MacBook Air with M1 – A Love Letter

December 25, 2021
7 min read

It’s hard to write nice things. If I had to write a TLDR version of the review, it would have been – it just works, except for speakers. This laptop is so good, you don’t even notice. It is powerful, it has a great battery life and what’s even more surprising, this machine doesn’t have a fan. I’m not entirely sure this laptop is even legal.

It’s so good I have two of them at home. I finally exchanged my Lenovo Thinkpad at work for a MacBook Air.

What it replaced

The one and only MacBook I owned was my Early 2015 MacBook Pro with Intel Core i3, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD. I bought it 6 years ago as a reward, for finishing my master’s thesis. At the time, the only upgrade was SSD, but that was only because they didn’t have 128 GB available. I also wanted a MacBook Pro instead of Air, because of the Retina screen.

Over the years, this Mac got slow. It got so bad, I tried to reinstall the OS and delete everything because I thought something must have gone horribly wrong for it to be so slow. But it’s just time. Retina display, entry-level processor and 8 GB of RAM are too basic even for a casual browsing now.

That is why for the last two years I considered my iPad Pro 12.9” to be my primary computer. When M1 Macs came out, I was tempted, but wasn’t sure if I ever need another Mac, or will I become iPad only? It sure felt like it. But the more I read and watch about the new Macs, the more I wanted one, maybe even to replace my iPad.

So half a bottle of whiskey later, I order a M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD.

Design

Lately, I have a tendency to choose unusual colours, so the model I bought was Gold. I was intrigued, but not sure about my choice. After getting it out of the packaging, I immediately fell in love. It’s just beautiful. The colour plays nicely in different lightning. It changes from gold, to rose gold, to pink and to just light, almost silver. Now as I type it looks more like a copper. I also like how thin and light it is.

For work, I chose dark grey and … I don’t like it. It is too boring. Too computery. I’m hoping rumours are true and Apple will introduce a colourful MacBook Air.

I would like for a screen bezel to be smaller, which would make a whole device smaller. Not only that, but I also don’t like that there is “MacBook Air” written under the display. I know what I bought and use, and it feels very Samsung-y to stick the name wherever you can. It seems that the early 2015 MacBook Pro was an odd one, as it didn’t have the name written.

Dongletown

For the last 5 years I’ve read, watched and listened to everyone whining about MacBooks having only USB-C and some of them only 1 or 2 ports. I thought everybody is just nuts and tries to find a problem where there is none. That is, of course, until I bought such a laptop myself. MacBook Air has 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Typically, that is more than enough for me. And this is when it got to me – most of the time, that is what everyone is talking about. I need to connect a display through HDMI and Logitech keyboard using their USB type-A dongle. Something I didn’t even think about before, gave me pause.

After some consideration, I bought an Apple dongle for HDMI, USB type-A and USB type-C. It’s a small, light dongle which should be enough for me. I also use microSD cards from my camera, but I transfer photos to the iPad Pro, so I already have a USB-C card reader from Apple.

That’s not the end of the world, but it is added cost and an inconvenience. But I’m more than 100% sure, many MacBook Air buyers won’t have such problem. They’ll use it without anything connected to it and charge with the brick and cable that comes with it.

Touch ID

Using biometric authentication in modern computers is genius. All joking aside, I like having Touch ID on a Mac. Unlock with Apple Watch never worked for me on my previous MacBook, so having fingerprint sensor built-in is much faster and easier to use.

It’s just a little convince for logging in, but a massive quality of life improvement for using 1Password.

There is not much more to add, but it’s just so good, to warrant its section.

Keyboard and Trackpad

There is little to say about the trackpad. I thought that the one I had on my MacBook Pro was big, but this one is just massive, and I like it. If there is space – put the biggest one you can. Since it’s not mechanical, and you can press wherever, I don’t see any problem. Moreover, the size doesn’t add the issue of accidentally touching it while typing, so thumbs-up from me.

Keyboard, on the other hand, is a very controversial topic. I was lucky to buy the last laptop with non-butterfly keys and didn’t have any difficulties with it. But I loved how butterfly keyboard felt. The scissor-switch one is a bit wobbly for me. I loved Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro much better. But I enjoy the keyboard on this MacBook Air quite a lot. It feels nice. For my taste it could’ve been a bit clickier, but I could see how many would hate it.

Sound

Speakers are the weakest point of this laptop. There is nothing remarkable about the sound. It is quiet. Even in a smaller room it is not comfortable to watch a TV show with sound turned all the way up, it’s just hard to hear things. I would rather play through iPad Pro or use headphones, not even talking about dedicated speakers.

Speed

This is a quality of life improvement. When you open the lid, and it instantly turns on, and you can place your finger on the fingerprint scanner and in a second you’ll see an unlocked computer. This is something you expect from iOS, not macOS laptop. It seems too good to be true.

Of course my comparison is to the entry-level laptop from 2016, but still, the speed blew my mind.

Battery

I started the part about battery life by writing the time I took it off the charger, how I used it during the day, etc. But I quickly realised how pointless it was. It’s just a full-day battery. Even better than an iPad. The feeling I get with this laptop – sometimes I remember to plug it in. This laptop is meant for charging overnight, working all day and charging after you are done, and it works for me this way.

MacBook Air with M1 re–introduced macOS to me. As soon as 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” came out, I fell in love. My first Apple device was iPhone 4, so iOS was always much closer for me. I like that the main interaction with the device are apps. That they open instantly, and you don’t have to manage them. That it is simple.

My MacBook Pro was underpowered for everything. It was entry-level configuration, so video editing, programming, or playing video games was not a fun experience, but also just using it as I was for writing, browsing, lightly editing photos – iPad was much faster and easier for that. So quickly, after buying an iPad, my MacBook Pro started gathering dust at home.

Now the tables are turned. I’m selling my iPad Pro because this MacBook gives me everything I want and even more. One might say, it is almost a perfect laptop.

Apple Event – November 2020

November 16, 2020
4 min read

It was another instalment of the beautiful commercial made by Apple, filled with amazing transitions and views of the Apple Park.

The presentation was short with a couple of minutes of recap by Tim Cook of all the products announced in the last 8 weeks.

This time there was a lot of background music when presenters were talking and I didn’t enjoy it, as it portrayed the ad vibe even more.

In the end they showed a bit with a PC guy from the old Mac vs PC commercials, it was OK. Judging by Twitter old-time Mac fans enjoyed it.

One More Thing — The Mac

Right at the beginning Tim Cook emphasised that One More Thing this time was relating to THE Mac. So, no AirTags, AirPods Studio or other devices.

I was surprised to learn that over 50% of Mac buyers are new to the system. On the other hand, with such a strong quarter for Mac, it is not a surprise that those weren’t only those who updated their computers.

They’ve made a commercial (yes, a commercial inside the commercial) showing many celebrities with Macs and a lot of those were with glowing logo. In black and white it was noticeable that they made focus on that, as it looked cool, but Apple doesn’t make such laptops anymore…

MacOS Big Sur

What they couldn’t show before is how macOS is better with Apple Silicon. It is more similar to the iOS and iPadOS in some regards. I know the internet is all about scores for CPU, but everyday little things are more important for the experience, especially on the types of machines Apple introduced. It launches apps instantly and more importantly it instantly wakes from sleep, just like iOS.

M1

This is the start of the next generation of Mac. First System on a chip for low-power Mac computers. It has 8-core CPU (4 High and 4 Low performance cores) and Apple says the High-performance core is the fastest core in the world right now.

All the new Macs

Apple introduced 3 new Macs, and they are similar to each other — MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. For the first one it is a complete transition — you can’t buy Air with an Intel processor anymore. For the latter two it is the mainstream, low performance models, with Intel laptop and Mac mini still being sold as an option.

What they have in common is that all three have the same M1. You can choose up to 2 TB of SSD and 16 GB of RAM.

What is different is battery life in case of MacBook Pro and continuous performance. What that means is although the processor is the same because MacBook Air doesn’t have a fan and other two models do, they can not only reach the same speed as Air, but sustain it for longer periods of times.

It’s a shame that they didn’t update the camera in laptops. It is still the same 720p, very mediocre camera. Although the picture will be improved by the SoC thanks to Machine Learning.

Because Apple doesn’t sell any other display, it was funny how in every picture or video of people using Mac mini it was standing right on the stand of Apple XDR monitor, the stand for which costs $300 more than the computer itself.

I was blown away by the numbers provided regarding the battery life and am very optimistic about Mac lineup and will probably end up buying one of the laptops introduced (most probably MacBook Air). But of course the more exciting things will come out, when Apple will show iMac and Mac Pro with Apple Silicon inside. I can’t even imagine what will be possible with M1X (or whatever it will be called) where because of no thermal limitations there could be 16 cores and most of them would be High-performance.

Apple March Non-Event

March 19, 2020
4 min read

On March 18th Apple surprised everyone with the announcement of new and updated products.

It was rumored long ago that there was an Apple event planned for the end of March, but with the COVID-19 going around the globe everyone understood that it wouldn’t be possible to organize. So they’ve published the press release and it looks like either press only got the devices now or are still under embargo.

Let’s go through the products starting from the least important and moving to the most interesting one.

“Mac mini Also Updated Today”

The only update was the storage, it now starts at 256GB, which is the bare minimum today. As someone with the 256GB on all three of my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad and MacBook) I can’t understand how anyone would survive with less.

MacBook Air

Everyone was waiting for an updated keyboard making it’s way through the whole lineup and not just being in the 16” MacBook Pro, this day has come. With the new keyboard, 256GB storage as a base and a new (old) starting price of $999, this is again the best default computer there is. Except, we can’t be sure what a computer is right now…

iPad

Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro, of course it has a new chip, which is faster and more powerful. As a previous generation iPad Pro owner I can’t see how you would be able to see this, as the tablet is fast as hell still.

It has two cameras now, adding the 10MP Ultra Wide to the back, making it look like an iPhone 11. In a year, I am pretty sure that I didn’t take one photo with my iPad Pro. I know there are people who like to hold huge tablet in front of their face at schools and in touristy places, but I’m not one of them. I love editing photos on my 12.9” iPad Pro, but I would probably miss the shot before reaching for the iPad in my bag.

LiDAR Scanner is the weakest point in todays announcement, not from the technology point of view, but from the delivery. If you read everything Apple has provided, it just makes AR a bit better and promising a lot. Knowing Apple there should be a lot more information, either with the announcement of iOS 14 or more likely iPhone 12. It just made sense to include the hardware right now, but the software story is not yet ready.

Magic Keyboard and Trackpad Support

This is the biggest news, not only for me, but reading tweets for a was majority of potential or current iPad Pro users. Seeing videos, it looks like pointer support in iPadOS got much better. And the most interesting thing – it happened today, not in September with the release of iOS 14, but in March with iOS 13.4 (public release in a week).

The best news is that new keyboard with the trackpad is compatible with the now previous generation iPad. The worst news is the price – $299 for the 11-inch and $349 for the 12.9-inch. That is a lot of money, it is actually more than the price of the standard iPad itself. It looks nice, I’m sure the trackpad will be amazing, as Apple always excelled in making those and they now come in different colors. I’m not sure I would buy one yet, will try out pointer support first.

Pretty strong announcement from Apple, if they won’t surprise us again with the everyday announcements, I’m not sure this would be enough for the whole event, but it is more than enough for the press release.

I’m not in the market for a new iPad, as my previous generation 12.9-inch one is fast enough, screen and design didn’t change much and I don’t use cameras. Thankfully, Apple made the new Magic Keyboard for iPad compatible with the older models. Oh, and regarding the MacBook, I have one MacBook Pro already lying around not being used for months, so who need those, right?

Apple PR

November 20, 2019
2 min read

Apple recently announced the 16” MacBook Pro. They’ve invited journalists to the private event in New York, gave them review units and when the embargo dropped everyone was ready with the story.

This is the MacBook that saves us all. The keyboard is changed to the old mechanism, there is a physical esc key and arrow buttons are the right shape. It also is a bit bigger, with a bit smaller bezels and in a recent Apple fashion it got heavier, because it has so much more battery. Everyone was happy, especially developers and other professionals.

What also was happening at almost exactly the same time – there was a rumor about Apple AR product. Reportedly Apple has held an internal meeting with a 1000 employees who are working on the AR headset where it was discussed that it is a 2022 initiative at best.

And this is Apple PR at its best. First, you don’t hold a 1000 employee meeting and not think it is going to leak to the press (you are probably hoping it will, at this point). Second, the news was perfectly released during all the hype about the new MacBook. Third, almost the only notable thing that came out of this meeting, was the release date. There are some rumors that Apple was planning to release some kind of AR headset in 2020, so now Apple is managing the expectations – no AR headset next year.

So bloggers and podcasters can talk about the new MacBook, how Apple is finally listening and making compromises in the right places, finally again. How we want the same laptop, but for the 14” model. And mention in passing somewhere rumor about the AR headset and a meeting, but it stays in your mind – don’t wait.

Perfect.

MacBook Updates

July 10, 2019
2 min read

Yesterday Apple updated it’s notebook lineup. Let’s start from the good news, MacBook Air got True Tone and lowered price of $1099 (with additional $100 discount for students) and MacBook Pro got quad-core processor from the start and there is no MacBook Escape now – every MacBook Pro has a Touch ID and Touch Bar. The starting price of the device is $1299.

This makes things a little bit more clear, until you start to choose. For $1299, which will you choose, baseline MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM (as $200 is the price for doubling the original 8GB). As someone who has an 8GB MacBook Pro, I would kill for more RAM, especially when trying to open a bunch of tabs and making reports in the Excel. But MacBook Air processor is much slower under heavy load. On the other hand the battery on the Air is amazing and it is a bit lighter. 

One would ask, but what about one-port MacBook, but there is none as of yesterday. Apple killed the most portable MacBook it had. So here is what Apple MacBook lineup looks like right now:

If you want Apple computer as of today you have a couple of choices – MacBook Air as a default for everyone, if you want something more fun and simple – iPad Pro and if you need something more powerful – MacBook Pro. 

With cleaning up iPads a couple of months ago and this I like that Apple is bringing back a bit of focus to its products.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – macOS

June 8, 2019
5 min read

This was a surprisingly powerful part of the keynote. All the talk before the WWDC was about iPad improvements and Mac Pro, so I wasn’t expecting such a strong showing from macOS. First, the name – Catalina, sounds beautiful and I don’t even know where to start, there was so much. 

Screen Time for macOS – logical addition. It helped me to realize how much time I’ve spent on social media, but after that didn’t use it almost at all, hope with some improvements and macOS version will use it more.

The break-up of iTunes, the end of the era. It was arguably the iTunes and the Music Store which helped Apple to reach the position it has right now. Instead there are three new apps and iPhone synchronization moved to the finder. The two apps I probably won’t use – TV and Podcasts. One of them, Podcasts, is made using the new developers tools I’ll mention later, but I will wait for Marco Arment to port Overcast app to the Mac, as his sound engine is superior and synchronization between devices is a key feature.

The one app I intend on using more is Apple Music. Right now, even when I’m working on my MacBook and with ease that you can switch AirPods to the Mac I listen to the music from my iPhone. iTunes for using Apple Music just sucks. It’s so big an clunky. 

The one feature I liked the idea of during the presentation – Sidecar. I’ve also heard only good things about the app after the keynote, but then I’ve found out I won’t be able to run it on my Mac, because it’s too old. So maybe I’ll have to buy Luna Display after all. This actually is very representative of something that everyone calls Sherlocking – Apple copying something that 3rd parties do already. They do some part of it, but not all, so developers can still sell their devices or software to those who need something more powerful or, like in this case, to those who have older computers.

I loved the presentation of Voice Control, fortunately I don’t need it, but the video looked very lovely. It’s nice that Apple tries to provide the way for everyone to use their devices.

Again, one of those things that has been tried before, but probably can only be delivered by the company of Apple scale – MacBook private Bluetooth beacon. When someone steels your laptop it sends Bluetooth signal (very low power, so battery won’t drain) to the nearest Apple devices and this creates mesh network which in the end provides you with the location of the stolen device. Amazing, with the amount of Apple devices in the world, this solution is the one that can definitely work.

As I’ve mentioned before I have an older Mac, which doesn’t have Touch ID, I love how my MacBook unlocks itself when my Apple Watch is near, now it will be possible to do even more, that is the promise of Approve with Apple Watch. Hopefully it will work on my MacBook and Apple Watch and will help me everyday, so I won’t have to type my passwords all the time.

One of the biggest additions this year – Project Catalyst, that is continuation of last year mentioned Sneak Peak, which everyone called Project Marzipan. Let’s not dwell on the name Catalyst in macOS Catalina. I’m sure it will be a bit of a struggle to remember which is which, but the macOS name will change in a year, so the problem won’t stay for long.

The idea behind it is helping iOS developers to port their apps to the macOS. From what Apple showed us it looks good and right at home on the Mac. Again, Podcasts app was written using Project Catalyst and from the looks it’s hard to tell it apart from Apple Music. I love that at least some of my favorite iOS apps will come to the Mac, like Overcast for example. 

The apps Apple decided to show off on stage were a bit odd. Calling Asphalt 9 Legends and Amazing Mac App, was a bit much. Although it’s a developers conference, but Jira is not the most beloved software in the world, but it proved the point, now you could move your iOS app to the Mac.

The last big thing that got mentioned and I will discuss it here was SwiftUI. It’s a new framework which makes making an app so much easier. It will work on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. And looking at the demo, I wanted to again try to learn coding. 

So as you can see, pretty strong keynote for macOS. I think it shows that Apple is still serious about Mac and there is hope that this OS will have bright future.

Apple Watch: My Experience

November 12, 2017
5 min read

When Apple Watch first came out, there was not a lot of reasons to buy one in Latvia – we don’t have Apple Pay, there were not a lot of apps for the Watch – we don’t have Uber, most of our homes are not smart and we still go to the stores to buy groceries instead of them being delivered to our houses. That’s probably why local retailers still don’t sell Apple Watches here (even official Apple resellers). The one I’ve found a month ago was the carrier selling 38mm Apple Watch Series 0 for about 460$ (yes, in 2017).

So when we were travelling to New York City this September, as per tradition – we’ve gone to the Apple Store (this time to the Grand Central), I’ve walked around and came right to the table with all the watches and here it was – 42mm Apple Watch Series 3, a couple of question to the employee, tap of the credit card, typing my e-mail and 10 minutes later I was out of the store with my first smartwatch. I’ve got GPS only version, as again, cellular doesn’t make much sense in Latvia, as carriers don’t support those and I’m not sure they will in pretty long time.

Activity tracking
Some time ago I was reading a couple of articles saying how Apple Watch helped them be more active and even lose some weight, for example, Jim Dalrymple and his weight loss story, I was very skeptical. I’ve had Fitbit before counting my steps and it wasn’t motivating me a bit, I’ve just tracked steps without really going out of my way to reach the goal. In a couple of months, I’ve lost my Fitbit and never got a replacement.
But with Apple Watch it was very different, right from the first day I was closing all three rings and it somehow mattered. First, it was easy, as I was in New York City for the first time, so 2 out of 3 rings were usually closed at about lunchtime, but at home, it got a bit harder, I’ve had to make a bit of an effort to close those rings. Now, I try to finish my lunch early, to have time for a walk and on some days with my wife we «walk the Watch».
Through the day, the Watch keeps reminding me to stand and I’ve got a habit to go and have a glass of water, which helps again.
So far I’ve lost 4kg in about one and a half week (change in a diet also helped) and had my first perfect month in October.

Notifications
I’ve long had a thought that Apple was destroying Notifications Centre when they’ve removed the grouping by an app, it became impossible to use the Notifications Centre for me and I’ve mostly relied on the icon badges all over the home screen, which, as you can imagine, is not very good solution. Just after getting the Apple Watch notifications became a bit more useful. They all appear on my wrist first and I can manage them from the watch, leaving some of them to see on the phone and replying to others using dictation, which became pretty good, even in Russian. Having my watch buzz every time I receive a notification, also helped find the ones I don’t need and turn them off.

This is just one of the examples how Apple rewards you for being all in in the ecosystem. Like how Apple Watch can unlock your Mac, for example, which at first was hard to get used to, because I have developed a habit of opening the lid and starting typing first character of the password right away which canceled unlocking with the Watch, but after a couple of days I’ve got used to the automatic unlock.
The second cool thing was when my phone was charging in the bedroom and I was in the other room, I’ve put my Airpods in the ears, opened Overcast watch app, chose an episode and started playing the podcast from my phone. It felt really nice.

Time
This is a bit silly and a bit surprising, but probably the worst thing about Apple Watch is how bad it is at telling time. I’m not saying it tells the wrong time, far from it, as far as I’ve read it is one of the most precise time peaces, but having to raise the wrist to see time is pretty bad. I’m one of the rare people who was wearing a watch before getting smart one and was very used to just glancing at my wrist to see the time, now I can’t do that. I have to flick the wrist every time I want to see what time it is, which, while working, is not a good experience.
Taking into the consideration that on a normal day, I have about 65% battery power left and Apple Watch having an OLED display, I think it is possible for it to have always on time. It could be a feature off by default, but I would love to have it as an option.

After having a watch for a little more than a month, I can definitely tell that I like it very much and will continue to wear it daily. I’m still closing all three rings every single day and trying to raise my Move goal in the beginning of every weak even if by just a bit. It is a solid product with the bright future ahead of it. I’m not seeing a lot of them in Latvia, but that’s probably because you have to go out of your way to find one, but when we were in NYC I was shocked to see so many of them on people wrists and now I can see why.