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Question of the week: What was the most clever way you’ve ever used an Apple product to solve a problem?
  • My wife and I were planning our wedding. Everything was paid from our own pockets. No help from parents or family. It wasn’t like they weren’t there, just wanted to do it ourselves since it’s our wedding.

    By the time we’ve booked the venue, catering, photographer, budgeting clothing & decorations, we had no money to hire a DJ. And if we did, we didn’t want some “Top 40” DJ (we’re from the alternative subculture)

    I rented some audio equipment, hooked it up to my MacBook, and used iTunes as the DJ. I’ve made a few playlists based on the wedding’s schedule. One playlist for the dinner, one playlist for the “walking down the aisle” moment, one playlist for dancing/post-ceremony. Having the playlists allows me to “play and forget” I’ve had certain songs setup at the end of the playlists in case we’ve overran a certain wedding function and I’ll know the playlist is near the end (most of the playlists were loaded with hours of songs so I wouldn’t have to worry) The walking down the aisle song was on it’s own playlist with the length trimmed down to how long it would take my wife to walk down the aisle (the song would just fade out & nothing else would be playing) It worked out pretty well, with me changing the playlist a few times. All MacBook sounds were turned off and Do Not Disturb was on to avoid unwanted notifications. It was connected to a public wifi (provided by my ISP) if I needed to do any remote controlling or downloading additional songs.

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    Need Suggestions: MacBook or Windows Laptop?
  • I'd love to extend the life of the Asus laptop, give it a new battery and install a better OS. But she'll have to deal with the weight & bulkiness, especially going on trips. Need something more practical where she can take it wherever like a coffee shop or on a vacation trip.

    Chromebook might a good idea. I've also thought about an iPad with the keyboard cover. Both are very practical.

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  • Backstory/Context: My wife is an aspiring writer and wants to self-publish a novel that she's been writing. Currently she's typing on my old Asus ROG gaming laptop that I no longer use. It's (barely) running Windows Vista, it was built with Crysis in mind (really shows you how old it is), it's bulky & heavy, and the battery is completely dead (no longer charges)

    Originally, I wanted to get her a MacBook because she can switch between MacOS and Windows (via Boot Camp) to get the best of both worlds, that's until I found out Boot Camp no longer works/exists. I also felt sticking with the Apple ecosystem might be better in the long run, allowing her to sync her iPhone, use iMessage/FaceTime/iCloud etc... when she's not near her phone, better laptop design & portability.

    I've been using MacBooks since Leopard-era and have experience with Apple computers before (candy colored iMac and 5200LC) so I know my way around an Apple keyboard & the shortcuts.

    She, on the other hand, has only used Windows.

    Definitely looking for laptop recommendations in general. Sure, it might be bias to post this in an Apple community but as an Apple user, I'd like to hear other opinions. Maybe there's a Windows laptop with a similar feel/design of a MacBook? Perhaps the MacBook is the better choice?

    Might be worth mentioning that I've heard horror stories about people finding spyware on Windows laptops (I think Dell/Alienware was the big one) and I'm totally out of the laptop game.

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    Exposed: Facebook's Corrupt Spyware is Tracking you OFF the platform
  • One thing that really bothers me is Instagram “hearing” conversations. I swear the app is listening in, even with the microphone being disabled for the app. My wife & I would talk about a certain product or restaurant and sure enough, we see ads for it on Instagram the next time we’re on it. Very disturbing.

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    Meet the Musicians Behind (Almost) Every Movie Trailer Score
  • Totally agree. They made a lot of epic sounding trailer music. Their "Freedom Fighters" track for the Star Trek (2009) trailer still gives me goosebumps. Well fitting.

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    The Borderlands movie comes out next year
  • Wasn’t there issues during production of this movie? I love Eli Roth’s work, but honestly, he’s not the director I would’ve picked for a Borderlands movie.

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    Home Theater Setup
  • I have a 7.1 home theatre setup with a 4K 55” hooked up to AppleTV.

    I use the Infuse app. They have a free trial version in the App Store. Tried it, the setup was easy for me and the player did exactly what I wanted: play media files from a local network drive. Supports a wide range of encodes, audio codecs, 1080p, 2160p, HDR, and so forth. I bought the lifetime subscription after that, which is good for all future versions including the big updates.

    For setup, I have a small PC with 2 x 5TB HDDs shared through my local network. Both the PC and the AppleTV are connected via Ethernet (no wireless or you might experience playback issues from time to time)

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    Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review Thread
  • From what I've read, not as great as Fallout but still a good Mission Impossible movie. If it's just as good as the last few movies (Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, Fallout), I'm happy and will definitely see it in the theatres.

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    What's your favorite game you never hear anybody talk about?
  • Favorite obscure game?
    Panther for Commodore 64 - The music is awesome!

    Rez for Dreamcast/PS2 - not everyone talks about this game but the audience is a lot larger now than it was back when it came out for the Dreamcast and PS2 now that Rez Infinite is available in almost every current platform including the PSVR2.

    I would’ve also said Another World (aka Out of this World) for the PC and SNES. But this game is also not-too-obscure like Rez. There are articles about it & the creation, re-released in almost every platform including the PS Vita, spiritual successors, copycats, and so on.

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