Ask many mac users, and they won't shy away from saying that Edge is one of the best internet browsers for Mac. Edge uses the same engine that power's Google Chrome. This implies that you will find the same features as that of Chrome; for instance, you will be able to use the same number of extensions. MacOS Big Sur elevates the most advanced desktop operating system in the world to a new level of power and beauty. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. Enjoy the biggest Safari update ever. Discover new features for Maps and Messages. And get even more transparency around your privacy. If your Mac is using an earlier version of any Mac operating system, you should install the latest Apple software updates, which can include important security updates and updates for the apps that are installed by macOS, such as Safari, Books, Messages, Mail, Music, Calendar and Photos.
Such Is Life Mac Os 11
For almost as long as there have been Windows laptops, there has always been a giant squid in the room: Why is Windows' battery life so damn pitiful? Tale of a wolf - preview mac os. Robotheus mac os. For years I thought it was simply a matter of display and processor technology outstripping battery tech, but when Apple entered the scene with the MacBook Pro and Air, and iPad, it became very clear that Windows itself was to blame. The battery life discrepancy between Windows and other operating systems has never been clearer than with the Surface Pro 2 and the 2013 MacBook Air — both have very similar specs (Haswell Core i5 CPU/GPU, battery size), and yet Apple's laptop has almost twice the battery life of Microsoft's tablet.
While it's clear that Windows laptops with good battery life do exist, that's really beyond the point — and usually just a result of large batteries powering relatively underpowered hardware. What we've noticed over years of handling a variety of Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices — and formalized in an excellent discussion by Jeff Atwood — is that Windows seems to magically decimate the battery life of laptops and tablets. You can have two devices with almost exactly the same specs (iPad vs. Surface RT, MacBook Air vs. an ultrabook), and somehow the Windows machine will have between 25 and 50% less battery life.
If you want to prove this yourself, try installing Windows 8 on 2013 MacBook Air. The 13-inch model (OS X 10.8) usually manages around 14 hours of battery life with light, WiFi web browsing usage — with Windows, that figure drops to around eight hours. The depressing thing is that the difference between Windows and OS X seems to be growing, too: The 2009 15-inch MacBook Pro managed around eight hours with OS X 10.5.7, and six hours with Windows Vista x64 SP1.
What's causing Windows' poor battery life? That's a good question that no one seems to know the answer to. Atwood even asked Anand Shimpi of Anandtech fame, but he too drew a blank. The most sensible argument is that Apple designs its hardware and software to work synergistically — the software is perfectly tailored to make the most of the hardware, and thus it uses less energy to get things done. Microsoft, on the other hand, has to write software that works equally well across a massive range of hardware, and thus can't include the low-level optimizations that would result in lower idle and load power usage for every CPU, GPU, and wireless chip/modem under the sun.
This argument falls down when you look at the Surface Pro 2 and 11-inch 2013 MacBook Air, though. Both devices were designed in-house, so Microsoft can't claim that Windows isn't optimized for the hardware. Both have Intel's Core i5-4200 (Haswell) CPU, 4GB of RAM, and NAND flash storage. The MBA does have a lower-res display (1366×768 vs. 1920×1080 on the Surface Pro 2), but it also has a 10% smaller battery (38 watt-hours for the MBA, vs. 42 watt-hours for the Pro 2). The only other difference is that the MBA's i5-4200U is clocked at 1.3GHz, vs. 1.6GHz for the Surface Pro 2 (but they both have the same Turbo Boost speed of 2.6GHz). Using Anandtech's WiFi web browsing battery life benchmark, the Surface Pro 2 manages 6.68 hours — the 11-inch 2013 MacBook Air, on the other hand, clocks in at 11.1 hours. That's Apple's OS X delivering almost twice the battery life of Microsoft's Windows 8, on almost exactly the same hardware. Go figure.
Even though the Surface Pro 2 was made in-house by Microsoft, it still has far less battery life than the 2013 MacBook Air, which has very similar specs.
Even though both devices were made in-house, the sad answer to this quandary — why Windows has worse battery life than OS X, iOS, or Android — is probably that Microsoft simply hasn't put as much focus on idle and low-utilization power consumption as Apple and Google. Yes, the Surface Pro 2 is a first-party device where Microsoft controls both the hardware and software — but that doesn't mean that Microsoft magically has the battery life expertise that Apple has been honing for almost a decade. We can't say for certain, but given the huge disparity in battery life, there is either a massive flaw in the Windows kernel and low-level libraries resulting in massive power wastage (unlikely), or it's simply a case of lots of little inefficiencies across the code base that add up (more likely).
Either way, though, the end result is that the awesome power consumption gains being made by Intel's latest chips will amplify Windows' lackluster battery life. As you can see in the chart above, the Surface Pro 2 has 40% better battery life than the original Pro, and that's almost entirely thanks to the new Haswell chip. Going from 4.7 to 6.7 hours is nice, of course, but going from 10 to 14 hours looks, sounds, and is better. For fans of Windows, there's no short-term solution here: Microsoft will need to do a lot of work to reduce its idle power consumption to OS X or iOS levels. If you're looking for a good laptop for working from the coffee shop, the MacBook Air or tomorrow's Haswell-powered MacBook Pros are likely to be your best bet for the foreseeable future. Protocorgi - old parry prototype mac os.
Now read: The Haswell paradox: The best CPU in the world… unless you're a PC enthusiast
Apple fans have been disgruntled over the past few years with an apparent forced obsolescence of hardware. But how much truth is there in this? How long does Apple support their devices with up-to-date operating systems? By support I mean from the moment a Mac or iDevice is released until it is no longer supported by a version of Mac OS X or iOS.
For example, the first MacBook was released in May 2006 and came with Mac OS X 10.4. It was supported through 10.6, but it couldn't run Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, which was released in July 2011. Therefore it had an officially supported life of 5 years and 2 months.
Free slots for you com. Does buying an expensive Mac Pro give you longer support life over the cheaper Mac mini, or does the higher price of a MacBook Pro reward you with longer support life over a consumer-aimed MacBook? Let's find out. Below is a table listing each Mac product line.
For each product line, I have listed three versions (if available): the earliest version of each line to support OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion. This gives the maximum support life of each product. Of course, if you buy one later on, nearing the release of the next version or purchase a used machine, you get less support. This should be reflected in the price you pay.
For Macs capable of running Mac OS X 10.8, I have included support life for 10.9 Mavericks, as all Macs that can run 10.8 will be able to run 10.9, which is due to be released later this year. Apple are releasing a new version of OS X each year, so 2014 should see 10.10, and nobody knows what the hardware requirements will be. I am assuming Apple will increase it and doubt very much that a 2007 iMac or a 2009 MacBook capable of running 10.8 and 10.9 will be supported in a 2014 operating system.
For the purpose of this article, we will assume those early machines running 10.8 (and soon 10.9) will end OS support in August 2014, which is roughly when 10.10 should be released.
Such Is Life Mac Os X
The news that OS X 10.9 Mavericks will run on the same hardware as OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is a huge boost for current Mac users. It is the first time since the release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther in 2003 (which required built-in USB) that no hardware hikes have been included and extends a lot of Macs supported life by another 12 months at least.
Looking through the table, it seems the average supported life from Apple is just over five years, with a few exceptions. The original MacBook Air falls short at only 4 years and 6 months and the Mid 2007 Mac mini falls short of the five year mark also, both models due to not being able to run Mountain Lion.
The Mac mini is Apple's budget Mac. It originally aimed at Windows users, hoping to entice them to switch. It came with no accessories, assuming you had a monitor and USB keyboard and mouse from your existing set up. Retailing from US$499 in 2005 for the original model and $599 for later ones, it was Apple's cheapest Macs since the 2000 model iMacs and the ATI eMacs coming in behind at $799. For this reason, you can forgive Apple for not support it as long as a Mac that is double in price. However, the first Mac Pro – retailing at $2,499, nearly 5x the price of the Mac mini – only received 5 years and 11 months support, a little over a year more than the Mac mini.
The few exceptions to roughly five years of OS support – which must please their owners no end – are the Mid 2007 20' iMac at 7 years and the Mid/Late 2007 MacBook Pro at a whopping 7 years 2 months.
What does this all mean? Omg kittens slot. Well, it should help you gauge what sort of machine will provide a better cost-per-year, and for those on a tighter budget this could give them an extra two years before they feel the need to replace it.
Okay, before you all scream This is Low End Mac and point out that many people still use older, non-supported Macs, just because a Mac loses support by Apple doesn't mean it is useless. That is not what this article is about.
Snow Leopard Lives
A 2006 Intel Mac running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is still fully supported by most developers, and with a user base of around 30%, Apple cannot ignore it. [Editor's note: Site analytics show 24% of Intel Mac users visiting Low End Mac are using OS X 10.6.] Apple in the past have taken a 'current plus previous' approach to supporting Mac OS X, meaning when 10.5 Leopard was released they still released Security Patches for 10.4 Tiger – but not 10.3 Panther.
However, Apple recently released a Snow Leopard Security update, despite it being two revisions back from today's 10.8 Mountain Lion. Interestingly, there are more Snow Leopard users than Lion users [16% according to Low End Mac analytics, vs. 24% for 10.6], which shows both how good Snow Leopard was and how many early Intel Macs are still around that cannot run anything higher.
How Long for OS Support?
This provides an interesting look at just how long you get support for an Apple product. Support is meant as currently supported by Apple and able to run the latest OS. A first generation MacBook shipped in 2006, is now 7 years old, and is still used by a lot of people, still supported by developers, and still being offered security updates by Apple if it's running Snow Leopard. It isn't obsolete – far from it, it can still run the latest Flash and Firefox, unlike a G4 or G5 Mac.
However, there are still plenty of people who use a G4 and are happy with it. One interesting point about Intel Macs over PowerPC Macs is that once Apple do end all support for your Mac – it is Intel based – so it is possible to run Windows or Linux on it, as both tend to run on older hardware. As much as it pains me to say it, where Apple ditched Core Duo and early Core 2 Duo Macs, not allowing them to run Lion or anything higher, they will run Windows 8 or the latest Ubuntu with full support.
A device is useful depending on the needs of the user. Some people need a top-end brand new Mac, but some people can get by using a PowerBook G4. Wandering around mac os.
To see how Apple supports iDevices in comparison to its Macs, see my companion article, How Long Will Apple Support Your iDevice.
Follow Simon Royal on Twitter or send him an Email.
Like what you have read? Send Simon a donation via Tip Jar.
keywords: #apple #support #mac #osx#techspectrum #simonroyal
short link: http://goo.gl/7mWDIc
searchword: macsupport
