Which MacBook Is Best for You? MacBook vs. Pro vs. Air Comparison

By  Tim Brookes

Apple makes three distinct laptops: the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and the generically-titled MacBook. Each of these products delivers a unique experience, aimed at the different needs and wants of the company’s user base.

So which one is the right laptop for you? Your budget will certainly dictate which MacBook you can afford, but is it worth forking over more money for a better model? Or can you save a few bucks by opting for the cheapest instead?

It’s time for some good old-fashioned buying advice.

Understanding the Basics of MacBook Models

If you’re looking for a desktop Mac, you’ve got one clear choice: the iMac. You could save money by bringing your own monitor and opting for the Mac mini (bad idea), or spend several grand on a souped-up iMac Pro. For most of us, the iMac is good enough.

But when it comes to laptops, the situation is much less clear cut. Price points intersect, connectivity differs wildly, and you probably don’t need some of the more extravagant bells and whistles found on the flagship models.

Features Consistent Across MacBooks

To start off, let’s take a look at what all MacBook models share. Whether you spend $999 or $2,999, your Mac will run macOS. That’s Apple’s desktop operating system (formerly called Mac OS X) and a large part of why many users remain loyal to Apple’s ecosystem.

Battery life is also great across the board, with all models rated for a minimum of 10 hours under optimal conditions. Apple’s battery estimates are generally fair, but the quoted figure depends on what you’re doing. Using first-party apps optimized for the hardware, like Safari, yields a longer runtime.

Most new Mac models score badly in terms of repairability and upgradeability. Gone are the days of the old MacBooks where you could remove the optical drive and replace it with an SSD. The newest laptops take a more disposable approach, with RAM that’s soldered to the motherboard and batteries glued in place.

Overall though, MacBook build quality is good. Apple computers tend to keep on going, and its laptops are no exception. The aluminium unibody is not only a great heatsink, but also a sturdy chassis that can withstand some abuse. You’ll probably have dead pixels and an outdated processor long before your MacBook gives up the ghost.

In addition to these points, all new MacBook models feature:

• Solid state drive (SSD) storage: These are much faster than traditional hard drives, and much more resilient to physical damage. Capacities start at 128 GB and 256 GB, depending on the model.
• Multi-touch trackpads: For navigating and controlling your computer with multi-touch gestures, like pinch-to-zoom and Apple’s trademark two-finger scroll.
• Backlit keyboards: With controls for turning the brightness up, down, and off.
• 802.11ac wireless: The latest in Wi-Fi standards, with attainable speeds of up to 1,300 Mbps.
• FaceTime HD camera and microphone: For FaceTime, Skype, and similar video calls.
• Headphone (stereo) port: Unlike the iPhone, every MacBook still comes with a 3.5mm stereo port.

All models feature some form of optional upgradeability when ordering online. The processor, RAM, SSD capacity, and graphics chip may be configurable, depending on the model. You can also apply AppleCare, the company’s aftermarket support package, to all models within 60 days of purchase.

Now, let’s take a look at each model individually and see how the differences stack up.

Entry-Level: MacBook Air

Price: From $999

The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s cheapest computers, period. It’s a great jumping-on point for new Mac owners, and it’s earned a well-deserved reputation for providing great value for money. The design has remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 2008, but that’s not necessarily bad.

It’s a laptop favored by students, office and remote workers, and many web and software developers for its portability and affordable price point. It’s not a powerhouse, as it houses a modest processor, on-board graphics chip, and scant storage. But it’s good enough for most common computing tasks.

There’s nothing particularly premium about the MacBook Air, at least not any more. The chassis is the same iconic “wedge” shape first introduced all those years ago, and though the company once offered an 11-inch model, the MacBook Air now only comes with a 13-inch screen.

Battery life is impressive at up to 12 hours, and the Air features decent connectivity in the form of two USB 3.0 (up to 5 Gbps) ports and a single Thunderbolt 2 (mini DisplayPort) input. There’s also a memory card port for SD cards, offering a cheap way to expand your MacBook’s storage.

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The biggest drawback to the MacBook Air is the screen, which lags behind every other model since it’s not Retina quality. Since the pixel density isn’t great, you can see individual pixels which results in a slightly fuzzy and grainy look. Compared with the MacBook Pro or iMac, the difference is night and day.

One word of advice: It’s rumored that Apple is rumored will redesign the MacBook Air for a Q3 2018 launch. If you can hold off buying until then, you’ll have a whole new MacBook to consider with updated hardware, a better screen, and faster connections.

Mid-Tier: MacBook

Price: From $1,299

If the MacBook Air feels a bit old hat to you, the MacBook is the next logical choice. It costs $300 more than the MacBook Air, and it’s only slightly smaller with a 12-inch screen. The MacBook feels like a more modern machine in almost every way, but its focus is clearly on mobile computing.

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It’s the perfect mobile accompaniment to a desktop like the iMac or Mac Mini. It features a few premium features not seen on the MacBook Air, including a Retina display, large Force Touch trackpad, and spacious edge-to-edge keyboard design. Unfortunately Apple’s future seems to be one that relies on adapters and hubs.

The MacBook only comes with a single USB-C port capable of USB 3.0 (up to 5Gbps transfer speeds) but no Thunderbolt connectivity to speak of. If you want to connect the machine to a HDMI monitor, standard USB-A flash drive, or plug in an SD card, you’ll need to cough up more money for relevant peripherals.

That single port also charges the machine via a USB-C power supply. Unfortunately USB-Cisn’t quite as universal as Apple would like yet, so this isn’t as convenient a feature as it first seems. Battery life is rated for 10 hours, which is worse than the Air but still respectable.

The MacBook is comparable to the Air in terms of ideal application. It’s not a powerhouse video editor, but it will power through web browsing, study and office tasks, text editing, and image or photo work. There’s no discrete graphics chip, instead relying on Intel HD Graphics. You’ll be able to edit 1080p video with no problems, but 4K editing is a stretch.

The MacBook is a solid machine with a beautiful display that makes great use of the available surface area with its roomy keyboard and giant trackpad. It’s not be the ideal choice as your only machine, though, unless you’re prepared to go all-in on adapters and hubs.

Power Users: MacBook Pro

Price: From $1,299 (13-inch)
Price: From $2,399 (15-inch)

The MacBook Pro comes in two varieties: a 13-inch model and a 15-inch model. Both of these sizes have various tiers to choose from, the more expensive of which feature the flagship Touch Bar. This replaces the top row of function keys with a touch-sensitive context-aware OLED display.

These are Apple’s most coveted laptops. Aimed at professionals who need power and portability, the MacBook Pro range is suitable for desktop and mobile use, though the 15-inch model is a considerable step up over the 13-inch variant. Luckily all models feature a Retina display with wide-color (P3) profile, Force Touch trackpads, and a minimum of 8GB of RAM across the range.

Unfortunately, the base 13-inch model feels a little lackluster with its measly 128GB of storage. The 13-inch model also features Intel Iris Graphics, which can drive the built-in Retina display and one 5K or two 4K displays simultaneously.

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Armed with a Radeon Pro discrete GPU, the 15-inch models can comfortably drive two 5K or four 4K displays (and the in-built Retina display) at the same time. Performance and price rise significantly with the higher-end 15″ models packing a serious punch, for a serious chunk of change.

Apple decided to remove all but two (13-inch) or four (15-inch) USB-C ports, which necessitates the use of adapters and hubs to connect many peripherals. These ports do, however, support second-generation USB 3.1 (up to 10Gbps transfer speeds) and Thunderbolt 3. You can power the MacBook Pro using any port and a compatible USB-Cpower supply.

While Touch ID is a handy feature and speeds up logins across macOS, the Touch Bar is pretty mediocre. Unfortunately, the best MacBook Pro models (with the Radeon graphics chip and faster processors) all come with the Touch Bar by default. You might find solace in the fact that a handful of apps and the OS itself can put the Touch bar to good use.

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If you need the power and you’ve got the money, the MacBook Pro is the obvious choice.

The MacBook Dilemma: It’s a Personal Choice

Each of these machines tick different boxes. The MacBook Air is cheap and cheerful, and remains to this day one of the best value laptops available considering its average lifespan. I have an 8-year-old MacBook Air in my house, and I’ve barely even switched it off the entire time. It’s extremely reliable.

The MacBook is modern yet restrictive, offering a trendy laptop with a great screen and big keyboard, but severely limited connectivity. It’s not your ideal single computer, but it makes a great cut-price accompaniment to a more capable desktop model.

The MacBook Pro is the best, but costs a small fortune. Almost all models will do well as both desktop and mobile computers, but you’ll pay top dollar for the privilege. Ultimately, all MacBooks offer inferior performance to a desktop model like the iMac, particularly when you take price into account.

Hopefully this quick breakdown offers some clarity in your search for the perfect Apple laptop. Our tips on saving money when buying a MacBook will help you get the best deal no matter which model you choose.

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Source: www.makeuseof.com

13 Essential Gmail Terms and Features You Should Know About

By Akshata Shanbhag

Are labels the same as folders?

How are both different from categories?

You might have questions like these about the web version of Gmail if you’re new to it. To help you get familiar with Gmail, we’ll give you the gist of all the essential Gmail features you should really know about.

1. Conversation View

You know this as an email thread. Conversation View packs an email and all replies to it into a single view to ensure that you get the context when you’re reading any of the messages. Each message in the group gets its own collapsible section.

To turn on this Gmail feature, visit Settings > General. There, under the Conversation View section, select the radio button for Conversation view on.

2. Importance Markers

These are visual cues that highlight emails Google thinks might be important to you. You’ll see them as yellow-colored tags next to certain emails once you enable the Show markersoption under Settings > Inbox.

How does Gmail decide which emails you’re likely to consider important?

It relies on the way you process email. Gmail pays attention to which emails you open and reply to, which ones you archive or delete, which contacts you communicate with, and so on.

When Gmail mistypes an email as important, you can correct it by clicking on the marker to disable it. Likewise, you can enable a marker for an email that you consider important but Gmail has failed to mark as such. In both cases, Gmail learns from your actions to improve its accuracy.

3. Undo Send

As its name suggests, Undo Send lets you pull back an email you’ve hit Send on. You have a ten-second window to do it though, and you can tweak this interval by a few seconds under Settings > General > Undo Send.

Gmail enables the feature by default, and right after you send an email, you’ll see the Undooption right below the search box.

4. Labels

Labels are the signature Gmail feature. They’re text-based, color-coded identifiers to help you find the right emails faster. The items you see in the sidebar like Inbox, Trash, and Drafts happen to be labels that Gmail has already set up for you.

Labels behave somewhat like folders and somewhat like tags. You’re better off thinking of them as tags though. Read our power user guide to Gmail to understand them better. (Note that Gmail doesn’t have actual folders or tags.)

5. Categories

These are a set of default labels that show up as tabs in Gmail. You have four of them: Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums.

Categories add context to your emails and keep automated messages like social media updates and promotional mailers out of your primary inbox.

Thanks to the category tabs, you can find specific types of emails faster. For example, if you’re looking for a password reset email, you can jump right to the Updates tab because that’s where it’s programmed to show up.

If you want to stick with the Primary tab only, turn off the category tabs via the Configure inbox option hidden behind the “gear” (Settings) icon.

6. Filters

Filters are rules you set up to teach Gmail to process your emails for you based on various criteria.

You can use filters to stop automated emails, find emails with large attachments, and mark emails as read. You can also use them to label, delete, and organize emails automatically. Start by setting up smart Gmail filters to deal with the bulk of your email.

7. Labs

You might have seen a section titled Labs in Gmail settings. It’s dedicated to experimental Gmail features. (We’ll cover three of them in the upcoming sections.) There’s no guarantee that these features won’t break or disappear altogether, but they come in handy anyway.

You can toggle a Labs feature by selecting the Enable or Disable radio button next to it. Be sure to hit the Save Changes button to wrap up.

8. Preview Pane (Labs Feature)

This is a time-saving Gmail feature that displays the content of an email right next to the message list. Essentially, you get a split-pane view that ensures you don’t have to open a message to read it.

To use the Preview Pane feature, you’ll need to enable it first from Settings > Labs. Once you do, you can tell Gmail to display email previews either below or beside your inbox. Click on the icon next to the “gear” (Settings) icon to toggle between the two views.

9. Multiple Inboxes (Labs Feature)

Multiple Inboxes are a set of up to five inbox panes stacked below your primary inbox. The beauty of it is that you get to decide what kind of emails should go in each pane.

For example, you can have one pane for messages with a certain label and another one for starred messages. Throw in a third pane for emails that match a particular search query. It’s all up to you.

To configure what you want to see in each custom inbox, you’ll have to visit Settings > Multiple Inboxes. You’ll see this section only after you enable the Multiple Inboxes feature under Settings > Labs.

10. Canned Responses (Labs Feature)

Canned responses are nothing but email templates. Set them up to save yourself the hassle of having to type the same stuff over and over.

For repetitive business emails, season’s greetings and such, start with a canned responseand tweak its details.

11. Priority Inbox

This is a special Gmail view to ensure that the right messages bubble to the top in your inbox. By the right messages we mean the unread ones, the ones marked as Important, and your starred messages. Everything else comes second.

To switch to the Priority Inbox view, hover on Inbox in the sidebar and click on the tiny down arrow that shows up. You should now see a popup menu with a list of views or Inbox Types to choose from. You know what you have to select!

It’s handy that you can customize the kind of messages you see in the Priority Inbox. To get started, go to Settings > Inbox > Inbox sections.

12. Gmail Offline

As you might have guessed, this is Gmail’s way of giving you offline access to your email. It allows you to read, organize, search, delete, archive, compose, and queue emails for sending—all without an internet connection. It’s a pity that you can take advantage of this Gmail feature only if you use Google Chrome.

To start accessing your Gmail messages when you’re offline, you’ll need to install the Gmail Offline Chrome app. Instead of visiting the Chrome Web Store, you can also click on the Install Gmail Offline button under Settings > Offline to install the app.

When you run the Chrome app for the first time, it asks you for permission to access your inbox offline. Select the Allow offline mail radio button and hit the Continue button to set up Gmail for offline use.

For help with configuring the offline version of Gmail, read our complete guide on how to use Gmail offline.

13. Inbox by Gmail or Google Inbox

This is Gmail’s better-looking in-house competitor. Inbox by Gmail is super efficient and saves you time. It brings a different layout, smart email groups (Bundles), reminders, scannable cards for important data, and a lot more to your inbox.

Of course, you might still prefer the old Gmail over Google Inbox. You don’t have to choose between them though. Switch between the old and new versions of Gmail anytime by jumping to the right link:

• mail.google.com for normal Gmail
• inbox.google.com for Inbox by Gmail

Learn the Ins and Outs of Gmail

If you’ve got yourself a brand new Gmail account or if you have always favored a desktop client to use Gmail, the web version can take a bit of getting used to.

The Gmail way of doing things can even feel illogical or complex to you. But that’s only until you get the hang of its best features, which you will sooner or later. Our beginner’s guide to Gmail is here to help!

The Beginner's Guide to Gmail The Beginner's Guide to GmailYou may already have a Gmail account. Or, you're thinking about signing up for one. This guide has everything you need to make the most of that shiny new Gmail account.READ MORE

Source: www.makeuseof.com

5 Useful Resume Sites for Preparing a CV That Gets Read in 2018

By   Mihir Patkar  

It’s 2018 and your resume needs to reflect that. With the right apps, you can create a modern, good-looking CV to apply for jobs.

At this point, most resume makers know how to get past Applicant Tracking Systems. To stand out, you need more, like good design, or an online profile. But in the quest to be different, you need to ensure that you aren’t forgetting the basic elements of a resume either.

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1. CV.Me: Simplest Free Resume With a Shareable Link

In 2018, you need a resume that can be printed as well as shared via a link. CV.Me is the simplest option to create a no-nonsense portfolio that you can download as well as share, and it looks the same online and offline.

Go to the site and start filling out every box. Your profile, work and professional experience, skills, achievements, education, links, language fluency, and hobbies. I especially like how the skills section is a scale of 10, making it a visual and beautiful CV. When you’re done, download it as a PDF.

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You can’t change templates here, and I’d advise clicking the “Save” button to sign in with your Google or Facebook account. It’ll store your data and create a link for your resume that you can share with anyone. Plus, the link isn’t permanent! In a click, you can kill that outdated link when you update or change your resume.

2. Torre Bio: Mobile-Friendly Graphical CV

Chances are, a recruiter is going to read your resume on their phone. So you need to format your CV for mobiles if you want to make an impression. Torre Bio is a radical new approach to make a beautiful online resume.

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You basically create a resume as a mini-site. Each of your sections turns into a card, with just the right amount of information. All the sections are listed at the top for the reader to click or tap and be taken directly there.

It’s a little difficult to explain in words, so you should actually check out the Torre Bio of Leonardo Da Vinci. As you can see, the CV is quite customizable while looking modern, graphical, and gorgeous.

3. Resume Beacon: Free No-Strings-Attached Resume Maker With Templates

If you search “resume maker” in Google, you’ll find plenty of results. But they require you to either pay to download the final document, or have other weird restrictions. Not with Resume Beacon though.

This is the best no-strings-attached online resume maker I have seen. Choose the style of your resume, and then start filling out data. In each section, Resume Beacon offers tips on what to say and what to avoid. Keep going till you finish all five steps, and then take a look at all the templates on offer.

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Each template is free to use and free to download. The file comes in PDF format, so you can’t change anything once you’re done. I’d recommend signing up for Resume Beacon so it saves your data and you can add, delete, or modify your resume in the future.

4. LaTeX Resume: PDF, LaTeX, and JSON Resume Maker

LaTeX is a plain-text document format that is highly malleable. It isn’t often used for making resumes, but it offers a compelling proposition.

Once you build your CV with this, you can download it as LaTeX or JSON. And that, in turn, gives you plenty of flexibility to import your resume into different templates and resume makers. You no longer need to fill out data or copy-paste it. LaTeX and JSON are supported by a wide variety of tools and will conform to any template.

And just in case you like one of the templates on the site, you can download it as a PDF. Before that, LaTeX Resume will guide you through every step of making a CV, telling you what to put in your profile, education, work, skills, projects, and awards sections.

5. Resume Worded: Successful Lines From Resumes + Handy Checklist

While these other apps are telling you what you need to include in your document, they don’t necessarily teach you how to describe your achievements. That’s what Resume Worded is for.

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This is a search engine of lines from successful resumes. Pick the type of job you are looking for and the type of skill. You’ll see a list of effective ways to describe accomplishments in that field. Just copy-paste, and customize it to what you did. And of course, you can always search for specific things like Python or content marketing.

Apart from that, you also get the handy Resume Worded Checklist. It’s easy to forget an important item or two, but Resume Worded will ensure you don’t. Go one by one through the whole checklist, correcting for formatting, structure, and the important items in each section.

Is LinkedIn Still Essential?

You should also decide whether you want to create or update your LinkedIn profile. Some recruiters have moved beyond LinkedIn and consider it outdated; others rely on it more than any other tool. In some ways, you could probably figure out your company’s culture based on whether they think a LinkedIn profile is essential.

All of these sites are excellent and worth a look. But once you are done picking the one you like, you need to also check our list of the last resume tools you’ll ever need.

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Source: www.makeuseof.com