SMUG meeting, January 19, 2021
Notes by Kathleen Charters
Q&A
Big Sur issue: downloading the upgrade was delayed by a very slow connection; rebooting the Wi-Fi router fixed the problem
Silicon Mac mini – Lawrence likes a lot; will demonstrate this today; bugs in macOS Big Sur OS – when doing a remote login, the screen saver comes on, and when logged in, cannot see to do anything, not an issue for most people; Apple admitted this needs to be fixed for Apple Silicon machines running Big Sur
Brian is joining from Melbourne, Australia; a lovely day there
Put in Cat 6a ethernet for new home, Wi-Fi for iPads and iPhones, Apple Airport Express, recommendation for next step in hardware to upgrade and replace older equipment; other machines can connect directly; MESH 6 Eero used here because each one is its own WI-FI router and is multi-channel so 2-way traffic full speed both directions; can get MESH5 for less cost; gaming WI-FI router such as Nighthawk will cover a normal home, if over 2K square foot then may not cover everything; not recommended to use ISP router – company controls access and sees all traffic inside your home; if have separate WI-FI router then ISP does not see traffic in the home; security issue; Time Capsule backups up using Time Machine; use a cheap drive attached to computer and tell Time Machine to use it; portable USB drives plug into a laptop or desktop; difficult for Apple to sell Time Capsule and be competitive; Apple may get back to this in the future; Ethernet is reliable, faster, secure; Australia houses are long and narrow; outdoor and backyard coverage; node handoff between locations seamless for MESH 6 Eero; poor cellphone reception so use WI-FI calling in home; provider router; broadband upgrade to put fiber to the curb everywhere in Australia; using original router with WI-FI turned off; Apple recommends Ubiquity for hobbyists; RJ45 and patch panel issue with Internet dropping out for MacBook Pro 5 years old and 2 years old use adapters; an odd problem
Battery drain issue when installing Big Sur older MacBook Air runs the same; may be running programs or Web extensions or a demon on laptop e.g., MacBook Pro; to check on this set up a different account and log in and see if notice anything; problem went away when updated programs; 3rd party programs doing something no longer allowed will drain battery; old versions of office does this, old versions of Chrome does this – uses lots of memory; Safari under Big Sur will not allow you to do some things; Apple security vs Chrome focus on working across platforms
If at first you cannot do something with one Web browser, try a different browser; always use a current browser; it is dangerous to use an old browser – vulnerable to being hacked
Mac store in Sequim closed, Mac repairs nearest Apple store Tacoma Mall or Alderwood Mall in Lynwood; Mac Traders phone number still works and if can help will; not recommended to use Best Buy; Port Townsend has support; former member Blue Sky Mac Tech Mr. Hannah will do what can remotely for $60/hour; not Mac certified but knowledgeable
Meeting sign-in URL in chat window
Meeting business
President – Is there any objection to changing dues to yearly in January? If paid in the last 3 months, then dues are good until January 2022; honor system
Moved to go on an annual basis as of January 2021, seconded, unanimous
Call for new visitors: Brian, Steve, Donna; those not been here in a long time: Gary, Wood.doc, Ruth
Treasurer – 2 dues came in, so the balance is $221.55
Demo of Apple Silicon Mac mini
7.8 inches square piece of paper – size of an Apple Silicon-based Mac mini. 11.8 inches – how far electricity travels in 1 billionth of a second through a wire; 2.51 seconds for light to go to the moon and back
Mac mini is small, slightly larger than a CD case; can connect a 6K display to it; does not make much noise; HDMI port; Wi-Fi 6 (fast); gigabit Ethernet port; USB-C and Thunderbolt ports; faster than previous Mac minis; security enclave; memory 8-16 GB
Mac mini used in demo: 16 GB Memory and 512 GB drive
Apple M1 processor: in new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini; in the past, different chips on a circuit board, now all on a single chip the size of a thumbnail; this means it is faster; for example, a school building and passing along messages through each room takes more time
Demo remote log-in to Mac mini from iMac
Internal 500 GB solid state hard drive for Mac mini and 4TB RAID attached, a lot of storage; Mac OS 11 Big Sur; Apple M1 processor; display Samsung; See: About this Mac system report for detailed technical information
What looks different is the menu bar on the upper right hand side of the display window; right hand display of calendar, photos, clocks by time zones; weather dashboard, screen time, etc. can edit and customize what you see and how you see it; adopted from iPad and iPhone; control panel options from one icon at the top; can turn off all notifications; Preferences the same
Launchpad – useful reminder of what is on your machine; icons in Big Sur are rounded on the edges, and 3rd party if icons are updated
Conversion of applications – iPad screen on the desktop not adjusted; tile matching game can rotate for 3-D view – took one day for developer to port it over; most of what has been ported over are games (millions of games will become available)
Finder Windows are rounded at the edges, but have a familiar look and feel
New hardware is quite quick; for example, opening a large number of photographs is almost instant, even though going from iMac to Mac mini to iMac
Does not look that different, Big Sur not much different; Apple programs work the same; backend security is improved; built in enclave – a portion of the chip storing your information that only you can access and not remotely; if have Apple watch can control the enclave from that device; fast, very secure; built in Ethernet is very fast compared to WI-FI; downside is the bug with the screensaver if remote log-in; no obvious difference from other; MacBook Air is faster but not twice as fast; Mac mini is more than twice as fast than previous Mac mini – impressive
Software not optimized is BB Edit; it runs Intel code; when run the first time, the Big Sur OS asks if you want to install and optimize; from then on, this is transparent
Mac mini is fast and powerful, and the size of 4 CD cases stacked one on top of the other
Q&A
iMovie on M1 processor – will compare assembling a movie on iMac vs M1 Mac Mini
Final Cut is optimized and very quick
YouTube videos assembled using Final Cut Pro
iPad 2020 11 inch running IOS 14.3 with lots of storage; Brainiac Solitaire and Clips quit unexpectedly, may be trying to use some routine no longer supported; same issue with older iPad OK for reading books but newer programs crash; not usual for the OS to cause this – usually a problem with the program because unstable; Clips calls not responding which suggests this is a program issue
If the M1 chip fails, it is a system on a chip (SOC), and all stops working, and you have to replace the motherboard, same as if an i7 chip fails must replace the motherboard; data is not lost
Photoshop has not updated to work with the M1 chip; it will run under an emulator, except for glitches when it does not conform to Apple programming guidelines. MacBook Air glitches are annoying, but able to function; Adobe will fix these issues in the next few months
Lightroom updated
Adobe Suite was updated last week, but not necessarily for M1
Old games under High Sierra may not work under Big Sur; it may be a 5-year slog for some games to make the transition to Apple Silicon
Old Malware does not work under Big Sur
iPad Pro 2017 keyboard skipping when typing and scrolling is jerky with onscreen touch; wireless signal may create this issue; WI-FI signal that is iffy makes it painful; mechanical keyboard may be battered and need to be replaced; 3rd party keyboard may have a battery that is dying
Apple Silicon Mac mini is faster and cheaper than the previous Intel Mac mini version; there is one small built-in speaker
Volume level is low on a iPad 9 inch, most have 2 speakers on the bottom – the grill can get filled with debris; clean with compressed air (Home Depot and Office Depot); turn device off, leave off for several minutes so cool; blow at an angle; let sit for 15-20 minutes, turn on; may use a q-tip to clean; plastic cases may cover the speakers; a pillow lap desk may muffle the speakers
Calendar – can use settings to look at earlier years, but one year at a time to scroll back; should be able to search as far back as the calendar goes
When looking at the calendar on the iPhone, the data is cached; only the most recent is shown, as you scroll back it will slow down as it loads the data that is stored on iCloud
Menu bar – size change by default under accessibility
Replacing a MacBook Pro 13-inch – back up to Time Machine with old machine and restore to new machine; leave old machine up until you have new machine up and running, and have checked to see everything is working; some licensing adjustments may be required
Next month possibilities
iMovie not covered for several years; show how to edit movies; video cameras – iPhone, iPad, security camera, GoPro, video camera that saves to SD card will import to iMovie; spotting scopes and binoculars with adaptors for iPhone with case – sweet object;
Google Services – office suite: collaborative documents, slides, spreadsheet (unlimited rows)
Panorama – a database that looks like a spreadsheet; executes in memory, so very fast
Next month’s business: Purge inactive email addresses (over 300 on current list)