Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

That's exactly how it works

It seems people like to fight against the laws of physics.

I had one customer come in saying the battery life on her 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro is not to her satisfaction. Duh - of course not! A Mac laptop with an Intel processor and a three-year-old battery is not going to have great battery life. Degradation alone (roughly 20%, I later found out using coconutBattery) will negatively affect the experience continuously. The laptop will never be as good as it were fresh out of the box. That’s just the way it is with any device that runs on battery - even that Tesla Model Y of yours.

On top of that, I found out the user prefers to crank up the display brightness to the maximum, with a dozen apps running concurrently. Sorry, even the laptop with the best-rated battery life will suffer under those usage conditions.

Another customer brought in a Dell Precision 7680 workstation laptop complaining of, you guessed it, adverse battery life. He said the battery was draining even when the laptop is plugged into power. Unfortunately, that is by design. That Precision laptop features a desktop-grade Intel processor and an Nvidia RTX secondary GPU. Meaning: it will run very hot and draw lots of power. So much power that the 240-watt AC adapter cannot supply enough juice under full load - hence the aforementioned battery drain.

You cannot buy a glorified gaming PC laptop and then expect excellent battery life. That’s like buying a full-size truck and then complain about the horrible gas mileage. Laws of physics remain undefeated.

I would like a better keyboard

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is happening right now in Las Vegas. The particular segment I always enjoy to read about is PC laptops. A bit of window shopping, you know? My daily-driver laptop is a 202116-inch MacBook Pro (M1 Max), and it’s interesting to see what the Windows side has to offer. Can there be a compelling enough PC product to sway me out of a decade plus loyalty to team Apple?

I am still waiting.

There is one component in modern PC laptops that I do wish Apple offered on its MacBook line: a better keyboard. As an often typist (see: this blog), a laptop with a solid typing experience is a must for me. After the butterfly keyboard debacle, the MacBook lineup has finally returned to a keyboard with good feel and reliability. I still have not found another non-Apple laptop than can match a MacBook for key-deck solidity.

What certain PC laptops do offer though, is better key switches. Mechanical keyboards are super popular these days (except for your office mates who have to hear all that click-clacking from your typing), and certain laptop-makers offer laptops with really thin-profile mechanical keys. My dream typing-focused laptop would be a 13-inch MacBook Air fitted with such keys. Most dreams never come true, obviously.

Other than that, I do not want for anything else with my 16-inch MacBook Pro that the PC camp can sway me over. The build-quality is absolute precision, the 120 Hz mini-LED display is bright and gorgeous, and the M1 Max still chews through everything I need it to do. Best of all, the battery life is unparalleled. In terms of performance per unit of energy, PC laptops have yet to be in even the same neighborhood ever since Apple switched over to its own silicon. It remains amazing to see that after a full work-day, there’s still half battery left on my work-issue M2 MacBook Pro.

I’ve literally heard users complain about the drastically reduced battery life when we give them an Intel-era MacBook Pro, whilst their Apple Silicon MacBook Pro is in service. Horrible batter life is a feature, not a bug, sir.

Day of updates

First world problem: it’s always a tiresome day when Apple rolls out software updates to all its products. Each one has to download its respective update, prepare it, install, then restart. The whole process takes about 45 minutes, during which I am deprived of functional usage. Thumb twiddling is a great exercise!

Of course, the real problem is I own too many things from Apple - that’s why updating takes so long. Not one, but two laptops (granted, one is from work). There’s my beloved iPhone, and an iPad. Two sets of AirPods (though these update whenever, automatically). An Apple TV 4K and a HomePod mini. Finally, there’s the newly-purchased Apple Watch, which oddly needs to be actively charging in order to run updates. These things all delightfully enrich my life, to which I am sure Tim Cook is very happy about.

But just a humble request to Apple: stagger the software updates to different days, for different device type. It’s such a chore to update all my Apple products at once.

What isn’t a chore is deciding to not upgrade to the refreshed MacBook Pros. The M3/Pro/Max chips in the new refresh may be two generations newer than the M1 Max in my current MacBook Pro, but functionally the delta is mere icing on the cake. The M1 Max chip still chews through everything I can throw at it, a testament to how great the first-generation Apple Silicon chips was and still are. There’s zero enticement to upgrade, not even the new black color. Truly gone are the days when I bought a new MacBook Pro for three straight years…

Let's get after it

I am definitely not a spring chicken anymore. Three nights ago - due to assisting a friend with Taylor Swift concert logistics - I got only about four hours of not-so-great sleep. Three days later, I am still feeling the effects, even though on subsequent nights I got the proper eight hours of slumber. Imagine had I pulled an all-nighter: I would be a wreck the entire week following.

It doesn’t help that I am returning to work today, after taking the prior week off. It was a rather eventful vacation. Barbenheimer happened: I saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer in theatres. Later on in the week I also saw the latest Mission Impossible movie (the seventh(?) film in the franchise). That is also a film I recommend seeing. Tom Cruise is still at the height of his powers; Dead Reckoning Part 1 is the perfect, prototypical action movie for the summer.

I’d plan to finally do a write-up of my trip to Angel Island a few months back, but my MacBook Pro took a complete dump midway through the week. $850 dollars lighter wallet later, as of this writing the MacBook Pro is restored and back to as it were before it died unceremoniously. This is a friendly reminder to make sure you keep solid, up-to-date backups of your computers. Other than the financial hit, it was otherwise not stressful at all that my laptop went down: I knew I have everything backed-up safely.

The aforementioned excursion to pickup my friend from the Taylor Swift concert at 2:00AM was part of a weekend dog-sit for that same friend. She had a party to attend to down in San Diego. I stayed at her place for two days to watch our dog. I particularly enjoyed the morning walks. Nothing will force you out of bed quite like being responsible for a pet. As an early-riser anyways, it was lovely and peaceful taking our dog out for a walk before anyone else have even woken up.

I for sure miss doing that this morning.

Emergency cash

It was an unceremoniously start to this week of vacation. The latest macOS update - 13.5 - released on Tuesday, and it utterly broke my M1 MacBook Pro. You know the part where an update asks you to restart the device? Well, my Mac laptop did not restart, could not be restarted, and generally become unresponsive. The sucky thing about modern Macs is that there aren’t much buttons to press, no secret reset handshakes. Just about the only thing to do is hold down the power button for 10 seconds, and then press it again. That’s all an end user can do if their MacBook Pro is dead.

Well, not exactly all. If you happen to have another Mac lying around (few seldom do, I would reckon), you can connect that to the “dead” Mac via the included USB-C charging cable. Download and fire up Apple Configurator, press a sequence of buttons on the dead Mac to put it in DFU mode, then maybe there’s a chance the unresponsive computer can be revived.

Fortunately for me, I do have another MacBook Air lying around. Unfortunately for me, reviving the MacBook Pro using Apple Configurator did not work. The macOS 13.5 release so completely broke the machine it necessitated a visit to the local Apple Store. Good thing I live two blocks from one.

Bad thing my nearly two-years old MacBook Pro is out of warranty. When a Mac laptop is dead like it is, it usually means a logic board (otherwise known as the motherboard on PCs) replacement. For a 16-inch MacBook Pro, that means a flat charge of $850. Not an insignificant sum, though for a laptop that costs $3,600 new (I had opted for some upgrades), it’s not really that bad. What sucks is that I am now out the $850, all because of a faulty OS update. Negotiation with the head Genius Bar person did not net me any monetary sympathies, just some personal ones.

Funny enough, the same person asked me if I needed a moment to think about the $850 charge. While I recognize it’s a hefty sum for some people, ultimately I need a working computer! Unceremoniously forking over that money hurts, sure, but it’s not going to wreck my finances one bit. I mean, you’re able to come up with $850 easily in an emergency, right?

Inflation is too damn high

It’s always funny to me when I see Mac laptops get discounted on Amazon (and whatnot). It’s funny because it’s sad I can never buy those models - they come with too little internal storage. It’s always the base specs that get discounted. 512 GB hard drive is hardly enough for what I’m doing. I custom ordered this MacBook Pro I’m typing on with 2 TB of storage, and it’s already more than half full. Because of this, I’m destined to pay full price for Mac computers forevermore (3% cash back with an Apple Card, though).

Not that I need a new laptop anytime soon. Especially not in this economy. Inflation is still very much a scourge. I recently reordered some skin care products from Amazon, and the prices have increased enough to give me lament. What used to cost in the $10s is now nearly touching $30. In the grand scheme of thing it isn’t too bad because I only buy skin care products once every few months. But man, the seemingly sudden spike in price still stings.

I always say to people that I’m lucky vis a vis inflation because I only have to support myself. A 2X increase the price of milk is not a big deal - there’s a limit to how much I can drink (challenge not accepted). Inflation must be really hurtful for people who have to support families. And it isn’t just groceries bills, is it? Everything have gotten tremendously expensive. Those supporting multiple persons undoubtedly have had to cut back in certain spending categories. Perhaps less restaurant outings (a single fast food meal is over $10 now), or buying more stuff in bulk when it’s on sale.

And they wonder why millennials aren’t quick to marry and have kids. One, everything is expensive. Two, many don’t want to give up the young-person-with-money lifestyle. The tradeoffs that come with settling down with kids is too difficult to confront. What do you mean I can’t travel anymore?

Utilitarian longevity

At work we deal with plenty of computers of varying vintage. A constant I’ve seen is just how robust Mac desktops can be. We’re still comfortably deploying machines dating as fast back as 2015! Can’t say the same about Mac laptops, however: those tend to get absolutely abused. Any MacBook Air/Pro with the dreaded butterfly keyboard returns to us fairly useless. iMacs on the hand, because of their unmoving nature, will simply solider on until Apple ceases support in the latest macOS update.

These days I’m all about functional things lasting a long time. Which is to say I’m trying to be the type of person who keeps stuff for an extended period, instead of replacing them with the latest new shiny thing soon as it is available. Today is as good a day as any to start. I’m still going to trade in my iPhone for a new one every year, but at least the old phone goes back to Apple to live another day for a new master. Last week I returned a pair of AirPods Max headphones, instead choosing to keep using a pair of Bose QC35 headphones that’s been with me since the mid 2010s.

There will be no computer upgrade for me this year as well. I’ve trade in for a new MacBook Pro for the past three years, and the trend stops now. I don’t care how awesome the M2-powered MacBook Pros will be this year - I’m not switching! This M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro costs a whole lot of money, and it is still plenty fast for my purposes. I’m looking to get at least five years out of this one. Besides, my general workflow these days involves nothing heavy: a browser to access the Internet is all I need, really. I’m typing this right onto Squarespace’s CMS!

The reason we can still deploy 2015 iMacs into the field is precisely because the typical user only needs it to access the Internet. Add in Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat to the mix, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. I reckon those iMacs can be of service for at least three more years. A decade of use! Now that’s longevity.