Thanks ya’ll - I’ve only ever gotten new phones through upgrades and installment plans, so the ‘bought outright through a carrier’ thing has been throwing me.
I think I’ll finish setup on it so I can confirm it’s in the clear, and hopefully avoid unintentionally transferring the cell service over. Based on further reading, it seems easy enough to transfer back to the old device in any case.
0
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Yeah, if you buy an iPhone through Apple (and pay Apple directly, or use their payment plan), it’s always unlocked, even if you buy an “AT&T” or “Verizon” version. If you pay a carrier, it may be locked.
Everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty
Yeah, if you buy an iPhone through Apple (and pay Apple directly, or use their payment plan), it’s always unlocked, even if you buy an “AT&T” or “Verizon” version. If you pay a carrier, it may be locked.
Indeed it was, and now I get to engage with AT&T’s self-service unlock system which appears to be a complete Kafkaesque nightmare if it doesn’t work immediately.
I’m giving it a couple days, but I’m expecting this to be a hassle.
I picked up a couple of Volta Spark USB-C cables, with one side having magnetic tips, and these are pretty darn great for iPads, because oh boy have I had way too many close calls where I try to walk away with the iPad still plugged in. Thinking I'll order another cable or two and several more tips, it's just extremely handy to have one cable on the desk you can quickly swap to whatever device.
You can probably find cheaper equivalents if you just want something with a detachable magnetic tip, but these feel like very high quality and can do 100W PD, so no problems charging a MacBook with one.
I picked up a couple of Volta Spark USB-C cables, with one side having magnetic tips, and these are pretty darn great for iPads, because oh boy have I had way too many close calls where I try to walk away with the iPad still plugged in. Thinking I'll order another cable or two and several more tips, it's just extremely handy to have one cable on the desk you can quickly swap to whatever device.
You can probably find cheaper equivalents if you just want something with a detachable magnetic tip, but these feel like very high quality and can do 100W PD, so no problems charging a MacBook with one.
Those demonstrate exactly why "USB-C for everything via governmental regulation" is such a horrible idea. Apple should replace Lightning with a new mini-MagSafe form factor rather than USB-C.
How does iBooks work vs PDFs in Files/iCloud? I shared a bunch of PDFs with various wargaming rulebooks to iBooks, and now it is syncing them to iCloud. Do I have duplicate files and can delete the iCloud (well, the Files ones) so I don't waste twice the space for the same PDFs?
Probably? I was going to give an actual answer but TBH I realise I don't actually know. My solution ages ago was "99 cents a month for 50GB storage". I should clean that shit out sometime, it's got like old iPhone backups in and shit.
How does iBooks work vs PDFs in Files/iCloud? I shared a bunch of PDFs with various wargaming rulebooks to iBooks, and now it is syncing them to iCloud. Do I have duplicate files and can delete the iCloud (well, the Files ones) so I don't waste twice the space for the same PDFs?
I'd try syncing a PDF with iBooks and then trying to find it in your iCloud Drive folder on your Mac. Maybe use Terminal instead of the finder to check for . prefixed or other invisible directories.
...so anyway, my iPad Mini arrived yesterday. Brief thoughts after <24h of usage:
Jelly scrolling is real, and very noticable. But it doesn't really bother me... yet.
No Pro Motion is bleh.
Going back to TouchID after having FaceID on my iPad Pro will take some getting used to.
Shit's tiny on it. Feels like they could do some work to make things scale better -- most things are, very literally, the same as on a bigger iPad, but on a much smaller screen. Not sure how much of that would be up to developers.
The physical size feels great to handle. When I bring my 12.9" iPad Pro to the desk I have to move things around to put it somewhere, the Mini I can just plop down.
The Mini I will probably take with me most of the time when I leave the apartment to go somewhere. The 12.9" has almost never left my apartment, unless I really know that I'll be using it for something when I go somewhere.
Echo on
+2
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
...so anyway, my iPad Mini arrived yesterday. Brief thoughts after <24h of usage:
Jelly scrolling is real, and very noticable. But it doesn't really bother me... yet.
No Pro Motion is bleh.
Going back to TouchID after having FaceID on my iPad Pro will take some getting used to.
Shit's tiny on it. Feels like they could do some work to make things scale better -- most things are, very literally, the same as on a bigger iPad, but on a much smaller screen. Not sure how much of that would be up to developers.
The physical size feels great to handle. When I bring my 12.9" iPad Pro to the desk I have to move things around to put it somewhere, the Mini I can just plop down.
The Mini I will probably take with me most of the time when I leave the apartment to go somewhere. The 12.9" has almost never left my apartment, unless I really know that I'll be using it for something when I go somewhere.
I love my mini for running my D&D character sheet on beyond, split screened 3/4-1/4 with a notes tab.
Also streaming games is real nice on it, and it found my xbox controller with no problems.
thatassemblyguyJanitor of Technical Debt.Registered Userregular
Thinking I either have some malware on my phone, or just a shitty carrier.
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
0
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Thinking I either have some malware on my phone, or just a shitty carrier.
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
I'm assuming you're fully updated and have power cycled the phone?
Thinking I either have some malware on my phone, or just a shitty carrier.
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
I'm assuming you're fully updated and have power cycled the phone?
Yah, it's fully updated. When I say 'reset' I did mean power-cycle (I should have been more precise).
Thinking I either have some malware on my phone, or just a shitty carrier.
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
Shitty carrier or ISP, almost certainly. It is very very difficult--but not impossible ofc--to end up with malware on your phone if you haven't been clicking on things or sideloading/jailbreaking.
Also make sure you haven't got some weird proxy settings or other network config. I've done that and then forgotten I did it.
From nothing other than an educated SWAG, if the issue is switching wifi -> cellular, which works on a cold boot of the phone, I'm wondering if your carrier is shitty about handing out IPs/DHCP config, and/or isn't doing DNS like it ought. Leaning towards the latter, because the system apps use the same network stack, but may have inbuilt DNS overrides.
I have Verizon as my carrier. It's strong everywhere except in my housing area. Switching over in the driveway sometimes doesn't work so good, so it could just be your carrier.
Thinking I either have some malware on my phone, or just a shitty carrier.
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
I'm assuming you're fully updated and have power cycled the phone?
Yah, it's fully updated. When I say 'reset' I did mean power-cycle (I should have been more precise).
The other thing to try is to reset the phone's network settings:
Settings->General->Transfer or Reset iPhone->Reset->Reset Network Settings
That often fixes network gremlins. It might cost you your saved wifi passwords, though.
+1
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
With the M2 reportedly running hot in initial reviews, should we wait around for something more complete?
I'm looking to update my aging iPad Pro and not sure if I should pull the trigger on the M1 variant or wait around for an M2.
Tossed iOS/iPadOS 16 on my iPhone 13 and iPad Mini. Can't say I noticed much of anything new in iPadOS, but the new lock screen in iOS 16 is pretty neat. I also dig the new album display on the lock screen when playing music.
Also the iPad finally got a proper weather app instead of a shitty ad-infested link to weather.com.
With the M2 reportedly running hot in initial reviews, should we wait around for something more complete?
I'm looking to update my aging iPad Pro and not sure if I should pull the trigger on the M1 variant or wait around for an M2.
"Hot" is relative; I don't think the M2 is running so hot that it affects comfort and usage.
It's only thermal throttling on the Air after running stress benchmarks.
I mean it was hitting over 40C on the outside, which is do-able with a laptop but a tablet starts to look a lot less inviting.
I think I’ll go with an M1 pro.
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
I’ve been using a Magic Mouse for 10 minutes and my only advice is to avoid these like the plague.
The surface is glass-like and sticky so when you try to use gestures you’re more likely to move the whole mouse rather than complete the gesture, so it just feels awful.
It also fits in my hands strangely and feels off. The clicking on the right side of the mouse for right click works but feels weird. And of course the charging port on the bottom is stupid.
thankfully, I’ll be getting a trackpad soon.
Oh, and this tiny “magic” keyboard isn’t great either. Going back to the Logitech asap. Love the m1 MacBook Pro but really unimpressed with the external devices.
As I suspected
0
Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
The Magic Mouse has always been more of a plague rat. Magic Trackpad is many orders of magnitude better.
Incidentally picked up a Magic Trackpad today. Will be using it at home, and toss my old Magic Touchpad in the backpack where it will live, because I kept forgetting to pack it for office days.
edit: or whatever the heck the various generations are called.
Thinking about it, it is a little weird that Apple has always had such a lock on touch interfaces (though the gap between them and everybody else has significantly narrowed in the trackpad space) but their mice always seemed to be lacking.
It's pretty embarassing how old and crappy the Magic Mouse 2 is. I think it's still the same original release apart from them adding some more colors.
I mean... I unironically love the Magic Mouse. Scroll-wheels are just so clunky compared to momentum flick scrolling.
Do I wish it supported a wired connection and/or its charging port were more conveniently located? Sure! But as long as it's not out of juice, it's my favorite productivity mouse.
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
It's pretty embarassing how old and crappy the Magic Mouse 2 is. I think it's still the same original release apart from them adding some more colors.
I mean... I unironically love the Magic Mouse. Scroll-wheels are just so clunky compared to momentum flick scrolling.
Do I wish it supported a wired connection and/or its charging port were more conveniently located? Sure! But as long as it's not out of juice, it's my favorite productivity mouse.
In theory, I agree with you. The problem is in practice. The surface texture of the mouse isn't great so your fingers don't slide like they do on the trackpads, which feel amazing. It means that when I gesture, it moves the mouse, which I absolutely don't want to do. So now my hand needs to anchor the mouse while I gesture, which just isn't anywhere near as intuitive or useful as a scroll wheel. The mouse itself also fits strangely in my hand and it doesn't feel solid when moving it around. I usually love apple stuff because it feels great to me. This is the rare example where the opposite is true.
I'd rather have a trackpad, and soon I will. The probably for the moment is that the laptop is up on a stand so I need to reach up to get to the laptop trackpad. I've been down that when I need to do a lot of gesture stuff.
The Magic Mouse is also 100% unergonomic. even if you somehow prefer it to a more traditional moue, the shape of it is actually really bad for your wrist and forarem and has a much higher chance of giving you RSI or something similar.
Now I got a cheap 5 gigs/month mobile plan for my iPad Mini, so time to see how much I actually use it on the go.
Might be cheaper, depending, to tether it to your phone. I know I'd (admittedly with US mobile fuckery) pay less for use of a hotspot w/ my current plan than I would adding a new plan for a tablet.
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
Now I got a cheap 5 gigs/month mobile plan for my iPad Mini, so time to see how much I actually use it on the go.
Might be cheaper, depending, to tether it to your phone. I know I'd (admittedly with US mobile fuckery) pay less for use of a hotspot w/ my current plan than I would adding a new plan for a tablet.
It’s sooooo much nicer not to have to tether, though. Just open it up and go.
Yeah, I actually have 30 gigs monthly for free on my company phone, but I'd like to just... not drag work tools around with me everywhere. And the tethering is far from automatic in my experience, I frequently have to pick the phone up and glare at it until the other device manages to connect.
But eh, 5 bucks a month for 5 gigs of data, cheap enough to try to see if I make enough use of it.
0
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
So question
I basically use my iPhone for videos, some social media, sudoku, and web browsing, but I'm also running up on my upgrade time. Is the 14 expected to be an experience worth upgrading over the 12 for my minimal usage, or should I just keep going until it dies?
I'm going to guess, like always, the 14 will have better battery life, better camera, and will be slightly faster at everything. Maybe the high refresh rate screen will trickly down to the non-Pro models but I have the feeling that's going to stay a Pro only kind of thing.
If you aren't feeling limited by your 12 in any way then I don't see a reason to upgrade. If and only if you find that your battery is stating to have issues then maybe consider a new phone, but have the Apple store install a new battery would also be an option too.
Then again if something in the 14 really interests you and it fits in your budget then go for it.
I don't plan on replacing my 12 Mini anytime soon because for my minimal usage I don't see/feel the need. Yeah, sometimes I wish the screen was a little bigger and the battery to last a little bit longer, but those are the tradeoffs to having the mini version which I accepted because I wanted the smaller phone. Since Apple is no longer going to make a Mini I'll have no choice but to go for the 'normal' size when I upgrade in a few years. When I look at the Oneplus 5T I replaced with a 12 Mini I wonder how the hell was I not bothered by carrying around such a huge, in comparison, device for 3 years.
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
It’ll probably be all the same extremely incremental
Upgrades, so no, probably not “worth it” for most people. But we won’t really know for sure for another few weeks, most likely.
Everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty
0
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
What I figured. The battery isn't too bad, but I'm also an hour away from an Apple store.
Yeah I hadn't kept up on whats new, I figured the incremental advancements would be there. Most of my friends who keep up with this stuff haven't been raving about the new shit like they used to. I used to upgrade every 2 years, but that's become less desirable as I've gotten older. Apple Music still works with iTunes Match, everything else is working fine.
I guess I'll wait until one has a color I really like.
The 14 Pro could be a decent upgrade this year, but it looks like the 14 sans pro is going to be *extremely* incremental. There are rumours the iPhone 14 won't even get the A16 processor, and might stick with the same A15 that the iPhone 13 has, with the A16 being put only in the 14 Pro models.
Posts
I think I’ll finish setup on it so I can confirm it’s in the clear, and hopefully avoid unintentionally transferring the cell service over. Based on further reading, it seems easy enough to transfer back to the old device in any case.
Indeed it was, and now I get to engage with AT&T’s self-service unlock system which appears to be a complete Kafkaesque nightmare if it doesn’t work immediately.
I’m giving it a couple days, but I’m expecting this to be a hassle.
Still, thanks all.
You can probably find cheaper equivalents if you just want something with a detachable magnetic tip, but these feel like very high quality and can do 100W PD, so no problems charging a MacBook with one.
Those demonstrate exactly why "USB-C for everything via governmental regulation" is such a horrible idea. Apple should replace Lightning with a new mini-MagSafe form factor rather than USB-C.
I'd try syncing a PDF with iBooks and then trying to find it in your iCloud Drive folder on your Mac. Maybe use Terminal instead of the finder to check for . prefixed or other invisible directories.
I love my mini for running my D&D character sheet on beyond, split screened 3/4-1/4 with a notes tab.
Also streaming games is real nice on it, and it found my xbox controller with no problems.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
The hand-off between wi-fi and carrier will work for some apps (music, etc), but other non-Apple apps will basically stop functioning in some cases until I reset (some apps like the non-apple browser stop being able to load network traffic all together regardless of reboots).
Turning off all radios except for the cell radio does nothing.
*flops around in non-expert frustration*
I'm assuming you're fully updated and have power cycled the phone?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Yah, it's fully updated. When I say 'reset' I did mean power-cycle (I should have been more precise).
Shitty carrier or ISP, almost certainly. It is very very difficult--but not impossible ofc--to end up with malware on your phone if you haven't been clicking on things or sideloading/jailbreaking.
Also make sure you haven't got some weird proxy settings or other network config. I've done that and then forgotten I did it.
From nothing other than an educated SWAG, if the issue is switching wifi -> cellular, which works on a cold boot of the phone, I'm wondering if your carrier is shitty about handing out IPs/DHCP config, and/or isn't doing DNS like it ought. Leaning towards the latter, because the system apps use the same network stack, but may have inbuilt DNS overrides.
The other thing to try is to reset the phone's network settings:
Settings->General->Transfer or Reset iPhone->Reset->Reset Network Settings
That often fixes network gremlins. It might cost you your saved wifi passwords, though.
I'm looking to update my aging iPad Pro and not sure if I should pull the trigger on the M1 variant or wait around for an M2.
Also the iPad finally got a proper weather app instead of a shitty ad-infested link to weather.com.
"Hot" is relative; I don't think the M2 is running so hot that it affects comfort and usage.
It's only thermal throttling on the Air after running stress benchmarks.
I mean it was hitting over 40C on the outside, which is do-able with a laptop but a tablet starts to look a lot less inviting.
I think I’ll go with an M1 pro.
The surface is glass-like and sticky so when you try to use gestures you’re more likely to move the whole mouse rather than complete the gesture, so it just feels awful.
It also fits in my hands strangely and feels off. The clicking on the right side of the mouse for right click works but feels weird. And of course the charging port on the bottom is stupid.
thankfully, I’ll be getting a trackpad soon.
Oh, and this tiny “magic” keyboard isn’t great either. Going back to the Logitech asap. Love the m1 MacBook Pro but really unimpressed with the external devices.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
edit: or whatever the heck the various generations are called.
I mean... I unironically love the Magic Mouse. Scroll-wheels are just so clunky compared to momentum flick scrolling.
Do I wish it supported a wired connection and/or its charging port were more conveniently located? Sure! But as long as it's not out of juice, it's my favorite productivity mouse.
In theory, I agree with you. The problem is in practice. The surface texture of the mouse isn't great so your fingers don't slide like they do on the trackpads, which feel amazing. It means that when I gesture, it moves the mouse, which I absolutely don't want to do. So now my hand needs to anchor the mouse while I gesture, which just isn't anywhere near as intuitive or useful as a scroll wheel. The mouse itself also fits strangely in my hand and it doesn't feel solid when moving it around. I usually love apple stuff because it feels great to me. This is the rare example where the opposite is true.
I'd rather have a trackpad, and soon I will. The probably for the moment is that the laptop is up on a stand so I need to reach up to get to the laptop trackpad. I've been down that when I need to do a lot of gesture stuff.
Might be cheaper, depending, to tether it to your phone. I know I'd (admittedly with US mobile fuckery) pay less for use of a hotspot w/ my current plan than I would adding a new plan for a tablet.
It’s sooooo much nicer not to have to tether, though. Just open it up and go.
But eh, 5 bucks a month for 5 gigs of data, cheap enough to try to see if I make enough use of it.
I basically use my iPhone for videos, some social media, sudoku, and web browsing, but I'm also running up on my upgrade time. Is the 14 expected to be an experience worth upgrading over the 12 for my minimal usage, or should I just keep going until it dies?
If you aren't feeling limited by your 12 in any way then I don't see a reason to upgrade. If and only if you find that your battery is stating to have issues then maybe consider a new phone, but have the Apple store install a new battery would also be an option too.
Then again if something in the 14 really interests you and it fits in your budget then go for it.
I don't plan on replacing my 12 Mini anytime soon because for my minimal usage I don't see/feel the need. Yeah, sometimes I wish the screen was a little bigger and the battery to last a little bit longer, but those are the tradeoffs to having the mini version which I accepted because I wanted the smaller phone. Since Apple is no longer going to make a Mini I'll have no choice but to go for the 'normal' size when I upgrade in a few years. When I look at the Oneplus 5T I replaced with a 12 Mini I wonder how the hell was I not bothered by carrying around such a huge, in comparison, device for 3 years.
Upgrades, so no, probably not “worth it” for most people. But we won’t really know for sure for another few weeks, most likely.
Yeah I hadn't kept up on whats new, I figured the incremental advancements would be there. Most of my friends who keep up with this stuff haven't been raving about the new shit like they used to. I used to upgrade every 2 years, but that's become less desirable as I've gotten older. Apple Music still works with iTunes Match, everything else is working fine.
I guess I'll wait until one has a color I really like.