-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
GAF, I just got my first MacBook, help me!
- Thread starter TTOOLL
- Start date
entremet
Member
Get Amphetamine. It's a cool utility that prevents your Mac from Sleeping. Fruit Juice is also great for Battery Management.
This is good starting list.
https://lifehacker.com/lifehacker-pack-for-mac-our-list-of-the-essential-mac-635303836
Here's a more updated list. The LH one is older as CrashPlan is no longer available.
http://mytechmethods.com/mac/best-mac-apps-2017/
This is good starting list.
https://lifehacker.com/lifehacker-pack-for-mac-our-list-of-the-essential-mac-635303836
Here's a more updated list. The LH one is older as CrashPlan is no longer available.
http://mytechmethods.com/mac/best-mac-apps-2017/
Dreadnought
Member
Just curious why would you get the MacBook Air? Its terribly outdated
TTOOLL
Member
Price, basically. Also I only do web browsing and office work. In Brazil Apple products are even more ridiculously expensive.
I got the Air for 3,800 BR, the Pro (base model) is 5,300BR. This because I didn't buy direct from Apple...The official price for the Air here is 7,499.00 BR. It's crazy, that's roughly 2,300 dollars!!
TTOOLL
Member
Reverse Giraffe
Banned
The MacBook Air is still a great machine. I decided to get the MacBook 12" and am having major buyer's remorse. The thing won't even play Civ 5.. a fucking game that came out in 2011. You did good, OP!
TTOOLL
Member
Yes, it is! My only complaint so far is the huge silver bezel...it looks cheap, the rest looks ace though.
Greatest Ever
Member
Basically.
But I understand the happiness of it. It's just that Apple offers way better products and this sells because it's a cheaper Apple device.
Enjoy though! Dave2D made a cool video about good apps.
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Chrome
TTOOLL
Member
Not that bad at all! I still have magsafe, 2 usb and a sd card reader, the new pro doesn't.
The screen could be better but it's an improvement over my old laptop.
I'm kind of disappointed with the Mac App Store though...
Not true. The Air hardware is certainly poor value due to its age and a price that hasn't dropped accordingly, but if you want a Mac it's still the cheapest Mac laptop that's capable of general work (in terms of continuous performance and ports, the new thin Macbook is just too limited).
It's not just a question of logo, either. The OS X operating system and some apps that are only available or work better on OS X are for many people a rational reason to spend a couple hundred premium over a similar Windows laptop. Web developers, mobile app developers, academics in some fields.
Even the old hardware is well made, battery life is decent, keyboard and trackpad are still some of the best, keyboard debatably better than on newer Macs. Display is the biggest pain point, but is better than you'd expect from a TN panel. The 1440x900 res is not stellar but enough for most uses, and is 16:10 unlike cheap laptops. You don't really want side-by-side windows on a 13" display, and even if you did, 1080p resolution wouldn't be enough for it either.
Of course. Keynote is nicer to use than Powerpoint, though, so if you don't need to collaboratively edit presentations with others using PP you might want to use Keynote instead. I think Pages also has some upsides over Word, better layout / typography features if you want the finished product to look really nice and professional and have the eye for adjusting that sort of stuff.
What are you looking for in terms of apps? (since you said you're disappointed in the App Store, I presume you've been looking for something specific)
The best general power user recommendation I have is to buy Forklift from the App Store and use it as a file browser instead of Finder. This is especially if you like doing everything efficiently from the keyboard. I use a similar free app FreeCommander on Windows instead of Explorer.
There are multiple years of Macbooks/pros between the air and the new Macbook that he could have bought instead. They even have more ports and most importantly a better screen.