Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 (edited) Hi Guys, Before this turns into an Apple flaming thread, if you're not interested please refrain from posting. I have opened this thread up for people who are currently using Macs to be able to share info on tips, tricks and interesting software with each other. First Post- I'm currently using a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 15" 2.3ghz QC i7 (Haswell) with turboboost to 3.4ghz, 16gb DDR3 1600mhz ram. I have been slowly getting used to using the Mac software after using windows for years. I absolutely love the Macbook. Programmes i'm currently using regularly are, Photoshop CC & Logic Pro X. I use memory clean to clean up the Ram however I'm told there is no benefit to using this? I've been recently learning to use Automator in IOS X which is wicked for creating shortcuts. My exploration has been limited to setting up shortcuts to take snapshots and allow them to go straight to iPhoto and saving text as audio (quite handy for work stuff if travelling and wanting to listen to a document). I don't think these are worthy of posting up here as they are freely available on the web. I know some of you guys are far more experienced with Mac so I suspect that you guys have much more inventive ideas for Automator/Programmes/Shortcuts. Please feel free to share below List of tips/tricks/software 001 - When taking a picture (with the iPhone) press and hold the volume buttons for a burst mode 002 - The iPad Air needs a 12w mains power adapter, whereas the iPhone 5S only requires a 5w 003 - If you have a mac and an iPad you can use the iPad as a secondary screen for it by downloading the air display app 004 - Reflector is a good Mirroring App http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/ if you need to show your iOS device on a screen/projector 005 - Also for those of you who want some extra storage but with out carrying a spare drive about . . check this out http://theniftyminidrive.com 006 - another great one is splash top streamer, you buy the app on the device you want to stream too i.e. an iPad then run the free streamer on your mac 007 - I can be at work and connect to my NAS drive at home and play music via 4G. One of the reasons I thought it silly to pay for more than a 16GB iPhone, I have a 4TB iPhone 008 - Microsoft office is now available on Mac, You can also run windows on MBP if you require it 009 - MS office and Adobe etc are now available for mac 010 - I found this after a quick search https://itunes.apple...d469337564?mt=8 011 - I would stick with Pages. Numbers and Keynote (free on all new MAC's) 012 - If you really have to run Windows applications then install a VM, I use VMware Fusion and run a 8.1 Pro machine from it. Has some good integration features which can run the Win applications in MAC windows 013 - Logitech do a blue-tooth keyboard for iPad ... works fine and acts as a cover and a stand for the IPa 014 - I use a speck hardshell case on the MBP and then have a G-Form sleeve for when I take it out of home http://g-form.com/pr...ve-for-laptops/ 015 - There's an App called PDF Expert which allows you to store all your *.pdfs in folders ... I use it to store drawings, specs, minutes etc. so I have access to my stuff when on sit 016 - have this for when I am travelling. Decent padding and protection. Plus its really soft & furry in the inside http://goincase.com/...-macbook-pro-15 017 - I got this a few months back https://agilebits.com/onepassword 018 - Edited April 27, 2014 by Neilp 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren-B Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 I'm new to the Mac, well January, will never go back to PC's & just about to upgrade my work computers to Macs. Thanks to Octet for his recommendation 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATTAK Z Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 I've used windows based software for years (since DOS tbh ), and still do at work (AutoCAD and the usual stuff). I've had an iMac for years but have only just got an iPad and iPhone so for me it's gonna be more of a 'how do I' thread ... any way I'll keep watching and hope to learn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 Yep Octet has helped me a lot along the way! Absolutely love the functionality and easy of using a mac! When you ask it to do something it just does it without actually having to think about it like a windows PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian@TORQEN Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Happy to answer any questions, just fire away. Off to fit my BlackVue cameras, Darren are you in the Watford area by any chance today? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangzoom Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 The Retina MacBookPros are lovely aren't they!! I cannot believe mine is coming up to been a year old but still as fast/fresh as it did when I first got it.... You don't need to worry about 'cleaning up' programs etc, theres simply no need, OSX is built on UNIX so pretty good at sorting it self out. Cannot remember the last time I had to actually 'shut down' or restart mine . I have to be honest and haven't really gone out of my way to learn all the features of OSX, though I do find mission control and gestures now invaluable!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren-B Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Happy to answer any questions, just fire away. Off to fit my BlackVue cameras, Darren are you in the Watford area by any chance today? :lol: You have so much knowledge on Macs but you can't fit a camera to a zed????? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Here is something I only found out recently but you iPhone geeks may already know. When taking a picture press and hold the volume buttons for a burst mode. I use this pretty much all the time when trying to take pics of the dog on our walks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATTAK Z Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Are the iPhone 5S and iPad Air mains charger plugs interchangeable ? ... the ones I have are totally different (iPhone is smaller) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjt Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Are the iPhone 5S and iPad Air mains charger plugs interchangeable ? ... the ones I have are totally different (iPhone is smaller) No. The iPad Air needs a 12w mains power adapter, whereas the iPhone 5S only requires a 5w. The smaller adapter you got with the iPhone is only rated at 5w 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizard Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Macs rock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Are the iPhone 5S and iPad Air mains charger plugs interchangeable ? ... the ones I have are totally different (iPhone is smaller) No. The iPad Air needs a 12w mains power adapter, whereas the iPhone 5S only requires a 5w. The smaller adapter you got with the iPhone is only rated at 5w Nice one Jonathan, hope you'll stick around with more useful info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 If you have a mac and an iPad you can use the iPad as a secondary screen for it by downloading the air display app. Can come in handy although the iPad isn't as quick at running the stuff from the mac. I'm unsure if you can get a direct cable to go from the thunderbolt on the mac to the iPad. I've had a search, although I seen something a few weeks ago on this, i'm unable to find this again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Glad you got onboard Neil & Darren, once you go mac you never go back I have a mini mac, airplay, apple tv, iPad, iPhone, iPod and wouldn't consider anything else, everything just works which is more than I can say for my PC with Windows 8.1 on it glad I only use that for gaming and the odd bit of work here and there ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 Glad you got onboard Neil & Darren, once you go mac you never go back I have a mini mac, airplay, apple tv, iPad, iPhone, iPod and wouldn't consider anything else, everything just works which is more than I can say for my PC with Windows 8.1 on it glad I only use that for gaming and the odd bit of work here and there ! lol!! How is the apple TV? What version have you got, is it jailbroken? I have a few iPods, iPad 3 retina, iPhone etc. The only reason I didn't have a macbook pro until recently was that I didn't have a spare 2.5k laying about lol! Best 2.5k i've ever spent though!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Aaaaaaaaaaaady!!!!! I'm going to Canada in July on holiday and am thinking about buying a 15" retina macbookpro to replace my ageing 2008 macbookpro as I can save the best part of £600 with the exchange rate as it is. Now here's the rub:- I've just read that this model is not upgradeable in terms of ram and ssd!! 1. Is this true? 2. Should I spend another £325 to double the ram to 16gb and the ssd to 512 or stick with the lower spec, I'd be interested to know what those who have either model what you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Glad you got onboard Neil & Darren, once you go mac you never go back I have a mini mac, airplay, apple tv, iPad, iPhone, iPod and wouldn't consider anything else, everything just works which is more than I can say for my PC with Windows 8.1 on it glad I only use that for gaming and the odd bit of work here and there ! lol!! How is the apple TV? What version have you got, is it jailbroken? I have a few iPods, iPad 3 retina, iPhone etc. The only reason I didn't have a macbook pro until recently was that I didn't have a spare 2.5k laying about lol! Best 2.5k i've ever spent though!! It's an Apple TV 3, not jailbroken and to be honestly not something I use much but it is good when linked to your iTunes for music & video again just works flawlessly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 If you have a mac and an iPad you can use the iPad as a secondary screen for it by downloading the air display app. Can come in handy although the iPad isn't as quick at running the stuff from the mac. I'm unsure if you can get a direct cable to go from the thunderbolt on the mac to the iPad. I've had a search, although I seen something a few weeks ago on this, i'm unable to find this again. Reflector is a good Mirroring App http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/ if you need to show your iOS device on a screen/projector. I sometimes have to do this for training and watch out which network you connect to (wifi) as the after discovery the Bonjour service uses dynamic ports to stream the data so 99% of the time won't work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 The new processor is worth the money alone mate! I can get about 5 hours of use out this without any issues! I would upgrade to the new one mate! My mates 2012 macbook pro seems dated compared to my 2013. Evening opening simple webpages is visibly faster on the new 2013 model. One thing is the new MBP does not come with a disc drive, this is separate. For the sake of 60 quid though, its worth buying it. I tend to back up a lot of my photography stuff to dvd's for safekeeping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Also for those of you who want some extra storage but with out carrying a spare drive about . . check this out http://theniftyminidrive.com I am tempted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Aaaaaaaaaaaady!!!!! I'm going to Canada in July on holiday and am thinking about buying a 15" retina macbookpro to replace my ageing 2008 macbookpro as I can save the best part of £600 with the exchange rate as it is. Now here's the rub:- I've just read that this model is not upgradeable in terms of ram and ssd!! 1. Is this true? 2. Should I spend another £325 to double the ram to 16gb and the ssd to 512 or stick with the lower spec, I'd be interested to know what those who have either model what you think? There will be unofficial upgrades in time I am 99.9% sure of it just like with the Air.... But for now maybe keep the 2008 MBP and get an iPad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 The new processor is worth the money alone mate! I can get about 5 hours of use out this without any issues! I would upgrade to the new one mate! My mates 2012 macbook pro seems dated compared to my 2013. Evening opening simple webpages is visibly faster on the new 2013 model. One thing is the new MBP does not come with a disc drive, this is separate. For the sake of 60 quid though, its worth buying it. I tend to back up a lot of my photography stuff to dvd's for safekeeping. An optical drive ??? It is 2014 have you not heard of NAS drives and the cloud Doogy showed me the reflector programme, another great one is splash top streamer, you buy the app on the device you want to stream too i.e. an iPad then run the free streamer on your mac, then you can control everything from your iPad/iPhone etc etc. I have it all set up to control mac & pc from everything as I am a lazy ar$e 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Also for those of you who want some extra storage but with out carrying a spare drive about . . check this out http://theniftyminidrive.com I am tempted Wow I have to say Apple really know how to market an old idea as a new one..... mini drive.... plugs into your SD card slot, rather like erm.... an SD card 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 The new processor is worth the money alone mate! I can get about 5 hours of use out this without any issues! I would upgrade to the new one mate! My mates 2012 macbook pro seems dated compared to my 2013. Evening opening simple webpages is visibly faster on the new 2013 model. One thing is the new MBP does not come with a disc drive, this is separate. For the sake of 60 quid though, its worth buying it. I tend to back up a lot of my photography stuff to dvd's for safekeeping. An optical drive ??? It is 2014 have you not heard of NAS drives and the cloud Doogy showed me the reflector programme, another great one is splash top streamer, you buy the app on the device you want to stream too i.e. an iPad then run the free streamer on your mac, then you can control everything from your iPad/iPhone etc etc. I have it all set up to control mac & pc from everything as I am a lazy ar$e lol I don't trust cloud! I have external usb3.0 drives also! I like a good old optical drive lol!!!! I was asking keyser last night about a NAS drive as I really don't understand the best set up. When you talk about cloud, whats the security like on this and what volume of data can be stored for free? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 My favourite quote is "It also weighs next-to-nothing" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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