Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

The fucking battery just died on my macbook pro 2017. It was working fine then it just turned off randomly yesterday, now it won't charge or anything. And of course this would happen in the middle of a pandemic when all the shops are closed.

My wife is looking for a new camera and is coincidentally at the end of her phone contract. I've suggested that the whizbottery in the fancier modern phones will get comparable results and save her lugging a mirrorless camera around (and save me having to pay for it). She's looking at the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

What differences are there between the two in real world terms? She's currently using an iPhone 7. Will there be a noticeable bump in quality from the 7 to the 11 / 11 Pro? She may wish to print some images in 5x7 but nothing larger and generally these are just for online viewing / phone / laptop / sending updates to grandparents etc.

Definitely a large bump in quality. If she’s looking for it replacing all camera duties, the 11 Pro has three different lenses (ultra wide, normal and 2x ) which will cover most things.

Apparently iPhone 12 (coming September) will also have lidar which will be cool.

I've just renewed my own after umming and ahing (pixel 4 xl) so would like to get something now so the billing date can be similar (both going out from a business account) and might be able to get some kind of second handset deal from somewhere.

But good to know a noticeable difference.

She used my spare A6300 for most duties and got good results but it bit the dust after a bit too much toddler action so I figure a good phone will get something vaguely comparable to 'Auto' on the A6300 but be much hardier?

There's a huge different in quality from the 7. There's something magic in the 11 generation (probably software) that makes them look like proper crisp camera pictures rather than phone pictures, even vs the Xs.

The cameras in the 11 are the same as the 11 Pro - it just doesn't have the 2x zoom lens. But that's a lower quality camera anyway (smaller sensor) so is far less useful than it first appears. If you use 2x in low light it actually crops the 1x sensor instead.

Going from an iPhone X to an 11 Pro the camera is about the only thing that I've noticed is significantly improved.
(and girlfriend has a XS and if she wants a decent pic she pinches my phone.)
Everything else was fast enough before and is fast enough now, but the camera really does seem a step up.

Could always take advantage of Apple having a decent returns policy and buy one outright from the Apple store and return if it's not good enough. And then get a sim free contract if it is?
But also, the iPhone 12 isn't far away etc.

The cameras in the 11 are the same as the 11 Pro - it just doesn't have the 2x zoom lens. But that's a lower quality camera anyway (smaller sensor) so is far less useful than it first appears. If you use 2x in low light it actually crops the 1x sensor instead.

That's very interesting, thanks. So cheapskate me is thinking possibly just the 11 rather than 11 pro.

Last question - mobiles.co.uk - any experience of them? Carphone warehouse saying their minimum price is 57 a month with 300 quid upfront compared to Money Super Market suggesting 35 quid a month with 400 upfront. Prefer lower monthyl costs even if they last longer / have bigger up front chunks. Could buy outright from apple I guess but prefer to keep things vaguely simple.

mobiles.co.uk

is just another part of Dixons/Currys/Carphone Warehouse

Have my current sim only deal with O2 via them. They're fine...

But also, it's pretty simple buying the phone from Apple. They do 0% finance via Barclays if you prefer monthly payments to upfront
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/browse/financing

I've done that too in the past and it's been easy (and often cheaper), and I prefer to be able to change contracts and phones independently

@CYOA this.

Just use Apple Upgrade Programme. Monthly cost for the phone, interest free and get to keep the phone or upgrade every year. Then get a cheap sim deal.

OK, sold. Cheers all.

The Apple Upgrade Programme is only available in person in store AFAIK.

Also if you do do the upgrade you're effectively being offered a ludicrously tiny trade-in value for a nearly new phone (9/20ths of its original price).

Ha, I was just wondering the same thing. They have some very cheap deals on the iphone SE.

£653 total two year cost for 128GB iphone SE, unlimited minutes, 6GB data.

There is something you can do at an O2 shop. Someone here may know more details. Basically you take a phone on contract and return it within the cooling off period. They then offer you the phone at a reduced rate. A friend has done this at least six times. I think the reduction is substantial. £900 phone for £400. I haven’t tried this myself.

Ha, I was just wondering the same thing. They have some very cheap deals on the iphone SE.

£653 total two year cost for 128GB iphone SE, unlimited minutes, 6GB data.

That's not mega cheap tbh.
If you buy the phone for £469 then you've got £7.67 a month for the contract.
SIM only then you've got plenty of deals around that mark for a slightly shorter contract
https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/

Not saying there's not something to be said for having one company do phone and contract, but it's often no cheaper

There is something you can do at an O2 shop. Someone here may know more details. Basically you take a phone on contract and return it within the cooling off period. They then offer you the phone at a reduced rate. A friend has done this at least six times. I think the reduction is substantial. £900 phone for £400. I haven’t tried this myself.

I've done this in the past, but it's not too common to find O2 fucking up the pricing to make it worth doing.
It's O2 Refresh deals where they split the contract cost between handset and airtime and you can cancel the deal and keep the phone during the cooling off period by paying off just the handset part of the contract.
Normally they weight it so that paying off the handset would be the same as just buying it new, but occasionally they balls it up and weight it so that you can pay far less to keep the handset.
E.g.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-galaxy-s9-64gb-o2-shop-refresh-deal-3336739

This goddam battery problem. The genius bar says it's £190 for a replacement, but all the Apple stores are closed. I talked to MR Apple repair shop, proper authorised place, it's £80 for a diagnoses, £215 for a new battery and £100 for labour, so basically £400 in total. Fucking fuck.

Get the Pro if you can afford it. A) It'll hold it's value for longer should you need to sell it, and B) I disagree with @grams the zoom lens is bloody handy. Better for zooming in on distant subjects (obvz), portraits, food etc.

You're right. Sim only deals seem to be much cheaper than I thought they were.

86yo Mother 400 miles away has just got a new iPAD Air. Has been using crappy Huawei until now. Trying to help her set it up. In hindsight should have got it sent to me to set up and post out to her.

Are there any free gadgets available which will allow me remote access? I came across Teamviewer which allows me to screen watch, but not change anything. Seems to get good reviews (when not being used by scammers). So could use that to talk her through doing stuff.
Anything else out there please?

Team Viewer is really good.
When connecting to actual computers you can also remote-control them, but Apple does not allow this with iPhones (and also iPads, as it seems) - so you'd have to call the person and then walk them through stuff, watching their screen.

should have got it sent to me to set up and post out to her

..also this 🙂

ha ha yes totally this! Cheers