Author Topic: Macintosh / Apple tips (Read 14523 times)

Jaded · « **Reply #100 on:** 02 April, 2012, 10:22:36 pm »

It depends on what you want the card for. Generally it is better to format a card in the device it is going to be used in.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #101 on:** 03 April, 2012, 10:11:08 am »

I'll probably use it for transferring stuff between PC and Mac.

Another issue. I know this is a oft-discussed topic but as far as I can see there is no convenient solution without getting into scripts and what not: when I shut down or log off, the option "reopen windows on restart" is ticked by default. I know that i can get individual apps not to reopen their specific windows when restarting. There is a keyboard shortcut to use when shutting down that bypasses that dialogue, but there doesn't seem to be a way of having that option unchecked by default. Any solutions?

Jaded · « **Reply #102 on:** 03 April, 2012, 03:41:17 pm »

There is a terminal command you can do to change this default setting. I'm going to do it when I return to full wifi and have both my achenes together. I don't have a link but will do a google for it.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #103 on:** 03 April, 2012, 09:56:49 pm »

Quote from: Jaded on 03 April, 2012, 03:41:17 pm

There is a terminal command you can do to change this default setting. I'm going to do it when I return to full wifi and have both my achenes together. I don't have a link but will do a google for it.

I'd be interested to hear how you do this, when you get round it.

More basic stuff: the Apple website is pretty good for advice re battery preservation. Briefly, don't leave on charge all the time (that one is news to me - I thought the "intelligent" charging took care of that), don't let it get totally discharged, if storing leave it about half charged rather than full.

I rarely unplugged my previous laptop. Which now has a totally dead battery.

Jaded · « **Reply #104 on:** 03 April, 2012, 10:50:19 pm »

I sold my MBP 17 in the summer. Three years old and the battery still gave about 3.5 hours use.

simonp · « **Reply #105 on:** 03 April, 2012, 11:29:48 pm »

The Dell I have at work is managing to run out of battery on standby over a long weekend (thurs 5pm => tue am).

It is a vile machine, and I would ideally use my mac but I’d risk the sack if I copied work data onto it, so I can only use web-based remote access through a java client which doesn’t work e.g. on a train, or lug the hated Dell around with me.

It was showing 50% battery and 34 minutes remaining time when I was using it the other day, just compiling some code in vmware.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #106 on:** 03 April, 2012, 11:35:07 pm »

That's pretty good Jaded. So far, indicated battery life remaining seems pretty good on this MBA 13 - best part of 8 or 9 hours seems achievable. Haven't identified the main power hogs as yet - but iPlayer seems to be a candidate.

Other matters:

Is there an extension to allow Safari to send a link to an Android phone? I found this very useful in Chrome and FF. However, I must say I really like Safari. So clean and it makes good use of the screen area.

Edit: BTW, a handy shortcut is shift+cmd+i - opens mail app to send url of current page.

simonp · « **Reply #107 on:** 04 April, 2012, 12:02:11 am »

Someone at work mentioned Instapaper and this seems to have an Android client, and works with Safari.

Valiant · « **Reply #108 on:** 04 April, 2012, 03:13:10 am »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 03 April, 2012, 11:35:07 pm

That's pretty good Jaded. So far, indicated battery life remaining seems pretty good on this MBA 13 - best part of 8 or 9 hours seems achievable. Haven't identified the main power hogs as yet - but iPlayer seems to be a candidate.

Anything that uses video, especially flash or h264 is a candidate. As is bloody Firefox 11.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #109 on:** 04 April, 2012, 08:41:09 pm »

I've just had a rather worrying event with my MBA. I had it switched on and had been using it without problems - email etc. I also had my Windows laptop running and I was using it to convert some music files prior to putting them on the Mac. I noticed that the MBA screen suddenly went black. The whirly multicoloured wheel appeared and rotated for a minute. There was no response to trackpad or keyboard. Eventually the wheel was replaced by a cursor, still on a black screen. It remained unresponsive to any input so I held down the power key and I could see that it then shut down properly. I restarted it and all appeared fine. I ran Disk Utility and Repair Disc which found and repaired what AFAIK were minor file name issues. I'm considering the Apple hardware test next.

That's not good, is it?

The irony is that at the time I was cursing the Windows laptop that I was using, especially the woeful trackpad, and looking forward to shutting it down, putting it away, and getting back to my Mac.

Is this a back to the shop job?

Wonky · « **Reply #110 on:** 04 April, 2012, 09:20:33 pm »

If its fine now, I wouldn't worry about it. Black screen crashes are rare, but do happen occasionally. Cosmic rays or a really obscure bug could cause it.

If you ever get a picture of a mac with a sad face however......then you're in trouble.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #111 on:** 04 April, 2012, 09:57:18 pm »

It's knocked my confidence in it somewhat. I've only had it a week or so. Didn't like the look of it at all.

Jurek · « **Reply #112 on:** 04 April, 2012, 10:01:22 pm »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 04 April, 2012, 09:57:18 pm

It's knocked my confidence in it somewhat. I've only had it a week or so. Didn't like the look of it at all.

Be calm. It'll be fine....

Valiant · « **Reply #113 on:** 04 April, 2012, 11:09:05 pm »

Maybe it tried to sleep/screensaver and encountered an error? But anyways I wouldn't worry.

O.oh btw download monolingual. It's a great app that strips the extra unneeded stuff off apps. Unless you need the help in Ukrianian and Tibetan. Last time I ran it, I set it to delete everything but the English languages and every architecture apart from Mac Intel. It deleted about 67GB

simonp · « **Reply #114 on:** 04 April, 2012, 11:12:14 pm »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 04 April, 2012, 09:57:18 pm

It's knocked my confidence in it somewhat. I've only had it a week or so. Didn't like the look of it at all.

My MBP has misbehaved a couple of times in the 13 months I’ve had it.

One good idea is to have ssh remote access from your phone. Sometimes you can log in using text interface and force a clean reboot rather than hitting the power button.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #115 on:** 04 April, 2012, 11:32:51 pm »

The only thing that was different to usual was that I had a SD card in the slot. The card had at that point never been used on the Windows machine.

Quote from: simonp on 04 April, 2012, 11:12:14 pm

One good idea is to have ssh remote access from your phone. Sometimes you can log in using text interface and force a clean reboot rather than hitting the power button.

If you don't have that, are there any combinations of keys or other procedures that I could have tried?

Quote from: Valiant on 04 April, 2012, 11:09:05 pm

Maybe it tried to sleep/screensaver and encountered an error? But anyways I wouldn't worry.

O.oh btw download monolingual. It's a great app that strips the extra unneeded stuff off apps. Unless you need the help in Ukrianian and Tibetan. Last time I ran it, I set it to delete everything but the English languages and every architecture apart from Mac Intel. It deleted about 67GB

I did wonder if it was the screensaver or sleep that initiated the event - but I was looking at another screen and can't be sure. It was at that stage when it would kick in.

Jaded · « **Reply #116 on:** 05 April, 2012, 12:23:39 am »

This can happen very occasionally. Sometimes you just need time and it sorts itself out.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #117 on:** 05 April, 2012, 12:30:34 am »

I think it is to do with going into sleep mode. I've changed some of the settings now in any case as it seems there is no point in putting SSDs to sleep.

simonp · « **Reply #118 on:** 05 April, 2012, 12:33:56 am »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 04 April, 2012, 11:32:51 pm

The only thing that was different to usual was that I had a SD card in the slot. The card had at that point never been used on the Windows machine.

Quote from: simonp on 04 April, 2012, 11:12:14 pm
One good idea is to have ssh remote access from your phone. Sometimes you can log in using text interface and force a clean reboot rather than hitting the power button.

If you don't have that, are there any combinations of keys or other procedures that I could have tried?

None that I’m aware of.

Check that you are up to date with all firmware fixed particularly for the system controller chip - forget what they call it - as there have been bug fixes to do with sleep.

ian · « **Reply #119 on:** 05 April, 2012, 12:01:45 pm »

All computers / smartphones / tablets (and probably the next generation of internet-enabled toasters) crash occasionally. All modern OSs and hardware can handle a hard reboot via the power button without consequence to the system (your open files, of course, may be surrendered to Finestre, the Demon of Such Things).

I wouldn't worry, unless it becomes a regular occurrence.

(My equally vile work Dell is on its third battery and currently running at 20 minutes battery time, steaming pile of overweight, WinXP-running, semiconducting poo.)

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #120 on:** 05 April, 2012, 01:08:09 pm »

Quote from: simonp on 05 April, 2012, 12:33:56 am

Check that you are up to date with all firmware fixed particularly for the system controller chip - forget what they call it - as there have been bug fixes to do with sleep.

I've done the only 2 updates I can find via Apple, which included one to do with stability. Fingers crossed.

Quote from: ian on 05 April, 2012, 12:01:45 pm

All computers / smartphones / tablets (and probably the next generation of internet-enabled toasters) crash occasionally. All modern OSs and hardware can handle a hard reboot via the power button without consequence to the system (your open files, of course, may be surrendered to Finestre, the Demon of Such Things).

I wouldn't worry, unless it becomes a regular occurrence.

Thanks ian. Hopefully it's not a major issue.

mike · « **Reply #121 on:** 05 April, 2012, 01:22:37 pm »

my 13" MBA is the same, SP. If I leave it plugged in with the screen open, it freezes for a bit after the screensaver has been running for a while. Its fine most of the time, but just occasionally needs a reboot. It seems entirely random, and I dont remember it doing it since I changed the 'sleep' settings like you just did.

I try and remember to close the lid when I walk away from the machine, it's never done it when closed.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #122 on:** 05 April, 2012, 02:46:01 pm »

I happened to have the screensaver and computer sleep both set to start at the same time temporarily while experimenting - it had never done that before, screen open or not, when I had the timings set differently.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #123 on:** 06 April, 2012, 12:07:05 am »

Web clips in Dashboard: how does this work? I thought the idea was that you selected the area of interest on a web page, and the widget would then keep that section of the webpage updated. So that should work for yACF's “recent posts” section, I thought, but the widget displays a section of the page that is not what was selected.

Jaded · « **Reply #124 on:** 06 April, 2012, 08:41:34 am »

I never understood what that was for and hence never used it.