Off Topic Apple Musings

[rsc204 21,815]

So this conversation kinda trailed off from the following post:

 

I've moved things to this dedicated thread, to keep things a little tidier.

18 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Frankly, I'm not going to get into that myself too much, until I can restore my dual-monitor setup once more.

This got a bit ranty, so skip on by if you like.

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After my partner started home-working in March, I let her have my second HD display so she wouldn't have to suffer her work laptop's small screen all day. I've got my eye on a pair of 1440p displays to replace my old 1080p ones, but I'm waiting for them to be the right price before I buy-in. Cue a completely waste-of-money need, to buy a Thunderbolt to DVI-D adapter, because Apple's drivers are too dumb to let you use a non-Apple display with a DisplayPort cable. It works, but every time a monitor sleeps (or you switch it off), you'll need to reboot the computer to get your display back. It's a well-documented issue too, which doesn't happen under bootcamp, so absolutely not a hardware limitation/incompatibility of any kind. Note I had the same issue, hence I know about it, with my 1080p display, resolved with a cheap TB to DVI-I adapter. But to go to 1440p, even though DisplayPort can handle it fine, I must use a DVI-D cable if I don't want my monitor on, the entire time my Mac is!

All because Apple want me to pay for Thunderbolt Displays, which cost twice the cost, second hand, 8 years old and with no warranty, of brand new similarly specced units! This would at least make sense, if Apple actually sold monitors, which they don't anymore, but they still won't fix the drivers. It's less the 50-60€ price (again 2nd hand, Apple won't even sell me a new one), of the adapter, but more the Fucking mess it's going to make spreading all those cables over my desk. Where I already have to accommodate two machines, two monitors, a USB KVM switch, external HDDs and more besides. Oh Apple, there are things I like, but so many things that make me wonder, who in their right mind would pay the asking price of your new hardware, only to put up with this crap.

Right now, having to do this by switching back and forth between my Mac and PC, is just too much hassle. Just like a lot of the things I use my PC for, once you've had multi-monitors, you just can't go back. Yes, I could just do this all on the Mac, but my Windows PC remains my SC4 playing/modding machine, I dropped way too much money on it, to ditch it for a cheap second hand Mac. Even if my day to day browsing and e-mail is as I found out, working better for me under MacOS, mostly because I use an iPhone and just love Continuity. But also, I am starting to value more and more Apple's privacy options.

 

[Propfam 2,289]

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Right now, having to do this by switching back and forth between my Mac and PC, is just too much hassle. Just like a lot of the things I use my PC for, once you've had multi-monitors, you just can't go back. Yes, I could just do this all on the Mac, but my Windows PC remains my SC4 playing/modding machine, I dropped way too much money on it, to ditch it for a cheap second hand Mac. Even if my day to day browsing and e-mail is as I found out, working better for me under MacOS, mostly because I use an iPhone and just love Continuity. But also, I am starting to value more and more Apple's privacy options.

I haven't know you're an iPhone user. I thought you might be using an Android but you don't. Awesome facts today! Thanks for info.

[rsc204 21,815]

7 years with Android, using a custom ROM and trying to avoid Google’s evil, I just got sick of it. I’ll miss my Sony Ericsson Mini Pro and it’s keyboard, touchscreens are hateful. But I don’t miss the OS in the slightest. The worst part for me, you buy an Android phone and the software just is useless within a year or two. I kept this mobile a long time, even repaired it when it first died. But it was becoming clear it's days were numbered, it was horrifically slow and just didn't really work anymore (software, not hardware).

99€ got me a like new 5S, and since then I just found it the most acceptable compromise. Give me a phone with a keyboard that’s useable and I’d ditch it tomorrow though. I happened to have a Mac Mini (2009) I had been running Windows on, which I was able to use under MacOS to pair with an iPhone. One thing I always disliked about Android was how you either sync it online with Google, or you don't synch it at all. Previously, every phone I had synched with my computer and Outlook in some way or another. The iPhone/Mac combination allowed me to return to this setup once more, without giving away vast amounts of personal data for spurious reasons.

Next thing you know, 9 months in, I’ve a 6S, a new Mac (2012 Mini), even an iPad too and I'm even happily using iCloud. I reached the point where I realised day to day computing is better on a Mac. But they don’t come close to a PC when you want to go beyond that. For no other reason, they are ridiculously priced for what you get, even if I could afford it, I would not pay it. My three devices, 2nd hand of course, cost less than 600€ and failures aside, will keep me going for hopefully the next 5 years.

If you’d have told me all this a year ago, I’d have laughed in your face and gone on an expletive filled rant. But, despite what some may think and my strong opinions, I always remain open-minded.

[Propfam 2,289]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

7 years with Android, using custom ROM and trying to avoid Google’s evil, I just got sick of it. I’ll miss my Sony Ericsson Mini Pro and it’s keyboard, touchscreens are hateful. But I don’t miss the OS.

99€ got me a like new 5S, and since then I just found it the most acceptable compromise. Give me a phone with a keyboard that’s useable and I’d ditch it tomorrow though. I happened to have a Mac Mini I ran Windows on, which just pairs easier with an iPhone. Next thing you know, 9 months in, I’ve a 6S, a new Mac (2012 Mini) and even an iPad and I even use iCloud. I reached the point where I realised day to day computing is better on a Mac. But they don’t come close to a PC when you want to go beyond it. For no other reason, they are ridiculously priced for what you get. My three devices, 2nd hand of course, cost less than 600€ and failures aside, will keep me going for hopefully the next 5 years.

If you’d have told me that a year ago, I’d have laughed in your face and gone on an expletive filled rant. But, despite what some may think and my strong opinions, I always remain open-minded.

5S is still usable though, even the 5 is still usable for most apps. Only certain apps that doesn't support. Yes, I do have Apple products here in my home: a 4th-gen iPod touch. Unfortunately, it's in a bad condition. I currently can't repair the iPod.

Side note: I don't like the current Windows though. It's buggy and the update system is very bad. I mean seriously, my laptop had to be "refreshed" (as in Windows dictionary it means resetting the system settings and states but not the data) due to the Start button can't be clicked for weird reason. I have tried to reset the permission and the bundled Windows store apps (Camera, Calculator etc) but no avail. And after reset everything went fine except for one thing: I can't open Calculator, Photos etc (bundled Windows store apps) anymore for again, weird reason. So, if I want to calculate something, I have to resort to my phone. Same goes to photos. I can only see them thru the thumbnail.

[rsc204 21,815]

12 hours ago, chfzdn said:

5S is still usable though

I don't really care for Apps, but in terms of the browser and general phone interface, I would have to agree with you. My original 5S was a 16GB model, which soon proved to be a problem, it was swiftly replaced with a 64GB one, but that was in a pretty poor state. I really love the 5S design, it's for me the nicest phone/portable device I've ever held in my hand.

I took the poor-quality phone because it was cheap, but I never intended to keep it all that long. I moved to the 6S mostly because my fat fingers made it so hard to type or input data on it, even though I much prefer the 5S design. I didn't actually want an iPad, I've not had a tablet since my Blackberry Playbook which I got for a bargain price new, died when I dropped it. I bought it for a very particular purpose as a gift for a family member, so we could communicate using FaceTime, since I have moved from my home country a long time ago. But in the end it wasn't necessary, so I got stuck with it, an iPad Air 2 WiFi + Cellular 16GB, again it's like new with a perfect battery, I got real lucky for what I paid. Honestly, I really don't have a use for it and may just sell it on, because I'd rather like my 180€ back. It's memory is so poor, even if I did want to use it, I can't really ever do so. I couldn't justify a larger (memory) model and when I bought it, the Cellular modem was an absolute must.

My original 5S went to my partner, who was using her Nintendo 3DS to watch YouTube in the evenings. But Nintendo failed to update the YouTube App, so when it stopped working, the iPhone made a perfect "YouTube Machine", which is literally all she uses it for. The very much intended as temporary 5S, I gave to my sister, who I think thought could hock (pawn) it at a shop for some money. I had a good chuckle thinking about this, because it's unlikely a shop would have given her £20 for it in the state it was in. I know this sounds a little bitchy, but I know my sister too well to think she really actually wanted it.

After buying the 6S, I had problems synching from iOS 13 with MacOS El Capitan, the last OS my 2009 Mac supported. Thanks in part to the announcement that 2012 Mini's wouldn't get Big Sur, I was able to find one for 200€, which is still very reasonable. I will stick with Catalina and where necessary for compatibility, with iOS 14, which work flawlessly together. I upgraded both the RAM and HDDs for the Mac, so I've a 512GB SSD / 2TB HDD Hybrid (Fusion Drive), which was a fun task. I even stole the 8GB RAM from my ThinkPad to upgrade the RAM on the Mac, it benefits from the extra RAM much more than the Laptop. I may in future get some 8GB sticks to upgrade to 16GB in the Mac, but I don't feel it's absolutely necessary. It really depends on how cheaply I can do it. I paid 60€ for the 2TB HDD, 90€ for a 5TB External HDD to use for Time Machine and it's for me at least, pretty future proof.

I really love Continuity as I mentioned before, I can copy paste between my Computer Phone and Tablet or switch which device I'm using seamlessly whilst doing a task. Perhaps Android can do this now, maybe Windows supports something similar, not that I really care, on a Mac it just works without thinking, so I'm happy.

Although it takes a lot of fucking about, I do feel like I can have a balance between what I am and am not willing to share, in terms of my personal data. I do not believe this to be true of either Windows or Android today, the illusion you can is there, but if they really respected this, why are these options continually reset by updates? I've not really noticed any such dishonestly on Apple's part and their policies are clear and straightforward. I understand for certain functionality to work, my data simply has to be processed. But, whatever I may feel about Apple in general, I do trust them to act responsibly and honestly with my data. After all, their business is not Data collection and they are doing quite fine selling over-priced hardware, even if I neither comprehend nor agree with it.

The beauty of expensive stuff being popular, is that the market has a glut of second hand products that for the most part, isn't all that valuable. Case in point, I bought an 11 year old Jaguar S Type for £1,100, which had really nothing wrong with it. Because, let's face it, who wants an 11 year old one, which drinks petrol (3.0l V6 engine, very heavy car), costs more to tax and insure and has the perception of being expensive to service? So back when Jaguar would sell not so many cars, this wasn't a big influence on the 2nd hand pricing. But the S-Type was one of the first cars they really sold in larger numbers, meaning there were so many to choose from 2nd hand. More than there would have been people who were willing to buy them, so they got cheap, very cheap. The reality was, in the 2 years I ran it, it was cheaper than my old 1.6 Honda CRX Del Sol, a lot less fun than a 2-seater cabrio sports car, for sure. But the Honda drank just as much fuel, cost only a little less to insure and parts were on average 2-3 times more expensive than the Jaguar. I never loved the Jaguar, it was just a comfortable powerful car, nothing more.

It's much the same with Apple products, take your time, do some research and buy in at the right moment, you can get a lot for your money. That Apple support their mobile devices and to some extent, computers, for as long as they do is actually a really good thing. Both my phone and tablet are up-to-date and the Mac has only just failed to get the latest software. But the bottom line is, this just works for me, so I switched to it. Just know, not everything is perfect in Apple-land, you have to accept many compromises in terms of what you can do with Apple products. In many ways, these restrictions don't particularly effect me, at least not enough to put me off. It's still unthinkable to me not to have a Windows PC available though. Similarly, it became clear very quickly, I couldn't accept running SC4 on my Mac, having ran SC4 well on PC for a long time, there are too many roadbumps/problems. The overall experience is just nothing like as good and if you are serious about modding, things are more long winded at pretty much every step.

12 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Side note: I don't like the current Windows though. It's buggy and the update system is very bad. I mean seriously, my laptop had to be "refreshed" (as in Windows dictionary it means resetting the system settings and states but not the data) due to the Start button can't be clicked for weird reason. I have tried to reset the permission and the bundled Windows store apps (Camera, Calculator etc) but no avail. And after reset everything went fine except for one thing: I can't open Calculator, Photos etc (bundled Windows store apps) anymore for again, weird reason. So, if I want to calculate something, I have to resort to my phone. Same goes to photos. I can only see them thru the thumbnail.

Honestly, it sounds like something is very wrong with your system, potentially you might consider restoring the Windows system or even a clean install of Windows. None of those problems, to my knowledge or experience are atypical of Windows 10. I had a test system running Win10 for about a year, I also had it on my laptop, but I just can not get past the IFKAM (Interface Formerly Known as Metro), i.e. the UI changes. More than with any previous Windows upgrade, every single task requires more and more clicks to achieve. The we can't replace Control Panel, but have replaced control panel is absolutely baffling. Years into the OS and settings are split between the two, it's a total mess that MS just don't seem able or willing to resolve.

Otherwise, it's fast, more compatible if anything and generally a good evolution of Windows. If I didn't need to tinker like I do and bought it with 100% compatible hardware, I might even be happy with it. But the move to MacOS means my system is secure for the coming years, so I have the freedom to return to Windows 7, which I really like and use for my Desktops/Laptop again. I prefer the idea of sticking with a given system, knowing my hardware works with it properly and it does what I need it to do.

Forced updates though, that's another thing I struggle to accept with any device. No one should be forced to update their OS or be unable to roll back, if their hardware and/or drivers can't deal with the change. Yet MS's strategy here with each new core change, is happy to consign more hardware to the scrap heap. The fact is, a Commodore 64 can still do everything it was able to do when it was current technology, you just can't expect it to run like a PC today. The same is true for all PCs, it's only when you push them to do things outside of their comfort zones, that you get problems. The upgrade-obsessed cycle for all electronics is a complete waste of time for the most part and rarely provides end users with huge tangible benefits. Word 2003 works just fine and I struggle to imagine what I could possibly be missing out on in later versions of Office.