MacBook Pro 2020
- Thread starter IpswichSox
- Start date
As a FYI, be careful relying only on the Apple Time Capsule for backup. I have had 2 of them die on me in the last 3 years.
Funny, my Airport Extreme died last November (I didn't buy the time capsule version, just the router). Now rocking the Amplifi Alien which is an absolute beast and I recommend to anyone looking at a new router for a pretty good-size home that doesn't want the downfalls of mesh systems (which many don't need anyway).
Where have you been finding them for sale? Apple hasn't made them in years.
My six year old Time Capsule is doing just fine. (Knock on wood.)
Two or three times, I have gotten a message that the backup there is toast and needs to be remade. It's one reason why I backup to the removable USB drive weekly.
I had one from around 2014 (previous generation), which got bricked in 2017 when Apple pushed a firmware update (apparently this was a common complaint). Apple refused to take responsibility (shocker!). Then I got one of the last remaining units off the shelf in 2017 as a replacement (final generation). It died in summer 2019. Since I had a computer under Applecare, the Time Capsule was covered. I went to the Apple store figuring they would have to send it for repair since they hadn't sold them in a while, but it turns out some stores have (had) a limited stash of them in the back not for sale but for warranty replacements. This one has been fine so far. I have since added an Airport Extreme as an extender. I think the key to keeping these things healthy is to make sure they have good air flow underneath. The vent at the bottom gets easy clogged with dust.
Does this model of Amplifi have a crippled USB like other Ubiquiti models? This was a dealbreaker for me before. Can it do Time Machine backups? How does it compare to the Airport Extreme? Right now I am using the Airport Time Capsule and extending it with an Airport Extreme, and it is mostly fine but could use a little more range. I was considering getting one more used Airport to extend it further for about $50.
It does but for me it’s a non-issue as I have never needed it. They plan on activating it with a firmware update later, I am pretty sure.
I'm shopping for a MacBook for my daughter and I'm leaning toward the AIr with the quad core and 16 GB of RAM, but I've heard that some new Air models are having issues with being able to handle video meetings (the fan hums constantly and loudly and the machine sometimes freezes). Ipswich, is your daughter having this issue? Can anyone else speak to this? Thanks.
My wife just got a new Air, and has had some complaints about using it for video conferencing, actually. I didn't know this was a thing, and was inclined to just assume she had a million things running in the background, or that it was a Chrome issue, or something.
Thanks. Yes, I've been reading reviews and it appears that a common complaint is that the Air has difficulties handling video calls. I'm not sure whether that's true of all Air configurations, or just certain ones.
Modern USB-C Macbooks are known to have temperature spikes due to the charger's location on the left side. The solution for the Pro models has been to connect the power to a right-side USB-C port on the computer, but I don't think that is an option on the Air models. If the charger and/or any peripherals are plugged into the USB-C port, I'd recommend trying to unplug everything and run it solely on the battery to see if that makes any difference in slowing the computer down, keeping the heat down, and thereby minimizing the fan.
Apple is disgracing itself with the way it has been making computers these last several years. It seems like practically every Macbook model since 2011 has had some bullshit problem, either due to a poor/cheap choice in hardware (i.e. the failure prone AMD GPU in 2011, lousy Webcams all throughout) or a stupid design choice to make the computer unnecessarily thin and sleek (i.e. the above USB-C issue on new Macbooks, and the butterfly keyboards from 2015-2019). Not to mention the abominable garbage can Mac Pro.
Apple is simply not a computer company anymore, they're a company that just happens to make some computers.
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OneDrive has a nice feature where it keeps every version of a file and allow you to restore a previous version. OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage. I pay about $20/year for 1TB of storage plus get office for free. Contrast this with $10/month for 1TB of iCloud storage.
My daughter hasn't reported any fan problems, but so far she's been using mostly Face Time, not Zoom. But her college classes start next week, so that will change. I'll ask her next week if she notices fan issues while plugged in during her online classes.
You do have the option of encrypting your files. OneDrive also has a personal vault with encryption although I'm not sure how it works on the Mac.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/06/25/onedrive-personal-vault-added-security-onedrive-additional-storage/
Why? I haven’t had a single data issue, even a hiccup, with my Google Drive in however many years I’ve used it (10?). I had way more issues with physical drive failures prior to mass cloud storage.
Unless I personally control the encryption key, I don't trust "cloud encryption."
I need to be able to totally hose myself if I lose the key in order to trust that the encrypted files won't be decrypted by someone else.
Who else has been looking at "your" Google Drive files besides you? How can you be sure of the answer?
That’s fair, if somewhat paranoid 
I thought you were worried about reliability. We use GSuite at work and I can tell you our security team does obnoxiously thorough review and this is a top concern. FWIW.
Edit: realizing that we are on a huge enterprise plan that doesn’t get scannedlike a personal drive would. But you can encrypt your own files or, as JoeSixpack says below, use a service that will handle it for you.
I thought you were worried about reliability. We use GSuite at work and I can tell you our security team does obnoxiously thorough review and this is a top concern. FWIW.Edit: realizing that we are on a huge enterprise plan that doesn’t get scannedlike a personal drive would. But you can encrypt your own files or, as JoeSixpack says below, use a service that will handle it for you.
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There are many different encryption options you can use with cloud storage where you control the keys and no one else has them.
https://www.boxcryptor.com/en/
Hey, same here. They just tell me what I can’t use! Security is a topic that I just don’t even try to pretend on anymore.
I've had zero problems with my 16" MacBook Pro. I mean, the trackpad's too big (stupidly so, actually), but I've not had any problems with overheating - regardless of which port I'm plugged into.
Good to hear. It's probably a real thing for some people, but perhaps not the epidemic that some make it out to be. Since Apple is known to source parts from multiple suppliers, I wonder if there might be an inferior brand part or two in some batches leading to the problem. Here is an article that references it:
LINK
Interesting. I know there were thermal management issues in the past, and that the 16” MBP has a newly designed thermal design point to achieve better benchmarks, but what you’re describing is probably something different, and perhaps as simple as wiring/cables.
Personally, I use the L side to charge when I‘m using the laptop desk in my bedroom as I use a magic mouse instead of the trackpad. I’ll use the R side on occasion when I’m on a setup on a desk or table. I’ve not used this laptop as much in the past several months since I bought it (February, I think), but what caused me to move on from my fully spec’d out MBP mid-2014 was a failed trackpad. I’ve been doing a lot more computing on my 11” iPad Pro with the new overpriced (but damn, is it good) magic keyboard, so perhaps I’m not the ideal candidate to determine this.