Migrating to Apple silicon - issues, solutions, trouble-shooting

[frijitz]

Apple does have a multiport adapter for USB-C but has features I do not need.

I've been through three of that specific adapter so far. The connector seems to wear out. They lasted about a year each, I believe

Wow, thanks for that! If you use it with a phone or tablet, you would probably be doing a lot of plugging/unplugging.

Ian

[jsleeio]

elaborating: I kept buying them because

(a) the alternatives all had a lot more features than I need and cost more and were physically larger. I don't use SD cards, USB storage of any kind, Yubikeys, a USB mouse/keyboard, or in fact pretty much any USB devices of any type at all; all I wanted was to connect an external display and charge my laptop (2018 12" macbook — only one USB port!) at the same time

(b) I figured the alternatives weren't guaranteed to last much longer

(c) some of the alternatives I'd previously used were well-documented trash that caused a lot of trouble. Some of the Satechi products, for example. And still had more cost/size/features than I wanted

[commoner]

These work, been using them for a couple years.

[frijitz]

elaborating: I kept buying them because

(a) the alternatives all had a lot more features than I need and cost more and were physically larger. I don't use SD cards, USB storage of any kind, Yubikeys, a USB mouse/keyboard, or in fact pretty much any USB devices of any type at all; all I wanted was to connect an external display and charge my laptop (2018 12" macbook — only one USB port!) at the same time

(b) I figured the alternatives weren't guaranteed to last much longer

(c) some of the alternatives I'd previously used were well-documented trash that caused a lot of trouble. Some of the Satechi products, for example. And still had more cost/size/features than I wanted

Great info, thanks again!

Ian

[frijitz]

These work, been using them for a couple years.

Can you charge through them?

[commoner]

These work, been using them for a couple years.

Can you charge through them?

I can’t think of any scenario in my usage where I would need this in a charge chain for the usb-c end, so I have no idea. You can definitely power usb devices through it, though.

[frijitz]

These work, been using them for a couple years.

Can you charge through them?

I can’t think of any scenario in my usage where I would need this in a charge chain for the usb-c end, so I have no idea. You can definitely power usb devices through it, though.

Once again, this is for iPhone/iPad, which have to be charged through the only available port.

[commoner]

Once again, this is for iPhone/iPad, which have to be charged through the only available port.

I’m aware - I use both.

[frijitz]

Once again, this is for iPhone/iPad, which have to be charged through the only available port.

I’m aware - I use both.

Well, then, how do you charge them during data transfer? Sorry, you have me totally confused.

[commoner]

Once again, this is for iPhone/iPad, which have to be charged through the only available port.

I’m aware - I use both.

Well, then, how do you charge them during data transfer? Sorry, you have me totally confused.

I’m never in a situation where that connection would warrant an apple camera adapter. For data + charge, the other end would almost always be usb-c or usb-a. I would have to have or buy a usb-a to usb-a, or a usb-a to usb-c to warrant also using the “camera adapter”. I would simply use either a usb-c to usb-c cable, or a usb-c to usb-a cable without any adapter. If suggesting the camera adapter type is way off the mark, then so was I - I offered it as an alternative to the more expensive apple one I saw being linked. Apologies if it’s not useful.

[frijitz]

Once again, this is for iPhone/iPad, which have to be charged through the only available port.

I’m aware - I use both.

Well, then, how do you charge them during data transfer? Sorry, you have me totally confused.

I’m never in a situation where that connection would warrant an apple camera adapter. For data + charge, the other end would almost always be usb-c or usb-a. I would have to have or buy a usb-a to usb-a, or a usb-a to usb-c to warrant also using the “camera adapter”. I would simply use either a usb-c to usb-c cable, or a usb-c to usb-a cable without any adapter. If suggesting the camera adapter type is way off the mark, then so was I - I offered it as an alternative to the more expensive apple one I saw being linked. Apologies if it’s not useful.

OK, thanks.

[Whatisvalis]

What’s the consensus right now on the M1 v M2 MacBook Air? Is 16gb / 512 the sweet spot?

[jsleeio]

What’s the consensus right now on the M1 v M2 MacBook Air? Is 16gb / 512 the sweet spot?

don't know about sweet spots but I've read that storage performance is significantly better with the 512GB+ models

I'm still very happy with my 24GB/1TB M2 MacBook Air (personal) and 16GB/256GB M1 MacBook Air (work). I chose the 24GB model for my personal usage as I've found 16GB a little annoying at times, but none of that was related to audio stuff

A lot of folks at my work have the current MacBook Pros and they certainly seem like chonky bois compared to the equivalent models from the preceding few years. We overwhelmingly work remotely, so not so much concern for portability, but it might be deal-breaker for some

[SynthBaron]

I almost bought a Macbook Pro M2 13" a few weeks ago during the sales, but decided to buy a $660 Windows OLED 14.5" 20-core i7-12700H laptop instead.

Somehow Asus can both afford to put an OLED screen, Thunderbolt 4, and an i7 chip in this and meet that price point...but Apple can't be bothered to put an OLED screen and save lots of money using their own silicon in something that is almost three times the price when configured the same (24GB RAM/512 SSD).

Sorry Apple, but you really spoil people with nice screens in your phones and then expect them to go back to using an LCD screen for the cash you want them to shell out? Yikes. Once you go true black, you can't go back...

[SynthBaron]

aren't there magsafe-clone adapter cables where you have a very thin-profile plug (ie. unlikely to be damaged in the manner you describe because it doesn't stick out very far at all) in the usb-c port and a cable that attaches to it with magnets?

I'm sure I've seen these around

Huh, didn't know those were a thing. They would be great for USB C phone charging too. Hmm, even good enough ratings to say they are reliable enough. Will have to try one out. Thanks!

Yup, I have a couple of these. 6 GBP each.

These things work great, BTW.

[tdel]

I almost bought a Macbook Pro M2 13" a few weeks ago during the sales, but decided to buy a $660 Windows OLED 14.5" 20-core i7-12700H laptop instead.

Somehow Asus can both afford to put an OLED screen, Thunderbolt 4, and an i7 chip in this and meet that price point...but Apple can't be bothered to put an OLED screen and save lots of money using their own silicon in something that is almost three times the price when configured the same (24GB RAM/512 SSD).

Sorry Apple, but you really spoil people with nice screens in your phones and then expect them to go back to using an LCD screen for the cash you want them to shell out? Yikes. Once you go true black, you can't go back...

What's the model you bought? Might be interested in one of those myself.

[SynthBaron]

I almost bought a Macbook Pro M2 13" a few weeks ago during the sales, but decided to buy a $660 Windows OLED 14.5" 20-core i7-12700H laptop instead.

Somehow Asus can both afford to put an OLED screen, Thunderbolt 4, and an i7 chip in this and meet that price point...but Apple can't be bothered to put an OLED screen and save lots of money using their own silicon in something that is almost three times the price when configured the same (24GB RAM/512 SSD).

Sorry Apple, but you really spoil people with nice screens in your phones and then expect them to go back to using an LCD screen for the cash you want them to shell out? Yikes. Once you go true black, you can't go back...

What's the model you bought? Might be interested in one of those myself.

https://www.newegg.com/midnight-black-a ... 6834236330

Then I added this (its a tiny T5 bit to get the bottom cover screws off https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/S ... el=S5402ZA):

Code: Select all

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C511GQH

[jsleeio]

So we're more than two years down the road from first general availability of the M1 Macs, and Autodesk still don't have a native ARM version of Eagle. This has really pissed me off.

I've been an Eagle user for 10+ years and have written software that reads and writes Eagle board files — for generating Eurorack 1U and 3U front panels. Have decided to switch to Kicad and will have to do a new version of my software for it :-( It'll be very unpleasant but worth it in the long term

Autodesk can die in a fire.

[SynthBaron]

New 14 and 16 inch Macbook Pro's with M2 chips released, but still not OLED displays. Still don't understand why they're holding back on them.

[dubonaire]

New 14 and 16 inch Macbook Pro's with M2 chips released, but still not OLED displays. Still don't understand why they're holding back on them.

I thought on larger screens mini-LED is better than OLED and doesn't degrade.

[SynthBaron]

New 14 and 16 inch Macbook Pro's with M2 chips released, but still not OLED displays. Still don't understand why they're holding back on them.

I thought on larger screens mini-LED is better than OLED and doesn't degrade.

If it was so bad I had to replace a screen every 2 years, the color and dynamic range is worth it for me...and I'm not even a graphics artist. I've seen the mini-LED backlit screens on the previous generation MBP 14/16 M1's in person and they still fall short of even cheap OLED's now. The first generations of OLED screens I did definitely experience degradation with, but ones I've been using since 2018 have been holding up great.

[dubonaire]

New 14 and 16 inch Macbook Pro's with M2 chips released, but still not OLED displays. Still don't understand why they're holding back on them.

I thought on larger screens mini-LED is better than OLED and doesn't degrade.

If it was so bad I had to replace a screen every 2 years, the color and dynamic range is worth it for me...and I'm not even a graphics artist. I've seen the mini-LED backlit screens on the previous generation MBP 14/16 M1's in person and they still fall short of even cheap OLED's now. The first generations of OLED screens I did definitely experience degradation with, but ones I've been using since 2018 have been holding up great.

Well I can't argue about because it's only what I've read, I've never made a direct comparison, but I do know miniled can turn off the black pixels and achieve greater brightness.

We've been looking at getting a ridiculously sized TV (not absolutely ridiculous) and the minileds seem pretty good to me.

[charlie2]

I want to upgrade from my quad core i5 iMac but find myself a little lost. I've been moving more in the box and am looking for something that can handle a decent amount of VSTs, UAD plugins, etc. It doesn't seem that the silicon world is optimized for that quite yet. Is this impression of mine wrong? But that doesn't leave me with many options in the Mac world. At this point, I'm considering getting a spec'd out cylinder since you can find them for pretty cheap these days. But that seems backwards and support for those might drop off soon enough. Any suggestions?

[Dilibob]

I still do most my music stuff on a trashcan Mac Pro I upgraded - it was super cheap. I do have a m1 ultra and max but find a ton of music apps won't run native still, also m1/m2 messes up running plugins on the intel converters. I do have a very limited cubase setup running on my m1 portable, but it's not as powerful as my maxed out old trashcan since the m1 running cubase is in intel mode because of plugins.

[charlie2]

Good to hear. Lots of "pros" seem to still use it too, so I guess it's not such a bad idea after all. I can always get a silicon mini down the road when prices are cheaper and software has caught up.