• apple,  ios 16,  iphone 14

    One Month with the iPhone 14 Pro Max

    October 17, 2022 /
    Silver iPhone 14 Pro Max (left) and Silver iPhone 14 Pro (right), source: Apple.com

    Last month I was lucky enough to have been able to receive my iPhone 14 Pro Max on launch day. After having lived with mine for a month, I wanted to share my impressions with folks who haven’t yet upgraded. In short, iPhone 14 Pro Max offers several quality-of-life improvements over recent Pro Max models. If you are still happy with the iPhone your purchased in the last couple of years, there is likely little reason to upgrade unless you specifically want one or more of the features I will be talking about in my review. If you are that person, you have probably already purchased and received your new iPhone too.

    iPhone Models

    For 2022, Apple has released four new iPhone models: iPhone 14 ($799), iPhone 14 Plus ($899), iPhone 14 Pro ($999), and iPhone 14 Pro Max ($1099). If you are looking for the latest and greatest features, you will need to turn to the “Pro” models. This year, I purchased the Silver (White) iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256GB of storage. I also purchased the Forest Green Apple Leather Case with MagSafe.

    The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, Apple is essentially applying some minor tweaks to last year’s iPhone 13 to give users a slightly better camera, a slightly better processor, and slightly better battery life all in a slightly lighter body. One big selling point is the larger non-Pro iPhone. Apple has replaced last year’s iPhone 13 mini with the iPhone 14 Plus. It’s just like the iPhone 13, but with a larger iPhone 14 Pro Max screen without the price premium. I’m sure that that the new 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display on iPhone Plus with be a popular selling point among iPhone buyers who just want a good phone without all of the extras fo the Pro models.

    If you are like me, you want all of the new features that iPhone and iOS has to offer, including the Dynamic Island, the Always-On display, the 48MP main camera, and the Apple A16 Bionic System on a Chip (SoC), then you have to look to the more expensive Pro models. For me specifically, all the features mean the Pro Max version of iPhone 14. While I will be discussing the iPhone 14 Pro Max specifically, everything here also applies to the iPhone 14 Pro.

    Source, Apple.com

    iPhone 14 Pro Max, just like the 13 and 12 Pro Max models before it, look and feel very similar to each other. And that’s fine. I prefer the flat side design element used on recent iPhones and the iPhone 4 and 5-series (2010 – 2013).

    The size and weight of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is essentially unchanged compared with iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The new iPhone is slightly narrower (0.02mm), slightly thicker (0.1mm), and has a larger camera mesa than last year’s models, meaning that you will need to purchase a new case. Most other accessories, including Lighting cables, MagSafe and Qi inductive chargers, and car mounts should all work fine.

    Dynamic Island

    The first thing you will notice about the iPhone 14 Pro Max is that the “notch” first introduced with 2017’s iPhone X looks different. No longer an extension of the top bezel into the upper region of the screen, the Dynamic Island is a black oval that is “cut out” of the screen. The Dynamic Island takes the space occupied by the sensor array that contains the front facing TrueDepth camera and the Face ID hardware and puts an iOS 16 wrapper around it. In effect, taking dead space on the front of the iPhone and making it more useful by using the pixels around the sensor array to provide status indictors, pop-up widgets, task switching capabilities, Apple Pay animations, and Live Updates (coming in a future iOS 16 update).

    Personally, I like the look of the Dynamic Island. It tricks me into thinking that I have more screen space. In actuality, there isn’t much going on between the top edge of the Dynamic Island and the top of the screen, but those pixels do light up, so there is an impression of more space. To my eye, the width of the Dynamic Island and the Notch on iPhone 13 Pro Max are the same.

    Widgets expand out of the Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max

    For example, if I’m playing music on my iPhone with Apple Music (the app, not the service) you will see a tiny album art thumbnail to the left of the sensor array. To the right of the TrueDepth camera, my output source, a pair of HomePods, is shown. The Dynamic Island does annoyingly seem to break the mental model of when to tap and when to long press objects to make things happen. To call up the Now Playing widget, you long press the Dynamic Island. When you do, the Dynamic Island morphs into a large widget that gives you playback controls. A tap of the Dynamic Island takes you to the most recently used tab in the Apple Music app. It has taken me a while to get used to this seemingly backwards approach. When you consider other actions on your iPhone, the long press to get a pop-up control is normal. Take the Clock app, for example. A quick tap on the Clock icon launches the app. Just like tapping on the Dynamic Island. When I long press on the Clock app icon, I get a pop-up of actions I could take, such as creating a new alarm.

    Long press the Clock icon to show a pop-up list of features

    In this regard, the UI for the Dynamic Island does follow iOS conventions, but it is my expectation that if I poke at the Dynamic Island, I would see the controls pop-up.

    On a somewhat nerdy level, I appreciate the effort that Apple’s software engineering team has put into creating Dynamic Island’s personality. The animations that give you the impression that it is growing, morphing, and shrinking is a nice touch of whimsy that for so long has been missing from Apple products. Old timers like me will point to a time in early Apple history when scribbling out text on a Newton or dragging an icon out of the Mac OS Dock would cause the poof animation to appear, Clarus the dogcow to appear in the Page Setup dialog box (she will be making a return in macOS Ventura out later this year), and the Macintosh boot chime. The fluid personality of the Dynamic Island will join the Mac smiley face that appears during Apple Pay transactions as modern additions to the list of whimsy that Apple is bringing back to their products after a long absence.

    Where have I seen that Face ID and Apple Pay icon before?

    The Dynamic Island is also the place where the new Live Activities feature will live. Laster this year, you will be able to get real-time information updates, like sports scores and ETA information for things like car services, food delivery, and flights. That’s all well and good especially if you want that information as it happens. However, I am taking a more skeptical view of this feature. I worry about the annoyance factor from apps and platforms that overuse this feature that can interrupt whatever you are doing on your iPhone.

    I recently ran into a situation on Apple TV of all things that gave me pause about this feature. I am not a big sports fan. Sure, I like the New York teams, specifically the New York Yankees. I wanted to get scores and updates on Arron Judge’s chase to beat the American League home run record set by Roger Maris. Once I did, I started noticing pop-ups on Apple TV while watching steaming TV shows on Paramount+ about baseball games. I asked Apple News for Yankees updates. I did not ask Apple TV to start interrupting me while watching Star Trek (which is more “on brand” for me than sports). After seeing that, I worry that I’ll start getting all sorts of Live Activities ads in the form of “updates” from news, shopping, games, and restaurant apps installed on my iPhone when I don’t want them. I could be overreacting, but I am already thinking about disabling this feature and only turning it on when I specifically need it. Stay tuned until third-party developers can start using the Live Activities features in iOS 16.1 due out later this fall.

    Always-On Display

    New on iPhone 14 Pro Max is the Always-On Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion. If that seems like a lot of marketing speak, it is. The key take away about the 2022 iPhone Pro displays is that they look amazing and now, they are always on by default. Apple has pushed its display tech quite a bit in the last five years since going to OLED panels on iPhone X in 2017. Five years ago, we had to be concerned with screen burn in that is common with OLED displays, like those found in OLED TVs. Now, with Apple’s custom software and hardware, the iPhone 14 Pro Max display now has a variable refresh rate between 1Hz to 120Hz. Being able to drop down to a 1Hz refresh rate, similar to the display on Apple Watch Series 5 and later, is what allows Apple to keep the display “on” all the time while conserving battery life.

    At first, I found this feature a bit jarring. I kept thinking that I hadn’t turned off the screen. Worried about burn in since 2017, I religiously pressed the Side button (Power button) to turn off the display when not using my iPhone. In the month of using my new iPhone, I have gotten used to glancing down and seeing the screen on without worry.

    New in iOS 16 is the ability to customize the lock screen. I have had some fun playing around with different lock screen configurations. I currently have four configured. Two that are NASA themed, the Weather lock screen, and a lock screen using a photo that I took at the beach that I’m quite proud of.

    When the iPhone is not actively being used, the screen will dim at about seven seconds, and will drop to the 1Hz refresh rate. While sitting face up on my desk, I need to tap the screen to put it back into an active state. While dimmed, for example, you cannot interact with things like the Now Playing lock screen widget or any notifications that come in. So now, it’s tap to wake up, perform an interaction on the lock screen, and then allow the screen to dim again. It is still very similar to tap to turn on the screen from other recent iPhones. If you prefer the original tap-to-wake behavior, you can toggle the Always-On screen setting in: Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On = Off.

    Also new in iOS 16 are lock screen widgets. With the stock iOS 16 clock screen widgets, I found myself just duplicating the information offered to me by the complications on my Apple Watch. After a little over a month of iOS 16 having been released, only three of my third-party apps offer lock screen widgets: Conrad Stoll’s Grocery, Marco Arment’s Overcast, and LateNiteSoft’s REC. Personal tastes and milage will vary. For me, I have not found myself to be a big fan of widgets in general. I like having the day and date single line widget at the top of the screen with the clock just below it. The one widget that I have found useful at work is the stock Calendar app’s double-wide Next Event widget. While walking around the office talking to people, I can quickly glance at my work iPhone see what time it is and where I need to be next. This widget helps keep me from being late to my next in-person or online meeting. As more time goes by, I am looking forward to more developers integrating lock screen widgets into their apps. For now, I still have a limited use of widgets on the lock screen and on the SpringBoard home screen.

    48MP Pro Camera System

    Let’s get this out of the way right up front: I would not even consider myself an amateur photographer, let alone anyone qualified to speak with any authority on the subject of photography. Pretty much everything that I know about cameras can be summed up by saying that the current model iPhone camera is the best camera I own and that it is the camera that I have with me all the time.

    With that said, I recently had a chance to take some interesting photos while on a recent trip to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I was shooting photos on both sunny and grey and rainy days.

    On iPhone 14 Pro Max, the main camera sensor is now 48MP, up from 12MP from prior years. What you need to keep in mind is that the new 48MP camera system is designed such that four light-capturing pixel sensors are, by default, grouped together in clusters of four, for a 12MP sensor system that can capture more light than last year’s model. If you are like me and take the iPhone out of the box and start using it to take pictures, you will get better low light pictures since there are more pixels soaking up light.

    If you are a professional, or presumably, an amateur photographer who understands the various modes and science behind taking good photos, you are going to be able to enable the Apple ProRAW photo capture mode and take photos in full 48MP ProRAW Resolution. I have no business shooting photos in this mode, but for my trip to the Cape, I turned it on to get an idea of what some of the differences will be for an uninformed user like myself.

    There are two important things you need to know about shooting photos in ProRAW mode: they take about 1-2 seconds to process before the stock Camera apps is ready to take another photo; and that photos taken in ProRAW format are large, meaning that you will be able store less photos than shooting in the standard 12MP JPG format.

    For example, a standard 12MP Main camera photo, equivalent to 24mm ƒ1.78 with a 9MP resolution of 4032 x 2268 is stored as a 1.3MB JPG file. The exact same scene, shot just a few seconds later in Apple ProRAW, is equivalent to 24mm ƒ1.78 with a 36MP resolution of 8064 x 4536 is stored as a 50.4MB file.

    Another standard 12MP photo, taken of a cranberry bog in Harwich on a sunny day, is equivalent to 24mm ƒ1.78 with a 9MP 4032 x 2268 and is stored as a 3.9MB image in my iPhone’s Camera Roll. That same scene shot in ProRAW seconds after the first is equivalent to 24mm ƒ1.78 with a 36MP 8064 x 4536 resolution and taking up 102.1MB of storage on my iPhone.

    If ProRAW images require more storage space and more time to recycle and be ready to take the next photo, why would anyone want to shoot photos in RAW format in the first place? Well, for most people, it doesn’t. I certainly shouldn’t be taking ProRAW photos. But, for folks who know what they are doing, and how to use the tools, the 48MP Pro Camera system on iPhone 14 Pro is a big step forward for the camera that’s always in your pocket.

    William Sawalich, writing for DigitalPhoto.com, provides a more informed opinion when he writes:

    “There’s no doubt that RAW files provide better dynamic range and more control, allowing photographers to make changes to color, contrast, sharpness and saturation after capture without loss of image quality, as if the changes had been made prior to releasing the shutter. That’s why photographers who want ultimate control and quality relish shooting RAW.”

    The thing that I found interesting about photos taken in 48MP ProRAW mode is the amount of detail you can see when zooming in on a photo I took of Aunt Lydia’s Cove taken in Chatham, MA. For context, here is the full frame image that I took.

    Aunt Lydia’s Cove, Chatham, Cape Cod, MA.

    Below are two examples of unprocessed images that took on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I used Preview to open them both side-by-side of illustrative purposes and then took a screen capture of them on my Studio Display for this post.

    Left: Zoom in on a 12MP photo. Right: Zoom in on a 48MP ProRAW photo.

    Zooming in on the boat that is in the center of the photograph, the name on the back of the vessel is muddy and hard to read (left). When zooming in on that same boat in ProRAW mode, the name Jakob & Megan is much clearer and easier to read. You don’t need all of the extra pixels to appreciate the photo, but if you wanted to get a zoomed in crop or adjust the colors of the photo, those extra pixels will be very helpful.

    Everything Else

    Aside from the marque features, iPhone 14 Pro Max is very similar to the iPhones Pro Max 13 and 12. You can see a full list of features between the phones using Apple’s Compare iPhone Models tool. Some other notable features include the second-generation optical image stabilization system and the related Action Mode video mode and the image processing enhancements in the new Photonic Engine. The two new safety features that any iPhone 14 Pro Max user will be happy to have and hopes to never use are Emergency SOS via satellite and Crash Detection. These new safety features are available on all four models of iPhone 14. The Crash Detection feature is also available on Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra.

    While I think it is amazing to think that the iPhone that is riding around in my pocket can communicate with satellites whizzing around the planet in space, Crash Detection will likely be the more commonly used feature. The Crash Detection feature uses data collected from the on-board sensors to determine if you were just in a sever vehicle crashes or rollover. Your iPhone will prompt you to request emergency SOS help. If you do not response, the iPhone will make an emergency services call on your behalf.

    Early smartphones, like the Palm Treo 600, taught me to hoard battery and data usage. While I have let go of miserly use of cellular data, I still fret over how much battery is left on my iPhone. This is one of the reasons why I get the Pro Max iPhone – I want the largest battery available in an iPhone to make sure I get through day and get back home before having to activate Low Power Mode.

    In reality, I am a light iPhone user. If I’m home, I typically grab my iPad. If I’m at work, there’s a PC on my desk. While working, I only occasionally check on Twitter, news headlines, or text messages. As a result, I can usually get at least two days out of a single charge of the Pro Max battery. This was true with my iPhone 13 Pro Max and also seems to be true of my iPhone 14 Pro Max as well. There have been some complaints that battery life on iPhone 14 is inferior to that of iPhone 13 Pro Max that I have seen on Apple-centric websites and tech Twitter. I’m just not seeing it in my daily use. Maybe I need to use my iPhone more while I’m at work playing around in social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat. I don’t know. I’m not into those platforms and don’t use those apps. Maybe it’s a bug in iOS 16. Maybe it’s just how people use their iPhones. All I can say is that in my opinion, iPhone 14 Pro Max with iOS 16 seems about the same as it was on my iPhone 13 Pro Max and iOS 15.

    Buying Advice

    I buy a new iPhone every year because I’m an Apple nerd that needs to have the latest popular gadget and because, as corny as it may sound, it’s my “thing”, just like many of you reading this article have your thing, be it cars or sports.

    Over the last month, I have been asked by family, friends, and coworkers if I have the new iPhone and what’s new with it. By and large, I answered with the same information that I have outlined here. At the same time, they ask if they should get the new iPhone.

    I follow up on their upgrade question with a few questions of my own. Is their iPhone more than three years old? Do you have to charge your iPhone one or more times a day to make it to the end of the day? Does it have any major screen or rear housing damage? If they have answered yes to these questions, I suggest that it’s likely time to upgrade.

    Most people upgrade every two to four years. And that sounds about right for an iPhone. Apple will service your hardware and provide free software upgrades for many years into the future. If you have an iPhone 6S, 7, 8, X, XS, or XR, you will probably want to upgrade to the new equivalent iPhone 14 model now. If you have an iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 11 Pro Max from 2019, I think there are sound arguments to be made for buying now or waiting one more year.

    In most cases, upgrading after three years will get you a great new iPhone with loads of new features that will serve you for years to come. So, when it comes time to buy, buy the best iPhone you can and then enjoy using it for as long as you can before you upgrade again. In my opinion, that is a good strategy for getting the most bang for your buck on your new iPhone day.

    If you have an iPhone 12 or 13 Pro Max already, I feel that you can safely skip this year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Your current iPhone with iOS 16 gets you pretty close to iPhone 14 Pro Max. If you have an iPhone 13 and wondering if you should upgrade to the non-Pro iPhone 14, my opinion is that you should not upgrade.

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  • apple,  iphone 14

    Happy iPhone 14 Pre-Order Day [Updated]

    September 9, 2022 /

    Happy iPhone 14 Pre-Order Day to all who celebrate it. Good luck with your pre-orders and I hope that you get the model and color you are looking for!

    This year, I plan on ordering the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256GB of storage in the Silver finish. I also will be ordering the Forest Green leather case.

    iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro pre-orders begin at 8:00am Eastern, 5:00am Pacific. Sales begin next Friday, 9/16.

    Update 9:00am

    This year’s iPhone pre-orders are off to a rough start this morning. While trying to place our pre-orders, my Dad and I both experienced trouble with the Apple.com website and the Apple Store iOS app. For starters, the Apple Store didn’t update until about 8:10am for us. Then, once the store finally did open, there were problems trying to process the pre-orders. By 8:12am, my local Apple Store was offering pickups at 10:30am, having slipped from 8:00am to 10:30am in just a few minutes of pre-orders starting. Once the online Apple Store iOS app started working again, it took multiple attempts to process my order with my Apple Card that was pre-authorized on Wednesday.

    All-in-all, I was able to get my pre-order placed for the iPhone configuration that I want, but at the cost of my annual 8:00am “launch party” at my local Apple Store. I’m a little miffed that I’m not getting my iPhone when the store opens, but at least I’m getting my iPhone on launch day! Even if it is at 1:30pm.

    Update 3:00pm

    On the way back home, I stopped over to see my Dad and try to help him get his iPhone 14 pre-order setup. By 2:30pm, all of the website and credit card processing issues were fixed, but his iPhone will be shipping to the house by October 17. Not exactly what we were hoping for.

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  • apple,  developer,  gui

    Use Hidden Text Zoom Controls in Apple News on macOS

    July 15, 2022 /

    Earlier today, I was skimming the space news in the Apple News app for macOS. Most of the time, I read Apple News on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

    While reading a USA Today article about the James Web Space Telescope (JWST), I decided that the text was uncomfortably small, and I wanted to make the printer easier to read.

    But I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Unlike the iPhone version of Apple News, on macOS, the font control appeared to be missing.

    Let’s take a look at Apple News on iPhone.

    As you can see in the screen captures above, the iPhone version of Apple News has a prominent double A icon in the article header (on the left) that allows you to control the font size (on the right). Tap the larger capital A and the font gets larger. The smaller capital A decreases the font size.

    Now, let’s take a look at Apple News on macOS.

    Look at all that open space in the the window and toolbar controls region!

    The important thing to note here is that the macOS version of Apple News is essentially the same version of Apple News that runs on the iPad. This is due to a behind-the-scenes technology called Mac Catalyst. In short, Mac Catalyst apps are a quick way for developers to release their iPad OS apps for Macs that have either an Apple Silicon M1 or M2 CPU in them.

    Here’s the same article as it appears in Apple News on iPad.

    Looking at the controls region at the top of the screen, again, there is a lot of open space! Knowing that the iPad has the font control clearly visible in the article header makes the lack of a double A font control on the Mac even more frustrating. As an Apple One subscriber and Apple customer, I felt like I was doing something wrong.

    It took me an embarrassingly long time to find the answer: Use the Command and Plus or Minus keyboard shortcuts!

    Option 1: Use the keyboard

    To use keyboard zoom control shortcut, hold down the Command key (on either side of the space bar) and then press the Plus key or the Minus key on your keyboard to enlarge or shrink the print size.

    This keyboard shortcut has been around for a long time in macOS and Windows web browsers. When in the browser, this is a muscle memory reaction to make things readable. I use this shortcut on NYTimes.com all the time.

    Option 2: Use the Menu Bar

    If you have a hard time remembering keyboard shortcuts, there is an alternative – the View menu. It’s easy to forget about the macOS menu bar if you use iOS and iPadOS devices all the time. Outside of the Apple News app window, use the View > Zoom In or Zoom Out commands to increase or decrease the font size in the Mac Menu Bar all the way at the top of the Mac screen.

    If you want to revert back to the article’s default text size, you can either use the Command + Shift + 0 keyboard shortcut or the View > Actual Size menu command.

    In Conclusion

    I get it, application and OS platform maintenance is hard. Apple is trying to upgrade developer tools, manage macOS, iOS, and iPadOS on annual scheduled with new features, and, I hope, keep application feature parity. That’s supposed to be the whole point of Catalyst. Write one app and easily package it to run on iPad and the Mac. My small font control gripe shows how there are still holes in Apple’s plan. If Apple can’t, or won’t, keep application parity, how are customers supposed to stay on top of the differences between the same Apple application on different Apple platforms?

    And that is the real problem. Customers should never feel that they are doing it wrong.

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  • apple,  apple //e,  disk ii,  vintage

    Booting an Apple //e from a Disk II Floppy Drive

    July 2, 2022 /

    After buying a replacement Apple //e earlier this year, I wanted to find and Apple Disk II Controller Card and at least one Disk II 5.25″ floppy drive.

    It took me a while to find a reasonably priced used Apple Disk II controller card and Disk II floppy drive on eBay. The card and drive needed a good cleaning before I tried to use them. While there was dust in the floppy drive, the read/write head was still remarkably clean. The card had a bent pin 1 on the drive 1 connector. I carefully bent it back into position. I used 70% Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the card and some DeoxIT D5 in the Apple //e’s expansion slot to ensure a good contact between the card and the computer.

    Apple Disk II controller card
    Apple Disk II 5.25″ floppy disk drive (1978)
    Disk II with the case removed, showing Woz’s custom disk drive analog board

    One thing that I did learn was that I was unable to have both a Disk II controller card and the newer Apple I/O controller card, for use with the Apple DuoDrive, in the same machine. To get my Apple //e to boot from the Disk II controller card, I had to remove the Apple I/O controller card before the computer would boot properly. While you apparently can’t mix and match these two types of 5.25″ Apple controller cards, you can have two Disk II or two Apple I/O controller cards installed at the same time. Just not one of each. In my experience using the //e back in the mid-1980s, you either had two Disk II drives or a single DuoDisk drive. You never mixed the two systems.

    Disk II History

    The Disk II system for the Apple II, II+ and the //e offered users improved data transfer rates over cassette tape-based storage systems and allowed for the direct access of a file by name, according to the 1982 version of the Disk II Installation manual.

    According to the Disk II article posted on Apple2History.og, Apple CEO Mike Markkula wanted a faster way to load programs on his Apple II. Steve Wozniak set out on the task of creating a custom disk drive controller board. Steve Jobs brokered a deal with Shugart Associates to sell Apple stripped down versions of the SA-400 disk mechanism.

    The Disk II Floppy Disk System, consisting of a Disk II controller card and a Disk II floppy drive, was made available for pre-order at a cost of $495 in June of 1978. Once Apple started shipping the Disk II, the price increased to $595.

    A single Disk II controller card was able to drive up to two floppy drives. The drives received power from the controller card which is plugged into an expansion slot on an Apple II-series motherboard.

    Early versions of the Disk II system were able to store up to 113.75 KB when using Apple DOS 3.2.1 and earlier. With Apple DOS 3.3, the version of DOS that I use with my Apple //e computers, Disk II was able to write 140 KB disks. Apple provided a 13 to 16-sector conversion utility to upgrade disks for use with newer versions of Apple DOS.

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  • apple,  ipod,  ipod touch,  vintage

    Early iPod Charging PSA

    June 1, 2022 /
    Apple iPod with Dock Connector (2003) and dual FireWire (charge) / USB-A (sync) cable

    This Public Service Announcement (PSA) deals with early generation iPod music players. If you own a first generation iPod with Scroll Wheel (2001), a second generation iPod with Touch Wheel (2002), or third generation iPod with Dock Connector (2003), you need the FireWire charging brick and a FireWire to Dock Connector cable or the FireWire/USB-A to Dock Connector dual-headed cable. The combo cable was pretty crazy: You connect the FireWire end into the charge brick and the USB-A end into your Mac or Windows PC so you could sync and charge your iPod at the same time.

    Apple iPod with Dock Connector (2003) with FireWire Charger and Cable

    When Apple announced that they were retiring the last iPod, the 7th Generation iPod touch from their product line up, like many of you, I pulled out my old “Classic” and “Touch” iPods to take a stroll down Memory Lane.

    Apple iPod with Dock Connector (left), iPod Video, iPod touch 1st Gen, iPod touch 6th Gen

    In my May 11 iPod look back, I was trying to charge my third-generation iPod with Dock Connector, I was doing so from an Apple USB-A charging brick. It wasn’t until I pulled out my FireWire charger and cables was I able to wake up my oldest iPod from it’s slumber.

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  • apple,  mac mini,  refurbished

    Older Macs Are Still Useful

    May 22, 2022 /
    2011 Apple Mac mini, source: iDropNews.com

    My new Mac Studio is here and I am setting it up with a Dell UltraSharp display while I am still waiting for the matching Studio Display to arrive. I’m also thinking about what I can use my iMac for as it’s second act. Maybe it will get setup in one of the kid’s rooms when they go back to school in the fall.

    With an update or two, my iMac still has a bit of life left in it if you don’t mind the discoloration around the edges of the display. Steve published a video published on his Mac84 YouTube channel back in March about using and older second hand Mac and running it as your main computer. In short, for not a lot of downsides, you can run an older computer and save a ton of money if you aren’t the kind of person who needs the latest and greatest. Steve was providing a counter-argument to Karen Haslam’s MacWorld UK piece titled Why you shouldn’t buy a second hand Mac.

    Earlier this year, I adopted a used 2011 Mac mini that I purchased from Free Geek Twin Cities. With shipping and some extra RAM, the who thing cost me about $200. So why would I buy an 11-year old Mac that can only run macOS High Sierra (v10.13.6) and spend money on new RAM? Well, I didn’t have one in my collection yet, but that’s not really a good reason.

    No, I decided to by a used Mac mini because I wanted a Mac that I could use a home server of sorts. New Apple Silicon Mac minis are too expensive. So are other used recent models (2014 – 2018). Originally, the starting price for the 2011 Mac mini was $599, according to the July 20, 2011 press release. I just wanted a machine that I could hang an hold hard drive off the back of serve out files and host a local copy of media files of old TV shows that I had on DVD in the Apple TV app on my iPad Pro. I also turned on the content caching feature to try to help out on software update days when I have to download OS updates and then install it on multiple devices in the house.

    My Mac mini runs really well and just sits quietly in the background until I need it. I did notice that occasionally it would drop off the network. I run this Mac without a keyboard or mouse, I access it over the network using Edovia Screens, which is one way I that I find that it’s off the network. That problem was easily fixed by using the Energy Saver control panel to schedule a daily reboot at 2:00am – a time that no one in the house would be using it. If you want more flexibility about when things happen on your Mac, and you don’t mind using the Terminal app’s Unix command line interface (CLU), can use the launcherd service (crontab on other Unix or Linux systems) to write and schedule all sorts of tasks to fit your needs. For me, I was happy with the Energy Saver control panel. (I used to manage production Linux database servers at work. While I can write shell scripts and schedule them with crontab, I just dont’ want the extra hassle on my home machines.)

    So, where does this leave us? Speaking personally, I’m happy with my adopted Mac mini. It’s small and easily lives inside my downstairs entertainment center along with an old Blue-ray player, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. It does what I need it to do, and it’s service life was extended meaning that it won’t end up in a landfill anytime soon.

    If you are looking for an inexpensive option for a computer for home use needs like surfing the web, sending email, and productivity documents, a used or refurbished machine is a great way to go.

    I have purchased and loved used hardware purchased directly from Apple, Gazelle, and Swappa. My two favorite places to buy used tech are Free Geek Twin Cities with their eBay store and BackMarket.

    Many computers have a long service life after they are no longer manufactured. Re-using old computers and gadgets is good for your wallet, helps the planet, and saves you money. That sounds like a good deal to me.

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  • apple,  ipod,  ipod touch

    Apple Retires iPod touch, Bringing the iPod Line to a Close

    May 11, 2022 /
    iPod touch 7th-generation, credit: Apple, Inc.

    With a loving tribute to the iPod touch, Apple gives their handheld music player line of products a well-deserved send off. In the Update posted to the Apple Newsroom page, Greg Joswiak is quoted as saying:

    “Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”

    1st Gen iPod touch (L), 6th-Gen iPod touch (C), and the iPod 5th-Gen (R)

    Apple’s iPod line ran from October 2001 until May 2022. In the fall of 2007, Apple released an all screen iPod touch based on the iPhone that was released just three months earlier.

    When the original iPod was released, I was using a Diamond Rio PMP300. Back then, I was still using a Mac part time, but the focus of my work was moving quickly toward Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Server. Having an MP3 player that could plug into a parallel port seemed like an advantage. The Rio may have been cheap, but the 2001 Mac-only iPod was a much more elegant product.

    Over the years, I had purchased several iPods, starting with 2003’s third-generation white iPod. I loved that thing. I took it everywhere with me. A couple of years later, my fifth generation (2005) white iPod with color screen and H.264 video play back, took over riding shotgun with my Palm Treo.

    It was 2007’s iPod touch – released just a few months after the original iPhone – that was a game changer. The first iPod touch brought the paradigm shifting awesomeness of iPhone to those of us who were not on AT&T/Cingular or simply wanted the iPhone without the phone. That fall, I packed my young family into the car, drove an hour away to the nearest Apple Store at the time, and bought one. As a consolation prize, my wife and I took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe that was in the same mall.

    The iPod touch and a 2006 while MacBook running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, were the two devices that switched me back to being a Mac first home user. (I still have to use a Windows PC at work.)

    I loved and used my iPod touch all the way up to the fall of 2011 when I was able to finally purchase an iPhone 4S on Sprint (now merged with T-Mobile).

    My girls, now iPhone Pro users themselves, both received various iPods over the years, but it was their iPod touch models that were used the most.

    For me, these was something exciting about being always able to have your favorite music, movies, TV shows, and games with you all the time. If I could find a free Wi-Fi hotspot, being able to jump on the “real” Internet with Safari and check email with Apple Mail was just so much nicer that using Palm’s Blazer web browser and email client on my Treo.

    I’m glad that the iPod touch line ran for as long as it did. Today, in my opinion, the base iPad model takes over for the iPod touch with a much larger screen and a rich feature set. On hearing yesterday’s news that iPod touch was being discontinued, I almost insta-bought one of the 32GB blue and white iPod touch models. I wanted to add it to my iOS museum right next to my original first generation iPod touch. I still might.

    While it is nice to take this moment and think about iPod touch, and what the iPod line meant to me, I love my iPhone 13 Pro Max. It can do everything that the iPod touch could so and so much more. I will always have fond memories of the iPods that I used – just like I do for my Apple //e and Macintosh SE, but in the world of personal gadgets, we are always looking forward to the next great thing that will put a dent in the universe.

    The iPod touch seventh generation will be the final product in the iPod line. You can still buy one, starting at 32GB for $199, from Apple and authorized resellers while supplies last.

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  • apple,  apple silicon,  m1 max

    I Bought a Mac Studio and Studio Display

    April 15, 2022 /
    Mac Studio and Studio Display at my local Apple Store

    After my comin’ in hot Mac Studio rant last month, I finally broke down and ordered a Mac Studio and Studio Display.

    I’m still more than a little sore that Apple cancelled the 27-inch iMac rather than have it make the jump from Intel to M1 CPU. I really don’t like that I am going to be spending more than double of what I paid for my iMac. My 2015 iMac has been a great machine and I really love it. My M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro is also a fantastic machine and I was really looking forward to working on a large screened M1 iMac.

    By all accounts, the Mac Studio is going to be a great machine when it arrives in July. (My Studio Display arrives a few weeks earlier in late June.) The configuration I ordered is the base model M1 Max CPU with 10 CPU cores, 24 GPU cores, and 16 ANE cores. I bumped the RAM up to 64GB and the SSD up to 2GB.

    That’s a lot of machine. I can comfortably fit all of my stuff on a 2TB SSD because I’m doing it now on a 2TB Fusion Drive. With Mac Studio, I am doubling my RAM at 64GB from the 32GB on my iMac. It’s a $400 option, but I like to run Windows and Linux virtual machines and I think that 32GB is just too tight for all of the Mac software that I have running and have enough RAM left over to run one or two virtual machines. My main driver for the 64GB of RAM is the hope that Microsoft will offer a legally supported way to run Windows ARM on an M1 Mac.

    I really don’t like having to spend the money on Mac Studio and Studio Display. Don’t get me wrong; it is a great machine, and I will enjoy using it for years to come. But I’m a simple IT guy. I won’t be writing a single line of code in Xcode. I’m not a graphic artist making incredible artistic pieces. I’m not composing music or creating breath-taking cinematography. I want to tinker around with virtual machines to play with operating systems and databases. I want to run emulators. To have a legal way to use Windows and Windows Server, Visio and Project. (Microsoft, that’s your cue! It’s time to release the retail SKU for Windows on ARM.) In other works, what I really want is that mythical Mac that sits between the M1 iMac and Mac mini and the Mac Studio.

    Maybe, one day we will get there. The rumor mill suggests that the M2 Macs are on their way, possibly later this year. There’s also a larger screen iMac that is rumored for next year. But there will always be a new thing right around the corner.

    What I want is a machine that has enough techie without making me feel bad about buying it. But I know that I’m going to love it. Starting in July.

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  • apple,  lifestyle

    Stay Foolish

    April 1, 2022 /
    Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs overlooking Apple II computers

    In 1976 Apple Computer, Inc. – now officially Apple, Inc. – was founded on April 1 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

    It seems fitting that Apple would get its start on April Fool’s Day given the “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” quote that is often associated with the late Steve Jobs.

    As it just so happened to turn out, my career in the information technology field started today too. At 8:30am on April 1, 1996, I showed up to work, clutching an Apple PowerBook 100, not sure what to expect. Just like someone traveling down that country road Jobs spoke about on the back cover of the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog.

    Source: VitoaBrusci.net

    In some small way, I’m glad that Apple and I can share this date. The Apple //e sparked my interest in computers and that interest grew into a satisfying career for my family and I.

    Stay Foolish, indeed.

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  • apple,  classic mac os,  mac se,  vintage

    Mac SE Restoration Reassembly Video

    March 28, 2022 /
    Mac SE motherboard, source: A. Grassia

    A few weeks ago, I learned of a retro computing community event called #MARCHintosh. I decided to turn my Macintosh SE restoration project into a #MARCHintosh2022 video. I had been toying around with the idea of making a video – something that is outside of my comfort zone – and post it. You can watch in on YouTube now.

    I think the hardest part about the restoration project was to get two working Sony 800k floppy disk drives. I needed to disassemble, clean, grease and lubricate the drives. Something that I have never done. If you are used to working inside a computer, you will be able to handle a floppy drive restoration project of your own. While I didn’t film any footage of my floppy restoration efforts, there are several good videos already on YouTube that do a much better job of explaining the entire process from start to finish.

    Overall, I am very happy with how my Mac SE restoration project went. I chose to reconfigure my Mac SE as a two floppy drive model. It is unclear to me if my second-hand SE came from the factory as a two floppy model or as a FD/HD model that more common in the late 1980s. New hard disk replacement options, including the SCSI2SD bridge board allowed me to install the double high two floppy drive cage into my Mac while still being able to tuck the SD card to SCSI bridgeboard away inside the case giving me the best of both worlds: an unusual dual floppy Mac SE with a SCSI “hard disk”. I was happy to remote the third-party Microtech faceplate and MFM hard disk. It has been interesting to relive what it was like to use System 6.0.8 as an operating system. So much is the same, and yet, so much is different at the same time. This has been a fun and nostalgic project to have worked on.

    I think by comparison, making the video was equally as challenging. Calling me an amateur YouTube video maker is a generous categorization of my skills. I am glad I made the video. I feel like each one is better than the last. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes, but better use of the iPhone camera, microphones, lighting, and a good backdrop don’t hurt either. I’m sure that I will try making a few more shorter unboxing style videos and a follow up Apple //e video in the future.

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