Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Anybody got a spare keyboard and mouse and wanting some money?

"bare drive" meaning a drive without an outer fancy case. The one you linked to is probably a very cheap drive which might suit your purposes. The kind of drive that will rip Blu Ray costs a bit more. You might not need that facility. The OWC Mercury case is decent and you can fit a lot of different drives in it.

Yeah, that’s what I figured out (think I mentioned it further on). No need to rip Blue Ray, music cds only.
Thanks

Wired or wireless? Full size or nah?

Anyone got an old iPhone going ideally 13/14/15 ?

Got a 12 pro max with a new ish battery but a smashed up back panel if you’re interested? 100% working order, can’t see it in the case.

What you looking for?

250?

Wired, needs posting if available.

Cinema Display audio question, playing audio through the display speakers, but can’t change the volume on them, trying to change the volume does nothing, doesn’t make it quieter, or louder, just plays at the same level.
Any one had this issue? And/or knows of a fix?

When you move your ears closer to the speakers the sound gets louder, when you walk away from the Cinema Display the volume decreases.

Looking for a later gen iPod classic. Anyone still got one and not using it?

Do you have teams running? Sometime it hijacks the audio for me, and takes over system controls.

you are not gen z

I can pretend

Nah don’t have teams running. I’m going to restart and see what happens.

New Mac advice por favor

I've just celebrated my third decade and realise that my trust Mac has also now been with me 10 years. I specced it out when I was in music college and needed something relatively powerful for production. This has lasted really well. See below for the overview.

These days writing is my trade, of which the majority is on browser-based CMS rather than programs. The most demanding is if I've got several tabs and for some reason Apple Photos can cause it to crash occasionally, especially if I'm doing some minor edits.

But basically I use Chrome, iTunes, Slack, and Photos. No streaming (other than a couple of Youtube vids at lunch), no gaming. I haven't updated the OS for several years as I've got an old Word 2011 licence that I use and didn't feel like subscribing every year. And until now I've been able to get away with the old OS.

But I've now realised that Slack isn't going to play along any more which is essential for work. It comes as I've been thinking to get something newer for a while. I'm used to a 15" screen so would like this, but it could otherwise be a relatively lower spec. I'd also like to get a refurb but from an official site, so that I can put it on expenses.

Does anyone have recommendations? I'd rather keep costs down and don't think I'd need bells and whistles and all the other Apple gimmicks (like the touchbar), though I know that these are often unavoidable.

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Newish air comes in 15". Love my 11".
Depending on your office situation (on the go all the time, space for desk at home and so on) I'd go for the small one and a screen. Your back will eventually thank you. Or the big one, still very light and portable.
I found my M3 MBA at a big (European, sorry) online retailers return section for a really good price.

I've got a 2016 MBP with lower specs and like you say I find it still works pretty well for browsing and most things, even coding with VSCode and photo editing with Affinity. For the cheapest option... just keep it? You could upgrade the OS as far as you can (Big Sur for a mid 2014?) and see if that keeps Slack happy. If Word doesn't make it across ditch Word in favour of Libre Office which feels pretty similar to old Office, or use it for free on Office 365 via your browser. If you want to upgrade the OS further then I believe it is possible with https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher but I have yet to try this - my MBP is on Monterey which I think is as far as it can go so am expecting to try it at some point. Anyone here tried this?

My 16GB of Ram but otherwise stock 2020 MBA was being very slow today- surprisingly so, it’s normally fine with what I use it for most often.

Checked activity viewer? Backblaze decided it needed 90% cpu for me today

I have the same 2014 model.
I have replaced the battery once, only recently.
And I would recommend that you upgrade the OS for your use case. Big Sur 11.7.10 is as far as I've got.
As Sifriday says above try the libreoffice for word, and this is likely to be the cheapest option for you.

If your expenses line is really burning a hole in your pocket, others have made recommendations and I suspect erring to a 'air' might suit you more.

Thanks all for the pointers. I've been looking into it and upgrade to Big Sur seems the best (cheapest) option. I'll sacrifice Word but Libreoffice sounds like a good fix for that. Hopefully that will keep this in good health for a year or two longer, though I might still look into getting another machine in the new year. It would be peace of mind if this plays up, which would be a real pain for work.

I think I will go for the 15" option as I move a bit so would prefer to have the screen size wherever I go (though I'm saving my back with a stack of old magazines so I can work standing!). Seems that around €900 will be the budget for a 2019 MBP with 32 gb RAM and 512 gb SSD. I'm not that keen on the touchbar but that seems a given and it's not really a dealbreaker.

@c.h.e What was the EU retailer? I'm in Belgium so that could work for me. If I'm not in a rush I might also see if there are some better deals coming through at the end of the year.

I realise you may need to upgrade anyway for software compatibility but before you go spending out, uninstall chrome. It is mad intense on CPU and memory use for no reason sometimes. Our old iMac had become almost unusable and uninstalling chrome brought it back from the dead. Firefox is just as good imo and has better privacy. Probably.

Seems that around €900 will be the budget for a 2019 MBP with 32 gb RAM and 512 gb SSD. I'm not that keen on the touchbar but that seems a given and it's not really a dealbreaker.

You can pretty much de-activate the touchbar with some software ("Better Touch Tool").. but I really wouldn't get a 2019 MBP now (those are still intel-based, the last generation before the switch) - but instead save up a little longer if necessary and buy a refurbished 15" MacBook Air with Apple silicon.
It's not a lot more expensive, but much faster and more future proof.

I got one of those 2019 MBP, and they're great (and beautiful) machines - but note they really do get hot rather quickly (because of the old chip design, and because they're so slim),
also they're 16" - as opposed to the 15" of the air.. which is nice of course, but also it's 2.0Kg (versus 1.5Kg of the 15" Air) 💁