Anybody know any must have mac accessories?

lovebug04 · Jun 6, 2013

Hello there

I have had my new Macbook pro 13' with retina display and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for must have accessories. I bought a super neat messenger bag for it so I can lug it back and forth to my classes. I am a student and I spent way to much for it, now I understand I paid for quality but I want to protect my investment. I noticed some minor scratches already and I want to prevent that but also don't have a lot I can spend for a least a while. Any thoughts?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

One more thing. I have read that a screen protector is not really necessary. What are your thought?

Veronica

chscag · Jun 6, 2013

One thing I highly recommend - and that is a notebook stand. Not just to keep your new retina machine cool, but to keep it elevated off your desk so when you spill something, you haven't destroyed it.

Also, ask your parents to buy insurance for it while you're at school. Thieves love Apple computers.

TattooedMac · Jun 6, 2013

Hey there.
Yea the Messenger Bag is a great investment and honestly probably the only thing you need to invest in.
But if you really want to protect it even more, a case or cover will help from scratches when doing everyday tasks. I have a quite a few of their products, but look at the BookBook Cover from ~ TwelveSouth for extra insurance. They are well made and look great. My GF has one on her MacBook Air, i have 1 for my iPhone 5 and there products have never let me down.

As well as not knowing what your going to be doing with it, we can't really help on anymore accessories per say, but protection is the biggest thing, for longevity or re-sale value

HTH

Cheers

lovebug04 · Jun 6, 2013

Thanks

chscag said:
One thing I highly recommend - and that is a notebook stand. Not just to keep your new retina machine cool, but to keep it elevated off your desk so when you spill something, you haven't destroyed it.

Also, ask your parents to buy insurance for it while you're at school. Thieves love Apple computers.

Thank you very much for responding. I downloaded the find my iphone app and it also lets me know the location of all my apple products, it sure is helpful

lovebug04 · Jun 6, 2013

I appreciate it.

TattooedMac said:
Hey there.
Yea the Messenger Bag is a great investment and honestly probably the only thing you need to invest in.
But if you really want to protect it even more, a case or cover will help from scratches when doing everyday tasks. I have a quite a few of their products, but look at the BookBook Cover from ~ TwelveSouth for extra insurance. They are well made and look great. My GF has one on her MacBook Air, i have 1 for my iPhone 5 and there products have never let me down.

As well as not knowing what your going to be doing with it, we can't really help on anymore accessories per say, but protection is the biggest thing, for longevity or re-sale value

HTH

Cheers

I will definitely take a look at their products. Honestly I am not very tech savvy and I only use my Mac for school, edit home movies, and to watch movies on it. I just want some products that will keep my Macbook looking super sharp like I got it. Apart from school this Macbook is the most expensive thing I have purchased. I bought my little beater car for $500 and it hasn't failed me in 2 yrs. I am very good about taking care of my possessions

harryb2448 · Jun 7, 2013

And for cleaning (internally) Onyx.

JUKE179r · Jun 7, 2013

I'm kind of a nut when it comes to keeping my MBP dirt, scratch and dent free. I use a Speck plastic cover and a Thule zip up cover to carry it around.

RadDave · Jun 7, 2013

Hi Veronica - good luck w/ your new purchase and at school!

Just bought a new r-MBP myself (end of March) (my 3 previous ones were Windows laptops, so 'new' to OS X) - some great ideas about 'protecting' your computer and the insurance suggestion is excellent.

For myself (retired), my machine is next to my den chair so I'm not as concerned about traveling damage or theft, but I've require some items that you might want to consider (if not already done): 1) USB drive as a 'recovery disc' - checkout the Recovery Disk Assistant; 2) Backup Strategy - for me, using Time Machine w/ an external Seagate HD; online storage is an option - using Carbonite on our new iMac along w/ Time Machine; and 3) External optical drive - using Apple's Superdrive - still ripping music from my CDs - might not be an issue for you?

Well, just a few 'additions' to my MBP - enjoy!

lovebug04 · Jun 8, 2013

hi

harryb2448 said:
And for cleaning (internally) Onyx.

Thanks for the feedback. I have had my laptop since March and I haven't backed it up or anything to do with "internally"

Is there anything I should do besides backing it up? I know that when you delete something from the recycle bin it does't permanently delete it. How can I delete those files to free up space?

V

lovebug04 · Jun 8, 2013

RadDave said:
Hi Veronica - good luck w/ your new purchase and at school!

Just bought a new r-MBP myself (end of March) (my 3 previous ones were Windows laptops, so 'new' to OS X) - some great ideas about 'protecting' your computer and the insurance suggestion is excellent.

For myself (retired), my machine is next to my den chair so I'm not as concerned about traveling damage or theft, but I've require some items that you might want to consider (if not already done): 1) USB drive as a 'recovery disc' - checkout the Recovery Disk Assistant; 2) Backup Strategy - for me, using Time Machine w/ an external Seagate HD; online storage is an option - using Carbonite on our new iMac along w/ Time Machine; and 3) External optical drive - using Apple's Superdrive - still ripping music from my CDs - might not be an issue for you?

Well, just a few 'additions' to my MBP - enjoy!

I stil rip CDs and I definitely need to purchase an optical drive

Thank you very much for the help.

RadDave · Jun 8, 2013

lovebug04 said:
I stil rip CDs and I definitely need to purchase an optical drive Thank you very much for the help.

Hi again Veronica - well if you are ripping CDs (like me) then you'll need an external optical drive - I just bought Apple's SuperDrive (image below) - like the slot loading feature, but many other options will work (you may already own a USB external drive that will work?).

Concerning a backup option, an inexpensive external HD (I bought a 1 TB Seagate @ Costco) w/ the built-in Time Machine is a good starter - you might want to also obtain a 'secondary' backup for your own files (i.e. documents, music, & photos) - I use a SSD external just for those files but a USB thumb drive will also work fine.

Let us know if these suggestions work out for you - and if you have other questions, please post back -

lovebug04 · Jun 8, 2013

RadDave said:
Hi again Veronica - well if you are ripping CDs (like me) then you'll need an external optical drive - I just bought Apple's SuperDrive (image below) - like the slot loading feature, but many other options will work (you may already own a USB external drive that will work?).

Concerning a backup option, an inexpensive external HD (I bought a 1 TB Seagate @ Costco) w/ the built-in Time Machine is a good starter - you might want to also obtain a 'secondary' backup for your own files (i.e. documents, music, & photos) - I use a SSD external just for those files but a USB thumb drive will also work fine.

Let us know if these suggestions work out for you - and if you have other questions, please post back -

Thank you very much. That was very helpful. I have to save up some more in order for me to afford an external. I definitely want the Time Machine. I have heard great things

chas_m · Jun 8, 2013

Macs don't have a recycle bin.

Files you throw away and empty the trash on may not yet be permanently gone, but that space IS marked as available so "deleting" them again or in some other manner won't free up any space.

RadDave · Jun 8, 2013

chas_m said:
Macs don't have a recycle bin.
Files you throw away and empty the trash on may not yet be permanently gone, but that space IS marked as available so "deleting" them again or in some other manner won't free up any space.

Hi Chas_m - still learning OS X myself and to better understand the TRASH basket, my understanding is that once files are placed there, they can be restored by opening the icon; now, if the trash is emptied, then the files disappear but like in Windows the disk space is simply marked as being useable for newer files, BUT I assumed that the 'freed up' disk space would show up as additional useable space - have not check this out but would be my assumption.

Now the other issue that might be useful to explain is 'Secure Trash Emptying' - a command choice or an option in Finder - this will basically delete the files and presumably 'overwrites' the storage area so the file(s) cannot be recovered, but again I would assume that the behavior in disk utility would be similar, i.e. additional 'free' space would be shown?

Hope that I'm clear on these questions which likely will help the OP in her questions, and also help me - thanks for any comments. Dave

lovebug04 · Jun 9, 2013

still learning

RadDave said:
Hi again Veronica - well if you are ripping CDs (like me) then you'll need an external optical drive - I just bought Apple's SuperDrive (image below) - like the slot loading feature, but many other options will work (you may already own a USB external drive that will work?).

Concerning a backup option, an inexpensive external HD (I bought a 1 TB Seagate @ Costco) w/ the built-in Time Machine is a good starter - you might want to also obtain a 'secondary' backup for your own files (i.e. documents, music, & photos) - I use a SSD external just for those files but a USB thumb drive will also work fine.

Let us know if these suggestions work out for you - and if you have other questions, please post back -

chas_m said:
Macs don't have a recycle bin.

Files you throw away and empty the trash on may not yet be permanently gone, but that space IS marked as available so "deleting" them again or in some other manner won't free up any space.

I'm still learning my Macbook

lovebug04 · Jun 9, 2013

Thank you

RadDave said:
Hi Chas_m - still learning OS X myself and to better understand the TRASH basket, my understanding is that once files are placed there, they can be restored by opening the icon; now, if the trash is emptied, then the files disappear but like in Windows the disk space is simply marked as being useable for newer files, BUT I assumed that the 'freed up' disk space would show up as additional useable space - have not check this out but would be my assumption.

Now the other issue that might be useful to explain is 'Secure Trash Emptying' - a command choice or an option in Finder - this will basically delete the files and presumably 'overwrites' the storage area so the file(s) cannot be recovered, but again I would assume that the behavior in disk utility would be similar, i.e. additional 'free' space would be shown?

Hope that I'm clear on these questions which likely will help the OP in her questions, and also help me - thanks for any comments. Dave

I understand. I will check Secure Trash Emptying. Thank you very much Dave for your help. I really appreciate it

chas_m · Jun 9, 2013

RadDave said:
BUT I assumed that the 'freed up' disk space would show up as additional useable space - have not check this out but would be my assumption.

Yessir, that is correct. Once you empty the trash, the space those files took up shows up as free space.

audunk · Jun 11, 2013

l bought a screen protector for my mac. Don't remember the name of it but they sold it at the apple store. It doesn't go directly on the screen itself, but onto the frame around the screen. l bought another (cheap) one from eBay earlier that made the screen very glossy, so it reflected the background and all kinds of light really bad.
The one l have now is really nice, no bubbles, easy to apply, doesn't smudge as easily as the screen, easy to wipe off and the screen doesn't get the keyboard marks that l got when l didn't have a screen protector. And apparently you can take it off and reapply it several times. Haven't tried the last one yet but its kinda thick and stiff, so l think it should be pretty easy.
Well worth the 20 or 30 bucks l spent on it, imo. You can probably find it cheaper on ebay tho.

TattooedMac · Jun 11, 2013

audunk said:
l bought a screen protector for my mac. Don't remember the name of it but they sold it at the apple store. It doesn't go directly on the screen itself, but onto the frame around the screen. l bought another (cheap) one from eBay earlier that made the screen very glossy, so it reflected the background and all kinds of light really bad.
The one l have now is really nice, no bubbles, easy to apply, doesn't smudge as easily as the screen, easy to wipe off and the screen doesn't get the keyboard marks that l got when l didn't have a screen protector. And apparently you can take it off and reapply it several times. Haven't tried the last one yet but its kinda thick and stiff, so l think it should be pretty easy.
Well worth the 20 or 30 bucks l spent on it, imo. You can probably find it cheaper on ebay tho.

Cant remember of the brand name, but i recently got a screen protector from Apple Store and it was marketed as the Privacy Screen Protector, so if you were not directly in front of it, you couldn't see the screen, Great idea, and worked beautifully, but i had to keep the glossy side out.
I had to apply double sided sticky to the outer edges and then apply to screen, and as i said it worked well, but became TOO glossy for my continue use, then i swapped it around to be Matt side out, which suited me perfect and was a dream, but then the Glossy side kept grabbing the screen and started to look like a bad iPad Screen protector placement with bubbles everywhere so i just ripped it off and back to skin free screen.
I now have a chemical free spray that sprays in 1 000 000 micron spay wipe and clean. \Now I'm happy

Anybody know any must have mac accessories?

lovebug04

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