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Hello, 16″ M1 MacBook Pro.

I found a pair of 16-inch MacBook Pros on Amazon Warehouse Deals just now.

Price: $1,724.25

Condition: Acceptable

CPU: 10-Core M1 Pro

RAM: 16GB

GPU: 16-core (the power-sipping one that I want)

Storage: 1TB

Color: Space Grey

The CPU/GPU options available on the 2021 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro are:Screenshot 2022 12 24 at 2 04 43 PM

I like the M1 Pro as it has considerably more battery life than the M1 Max versions, and I don’t need the increased performance of those CPUs or their GPUs at all.

New price right now from Apple for this configuration: $2,699

Refurbished price right now from Apple for this configuration (link): $2,309.00

Amazingly, Amazon has this new for $2,299, which is cheaper than Apple’s refurbished price. Wow.

Compared to the Apple refurb price, I am saving $584.75.

Compared to the Apple new price, I am saving $974.75.

Compared to the Amazon new price, I am saving $574.75.

I pulled the trigger on two. My hope is that one of them will be in amazing shape and that I can add AppleCare Plus to it, along with the perpetual annual AppleCare Plus renewal of $79 or whatever it is.

Amazon Warehouse Deals has exactly zero 16” M1 MacBook Pros with 32GB of RAM right now. Zero. So no ragerts. It’s a $400 upgrade for a new one. I’d gladly pay that on top of $1724.25, which would come to $2,124.25. But it’s not presently available and 16GB is working fine for me on my Mac mini.

I only plan to keep one of these.

This will replace my M1 Mac mini desktop computer. Sick.

New

Screenshot 2022 12 24 at 12 22 59 PM

Refurbished

Screenshot 2022 12 24 at 12 37 24 PM

5 January 2023 Update: I bought three of these in hopes of getting one that was worth keeping. Worth keeping means excellent physical condition and AppleCare+ available. The first one arrived Tuesday, 3 January 2022. I opened it when I got home. Not mentioned in the Amazon listing, it had no original packaging. But it was cosmetically perfect and even the screen was perfectly clean — not a single smudge. AppleCare+ was available for 20 more days and the factory warranty expires 22 November 2023. That means this thing is like a month old. I’m keeping it.

3 June 2023 Update: I love this computer. I use it every day for work. Only bad thing is Bluetooth oddities. For example, sometimes I click to disable a Plantronics Bluetooth headset and that stops my mouse cold. Seriously. What the heck?

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Hello, Western Digital Data Center HC550 18TB Disk Drives.

Many months ago, GoPro videos finally plugged up my 5TB “Photos” drive. I started saving lacrosse photos on my desktop, till my M1 Mac mini’s 2TB SSD filled up. Not good.

What to do? Delete GoPro videos? Meh.

Get a RAID array? Nah. I don’t need the speed nor the failure tolerance (high availability).

Get a NAS? They all have bad reviews. I only need access to the files from my Mac mini, not from a bunch of computers. And if I needed access from my MacBook Pro (which hasn’t happened yet, ever), I could share the drive via my Mac mini. Would a NAS really add value for my use?

Get a big hard drive. This is the one. So I did.

My understanding is these are basically Hitachi drives. I hope these drives have the legendary reliability Hitachi earned a reputation for.

I put these in an OWC Drive Dock, a two-disk USB 3.1 thingy. On Amazon, it is called OWC Drive Dock USB-C Dual Drive Bay Solution (OWCTCDRVDCK). Manufacturer’s page: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TCDRVDCK/ 

Copying 5TB of photos and videos to the drive from my (slow, 2.5” external) Seagate drive to one of these new drives takes about 16 hours (Finder estimate).

Copying that 5TB of data from the drive to itself (just to see how long it takes) takes about six minutes.

Copying that 5TB of data from the drive to the same model drive in the OWC thingy takes about 16 hours (Finder estimate). That’s disappointing.

Is this OWC thing saturating the SATA 3 bus when copying from one drive in it to another drive in it? Not. Even. Close. Disappointing.

Manufacturer OWC’s Support has told me twice that this thing supports S.M.A.R.T. disk health information on the drives in it. But my experience is that it does not.

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Hello, iPhone 14 Pro.

I ordered an iPhone 14 Pro when they went on pre-sale on 9 September 2022.

I used the iOS Apple Store app, which is not an app I usually use. Process was smooth.

iPhone was delivered, without signature, Friday, 16 September 2022.

I opened it. It’s heavy. But the camera lenses are huge.

A Hiccup

I did the transfer from my iPhone 11 Pro. It took an hour or two. I just let it run while I went to bed. In the morning, my iPhone 14 Pro’s screen was black and it wouldn’t turn on. But it had been charging all night. I found this discussion thread about it. Doing the Volume-Up, Volume-Down, hold Sleep/Wake reset got it to turn on for me, just like it did for other people in that thread.

eSIM-Only

Before it was delivered, but after I ordered it, I found out that they’re eSIM-only in the United States. My cellular service provider (T-Mobile MVNO Tello.com) has been saying they’ll have eSIM “by October”. Okay. No biggie. I figured the phone would sit in its box for a couple weeks to a month while I waited for Tello to get eSIM support going.

But I checked their site Saturday morning, just in case. Their home page had a green banner promising eSIM support would be ready soon. But, when I was logged in, there was actually a path for me to check an eSIM for compatibility. This started the process, and I had my iPhone 14 Pro working with an eSIM in about 15 minutes. Decent!

I don’t normally buy new phones. I buy them second-hand when they’re a year (or, better, two years) old. Save a grand each time that way. But this time I wanted the better camera. This is my primary camera, so a camera quality bump from my iPhone 11 Pro was worth trying a new phone this time. Every year I don’t have the better camera is a year I don’t get the better photos. I was ready for an upgrade this year. And I won’t upgrade to an iPhone 13 Pro, because the 3×-only zoom is a hard no. iPhone 14 Pro does 2× with the main camera (crop), which I bet will be fine. Not as good as using the telephoto (flattened image rather than distorted), but fine.

Since I was going all-in on a new phone, I also got the month-to-month AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. $14 a month or so. Okay.

What I didn’t count on (oops) was that cases won’t be cheap for new phones. That was almost a deal-breaker.

I also read a review between the time of order placement and delivery saying the camera was just a small upgrade. I tried to cancel my order, but it was already being prepared for shipment, so I didn’t have a cancelation option. I decided to just keep the phone.

Specs. I bought the 1TB model. Because buy the maximum storage option, as long as it’s not $2,000 more, like on a Mac. I had 200GB free on my 512GB iPhone 11 Pro, which is plenty. But whatever. Go big.

What do I notice about the iPhone 14 Pro? Low-light photos are taken faster, but they don’t look as good as my iPhone 11 Pro’s in middling lighting. Maybe this shines in deeper darkness though.

The screen is magnificent.

It is heavy, I as I mentioned. And everything after my iPhone 7 has been too heavy. This is heavier than my iPhone 11 Pro.

It doesn’t fit on my three-device Anker (phone, Apple Watch, AirPods) charger. Yuck! The cameras protrude too much. Seems to work for my wife iPhone 13 Pro Max. I haven’t gone and looked, but I bet it’s just taller, so the camera lenses clear the back of the phone rest.

I first noticed a charging problem this morning, after its first night charging next to my bed. It was warm. Not a good sign. If I have this tilt forward a bit, I get a message complaining that it has stopped charging and will resume when the device cools off a bit.

Now I’m buying a Belkin MagSafe charging station and a MagSafe-compatible case. I didn’t plan to do anything MagSafe. This is an unplanned additional expense.

3 June 2023 Update: Good phone. But not enough better than my old iPhone 11 Pro to warrant the $1,500 or so upgrade. Meh. I wish I had not bought my iPhone 14 Pro.