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New unhappy owner of a Mac Air

M

mdanehart

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
2
0
First of all my ole Windozs Vista laptop of 9 years passed. Hoped on the iPad 3 band wagon and found it to be nice basic device with a keyboard that sucked


After 27 days I returned it to Best Buy and the Geek suggested this 11 inch 2012 Mac Air, ultra sleek, seems well constructed, nice display (not as nice as the iPad 3 with retina), great keyboard, decent speaker audio, but the battery life sucks! After a full charge I lost 23 % in the first hour just researching the net! It would appear that I am averaging about 3.5 hours on battery, not good for work application.

I will admit I not Mac experienced, downloaded 2 seasons of The Outer Limits and have no idea where in the system they disappeared to? It was easy on the iPad, just went to the Video Icon!...

Just an old man frustrated..
 
I suggest watching some of the OSX basics videos on apple.com. The OS is simple and intuitive once you get it down. As far as battery life goes, check activity monitor and see whats draining resources, but 3.5 hours with high brightness and moderate use seems about right.
 
Yep, screen brightness is the first thing I would check if your battery life is rapidly dropping

Also, videos, YouTube, Flash of any kind will also create a drain

Where did you download your shows from? The iTunes Store?
If so, you should find them in iTunes under TV Shows in the left column
 
do what the user above said. With some tweaks, under normal use you should be getting right at 5 hours. Look at what you posted to....after one hour 23% gone...that puts you really close to the 5 hour mark as advertised.
 
mdanehart said:
Just an old man frustrated..
Click to expand...

Not sure why you posted this in the MBA forum. Your major learning curve issues are not with the MBA, they're with OSX.

As with most technologies, there's no free lunch...

  • If you want small and light, you sacrifice battery life.
  • If you want battery life, you sacrifice small and light.

Common sense, really. It's got nothing to do with it being an MBA running OSX.
 
Last edited:
torana355 said:
Yep the 11" MBA is known to have short battery life. The 13" is much better in that regard.
Click to expand...

Then again, he should have been aware of this when deciding to go with the 11" - it's clearly stated on the website that it doesn't last as much as the 13" ( and we all know that the 7-8 Hours stated is always "ideal case", in real life, it will be 1-2 hours less all the time ).

Apple is really not the one to blame... for a 11" model, the MBA is quite decent in every aspect.
 
mdanehart said:
After 27 days I returned it to Best Buy and the Geek suggested this 11 inch 2012 Mac Air, ultra sleek, seems well constructed, nice display (not as nice as the iPad 3 with retina), great keyboard, decent speaker audio, but the battery life sucks! After a full charge I lost 23 % in the first hour just researching the net! It would appear that I am averaging about 3.5 hours on battery, not good for work application.

I will admit I not Mac experienced, downloaded 2 seasons of The Outer Limits and have no idea where in the system they disappeared to? It was easy on the iPad, just went to the Video Icon!...

Just an old man frustrated..
Click to expand...


The 3.5 hour battery life seems about right. Exchange it for the 13" model and you should get closer to 5.5 hours. The 11" model is officially rated for 5 hours while the 13" model is officially rated for 7 hours. Real world usage tends to be a little bit less, particularly if it involves video.

Check iTunes if you are looking for the videos. Also look in the Downloads folder. If you are brand new to Macs, my suggestion would be to return the MacBook Air at Best Buy, and go buy a 13" model directly from the Apple Store and purchase the One-to-One option for $99 (you can buy it only from Apple and only at the time you purchase the Mac). It would give you 12 one-on-one sessions at the Apple Store over the course of a year where they will go over the basics of how to use it.

OS X is fairly easy to use once you get used to it, but there is a learning curve, particularly if you are coming from decades of using DOS and Windows.
 
I changed to mac last year, it was my first experience with anything IOS and it took a little while getting used to, but now I love it. There's an app with a set of tutorials on how to use it (tutor for lion) that I found quite helpful.

Regarding your movies I think they might be in your download folder.

If battery life is an issue for you and you were otherwise happy with the iPad, I would suggest the iPad and external keyboard combo. I use it often, and I find the combination of long battery life, 3G access and stylus input to be extremely useful. I also have an Air (13"), but use my iPad as my primary portable device. I have a Logitech keyboard which is very light weight and also doubles as a case.
 
mdanehart said:
I will admit I not Mac experienced, downloaded 2 seasons of The Outer Limits and have no idea where in the system they disappeared to?
Click to expand...
Did you look in the Videos Folder? That's always a good place to start.
 
Wirelessly posted

yup 3-4 hours is about what I get. I spent $35 (eBay) on another AC adapter to leave at work and that'll hold me over to 2013
 
Well, you figured out how to post to Macrumors... So next time, instead of giving up, returning something, then coming here to vent/complain... reverse the process. Come here and ask for help. Right now, all you've managed to do is make yourself sound like a troll. People can't really help you if you don't ask.

For your specific concern around Videos... OS X didn't put them anywhere. Are you using a bit torrent client? Safari? Those are the programs the put them somewhere. Probably in Downloads. Also, try out spotlight, it works quite well. Cmd+space
 
Thanks for the excellent information. I am going to secure an additional charger for the work location, that issue will be resolved.

I was not aware of the informational videos, but now I am!

Yep the learning curve is a bit steep and confusing compared to the last fifteen years on widows. I will adjust.

No I am not ignorant nor a troll. Give me a break kid ...
 
I'm not sure I understand the last few comments. Guy mostly said that MBA is in his mind a great laptop, but he's new to OSX and to Apple so feels little uncomfortable using it. He was also little bit disappointed with the battery life, which is more than understandable.

This is an forum for users to give their opinion and experiences with the MBA and to ask questions about the products. Here the OP clearly did that and explained some of the difficulties he had with the product. To interpret this as a troll you need to be pretty clueless and delusional.
 
kodeman53 said:
Not sure why you posted this in the MBA forum. Your major learning curve issues are not with the MBA, they're with OSX.
Click to expand...

Perhaps because he's new, has an MBA, and figured this was where to ask? He's confused, like many people are when they encounter something they don't know yet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mdanehart said:
Thanks for the excellent information. I am going to secure an additional charger for the work location, that issue will be resolved.

I was not aware of the informational videos, but now I am!

Yep the learning curve is a bit steep and confusing compared to the last fifteen years on widows. I will adjust.

No I am not ignorant nor a troll. Give me a break kid ...
Click to expand...

Excellent response, I really don't understand users on these forums. The OP clearly stated he was impressed with the MBA, but was disappointed with the battery life, which is understandable. He also had a very long run with Windows, so his lack of experience with OSX shouldn't give others a reason to harp on his inexperience with A NEW AND DIFFERENT OS. He came here genuinely asking for advice, but gets name called and belittled in the process. Some here have quite a bit of growing up to do.
 
mdanehart said:
First of all my ole Windozs Vista laptop of 9 years passed. Hoped on the iPad 3 band wagon and found it to be nice basic device with a keyboard that sucked


After 27 days I returned it to Best Buy and the Geek suggested this 11 inch 2012 Mac Air, ultra sleek, seems well constructed, nice display (not as nice as the iPad 3 with retina), great keyboard, decent speaker audio, but the battery life sucks! After a full charge I lost 23 % in the first hour just researching the net! It would appear that I am averaging about 3.5 hours on battery, not good for work application.

I will admit I not Mac experienced, downloaded 2 seasons of The Outer Limits and have no idea where in the system they disappeared to? It was easy on the iPad, just went to the Video Icon!...

Just an old man frustrated..
Click to expand...


Regarding the battery life there are a few more things you can do to try to preserve it beyond lowering the brightness of your screen. If your keyboard lights are on then turn those completely off unless you really need them. Also if you do a bit of internet browsing under safari then there are a few extensions to your internet browser that can block things on web pages that do nothing but get in your way of viewing and suck extra battery life.

The first I would suggest is clicktoflash. This will block out anything on a web page that is flash based and in order to activate it, all you have to do is just click on it. The second I would suggest is an ad blocker. You can get to extensions by clicking "Safari" in your top left hand corner. It should be your second option.

Last of all check for things that may be turned on that you aren't using. You may not be using bluetooth but it could be turned on, thus constantly searching for signal and using battery in the process. If you aren't using an application, it doesn't hurt to close it down when you're concerned about battery life. These will make a small difference, but should still help.

Beyond your video tutorials, here is a basic overview of information which may help you break through that learning curve of your mac: http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
If you spend some time learning your new product, I'm confident you will find it to be very intuitive and you will not miss windows.
 
My experience is different. I, too, switched to OSX after years of using Windows at home and work. Half the fun was learning the new op sys with the basic understanding that if it was possible under Windows, it had to be possible under OSX. Also after years of using Windows laptops at work, I have chargers at work and at home, so doing the same with the MBA was a no brainier. It must also be a function of personalities, it would never occur to me to start a thread where I voiced my 'complaints' about OSX that were the result of my impatience to learn a new OS. Ask questions, yes. Complain, no.
 
mdanehart said:
Thanks for the excellent information. I am going to secure an additional charger for the work location, that issue will be resolved.

I was not aware of the informational videos, but now I am!

Yep the learning curve is a bit steep and confusing compared to the last fifteen years on widows. I will adjust.

No I am not ignorant nor a troll. Give me a break kid ...
Click to expand...

Very odd, I used windows for 15/6 years straight, moved to OSX and was ok within an hour. The dock is pretty obvious really. The only thing that three me (and still grates) is the weirdly hidden #.
 
OSX can definitely feel difficult at first at some tasks if you're used to another platform and not that tech-savvy. But the good thing is that when you get used to it, and you should quite fast, it's gonna feel so much simpler and easier than Windows. Just keep it up.
kodeman53 said:
Ask questions, yes. Complain, no.
Click to expand...
You're the only one complaining.
 
mdanehart said:
First of all my ole Windozs Vista laptop of 9 years passed. Hoped on the iPad 3 band wagon and found it to be nice basic device with a keyboard that sucked


After 27 days I returned it to Best Buy and the Geek suggested this 11 inch 2012 Mac Air, ultra sleek, seems well constructed, nice display (not as nice as the iPad 3 with retina), great keyboard, decent speaker audio, but the battery life sucks! After a full charge I lost 23 % in the first hour just researching the net! It would appear that I am averaging about 3.5 hours on battery, not good for work application.

I will admit I not Mac experienced, downloaded 2 seasons of The Outer Limits and have no idea where in the system they disappeared to? It was easy on the iPad, just went to the Video Icon!...

Just an old man frustrated..
Click to expand...

I've used nothing but Windows (and DOS) all my life and only recently added OS X. This app helped me tremendously and I highly recommend it. http://www.appshopper.com/productivity/tutor-for-lion 51 videos, 4.5 hours, assumes you know nothing at all about OS X.
 
Great Attitude

mdanehart said:
Thanks for the excellent information. I am going to secure an additional charger for the work location, that issue will be resolved.

I was not aware of the informational videos, but now I am!

Yep the learning curve is a bit steep and confusing compared to the last fifteen years on widows. I will adjust.

No I am not ignorant nor a troll. Give me a break kid ...
Click to expand...

mdanehart - I appreciate your attitude. Being new to MAC and macrumors forums, you posted your concerns here and got some good as well as caustic replies. Take the appropriate replies and enjoy your new mac Air. You can post on any MacRumors forum that you want and someone will direct you to the one that is most likely to resolve your issue. We were all new at some point and we all learned together. MacRumors has taught me so much. I'm 69 and converted to MAC about three years ago after living on Windows for twenty some years with my engineering job. I have now converted most of the other engineers in my department to Mac. I have dual chargers for my MBA and multiple other Mac products and wished that I had converted sooner.
 
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