Bought the SSD 512GB 13" retina a few months back. Generally love the OS usability, but here are some experiences

1. Can't cut and paste files in finder ( need to drag and drop )

2. Screwed up apple mail slightly, even after delete google mail, and re create, can't sync mail. Now need to restore the whole system as cannot uninstall just mail and re install.

3 ended up buying office for Mac, as pages, numbers are not as powerful compared to windows office,

Still love the usability, and integration with my iphone / iPad, but its pretty weak on other areas

For what it's worth !

i've had similar levels of satisfaction with the Macbook experience - a total system failure due to a corrupted system file about 6 months after purchase was annoying but fixed very quickly and very cheaply by a geek in MBK with no loss of data. then about 6 months later to add to that the hard drive itself failed and was replaced by apple - again with no loss of data thx to the clever timemachine utitlity - just 2 weeks wait while it was shipped to and returned from wherever it went after the Siam Discovery shop took it (Singapore?). wish i'd done what the OP did and gone the SSD option as i have since been told the OE HD's on late model MBPs are a prone to failure.

no probs with any of the software tho. after a bit of aclimitising i really like the native stuff including mail, messages, itunes and iphoto. i also think system tasks like configuring setting and installing and deleting stuff are handled very well and intuitively. also happy how common, non-native apps like browsers, media players and picture editing etc seem to work well, and other than the two aforementioned serious incidents i have NEVER had a single program crash - not once.

what also keeps me "loyal" to the brand is how good the mobile devices are and how well they integrate with the MBP and each other. i really like and cannot fault my ipad or iphone (ok, battery life is <deleted>). i also like the way messages is cross platform and all my accounts and devices are linked. impressed by icloud too. i bought and tried a galaxy phone and a galaxy tab and just didn't like them - sadly neither did either of my kids or the wife so couldn't palm them off on them.

so yeah, i'd agree macs aren't the bee's knees, but neither is Windows/PC or Linux or any other offering - it's up to the individual and although i am sure some are disatisfied when they go to Macs it seems rarely that you hear of people saying "to hell with that mac i bought, i'm going back to PC!"

Edited April 10, 201313 yr by GooEng

Restore works well thought.....

Hold down OPTION key where u want to Paste and it will change to MOVE instead of PASTE.

Theres a lot of books on OSX that can assist a newbie...

Hold down OPTION key where u want to Paste and it will change to MOVE instead of PASTE.

Theres a lot of books on OSX that can assist a newbie...

Yeh, maybe user problem

Too busy to read books, so will have to fix problem 1 by 1. Google searches came up w same issue, maybe wrong info

In the past the problem with HDDs in Macs in Thailand was that Macs are set up to be super quiet, meaning the fans spin really low, meaning the machine and electronics are allowed to get hotter than your average PC.

That's easily fixed using the free SMCFanControl utility - set the minimum speed of the fans to 2300 RPM. That's still too quiet to hear in most environments, but it will keep the machine a lot cooler, and save your HDD. I never lost a HDD before I came to Thailand, over here I lost 3 so far (2 in a Mac, one in a PC)

Other cool utilities I use all the time:

- iStatPro system status - I use the widget as I like Dashboard but in recent released Dashboard has been relegated to secondary importance. Had to use FunctionFlip preference pane to get it back on the F4 key. Anyway I think iStatPro also comes in other variations

- MenuMeters - this shows me TX/RX network throughput right there in the menu bar. Invaluable. I know in an instant if I am on a bad connection, or the connection went down, or whatever. Can't live without it. It has CPU and other displays too but I don't need those. Network is crucial

In the past the problem with HDDs in Macs in Thailand was that Macs are set up to be super quiet, meaning the fans spin really low, meaning the machine and electronics are allowed to get hotter than your average PC.

That's easily fixed using the free SMCFanControl utility - set the minimum speed of the fans to 2300 RPM. That's still too quiet to hear in most environments, but it will keep the machine a lot cooler, and save your HDD. I never lost a HDD before I came to Thailand, over here I lost 3 so far (2 in a Mac, one in a PC)

Other cool utilities I use all the time:

- iStatPro system status - I use the widget as I like Dashboard but in recent released Dashboard has been relegated to secondary importance. Had to use FunctionFlip preference pane to get it back on the F4 key. Anyway I think iStatPro also comes in other variations

- MenuMeters - this shows me TX/RX network throughput right there in the menu bar. Invaluable. I know in an instant if I am on a bad connection, or the connection went down, or whatever. Can't live without it. It has CPU and other displays too but I don't need those. Network is crucial

sh1t, i've been meaning to add that fan-speed app since i saw you mention it as a recommendation on another thread about MBP HD probs! still think i will go the SSD route tho once they come down in price a little more.....

Love SDD.... So fast and very fast boot, and I think bat last longer

In the past the problem with HDDs in Macs in Thailand was that Macs are set up to be super quiet, meaning the fans spin really low, meaning the machine and electronics are allowed to get hotter than your average PC.

That's easily fixed using the free SMCFanControl utility - set the minimum speed of the fans to 2300 RPM. That's still too quiet to hear in most environments, but it will keep the machine a lot cooler, and save your HDD. I never lost a HDD before I came to Thailand, over here I lost 3 so far (2 in a Mac, one in a PC)

Other cool utilities I use all the time:

- iStatPro system status - I use the widget as I like Dashboard but in recent released Dashboard has been relegated to secondary importance. Had to use FunctionFlip preference pane to get it back on the F4 key. Anyway I think iStatPro also comes in other variations

- MenuMeters - this shows me TX/RX network throughput right there in the menu bar. Invaluable. I know in an instant if I am on a bad connection, or the connection went down, or whatever. Can't live without it. It has CPU and other displays too but I don't need those. Network is crucial

sh1t, i've been meaning to add that fan-speed app since i saw you mention it as a recommendation on another thread about MBP HD probs! still think i will go the SSD route tho once they come down in price a little more.....

Well - it does work. IMO it's an oversight on Apple's part to let the electronics get too hot, really.

A friend of mine had a corrupt HDD. I was able to fix it with DiskUtility but his iMac was almost too hot to touch. So I installed SMCFanControl, min speed 2300, now the iMac is cool. And he hasn't had any HDD trouble since then, that's 6 months ago.

In the past the problem with HDDs in Macs in Thailand was that Macs are set up to be super quiet, meaning the fans spin really low, meaning the machine and electronics are allowed to get hotter than your average PC.

That's easily fixed using the free SMCFanControl utility - set the minimum speed of the fans to 2300 RPM. That's still too quiet to hear in most environments, but it will keep the machine a lot cooler, and save your HDD. I never lost a HDD before I came to Thailand, over here I lost 3 so far (2 in a Mac, one in a PC)

Nic, Nice app. Do you think Mac's need to be run in air-conned environments here? Yesterday everything froze up on me necessitating a forced reboot. In a non air-conned area, the temp was up over 80c (which I read is quite normal) and fans spinning at 6k. Not that noisy though. Could the freeze up be temperature related??

Edited April 29, 201313 yr by SoloFlyer

check your activity monitor. Sounds like an App is frozen or using too much CPU...