neilm

crowley said:

Seems weird that the MacBook's doesn't fare better in battery life than the others.  I wonder if there's much variation in battery capacity.

Here’s Microsoft’s battery test, in their own words:
"Testing consisted of full battery discharge with a mixture of active use and modern standby. The active use portion consists of (1) a web browsing test accessing 8 popular websites over multiple open tabs, (2) a productivity test utilizing Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook, and (3) a portion of time with the device in use with idle applications. All settings were default except screen brightness was set to 150nits with Auto-Brightness disabled. Wi-Fi was connected to a network. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors."

Here is Apple’s:
“MacBook Pro with Apple M1 chip: Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 chip, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 8 clicks from bottom. The Apple TV app movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 8 clicks from bottom.”

The main difference is that MS includes in-app idle time, and standby time, which obviously reduce power draw. That’s like pausing the test. However Apple runs the M1 continuously. 

I’ve had three different Harmony remotes, but always found them high effort to configure and maintain. Once TiVo acquired RF capability for its remote in addition to IR, the Harmony was retired with no regrets.

While the AppleTV remote may not be the world’s greatest, it’s not particularly difficult to use — why all the whinging? Alternatively you can use the built in remote app in iOS.

AppleInsider said:

Apple is thought to be working on a pair of redesigned iMac models sporting Apple Silicon chips.

Since Apple very explicitly stated that it will be converting the Mac to ASi (see Apple NewsrooM https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/06/apple-announces-mac-transition-to-apple-silicon/), "thought to be working on" sounds a bit silly.

Tim Cook hit his 60th birthday last November 1st, so it's no surprise that he doesn't see himself still being at Apple in 10 years. In fact it would be quite unusual for a CEO to be on the job at that 70 unless he's (and yes, it would almost always be a 'he') also the company owner. That goes double for a tech company CEO.

Whatever Cook ends up doing when he retires, he will undeniably have earned the privilege.

mnbob1 said:

I have always felt that the battery life on my iPhone 11plus was inadequate. After charging overnight I’m lucky to make it to 8:00 pm.

Well that rather depends on how you're using your phone, right?