EMAIL: [email protected]
SHARE WITH US! FACEBOOK : facebook.com/maclife TWITTER: twitter.com/maclifeAirPods Pro — now
with pull cord?Image rights: Apple.
It feels more and more like an adversarial relationship
between consumers and the companies who want to
spy on, I mean, serve us. I recently purchased a smart
WY/#dqg#surpswo|#vhw#derxw#wxuqlqj#rļ#doo#ri#wkh#
“spying” features — that is, the services that watched what I watched, tried
to listen for audio, etc. It wasn’t easy. I even found the TV turned them all
edfn#rq#diwhu#d#Ľupzduh#xsgdwh1#Dq#krqhvw#plvwdnh/#Lġp#vxuh1#Diwhu#wkdw/#
I yanked the Wi–Fi.
You’ve run several articles on security and privacy, and also on smart
home technology. What I’ve never seen you do is a comprehensive guide
for people who want both.
VshflĽfdoo|/#Lġp#lqwhuhvwhg#lq#wkh#frqyhqlhqfh#ri#ylghr#grruehoov/#
thermostats and such like — but it seems that all of these solutions involve
companies that want to access your data for themselves via the cloud.
Could you point to some solutions (Mac compatible, of course) that either
work only on a local network level, or provide internet connected options
wkdw#gr#qrw#uhwdlq#|rxu#gdwdB#Dssoh#kdv#pdgh#wklqjv#olnh#plqlpdo#gdwd#
retention a priority, there must be others out there as well! COLINWklv#lv#ghĽqlwho|#vrphwklqj#zhġuh#jrlqj#wr#fryhu#lq#rxu#vpduw#krph#vhfwlrq#lq#
d#ixwxuh#lvvxh/#vr#nhhs#dq#h|h#rxw1#Dv#|rx#vd|/#wkhuh#duh#sohqw|#ri#shrsoh#rxw#
wkhuh#zkr#zdqw#wkh#vpduw#ehqhĽwv#wkdw#wkhvh#surgxfwv#rļhu/#exw#qrw#dw#wkh#
h{shqvh#ri#wkhlu#shuvrqdo#iuhhgrpvGet a grip!
I recently bought the AirPods
Pro and they’re everything
they’re cracked up to be. The tip
fit test worked fine, and I used
them on a cross–country trip
and the noise cancelling works
quite well. While the noise
cancelling isn’t as good as my
Bose over–the–ear headset
(those are like being in an
anechoic chamber) they work
plenty well for me. I really do
not like headsets, so the AirPods
Pro are ideal.
My one complaint is they’re
really slippery. I don’t have small
hands with scrawny fingers;
I have those beefy big ‘ole man
hands, with fingers to match!
Just extracting the Pods fromthe case is a hassle, and the
slipperiness makes them double
easy to drop. I wish Apple could
roughen the surface to improve
handling, and maybe even put
some sort of lanyard on them
that protrudes from the case to
allow for easier extraction.
RICK CUNNINGTONWe have pretty big hands
on the Mac|Life team and
we’ve not really encountered
a problem per se with the
AirPods, but we know where
you’re coming from.iMac migration
I’ve just read your 27–inch iMac
(early 2019) review — very
helpful. Here’s a little feedbackfor consideration. I bought a
2019 fully–loaded top–end iMac
27–inch with 16GB memory (up
to 256GB expandable) and a
500GB SSD drive. It seems that
with so much hardware in the
2019 27–inch iMac, the fan is on
all of the time to take care of
the heat. I’m used to a quiet
Macbook Pro and even my older
2008 24–inch iMac with a fusion
drive was quieter. It’s not loud,
but definitely noticeable.
On another note, as I was
moving from my older iMac with
an aftermarket 2TB fusion drive,
I had to significantly downsize
my data before moving to the
new machine. It took a lot
of time to do this, with lots of
research involved. A how–to
guide for those considering
migrating from fusion or hard
drives to SSD drives in a future
issue would be really helpful.
Moving from an older version
of macOS also presented
challenges. At one point an
Apple tech told me it may not
be possible, but I persevered
and did it. She mentioned
that this may become more
challenging as macOS evolves.
I ended up having to manually
recover data from backups as
the migration did not bring it all
over. BRUCE CUTHBERTGood idea on data migration
— definitely one for a future
how–to guide. It’s pencilled in.BIG
CORPmaclife.com MAR 2020 13Your opinions, rants & raves