Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Any recommendations on where to get battery replaced in my 15” Macbook Pro (Mid 2014).

Got a quoted £160 at my local Apple repair shop (battery and work), but if I could get it cheaper somewhere, that would be helpful.

I’m in London.

Thanks!

£160 is a bargain for a new, genuine battery, fitted with warranty tbqf.

It's not an official Apple Store (but they only repair Apple stuff). I thought the price is good but just wanted to ask for an opinion before committing.

From further research, it seems like £150-£170 in other places.

Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the input.

The battery on those is solidly glued to the top panel so the replacement procedure requires removing almost every component and peeling it off with solvents. That price almost seems too cheap for what's involved.

Checked ifixit. Quite involved to say the least

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2014+Battery+Replacement/90276

Wow 😅
Looking through the comments there seem to be a lot of people who prefer to skip most of that teardown though and "cut" the batteries off with string.. I'd definitely try that first.

Cross posting from the security thread in case:

For anyone who is using LastPass and hasn't seen their recent blog, someone has managed to access the entire database of encrypted passwords in a breach in October.

If your master password is weak or is duplicated anywhere, then they may have access to your entire vault.

Mine is pretty secure but it's still the last straw for me and I'm off boarding to Bitwarden and changing 500 odd passwords now that they've been imported.

Hmm, I got that email. FFS LastPass you had one job (and I pay so I can use it on mobile and computers too)!

Not sure if my master password is weak. If I post it here can you have a look and tell me what you think?

Thanks, been on Bitwarden for awhile now, so far it’s fine…

Anywhere I can get an M2 Air before Jan 16th with more than base specs? Tried an iPad Pro M2 as a back-up tool but just didn't feel safe transferring terabytes of footage (though was getting good speeds). Air seems a better bet but I have a shoot on the 16th I'd like to use it on and feel might as well top it up a bit beyond 8 core/8gb/256gb. I see a couple of places with 512GB ssd but that's the thing I need the least as it'll be passing through straight into a RAID.

Refurb store, or sometimes Costco

MR Systems? i got my studio from there same day when lead times were several weeks. they do big orders for agencies and often have a few spare ones in stock.
Ring them to check but i guess thats in jan now so you might get one elsewhere.

Jigsaw 24 / KRCS

They both keep stock of build-to-order Macs of all flavours, I’ve just bought some high-spec Mac Studios from KRCS, arrived next day.

Thanks all, appreciated.

Well after posting asking for battery recommendations, the backlight fuse died on my 2011 MacBook Pro 13”. Decided it’s time to upgrade. Spent the day trying to figure out if I should buy a 2022 13” MacBook Pro or an Air.

It’s confusing as the prices are very close for base models of each. Main difference seems to be screen and the the pro has a fan?

I would only be using it for web browser, YouTube, excel, and gaming in Steam.

Depending on the type of gaming obviously but my understanding from reading this week after a similar debate was get the pro if you want to do anything that requires prolonged computing (like gaming). I basically just want it for the dual thunderbolt, so an air will be fine. The fanless air can even do some light editing if I need to, but exports longer than 5 minutes will slow down badly and game frame rates will drop v. quickly, depending on what you're playing.

Thanks for the info. Gaming is nothing intensive, no modern games. My 2011 MacBook Pro managed to handle it.

In the Apple refurbished store there is only £100 difference between the same spec Air and Pro. Seems to make sense to go for the Pro?

The Air is a nicer computer in every way. I can’t see why you’d spend more to get essentially the same processor in a chonkier case with a smaller screen.

MagSafe alone is a reason to get the Air.

The M1 Pro will run two external monitors which an Air version doesn't which is annoying for me.

The Pro has a much beefier cooling system and can sustain maximum performance all day regardless of task; the Air will throttle fairly quickly if pushed.

We're talking about the base model M2 MBP aren't we? That doesn't have any external display capabilities over the Air.

can sustain maximum performance all day regardless of task; the Air will throttle fairly quickly if pushed

Let's add some numbers. This guy ran a synthetic benchmark non-stop for over an hour and achieved an 8% performance reduction.
https://youtu.be/VaFWUyMA3QA?t=670

If your 2011 pro can handle the games you want then you could always try the Air and if it doesn't work return it?

Beware that the 256gb storage models of the air and pro are said to have speed issues. People advise you to get 512gb as a minimum. I went with 16GB, 512gb in midnight - comes on 30th.

Apologies for cross-posting, but Mrs Sparky is getting rid of her old iMac. She bought it for schoolwork (she's a teacher) and never got on with how PowerPoint formatting changed when going to her work laptop so it saw veeeeeeery little use since new.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/382558/#comment16809816

Wow, thanks I didn’t know about the 256 vs 512gb speeds. I just been reading about it on Google.

So looks like MacBook Air, M2, 512gb, 8gb is the spec I want.

The best price I can find is Costco at £1,369.99.

£1,393 at John Lewis with 18 months interest free credit, if you want it.

I brought an M2 Air with 256GB and haven't noticed any issues with SSD speeds, as a fairly light user. Only gaming I've done on it though is iOS Ridge Racer and Pacman CE DX.