Most announcements from Apple come via press release, or streamed video. But that is not the way that I found out that Apple is releasing Apple Music Classical on March 28th. Instead, I got a push notification from the Apple Music app that let me know that Apple Music Classical was coming. It is possible that a press release will be published, but as of this writing it has not.

Back in August of 2021 Apple announced that they had acquired Polyphonic, an app dedicated to classical music. According to the Apple Music Classical product page,

Get the app designed specifically for classical music. Available to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost. Instantly find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with search built for the genre. Enjoy the highest audio quality available (up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res Lossless) and hear classical favorites like never before in spatial audio, all with zero ads.

Apple Music Classical also makes it easy for beginners to get acquainted with the genre thanks to hundreds of Essentials playlists, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, and intuitive browsing features.

The Ultimate Classical Experience * Get unlimited access to the world’s largest classical music catalog (over 5 million tracks) with everything from new releases to celebrated masterpieces, plus thousands of exclusive albums. * Search by composer, work, conductor, or even catalog number, and find specific recordings instantly. * Listen in the highest audio quality (up to 192 kHz/24 bit Hi-Res Lossless) and enjoy thousands of recordings in immersive spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. * Benefit from complete and accurate metadata to make sure you know exactly what and who you are playing. * Learn while you listen, with thousands of composer biographies, descriptions of key works, and more. * Listen using AirPlay on compatible wireless devices.

Requirements * Requires an Apple Music subscription (Individual, Student, Family, or Apple One). Not available with the Apple Music Voice Plan. * Available worldwide where Apple Music is offered, excluding China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Available features and content may vary by country or region. * Apple Music Classical is available for all iPhone models running iOS 15.4 or later. * To listen to music on Apple Music Classical, you must have an internet connection.

Apple Music Classical will only be available as an iPhone app at launch and it will be localized to English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

You can pre-order Apple Music Classical today from the Apple App Store. Apple Music Classical is included with any Apple Music subscription, so you will need to be subscribed to Apple Music in order to use the service.

For the last few years Apple has introduced a new color about six months after the latest iPhones were released. Last year with the iPhone 13 it was Green, and the iPhone 12 was Purple. Today Apple introduced a new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, this time in Yellow. The yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus is the exact same as the the other colors, which means it includes a dual camera system, Emergency SOS, and Crash Detection.

The Yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available for pre-order at 5 am Pacific Time on Friday, March 10th, 2023 and it will be available starting on March 14th in stores.

Silicone Cases

Along with a new iPhone Apple has also released a slew of new silicone case colors. The new colors include:

• Canary Yellow
• Olive
• Sky
• Iris

These new colors are available for order today, for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max, for $49 each.

Apple Watch Bands

To go with the new case colors, ther are also some new Apple Watch Band colors. The Spring 2023 Apple Watch bands includes:

Solo Loop

• Canary Yellow
• Olive
• Purple Fog
• Sprout Green

Braided Solo Loop

• Bright Orange
• Olive
• Purple Fog

Sport Band

• Bright Orange
• Olive
• Sky

Hermès

• Orange/Blanc Swift Leather Casaque Double Tour (38mm, 40mm, and 41mm only)
• Rouge H/Bleu Saphir Casaque Single Tour (42mm, 44mm, and 45mm only)
• Rose Azalée/Noir Casaque Single Tour (38mm, 40mm, and 41mm only)

Just like the Silicone cases, the new Apple Watch Bands are available for purchase today and delivery begins later in the week.

Source: Apple Newsroom

We have just completed two full months in 2023, and it is time for xFebruary's reading list. Last month I said there would be at least one new title, this did not happen. I started a sequel to a book I had listened to, but I just did not find it all that compelling.

This is not the first book in the last six months that I have given up on because I did not find it interseting or compelling. I am not sure if this is the authors' writings not being interesting or if i just have a lower tolerance for uninterseting books. Furthermore, these authors are ones that I have enjoyed in the past, and continue to enjoy their books, but the latest of these two authors just have not done it for me.

Last month I listened to 12 books and none of them are first-time listens.

This month I want to highlight a book that I have listened to before. The title is "The Spaceship Next Door" by Gene Doucette.

When a spaceship lands in Sorrow Falls, a lovable and fearless small-town girl is the planet’s only hope for survival

Three years ago, a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts. It never opened its doors, and for all that time, the townspeople have wondered why the ship landed there, and what—or who—could be inside.

Then one day a government operative—posing as a journalist—arrives in town, asking questions. He discovers sixteen-year-old Annie Collins, one of the ship’s closest neighbors and a local fixture known throughout the town, who has some of the answers.

As a matter of fact, Annie Collins might be the most important person on the planet. She just doesn’t know it.

This is a longer title, but it is well worth the listen. I do find it to be an entertaining book. It is the first in a series, but I have not listened to any others in the series yet. As a side note, this is not one of the unintersting titles mentioned earlier.

I am not sure if there will be any new titles in March, but we shall see.

Previous Reading Lists

At their World Wide Developer Conference in 2017 Apple announced a brand new audio product, called HomePod. The HomePod is not Apple’s first foray into an audio speaker, that would be the iPod HiFi, which was designed for use with the iPod with a 30-pin connector. The HomePod was a different type of product.

The HomePod is a high quality speaker that is designed to work natively with the Apple ecosystem, through the use of AirPlay. This can be either from an iPhone, iPad, Mac, an Apple TV, or any other device capable of sending to an AirPlay device.

The original HomePod was released on February 9th., 2018. I had taken the day off to pick up my HomePod from my local Apple Store, but I remember that day well because we had just had a big snow storm and the roads were treacherous, but I was able to get it picked up.

This time around, it was a bit easier. Instead of doing an in-store pickup, I had my 2nd generation HomePod delivered, only because there was no option for in-store pickup when I had ordered them.

For the longest time I had been using the 1st generation HomePod to output from my Apple TV in my bedroom. This changed when I purchased a pair of HomePod minis. Once I purchased a pair of HomePod minis, these took place of the single HomePod and the 1st generation HomePod was then moved down to my living room.

My Media Habits

You would think that if I had a HomePod in my living room that I would use it for everything, but honestly I hardly used it. As a matter of fact, I do not watch much media on the TV in my living room. Instead, I mostly use that TV for playing video games and I watch most media on my bedroom TV. I am not sure why I do this, but it is how I end up watching media.

Since I play video games in my living room, you would likely guess that I want the best audio quality, but much like my media habits, my game play habits do not match most of the mainstream. Typically, when I play games I am most likely playing multiplayer games. Since I generally play the same multiplayer game over and over, I do not necessarily need to hear the audio from the game.

Instead, I typically wear my headphones and I am either listening to a podcast or an audiobook. This will come into play a bit later, but for now, let us look at the 2nd Generation HomePod. And before we do that, let us take a look at the specs for all of the HomePods that have been available.

Specs

The 2nd Generation HomePod is very similar to that of the 1st generation HomePod. For full comparison, here are all of the specifications for the entire HomePod line, including the HomePod mini.

Design

The 1st generation HomePod was discontinued in 2021, many have speculated as to the reason why it was discontinued, particularly since there was not a replacement available. There are a few possibilities. The first one is that there was a manufacturing issue. This is supported by many reports the original HomePods would stop functioning after a while. The second possible reason is that they could no longer get the A8 processors that were powering the original HomePods. The third possibility is that they did not sell as well as Apple had hoped. The evidence to support this last item is that even people who bought the 1st generation HomePods, even after it was discontinued, were all part of the original batch of units produced, which were manufactured in 2017 and 2018.

Color

Thus far, the full-sized HomePod has only come in two different colors for each model throughout its entire life. The first generation HomePod came in White and Space Gray. The same can be said for the 2nd generation HomePod. There are still two colors, Midnight, and White. The Midnight color is a bit darker than the previous Space Gray color. The darker color should allow it go with more decor than the Space Gray.

Apple does have the tendency to use the same color name, but have it actually use different shades. Given the midnight name, I would have expected the 2nd Generation HomePod to have a darker blue color, like the MacBook Air, but in reality the "midnight" color is just a variant of Space Gray.

Power Plug

One of the biggest changes to the 2nd generation HomePod is the fact that the power plug is now removable. Yes, completely removable, in fact it is even in a separate compartment in the HomePod box. The power plug uses a standard C7 plug, which is also commonly called a "figure 8" plug. There is a flange around the plug so it will look like a single piece when plugged into the HomePod.

As is the case with most of the cables coming from Apple, this one is slightly braided. These braided cables add a bit of style, but also help protect the cable. The 1st generation HomePod also had a braided cable, but it was not removable.

Size

The physical size of the 2nd generation HomePod is very similar to that of the 1st generation HomePod is similar to that of the 1st generation. The exact size is 6.6 inches, or 168mm high and 5.6 inches, or 142mm, wide. This is 0.2 inches, or 4mm shorter. This is not a very big difference.

One other change is the weight. The 1st generation HomePod was 5.5 pounds, or 2.5 kilograms. The 2nd generation HomePod is 5.16 pounds, or 2.3 kilograms. This is actually 8 percent lighter, but the 2nd generation HomePod is still a hefty and dense device.

Screen/Display

The top screen of the 2nd generation HomePod takes its inspiration from the HomePod mini. The entire top of the screen is a bit flatter than the 1st generation. Beyond this, when there is an animation, the entire screen animates, instead of just the center of the top.

One aspect of the 2nd generation HomePod screen, as well as the HomePod mini screen, is that the volume up and volume down buttons are actually etched into the screen. This differs from the 1st generation HomePod where the volume up an down buttons were only visible when the screen was active, but this is the same as on the HomePod mini.

Response Time

One of the complaints that many had with the 1st generation HomePod was its response time. So, I did some testing between the 1st and 2nd generation HomePods, and I could not find any difference between the response times on them. This could have been due to when I was testing. It is also possible that I am a "Siri Unicorn", in that I rarely seem to have issues with getting fast response times from Siri.

Software

When I unpacked my HomePod and set it up, I found out it had version 16.0 on it. This makes me think that it was originally supposed to be released in September 2022 with the release of iOS 16, but for some reason Apple opted to not release it at the time. To be honest, it was probably a good thing that they did not release it then, because many aspects of it were broken. And I do not mean it was problematic, I mean it did not function, at all.

After upgrading to 16.3, everything worked as expected.

eArc

Earlier I mentioned that I typically play games with my headphones on, and do not use the audio coming out of my TV, because I mostly play multiplayer games. However, HBO has a TV show called Last of Us, which is based on a 2013 video game. I wanted to play through Last of Us again, before the show started.

If you have played the game then you know how much the audio plays a big role in the game. I wanted the game to sound the best that it could. Now, I had bought the 3rd generation Apple TV 4K, and one feature that it supports is eARC. eARC allows all sound to be routed through the Apple TV and be output to a connected HomePod.

So, this is exactly what I did and played through the Last Of Us with my original HomePod. This is what prompted me to buy two 2nd generation HomePods.

Stereo Pair

When I ordered the 2nd generation HomePod, I opted to get a second one. This is because the audio coming out of the 1st generation HomePod was really good when connected to eARC, but the area where the HomePods will be could easily accommodate a second one.

Now that I have a second one, the sound coming out of the pair is even better than the single HomePod. After setting up the stereo pair of 2nd generation HomePods is when the sound really came alive. The example that really got me when when I was playing the 2015 game Battlefield: Hardline. During a multiplayer game, I was able to hear my player walk on the grass. This is likely something that I could hear out of the single HomePod, if the volume were up high enough, however it is definitely not something I could not hear out my TV speakers themselves.

If you want to create a stereo pair, you need to have two of the same type of HomePod, you cannot mix and match them. This means that you have to have two 2nd generation HomePods, two HomePod minis, or two 1st generation HomePods.

Future Ideas

One thing that I would like to see Apple do is provide the ability to haver multiple stereo pairs that synchronize. Say two full-sized HomePods and two HomePod minis, which would create a great four speaker setup. I doubt that Apple would bother doing this, but it would be nice to see.

The second thing that would be good, and that might possibly get more people to think about getting the full-sized HomePod, is additional colors, just like the HomePod mini. It seems as though Apple’s higher-end items are only ever available in a few colors. Meanwhile the "consumer" items are available in a wider variety of colors.

Closing Thoughts

The HomePod is not an inexpensive purchase. In fact, you could get 3 HomePod minis for the price of a single 2nd generation HomePod. However, the sound that is produced out of the 2nd generation HomePod is beyond what the HomePod mini can produce. This, of course, makes sense given the physical size of the 2nd generation HomePod.

Now, with a stereo pair of 2nd generation HomePods, I will play my multiplayer games with the sound on from time to time. The sound that can be heard can be the most minute detail, like even hearing grass crunching while walking in my multiplayer game.

The 2nd generation HomePod has fewer tweeters than the original HomePod, however it produces great audio, and having a stereo pair is even better, provided you have the space, and budget, for them. I do not think that having a stereo pair of HomePods is right for every environment, but it can be a nice thing to have in the right environment.

I will be the first to say that I am lucky enough to be able to afford a new iPhone every year, and pay for it outright. The same goes for the Apple Watch, which is approximately 1/4 of the cost of an iPhone, but it still stands. Unlike an iPhone and Apple Watch, I do not upgrade my other devices every year, or even with each new release. As an example, for the iPad, the average amount of time that I own an iPad has been about 668 days. Meanwhile, for the iPhone it has been just over 370 days.

In the entire time that I have been using Macs as my primary computer, which is just under 16 years, I have owned a total of seven computers, four desktops and three laptops. For the four desktops that I have owned, I have had them for an average of 1832 days, or just over 5 years. For the three Mac laptops, the 2007 Black MacBook, early-2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, and now the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro. The average life of those is 2832 days, or 7.76 years. So, needless to say I do not upgrade my laptops all that often and when I do, they seem to be significant jumps in technology. This latest jump, from my early 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro to the 14-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro.

When I upgraded from my 2007 Black MacBook to the early 2015 MacBook Pro, it was a significant upgrade. I went from a spinning hard drive, non-retina display, and heavy machine to an SSD-based Retina machine. In that transition I lost the physical Super Drive, but that was a small price to pay for a reduction in weight and size, and significant speed increase.

Given that I waited just about the same amount of time for this upgrade, as a matter of fact it was a difference of 3 days, the transition from the early 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro to the early-2023 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro is just as significant of a jump. This time it was not the screen, there are improvements there as well, but it is more in terms of processor. The last transition for the laptops were one Intel processor to another, so it was mostly a known quantity. The SSD provided a significant speed. This time, the biggest improvement is due to going from Intel to Apple Silicon.

If you have been reading my site, or following me on any social media site, for any length of time, you are likely aware that this is not my first Apple Silicon machine. I actually have two existing Apple Silicon Macs, a 2020 base-model Mac Mini that I use strictly for testing and doing some development, and my primary computer is my M1 Max Mac Studio, which is my daily driver.

This review will be a long one, because going so long between laptops leaves a lot to cover. In fact, there will be two major sections to this review. The first area is in-depth features of the M2 MacBook Pro. Within this section will be my thoughts and observations of going from the early-2015 MacBook Pro to the early-2023 M2 MacBook Pro. The second area will be comparing the M1 Max to the M2 Max. So, let us start with aspects of the features of the M2 MacBook Pro.

Specs

Whenever I purchase a new Mac laptop I try to get the most that I can for my budget. For the first few Macs, I did not have a large budget, but as time has gone on the budgets that I have allocated for my purchases have increased. Therefore I have been able to purchase more substantial computers. The specs for the laptop that I am upgrading from, an early 2015 MacBook Pro, are:

• 13.3-inch LCD Screen.
• 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 (5th Generation Broadwell)
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100
• 16GB of Memory
• 256GB of Storage

At the time of purchase, these specs were the ones that fit within my budget. This was one of the "stock" models and the only change was the upgraded memory, because even then I knew that the base amount of 8GB would not be enough. I am not sure how Apple can still sell any machine with 8GB of memory today, but obviously people are willing to buy them. At the time, this was significantly less storage space than my desktop, which was a 21.5-inch mid-2011 iMac with 1TB of storage. But, the trade-off was the fact that the MacBook Pro had a solid state drive, which would be significantly faster. The 256GB of storage that I had on the laptop was plenty when I got it, but that amount of storage had become not enough by even 2020, and is definitely not enough for 2023.

Having calculated the average amount of time that I keep laptops, I opted to spend quite a bit more than with the next update. I had previously on a laptop. For my M2 MacBook Pro, I got the following specifications:

• 14-Inch Space Gray
• Apple M2 Max with 12-Core CPU
• 30-Core GPU
• 32GB of Unified Memory
• 2 TB of storage

The specifications on the M2 MacBook Pro are close the same specifications as my Mac Studio, except that the Mac Studio is an M1 Max, and has slightly fewer CPU and slightly fewer graphics cores. Given that my 2015 MacBook Pro did not have enough space towards the end of its life, I opted to beef up the M2 MacBook Pro quite a bit. I figured that by the time 7 years goes by, 2TB might still be enough space, but then it may not be. 32GB of unified memory is standard with the M2 Max processor, and I think that 64GB would be a bit too much memory for my laptop. Only time will tell if this was the right decision.

The fact that my M1 Mac Studio and 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro have almost the same specifications is very reminiscent of my first two Macs, which were the 20-inch Core 2 Duo iMac and the 2007 Black MacBook. Those machines were effectively the exact same, except for screen size and they had slightly different hard drive sizes; 250GB in the 20-inch iMac and 160GB in the 2007 MacBook Pro.

Before we dive into the actual M2 MacBook Pro, let us look at the M2 System on a Chip, or SOC.

M2 System on a Chip

As o this writing, we are just over two and half years since Apple introduced Apple Silicon to the world, The first Apple Silicon machines were introduced in November of 2020. At the time Apple touted that Apple Silicon was significantly faster than their previous Intel machines. Many were skeptical that it could actually be the case because it did not see possible. However, it turns out that Apple was telling the truth.

Apple has publicly stated that when they got did the initial testing of the M1 SOCs even they were surprised at the performance of Apple Silicon. When the M2 first debuted with the M2 MacBook Air in July of 2022, some were disappointed in the fact that its as not significantly faster than the M1. However, I suspect that they do not understand how chip architecture actually works.

The Mac has seen significant increases in performance at different times in its history. In fact, there have been two times, and these were all architecture changes. The first transition was from Motorola PowerPC to Intel and now Intel to Apple Silicon. Changing architectures is not something you take on lightly. There are usually significant improvements that can be gained by switching architectures. This was the case for both transitions.

When Apple went from PowerPC to Intel, the rational was because Apple got all of the efficiency out of the PowerPC chip. Part of this was that IBM was not able to deliver the power needed for the highest-end products. When Apple moved from PowerPC to Intel, they not only gained power improvements, but also got significant speed improvements. Beyond this, with Intel being the architecture you were able to run Windows in either a virtual machine or via Boot Camp.

The transition from PowerPC to Intel, while significant, was not as significant as going from Intel to Apple Silicon.

Apple's Custom Chips

When Apple decided to create the iPhone they knew that battery life would be an important aspect to making the product successful. In order to accomplish this, they needed a system designed for power efficiency. They landed on the ARM architecture. ARM previously stood for Advanced RISC Machines. RISC is an acronym for Reduced Instruction Set Computer. RISC is an architecture that uses more, but simpler code to accomplish a task. When the original iPhone was introduced it used Samsung manufactured ARM processors. Power efficiency and battery life were so important that they under clocked the processor to 412MHz to be able to save on battery life.

In April of 2008 Apple bought a company called P.A. Semi. P.A. Semi was a company that designed chips. At WWDC 2008, Apple announced that the acquisition was meant to build custom chips for the iPod, and iPhone. The first P.A. Semi custom chip was the A4. This was introduced in 2010 , with the iPhone 4. This was just the first chip, more would arrive in the coming years. All of the early chips, A4 through A7, were manufactured by Samsung. The A8, and newer chips, have all been manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. This latter fact is important, because TSMC is the leader in chip manufacturing.

The M1 Family

Fast forward to 2020 and Apple announces the M1 Processor. The M1 used TSMC's 5 nanometer, or 5nm, process. The process size indicates how big each transistor is on the chip. So in the case of the M1 each transistor is 5 one-millionths of a meter, in other words very, very small. This small size allows for more transistors to fit into the same size package. Furthermore, the smaller the transistor size, the less power that is needed.

The M2 processor still uses a 5nm process, but it is the 2nd-generation of the process. In comparison, the M2 is approximately 20% faster than the M1. This is for the base M2 as compared to the M1. However, the difference between the M2 Max and M1 Max does not seem to be that drastic, at least not in the benchmarks that I ran, but hose will be covered at the end of the review.

Next, let us look at the actual aspects of the M2 MacBook Pro, starting with the Physical Size.

Physical Size and Case

Even though you may not think about it, the physical size of the device can be important. When I looked at the physical sizes of the two MacBook Pros, I noticed that they were very similar.

2015 MBP
Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
Width: 12.35 inches (31.4 cm)
Depth: 8.62 inches (21.9 cm)
Weight: 3.48 pounds (1.58 kg)

M2 Max MBP
Height 0.61 inch (1.55 cm)
Width: 12.31 inches (31.26 cm)
Depth: 8.71 inches (22.12 cm)
Weight (M2 Max): 3.6 pounds (1.63 kg)

While there are absolute differences between the two MacBook Pros, most of them are very close. The biggest difference is the height. Even though the height is only one tenth of an inch, this makes the 14-inch MacBook Pro 16% shorter than the 2015 MacBook Pro. I do not know if it will make a difference in a day to day manner, but it is noticeable.

Shape

One area where specs themselves cannot articulate a change, is the shape of the outside case. The 2015 MacBook Pro has more rounded shape around the edges, where as the M2 MacBook Pro has more of a squared-off shape, but still quite rounded. That is not to say that it has sharp 90-degree edges, they are still rounded, it just that the radius is much less than that of the 2015 MacBook Pro.

When you look at the shapes the place where it is easily notice the changes is when you are looking at the bottom case, which has a couple of changes of its own.

Bottom Case

It might seem strange to talk about the bottom of the case, but there are a couple of things on the bottom of the case that I think warrant discussion.

The first of these is an engraving on the bottom of the laptop that says "MacBook Pro". As you might expect, this is centered both horizontally and vertically on the bottom of the case. While my previous MacBook Pros did say "MacBook Pro" this was small and towards the top of the case. If you were to run your finger over this engraving on the previous model you would feel a minor bump. However, with the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro, it is a prominent engraving of "MacBook Pro"

The second item about the bottom case that should be mentioned is the feet. AirFlow is an important aspect to just about every laptop. In order to provide the best airflow for all parts of the device should be cooled, including the bottom. In order to provide enough airflow the laptop must be elevated. On the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro, this is done by making sure the laptop is far enough off of a surface to allow proper airflow.

On my previous MacBook Pro, there were effectively no feet. The "feet" were just there to cover the screw holes of the MacBook Pro. This is not the case on the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro. These feet actually lift the laptop up off of a surface by about 0.125 inches, or 0.32cm. This should provide plenty of airflow.

These are two very minor items, but they are little details that you might not initially notice. Now, let us switch to something you will absolutely notice, the screen.

Screen

As mentioned above, the physical size of the two MacBook Pros is very similar, but if they are the same physical size, then how can they have two different screen sizes? That is simple, it comes down to the bezels. The bezel of any screen is the portion that creates a border around the screen. On all Macs, these bezels are black.

The size of the bezels on the 2015 MacBook Pro depend on the location. The top bezel is 0.5in, or 1.27cm, wide, while the sides and bottom are all 0.375in or 0.95cm wide. The reason that the top bezel is so large is because the top bezel hides the FaceTime camera, which is housed entirely in the bezel. In order to not create such a disparity between the two, the side and bottom bezels are only an 0.125 inches smaller, which is the same size as the sides. The difference is noticeable if one looks closely, but not that noticeable in day to day usage.

Now, compare the older bezel to the 14-inch MacBook Pro where all bezels are 0.125in or 0.32cm wide. This reductio in bezel size has allowed the physical screen size to expand from 13.3-inch to 14.2-inches. The top portion of the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro screen still houses the FaceTime camera as well as the other sensors. So, how does Apple handle this? With an approach they have used on other devices, by using a notch.

The Notch

When Apple introduced the iPhone X in 2017 one of the most noticeable, and iconic, features of the device is that there was a notch at the top of the screen. The notch on the iPhone X housed the FaceTime camera and Face ID sensor array. The notch has been, and is still, present on all Face ID enabled phones, excluding the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, where there is now a Dynamic Island.

Apple did not just leave the areas around the notch, commonly called the "ears" empty. Instead, the status icons were placed in the areas on either side of the notch. This can include items like the cell signal, battery level, and cellular network.

When it came time to change up the MacBook Pro, Apple took some cues from the iPhone line and created something that fits well on the MacBook Pro. On the right side are the Control Center icons, like Battery Power, Wi-Fi connection, and the Date and Time, just as it always has been on the Mac.

On the left side is the set of Menu items for a particular app. App developers can define custom menus and the number of menu items can become numerous. One prime example is with Xcode where there are 12 top level menu items, and that is without customizations. What will happen when you open an app with a lot of menus is that the menus will move to far side of the notch.

It should be noted that developers will need to adopt this new behavior for it to work. However, if there is an app has not been designed with the notch in mind, you can make a change that will force the menu below the notch.

Adjusting an App to sit below the Notch

1. Open up the Applications Folder.
2. Locate the app that is not working well with the notch.
3. Right-Mouse click, or control-click on the app to bring up the context menu.
4. Click on the "Get Info" option. An info panel should appear.
5. Enable the option "Scale to fit below built-in camera".

Once you have enabled the checkbox, you will need to restart the app for the changes to take effect. If you do not see the "Scale to fit below built-in camera", then the app should work properly with the notch.

Besides accommodating more menu items when necessary, the Menu bar has also changed a bit. With the notch being in the top of the screen, the Menu Bar has also become taller, so that the notch will fit nicely in the display and not be jutting out into the rest of the screen. What this means is that apps will not be able to hide under the notch, which is the expected behavior for longtime macOS users.

As I stated in my initial thoughts, when you first use a MacBook Pro with the notch, it may be something you notice quite often, much like it would on the iPhone. After a while though it is possible, and likely, that you will not notice it as much and it will just become another part of the screen. In my time using the M2 MacBook Pro, this has definitely been the case. I am not sure if this is just because I am used to having this experience with the iPhone, or if it is just that I am focusing on what I am doing.

Back to the Screen

There is one last thing to mention about the screen. Like the notch, the screen takes some other cues from the Face ID-enabled iPhones, in that the corners of the screen are rounded to match the screen. The corners are not squared off. It would have been easy enough for Apple to have squared off edges. Instead they opted for rounded ones, which perfectly match the corner radius of the MacBook Pro itself. This is one of the small details that many will not notice, but it is still one of those details that Apple is known to care about.

Now that we have covered the screen, let us look at some specifics with the display itself.

Display Technologies

The display on almost any Mac is one of the most used parts of any Mac, and this is absolutely the case for a laptop, for most use cases. If all you needed was the basics, then even a screen from a 2007 MacBook would suffice. However, time marches on and technology progresses. Apple has included enhancements over the years and the M2 MacBook Pro is no exception. Some of these features include ProMotion and True Tone. Let us look at both of these.

ProMotion

One of the features that was added with the M1 MacBook Pros is ProMotion. ProMotion is a technology that will adaptively change the refresh rate of a display to provide the best experience, while possibly saving battery power. ProMotion began life on the 2nd generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, released in 2017. In 2021, the same technology made its way to the iPhone starting with the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. On the iPhone and iPad, the lowest refresh rate is 10Hz and the highest is 120Hz.

The first Macs to receive ProMotion were the 14-inch and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pros released in 2021. The lowest refresh rate that the MacBook Pros support is 24Hz, and the highest is 120Hz. This maximum is the same as all other current devices that support ProMotion, at least as of this writing.

You do not need to do anything to enable ProMotion, it is enabled by default. Even though most will not be affected by it, there are some who may not be able to handle the higher refresh rates of ProMotion, so Apple has provided a means of turning it off.

Disabling ProMotion

In the event that you need to disable ProMotion, you can do so by using the following steps:

1. Open "System Preferences".
2. Scroll down to "Displays".
3. Click on "Displays" to open the Display Preferences.
4. Locate the setting that says "Refresh Rate".
5. Click on the dropdown next to "Refresh Rate".
6. Select the refresh rate that you need.

The available refresh rates are:

• 60Hz
• 59.94Hz
• 50Hz
• 48Hz
• 47.95Hz

Setting this refresh rate can also be useful for those who need to check how video will appear at a particular refresh rate. Now, let us turn to True Tone.

True Tone

Screens can be used in a variety of different environments. For desktops it is not likely that it will be used in too many places, but even then conditions can differ depending on the amount of ambient light. In order to provide the most consistent colors Apple has created a technology called True Tone.

True Tone will adjust the color of the light being emitted from a display in order to provide the most consistent colors. On the M2 MacBook Pro, this is done using the ambient light sensors that are housed within the Face Time sensor array. This is not a feature that was present on my 2015 MacBook Pro, so it should be a good feature in the long term.

Resolutions

The 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro has a total of five different screen resolution options. These options from smallest resolution to highest resolution are:

• 1024 x 665
• 1147 x 745
• 1252 x 879
• 1512 x 982 (default)
• 1800 x 1169

These resolutions may seem a bit strange, and they might be. There are two factors to this. The first is the screen size of 14.2-inches, along with the reduced bezels. Therefore, the screen resolution will be different from the ones you might be accustom to.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the the MacBook Pro has a Retina display, so the actual resolutions are double what is shown. Even though there is a limited number of options to choose from, there is actually one additional option on the M2 MacBook Pro as compared to my early 2015 MacBook Pro which only had four options.

Now, onto another section, charging.

MagSafe and Charging

It could be argued that one of the most innovative things that Apple has ever created was MagSafe, specifically MagSafe for the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. MagSafe provides the ability to power a MacBook Pro with a custom magnetic power cable. In the previous models, the magnetic end of the MagSafe cable was attached to the actual power brick.

This is especially true if you need to charge and have to string the power brick and cable somewhere. If you trip, instead of your entire laptop going flying across the room, the MagSafe cable will disconnect from the laptop and that will go flying instead. This is a superior approach, at least in my opinion. That is not to diminish the usability of MagSafe on the iPhones, but it is extremely helpful on the MacBook Pro.

Starting in 2016 Apple moved their laptops to USB-C only. This removed the MagSafe charging that had been present since 2006. Instead of using MagSafe for charging, you would use USB-C. However, this meant that if you needed to charge you had to use one of your USB-C ports, on the 12-inch MacBook this could be problematic, as it only had a single USB-C port.

MagSafe made a comeback in 2021 with the release of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. The 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro is continues this. There is still a MagSafe cable, but instead of being attached to the power brick, the other end of the MagSafe cable is now USB-C. This provides a couple of benefits. The first is that you can replace a MagSafe cable if needed. This also means that you can use any USB-C charging brick, with sufficient wattage, to charge your MacBook Pro. This includes using a Studio Display if desired.

When Apple brought MagSafe back to the Mac, they could have easily removed the ability to charge over USB-C, but they did not. You can still charge over USB-C if you would like. This is useful in case you need to charge but do not have your MagSafe cable.

There is one last change to mention. The ends of the MagSafe cable are now color-matched to the laptop. Therefore, if you have a Space Gray MacBook, the end will be Space Gray as well. Previously, these were silver-only. Furthermore, the MagSafe cable is braided, much like the other cables that Apple has been providing with its other products, like the HomePod minis, iPhones, and iPads.

For me, this is the exact same experience that I had on all of my 2007 MacBook and 2015 MacBook Pro. In fact, when I got my M2 MacBook Pro, I simply swapped out the power brick to the 96-watt brick that comes with the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Pro and it is like nothing has changed at all for me, at least when it comes to charging. Now, on the topic of USB-C let us look at the other ports.

Ports

As mentioned earlier, The average number of days that I keep a Mac laptop is about 2830 days, or 7.76 years. What this means is that I missed out on the entire "USB-C only" and butterfly keyboard era of MacBook Pros. This era was one where it seemed as though form was more important than functionality.

What I find surprisingly interesting is that outside of going from USB-A to USB-C, and adding Touch ID, all of the ports on my most recent MacBook Pros are pretty much the same as before.

The M2 MacBook Pro has an HDMI port, an SD-Card Slot, a headphone jack, and three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. The Thunderbolt Ports should be able to handle data up to 40Gbps when in either Thunderbolt or USB modes.

My 2015 MacBook Pro also had an SD-Card slot, headphone jack, and HDMI port. I will be honest, it is not likely that I will use those ports, however, should I find myself needing to use them, it will be nice to have them on the MacBook Pro.

Multiple Monitors

The M2 MacBook Pro is capable of supporting multiple external monitors. The number and supported resolution does depend on the processor that one uses. Below are the possible configuration available

M2 Pro

• Two External Displays up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over thunderbolt
• One external display up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over thunderbolt and one 4K external display at up to 144Hz over HDMI.

M2 Max

• Up to three external displays up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over thunderbolt and one 4K external display at 144Hz over HDMI.
• Up to two external displays up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over thunderbolt and one 8K external display at 60Hz over HDMI.
• Up to two external displays up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over thunderbolt and one 4K external display at 240Hz over HDMI.

It should be noted that this is the first time that an 8K display has been supported on any Mac. This is possible due to the M2 MacBook Pro having support for the HDMI 2.1 spec. HDMI 2.1 is what allows not only the higher 8K resolution but also for the higher refresh rate of 144Hz and 240Hz.

I do not know if I will connect any external monitors to my MacBook Pro. I mean, it is possible that I would have to at some point, but I typically use my laptop in its portable configuration. If the M2 MacBook Pro were my primary computer, then it is entirely possible that I would connect external monitors. It would not be the first time in my history of using Macs where I would end up using a laptop more than a desktop because the laptop was a superior experience.

Speakers

If you were to ask me if I use the speakers on my MacBook Pro that often, I would say that I do not. That is not to say that I never use them. I have listened to a quick video a few times, and on rare occasion I will listen to a song.. The reason for this is two-fold. The first reason is because I am almost always using headphones, so I prefer using those. The second reason is that the speakers in my 2015 MacBook Pro are not been the best. I mean, the speakers do work but they do not provide the best audio quality.

My usage on my MacBook is inverse of my iPhone. Despite the quality of the iPhone's speaker being nowhere close to even my iPad, I will use the external speaker on my iPhone if necessary. I still prefer using headphones, but in a pinch I do use the iPhone speaker. Typically, this is only for brief amounts of time like listening to a song, or finishing a podcast. Again, I am constantly using headphones.

The speakers on the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro are a vast improvement over my 2015 MacBook Pro. They are definitely not as good as say even a HomePod mini, but they are much better than before. I listened to a couple of songs that I know really well and I can tell what it should sound like.

Given the amount of space it should not be too surprising that the MacBook Pro cannot generate that much bass, but the treble and vocals are clear and very listenable. The M2 MacBook Pro speakers are able to handle playing Dolby Atmos tracks without any problem and they do provide some surround sound and depth when listening to a compatible track. Even stereo-only tracks still sound really good on the built-in speakers.

It is possible that I may use the speakers on this laptop more than I have on my previous laptops, but only time will tell on that.

Keyboard and TrackPad

One of the areas where you interact the most with any laptop is through the Keyboard and TrackPad. Each of these is almost essential for any Mac user.

Keyboard

As mentioned above, I missed the whole set of butterfly keyboard issues that were present on the 2016 to 2019 Intel MacBook Pros. The keyboard on the M2 MacBook Pro is very similar to that of the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. It does seem like the travel on this keyboard is a bit less than on the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, but it does not feel bad to type on at all. It is definitely less squishy than my 2015 MacBook Pro.

There is another item somewhat related to key travel on both laptops, and that is the backlight. On the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro and the early 2015 13.3-inch MacBook Pro there has been a backlight. The further key travel on the early 2015 MacBook Pro actually means that more light emanating from the early 2015 MacBook Pro, and it isn to from the brightness of the backlight, but this is due to the travel because the keys sit a bit higher on the 2015 MacBook Pro than the M2 MacBook Pro, and therefore more light comes out around the edges.

If I look at both laptops from directly above, there is a small outline on the M2 MacBook Pro with a small amount of light emanating from the keys on the M2 MacBook Pro, but there is definitely more light on the 2015 MacBook Pro.

The one thing I would like to have seen is a way to adjust the keyboard brightness from the function keys on the M2 MacBook Pro, like I could with the 2015 MacBook Pro, but the brightness can be easily adjusted within the Keyboard section of System Settings within macOS, so this is more of a convenience item.

Touch ID

On the topic of Touch ID, it is nice to have Touch ID on a laptop. The 2015 MacBook Pro that I was using previously was one of the last models that did not have support for Touch ID. This was because the Touch ID was introduced on the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros in 2016.

I do have a late 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro provided my employer that has Touch ID and that has a TouchBar on it. I much prefer the physical function keys instead of the Touch Bar. The physical keys are much easier to determine what you are doing as compared to the Touch Bar.

This is not the first Mac that I have owned that has Touch ID support, my Mac Studio has support for Touch ID through the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID that is paired with it. And now my experience is consistent between my Macs.

TrackPad

The TrackPad on the M2 MacBook Pro is a bit wider and a bit taller than on my early 2015 MacBook Pro. Both of the machines have haptic trackpads, meaning that they are do not have physical controls. The larger trackpad is a nice enhancement, but otherwise it is unchanged from the previous trackpads. This is not a bad thing, it just means that Apple has create a good design for the their trackpads on the MacBook Pros.

Battery Life

One of the most important factors for any laptop is its battery life. Having owned my early 2015 MacBook Pro for almost 8 years, it would be an understatement to say that the battery life on it was not the best, even with my 2015 MacBook Pro battery not having its original battery/

At one point I got the "Battery Needs Servicing" message on my MacBook Pro. The battery had a bulge in it, and it needed to be replaced. Of course, this happened when it was out of warranty. The cost to replace the battery came to about $230, which is not too bad for, at the time, a 6 year old laptop. With the 2015 MacBook Pros, you could not just replace the battery, but the keyboard also had to be replaced, which was something I did not know at the time. It was a welcome replacement though because at the time of its replacement, some letter of the keys had that worn off.

When the 2015 MacBook Pro was announced, Apple indicated that the MacBook Pro got up to 10 hours of battery life when browsing the web, and 12 hours when watching iTunes content. Even when the battery was new I would say it was optimistic to get 10 hours of life out of it, but I could use it for extended periods of time without having to necessary be weary of the battery dying.

Apple's announcement of the M2 MacBook Pro, touted the "longest battery life of any Mac" at 22 hours. This is while watching Apple TV content on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. For the 14-inch MacBook Pro the specifications state 12 hours of wireless web use and 18 hours for Apple TV movie playback.

I have not done an extensive test of the battery life. But, as you might expect from an Apple Silicon Mac laptop, the battery life has been great so far. Of course part of this is because the battery is brand new and as of this writing has less than 5 cycles on it. It will likely get to hundreds of cycles before needing to be replaced. By that point, I suspect that I will notice any sort of degradation of the battery. I do not anticipate needing to have the battery go a full 18 hours without charging, but stranger things have happened.

Performance

Before we delve into the actual benchmarks, because they are obligatory in any review that I write, we need to discuss the performance of the 14-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro. Throughout all of my testing, which includes building apps, generating content for my website, including this review, and even transcoding some videos. No matter what I did, I could not get the fans to spin up to any audible level. I am sure that the fans would spin up at some point, but it will likely need to be a lot for it to happen.

Comparison of an M1 Max to the M2 Max

As mentioned above, I tend to keep my desktops for just about exactly five years and my laptops for just over 7.76 years. In late 2021, I knew it was coming close to time to replace one of my machines. At the time I gave serious consideration about replacing my early 2015 laptop, however, another mitigating thing occurred that made me replace my 2017 27-inch iMac first, a cracked screen.

At some point in 2020 I noticed that my 27-inch iMac had a crack in the screen. When I first noticed it, the crack was from the right edge to just a tad bit into the desktop area of the screen. This was a small amount and was hardly noticeable when using the iMac. However, as time went on the length of the crack in the iMac screen grew until it reached about 18 inches in length overall. Why did this crack occur? To this day I do not know. The expansion of the crack in the screen resulted in me replacing my iMac with an M1 Max. You can read the full review if you so desire. Ultimately, this proved to be the right thing to do, because just a few months after I got my Mac Studio, the SSD within the iMac died. The iMac I got was a Fusion Drive, so it included both an SSD and a traditional spinning hard drive. Even though the SSD died, I was able to re-install macOS onto the spinning drive, but now this machine has been relegated to being a test machine.

The reason I chose to get the M2 Max was two-fold. First, was because I wanted a processor that would last for quite a while, and I think the M2 Max will last longer than the M2 Pro. Secondly, I did want to be able to do a comparison between the M1 Max and the M2 Max.

The two processors do have some differences, including being generationally different. The M1 Max in my Mac Studio is an M1 with a 10-core CPU and 24-Core GPU. The M2 Max in my MacBook Pro is the 12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU model. Each Apple Silicon processor consists of two different types of processing cores, efficiency cores and performance cores. For the M1 Max there are 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores. Comparatively, the M2 Max has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores.

All other specifications are approximately the same. Each has 400 Megabytes per second of memory bandwidth, there are 16-core Neural engines, two hardware video encode engines, and two ProRes encode and decode engines.

As outlined, the differences between these two are slight. If you are going to increase core count in a processor, increasing the efficiency cores make sense, particularly if it is going to be used in a laptop, since you can then shuffle more processes to the efficiency cores, thereby improving battery life. Now, let us look at how the M1 Max and M2 Max do when it comes to building a project.

Building a project

I thought about a good way for me to be able to benchmark the differences between the two machines. I figured building an Xcode application would be a good test. For these tests I did a xcodebuild clean and xcodebuild on both projects for each round of testing. I also made sure the copies of the apps were on the local storage so they would have the fastest possible build times. I ran both sets of tests on both the M1 Max Mac Studio and M2 Max MacBook Pro.

I started out by building my app, wwriteLite first. wwriteLite is a mix of Swift, Objective-C (very little), Storyboards, and SwiftUI. It is a pretty complex app that does include two extensions on it. Here are the results:

The average build time on the M2 MacBook Pro is 13.7% faster than on the M1 Max Mac Studio.

For additional comparison I opted to do the same test with my other app, "4077: An Unofficial MASH Trivia app". This app is strictly Swift and SwiftUI. It is a bit simpler and therefore should build a bit faster.

For the MASH Trivia app, the M2 MacBook Pro is about 17.97% faster. This is closer to Apple's statement that the M2 is 25% faster with Xcode Builds. Even so, at nearly 18% faster builds can save a significant amount of time for those who need to do complex builds. If a build normally takes 30 minutes, an 18% increase would bring that down to about 25 minutes. That can add up over time. Now, let us turn to some other benchmarks.

Benchmarks

With each review of an iPad, iPhone, and Mac I like to include some benchmarks. The benchmarks of the early 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, when compared to the M2 MacBook Pro are laughable, as one might expect. Here is a table with a comparison of a variety of Apple Silicon and Intel machines. As is the case with all of the benchmarks, these benchmarks were done using GeekBench 5.

Should you upgrade?

A question that one must ask themselves each time a new Mac comes out is whether or not they should upgrade. If you have an M1 MacBook Pro, there is no reason to upgrade. The improvements that you will see are, according to Apple, at most 25%. I did not see that type of improvement between the M1 Max and M2 Max, but almost 18% is not bad.

However, If you have any Intel machine, even a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019, it may be worth upgrading, if it is within your budget to do so. Single Core performance is up to 80% faster, and multi-core performance is up to 280% faster. If, like me, you are still using a MacBook Pro from 2015, then you should absolutely, without a doubt, upgrade. You will notice the difference right away. The experience will be seamless, for the most part.

You will notice differences, like the backlight keyboard, the notch, the USB-C only ports instead of USB-A, and as well as the fact that you will be required to use macOS Ventura. But other than that you will gain Touch ID support on the laptop.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, particularly for me, the 14-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro has been a great upgrade over my early 2015 13-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro. I do not regret upgrading from my 2015 MacBook Pro because this MacBook Pro is very much like that one, only with USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 instead of USB-A ports.

For me it was not that my early 2015 MacBook Pro was not still functional, it was. It was probably working a bit better since I replaced the battery a couple of years ago. As a matter of fact I still used it for a number of things, but nothing super intensive. As an example, I never opted to generate and build my re-worked website on that laptop because it would probably take 10 or 15 minutes to finish. Given that the laptop was inching closer to 8 years, it was just time for me to upgrade.

Besides needing, and fortuitously, replacing my iMac, waiting this long to replace my MacBook Pro allowed me to bypass the entire butterfly keyboard era. Beyond this, waiting until the Apple Silicon era allowed me to get some significant upgrades, not only in processor and the speed that comes with Apple Silicon, but in the form factor with the more squared-off case, the addition of True Tone, and ProMotion on the display.

Furthermore, I get to keep using the MagSafe 3, like I did with my previous MacBook Pro, and 2007 MacBook before that. The upgraded screen with a larger screen in the same physical size due to reduced bezels is great. Even though there his a notch, I hardly notice it at this point, this is probably because I have become accustomed to the notch on the iPhones, and that the notch does not get in the way since apps can automatically move items around the notch.

If you have an Intel-based Machine, particularly if it is from 2017 or earlier, you should give serious consideration to upgrading to an M2 MacBook Pro. You will not regent doing so. Apple Silicon is worth the upgrade on its own, but the enhancements to the display, keyboard, and the physical keys all add even more nice touches to the computer.

The start of February means that the year is well underway. February also means it’s time for me to provide my January reading list. Last month I listened to 13 books, and only one title was new. That new title is the one I want to highlight this month. The title is "The Science of Interstellar " by Kip S. Thorne.

If you have watched the movie Interstellar, then you might be interested to know that a lot of the science in the movie is actually plausible and true.

A journey through the otherworldly science behind Christopher Nolan’s award-winning film, Interstellar, from executive producer and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne.

Interstellar, from acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, takes us on a fantastic voyage far beyond our solar system. Yet in The Science of Interstellar, Kip Thorne, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who assisted Nolan on the scientific aspects of Interstellar, shows us that the movie’s jaw-dropping events and stunning, never-before-attempted visuals are grounded in real science. Thorne shares his experiences working as the science adviser on the film and then moves on to the science itself. In chapters on wormholes, black holes, interstellar travel, and much more, Thorne’s scientific insights—many of them triggered during the actual scripting and shooting of Interstellar—describe the physical laws that govern our universe and the truly astounding phenomena that those laws make possible.


If you get the audiobook, there is an accompanying PDF that will help you visualize some items from the book.

For February, there will be at least one new title, but beyond that, I am not 100% sure what I will end up reading.

Previous Reading Lists

Last week Apple announced the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, with these being available in the new 14-inch and 16-inch M2 MacBook Pros. The M2 MacBook Pros, as well as the M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini, were all available to order on that day with delivery starting on January 24th, 2023.

Once I read the announcement, I ordered a 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro with an M2 Max with a 12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU. I got 32GB of Unified Memory and 2TB of storage. This machine is replacing an early 2015 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.

I thought I would provide my initial thoughts at just about a day of ownership and using the machine.

Setup

When I did the initial setup of the MacBook Pro there was one step that I had not previously seen, and that was the “Install Latest Update” screen. Given that I do not replace my devices that often, I am not surprised by the fact that I have not seen this screen before. I did install the latest update during setup, so this did add some additional setup time, but it would have gotten done either way.

Screen

In 2021 Apple announced the 14-inch and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro. One of the new features of these devices is a notch, similar to the iPhones. In order to accommodate this, the menu bar is a bit taller. And much like the iPhone, after the initial difference I have not really noticed the notch that much.

One of the other features of the screen is something that was introduced with the iPad Pro in 2018, and is on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 Pro phones. That feature is ProMotion. ProMotion allows the screen to have a refresh rate up to 120Hz. This usually provides smooth scrolling and I have definitely noticed how smooth scrolling is.

Speed

As you might expect, the M2 MacBook Pro is super fast when compared to my previous MacBook Pro. Part of this is, of course, because the computer is brand new, but a vast majority of this speed increase is due to the giant leap from my previous laptop. I mean, there is almost an eight year difference between the machines.

Touch ID

It is convenient having Touch ID right on the laptop. This is not the first laptop that I have used with Touch ID, my work MacBook Pro has Touch ID as well. I also have a Magic Keyboard connected to my Mac Studio, and I use Touch ID on that machine all the time. It is convenient having Touch ID on my laptop. Previously I would have to authorize something with my Apple Watch or enter in my account password.

Closing Thoughts (For Now)

Overall, so far so good with this 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro. Having a new machine is always a nice experience, particularly when you are making such a technological leap. I will do a full review, but I want to give it some time for me to put it through its full paces before I post that. The full review will include a lot more information about the machine and how it performs.

I have been a long time Twitter user. I signed up on January 28th, 2007. Over the last 16 years I have posted just over 160,000 tweets. Some of these have been retweets of others, some have been links to posts here and elsewhere, and even some have been original thoughts that I have had over that time.

Many of the features that are absolute necessities of today’s Twitter did not come from the company, but by its users. Two primary examples are replies and retweets. Early Twitter users would reply by putting the user’s name at the beginning of a tweet to reply to them. For retweets, they would put "rt" at the front of the tweet. In fact, the word ‘tweet" was coined by the users, not Twitter itself.

Early into Twitter’s life they created an Application Programming Interface, or API, that would allow people to create clients for using twitter. This could be a web app or even an app for devices like the iPhone. There were many early apps, like Echofon, Twitterific, Tweetbot, and of course Tweetie.

Tweetie would be purchased by Twitter and become the official Twitter app. Tweetie implemented one thing that has become absolutely essential for many iOS apps, pull to refresh. Yes, pull to refresh came from an app.

The Timeline

On January 12th, at approximately 7:30pm Central Time, Twitter revoked the API keys for a few of the big apps, most notably Tweetbot and Twitterific. At the time many wondered if this was a mistake, or if there were issues with the API. Twitter did not provide any response until 5 days later, on January 17th, when the TwitterDev account finally posted.

Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.

Yesterday, January 19th, Twitter quietly updated its developer terms of service that now states:

You will not or attempt to (and will not allow others to…c) use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications;

From Paul Haddad, founder of Tapbots.

This effectively means that all third-party Twitter apps are dead, which is an end of an era. The impetus is likely to push people towards the official Twitter app,

The Problem

It is fully within Twitter’s rights to not allow third-party apps on their service. There is no argument about that. What is unsettling is that there was ZERO warning. Not even a week’s warning, the keys were just revoked. To exacerbate everything, it was the lack of communications that was the most frustrating.

The bigger issue is that for these are small companies, and likely account for a vast majority of, if not all, of the company’s revenue. For some developers, they do have other apps that can help supplement the lost income from losing third-party subscriptions. I know my Tweetbot subscription is coming up for renewal and I am fine having it renew for another year, even if it is just to help support Tapbots for the time being.

My Future Usage

Since the third-party apps have been disabled, I have not posted to Twitter, on any of my accounts. This is because official Twitter app is just bad and to me is too busy and unusable. The state of the official app has long been one of the reasons why I use a third-party app, the third-party apps were just more reliable and usable. I am not going to say that I am never going to use Twitter again, but I do not think I will use it much going forwward. I do still use it but mostly for direct messages.

In a week of not using Twitter, I cannot say that I miss Twitter. As has been said by many, Twitter is just a giant rage machine. It is all about seeing what the current story is, and then being angry about it. Beyond this, there is always the thought in the back of one’s mind about wanting to know what the latest news is. I think I have come to realize that I do not need that type of low-level background worry.

Along with not posting, I also opted to try an experiment and see if anybody noticed that I had not posted nor replied on Twitter, and in fact only one person contacted me to make sure I was okay, because I had not posted. I am grateful for that person checking in on me.

Mastodon

Instead of using Twitter, I have been spending a lot more time on Mastodon. This was easy enough for me to do because there is a Mastodon client called Ivory, by Tapbots, the creators of Tweetbot. I was able to get into the beta and I put the Ivory app where I had Tweetbot. As of this writing this is not yet available for purchase on the App Store, but it will be coming soon. I will likely do a full review of Ivory once it is available to the public.

If you want you can follow me on Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@waynedixon. There are a myriad of Mastodon apps, including the official one, available for all sorts of platforms.

If Mastodon is not your thing, you can check all of the other places I am using any of the links at both the top and bottom of this post.

Quicky on the heels of yesterday's Mac mini and MacBook Pro announcement, Apple has announced a 2nd generation HomePod.

The 2nd generation HomePod is powered by an S7 chip and will use beamforming to detect how sound bounces off of the various surfaces in your home to provide you with the best sound for your environment. Beyond this, the 2nd generation HomePod supports spatial audio and you can create a stereo pair out of two HomePods, just like the HomePod mini and the 1st generation HomePod. You will not be able to pair an original HomePod with a 2nd generation HomePod, nor will you be able to pair a 2nd generation HomePod with a HomePod mini.

The 2nd generation HomePod also adds support for the Smart Home standard called Matter. The 2nd generation HomePod also has an ambient temperature and humidity sensor.

Internals of the 2nd generation HomePod

If you need to find one of your devices, you can use Find My on your HomePod to locate devices. The 2nd generation HomePod will also be capable of Sound Recognition. First introduced in iOS 16, Sound Recognition will detect sounds like smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification to your phone. This feature will be coming in an update in the Spring.

The 2nd generation HomePod requires iOS 16.3 or later on a supported device, so look for iOS 16.3 to be released early next week. In the meantime, you can watch an overview video on the HomePod homepage.

The 2nd generatin HomePod is available to order today, in either Midnight or White for $299, and AppleCare is an additional $39. The second generation HomePod will begin arriving on February 3rd.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Today Apple announced updates to the Mac mini and 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro lines. All of these machines have versions of the M2 processor. Before we delve into the specific products, let us look at the M2 and M2 Pro.

M2 Pro and M2 Max

The M2 Pro and M2 Max build on the M2 and provide even faster capabilities. The M2 Pro has 40 billion transistors, which is 20% more than the M1 Pro, and double the M2. According to Apple graphics processing on the M2 Pro is up to 30% faster than the M1 Pro.

The M2 Max has 67 billion transistors on the chip, The graphics processing in the M2 Max sees a similar increase to that of the M2 Pro, and is up to 30% faster than the M1 Max. Next, let us look at the Mac mini.

Here are three overview images from the introduction video:

M2 feature and options overview

M2 Pro feature and options overview

M2 Max feature and options overview

Mac mini

The Mac mini was one of the first machines to begin the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, with the introduction of the M1-based Mac mini in November of 2020. At the time a higher end configuration of the 2018 Intel Mac mini remained on sale. Today, that item is no longer on sale because Apple has introduced two new Mac minis, with the M2 and M2 Pro processors.

There are three models overall, two with an M2, and one with an M2 Pro.

The first model is an M2 with 8-Core CPU, 10-Core CPU with 8GB memory and 256GB of storage that starts at $599. The second model is the same M2 with an 8-Core CPU, 10-Core CPU with 8GB memory, but has 512GB of storage, that starts at $799. You can configure either of these models with up to 24GB of unified memory, and up to 2TB of storage.

The last model is an M2 Pro with 10-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB SSD Storage, which starts at $1299. This can be configured to use 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, processor if desired. This model can also be configured with 32GB of unified memory. The storage options allow you to configure it with up to 8TB of storage.

All models allow you to configure a 10-gigabit per second adapter for $100. All models have 2 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm Headphone jack. The M2 Pro model has 4 USB-C ports. All of the machines come with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

As mentioned above, the Mac mini starts at $599, which is $100 less than the previous M1 Mac mini. There is only one color for this Mac mini, silver. You can order it today and it will begin arriving starting January 24th. Let us now move onto the MacBook Pros.

Mac mini feature and options overview

MacBook Pro

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro moved from Intel to Apple Silicon in 2021 and were introduced with the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Today, these machines received an update to the M2 Pro and M2 Max. There are two M2 Pro processors, and two M2 Max processors. All models have 4 effiency cores, and either 6 or 8 high-performance cores.

Here are the processo options available:

• M2 Pro with 10‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine (14-inch only)
• M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 38‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine

The M2 Pro models can be configured with 16GB or 32GB of unified memory, the 30-Core CPU M2 Max can be configured with 32GB or 64GB of unified memory, and the 38-core GPU M2 Max can be configured with 32GB, 64GB, or 96GB of unified memory. All models can be configured with 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or even 8TB of storage.

All 14-inch models come with 96-watt power bricks, that support fast charging, with the exception of the 10-core version, which only has a 67-watt power brick. The 16-inch models all come with 140-watt power bricks, which also support fast charging, with the 140-watt adapter.

According to Apple, battery life has improved as well with the 14-inch models now getting up to 18 hours of , and the 16-inch models getting up to 22 hours.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with a 10-Core GPU, 16-core GPU M2 Pro, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage starts at $1999. The 16-inch model with an M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19‑core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage starts at $2499.

There is one tidbit with these machines, the MagSafe cable is now color-matched to the machine. Previously, these the MagSafe cable would be silver. Just like the Mac mini, you can order these machines today and they will start arriving on January 24th. Custom build times have slipped from late-January to early-February.

MacBook Pro feature and options overview

Closing Thoughts

Today's updates are smaller, in comparison to that of the M1, but they are great additions to the Mac line up. THe Intel-based Mac mini is no longer available, but it was four years old, so it not the worst thing. The M2 Pro Mac mini would be a fantastic upgrade for anybody who is still using an Intel Mac mini.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros offer some good upgrades, and keep the same base price. The highest-end configurations have increased in price, but if you are in the market for those, you know you need the power.

Source: Apple Newsroom: , M2 Pro and M2 Max, Mac mini, MacBook Pros