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Mohamed Kamal

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2020
61
35
Cheers. The not being able to write to the USB was a bit of a daft one - it suddenly dawned on me as to why...it was the wrong file system...doh! :rolleyes:
LOL.. your thinking was diverted because you assumed MacOs is new to you therefore it’s a new issue.
 

dmccloud

macrumors 68030
Sep 7, 2009
2,933
1,644
Anchorage, AK
I got my MBA yesterday - finally bit the bullet and replaced my 2014 MBP. I have an i7 Windows gaming PC that I use for games and Photoshop, so this machine will be more for schoolwork and coding. After spending most of yesterday getting everything set up and installed, I've been playing around with it some today. So far, I haven't heard any fan noise, and just a little heat above the keyboard near the hinge. I plan to add a thermal pad to it in the next week or so just to help keep potential heating issues to a minimum, but so far I haven't had a reason to be concerned about it.
 

isezumi

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2012
2
1
I got my MBA yesterday - finally bit the bullet and replaced my 2014 MBP. I have an i7 Windows gaming PC that I use for games and Photoshop, so this machine will be more for schoolwork and coding. After spending most of yesterday getting everything set up and installed, I've been playing around with it some today. So far, I haven't heard any fan noise, and just a little heat above the keyboard near the hinge. I plan to add a thermal pad to it in the next week or so just to help keep potential heating issues to a minimum, but so far I haven't had a reason to be concerned about it.

Congratz, what configuration did you get?
 

Willie Heckaslyke

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2020
66
11
Bit of an Update:

Two days into the Mac experience on my MBA. I'm trying to stick to my trackpad rather than hooking up a BT mouse (it's hard(er) after ALWAYS using a mouse....but not THAT hard) I'm also trying to stick to using Safari rather than Chrome (after I'd imported all my chrome bkmarks) due to the heat & memory issues caused by using Chrome on MBA's that I've read about.

One (very slight) annoyance with Safari is the Tabs layout...it's not as 'obvious' where each tab starts and finishes...(to the uninitiated like me, if you have say, just 2 tabs open, each tab 'splits' the tab bar in half. As you add more, (for me at least...) they tend to 'blend in' almost, rather than being clearly 'defined' as in Chrome/Firefox).

Everything's different as expected, but achieves the same result in the end.

I watched 'The Elephant Queen' on Apple TV on my 4K monitor (in clamshell mode) last night. It's quite long at about 1hr 40mins...but it never missed a beat. The only evident heat present, was on the side-dock where it was charging...the actual lappy was cool.

All-in-all....well pleased with my purchase. I'm glad I didn't go for the MBP base model. For MY needs, the MBA is spot-on so far.
 

vyruzreaper

macrumors regular
Jul 19, 2015
121
116
Context:
1. It’s MBA 2020 i3.
2. I need a laptop now but I can make do without it for 6 months.
3. The problem is: in 6 months if the laptop that was released was a macbook pro for $1200+, it’ll be out of my price scope.
4. It could not even be a laptop for all we know.
6. Want to use the laptop for at least 4 years, don’t care about resale value.
5. I’m okay with the performance of the current macbook air, and will not miss using iOS and IpadOS apps on mac, but don’t want to use a device that doesn’t get new system versions (not just security updates) for the next 4 years at least.
6. Don’t want to lose 3rd party app support and updates.
7. Apple said good things about continuing to support intel macs but everyone on MacRumors says that they said the same thing about PowerPC -> intel and it turned out to be a lie.

opinions?
An ARM computer exists now. iPP + MK :p
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Nice! Tbh i don’t really mind the fan noise if the heat and performance are good. But I’m more concerned about the support drop with the upcoming change. I hope apple will speak more on this to be honest.
The fan noise is nothing to scoff at in the MBA especially if you use video conferencing software. The mod was necessary for my i5 (tons of posts and walkthroughs on the heatsink thread). Few have been ok, but it seems most (anecdotical to this forum) have had issues.
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Yes, and, if apple don’t actually release The “new versions of MacOs on intel macbook for years to come” like they said, they would be blatantly lying. Which is very damaging for the company’s image.
It's not a matter of if they will, its a matter of how often? I have a hunch that intel Macs will lag and pale in new features etc.

But who really knows? Make the best decision for yourself today.
 

Donar

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2008
382
70
Germany
Bought a 2020 Air (i5/8GB RAM/256 GB SSD), it is available now, all programs i need are available now, and it a has a scissor switch keyboard. Don‘t know when this will be the case with „Mac Book ARM“.
 
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Sword86

macrumors 6502
Oct 6, 2012
345
162
I went and got an i5/8/256. I went as inexpensive as I could get with the idea that I just might get an ARM MB down the road. Maybe. I can’t see me growing out of my new MBA for some time. S
 

dmccloud

macrumors 68030
Sep 7, 2009
2,933
1,644
Anchorage, AK
What is ARM abbreviated for? A Google search says that it's Apple's own chip set, but doesn't say what ARM means.

ARM originally was an acronym for "Acorn RISC Machine", then it became "Advanced RISC Machine" when the company incorporated in 1990. In 1998, the company renamed itself again to ARM Holdings in conjunction with their IPO.
 

mwptrsn

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2020
14
11
I went and got an i5/8/256. I went as inexpensive as I could get with the idea that I just might get an ARM MB down the road. Maybe. I can’t see me growing out of my new MBA for some time. S

This is what I ended up doing. I'm happy with the performance for now. I've got an iMac to throw long computations at if I need to.

If the ARM stuff is truly as much of a game changer as it could be, I'll go that route and still get a decent chunk of what I paid for this back, relative to other options.
 
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