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How to take care of my new rMBP 13?

H

hannan8v8

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 1, 2014
18
0
Hey guys, my macbook will be arriving tomorrow hopefully. I got the 13" 2.8ghz, 8gb ram, 512 HD, mid-2014 edition.

Im new to Macbook from windows laptops. I want to know how to take cake of my macbook. Ive got noob questions like how much to charge, how often should i charge, which apps should I download, the do/don'ts of macbook. etc etc

Help will be appreciated :)
 
Congratulations! Charge your computer normally and youʻll be fine. As for your other questions, well...thatʻs part of the fun of owning a Mac. Use the forum search field, lots of informative posts relating to each of your questions. Just to start you off, Coconut Battery is a great utility to keep track of battery health.

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/
 
Same here. We bought exact same model! I guess just use it like nornal should be fine.
 
Just treat it like any laptop.

Charge as and when you like it seems to make little difference to the battery.

As for Apps the App store has most of what you need, so just log in and try what you fancy. I like VLC for movie playback and transmission for torrents, and skim for PDF's.
 
Clean the screen gently and only use a slightly dampened cloth with warm water and then wipe dry with a soft cloth afterwards. I leave mine plugged in most of the time but will run it on battery power every few weeks and let it run down to about 40% or so just to cycle it.

Otherwise, just use it and enjoy.
 
Treat it like normal and you'll be fine. I keep mine plugged up most of the time and never worry about cycling the battery.

I carry mine around the house and tend to be clumsy and bump it in to door frames - so I bought a plastic hardshell case for it. As a bonus, it makes it easier to hold on to. I like Speck, but there are cheaper ones on Amazon.
 
nobodyjustwalks said:
Congratulations! Charge your computer normally and youʻll be fine. As for your other questions, well...thatʻs part of the fun of owning a Mac. Use the forum search field, lots of informative posts relating to each of your questions. Just to start you off, Coconut Battery is a great utility to keep track of battery health.

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/
Click to expand...

Id suggest that's not needed. People don't really need to spend a lot of time monitoring or working to maintain the battery. Just use the laptop as you normally would. I find apps like this cause more undo frustration and worry when its best to use and enjoy the laptop.
 
i run mine on battery at least once a week.

Macs are very good at looking after themselves. I do a Permissions Repair a couple of times a month before doing Time Machine backups. I don't know that this is really necessary, but i do it anyway.

I back up to a portable drive with Time Machine, this is small and travels with me. At home, I have a larger drive partitioned with TM on one side, and Carbon Copy Cloner on the other - that is a bootable backup.

Also recommend a Nifty Drive with SD card, for the slot on the side, mine is 64GB for backing up daily, just things I'm currently working on and most important files.
 
For cleaning the screen, you'll want to use hard grit sand paper. Also use that on the casing of the laptop. It will give it that rugged look:cool:

But seriously, congrats! Sweet machine:)

I wouldn't worry about the battery cycling. Just use it off charge when you need to, and plug it in when an outlet is nearby. If you dock it to a desk, it is advised to let it run on battery every so often.

As previously stated, the machine will maintain it's self and your job is just to enjoy it and use it to meet your needs.
 
Congrats on your purchase!

I have recently switched over from PC to MAC (macbook Pro 15 inch retina) and I absolutely love it.

The ONE thing I tell/suggest to everyone who switches over is that you will need to install a program for you mac to be able to read/write to PC formatted external hdrives including USB drives and SD cards. You Mac will read them out of box but you cannot write to them.

Without looking around much I found Tuxera. I downloaded the "full" version found somewhere online :) and my mac reads and writes to everything no problem. There may be some other programs out there but this one has worked perfectly for me. Just install and you're good to go.

http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/

Other than that it will take you a while to get used to the operating system but it worth the learning curve.

No more norton, mcaffee, updating drivers, windows updates, security permissions etc etc.

Hope this helps.
Thanks
Flex
 
hannan8v8 said:
Hey guys, my macbook will be arriving tomorrow hopefully. I got the 13" 2.8ghz, 8gb ram, 512 HD, mid-2014 edition.

Im new to Macbook from windows laptops. I want to know how to take cake of my macbook. Ive got noob questions like how much to charge, how often should i charge, which apps should I download, the do/don'ts of macbook. etc etc
Click to expand...
Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.
​
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions, including tips for maximizing battery performance. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
As far as apps, download only the apps that you need. If you're considering an app, search the forum for the app name, to see what others are saying about it. You can search the forum easily with Google, by adding this to your search terms: site:forums.macrumors.com
nightlong said:
I do a Permissions Repair a couple of times a month before doing Time Machine backups. I don't know that this is really necessary, but i do it anyway.
Click to expand...
Some people repair, or recommend repairing permissions for situations where it isn't appropriate. Repairing permissions only addresses very specific issues. It is not a "cure all" or a general performance enhancer, and doesn't need to be done on a regular basis. It also doesn't address permissions problems with your files or 3rd party apps.
 
maflynn said:
Id suggest that's not needed. People don't really need to spend a lot of time monitoring or working to maintain the battery. Just use the laptop as you normally would. I find apps like this cause more undo frustration and worry when its best to use and enjoy the laptop.
Click to expand...

True, people should enjoy their laptop. But at the end of the day itʻs a matter of personal choice for each owner. In your case, itʻs a hassle. In my case, I enjoy checking on it once in a while. Little easier on the eyes than launching "System Information."

As for the OP, thatʻll be up to him/her to decide.
 
capathy21 said:
For cleaning the screen, you'll want to use hard grit sand paper. Also use that on the casing of the laptop. It will give it that rugged look:cool:

But seriously, congrats! Sweet machine:)

I wouldn't worry about the battery cycling. Just use it off charge when you need to, and plug it in when an outlet is nearby. If you dock it to a desk, it is advised to let it run on battery every so often.

As previously stated, the machine will maintain it's self and your job is just to enjoy it and use it to meet your needs.
Click to expand...

Nail polish remover and paper towels = flawless screen ;) even better than sand paper.
 
Just remember to cycle your battery every once in a while so it doesn't develop an SMC problem, or otherwise go bad.

There is really no trick, or savior or way of prolonging the life of lithium-ion batteries except using them when you need to.
 
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