HobeSoundDarryl

Always good to see an article encouraging backups. Do it people. Do it now. Don't be wishing you would have backed it up when something has happened and precious data/media/etc is lost. Time Machine is very easy to set up. Big drives are dirt cheap.

Besides this encouragement to do it NOW, I'll add a few things/tips to this good article:

• If you opt to use Time Machine (TM), go BIG on storage. My recommendation is at least 3X more than the total storage within your Mac plus any crucial attached storage. For example, if your total space to be backed up is up to 2TB, buy at least 6TB HDDs for your TM disk(s). TM offers no big benefit of using SSD vs. HDD drives. The same money will buy far more space in the latter than the former. HDD is a perfectly fine long-term storage medium. 
• Also if TM, note that the T(ime) part revolves around the ability to step back in time to retrieve files. If you buy very little space, you can't go very far back in time to recover files. Why? TM deletes older versions of backups for new versions when the backup drive runs out of space. Why would you need lots of history? Suppose you are writing the great American novel. Somewhere along the way, you accidentally delete chapters 3 & 4 but don't notice. You finally reach and write "The End" and then decide to give it a complete review from Chapter 1 for one more editorial polish pass. Unfortunately, THIS is when you discover chapter 3 & 4 are lost. If you have a BIG TM drive, you can likely step back to a version that still had those chapters, copy them into the final version and your book is whole. If you don't buy plenty of capacity in the drive, the versions with those chapters may have been overwritten because you ran out of space for new backups... so now you have to re-write them from scratch again. Gigantic HDDs can be had for dirt cheap. Go big and thus buy lots of "back in time" space for any scenario like this. 
• Use at least 2 (that's TWO) stores/drives for backup, not just one. Then, keep one of those fairly fresh backups OFFSITE to regularly swap with the one ONSITE. Why? Consider the common causes of catastrophic data loss beyond just dead drive: fire, flood and theft. Those very real scenarios are likely to take your Mac AND the backup drive next to your Mac at the SAME time. The recent backup rotated offsite saves you in such scenarios. Your loss is limited only to the very recent new data created since it was last backed up. In my case, I rotate OFFSITE and ONSITE TM backups about every 30 days. Thus, worst case scenario of fire, flood, theft would put only the last 29 days of new data creation at risk. However, I also use Chronosync to sync desktop and laptop Macs every few days with most recent working files. So I have near zero risk of data loss as the up-to-date laptop goes out with me when I go out.
• A cheap, safe, secure option for OFFSITE backup is the good old bank safe deposit box. Choose a bank far enough from your Mac location that the reach of those disasters would be unlikely to also include the bank. For example, if your work/home and bank are very near, flood could possibly get both. So choose a branch location just a few miles further away and mitigate that risk. 
• Cloud is OK as a drive B in the above suggestion, except that has you trusting total strangers to take care of your "last resort data." Personally, I'm no fan of the cloud for this particular kind of thing. But if you don't want to allocate 2 drives, it's farrrrrrrrr better than nothing. IMO: if you can afford 2 big HDDs, buy them and use them in this way. If that's a stretch, buy 1 ASAP and maybe use up to several old drives you have lying around as hodge podge backup B (JBOD on the cheap) until you can buy another (don't we all have somewhat retired HDD storage somewhere in our places that still works but we generally don't use anymore? Revive it if you need it now). 

One more time: do it and do it now. You don't want to be THAT GUY freaking out at big data loss and no backup. You don't want to have to shell out about $1K in hopes that maybe some specialized firm MIGHT be able to recover some of the data from the one drive that seems dead/dying. If you search, you will find hundreds & hundreds of posts of that very scenario. That could be you if you do nothing about this. It is easy to proactively avoid the loss and you already have TM ready to do the software part of it in your Mac right now. 

doggone said:

Now Apple releasing a low cost Mac will push the competition into an even lower margin market than it already is.  The cheapest MacBook Air is 999 so Apple releasing a cheaper offering at 799 would be typical of them.  I would like them to be more aggressive maybe 599 but it is not very Apple.  This would hit windows laptop hard and compete in the same price range.  There is no point trying to compete with Chromebooks yet.

You do realize- and if not, perhaps a few searches are in order- that there is SUBSTANTIAL competition already well below $799 and even $599 in laptops. Try doing some searches for "best laptops under $800" and under $600... and under $400 and $250 too. They won't have to cut their margins to compete with a new cheaper Mac(?) if they are already substantially BELOW either price. If you assume this is ONLY Chromebook territory, slug Windows into the search words.

Where your margin worries apply is that those competitors can pack more computer into those lower prices... because they are not chasing towards 50% margin on each unit sold. On the other hand, Apple seems to be a margin-foremost company, so a hypothetical $600-$800 A-series MB can't have total costs out the door of more than $300-$400 for the actual computer. 

What this could do- if true and it actually pans out- is provide a little lower entry price to a Mac laptop. Since cheaper Air is already the most popular Mac laptop, if price drives computer popularity among the masses, perhaps this becomes the NEW, most-popular-Mac laptop? I don't know if that's a good or bad thing though. More adoption can bring some benefits to all Apple people. However, cutting baseline specs for 'most popular' can result in app choices that cater towards low specs. 

If me, I'd probably keyboard case an iPad and scratch this apparent internal itch with further evolved iPad OS. But where's the $300-$400 margin per keyboard case sold? So bring on the A-Series MB MIN... presumably with standard (Apple) upgrade pricing for core tech so that a favorably-specced one runs right up into Air and low PRO territory like Mac Mini vs. Studio or Air vs. PRO considerations now.  

Beware the blanket assumption that future election risk will police current choices. I find myself doubting there will be mid-term or subsequent elections… which would make the problems of having to please all but the 1% no longer an issue. 

These were launched on "liberation day" spun as our "liberation." So if they are now paused, is our liberation also paused? 

The underlying drive for tariffs is to get us the "billions and billions" of dollars which- behind the scenes- is apparently crucial to helping move those in our own government against taking on more huge debt opt to pass the big tax cut bill. If "billions and billions" are paused and won't now materialize, is the tax cut legislation also paused? Won't the rich friends upset about the markets be rich friends upset about the delayed tax cut? 

If the tax cut is now paused and there are no liberation billions, does the tax cut get funded by adding huge debt? And if so, who's generally the biggest buyer of huge U.S. debt? If our biggest "banker" is now the lone tariff "villain," would they keep buying more T-Bills from their economic "enemy" putting an ever escalating pinch on them with now 125% tariffs? Imagine if in a simple move, that biggest banker opts to CEASE buying more of our debt? Any bank can opt to cease loaning new money at any time. All they have to do with T-Bills is simply CHOOSE to not buy more. Worse: make it illegal for anyone within their reach to buy new T-Bills. 

And we all realize they could start dumping their vast U.S. debt holdings at ANY time which- while shooting themselves in the foot too- would certainly crash the economy and leave a GOV thoroughly dependent on selling debt with no debt funding. What if they offered the world willing to buy U.S. debt, their holdings for X% LESS than offered at our new debt auctions (basically buy the very same thing for less)? I think that would be an economic nuclear bomb. If this understanding is correct, how much do we want to keep poking our biggest banker (bear)? 

Speaking of which, do we believe that China will now cave... or reciprocally match again? So does it escalate to 150% in a few days and 200% a few more days after that? Several economists implied there was a tariff level around 100% where it would- in effect- suspend trade entirely. Maybe that's true or false at about the current level or some level above this one, but it's obvious there IS a level where doing business with China no longer financially works at all. Else, if iPhone has to be priced at $4K-$5K due to XXX% tariffs by the time Apple needs to import lots of them, does many/any buy that iPhone or cling to the one they already own? Again, China could sell U.S. debt holdings to try to persevere through ever-rising tariffs. Our main bargaining chip is relatively cheap access to a market that buys more than any other market. We're not their banker... only a lucrative pool of consumers... in a world with far more consumers by volume.  

Lastly, now that we've shown even our allies that we'll shock them with unexpected actions instead of working things out behind the scenes in advance, commit very solidly to such actions ("tariffs are permanent") then flip flop when enough resistance makes the stock market go down, why does anyone trust anything we may say or do next? What happens if our friends & enemies proceed with the scrambling responses they were working up before this pause... AND IMPLEMENT ANYWAY, effectively turning the tables without waiting for the 90 days to expire and- presumably- facing who knows what with us again? They've been playing defense since our "liberation." What if they opt to switch to "offense" now, which seems like exactly what the U.S. would do if the tables were turned?

Relative to AAPL stock: it's WAY up today against the backdrop of the costs of doing business with China going even higher. Does the market assume that Trump will cave on China too, give exceptions for Apple after strongly conveying "no exceptions" or was this only a foolish relief rally to come back to reality soon? Relative to one day ago, all of Apple's China transactions are more expensive today than they were yesterday. The "pause" did absolutely nothing for most of Apple's sources of hardware. 

All food for thought. And I'll hope for the best with everyone.   

When I embraced silicon, I went 5120 X 2160 40" ultra wide in the Dell version... coming from well over a decade of iMac 27" usage. I could never go back to the more squarish aspect ratio. All of that expanded horizontal space is just too useful. And to my 20:20s, resolution looks the same as the old iMac... just more of it as workspace. 

Cost is comparable to ASD with stand option but it comes with the variety of stand options, FOUR very useful inputs (to one of which I've attached a Mac Mini-like PC for "old fashioned bootcamp"), a substantial hub of both present and "the future" ports, etc. If it conked today, I'd immediately buy another: best monitor I've ever had. 

hidpi on it is 3840X1620 but the full 5120X2160 doesn't look "too small" (but yes smaller) on this bigger screen. That's a macOS problem instead of a monitor problem as Windows scales to any resolution and always looks right. Most of the time, I work in 3840X1620 for Mac but will up it to max for stuff like FCPX editing when I want maximum screen R.E. If you haven't tried one, you should. ASD is far from the only fish in this sea.