Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

The primary use of the iPad Pro 12.9" will be as a second display for my MBP 13".

A secondary use of the iPad Pro will be as a fallback internet as I chose the WiFi + cellular version and I will use the iPad as a hot spot for the MBP when required.

A third use of the iPad Pro is as a whiteboard...

I've ordered the Apple Pencil 2.

I plan to use it with Jamboard... so that I can have the iPad as a second display, but can also open a https://jamboard.google.com/ session on my laptop which I will share with video conferencing... and on my iPad I'll use the Jamboard iOs app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jamboard/id1143591418 along with the Apple Pencil 2 to do whiteboarding.

I think this will work well, as the whiteboard will be clear, shareable after the call, and during the call the video conferencing would leave people's faces visible as the Jamboard is worked on.

This is quite good if you want to stick your ipad to your macbook

https://tenonedesign.com/mountie.php

I have one and managed to use it about 3 times before our kids took over both our ipads...

This works really well.

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I have lost my Apple Pencil, eheu.

Random recomendation, I started using 'Amethyst' which is a tiling window manager for macOS - after it was discussed briefly the other day, i decided to see if there was anything that was a bit more like i3 these days than there was when i started using bettertouchtool.

Highly recommend if you are a fan of them from linux on desktop world.

Mojave via Parallels, how do you work?

Want to run some 32bit applications (read: Wolfenstein) on OSX, so am fucking around with installing Mojave via Parallels. Can't get it to work.

I tried: several OSX 10.4 iso / dmg files, jumping through the hoops with changing system date to 2018, turning off WiFi during install etc. - it boots up fine in Parallels yet then always says the installation medium is broken.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Parallels is for Windows isn’t it?

What's the fastest I can copy an SD card to a computer? I have lots of UHS-II cards and they always bottleneck being plugged into the internal iMac/Macbook Pro etc. 250gb takes me nearly an hour, but copying to my RAID over thunderbolt takes about 7 minutes. Is getting a thunderbolt SD reader going to be faster or is it still being hobbled by the reader itself, not the connection?

Parallels is for Windows isn’t it?

You can use it for all kinds of operating systems.

I’ve just received an email that my iCloud storage is almost full. 978MB of my 50GB strange plan. Apple are asking for £2.49 to upgrade to a 200GB storage plan. I had been thinking of a family plan as my daughter frequently runs out of storage.
Has anyone any experience of the family plan?
Should I upgrade?

Haven't used the family plan but 2.50 a month for safe backups of contacts, photos, messages, etc is a no brainer for me

Yes I use family plan, get 2tb for 7 quid which works for everyone..

Thanks. With the family plan, can you adjust who gets storage ie I may need more than my wife, or is it just an amount of storage which we all use?
Also, can everyone access everyone else’s docs, pics and music etc?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201060

Unless you actually share files/photos with each other you can't all access each other’s stuff.

Everybody shares the total space. But you can all see how much everyone is using so you can identify the data hogs!

It’s all just lumped together although I must admit I haven’t really checked out whether you can adjust for diff users. I like the fact I can access same stuff on all our macs...

That’s great - thanks to everyone for the advice.
Have a great day all!!

for safe backups of contacts, photos, messages, etc is a no brainer for me

Is it backup? Or is it just replication for convenience of access across your devices?

I'm not sure it is backup. Same for Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, etc.

Backup is immune from replication... i.e. accidental deletes replicate, infected files replicate... yes it may have version control or a recycle bin, but if you didn't notice the problem quickly you do lose the original files.

I think these cloud storage solutions are fantastic for convenience, and offer some safety over fat fingered deletes... but please don't consider them backup. Always have an external drive for that, which is disconnected most of the time.

Yes, very valid point. Tbh I don't even know if I can access a hard copy of images stored in iCloud?

edit: pretty straight forward

On your Mac Open the Photos app. Choose Photos > Preferences. Select
iCloud, then click Download Originals to this Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209454

Thing is though that should ideally be done weekly or monthly to make sure you don't lose too much in case it all goes to shit. And with Apples sketchy start with iCloud it might be a good idea to back stuff up elsewhere

..iCloud always struck me as being the sycronizing tool of your apple devices rather than an actual backup solution, to be fair they do primarily advertise it as such as well.

This is what apple sent today.

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I was always under theimpresion iCloud backup was that, a backup as loads of people dont have computers now so it can be there only means.

https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/icloud-syncing-not-backup/

I tried: several OSX 10.4 iso / dmg files, jumping through the hoops with changing system date to 2018, turning off WiFi during install etc. - it boots up fine in Parallels yet then always says the installation medium is broken.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Are you running Parallels on an actual Mac? What is it?

Just a quick update on my iCloud storage issue from earlier. Signed up for family storage plan and everything is working well.
Thanks to all for the advice.

Are you running Parallels on an actual Mac? What is it?

https://www.parallels.com