The New Workhorse

My current main desktop system was a 4 year-old iMac 23-inch, running Mountain Lion since it was the only OS which can connect to my P1 dongle for internet connection. Not ideal, but that was the best I could do in Gombak.

At the apartment, I have a 30Mb fibre connection and it seemed that all the bandwidth being utilised only on iPad and Mac Book was rather a waste. I decided to get a new desktop permanently stationed at the apartment. I thought about a new iMac, but I decided to go a step further than that. A system which could easily last me for another 4 years.

Walla, I ordered the Mac Pro and I received the delivery last week. I spent the time since then tweaking the peripherals and decided on which monitor to use. The main one was easy, I also ordered an Apple Thunderbolt display which also served as the main speakers, camera and microphone. I got a second similar-sized monitor from Dell. And I also installed a third monitor in the form of a Wacom Cintiq tablet. That provide touch interface for photo editing as well as an input mode for the whole system if needed. The dual graphics card system sorted the resolution out with minimal effort.

I also installed Parallels for running Windows 7 concurrently. No issues. I could run Windows on one screen while keeping Mavericks on the other monitor. And I was able to play games at maximum resolution and setting on the Windows part.

I also bought a Thunderbolt WD external hard drive connected to the Mac Pro. The on board SSD was only 256 Gb, hence I save space by using the external drive for my Aperture and iPhoto library. The 10Gb/sec transfer time meant that there was no lag even when I opened the photo for editing on Photoshop. I decided against wifi storage mainly for speed. When I have time, I might dabble into video editing - in 4K maybe.

A lot to discover still with the new system and it would take a while before I realise the real potential, as only a handful of the current crop of apps were able to utilise more than couple of processor cores, 64 bit operation and dual graphic processor. The system was no slouch ….

So far, I have yet to encounter any hardware issues with the system. I might add on more memories to the system in the future, but that would be about it.

Up to 7.1

Apparently plenty of people had problem with iOS 7. Personally, I didn't notice as much. Most of the problem seemed to be from legacy apps, which were not updated for the new OS.

Today, Apple announced an update to 7.1. The updating process was painless, 268MB if I wasn't mistaken. No issues and the new OS seemed to be similar to the last one. Or at east I didn't notice the difference.

Maybe I should give it a couple more days to see of there were any upgrades in performance. As long as it didn't kill any of my usual apps, I wouldn't be complaining ...

Irfan's New Mac

Since last year, the boys had been asking for their own computers. Irfan especially had been nagging me. He wanted an iMac, similar to mine. But mine was already four years-old. We had to get a brand-new one then.

Idlan would have to wait until later as we didn’t have space for two desktops. I must say that the new iMac were some slick machine. I would have to save for my Mac Pro as the shop only carry the first editions, and they were having some memory module issues with that batch. Not many shops in town had them in stock yet.

As usual, taking the computer out from the packaging was a ritual in itself. No other company paid this much attention to the packaging. Even though it looked complicated, one just had to follow the instructions, and before you knew it, walla ….

And I would have to do the dirty work ...Idlan would be using my old iMac, and they and their classmate had already planned a Minecraft party this weekend. Online of course. And Irfan already had Skype set up in his computer. Idlan had already had his for quite some time …

Looked like they would be staying in this weekend. The internet seemed to be the issue though as it was slow. I may have to bring the iMac to the apartment for updates at some stage.

Still no Air

I had been busy in the past week, and didn't have the chance to look around and sample the recently released iPad Air. So, when I had the chance yesterday, I stopped by a shop at Hartamas which stocked Apple products.

They had rows of iPad, but they were all from the previous generation. No idea as yet as to when the new model would be coming in. Looked like I would have to head out to Low Yat to have a feel of that .... Maybe this weekend.

Maverick or Mavericks

Was this coincidence or was this a sign? 5.5 GB of download would require some serious bandwidth, but I was sure the apartment fiber could handle that.

There seemed to be plenty of upgrade in the new OS, but I wonder if my ageing lappy and iMac could cope with the new programs.

But for the time being, let just enjoy the movie .....