Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Can't outrun the battery

As we are nearing the month of September, I am very excited for the next iteration of the venerable Apple iPhone. I skipped upgrading to last year’s iPhone 15, so my current iPhone 14 Pro is going on two years of use. While the processing power and the cameras are still capable and fantastic, the issue with having that old a phone is the battery.

These days I am down to the 20% threshold at the beginning of evenings. Sooner rather than later, my iPhone 14 Pro will no longer last a full day of use on one overnight charge. A mere inconvenience for sure, rather than anything detrimental. But when I can throw money at the problem - by spending over a thousand dollars for a brand new phone - I shall certainly do that.

That’s the thing with anything that runs on batteries: degradation. Your device is only as good as the battery fitted inside. Once it deteriorates past a certain threshold, you no longer have the same kind of device. A laptop that only lasts two hours on a charge (it was eight hours when new, let’s say) is effectively a desktop. It’s only as mobile as your proximity to a pluggable power source.

Obviously, a solution is to swap out the old battery for a new one. And I just might do that when the battery on this M1 Max MacBook Pro that I am typing on degrades enough to be annoying. The first generation of Apple Silicon is still so powerful that I don’t see the need to get a whole new Mac laptop anytime soon.

You can’t do that with an electric car, can you? I would be super weary of buying a used electric car like a Tesla Model 3 - unless there is a way for customers to see the remaining battery capacity. Mileage is not longer the main determining factor. I would buy a used Model 3 with 50,000 miles with 85% capacity over a similar Model 3 with 30,000 miles, but has 75% capacity left.

It's still an iPad

My first reaction to the new iPads announced today is: my god these things are expensive. Not that the new iPad Air and iPad Pro has increased in price, mind you - one of the few things that hasn’t price inflated in recent years. It just never occurred to me how damn pricey those models are compared to the base poverty-spec iPad (9th generation) that I have ($309 with the education discount). I was and still am not the target audience to spend $999 (starting) for an iPad Pro.

And honestly, who is? A thousand dollars is main-computing-device kind of money. It is far too steep to pay for a secondary tablet. An iPad Pro (the old one and the new one) certainly has the computing horsepower to be a primary device, but I wonder deeply who is using it as such. Every single person I know, their tablet is a secondary (or tertiary, if we count the smartphone) thing for media-consumption.

I guess I can use an iPad as my primary machine, but it’s definitely far from ideal. I would be working around its limitations (such as poor windows/app management, not great multi-tasking, and cumbersome file management), rather than a MacBook Pro performing exactly what I need out of a computer. Apple sure wants people to use the iPad Pro as the main computer (being the control center for a four-iPhone multi-cam recording is freaking cool), though I remain skeptical there exist such users. I will continue to recommend to others that the best iPad is the very base model.

I plan to use my 9th-generation unit for many more years to come. This is not the year to be dumping money into nice-to-have gadgets. Not in this economy, not at these interest rates. Well actually, the interest rate would be zero because the Apple Card offers zero-percent financing. Hmmm…

The laptop part of a laptop

I’ve owned this fantastically engineered Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Max) for two and a half years now. The laptop has spent most of that time docked to an external monitor. On a recent curious check with the coconutBattery app, this very MacBook Pro I am typing on has only got 14 battery cycles on it. Perhaps I should have bought a Mac mini instead…

Ah yes, I remember why I bought a beefy Mac laptop instead of a desktop. If life situation ever changes, and I need to move in quick order, a laptop is far easier to haul around with me. My entire digital life in a four and half pound machine. I would sell the monitor and the extra nice-to-have peripherals, and take just the MacBook Pro.

It used to be that it’s superbly unhealthy for laptop batteries to be constantly plugged into power. At my work, I’ve seen plenty of bulging batteries due to users never using their laptops as a laptop. However, in recent years, Apple has done a tremendous job in managing its laptop batteries - automatically - within the operating system. MacOS learns the usage pattern and adjusts the charge levels accordingly. My MacBook Pro is kept at a 80 percent charge at all times, because I never take unplug it from the monitor.

I was pleasantly surprised to read in the same coconutBattery report the battery still has 96% of its design capacity. To put it another way: it has only degraded 4% from new. I am very happy with that. Barring some unexpected monetary windfall that probably should go towards investments, I plan to use this M1 Max MacBook Pro for many more years. It’s good to see the battery is self-managed for maximum longevity.

What the heck are you doing, Windows laptop manufacturers?

Not so simple

My set of first-generation AirPods are on their last legs. A charge barely lasts one hour before I need to put them back in the case for a battery top up. One hour is not enough for a workout session, so I don’t use them for that. I also don’t use the AirPods for voice calls, as they would likely last only about 30 minutes. To me, these earphones have become effectively useless

It’s not that surprising: I bought these AirPods just after initial launch, way back in 2017. After five solid years of use, I somewhat expect the battery to go from its rated five hours of listening time down to just one. Battery aside, my AirPods are still functionally fine. Nothing is broken, nothing is falling off. What would be ideal then is to replace the battery and continue using them. Instead of buying a new set and tossing the old units into landfill.

A greener, most holistic approach to tech products nearing end of life.

Quick search on Apple reveals that there is battery replacement available for the AirPods. $49 dollars (as indicated) is not a bad price to get (hopefully) another five years of use. I quickly made a Genius Bar appointment at the local Apple Store.

Sadly, it was a bit of false advertising. Turns out, Apple absolutely does not perform battery replacement on AirPods. The company will simply swap out for another unit. The cost of which is more expensive that buying a new complete set of AirPods. That $49 figure earlier? That’s the cost to replace the charging case! At least the guy at the Genius Bar agreed the website is somewhat deceptive. He even commented that it’s Black Friday, and sales on AirPods are everywhere where electronics are sold.

Apparently, replacing the battery on AirPods is incredibly difficult. Which is probably why Apple doesn’t do it. The material and labor cost would make the procedure cost prohibitive. It is indeed cheaper and less hassle to buy a new pair. I guess I’m just dismayed at the disposability of it all. Companies ought to design with an eye towards longevity and reparability.

Then again, I’m the guy who gets a new iPhone every year…

Always be backing up

My housemates have gone on vacation, so I am the only person currently occupying the home. Typically when I leave the house for work or whatever, I don’t take my keys. The entry door uses a keypad for locking - the key serves as a backup. I figured if there’s ever the slight chance the keypad stops working, I can always contact my housemates to come to the rescue.

Can’t do that anymore when they’re both on vacation! Therefore I’ve been taking the door keys with me, just in case. Technology is only as great as the backup plan for when it (inevitably?) fails. I simply cannot trust it completely to do its job every single time, without failure. The only time the good ole key and tumbler setup have stranded me is when I’ve misplaced the key. Batteries never run out on analog.

Obviously there’s a huge convenience factor to a keypad lock. And on most days I enjoy that convenience immensely. Just like the ATM at a bank branch: it’s great to be able to get stuff done without having to talk to a live person. However, I would never trust the ATM for a depositing a huge amount of cash. One misstep with the inner mechanicals - that I have zero control over - and that money is gone forever. This is especially true for ATMs that are not inside a bank building: who are you going to call while your cash is stuck in limbo?

Technology makes life fantastically convenient, but I think the point here is you have to be smart and cover your ass. My work in I.T. exposes me to catastrophic failure often enough. You can turn on your computer one day to find it utterly unresponsive. I sure hope you’ve had a consistent backup plan in place for your data!

The joy of tools

A fresh set of iFixit tools is a special feeling. Rows and columns of alloy bits not yet tarnish by human fingers. The sharp ends not yet met the heads of a screw. Breathe in that freshly open box smell. It’s probably toxic, but you don’t care. Every single piece is right where it should be, corresponding to the labels perfectly. It’s strange how much excitement I can draw from a $40 dollar tool set. I was super excited when we finally got in some new sets at work.

Primarily because other people have no sense of responsibility. No sense of order. No sense of putting things back where they should be once you’re done with it. Our old roster of iFixit toolkits are all in varying state of mess. Bits either missing or not where they should be placed. Half the time the sets themselves aren’t even put back in the designated area. More than once I’ve vowed to buy my own set. I would then only have myself to blame if the pieces are in disarray.

Of course, they would never be: I’m entirely too obsessive compulsive about things being in their proper place. I don’t expect my coworkers to be on that same level. Most people don’t clean the floors of their home every other day. Naturally then I also have the cleanest desk in the office. I put to regular use those alcoholic wipes that gets handed out like candy since the start of the pandemic.

So I may have selfishly commandeered one of the new iFixit sets for myself. I instantly ran to the label-maker to sticker my name to the case. Perhaps it’s a dick move, but I have to say I do use the tools quite often. Besides, I would gladly proffer up “my” set should someone needs one, and all the others are being used.

No new iPhone for me?

Am I getting the new iPhone this year?

Ever since the iPhone 7 - coinciding nicely with attaining a stable income - I’ve done the yearly upgrade to my Apple smartphone like clockwork. While indeed it’s really nice to have the latest and greatest shiny thing every one turn of the calendar, my reason for upgrading annually is for the improvements to the camera system. Apple continues to make leaps every year on the iPhone’s photographic capabilities, and as a hobbyist photographer, it’s a useful tool worth the upgrade cost.

Obviously, 2020 is no ordinary year. With the global pandemic shutting down all manners of travel, and relegating us to our homes more so than ever, there’s really not much opportunity for photography to happen. Is it worth getting the new iPhone 12 when the usage rate is this low? I’m not so sure.

But there’s another problem: Apple put the newest camera technology only in the largest of the iPhone 12 lineup, the Pro Max. Having gone back to a “regular size” iPhone 11 Pro after a string of plus-sized iPhones, I’ve come to prefer the practicality and convenience of a smaller device. It’s far easier to fit into pant pockets, and I can take photos with a single-hand, whereas the largest iPhone would require two hands just to steady the phone body. Apple going back to putting the best cameras only in the largest iPhone is putting me into quite the first-world dilemma: what’s more important? Portability, or picture quality?

I have a strong feeling that if I do upgrade this year, I’m going to reluctantly choose the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The size is going to take some time to get reacquainted with, but the improvements that comes with the larger sensor and new stabilization is ultimately worth the trade-off. I want the best picture quality possible.

Let’s see what happens in a few weeks, when the Pro Max becomes available for purchase.