The Apple Thread

#51
#51
burntorangeVOLffle said:
I have Office for Mac and use it when necessary but for basic use I prefer Pages and Numbers. The interface is much better. You aren’t going to do anything terribly fancy but writing a simple report, making a flyer, simple spread sheet, etc they work fine. They don’t export to Office very cleanly if you have to share documents though.

Keynote puts PowerPoint to shame.
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I just tried Numbers on my sons Air the other day piddling around. I'm a semi-advanced Excel user, as I can do alot with Excel, but I'm limited as I do not do/use/program in Visual Basic to get really advanced. Numbers was a bit of a culture shock, but after I played with it a bit, I can see where it's probably a really good spreadsheet if you put some time in it to learn something new. I have not opened up Keynote yet, but since Apple has always been more creative based than Microsoft, I'm sure it does eat Power Point for lunch. I've never been terribly impressed with Power Ppoint anyway. For those on a budget and like rebelling, Open Office (free to all) is a dead ringer for MS and totally interchangeable.
 
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#52
#52
Freak said:
There are four base choices, unless you want to get into custom configurations:

Macbook Air, Macbook Pro 13, and the newer Macbook Pro 14 and Macbook Pro 16 that just released.

The M1 macbook air is the best value and most portable (in my opinion). It's not as sexy or quite as powerful as the new Macbook pros that just came out, but it has plenty of power for 95%+ of people


***The linkshows $929 but it's actually $899 at amazon right now. Costco sometimes has this one in stock for a similar price.

There's also the previous model of the macbook pro 13-inch. It's slightly more powerful than the Air.


Both of these have apple's new M1 chip -- and that's the most important thing. Don't buy any older Mac with an Intel chip -- they're not making them anymore and they don't preform nearly as well.

If you want to look into the new macbook pros, they are a bit more powerful and have a larger screen. The 14-inch starts at $1999 and the 16-inch at $2499. The 16-inch would probably be too big for a student to carry around. These machines are really Apple's return to the macbook Pros being more geared towards the prosumer, who needs more power.

Any of the above devices are solid, as long as your son isn't editing multiple streams of 4k video. It ultimately comes down to how much money you want to spend. The new 14 and 16 inch are cool (except for the notch) but in my opinion you aren't getting near the bang for your buck, imo.
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We bought my son's Mbook Air Intel before I knew the M1 was coming out. He has not complained about performance. I'm sure the new M1 is the way to go, but so far have not regretted the previous model. IIRC, his is a 2017 model or newer. Electronic Express always carries a good line of choices in either format. We've bought their items before, including a 2010ish iMac, that still performs great. At the time we bought it, it was only a few years old. we've never had issues with their "reconditioned" products. Sometimes their inventory is just an opened box that is not allowed to be sold as new, so they get them.
 
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#53
#53
burntorangeVOLffle said:
I have Office for Mac and use it when necessary but for basic use I prefer Pages and Numbers. The interface is much better. You aren’t going to do anything terribly fancy but writing a simple report, making a flyer, simple spread sheet, etc they work fine. They don’t export to Office very cleanly if you have to share documents though.

Keynote puts PowerPoint to shame.
Click to expand...

You can also convert keynote to PowerPoint, pages to pdf, etc when needed. Colleges that are all in with Microsoft usually offer that software to students through their portal or whatever and it works fine with Apple.
 
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#56
#56
Freak said:
What do you have now?
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2008-09 15" MacBook Pro. Hubs has a 13" Air (older model). I'll see how it feels.

(I now have not one, but two, degenerative retinal diseases, and I'm finding that larger screen sizes are getting important. I upgraded a Plus iPhone to a regular size 12, and really miss the real estate.)
 
#57
#57
VolNExile said:
2008-09 15" MacBook Pro. Hubs has a 13" Air (older model). I'll see how it feels.

(I now have not one, but two, degenerative retinal diseases, and I'm finding that larger screen sizes are getting important. I upgraded a Plus iPhone to a regular size 12, and really miss the real estate.)
Click to expand...
Yeah, moving from a 15-inch laptop to a 13 would take a little getting used to.

For me, I only use the laptop screen when I'm on the go. Otherwise, I'm plugging it into an external monitor at my desk.
 
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#58
#58
For any nerds like me, this is an interview with a couple of Apple execs sharing some interesting stuff about Apple's new chips. It's pretty interesting if you're into that kind of thing.

 
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#59
#59
I need to upgrade but I’m torn between a new M1 iMac or a M1Pro/Max 16” MacBook Pro.

On the one hand I don’t really need a laptop for what I use a computer for. It would primary remain on my desk with a monitor attached.

On the other hand that M1Pro/Max is extending the exp date of the computer significantly.

Side note: I lost the charging case to my AirPods a few weeks ago. There is a sale this weekend and decided to get the Pros. I can definitely tell a difference from the originals which are a great product.
 
#60
#60
burntorangeVOLffle said:
I need to upgrade but I’m torn between a new M1 iMac or a M1Pro/Max 16” MacBook Pro.

On the one hand I don’t really need a laptop for what I use a computer for. It would primary remain on my desk with a monitor attached.

On the other hand that M1Pro/Max is extending the exp date of the computer significantly.

Side note: I lost the charging case to my AirPods a few weeks ago. There is a sale this weekend and decided to get the Pros. I can definitely tell a difference from the originals which are a great product.
Click to expand...
How much were the air pod pros? I've seen them on sale at Costco at times for a pretty good price.

I've also been seeing some pretty solid things about the brand new Beats ear buds.

Speaking of upgrades, I needed an always on Mac to pair with my M1 MacBook Air. I had been going back and forth between the Mac mini and the iMac. I'd also considered trading in my M1 MacBook Air and just getting the Macbook with the M1 Pro. But what I really want is a desktop with the Pro or Max chip in it.

So, for now, I bit the bullet last night on a Mac mini with 16GB of RAM from the Apple refurb store. It was like $750 less my 3% daily cash back on my Apple Card. I figured it will be a solid workhorse for a while until we have more desktop options, at which point I'll probably hand it off to my wife to replace her aging 27-inch iMac.
 
#62
#62
Also, here's a video about the new Beats Fit Pro that retail for $199.

 
#63
#63
Freak said:
Found the deal on the AirPods at Amazon and Target for $189. That's a good price, similar to the lowest I've seen them at Costco.

Here's the line for anyone interested.

Apple AirPods Pro with MagSafe
Click to expand...

Got them at Best Buy but that was the price.

At first I thought the case was bigger but it’s actually the same size just with the hinge on the long side.
 
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#64
#64
Freak said:
Also, here's a video about the new Beats Fit Pro that retail for $199.

Click to expand...


I’ve never been a big fan of Beats. I think the bass is too amplified which sounds good on Rap but can distort other stuff. Just my preference.
 
#65
#65
burntorangeVOLffle said:
I’ve never been a big fan of Beats. I think the bass is too amplified which sounds good on Rap but can distort other stuff. Just my preference.
Click to expand...
It's my understanding that in the past few years Apple has walked back the insane bass levels we saw in the old beats stuff. I've never owned a pair, so I can't say for sure.
 
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#67
#67
kiddiedoc said:
We found a deal at Costco online -- the M1 MacBook Pro 13" with the 512 GB upgrade for $1249 ($200 off).

Thanks for the help y'all
Click to expand...

That’s a good deal and will last him a long time. You can make 512 GB last longer with some cloud storage too.
 
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#71
#71
Looking to get new senior friendly phones for my parents, my dad still uses a flip phone. Is there a big difference in ease of use between the different models?
 
#72
#72
mad4vols said:
Looking to get new senior friendly phones for my parents, my dad still uses a flip phone. Is there a big difference in ease of use between the different models?
Click to expand...

UI is the same across the board. For elder folks I would think screen size would be the biggest factor. Doubt they really care about the camera perks. However if they like the big screen of the MAX they would get the best camera too.
 
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#73
#73
I have a Google Pixel 6 Pro. I love this phone, Google actually got it right. The camera is amazeballs. I also have a self-built PC that is my generation's version of my dad's "project car in the garage." I still custom build and maintain PCs for clients.

But my MacBook Pro and my iPad Pro? You'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands. I can't stand that Apple now solders both storage and ram into the logic boards, as I like to buy affordable then upgrade as possible when it comes to laptops. But when treated kindly, they'll outlast any PC laptop out there.

And no Android or Windows tablet comes close to being as useful and flexible as my iPad Pro. It just works, period. I'm going to see what the next January release has to offer, as the battery on my 2017 edition is starting to have trouble holding a charge.
 
#74
#74
AshG said:
I have a Google Pixel 6 Pro. I love this phone, Google actually got it right. The camera is amazeballs. I also have a self-built PC that is my generation's version of my dad's "project car in the garage." I still custom build and maintain PCs for clients.

But my MacBook Pro and my iPad Pro? You'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands. I can't stand that Apple now solders both storage and ram into the logic boards, as I like to buy affordable then upgrade as possible when it comes to laptops. But when treated kindly, they'll outlast any PC laptop out there.

And no Android or Windows tablet comes close to being as useful and flexible as my iPad Pro. It just works, period. I'm going to see what the next January release has to offer, as the battery on my 2017 edition is starting to have trouble holding a charge.
Click to expand...
Android 12 has ruined me on Android. I have a Pixel 3XL and the whole layout of it is horrible, I have more bugs than I can count, and it's just like using the Fisher Price version of a phone. If I wanted something with no customization I'd get a more stable iPhone, which is what I am going to do.
 
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#75
#75
looking for recommendations for USB ports that I can attach to the Thunderbolt ports on my MacBook Pro. I've seen the strips online that have a bunch of legacy ports, but there are several models with widely different prices. Normally, I figure you get what you pay for but I don't want to throw money away if it not necessary.
 
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