I HATE APPLE

why hate? looks about as good as any other year's model

my iPhone X is on its last legs so it's time to upgrade but cant make my mind up btw 15 and 15 Pro. The latter doesnt have anything I particularly care for but the better chip makes me think it'll last longer (I use my phones until they're not supported)

i've never regretted spending more extra for the slightly better model + more memory but I justify it by usually keeping a phone for 5+ years

Same, went 15 pro max cos I’ve had the XS Max for 5 years now. Pretty lame it’s still 256 I don’t understand why these things arent 1Tb easily by now.

the square edge on the front of the work macbook pro is bad enough but the little groove they add to it to help you open the lid makes two quite sharp points, right near where my tender wrists sit when i'm typing.

I always get the 256, but I iCloud everything.

the pro max comes in up to 1 TB

The camera image processing system is such garbage. Photos look like crap

My current annoyance is searching for a contact using the system-wide search and having the contact open in some weird view that you can't reach from the app switcher.

“Siri, call goomah”
“Calling goomah”

I did it. I just bought Swinsian, I think for the second time. I just can't handle Apple Music. I always defended it. So many people hated it because it wasn't like iTunes, interface-wise. All you had to do was tweak a few settings and it looked and acting the same as iTunes always did.

I still can't get sync to work. I tried to avoid it for years but spend so much time at other computers now I just wanted to get my playlists sync'd up, but again it timed-out after hours and hours of trying.

But the real complaint is just how slow it is. I did everything I could. It's just like working in molasses. I'm not even talking about accessing cloud Apple Music stuff. That actually works fast! I just can't play stuff from my library quickly, can't search easily. Can't scroll through.

So I downloaded Swinsian again. Pointed it to my iTunes library. It took a few minutes to scan. I didn't set it up to copy the files over, just see the library and load the playlists. When it was done? No problem. Totally speedy jumping around the library.

I just used Swinsian to check out a bunch of stuff I downloaded....so I could then go into Music and add things to a playlist that would sync with Rekordbox.

I may see about organizing the DJ playlists in swinsian and finding a way to sync that into rekordbox.

Fight this generation

My 2015 MacBook Pro shut down the other day with no warning, and never restarted. I've got local guys looking at it right now, and they suspect it could be something as relatively simple as a battery issue, but in the meantime I'm humoring the possibility I may need to finally replace it. I saw that a lot of the M1 chip MacBook Airs have been discounted down to relatively low prices, but I have read differing opinions about whether to go 8 GB RAM or 16 GB (the 8 gb models are the discounted ones). Usually the more RAMthe better, but I've seen claims that the newer chips handle RAM allocation a lot better than the previous ones.

Also, since I would be replacing an older computer, I assume M1, M2, M3, whatever, would all be equally noticeably faster than my previous machine, so that probably matters less, right?

It will be like night and day. That said I'd buy the fastest and best you can afford, given that you will be using it for the next 8 years!

I have the same machine and it’s been knocking on heavens door in many ways so yeah, time to get a new one.

When I finally take the plunge into M-chip world, I'm thinking it'll still have to be 16/512+ (as per my current mid-2014 MBP) rather than any 8/256 base models.
As tempting as the base models are - as Josh points out, they're the only ones you see discounted anywhere (M2 2022 too, now), anything else is a direct Apple order and they never discount anything - this does need to last me at least as long as the current one did. Apple might've figured out how to optimise 8GB, but I suspect even my modest AV editing exploits will be page-swapping like mad with only that on tap. Feels like a bit of future-proofing to go bigger. A refurb to save some cash if I can. Likely don't need the 10-core GPU option.

And, yes, the consensus seems to be M1 was such a leap from the Intel stuff that the incremental improvements in M2/M3 are almost a let-down.

(i've said it before but my work mid-2015 macbook pro (16GB, i7) is still solid*, use it every day for developing, and doesn't need any dongles. i'm almost tempted to buy another for personal use given they are only £300-odd quid second-hand)

(* the bulging battery was replaced last year)

Mine seemed fine, but I'm pretty sure I maxed out on RAM and installed a bigger drive, and I also had to replace the battery. If the guys looking at it now determine it's a battery issue, that's less than $200, so not terrible. If it's not the battery or something more significant, it sort of makes the decision for me.

They were telling me how it seems every year Apple makes it harder and harder to repair or replace things yourself, or outside of Apple's. direct purview. There are certain proprietary parts that shops won't even really sell, because they have exclusive relationships with Apple.

My battery not great but I have a newish charger cable which works fine. Keyboard started flaking right now and I think my iOS will be EOL next year.

Mine is this one:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i7-2.5-15-dual-graphics-mid-2014-retina-display-specs.html

It's been very solid - aside from exhausted battery shutdown issues (replaced after 1100 cycles in Feb 2022).
Can only run Big Sur and the final security update for that was a few weeks ago.
Latest releases of Photoshop and Lightroom are now Monterey minimum.
Sounds like it's taking off when editing 4k video in DaVinci Resolve. It's had a good run.

I'd be fine with 13.6" Air, I think. I might have to put it inside the old one just to keep Harriet away from the screen, mind.

I bought a MacBook Air in 2010 and it ran great for 10 years. I replaced it (with another Air), whose only issue was not enough hard drive space--that was easily fixed by changing out the HD.

In that time, I've been through probably half a dozen Dell laptops at work.

Certainly went through several desktop/laptop Windows machines in the decade before I had this, but none were anywhere near as expensive as a MacBook. (And they all drove me mad to some degree).
But... I'm typing this on the same work HP Elitebook 840 (i5) I was issued in summer 2014 (W7->W10 in 2019). Though, to be accurate, I'm not typing on it, or looking at it... it's spent most of its life in a dock with peripherals, which I'm sure has helped with longevity.

@dan selzer i looked into swinsian too but afaict they stopped development in 2021. have they started again?

I don't now but I've been using since posting and it's been a dream. On a 2017 iMac. I still load songs into iTunes so I don't have a splintered library, and Swinsian scans and updates with the new music when it opens. But when it comes to jumping around my library and playing music it's totally zippy.

Apple Music is confusing, when I'm streaming it's fine but if I play off my personal library it's sluggish.

Turns out I had a bad logic board. That is indeed pretty bad news, but the good news is my guys were able to find a replacement that, for parts and labor, will only set me back around $230, which is actually pretty miraculous, especially because they will be upgrading my i5 with an i7.

Wow, result

How much to fix a rum keyboard? Asking for a friend

I had a single iMac for almost 12 years from 2007. But my replacement 2019 iMac has been sluggish for quite a while and frequently shuts down - at 4.5 years old.

you probably have a clogged fan. i know i've talked about this elsewhere on ilx...

My 2019 iMac has been ridiculously slow for a long time. I've owned Macs since the early 90s and in many ways this was the worst I've had -- it was taking more than 10 minutes to do a restart. Recently I set up an external SSD as a startup disk and the speed improvement has been enormous, it's like a completely different machine.

For the most part I followed the instructions here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250003583.

Thanks - I probably will try that. I’ve never been that satisfied with the Fusion Drive.

Fusion drive was a cool idea but i feel like it's kind of like a plug-in hybrid vehicle - half-step to the better type, better than the traditional model, but you also keep the problems of the old tech. Mine died in a power surge (i think? never quite figured it out) a few years ago and I replaced it with an SSD.

i have a Face ID phone for the first time and while the Face ID works great i'm finding it sort of weirdly awkward to just unlock my phone and start using it? i used to just hold the button and it would unlock to the home screen. Now i have to tap the screen (hard to do with one hand) or swipe up from the bottom (also kind of weird to do with one hand; you have to hold the phone nearer the bottom to do this than you'd ordinarily hold it). Once you do this you're dumped back into the app you were in before, which is seldom the one I want NOW. Has it always been like this? Anyway it feels like I need to swipe up like two or even three times just to get to my home screen. FAIL (or maybe i'll just get used to this in the end)

oh i forgot there's "raise to wake" which I do have turned on, though it often just doesn't work and you end up having to tap it anyway. or push the side button.

common complaint when going from touchid -> faceid

i’m sure i’m just being a fuddy duddy. they test this stuff to high heaven.

The latest thing I learned is that Apple will apparently not allow you to do firmware updates without an OEM drive. I have an aftermarket drive running Catalina, and I guess the only way to update beyond that is the reinstall an OEM Apple drive, do the firmware update, and then swap back in my current drive.

The Macbook is back and working, btw. Got that fresh i7 board smell.

I bought a 12" powerbook on eBay a few years ago that smelled like someone had poured human sweat on the fan

On the Lacie external SSD USB-C, it comes with this cable. Is this USB C? Anyone know what adapter I need to connect it to an iMac?

https://i.imgur.com/DLZW7GV.jpg

sorry for the huge image

yes that’s USB-C. pretty sure a 2019 iMac will support that but there’s a pretty easy way to check

Lol - thx. Indeed, I just needed to move further along the row of ports at the back of my iMac.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who puzzled over that cable

Recently I set up an external SSD as a startup disk and the speed improvement has been enormous, it's like a completely different machine.

Thanks so much for this tip, Brad C. I've just completely this process now - and the result is exactly as you say. It's an incredible speed improvement like a different machine.

(can you not use an internal ssd? an external ssd feels like even more dongley than macs usually are)

can't install one in an imac without taking it apart

You're welcome, Dr Drudge (Bob Six)! I'm still trying to get used to the improvement. I wish it had occurred to me earlier to research speed problems with the 2019 iMac, which appear to be widespread.

I don't like relying on an external SSD, especially since the cable that came with it is so short that I had to set it on top of some other external drives, but I can live with it.

I was happy that Migration Assistant supported my preferred arrangement of running applications from the SSD while continuing to store files on the internal HD. Music was the only app that needed my help to find its data.

can't install one in an imac without taking it apart

A lot of the frustration with my Face ID phone comes from a feeling of inconsistency, particularly when waking. Raise to wake in particular is unpredictable. Sometimes the action of raising the phone triggers it, but sometimes I guess the angle or speed of the raising isn't sufficient and it just sits there inert, and then you have to tap it. Turning off raise to wake entirely "fixes" this insofar as now I know I have to tap it, and that works every time. I still face the niggle that swipes from the bottom don't always register. This was never a problem with Touch ID.

While I'm complaining, the larger size of a 15 compared to an SE means that it is quite difficult to reach my thumb all the way across the keyboard. If I'm using my left hand, reaching the delete key is basically impossible. How do people do this? Do you turn the phone horizontally and type with both hands?

Yeah, I installed a new drive in an imac. It worked out fine but a year or two later there was an OS update and it wasn’t compatible with the drive I put in. There was a workaround and it was a huge pain in the ass that involved inputting a bunch of DOS stuff and yeah, never again. Apple stuff is way too fussy to be dicking around with. For me anyways.