantly better than the older glossy models but the reflections that do remain are pretty clear, which can distract the eye in adverse conditions.

As long as I am risking coming out of lurker status, I would like to add that Chrome Canary has been giving me quite a bit of grief. For awhile I thought I was having connection issues with my router because pictures would only half load and some sites seem to take forever to connect but after switching back to Safari, the problems went away. I did some back and forth checking to verify, however... YMMV.

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SWMBO had decided that I needed a MBP upgrade for a belated father's day gift, so I could pass my 3.5 year old MBP down to our son. We'll pay this off when we close on the sale of her dad's house at the end of July. She doesn't care about a new iMac for herself until the old one is a smoking ruin, but she has a birthday coming up in September so we'll see.

We spent some time at the Apple Store comparing the glossy 15" vs 15" Anti-glare vs Retina model. The Std 15" glossy was the worst with all the lights hitting it from all directions, so the AG won it for me hands down on the normal MBP. The RMBP screen was very crisp but still had about half the glare of the glossy MBP screen. It seems about as sharp to my eyes as my 3rd Gen iPad, despite a lower pixel/inch. I think I could live with the mild glare to have that crisp screen.

Unfortunately the configuration of RMBP that I wanted was almost $4,000 (max ram since it can't be upgraded later, and 768 GB with DVD and Apple Care). Even with an educational discount it was way more than I wanted to pay. And nobody at the Apple store could confirm if the included 256 or 512 GB SSD could be upgraded later. I like the larger storage so I can keep a large iTunes library on it, and while 512 GB is not a deal breaker the 256 GB is.

They also only had the 8GB RMBP in stock, and I'm guessing that Mac OSX 10.11 Squirrel or OSX 10.12 Muskrat in 4-5 years isn't going to play well with only 8GB. A 16 GB version would take 3-4 weeks to get online, and I was tempted to just order one with 256 GB and no DVD or Applecare to get the price down, and add/upgrade those items later (only if the SSD could be upgraded later).

In the end we left the store with the hi-res anti-glare 15" with 8 GB RAM/1TB drive, a standard configuration they keep in stock. I can always upgrade to 16 GB RAM later, as 8GB is plenty on my old Macbook Pro with OSX 10.7.4. Their faster 750 GB 7200 RPM drive has to be configured for online purchase, but I didn't sweat it because I have a couple of 750 GB Momentus XT Hybrid drives if I need a faster drive.

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I'm just a little concerned that my 50 year old eyes may not like the tighter pixel density on the hi-res antiglare screen, and switching the screen to non-native 1440 x 852 makes it fuzzier. I'm using the "CMD +" key combo to increase font size a bit more than I used to. I don't need reading glasses yet, but the new screen makes it likely that it will happen sooner than later. Sigh...

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I'm just a little concerned that my 50 year old eyes may not like the tighter pixel density on the hi-res antiglare screen, and switching the screen to non-native 1440 x 852 makes it fuzzier. I'm using the "CMD +" key combo to increase font size a bit more than I used to. I don't need reading glasses yet, but the new screen makes it likely that it will happen sooner than later. Sigh...

I found a simple script to make Safari default to a higher zoom level than default. No more hitting "CMD +" every time I open a new browser window. One simply creates a new text file with the code below, and saves it as a .css file. Then you can have Safari use the .css file as the default settings by going into Safari > Preferences > Advanced > Style Sheet and selecting your .css file. I tried 110% and 115% and settled on 120% for night time browsing and 110% or no zoom for daytime. (in the dark the pupils dilate and old eyes focus worse)


body {

zoom: 120%;

}

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  • 2 weeks later...

Smart yet frugal Mac heads, I need a realistic take on the difference between the two 13" MBP options for my niece who will be a college freshman this Fall. My siblings and I are buying her a computer and she apparently does not want a 15" MBP so we do not have to worry about the retina vs. no retina issue. Here are the only differences (other than $300 in price):

13-inch: 2.5 GHz

  • 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
  • 4GB 1600MHz memory
  • 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive1

    13-inch: 2.9 GHz

    • 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
    • Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
    • 8GB 1600MHz memory
    • 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive1

    Discuss.

Edited by Voltron
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OK, why is the screen better? I have an 11" Air and think it is great, but there are limitations on connectivity and storage if you want to avoid externals and such. Assuming it is something she would want, which one?

13-inch : 128GB

  • 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
    processor
  • Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz
  • 4GB memory
  • 128GB flash storage1
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000

    13-inch : 256GB

    • 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
      processor
    • Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz
    • 4GB memory
    • 256GB flash storage1
    • Intel HD Graphics 4000

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15" res on a 13". Tighter pixel density. IPS so better viewing angles and color.

If you have time to order from Apple (or maybe they have in store) you can bump RAM (and processor, but I don't think i7 matters much on 13 MBA). Otherwise just storage space. RAM is the one option I'd consider.

I have the current 13" MBP (work) and Mel last 13" MBA (work). Unless video editing/heavy PS, etc. the air is a better machine.

Also keep in mind current 13" MBAs gain at least two additional connection options than your 11". The above kickstarter post can even help with storage.

Edited by blessingx
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