1st time MacBook Pro owner

JamesfromDFW

JamesfromDFW

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 19, 2016
Messages
100
I'm about to pick up a MBP Late 2013 model with an i5 cpu and 500GB ssd. Any suggestions for being a first time user of a mac?
 
My only suggestion is enjoy. I know people still rocking Mac books from 2009 and they couldn't be happier. I'm also pretty fond of my wife's iPad mini....

So it is what it is.
 
Stick with it for a few weeks before making any judgements. Everytime you wonder how to do something, ask google and learn, and after doing this a few days you'll be proficient in no time flat.
 
Blackreplica said:
Stick with it for a few weeks before making any judgements. Everytime you wonder how to do something, ask google and learn, and after doing this a few days you'll be proficient in no time flat.
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Any items worth buying, docks? usb3 vs thunderbolt hard drives? 4K monitor? I'm guessing I should treat this like a windows laptop as far as accessories....
 
Don't buy anything else for it. It's a 4 year old laptop. Just use it.
 
JamesfromDFW said:
Any items worth buying, docks? usb3 vs thunderbolt hard drives? 4K monitor? I'm guessing I should treat this like a windows laptop as far as accessories....
Click to expand...

Yep IMO give yourself some time to see if Mac OS really is for you before making any further financial commitment

Personally I have a 'docking station' using my Acer X34 (which has a USB hub built in) via HDMI (my gaming pc gets the DisplayPort input on the monitor). That, along with a wireless keyboard, mouse, maybe an external hard drive bank for storage and backups, is really all you'll need
 
First thing I usually do is fix the horrific default "natural" scrolling direction. Other than that, just learn the basics for touchpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Every so often I get a wild burr up my ass and switch between PC and Mac - you'll be fine! Also, that's a great year! :) Good luck!
 
mrwizardno2 said:
First thing I usually do is fix the horrific default "natural" scrolling direction. Other than that, just learn the basics for touchpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Every so often I get a wild burr up my ass and switch between PC and Mac - you'll be fine! Also, that's a great year! :) Good luck!
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It's all preference. I prefer Apple's default scroll direction vs PC's... I also have trouble moving back to Windows for hotkeys and the position of "Command" vs "Windows key" on PC keyboards.

As for the OP: I would say there is nothing to buy. Use the default and stock apps for a bit. And just Google a lot. You'll eventually figure out shortcuts and hotkeys which is generally the best way to get around.

There are generally free apps for everything you'll want or need, unless you need Pro app stuff. But then that is all available the same as it is on Windows. (IE: Adobe apps, Microsoft Office, etc).
 
UnknownSouljer said:
It's all preference. I prefer Apple's default scroll direction vs PC's... I also have trouble moving back to Windows for hotkeys and the position of "Command" vs "Windows key" on PC keyboards.

As for the OP: I would say there is nothing to buy. Use the default and stock apps for a bit. And just Google a lot. You'll eventually figure out shortcuts and hotkeys which is generally the best way to get around.

There are generally free apps for everything you'll want or need, unless you need Pro app stuff. But then that is all available the same as it is on Windows. (IE: Adobe apps, Microsoft Office, etc).
Click to expand...

I agree. All preference. Just sharing mine! Spot on, though - google anything you don't get / understand and you'll be fine!
 
One UI tip: remember that closing a window doesn't necessarily close the app (you usually want to choose the Quit option or hit Cmd-Q). And sometimes that's a good thing!
 
Wow, thanks everybody for the tips and suggestions, I was hesitant on switching because it's a whole different world. I've been on Windows since 3.11 and i don't know much about macOS. So i'm really excited and worried at the same time. I did just but a sandisk 128gb usb 3.0 for $30 for it. I figure that's a small start for an add on.
 
Only thing I would add immeidately - get a external USB HDD so you can use Time Machine. It's not the most robust backup solution, but it's nice to be able to restore from if nothing else. Doesn't need to be anything fancy or expensive, just plain USB with some decent size so it can hold your stuff.

Apart from that, you'll figure out what to add based on how you use it.

We have a couple of guys at work that like having an external monitor, we make a sort of cable bundle - DisplayPort for the monitor, a MagSafe for power, and a USB to attach a hub, that has a desktop keyboard/mouse and USB Ethernet hard line. Makes for a decent poor man's docking station - one of them likes to close the laptop and use it like a desktop, the other keeps the laptop open and uses the monitor as a second screen. Other guys don't ever plug it into anything at all, and just use it like laptops.

AppleTV makes for a nice presentation device - Airplay basically lets you use any TV as a wireless second monitor, kinda like a Chromecast. It's hardly necessary; we use it at work for Powerpoint and other presentations in the Conference room so we don't have to hook up a HDMI or other cable (and AirPlay also works from iPhones/iPads).

I don't even have any ~must use~ apps. I use Apple's Mail (it's not the best, but I'm more comfortable with it than Outlook, and paired with Spam Sieve works well enough for me). I use MS Office a lot for work. Steam installs and runs great (I use In-Home Streaming to play on my MBP while i'm sitting on the couch, my Win10 Desktop does the heavy lifting, but Iris graphics actually runs most games natively when supported - not well, but playable). I do some light web development and there are a few tools that I use for that. I use Terminal a good deal for working with Linux servers at work. We use Apple Remote Desktop for some servers at work (it's VNC with an extra layer of security on top, a regular VNC client can connect).

I used to use Safari, but I finally jumped ship to Chrome even on my MBP. I didn't like Safari on my Windows machines, it wasn't the same experience, whereas Chrome is Chrome no matter what it's running on. I do still use Safari on my iPhone though.

We use VMWare Fusion at work, with Windows images (among others), when we absolutely need Windows. We keep the images on a server, check them out to our laptops when we need them so we don't have to keep them on our laptops eating space if we don't need them all the time. I don't need Windows that often, mostly just for some specific industrial PLC programs, and the occasional older MSOffice file that's loaded with tons of Macros and stuff.

I don't use any aftermarket antivirus or firewall. I've never found it necessary. I won't lie and say there are no OS X viruses or malware. They just aren't all that common and I've never had an issue is all. (I never had a significant issue with Windows either though, so maybe it's just in my typical usage)

I'm a fan of OS X, but I've been using Apple since System 6 and OS X since it was NeXTSTEP 3.1 on a black cube. I've used Windows since 3.0. Both are just operating systems, not religions. I can get work done in either one really, but I tend to be a bit more productive on OS X.
 
What should or how should i use my files that are already on my 2TB external windows drive....
 
the later versions of OSX should be able to mount the volume in at least read-only mode. basically just connect it, save off the data you need, and then reformat it to a mac compatible fs.
 
gigatexal said:
the later versions of OSX should be able to mount the volume in at least read-only mode. basically just connect it, save off the data you need, and then reformat it to a mac compatible fs.
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oh okay, i wasn't sure if i should pick up a WD 3TB portable at fry's for $99 right now?
 
Brian_B said:
Only thing I would add immeidately - get a external USB HDD so you can use Time Machine. It's not the most robust backup solution, but it's nice to be able to restore from if nothing else. Doesn't need to be anything fancy or expensive, just plain USB with some decent size so it can hold your stuff.

I've been looking at docks but not at $200+ pricing for TB2 ones, are the USB3 just as good?
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basically just get your stuff off the ntfs formatted drive or find a utility to mount it, the subsystem in osx is unixy enough that you might be able to find one, once you get your data re-use your drive as a backup, using timemachine is a good idea.
 
JamesfromDFW said:
I've been looking at docks but not at $200+ pricing for TB2 ones, are the USB3 just as good?
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I've never had an issue with any USB drive - I do reformat them as HFS+ before using them for Time Machine, but just for straight file copies, thumb drives often come formatted as FAT and OS X works with that. I believe on NTFS OS X defaults to read only (with 3rd party NTFS drivers available), but don't quote me on that.

For backup purposes, yes, USB is plenty good enough. I do have a TB2 backup drive - it's unquestionably faster, but for Time Machine, that is a slow enough process as it is that the extra interface speed doesn't really help you that much, and for that purpose, I'm still using some USB 2 drives, and it works just fine.

The only reason I'd go TB would be if you are wanting to run large files off of it rather than the internal storage (Virtual Machines, video editing, etc). If you don't need to run stuff live off the drive, the extra speed that your paying for with TB is mostly wasted.

For Time Machine (and other backup software, Carbon Copy Cloner is another great utility that has a lot more depth to it), capacity means more than speed honestly - the first backup is the only one that takes forever, after that it's mostly just small incremental updates.
 
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Brian_B said:
I've never had an issue with any USB drive - I do reformat them as HFS+ before using them for Time Machine, but just for straight file copies, thumb drives often come formatted as FAT and OS X works with that. I believe on NTFS OS X defaults to read only (with 3rd party NTFS drivers available), but don't quote me on that.

For backup purposes, yes, USB is plenty good enough. I do have a TB2 backup drive - it's unquestionably faster, but for Time Machine, that is a slow enough process as it is that the extra interface speed doesn't really help you that much, and for that purpose, I'm still using some USB 2 drives, and it works just fine.

The only reason I'd go TB would be if you are wanting to run large files off of it rather than the internal storage (Virtual Machines, video editing, etc). If you don't need to run stuff live off the drive, the extra speed that your paying for with TB is mostly wasted.

For Time Machine (and other backup software, Carbon Copy Cloner is another great utility that has a lot more depth to it), capacity means more than speed honestly - the first backup is the only one that takes forever, after that it's mostly just small incremental updates.
Click to expand...


All i use my current Win10 computer is net reading, youtube watching. as far as my external drive - pic, video, mp3's. I'm thinking about recording youtube videos online. I would like to play my retro games on my MBP with my 360 controller as well. I may get a dock for hard drive, ethernet and KMM purposes.
 
I have gone through so many laptops in the past 20 years, my first being a 12" PowerBook. All I can say the fit and finish on an Apple laptop is something nobody can or will match for some reason. I got a 2015MBP a few months back and hot damn I love the thing as much as my old 12" PB. Enjoy it.
 
Grentz said:
Be careful with Chrome on OSX, it can be a battery hog (it uses a lot of CPU).

Safari is actually quite solid on OSX.
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Glad you brought battery life up. I have some questions. MBP Late 2013 should get around 7-8 hours? How long should i keep it plugged in for? Is it bad to keep it plugged in if i have it "docked". Who's a good place to go to get the battery replaced? Can Apple help locally if i have problems with it without apple care? How can I transport my favorites from chrome to safari?
 
JamesfromDFW said:
All i use my current Win10 computer is net reading, youtube watching. as far as my external drive - pic, video, mp3's. I'm thinking about recording youtube videos online. I would like to play my retro games on my MBP with my 360 controller as well. I may get a dock for hard drive, ethernet and KMM purposes.
Click to expand...

The PS3/4 controller is easier to get to work with in OSX. I wonder why? You used to have to get the drivers separately. Now the driver package is preloaded into the OS, so pairing a PS3/PS4 controller is very simple. I used to play SNES emulated games all the time while overseas. Handy to do on a MBP... built in Bluetooth has its perks, wonder why it never caught on as much on PC?


JamesfromDFW said:
Glad you brought battery life up. I have some questions. MBP Late 2013 should get around 7-8 hours? How long should i keep it plugged in for? Is it bad to keep it plugged in if i have it "docked". Who's a good place to go to get the battery replaced? Can Apple help locally if i have problems with it without apple care? How can I transport my favorites from chrome to safari?
Click to expand...

Battery life is 100% dependent on what you're doing. Listening to music with the display off could probably net you more hours. Watching video (especially video that has to be decoded/decompressed/processed while streaming (internet) will net you less (maybe 4-6?). Doing just docs all day will probably set you in that 8-10 hour range squarely. While gaming you'd be lucky to get 2-3.
Also things to consider is how many apps you have open at once and of course the brightness setting of your screen.

You can keep it plugged in everyday if you want. Apple generally recommends that you at least partially deplete the battery everyday however just to keep it in good operating order. So, at some point in the day, unplug and burn 25%+/- or whatever and plug it back in. The smart battery will distribute wear, so it will use different cells each time. No need to go from 100%-0% everyday as a result.
Apple does do battery replacement. It's more expensive than third party, but their smart batteries aren't to be toyed with. I've had friends go with third party replacements and regret it almost instantly. Their battery life turned to crap and they had swollen batteries in less than a year. So spending the (I think $140) is worth it to do from Apple themselves when the time comes. They also will generally give you same day turn around, which is convenient if you have an Apple store near by. The battery, installation, and etc of course will then be warrantied by Apple for a year... which is another perk you wouldn't receive going third party or doing it yourself.

Yes, Apple Geniuses will diagnose hardware/software issues for free. If you want a repair done, then of course it will cost you money. Applecare would simply make those repairs free (provided it's a hardware/software issue that wasn't created by user error, neglect, damage, etc).
Protip: Make sure to make an appointment before going in. If you live in a major city (where most of the Apple stores are), Genius appointments can be booked several days or a week in advance (sometimes, also depends on time of year). So doing a walk in might mean you end up waiting for several hours... or never getting a meeting at all. Obviously a waste of time.

Safari has an import feature like FF and Chrome. Goto:
File => Import From => Google Chrome
Easy peasy.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
The PS3/4 controller is easier to get to work with in OSX. I wonder why? You used to have to get the drivers separately. Now the driver package is preloaded into the OS, so pairing a PS3/PS4 controller is very simple. I used to play SNES emulated games all the time while overseas. Handy to do on a MBP... built in Bluetooth has its perks, wonder why it never caught on as much on PC?




Battery life is 100% dependent on what you're doing. Listening to music with the display off could probably net you more hours. Watching video (especially video that has to be decoded/decompressed/processed while streaming (internet) will net you less (maybe 4-6?). Doing just docs all day will probably set you in that 8-10 hour range squarely. While gaming you'd be lucky to get 2-3.
Also things to consider is how many apps you have open at once and of course the brightness setting of your screen.

You can keep it plugged in everyday if you want. Apple generally recommends that you at least partially deplete the battery everyday however just to keep it in good operating order. So, at some point in the day, unplug and burn 25%+/- or whatever and plug it back in. The smart battery will distribute wear, so it will use different cells each time. No need to go from 100%-0% everyday as a result.
Apple does do battery replacement. It's more expensive than third party, but their smart batteries aren't to be toyed with. I've had friends go with third party replacements and regret it almost instantly. Their battery life turned to crap and they had swollen batteries in less than a year. So spending the (I think $140) is worth it to do from Apple themselves when the time comes. They also will generally give you same day turn around, which is convenient if you have an Apple store near by. The battery, installation, and etc of course will then be warrantied by Apple for a year... which is another perk you wouldn't receive going third party or doing it yourself.

Yes, Apple Geniuses will diagnose hardware/software issues for free. If you want a repair done, then of course it will cost you money. Applecare would simply make those repairs free (provided it's a hardware/software issue that wasn't created by user error, neglect, damage, etc).
Protip: Make sure to make an appointment before going in. If you live in a major city (where most of the Apple stores are), Genius appointments can be booked several days or a week in advance (sometimes, also depends on time of year). So doing a walk in might mean you end up waiting for several hours... or never getting a meeting at all. Obviously a waste of time.

Safari has an import feature like FF and Chrome. Goto:
File => Import From => Google Chrome
Easy peasy.
Click to expand...

DAMN! Thanks for all of that, unless you can suggest anything else, i think everyone has helped move on from Windows....thanks to all!
 
JamesfromDFW said:
DAMN! Thanks for all of that, unless you can suggest anything else, i think everyone has helped move on from Windows....thanks to all!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. That more or less happened for me too in 2008. I still (VERY rarely) use Windows to play an occasional game or two. But from a productivity and work perspective (which is basically 99.9% of the time), I'm in OSX. If you have other questions or need help figuring some stuff out, feel free to post some more.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
You're welcome. That more or less happened for me too in 2008. I still (VERY rarely) use Windows to play an occasional game or two. But from a productivity and work perspective (which is basically 99.9% of the time), I'm in OSX. If you have other questions or need help figuring some stuff out, feel free to post some more.
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Well I hit a road bump today, my job didn't put in my vacation time, so i will be unable to get the MBP this weekend. Anything I should read online while i wait another two weeks.....
 
So yes I got it today! Downloading the updates, changed the password, failed on downloading chrome. Charging it too since it was at like 4% when I picked it up. I won't have much time to play today but it's running nice an smooth versus my windows desktop.

1111am update I'm now downloading macOS sierra, and i got chrome to work. i'm actually using the double finger scroll on the track pad, this seems far too easy to use, i'm liking everything about this MBP so far.
 
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so i copied all my photos from windows onto my usb3 thumb drive and it would only read about 12 of 3k of what was on the drive, any ideas?
 
JamesfromDFW said:
so i copied all my photos from windows onto my usb3 thumb drive and it would only read about 12 of 3k of what was on the drive, any ideas?
Click to expand...
Your previous post also said "failed on downloading Chrome".. That sounds ominous. One thing to burn into your cranium when it comes to Macs are that these are "soccer mom" devices. Things don't arbitrarily fail in some unclear way unless something is genuinely broken. If something isn't intended to work (like installing newer versions of Chrome on a version of the OS too old to handle it now), it should tell you, in clear english, of that incompatibility. "Fail" is not a thing on Macs unless either the hardware or the OS (usually the hardware) is defective.

As far as your USB issue, I'd check that the USB stick is good in other computers. Macs don't have a random "can't read certain parts of a USB" thing. Either the USB is quirky or the USB port is bad. Try other USB ports too, those Macs have one on each side.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Your previous post also said "failed on downloading Chrome".. That sounds ominous. One thing to burn into your cranium when it comes to Macs are that these are "soccer mom" devices. Things don't arbitrarily fail in some unclear way unless something is genuinely broken. If something isn't intended to work (like installing newer versions of Chrome on a version of the OS too old to handle it now), it should tell you, in clear english, of that incompatibility. "Fail" is not a thing on Macs unless either the hardware or the OS (usually the hardware) is defective.

As far as your USB issue, I'd check that the USB stick is good in other computers. Macs don't have a random "can't read certain parts of a USB" thing. Either the USB is quirky or the USB port is bad. Try other USB ports too, those Macs have one on each side.
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I posted an update, I got chrome working, user error, first time mac user lol, as far as the 128gb usb 3.0 stick works great, i think the issue is the folders i have the pics in. macOS isn't letting me opening them, i think i will try again with a fat32 format and just copy and paste all pics without folders.
 
ok i'm not new to Macs but just a couple days ago just bought a used MacBook pro 2010 15" at a yardsale. Just wondering if anyone has had the graphic problem such as the artifacting/kernel panic with the intel integrated/discrete graphics built into the laptop? The buyer showed when it happens and only once did it happen with me when I was using an ext hdd dock to make a backup of the hdd. Since then nothing. Apple had a program for the mid 2010"s but it expired April/2016.

Comments from past and current owners of the 2008-2013 MacBook pro with this problem.
 
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