DrMacintosh

Any wireless earbuds that you use for 8hrs a day, 5 days a week will wear out in two years. Just a warning before spending a lot on a new pair. 

The point stands. I don’t have control over the behavior of my spinning rust, but I can ensure they don’t flinch when the power goes out and can allow them to properly spin down. 

Download the Google Drive desktop application, sync your google drive, and download the file that way.

I have borked the registry on so many installs of Windows due to how poorly most programs uninstall.

The dac is responsible for converting your audio to analog sound. This increases your "audio quality."
The amp is your amplifier, responsible for the volume of your analog sound. If you're happy with your dac, all you need is an external amp. A dac+amp will make your music louder assuming the amp part is powerful enough.

Update to the latest version of macOS (13.3.1 (a)) and update Illustrator. This issue isn't related to the performance of the MacBook, it's entirely a software issue on Adobes end. You can try running Illustrator with Rosetta to see if that fixes stability. Illustrator could be trying to access things that aren't working with the native Apple Silicon port and that could be causing the crashes. Turning on Rosetta for that app would help in that case. 
 
Illustrator info: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/illustrator-for-apple-silicon.html
Enable Rosetta: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211861

What kind of work do you need your laptop for?
 
Unless you need Windows, you can get an M1 or M2 MacBook Air for around that price and have basically everything you listed.

If you reinstall OneDrive, it it trying to backup those directories? I'd install it again and tell it to stop "backing up" those folders and try to take control of them while OneDrive is still installed.

You need an Apple ID on Apple devices, but you're not forced to use iCloud. I have it disabled because I don't like cloud storage. Microsoft is actually more annoying in this regard; even if you don't create a Microsoft account, you'll still be plagued with OneDrive popups.
 
I don't fully anticipate future technologies requiring radically more accounts than we already have; if you have the Big Three(Google, Apple, Microsoft) you can get by pretty much anywhere. Microsoft isn't even a hard requirement yet, depending on your lifestyle. Maybe once the cyberpunk dystopia sets in, we'll have a society where you're forced to use certain technology even if you disagree with it, but I wouldn't say we're there or halfway there right now.
 
I think that it really varies by lifestyle, though. Different people do different things and certain activities require certain online accounts. I'm not too attached to my screens, the most I really need in my day-to-day is my Proton account for the email tied to my bank and my Apple ID(I daily drive a MacBook) and the Google account on my smartphone.

For some background knowledge, Apple Silicon has a "unified memory architecture" which really just means the memory is on the same package as the SoC. The result is that the memory is incredibly fast with minimal latency. This makes running out of memory very hard to notice. The real world impact of this is that any Mac with Apple Silicon that is running out of memory will feel faster than any traditional PC under the same circumstances. 16GB should be plenty on a Mac.
 
For the battery life improvements over PCs alone, I highly recommend any Apple Silicon Mac. If you aren't doing engineering, programing, or heavy video editing, I would highly consider a M2 MacBook Air. You'll get almost all the same performance and all the battery life for less. I'd only get a Pro if you need the bigger displays.
 
 

Some key apps:
Magnet or Better Snap Tool (lets you have a Windows like window management system with custom key binds, zones, etc. I use Better Snap Tool, its old and hasn't really been updated much, but it doesn't need to bc the technology hasn't changed. BetterSnapTool lets you do things like change the line weight of the "snapping" UI effect and is overall extremely customizable, I'd get it over Magnet, but Magnet just works so it's up to you.
 
MacsFanControl. I use this mainly as a means to monitor temperatures in the menu bar, but I also use it to blast the fans on my 2019 16" MacBook Pro while gaming/rendering.
 
Activity Monitor (included with the OS), this is basically task manager, however the way macOS reports resource usage such as memory is different than Windows. macOS really likes to cache data, so its common to see your memory being near full but your memory pressure in the green. When your memory pressure goes into the yellow or red, that is when you actually have a memory usage problem.
 
Disk Utility (included with the OS) is where you manage disks, create RAID volumes, image drives, etc. It's very powerful and I suggest looking around at all the features it has to offer. Learn the benefits of APFS vs HFS+ (HFS+ for HDDs, APFS for SSDs), volumes vs. partitions, running first aid, formatting drives, etc.
 
Finder (included with the OS). First off, pin your user folder to your side bar! It will save you lots of time! Also open the Finder Settings to customize it! Btw, if you want to change the size of thumbnails you have to right click blank space in the folder, click show view options, and crank the item size slider. Selecting a folder/file and pressing cmd + i will bring up the "properties" (macOS calls it info) of a given folder.
 
Terminal (included with the OS) is your command line interface for your Mac. Very powerful with cool UI customization options, I like to use a black background with green text.
 
Time Machine (included with the OS) this is Apples built in incremental backup feature. The architecture of macOS is so well refined that when you restore a Mac from a Time Machine backup it will be like nothing ever happened. Time Machine can also keep a version history for most Apple File types like .pages, .numbers, .keynote and takes local snapshots so you can go in and recover lost work.
 
Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, and Garageband (included). All free and pretty powerful productivity apps. Pages is great, numbers is ok, keynote is amazing. iMovie is basic but will let you cut a rough video together. Garageband is fun if you like to tinker with music.
 
Preview.app (included) is a pretty powerful PDF editor even though that is not its main focus. You can add/remove pages, rotate pages, markup, etc. pdf documents with ease.
 
QuickTime.app (included) is not only your default video file player, it can also record audio and screen record your desktop. Though if you need to record desktop audio, you need OBS and a third party audio driver called BlackHole and need to use the built in Audio MIDI Setup app.
 
Shift+cmd+5 will bring up the macOS screen shot toolbar
 
Transmission is the go to macOS torrent client so you can download all the Linux ISOs you need.
 
Parallels is a must have if you need to visualize Windows. There simply isn't any other software that can make a VM perform as well as Parallels. The Graphics drivers and scaling support is second to none.
 

If you haven't been using it already, Spotlight! Press command and the space bar at the same time and you'll see Spotlight. You can also access it by clicking the magnifying glass in the menu bar. Spotlight is how I launch apps 95% of the time. CMD + space, type the first couple characters of the app name, and enter. It'll also let you quickly look things up online, and it can be used for calculations and conversions. It's not super crazy or anything, but it's a handy shortcut that I use all the time. 
 
Completely agree with this. I have it installed on all of my Macs, even my two M1 MacBooks. @RONOTHAN## shouldn't need to use it for fan control very much since they have a 14" M1 Pro MBP, but it could still help to keep the overall temperature down when charging or something. The palmrest area of my 16" M1 Max gets pretty warm when charging at 140W through MagSafe (warm enough for the fans to kick on automatically at their lowest speed), so sometimes I'll speed the fans up a little bit to keep it cooler while charging. 

True. BitLocker is officially a feature to Pro and not Home edition. However, some OEMs will enable SED that leverages native SSD encryption with BitLocker managing the key (but it doesn't show as being encrypted). But it is the exception rather than the rule.

It is very stupid of Microsoft to have omitted Home Edition of having BitLocker in Windows 11. It's 2023, and OSX has had FileVault available for the last 20 years!

 

If your Windows laptop is stolen and the drive is removable and you have a Home Edition of Windows, you're pwned. Microsoft does not encrypt your local storage unless you have a pro license and specifically enable BitLocker. Hacking the TPM is almost not even a concern because someone can just take the drive out and read all your data.

Any x86 Binary should run just fine via Rosetta. Apple Silicon has hardware accelerators for this task. If you get an Apple Silicon Mac, I think you'll love it. I'm even considering one for personal use, but losing Bootcamp might be just too much to give up right now. 

This is the memory specifications according to MacTracker:
 
2 - 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
Any memory that meets those requirements will work. 

Your NAS/PC would need 2.5gb NICs (which they have) and then just a 2.5gb switch to link them together. As long as they're on the same subnet they can talk directly without needing to go to the router. 

If its not ARM its not a competitor to Apple Silicon.

Didn't realize the button was that far up on the remote, guess that pretty much stops it from always getting accidentally pressed. I wouldn't be bothered by the potential for dents, I grew up in a household full of dented stuff because it seems like my parents are both physically incapable of holding tech products for more than one minute...

Having used the newer all aluminum remote since the first iteration came out, I have never accidentally activated the Siri button because of how it sits in my hand. 

 
It's a great remote as long as you don't drop it on tile. The tile will win and dent the edges, but for hardwood floors things should be fine. Cases exist but you have to be sure you don't get one that slimes up your remote. I go naked because I'm really good at not dropping anything.

A fantastic little streaming box with a disgraceful stupid awful piece of shit remote.
 

Photo by JY-LIVE - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124588157
 
Just over 2 years ago the 3rd generation Apple TV lost support for some major streaming apps like YouTube and Crave TV, leaving us unsure of whether we should get a new Apple TV for more money than a used Kia, or go for a more sensible option like a Roku or whatever other options are out there. Unfortunately my family consists of the kind of people who’d build a shrine dedicated to Steve Jobs and pray to Tim Apple every morning before breakfast, so of course they chose the former.
 
First impressions
I ended up being the one who unboxed it, and there’s not really a whole lot to say. It felt a lot like unboxing my used iPhone XS for the first time in 2020, just with more plastic wrap, and as a result, more guilt about the sea turtles that were about to die eating all this plastic.
 
Powering it on for the first time I have to say the setup is pretty easy, my iPhone just showed a setup box and the entire process took about 4-5 minutes. I’m not sure what happens if you have an Android phone though. There’s probably a dialog box that says “Go Fuck Yourself” if that’s the case.
 
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the remote from our previous Apple TV worked perfectly with the new box, no setup required. I messed around with a few settings, installed a few apps, and then decided to try out the new remote.
 
The worst remote ever made
I can’t stress how bad the remote is. This thing made me long for the days of my grandparents who always say stuff like “Back in my day, we had to walk uphill both ways to change the TV channel!” or something. This remote made me long for the days when the only way to see any form of video was to go to the theatre and see Buster Keaton nearly get crushed by the side of a house, with no audio because the technology didn’t exist yet. It made me long for the days when people went to vaudeville shows instead of watching movies or TV. It really is that bad..
 
Let’s start with what a good TV remote should be:
 
Durable: Let’s face it. TV remotes get dropped by little kids all the time, because little kids are idiots who don’t know how to hold something for more than five seconds. The Apple TV remote fails at this, as the back is made of that aluminum they used from the iPhone 6 until the iPad 9, and the front is made of glass. Yes, that’s right. A glass TV remote. Unsurprisingly, ours didn’t last 6 months before it hit the corner of a table and cracked.
Intuitive: TV remotes tend to get used by people as they’re staring at the TV, so most remotes have distinctive button patterns or placement so you don’t have to take your eyes off the screen. For this one, Apple decided out of sheer spite for their loyal customers, to put all the buttons in the middle of the remote. Oh, and the D-pad from the 2010-2015 remote is gone, replaced with a touchpad that also doubles as a giant button. This is really handy if you want to find something new to watch on Netflix; you click the letter K, only for the remote to think you actually swiped over and clicked the letter F. Unfortunately, This isn’t intended to be a feature as far as I can tell.
Comfortable: if you have to hold the remote pretty often, it better not feel like it was designed with the sole intent of giving you carpal tunnel syndrome. The Apple TV remote is way too thin and narrow to hold tightly, and the untextured aluminum back means you’ll be dropping it a lot more than the old remote.
Good: The Apple TV remote is not good.
 
So there you go. The Apple TV 5 is worth it if you can find a used one without a remote on a sketchy eBay listing, just not brand new. Use an old remote from a 2nd or 3rd gen Apple TV instead because they're dirt cheap and extremely durable. If you want something newer, Apple now makes a new remote with an all-aluminum design and a D-pad, just like the 2010-15 remote. I’ll be sure to review it, because I’m definitely switching to that soon.

If its not ARM its not a competitor to Apple Silicon.

Given by the amount of drops you put your devices through, I would recommend a behavioral change before purchasing another tablet of any make or model. These things are thinner than phones, as a result even with a case they require some care. You wouldn't throw a glass slab on the ground, so why would you do that to an iPad which is basically the same thing? 

Given by the amount of drops you put your devices through, I would recommend a behavioral change before purchasing another tablet of any make or model. These things are thinner than phones, as a result even with a case they require some care. You wouldn't throw a glass slab on the ground, so why would you do that to an iPad which is basically the same thing? 

Given by the amount of drops you put your devices through, I would recommend a behavioral change before purchasing another tablet of any make or model. These things are thinner than phones, as a result even with a case they require some care. You wouldn't throw a glass slab on the ground, so why would you do that to an iPad which is basically the same thing?