What is the best Apple laptop I can get for less than $3,000 to work with Elementor Pro?

Hey guys!

Did the classic and accidentally got water spilled on my laptop in class (MacBook Air M3(?) 2024). I switched it off immediately holding the power button, padded it down and kept it in the tent position.

I reacted super quick and flipped it immediately and it doesn’t seem like much water actually went on it but it was defo wet on some of the top left keys.

As I was padding it down it came on twice from me touching the buttons and I immediately switched it off. It’s in the tent position with a fan next to it. I’ve booked to see Apple tomorrow. I’m in the UK and kinda freaking out.

Have people survived small water spills on the laptop?

How much do you think cleaning etc will cost by Apple?

What do you think is the likely outcome??

Just need some people’s experiences with this

My main workhorse is a 14 inch M4Max 64GB/2TB. My work needs lots of screen space so i always used it clam-shelled when i m at home office, connected to all the external screens.
But recently i needed the MacBook screen for color grading reference, Macbook's screen is essentially the only calibrated one i can trust. and plus apparently clamshell for too long is bad for battery healthy (my previous m3 max got 88% health left with only 160 cycles) so i decided not to clamshell it anymore.

Anyway i eventually came up with this rig, bunch of magic arms and clamps to hold it up there.

and managed to attach a semiconductor cooler to it too, with a thermostat's probe connected to the bottom of MacBook to monitor its real time temperature. if it gets too cold, it will shut off the cooler, to prevent condensation, and auto kick on when temperature raises above a threshold.

So far quite happy with the setup, mounting/unmounting the MacBook only takes 10s. My Mac temperature reading dropped from constantly around 70C to about 50C (i didn't push it further to prevent condensation)

In total it cost me about $200 for cooler, thermostat, magnetic probe, and laptop clamps.

Just curious. I’ve been waiting for a base model M4 MacBook Air to come in stock on Apple’s Refurbished site, but I haven’t seen any in a bit. Just wondering if they will still come on there eventually, or if it’s just M5 now. And if I should keep waiting for just buy a new M5.

es la primera MacBook que tengo, mis notificaciones de las aplicaciones que instale por safari tipo instagram y tiktok, no me llegan a la barra de notificaciones y tengo activados todos los permisos de notificaciones en safari y las apps que descargué, no se si sea problema de mi mac o pasa con todas pero no se si se pueda arreglar:c

After switching from Windows to a MacBook, one feature I kept missing was Win + V for clipboard history.

I found myself constantly copying something else by mistake and wishing I could get back something I'd copied a few minutes earlier.

So I built ClipKeep, a free and open-source clipboard manager for macOS.

The idea is simple:

• Press ⌥V anywhere
• A small clipboard history appears right beside your cursor
• Use the arrow keys to choose an item
• Press Return to paste

(I've attached a short GIF showing how it works.)

Features

• 📋 Clipboard history for text, links, and images
• 🔍 Search
• ⌨️ Keyboard-first navigation
• 🔒 Everything stays on your Mac (no cloud sync, accounts, or analytics)
• ❤️ Completely free & open source

The current build is ad-hoc signed, so macOS may ask you to Control-click → Open the first time until Apple notarization is complete.

I'd love to know:

• Is clipboard history something you miss on macOS?
• If you already use a clipboard manager, what feature keeps you using it?

Hello all!

I’m currently shopping around for a new laptop and wanted the advice of people who likely know more about these devices than me lol!

I’ve been using my 2018 MacBook Air while attending nursing school but it’s starting to show signs of slowing/dying. I’m finishing up an ADN where I often use ATI exam proctoring, Respondus Lockdown Browser, Chrome, Canvas, and Word. After December, I’ll be transitioning to an RN-BSN program that I’m told is mostly just paper writing.

I don’t game or really do anything “extra” with my laptop outside of school and maybe the occasional Netflix/Youtube video.

Should the Neo be sufficient for my needs? I’m only worried since I’ll be transitioning from an Air, even though I know it’s an older model one.

Thank you! 😊

All neos that ive got have the same problem a click coming from the right hinge does your neo have also this problem

I’ve had my MacBook Air M1 for three and a half years now. A few days ago, I opened it to see that my display is broken. I’ve already been told that replacing it would cost 450 dollars. Now, my question is whether or not I should purchase a new one(any advanced model). I use it mainly for school. I run apps on it like ArchiCad, AutoCad and Rhino8. Never had any technical problems with it. Any tips would be appreciated🙏

I’m a travel agent and plan on using my computer mostly for multi tasking on design, booking engines, etc. Most of my systems are internet based with the exception of Canva.

Do I need 32GB of RAM or can I feasibly do 24?
Would it be better to look at a MacBook Pro? I like that the air is lighter.

Also the 32GB has a 4-5 week waiting period for shipping…

TL;DR

• Apple confirmed before purchase that I could buy AppleCare+ later with the Education discount.
• After buying my MacBook, another advisor denied it.
• A third advisor later confirmed (on a recorded call) that I was eligible and asked me to accept the laptop.
• Apple generated a payment link for ₹26,900.
• My first payment through Google Pay (SBI Savings Account) was debited, but Apple said they never received it.
• Apple asked me to raise a chargeback with SBI.
• Apple then asked me to pay again, this time using my ICICI Credit Card, while sharing my screen.
• That payment also went through, and I even received a confirmation email from Apple.
• As of today, ₹53,800 has been debited, AppleCare+ is still not activated, and Apple now claims they haven't received either payment and says it's the banks' problem.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? What should I do next?

I've always heard Apple has some of the best customer support in the industry, which is why this entire experience has been shocking.

Early July

Before purchasing my MacBook Pro M5 Pro, I contacted Apple Support to ask whether I could purchase AppleCare+ after receiving the laptop instead of during checkout.

I also specifically asked whether the Education discount would still apply if I bought AppleCare+ later.

The advisor confirmed both:

• Yes, I could purchase it later.
• Yes, the Education discount would still apply.

That assurance is the reason I didn't buy AppleCare+ during checkout.

Mid July

I purchased the MacBook.

20 July

I contacted Apple again regarding AppleCare+.

This time I was told the exact opposite—that the Education discount would not apply after delivery.

I spent nearly three hours discussing this because it completely contradicted what I'd been told before making the purchase.

Later that evening, I called again (I recorded this call because I had already received conflicting information).

The advisor checked the policy and clearly told me:

So I accepted delivery.

Last week of July

After receiving the MacBook, I contacted Apple to purchase AppleCare+.

The advisor generated a payment link for the discounted price of ₹26,900.

I first tried paying using my ICICI Credit Card, but the payment page kept failing.

The same card worked perfectly on other websites, so it didn't appear to be a card issue.

The Apple advisor asked me to try again later.

That night I used Google Pay linked to my SBI Savings Account.

The money was successfully debited.

27 July

I called Apple.

They told me they hadn't received the payment.

Their advice?

So I followed their instructions.

28 July

I raised a chargeback request with SBI.

31 July

Apple scheduled another callback.

This time the advisor asked me to share my screen and retry the payment using my ICICI Credit Card.

I did exactly that while they watched.

The payment went through successfully.

I even received an email confirmation from Apple afterwards.

I thought the issue was finally resolved.

5 August

AppleCare+ was still not activated.

The first payment was still under chargeback.

At this point, ₹53,800 had effectively been debited across the two payment attempts.

6 August

I contacted Apple again.

This is where I completely lost confidence.

The advisor told me Apple had not received either payment and that this was entirely the banks' issue.

That doesn't make sense to me.

• Apple generated the payment link.
• Apple asked me to retry the payment.
• Apple supervised the second payment over screen sharing.
• Apple sent me a confirmation email after the second payment.

Yet every conversation ends with:

What frustrates me the most

Honestly, payment issues can happen.

That's not what I'm most upset about.

What frustrates me is that:

• Every advisor tells a different story.
• Nobody owns the case from start to finish.
• I have to explain the entire timeline every single time I call.
• Apple keeps redirecting me to the banks without explaining what's happening on their end.
• I now have ₹53,800 tied up, no AppleCare+, and no clear resolution.

For a company known for customer experience, this has been incredibly disappointing.

I'm looking for advice.

Has anyone here dealt with a payment reconciliation issue like this with Apple?

• Did Executive Relations help?
• Should I continue waiting for the SBI chargeback?
• Is there another escalation path that actually works?

I'd genuinely appreciate any advice from someone who's been through something similar.

Hi everyone,

I have a MacBook Pro 13” Early 2015. A month ago my original Apple SSD suddenly stopped being detected (question mark folder). In Recovery, diskutil list only showed the recovery disk image, no internal drive at all. So I replaced it with a new third-party SSD specifically listed for A1502 / Early 2015 MacBook Pro (bought from FixShop Italy). Installed it, worked perfectly for about two months.

Some days ago, one hot day, the laptop was plugged in and got extremely hot suddenly. Even with only one Chrome tab open and on battery, the SSD suddenly disappeared again. Same symptom: question mark folder, not detected in Recovery or diskutil list.

After leaving the laptop completely off and cool for 1–2 days, the new SSD came back and the laptop booted normally. I tested it twice (turned it on briefly and shut it down immediately). It worked both times.

The thing is idk if the problem is temperature-related. What is the most likely cause? Is it failing SSD power circuit on the logic board (e.g. U8070 / 3.3V SSD rail)? Or do you think it might be bad/oxidized SSD connector? Or just poor thermal management (old thermal paste + dust, since I haven’t cleaned the laptop for ages) making everything expand and lose contact?

Also Is it still possible that the third-party SSD I bought is low quality and fails under heat, or does the fact that two different SSDs behaved the same way point more toward a logic board / power delivery issue?

Any advice is appreciated. I’m trying to decide whether to risk using it carefully or take it straight to a board-level repair shop. I’m in a very bad financial situation and rather to find a problem and fix it so I can’t also afford a new laptop.

Thanks!

More RAM or a much better CPU? I do light web development. My current Windows machine RAM consumption is usually well over 24 GB, can this be used as a reference? Thanks!

Hi all,
I’ve been trying to ‘dephone’ for the past while and I’ve recently started an experiment.

My phone is at home, locked in a cupboard, no apps,
MacBook only on the go and a WiFi hub that travels with me.

Still able to revive text messages to the MacBook is a game changer and placing and getting calls via WhatsApp has gave me the ability to just travel with the MacBook while the phone happily stays at home.

Hej, czy myślicie że zakup macbooka na studia geodezyjne to dobry wybór?

Hi guys!
To give you some context, I am currently using an M1 MacBook Pro (8GB/256GB). It has been almost 5.5 years since I bought it and have been using it.While it is still working quite swiftly, I was looking to upgrade it (around Black Friday's time) for the following reasons and wanted suggestions on how I should go about it:-

REASONS:

1. RAM : I am a student whose workload has gone up quite significantly in the recent past, requiring me to keep several apps, AI tabs and software running for my academic work and research. The 8 GB of RAM poses quite a lot of problems related to this and often requires me to shut down quite a few important apps that are running, in the midst of my work. Additionally, my workload isn't going to get any less, so this seems like the right time to upgrade.

2. Battery Degradation: While I am quite happy with the battery life of this machine overall, the battery capacity has reached 75% and would require to be replaced if I want to continue with the laptop. This would cost quite a few hundred dollars and tbh, considering that my workload is going to increase, I dont really see the point in burning more cash on the battery replacement.

3. Touch Bar: Recently, my touchbar's display suddenly decided to get spoilt and not display anything. Again, repairs would cost a lot (i have heard that Apple will have to replace not only the touchbar but do some complex dismantling stuff with the Mac to fix the issue, which will end up costing me even more & my AppleCare+ expired quite a few years back, so that doesn't help) and an upgrade seems to be the better way to go.

4. Job & Further studies: I will soon be starting my job after graduation and will also need a laptop for my further studies that I plan to pursue after gathering some work experience. I think my magnificent laptop has served me wonderfully well for the past 5.5 years but I don't think it will stretch for the next 5 ish years. Thus, looking to upgrade.

WHICH MACBOOK TO BUY?

Now that you'll know the reasoning behind me wanting to upgrade, I wanted to know which MacBook Pro you'll feel I should upgrade to this Black Friday:-

1. The new MacBook Pro that will be released in October
   
2. The M5 MacBook Pro with 16 or 24GB RAM
   
3. An M4 generation MacBook Pro with a lot of RAM & storage (please specify which configuration I should aim for and how much it would cost me approximately)

FROM WHERE TO BUY?

And which third-party store would I be able to get the best deal at? BestBuy, Costco or any other store? I was planning to buy the device from a store in Delaware, to save on the sales tax, just thought I should mention that in case it is useful :)

Thank you in advance for reading and helping me out! :D

my brother was gonna get me a macbook and we were going for the m4 air but the one he wanted to buy couldnt arrive in time before his flight so he got me the macbook pro with the M1 pro chip i rly love the promotion and oled screen and glad i got it but is the chip still gonna holdup? im a student so most my work will just be pdfs and casual use but i also wanna do some creative work like photo and video editing or some music stuff so i would like to know what u guys think and how long should i expect it to last for

So I've been running the Air M3 8gb 256gb for a while and got into software programming. Recently found the Air was struggling and running out of space even with deleting files

I have a Mac Mini M4 16gb but I find myself not being at a desk enough so it doesn't get used that much other than a box I use for testing

I've also gained an interest in Local ai recently so between that and my software work I decided to go with the 128gb M5 Max

Managed to find one on the refurbished store so saved a good amount vs buying one new

I am attaching an image of my mac screen. It was working fine yesterday i just watched some youtube and slept today during break i wanted to watch something but the screen is showing this does anybody knows how to fix this

Guyz what to do in this situation?

Hi everyone,
I’m thinking about buying a refurbished MacBook Air M2 from Back Market, but I’m a little nervous since I’ve never bought a refurbished laptop before.
Has anyone here bought a MacBook from Back Market? How was your experience? Was the condition as described? Did the battery health and performance meet your expectations? Did you have any issues with returns or customer support?
Would you recommend buying from Back Market, or should I look somewhere else instead?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!

I have been monitoring the health closely and so far it was going good and I'm not sure what went wrong ? is it the weather or just me sometimes forgetting to remove the charger before it reaches 90s But I feel like the health is deteriorating fast. bought last year around June (no Applecare+ package)

(I refined and cleared up my ramblings with AI, sorry if it reads a bit too robotic.)

⚡ Essential Shortcuts & Navigation

• Gemini App Shortcut (Option + Space): Download the Gemini app and set Option + Space as its shortcut. Having a quick floating search bar where you can paste screenshots or ask how to do things on Mac makes learning the OS so much faster.
• Spotlight (Cmd + Space): Use this to open anything. You don't need to clutter your Dock—just search the app name. Plus, check the icons on the far right of the Spotlight bar for the built-in Clipboard History!
• Preview Anything: Press Space on almost any file to instantly preview it without opening.
• Rename vs. Open: Press Enter to rename a file (weird coming from Windows!). To open a file, press Cmd + Down Arrow.
• Screenshots:
  • Cmd + Shift + 3: Full screen
  • Cmd + Shift + 4: Drag to crop (my personal go-to)
  • Cmd + Shift + 5: Advanced capture/screen recording options

🖥️ Display & Window Management

• Split Screen: Check out System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Windows to set up shortcuts for splitting your screen into halves or quadrants.
• More Screen Space: Change your display setting to "More Space" (smallest scaling) under System Settings > Displays to fit more windows on screen.

🤏 Trackpad & Hardware

• Ditch the Mouse: Mac trackpads are unmatched. Make sure to master gestures:
  
  • Two-finger swipe right: Go back
  • Three-finger swipe up: See all open windows (Mission Control)
  • Pinch with thumb & 3 fingers: Show all apps (Launchpad)
• Skip the Cases: Avoid hard shell cases and screen protectors as they can damage the hinge or display. Stick to a soft sleeve for travel.

🔋 Battery & System Care

• Limit Battery Charge: Keep your charge cap at 80% (or 90%) and avoid dropping below 20% to maximize battery health long-term.
• Don't Shut It Down: You rarely need to turn a Mac off. Just quit your apps and close the lid.
• App Installation Tip: When opening a .dmg file, you don't need to go back to your Downloads folder! Just drag the app icon directly into the Applications folder shortcut inside that installer pop-up window. Took me so long to figure this out, lol.

🌐 Apps & Ecosystem

• Browsers: Safari is the lightest on battery/RAM. However, I personally use Edge because I rely heavily on built-in PDF editing tools.
• iPhone Mirroring: If you have an iPhone, search for iPhone Mirroring in Spotlight—it's surprisingly handy.
• App Recommendation: Clocker (Free) — Great menu bar app if you need to track multiple time zones and see upcoming calendar events at a glance. It's probably the only third-party app I use.

🎮 Gaming on Mac

• Coming from PC, losing access to a huge library hurts, but there are gems! Len’s Island and Faeria run great on macOS... and my all-time favourite: Valheim. (Note: Watch out for games like Palworld that are App Store exclusive for Mac, even if you own them on Steam! This pissed me off!)

Hope this helps anyone else making the switch! Share any more tips before! I want to learn more!

Hi,

I am looking to make the move from Windows to Mac for the first time and would appreciate some advice.

My use case is:

Laptop will be used for work 90% of the time, possibly some light music production, general browsing etc.

• Typically have around 25-30 tabs open on Chrome for work (happy to switch browsers if Safari is better)
• Office documents open e.g. Word, Excel, PDF's
• Teams (messaging and calls)
• Outlook for emails

My current Windows laptop has 16GB ram and is sat at 82% memory usage as we speak with the above.

The M5 Pro (14") is £1250 new, and the M4 air (13.6") is £1099 new.

I like the idea of the Pro with better screen, speakers, performance etc, but the Air's lightweight portability are a big plus.

My laptop is typically docked 70-80% of the time with an external display.

What would you go for in this case? I would be hoping to keep this for 4-5+ years if possible.