MacBook Air Pro?

I am in the market for a better notebook. I have a MacBook Air from December now but want a more powerfull notebook. I just don't want to buy a MacBook Pro if Air Pro's are comeing out. Leo LaPort hinted at them comeing. Any truth to this?

Just adding to JE13 - if you need a new laptop now, make your selection from the available models. Apple will almost certainly update their Macbook Pros at *some* point in the next six months or so, however who knows what the changes will be. There have been various rumours, but at this stage they just that - rumours. If you want to wait then good - but any update may not have the specific feature you want.
The only other thing I will say about the difference between the current Air and Pro 13" models beyond the very succinct summary by JE13 is the screen. The current Macbook Pro 13" have a resolution of 1280 by 800 whereas the Air 13" has a screen resolution of 1440 by 900 in the same size. One of those screens may be more suited to your application than another. If you can do a comparison of the two machines side-by-side you may find it helpful.

Similar Messages

Hey. i'm about to travel to thiland and i'm thinking to buy there Macbook air\pro. how can i tell if it's fake?

hey. i'm about to travel to thiland and i'm thinking to buy there Macbook air\pro. how can i tell if it's fake?
thnks

If possible, I'd make sure to register it on Apple's online system at first start IN THE STORE, and verify it is a kosher serial number before walking out. That way you'll be sure to be covered by the warranty. If the machine is fake, Apple's system won't accept the serial number. If it is stolen and already registered to someone else, it won't accept the repeat registration.

Should I pick the Macbook Air/Pro or the Dell XPS 13?

Hello everyone!
I'm a 10th grade student in a international school, where we are allowed to use laptops instead of our regular notebooks. In my class no one uses a notebook, so I would be the first one.
My idea came from the fact that I broke my arm, and am unable to write normally for the next 3 months, as my hand is in a cast. I am currently writing on my iPad, which is nice, as I can only use my left hand for typing. I didn't really think much of it, but after few days I realised how easy it is to type on a tablet instead of on a piece of paper.
I took my exams on a PC and I was easily able to write with my left hand only. The experience was much better, as I was able to erase all my mistakes/ rewrite someting I didn't like… but let's get to the point.
After I finish my iGCSE's, I'll be going to the IB diploma programme. It is very rigorous and requires a lot of work, so a laptop would be very helpful. The three laptops I want to choose between are:
1. 13" Macbook Air
2. 13" Macbook Pro
3. New Dell XPS 2015 13" (http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9333/pd?oc=fncwp1512h)
Now I know about the rumors of the new Macbook Air 12" with retina display, but the idea of having one port only doesn't appeal to me. I currently have an iMac 27" late 2013, along with an iPad and an iPhone. It is better to stick to apple just for the whole sync. between all devices, or is the Dell better in terms of performance? The ultrabook would be used for typing essays, editing videos (I'm doing film at school, so we get assignments like that pretty often) and of course web browsing. Gaming isn't really a priority, but to play some easy-going games such as garry's mod or turbo dismount on the go would be nice.
So what do you guys this is the best pick? I want the laptop to last another three years before I go to uni, and that's the reason I want to go for either the mid-spec. MacBook Pro/Air or the fully spec. Dell XPS 13. Price plays a role here, as I can only pay max. 1500$ for it, so I cannot afford the fully spec. MacBook Pro 13".
Ps. I really like the touchscreen in the Dell XPS 13, but does it affect the battery life much? It's really important that it lasts at least 8 hours a day, as I start school really early in the morning, and finish late in the afternoon.
Thank you for your answer,
mac117

Mac117 wrote:
Ps. I really like the touchscreen in the Dell XPS 13,
Then go for it.
Best.

Setup Airport Extreme for the home wireless - MacBook Air, Pro, and iPad connect just fine. Wireless will not work to Windows 7 and Vista machines - network seen, tries to connect, but fails after entering WPA key.

Can't get Windows Vista or Windows 7 laptops to access internet via Airport Extreme. Works fine with security on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad. Brand new Airport, bought today. Windows machines worked fine with existing, relatively modern Cisco home router. The Windows machines see the wireless network, prompt for password, and then cannot connect. Have tried all sorts of things with Windows machines, deleted existing networks, etc. even tried guest login with no security on the Airport - no luck. Windows XP machine directly (wire) connected works fine. Magic Jack works OK. Light is green on the front.

Thank you very much for your help @Sunshyn2005!!!!! I think we're good to go now!

Macbook Air/Pro difficult to connect to Airport Extreme and external disk

For some unclear reason my MacBook Pro and Air both have difficulty connecting to the Airport Extreme external disk after waking up from sleep. I can't even see the AE in the Airport utility. If I toggle wifi on/off several times it shows up and works. What is odd is that I can always connect with my PC and on the Bootcamp partition of the Macbook Air in Windows 8.1. I'm using OS 10.10, the most recent update and have a latest model AE running updated firmware. Any ideas?

Probably Yosemite issues. I have issues seeing Airports as well. Like you toggling the wifi fixes it. Hopefully 10.10.2 will solve the problem.

Is a 2011 MacBook Air/Pro still fast?

I've been thinking about getting a 2011 MacBook Air or Pro since they're in my price range. Are they still pretty fast? There's not much that I really do on the computer except for some web browsing really. Will these hold up well?

stevemawyer wrote:
What version of OS X do you use? I've heard that Yosemite can be slower.
I run Lion (10.7.5) on my 2011 MBP. The 2010 is partitioned with Snow leopard, Lion and Mt. Lion installed. That is used as a test platform most of the time.
Ciao.

Issues with connecting 2 displays to a macbook air/pro

We all use MacBooks in the office and if we can connect 2 monitors to each macbook; we can be a lot more productive.
Tried connecting via Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter which connects to the 1st monitor and we tried VGA to the second and it didn't work. Staples recommended a HDMI splitter, another place said splitter won't work and need a HDMI switch with multiple ports.
Thanks in advance
AB

Unfortunately we are already using WPA (which my MacBook Pro has no problems with), so nothing to change there.
Interestingly we have just called up Apple to see if they have any ideas for a quick fix, and they suggested wiring it up, which should somehow fix the wireless aspect of it as well. So after carefully moving the iMac and stringing some wires into fairly dangerous positions, it is now wired up. However, upon disconnecting the wire it worked for all of thirty seconds wirelessly before cutting out again. However, I do recall in my mind something about connecting a Mac via a wire first and then fiddling with something to help it work wirelessly? I don't know what that is though, so suggestions are appreciated.
In the very short term connecting it via a wire works, but really a solution needs to be found asap. If the wireless issue can't be sorted I expect I will have to invest in a very long ethernet cable and run it from the router to the iMac, which whilst obviously not ideal is certainly possible.

Does MacBook air/pro have msn or windows live messenger?

Does it have msn or windows live messenger? I'm thinking about getting one but my friend said there isno messenger!!!

Hi,
not on it by default, but you can get one here http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/messenger/default.mspx
Regards
Stefan

Demo Content for MacBook Air / Pro

Hey Community,
i have a question.
How/where can i get the screensaver/demo-content like on this video on the 27" cinema display:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=681250761915702&set=vb.115787991795318&type =2&theater
thanks in advance.

Perhaps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izE-J8EtIww ?

Macbook air or macbook pro?? && now or wait???

I'm a software engineering undergraduate student and I use my laptop a lot.
And it's time for me to renew my laptop and I want to buy a mac (I have been using Sony laptops all this time and I wanna change now)..
I use it mainly to surf the internet, watch a LOT of movies, music, msn and to do university work..
but the software we use for the university are always available for mac as well because most of the students use mac...
So i realllyyy like the mac book air.. I mean it looks really nice..
and I was planning on buying the 13" MacBook Air with 1.8Ghz dual core intel core i7 processor and the macBook Air super drive as well..
But when I told this to my friends, they all seem to think the macbook pro will be a better choice.. They mentioned that I'll be needing a much more storage space but I'm also planning on buying a new portable hard drive to store all my movies and stuff..
What do you guyz think?
Will macBook pro be the better choice?
Also is there a new version of macbook air /pro coming out soon??
I mean should I wait or buy it now..
Please tell me because I've never used mac before and i dont know anything about it...
Thanks..

If you can wait, wait.
If not, then the 13" MBA and 13" MBP are almost identical in performance, other than the SSD drive in the Air.
Both the RAM and HD in the MBP can be upgraded. The RAM in the MBA is soldered to the motherboard and the SSD drives in the Air are more expensive to upgrade, than adding a SSD to the MBP.
Under the ToU cannot speculate on future products, other than to say if you wait long enough there will be something new and better coming along.

MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air for online college?

I'm starting grad school in another month or so (MA in Education and a k-8 teaching credential). The entire program will be ONLINE with WGU (Western Governors University). I'd love to buy and use just a MacBook Air, but I wonder whether it will be sufficient for an online program? My other option is a MacBook Pro.
Any thoughts?

define sufficient
If you plan on much/ larger video editing then get the Pro.
I own both, and love both,... prefer the Air a bit more for portability, however that is purely subjective.
The NEW macbook Pro and Air are extremely close in form factor
The newest macbook Pro is essentially a larger macbook Air with Retina display and options for speed in increasing prices up to an independent graphics and quad core processor.
both Air and new Pro now have PCIe SSD and permanent RAM.
The Air is the lightweight portable form factor, fast to boot and shut down, but with longer battery life than any of the macbook pro in 13"
Now the new macbook Pro and macbook Air are extremely close in form factor and nature.
both have 802ac wifi
both have permanent RAM, no superdrive
both are slim profiles and SSD
The only real differences now are (in the most expensive Pros) faster processors and quadcore processors and top end model autonomous graphics, also HDMI output on the new macbook Pros!. ....and of course the retina display
both are now "very good for travel"
DETAILED bench tests between the new AIR and the new PRO here:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/how-to-choose-13-inch-macbook-air-vs-13-i nch-retina-macbook-pro/2/
Other than features the form factor of the Air and Pro are VERY close now,....so now its merely a matter of features and price more than anything.
You need an external HD regardless of what you get for backups etc. Drop into an Apple store and handle both and make your choice based on features, such as Retina or non-retina, .... both at a distance now look like the same computer.
The Pro weighs more, ....but nowhere near what it used to just a month ago on the older macbook Pros
The NEW macbook Pro is a different creature entirely than the older macbook Pro, .....the new Pro is thicker than the Air, but id frankly call the NEWEST Pro a "macbook Air with Retina display" , or
Maybe a “macbook Air PRO with Retina display”
Instead of Air vs. Pro now,.....its really a smooth transition from Air to pro without comparing say, 2 different creatures, now its like contrasting a horse from a race horse (rough analogy)
Either one in 8gig of RAM (preferably)... the 4gig upgrade costs very little, the I7 you will notice only 15% faster on heavy applications over the I5, and NOTHING on most APPS.....I5 has longer battery life.
As you see below, the non-Retina 13" AIR is 82% of the Macbook with Retina display in resolution
there is no magical number of pixels per inch that automatically equates to Retina quality.
http://www.cultofmac.com/168509/why-you-might-be-disappointed-by-the-resolution- of-those-new-retina-display-macs-feature/
A huge internal SSD isnt a game changer for anything, you need an external HD anyway
what you WONT READ on Apple.com etc. is that the larger SSD are much faster due to SSD density
"The 512GB Samsung SSD found in our 13-inch model offers roughly a 400MB/s increase in write speeds over the 128GB SanDisk/Marvell SSD"
http://blog.macsales.com/19008-performance-testing-not-all-2013-macbook-air-ssds -are-the-same
Here is an excellent video comparison between the 11” I5 vs. I7 2013 Macbook Air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqJ-on03z4
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-465 0u/2
I5 vs. I7 performance 13” Macbook Air 2013
Boot performance
11.7 I5 ……11.4 I7
Cinebench
1.1 I5….1.41 I7
IMovie Import and Opt.
6.69 I5….5.35 I7
IMovie Export
10.33 I5…8.20 I7
Final Cut Pro X
21.47 I5…17.71 I7
Adobe Lightroom 3 Export
25.8 I5….31.8 I7
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Performance
27.3 I5…22.6 I7
Macbook Pro processor and configuration options:
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
Macbook Pro ports:
Macbook Air (13") ports:

MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro 13 Inch

I really need help ASAP.

The NEW macbook Pro and Air are EXTREMELY close in form factor
The newest macbook Pro is essentially a larger macbook Air with Retina display and options for speed in increasing prices up to an independent graphics and quad core processor.
both Air and new Pro now have PCIe SSD and permanent RAM.
The Air is the lightweight portable form factor, fast to boot and shut down, but with longer battery life than any of the macbook pro in 13"
Now the new macbook Pro and macbook Air are extremely close in form factor and nature.
both have 802ac wifi
both have permanent RAM, no superdrive
both are slim profiles and SSD
The only real differences now between Air and Pro....are (in the most expensive Pros) faster processors and quadcore processors and top end model autonomous graphics and the Pro has HDMI output.....and of course the retina display
both are now "very good for travel"
Other than features the form factor of the Air and Pro are VERY close now,....so now its merely a matter of features and price more than anything.
You need an external HD regardless of what you get for backups etc. Drop into an Apple store and handle both and make your choice based on features, such as Retina or non-retina, .... both at a distance now look like the same computer.
The Pro weighs more, ....but nowhere near what it used to just a month ago on the older macbook Pros
The NEW macbook Pro is a different creature entirely than the older macbook Pro, .....the new Pro is thicker than the Air, but id frankly call the NEWEST Pro a "macbook Air with Retina display" , or
Maybe a “macbook Air PRO with Retina display”
Instead of Air VS Pro now,.....its really a smooth transition from Air to pro without comparing say, 2 different creatures, now its like contrasting a horse from a race horse.
Either one in 8gig of RAM (preferably)... the 4gig upgrade costs very little, the I7 you will notice only 15% faster on heavy applications over the I5, and NOTHING on most APPS.....I5 has longer battery life.
As you see below, the non-Retina 13" AIR is 82% of the Macbook with Retina display in resolution
there is no magical number of pixels per inch that automatically equates to Retina quality.
http://www.cultofmac.com/168509/why-you-might-be-disappointed-by-the-resolution- of-those-new-retina-display-macs-feature/
A huge internal SSD isnt a game changer for anything, you need an external HD anyway
what you WONT READ on Apple.com etc. is that the larger SSD are MUCH FASTER due to SSD density
"The 512GB Samsung SSD found in our 13-inch model offers roughly a 400MB/s increase in write speeds over the 128GB SanDisk/Marvell SSD"
http://blog.macsales.com/19008-performance-testing-not-all-2013-macbook-air-ssds -are-the-same
Here is an excellent video comparison between the 11” I5 vs. I7 2013 Macbook Air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqJ-on03z4
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-465 0u/2
I5 vs. I7 performance 13” Macbook Air 2013
Boot performance
11.7 I5 ……11.4 I7
Cinebench
1.1 I5….1.41 I7
IMovie Import and Opt.
6.69 I5….5.35 I7
IMovie Export
10.33 I5…8.20 I7
Final Cut Pro X
21.47 I5…17.71 I7
Adobe Lightroom 3 Export
25.8 I5….31.8 I7
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Performance
27.3 I5…22.6 I7
Reviews of the newest Retina 2013 Macbook Pro
13”
Digital Trends (13") - http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-...h-2013-review/
LaptopMag (13") - http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/lap...play-2013.aspx
Engadget (13") - http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/29/m...-13-inch-2013/
The Verge (13") - http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5...ay-review-2013
CNet (13") - http://www.cnet.com/laptops/apple-ma...-35831098.html
15”
The Verge (15") - http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/24/5...w-15-inch-2013
LaptopMag (15") - http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/lap...inch-2013.aspx
TechCrunch (15") - http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/25/lat...ok-pro-review/
CNet (15") - http://www.cnet.com/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-2013/
PC Mag (15") - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426359,00.asp
Arstechnica (15") - http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10...-pro-reviewed/
Slashgear (15") - http://www.slashgear.com/macbook-pro...2013-26303163/
Macbook Pro processor and configuration options:
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
Macbook Pro ports:
Macbook Air (13") ports:

Can I upgrade my macbook air's SSD?

I have heard that people have successfully upgraded their MacBook AIr's SSD to a larger capacity. I want to know if its true? If so, can I do it myself or I have to ask technician to help?
I currently have the MacBook Air 13'' 128 G SSD. I'm very satisfied with the blazing speed of SSD. However, I'm a music maker and a photographer. I realized I need more space for putting BIG SOFTWARES such as LOGIC PRO (with upgraded add-on total 50G), Aperture, etc... Apparently, the current 128G SSD cannot satisfy my need.
I DO NOT want to install the software onto my external hard drive because I cannot bring the external hard drive everywhere. So, if any of you can help, please leave opinions.
Thanks!

Upgrading a SSD is 99% of the time a bad idea, not only due to costs, but primarily because people do it for the WRONG reasons.
see here:
Your Solid State Drive and having enough space inside your Macbook Air & Pro
Solid State Drive usage premise, or the “more space / upgrade SSD” question
There have been questions posed and positions taken by many people who are trying to use their Macbook Air or Pro’s solid state drive (SSD) as a mass media storage device, for either pictures, videos, massive music collections or all three combined; but this should not be the working premise of a ‘limited’ SSD and its use.
In which, it’s the case of those users with either 128GB, 256GB, or even 512GB of internal SSD space, that have or are running “out of space”, that questions are raised. The immediate premise of some users can sometimes be “(how to / if) upgrading my SSD” when in fact in nearly all instances another approach is the logical and sensible one that needs to be looked into and exercised.
Any Macbook containing a SSD should be idealized as a ‘working platform’ notebook containing all your applications, documents, and weekly or bi-weekly necessary files. All collections of media files such as pictures, music, and videos, unless directly needed should be kept off the notebook and on an external hard drive or likewise. While the ‘working platform’ premise is also the case with larger internal conventional hard drives of 1TB+, its implementation isn't as critical except in terms of data protection.
Realistically, you should at most coordinate roughly 20 to 25% of your total SSD space to all audio-video personal use media (picture / music / video collections), leaving the remaining amount on an external HD.
Nobody should consider any notebook a data storage device at any time under any circumstance, rather a data creation, sending, and manipulation device; and in the case of a SSD, this is more important for purposes of having sufficient working space on the SSD and reducing SSD ‘bloat’ in which cases someone is wrongly attempting to use the SSD space as a large media storage nexus.
The rare exception to the collective usage and premise of SSD use in which a much larger SSD is truly needed are for those in video and photography professions that require both the extremely fast speeds of the SSD and the onboard storage for large and or many video and photography files. However this also falls under the premise of a ‘working platform’ for such peoples rather than the intent of many who are using the SSD as passive and static data storage for media files very infrequently needed or accessed.
All on-notebook data collections should be logically approached as to necessity, and evaluated as to whether it is active or passive data that likely doesn’t need to be on the notebook, allocations of space-percentages to as-needed work and use, apportioning space for your entertainment media, and questioning whether it should it be on the notebook for more than short-term consumption.
Considerations should be made in the mind of any user in differentiating the necessary system data (System hub) comprising the Mac OSX, applications, necessary documents that both must and should be on your internal SSD, and that of the users personal data (Data hub) comprising created files, pictures, music, videos, PDF files, data created or being created and otherwise, that likely unless being used soon or often should be parked on an external hard drive for consumption, or temporarily loading onto the internal SSD.
You both can and should purchase whichever SSD size you need or see fit, but even in the case of the largest of SSD, unless use-considerations are made, and SSD spaces are allocated as should be the case indicated above, one can easily and immediately run into this quandary of “needing more internal SSD space”, in which instance a different approach in usage must then be implemented.
However it is almost always the case, that such large media files are wanted to be stored internally rather than actually needed, in which case the external HD is both prudent as well as necessary. Additionally costs per MB are infinitely less on an external HD than an internal SSD in any consideration of data expansion needs.
A Professional Example
In the case of a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro Retina with ‘limited’ storage on the SSD, this distinction becomes more important in that in an ever rapidly increasing file-size world, you keep vital large media files, pics, video, PDF collections, music off your SSD and archived on external storage, for sake of the necessary room for your system to have free space to operate, store future applications and general workspace.
You should also never be put in the position of considering “deleting things” on your Macbook SSD in order to ‘make space’. This is especially what your external HD is for.
Professionals who create and import very large amounts of data have almost no change in the available space on their notebooks internal SSD because they are constantly archiving data to arrays of external or networked HD.
Or in the case of the consumer this means you keep folders for large imported or created data and you ritually offload and archive this data for safekeeping, not only to safeguard the data in case your Macbook has a SSD crash, or gets stolen, but importantly in keeping the ‘breathing room’ open for your notebook to operate, expand, create files, add applications, for your APPS to create temp files, and for general operation.
Slim USB3 1TB external hard drive
External Hard Drives
External hard drives are both extremely cheap and regardless of the size of your internal SSD (or even internal hard drive if the case), you need an external hard drive with your SSD equipped Macbook for several reasons:
1. Data backup and protection.
2. Redundancy for important data.
3. Necessitated ideal space for large media files for collections of pictures, videos, and music etc.
While ever changing in price, typical portable 2.5” external hard drives in USB3 run roughly $65 for 1TB or $120 for 2TB small portable USB3 hard drives. Such drives range in thickness between 5mm and 15mm, with recent improvements in storage of 500GB drives in 5mm profiles.
There is almost no premise in which a small 12mm thick 1 Terabyte USB hard drive cannot be taken along with any Macbook as an external large storage extension inside any Macbook carry case or pouch. Typically such external HD profiles are not much bigger than a deck of cards.
External hard drives are a foregone necessity for purchase with any Macbook for at the very least Time Machine backups, data redundancies, and ideally for large media storage.

Problem - new MacBook Air cannot see external HD

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help, as I have seen similar questions in the forums, but not with an answer that helps me solve my problem.
Ok, I have a new MacBook Air running Lion (bought last year), a MacBook Pro running Leopard which is approx 4 years old and a Windows Laptop. I use the MacBook Air for Work and when travelling (weekly with work), the MacBook Pro for home and managing my other apple devices (iPad/iPhone etc..). I no longer use the PC, but there are loads of files both work and home, I wish to keep on an external HD for use with both Apple Laptops.
So, the external HD used to work with the MacBook Air when I first bought it (a couple of weeks ago) and formatted it with the MacBook Air, but it couldn't be seen or used with the Windows PC. When I formatted it with the Windows PC, I could use it with the MacBook Air but could not write to the disk.
So I have now partitioned and formatted it with the MacBook Pro running Lion, but now the MacBook Air cannot even see the disk in Disk Utility.
My MacBook Air otherwise runs absolutely fine with no problems, and the MacBook Air is a critical piece of kit that I use on a daily basis to do my job. As such, I have no appetite for deleting any drivers etc... from the MacBook Air as it could originally see the disk and I do not want to make a mistake and cause myself problems.
So the question is, how on earth do I get the MacBook Air to see the drive again in Disk Utility? So I can do the partitioning and formatting there, this drive is of no use if can only be seen by the MacBook Pro. The drive is a portable USB powered Toshiba 1TB disk Part Number: HDTB110EK3BA.
Am going to wait for some suggestions, my next thought is to erase everything using the windows PC assuming it can see it, and then see if the Mac Book Air laptop can see it in Disk Utility... no other options left really.
I hope someone can help, otherwise I may be off to buy a new disk and could hit the same problems again!
Thanks
Alex.

http://www.phonenews.com/toshiba-acknowledges-macbook-woes-canvio-usb-3-0-hard-d rives-18699/
Toshiba Acknowledges MacBook Woes in Canvio USB 3.0 Hard Drives
By Christopher Price on December 27, 2011
Following tests conducted by PhoneNews.com, Toshiba has acknowledged an issue affecting their Canvio USB 3.0 hard drives. The issue prevents current-generation MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models from properly connecting and powering up the drives.
Read more to see our findings, and the resulting (ongoing) investigation by Toshiba.
We began our tests based on tips from readers like you, and went out and purchased five (yes, five) Canvio USB 3.0 drives, along with a brand new 2011 MacBook Air.
Drive problems happened immediately, and were relatively isolated to the MacBook Air. Of all the systems we tested on, we were only able to reproduce issues on a Sony VAIO laptop late in our testing, as well as a current-gen MacBook Pro.
Essentially, the drives failed to mount, and in most tests never even spun up on these systems.
The Canvio USB 3.0 hard drives have sat under many people’s Christmas trees, as they were hot sellers during Black Friday. Retailers like Office Depot slashed prices on the slim, 2.5-inch drives down to $79 for a 1TB hard drive. With coupons, Radio Shack was selling the 500GB model for a mere $39.
Canvio USB 3.0 drives tout on the box compatibility with USB 2.0 systems, including both Mac and PC. The advantage of a Canvio USB 3.0 hard drive for a MacBook owner lies in Thunderbolt. Purchasing such a drive today can achieve USB 3.0 speeds with upcoming Thunderbolt-to-USB 3.0 adapters. USB 3.0 mass storage was designed to be fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
To get to the bottom of the problem, we probed the five Canvio drives purchased, in an effort to better understand the issue. And, we were able to isolate the problem; the Canvio USB 3.0 drives draw more power than the USB standard permits. The drives were drawing, upon connection, slightly more than the five watts that the spec allows. And, the new MacBooks appear to promptly shut the device down because of this.
Why? Well, Apple can assert that this is to protect the MacBook Air/Pro from a malfunctioning USB device. However, the answer really lies in tablets. Apple allows iPad and MacBook to perform a hardware handshake, which then allows Apple devices to draw 10 watts from the USB port. This is why you can charge an iPad directly on a Mac, but not on a PC.
Apple does not want to allow rival tablet manufacturers (Android) to have the same access to Apple’s USB port. Hence, any device (like a tablet) that wants to draw even slightly more than five watts, is shut off from communicating with the Mac. We affirmed this by testing a powered USB hub. With a powered hub connected to the hard drive, and the hub connected to the MacBook, the drive instantly came to life, and worked without issue.
This creates a bit of an odd situation; Toshiba is technically in the wrong for making drives that technically breach USB specifications… but Apple seems to be the only manufacturer to enforce this aspect (as well as breach it with their own devices).
Toshiba, to its credit, has owned up to our issue, right down to our suggestion to them that a powered hub works around the issue. Quoting an official statement in response to our research:
Toshiba DPD has identified an isolated USB connectivity issue between the Canvio USB 3.0 drive and currently shipping MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. The issue involves the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air being unable to recognize the Canvio USB 3.0 drive when connected directly to the laptop USB 2.0 port. Toshiba is actively working to remedy this USB connectivity issue. In the interim, Toshiba recommends MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users employ a powered USB hub to connect their Canvio USB 3.0 drives.
We have asked Toshiba if they intend to inform retailers to accept returns for affected drives, or if they will offer some form of refund program in the interim. Retailers such as Office Depot do not permit refunds on opened technology items, including Canvio drives. Toshiba has said are looking into that aspect of this problem, and will get back to us shortly.
In all, we spent a few hundred on hard drives, and confirmed the issue. Unfortunately, because it is a power drain concern, Toshiba will likely have to offer an exchange program to fix it. We seriously doubt that this can be fixed at the firmware level. Theoretically, it’s possible a USB cable replacement might be able to mitigate this issue however, so there is hope that Toshiba won’t have to recall a bazillion hard drives.
Update: As a follow-up, Toshiba has informed us that they have completed their investigation, and will replace affected drives.

ITunes movies with no storage left on Macbook air

Where can I put my Itunes movies if i have no storage on my mac?
Itunes movies are taking up to much space, so can I move them somewhere? Or if i delete them, and get a Mac Desktop, will they be able to be redownloaded?
I need the space for other things,but do NOT want to have to repay for the movies I have bought.

auxi.trejos wrote:
Where can I put my Itunes movies
clear cut case
You need to change the premise of your SSD use.
see here:
Your Solid State Drive and having enough space inside your Macbook Air & Pro
Solid State Drive usage premise, or the “more space / upgrade SSD” question
There have been questions posed and positions taken by many people who are trying to use their Macbook Air or Pro’s solid state drive (SSD) as a mass media storage device, for either pictures, videos, massive music collections or all three combined; but this should not be the working premise of a ‘limited’ SSD and its use.
In which, it’s the case of those users with either 128GB, 256GB, or even 512GB of internal SSD space, that have or are running “out of space”, that questions are raised. The immediate premise of some users can sometimes be “(how to / if) upgrading my SSD” when in fact in nearly all instances another approach is the logical and sensible one that needs to be looked into and exercised.
Any Macbook containing a SSD should be idealized as a ‘working platform’ notebook containing all your applications, documents, and weekly or bi-weekly necessary files. All collections of media files such as pictures, music, and videos, unless directly needed should be kept off the notebook and on an external hard drive or likewise. While the ‘working platform’ premise is also the case with larger internal conventional hard drives of 1TB+, its implementation isn't as critical except in terms of data protection.
Realistically, you should at most coordinate roughly 20 to 25% of your total SSD space to all audio-video personal use media (picture / music / video collections), leaving the remaining amount on an external HD.
Nobody should consider any notebook a data storage device at any time under any circumstance, rather a data creation, sending, and manipulation device; and in the case of a SSD, this is more important for purposes of having sufficient working space on the SSD and reducing SSD ‘bloat’ in which cases someone is wrongly attempting to use the SSD space as a large media storage nexus.
The rare exception to the collective usage and premise of SSD use in which a much larger SSD is truly needed are for those in video and photography professions that require both the extremely fast speeds of the SSD and the onboard storage for large and or many video and photography files. However this also falls under the premise of a ‘working platform’ for such peoples rather than the intent of many who are using the SSD as passive and static data storage for media files very infrequently needed or accessed.
All on-notebook data collections should be logically approached as to necessity, and evaluated as to whether it is active or passive data that likely doesn’t need to be on the notebook, allocations of space-percentages to as-needed work and use, apportioning space for your entertainment media, and questioning whether it should it be on the notebook for more than short-term consumption.
Considerations should be made in the mind of any user in differentiating the necessary system data (System hub) comprising the Mac OSX, applications, necessary documents that both must and should be on your internal SSD, and that of the users personal data (Data hub) comprising created files, pictures, music, videos, PDF files, data created or being created and otherwise, that likely unless being used soon or often should be parked on an external hard drive for consumption, or temporarily loading onto the internal SSD.
You both can and should purchase whichever SSD size you need or see fit, but even in the case of the largest of SSD, unless use-considerations are made, and SSD spaces are allocated as should be the case indicated above, one can easily and immediately run into this quandary of “needing more internal SSD space”, in which instance a different approach in usage must then be implemented.
However it is almost always the case, that such large media files are wanted to be stored internally rather than actually needed, in which case the external HD is both prudent as well as necessary. Additionally costs per MB are infinitely less on an external HD than an internal SSD in any consideration of data expansion needs.
A Professional Example
In the case of a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro Retina with ‘limited’ storage on the SSD, this distinction becomes more important in that in an ever rapidly increasing file-size world, you keep vital large media files, pics, video, PDF collections, music off your SSD and archived on external storage, for sake of the necessary room for your system to have free space to operate, store future applications and general workspace.
You should also never be put in the position of considering “deleting things” on your Macbook SSD in order to ‘make space’. This is especially what your external HD is for.
Professionals who create and import very large amounts of data have almost no change in the available space on their notebooks internal SSD because they are constantly archiving data to arrays of external or networked HD.
Or in the case of the consumer this means you keep folders for large imported or created data and you ritually offload and archive this data for safekeeping, not only to safeguard the data in case your Macbook has a SSD crash, or gets stolen, but importantly in keeping the ‘breathing room’ open for your notebook to operate, expand, create files, add applications, for your APPS to create temp files, and for general operation.
Slim USB3 1TB external hard drive
External Hard Drives
External hard drives are both extremely cheap and regardless of the size of your internal SSD (or even internal hard drive if the case), you need an external hard drive with your SSD equipped Macbook for several reasons:
1. Data backup and protection.
2. Redundancy for important data.
3. Necessitated ideal space for large media files for collections of pictures, videos, and music etc.
While ever changing in price, typical portable 2.5” external hard drives in USB3 run roughly $65 for 1TB or $120 for 2TB small portable USB3 hard drives. Such drives range in thickness between 5mm and 15mm, with recent improvements in storage of 500GB drives in 5mm profiles.
There is almost no premise in which a small 12mm thick 1 Terabyte USB hard drive cannot be taken along with any Macbook as an external large storage extension inside any Macbook carry case or pouch. Typically such external HD profiles are not much bigger than a deck of cards.
External hard drives are a foregone necessity for purchase with any Macbook for at the very least Time Machine backups, data redundancies, and ideally for large media storage.
Parking it
75% of the data that's stored on someone’s notebook from countless studies has not been accessed for more than one year. Keeping this ‘dusty’ data on your notebook SSD is bad due to:
1. Internal SSD/HD bloat.
2. Encourages the hazardous and lazy practice of pivoting important data on your SSD, which can fail, be stolen, lost, destroyed, and which would result in serious data loss.
3. Such data needs to be parked into passive external HD archives.
On any SSD drive, unless you are using the data at least every month or so, or more accurately on a regular basis every couple of weeks, it is extremely unlikely that data needs to be or should be on your internal SSD as static data and wasting space when it should be on an external hard drive instead.
The best use of large media files on external portable slim hard drives is to load the media when needed from your external HD to your Macbook, consume it, then delete it from your internal SSD, leaving it on your external for use again later at some point.

MacBook Air Pro?

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