Laura has had an iMac for 9 years and is wondering if she should upgrade her Mac to a new one. She's looking at the 5K iMac. Leo says it's a beauty and the best computer that Apple makes. Leo says that's a beautiful choice, but she shouldn't feel like she needs to buy a new computer if all she needs to do is replace the hard drive in the old one.
John has a 2010 MacBook Pro and it's started to fail. Will there be a new MacBook Pro announced at WWDC? Leo says that he's been waiting for WWDC. They usually announce new Macs there. The word is that Apple doesn't have plans to do so, though, and they've gotten slower and slower in updating them. We can be pretty sure that Apple will have a new MacBook in the fall, but Leo says to not bother waiting. The update really isn't going to be that big of a deal.
(UPDATE: Apple did not release any new Macs at WWDC.)
Donovan recently received an iMac from 2006 and just got it upgraded to OS X Lion. He would like to mirror his MacBook Pro so he doesn't have to pull it out all the time. Donovan should check out EveryMac.com and it will tell him the most recent version of the OS that his Mac will support. But OS X uses VNC to do it.
Rich is looking to upgrade his 2005 iMac to process videos with Final Cut Pro. Leo says that Final Cut will use the Graphics Processor Unit to render, so he'll want to get not only a faster Intel processor, but a faster video card.
The new iMac has a gorgeous screen, but he may get more benefit out of a Mac Pro since it has dual graphics cards and a Xenon processor. Since Rich wants to shoot 360° video, it'll take about 4 hours for every minute shot to encode and process it.
Andrea needs to replace her Mac and wants to know if she should get an iMac or if she could use a Mac Mini. Leo says that the iMac is faster and will perform better. The Mac Mini is a low cost Mac but doesn't include monitor, keyboard or mouse. It tends to be used as servers, home theaters, or even a poor man's iMac, but Andrea will be disappointed with the performance. Leo recommends the 5K iMac if she can afford it. If she's still on the fence, she should go to the Apple store and try them.
Donald has an iMac and has to have his screen repaired. But he doesn't know how to wipe the drive since there's no command key. Leo says that Apple has changed it from CMD to an Apple Key and a cloverleaf/propeller symbol. It's the same. How can he reset his iMac and wipe the drive if he doesn't know the password? Leo says to reboot and while it's starting up, press the CMD Key, plus R. This will put the computer into recovery mode and he can then run the Disk Utility to format the hard drive. Then he can reinstall.
Mike is trying to use Windows 10 on his iMac with a Fusion drive and it won't take. Leo says that the Fusion drive causes issues with Windows 10. The key is to get the drivers from Apple. Mike tried those and they wouldn't load. Leo says that points to either a bad ISO download or a bad driver download. He should start over. Download the ISO and the drivers again and see if his luck improves. He'll also need the 64 bit version of Windows 10 to run in Boot Camp, and his Mac needs to be a late 2012 or newer.
Henry wants to buy a new Mac and wants to know if it's true that processor speed isn't as important as hard drive speed. Leo says that's true. Processors are really fast now and there's only a dimes worth of difference between them for every day use. It's better to get an i5 and then spend more money on a faster hard drive and better screen. Leo says that a 21" iMac with an SSD is best for speed, but a Fusion Drive would give him more space plus a speed boost.
John bought an iMac in 2011 and lately it's starting to flicker, with half of the screen darker. He called Apple and they suggested clearing the PRAM. Leo says that's one of the magical 'voodoo' techniques in case something got corrupted like a driver or something. Then they had him do a factory reset. But it still is happening. John also heard that the video card may be going out. But more likely, Leo says that the backlit LED screen simply stopped working, and that can happen over time with an LCD. One way to test if it's the video card is to connect an external monitor to it.
Paul is looking to get an iMac or Mac Mini and run Windows on it. Leo says that it really is the best Windows computer out there, so that's a good idea. Paul is wondering when the new models be coming out and can a Mac Mini do it? Leo says that the new iMacs just came out and the Mac Minis were upgraded recently as well, right in the middle of the development schedule. So now's a good time to pull the trigger.
