Increasingly Familiar Apple Lust Objects for 2016 and onwards

Koogs, it is the best birthday card. She accessed it via the email link on Pam's Chromebook so the Mac was just forgotten about for an hour...

I went back and forth on 8GB vs 16GB and, in the end, I figured it was worth the wait and the cash to maybe future-proof it a little. First tech support call tonight: "I keep getting booted out of Roblox." It's not the Mac, it's the crap broadband.

It shipped from the factory on Dec 29 with 89% battery. After two weeks in the care of UPS and four weeks under my bed, it was instantly-on with 65%. That seems encouraging.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-mac-price-crash-of-2021/

iposted this iPhone question on the iphone thread to deafening silence, so trying again here:

I have had a 1st generation 64g SE which I bought when it released in 2016 and it is basically dying: dropping calls, now on its third battery it is spontaneously powering down or draining spontaneously, not properly updating apps. i need to get something new more or less this week. i'm already jammed into the apple ecosystem so i guess i'm getting another iphone.

I buy my phones in cash up front and always try to get whatever's newest so that it will last the longest amount of time without getting completely outdated, then get the extended coverage. If it isn't already clear, I intend to not upgrade anytime in the foreseeable future beyond this purchase. I don't give a fuck about phone fashion or bells and whistles, I just need a functional phone that performs at a reasonable speed and works. I am perfectly happy with the small screen of my SE; I just use my pad if I need a larger screen on the go. I'd also like something that I can rely on for the next five years or so without having to upgrade just because the current phone won't play with apple's latest updates.

I'm looking at the iphone 12 mini and the new iphone SE, both at 128g. 2 year coverage inclusive, the SE is $600, the 12 mini is $970.

Is there any really good reason i need to drop another $370 on the 12 or will the SE keep me happy? Given that my SE lasted five years, is there any reasonable doubt that the new SE will be unable to function on whatever apple throws at it through 2026?

I don't know the tech specs for the SE and have no idea if the latest iteration updated anything on it; for that reason alone I would tend towards a 12

no, get the SE. it's great and the camera will be huge step up for you. the differences between the 12 mini and the SE are more incremental.

the only reason to get the 12 mini is if the SE is not small enough for you.

if you do want a very small phone you should get the mini soon because it seems like it's the worst selling phone they've ever made and i doubt it is long for this world.

i don't think there's any reason to think the SE will be less supported than the mini.

xp djp the new SE 2 is under a year old and is very different to the SE 1.

ah see, this is why I should not be listened to

the only reason to get the 12 mini is if the SE is not small enough for you.

this is not true so let me add a couple of things:

imo the substantive major differences between the 12 mini and the SE 2 (apart from size) are the camera (the mini's camera is generally better, has real optical zoom and "night mode" which i know nothing about), and the 12 mini doesn't have a home button. both phone's cameras will be massively better than your current phone's.

i generally prefer iphones with home buttons, but you get used to the new way. the button on the SE 2 is a big improvement over the button on your old SE because it's not actually a real button, which is good because button dust is a point of failure. it's weird when you first try to press the button when the phone is off and you realise it was never a real button this whole time.

buttons!

I do appreciate that they added all the swipe gestures to older iPads that still have the home button. Nice to have one set of gestures that work everywhere

hopefully they’re not listening to me right now, lest they give me the buttonless nondescript hunk of glass that I swipe and yell at in perpetuity

it’s probably what I deserve

I have both the SE 2020 (personal) and the 12 mini (work) and was a longgggg proponent of the 2016 SE as my daily driver.

The 12 mini has a bigger fullwrap screen and the camera is better. The 12 mini has supposedly a faster processor but I am pretty lowtech on mobile and cannot tell the difference.

this is helpful, thanks. I will likely get the SE.

I've had the 2nd-gen SE for 10 months now, and it's perfectly fine, but I've dropped it more than any phone I've ever owned. I'm glad I bought a screen protector for the first time in my life, because there's a massive scratch on there right now (which I can always peel off when I get sick of looking at it). I think the combination of larger handset with rounded edges has caused the trouble - I don't seem to be able to get on with that. Luckily, WFH for a year means I've just been clumsily juggling it onto the sofa or a rug rather than down stairwells or onto rail tracks. YMMV, as they used to say on Usenet.

The 12 Mini looks just the ticket (straight edges, smaller body, larger screen), though not keen on Face ID.

Both should be current for years. 6S is still getting 14.x.x updates and that turns six years old soon.

The other difference between the SE and the 12 mini is the screen tech. The 12 has LED and the SE has an LCD. Which is perfectly fine.

i take it you are one of the 30 people in the world outside apple HQ who do not use a case xp?

i don't mean to boast, but i once went caseless for a couple years, with a SE. only dropped the phone once. it did break the screen, though, when it happened

honestly, by the time it happened, i almost wanted to drop it. but to drop it on accident, of course (and i did). i felt like i had won 35 "double or nothing" bets in a row, and i was sitting there deciding between keeping the 400K or REALLY starting to make some money. it was basically like uncut gems

:)

I have a cheap, clear TPU-silicone case for the SE Part Deux. Maybe it's part of the problem. I should try the caseless challenge. How worse could it get?

I have never put a case on any of my iPhones

if it needs some sort of case on it it would ship with a case.

lmao silby are you familiar with apple design in the johnny ive era?

Haha
Guess the new phones don’t need an AC adapter either

Anyway I don’t use a case either. Just be careful

I should try the caseless challenge. How worse could it get?

that's right! double or nothing til death! :)

i feel like i'm in a saloon playing dangerous games like five finger fillet with my boys

There's sometimes charging stations at the library and the airport and stuff.

the only time I’ve actually broken one of these suckers was when I had a case on and ended up dropping my phone, screen down, on a singular rock

the next day I was playing wingman to my friend heading to chicago and I started power swiping appointments at every apple store in the suburbs on the way in, got an appointment when we were ten minutes out, and got my phone fixed up as I bought him a cocktail at a schaumburg rainforest cafe at the mall 😎

iMacs in a bunch of fun colors. Where have I heard that before?

I’m more entranced by the fact this lady explaining the iMac wearing a denim jumpsuit

damn, denim imacs for real?

the new iMac looks nice! Stupid stand though, and M1 arch still seems quite limiting - not many ports, 16gb memory limit etc.

jesus christ the ipad pro can drive their expensive-ass display now

okay what is that music transcription app because I NEED IT NOW

say more?

podcast announcement yet?

oh lol i just realized this is one of their big press conference things happening

the new iMac looks nice! Stupid stand though, and M1 arch still seems quite limiting - not many ports, 16gb memory limit etc.

i agree with this theoretically, but i'm still not running into any issues with 16GB.

this sounds like magical thinking but is memory..... different with the apple chips?

I don't trust 16GB RAM, my obscene amounts of RAM now let me keep a couple of dozen Chrome tabs and Lightroom running without worrying about hurting the performance of Ableton Live.

xp yes. apparently (empirically) the SOC is so efficient that it needs to page in and out to RAM less often, so it needs less RAM for equivalent performance.

like if you need 32GB of ram to hold an entire object in memory in numerical programming/machine learning stuff, then you need 32GB of ram and that's that. but that's almost never the situation even in high end desktop work IIUC (not a music person, ymmv).

New iMac looks designed for Instagram likes and startup offices but I don't know why I'd consider it over a 16" M1 Macbook Pro whenever those come out anyway.

other than specialized situations like video editing and high-end gaming, i don't get stationary desktop machines at all. don't you ever want to finish that email from your couch?

the next airpods pro case is going to have an integrated airtag, right? I absolutely could use that

Once you get used to a 27" 5K screen it's hard to go back (and the only comparable screen on the market is $1300 by itself) but I'm getting used to it.

Ports is the other big one - but the new iMacs have 1 more port than a MBP (and the entry level two fewer) so that's going to be less of a draw.

technically the same number as a MBP but since 1 gets eaten up by power I figure it doesn't really count

I would prefer an iMac solely for screen real estate; it makes working on scores much, much easier

laptop

+

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don't you ever want to finish that email from your couch?

....no?

don't you ever want to finish that email from your couch?