Yearly Archives: 2016

10.12.2 update causing black screen for some…

First time I’ve seen this: an iMac user had an update from Apple pushed (10.12.2) for Sierra. Well, the screen turned black after update was done and login. Mouse moved around.

Solution was to restore back to last Time Machine backup (took several hours). Other suggestions (after the fact and not going to risk) was to blindly enter pwd. It may be that Apple’s installer has a random/long time bug that wants  the user to login but the screen is black (keyboard still works, you can hear errors if you type something and hit enter). So if you get this same screen with mouse functioning, try to enter your password. It might even want your login ID and pwd.

Thanks Apple. Hope your 2017 fixes this…

MacbookPro Touch Bar… somethings just …

mbp13touch-gray-select-201610The new MacbookPro models have arrived and man, was that a yawn?

Ok, for most this might be moot…but here it goes:

  • You need to buy it with all the RAM you will ever think you will need because you can’t upgrade after.
  • You need to buy it with the maximum storage you need, that is, it should be greater than what you are replacing it with.
  • No more magsafe power connector. It can be any Tbolt-3 port. On the 15″ model, there are 4.

And now, the biggest cost … I built a 1TB, loaded 15″ Touch model. It costs $3499. And that is without Applecare. Oh, must…have…Applecare if you are a “me firsty”.

Hey, with the 15″ MBPTB, it can have 512GB, 1TB or even 2TB of storage! Ouch, that 2TB is $1200 option over the 512GB. 4GB of VideoRam is $100 more (you will need that to drive a 5K LG display…ooooooi!) Maximum SSD storage on the 13″ model is 1TB.

USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 as they call it is rather interesting. The speed, video, adaptors… more to come!

 

Mac OS Sierra…wait for point update

Well Apple released 10.12 and pulled previous updaters.

Doesn’t play well with PDFs and ScanSnap from Fujitsu.

I took chance and updated. So far, not really a big deal.

Security wise, it is an upgrade and Apple seems to be moving away from fixing older bugs with new ones.

 

Apple Sierra aka 10.12.0
Apple Sierra aka 10.12.0

Why has Apple not updated MacPro?

Apple-Mac-Pro-2013-3So, it’s been 3 years. Late 2013 to be exact. And Apple gave us this…trash can, wine cooler, bin thing. Elegant. Quiet. Ports. Dual GPUs. Up to 12 cores. Easy to add RAM.

But now we see the mess. No raid. No internal capacity (incapacity) increase. Still mired at 1TB. Sad.

Meanwhile, designers either snatch up 2010-2012 MacPro leftovers and ramp them up to more storage, ram and GPUs. The MacPro Late 2013 is actually behind.

Apple, I hope you read this and are going to top the cooler this year. Otherwise, I can see myself moving to a custom PC with Windows 10 Pro and SSDs raided. Some MLBs have Tbolt THREE now. And I can have bluray drives. In a quiet, water cooled case. Sigh.