Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Minor update...

ANC is definitely not as good as the Sony earphones. Generally, more sounds get through (high and low frequency) and some sounds like hand dryers don't seem to be blocked at all, even though they should be the sweet spot for ANC. I'll have to see how they respond to the train/traffic but noticeably worse so far.

Mic/call quality, however, is a massive step up from the Sony earphones which are pretty much useless in that area.

So plusses and minuses. Might all come down to the audio quality which i guess is subjective.

Thanks for the updates! Would be keen to get your thoughts on audio quality for music. So far reviews seems to say they're ok but not fantastic. That doesn't really cut for a pair of £249 headphones

Aren't they meant to be about alround convenience rather than audio fidelity or perfect noise cancelling? Basically, everyday headphones.

Most users who care will probably have audiophile headphones and noise cancelling headphones for the specific times they need them.

As for the price. Meh. It's Apple. If your phone is >£1k with no phone jack, and the poverty spec headphones are £100, then £250 for the premium headphones seems a logic price point.

@chrisbmx116 thanks for the egpu advice. Ended up going for a 5700 in a Razor core x. Had a nightmare trying to get it working in boot camp, turned out the latest windows release fucks everything up so I have to hunt for an old version to use. All sorted now.

One issue I am having is I’m getting this weird input lag with my wired mouse while the system is under load. I’m not dropping any frames, the game still runs at full frame rate, it’s just that the mouse input stops for like half a second. This doesn’t happen with the trackpad on the MacBook.

Anyone had any similar issues?

If Apple decide/d to wait until June to release the 16" mbp (so it could launch with high-end Arm processors) what would be the implications for software and plug-and-play hardware like eGPU? What compatibility issues might there be? Or is that no longer a thing since Pentium II days. Is an eGPU bought today going to cease to function with a different breed of processor. Are developers going to have to rewrite software and roll out buggy updates to adapt? Presume not but if someone could see into the future and let me know, ta.

Yeah true. But since Apple joined the hifi game with the homepod, I thought they'd do a proper job with these as well

Has anyone had issues following the latest update on their iPhone. My phone and my daughters are freezing and internet connection seems to be failing. We had no issues prior to the update.

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Wahoo! That’s great to hear. Which model 5700 you go for?
Reg bootcamp- yeah last 4 windows builds have really screwed things up, for PCs too, hopefully they’ll sort it out soon.
Reg peripherals, assume it’s connected to the core? That can be an issue, I don’t have it with my mantiz due to firmware tuning/balancing but I hear lots of others do. Only real solution is connect to your MacBook sadly.

Impossible to say really, egpus do work with AMD equipped set ups atm, but...

What is obvious is that Apple's strategy increasingly doesn't involve backwards compatibility so it wouln't actually be surprising if lots of stuff stopped working. You can see this in action with lack of NVIDIA support and the introduction of the T2 chip to stop hackintosh and external devices.
What's quite possible is that the 16" (if it even is on the roadmap) contains a T3 chip which locks the machine down even further.

I posted about this a few months ago and again last week, I have the option to buy a high spec 2019 MBP (with a T2 chip), a 2018 MBP (lower performance but with a T1 chip) or wait for a 2020 16" (T2/T3 chip). I also run NVIDIA eGPU. In the end I've gone for a 2018 MBP and I won't upgrade the OS beyond HS.

You make some good points reg lock down but not sure they are doing it to kill off the Hack community (plus you can override / disable a lot of these things), I'm not so involved these days but I see no slow down or decline and the latest macOS looks to run fine on PC hardware.
Lack of Nvidia support is due to bad bloody from the whole GPU failing episode where Nvidia didnt feel it was their fault.
I'm hoping the 16inch is going to be a beast as I feel its time I upgraded to either that or the Mini when it gets its next spec bump.

The thing about NVIDIA support is that it was never officially there in the first place, almost everything has been a hack/workaround by the egpu.io community. At the same time, Apple has been countering with increased security in the form of the T2 chip. What Apple didn't need to do IMO was refuse to support older OSs on machines that contained the T2 chip whilst simultaneously refusing to approve NVIDIA's drivers for Mojave/Catalina.

This last point is critical - if you buy a machine today with a relatively small hardware change like the T2 chip, you are obliged to use Mojave/Catalina by Apple. You cannot install HS on a Mac with a T2 chip. So Apple has form here.

So when @CYOA says:

Are developers going to have to rewrite software and roll out buggy updates to adapt?

There's a pretty good chance that it just won't be possible to simply roll out a patch for many applications because it's not only a HW but also an OS change and crucially it's about the new way in which the OS uses the new HW. So a major HW change like a new CPU architecture is, IMO, quite likely to be problematic for many software applications, and not just for the obvious reasons.

Personally I wouldn't buy a new model MBP within the first 6 months of release because all the fanboi noise makes it hard to objectively evaluate any major issues like this...

Nvidia support was there... just not for eGPU's. The Web drivers were officially sanctioned releases, mainly for Mac Pros running Nvidia cards, but both companies were cool with them. The hacks by the egpu.io community were to do with getting Nvidia cards working in eGPUs and older (TB2) machines, something to do with something like PCI Tunnelling I believe.

Good call holding off buying any 1st gen Apple products, I shall try that...

The mouse is connected to the MacBook Pro through the hyperdrive connector. Which is plugged in on the right hand set of ports. I have the eGPU and an external ssd plugged into the left hand side ports. As far as I can tell there shouldn’t be any issues.

Only tested it while playing borderlands though, maybe worth downloading another game to test it on to eliminate that as an issue.

iPhone 11 Pro worth it? Need a new phone as my 7 is dying a slow and painful death and the price on contracts between a XS and 11Pro is like 7 quid a month extra

The camera seems like a big deal. If snaps are your thing, I'd do it.

Hmmm... then I'm at a bit of a loss...
Have you tried egpu.io? Think I remember folks mentioning having that issue.
Annoyingly the latest versions of macOS and Borderlands dont play well with egpu, I get 60fps with my iGPU and 1 with my Vega 56!

Airpods Pro update.

They're definitely getting better. Sound is warming up and separation is okay. They don't sound as good as the Sony's but they weigh half as much. They sound perfectly fine for what they are. I think most people would be super happy with the sound.

Connection wise, they're much better than the sony earphones. Because of the H1 chip, connection is instant and more consistent. The sony earphones ocasionally had to be disconnect and connected again due to the playthrough suddently dropping.

Call quality is also massively improved, both in the office and out and about. In windy conditions, the sony earphones completely failed to pick up and audio from the mics. In the exact same wind tunnel area by my office, my wife can hear everything i'm saying.

ANC is fine on a train / outside. It's still not quite as good as sony but it's not as bad as i first thought.

I think i'm going to keep them.

Which Sony are you comparing these to?

Wf-1000xm3

I’ve had them since they launched a couple of months ago...

Thanks.

I wouldn't buy a new model MBP within the first 6 months of release because all the fanboi noise makes it hard to objectively evaluate any major issues like this...

This does nothing to convince me I don't need to spend 10 times my monthly mortgage outgoings on shiny things urgently. :/

I'm pissed and have just survived a toddler halloween party so may or may not be related.

Thanks for the updates! I’ve picked some up myself and they’re in my ears now. I’ve got the 2nd gen AirPods here too and I’ve been getting on with them great, I like the convenience and they sound good enough.

Put the Pros in, good seal. Noise cancelling off – got that sealed up underwater sensation. Noise cancelling on – nice and open but sounds like it’s just started to rain outside. Transparency mode on – oh wow it’s really raining now.

So I’ve never used noise cancelling headphones before and I’m at home now so maybe it’s just too quiet, but how do people put up with the hiss? It legit sounds like the blank tape noise at the end of a cassette. Or the last whirring moments of a vinyl (Ah, nostalgia). Listening to an acoustic song now and that hiss is very audible. So what’s the deal? Are noise cancelling headphones simply counterproductive when there isn’t much noise?

I think my dislike for the bunged up feeling of sealed earbuds means that using these without the noise cancelling or the pressure release of transparency mode is a no go. Maybe I’m just sensitive to the hiss but I’m surprised by how loud the white noise sound is. I’m also wondering, is this just the hiss that is evident with all Bluetooth headphones and it’s so much louder because of the seal...

This is all a shame because hiss aside, there’s so much more detail and depth to the sound than the 2nd gen AirPods.

You deserve it BRO. Blaze a trail for all of us.