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just got a new macbook pro unibody

iHarrison

iHarrison

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2009
180
0
Madison, Wis.
I was curious what I should expect for battery life on this machine?

web surfing?

music?

movies?

etc.

also, does anyone else use the "auto brightness" for their screen or does that hurt battery life?

does the backlit keyboard hurt battery life? or is it not that big a deal to have it on?

thanks!
 
airplaneman said:
Should get around 4-6 hours with normal use. On my 15", I've gotten up to 8 hours surfing with min. brightness and now backlight:D.
Click to expand...

Alright I use a wireless broadband card at my home for Internet because we can't get high speed and I think I only got around 3 hours of use but that was with iChat, instant messaging and Internet surfing.
 
I've always been able to pull about 7 hours with my 13" uMBP. I recommend keeping the brightness to the lowest setting where you can still read it and the keyboard backlight to the lowest setting (but not off, if you need it on).

I'd keep up to date using Chrome or Opera 10 for surfing. I personally like Safari 4, but I'm just waiting for Chrome to become more stable. Firefox 3.5 is slow and clunky on OS X.

Music and movies... iTunes if you've used it before. If you have SL, QuickTime X is very nice for playing movies (you know... backed up from your own private DVD collection). If you don't have an iPod/iPhone, get a different library-based music app such as Songbird. You won't regret it... well, let's see what Wednesday brings for iTunes. :cool:

If you're a new Mac user, troll the entire internet for Mac apps. There's a huge community. Also look for Mac versions of your favorites: Evernote, Office 2008, etc.
 
zwaldowski said:
If you're a new Mac user, troll the entire internet for Mac apps. There's a huge community. Also look for Mac versions of your favorites: Evernote, Office 2008, etc.
Click to expand...

any recommended apps that are worth the download?

any tips on keeping the battery "calibrated" or in good condition. Or, with the technology now days do you not really have to worry about calibrating and stuff like that?
 
can anyone tell me how to make it so that when i drag files/folders into a window it will automatically organize the folder...right now for some reason, when I drag folders into a finder window, it just goes literally RIGHT where i drop it and things get all out of order and messy unless i control click and tell it to organize by name...

suggestions, solution or tips?
 
if you right click in a folder and click on 'show view options' theres a drop down menu that lets you choose an option that 'snaps to grid' and should keep things tidy
 
milamber said:
if you right click in a folder and click on 'show view options' theres a drop down menu that lets you choose an option that 'snaps to grid' and should keep things tidy
Click to expand...

that was EXACTLY what i needed...thanks so much..

now, haha, question #2: anyone have any clue why on my desktop whenever i drag and drop files, or whenever a disk drive is installed or a cd icon shows up on my desktop (practically anything on my destop) it always shows up a space below my Macintosh HD icon...almost as if my mac thinks that there is an icon already right underneath my macintosh hd. Any ideads?
 
iHarrison said:
that was EXACTLY what i needed...thanks so much..

now, haha, question #2: anyone have any clue why on my desktop whenever i drag and drop files, or whenever a disk drive is installed or a cd icon shows up on my desktop (practically anything on my destop) it always shows up a space below my Macintosh HD icon...almost as if my mac thinks that there is an icon already right underneath my macintosh hd. Any ideads?
Click to expand...

Maybe there was something there before the last time something mounted, and it continues to mount in the same place. Next time just drag the CD into the blank space and it should fill it every time.
 
martynmc7 said:
Maybe there was something there before the last time something mounted, and it continues to mount in the same place. Next time just drag the CD into the blank space and it should fill it every time.
Click to expand...

I've actually done that with my external HD and every time I plug it in, it now fills that whole...any ideas on how to eliminate that all together? I'm clueless...honestly...I think it came from when I installed Snow Leopard and the instal CD image mounted to my desktop. Once i restarted and totally relaunched with Snow Leopard, i noticed that empty spot on the desktop...been that way since. Guess it's not THAT big a deal really anyway...was just curious. Thanks!
 
iHarrison said:
any recommended apps that are worth the download?

any tips on keeping the battery "calibrated" or in good condition. Or, with the technology now days do you not really have to worry about calibrating and stuff like that?
Click to expand...

Batteries go down over time; that's just fact. Apple doesn't recommend calibrating, but they give instructions over time. While nobody's been able to test it out yet, Apple's advertising is holding firm so far that the battery should last approximately 5 years before death.

App recommendations always depend on what you do. However, I do have some all-purpose favorites: AppFresh (keeps apps updated), Gimp (photo editing), Google Earth, Handbrake (video conversion), Hulu Desktop (watches shows from Hulu... wait for it... on your desktop), Notify (GMail tray app), Pixelmator (NON-FREE photo editor), Quicksilver (quick search+launching), Skype, Solitaire XL, Transmission (BitTorrent), The Unarchiver (more file extracting), and VLC (video/audio player). :D
 
zwaldowski said:
Batteries go down over time; that's just fact. Apple doesn't recommend calibrating, but they give instructions over time. While nobody's been able to test it out yet, Apple's advertising is holding firm so far that the battery should last approximately 5 years before death.

App recommendations always depend on what you do. However, I do have some all-purpose favorites: AppFresh (keeps apps updated), Gimp (photo editing), Google Earth, Handbrake (video conversion), Hulu Desktop (watches shows from Hulu... wait for it... on your desktop), Notify (GMail tray app), Pixelmator (NON-FREE photo editor), Quicksilver (quick search+launching), Skype, Solitaire XL, Transmission (BitTorrent), The Unarchiver (more file extracting), and VLC (video/audio player). :D
Click to expand...

Apple actually DOES recommend calibrating your battery every two months. It helps a lot.
 
zwaldowski said:
App recommendations always depend on what you do. However, I do have some all-purpose favorites: AppFresh (keeps apps updated), Gimp (photo editing), Google Earth, Handbrake (video conversion), Hulu Desktop (watches shows from Hulu... wait for it... on your desktop), Notify (GMail tray app), Pixelmator (NON-FREE photo editor), Quicksilver (quick search+launching), Skype, Solitaire XL, Transmission (BitTorrent), The Unarchiver (more file extracting), and VLC (video/audio player). :D
Click to expand...

thanks for the awesome list of apps...looking into most of them now. I've had handbrake before but now that I have Snow Leopard I see it only supports Mac OSX 10.5 or so. don;'t think i can download/use that program now with snow leopard until they update.
 
iHarrison said:
calibrating my battery would just entail me having my battery at full charge, running it completely dead and then recharging fully again?
Click to expand...

Yes with the addition of once the computer shuts down because the battery is drained you leave it "asleep" for another 5 hours before you recharge it (this is to be sure that you have fully rained the battery).

Good luck!
 
iHarrison said:
thanks for the awesome list of apps...looking into most of them now. I've had handbrake before but now that I have Snow Leopard I see it only supports Mac OSX 10.5 or so. don;'t think i can download/use that program now with snow leopard until they update.
Click to expand...

Try here. It's a gigantic list of recommended apps.:)
 
spgiva said:
Yes with the addition of once the computer shuts down because the battery is drained you leave it "asleep" for another 5 hours before you recharge it (this is to be sure that you have fully rained the battery).

Good luck!
Click to expand...

should i do this once since I JUST got my macbook? or wait 2 months and then do this?
 
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