I HATE APPLE

It’s fine on new hardware in my experience but I haven’t upgraded anything yet. Planning to do that soon, but need to migrate off my last Catalina incompatible app (very old lightroom)

I hardly ever need to print but If this printer ever packs up the next printer I get will definitely have to be compatible with generic postscript drivers. It is however incredibly resilient and seemingly indestructible black and white laser printer.

The Brother 2370 series has been our standard here for almost a decade now. The current ones are shockingly easy to set up to print from both our Macs and our phones.

Been on Catalina since the beginning and I've been recommending it for folks since 10.15.3 or so.

No Catalina issues here, but I haven't bothered with the 10.15.6 Supplemental it's been nudging me about for the last few weeks. But I'm also a light user.

I don't recall having to do anything to get my (cheap 2014 Canon Pixma) printer to work with the Mac. Turned it on, found it, printed to it. (I appreciate this is not going to be the case for older printers). I think this was the second moment (after the breeze of the initial MBP set-up) where I thought "This really isn't going to be anything like owning a Windows machine."

I think my work laptop (2013 HP Elitebook, W7->W10) is sufficiently nailed down by Corp IT strictures not to get in the way of what I need to do, but every other time I touch a Windows laptop, the swearing starts.

(I mean, obviously there's a deluge of effing and blinding when I'm on the work laptop too, but that's not OS related)

A HP LaserJet 5 i picked up for buttons in the 00s is going to outlast me at this rate. It works with everything from a 68k PowerBook to intel iMacs; and outlasted LaserWriters (which require AppleTalk support) too.

Maybe i’ve just been unlucky with my cheap inkjets. Feels like every time there’s a major system update the drivers don’t work anymore. However I now own a b&w Brother on I think caek’s advice. I love it, love how fast it is, love how easy it is, and i hope i get to use it for a long time.

Oh inkjets are definitely a disaster – I've got a little Canon which has some terrible GhostPrint drivers and barely works these days

Yeah I stan for brother lasers. Problem right now is they are sold out everywhere via covid!

yes, i trust this computer. it's my personal computer. i'm logged into the same icloud account as my phone and i've told you i 'trust' it like 20 times already. fuck's sake

Sounds like you've got trust issues.

In the music app in IOS, if browse your music by genre, you get a list of albums in alphabetical order by album title and there is no option to sort by artist.

Who in the world wants to look at their albums alphabetically by title???

oh my god yes, this grates on my nerves and has for ten years

sorry I mean for the iOS remote app - my music library has, like, 4000 albums and if I look at an artist with 20 albums, there they all are in alphabetical order, there is no view organised by year under any circumstances.

A bit mad that the Mini has no built-in mic?

Vast majority of desktops do not have a built in mic.

I feel like, if you're going to build Facetime into MacOS, it's going to need its own mic.

fans of my exhausting tribulations earlier in the year will be pleased to know that i seem to have got back on top of everything fingers x-ed?

1: new battery installed by me
2: better devised system of back-up drives
3: replacement keyb and trackpad plus liquid damage recovery work on my logic board (yes in addition to everything else i spilled water on my laptop, yes i know this is not recommended lol)
4: full clean reinstall
5: full restore from time machine
6: full cancellation of backblaze subscription (despite agitated support from stans this was absolutely causing some of the problems, tho app clash and badly indexed junk accretion were also a cause i think)

so now i have a ton more room

(basic RAM on this model remains fixed and perhaps inadequate -- tho it's not like i'm trying to make films or music here. soldering in larger RAM but also pricier to just move to a newer model. i wd quite like to do some music-making with my niece at some point -- we did a nice delia-derbyshire-themed kids workshop together at the british library b4 xmas. getting into that is the signal for a newer model tho in a year or so's time -- she is still a beginner)

some of this ton more room is from storing old stuff off-laptop but a good deal is absolutely from the clean install: it's no longer having to push thru a fvckton of undredged gloop full of submerged wreckage and broken bicycles molesting one another (yes i know how computers work and this is a correct description)

nice also to watch the booting-up progress bar just go quickly and cleanly lol

also courtesy user alba i now have a good guy to fix stuff, who gives helpful and non-judgmental advice allowing me to dodge always having to call him in to fix stuff for money that i can fix myself for free -- he is a BIG IMPROVEMENT on the very judgmental jackass cited a couple of times upthread as "tracer's guy" (sorry tracer)

i have learnt a LOT abt basic maintenance and laptop hygiene -- which probably i shd have known and always did half-know but there you go, it's not like anyone has been paying for my training except me (welcome to the constraints of freelancer lief)

some of this is thx to ppl in this thread so hurrah! silby's argt that none of this is *really* secure until it's also backed up in a far-away seismic zone also noted for the future: like transferring 20 yrs of photos from (backed-up) hard drive to flickr for example?

that's a project for another day tho (also london is not currently prone to earthquakes or fires)

"soldering in larger RAM but also pricier to just move to a newer model"
=
"soldering in larger RAM possible but also pricier than just moving to a newer model"

Fans you say?

just letting the second shoe fall here

Any of you ever install a MacBook Pro battery on your own? My early 2015 Mac Pro Retina battery is getting older/weaker, and I'm getting the "service recommended" alert. They sell kits at the usual places that include new batteries, all tools, adhesive remover and even safety goggles/gloves for a relative modest price, like $90, but the process seems like a pain. Notice I said "adhesive remover?" "Safety goggles?" Apple, for some stupid fucking reason, *glues* its batteries in place. Apparently even their techs are not trained to remove and replace the battery. They simply remove and replace an entire chunk of the computer, including the keyboard and so on, rather than go through the trouble of replacing the battery itself.

Now, it looks doable from the instruction video, but even the site selling the kit recommends getting a pro to do it. My preferred local pro won't do it. And the other local Apple servicer for some stupid reason refuses to just quote me a price. Apple itself seems to sell the battery for $199, plus I assume there will be labor on top of that, but I can only imagine it could take a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days/hours, which makes the $90 kit price all the more appealing. And yet there is a lot that can potentially go wrong, like, say, the battery blowing up or something. Still ... doesn't seem like that will happen unless I remove it with, like, a hammer. Or will it/can it? I dunno.

Dude just live with it til the arm MacBook comes out

Eh, I don't want a new computer, since my current computer is more than I need. I just need a new battery, or will, eventually. Unless the new MacBooks are the same cost as a new battery, but that seems ... unlikely.

I tried this week to replace the battery on my first gen iPhone SE, which is also glued on, and i fucked it up, the WiFi antenna was out of place and would only pick up from less than a foot away afterwards, so I just got a new SE instead. I’m leery of replacing glued batteries again.

I’m pretty sure the $199 includes labour and it only takes a couple of hours.

Assuming you live somewhere with an apple store or service provider and they are open, that is.

I own a 2013 MacBook Pro Retina 13" and recently got a repair guy to replace the keyboard as my o key had died on me. He warned me that the battery was dangerously swollen so I accepted his offer to kill two birds with one stone, since you need to remove the battery to reach the keyboard anyway. I know my laptop will soon be turning seven and that I should probably consider getting a new one, but it's in very good condition otherwise and I've got a PC for gaming purposes anyway.

I thought of replacing the parts myself as I've had some success with other models in the past, but after skimming through a YT tutorial I figured it just wouldn't have been worth the extra hours I'd have likely sunk into it out of sheer inexperience, not the mention the risk of bungling it somehow. It ended up costing a bit more than I would have liked (standard Montreal rate, based on every other place I contacted for a quote), and it took a lot longer than I expected because French Canadian keyboards were initially out of stock, but I paid upfront and kept using it while waiting for shipping delays to get resolved. And it was still cheaper than via Apple, who stopped supporting 2013 models a while back anyway (thankfully this does not apply to MacOS yet).

Good to know the $199 includes labor. The Apple certified local place I suspect wanted me to come in to lock me into the $50 diagnosis fee, which would go toward the work, but I don't want to commit to that until I know the price for sure is the same as just going to Apple. Last I heard back from the local place they gave me some bullshit response about a "range of price," but I don't know what the fuck they are talking about, and I don't find the shadiness reassuring.

(I totally know I can do this myself, btw, but as with electrical work the threat of bodily harm makes me more uneasy than the worry over screwing it up.)

Even if you use the local guys, book it through Apple, they regulate the prices and guarantee the work.

The battery varies wildly with model and if it's the same as my work laptop it's a 5-part battery that's glued all along the bottom of the case, under the trackpad. Others are much easier to replace.

I have a slight bulge in mine, just enough so it wobbles on a flat surface, but not enough to worry me.

i have never worked on whichever mbp this is, but here's my take:

macbooks are generally easier to work on than phones, so if you've replaced a battery in a phone, this should be ok

battery replacements are among the easiest things you can fix yourself

i have fixed a bunch of things that call for heating pads to loosen glue and i have literally never needed them (or had access to them).

ok to be fair your one looks like it sucks https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Early+2015+Battery+Replacement/45137

the screws: be sure to keep track of which is which

the cables: i have never damaged one fwiw, but there are a lot in this repair, so unusually many opportunities to mess up. concentrate i guess?!

the acetone/heat: lol. it's not out of the question that your battery will lift right out with mild hand prying. it's 5 years old. the glue may be long gone.

Yeah, that's the one. Mine's 15" though.

Comments suggest that some steps can be skipped and that you can thread thin wire behind the batteries to break the glue rather than using chemicals but...

Pity the design genius of Apple doesn't stretch to fixability.

My 2014-15 MBP-15-Retina battery is also on the way out (900+ recharge cycles, tends to shut down if you tax it with anything more strenuous than web-surfing when it's below 60%). The tutorial I saw was 55 steps... to *remove* the old one. I have zero confidence I could do it myself. I tried to isolate the display issue with my old Toshiba W8.1 laptop (bought spring 2013, retired when I got the Mac) to see if I could get it working as a backup for the kids; it's still in bits under the bed several weeks later.

£200 to keep this thing going until the last MacOS update it receives (should be good for a couple after Big Sur, right?) seems acceptable. But not yet.

The fixit tutorial seems to be several steps above and beyond, possibly in the name of caution/overkill. The OWC (video) tutorial still seems like a pain, but doesn't contain nearly as many steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lue6lVWhh4o

The biggest concern seems to be care/handling of the battery. There is no way to know how stuck on there it is after so many years, so yeah, may take some time/work/caution. Second after that are the number of connections, but I've changed out my hard drive before and that part doesn't seem nearly as concerning. Last are the screws, which are tiny but which are just screws. I have a compatible screwdriver set already, but if I got a kit it would come with new ones, I guess.

I'm leaning toward going through the authorized rep. $200 vs. $90 is not a terrible difference for such an important component (and potentially problematic and def. PIA DIY project).

I think 5-6 years life on any laptop is decent enough nowadays

Again, not talking about the laptop. Laptop is fine! It's the battery. Seems silly to replace a laptop for the battery, it's a bit like replacing a car for new tires.

A few points: lithium polymer batteries can catch fire if they are pierced. The Apple repair job is more or less guaranteed not to wreck your machine. Exposure to major solvents is not a healthy thing to do. And you’ve no way of knowing if the third party battery has the same actual capacity as the original part.
I repair the shit out of MacBooks all the time but I would hesitate before tackling a glued in battery. Check it out on ifixit and YouTube first hey.

I think 5-6 years life on any laptop is decent enough nowadays

What’s a major solvent?

caek, you're making me feel bad for not replacing the keyboard myself (and the battery along with it), but when I revisit this dude's guide, my stance is still 'fuck it, I'm glad I dished out an extra 150 (Canuck) bucks':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJBAlM32NY

Some years ago I looked into upgrading the CPU of our MacAir. Everyone said it was impossible except this one dude I found online with an epic instructional video involving solvents, soldering, the whole deal. The video itself was I want to say 90 minutes at least, and super intricate. I immediately thought, who the fuck would do this? So I read the comments and people were indeed asking, hold up, how in the world did you get these skills? Turns out the dude was a former Apple factory employee from China. I figured if it was a PIA for him (however achievable) then no way would I even consider it.

my new air seems good

i've shared this guy's videos before. great lad

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZoRqjw_ELax4Yisf6w

What’s a major solvent?
Anything other than water or ethanol - acetone, xylene, naphtha, DMSO. They're all carcinogens to varying extents. It's not a technical term tho, just an adjective I chose.

I mean don’t huff it but acetone is a household chemical. I don’t think there’s much additional personal risk from using it in these amounts one time in a world where people drive cars and use bleach.

I stand corrected on acetone - years of working in labs have given me a dread of all the solvents we used to work with happily on the bench, and later found out to be major health risks (formalin, xylene etc), so I over-generalised.

ach, formalin's not a solvent but you know what I mean. Just remembered all the tissue clearing I did with chloroform too, sitting next to the wax embedding gear on a sunny afternoon.

Sent my old iPhone 7 back to apple fo get a battery replacement and I’d say the new battery has about 75 pct of the capacity of one that comes with a new phone (though batttery health shows 100 pct unsurprisingly)