Windows user to Mac - Tips, Suggestions & Apps

greg0205 said:
You can tinker a little...

View attachment 1073429

View attachment 1073431
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That's display OFF, not dimming.

Also I put that "slightly dim" option off on the M1 within the first week as it's sensors seemed to be on drugs compared to Intel MacBooks of old which were excellent with their sensor.

Will turn it on again though since many updates later it might score a bit more battery, not that I needed any.
 
Captain Underpants said:
Actually, instead of CleanMyMac, try out Daisydisk. It's AWESOME and super useful
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CleanMyMac X is included with Setapp so it costs me nothing by itself, but I must admit that DaisyDisk looks awesome. Once I've got a 16" MBP later this year with more storage space, I'll definitely pick up a license. For now I have so little installed, and Google Drive offloads unused stuff automatically anyway, that storage isn't a concern.

SAguy said:
I wish I could get that...

On my 16" MB Pro I get like 3 -4 hours of battery life.
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Ouch. I wouldn't have thought it would be so bad. I thought that thing was supposed to push 9 hours.

My M1 MBA gets quite close to Apple's claimed max battery life. It's insane how long it lasts. You're probably better off waiting for the 16" MBP refresh later this year though.

SauRoNZA said:
Guess again.

And you can monitor the graphs and see how it's worked over time and it doesn't always just smash it to 100%.

Also I've had 500 odd MacBooks doing this since it's been a feature and have seen a massive improvement in battery related issues on new machines in the last 2 years or so.

Trust Apple to know what's potting with it's own hardware.

But even before this feature I would have had my MacBooks docked all day as well and 3+ years with little in the way of unexpected battery degradation.

View attachment 1073417

It needs some time to work, run it for a week without Aldente and see.

It doesn't try to not hit 100% but rather slow charges it up to 100%.

Also something to consider is that MacBooks have independant charging and power rails. Which means you don't use your MacBook "through" the battery while on the charger but instead directly off the charger so you don't have the problem other laptops have where it's getting overcharged.

Once it's hit 100% it isn't actively being used as the battery is outside of the equation while plugged in.

I would argue not using the 20% above 80% at all is going to be far more prone to early battery failure. Batteries need to be used to stay active.

This is why you can power your MacBook off something like a phone charger running USB-C, but it won't charge at the same time. Or shut it down and then plug it into the phone charger and it will slowly charge the battery.
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Wtf... Why doesn't Apple make this clear in the OS.

I did initially assume that the laptop is powered directly by AC when plugged in, but then I read all the stuff about not leaving your MacBook plugged in all the time and didn't know what to assume.

Mine definitely doesn't slow charge to 100% with optimisation enabled. It gets there pretty quickly. Why doesn't Apple let the battery discharge a few percent before getting it back up to 100% whilst plugged in? Basically the same thing as AlDente's sail mode but within a more confined space.
 
Bryn said:
CleanMyMac X is included with Setapp so it costs me nothing by itself, but I must admit that DaisyDisk looks awesome. Once I've got a 16" MBP later this year with more storage space, I'll definitely pick up a license. For now I have so little installed, and Google Drive offloads unused stuff automatically anyway, that storage isn't a concern.


Ouch. I wouldn't have thought it would be so bad. I thought that thing was supposed to push 9 hours.

My M1 MBA gets quite close to Apple's claimed max battery life. It's insane how long it lasts. You're probably better off waiting for the 16" MBP refresh later this year though.


Wtf... Why doesn't Apple make this clear in the OS.

I did initially assume that the laptop is powered directly by AC when plugged in, but then I read all the stuff about not leaving your MacBook plugged in all the time and didn't know what to assume.

Mine definitely doesn't slow charge to 100% with optimisation enabled. It gets there pretty quickly. Why doesn't Apple let the battery discharge a few percent before getting it back up to 100% whilst plugged in? Basically the same thing as AlDente's sail mode but within a more confined space.
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Better to run the battery to 100% and bypass it than use it actively throughout the day thereby using the limited "cycles" available
 
Speedster said:
Better to run the battery to 100% and bypass it than use it actively throughout the day thereby using the limited "cycles" available
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How is the battery safely kept at 100% though? That's basically my query above.
 
Here is one that I recently discovered: When you take a screenshot (CMD+Shift+4) you can draw something that resembles an arrow on the screenshot and the tool will automatically covert it to an actual arrow shape:


1621521694511.png

Actually really useful to me as I often have to send people emails with little screenshots attached in them
 
Bryn said:
How is the battery safely kept at 100% though? That's basically my query above.
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It's done automatically, as stated above. Once the battery reaches 100% no more power is fed via the battery circuit
 
Apple batteries are great anyway. I get many hours still on a 2016 MBP.
 
I'm on a 2014 11" Air with a happy battery, admitted I kept this one as a backup for a part of it's life, my other is a 2015 13" MBP still happy.
Be reasonable Apple's software to monitor and protect their batteries in laptops and phones is very good...these other battery apps are mostly snake oil and I suspect none of them are needed, yet like politicians proclaim themselves as vital.
Don't keep running your item's battery into the red.
And let it get hot...in car or sun.... once can be very harmful!
 
Bryn said:
CleanMyMac X is included with Setapp so it costs me nothing by itself, but I must admit that DaisyDisk looks awesome. Once I've got a 16" MBP later this year with more storage space, I'll definitely pick up a license. For now I have so little installed, and Google Drive offloads unused stuff automatically anyway, that storage isn't a concern.


Ouch. I wouldn't have thought it would be so bad. I thought that thing was supposed to push 9 hours.

My M1 MBA gets quite close to Apple's claimed max battery life. It's insane how long it lasts. You're probably better off waiting for the 16" MBP refresh later this year though.


Wtf... Why doesn't Apple make this clear in the OS.

I did initially assume that the laptop is powered directly by AC when plugged in, but then I read all the stuff about not leaving your MacBook plugged in all the time and didn't know what to assume.

Mine definitely doesn't slow charge to 100% with optimisation enabled. It gets there pretty quickly. Why doesn't Apple let the battery discharge a few percent before getting it back up to 100% whilst plugged in? Basically the same thing as AlDente's sail mode but within a more confined space.
Click to expand...

I think in the old days prior to USB-C that was the case and people just still perpetuate the concept.

I think it needs some time to settle into a pattern.

But also remember Apple being both the hardware and software manufacturer knows exactly what’s going on inside there and can work accordingly. Any third party tool sitting on top is either guessing or just using a static pattern which also isn’t necessarily good.

I’ll check my 2-ish year old Intel a bit later to compare battery capacity and such. Although it hasn’t been a daily driver so won’t really be optimised now.

The tech has worked magic on the iPhone so I trust it happily on the MacBook.
 
prOd said:
Here is one that I recently discovered: When you take a screenshot (CMD+Shift+4) you can draw something that resembles an arrow on the screenshot and the tool will automatically covert it to an actual arrow shape:


View attachment 1073657

Actually really useful to me as I often have to send people emails with little screenshots attached in them
Click to expand...

Annoyingly you can’t just copy and paste out of the screenshot tool like on iOS, but have to save and then to look for the file.

Stupid oversight in basic workflow and convenience.
 
Bryn said:
Because science? You can leave a device off and the battery slowly goes down.
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You need to leave it a really really long ass time before it’s of any meaningful difference.

Besides rather let it run down than constantly boosting it using up more cycles.

The only time it’s really in any danger is being run dead and then left like that for an extended period.
 
Speedster said:
Lithium batteries self-discharge at something like 1% per month.
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Thanks for the replies guys. I feel much better about this now. Been feeling like maybe I should have just bought the Mac Mini if I'm going to be a desktop user nearly all the time. Glad to know it doesn't much matter.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Annoyingly you can’t just copy and paste out of the screenshot tool like on iOS, but have to save and then to look for the file.

Stupid oversight in basic workflow and convenience.
Click to expand...

Hmm copy/paste from SS tool seems to work fine for me?
 
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