Switching from M1 MacBook Air to M5 MacBook Air?

 The new M5 MacBook Air models have been introduced.

 I'm still running on a refurbished MacBook Air that I bought in 2022.  It's still reliable but games and graphics software are less smooth than they should be.  Plus, 1TB of storage is not exactly enough.  How anyone is okay with 256 GB or 512 GB and doing more than browsing and e-mail is beyond me. 

 The base M5  MacBook Air comes with 512 GB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, 10 CPU cores, and 8 GPU cores for US$1099.  My current M1 MacBook Air has 1 TB, 16 GB of RAM, 8 CPU cores, and 8 GPU cores.  I paid US$1359 for a refurbished machine.  If there is any doubt, I'm using a 13.3 inch machine and looking at a 13.6 inch machine.

I wanted to configure a MacBook Air with more storage and more RAM.  My current 1 TB seems to be under 100 GB regularly, and I've moved games to a separate 16 TB drive that seems really slow.  It's actually a HDD.

 

Given that you cannot change the storage or RAM with Apple Silicon machines, it's important to buy everything at once.  Windows machines are somewhat more flexible, but my ASUS ZenBook Pro has some soldered RAM.  Apple makes configuring a lot of upgraded RAM and/or storage expensive.  That hasn't changed.  However, with AI processing pushing up prices, Apple seems to be holding the line. 

Is US$1899 outrageous in 2026?  Is it worse than US$1359 for a refurbished M1 MacBook Air in 2022?  I tried a similar configuration of the 14 inch MacBook Pro and it was US$400 more.  Is one fan and a better display worth that much?

I'm not sure that the 24 GB of RAM is enough, especially with so many extra cores.  I use graphic design software and play games, so 32 GB of RAM might be more appropriate.

My M1 MacBook Air will have trade-in value.  It was at US$300+ the other day.

If I was making money with my equipment, would there be a question.   I'd still wait until they were available, but the last time I jumped to buy a machine was the 1998 Wall Street G3 laptop computers.  I regretted that one so much, I gave it to someone else.  That was US$2659, as I recall for a 233 MHz, passive graphics display, and a 66 MHz bus.   Then again, there was the IBM L40SX with Intel 486SX CPU.  I got that for 25% of the original US$6000.  It lasted a few months and the mouse port broke and the extended warranty company told me that the motherboard cost more than the price of the computer.  I settled with them and bought my first Mac.  It's amazing that you can go to a store like Costco or Sam's Club and buy a US$500 machine that's more impressive than most of what we used to have.

Let's see what happens.  Will there be a new MacBook Air here this month? 

Update 2026.03.04: The MacBook Neo looks good, but not for me.  If someone was using an Intel-based MacBook Air, they'd be happy.  It's much more powerful.  It's slightly more powerful than the M1 MacBook Air supposedly.  Those people who were looking for a 12 inch MacBook replacement may be happy.  Oh, and the US$100 price bump for Touch ID and more would be worth it.  I'm still confused about the USB ports on the Neo.  One operates at USB 3.0 speed and the other operates at USB 2.0 speed.  Supposedly, there is a speed warning when you use a device on the slower port.

Update 2026.03.16: I posted a comment about going to the M5 MacBook Air on a YouTube video and someone told me to wait for the M6.  I replied that, in a year, he would have me waiting for the M7, and so on, and I'd be on the M1 until I die.

 I just need to wait for enough cash to buy it outright and wait for the trade-in money to return.   I'd like to get it as soon as possible, but paying rent, etc., and eating are important. 

Two Years with a refurbished M1 MacBook Air

 I am surprised that I've been using my loaded M1 MacBook Air for two years.

I bought a refurbished model because new models just seemed too expensive, if I wasn't satisfied.  I'd been using the last MacBook Pro that allowed you to change the RAM, the drive, and the battery.  It's a mid-2012 machine with a quad-core i7 and GeForce 650M.  That was powerful in 2012 and it's still usable today. I had an Omen by HP with a quad-core i7 7th generation and GeForce 1050M that wasn't that much quicker.

When I got the M1 MacBook Air started, I was shocked at how much faster the M1 SoC (System on a Chip) was over the 3rd generation quad-core i7.  Plus, it wasn't hot enough to boil water.  While editing video, my mid-2012 MacBook Pro would be at 100 degrees C.  The Intel-based MacBook Pro was great in winter.  The M1 MacBook Air was not a good heater at all.

With a 13.3 inch display, it's much smaller and lighter than the MacBook Pro with the 15.4 inch display, or even the plastic Omen by HP with 15.6 inch display.  One thing I don't understand is when I see someone complaining about how heavy the current MacBook Pro machines are.  Watching a video, someone mentioned carrying one with a Anker Power Bank, a camera, and a couple of other things in a backpack and how heavy it was.  When I was photographing at skate parks, I took a backpack with 3 camera bodies, 6 lenses, the mid-2012 MacBook Pro, and a few other things.  My friends seemed to struggle with it, but I just picked it up and moved, and I'm not strong.  So, how can these people making videos get through ordinary life?

 I have not used this machine outside of the house but I have used it on battery a few times and it's just as quick.  I've tried to use a gaming laptop on battery and it was incredibly bad.

I'm still waiting for a bunch of games to appear, games that I want to play.  During the PowerPC era, I found many games that I liked, such as Unreal Tournament and UT2004.  Back then, you had to have a desktop machine to play those and you had to have a decent graphics card.  I had an ATI XClaimVR.  Now, the simplest MacBook Air can play limited games.

Lately, I've been playing Wuthering Waves, Death Stranding, Lies of P.  They work fairly well, considering that the machine only has 8 graphics cores.  The new M4 MacBook Air is much more powerful and when a refurbished machine arrives, I might buy one.  The current new model is only US$50 more than I paid for this refurbished M1 MacBook Air.

Games are arriving slowly.  I'm just surprised that it's been almost five years since the M1 and there are still developers unwilling to flip the Apple Silicon switch to enabled and figure out what makes their software run best.  The Intel-based Macs aren't going to last forever.  Rosetta 2 has been good, but it only runs 64-bit x86 code.

My Affinity Designer 2, Photo 2, and Publisher 2 are Apple Silicon applications.  They run really well.  Capture One Pro 22 is a Universal application as well. Dropbox is not, but Evernote is.  Steam and GOG Galaxy are not.  I'm not surprised that Steam is not being updated.  Apple and Valve do not get along.  Apple could have worked with Valve on making Proton part of macOS, but noooooooo.  Every so often, Apple says that they like games, they throw some technology and money at it and two years later, they haven't updated it.  Valve has updated their games and left the Mac versions to rot.  I still buy games on Steam and occasionally, there are Mac versions.

If you haven't tried the Heroic Games Launcher, you should.  It's an Apple Silicon application and connected to GOG and Epic.  It's certainly better than the game launchers from GOG and Epic Games, which are both Intel applications.

GeForce Now is another way to get your game fix but you need to buy a subscription to get to play quickly and not wait for hours for your game to be available.

I have a Steam Deck and sometimes, that is the easiest way to play.  You don't have any distractions.  I paid the US$649 for the top LCD device and it works well, but with the OLED models having a processor built on a more efficient process, they're somewhat better.  There is better performance in the 2nd generation Lenovo Legion Go S model that runs SteamOS but it's HUGE for a handheld.

Back to Mac every day, there isn't much that the M1 MacBook Air can't do and the M4 MacBook Air makes that gap of things it cannot do much smaller.  Given what I've seen in videos lately, the M4 machines, even base machines, are very powerful.  I wouldn't buy a machine with 256 GB of storage.  I'm still struggling with 1 TB but I try to do everything with my machine.

 If there is one problem with the M1 MacBook Air, that has been rectified with the M3 and and M4 MacBook Air, it's that there are only two type-C USB ports and one has to be used for power input.  I could use a USB or Thunderbolt Dock, but my desk doesn't have the room.  Then again, I could just use it on battery for hours. 

Update 2025.06.09: Just noticed that MacRumors is saying that the M1 MacBook Air is still on the list for a new macOS version.  It seems as though the Intel-based machines are out.  We shall see in about 10 hours.  Then again, they were talking about moving everything to version 26, so I don't know what the people at Apple are smoking.

If they stop developing operating systems for Intel-based computers, that will lead to a more efficient operation and hopefully, better quality.  When they stopped developing for PowerPC, the people with Intel-based machines seemed happier.

It should be interesting to see if they've got more interesting hardware.  I'd like to see a gaming machine with good airflow, better heat dispersion, etc., but I doubt seriously that will happen. 

Update 2025.06.30: Got a "low battery" alert for the first time.  Yesterday, I got a new laptop cooling pad I ordered to replace one that seemed to be failing.  I moved things around the desk to make the exchange.  I apparently forgot to check the cables when I placed the MacBook Air on the cooling pad.  That was about 22 hours ago.  Since I've played Wuthering Waves a couple of times, that's not bad.  If I did that to the Windows laptop, I'd get 45 minutes out of the battery most likely.  That GeForce RTX 3050 Ti is reasonable powerful but it is thirsty. 

Update 2025.12.14: The release schedule for Apple products seems so messed up this year.  Seeing an iPad Pro with M5 and a 14 inch MacBook Pro with M5 SoC, it makes me wonder if they don't have enough processors.  Maybe obviously, the MacBook Air wasn't arriving until spring 2026, but given the performance improvement in the MacBook Pro and how the fan (not fans) run too much, I'm wondering how they will combat the heat.

I just updated to macOS 15.7.3 and my machine is still good.  I'm a bit sad that they don't care about security releases as much now, and I'm wondering about my iPhone.  I'm also not holding my breath for a miracle.  They seem to want me to switch to 26.2, which still seems to have problems.

When/if the 2026 M5 MacBook Air is available, I'll be considering it, depending on feedback about overheating.  My 2012 quad-core i7 with GeForce 650M can top 100 degrees C easily but it has fans. 

Update 2026.05.17: Almost another year has passed.  The MacBook Air is on macOS 26.5.  I had hoped recently that Apple had got macOS/iOS/watchOS 26 to a stable condition.  I was wrong but it's finally getting better.  I wish they'd wait until they test it before releasing it.  They're so money-driven now that quality doesn't matter.

I was almost ready to buy an M5 MacBook Air and my Windows 11 (gaming) machine decided to have some irreconcilable differences, such as overheating, and I've got an MSI Crosshair HX 16 on the way.

As much as I dislike Windows 11, it's still where most of my games are.  The older machine may get to run CachyOS to see how many games can  be run on Linux, although the U.S. government, probably at the behest of Microsoft has set their sights on eliminating Linux as a Windows competitor. 

Oh, and yes, the MacBook Air is still fine, and hasn't degraded the way the Windows machine has. 

Update 2026.10.08: I'm still using the M1 MacBook Air and it's still fine.  I notice a color change while I'm using Google Gemini on Chrome, but I don't notice it any other time, so I'm guessing it's something Chrome and Gemini are doing.  The one bad thing is the lack of storage, and I have a 16 TB rotating drive, which is great if I have time, but it accentuates how quick the internal SSD is on the M1. 

Wuthering Waves for Mac is available

 If you've been watching my blog, you've seen that I've played Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, Seven Knights 2, and Solo Leveling: Arise on the computer (and on phone occasionally), plus a number of handheld-only games.

I saw that Wuthering Waves was available for Mac and I want more games on Macs, as Windows seems to be going in the wrong direction again, for me.

I'm a bit less enthusiastic about buying from the Mac App Store instead of Steam.  I'd rather have my games available on every platform, including Mac, Windows, and Steam Deck/Linux.  Occasionally, something I bought on Steam will suddenly have a Mac version, but that is happening slowly.

 My M1 MacBook Air (from 2020) has 8 graphics cores, so it's decent for what it is, but hardly great.  I ran Resident Evil 7 on it and it was smooth but not great.  It's the same with Death Stranding and Divinity-Original Sin 2 and others.  Baldur's Gate 3's minimum requirements are much higher than my machine has,  so I haven't bothered.

In any case, I recently changed phones, so I updated my Mac and my watch to the latest operating systems to match.  Performance is down.

 Regardless, Wuthering Waves seems to be very close to Genshin Impact, Solo Leveling: Arise, and Honkai: Star Rail with some changes.

This feels like a combination of the other three.  It's an open world-type of game, so it's like Genshin Impact, but it occasionally requires testing to ascend, which makes it similar to Honkai: Star Rail.

As with Genshin Impact, I've gone all over to activate the various devices for Fast Travel.  This makes certain that I can go quickly and heal quickly, when necessary.  Unlike Genshin Impact, there are more than a few of these devices.  Additionally, some of the devices can add to the maps on your Terminal, i.e., your communications device.

After about a week, I'm at Union level 31 and my main character, Rover is at level 54, on the way to level 60.  As well, his weapon, Red Spring is at level 50.

 I've got ten other Resonators.  I started with Baizhi, Yangyang, and Chixia.  Since the start, I've got Verina, Lingyang, Yuanwu, Sanhua, Youhu (who comes in Convene regularly), Taoqi, and Calcharo.  Going through the first set of acts, I've seen most of the characters appear.  Are three 5-star characters good?  Calcharo happens to have great abilities, while the other two are like 4-star characters.

It's important to keep on top of achievements in Maps, Pioneer Podcast, Guidebook, Trophies, Data Bank, and even Store and Quests.

There is a lot of climbing and just like Genshin Impact, the characters will climb when you're not wanting that to happen.  There is a lot of fighting, also, as with any gacha game.

The characters speak good Japanese.

I haven't spent any money on the game.  I'm not even sure what I'd buy, if I felt the need.

 Obviously, at Union level 31, I'm making some progress.  Some of it is easy, but there are difficult tasks and I've had to go through some of them three times.  However, compared to Genshin Impact, it feels so much less difficult.  I was at AR 43 when I de-installed that game and I never felt as though I was making progress.  I never got to the point where I had access to Inazuma.  In WuWa, I haven't made it too far outside JinZhou, except for Mt. Firmament, which I'm trying to solve now.

Update 2025.04.17: This morning, I hit Union Level 40, so I did the ascension test and finished it first time with Rover (Spectro), Baizhi, and Calcharo. Now, my main character can go to level 70.  As well, I completed the ascension on his weapon and that can go to level 70. That's decent progress for a few weeks' time.

Update 2025.04.27: Got to Union Level 45 today.  I guess the training wheels are being removed now.  Two days later, the new (1st anniversary) version will arrive.  Working on the weapons and finishing some quests, so I'm feeling a bit more prepared for what will happen.  I'm still struggling with main quests.  As well, a few confrontations seem to be far above my level, requiring characters at level 90 or higher, rather than my level 70. 

Update 2025.04.29: The anniversary update is complete.  The "Cubie" rubbish isn't endearing to me.  Who would allow them to spend money on that, instead of a proper update?

I suppose I should try to embrace the ridiculousness and try to win some stuff. 

Update 2025.05.01: I embraced the ridiculousness.  I got through level 5 and then, it wanted me to finish two Main Quests that I can't finish with level 70 characters and level 70 weapons.

Update 2025.05.07: Finally at Union  level 50, which means my maximum character level is 80.  The unfortunate part of this is that the opponents have automatically had their levels raised, even in Simulation Training.  Maybe, if there are four or five characters at level 80, I can finally finish  a couple of Main Quests.  I was stuck on the Vault and got partway through the Black Shores tower, but couldn't finish the second tower. 

Update 2025.05.14: At Union level 52, I'm struggling.  Calcharo and Rover (Spectro) are at level 80 and have 5-star weapons at level 80, but I can't get Baizhi ascended.  I'm working on my two Havoc-oriented characters, Taoqi and Danjin, but getting them to level 80 and their weapons will take time.  I've only used Danjin in a limited number of battles and I've yet to have Taoqi to the level of the other main characters I've been using.

Update 2025.05.16: Baizhi is at level 80 and so is her weapon.  Got Danjin ascended, so I need to get her to level 80.  She'll be helpful in the Main Quests. Once I got to Union Level 53, it feels as though things became more even.  Certainly, having three characters at level 80 has helped.  Looking forward to see what other areas there are to visit.

Update 2025.05.22: I kept seeing some items for the anniversary that were locked up for 30 days.  Today, they were unlocked and I used the Convene tokens and got Ciaccona, as well as another Danjin.  That brings my total to 4 5-star characters.  Getting Ciacconna up to level 80 will take a while, but doesn't everything? 

 

Update 2025.06.17: Got past the level 60 ascension test.  I don't know if it will help anyone else, but you can see the helpers the characters consumed to be strong enough.

Once through the test, I happened to have enough to bring Rover up to level 86 right away.  I've been working on upgrading the skills for the last week or so because my characters weren't strong enough with level 4 skills.  I'm hoping that quite a few quests can be completed once everyone is at level 90.  I need to move Ciaccona past level 50 at this point.  Calcharo is the only 5-star character I have that is at level 80. 

Update 2025.06.21: Still working on Resonator resources to Ascend Baizhi and Calcharo past level 80.  Handling Calamity Class creatures is interesting with Rover at level 90 and the other two at level 80.  Supplies help, but luck is important and timing is everything.

Getting the other 5-star characters up to level 90 is difficult.  Working on the 4-star characters to get the resources to level up the 5-star characters.  When raising skill levels, I found that I need a third item and that you can only gather those (through battle) a limited number of times per week. 

Update 2025.10.09: The version 2.7 update was claiming that it needed 40.8 GB of storage in order to update.  I had around 144 GB free.  It wasn't enough.  I got it to 159 GB free and that wasn't enough.  I removed most every game and creative applications.  I got it to 349 GB and after the update, I'm back to 149 GB. 200 GB for an update?  Wow! 

Update 2025.12.14: Still going but I cannot seem to get the 5-stars up past level 80.  If I could even get Linyang and Verina up to level 90, I might have a chance to move the more impressive 5-star characters up a few levels. 

Update 2026.01.13: I've been trying the new areas added in version 3.0.  Daily Tasks are still set in the original areas.  I thought that they might reach out a bit, but perhaps, I need to finish a main task or three.

I've been concentrating more on Where Winds Meet and Solo Leveling: Arise and I've set the main interface in that one to Korean, along with the voices, since I'm learning Korean.  I don't want to be bored, do I? 

 

Update 2026.02.04: Version 3.1 is ready.  It claimed that it needed about 80 GB when I had around 250 GB free.  Perhaps, it should mention all of the extra bits and bytes.  Until I had about 100 GB extra was it happy.  At some point, I will have Wuthering Waves on my Mac and there won't be room for operating system updates.  I'm still on macOS 15.7.3, so I shudder to think about the requirements for 26.3, which should be out in a week or so.  Apple has been withholding updates for whatever reason, to get me to 26.x on iPhone, Mac, and Watch.

 The new version of WuWa doesn't look much different.  The update came with some goodies.  Hope they're good for you.  

Update 2026.04.30: WuWa has been updated again and it seems that they looked into the way it ran because it feels more responsive.  I used to struggle with which part of the buttons were active, and that's been corrected.  It feels like a fresh game. 

Updated Mac, Apple Watch, and iPhone to the latest operating systems

 I took the leap to update all three devices around the same time.

Apple Watch Series 7 was on watchOS 9.x, 2022 iPhone SE was on 16.7.2, and MacBook Air was on macOS Monterey.

I usually wait until the x.x.1 version of the operating system, but lately, Apple has not been as good.  I was going to wait until the release that happens right before Christmas.  None of them want to deal with problems over the Christmas holiday, so they usually do a better job of bug elimination.

However, the Mac has been two generations back from Sonoma, and it shows when I want to back up the iPhone.  There is a need to download a compatibility patch of some sort.  I wouldn't be two generations of macOS back except that Ventura has had so many bad reports, I didn't want to encounter any of the problems.

I remember too well how my PowerPC machine was having trouble with Leopard and later, Snow Leopard.  It just never was so good again.  However, the people with Intel-based machines were really happy with the performance.  Transition time anywhere is not so easy.

So, I clicked on Install, and Sonoma was downloaded and around 30 minutes later, was running.

 Downloading 17.1.1 was just as simple and the update process was free from errors.  The time to process the update seemed forever but was suddenly finished.

Requesting the Apple Watch update from the iPhone app was interesting.  At one point, it said "1 Day" and later, it seemed to lock onto "16 Hours", which was way too long.  I restarted the phone and the watch, and then, started the update from the watch.  It requested agreeing to the Terms and Conditions on the phone, which went back and forth four times.  The screen had things overlapping, as if they hadn't really tested the installer.  However, it claimed 2 Hours once everything was handled correctly.

Everything is up to date for the moment.  Battery life on the phone and watch seem less than ideal, which I expect with every new release.  Usually, macOS has some checking and cataloguing to be done for days, and that hasn't seemed to have happened.  It just went to work immediately.  It seems fairly steady.

I hope that it will all be good before the releases in February.  Hopefully, the battery life will be improved with the releases before Christmas.

Update 2023.11.24: The updates are generally good, although the battery life for the watch and phone have been less than ideal.  They have not entered the dreaded red zone yet, though.

People have been mentioning that Sonoma has been quite a bit faster.  Maybe, I'm not seeing it because I don't use Safari as my web browser, plus, I never used Ventura.

That said, I keep waiting for GOG Galaxy and Steam to become Universal applications and speed up a lot of things.  Steam will be the last one of all, I'm almost certain.  With dwindling Mac game play through Steam, Valve doesn't really care to invest much effort.  Perhaps, when the last of the Intel-based machines are on the obsolete list, Valve will do something more.  I really liked playing Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 on my Mac.  It's a shame that I loaded Catalina on my older, Intel-based Mac because I could still play those 32-bit games before Catalina.

Hopefully, with Sonoma' Game Mode running successfully, more developers will arrive with good ports of their games.  Feral Interactive has done well on conversions, and Larian Studios has Macs in mind when developing.

Update 2023.11.30: Sonoma 14.1.2 is out with bug fixes and security updates, as well as iOS 17.1.2.  Updates went smoothly, so I'm hoping for the best.

Update 2023.12.14: My Apple Watch decided that I wanted to update to watchOS 10.2 and did it without asking.  I'm waiting for macOS 14.2.1 and iOS 17.2.1 before I go further.  Those should be out in the next week or two.

Update 2023.12.20: macOS and iOS are on my M1 MacBook Air and 2022 iPhone SE.  They are both working relatively well.  Given that there won't likely be another update until February, I'm satisfied with the performance.  Everything needs better battery life, though.  People with Intel-based Macs are complaining about Sonoma but it's macOS is finally getting better for Apple Silicon-based Macs, in the way that Leopard made Intel-based Macs better, and messed up PowerPC-based Macs.

Sonoma's Game Mode does help, but my SteelSeries Nimbus+ controller is not working, possibly due to a fall.  It disconnects intermittently, even when using a cable.  Why are game controllers so fragile?

Update 2023.12.31: I continue to see users complaining about random bugs and I wonder how many used developer or public beta test versions before using a production version.  I would have that happen occasionally in the early days of Mac OS X but haven't had that happen lately.

I started the mid-2012 MacBook Pro, with Catalina, the other day.  I'm considering a Linux-based distribution, so that I can turn it into a decent game machine.  I can't decide on a distro.  I'm leaning toward Arch or Kubuntu, in hopes that I can load the SteamOS Proton layer in order to play Windows games.  However, with only 512 MB of VRAM, it might not be enough.  Even the full 1 GB of VRAM might not be enough for recent games from my experience with the Omen by HP with a GeForce GTX 1050 with 2 GB of VRAM.    This latest Windows machine has an RTX 3050 Ti with 4 GB of VRAM.

Still, the old MacBook Pro is a good heater with that quad-core Intel i7-3770.

Update 2024.01.28: This week, Apple pushed iOS 17.3, macOS 14.3, and watchOS 10.3.  I don't usually go until the x.x.1 release is ready.  They were pushing a lot and they mentioned a security flaw that might have been exploited, which usually means that it had been exploited.  Ugggh.  So, I updated.  It may have been a fluke but cellular connectivity doesn't seem as stable.  Battery life is still not right.  Hopefully, the x.x.1 update will be ready before Valentine's Day.

I'm still glad to have the M1 MacBook Air on Sonoma.  I wish Apple would really take software development seriously and produce better software.  The only good thing is that we're not paying for bad releases, as we were in the System 7.x and MacOS 8.x, 9.x days.  When I would pay US$79.99 for a release and it wasn't really any better and then, they would discontinue things that really helped, it was rather frustrating.

Update 2024.01.31: I wanted to make room for Death Stranding: Director's Cut and I started deleting games and more because I only had about 153 GB available in Finder.  So, I went through Steam and looked at the games I wasn't playing or that we're as important.  I also deleted so other various stuff, and found through Settings(Control Panel) where various data was too much.  I checked and the available space was 2 GB smaller.  I waited for fseventd to finish and I restarted the machine.  No significant change was shown.  I deleted more and still no change that I could see.  I used the application WhatSize to help me find things that macOS wouldn't let me access easily.  I deleted more but there still was no visible change, even after a restart.  I left it along for a while and it had gone from 151 GB to about 298 GB available.  Today, it was showing 458 GB available.

Apple apparently doesn't have any long term developers watching what they're doing.  It's a bit scary that they've handed off development to people without oversight.  Someone should be checking the quality and fixes should be issued as soon as possible.

Sadly, they only seem to handle security flaws when they're on the news.

I live out in Central Valley and many people from the San Francisco Bay Area live out here now, including people from Apple, HP, and Google.  I wonder how many are so tired from their three hour commute that they're just not productive.  I'm hoping that someone cares but I'm not so sure about that, either.

Update 2024.02.08: Updated to 17.3.1, 10.3.1, and 14.3.1, which is the best fix for a while.  They had a fix for a major inconvenience in editing text on iOS or macOS.  Hopefully, they fixed a lot of other little bugs, as well.

Update 2024.03.22: Updated to 17.4.1 on iOS.  There were some serious problems to fix.  I'm hoping for 14.4.1 and 10.4.1 updates soon.  These are usually ready just before WWDC and the newest major releases.  Then, we wait until August or September.  I suspect that things are better on my iPhone with this newest release, but there are probably loads of bugs remaining.  It seems that Apple just wants to add feature after feature without fixing problems ahead of adding features.  They've become like Adobe.

I'm not ready for iOS 18, especially if they're going to push AI integration.  With the car project halted, AI developers are available, but should they experiment in the background more and wait to move such work into the real world?

Update 2024.08.07: iOS 17.6.1 and macOS 14.6.1 are available.  Apparently, they weren't quite finished with the bug fixes, but got them out just a couple of days later, rather than two or three weeks later.  That may be everything for the current operating systems.  I'm not ready to move to the next, even more buggy versions.

Update 2024.09.17: Warning!  Updated to iOS 17.7 and macOS 14.7 today.  Went to California DMV to renew my license.  Filled out the application on my phone through the process to be ready for the window.  I got a notification and my application was GONE.  I could not log into the system through the California DMV app but Apple should have been checking since so many people working there live in California.  Maybe, someone at headquarters will return with a story and the fix will be out next week.

Update 2024.11.20: Apple is pushing for me to switch to iOS 18.1.1 and macOS 15.1.1.  I might be ready by 18.7.1 and 15.7.1 but I'm thinking to wait until 19.7.1 and 16.7.1.  I hope that they'll have things not completely awful by then.  They have not shown me that they can handle fixing things.

Update 2024.12.11: Yesterday, I saw that the latest iOS and macOS had arrived.  I looked for security updates.  I found macOS 14.7.2 hiding.  As I was trying to update to it, Apple started pushing 15.1.1.  I had to restart twice and downloaded, etc. 14.7.2 again.  After the restart, it was installed.  Apple has a lot of nerve to push an update in the middle of my update.  I don't care about their adoption numbers.  I want them to fix the bugs that they already have.

Update 2025.03.10: I've been trying to avoid upgrading operating systems.  My 2022 iPhone SE has a battery problem after almost three years and I couldn't wait much longer.  I decided that I didn't want the iPhone 16e and I bought the iPhone 15.  The deal, with trade-in, is about US$1.50 per month more than the iPhone 16e would have been at the introductory price for 24 months.

 Anyway, I have the iPhone 15 up and running but of course, I'm on 18.3.1, so I'm upgrading t he macOS version to 15.3.1 and later, the watchOS version. 

Update 2025.12.23: Apple recently released iOS/macOS/watchOS etc. 26.2 with security fixes.  They released the previous macOS with security fixes around the same time.  They did not show the iOS version 18.7.3 with those security fixes, but only 26.2.  This bothered me because it's not ethical to push people in a certain direction for the sake of statistics.

Someone at MacRumors noticed that iOS 18.7.3 was available, if you had beta updates enabled.  They posted that method and I updated quickly.  Within a couple of hours, that method was removed.

I appreciate that they want to show the shareholders the statistics; however, honest statistics would be better.   Since their botched AI attempts and their last few years of poor software quality, I prefer to wait as long as possible. 

Update 2026.01.26: Imagine that Apple made iOS 18.7.4 available somehow but did not allow a person to update to it.  They are seriously broken when their metrics mean more than keeping people's devices safe.

 The iOS 18 Beta Updates say that 18.7.3 is the latest.  I'll probably end up finding the full download and download it to the Mac and then, hopefully, I can update that way, but this is ridiculous. 

Update 2026.03.04: Updating to 26.3.1 now.  Hopefully, it's reasonably safe. I'm not feeling trusting since they keep pushing without giving me an alternative on the iPhone.  My MacBook Air has re-booted a couple of times, so they must be installing firmware updates or security updates to the separate SoC behind Touch ID.  It just re-booted again, so I hope that it's not in some infinite loop.  It just showed 80% then 91% finished.  "About 8 minutes remaining..." probably means 30 minutes.

 Looking at an M5 MacBook Air because I've had the M1 MacBook Air for around three years and it's a 2020 model. 

The iPhone 15 is taking some time in the "Preparing" stage.  It probably needs to weed out the Apple Intelligence crap since the iPhone 15 doesn't support it. 

Refurbished MacBook Air M1 is Good

 It's been about two years since the original M1 SoC was introduced to make Apple independent of outside CPU makers.  It's been a success and it's certainly upset Intel.

Having had Apple equipment since 1993, I've gone through the Motorola 680x0 to PowerPC transition, the PowerPC to Intel x86 transition, and now, the Intel to Apple Silicon (ARM) transition.

This is the most difficult transition because developers weren't sure what to do.  After almost two years, there isn't as much native software as I had hoped.  Being that Apple cut off 32-bit software with Catalina, I'm not sure why developers aren't more ready.

Game developers aren't really testing the waters.  The biggest current game I've seen is Life is Strange 2, which was ported by Feral Interactive, and published by Square Enix.  It seems to run well enough to believe that it is M1-compatible, not running through Rosetta 2 emulation.  However, Steam, GOG Galaxy, and Epic Games Launcher all appear to be x86 applications.

Creative software is quite different.  Capture One Pro by Phase One is native and so are Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo applications.  HitFilm Express from FXHome seems to not have a problem, though I haven't really tested it.

It looks as though Microsoft Visual Studio is compatible, if not 100% native. 

Bottom to Top, Top to Bottom

I've almost always had top of the line machines, but here I am with a MacBook Air.  Why?

It's powerful at a reasonable price.

Remember when US$1499 bought you a 15.4 MacBook Pro with integrated graphics and a dual-core CPU?  It wasn't that long ago.

I bought a MacBook Air 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage for US$1399, refurbished.

My previous MacBook Pro had a 3rd generation quad-core i7 with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage.  My Omen by HP had a 7th generation quad-core i7 with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage and it didn't seem much faster.

While I'm writing this entry, iStatMenus is telling me that the core temperature is 30 degrees C, which is in contrast to 44 degrees C on the Windows machine or 64 degrees C on the old MacBook Pro.  That old MacBook Pro could boil water.  When processing video, it would be at 100 degrees C.

Of course, there are many updates since 2012 besides the CPU and GPU.

The sound is amazing.  The display is so much better than the old 1440x900.  The keyboard is okay.  I liked the PowerBook G4 keyboard and none since have impressed me.

Change is Necessary

I bought a couple of cable adapters and an OmniCase Mini USB-C Storage Docking Station from JSAUX.  The company's products have been as reliable for me as products from Anker have been.

The OmniCase Mini is a unique product.  It has one USB type-C port, two type-A ports, an HDMI port, and slots for microSD and SD cards.  US$34.99 wasn't a lot.  It also comes with a type-C cable, and a few adapters, and a SIM card tool.  Obviously, if you're looking for a full-blown docking station, there are plenty from US$100 to US$500.  If you want an extra type-C port for power pass-through, you'll have to pay more than the US$34.99.

Equally useful and tiny is a Crucial X8 2 TB SSD that I recently bought.  It has a type-C connector, but also has a type-A adapter.

It may help to remember that the original MacBook Air came with one port--for charging, for connecting, for everything that needed a physical port.  The Dongle circus had arrived in town.

With two type-C ports, it's twice as convenient.

 Apple Succeeded

I'm slowly getting everything together, although it's only been about a week.  It took a while with previous machines.  I'm sure I'll be satisfied with this purchase.

Update 2022.05.22: This machine continues to impress.  The operating system is not where it needs to be and neither is vendor support for native applications.

Daily use without the power cable is amazing.  That 3rd generation quad-core i7 with GeForce 650M was constantly sucking power.  It was also a very good heater.

I haven't needed the USB-C hub as much as I expected.  I transferred most of what I needed the first two weeks.

I've tried a few more games, mostly through Itch.io and GOG.  They work well.  Steam itself is full of glitches, but that was also a problem for the i7 running Catalina.  64-bitness is not something Valve wants to do well.

Update 2022.06.06: The M2 MacBook Air was announced today.  It's more powerful and more expensive.  It can be configured with 24 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage.  That would be a plus.  In the past, some would complain that the machine they just bought last year was outdated and practically cry that it didn't work correctly any longer.  I don't do that.  This machine is a 2020 model and it's just fine.

I've had the machine over a month now and it took a while to get things in order but it is a wonderful computer that does most everything I want.  I want some good games for it but that will take some time.  Life is Strange 2 is the biggest title I have right now.

Update 2022.07.09: I'm impressed that they've got a newer processor out and it's better but it's a small improvement over the M1.  I priced what I have with the latest configuration and it was about US$600 extra over what I paid for a refurbished M1.  It's nice to have the latest and greatest, but this will last a while.

Update 2023.06.30: I was checking the prices on computers such as mine because of some pricing on the 15 inch version and I found the exact, same machine as mine for the exact, same price as when I bought it.

It's been a bit over a year that I've had my machine and the stage where I'm impressed regularly is finished.  It's very quick, for sure, but now, it's being filled and used regularly and I've got an interesting Windows 11 machine, also.

Windows still is a pain, here and there, but it gets the job done.  macOS Monterey seems better, but not exactly bug-free.  I'm not comfortable with upgrading to Ventura, but I will probably go to Sonoma, instead.

Update 2026.03.03: Is it time to switch to the just-released M5 MacBook Air?

 I've been looking at the numbers and 24 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage would put it at US$1899, which isn't horrible, especially with the 10 CPU/10 GPU cores configuration.  My current machine has 8 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage and that was US$1349.

The M1 MacBook Air is fine for everyday work but has become unable to keep up with graphics software and games. 

Apple's newest MacBook Pro lineup: what is it?

My eyes have been crossed ever since the Apple announcement last week.  I'm just not sure what the company was trying to accomplish and how they ended up at this point.

The Touch Bar looks like great technology and in the video editing portion of the demonstrations, I was enthusiastic.

However, they removed some products, such as the 11 inch MacBook Air and the 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with only Intel graphics hardware.  At least, I believe that's what they did.  My eyes are still crossed.

I recognize that the MacBook Air has become less popular and they make the MacBook Pro line thinner and the MacBook exists just to draw people closer with its bling-y looks.  Supposedly, my iPhone 7 is faster than the MacBook and MacBook Air.  The MacBook with Intel Core M processors is slow indeed.

US$2399 and $2799 seem about right, but maybe a bit extra.  My mid-2012 refurbished machine came at a slight discount in January 2013.  It's difficult to believe that someone would pay $1999 for a MacBook Pro with Intel Iris Pro graphics hardware but there is one in the refurbished list for $300 off at $1699.  I'm thinking that they were introduced at $1499.  Then again, I remember paying for a Wall Street-era Apple laptop computer with passive display for $2600 something around 1998, and that was the cheap 233 MHz model.

It still feels as though the changes in specification aren't enough.  However, I remember when 66 MHz or 133 MHz seemed as big a change as we were getting when Motorola couldn't enhance the PowerPC G3 or G4 further.  Intel is mostly at that point now.

The updated Radeon graphics hardware is appreciated in the higher level machines.  Switching to USB C for everything makes sense.  Leaving the headphone jack does not.  Where are the Lightning connectors, so I can use my ear buds, etc.?  Does the new iPhone come with a USB C adapter?  No.

If I had the $2399 to spend easily, would I replace my current machine with the newest one?

Update 2016.11.04: A lot of people are complaining that the RAM is limited to 16 GB.  One person wrote Phil Schiller who replied that the current technology is such that more RAM would diminish battery life.  It seems that Intel isn't very good at designing processors--or this is a situation of planned obsolescence.

Others are complaining about the ports.  I'm finding it interesting to require a dock or a lot of cables to convert to the proper connector.

Further, a company called Plugable has noticed that their products are not compatible with Thunderbolt 3 in the new computers, because they use a Texas Instruments controller.  This isn't the first time I've heard of TI doing a half-ass job but it certainly is a problem that will be rectified with new controllers from the company.

I'm just not sure these new machines are compelling enough, especially for the wait.

The Touch Bar is useful.  For all the time that I used a touch screen Windows-based Lenovo Flex 3, I never really found the touch screen completely useful.  The display housing would bounce at my finger pressure, and Lenovo has better hinges than most.  In tablet mode, it could be useful, but who wants a 5 pound, 14 inch tablet?

Microsoft continues to make waves with their Surface lines, but will they actually sell many?  I don't believe so.  For the artist, Wacom has been the name for a very long time.  Of course, that's like saying "No gets fired for buying Microsoft." and things have changed.

For most people, the tablet market is only for replacements now.  I wouldn't expect to see more powerful tablets because of the heat, and the weight for heat dissipation hardware.

If Apple had announced a touch screen-enabled display, I would have expected the MacBook Air and MacBook lines to go away immediately, and a lot of "Macs don't need touch screens" kinds of quotes to be dug up from the past.

So, do you need an updated MacBook Pro that isn't much different?  It may all come down to killer Touch Bar additions.

Thinking back to when I was a IRC channel operator and then, moderator for the world's largest Apple-related forums, I remember people building lists of unachievable things for Apple to do with their next revision of whatever machine was next.  They had to be big and powerful and slim and light--at the same time.  Oh, and they had to all be 12 inch laptop computers, similar to the one IBM Japan made for Apple.

Naturally, almost nothing came true because what they wanted wasn't realistic.  This time, the machines are good and powerful, and didn't have anything that anyone wanted, of course.  I gave up on the forums around 8 years ago (after iPhone arrived), although I made a cameo appearance as an Olympic torch bearer for 24 hours or so.  I didn't understand it, so I can't explain it to you.

Why are brand fanatics so--fanatical?

Update 2016.11.13: Got my hands on the new 13 inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar.

The speakers on each side of the keyboard are, as they say, long overdue.  The track pad is !@#$ huge.  I can only think that the size of the track pad is to overcome the touch screen alternative.  My experience with the capable Lenovo Flex 3 14 inch tells me that touch screen is a good idea but even the best hinges have trouble keeping the display steady when you're poking it.  You can put it into a 14 inch tablet mode, which was seemingly heavy and hot.  The new, huge track pad may be a good idea, even if it looks odd.

I can't say that it is much more powerful.  These days feel like the days when Motorola was lucky to eek out an extra 66 MHz to the clock speed.  For the most part, all of the i5 processors are powerful enough to handle most jobs.  Handling video production is another matter.  My mid-2012 15.4 inch MacBook Pro with 2.6 GHz i7 struggles at times--at 100 degrees C.

I'd be happy to try one of the 15.4 inch models.  Certainly having a newer GPU would improve processing power when working on video.

Update 2016.11.23: Saw the Touch Bar-included MacBook Pro models, 13 and 15.4 inch.

There is a US$900 gap between the two sizes, especially since there is no Intel-only graphics 15.4 inch machine.  It's unfortunate that there is no room for better heat dispersion in the 13 inch model since it's so (increasingly) thin.  I'd be more than happy to have a thicker, small model to fit around US$1799.

The Touch Bar was usable, quick, and easy to understand for the function key replacements.  I suppose I should have tried to see if Final Cut Pro was installed to see the timeline enhancements in the Touch Bar.  Instead, I looked at the US$2399 of the 15.4 inch machine in front of me and considered that my mid-2012 machine was just fine.

Apple really should give away their products

You can't satisfy all of the people, any of the time.  Apple should give away their products, and even then, I don't believe they'd make some people happy.

I'm always amused in the weeks prior to new product announcements from Apple.  People see the rumours and they add to them fantastic bits that would never happen.  Then, when the presentation is finished, they feel betrayed that Apple didn't do what they wanted.

I'd think that most people would live in reality and understand from history that a company can only do so much.  Many companies are in business to make money, not to make fantasy products.  Am I correct?

Today, at World-wide Developer Conference, Apple introduced a new, slimmer version of the MacBook Pro, somewhat wedged in-between the form factor of the MacBook Air and the current MacBook Pro.  It's quite thin, but still has awesome graphics hardware, plus a much higher density display.

Those of us who regularly use Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or similarly intricate languages will find the new display useful, as was the display on the iPhone 4 and newer (third generation) iPad.  Of course, it requires a lot of graphics power to maintain the previous visual throughput and they included nVidia's GT 650M hardware to push 4 times the pixels.  I predicted something like this when they introduced the original MacBook Air, so it's good to see that they're introducing it now.

I'm still okay with the current MacBook Pro line and of course, the refurbished machines have dropped in price so this could be a great time to get a model from late 2011.  The newest MacBook Pro (regular size) has the same upgraded graphics hardware, so it would be more capable for 3D work and play, but my money is on the discount and not being sucked into the current, soon to be revealed, problems.  There are always new problems!

It's a bit unfortunate that not much was changed with the MacBook Air but there isn't much room.  Intel's pathetic integrated graphics hardware became a little less pathetic with the HD 4000 series, so the MacBook Air does better in graphics throughput that the MacBook Air that was using the Core 2 Duo and nVidia 320M integrated graphics, finally.  Were those 2 years ago?  Congratulations, Intel, you're only merely behind now, instead of really behind the rest of the world!

You have to wonder what would happen if Apple made AMD/ATI choices available.  I wouldn't expect miracles but AMD have some integrated CPU/GPU packages that are quite nice.  It might be interesting to consider what would happen if Apple completed their company by buying AMD, ARM, and Sony.  If AMD wasn't always on the edge, they might do much better.  Of course, buying ARM and Sony would lead to anti-trust issues, and someone might think that they were trying to eliminate the competition.  However, as big as Apple have become on paper, they could still grow and be manageable.

What's not manageable are the fanatics.  Since the announcement, some are crying, others are laughing, and still others are angry, but Apple never seems to leave people emotionally blank.

!@#$ Patents and Copying

How many times are consumers hurt by copying?

There was an episode of All in the Family where Archie Bunker was gloating about his new watch.  He was going on and on about this Omega brand watch he bought for almost nothing.  Then, it's revealed "Oh, no, that's not an Omega.  It's an Onega."

Are consumers always fooled so easily?

A co-worker more than 10 years ago was shocked to learn that her new Lexus E300 was a Toyota Windom.  "Toyota?"  As though the Lexus dealer randomly appeared by the Toyota dealership out of convenience and nothing else.  Then again, people were shocked that the Cadillac Seville started as a Chevrolet Nova.  Would those driving an Escalade be driving the Chevrolet version?

I was reading that the HTC One series phones due to be sold this week are held up in U.S. customs, due to the patent issues between HTC and Apple.  While I understands Apple's frustration, the consumer is losing some great phones, especially those who have pre-paid for those phones.  HTC really haven't done anything to Apple but because they were the vanguard of Android, starting with the T-Mobile G1, they were selected, which is a horrible strategy.  They have made some admirable designs without copying Apple.

The patent war between Samsung and Apple is more realistic.  Samsung copies practically everything Apple have done in the mobile space.  Supposedly, they're planning queues/lines to make it appear their phones are more lust-worthy than they might be otherwise.  However, they made advertising about such lines, and made fun of people standing in line for products.  It looks as though Samsung is Samsung-ing itself.

I read elsewhere that the company is all but stopping production of their point-and-shoot cameras, in order to boost production of their mirror-less system cameras.  I doubt that the few thousand who buy the mirror-less models are going to suddenly want new versions, or that throwing more money at them will make them popular.

Their struggle to overtake Sony may be working but it's going to take a long time.  It's more likely that Panasonic will be there first.  It's amazing to me that Panasonic have gone from household items like rice cookers to high end televisions, phones, and computers in the last 30+ years, and that Sony have diminished.

One last thing about patents and copying: why is it that IBM's laptop computer line never had to look like anyone else's (save my sad L40SX), and they've been such a hit, even now that they're coming from Lenovo?  When most of the Ultrabooks look a lot like Apple's MacBook Air, Lenovo's products don't.  They're stylish in an industrial way and get respect from just about anyone.

Update: In the U.K., a judge has decided that Samsung didn't copy iPad to create their own tablet and has ordered Apple to tell everyone this.  When I was in primary school (as it feels this punishment resembles), the copier was punished, not the person being copied.

If I look at practically every mobile device that Samsung has done in the last 2 years, they look remarkably like Apple devices, so much that I noticed one and wondered what Apple had done to their hardware.  Add to this the rather obvious software tweaks to Android to make it look more like iOS, I can't imagine what the judge is thinking.  The only reasonable explanation I can find is that he was annoyed and decided to fix it since they were acting like school children.

Besides, if Nokia and HTC and Motorola can design devices that don't look much like Apple's, why can't Samsung?

Update 2014.01.10: Apple and Samsung have agreed to another round of arbitration, in order to agree on something, anything.  I don't really understand why the FRAND patents weren't settled already since every other FRAND patent gets very little, unlike what Samsung wants.