Probably buying base MacBook Pro 14"

By the way, not that I want to return it, anyone know why my Mac is not eligible for return as per the Apple Store's online website? When I bought my iPhone 14 Pro through the online store, I got a 2 week return window. But with the Mac it is not apparently eligible. Not sure why this would be, but is it because my Mac is categorized as a "custom build spec" because I changed the default keyboard language to something else?
 
Quiz said:
By the way, not that I want to return it, anyone know why my Mac is not eligible for return as per the Apple Store's online website? When I bought my iPhone 14 Pro through the online store, I got a 2 week return window. But with the Mac it is not apparently eligible. Not sure why this would be, but is it because my Mac is categorized as a "custom build spec" because I changed the default keyboard language to something else?
Click to expand...

No, it should still be returnable.
 
Does macOS have any sort of built-in temperature monitoring app? If yes, how do I access it? I searched Google and it seems you could access the temperatures on Intel Macs through the Terminal. But what about Apple silicon Macs?
 
Quiz said:
Does macOS have any sort of built-in temperature monitoring app? If yes, how do I access it? I searched Google and it seems you could access the temperatures on Intel Macs through the Terminal. But what about Apple silicon Macs?
Click to expand...

I use "macs fan control" to monitor fan speed anyway, and it displays the temperatures.
 
uOpt said:
I use "macs fan control" to monitor fan speed anyway, and it displays the temperatures.
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Thanks.

Do Safari's anti-tracking and anti-profiling features work as intended while browsing the Internet?
 
Quiz said:
Thanks.

Do Safari's anti-tracking and anti-profiling features work as intended while browsing the Internet?
Click to expand...

I don't know, I don't use Safari. I use Chrome with 3rd party cookies off and the new tracking gizmo disabled.
 
Quiz said:
The speakers are powered so it would be the MacBook's DAC vs. USB DAC. But I've read on other forums that the headphone out of the MacBook Pro is actually really good.
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The short version is that it can power high-impedance headphones. However, the USB DAC will sound better. In other words it's great for the convenience of it, but if you're looking for the best possible audio, then the DAC is still the way to go.
I do have to say though that I generally don't plug in headphones anymore. Convenience has ruled me, I use AirPod's Pro when I'm on the go, and Sony WH-1000XM2's while at home. I used to have Denon AH-D5000's and a Zero DAC/AMP. So while perhaps not the most insane setup, much higher than a majority of people have experienced.

Quiz said:
By the way, not that I want to return it, anyone know why my Mac is not eligible for return as per the Apple Store's online website? When I bought my iPhone 14 Pro through the online store, I got a 2 week return window. But with the Mac it is not apparently eligible. Not sure why this would be, but is it because my Mac is categorized as a "custom build spec" because I changed the default keyboard language to something else?
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter. Apple will let you return it even if every component on whatever machine is completely customized. Including if you got it engraved.

Quiz said:
Does macOS have any sort of built-in temperature monitoring app? If yes, how do I access it? I searched Google and it seems you could access the temperatures on Intel Macs through the Terminal. But what about Apple silicon Macs?
Click to expand...
I recommend the one time purchase of iStat Menus (pay $12.99 once for life. Nominal upgrade fee if you want to move up to the next major version number which is once every several years). It's an incredibly convenient and versatile monitoring tool. It monitors all temp sensors (cpu, gpu, palm rests, everything), fan speeds, power, clock speeds. Shows individual CPU thread usage, etc etc. Basically every monitoring function you could want.

Quiz said:
Thanks.

Do Safari's anti-tracking and anti-profiling features work as intended while browsing the Internet?
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Yes. Apple is first rate on this, and they are not in the advertising business so they have no profit motive to not be privacy focused.

But if you are privacy focused, I recommend moving to Firefox and using uBlock Origin (free extension).
If you use any Meta platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Threads), I also recommend Facebook Container. It's kind of a misnomer in the name, what it actually does is give you the option to sandbox different tabs so that "they don't see each other". Meaning I can do banking on one tab type and browse Facebook on the other (as just one example, could be any site) and the cookies don't cross from one side to the other. This helps hide a lot of tracking if you're fastidious enough to "label your tabs" (as this function isn't automatic except when explicitly visiting Meta sites). You can have as many "tab types" as you want. Theoretically possible to not have any tab see any other tab.
I also set Firefox Enhanced Browser Tracking Protect to Strict. Send websites "Do not track" signal. And have Firefox delete cookies when Firefox closes. The are other Firefox security features, but generally the defaults are already set to be the most private/secure. (Like always enable https. There is an option to have even more secure DNS, etc. Firefox is very robust here).

I also exclusively use DuckDuckGo for search, I also have a network monitor and connection blocker called Little Snitch (also pay once for life) that manages and allows or blocks literally every connection on a per connection basis. Which for most people if you do it all fully manually is a lot. But I do it because it more or less 100% guarantees I'm not getting unwanted connections. UBlock origin helps with not having to deal with as many of those unwanted connections though.

For extra privacy/security on top of that there are several good VPN services that don't originate from this country, don't keep logs, and aren't subject to US jurisdiction. Both Nord and ExpressVPN are "fine" for most people and 95%+ what most people want to do.
 
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Any recommendations for a USB DAC that is at least as good as my Sound Blaster AE-9 in sound quality? How is the Sound Blaster X5?
 
Quiz said:
Any recommendations for a USB DAC that is at least as good as my Sound Blaster AE-9 in sound quality? How is the Sound Blaster X5?
Click to expand...
I personally can't give any recommendations. I haven't spent time on head-fi in a while, and generally not kept up. Might have a better time either on head-fi or in the audio subforum.
You don't need a soundcard here. Just a dac/amp.

EDIT: You can browse around in here and read reviews from head-fiers. There are a lot of options and price points. But if you're serious about specifically audio (and not necessarily feature set), I would avoid Creative Labs.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/categories/amp-dacs.271/
 
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How is the Apogee Symphony Desktop? I know it is an audio interface instead of a pure DAC but how is the sound quality? I checked some reviews and they seem to highly rate the device and sound quality. Seems to work quite well with macOS as per my research. I also asked on Head-Fi.

Edit: Here is a good overview of the unit. Seems it can be fully controlled by the touchscreen and installing any sort of software on your computer is completely optional as it does the same thing the touchscreen does.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgMohPQYERE
 
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I'm not particularly familiar with that particular unit, but I would guess it's very good. Apogee makes some of the best input devices period.

However, I'm going to guess that you're going to overspend to get features you'll never use. Head-fiers will likely say the same and direct you to products that will actually fulfill your use cases for less while being the same audio quality. Or if you want to spend the same amount of money, sound better since you don't need the interface.

However, if you ever do decide you want to record music as an individual, you'd likely not be able to do better without spending a multiplicative higher cost.
 
I was recommended the following DACs that have balanced outputs on another forum:

SMSL M300 SE ($130)
Topping D10 Balanced ($140)
Khadas Tone2 ($150)
SMSL D-6 ($170)

Any preference between them? I was also told they will all sound the same and are 100% transparent. They play back exactly what is in the audio files. Is this true?
 
Quiz said:
I was recommended the following DACs that have balanced outputs on another forum:

SMSL M300 SE ($130)
Topping D10 Balanced ($140)
Khadas Tone2 ($150)
SMSL D-6 ($170)

Any preference between them? I was also told they will all sound the same and are 100% transparent. They play back exactly what is in the audio files. Is this true?
Click to expand...

There is very little difference in today's D/A converters, and a good analog part isn't expensive anymore either. You can probably not hear a difference. Even the Mac's own output might be in the same class.

Myself I prefer "professional" interfaces that also have a microphone preamp and XLR in, so that I can use good microphones in addition to good headphones.
 
Should I be concerned about System Data growing in size over time? I installed Cinebench 2024 by dragging it to the Applications folder (didn't seem to have a "real" installer) and then uninstalled it by dragging it to the Trash after running the benchmark one time. My System Data grew by 5 GB after the install and hasn't decreased even after deleting/uninstalling Cinebench 2024. I deleted the Maxon folder in Application Support or the like but the folder was essentially empty if I am not mistaken.
 
uOpt said:
For my taste Apple's implementation goes to 100% and stays there much more often than I think would be appropriate. It is at 100% right now and I went out of the house with this laptop many days ago.
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It takes a few weeks for it to 'learn'. Trust me, it'll stay at 70-80% when plugged in if you just give it time. Also, just keeping the thing at 80% via third party isn't entirely the 'best' for the battery. If you just let Apple's built in optimization do it's thing you'll see that it's a bit more sophisticated than that.
 
Quiz said:
Any recommendations for a USB DAC that is at least as good as my Sound Blaster AE-9 in sound quality? How is the Sound Blaster X5?
Click to expand...
Schiit Hel - I use it on both my Mac and PC via a USB switcher.
 
Quiz said:
Should I be concerned about System Data growing in size over time? I installed Cinebench 2024 by dragging it to the Applications folder (didn't seem to have a "real" installer) and then uninstalled it by dragging it to the Trash after running the benchmark one time. My System Data grew by 5 GB after the install and hasn't decreased even after deleting/uninstalling Cinebench 2024. I deleted the Maxon folder in Application Support or the like but the folder was essentially empty if I am not mistaken.
Click to expand...
No. Generally speaking macOS does drive calculations differently than Windows and it doesn't "bother" with recalculating the drive every time something is copied on or off of it.
If you want to "force" see the changes you can inspect the drive and that will give you updated usage information. There is also a setting inside of macOS to calculate all file sizes. That won't increase update frequency but it will make accuracy go up.

Without even checking I would guess that nearly 100% of the 5GB change was just from the app itself, and it'll update whenever it does. If you're super neurotic this behavior will annoy you. But it's more about not using processing overhead.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
No. Generally speaking macOS does drive calculations differently than Windows and it doesn't "bother" with recalculating the drive every time something is copied on or off of it.
If you want to "force" see the changes you can inspect the drive and that will give you updated usage information. There is also a setting inside of macOS to calculate all file sizes. That won't increase update frequency but it will make accuracy go up.

Without even checking I would guess that nearly 100% of the 5GB change was just from the app itself, and it'll update whenever it does. If you're super neurotic this behavior will annoy you. But it's more about not using processing overhead.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

According to Disk Utility, there is 3.77 GB of "purgeable space" on my drive. According to the following link, macOS removes this data when space is required.

https://support.apple.com/en-ke/guide/disk-utility/dskutl1005/mac
 
Got my 15" Air with 512 and 24GB. Its audio and video drivers are better than my i9 15" pro from 2019. Ultrawide looks WAY better, performance is noticeably snappier. have not really dug into my previous excel issues, but based on using so far it is a good upgrade. Son gets the 2019 Pro now to do his development work on it.

As to above stuff, yeah Apple's "just work" is mostly true, but if you want real realtime inspection of everything you won't always get it. Apples just do their thing and honestly trying to take control back has a tendency to make things worse, you have to let it "just work".
 
Quick battery related question:

I've had the laptop for one and half weeks but Optimized Charging hasn't kicked-in yet. Battery is always at 100%. Does the laptop have to be on 24/7 for Optimized Charging to learn your habits? I am guessing no. I power on the laptop once a day in morning or so and then shut it down before bed. Also, I've read that you should not store the laptop for long periods of time with the battery charged to 100%. Anyone know how long that period of time is? Is not powering on the laptop for one week safe with the charge level at 100%? It seems this can cause swelling batteries as per my reading.
 
Quiz said:
Quick battery related question:

I've had the laptop for one and half weeks but Optimized Charging hasn't kicked-in yet. Battery is always at 100%. Does the laptop have to be on 24/7 for Optimized Charging to learn your habits? I am guessing no. I power on the laptop once a day in morning or so and then shut it down before bed. Also, I've read that you should not store the laptop for long periods of time with the battery charged to 100%. Anyone know how long that period of time is? Is not powering on the laptop for one week safe with the charge level at 100%? It seems this can cause swelling batteries as per my reading.
Click to expand...
I already explained this above.
 
Quiz said:
Quick battery related question:

I've had the laptop for one and half weeks but Optimized Charging hasn't kicked-in yet. Battery is always at 100%. Does the laptop have to be on 24/7 for Optimized Charging to learn your habits? I am guessing no. I power on the laptop once a day in morning or so and then shut it down before bed. Also, I've read that you should not store the laptop for long periods of time with the battery charged to 100%. Anyone know how long that period of time is? Is not powering on the laptop for one week safe with the charge level at 100%? It seems this can cause swelling batteries as per my reading.
Click to expand...

As for the former: as mentioned I also have problems with 80% charge level not kicking in when I expect it to.

As for the latter: I haven't heard about this.
 
Quiz said:
Based on the comments I read, once it kicks in you can leave the MacBook on and plugged in 24/7.
Click to expand...

Hm.

Right now I can't find "optimized battery charging" in battery preferences at all. MacOS 14.0 on an Intel Macbook Pro 16". What's up with that?
 
uOpt said:
Hm.

Right now I can't find "optimized battery charging" in battery preferences at all. MacOS 14.0 on an Intel Macbook Pro 16". What's up with that?
Click to expand...
I don't have my MacBook powered on right now but I think you have to click on the "i" once you're in the Battery options in Settings.
 
Mchart said:
This is the dumbest fucking advice. Note the key part at the end. 'Just do this for a couple weeks'.

You don't need to do any of the steps this person outlines before. You literally plug it in, and after a couple weeks it will start doing it's thing.

Don't overthink it.
Click to expand...

I should clarify: it did work fine on my Macbook Pro. It just stopped doing its things.
 
Quiz said:
Edit: Also, any recommendations for a media player that can play pretty much anything (including Dolby Vision and HDR10 MKV files)?
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Coinciding with you, I just got a crazy deal on an M1 Max 32-core/64GB machine. So I have gone through and tried to find updates for certain programs.

I just stumbled on a "new" (to me) free player called IINA. Open source, community developed, currently still being developed, plays everything, and if you care has Apple aesthetic.
I also noticed that how it handles HDR is significantly better than VLC. I couldn't find any information on its color management (how it handles B709, DCI-P3, Rec2020, etc), but because it's built for Mac and not multi platform, if they are using Apple's metal pipe, theoretically it should be decoding all color spaces correctly.

It also has much better menu pages, unlike VLC, which are still a complete mess to this day. And so far its customization options go deep. And one thing I also really like is that it has PiP, so I can browse and be watching something, which I can't do on VLC. Anyway, I'm happy to say goodbye to VLC in favor of this much better designed and mac focused app.

https://iina.io/
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Coinciding with you, I just got a crazy deal on an M1 Max 32-core/64GB machine. So I have gone through and tried to find updates for certain programs.

I just stumbled on a "new" (to me) free player called IINA. Open source, community developed, currently still being developed, plays everything, and if you care has Apple aesthetic.
I also noticed that how it handles HDR is significantly better than VLC. I couldn't find any information on its color management (how it handles B709, DCI-P3, Rec2020, etc), but because it's built for Mac and not multi platform, if they are using Apple's metal pipe, theoretically it should be decoding all color spaces correctly.

It also has much better menu pages, unlike VLC, which are still a complete mess to this day. And so far its customization options go deep. And one thing I also really like is that it has PiP, so I can browse and be watching something, which I can't do on VLC. Anyway, I'm happy to say goodbye to VLC in favor of this much better designed and mac focused app.

https://iina.io/
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had heard of IINA. Another good one (however it is a paid app) is Infuse: https://firecore.com/infuse
 
Quiz said:
Yeah, I had heard of IINA. Another good one (however it is a paid app) is Infuse: https://firecore.com/infuse
Click to expand...
That's doing more than I want for a player. I don't currently want or need Plex, or library management/support, and definitely don't want or need to create a personal server to stream this stuff to myself wherever I am.
I care mostly about accurate decode and color. I also want it to be lightweight and relatively simple; fast playback with very little overhead.

If I had a Mac Mini attached to a TV (and not an Apple TV for some reason) then maybe I'd want to invest in that sort of player.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
That's doing more than I want for a player. I don't currently want or need Plex, or library management/support, and definitely don't want or need to create a personal server to stream this stuff to myself wherever I am.
I care mostly about accurate decode and color. I also want it to be lightweight and relatively simple; fast playback with very little overhead.

If I had a Mac Mini attached to a TV (and not an Apple TV for some reason) then maybe I'd want to invest in that sort of player.
Click to expand...
It seems IINA doesn't support Dolby Vision Profile 5 yet, supports only Profile 8. Infuse supports both. Infuse could be the better player for HDR content but then I've read things/feedback that go in favor of IINA and some in favor of Infuse.

By the way, congrats on the MacBook deal. Is it a 14" or 16"?
 
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Quiz said:
It seems IINA doesn't support Dolby Vision Profile 5 yet, supports only Profile 8. Infuse supports both. Infuse could be the better player for HDR content but then I've read things/feedback that go in favor of IINA and some in favor of Infuse.

By the way, congrats on the MacBook deal. Is it a 14" or 16"?
Click to expand...
14. I would personally never buy a 16.
 
There is an Apple event next week which seems to be focused on Macs. Did I just buy mine at the worst possible time?
 
Quiz said:
There is an Apple event next week which seems to be focused on Macs. Did I just buy mine at the worst possible time?
Click to expand...
There is never a perfect time, other than immediately after launch. However I personally think there isn't any pro machines (machines containing Pro/Max/Ultra chip variants) coming until at least March of next year.

If they dropped M3 chips I believe it or not would be surprised. Just because of the proximity of other launches. The most likely is an iMac refresh. Past that, I don't know. None of the leakers really agree here, other than it's unlikely that pro machines will not show up for at least 5-6 months (other than the 13" Macbook Pro, but that isn't a "Pro" machine, anyway you know what I mean). And could be a WWDC launch.

EDIT: There is a post about this in the News section. They're saying it's like to be M3 launch. I guess either way we'll find out.
https://hardforum.com/threads/apple-scary-fast-mac-event-october-30th.2031283/#post-1045761449
 
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Quiz said:
There is an Apple event next week which seems to be focused on Macs. Did I just buy mine at the worst possible time?
Click to expand...
This is likely going to be M3 base only. Not the M3 Pro/Max.

M2 Pro/Max chips just came out earlier this year. They stagger the release of the normal and pro/max.
 
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