Be Excellent To Each Other

Cut off the protuberace with a stanley knife? Should be easy enough.

That.

Is there any good software that will stream Blu-Ray movies from disc without having to convert them first?

Stream them where?

On my laptop using an external Blu-ray drive.

I'm guessing the answer is no, then.

My work are part-subsidising me buying an Apple laptop and letting me buy it with interest-free installments, so before anyone says anything else, this is all something I can absolutely afford. They're part-subsidising as I'll be using the device for work as well as taking it home and using it to replace my main computer (which I guess I'll probably try and eBay or something).

Anyway, I've settled on two possible models. There's no real price difference on these two, so expense is absolutely not a factor. I'm just wondering what you guys would do.

Currently I'm using a loan machine of a Mid-2009 13-inch white MacBook - and I'm getting fed up of lugging it about on the train to my London-based customers. It's that wee bit too bulky for my bag and weighs just enough to piss me off when standing on a packed train.

So, with that in mind, I thought about getting a 11-inch MacBook Air, with 1.7GHz i7 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. It weighs about a kilo.

But then Apple went and released the 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina, with 2.4GHz i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. This weighs about 1.5 kilos.

Both machines are smaller and lighter than my loan machine, but naturally the Air is quite a lot smaller and lighter. Battery life is about the same. The Air features HD 5000 graphics, whilst the Pro has Iris Pro graphics, which I gather are slightly better - not that I'm likely to do much graphics intensive stuff (but if I can play the odd game on it, all the better).

So which one would you guys go for? Portability or DAT SCREEN?

I have the 15" MBP with Retina and it's incredibly portable compared to a normal laptop - the 13" would be even better in that respect, obviously.

For a similar price it's a no-brainer for me.

Edit: I've told them to order me the MBP with Retina. As much as it pains me to have to agree with you Myp, looking at a few reviews and so on online seem to suggest it is indeed a no-brainer.

Phew - decision, correct. I have the original retina, and it's wonderful. On my travels I picked up an air, because it is so small and light that it's perfect to stick in a backpack and carry around. But you'd be frustrated with it as a main machine. Having more than one window open is almost impossible, whereas on the retina, even the 13" you'll be flying.

What the fuck is this shit? I've just bought an adaptor so I can use my iphone 5s on my speaker and my phone doesn't want to use it because "it's not certified". FUCK YOU APPLE CUNTS.

That happened with my when I bought a cheap adaptor. I bought the official Apple one after that, and it worked fine.

Is there an easy way of getting all my music off my iPhone? In the past, I'd go into iTunes, select all, and delete. Now that's not an option. Do I have to muck about with syncing? Swipe song by song on my phone?

Settings, General, Usage, Music, Edit.

Obviously.

I actually did that! But when I plugged it into my iTunes, it started putting all that music back, from some playlist or command I can't identify. Even when I get rid, it thinks it should be there.

So, to make my question more correct: how do I keep the unwanted music off, and therefore have enough space to sync the playlist I actually want on there?

You sure? Mine just says "No data" on Music.

Just backed it up again. Once it had done the six stages of blah, it started trying to reload the music.

So I clicked the 'x', and stopped that.

Just gone into Usage/Music, and deleted.

On iTunes, that space is still allocated. If I click 'Music' in the sidebar, all those tunes are still there, but greyed out.

Okay, I'm unticking 'Sync Music' - space gets freed up.

Now I'll re-tick that box and see if I can get my 1992 playlist on there...

Right, the space gets reallocated, and I'm back down to 4GB free (on a 32). No playlists are ticked. No artist is entirely on there, so none of those will be ticked. WTF?

I'm typing from it now - after work originally told me there was a 3-5 week lead time, they had a couple come into stock yesterday.

The screen on it is incredible - really, really lovely. And the machine itself is still very thin and light, even if it is a wee bit more bulky than the Air.

I'm very happy with it, put it that way.

You're welcome.

Much as the cheap one would if the device let it, I suspect.

I'm considering getting Lady T a new computer, something that will be totally hers - I won't be fiddling with it or installing media players, emulators, streaming and converting software etc etc.

She'll probably use it mostly for organising photos, maybe a little bit of basic photo editing.

I'm thinking that a 13" macbook pro with retina would be nice (the 15" is a little bit too spendy for me), and we've got a nice big dell ultrasharp monitor that she could plug it into for serious work. However, for those that have the 13 inchers - is 13" likely to be irritatingly small or not?

My MacBook is 13" and it's delightful.

She gets a Chromebook and she fucking appreciates it.

I bought Trooper's old netbook and gave that to her in 2010 (not as a special occasion gift or anything).

She was pleased with it, but it didn't get used much.

Why would this be any different?

I've now got the 13" MBP with Retina and think it's fantastic. For me it's the right compromise between portable and usable as a primary computer. It's thin and light but not too small - there's a proper keyboard there and the screen is fantastic. The display resolution is natively 2560x1600, but it renders it like it was a 1280x800 screen - except all the fonts and graphical items are twice as detailed. It's a lovely effect, which can also be turned off if you just want the extra screen real estate.

Almost as good as 2880x1800.

Well, there's a risk of that, but the netbook was always pretty weedy, whereas a Macbook Pro would be plenty powerful for what she wants (doing photo stuff), and is currently trying on our windows laptop. Might even be overkill really...

If he doesn't like it then it becomes a shiny toy for me.

Oooh, I'm cross.

I've finally got 'round to buying a lighting to 30 pin adapter from the Apple Store.

£25. TWENTY FIVE QUID.

It looks virtually identical to the cheap one that I bought from B&M Homestores for £4 but with slightly cheaper plastic. Oh, and not locked-out by Apple BECAUSE THEY ARE SWINDLING SCUMBAGS.

The guy who tore the arse out my pocket had the audacity to ask me whether I wanted one with a 10 inch cable FOR AN EXTRA TENNER.

I bet these things cost about a quid to manufacture. SCUMBAGS.

Personally I'd have sprung for an even longer cable as otherwise you'll need to stand on a chair to get your iPod near enough to the ceiling.

I've owned an iPhone for a week now. I've just realised that it doesn't have a little flashing LED. So when a notification comes in, unless I see/hear it arrive, once the screen blanks itself again there's no observable indication that I've got pending notifications. What an odd design choice.

My HTC One Max is arguably even worse: it does have an LED but it's so piss-weak (and hidden behind a metal grill to boot) that you can't see it unless you look so closely that you might as well just turn the fucking thing on.

That's the best thing about the Samsungs IMO - when you pick them up if something has happened while it's been "asleep" it will vibrate quickly to let you know. Lovely.

Bugger, I bet there's an app for that.

It's in Accessibility options. I have it switched on.

Cuts both ways. The insistent pulsing light on my Nexus, trying to tell me something I already saw on my iPhone, is actually quite annoying. I suppose I'd prefer a way to say "all you apps can send me notifications into the tray but only you special ones get to flash light at me."

Nope, that flashes the flash on the bottom of the device, and only when the notification arrives, not until I've seen it.

Most android apps let you do exactly that.

You can set it up to receive multiple alerts for a notification. It's not exactly the same, but it's better than what you have now.

Max duration 20mins though, and it's still on the side of the device that's facedown on the table. I'll get used to it, but it really seems like an odd thing to omit from a usability perspective. The LED is what tells you "something happened while you were in the other room that you should know about". Without it I have to keep clicking the power button every time I come back to my phone.

How? I've just looked and there appears to be no way to do it on my Nexus 7.

In the settings of the app, typically.

Facebook has such a setting, but Gmail, Email, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr do not. So, "most"?

OK then, the ability is within the OS should the app developer choose to offer the options to configure it. Which, of course, is exactly as it should be.

It's Android, so just get an app to control the light: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... htflowlite (or put it face down ).

I am looking at getting an ipad Air. I take it the prices are the same everywhere...

Pretty much. They are great pieces of kit - enjoy!

I am treating myself

i will just go the retailer on the highstreet then