Is Mac Air powerful enough...

So I have been a pc user for forever and am seriously considering switching to mac. Ultimately, my goal is to use the computer for web surfing, word documents, and music/videos. Obviously most computers will be able to achieve this, however, I am more concerned with my music/video set-up. I have a drobo system that has a ton of movies files on it that I am trying to link up to play wirelessly on tv's in multiple rooms.(sorry if this is the wrong section to pose the question, but was uncertain where else it should be applied since it fits many different categories). Ideally, I would use an airport express with drobo attached via usb to transfer data to an apple tv. All of this would hopefully be managed by the mba. However, I wasn't sure if the MBA is powerful enough to be able to manage this type of system or if anyone has an easier way to be able to set something like this up?

Ok - so first off - to play DiVX you will need to modify the OS that is on the Apple TV - It can't be discussed here on the forum - but google is your friend. Modifying the Apple TV will still leave all of the iTunes functionality of the device working - it will just allow Divx movies to play also.
Basically - what you would do is attache the Drobo to the Airport - which would then be viewable as a drive on your MBA through t eh OSX Finder (just like a network drive attached in WIndows).
Then - once you have your movies - you just send them wirelessly to the Drobo as you mentioned.
You would need an FTP program - I prefer CyberDuck.
Now - when you want to store divx movies on the apple tv you just attach the drobo as a drive to your MBA through finder (network it) - then FTP into the apple tv and then drag the movies from the drobo to the AppleTV and they transfer there wirelessly.
The apple tv (after modification) would also have the ability to have a usb2 powered HDD/storage device attached to it (so - if you had a 2tb drive of all divx it could be plugged directly into the appletv) and you just navigate the appletv with the supplied remote or logitech harmony remote.
what i do is hdd directly into appletv. then ftp directly from my MBA to Appletv.
Hope this helps.

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Is MacBook Air powerful enough to run Creative Suite?

I have just about about finished my 30 day Creative Cloud Trial and will sign up. However, I am also in teh process of choosing a new macbook to run it on. I don't have a laptop at the moment I have been using my iMac for everything. What I want to know is, is the new MacBook Air which was launched yesterday powerful enough to run Adobe creative applications? A macBook Pro seems like the obvious choice but as this is my second computer and I wont use it as much as my iMac I am mainly focusing on weight and price - I wil mainly use it when travelling a couple of months each year but I still need to work effectively with Creative Cloud. Can you please advise?

Yes, any MAC which is above 10.6.8 can run Creative Cloud.
The tech specs for various CS 6 applicatons can be checked over here : http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/tech-specs.html
Hope this will help you decide better.!!

Is the current 13" MacBook Air powerful enough to run 2D autocad in bootcamp smoothly? If so, how will it handle 3d rendering software such as Rhino.

My girlfriend has recently purchased the new 13" Macbook Air (3rd gen Intel processor). It is the base model (ie. 1.8GHz i5 processor, 4GB RAM, etc).
I have checked on the autodesk website for their Windows 64-bit autocad system requirements and they all seem to be met, even to the recommended levels. However we havent actually tried running it because we havent gotten a copy of Windows on the machine yet. Also, she has a rendering software called Rhino, which ran fairly smoothly on my pc (its about 2 years old but was top of the line then), but I feel we are not up to par on the system requirement "OpenGL graphic card recommended".
If anyone could offer some guidance as to weather we should keep the MacBook Air it would be appreciated. I think the alternative would be to buy a Windows laptop because of cost, which wouldn't be nearly as exciting.

It's not a hard core gaming rig, but it plays all the FPS games I like, quite well. It handles hi-def video, just fine. I use it for Photoshop, and it is quite fast. For web browsing, it has no equal. The 2010 maxed out 11" would do it all, except for some hi-def video (1080P), which it would stutter. But my new 2011 maxed 13", is perfect for video (1080P=no problem).
I really don't think a MBP will give you as much, on a daily basis. It (the MBP) has only a few advantages, and except for the built in optical drive (which you can still go external, if need be), none of the advantages you will miss even slightly.
I think the MBP would only serve me, if it spent most of the time deskbound, but I would still need an SSD. Once you have had an SSD, you can't go back. Then, you would have a really pricey MBP.

Is 4gb ram is enough for mac air 2013?

Hi. I'm gone upgrade mac air 2013 to 256gb ssd with i5 processor. But my question is 4gb ram enough? I will just do web browsing, imovie, iphoto, movie, document work and parallel only for autocad. (money is my concern!) thx for ur advise, apprieciate.

Prefer to have 8GB RAM installed.
AutoCAD demands more resources.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=15802859&linkID =15839490
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

TS4009 i paid and increased my icloud storage on my mac air, but my iPhone keeps sending me messages of not enough icloud storage. please advise

Hi there,
I paid for additional icloud storage on my mac air, now my iphone continues to send "not enough storage icloud" messages.
How do I get the two to line up?
Thanks

Reset the device:
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
If that doesn't help, tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings
No data is lost due to a reset.
See if the message has disappeared.

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?
Purchasing with the upgrades through Apple would add about $800 over the Black Friday deal at Best Buy. Just looking for some advice if I will be satisfied with the based model.

All models will do what you want. Upgraded models will do it faster than the standard models.
Just why are you thinking of switching to a Mac?

HT1923 hi, my mac air is really low on disk space, can i remove iTunes (which is huge) to an external hard drive to free up space and then just run it from the hard drive. instead of taking space on the mac? even if the mac no longer has enough to accommo

Hi, my mac air is really low on disk space, can I remove itunes (which is huge) to an external hard drive to free up space?...and then run it from the hard drive instead of the mac,even if the mac no longer has space to accomodate the size of the library?

Yes.
Copy your music iTunes Library folder to the external drive and change the Advanced settings in iTunes to point to this new location.
Once you're happy with these changes you can delete the same Library from your User account to free up space on the internal drive.

Anyone using a Mac Mini and LE8-Is it powerful enough?

I'm looking at buying a 2.0GHz Mini and LE8. I have a monitor and an external 500 GB FireWire hard drive. Just wondering if anyone is using a similar set-up to do large recording projects on. Is it powerful enough to have 20 to 30 audio tracks in a song?
Any input would be greatly appreciated. TIA
R

Yes.
I run a 2Mhz mini(or possibly 1,86MhZ) 2GbRam mini and LE 8.01.
With Apogee Duet.
It works ok. I occasionally get overload messages - particularly if I try to run a project immediately it opens (LE seems to take a while to load all tracks of a project) - have some projects with 20 tracks - as do the provided examples.
It records fine - voice and guitar, and midi through USB port and midi adapter.
Prior to Duet I use standard i/o ports for in/out audio.
I do not run projects off the my external firewire drive - although the examples work fine in play back mode - I doubt if it would work for complex project re recording - possibly too much contention - and the Duet has my firewire port used.
Freezing tracks helps, and a bity of patience as everything gets paged in.
Your mileage may vary.
Hope this helps
Message was edited by: MrARH

The mac book air powers up but the screen stays black?

the macbook air powers up but the screen stays black?

Try resetting your SMC and PRAM. If neither work, contact Apple and have it looked at.
Resetting the System Management Controller >>
17" 2.2GHz i7 Quad-Core MacBook Pro  8G RAM  750G + 120G OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Boot HD 

I have moved my music to my new mac air but now it won't sync with my ipod or my iphone 4s

I have transferred mymusic to my new mac air from an acer laptop via an external hard drive and it's all there on the mac but now itunes won't sync with my ipod touch or my iphone 4s.
With the ipod it says 'iTunes could not connect to this iPhone. Could not connect to the device " It also doesn't show up at all in the devices section.
With the iphone it says there isn't enough space to sync even though I have experimented and unticked various things including photos which takes up a lot of space. It seems like it wants to sync with the empty space on the iphone (very small!) and not with the whole thing. I have tried various things suggested on this forum but have had no luck.

iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
Also see:
If you connect the iPod to another computer does iTunes not see it?
What version of iTunes is installed?
Whast model iPod and iPhone and what iOS version?
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
For the enugh space, you are trying to sync too much media to the iPhone

I have a mac air and an iMac and both have Pages. I use Pages on my air and save all documents to iCloud. I can see them on my iMac but it won't open with Pages. It becomes visible if I change it to open with preview but I can't interact with it.

I have an mac air and an iMac 5k - pages runs on both. I use pages on my air and save all my documents to iCloud drive. I can see the documents on my iMac but some won't open in pages which is bizarre? They will open if I change it to open with preview but then all I can do is read it - I can't add to the document - All I want is to be able to see all my documents on all my devices and to be able to have them sync so I can add to the documents from any of my devices. I also have an iPhone 6 and an iPadair2 but I would be happy just to have the iMac and macair sync for starters. I have folders within folders in my documents,. The folders which contain pdf's and individual files open OK . The one I am having difficulty with is the file which I use for ongoing correspondence - in other words it is quite long - I keep adding to it ( by copying letters in and letters out so I can see a sequential history of what has been going on by scrolling down ) in date order so that it could be 1 - 100 pages long - but I don't think the size is a problem. I don't understand why some folders can open and others not . Has anyone any suggestions please. I have been trying to get this to work for months since iCloud drive came in. It has got much better but it is still not good enough - or maybe it's me?

All I can suggest is that you open that file on the MBA and save it as a new file, then see if you can open the new one on the iMac.

Installing software on my Mac Air & MBP - installer wont load

Hi all
I am hoping some one is technically savvy enough to help me trouble shoot this problem. I recently purchased a new digital camera and am trying to install the software disc that came with the camera. I unfortunately need to install the software disc so that it loads the necessary files for me to process the raw digital files that came out of the camera so using things like iphoto etc is no good for me.
The issue I have is when I double click the installer it momentarily flashes up and then disappears???? I cannot figure out WHY?? So I have tried to trouble shoot as best as possible. Here is what I have done and results to date.
1. Tried to Install this on my MacBook Pro. Installer flashes up momentarily and disappears?
2. Tried to install this on my Mac Air also running OS X Snow Leopard. Same issue?? So far conclude its not machine related
3. Downloaded another install disc off the internet and tried to run that version. Same ISSUE. So its not issues related to my CD.
4. Stripped out previous versions of the software on my MAC Air to ensure its not causing issues. Same problem
5. Checked online forums and other uses and purchasers of the digital camera ARE able to install the software on their macs!!!
6. Uninstalled every single APP that I have installed on my MAC air and tried to get it back to stock. Try again. Still fail????????
7. Updated the OS X software to ensure everything is up to date.
8. Grabbed the OLD version of the software disc that came with my previous digital camera (same brand) and installed that CD (version 23 - for those familiar with Canon DSLR). that loads up correctly and allows me to install. Version 25 the latest that comes with my new Canon DSLR doesnt load up.
I am stuck !!! I cannot pin point the issue. I dont understand OS X enough to debugg or log what the potential issue is.
I started up the Activity Monitor and watched closely in the my Process specifically for the process that I start up (SetUp)
I noticed that the Setup process name registers. Then another process starts up UniversalInstaller then both of them disappears?????????? and nothing happens in my comp!!!!!
Is there some way for me to debug this ?? look at log file?? enable error logging or has ANY one got any idea what may be the issue???
I've essentially bought a VERY VERY expensive DLSR and I cannot edit my raw files because I cannot install the software!!
HELP ME Please

Downloading as we speak, and the first explanation that comes to mind is that both files have a .rar extension, and that since OS X doesn't support this archive format, you need to install a third-party utility to open them.
One files tool to open .rar files is The Unarchiver (here), and another is Stuffit Expander (there). 7zip also proposes a Mac version (here). All three will decompress a .rar file, and let you access the .dmg file(s) inside.
Also, depending on the browser you're using, and provided you might be inclined to open trusted files directly (I use Opera, and seldom save safe download; I click on "Open" in the download dialogue), your files could very well open... in the browser cache folder, out of sight. But if you use Safari, Chrome or Firefox, and you don't have any utility installed to handle .rar files, that's doubtful. I'm going to open your files now, and check if I can install them.
Stay tuned!
Edit: decompressing the first file using The Unarchiver shows that the archive is "incomplete". Which leads me to think that you might have to concatenate the two files to make one "complete" .dmg file.
If so, once they are decompressed, open a Terminal (in Applications/Utility), then type "cat", and drag both files in the window, one after the other (preferably in the right order...), type a space, then give the final file any name you want, followed by the .dmg file extension:
(e.g.:) "cat /Users/Your_Name/Desktop/File1.dmg /Users/Your_Name/File2.dmg /Users/Your_Name/Desktop/FinalFile.dmg"

My new Mac Air continues to disconnect from WiFi after going to sleep. When waking it up I have to manually re-connect. How do I keep it connected?

My new Mac Air continues to disconnect from WiFi after going to sleep. When waking it up I have to manually re-connect. How do I keep it connected?

I had this problem too and solved it by doing a clean install. After that it was gone.
This is a drastic method since it takes quite some time to reinstall lion and all your software.
Thoughts I had why it started working after a clean install are the following:
It looked like the airport wasn't able to reconnect fast enough before the connection timed out. So what could have prevented my mac from being able to connect fast enough?
Apps that consume processor cycles. I love what I would call 'System Enhancers', little apps that enhance my workflow (Moom, Alfred, Dropbox, Default Folder etc). I'm not saying that these are the problem, they might be programmed processor friendly, but check if you have apps that consume processor cylcles. It might prevent airport from being able to reconnect quickly enough before it times out.
Mobile Config profiles. Another thought I had was that I had a mobile config 802.1X profile installed for the company were I worked. It used TTLS to connect to the corporate network. This profile might have gotten in the way.
And a sidenote...
Routers with hardware acceleration might also be a problem. My router is a Wireless Gigabit Router 300N WL-351 and has hardware acceleration. As soon as I activate that my wifi connection keeps dropping. It is as if a Macbook Air can't handle that amount of optimisation.
That's it, hope it helps those who are still having the problem.
Best, Jan

I was updating my laptop and now have a kernal error and cannot get anything to reinstall or start up properly. I believe that I had a power outage when my mac air was in the middle of a software update and now I am stuck

I have kernal error after power outage in the middle of updating mac air
a software update and now I am stuck

You didn't have enough battery power left when performing the update, and it died? That's bad.
You should be able to reinstall OS X using OS X Recovery or in the case of an older MacBook Air running Snow Leopard, by using your original System Install DVD and Remote Install OS X from another Mac.
Reinstalling OS X does not erase your user accounts or data.
OS X Recovery:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Remote Install OS X:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2129

I have an ipad for work. I would like to download another account with a personal credit card just for only media. I do have an account on my mac air.

I have an ipad that was issued from my company. I would like to add a second itunes account for just media with my personal credit card. I have another itunes account on my mac air. Can I download it to my ipad without disturbing my work appications? I see similiar questions, but none of the answers are simple enough for a "newbie" like myself. Thank you for any suggestions.

It's complicated.
iTunes accounts use Apple ID's.
I currently use two unique Apple ID's on my wife's iPad 2.
I sync the iPad manually to two different user accounts on my MacBook.
It is possible (though not necessarily intuitive) to sign out of one Apple ID and sign in with the other one:
Open Settings, Store, Apple ID.
Touch on the current Apple ID, and a pop-up gives you the option to View Apple ID, Sign Out, or Cancel.
Sign out, and a Sign In window pops up.
Now you can Use Existing Apple ID, Create New Apple ID, or Cancel.
Each Apple ID shows its' own $ balance. You might just want to use your exiting iTunes Apple ID as the second ID on the iPad. That probably allows you to share your current MacBook Air music collection with the iPad. But I'm not positive about that.
For simplicity's sake, you might consider using prepaid Apple iTunes cards (they apply to everything), rather than a personal credit card. Also limits your risk in case the device is lost or stolen.
One annoyance occurs when updating Apps: you have to remember to sign out of one ID and sign in with the other in order to get all apps updated.
All of the folders, apps, music, and video purchased (regardless of which Apple ID you use) will be combined when you view the contents. I'm not an expert by any means, but I do not know of any way to create separate users on an iPad as you can with a Mac or a Windows PC. You can segregate Apps into separate folders, e.g. "Work Apps", and "Personal Apps", but you have to do that manually, and as far as the iPad is concerned, they are all co-mingled. Example: Take a photo with the built-in camera. It will appear in Camera Roll. Is it a 'work' photo or a 'personal' photo? No way to segregate them. Any music downloaded from iTunes, or synched from a Mac or PC goes into the same music collection.
So that may not be a problem if your 'work' Apple ID never purchases music or movies, and your 'personal' Apple ID never purchases business applications.
I worked in IT for a number of years, and I have to ask, does your IT department have a problem with your 'personal' data and 'personal' apps on a 'business' device? Who is responsible for backing up 'work' apps and data? 'Personal' apps and data? You might need to ask for clarification before you invest any money.
These answers apply to iOS 4.3.4 and an iPad 2. iOS 5 could change some of these answers. I'm waiting for at least an iOS 5.1 update before considering whether iOS 5 offers anything we need.
Message was edited by: kostby

Is Mac Air powerful enough...

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