MacQuadra840av

longpath said:

For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone is assuming that a return of MagSafe means a return of either of the old MagSafe connectors when we know for a fact that neither of them are used in MagSafe on iPhones. Indeed, given the sequence in time, I submit that it’s vastly more likely that this leak is more likely to mean some iteration of the current MagSafe tech, which is consistent with a recent Apple patent that showed MagSafe charging pads in the palm rests for charging an iPhone.

Because the reports have stated, "The MagSafe connector in the new MacBook Pro models will have a similar shape to that of MagSafe connectors in Macs of old."  MagSafe in the iPhone is NOT a MagSafe connector.  It is inductive charging.  The report also says the MagSafe port in the new MacBook Pro would be able to charge faster, something the MagSafe in the iPhone CANNOT do.  Just because Apple files a patent, does not mean they actually introduce it.  Charging a phone on your palm rest is ridiculous because how are you supposed to use the MacBook when your phone is sitting on the palm rest?

mjtomlin said:

I have a feeling the current M1 systems were a stop-gap solution using current designs to get them on the market and in users' hands as soon as possible. 

No.  They are not a stop-gap solution.  Apple made the mistake of having the first M-based Macs be the most basic and low-cost models, instead of upgrading their most popular models first.  You know, like they did with the first Intel Macs, the iMac and the 15" MacBook Pro.

Jony Ive is gone...for good.  Enough of the obsession on thin.  What does a thinner MacBook translate to?  It means less battery life and a lousy keyboard.  Two things no one wants.

Only Apple would make headphones without a headphone jack, without a power switch, with cloth that will get dirty, worn out, and hard to clean, and cripple the control of your music when you use their $35 wired cable for better audio.

Didn't AI recently have an article on how to disable the automatic device switching because it is annoying when the AirPods switch to another device without your control?  Like when they automatically switch to your Mac when you wanted to keep listening on your iPhone?

I have the Sony MX3s and they are amazing.  Excellent sound quality, excellent ANC, fold into a compact hard case, wired connection included, USB-C, excellent controls by swiping on the right ear (or covering the right ear to turn off ANC temporarily), customizable software in the Sony app, and zero issues with Bluetooth connection or wired (preferred for better audio), and all for over $200 less.

You nailed it with this review.  Mediocre sound quality (typical of all Apple sound products) and not good enough to justify the $549 price.  Apple could have had something if they were $349 or less to compete with Bose and Sony, but no audiophile will buy these headphones if that was the market they were hoping for.  Audiophiles or recording artists do not listen to Bluetooth audio.

jdb8167 said:

pulseimages said:

Have they worked out the bugs for Big Sur yet? I haven’t downloaded it as of yet. 

There are bugs with installing on external drives and running Big Sur on an external boot drive. I can't get it to work at all on my M1 MacBook Air. But Big Sur seems pretty solid for day to day use. Better than Catalina in my opinion. 

Wrong. I ran all beta versions and final versions of Big Sur from my external USB 3.0 SSD drive.  Worked perfectly.  The problem you are encountering is Apple's security changes that started with T2 Macs.  You must boot into recovery mode using Command-R, if that is even still possible on an M1 Mac, and disable all the new security imposed by the T2 Macs.  Namely, the new security 'feature' that prohibits installing or booting from ANY external drive.  You should also disable the macOS security features that prohibit installing any version of macOS that is not downloaded at the time of install.  Those are likely the reasons why you cannot install or boot from an external drive.  Has nothing to do with any version of macOS.