Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6.2

Mac Daily News ^ | 11/09/2009

[Mr. Jeeves]

...at my age, I would seriously be considering the 13"... it's a pound lighter than the 15".

For travel, you really need the MacBook Air. I dragged mine all over Asia recently - it worked beautifully, and my shoulders thanked me!

[TXnMA]

Just another word of thanks for maintaining the Mac list, and for keeping us aware of the latest "ins and outs".

I have recently been finding that I really appreciate being able to step back from all FR's Øbozo/leftist machinations and the Islamist threats -- and just enjoy some tech chat!

And, of course, I appreciate all the "free consulting" that is shared between those who are using a similar "tool kit"... This is the Internet at its very best!!

Again, many thanks!!!

[VicVega]

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Secondly, some really great advice to consider especially the resolution screen. Must admit I don’t even know what the current one has.

Not near 72 but do find myself squinting sometimes.

With the exception of the weight, really leaning toward the 17”. Again, thats if they cannot fix the current one. I noticed I did have the Apple Care.

If I didn’t have this HP dv 3000 as a back up, I probably would just get the 17” if they couldn’t fix the 15” and maybe get the airbook for travel.

Have at leat 4 backpacks for travel. I would think the 17” should fit in the two primary bags I use. When I bring in laptop wil make sure to bring in backpack to make sure it fits.

Really appreciate your $.02 and everyone elses.

Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

[whitedog57]

Worked for me without a hitch!

On my mid-2007 MacBook Pro 17”er.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Good luck. I’d wager the chances are good that your laptop will need to go to the central repair facility, but as you say, maybe the resourceful folks in your local authorized dealers can figure out what’s wrong. In our case, my son’s laptop took about four days to be returned to us.

The Mac Pro has been available in quad-core format for a while, and the iMac just went quad. Word on the street (for what it’s worth) suggests Spring 2010 might see quad-core coming to the Macbooks. It all depends on power consumption. And, four cores will be just the beginning. Expect that to exponentiate rapidly.

Combined with the low-level parallelism hooks introduced in Snow Leopard, this portends great things for multicore, as soon as developers come up to speed. In my case, my 3-year-old first-generation Intel Macbook Pro (with lowly Core Duo processor, 32-bit only, 2GB RAM only) runs well but I pound it hard, with heavy use of virtual machines and my own coding which makes use of parallelism. The poor little Core Duo really cranks its heart out for me, but four cores would give serious gratification for my kind of usage. It’s astonishing how much smoother and more responsive the Mac is compared to my supposedly more powerful WinXP laptop in similar usage. And it’s way more stable. It basically never needs rebooting.

[VicVega]

Not even a full day on this HP and I hate it. Just waiting for MNF to end so I can run it to the shop.

Hopefully they can fix it here instead of shipping it to the states.

Otherwise I am leaving with a new Macbook today.

Would be great to wait for the quad 4, but I have zero patience for this HP.

2.5 years with zero issues till this has been great. Can’t say/write that about my past Dell or IBM laptops.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"My thoughts: Don't buy memory upgrades from Apple. Too expensive. Buy a minimal RAM configuration using one socket if you can and then upgrade with Crucial or other top line RAM supplier."

I recently found, to my surprise, that this is not always true. Specifically, last time I checked (a couple weeks ago), getting a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro fully-stuffed with RAM was actually a little less costly through Apple than going third party. So your mileage might vary. The fact that Vic is in Asia might add a wrinkle or two. Anyway, this one point usually tracks Swordmaker's recommendation, but there are exceptions. They probably vary from day to day. One thing is certain: it is very easy to upgrade the RAM if you choose that route.

I agree with Swordmaker's comments about the 17. Just too big. BUT: the extra hour of battery life is tempting. And that ginormous screen is indeed glorious. If you're suitably muscular, it might be livable. (Keep in mind the 17 doesn't fit many computer bags.) Just make sure you've given OS X's Spaces feature (multiple desktops) enough of a workout before your decision to be sure you really need more desktop real-estate. Spaces is freakin' wonderful.

As Swordmaker points out, the 13" might be great for you. The 15" has more processor oomph, though, and accommodates more RAM. Depending on your usage, that may or may not be an issue. Any of the current Mac laptops will be a significant upgrade over your (and my) 3-year-old unit. One hint: think RAM.

[TheStickman]

Installed without issue.

[VicVega]

Heading over there in a couple of minutes. Lets say they save the current laptop, would you advice upgrading the RAM and moving to Leopard?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"2.5 years with zero issues till this has been great. Can’t say/write that about my past Dell or IBM laptops."

Nothing but trouble with Dell laptops here. Never again. Oh, the hours I've spent on the 800 line to deepest Bangalore. Maddening. Living in the States as I do, I can saunter down the street to the local Apple Store for answers when I need 'em. That's priceless.

My last Thinkpad (a T40p) was flimsily constructed but ran nicely. It's still running, in fact. I reserve it for special usage with a couple of unique apps on it. My current T60p is ...eh. Not great. It's a few months newer than my Macbook Pro but cost more. I do like the keyboard, and its screen is as good as it gets in the PC laptop world. But its plastic housing is festooned with cracks, and there's just no damn excuse for the horror that is XP when put to heavy tasks. It bogs and gets corrupted, needs frequent rebooting, and the necessary antivirus processes slow everything down. Booting up and shutting down take forever, and lately the damn thing won't sleep or hibernate and nobody can tell me why. And then the disk gets fragmented and everything goes to hell until I defrag it, and six months ago the defrag operation killed my hard disk. Annoying. By comparison, my aging Macbook Pro, which I really push to the point of abuse, runs without complaint. Its only support incident was an iffy display backlight after 2.9 years. AppleCare replaced that for free, and gave me a new SuperDrive while they were at it, though I had no complaints.

If you get a new one, I'll be very jealous. The current "unibody" generation is just so lovely, flawlessly rendered, robustly built, and with marvelous performance and features for the money. If you've got the cash to spare, go for it. You will not be sorry.

By the way, IMHO AppleCare is well worth its cost for a laptop.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Yes to Leopard.

Yes, always yes, to RAM.

[VicVega]

Second attempt at sending you this response. I really hate this HP. The message I was about to send you disappeared. The screen keeps moving up and down as I am typing. It’s possessed.

Okay, so big rookie mistake. I didn’t register my laptop with Apple Care when I bought it. No worries, just had to send the original receipt to Apple Care which I just did.

Lucky for me I kept the receipt and it was purchased back in June 07. The price I paid for it is the price of a 17” MBP now with more features and benefits.

So hopefully A/C will send the repair center an authorization number so the work can be completed. If not, I’ll pay it out of pocket and get the new 17”.

Yes, it really looks nice and wil fit in the backpack I have. Tested it today. Don’t have to pay sales tax here so that is always a bonus too.

Really appreciate the advice given by you and all on the thread.

Hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days because I swear I am about to pitch this HP out the 25th Fl of this building.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days because I swear I am about to pitch this HP out the 25th Fl of this building."

Sympathies. But, you might hit a bunny (or knock the pancake off its head).

So, you got AppleCare when you purchased it, I gather. The registration whoops is a common one, but it should be straightened out quickly. That'll get your laptop repaired for free.

So now the question is... is it time to relegate your trusty laptop to second-string usage? Those new ones are just sooo tempting. And, no sales tax? Whoa.

Good luck and stay sane.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

The OS X update went smoothly on my ancient Macbook Pro too. No issues whatsoever.

[Swordmaker]

• an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account

A very strange, but limited bug, that applied ONLY if you had Guest turned on, had been logged onto to the Guest account and did not log off Guest before doing the update to Snow Leopard, and then immediately logged onto the Guest account before logging on to any other user after the update. . . something no one I can think of would do. . . but someone did it.

The Guest Account is designed to delete all data placed in the Guest User space during a session when logged off. That way a new guest does not see what the previous guest was up to. This bug accidentally got confused about which space it was in.

The accidentally "deleted" data, it actually was made inaccessible, was easily recoverable. Of course, backups are always important.

[VicVega]

After seeing the original receipt of purchase of Apple Care, they registered the laptop and the tech center is looking at it now.

Sort of hoping they can’t fix it so I’ll have no guilt buying a new one.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Sort of hoping they can’t fix it so I’ll have no guilt buying a new one."

They'll fix it. Zero "can't" chance. They'll replace all the innards if they have to.

The way to deal with the guilt is to purchase a new machine with significantly different capabilities. Different tools for different tasks. Why should I feel guilty for having two screwdrivers, or two hammers? ...Seems to me the 17" you covet is well differentiated from your comparatively petite current machine. It's a very powerful machine with top-end graphics and a huge screen. On the other hand your existing unit is a rugged and reliable old-timer more suitable for everyday banging-around. And it probably would love a companion (though it's too shy to ask.)

How's that H-P working for you? Murder it yet?

[VicVega]

"Why should I feel guilty for having two screwdrivers, or two hammers?" .

Now thats funny.

Waiting to here what tech center reports.

Hate the HP.