• apple,  apple //e,  lifestyle,  vintage

    Welcoming Home an Apple //e

    Apple //e with Apple Disk II 5.25-inch floppy drives and green screen Apple Monochrome Monitor

    From January 1983 to November 1993, Apple sold the Apple //e personal computer. It was wildly popular with consumers, educators, and even business professionals. Over the Apple //e’s service life, it saw no less than three major revisions – the original //e, the //e Enhanced, and the //e Platinum – and four motherboard upgrades.

    For me, it was my first introduction the world of computing and set me on a course to be a life-long Apple fan and IT professional. My parents bought me a second-hand Apple //e in the late 1980s as an upgrade to my first computer, the V-Tech Laser 128, an Apple // clone.

    After letting mine go, I still had a soft spot in my heart for the //e. And, while I no longer had my Apple //e, I remained a fan of that early computer and continued to count myself as a member of Team Apple // Forever.

    Now, years later, though the magic of the worldwide garage sale website that is eBay, I officially belong to the Apple //e owner’s club again. I am so excited to have one of these popular computers once more that I posted an unboxing and walkthrough video on YouTube.

    Welcome home little buddy.

  • apple,  imac,  ipad pro,  iphone

    2022 Apple Shopping List

    Source: Apple, Inc.

    Now that the holiday season has wrapped up, it is time to look ahead to the new Apple gear that I will be looking to purchase in 2022. By the looks of it, 2022 is going to be an expensive year.

    iPhone 14 Pro Max – $1,300

    Like clockwork, Apple is expected to release the next iteration of the iPhone, which we all expect to be called iPhone 14. This year, I am planning on getting another Pro Max edition. I would really love to have a Pro Max iPhone that is closer in color to the Blue iPhone 13. To my eyes, under my home and office lighting, the Sierra Blue of the iPhone 13 Pro Max looks more like battleship grey than blue under all but the sunniest of direct sunlight. In typical Apple fashion, I am expecting to have to buy at least one new Apple Leather Case, as the latest rumors suggest that iPhone 14 will have a different camera bump.

    27-inch iMac – $3,200

    My 2015 27-inch 5K iMac has served me well while I was using it for classes to complete my Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree. As time marches on, and software becomes more demanding, the Intel i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz CPU is starting to show its age and the display has developed a magenta boarder all the way around the screen that becomes visible with a while background.

    It is unclear at this time whether Apple is going to release a 27-inch iMac running an M1 processor or if it is going to release a 27-inch iMac Pro running either an M1 Pro, M1 Max, or M2 processor. Since the 27-inch iMac wasn’t refreshed at the same time as the 2021 24-inch iMac, I’m erring on the side of Colleen Novielli bringing us a new iMac Pro in 2022. That machine is going to be expensive. The only previous iMac Pro, an Intel Xeon machine, started at $4,999. I’m hoping that a spec’ed up machine for my needs, which, admittedly are not exactly in “Pro” territory, will be in the $3,200 range and come with a base model M1 Pro CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

    Mac Upgrade “Plan B”

    If a 2022 27-inch iMac or iMac Pro is released and the price is over my expected $3,200 budget, then things will get a little messy. Do I stick with my 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro? Do I trade that unit and my iMac in and get a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-core M1 Pro CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD? What about a monitor? Will Apple finally release a first party 27 to 32-inch display that is reasonably priced? If not, there is a good chance that a Dell UltraSharp 4K 32-inch display is in my future. Or do I skip the laptop all together and just go with a Mac mini or, possibly a Mac mini Pro? Either way, whatever I end up doing on the Mac front, it’s going to be expensive.

    iPad Pro – $1,000

    Last year, I tried to get Apple to replace the battery in my 2017 10.2-inch iPad Pro. I use that device all the time and the battery is showing its age. Since the start of the pandemic, the use of my iPad Pro has only increased. However, the Apple Genius I was working with said that they couldn’t replace the battery for the out of warranty price of $99 that is listed on the Apple website because the battery test came back stating that my battery was only degraded to 82% and not below 80%. The cost to replace the battery when it wasn’t below 80% was $599. I still love using my iPad Pro, but I call Tim Cook a not nice name each time I have to plug it in to recharge.

    If the 11-inch iPad Pro gets the same or improved Liquid Retina XDR display with 10,000 mini-LEDs with deep inky blacks, I will insta-buy the 256GB model with a Smart Cover.

    All the Rest

    For now, I am still very happy with my biggie HomePods and one HomePod mini. The mini makes a good kitchen HomePod, but the sound that comes out of it just can’t compare to the rich sound that comes out from my stereo pair biggie HomePods. I am also more than happy with my Apple TV HD and my Series 5 Stainless and Series 6 Aluminum Apple Watches.

    I would like to see a $2,500 Apple first-party display for ‘normal’ people, but we all know that any display that Apple releases that is not the Pro Display XDR won’t sell for under $3,000, which is a shame in my opinion. The LG Ultra Fine display has lousy reviews.

    I have long been waiting for Apple AR glasses, ever since the first attempt by Google with their Google Glass pilot which didn’t go too far. We might get our first glimpse of Apple’s long rumored AR/VR headset, but the rumored cost for that thing is in the $3,000 ballpark. Way too high for this year’s spending spree, so I’ll continue to wait for either the prices to come down on a headset or Apple’s AR glasses to ship. Oh, and the glasses should come with support for prescription lenses on day one. I’m not getting any younger waiting for all this marvelous gear to be released.

  • apple,  imac

    iMac G4 Turns 20

    My iMac G4 15-inch running Mac OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar (2002)

    This weekend, the iMac G4, lovingly referred to by fans as the iLamp, turned 20. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago we were using the iMac G4 at the office. I guess time flies when you’re having fun!

    Happy Birthday Lil’ Buddy!

  • blackberry,  blackberry os,  curve,  storm

    BlackBerry Legacy Services Go Dark Today

    Today, January 4, 2022, BlackBerry will be turning off legacy services for remaining BlackBerry-branded devices that are not running the Android OS.

    “[L]egacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, will no longer be available after January 4, 2022. As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.”

    The shutdown of legacy services for BlackBerry devices has been a long time coming. The transition from a hardware to a software company was first announced back on September 9, 2020 in a support note called BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS Services FAQ.

    I have gone on record on this blog as being a fan of the Blackberry Curve 8330 (Sprint) and the Blackberry Storm (Verizon).

    These devices, and any other BlackBerry running BlackBerry OS 10 and earlier, will be significantly degraded. The data on your device will still be there, but the ability to use BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, will be turned off. It is also important to note that 911 services will no longer work.

    At this point, it has been many years since BlackBerry sold smartphones running BlackBerry OS 10 and earlier devices. As a last-ditch effort to keep the hardware alive, BlackBerry essentially licensed the name and hardware keyboard designs to third-party Android smartphone makes to build and sell BlackBerry smartphones in limited regions around the world.

    If you are still using a BlackBerry smartphone impacted by today’s network and services shutdown, it’s time to place an order for an Android smartphone or iPhone.

  • apple,  mac os x server,  macos

    Content Caching for macOS

    Turn on Content Caching in Settings > Sharing

    One of the interesting features of macOS is Content Caching.

    Jesus Vigo, writing for TechRepublic, states that when Content Caching is turned on, the Mac will begin storing local copies of Apple software to speed up downloads to clients on your network.

    The benefit to you is that software updates for your Mac and iPhone, for example, will download to your Apple device faster. Without Content Caching turned on, if you have, say, two iPhones (persona and company issued), once cached, iOS updates are downloaded from the cached copy on your Mac rather than having to go out to the Internet twice. The more Apple devices you have, the bigger the benefit to you is.

    Some of the kinds of Apple software that macOS Content Caching holds, includes:

    • macOS and Mac Internet Recovery images
    • iOS/iPadOS/wachOS/tvOS updates
    • App Store app updates
    • iCloud photo and document cache
    • Apple TV screen savers

    The complete list of cached content is published on the Apple Support website.

    To enable Contact Caching, go to: Settings > Sharing > Content Caching = Checked

    Once configured, devices running Mac OS X 10.8.2 or iOS/iPadOS 7, will be able to detect the local cache server and use the content cache. If you are setting up Content Cache for a school or enterprise network, you should use a wired Ethernet connection for better performance. If you have multiple subnets or need peer cache repositories, read the macOS What is content caching on Mac? online Help article.

    Content Caching network map, Source: Apple, Inc.

    Since the internal storage space on your Mac is expensive (you can’t upgrade your disk after purchasing your Mac), I decided to use the Options button to pick a USB attached external disk and carved out a 32GB cache limit.

    If you are really interested, you can learn more about the Content Caching feature by clicking the question mark button in the lower right of the Settings window to bring up the macOS help. The plist file is /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AssetCache.plist.