Show off your Early Intel Macs!

[MultiFinder17]

I can’t test it right now, but having done something like this a couple of years ago when the OEM SSD in my now-screen-dead rMBP semi-failed (and would go on to hard-fail a couple of months later before replacing it and, a month later, I ruined the screen), I tried a data retrieval using that adapter, to connect to my early 2011 MBP, via target disk mode. The adapter was on the rMBP side, obviously. Even though I have two of those adapters, there was no point to cap each end of the FW800 cable with one (though I suppose I could have, just to learn what might or might not happen).

As memory serves, this worked, but I would not be able to tell you which protocol icon appeared on the target mode screen saver.

Good to know! I've been meaning to pick up a TB-->FW adapter for a while now, and this kind of experimentation might be just the thing that I need to finally get around to nabbing one. If there's one thing that I do enjoy, it's experimenting for the sake of experimenting with old computers.

 

[retta283]

For starters, @rampancy and @retta283 are well ahead of me on that Canadian list.

I'm lucky to be on that list, I'm an emigre with dual citizenship so I'm only half-Canadian. 37 years should be enough to prove my salt though

 

[Amethyst1]

For starters, @rampancy and @retta283 are well ahead of me on that Canadian list.

Thanks for the info. Kudos to @rampancy and @retta283 and everyone else who makes this place great too.

If there's one thing that I do enjoy, it's experimenting for the sake of experimenting with old computers.

Yeah, it doesn't get much better than that.

 

[rampancy]

This sparked a negative reaction among consumers and elements of the press. One disgruntled customer even received an email response purportedly from Steve Jobs. This article offers a good retrospect on the removal of FireWire from MacBook range.

FEATURE: How Apple killed the MacBook, and crippled the MacBook Pro

Yeah, that's what killed off my enthusiasm for the A1342 MacBooks. And it wasn't even just the idea of losing FireWire for me; at the time I'd invested quite a bit in FW400 external hard drives for storing games and media.

I didn't necessarily mind when Apple dropped a feature from one of its laptops, since they did so with the intentionality of providing a viable alternative (Remote Disk in OS X, introduced alongside the first MacBook Air comes to mind here). But in this case, there was simply no alternative. All you had was USB 2.0.

 

[2aw]

Nope, you never do. Maybe one day they’ll uncover a 17-inch Core Duo iMac without an iSight camera.

(The Poe’s Law is strong with you.)

I reread your message. I don't get what you mean exactly, can you clarify? Thanks.

 

[Amethyst1]

Poe’s Law

 

[2aw]

Poe’s Law

Maybe because it is 5 in the morning where I am, but I still don't get it, can you explain it to me like I five? The post he referred to, I was being serious, because it is a nice looking 17" iMac, they won't ever be made again because the trend now is to have larger and even larger desktop displays (have you seen the 49" ultrawide screen monitors out nowadays, I hope Apple has enough sense to make an iMac that wide in the near future, it would be epic (but they probably won't make it)).

 

[Amethyst1]

[…] have you seen the 49" ultrawide screen monitors out nowadays, I hope Apple has enough sense to make an iMac that wide in the near future, it would be epic (but they probably won't make it)).

I have, and their 5120×1440 resolution is way too low for macOS (110 ppi: same as two 27” 2560×1440 monitors side by side), so text looks terrible on them. Samsung are going to release a 57” 7680×2160 monster that will be much better in terms of text rendering, but not even close to the 215–255 ppi range that is ideal for macOS. That being said, I don’t really care for ultrawides at all. I need more height, not more width.

 

[2aw]

I have, and their 5120×1440 resolution is too low for macOS, so text looks terrible on them unfortunately. Samsung are gonna release an 58” 7680×2160 monster, that will be much better in terms of text rendering. That being said, I don’t really care for ultrawides. I need more height, not more width.

I agree with you on the height issue, less scrolling is better.

When it comes to resolution, my 9 year old laptop has a higher vertical pixel count (1800p) than that "current" 1440p monitor, so that is why I won't buy it.

I don't understand why people use screens with less than "retina" resolutions, the first retina laptop screen came out in 2012, there is no reason why anyone should settle for less ever since.

 

[chaosbunny]

I don't understand why people use screens with less than "retina" resolutions, the first retina laptop screen came out in 2012, there is no reason why anyone should settle for less ever since.

I happily use a 27" Eizo from 2019 that's "only" 1440p. Its hardware can be calibrated and I need this level of color accuracy. Higher res screens with this capability still cost an arm and a leg.

 

[chaosbunny]

Sure was! It’s part of the reason I still use my 2012 quad i7 as my home server, so I can keep using an old FireWire drive I’ve had for ages.

Yeah, thanks to my Mac Pro I also have a lot of FW800 drives still in use. They are fast enough for most stuff and I see no reason to replace stuff that's working fine.

 

[Amethyst1]

I don't understand why people use screens with less than "retina" resolutions, the first retina laptop screen came out in 2012, there is no reason why anyone should settle for less ever since.

What you need to understand is: What kind of screens other people use is none of your business. And the first retina (200 ppi) laptop screen came out in 2002 BTW.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I don't understand why people use screens with less than "retina" resolutions, the first retina laptop screen came out in 2012, there is no reason why anyone should settle for less ever since.

Because not everyone is loaded mate. On my desk at home as my main machines are a 2015 1080p iMac I got on Craigslist broken for $100 and fixed up and a gaming laptop with a 1080p screen that I got on clearance for $500 last year which is hooked up to a beautiful 24” Dell Ultrasharp 1200p screen that I literally found in the bin and repaired with a recapping.

Retina screens are beautiful, but non-retina screens are far more affordable, far more common, and still work perfectly fine mate. Besides, why toss what still works fine and meets our needs just because something newer is out?

 

[2aw]

What you need to understand is: What kind of screens other people use is none of your business. And the first retina (200 ppi) laptop screen came out in 2002 BTW.

You are wrong on that part, 2012 was year the laptop game changed, it made all other non-retina laptop screens obsolete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Retina_(2012–2015)

 

[B S Magnet]

You are wrong on that part, 2012 was year the laptop game changed, it made all other non-retina laptop screens obsolete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Retina_(2012–2015)

🍿 Sitting back and reclining in my theatre seat to await when @Amethyst1 sends 2aw to school.

 

[B S Magnet]

The post he referred to,

Helpful tip: not everyone on these forums are sausages, even if online forums can be sausage fests. Best not to assume this with anyone you don’t know!

Still unclear? Read the first line from my about page.

 

[Amethyst1]

You are wrong on that part

Am I? I said:

And the first retina (200 ppi) laptop screen came out in 2002 BTW.

Numbers don't lie:

 

[B S Magnet]

Am I? I said:

Numbers don't lie:

View attachment 2206513

Now showing, in HiDPI:

 

[Amethyst1]

Now showing, in HiDPI:

Is that salted or caramel popcorn?

 

[B S Magnet]

Is that salted or caramel popcorn?

Can’t you tell? It’s Chicago-style popcorn!

 

[MultiFinder17]

You are wrong on that part, 2012 was year the laptop game changed, it made all other non-retina laptop screens obsolete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Retina_(2012–2015)

Obsolete: No longer in use or no longer useful.

Well that's news to me given that the majority of laptops I use do not have Retina displays, and given that I can go to any computer store and find a plethora of non-Retina-class displays on laptops and for desktops.

Retina screens are lovely, but that doesn't mean that every other screen is suddenly worthless. I own three Retina Macs (5k iMac, M1 Air, 2015 13" MBP) and happily switch between them and my non-Retina machines (way too many to list) daily. At school I use a 27" 5K iMac with a pair of 20" Apple Cinema Displays hooked up to it. Retina and non-Retina on the same computer? Sacrilege!

BTW, good luck convincing anyone in the Early Intel Macs forum that non-Retina machines are obsolete. Keeping them going and relevant is kind of our thing here

 

[B S Magnet]

BTW, good luck convincing anyone in the Early Intel Macs forum that non-Retina machines are obsolete. Keeping them going and relevant is kind of our thing here

Moreover, Retina-branded and True Tone-branded screens are engineered, contractually, to be impossible to replace outside of Apple (due to Apple’s strict contract restrictions on the supplier of those screens from selling those parts to anyone other than Apple and, more recently, having the displays cryptographically matched/locked to the logic board). And once Apple eighty-sixes a Retina-based or True Tone-based product, the utility of that product will be obsoleted not by its diminished functionality (hardly!), but by the overt anti-competition of being unable to replace that screen. This probably constitutes a litigously unchallenged monopoly.

Put another way: once the next-gen displays to replace Retina and True Tone emerge in the Apple line-up, those displays will be obsoleted, but still perfectly usable, so long as it doesn’t break. Fortunately, for pre-Retina displays, many, if not most can be replaced with OEM supplier parts still available for sale.

As for usability or usefulness, if one can easily see what one is working on, whatever that might be, then that screen ain’t “obsolete” by any measure.

 

[GMShadow]

Apple was also selling a non-Retina iMac until October 2021...although that iMac had other, larger issues than the 'okay' display.

 

[Amethyst1]

As for usability or usefulness, if one can easily see what one is working on, whatever that might be, then that screen ain’t “obsolete” by any measure.

The original Game Boy's screen is very obsolete then. "Is it on yet?"

 

[MultiFinder17]

Apple was also selling a non-Retina iMac until October 2021...although that iMac had other, larger issues than the 'okay' display.

Heck, they were still selling non-Retina MacBooks until June 2019 when they discontinued selling the 2017 13" Air.