Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

AirPods 2nd gen / AirPods Pro -

do some of you have both or got the pro's after the 2nd gen, and can tell me which ones are better regarding the sound quality of the microphone?

As in: I would not be listening to music with them, not even making a lot of calls, but using them as a slick wireless headset for teaching - so only / most important thing is how well my voice sounds to others.

Ta!

Only had the Pro's. Anecdotally they're a bit crap as a mic.
I've had to call the bank a few times and whenever I'm using the AirPods Pro then I fail the voice authentication and have to jump through extra hoops. If just talking into the phone then it's fine.
Similarly a few other calls I've ended up removing the airpods and talking into the phone as people often don't hear properly.

Airpods Pro owner, no such complaints here about the mic. I regularly use them for voice calls, at least one call per day.

You might have a defective pair. Not sure how you can get them checked with the Apple Stores closed, but talk to support maybe they'll send you a new pair if you send yours back?

perhaps. the charging on the right ear has been a bit flaky - often doesn't realise it's sat in the case properly.
had them since Jan but Amazon are sending out a replacement pair in the next few days so that might be it

I’ve been using AirPod pros daily at work for last 4m - over last 2m probably doing 6hrs a day or calls on them. They’re great.

Hello all.

I’m after a MacBook Pro 13” 2015/2016, budget is £400 can push to £450. I know that’s tight but if you have one you’re not using anymore I’d love to have it. Also if you have any that are faulty I maybe interested

Cheers gents

I am looking for an iMac 27" for general computer duties...let me know if anyone knows of one..
Ta

Any recommendations on where to buy a new battery for a 2008 white MacBook? Will the cheap eBay ones be ok?

Yo - been posting over in the music producers thread - GF has just got a new Macbook Air - the base model. It appears to be struggling to playback tracks in Logic Pro X, with glitching under playback of relativly simple tracks her band has put together. We think the i3 processor may just be struggling. Increasing buffering and messing with other settings helps, but its a bit worrying to pushing it to the limit after 3 days....

We're thinking of using the 14 day return policy to swap out to an Air with the i7 processor with 16gb RAM.

Here is what I dont understand - upping the spec of the Air to i7, 16gb + 256SSD comes out at £1,450

The same spec Macbook Pro is £1,999

This is quite a difference considering the air manages to pack all that into a much smaller footprint. Why is the Pro still so much more expensive - what else are we missing out on?

Yo - the 13" Pro you can buy today (and its pricing) is pretty dated. A new one should be coming out very soon, this will probably be priced very similarly, but have much better specs (faster & more RAM / bigger SSD in base configuration, faster processor / more cores, etc.) so it will be a better deal.

That being said even the 13" Pro available today has much better graphics and thermal performance than the air, a better / brighter screen.. oh, and the fucking touchbar!

The difference in size and weight between the two is pretty negligible by the way.

Upgrading to an i5 or i7 will give you more cores (not sure how well Locic is using these), more RAM will definitely help.
From what I've read the difference between the i5 and i7 isn't really worth the money, obviously depends on your usage scenario though.
Google some Logic-specific benchmarks?

Thanks. She really likes the gold colour of her new air, but it doesnt sound like the new Macbook Pro in a similar guise is going to be cheaper, so I think we'll stick to the air. Interesting, maybe just stick to the i5, which saves some $$$.

Anyone have experience of the 14 day return policy - is it super straight forward? Will they be ok with a swap to a better spec machine? Clearly everything has been unpacked, new software loaded on...

The "i5"/"i7" in the MacBook Air and the Pro aren't the same thing. The Air is severely constrained by thermal headroom, which means it has to constantly slow itself down.

That said, if it's struggling on simple things that might be something else wrong. e.g. Have you just dumped a bunch of new files/photos/etc on it that it's busy reindexing?

Apple are usually amazing at returns (at least in store, which are closed). I've returned scratched products to them* and they didn't blink.

(* the screen on the some batches of iPhone X could be scratched by a light breeze)

Right. This all makes sense. The other day when she was working on it the fan was going full tilt, so it sounds like upgrading to a Macbook Pro is the only sensible move.

Frustratingly, the sensible option is to wait till the 2020 one gets released, then either snaffle up a 2019 at discount price, or grab one of the new uprated ones at her price point.

Sounds like MBP - i5+8GB and 256SSD would be ok, but 16GB Ram would be "nice to have".

The rumour mill says you may not have too long to wait.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/04/13-inch-macbook-pro-refresh-imminent-rumor/

Does anyone have Henge stone dock, if so do you know if you can use it without the power adaptor plugged into it and just use it as hub for plugging USB's etc in when on the go?

You'll be very very lucky to find a 2016 for that kinda money as that was the big refresh year.

And they're released...

Ha! So its just happened with little to no fanfair - not got the bigger screens some predicted, just better specs and keyboard.

So, just not sure whether to go with the base MBP model which is i5, 8GB, 256, or put the 16gb in for £100 more. Do people agree that the i7 upgrade is unnecessary given it costs £300 more?

Sorry for all the questions....

Returns are well easy, used it a few times. Can arrange UPS collect from your home address and it’ll disappear into the ether no questions asked, with a refund a few days later.

One anomaly is that the "four Thunderbolt 3 ports" i5 model is £100 cheaper than the two port model with the i7, and that's completely different internally with a much higher grade of processor (in thermal headroom terms), and it's 2 generations newer.

(models with higher spec processors do tend to run hotter and can burn through batteries quickly if you actually use their power, so it's not all upside)

Yep - all booked! The Air is going back and we've gone for the base MBP i5 just with 16BG RAM .

Great timing in some ways. Just wish my GF had involved me before buying the Air rather than only getting me involved after it started to not work right.

Feels a bit of a stop gap...

So what's the ideal specification for one of the Magic Keyboard MBP's?

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I’m looking at i7 with 16/512 @ 2k as a ‘can’t be arsed to go upstairs to the imac’ work machine.