Apple on Tyler Knows Nothing

Sun, 31 May 2026 12:17:05 -0700

Apple’s Multi Device Management tools for institutions is fantastic, until it’s not disabled before off-leasing the devices, leaving bargain hunters to employ work arounds. But refurbishers won’t bother as it costs too much. This needs to be fixed. #Apple #RightToRepair

YouTube Video

Sat, 30 May 2026 10:44:29 -0700

APPLE!!!! Why is it soooo hard to use swipe navigation in Music!!!???? I have to span almost the entire trackpad for it to reluctantly go back to the previous page!! And it’s so inconsistent where it will even work!! COME ON!!! #apple #macos #badux

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 14:57:40 -0700

Having trouble connecting to your Bonjour-compatible wireless printer from your Mac sitting next to it on the same network? Try turning off  > System Settings > Network > Wi-Fi > Private Wi-Fi Address. Handy when on public Wi-Fi. Frustration engine at home. Stupid. #apple #howto #tech

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:30:27 -0700

In with a bang, out in silence – the end of the Mac Pro:

This is hardly surprising, considering that there’s very little in the way of compatible cards and the damned thing is eye-wateringly expensive. Still, kind of sad to see it go. #apple #macpro #technology

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 08:44:54 -0700

Apple begins age checks in the UK with latest iOS update: nice way to roll over there, Tim. This is on the shoulders of #socialmedia, not platforms. Great job, #Apple 🤨 #UK #crapitalism

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:03:31 -0700

GEEKOM GeekBook X14 Pro Review: 2.2 pound laptop from a mini PC maker:

For twice the price of an #Apple #MacBookNeo, you can get a very average laptop from an untested maker that comes with Windows 11 Sloppy Edition and 32GBs of RAM, which you’ll need to run Windows. #tech #geekom

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:19:05 -0700

If you’d like to get a chip-level explanation of the A18 Pro in the #MacBookNeo I think this video can help, and it’s not too technical. There’s also a comparison to the M4 chip. Really cool stuff, and shows how much further ahead #Apple is. #technology youtu.be/fTBvm4Hj7…

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 11:11:12 -0700

Hey, #Apple. Two-finger swipe to go back in Apple #Music presents far too much resistance and is far too inconsistent. Please fix this. It’s annoying and shouldn’t be a thing in 2026. #MagicTrackpad

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:17:36 -0700

Please, dear GOD, upgrade to iOS 26, iOS 18 users. You may truly despise Liquid Glass, but I’m betting you hate getting robbed significantly more. #opsec #iPhone #security #scams #PSA Millions of iPhones can be hacked with a new tool found in the wild

MacBook Neo? Yeah, go ahead and buy it!

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:18:14 -0700

“MacBook Neo Hands-On… Watch BEFORE You Buy!”

“New $599 MacBook Neo! What Apple Didn’t Tell You”

“BEFORE you buy the MacBook Neo…”

“Apple’s $599 MacBook Neo is GREAT (..or is it?)”

The headlines on countless YouTube videos say it all… right? It’s compromised! Apple didn’t tell you everything! Don’t make the wrong choice! It’s madness, per usual, as influencers scramble to carve out a potentially contentious position on Apple’s new affordable laptop, the MacBook Neo.

It’s all bunkum, if you ask me.

These influencers are the same people who complain when their $1200 Pro phones aren’t also the best cameras ever and shocked when a base M4 Mini can edit their 4K ProRaw videos as well as the $15,000 Mac Pro they bought a few years ago. They will tell you that the MacBook Neo will be good enough for email, messaging, simple spreadsheets, and “casual” browsing, whatever that is (is there extreme browsing?).

Again… bunkum.

Then one individual on social media said this, “That MacBook Neo is going to crash and burn the first time someone tries to open passwords.app”.

I responded, “What an odd take. The A18 Pro is from the iPhone 16 Pro. I imagine Passwords opens just fine on that since my 14 Plus (A15 Bionic) and 12 Mini (A14 Bionic) also have no issues opening Passwords. It’s a $600 laptop, from Apple, for average users, of which most humans are. And you’re not going to get a workstation that can edit feature films for $600. From any vendor using any chip technology. Just saying.”

To which they rejoined with, “this is tongue in cheek because it opens terribly on many existing M chip laptops without 16 or more ram. Why did you feel the need to defend Apple, especially along arguments I had not raised?”

This is just nonsense. The wife has an 8GB M1 Mini, which is a little less performant that the MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro, and we haven’t seen it chug or catch fire, and she has more than 100 tabs open in Chrome. Not kidding. It runs for weeks between reboots and runs just fine. Of course, she only runs a few apps. I run twelve or more on my 16GB M1 Mini and no, Passwords does not cause any lag at any time.

What I’d like you to take away from this is that you decide what you need, and if it’s an every day laptop that isn’t being used to edit major motion pictures or render complex 3D scenes, you’ll likely be just fine. You’ll be able to watch videos, run all the apps that come with the system, and a lot more. If I were to ask you about Thunderbolt and your answer is “What’s that” or “I’ve heard of it, I think”, then I would be shocked if the MacBook Neo wasn’t capable enough for your needs.

$600 for an Apple laptop is a fantastic deal, and if the success of the M4 Mini (also $600) is any indication, the Neo will also sell well. Before the Rampocalypse (thanks, AI TechChads) you could regularly pick up an M4 Mini for under $500, and I don’t see a reason why the Neo won’t go on sale frequently as vendors vie for your dollars.

PROTIP: Amazon historically loves to sell these at less than other sale prices, so keep an eye open. Just keep in mind that prices on everything are up, so keep an eye out for Apple sales that bundle three years of AppleCare+ with the system for less than $640, which is an excellent deal.

So, for the price of a cheap, plastic-clad PC laptop bundled with Windows 11 and all that includes (ads and Copilot AI and more nonsense), you get a milled aluminum 13" laptop with Apple’s legendary build quality and up to sixteen hours on a charge because it runs with the efficiency of an iPhone 16 Pro. Instead of being primed for disappointment from influencers who would never, ever consider spending as little as $600 (in today’s money) to buy one for themselves, just get what you want.

That’s what I’ll be doing. In Indigo, of course.

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:06:35 -0700

You know, I might just go back to #Apple #Notes if this rumor is true. Fortunately we’ll find out soon. I’d love to be able to write up notes and short stories on a whim, then export them as #markdown to drop straight into #Microblog. #apps #writing #WWDC2025 daringfireball.net/linked/20…

Thu, 29 May 2025 18:58:56 -0700

Bots from the likes of #Microsoft, #Amazon, #Oracle, #Tencent, #Russia and countless others are destroying the #OpenWeb. The latest casualty is Ric Ford’s legendary #MacInTouch. So terrible and disappointing. #apple #news #internet #capitalism #bullshit mjtsai.com/blog/2025…

Thu, 29 May 2025 18:45:22 -0700

It seems #Apple is going to be switching software version numbering to an auto industry-style “model” year scheme. This seems smart. Their computers are often referenced by their year. But, peeps will complain, so they do. #WWDC #macOS #tech #news mjtsai.com/blog/2025…

Thu, 29 May 2025 18:19:15 -0700

In @NSMug’s latest video he walks through a fascinating #QuickTimeVR tour of the #Apple Company Store at the original #Cupertino campus. It’s fun to see all the normal and weird stuff you could buy with Apple logos. #retrocomputing #nostalgia www.youtube.com/watch

Sun, 25 May 2025 23:51:40 -0700

It is really, really hard to start a YouTube channel these days. There are so many creators who’ve been around for years and have established viewerships. @nsmug@mastodon.social is a new creator and he makes great retro #Apple videos. Give him some love! #retrocomputing www.youtube.com/watch

Wed, 21 May 2025 08:40:32 -0700

Let’s show NSMug’s new #YouTube channel some love. He’s got six subs now. So, views, shares, likes, and more subs are appreciated. He’s doing his part to preserve the Olde' Ways and peeps who work this hard for love need support. #apple #retrocompting www.youtube.com/watch

Are Apple Silicon Macs too good?

Thu, 08 May 2025 16:31:24 -0700

In his latest video Luke Miani asks if #Apple made their new machines too good. Across two polls, having run a second one to verify the results of the first, respondents strongly indicated they had no intention of upgrading their early M-series Macs. I have a feeling Apple fully expected that, however. Watch the video on YouTube. We have three Mini’s, two M1 and one Intel, and have no need to upgrade them anytime soon. I may desire an M4 Mini, but I don’t need one. What is behind this?

To understand this there are, I believe, two different, unrelated factors that need to be taken into consideration:

Apple’s primary drivers of revenue are the #iPhone, the App Store, and services.
There are millions upon millions of #Windows users who might choose to move to Apple rather than be forced upgrade to Windows 11 but cannot since their hardware is incompatible, because #Microsoft has chosen to enshittify their desktop with ads and #AI, or both.

Apple’s personal computer marketshare has long been around 20% with Microsoft dominating for literal decades with 72% of the PC market. But it’s critical to understand that a decade ago Microsoft had well over 80%, and it continues to slowly decay. The iPhone plays a significant role in the fact that Apple has a $2.5T valuation, as consumers tend to upgrade every two years, giving Apple a mostly reliable playing field to project consistent revenues.

NOTE: Microsoft has a similar market capitalization to Apple but the important distinction is that Microsoft engages in a wide range of markets, including corporate software and services, as well as the Xbox and video games publishing, all of which contribute to the company’s bottom line. Apple still competes by offering a mere fraction of the models and verticals of its rivals.

That consistency is crucial. It allows Apple to not only sit back and just let their Mac users be Mac users and upgrade as they please, but also breathing room for some mild experimentation with various services and hardware. The iPhone Mini was available for the iPhone 12 and 13 then cancelled to be replaced by the Plus model, which has been around longer than the Mini. And the next rumored experiment will be the iPhone Air which may appear this October. They’ve also got enough in the bank to allow them to pivot and shift based on unforeseen market fluctuations or, in the case of component availability, weather the less than stellar rollout of the moderately underwhelming M3 processor.

And Apple isn’t blind. I’m quite sure that one major consideration in their calculations is Microsoft and their recent “efforts” to tank their own success. Users are unhappy with Windows 11 and in October of this year Microsoft will be ending support for the far more popular Windows 10. Many users are even downgrading to Windows 10 to escape the oppressive changes in Windows 11. In addition, the upgrade to Windows 11 requires support for TPM 2.0 which will “relegate” millions of unsupported systems to be discarded or sold for cheap, an outcome that is exciting many nerds over the prospect of a torrent of dirt cheap or free computers which can happily and securely run #Linux and other operating systems. Linux is an easy and capable migration path, but being honest with ourselves, most Windows users won’t go this direction.

I think Apple knows this. For one, they’ve maintained a stability in offerings that is appealing when compared to Microsoft’s numerous radical shifts over the years, the frequency of which has started to turn off consumers. Second, Apple has been aggressive in allowing resellers to offer significant sale pricing and even has an exclusive deal with Walmart to sell new M1 Macbook Air base models for $700 and which is on seemingly permanent sale for $650. In most of Apple’s history this is unprecedented, as they have for decades required resellers to match their own pricing and not offer sales. Finally, Apple’s resale value for their Intel models has dropped precipitously and used M1 and M2 machines are a lot more affordable than they used to be, presenting an enticing option for budget buyers.

Apple, for the most part, has played the long game. Pixar focused on getting one particular element perfected for each film so they might add that element to their toolbox for later films like fur in Monsters Inc. and the ocean in Finding Nemo. Apple has done much the same, working on iterations of various elements of their systems, refining them until they meet their internal expectations for excellence. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Steve Jobs ran both and had, with help from others to manifest his vision, been instrumental in forming the foundations of two entire industries. Ingest that in whatever form you prefer.

The short answer to the question posed by Luke is no. The suggestion that CEO Tim Cook and the entire team at Apple could have miscalculated that the potential longevity of their products could cause Apple, one of the wealthiest corporations on planet Earth, to disintegrate or fall into the doldrums of relevance is in itself a miscalculation of what Apple is and how it operates. Is Apple flawless? Hell no. Most recently, I think they horribly miscalculated both the retail price and consumer interest in Apple Vision. There are other failures dotting Apple’s history, as well.

On the other hand, they basically own the tablet market. Full stop. They swap first and second place with Samsung for mobile phone volume, and Samsung has to make dozens of models to compete with Apple. AirPods are stupid popular. The Apple Watch has a huge chunk of the smart watch market. Apple is doing well, and all whilst offering a fraction of the options of others they compete with.

#tech #technology #opinion

Sat, 03 May 2025 14:59:50 -0700

If you like #Android and have an #ARM Mac I suppose you’ll be hyped to hear about the new #Apple Silicon compatible versions of #BlueStacks. So now you can play all those games being advertised on TV by movie and TV stars. whee. #videogames #emulation #macOS 9to5mac.com/2025/05/0…

Sat, 03 May 2025 10:18:07 -0700

After a stint with an #iPhone 14 Plus (big mistake) I’ve gone back to my 12 Mini. Even with its reduced capacity battery I get at least a full day, mostly because I’m not glued to it and turn off everything unnecessary. The same should be the case for a 17 Air. #Apple 9to5mac.com/2025/05/0…

Fri, 02 May 2025 13:38:45 -0700

Ok. I didn’t expect this… Some context: I have a group of friends I chat with on #Matrix and I’d shared that I was wanting to replace my #AppleWatch with a #RePebble Core 2 Duo, so one of my pals had #AI generate this song for me. #music #shenanigans #funny suno.com/s/mcvmVRW…

Fri, 02 May 2025 10:28:12 -0700

I’m honestly confused by some of the takes from this reviewer of Macs of “15 years” on what a move from #Windows to #macOS would entail, especially the idea that the Dock can’t show all running apps? WTF??!! #Apple #DitchMicrosoft #tech www.engadget.com/computing…

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:13:35 -0700

I contend that #Apple made a mistake killing the #iPhoneSE and replacing it with the significantly more expensive #iPhone16e. They should have brought back the Mini and made a “Light” version of it for the SE line to have two small phones. #tech #smartphones #DumbTechTricks www.macworld.com/article/2…

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:01:21 -0700

Um… a 17 Mini, a perfect #smartphone that #Apple mistakenly cancelled after the 12 MIni and 13 Mini apparently “didn’t sell well enough”. Piffle. I’m still using my 12 Mini. It is the perfect mobile phone for peeps who don’t need a pro camera or a giant slab in their pocket. #tech #opinion

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:13:34 -0700

Updates are available across the board for #Apple devices, including the #Mac, #iPhone, #iPad, #AppleWatch, #AppleTV, and more. watchOS 11.4 was pulled yesterday, but has now been released. Mr. Macintosh has details about the updates & OCLP support. #tech #howto www.youtube.com/watch

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 18:28:23 -0700

Hmm. This one is interesting. #MacWorld is suggesting that #Apple’s 2010 acquisition of LiquidMetal may be critical for their folding phone. The name refers to the process of making extremely precise components, ICYWW, and might be used for the hinge. #tech #iPhone www.macworld.com/article/2…

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 17:44:29 -0700

Yes. Yes, it has. #apple #tech #security 9to5mac.com/2025/03/2…

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 15:42:00 -0700

Well, I’m an #Apple user and I can easily say that I will never consider a #GM product of any kind if I am disallowed from using my preferred platform. Last I checked, 35% of mobile devices users in the US are using #iOS devices. Solid marketing, dorks. #tech #cars #stupid www.theverge.com/news/6337…

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:00:04 -0700

Not one of #Microsoft’s best choices… out of a long history of making bad decisions. Disenfranchising millions of machines that will no longer be able to run a valid and/supported copy of #Windows is just dumb. Very dumb and great for Linux. #tech #Apple #linux 9to5mac.com/2025/03/1…

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 20:19:34 -0700

I have a Dell 7200 2in1 which is similar to a Surface running KDE Neon which supports tablet more. Even in desktop mode I don’t find it unusable or tiring & not enough to reject a possible touchscreen MacBook. I never bought that argument. #tech #apple #wwdc #rumors 9to5mac.com/2025/03/1…

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:26:40 -0700

I think John Gruber is going too far. I’ve read his screed and coverage of said screed. He essentially claims that if #Apple doesn’t get #AI working, then it will fall apart at the seams. Bunk. We’ve been doing just fine without AI. So has Apple. Am I wrong? #tech apple.slashdot.org/story/25/…

Tinyblocks Minimal iPhone Setup Guide... a review

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:27:24 -0700

Had I known that I could connect a Bluetooth mouse to my iPhone and use the pointer to reorganize my Homescreen I would have done that a long time ago. Apparently, this has been a feature since iOS 13, and later added to iPadOS 13.4. I know that using a pointer on my iPad is quite useful, but it never occurred to me to think I could do the same on my iPhone. As luck would have it, a fix found me!

<!-more->

When I came across Tinyblock’s Minimal iPhone Setup guide in a toot on Mastodon I was intrigued. It’s always taken so much time to organize, group icons into folders, set up the right widgets, and whatnot. Then you have to swipe around or open folders or, even worse, search to find an app. The Minimal iPhone Setup Guide promised an entirely new way to interact with my iPhone.

IMPORTANT: This guide requires certain features available in iOS 18 not earlier versions, so keep that in mind.

After donating a fiver* to the author I was redirected to the guide. I’d never seen anyone deliver an experience using Notion before, and I was pleased with the experience. It works more like a slide deck app than just some hokey web page, and the formatting is nice and clean. The guide walked me through the steps of how to set up their concept of a Minimal iPhone Homescreen and had it set up in a total of about 15 minutes.

*NOTE: The author lets you set the price you’d like to pay for their work. I chose $5 US, and I felt that was perfectly fair. I ask that you consider a similar donation for their effort.

The result is almost indistinguishable from a standard homescreen setup, but the added functionality is transformative. Using a clever combination of Focus modes, Shortcuts, and various iOS standards like the Dock, Lock Screen, and Control Center, you can configure a wide range of easily customizable dashboards that suit your needs in the moment. And, at least for four of these, at a single touch when placed in the Dock (as shown in the image below).

Left to right are my Dashboard, Blogging, Finances, and Multimedia pages, each accessed by a single tap to the icons in the dock. If you look closely, you’ll note that the icon that appears next to the time roughly corresponds to the icon on the dock the page is associated with. The reason they are slightly different has nothing to do with the guide, but iOS. Focus and Shortcuts do not use the same icon sets. It’s as simple as that. It would be nice if Apple were to fix that…

With this setup, I only have two folders (top left on my Blogging Focus) for things I need access to, but don’t open very often. That means everything I use regularly is no more than two taps away or otherwise inside a folder, and often just the one tap to launch. And I can still Swipe Right to get the Today view and Swipe Left to get the App Library in each of the Focus modes.

For the first few days I found myself swiping like my old setup, but I soon got used to that and now I’m fully on-board with this new approach to accessing apps. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s tired of swiping and searching.

For additional details, head over to the Tinyblocks website.

PS: This is an entirely independent review. Tinyblocks has not asked for this review nor have I offered them to review it before posting.

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 04:49:13 -0700

#Apple has rolled out a surprise update for #macOS #Sequoia for 15.3.1 to 15.3.2. This appears to be a #security patch for #Safari to secure a previously patched exploit that hackers have likely found a way around. Mr. Macintosh details the update. #tech www.youtube.com/watch

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 13:07:55 -0700

Back in September of 2024 I speculated that #TSMC’s #Apple A16 chip production in the US would end up in the next #iPad. Nice to see I was on the right track. Of course, we weren’t taking the tariff threats seriously at the time. #tech 9to5mac.com/2025/03/0…

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 20:54:09 -0700

I’m not fond of this, @macworld.com. The idea that the Touch Bar, that was mostly unsupported by both #Apple and app developers, was coveted is specious, at best. If it was, we’d still have it today. And no mention of this being a refurb until the end? Wow. #capitalism www.macworld.com/article/2…

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 18:59:33 -0700

You may have heard that #Apple announced the 11th generation base #iPad upgraded to an A16 processor and starting with 128GBs of storage, but is lacking #AppleIntelligence. Good, I say. I’m happy to have it on my Mac Mini, but don’t need it anywhere else. #tech appleinsider.com/articles/…

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:31:02 -0700

Anyone who deals in retro gear knows #retrocomputing gets more difficult the further back you go in history. Hugh Jeffreys deals with one of the common issues with his iBook G3s dead batteries. Not a guide, per se, but helpful info for decision making. #tech #Apple www.youtube.com/watch

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 14:15:11 -0700

Anyone else surprised by the bombastic #hypocrisy of #TFG all hot for freedom and independence and the power of #capitalism, but pissed his pet project to disenfranchise #BIPOC Americans is being ignored by #Apple? It’s like he thinks he’s king or something. #uspol #tech appleinsider.com/articles/…

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:34:46 -0700

Do you have a notification telling you some app like #Zoom is “Accessing Your Screen” on #Apple’s #macOS #Sequoia? Well, it seems to be a known bug, and #AppleInsider seems to have a fix. I can’t verify this because I keep crapps like Zoom off my machines. #tech #helpdesk appleinsider.com/articles/…

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 21:37:00 -0700

Revere Kier with this 8-hour long remix of #AppleTV’s theme to their hit show, #Severance. Seems like the perfect vibe for refining data at your MDR. Feed your inner innie and outtie at the same time! #music #television #ODESZA #ambience youtu.be/JRnDYB28b…

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:36:51 -0700

You know, @appleinsider@mastodon.social, I’d love to cover your piece about the Steve Jobs Archive celebrating his life on the day he died, but when you don’t include any links to anything outside of your website, I cannot. Not helpful. #tech #apple #journalism

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:25:33 -0700

PROTIP For #Apple designer Susan Kare: Ditch the bling and make them affordable to actual human beings, and I bet you sell a lot more. Wouldn’t it be nice to sell many thousands instead of a few dozen? I think so. Nice designs, though. #tech #blockchain #capitalism www.theverge.com/news/6182…

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:09:29 -0700

One of the more reliable indicators of #Apple preparing to launch a new version of a system is when stocks on older machines start to drop. This appears to be happening now with the M3 #MacBookAir. The current #rumor is for a March release. #tech appleinsider.com/articles/…

UPDATE: The previous version of this post cited the current MBA with an M4, but it was supposed to be the M3. The updated version of the MBA should be getting the M4 soon.

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:02:46 -0700

Well, this is rather fascinating! Some mad genius hacked a Nokia Lumia 1020 to run #Apple’s #iOS for #iPhone. The trick? Inside the Lumia is an iPhone SE 3!! Still pretty damned cool, if I do say so myself. #retrocomputing #hardwarehacks #tech www.macworld.com/article/2…

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 13:31:57 -0700

It could be the #iPhone SE4, but I’d like to note that Mr. Cook asks us to “Get ready to meet the newest member of the family.” I think it could be the return of the AirPort. Look at the graphic for the announcement and the AirPort A1034 attached. Just sayin'. #tech #Apple 9to5mac.com/2025/02/1…

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:56:14 -0700

It seems that #Apple has completed its acquisition of #Pixelmator, the makers of Pixelmator Pro which competes with #Adobe’s #Photoshop and #Photomator Pro which competes with Adobe’s #Lightroom. #iPadOS, #iOS, and #macOS are getting updates now or soon. #tech 9to5mac.com/2025/02/1…

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:08:12 -0700

A story from #9to5Mac reporting on a report from #Samsung confirms earlier rumors that #Apple likely won’t be shipping #OLED #MacBookPro machines this year, but in 2026. And the #MacBookAir might not see the upgrade until 2029. #tech #news #supplychain 9to5mac.com/2025/02/1…

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 17:22:12 -0700

The #UK’s #surveillance apparatus creeps from the void like Cthulhu hungering for a midnight snack. Note that in this order it is #unlawful to reveal to the public that they’re doing it to us… and I mean us because that power extends outside of the UK. #dystopia mjtsai.com/blog/2025…

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 13:36:46 -0700

I can’t code myself out of a paper bag, but I know the value of the skill of #programming and of #opensource, so good on #Apple for open sourcing #Swift Build. Now can you open source Mac OS Classic? Tim?… TIM?! #tech #news 9to5mac.com/2025/02/0…

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 23:55:53 -0700

If you don’t like the power coming on when you open the lid on your #MacBookPro #Apple has explained how to disable it. It takes a bit of work in the Terminal.app, but anyone should be able to do it if they follow the instructions. #tech #howto www.macworld.com/article/2…

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 14:58:55 -0700

Well, I’m not sure how much of a procedure this actually is. I generally prefer more conclusive steps, like… oh, I don’t know, having an Update Firmware button in the settings? #Apple #airpods #tech #howto 9to5mac.com/2025/01/2…

Sun, 26 Jan 2025 18:41:25 -0700

I’m so up for this. #Apple DOES need to update their paid storage tiers, but not for the suggested tiers of the column. We have Apple One Family for up to 5 with a meager 200GBs for $26 a month. The storage should be bumped up to 500 or 750GB. #icloudplus #internet 9to5mac.com/2025/01/2…

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 14:38:10 -0700

If you’ve got an #M4MacMini and your curious about some interesting use cases, you might find Wesley Hilliard’s review on Apple Insider a source of ideas. #apple #mac #projects #homelab #tech appleinsider.com/articles/…

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 13:17:44 -0700

Ugh. More #Microsoft bullshit to deal with. This is a few days old as I’m catching up on my news feeds but is important to know if you’re one of the unlucky ones using #MicrosoftEdge on #Windows 10 or 11 (or just 11 in general). Switch to #Linux or #Apple already! mjtsai.com/blog/2025…

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 23:15:53 -0700

It’s a toaster… for your iPhone 14/15/16… and it only costs $570, but only if you buy the bundle of the “toaster” and one case. Though it doesn’t charge your phone, it just swaps in a fresh battery. Baby steps on the way to robot domination. Whee… #WeirdCES #CES2025 #tech www.macworld.com/article/2…

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 21:29:29 -0700

I suggest you just #read the #books. Don’t bother with the series. #Apple spent a tanker-full of money to make a terrible non-adaptation. They took some ideas, mixed it all up, cut out a bunch, and invented a lot of new crap that superficially resembles #IsaacAsimov’s seminal #scifi works. www.polygon.com/sci-fi/50…

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 12:02:13 -0700

For a time I was mad at #Microsoft for breaking their promise that #Windows10 would be the last #Windows, but then #Windows11 turned into a wet dream of #capitalism, bristling with ads, bloat, and AI features nobody wants while tracking users every move. Now ten months remain before MSFT pulls the plug on Windows 10 support, but 62.7% of all Windows users still use it. In fact, a number have ditched 11 to go back to 10. I’m bustin' a gut over this. Just buy an #Apple #Mac. #tech #news tech.slashdot.org/story/25/…

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 18:55:56 -0700

I’m not sure this is the most complementary of headlines for the #Flexbar. #Apple’s Touch Bar was almost as unloved as the disastrous Butterfly keyboard, and now both have long been excised from the MacBook lineup. #tech appleinsider.com/articles/…

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 12:24:11 -0700

Well, this is a clever case for iPhone models 12 through 15. Using a Lightning or USB-C connection concealed in the bottom of the case, you can add up to 1TB of storage to your iPhone with the card slot conveniently hidden near the camera bump. #apple #tech the-gadgeteer.com/2024/12/1…

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:01:32 -0700

A little expensive, but it does make a statement and has the side benefit of making the #M4MacMini’s power button accessible (if you need that sort of thing). ZEERA’s MacForge aluminum case evokes the appearance of a tiny Mac Pro and just looks really cool. Sadly, there’s no option for wheels. #Apple #tech liliputing.com/zeera-mac…

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:54:25 -0700

Um… no. Ignore #TikTok boneheads are claiming that anyone can steal your data using #iPhone’s #AirDrop feature. Fabulists are suggesting you turn off non-existent options or that AirDrop can be used to walk past people and just grab all their credit cards. Don’t listen to these idiots. #apple #fakescams #conspiracytheories #bullshit appleinsider.com/articles/…

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 18:54:52 -0700

Heh. Fast Company interviewed #Apple executive Kate Bergeron and asked her about the modular storage in the new #M4 #MacMini. Here’s how she responded:

“The Mac Mini “is packed so tightly that actually, in the larger storage configurations, there’s not enough room on the main logic board to put the storage right onto the board.”

LOLZ. She must not have heard about the coming after-market SSD upgrades for the Mac Studio. #tech https://www.macworld.com/article/2546773/the-first-mac-studio-ssd-upgrade-is-here-for-way-less-than-apples-prices.html

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:06:25 -0700

Have the need to download old versions of #macOS installers or firmware? Do you struggle with getting them from #Apple? Yeah, I know the drill. It’s a pain in the ass. MIST to the rescue, then! You can grab the installer on the GitHub page or install it with #Homebrew (brew install –cask mist) and there’s even a command line version for super nerds. #freeware #retrocomputing github.com/ninxsoft/…

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:30:43 -0700

Wow! I’m short on words, but I’m simply blown away by designer Kevin Noki’s functional recreation of Harmut Esslinger’s #Apple Flatmac design, a prototype developed by Esslinger’s Frog Design, the firm that handled Apple’s iconic industrial design language. It is simply astonishing. NOTE: If you just want to see it in action, jump to 41:24. #retrocomputing #Macintosh #MacClassic youtu.be/Grd_a4oi7…

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 15:34:49 -0700

🚨 NERD ALERT 🚨 Hey all my retro #Apple peeps who are re-capping old #Macintosh machines! It turns out there’s a polarity type on the LC III / Performa 450 mainboard that, when using tantalum capacitors for your retrofit, can cause your repaired Mac to immolate itself. It’s a quick read, so get yourself up to speed before busting out the flux and solder wick. #retrocomputing #tech www.macworld.com/article/2…

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 09:48:57 -0700

I’m not sure I understand the purpose of this… device? #Apple’s Touch Bar which replaced the F-keys during the globally reviled “Butterfly Keyboard” era was half-baked and left to wither in a ditch and we already have a slew of #mactopads like the Streamdeck that do the same thing, but better because the keys are sized for human fingers and not to fit into a slim strip on a laptop. Then it retails at nearly $200. Hard pass. #kickstarter #hardware 9to5mac.com/2024/12/0…

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 23:37:44 -0700

Sadly it seems that #Apple is going to be delaying the rollout of their redesign of the already fantastic Apple Mail. While the redesign is in the current beta of #iOS 18.2, it’s not in the #macOS or #iPadOS betas. The updates bring a more Messages-like layout, contact photos, automatic inbox organization, AI enhancements for supported systems, mail training, and a digest view. Looks like they’re taking the time to refine things before release in the next point release. 9to5mac.com/2024/11/2…

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:24:46 -0700

Well, that’s not great. Another good reason to get a #MacMini, though I do understand the allure of the #iMac. When I got my M1 I considered getting the iMac, but I already had a dual-display setup and the M1 iMac can only handle one external display. #PROTIP: Always get AppleCare+. #Apple will make it difficult to get anything repaired unless they issue an official recall. #tech #hardware www.macworld.com/article/2…

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 12:42:32 -0700

Dave’s Garage on #YouTube does a nice breakdown of performance benchmarks comparing the new M4 Pro Mini to the M2 Ultra Mac Pro and, for shits & giggles, a Threadripper 7995WX. My takeaway: If you’re an everyday, average user, get the M4 Mini base model and an external Samsung T7 2TB SSD. #tech #apple #M4MacMini #benchmarking www.youtube.com/watch

CORRECTION: I originally stated the comparison included the M2 Ultra Mini, a system that does not exist, and have corrected it to M4 Ultra Mac Pro.

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:48:11 -0700

Here’s a rather fascinating (and detailed) breakdown of installing a 1TB mSATA SSD into a PowerBook G4 1.67GHz hi-res display model, the last of the mobile PowerPC PowerBooks. I put a similar rig in my G4 Mini 1.4GHz “Silent Upgrade”, though my SSD is a mere 120GBs. Then again, I run Mac OS 9.22 on it, with a 10.4 partition. #apple #Mac #retrocomputing #hardware lowendmac.com/2024/fanx…

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 19:25:07 -0700

Satechi dropped some details on their upcoming new hub stand for the redesigned M4 Mac Mini, sans a price, though the model designed for the older models sold for $100. From what we can tell, it has three USB-A ports and an SD card slot on the front and it can take up to a 2280 4TB NVMe SSD drive, but is limited to 10Gb/s speeds, so it’s probably best for wireless peripherals and TimeMachine backups. #tech #Apple #hardware satechi.net/landing/n…

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:11:45 -0700

When it comes to #tech press, one thing bothers me above all else; high-end reportage that ignores the bulk of users. The vast majority of people getting a #Mac probably don’t even know what a virtual machine is, much less need one. Despite this, nerd journos almost exclusively focus on the much smaller professional slice of the market. #Apple #Journalism www.macworld.com/article/2…

In short, if you want to buy a new computer and use it like an average person, go ahead and get an M4 Mac Mini base model. Grab yourself a Samsung T7 external SSD in 1 or 2TB capacity, and rest easy that your $700+ will last you for years to come. The M4 is a little terror that sips power. Your email, messaging, social media, and streaming sessions will be just fine.

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:48:18 -0700

Miffed by the power button of the new #Apple #M4 #MacMini? You’re likely a disgruntled PC user who is accustomed to having to reboot your machine frequently and are being enticed by the micro machine’s diminutive allure. Primarily, anyone who’s used a Mac for any time knows they almost never need to touch the damned thing. Sleep mode consumes an almost non-existent 1.6W of power. I reboot mine about once every 3-4 weeks. #tech #ButtonGate boingboing.net/2024/11/1…

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 22:36:54 -0700

#Apple has an issue with positioning itself for decades in the premium market, and while they do make excellent systems, they’re starting to pay the price. It shows in the fact that Apple has apparently loosened strictures on aggressive sale pricing from retailers (e.g., #Walmart’s $650 M1 MacBook Air, #Amazon’s regular steep price drops). Now they’ve stopped making new Vision Pro VR devices but are not exiting the space. #Technology glassalmanac.com/tim-cook-…

Mastering the macOS Menu Bar

Sun, 19 May 2024 20:36:35 -0700

I came across the following article on Apple Insider a few days ago and was initially enthused. I'd recently written a quick guide to a freeware tool for the Mac called Spaced and was hoping to find some more gems to get my menu bar under even more control. It turned out to be little more than an advertisement for Bartender, a paid app.

So, I've decided to write my own guide instead and this post has no paid anything. It's all freeware.

Using the basic menu bar

The macOS menu bar already has some in-built functionality for management of the icons added by the system, and many apps add icons to the menu bar upon installation. Let's run through the basics first, then we'll get into adding freeware to help you add some additional functions.

Moving icons

CMD+CLICK on the icon you want to move. The icon will dim and stick to your mouse pointer.

Drag the icon to the position you want it to stay. Like the Dock, the other icons will make room as you move the icon around, giving you space to drop it.

Release the mouse button.

The vast majority of menu bar icons can be organized in this way, but some are reserved by the system. Those are Control Center, Siri, and Date & Time. Those three always remain all the way to the right end of the menu bar.

Removing icons

CMD+CLICK on the icon you want to remove. The icon will dim and stick to your mouse pointer.

Drag it away from the menu bar.

When the "Ⓧ" appears next to the mouse pointer, release the mouse button. If the icon cannot be removed, you'll see "🚫" and it will jump back to where it was when you grabbed it when you release the mouse button.

While the menu bar does behave a bit like the Dock, it also does not. There's no Applications folder from which you can drag icons back to the menu bar. These functions are generally found in the options for various apps which offer menu bar icons or in the macOS Settings app for the various functions (i.e., wifi, Bluetooth, sound, etc.) Most of these, however, are handled by the Control Center which I cover in detail in the next section.

Editor's Note: It is both difficult to take screenshots of these actions and to find a "nope" symbol that is an emoji and isn't red or a very small wingding. Sorry if it looks weird!

Try to keep track of the apps that you remove menu bar icons for so you can turn them back on if you change your mind. You might also want to make sure that menu bar icon isn't actually helpful before you discard it. Optionally, you can remove it from the apps options panel so you've at least seen where the setting is should regret set in.

The Control Center

Apple knows that the menu bar can get crowded after a while, which I am sure is the reason they added the Control Center to macOS. On my desktop, it looks like this:

If you want to add a Control Center item to your menu bar, simply click and drag it over. You don't need to hold the CMD key. Adding a Control Center widget to the menu bar does not remove it from the Control Center, so if at some point you want to remove it from the menu bar, it will remain avaiable in the Control Center.

NOTE: You can also control the Control Center and where widgets appear in  > System Settings... > Control Center. Options are Don't Show in Menu Bar, Show in Menu Bar, and for some, Show When Active. There are also additional modules you can add to either location, such as Fast User Switching or Accessibility Shortcuts.

Unless I've missed something, that's pretty much it. So, let's move on to the next level... enhancements.

Enhancing the basic menu bar

You can buy a few utilities to make your menu bar more functional, but I'm going to focus entirely on freeware solutions. The first utility is one I've already written about. You can find details about that utility in the following post:

In short, you combine the menu bar's in-built organization features with the clonable spacers of Spaced to effectively replicate Bartender's most visible feature.

Hiding menu bar items

Next we have Hidden Bar from Dwarves Foundation. Not only is it rated 4.5, #40 on the top 100 utilities list, and an Editor's Choice, it's entirely free. It's also simple to use, as illustrated in the image below.

Using what you learned earlier about how to move icons around the menu bar, any icons you place to the left of the widget will be hidden away, either automatically after a set time or manually. The settings are as follows:

Start Hidden Bar when I log in - The standard fare for utilities. This option launched the utility when you boot or reboot your machine so it's always running.

Show preferences on launch - This is helpful while you're getting it set up. You can uncheck this when you're ready.

TIP: To access the Preferences when you've disabled this option, right click on the section bar "|" when Hidden Bar is expanded. You can also toggle the auto collapse feature and quit the app entirely from this menu.

Use the full menu bar on expanding - I'd suggest you leave this off. When on, instead of expanding in the background and still showing the active app's menus, it switches to Hidden Bar's menu giving more room for more icons since Hidden Bar only has one menu. I presume this is helpful is you have a ludicrous number of icons on the menu bar, your apps have lots of menus, or you are using a MacBook Pro with a notch, none of which I have, so I can't say.

Enable always hidden section - Unless you have icons you rarely need to access or see, you can leave this off. If you can, it's better to just turn off the menu bar option for these apps or utilities. When enabled, however, an additional section is added to the Hidden Bar area, as shown in the image below. Any icons moved to this section appear when you right-click the icon.

NOTE: Right clicking the Hidden Bar icon acts as a toggle between showing and hiding the Always Hidden section.

Automatically hide icon after - You can choose from 5, 10, 15, and 30 seconds, and one minute. As it states on the tin, Hidden Bar collapses itself when you've left it alone for the selected period of time.

Global Shortcut - If you'd like to have keyboard access to the icons you have in Hidden Bar, you can enter your own shortcut but clicking Set Shortcut and pressing a key combination, i.e., CTRL+OPT+CMD+H. This works like left-clicking the Hidden Bar icon, but does not have an option for showing Always Hidden icons. Do note, however, that clicking Set Shortcut gives no feedback until you press keys.

And that's pretty much that. With two free utilities and the in-built menu bar management tools of macOS, you've basically recreated the functionality of Bartender.

Changing the appearance of the menu bar

As you might have noticed in my screenshot in the Control Center section, my menu bar doesn't look like the standard menu bar that ships with macOS 14 "Sonoma", and for good reason; it's not. That's because I use Lickable Menu Bar, a freeware utility available on the App Store. It's a simple utility that doesn't even bother with a menu bar icon.

The only thing this utility does is allow you select one of three older versions of the menu bar's appearance, and in my case I have a preference for the menu bar of macOS Mavericks. It's also rather self-explanatory.

When you first run the app you'll see the settings dialog above. Simply click the theme you like, and the changes are made instantly. Make sure to check the Launch at Login option for it to start automatically and uncheck the Show this window at launch option when you're happy with your selection.

If you want to make a change after you've turned off the dialog, just launch the app again and the setting dialog will appear. If you want to stop using it, you can either uninstall it by dragging the app to the Trash or uncheck the Launch at Login option and quit the app using the app menu or the "Quit" button in the lower right corner of the dialog. Easy peasy.

Some honorable mentions...

While the following utilities don't modify or enhance the menu bar itself, they do add useful functions to the menu bar.

WhatsOn - Now Playing [App Store link] - WhatsOn is a very simple menu bar utility that tells you what's playing in Apple Music. This is quite nice since the desktop notification doesn't last that long and Music may be minimized to the Dock or hiding behind another window. Clicking on it gives you access to controls and album art and details.

ClipTools [Website link] - This free utility from MacMost.com makes your Mac's clipboard into a powerhouse and, unlike the other apps in this post, this one is not available in the App Store. It remembers everything you've copied, allows you to save specific clips for quick pasting, and lots of other functions. The only downside to the utility is that it does not store copied images. So, if you copy an image and then copy some text, you will not find that previously copied image in the list of clips. If, however, you use your clipboard a lot, this is a must have.

The takeaway

The menu bar appears to be a very simple tool in a rich and capable operating system, but it can be much more than that. It's nice to know that there are plenty of freeware apps and utilities which can quickly enhance how the menu bar works.

And speaking of Freeware, I'll be adding more apps to my macOS Freeware series soon, and the next one will likely be one of my latest obsessions and the tool I am currently using the write my blog posts; Appflowy.

If you have any suggestions for additions to this article or other freeware for macOS please comment below. I read all comments. I don't get many, so it's not hard 🤣

Thanks for reading!

Spaced | macOS Freeware

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:43:45 -0700

I was a Bartender user for a few years. It was quite nice to get a handle on my Mac’s menubar. But I was paying $10 a month for SetApp and access to their library of around 240 applications and utilities. I could have purchased Bartender for $16 instead, but I didn’t. I paid SetApp $240 for two years to end up using about six apps.

That's not a value in my book.

So, I cancelled my subscription and started looking for an alternative, and I found it in the form of Spaced, an entirely free utility available on the App Store. Now, truth be told, Bartender is really nothing more than a menubar management tool that makes it easier to put your icons where you want them (mostly, as there are some restrictions imposed by macOS itself), add spacing, and easily hide items. I'm not attempting to diss Bartender, but it's way more than I need.

Spaced really only offers one of the functions of Bartender, adding space, hence the name. Now, macOS already makes it super easy to rearrange your menubar. Just CMD+Click on any item and drag it to a new location, excepting the Clock, Siri, and Command Center icons to the far right.

When Spaced is running you won't see it at first as it will appear as a blank space at the left end of your menubar icons. Click that blank space, and you'll get the menu from which you can select a few options as shown below.

The first thing you'll want to do after installing Spaced and launching it for the first time is go into Settings... and turn on Launch at Login so the app starts when your system does. If you end up using one of the visible spacers, you can select the Reduced Opacity option to dim them and make them less... opaque.

Following that you can start adding spaces by selecting the New item at the top of the menu. You can choose from a few options as to which kind of space you want to add:

Space - a single space

Tab - a wider space

• - a small bullet

° - a large bullet

| - a pipe

- - a dash

— - an emdash

Clicking the New item adds another copy of itself on the menubar. You can even click on any one of them and change the space for each spacer at will or add a new spacer. Once you've added a few spaces, you can CMD+Click to drag that space into a new position. Then just reorganize your menubar items into groups that are logical to you. I've arranged mine as shown in the following image.

Spaced is a very tidy little app, an applet if you will. It consumes no real CPU power and very little RAM within the context of Macs that can ship with 8GBs of RAM (and I have 16GBs on my M1 Mini 2020) as you can see in the image below.

PROS

Simple

Easy to learn

Free

CONS

The App Store version is only for macOS 14 "Sonoma". For an older that works with macOS 13 "Big Sur", visit the developers website.

CONCLUSION

Simply put, this simple app is the simplest invocation of simplicity. It does a single job and does it well, and all without fanfare or added complexity. Spaced may be free, but I find it's utility priceless, and if the developer wants to share their work with others, who am I to say no.

Apple's Notes cannot be exported, and that's wrong...

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 18:49:23 -0700

Ok, this is annoying. Apple Notes is a wonderfully capable notes app that allows you to bulk import all manner of rich text file formats, even entire Evernote exports, and organize them the way you like... with one exception. If you want to stop using Notes, you have to leave everything you created in Notes behind, or export them one by one.

I have over 300 notes.

This is not only annoying but terribly wrong of Apple. I shouldn't have to explain why. I didn't spend a few thousand dollars on Apple gear to lose control over the data I create. I have personal notes, drafts of articles, detailed project concepts, musings, recipes for loads of gluten-free foods, and a bunch more categories. And now that I'm not using Apple Notes anymore... er. No. That's not right. Now that I don't use Apple Notes anymore I am forced to keep it around in order to retain all that material I generated or saved from various web pages.

I am now using Drafts ($20/year on the App Store), also known as Drafts 5 for iOS and iPad, which has been around for a very long time, from what I understand. Using the app, I can see why. It's a powerfully fast and capable notes capturing tool that allows me to create a new note with a simple keystroke so I don't lose the bright spots of inspiration that, today, seem to fritter away all too quickly. In a 24-hour period I've already created thirteen notes with over 2,000 words combined.

There is, however, nothing I can do about all the notes I have in Apple Notes since the damnable thing won't let me grab them all wholesale. If I can offer any advice, it would be to not engage Apple's Notes app for any reason because if at any point you need to get them out, you will not be able to do so without spending a load of personal time exporting them to PDF... the only export option.

Unacceptable, Apple. Unacceptable.

---

If you enjoyed what you just read and would like to support be for $1 a month, click here for my Ko-Fi page.

Apple's Butterfly keyboard tragedy & potential e-waste disaster

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 21:17:36 -0700

Without official unit sales numbers from Apple, we have no idea how many hundreds of thousands of these machines are in the wild.

I am a life-long fan of Apple. Born in ‘68, I grew up in the thick of the consumer electronics and personal computer boom of the late 70's. Keeping to myself at times, loudly evangelistic at others, a shame-free Mac Ex-pat, reluctant Windows user for a decade, and always the staunch critic, my fandom runs deep. From my early experiences with Apple ][e machines, to all of the Macs I’ve had since, and arriving at now with the two Mac Minis on my desk, one an M1 and the other a last-gen Intel model, I have had my most satisfying and productive years on Macs.

Fortunate for me that I missed Apple’s Butterfly Keyboard era, then.

The saga of Apple's bad butterfly MacBook keyboards is finally over
After the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple has finally stopped trying to fix the butterfly keyboard on its laptops. After…www.theverge.com

In case you were unable to dodge that particular bullet and bought yourself one of these cursed machines, you’ll find the following link disappointing (In short, the deadline to participate passed March 6th, 2023):

In re MacBook Keyboard Litigation Settlement Website | Homepage
Welcome to the Apple MacBook butterfly keyboard class action settlement claims website. File a Claim, Key Dates, FAQs…www.keyboardsettlement.com

In a nutshell, the Butterfly keyboards on a range of Macbook, Macbook Pro, and MacBook Air models from 2015 to 2019 were atrocious (SEE: model list below). The fancy new keyboard failed far more frequently than the Magic keyboards that came before, and necessitated costly, complex repairs at Apple service centers to replace the parts, only for them to break again… and again… and again.

At first Apple tried to ignore the problem away, likely thinking they could engineer themselves out of the corner they’d gotten themselves into with later revisions. None of the refinements made any lasting change, however. In the end, Apple offered all owners free fixes for up to four years from purchase, and then settled a Class Action lawsuit brought by a group of very annoyed owners. If you qualified, you’d get up to $395, which isn’t much of a consolation after spending a few thousand bucks (or more) on a laptop with a terminally faulty primary input device.

Sadly, the debut of the temperamental technology also marked the triumphantly tragic return of a 12" model, it’s first since the PowerBook G4 12" from 2005. Because of Intel’s terrible low-power mobile chips of 2015 and the soon-to-be-unusable Butterfly keyboard, the 12" was doomed before it even had a chance. 2016 would see the Butterfly brought to the foundational 13" and 15" MacBook Pro models, and two years later would see the failure-prone keyboard shoehorned into a significant refresh of the very popular MacBook Air. Later in 2019, Apple would restore the Magic keyboard for it’s final Intel machines and in 2020 would roll out the first of their Apple Silicon machines.

The following is a list of models so you know which to avoid purchasing used:

2015–2017: MacBook
2016–2019: MacBook Pro
2018–2019: MacBook Air

SOURCE: MacsX.com, Which MacBooks have the butterfly keyboard?

What’s going to happen to all this potential computing power?

That’s the question, isn’t it? March 2023 is when Apple legally washed their hands of the whole affair. If you want the keyboard replaced now, you have to pay full fare of over $700… each and every time it fails. I doubt many will opt for this, and most, if not all, have likely already moved on to Apple Silicon models, now that Apple has nearly completed it’s transition away from Intel’s hot and anemic CPUs.

Apple still sells the last of the Intel-based MacBook Pros on Amazon for an eye-watering $2,800. And that gets you 16GBs of RAM and an anemic 512GB SSD, neither of which can be upgraded after purchase, unless you have god-like soldering skills, proprietary Apple parts authorization tools. In other words, no soup for you.

We can speculate. Some have likely been packed in a closet in a fit of frustration at having to replace a machine that should have lasted years longer. Others will put them up for sale on eBay or similar sites and pass them on to some unsuspecting sap or, with a disclosure, at a steeply discounted price. Others could be donated or given away. I imagine, however, that a lot will eventually end up in a landfill or an e-waste facility.

ASIDE: For the more creatively inclined, some might even be used to test gravity by throwing it out an open window. Also, please don’t. It’s likely illegal.

It’s a shame, really. While Intel’s mobile silicon consumes a lot of power, runs hotter, and offer significantly less run-time and performance when on battery compared to Apple’s M-series of chips (we’re now up to M3 as of October 2023) they are still very capable machines, that are only useful if you connect an external keyboard. It is patently absurd to me that countless thousands of otherwise functional computers where everything else works cannot be reworked in some fashion to facilitate many years of productivity they would otherwise not provide.

I dislike, however, dumping on stuff without offering some suggestions for how said woes might be rectified, so here’re a few off the top of my head:

Engineer a replacement keyboard for these devices that works on a more reliable technology. Maybe take some inspiration from gaming portables like the Game Boy, which uses conductive rubber. It may not type very well, but it will type.
Create an external case for the motherboard so it can be used as a desktop machine. Make one that includes the battery so it can be portable.
Retrofit the displays from 15" models so they can work as an external display. There are already kits for older 5K iMacs so they can be used as monitors.
Extract the Magic Trackpads, insert them into a case and modify them to work with USB-C.
Slot several of the same model into custom, vertical racks and use them for low-cost development nodes or clusters.
Repurpose a personal machine as a Plex TV server for your home. There are many options for vertical laptop stands on Amazon.
In fact, there are several tasks a closed MacBook can perform: 3D printer manager, Thunderbolt JBOD manager, print server, network firewall, file server, retro video game emulation station, jukebox, etc. Even as a Windows machine or virtual machine server.

A Mac is a computer, and computers are great for computing. To see the potential for many thousands of these machines dumped into landfills because they don’t have working keyboards boggles the mind. You’d think that Apple would feel compelled to provide more comprehensive restitution for the losses incurred by the buyers of these perpetually faulty systems.

Of course, that’s not what happened. I’d be shocked if people didn’t feel cheated by the now wealthiest corporation on Earth. Despite Apple’s compensation, they haven’t had to bear the burden of their mistakes, not when $50 million is a drop in Apple’s cash bucket.

All I can offer at this point is hope. Hope that clever peeps will step up and figure out how to make good use of these machines and share those plans with the world. Hope that the contents of these machines don’t end up in Chinese toxic e-waste dumps. Hope that Tim Cook himself might step up and direct Apple to devise their own solutions.

China: The electronic wastebasket of the world | CNN
Did you ever wonder what happens to your old laptop or cellphone when you throw it away?www.cnn.com

Now, wouldn’t that be something.

If you like my work, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi page. The only membership option is $1 a month and that will not change. You don’t need to contribute as I make all my content freely accessible, but it helps :)

It’s time to open source MacOS 9: An Open Letter to Tim Cook

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 21:01:18 -0700

The now legendary Mac OS 9 desktop, a refinement of what came before and the influence for today’s macOS releases. Even to this day, untold thousands, likely tens of thousands, classic Mac OS machines are being used & loved, traded & developed for. [SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons]

Dear Tim,

How’ve you been? Good, I hope. I’ve been watching Apple’s events and your production quality is just top notch. Serious kudos to your production team. Gotta love those drone shots and slick transitions :) I’ve also been tracking the transition to Apple Silicon and I’ve been impressed. I got myself an M1 Mini that I’ve very pleased with, so much so I bought one for my wife.

Having been born in ’68, I was exposed to Apple ][, ][e, and //c machines at school and the local Boys & Girls Club, though my dad bought me a TRS-80. I didn’t care. I loved it, even the ridiculous, clunky cassette player straight out of a kindergarten playroom to load programs. What I didn’t know at the time was that kind of child-like joy and excitement in reaction to technology would last my lifetime.

For my first Mac, a friend gifted me a PowerBook 145b, then later I purchased a PowerMac 7300/200 new, used a PowerBook “Pismo” for seven years thanks to a G4 upgrade card, added a top spec 15" PowerBook G4 for a few years, followed by migration to an Intel 15" MacBook Pro. For wide-ranging reasons, apart from a few iPads, I wouldn’t buy another new Apple machine until the M1 Mini, but that’s another tale…

My actual PowerBook 145b, the very machine that I made my first forays into cyberspace in the mid-90’s. My friend Seth gifted this machine to me and he’s the one responsible for that bomb ass dragon sticker. I added the Dilbert comic strip. Don’t judge me. I did it back in the 90's…

I still have my two oldest machines. To be sure, they’re in storage and I donated the good laptops to good causes when the time came, but I collected a bunch of other old Apple systems, as well. I’ve got a laundry list of machines from a boxed Mac Classic, a sizable selection of PowerBooks, a box full of Newtons of all models except an actual 2100, one or two PowerMac G3, loads of floppies and optical media, a confusing selection of accessories and peripherals and a metric ton of cables, connectors, and adapters of all stripe, classics like SCSI and Apple Desktop Bus.

Oh dear god, so many cables…

Tim, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t have a long list of deeply analytical or philosophical arguments on why you should open source Classic Mac OS. I just think it’s the right thing to do. However, in the spirit of being thorough, here’s a list of sorts which I hope you’ll appreciate:

I can’t cite the number of retro computing enthusiasts, but if the regular selling and trading of retro Mac gear is any indication it’s likely to be a large number. I doubt there are any stats like this, but it would be helpful. Overall, however, I think there are likely millions around the world who have actively worked to feed their nostalgia, most especially with the pandemic keeping millions at home. So, a lot of people. Probably.
Retro gaming devices are on freakin’ fire. One of 2022’s most popular mobile gaming devices was the Miyoo Mini. Yes, a $60 chunk of plastic that’s smaller than the original iPhone and can play most everything up to O.G. Playstation games. No it’s not a Mac, but it is one of the many indicators of the rush of people seeking connections with their past, nerdier selves. There are a lot of older Mac games that people still love, but cannot play any more. Video gaming is one category that Windows nailed down quite early, but the old Macintosh gaming community is quite, very alive and well.
Mac OS 9.2.2 was released in December of 2001. It’s been twenty two years. The healthiest option would be to let go. I mean, practically, there’s zero value you can derive from Classic Mac OS that I’m aware of, but I’m sure you’ve seen my name, so who knows. Rationality, however, suggests that Apple has zero stake in holding onto the source code for Mac OS 9.2.2 and earlier. On the other hand, there is a large number of peeps who have planted their fan flags in Apple’s past who would benefit greatly from having access to the source code.
Lord knows I’m not a programmer by any stretch, but I don’t think there are many modernizations that would need to be affected to Mac OS that would allow systems from the 80’s, 90’s, and early 00’s to work more harmoniously with our internet-connected world. Take the G4 Mac mini I have on my desk. The audio doesn’t work when running Mac OS 9.2.2 from RossDarker’s modified restore image built expressly for the G4 Mini. With the source, I don’t think it would take more than a day or two to compile a new Finder with the correct hardware support.
You could help inspire a new generation of creators and makers to learn from Classic Mac OS to see where we came from and connect that to how far we’ve come. Early success on Classic Mac OS would be a huge boost to hopeful coders of any age, but without all the stress and chaos that comes from interfacing with the modern internet, and all the baggage that comes along for the ride. Mac OS 9.2.2 is still a very usable system for limited internet access and any tasks one might have completed on a machine from that era. Writing is a good one… Yes, I’m biased…
It would be nice. There are a lot of ugly things in the world and 2023 isn’t a great time to be living, but we humans, we manage. And one of the ways we manage is to dig into hobbies and past interests. It makes us feel good, keeps our hands busy and our thoughts away from the woes of Planet Earth, at least for a little while. Not a lot of people do nice things for others. Consider this a low-cost gift to all those who have dedicated literal decades to your company. That’d be really, really nice. :)

What exactly are these people doing with these old Macs? Well, one answer to that is Sean’s channel on YouTube, Action Retro (linked below) followed by an example from YouTube.

Action Retro
Extreme amateur vintage broken computering.www.youtube.com

This is Luke Miani. He’s a Mac nerd, like me. He loves old Macs so much, he has a YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers. This video is from two years ago. How many views do you think this video has? Did you guess 1.6 Million? No, you did not :)

Now, if you want to get your retro fix, you can check out InfiniteMac linked below, where you can emulate Apple’s OS from 1.0 through 9.0. While it’s nostalgic and fun, it’s not entirely practical.

Infinite Mac
A classic Mac loaded with everything you'd want.infinitemac.org

So, whaddaya say?

Apple is, in part, its fans. Apple of today wouldn’t be the same were it not for the decades of active effort made in your name by millions upon millions of dedicated Apple fans. And yes, some of us are a bit more excitable than most, but I think that’s a positive.

You should bring back the Apple Evangelism program. Probably call it something else, though.

It’s been crystal clear for years that you prefer to maintain Steve’s course to keep tight control over the Apple experience, to preserve the intent so that the vision would live. You’ve done that, but MacOS 9 isn’t a part of the mural of Apple today.

It’s now time to let others see if we can make something more from it.

Sincerely,

Tyler K. Nothing

PS: When making decisions, please take human life into consideration as one of the first ideals and not the last. I think we’d all appreciate that. Thanks!

I've gone (back to) Mac & why you should, too.

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 13:00:00 -0700

" “> An overview of Apple’s technologically significant M1 chip architecture. Neato torpedo…

Back in 2009, I needed to have the CPU repasted in my MacBook Pro as it was running hot. Ill-advised in retrospect, I poked around Craig’s List until I settled on someone offering repair services that I felt I could trust. I spoke to him on the phone a few times, and we arranged to meet. I dropped off the laptop, we chatted jovially for about ten minutes, and then I went home.

I never saw that machine again.

I had been a contented Apple user since the (very) late 1970’s, but as the 2000’s wore on, my satisfaction had been whittled away by a range of issues like Apple’s pricing, the rise of the walled garden, and limitations preventing me from using non-Apple gear, of which I have a lot. As a working writer, the most pressing issue of the time, however, was that I had $600 to get a replacement machine so I could get back to work. It took me four years to save up the $2,400 for it in the first place and a used machine wasn’t going to cut it. I had no choice. I had to buy a Windows machine.

I started with an HP ProBook I picked up open box at Microcenter for $600. It was okay. After a couple of years it became nigh unusable for my Team Fortress 2 gaming, so I got another $600 open box deal at Microcenter, this time a Lenovo Flex 3 with discreet graphics. To its credit, my wife still uses it to this day. It’s slow as hell, but she won’t give it up. Not blowing a ton of cash on these machines, however, allowed me to save up another chunk of cash and, happy with Windows 10 at the time, I dropped $1,800 on my first gaming laptop, an Alienware 15 R3 with an 8GB GTX1060 graphics card. Despite all my research, it turned out to be something of a shitbox and now sits in a drawer with a dead battery that’s really hard to replace. So, early on in the Pandemic, I bought an open box HP Elitebook 840 G6 for way less than it’s street value. And yes, it was also $600. If you’re curious, I don’t have any particular affinity for the number 600, just hilarious coincidence.

Just don’t buy Dell. Period. They’re crap and only care about their enterprise & their hot XPS laptop, which they recently sabotaged with a hideous new industrial design. Typical Dell, am I right?

Now, more than a decade later, I have a new M1 Mac Mini on my desk, an iPhone 12 Mini in my pocket, and a 2013 MacBook Pro I got from a friend. Yes, I still have the HP EliteBook 840 (running the thoroughly disappointing Windows 11 which I’m planning to downgrade back to Windows 10), but I’ve barely used it since I got the Mac Mini, aside from taking the time to charge it up and make sure it has all updates. And it was an easy switch, as most of my tools are online, run from my web host or on my NAS, and/or have long been cross-platform. With a little practice I was back in the groove.

So, what prompted this sudden turn-around?

The first thing that caught my eye was the then new iPhone 12 Mini. I’d been an avid Blackberry user for years before migrating to the iPhone 4s, but when I lost my MacBook Pro to stupidity, I started trying out Android devices as they integrated better with Windows. Those early days were harsh, and after working through a range of Android devices, I eventually circled back to Blackberrys with BBOS 10 which had Android app support. I’m pretty sure you already know how that ended, which is when I bought my first truly great Android device, the OnePlus 2. Following that was an LG v30, then a Samsung A70, and saw that these things were getting too damn big. That iPhone 12 Mini spoke to me, so I bought one.

Just one month later in 2020, Apple shocked the world with the announcement of the first M1-powered systems. For the second time in years, I was excited for something from Apple. After ingesting an unhealthy number of YouTube videos issuing test after test illustrating the M1's astounding superiority and efficiency after having been held in thrall by the iPhone 12 Mini for six months, I felt it was time to dip my toes back into Apple’s newly inviting waters.

I pulled the trigger in early 2021.

There was more to my decision-making, though. I’d been monitoring the battle between Epic Games and Apple in hopes that the Cupertino behemoth would start opening up more of iOS. I’d also acquired the aforementioned 2013 MacBook Pro from a friend and was pleasantly surprised to find that it ran the then current macOS just fine, which reminded me of Apple’s legendary reliability and long life.

Microsoft had just rolled out Windows 10 to “correct” the Windows 8/8.1 Start Menu debacle and were doing all kinds of amazing new stuff. I’d come to believe that Apple and Microsoft had switched places, something like a Silicon Valley version of Freaky Friday (Phreaky Phriday would be an apropos title for the film). Microsoft’s efforts were exciting and full of promise, while Apple was building ludicrously expensive cheese graters, spending five years apologizing for the atrocious “Butterfly” keyboard, ignoring their other keyboard “innovation,” the TouchBar, figuring out more important things to remove, and not much else of interest.

Apple’s moneymaker was the iPhone and from the outside looking into Apple’s legendarily opaque operations, their mobile Golden Goose appeared to receive all of Apple’s focus. The Mac had been left to Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive and his bizarre, experimentally unnecessary proclivities, which are exemplified more by the removal of features that forced the creation of new revenue streams (i.e., AirPods, removing the wall charger from iPhone boxes, etc…) than the work-a-day aspects of technological evolution. When Steve Jobs called for the removal of the floppy drive from the original iMac, it was because he predicted that the CD-ROM drive would replace the older, slower, less capacious storage medium.

Steve Jobs was right…

Why did Jony Ive, Apple’s design chief, remove the headphone jack. Were people not using headphones anymore? Were headphone jack modules too big for their thin, innovative industrial designs? Were Apple’s customers demanding true wireless earbuds? No. None of these things were true. They did it because it meant they could sell far more over-priced AirPods and make a load more money over including a cheap pair in the box. And with the removal of the charging adapter, they outright claimed it would contribute to saving the planet, when it’s just another accessory being monetized and whose packaging adds even more waste to our overflowing landfills.

So, you might be asking yourself why, amid all this chaos, would I jump ship… again? I mean, if Apple is doing all this shady crap with their walled garden and taking a 30% cut of sales from the App Store and everything else, why would I again immerse myself into Apple’s “flawed” ecosystem after swimming in the warm seas of Windows for a decade? Well, for one, that ecosystem isn’t as flawed as it was in 2009. Two, it’s complicated for a raft of personal reasons I’ve already touched on. It hasn’t helped that, after a few years of reliable innovation, Microsoft itself has been sending mixed signals about their future plans, and those signals are confusing. They were doing phones, then not. They were doing ARM-based Surface tablets, then those shriveled up when their performance failed to meet expectations. They were going to bring augmented reality to the masses with the HoloLens. Where the hell’s that thing?

In my opinion, I believe that Cook and Ive had a disagreement on the ultimate direction of Apple after the six long years of the Butterfly Keyboard debacle, rising thermals from Intel parts as well as their inability to get past 10nm processes, and languishing sales that were at odds with Ive’s industrial design desires. All new systems essentially roll-back Apple’s design ethos to pre-2016 forms with the iPhone 12 cloning the wildly popular iPhone 5 and the new Late-2021 MacBook Pro’s sporting the new M1 Pro and Max chips recalling the look and, more importantly, most of the ports from the pre-Butterfly designs and ditching the TouchBar for full-size function keys.

I’ve long understood that corporations do what they do for themselves and their shareholders. Many of them recognize that being somewhat responsive to the needs of their customers and producing products that people actually want to buy is easier than… doing the opposite (ahem, Dell.) I’ve also come to understand that it’s all just noise. The industry is what it is, and until consumers actually speak with their wallets, something we most decidedly do not do, Apple and Microsoft and every other gigantic corporation will continue to do as they please. So, until we put our money where our collective mouths are, we have to base our purchasing decisions on something.

Instead, we must focus on who is making the most compelling technological innovations, the chip design that takes years and years and thousands of super smart people who know math and physics and science and programming, to offer the features and forward-thinking I consider when deciding which path I’ll follow. After Microsoft has effectively abandoned any semblance of a desire to innovate to focus on reliable, consistent revenue generation, the tea leaves say that Apple’s silicon will be the one to watch for the coming decade.

My desktop as of today, Feb. 20th, 2022, with labels. Kinda looks like a cockpit, no?

I mean, come on! I’ve got a $1,500 Mac Mini on my desk that can reportedly often match or exceed the performance of a Mac Pro “Cheese Grater” costing ten thousand dollars or more! The guys over at Max Tech on YouTube haven’t been able to sell their $15K Mac Pro while performing most of their editing on a 24" M1 iMac. It’s insane the leap in power and efficiency Apple has brought to the table, and they’ve only just started.

I’d be an idiot not to ride that wave…

Of course, I’m not everyone. I’m a writer with casual gaming tendencies. I don’t push my hardware that much anymore. Back in the early 00’s I was running a Citrix MetaFrame server in the garage office we had at the time. I’d tired of Windows and was running Caldera OpenLinux on my desktop, but still needed Windows apps to write Windows books and had $30k of Citrix’s enterprise software sitting around from a previous book, so I put it to work. Prior to that, I was using Macs exclusively, and worked on Windows material using Connectix’s Virtual PC. I’d say that at least 25% of my Windows-based work was done using systems other than Windows. Clever girl.

It’s hilarious that my wife found this as I am writing this article. This is an actual Beta 2 disc I used for my work on some of the books of the time. The server was running Windows 2000 Server, which was running the Citrix MetaFrame software serving Microsoft Office apps to my Caldera OpenLinux desktop system while I ran XP in Virtual PC on my PowerMac 7300/200. So very meta when meta wasn’t even meta yet…

Times, for better or worse, have changed, and so has technology. Whilst I remain an avid humanist and decry corporate efforts to commodify the planet and its contents for the lascivious pleasure and seemingly bottomless enrichment of the 1%, I do love me some sweet, sweet computer hardware and high-quality software. As previously mentioned, even after being separated for nigh a decade, I eased back into using macOS like putting on an old pair of comfortable shoes. All of the basics hadn’t left me, and I only needed to retrain myself on the lesser used functions involving shortcuts and modifiers. Windows did a number on me in that regard, but it’s all about getting stuff done and how little your OS gets in your way.

To that end, macOS is aces. Windows has gone through many significant changes in the last twenty years. Windows 7 was the penultimate exemplar of the classic Windows UI. Windows 8, however, decided to rip off its clothes and run through City Hall with a picket sign reading “Mission Accomplished” before getting tackled by cops and made to put on pants before Windows 10 came to bail it out. But even Windows 10 couldn’t commit to Microsoft’s own legacy, and now Windows 11 is breaking everything in order to be more Apple-like. Had you not use a Mac lately, you might think that this means Windows is ultra-modern and macOS is languishing in the past, but that’s simply not the case.

Using a Mac may retain the familiarity of classic System 7’s form coupled with the modern sensibilities of Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger” but it also contains a dizzying array of functionality improvements and new features. Apple simply didn’t see the need to change the basic conceit of the macOS user interface and user experience of its venerable OS. The Mac is both of the future while paying deep homage to the past. I’m inclined to think that anyone familiar with macOS of a decade or more ago should have a similar experience to mine. Microsoft, on the other hand, can’t even figure out what to do with their control panel items.

Today’s application climate does, however, play a significant role. I don’t think my switch back to the Mac would have been possible without the internet’s comprehensive shift towards web-enabled and web-powered apps. As Apple has been able to maintain a 15% share of the desktop market (which includes laptops) and a large percentage of Mac users are creatives, lots of apps are cross-platform. It also doesn’t hurt that the iPhone and iPad are both juggernauts of their respective markets.

All this exposition, for what again?

When all is said and done, what is it that I now derive from the new M1 Mac Mini mounted vertically on my desk that I couldn’t have gotten from my three year old 8th Gen HP business laptop running Windows 11? Peace of mind for one. Windows 11 is a mess. Just search for “Windows 11 problems” and you’ll find an endless slew of examples. Here’s one that Forbes just posted about the other day:

Cool, man… Click to read the article. NOTE: You get four free reads if you don’t already subscribe.

This might even sound familiar since it seems like the vast majority of Windows updates offer some kind of flag on the field that even Microsoft can’t predict before it ushers the baby code into the dark world of uncontrolled component drivers. Is it any wonder the Redmond giant wants to clamp down on hardware diversity? Apple has been doing it for decades, and their reliability numbers are significantly better than Microsoft’s.

That’s not to say Macs don’t have issues. They do, just far less frequently, at least in my experience. I generally go weeks without restarting my Macs. Windows 10 was good for a few days, but Windows 11 has been a near daily reboot cycle on the EliteBook (which has good driver support), mostly because of stupid errors, app errors, and persistent UI faults that won’t go away until you IT Crowd the damn thing. The worst I’ve seen on the M1 Mac Mini is easily fixed with restarting the faulty app itself.

I’ve got about fifty tabs open in seven tab groups on Safari, am running eight to ten applications, have a range of support apps running in the background, and it’s just peachy. It doesn’t get loud, like, at all. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the fan. It also never slows down, no matter how much I load up the system. Everything remains perfectly responsive and if there are any faults, they’re typically from an app’s services, poor coding practices, and/or lagging online content.

I’ve also not had to worry about legacy apps. Rosetta 2, the translation system that converts x86 code to ARM and back again (there’s a Bilbo joke in there somewhere) is seamless. Literally seamless. I honestly don’t know if I have any non-native apps installed. I might, and they just run. No popups, alerts, weird icon flags, or anything. I also haven’t had the need to use Windows virtualized. Sure, I had it installed in Parallels, but just to goof around in the ARM version of Windows 11. I haven’t fired it up in months.

(For the record, I just did so I could update it and I’m having to wait for Parallels and Windows to perform all their updates before I can start using it. The entire process took half an hour, not for lack of performance, but because Windows takes forever to get anything done. Even in 2022, Windows Update chokes on its own dependencies where updates fail on the first try because something else didn’t get updated first, and this isn’t limited to Beta versions. Super fun.)

What do you tell people about upgrading to Apple Silicon?

Just do it. Unless you use one or more tools that work only on Windows in an x86 hardware environment or are a PC gamer, just do it. You don’t need to spend $1,500 like I did, either. I got 16GBs of RAM and 1TB of storage space, but I always over buy as I generally get more years of use out of the expenditure rather than getting what I need in the moment. It’s also important to understand that with Apple’s new chip architecture you are stuck with whatever RAM and storage space you select at the time of purchase as those components are now integrated into the processor.

The vast majority of users will do fine with the baseline 8GBs of RAM and 256GBs of local storage. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back ensure that large, high-quality external drives are fast, and they’re way cheaper than buying more storage from Apple. Here are some additional pointers about getting (back) into the Mac in the 20’s:

There’s a rumored Apple Event coming on March 8th. Wait until then to see what they roll out. Any new M-series chips will be incrementally better than last gen parts, but it’s always best to get the latest hardware if you can. You will derive performance, efficiency, and feature benefits from the changes Apple makes to the previous iteration. Then again, it’s not always about the performance, but the value.
Regularly check MacPrices.net for updates on sales. It’s best to keep a tab open to the Latest Deals page. Base model M1 Mac Minis can get down to $650, which is a steal for a machine that will get official support for seven years and actually last longer. Seriously. Also, get AppleCare. It’s worth it because Apple makes it worth it. Be patient, and you can get open box deals for as low as $550. My Late-2013 15" MacBook Pro is officially supported to the previous major version of macOS. That’s NINE YEARS, of support. Windows 8 and 8.1 was out for only four years, three if you count the fact that Windows 10 was released one year before Microsoft ended support for 8.1 in 2016. Windows 11 was released six years later in 2021. As of yet, we don’t know how Microsoft will arrange support for Windows 10, which works on all PCs, and Windows 11, which is only supported on PCs with TPM 2.0 modules and a few other requirements. That’s not a good look, Mr. Nadella.
Do NOT buy any MacBook with a TouchBar. They were made from 2015 to 2019 and have the atrocious Butterfly keyboards which fail if you cough lightly or dust anything within ten feet (fifteen feet if the lid is closed.) The only exception is the 13" M1 MacBook, and if you’re looking at that, just get a MacBook Air. Apple replaced the function keys with a touch display, and then ignored it, so its effectively useless. So, unless you plan on using it as a laptop with an external keyboard or like replacing parts frequently, just avoid them. The article below gives you a rundown of which models to avoid when shopping for used deals.

Which MacBooks have the Butterfly Keyboard?
After introducing the Butterfly keyboard in 2015, Apple persisted with it for 4 years until mounting customer…macsx.com

Reflect on what Microsoft has done for you lately, or to you if you’re in a particularly salty mood, and recognize that these are all just computers that perform tasks for you. They aren’t pantheons or ideological camps, despite appearances. They’re machines and you likely need one to perform tasks. I suggest the Mac because of their qualities and benefits over buying Windows. With a Mac you know what you’re getting. With a Windows box, god knows what they slapped into that box, or how poorly. There are plenty of pre-built PC horror stories. Laptops aren’t spared, either, as manufacturers use a wide range of parts they could get deals on, even in the same model, often making driver management a maddening crap shoot.

I recently posted a piece discussing the lowly, but highly functional keyboard shortcut and the idea that keeping your hands on the keyboard is the key to efficiency, but it also serves to illustrate yet another core advantage Apple’s macOS has over Windows.

Are keyboard shortcuts really more efficient than a mouse?
As a Mac user, there is one very specific admonition from Windows and Linux users I hear frequently; too much mouse…tylerknowsnothing.medium.com

This is clearly my personal opinion, but I’ve found the Mac to be a solid, all-around, thoughtful computing ecosystem that has remained consistent for decades and reliable to a refreshing fault. While we may pay a premium, something that rankles to this day and I will complain about until Apple addresses it, you get a system that will last for many years longer than the competition. And if you care about such things, Apple products have excellent resale value, making upgrades far less onerous for your wallet. Then again, I’ve found it difficult to give up my old gear when the time comes for said upgrades. That could be why I still have a MacBook Pro from 2013 in active use and a load of my old Mac stuff in storage, including my PowerBook 145b, the machine on which I started my writing career

Apple Silicon is an evolutionary revolution…

Marketing and PR types like to sling the word “Revolutionary” around a lot when describing their marginally improved products. In many cases it’s pure hyperbole, but Apple’s ARM-based systems, starting with the M1 with it’s base, Pro, and Max variants are more than the sum of their parts. Under the hood it may be an ARMv8.4 architecture part derived from their iPhone processors, but Apple’s chip engineers have built a new architecture that leapfrogs all of the current work being done in CPUs.

Intel’s 12th generation Core processors are damned fast, but to achieve that performance they suck up a ton of power to get there and fall flat when unplugged. Meanwhile, Apple’s M1’s sip 30 watts of power and perform exactly the same plugged in or on battery power and can last a day on one charge. It’s not magic and they didn’t create new technologies the likes of which we have never seen before, but they did learn from their experiences designing and improving the iPhone. And all this after Steve Jobs had vocally denied having a phone in the works at all before gleefully announcing it on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center in January of 2007.

Those first iPhones used more standard ARM designs, but by 2010 Apple would roll out their 45nm (“thicc” in nerd parlance) A4 chip with a single 32-bit core that had been designed in-house. One decade later, the 64-bit A14 Bionic sports six performance and four efficiency cores built on a 5nm process with a quad-core GPU and a 16-core AI processor as well as a small constellation of support cores. The M1, derived from the A14 chips, can run for up to 18-hours in a $999 MacBook Air while still offering desktop-grade professional video editing functionality. If they can do that, I’m pretty sure they can handle YouTube videos and writing emails.

Some people would call these innovations a “sea change,” myself included. I think if Steve were alive he would be blasé about it, having planned for it years in advance. He was prescient about so many things, removed older technologies at the right time to push the industry towards adoption of incoming technologies, and kept everything he could as close to his chest as possible to limit tipping off the competition. When Cook and Ive took on his role jointly it became clear they didn’t share Steve’s deep insight, likely born of his relentless research into coming innovations. In other words, Jobs was playing 4D chess while Cook and Ive were still trying to figure out checkers, at least until Ive left Apple to start his own design firm.

Apple Executives Discuss How Apple Silicon Achieves Steve Jobs' Goal of 'Making the Whole Widget'
In a new interview with Om Malik, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and…www.macrumors.com

“Steve used to say that we make the whole widget. We’ve been making the whole widget for all of our products, from the iPhone, to the iPads, to the watch. This was the final element to making the whole widget on the Mac.” — Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple CMO

It’s clear that one thing survived Jobs passing, though; the plans laid to make the “whole widget.” Apple ditched the PowerPC because IBM was incapable of fabbing a part that could run cool enough for a PowerBook, and the move to Intel parts was just a stopgap along the way to said widget. As I spoke of earlier, the removal of the headphone jack to replace it with egregiously overpriced Bluetooth earbuds was an entirely cynical, capitalistic thing to do in the same vein as taking the charger out of the iPhone box and packaging it separately while claiming to be saving the planet, but really just creating nearly twice the landfill entrée per device sold through. (Pro Tip: You are allowed to change the box design, Apple.)

Apple’s secrecy strikes again. Microsoft suddenly flounders?

Back in the mid-2010’s, as Apple was spinning further and further away from the path Jobs had set them on, Microsoft was having a kind of renaissance with new CEO Satya Nadella who, with CPO Panos Panay’s emotionally engaging presentation style, sold us on a new age of innovation that would be issuing forth from Redmond. Windows 10 had a whole new Agile-based release process, they were working on the HoloLens Augmented Reality glasses, and talking about bringing a new (not) phone to market. They showed off hot new gear in September 2020 like the (not a phone, per se) Surface Duo and the never-shipped Surface Neo tablet while the HoloLens moved upmarket as a consumer-unfriendly enterprise device priced at nearly $5,000.

Then in a November 2020 event, Apple drops a bomb; the all-new, didn’t-see-it-coming M1 chip slotted into the fanless MacBook Air and the fanned MacBook Pro 13" and Mac Mini. The surprise event seemed sufficient to push Microsoft off course, and they didn’t correct well. With their ARM-based hardware and software initiative struggling to keep its head above the water in the ankle-deep shallows of a calm lake, Apple’s successes with their shift to Apple Silicon effectively bullied their competition into handing over their floaties. But I don’t think this indicates that Apple has any real power over Microsoft, only that Microsoft’s efforts weren’t as thought out as we’d hoped. This is nothing new, however, as Microsoft has had issues keeping the lumbering juggernaut on its tracks for many, many years.

Apple Event
Watch the latest Apple keynote stream, and check out the archive of special event announcements for our products and…www.apple.com

As a consumer, the take away here should be that Apple is offering a well-supported, stable, secure, and capable platform that meshes extremely well with the tens of millions of iPhones and iPads that reside in the hands of Windows users, and Microsoft has not seemed capable of correcting course in a timely manner. I don’t think these factors will cause a mass exodus from Windows, but it certainly won’t help Microsoft maintain their massive lead over Apple in the installed user base.

I know this is a lot to think about.

I think the two most important things you should take away from this are that the Internet has had a profound effect on cross-platform compatibility and that Apple is doing some amazing things. Whether they will pan out in the future is only for the future to know, but from what I see, the best bet most of us have for a real value in computing gear has started to shift from the WinTel (Windows on Intel) industry towards the Mac.

Apple’s traditional marketshare has been 14%. It’s now 16% while Windows has been steadily declining, something that’s easier to see with a larger data set. [SOURCE: statcounter]

Of course, Apple’s not going to jump from 16% marketshare to overtake Microsoft’s 76% anytime soon, but the Cupertino company has laid the foundation.

From my perspective, that foundation’s far beefier than Microsoft’s for the foreseeable future. Let’s agree to meet up in 2032 to discuss.

PS: Let’s keep Ukraine in our thoughts. That sovereign country is being attacked by a thug who knows nothing but violence. I normally try to be positive and constructive in these postscripts, but this time is different. The Russian Kleptocracy needs to come to an end and the Russian people and the peoples of the former Soviet states must be freed from Putin’s mob-inspired tyranny of lies, murder, and police violence. Even the Russian citizenry know this is wrong. They’re out there protesting when they know they face violent arrest. Nearly 2,000 have been arrested already.

PPS: Be kind to each other. We can do it if we just try. So, try harder, for all our sakes.

iPhone cases & an important charity for Peruvian children

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 11:46:25 -0700

" “>

"posthaven-gallery" id="posthaven_gallery[1798102]">

Phone cases are a dime a dozen.

Well, not literally. They cost real money, but they’re available everywhere for all kinds of mobiles and at every conceivable price point. When it comes down to it, consumers will select the style and price that fits their circumstances and financial wherewithal. Hell, a lot of Chinese phone makers include a (cheap) case in the box that I’m sure a handful of people around the globe actually use.

When I received a press release from Illusion Photograph offering me a review sample of one of their phone cases, I told them up front that they should focus on getting samples to more visible outlets. They insisted, so I did some research and, after learning their story, acquiesced. They sent me a Route 66 case for my iPhone 12 mini, and this, in a way, is a review. So, here it is…

The case comes in a zipper lock sleeve, has a lovely print applied, is glossy, and fits snugly onto my phone. It has cutouts on the top and bottom edges to better facilitate edge swiping, and the button cutouts prevent unintended button mashing while retaining easy access. In other words, it’s a lovely, but otherwise unremarkable case.

Not exactly enough for a full post, but that’s not really the point. Here’s the email I sent Beatrice, the owner of Illusion Photograph and co-founder of the LivingHeart.co charity that illustrates the actual point:

Beatrice,

Tell you what, you can send me a case, but a case is a case. I’d prefer to profile you and your efforts to raise funds for Living Heart. Your words on your website are moving. I fear for the future and my heartache is endless as I worry for our most vulnerable, no matter where they live, how they live, or what they look like. A human is a human. Full stop. And yet we struggle to make any real head-way in human rights around the world.

So, sure. You can send me a case and I’ll give it a nod, but the piece will be about you and your work and your ongoing efforts to find yourself. I fight daily for the same thing, so I feel you.

Sincerely,

Tyler

As I believe I’ve made transparent (see what I did there?), they sent me a case for free and I was planning on posting a piece about their charity. What I would also like to make clear is that I’m doing this for the charity. My only hope is that people either buy cases or donate to the charity.

This seems like a good time to talk about the charity itself. This video, produced in 2012, pretty much covers everything you need to know about how your generous donations are spent.

Most charities focus on much larger targets with narrow goals, but what I believe are the core strengths of Living Heart are its tight focus on a small region of Peru, the education and nutrition of the children of those remote communities, the care to honor and promote local traditions (read: NOT colonialism), and the teaching of sustainable skills instead of just dropping off supplies. By not expanding outward in an attempt to serve more and more communities, the charity can focus its efforts and realize real change in these impoverished regions. Note in the video when they talk about donations of warm clothing they say can be worn underneath the culture’s traditional garb. There’s a level of detail and cultural sensitivity in that you don’t see a lot of.

I urge that you give, or buy a case or five, and/or tell your friends and family to give what they can. I’ll be donating the value of the case I received once I’ve got the spare cash because I think that’s not only fair, but a responsibility I have to my fellow humans on this ever-increasingly miserable rock.

No one has ever asked to be born who they are. We just get the luck of the draw, and these kids aren’t at fault for living in poverty, and by extension their parents. Society has a long, dark history of discrimination and segregation and classism in the extremes, and these Peruvian communities high in the Andes are an example of that.

I think Living Heart is doing something very important here. We should all pitch in.

Happy New Year…

Apple has jumped the shark

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 11:03:23 -0700

" “>

It wasn't long ago that you couldn't walk down the street without tripping over some new Apple rumor or buzz over the latest and greatest Apple gear. Now, it's all about the white noise we hear from the tech industry as a whole. Are we living in a politics-style news bubble, is Microsoft beating Apple at their own game, or does the Cupertino megalith have something up its sleeve that would make the ghost of Steve Jobs giggle.

I remember, albeit vaguely, when Steve Jobs rolled out the brand new iMac in 1998. You really had to be there to see it live, but I did manage to see it eventually. I was, at the time, an Apple "phanboi", Ever since my first Apple ][, I had loved Apple. I've had lots of Apple products. I drank the kool-aid, as it were. After all, Apple was just dropping new products like creepy old ladies drop candy on Halloween. The iMac, the PowerMac, then the shift to Intel and the advent of the MacBook. Then, like a bolt from the blue, the iPhone and the iPad. The computer industry was having a hard time keeping up. It looked like Apple had a crystal ball and the competition tried and failed to copy Apple's formula, but Steve beat them handily, time and time again.

Then Steve Jobs died.

I'm sorry if that seems harsh (you might want to have that looked at), but it did happen. Tim Cook was installed as CEO to shepherd along what was already one of the single most valuable companies in the entire world. It didn't take long to see that Apple did not have a crystal ball, though. What they had was Steve Jobs. That's because, despite all of his ludicrous flaws and foibles that are common to genius, he had a crystal ball in his head. He could see the trend-makers and beat the competition to the punch, but the one thing he couldn't do was teach that trick to anyone else.

Even with annoying British designer Jonny Ive at his side, Tim Cook has been struggling to define a course for Apple that still pops out innovations. There was no Steve micromanaging every tiny detail every day, all day long. So, they just plodded along and started to copy what others had done while chasing them. The iPhone got bigger. The iPad got smaller. The Apple TV added voice and games. The Mac Pro got more expensive. Every exercise that used to produce real innovation melted boorishly into iterative microchange with a premium price attached for good measure. Apple, in my estimation, jumped the shark around the iPhone 6s and/or iPad Pro.

While the rest of the industry has now long been hawking the 2-in-1 lappy nee tablet in full awareness that the tablet industry is tailing off, Apple still makes nothing more than traditional laptops. Where you can get a tablet that runs full octane Windows 10, your iPad Pro still runs tablet software. Grab yourself an overpriced Samsung Galaxy S8 and you can take it swimming, where Apple still slaps you on the wrist if you get their gear damp. If you want something hot and new in Apple products, just grab yourself the new MacBook Pro with it's amazing Touchbar, a video strip that replaces the function key row. huzzah.

And, of course, everything Apple does is promoted with breathless intensity. Every event is Bob Hope's presentation of the recently risen Jesus Christ atop a gleaming, floating cloud hovering over Trump's Maralago. Yet, there were few showmen of the same caliber as Steve Jobs, and Cook has not followed in his mentors footsteps. Nobody has. The only person in tech today I can think of who has a presence as compelling as Jobs is Microsoft's Panos Panay. Panos is a natural on stage, speaks in an unscripted manner, interacts well with the crowd, and is enthusiastically hyper about Microsoft's Surface product line like an amp cranked up to 11.

Now Apple rolls out a $5000 iMac Pro?! Is this Apple's response to Microsoft's astonishing, if subtly flawed, Surface Pro? I'm not going to dig into the world of pain that is Intel's i9 X-series multicore mega parts clusterfuck, but Apple has bought in completely. The stupid thing is that the X-series gear is designed for enthusiasts (sorta, more cobbled, but then I'm quibbling) and is meant to be built, not presented. Apple "presents" gear. You are meant to take it as it comes, use it as long as you can, and replace it with another steeply overpriced gadget they've breathlessly announced. In a sense, Apple is lucky that the mobile phone blew up, since that kind of gear is right up their alley.

None of this bodes well for a company that has long been playing at the edges of marketshare. I don't mean to suggest that Apple will go away. Far from it, but it does risk sliding back into the same tasteless, colorless mire it did when they first lost Steve Jobs. It's a fascinating history and if you don't know it, go look it up. You'll be amazed.

TL;DR - Steve brought in former Pepsi head John Scully to make corporate things work better after Apple's early success with the Apple ][. Following the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 and after a lot of grief in the executive suites later, the board votes to fire Steve and put Scully in the CEO spot to replace Mark Markkula (yeah, Steve wasn't CEO). Steve goes off to found NeXT and Pixar, while Mike "The Diesel" Spindler was screwing up Apple's next gen OS and mobile aspirations. This led to Gil Amelio signing his own pink slip by suggesting Apple bring Steve Jobs BACK to consult. Then iCEO Jobs cut loads of fat from Apple's projects roster, started work on Mac OS X, ushered in the iMac, and began the road to making Apple one of the most powerful companies in the world before he died. Crazy, eh.

Yes, Apple has a huge share of the market in the iPhone, but all of the momentum they built over the years with desktops, laptops, and mobile devices is starting to catch the edges of reality and slow down. I don't think Tim Cook has much longer as CEO, and somebody needs to hand that Ive dude a severance check. His moody crap is really starting to bother me.

The stupid way to delete all photos from your dumb iPhone

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:55:20 -0700

" “>

So, I gave up on Apple a few years ago and have no ragerts. Apple has simply lost the thread of late and Microsoft is the real innovator these days. For the record, Windows 10 is the bomb and is far more functional than Mac OS X. Regardless of my enthusiasm, however, my wife Rima still insists on using her dumb ass iPhone 5s and it's admittedly sweet 8MP camera. She takes a lot of images, and that takes up a lot of room. She needed to archive the images she had taken and make room for a few thousand more.

But, ahem... iOS only lets you delete images one at a time, or a bunch, but you have to select them manually. One. at. a. time. How annoying, and terrible UI/UX design. Jesus, Apple, I thought you guys were supposed to be awesome at this.

Enough with the griping. Found out a simple-ish way to backup and delete all of your images. YMMV, since I only did this on an iPhone 5s with recent-ish software on it. You will need:

A PC with Windows (since I have no idea how a Mac will respond, and frankly don't care).
Your iPhone.
The USB cable.

It's likely you'll also need to have the iTunes software installed so you have the mobile device drivers for your iPhone, or this probably won't work.

Fire up the PC.
Fire up iTunes (maybe, maybe not).
Plug in your iPhone.
Open up Windows Explorer.
Go to My Computer or, if you aren't living under a rock, Computer.
Open up the iPhone drive that should be there.
Open the DCIM folder in there.

Now, at this point, you should see a few folders that have stupid names. These are the different folders you have on your iPhone in the Photos app. You can't delete these.

Now, open each dumb folder.
Select all.
Press Delete.
Watch them all go away.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, I suggest you copy these to your hard drive before deleting them, or you can MOVE them, which is kind of the same. If you don't, you'll lose every last one of them. In case you don't know, when deleting files from a connected drive, there is no Recycle Bin. It just goes away.

Poof.

So, take your time, be careful. Use checklists if you have to. Mind your surroundings. Keep your guard up.