First Mac - Owned it a few mos, having browser issues and battery life issues MBP (2015)

[OUGrad05]

First of all I'd like to say hello to everyone. I'd been wanting to jump on the Mac bandwagon for a couple years but never could justify the price. Finally got tired of dealing with constant windows issues despite having a piece of really good ASUS hardware.

I purchased my MBP back in July (2015 model) and generally have been pleased. However, I'm having some browser issues that are really quite annoying.

I began my MBP experience using Chrome, however, I noticed Chrome was decimating my battery, especially if I was watching youtube videos (something I do frequently). Sitting through lectures, coursera courses, car videos, etc is something I do fairly regularly and after a couple weeks of use the battery life started dropping a lot. To the point of only getting about 2.0-2.5hrs out of a charge which is really unacceptable. I realized and had read that Chrome used more battery than Safari but this was pretty ridiculous. I did the usual clear your cache, blah blah blah and that seemed to only minimally help.

So I made the decision to move to Safari. Moved over my favorites, logged into all my usual websites and sure enough battery life was much better.

HOWEVER, Safari seems to be pretty bad at buffering video despite a reasonably fast connection 45meg down and 5 up. So videos constantly hang.

Additionally, and perhaps more annoying since updating my OS to El Capitan Safari goes through these weird phases where it will hang and/or stop responding. In some instances it just hangs for 5-7 seconds (sometimes 10) before connecting with the webpage, in other instances it just stalls/stops all together and you have to close it out. I've also noticed it looses connection and says webpage cannot be displayed frequently while simultaneous use of Chrome shows no issues.

I really wanted to get away from all these nagging usability issues when I moved to Mac and needless to say I'm a bit disappointed. Are there setting changes I can tweak to make general usability better as it relates to web browser issues?

Finally, are there some recommended reading for setting this notebook up to really take advantage of its power and ability to move content to my desktop? I'm a news junkie and having quick access to headlines, stock data, economic info, political info etc would be handy. I'm betting there's easy ways to do this I just need a place to do some reading.

 

[Jess13]

Safari is hit or miss. Some days it works great, other days it repeatedly irritates. If Safari is acting dumb, try this to fix the issue: Click the in the Menu Bar and Force Quit Safari, then with the Force Quit box still open, click Finder and Relaunch.

As for news, stock data, economic info, political info, etc., you could search for apps such as this:

http://reederapp.com/mac/

The best RSS reader for OS X

http://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-rss-reader-os-x/

Conclusion

In short, there is one great RSS app for OS X: Reeder 3.

ReadKit’s not bad, but overreaches, and there’s a lot of junk on the Mac App Store fighting for attention. Take MobileRSS for example — it’s well-rated, but is designed to sync with Google Reader. The app hasn’t gotten an update since 2011.

While that doesn’t factor into what the best RSS app is for the Mac, it does paint a pretty bleak picture of the Mac App Store. While the iOS App Store has its problems as well, because the Mac App Store is so much smaller, this sort of thing bubbles to the top much more easily.

All that aside, RSS is alive and well, and it’s alive and well on the Mac if you ignore the noise in the Mac App Store and aim for the top​

That might provide you a solution, it might not. I don't use it but it might be helpful to your uses.

 

[shankar2]

I used firefox as browser... which is pretty good on my mac.

 

[OUGrad05]

Thank you both for your replies.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Do not use chrome if you care about battery. It's really quite sad. I stopped because of its effect on my battery.

 

[OUGrad05]

Do not use chrome if you care about battery. It's really quite sad. I stopped because of its effect on my battery.

I guess I can put Flash on FireFox or Safari for some browsing issues that I use Chrome for and just use "Chrome" for hangouts. Doesn't take much battery when the browser isn't being used. But yeah Chrome can suck the battery big time.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

I would use safari without flash and then switch to chrome when it is needed if this is possible

 

[OUGrad05]

I would use safari without flash and then switch to chrome when it is needed if this is possible

Definitely possible that's what I've been doing the last month or two but with Safari's hanging/freezing/pausing it's really getting old.

 

[Jess13]

This doesn't work for all websites, but set up Safari to use in iPad mode for most flash content:

Safari Preferences > Advanced > Show Develop Menu in menu bar

When you encounter a website with flash content: Develop > User Agent > iPad

For the website content that won't play in iPad mode, use Chrome for its built-in flash.

 

[nmeed]

Why are you guys against installing the flash plugin for Safari and using clicktoflash?

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Why are you guys against installing the flash plugin for Safari and using clicktoflash?

1. Having Flash is a security concern.
2. Flash runs poorly.
3. Having additional plugins is also a security and performance concern.
4. Flash is at the end of it's life.

 

[nmeed]

1. Having Flash is a security concern.
2. Flash runs poorly.
3. Having additional plugins is also a security and performance concern.
4. Flash is at the end of it's life.

1. Is it still a concern if it only runs when you enable it for that odd video or two? With clicktoflash, it's disabled the vast majority of the time. Furthermore, when you're using Chrome, it once again poses a security concern anyway. So how is using it on Chrome less of a security concern? In Chrome it would be running the entire time you're using Chrome. Here at least, it's only running for the duration of the video.
2. I get that, but it would run poorly on Chrome too?
3. I get that clicktoflash might be a security/performance concern, but we are talking about one additional plugin. I mean.. I don't see any performance hits. Has there been any security/performance issues associated with clicktoflash? I'm curious..
4. Agreed, but once again, it is being used in Chrome?

I think you missed the point of my question. I get Flash is a bad thing. We're in agreement. However, my question is what are the advantages of using it in Chrome over just using it in Safari with clicktoflash? I mean, the fact that flash is at the end of it's life doesn't change whether you're using Chrome or Safari or Opera or Firefox or whatever... you got me? I'm running clicktoflash with Safari right now and I'm honestly interested to know if I'm doing something wrong here. What are the advantages of installing Chrome and having to open it every time I need to see something that's using Flash. I feel like just using clicktoflash is a simpler solution than having to open up a new browser.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

1. Is it still a concern if it only runs when you enable it for that odd video or two? With clicktoflash, it's disabled the vast majority of the time. Furthermore, when you're using Chrome, it once again poses a security concern anyway. So how is using it on Chrome less of a security concern? In Chrome it would be running the entire time you're using Chrome. Here at least, it's only running for the duration of the video.
2. I get that, but it would run poorly on Chrome too?
3. I get that clicktoflash might be a security/performance concern, but we are talking about one additional plugin. I mean.. I don't see any performance hits. Has there been any security/performance issues associated with clicktoflash? I'm curious..
4. Agreed, but once again, it is being used in Chrome?

I think you missed the point of my question. I get Flash is a bad thing. We're in agreement. However, my question is what are the advantages of using it in Chrome over just using it in Safari with clicktoflash? I mean, the fact that flash is at the end of it's life doesn't change whether you're using Chrome or Safari or Opera or Firefox or whatever... you got me? I'm running clicktoflash with Safari right now and I'm honestly interested to know if I'm doing something wrong here. What are the advantages of installing Chrome and having to open it every time I need to see something that's using Flash. I feel like just using clicktoflash is a simpler solution than having to open up a new browser.

I didn't miss the point.

Points 1 and 3 are about removing possible attack vectors and minimizing your risk. An extension is simpler but also presents another possible input.
I'm sure many have the same 4 opinions.

 

[nmeed]

I didn't miss the point.

Points 1 and 3 are about removing possible attack vectors and minimizing your risk. An extension is simpler but also presents another possible input.
I'm sure many have the same 4 opinions.

Aha.
I'm still wondering what are the advantages to using Chrome with Flash over Safari + clicktoflash. I feel like since flash would be running the entire time you're using Chrome, that's inherently less safe than running flash for simply the duration of the video in the clicktoflash setup. As far as the plugin itself being a vector for attack, well bro, clicktoflash is 1 plugin. I have never read anything saying it is a security threat. I believe flash running the entire time you're using chrome is more of a security threat than clicktoflash.

I get flash is bad, really. lol
The point is, why is using flash in chrome better than using it in safari with clicktoflash? In both cases at some point flash is running. Thus, you stating flash is not safe and is at its end is really pointless. Again, I'm just wondering, what are the advantages to using Chrome. I mean, so if I use Chrome then Flash somehow becomes safer? If I use Chrome, then Flash is no longer at its end of life? You know what I'm saying?

 

[Mcmeowmers]

... As far as the plugin itself being a vector for attack, well bro, clicktoflash is 1 plugin. I have never read anything saying it is a security threat ...

Is this an attempted troll? Not all security threats are widely known or reported. Just because you haven't read about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Not all research is published.


I'm not really sure what you're trying to find out. Flash is a security and performance concern. Minimizing its use helps to minimize security concerns. It's really that simple of a statement

I get flash is bad, really. lol
The point is, why is using flash in chrome better than using it in safari with clicktoflash? In both cases at some point flash is running. Thus, you stating flash is not safe and is at its end is really pointless.

Not safe and end of it's life are separate points. Some people wish to quicken the death of Flash by not installing it.

Again, I'm just wondering, what are the advantages to using Chrome. I mean, so if I use Chrome then Flash somehow becomes safer? If I use Chrome, then Flash is no longer at its end of life? You know what I'm saying?

Two separate points as stated above.

Using Chrome for Flash over Safari+clicktoflash is about isolation and mitigation.


So lets say you're perusing the internet as you would. You find this super cool Flashthingy9000 at definitelynoteavirus.com. But shoot, you're using Safari and you totally want to run this totally safe Flash plugin. So you fire up Chrome and you copy and paste your URL. Everything is good. As opposed to clicking your nice greyed out box in Safari+extension. As I said in the previous post, this method is simpler and more convenient but has a small trade off. Is that trade off worth it? I don't know. It's your computer! You get me dude?

 

[nmeed]

Is this an attempted troll? Not all security threats are widely known or reported. Just because you haven't read about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Not all research is published.


I'm not really sure what you're trying to find out. Flash is a security and performance concern. Minimizing its use helps to minimize security concerns. It's really that simple of a statement




Not safe and end of it's life are separate points. Some people wish to quicken the death of Flash by not installing it.





Two separate points as stated above.

Using Chrome for Flash over Safari+clicktoflash is about isolation and mitigation.


So lets say you're perusing the internet as you would. You find this super cool Flashthingy9000 at definitelynoteavirus.com. But shoot, you're using Safari and you totally want to run this totally safe Flash plugin. So you fire up Chrome and you copy and paste your URL. Everything is good. As opposed to clicking your nice greyed out box in Safari+extension. As I said in the previous post, this method is simpler and more convenient but has a small trade off. Is that trade off worth it? I don't know. It's your computer! You get me dude?

Thanks for your replies, they are highly appreciated!

To all, if someone could tell me what the advantages of using Chrome with Flash as opposed to Safari with ClickToFlash, I'd really appreciate it.