General Apple Megathread

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I have been tempted to do this as well but I have never even tried looking up what the steps would be.

http://lifehacker.com/the-always-up-...tosh-o-5841604

http://www.hackintosh.com/
I figure even if it's a massive PITA, worst case scenario you've still got a decent PC build.

[Inferno]

Can anyone give me a review on the Iphone SE?

I currently have a 4 and have been looking to upgrade for a while. My parents told me for my birthday that they would pay for the phone(within reason) if I wanted to upgrade with Rogers. Problem is I don't want to pay $110+taxes a month just to get a 6 or 7 at a discounted price and I think $419 for the 6 if I get the $80 plan compared to $150 with the SE is asking too much from my parents so if the SE is just as good minus the screen size I may go with that.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Can anyone give me a review on the Iphone SE?

I currently have a 4 and have been looking to upgrade for a while. My parents told me for my birthday that they would pay for the phone(within reason) if I wanted to upgrade with Rogers. Problem is I don't want to pay $110+taxes a month just to get a 6 or 7 at a discounted price and I think $419 for the 6 if I get the $80 plan compared to $150 with the SE is asking too much from my parents so if the SE is just as good minus the screen size I may go with that.

I like my SE, seems to be good so far.

[underGRADFlame]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Can anyone give me a review on the Iphone SE?

I currently have a 4 and have been looking to upgrade for a while. My parents told me for my birthday that they would pay for the phone(within reason) if I wanted to upgrade with Rogers. Problem is I don't want to pay $110+taxes a month just to get a 6 or 7 at a discounted price and I think $419 for the 6 if I get the $80 plan compared to $150 with the SE is asking too much from my parents so if the SE is just as good minus the screen size I may go with that.

Joined in 2002... and your parents are still paying for your phone? You either joined CP really young or you need to stop relying on mom and dad to pay your way!

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by underGRADFlame

Joined in 2002... and your parents are still paying for your phone? You either joined CP really young or you need to stop relying on mom and dad to pay your way!

Piss off, like I said it's a birthday present. They didn't know what to get me so that's what they offered. Had they not offered I would have got one when I started work again.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Can anyone give me a review on the Iphone SE?

I currently have a 4 and have been looking to upgrade for a while. My parents told me for my birthday that they would pay for the phone(within reason) if I wanted to upgrade with Rogers. Problem is I don't want to pay $110+taxes a month just to get a 6 or 7 at a discounted price and I think $419 for the 6 if I get the $80 plan compared to $150 with the SE is asking too much from my parents so if the SE is just as good minus the screen size I may go with that.

I went from the 6+ to the SE because I the screen size was causing more problems than it was solving. I've noticed the touch-targets are a bit too small in some instances, but overall I love being able to use my phone with one hand again. Using the 6+ while standing on a Ctrain was getting mighty old.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Russic

I went from the 6+ to the SE because I the screen size was causing more problems than it was solving. I've noticed the touch-targets are a bit too small in some instances, but overall I love being able to use my phone with one hand again. Using the 6+ while standing on a Ctrain was getting mighty old.

Exact same boat. Went from a 6+ to an SE because I hated two hand typing and trying to fit the phone into a pocket. I am much happier, I have an iPad with me most of the time so I don't really surf or do multimedia with my phone I use it for (gasp!) making phone calls and texting

[TorqueDog]

+1 for the SE. Mine lasts all day with heavy use, it has the same guts as the 6s, but without the huge power requirements of the bigger screen.

[Barnes]

I have nothing but sympathy for the pro users out there. This is a real wall of text but I don't have a blog so humour me.

I am and have been a Mac user for a very long time. The original Mac, the clones, transition to Power PC, the AIM partnership, x86 transition. The Steve Jobs era, the post Jobs era, the second Jobs era, the Microsoft bailout.

I was a user through all of them and I didn't always agree with the changes that came with each milestone, for the most part understood them.

I am right now planning and slowly implementing smart home features in my house. Future proofing is a major requirement not only to be able to support new things but also make it portable because we are planning on moving to a new house in the near future and I want to be able to have the integrations and products move with me.

I have a few products currently and am looking to add voice control.

I start to look at Apple's Homekit and Siri. I have an iPhone 6 so Hey Siri only works if its plugged in. It's not really voice control if I have to take my phone out of my pocket and press a button to turn off the lights if I even have my phone with me at the time. Kind of a pain but at least it will get me started with voice control.

Ok, how do I connect my devices.

Nest - Not supported.
Hue light bulbs and switches - Supported Yay! Oh, not the 1st gen bridge. Not supported
Arros air conditioner - Not supported

Things I will be making smart or buying right away:
Somfy motorized blinds - Not supported
Ooma home phone - Not supported

Blarg. Homekit sucks.

After doing a bunch of research, I got my parents to pick up an $49USD Amazon Echo Dot for me while they're away in the US. It allows for control of all the things I listed before and other things I didn't think to make smart(er). Because I am still waiting for them to get back, I've been doing research on smart home integrations with the Echo and Alexa Skills.

One thing that is a real (and my only) problem by going to the Echo is playing music via voice control. Apple Music/iTunes will never be supported.

I began to research supported music services and then began to think, what does Apple offer me anymore? I can't do what I want with the music that I own now that I actually want to do something with it. I don't really use iCloud but pay for it. I pay a yearly subscription to iTunes Match and I am not entirely sure what it does but continue to pay for it for fear of losing music somehow, and pay for a family subscription for Apple Music because it was easy.

On the Mac side, the last Macbook Pro I bought because that's what I always buy. Now they've gone and gotten rid of USB, MagSafe and Display ports and increased the price. They haven't added anything compelling and now I can't plug in any of my devices, TVs, and my dogs will knock it off the coffee table within the first hour of unboxing it. For what, a touch screen that lets me skip YouTube ads?

They've recently killed off their display division, automation division, and their networking division (I love my Time Capsule). If they killed the Mac, would I even care? They've abandoned the pro market by not updating the Mac Pro and crippled the Macbook Pro. Those pros, would they care?

I then began to ponder what was keeping me on iOS? What was unique about iOS that wouldn't allow me to move to something else? iMessage and FaceTime was the only thing I could think of. I could keep my iPhone and just rid myself of the Apple subscriptions, use Spotify, Amazon Prime Photo storage, Amazon Echo and a number of other things that seem to be working together.

I was always fine living in the walled garden because it was a garden that was continually expanding and pleasant. Not always first to have the latest and greatest but when something new happened, it worked and worked well and never left me feeling 'yeah, but over there they got...'. Lately, the garden walls have been closing in and the gardener is being a real prick.

I've always rolled my eyes at the Apple is doomed because they got rid of the serial port, CD drive, minijack etc hyperbole but I think Apple might actually be doomed.

[psicodude]

Great post Barnes. I think it sums up what a lot of Apple fans are feeling lately. A lot of their decisions lately just don't make any sense and feel like they are just throwing things against the wall in the hopes that something sticks. More concerning is their inexplicable need to remove ports that millions of people use every day. I get it, thunderbolt ports are superior, but who cares if you are forced to plug a bunch of silly dongles into it?

The home automation market was theirs for the taking and Apple just squandered it. The "walled garden" strategy that served them so well in the past is killing them in this space because they are unable to play nicely with others. Amazon is a year or more ahead and Google is probably 6 months away from owning the market, IMO.

The scenario you described with tons of cool devices not being able to work together is everything that is wrong with the relatively immature home automation market right now and Apple is just making it worse. If Google adopts an open integration strategy with the Home product as they do with most of their stuff, and is able to make everything work together, they will dominate.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I have nothing but sympathy for the pro users out there. This is a real wall of text but I don't have a blog so humour me.

I am and have been a Mac user for a very long time. The original Mac, the clones, transition to Power PC, the AIM partnership, x86 transition. The Steve Jobs era, the post Jobs era, the second Jobs era, the Microsoft bailout.

When somebody who made it through the (first) post-Jobs era is thinking of jumping ship, you have some damn problems.

[nickerjones]

I have a mid 2011 27" iMac. Its recently been getting notably slower ( a lot of the pinwheel action)

It's still useable but I'd love to upgrade the HD to a SSD and maybe the graphics card. I mostly use my MacBook pro but would love to use the iMac to learn to do some video editing with premiere pro.

Does anyone have suggestions on who can do this? I don't want to spend a ton of dough but would love to upgrade this unit. Any idea of what something like this would cost me to do?

[photon]

More RAM would probably be easiest bump it to 16GB and that'll probably be noticeable.

The SSD seems more involved.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+In...placement/7555

The ssd replacement would be a huge improvement.

The video card would be even more involved as it would involve remounting the heat sink and the iMacs are more like a laptop than a desktop, doesn't look simple anyway. Any MXM style video card should work but I'd find an example of someone else doing it successfully since it'd depend on the OS having the right driver built in and that the card wouldn't overload the built in heatsink and fan. And it would only speed up games or maybe primere if that utilizes the video card. I'd be surprised if you could get a huge bump in the video card performance, might not be worth the hassle.

[Diemenz]

Hey Nic,

It's actually not that hard to do when it comes to upgrading to an ssd, just a bit time consuming taking the screen off and getting at the drive and using a new cable that has a thermal sensor (or your fan will run full speed all the time). You could also add an ssd and keep your existing drive but it is a bigger job and involves about an hour tear down.

Personally I would just buy this cable http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD11/

And go with a 512 ssd and call it a day. Your iMac will zip and be good for editing.

[nickerjones]

Originally Posted by photon

More RAM would probably be easiest bump it to 16GB and that'll probably be noticeable.

The SSD seems more involved.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+In...placement/7555

The ssd replacement would be a huge improvement.

The video card would be even more involved as it would involve remounting the heat sink and the iMacs are more like a laptop than a desktop, doesn't look simple anyway. Any MXM style video card should work but I'd find an example of someone else doing it successfully since it'd depend on the OS having the right driver built in and that the card wouldn't overload the built in heatsink and fan. And it would only speed up games or maybe primere if that utilizes the video card. I'd be surprised if you could get a huge bump in the video card performance, might not be worth the hassle.

Originally Posted by Diemenz

Hey Nic,

It's actually not that hard to do when it comes to upgrading to an ssd, just a bit time consuming taking the screen off and getting at the drive and using a new cable that has a thermal sensor (or your fan will run full speed all the time). You could also add an ssd and keep your existing drive but it is a bigger job and involves about an hour tear down.

Personally I would just buy this cable http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD11/

And go with a 512 ssd and call it a day. Your iMac will zip and be good for editing.

i have 16gb of ram in the iMac now. I just don't have the know or confidence to replace the hd myself. I was looking more for some place that could do the job for me. Im assuming Apple won't do it or would charge me a huge premium to do it.

[photon]

Yeah Apple will probably charge lots, might be worth asking just to see.

There's guys on Kijiji too, though I don't have any personal experience with any so can't recommend one.

http://www.macmechanic.ca/mac-repair...rives-ssd.html

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I then began to ponder what was keeping me on iOS? What was unique about iOS that wouldn't allow me to move to something else? iMessage and FaceTime was the only thing I could think of. I could keep my iPhone and just rid myself of the Apple subscriptions, use Spotify, Amazon Prime Photo storage, Amazon Echo and a number of other things that seem to be working together.

Your basically describing RIM circa 2010. They may just follow similar fates.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

I am being murder by Apple incompatibilities right now, these "new" mac pros are a major pain. I am now looking to move all of our software over to Linux based systems.

What programs are you running, Resolve, Adobe, AVID, Smoke/Flame?

I hear you! Yes, Resolve, Adobe, AVID, RED Cine...Is Linux a good option?

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

I hear you! Yes, Resolve, Adobe, AVID, RED Cine...Is Linux a good option?

When it comes to Resolve there is no question that Linux is the best platform to run it on. The trick to linux that you cannot do with the Mac or PC is the ability to add extra rendering power. Not sure if it is unlimited but you can add a number of render nodes to give a significant boost to the processing. Resolve, well most programs now utilize GPU more so than CPU so you are limited in what or how many GPU cards you can add. Mac really suffers from this as even the dual 700's are woefully under powered on their own and suffer even more if you add thunderbolt devices on loops. With linux you just add another computer to boost performance. For 8K material you are looking at a P6000 plus 4 x Tesla 80 cards. That's a lot of hardware you cannot squeeze into a single frame.

I am about to do some testing with various GPU cards but I might just end up stuffing a number of Titan X cards into my Z840. Bang for buck on those Titan X cards. Using an M6000 right now and I can easily do 4K raw but adding noise reduction really brings down my real time performance and we end up having to cache the show before real time review.

[ThatsWhatSheSaid]

Hi - Sorry off topic but I Need help from the CP braintrust and can't start a new topic and this is the closest match I could find.

I recently had to replace my iPhone due to the previous one's battery going on the fritz; I backed up my phone to iTunes but now when I try to restore the phone to my new phone, it won't let me because it says it was encrypted.

I read through all the Apple help and a number of other sites I googled and it sounds like I'm pretty much hooped. I don't recall ever having set a passcode and it sounds like there is no way to retrieve it. You can't even turn off the encryption option unless you have the passcode, so it's not like I can just back up another un-encrypted copy (so stupid Apple!!!).

However, I did read from a few sites that you can use certain software to "hack" your passcode using brute force, etc. My question is if this is legit???

I went to the webpage for 'Iseepassword' and although it sounds like it makes sense, it also has a number of spelling and grammatical errors so I'm a bit worried it's a Nigerian scam site or something along those lines, and as soon as I use it, it's going to hack my entire computer and steal all my information.

Safe to use? Or just give up and mourn the loss of all the information on my previous phone?

Thanks!