Apple Thread

[killramos]

Apple has a stock books app that supports epub I think.

[Darell_n]

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Has anyone used an epub/ebook, audio-reader app on iOS? Recommendations?

I have a ton of eBook's, and don't want to pay for their AudioBook versions.

Computer voice reading an e-book would be gross. People pay for audiobooks?

[cam_wmh]

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Apple has a stock books app that supports epub I think.

Audio reader? Eh?

[killramos]

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Audio reader? Eh?

Eh?

https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/...-ebooks-aloud/

Eh!

[ExtraSlow]

Borrow the audio book from the library?

[killramos]

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borrow the audio book from the library?

A!

lol

[cam_wmh]

Thanks fellas!

[sabad66]

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Haven't seen 15-20% itunes GC for a long time now...... I usually buy hundreds at a time since it's also good for subscriptions like icloud, disney+ and not just app purchases. Need to know when they have big discounts again. Hopefully they will still offer that much discount.

They are on for 14-16% off right now at Costco til the 28th. Good timing for me as i need to reload for my yearly D+ subscription next month (at the new stupid higher price )


EDIT: also, just got billed for my second month of AppleCare+ and again it came off my "iTunes Credit". I don't have "Apple Store Credit" on my account at all. So it wasn't just the first month, it seems to work for every month. Nice little loophole to save a bit of money.

[schocker]

^^^I'm going to top up for my apple one. It gave me weird trials again so my subscriptions really make no sense. It like made me pay for arcade and then wouldn't start for a month but included icloud and music.

Also some m1 MBAs are avialable in the refurb store now, save a couple hundred it seems like
https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/refurb...20-macbook-air

[eglove]

Tempted to get one to try, I sold my late 2019 13" base mbp and got a smoking deal on an i5 microsoft surface - but still kinda missing mac os

[rage2]

$70 cheaper than edu pricing. Not shabby.

[ganesh]

Looks like M1 Mac's are using a excessive Read/Write on the SSD.
Not sure whether this is related to the M1 chip or it is bug in the OS.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/23/m1-ma...ents-lifespan/

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Looks like M1 Mac's are using a excessive Read/Write on the SSD.
Not sure whether this is related to the M1 chip or it is bug in the OS.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/23/m1-ma...ents-lifespan/

They can probably make it better with an update but it might affect performance. Maybe they were hoping people didn't notice haha - they solder the SSD in too so Apple wins either way when the customer decides to repair or replace.

I was reading about this yesterday but information on why it happens seems to be scarce.

[cam_wmh]

Any of you ballers, got the Apple US Credit Card? Been able to make many relevant purchases that you use in Canada?
I’m keen for the Canadian version.

[94CoRd]

Looking for a bit of input here. I've got a 2015 macbook pro (8GB mem, 256GB ssd) that I use mostly for work. It still handles day to day things pretty well, but I've been noticing lately, especially after Big Sur install, I basically have to close any chrome tab, or application that's open whether it's being used or not, or else my meeting audio turns robotic. I've tested this a few times by opening and closing apps on Teams calls.

maybe @rage2 can help - in your tests with the Air and M1, can i expect a pretty big performance improvement? and being able to multi-task while on Teams calls?

[rage2]

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Looking for a bit of input here. I've got a 2015 macbook pro (8GB mem, 256GB ssd) that I use mostly for work. It still handles day to day things pretty well, but I've been noticing lately, especially after Big Sur install, I basically have to close any chrome tab, or application that's open whether it's being used or not, or else my meeting audio turns robotic. I've tested this a few times by opening and closing apps on Teams calls.

maybe @rage2 can help - in your tests with the Air and M1, can i expect a pretty big performance improvement? and being able to multi-task while on Teams calls?

I don't have enough experience with 8gb Intel MacBooks, so I dunno if it's a swapping issue or what. Check to see when your audio goes robotic if your CPU is pegged, or your HDD/SSD is going crazy.

If it's memory pressure, 8GB M1 (MBA in my case) does wonders, although there's some noise right now about M1 SSD's being used too much and eating away at it's usable life prematurely. Ignoring that, the 8GB MBA M1 does my day to day way faster than my 2019 MBP i5 16GB while swapping as needed. Don’t even notice any memory pressure or swapping.

As for CPU and performance, I actually did a test with @kenny yesterday, we have this massive google sheet with a pivot that's slow as fuck. Collapsing or expanding any filter takes 7s on our 2019 16GB i5 MBPs. On the 8GB MBA M1, it does it in under a second. So performance wise for Chrome and Safari, the M1's absolutely crush the Intels.

We're both waiting patiently for the next M1's that can support 2 monitors. We're already rolling out M1's to staff that only need 1 monitor, and moving down to MBA's. Way better performance for a whole lot less money.

[taemo]

Microsoft Teams is becoming a resource hog. I have a 2015 rMBP with i7 and 16GB and even that one struggles on Teams calls, especially with video and background effects.
But even my HP x360 with i7 and 16GB struggles and become unresponsive with Teams on.

Issue btw seems to be mostly CPU being pegged.

Most of the time now a days, I join for audio/video through Teams app on my phone.

[killramos]

Using teams on your phone or tablet is expert mode for sure.

If I need to screen share I log into the meeting separately on my computer.

[rage2]

Teams is Rosetta 2 only as well. No M1 native version yet. That sucks it’s a resource hog, so his problem is probably cpu more than anything. M1 will help but who knows how much.

That’s the one thing I love about zoom. It’s so well optimized. Basically 0 cpu usage on an M1. Even on intel, my 2015 launch 12” MacBook runs zoom perfectly. It can’t handle Google meets. On the M1 I can do 10 hour zoom calls on battery and still have life left. It’s ridiculous.

I’m going on a teams call with a vendor in a few mins, will be interesting to see how bad it runs haha. First time in a teams call.

[94CoRd]

You mind letting me know how the Teams call goes? It's our only option for work, so will definitely impact my decision to trade in the 2015.

Since WFH is at least until end of April, I'll be fine with current gen, as I use a large single monitor, but in office is two monitors. Any rumors on when next gen M1's with dual monitor support might happen? Could do another trade in then too.