Here at CityMac, we deal with tons and tons of Macs. We've noticed that there are a few, prominent myths that user's approach us with in regard to their Mac. Here are five of the most common Mac myths we deal with as well as the truth beneath them.
Myth 1: Deleting files off my Mac will make it faster
Truth
The amount of storage taking up a Mac's hard drive does not affect performance unless the hard drive is really, really full. If your Mac has a 500GB hard drive and you are currently using 250GB, deleting data is not going to make the Mac faster. Also, a Mac with 0GB of used hard drive space is not going to be faster than a Mac that is 10% full, 25% full, 50% full - so on and so forth. If, however, you have a 500GB hard drive and are using 499GB, this can and will affect speed and performance. The Mac needs some buffer storage to perform tasks. Because of this, we recommend deleting files as a means of improving performance only when your hard drive is nearly full.
Myth 2: Leaving my MacBook on the charger is bad for the battery
Truth
The types of battery used in newer MacBooks are smart and will automatically stop charging when the battery is full. This prevents "overcharging" or "over-juicing" that was possible on older battery types. There are several other misconceptions about Apple devices and battery usage. We highlight a few of them here.
Myth 3: Upgrading my Mac will improve performance in Internet-based apps like Safari and Mail
Truth
We get a lot of customers coming in complaining that their Mac is slow while browsing the web and doing other Internet-based activities like checking email or playing an online game. Most of the time, people attribute this to the fact that their Mac is "old." While it is possible that the Mac itself is the culprit for slow Internet performance, it is more likely that the root of the cause is the network the Mac is on. On a slow or poor Internet or WiFi connection, even a brand new Mac will handle Internet-enable activities poorly. If your Mac is slow in Safari, Mail or other Internet-based apps, it's important to play around and see how the Mac handles native apps - like Pages, Photos and Notes. If the Mac does not have a problem handling these apps, it is most likely a network issue and not a device or Mac issue.
Myth 4: Macs are incompatible with Microsoft Office documents I created on a PC
Truth
Many people assume that Macs are completely incompatible with PC documents and applications. This is far from true. Out of the box, new Macs come preinstalled with the Apple iWork Suite. This suite of three apps - Pages, Numbers and Keynote - are essentially Apple's version of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Best of all, they are fully compatible with Office. You can open Word documents in Pages, Powerpoint presentations in Keynote and Excel spreadsheets in Numbers. You can even export to Office filetypes directly from the iWork apps. Microsoft and Apple have made great strides recently in establishing better compatibility between their devices and operating systems.
Myth 5: If I get a Mac, I need to purchase Mac-specific accessories and peripherals like printers, external hard drives and more
Truth
Macs do not require Mac-specific accessories. You can use the same printer that you use with a Windows PC from a Mac. You can share external hard drives between Mac and Windows (there are, Mac specific hard drive formats, but your external hard drive can be formatted for both Mac and PC). Pretty much any accessory or peripheral that works for one platform will work for the other. One exception to this is keyboards. While you can use a Windows keyboard with a Mac computer, the Mac keyboard does have a few unique keys that Windows keyboards do not have.