Resolved My mid-2012 MBP has been unusable for a long time.... question.

[Clix Pix]

ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I always add AppleCare to any Apple product that I buy, just to give myself a little insurance for a little while longer beyond the year-long warranty. This has come in handy a couple of times, especially back in around 2008 when the machine I had then was acting up and I had to take it to the Genius Bar. The issue was diagnosed and the machine needed a new logic board, which was an expensive repair, much more than I had paid for AppleCare, so I was more than grateful and relieved that I'd gone with AppleCare at the time I'd bought that computer.

When I buy an iPhone, I get AppleCare, especially since that is a device which I use daily and which I frequently take out-and-about with me. Ditto for my iPad. My 2017 MacBook is still covered by AppleCare now but that will be expiring soon, and my 2018 MBP that I bought in December of 2018 is also covered by it. The MacBook is the machine I use when I travel, so it was important to me to add AppleCare coverage to it. Although the 2018 MBP doesn't leave the house much I wanted AppleCare coverage for it because there were new elements to me (T2 thingy, different ports, etc.) and I wanted to be sure that everything was covered for at least three years.

Yes, buying AppleCare costs extra and adds to the overall price of a machine one is buying, but IMHO it really is worth the extra expense, as it gives the user peace of mind for three years and definitely can save money if and when an expensive repair is needed.

 

[a-m-k]

Thank you. BTW once I get my MBA, I’m not rejoining the BETA program again. I only did that because I thought my MBP going to be useless sooner than it did become useless....

 

[Clix Pix]

Good move not to do the MacOS Beta program any more..... I've never done it and have no intention of ever bothering; I'm just as happy to wait until the final release of the new version of MacOS and then go from there with it.

 

[a-m-k]

I’ll let you know what I end up, thanks to this stay at home order, I am not going anywhere to shop just to shop. (I don’t really shop much anyway. Which means no spending just because.This will be my biggest purchase in months.

 

[Clix Pix]

I hear you on that! The only place I go these days is to the grocery store and that is it! Even when stores around here do begin to open up I won't be going unless there is an item I absolutely need. I've ordered a lot of items online through Amazon and other places over the past couple of months that normally I would have simply gone to a local store to purchase. Nowadays most of those stores are closed, of course.

Yes, I haven't spent much over the past couple of months, either, except for necessities. I did have to buy a new coffeemaker when my other one died unexpectedly -- thank goodness for Amazon! So my bank account is a little larger than normally it would be by this time of the month, and of course the stimulus payment makes a difference, too. Eventually I want to get a new lens for my camera, but since I can't really go anywhere special to shoot anyway, I am not in any hurry, and I am still making up my mind about which lens I want anyway.

Since I live in a very densely populated area, the suburbs of Washington, DC, it is likely that our stay-at-home orders will be lifted much later than in many other places. The southern part of Virginia has just begun to reopen but it was decided by our governor and the mayor of DC and the county executives of the local jurisdictions that this area simply is not ready to start loosening up restrictions. We may -- and it's a big "if" -- begin to open up slightly around the end of this month but I am not counting on it. Sigh....

Hang in there and when the time is right you'll be able to get your new computer!

 

[a-m-k]

I imagine by the time I do get to get go, I might get a little bit better, weither by size of the MBA or the SSD size. (Yes, SSD and not HDD.)

 

[Clix Pix]

For a while now all of the Apple laptops have come with SSDs by default, rather than HDDs; I remember the first generation MBA offered a choice of either HDD or SSD but then after that, maybe around 2013 or so, Apple started using SSD in all their portable machines. You will love the speediness of the SSD -- a big difference between it and any HDD! I was spoiled by that a long time ago. I also use external SSDs for a lot of my backup functions, but still have a few larger-capacity external HDD that I reserve for archival purposes.

 

[a-m-k]

That’s GREAT!

 

[a-m-k]

I haven’t gone out to get my new MBA yet. I was looking at replacement external hard drives. What brand should I get? My old one is a Western Digital.

 

[Clix Pix]

I have been very happy with Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, My Passport...... It's been a while since I've bought a portable external HDD, since these days I go with Samsung T5 external SSDs, but my older drives are still working just fine too. Most external HDDs are pretty good and reliable, so just about any brand should be suitable.

 

[a-m-k]

What would I expect to pay for a Samsung external SSD?

 

[Clix Pix]

It depends upon the size/capacity...... Thankfully, they have dropped significantly in price over the past several years. OK, looking at Amazon:

500 GB - $79.00
1 TB - $179.00
2 TB - $319.00

This is the T5 model that has been available for a while now. Recently Samsung also released the T7 Touch, which has a place to put your finger to make the drive accessible only by the owner/user. I think this is in response to requests from people in businesses and corporations who need to securely protect their data that they put on the drive. Most of us don't need that level of security for an external drive.

There is also the Samsung X5, which is a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD with NVME interface. That is somewhat faster than the T5 and somewhat more expensive, too, a bit of overkill for most people unless they are doing a lot with video rendering or with editing photos on the external drive rather than the computer.

Hope this helps!

 

[a-m-k]

My only worry is setting up a new external hard drive. (SSD) I’ll have at least one thing to figure out..... I’ll come back and ask if I need to.

 

[Clix Pix]

First thing I always do is to reformat the drive, since my computers use APFS, and once that is done then the drive is ready for me to start putting data into. I simply copy the file and then drag-and-drop to the external drive. If I need to, I set up a folder (Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures) first and then put the files into the appropriate folder. I do not use Time Machine at all for any of my backups, as I have my own preferred way of arranging and organizing things.

Certainly if you have questions, I’m here, and if I know the answer I’ll be able to help you......

 

[a-m-k]

Thank you for being so nice and helpful to me. I’m really not sure how soon I’ll be able to get out to where I want to go to get everything. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[Clix Pix]

You're welcome!

I've only been going out about every two weeks, but this week I went out today because I had to mail something to a friend as well as do some grocery shopping to pick up things that I couldn't get last week. This whole thing with the masks and the gloves makes it easy to just want to stay at home! Sigh.....

I had to get to the PO, though, as back in December I had shot photos at a friend's retirement party and I put them up on my Zenfolio gallery for her and her colleagues to access immediately. I also burned a CD with all the files on it as well, for her to download and install into her own computer, too. At that time we figured we'd also be getting together at Christmastime or New Year's, and I could give that to her then. Well, for various reasons this didn't happen, so then we thought, OK, it would be in March, in spring, when weather was better.....well, obviously THAT didn't happen, either! So the other day she suggested and I wholeheartedly agreed that it would just be easiest for me to snail-mail her the CD since at this point in time we don't have any idea of when we'll be safely be able to get together again in person. We live about an hour's drive apart, in two different states.

So I set off today (major allergy attack prevented me from going earlier this week and there's no way I could deal with a mask and the kind of paroxysmal sneezing and blowing that happens when I have a full-out allergy attack!), got to the PO and did my duty, wearing gloves and mask, and then drove to the grocery store and with a change of mask and gloves went in there and got what I'll need for the next week or so.

I'm finally more-or-less getting used to the mask, but it's still challenging, as it can interfere with my hearing aids and so far the only way I've found that it really works well is to use a large paper clip to connect the two elastic earloop pieces so that they stretch and secure the mask from behind my head rather than the customary looping of them over my ears. Everything fits nice and securely, too, the way it should, both over my nose and over my chin. I can still breathe, thankfully, and anything I expel doesn't go out into the air but is confined within the mask.

The gloves are fine while they're on my hands in the air-conditioned grocery store, but I sure notice how wet with perspiration my hands are when I finally am able to peel them off! Whatever, if this keeps me and other people somewhat safe from this stinking nasty virus, I'll continue doing it, however long we may need to keep these precautions in place....

 

[a-m-k]

How do they decide early, mid, or late machines? Both of my MBP’s have been mid models. I’m hoping to get out of the late models. ?

 

[Erehy Dobon]

How do they decide early, mid, or late machines? Both of my MBP’s have been mid models. I’m hoping to get out of the late models. ?

It’s based on the month the model was released. Roughly:

• Early: January-April
• Mid: May-August
• Late: September-December

The MBP Mid 2012 was released on June 11 hence “Mid”. The model released on October 11 later that same year is the MBP Late 2012.

 

[a-m-k]

It’s based on the month the model was released. Roughly:

• Early: January-April
• Mid: May-August
• Late: September-December

The MBP Mid 2012 was released on June 11 hence “Mid”. The model released on October 11 later that same year is the MBP Late 2012.

I thought it would be like that. I was also thinking it go by a 12 month period at the start date of Apple. (I don’t know the exact date when the late Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started this amazing company. So as of right now, it’ll be a mid-2020. Like I said before, the later in the year, the better. I don’t mind waiting, I have my iPhone.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

When Apple describes product dates, they use the standard Gregorian calendar: January 1-December 31. They do not use some arbitrary calendar based on the company’s founding on April 1.

They do not adjust product date names for local calendaring systems. The MBP Mid 2012 is still called that in places that use other calendars (Julian, lunar, Hebrew calendars). The MBA 2020 does not become the MBA Reiwa 2 in Japan.

When they describe financial results, they use their own fiscal year, roughly starting in October and ending in September. So November 12, 2019 falls in Q1FY2020.

Apple uses thirteen week fiscal year quarters that end on the last Saturday of the period with the rare fourteen week quarter that occurs approximately every two years because calendar years have 365 or 366 days.

The last day of Q4FY2019 was Saturday September 28, 2019. The first day of Q1FY2020 was Sunday September 29, 2019.

 

[Clix Pix]

I thought it would be like that. I was also thinking it go by a 12 month period at the start date of Apple. (I don’t know the exact date when the late Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started this amazing company. So as of right now, it’ll be a mid-2020. Like I said before, the later in the year, the better. I don’t mind waiting, I have my iPhone.

Since Apple has just released this new version of the MBA they are more than likely not going to be doing another release or even a small refresh/speed bump later on in the year; my guess is that this current one is now pretty much it for 2020. If you need and want a new computer now, buy it now, don’t wait in the hopes of something newer coming out in the fall.....

 

[a-m-k]

As soon as we get out to Costco I’ll get the one I posted a link for. Than again, who knows, maybe I might get one with a larger hard drive. Who knows?

 

[Clix Pix]

Enjoy the process of deciding for sure what you want, and even more, enjoy the process of actually looking at the machines in the store and handling them, then making your final decision! Bringing a new machine home and opening the box for the first time, starting to work with the new computer, making it truly your own, is the best part of all!

 

[a-m-k]

It’ll be fun, and maybe a new color I’ve never had.

 

[Clix Pix]

I haven’t been paying all that much attention to the colors offered now with the new MBAs.....for my computers I tend to stick to silver or (more recently) Space Grey. I think with the MBAs there’s a gold option offered, maybe a pink one, too?