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4 Best MacBooks for law students in 2025

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:37 pm EAT by Kevin Hollington

Here are the best Apple laptops for law students

Unlike laptop for IT students, the best laptop for law students isn’t necessarily the most expensive or the most technologically advanced. The best MacBook for law school will vary depending on how much time is spent lugging the laptop around campus, and how long it needs to go on a single charge. Other important factors to consider include screen size, and the types of ports and inputs it offers. We won’t ignore value either as some of Apple’s laptops can get expensive and unfortunately, none of them will pay your tuition for you.

With the transition to Apple Silicon now complete for Apple’s MacBook lineup the MacBook Air and MacBook Pros are all outstanding when it comes to performance and battery life with either M1 or M2 chipsets inside. The major differences come in the design and the top-end performance, which will only matter to a handful of law students who want extra power.

How did we choose the best MacBooks for law students?

To choose among the best MacBooks for law students, we started with extensive personal experience: All the MacBooks here have been road-tested and reviewed in some way. Then, we added in-depth research by cross-referencing third-party reviews with specs sheets, first-party benchmarks and user experiences. Rest assured, we know the ins and outs of all these machines, so you can choose the perfect one for you.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the best Macbooks for law students and find the most suitable for you.

1. MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

The best MacBook for most law students

Specifications

CPU: M1 GPU: M1 (integrated) RAM: 8GB/16GB sSize: 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches Display: 13.3 inches, 2560 x 1600 pixel Weight: 2.8 pounds Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB

Why it’s the best MacBook for law students

The MacBook Air M1 remains the best MacBook for most law students. For the majority of students the upgrades found in the more recent Air aren’t necessary and the M1 maintains that sub-$1,000 starting price with discounts bringing it to $899 or less.

The performance still outclasses every comparably priced thin-and-light Windows laptop and it manages to deliver 14 hours and 41 minutes of battery life in our testing. For any typical computing tasks, the MacBook Air M1 is more than equal to the challenge and will outlast its successor on a single charge.

So why buy the MacBook Air instead of the Pro? While the Pro has better-sustained performance, the MacBook Air is cheaper and is pin-drop silent because it doesn’t have a fan. And, of course, Apple’s least expensive 13.3-inch model is the most portable, coming in at only 0.6 inches thick and 2.8 pounds.

As long as you don’t mind the older design, the MacBook Air M1 remains one of the best laptop deals even when it’s not discounted and should draw strong consideration from any law student considering a new MacBook.

Pros

Breathtaking performance
Excellent battery life
Slim unibody aluminum chassis
Great speakers and Magic keyboard

Cons

Limited ports

2. MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

The best MacBook for law students who want the latest hardware

Specifications

CPU: M2 GPU: M2 (Integrated) RAM: 8GB/16GB/24GB Size: 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches Display: 13.6-inches, 2560 x 1600 pixels Weight: 2.7 pounds Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB

Why it’s the best MacBook for law students

While most law students will be happy with the MacBook Air M1, there’s no denying the appeal of the new design and chip inside the Air M2. The notch in the display takes a minute to get used to, but the rest of the changes are welcome with the addition of MagSafe charging freeing up those two Thunderbolt 4 ports for other purposes.

The M2 offers you a reasonable performance bump, bringing it roughly on par with the M1 Pro and it still delivered 14 hours and 6 minutes in our battery life test. The fact that it does all this while staying whisper quiet and cool without fans remains astounding.

The list of upgrades also includes a brighter display, a quad-speaker array and a new 1080p webcam. That first will be particularly welcome to law students that are using the Air M2 in lecture halls, coffee shops or a corner of the library with less than optimal lighting conditions.

The biggest consideration with the Air M2 is the price if you need to upgrade much from the $1,199 base model. As I mentioned, the Air M1 is Apple’s trick for keeping the $999 price point, so you are paying a premium for the M2 model. If you find yourself cresting the $1,499 mark for your configuration then you may want to consider the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, which can regularly be found for $1,799.

Pros

Elegant redesign
Great performance
Bright, colorful display
Comfortable keyboard
Amazing battery life

Cons

SSD somewhat slower than M1 Air

3. MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)

The best MacBook for law students who want more power

Specifications

CPU: Apple M1 Pro/Apple M1 Max GPU: Apple M1 Pro (Integrated) RAM: 16GB/32GB/64GB Size: 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches Display: 16-inch, 3072 x 1920-resolution Weight: 4.3 pounds Storage: 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8GB

Why it’s the best MacBook for law students

The MacBook Pro 14 combines a little bit of old with a whole lot of new for a tantalizing product that MacBook fans were waiting years for. The performance is going to be more than the law student needs, but for those who want powerful machine, this is the right choice for you.

The MacBook Pro 14 is lightweight and sleek while still offering a full HDMI and an SDXC card reader. And the M1 Pro or M1 Max chips can handily defeat most of the Intel and AMD competition. Add to this the more than 14 hours of battery life, quick charging, a gorgeous display, a robust quad-speaker array and it’s easy to see how this laptop will win over a lot of law students.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop? It’s the price. While you can now find the base model for around $1,799, for well-specced models you will quickly cross $2,500 and can land north of $3,000 in a hurry for M1 Max configurations. Ultimately it’s a worthwhile investment for law students that need this level of performance, but at least consider your options carefully before the price creeps up on you.

If you are willing to spend even more you can opt for the larger-screened 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2,499 With the exception of the display size and the battery, there is no difference in the hardware options between the two. If battery life is your biggest concern the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro will outlast anything in its class with remotely similar performance. For those that need every last bit of processing power they can get their hands on the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max is basically unbeatable right now.

Pros

Sleek, beautiful design
A ton of ports
Outstanding performance
Stellar battery life
Stunning screen

Cons

Expensive entry point
No USB-A port

4. MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)

The best MacBook for law students who need endless battery-life

Specifications

CPU: Apple M2 (8-core) GPU: Apple M2 GPU (10-core)RAM: 8GB/16GB/24GB sSize: 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches Display: 13.3 inches, 2560 x 1600 pixel Weight: 3.1 pounds Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB

Why it’s the best MacBook for law students

The MacBook Pro M2 is an excellent laptop that is a bit overshadowed by its siblings. The internal upgrade with the M2 gave it a more significant performance boost than many expected, which keeps it well ahead of the Windows 11 competition at this price point and well beyond.

The design, while admittedly a bit dated, it’s hard to get too mad at the classic look. While the redesigned Air and larger MacBook Pros may look sleeker, you could have the last laugh when their owners are looking for an outlet to charge while you have hours to go as the Pro lasted for an almost unbelievable 18 hours and 20 minutes on our battery test. That was enough to land it atop our list of laptops with the best battery life, a feature that is sure to come in handy at some point in your law career.

The M2 does more than improve speeds and endurance. With a yet again improved image processing unit, the webcam (sadly, still 720p) is better than before and since it runs on Apple’s ARM-based architecture, iPad and iPhone apps are available on Mac. Yep, you can run all your favorite iOS games and apps on your laptop.

Everything else about the MacBook Pro should feel familiar. This is the same design Apple has used for years and the Magic Keyboard is a pleasure to type on (and reliable, too!). We’re disappointed to see the TouchBar back, but it does have its fans and the notch-less screen will absolutely be a welcome sight for some buyers.

Pros

Stellar overall and gaming performance
Excellent battery life
Lightning-fast SSD
Great webcam
Comfortable keyboard

Cons

Stagnant design
Limited ports

Tag: Mac Products

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6 Best MacBooks for Information Technology Students in 2025

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:56 pm EAT by Dave Johnson

These are the best MacBooks for IT students you can buy right now.

If you’re an Information Technology student (or will soon become one!), it’s vital to remember that not all MacBooks are created equal. While having the best laptop or tablet of some description has become a practical necessity for every student worldwide, many learners can get by on a cheap, low-powered MacBook capable of word processing and web browsing. If you’re in a IT field, that likely isn’t the case.

Just like MacBooks for computer science students, the best MacBooks for Information Technology students should be powerful enough to handle the computationally intensive coursework that such studies require, while still being light and efficient enough to carry through a day of classes without running out of juice on you mid-lecture.

Fortunately, we’ve tested many student MacBooks over the years, so we know which will suit different disciplines without breaking the bank. We gathered the best MacBooks for Information Technology students here; some are great value, while some cost a bit more but tout a powerful graphics card.

What makes a MacBook for Information Technology students special?

A MacBook great for IT students has a few areas that need to be a focus that might not matter as much for a MacBook designed for journalism or business students, for example.

IT students’ MacBooks must operate high-powered applications in many windows. This could be a CAD window, a large mapping service, and a large Excel sheet, all open and running simultaneously.

Because of this, the demand for high-end graphics cards, powerful processors, and increased RAM are higher than in the average MacBook. Where most MacBooks focus on a lightweight frame, long battery life or other specifications, these MacBooks need to be able to perform advanced operations with ease even if it means that they don’t have all day battery life.

How did we choose the best MacBooks for Information Technology students?

To choose among the best MacBooks for.IT students, we started with extensive personal experience: All the MacBooks here have been road-tested and reviewed in some way. Then, we added in-depth research by cross-referencing third-party reviews with specs sheets, first-party benchmarks and user experiences. Rest assured, we know the ins and outs of all these machines, so you can choose the perfect one for you.

1. Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Specifications

Why it’s The Best MacBook For IT Students

The Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) isn’t just one of the best MacBookss Apple has ever made, it’s one of the best MacBooks for IT students. While it might not pack a powerful AI-assisted GPU, Apple’s own silicon represents serious competition in the lightweight laptop space.

Thanks to the revolutionary ARM-based Apple M2 chip – an update from the previous M1 chip – that powers the new MacBook Air, this is a stunning achievement: a thin and light laptop that offers great performance while also offering incredible battery life. During our time with the MacBook Air, the laptop performed incredibly well, whether we were playing around with GarageBand or editing 4K home movies in iMovie.

Easily managing over 11 hours on a single charge, this is a laptop efficient enough to carry through a day of classes without running out of juice on you mid-lecture. Its screen is gorgeous, and the new-and-improved keyboard means you can happily carry out IT tasks for hours.

Pros:

11-hour battery life
Lightweight for carrying
Silent to use

Cons:

Hardware refresh rather than new design

2. MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Specifications

Why it’s The Best MacBook For IT Students

The M2 model might now top our list, but the M1 MacBook Air is still a force to be reckoned with – and it’s better value than the newer model now, too. Switching over from Intel processors to Apple’s own silicon was a bold move that paid off, providing snappy performance and excellent battery life too.

Apple’s best IT student MacBook takes everything that made the M1 model such an improvement over the Intel models up a notch. Performance is snappy even when we used it to do some 4K video editing, although the gorgeous screen is just a little bit smaller at 13.3 inches – as well as 100 nits dimmer – than the upgraded 13.6-inch display of the newer M2 model. It’s also a little heavier, but still undeniably an impressively thin and lightweight laptop given the performance on offer.

Though the M2 Air beats it for weight and size, it is still an exceptionally thin and light machine. With its ideal size and weight, you can quickly bring M1 MacBook Air to the lecture hall, library, practice office, or anywhere you want.

As a fun bonus, this MacBook Air actually has a wider range of color options than its newer M2 sibling. For the IT students who want a MacBook but can’t quite spring for the high price of the 2022 Air, this laptop will serve them well, potentially even beyond college.

Pros:

Great price
Fast and effective
Thin and lightweight

Cons:

Only two USB-C ports
Below-par webcam quality

3. Apple MacBook Pro 2021 (16-inch)

Specifications

Why it’s The Best MacBook For IT Students

Studying IT, you will often have to deal with algorithms and complex software. To work at the highest level, your laptop needs to have a powerful enough processor. 16-inch MacBook Pro is such a laptop model.

The 16-inch MacBook is a beast thanks to the M1 Max chip, which pushes graphics performance on the Mac to a whole new level. On top of that, its amazing redesign helps improve its display (everyone will get over the notch, trust us), with thinner bezels than ever. That screen, too, is better than ever, with mini-LED technology and improved picture quality thanks to fantastic contrast and a 120Hz refresh rate for excellent smoothness.

And that’s just the start of the story. The 2021 MacBook Pros see a realignment on ports for MacBooks, moving back from the “USB-C or bust” situation of the past 5 years. Now, you’ve got HDMI-out for connecting to displays and an SD memory reader for pros with real cameras. Apple’s basically put the “pro” back in MacBook Pro. Oh, and that Touch Bar? The little OLED strip of a touch screen? It’s been ripped out, likely because it never got to the point where the simple physical function keys (F1-F12) would be better.

Pros:

Stunning display
Outstanding performance
Apple’s design at its best

Cons:

Pricey
No Touch Bar

4. Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch With M2 Processor

Specifications

Why it’s The Best MacBook For IT Students

Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch With M2 Processor is one of the few MacBooks that can help you handle the heaviest tasks, including multitasking.

This 2022 laptop is identical to 2021 13-inch MacBook Pro, so the design, though good, is no longer cutting-edge. It’s identical save for one important feature: The processor. It has a more powerful version of the M2 chip than the one that comes as standard in the new MacBook Air (it has a GPU with 10 cores, where the default Air M2 has seven cores), which improves the performance. Like the other Pro models, a cooling fan means it can run at pace and for longer than the Air.
It is the only MacBook with the Touch Bar, which is a controversial addition for some, but also has many admirers. Essentially, it replaces the row of function keys with a thin touchscreen, whose functions change according to context: Email address suggestions in Mail, previous web pages in Safari and so on. It’s a very effective system but not very widely supported by developers.
Like the Air (old and new), there are two USB-C ports but, this being the older design, there’s no MagSafe on board. Audio sounds good here thanks to a combination of upward-facing grill speakers and Spatial Audio compatibility. The display is not as good as the other Pro laptops but a deal-breaker for some is that there’s no cut-out at the top to house the webcam which sits in the wider bezel. That’s a 720p model, by the way, so not the best.

Pros:

Searingly fast performance
Long battery life
No notch in display

Cons:

Pricier than the Air
Older design
No MagSafe

5. Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch

Specifications

Why it’s The Best MacBook For IT Students

The workload that a IT student needs to handle can’t be challenging for the Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch.

If you don’t need the extra real estate of the 16-inch Pro or simply can’t run to the price of that machine, this is an excellent MacBook for IT student. It has the same outstanding high-contrast, super-bright display as its bigger sibling. The miniLED backlighting makes watching a movie a joy, and the speakers ensure it sounds good too. On the other hand, the 14.2-inch size makes this laptop that bit more manageable. It also has the customization options that only this and the bigger Pro do: Storage up to 8TB and RAM up to 64GB.
Performance matches that of the 16-incher, which features the most potent Apple-built chips yet in a MacBook. Choose from the fast M1 Pro and even faster M1 Max. Oh, and it has MagSafe (including an attractive braided cable), plus three USB-C connectors, an HDMI port and an SDXC card slot. Those last two are exclusive to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Battery life here is up to 17 hours—way more than the M1 MacBook Air’s 12 hours but shorter than the others in the range. And, of course, there’s that handsome new look with a bigger Apple logo on the lid and the words “MacBook Pro” stenciled on the base.

Pros:

Blazing speed
Latest design
MagSafe

Cons:

Notch in display
Battery life not Apple’s best

6. MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020)

SPECIFICATIONS

CPU: Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU Graphics: Integrated 8-core GPU RAM: 8GB – 16GB unified memory Display: 13.3-inch 2560 x 1600 LED-backlit Retina display Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD

Why it’s the best MacBook for IT students

Don’t knock off the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020)’s integrated graphics card. It might not be a discrete GPU, but it sure beats budget and lower mid-range mobile GPUs in graphical prowess and obliterates Intel’s UHD integrated graphics. Thanks to Apple’s groundbreaking M1 chip, the new MacBook Pro 13-inch delivers excellent performance and exceptional battery life.

Its performance is so impressive that it can easily handle coding tasks which is great news for IT students. And it’s not just a little bump in power over the model it replaced; when we tested it, it blew its Intel-based predecessor out of the water with an almost 70% increase in multi-core tests. It also lasted five hours longer in our battery tests as well.

But performance isn’t everything. It’s also a comfortable laptop to use; its keyboard is great, something that needed correcting in older models of the MacBook Pro. Like most of the smaller MacBook Pros, it’s extremely portable. So, if you’re looking for a powerful laptop that keeps things small and lightweight, this is the best information technology student MacBook money can buy.

Pros:

Great performance
Impressively long battery life
Magic Keyboard feels great

Cons:

Design remains the same
Limited port selection

How we test the best MacBookss for IT students

To find the best MacBook for IT student we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use.

We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop’s display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 (CPU performance), as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine’s hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.

Plus, we run the graphics benchmark test in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm to get a sense of how well a laptop can handle basic games.

Tag: Mac Products

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30+ Best Apple HomePod 2nd Generation tips and tricks (2025)

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:48 pm EAT by Kevin Hollington

Here are the best HomePod (2nd generation) tips and tricks to help you make the most of your smart speaker.

Apple is taking another crack at smart speakers with the HomePod 2 (a.k.a the HomePod 2nd generation). This updated version of the original, which was discontinued in 2021, looks mostly the same on the outside, but has some features, tricks and hacks that you need to know about.

HomePod is packed with Apple innovations, Siri intelligence, and smart home capabilities, while delivering a truly groundbreaking listening experience.

Your HomePod (2nd generation) can really do it all. Whether you want to read messages, read news, stream music, or control your smart home — your HomePod (2nd generation) has you covered. With all of these neat tricks and the list of Siri commands ever-growing, it can be easy to overlook the basic — yet useful — things your Apple smart speaker can do for you. If you’re one of the many to have picked up an HomePod (2nd generation), but don’t know if you’re making the most of its functionality, or you’re simply wondering what to ask Siri next, here’s everything you’ll want to try.

31 Tips and Tricks to get the most out of your HomePod 2

Here’s a list of the best HomePod 2 tips and tricks that will help you get the most from Apple’s new smart speaker. Have fun!

1. Pair Two HomePod (2nd generation) for Stereo Sound

There’s no doubt the new HomePod sounds great and is better than the vast majority of smart speakers. This time around, it has a cleaner, purer sound, with deft handling throughout, no matter what you play and the vocals are crystal clear.

Stereo pairing of two HomePods, however, lifts the audio from great to stunning, with room-filling sound that is just amazing. Of course, you’re talking about an investment of almost $600. On the other hand, two HomePods give the benefit of stereo separation.

Setting this up is fairly straightforward, just make sure the two HomePods are in the same room in the Home app, then tap on one of the HomePods and scroll down until you see ”Create Stereo Pair’. The app will then walk you through the rest of the setup. Note that you’ll get the Stereo Pair option automatically if you add a new HomePod to the same room as an existing one. Please also note, you can only pair two original HomePods or two ‌‌HomePod (2nd Generation)as stereo speakers. It’s also worth bearing in mind that when two ‌HomePod speakers are joined, only one responds to Siri requests, plays alarms, and acts as a speakerphone.

2. Send and read messages through HomePod (2nd generation)

Beyond music controls, there is a cool HomePod 2 trick that lets you send, read, and reply to text messages. Try saying, “Hey Siri, send a message to [contact name]” or “Hey Siri, send a message to [phone number].” Don’t worry; Siri will read back the message so you can make sure it heard you correctly before sending.

You can even have Siri on new HomePod read your latest text messages to you, but you’ll need to have set up Siri to handle Personal Requests. Head into the Home app, go into the settings for the home in which the HomePod lives. Tap on the icon with your name on it under People then select Personal Requests at the bottom. You’ll be able to ask Siri things like, ”Read the latest message from Monica”.

Note that below it there’s a second option for adding authentication. You can switch this on to stop other people sending messages and causing other havoc with your account.

3. Make calls on HomePod with Siri

This HomePod (2nd generation) trick lets you ask Siri to make and take calls on the speaker. First you’ll need to enable Personal Requests. Go to your HomePod settings and scroll down, you’ll find Personal Requests under Siri. Switch it on.

To make a call with HomePod (2nd generation), just say, “Hey Siri, call [contact name]” or “Hey Siri, call [phone number].” Your iPhone will handle the call using your regular number while routing audio through the HomePod (2nd generation).

You can also transfer calls in-progress from your phone to the HomePod and back. Just open the call menu from your iPhone, press the “audio” button, and select your HomePod from the source list.

When you’re finished with a call, say, “Hey Siri, hang up,” double-tap the top of the HomePod, or just hang up from your phone.

One more phone-related HomePod (2nd generation) trick: If you miss a call and your phone isn’t in reach, try saying, “Hey Siri, who just called me?” Siri will read out your most recent caller and offer to call them back.

4. Use Siri as a HomePod translator

Wondering how to say something in another language? Wonder no more – Siri can translate English to French, German, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin.

Simply ask, ”Hey Siri, how do you say [word] in [language]?” to expand your vocabulary.

5. Change Siri’s voice on your HomePod (2nd generation)

You already know you can change Siri’s voice on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. So it stands to reason that you can make Siri sound different on HomePod, too. You have similar voice options on HomePod, but you find the settings in a different place.

If you want to give Siri on HomePod a man’s voice or a British accent, here’s what you do:

Open the Home app and look for your HomePod
Tap Settings at the bottom of the screen.
Scroll down to the Siri section. Here you’ll find Siri’s Language and the Siri Voice menu.
Tap Siri Voice and choose the accent and gender you wish to use.

6. Grow your music trivia knowledge

Siri’s musicologist skills aren’t limited to skipping tracks, rewinding and fast forwarding. Apple’s digital assistant is quite the music buff – it’s got all the knowledge (well, it’s got a direct link to Wikipedia, at least).

While listening to a song, you can ask things like, “Hey Siri, who plays the drums in this band?”… “What year was this album released?”… “Tell me something about this artist” and so on. Every day is a school day with Siri.

7. Automate your smart home with Siri

Siri can control your HomeKit enabled kit from your HomePod (2nd generation), that’s a given. But a much more natural, and cool, way of getting Siri working harder in your smart home is to create scenes that it can control.

For example, set up a bedtime routine in which Siri turns off all the lights, activates the alarm and locks the front door – where a simple, “Hey Siri, it’s bedtime,” gets the scene started. Any scenes created in the Home app can be activated using Siri on your new HomePod.

8. Control your HomePod with your iPhone instead of Siri

One of the big selling points of HomePod (2nd generation) is obviously voice control for music playback, however, not everyone likes to call out, “Hey Siri” when listening to music or podcasts on a speaker. Maybe you don’t want to have to ask Siri every time you want to know the name of the song your listening to, or maybe you feel silly asking Siri to turn up the volume. You can control playback of HomePod audio (even if you’re not AirPlaying from another device) from your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how.

From within the iOS Music app, choose the song you want, click the AirPlay logo and choose your HomePod. Or, from the lock screen, you’ll see the Music widget – again, just tap that AirPlay icon and do the same as above.

Finally, from the Control Center, either long-press or 3D Touch the music tile and you’ll get a screen with all your current music playbacks on your Apple devices. Again, just hit the AirPlay button to transfer a song over to your HomePod, or choose the HomePod section if something is already streaming on your smart speaker.

Remember, with AirPlay 2 you can pair two HomePods together easily from the AirPlay menu or even pair the HomePod with another AirPlay 2-supporting speaker.

9. Use HomePod (2nd generation) as a TV speaker

TV speakers are crap – that’s a fact. And while a HomePod (2nd generation) isn’t necessarily designed to be a TV speaker, it does a pretty good job of room-filling sound for your movies and TV shows.

Until now this has only been available with the Apple TV, but with AirPlay 2 landing on TVs from the likes of Samsung, LG, Vizio and Sony – the new HomePod can be paired with third-party sets.

When watching something from your Apple TV, you can hold down the play/pause button on the Apple TV remote and choose the HomePod option. If you want it to be the default speaker permanently, go to your Apple TV settings, select the Video and Audio section, choose Audio Output and pick your HomePod.

It gets even better when using the Apple TV 4K though – As part of Apple’s new ‘Home Theater with Apple 4K’ the first-gen HomePod can be used to form an immersive surround sound experience, with virtual 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos all on offer.

The caveat here is you only get that surround sound action when you’re watching stuff via your Apple TV 4K; you can’t just plug your HomePod directly into your TV and get Atmos action on everything.

However, with Apple TV now supporting pretty much all the major streaming services – Netflix, Prime, HBO, Disney , Hulu and more – it’s a pretty compelling argument to make that single HDMI input switch for your AV setup.

10. Get the headlines from your HomePod (2nd generation)

Siri can also read news headlines to you from several sources, including CNN, NPR, or the BBC. Simply say, “Hey, Siri, what’s the news today?” for a personal broadcast. If you want sports, just ask Siri, ”what’s the sports news?” instead.

11. Get help with your spelling from Siri

Can’t remember how to spell a word? No problem. Siri, Apple’s personal digital assistant, can help. To ask for help on your new HomePod, simply say, ”Hey Siri, how do you spell [word]?” and your smart speaker will tell you what’s what.

12. Find your iPhone using HomePod

Misplaced your iPhone in the morning rush? Your HomePod (2nd generation) can help you find it. Just say, “Hey, Siri, where’s my iPhone?” Siri will then say, “Should I try to make it play a sound?” Say yes, and you’ll hear a ping from your phone if it’s nearby.

13. Check temperature and humidity

There’s a new sensor in the second-gen HomePod that measures temperature and humidity. This means it can now work with compatible devices so, for instance, close your smart blinds when the temperature reaches a certain level. Improved smart capabilities come from compatibility with Thread, which lets devices talk to each other even if wi-fi isn’t available.

The easiest way to check the temperature and humidity information being collected by the new HomePod is simple—just ask Siri. You can say “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature” or “Hey Siri, what’s the humidity.”

Apple’s virtual assistant will then tell you the most up-to-date reading.

Smart home users can also find the data in the Home app. Open up the app and select the three dots surrounded by a circle in the top-left side of the app. Then you’ll select the room where the speaker is located.

At the top of the page, under the name of the room should be a temperature and humidity reading. To confirm it is from the new HomePod, tap the reading and see more information including the speaker’s name.

Finally, you can also choose the speaker in the room view and scroll down to the bottom of its information page. Select the Settings icon on the bottom right part of the page. Choose Accessories to see the temperature and humidity.

14. Factory reset your Apple HomePod (2nd generation)

Whether you are looking to sell your HomePod (2nd generation) or give it away, you should reset it to factory settings first. This will delete all your personal information and data linked to the device. Resetting your HomePod (2nd generation) can also fix most issues you are having with your device, such as WiFi connectivity problems.

You’ve got two methods for resetting your HomePod (2nd generation). Firstly, on the Home app, press and hold the HomePod tile, tap ’Details’, scroll to the bottom and select ’Remove Accessory’.

To reset your HomePod (2nd generation) without a Mac or iOS device, unplug it and wait 10 seconds. Then plug it back in and wait for 5 seconds. Next, press and hold the middle button on top of the device until you hear three beeps. Finally, let go when Siri tells you that your device is about to reset. You will know your HomePod has been reset when you hear it sound a chime.

15. Add a song to a Apple Music playlist

When you’re listening to Apple Music or Beats Radio you can simply say, ”Hey Siri, add this song to [name of playlist]” and it’ll be added on to the end of that playlist.

16. Turn on a HomePod (2nd generation) Siri tone

The Siri waveform animation is a visual indicator that Siri is listening to you and working to answer your questions or commands. The sound tone is an audio indicator that Siri has heard you. If you have your HomePod on a shelf above your eye level, the chances are you’ll struggle to notice that Siri has heard you. If that’s the case, the Siri tone may be useful.

To turn it on, head into the HomePod’s settings menu within the Home app on your iPhone and check the Sound When Using Siri option.

17. Stream sound from Mac to HomePod

The Spotify app itself doesn’t list AirPlay speakers in the devices list, and the Mac AirPlay option in the menu bar only lists Apple TVs. But you can play any sound from your Mac – Spotify and more – over AirPlay to your HomePod. Dive into your System Preferences. From there, choose Sound and select your HomePod as the device for sound output.

18. Control Your Smart Home

You can also use HomePod as a smart-home hub for Apple HomeKit devices. In fact, when you first set up your HomePod, it automatically becomes a hub for your home. From there, you can use voice commands to control all sorts of HomeKit-enabled devices.

To take control of your hub, launch the Home app, and then tap the “house” icon in the top-left corner. Here, you can invite people to your hub, so they can also control your smart home. This is great for family members and guests, but be careful to whom you give access.

You can also change the “Allow Speaker and TV Access” setting to lock down your HomePod in case of abuse. If you choose “Everyone,” anyone in your home (regardless of whether they’re on the same Wi-Fi network) can control it.

The “Allow Speaker and TV Access” menu in the Home app for iOS.

If you limit the setting to “Only People Sharing This Home,” you’ll need to manually add people to your Home hub before they can use the HomePod on their own devices.

19. Enable VoiceOver on HomePod (2nd generation)

VoiceOver has long been a fine gesture-based screen reader. With this Accessibility feature, you can hear the description of what is currently going on on the device’s screen. What could be music to the ears of the blind and sight impaired is that they can enable and use VoiceOver on Apple’s smart speaker, HomePod as well?

To enable it, head into the HomePod settings, scroll down to Accessibility and select VoiceOver.

20. Reset the HomePod’s Sound Calibration

The HomePod (2nd generation) can calibrate itself to sound its best, given the current conditions. This happens every time the HomePod is moved, so if you want to force a manual recalibration, simply pick up the speaker and put it down again.

21. Share your HomeKit access for HomePod

Having a HomePod is well and good, but you might want to make sure that other people in your home can take advantage of it, too.

If you’re using your HomePod as a smart home hub, you can also add other users in your ‘Home’ app, allowing them to control the smart speaker and all its paired devices just like you might. You’ll practically feel the responsibility slipping off your shoulders.

22. Prevent other HomePod users from affecting your Apple Music recommendations

If you’re concerned that other people in your household will skew your Apple Music recommendations by using HomePod to play songs that don’t align with your tastes, then there’s a setting you’ll want to disable as soon as possible. It’s called “Use Listening History”, and here’s how to find it.

Launch the Home app and long-press your HomePod. Tap the Settings button, and then tap the “Update Listening History” option to turn it off.

If it’s too late and your recommendations have already been impacted, launch Music on your iPhone. Next, long-press any artists, albums, or songs you don’t like, and then tap “Suggest Less Like This” from the context menu.

23. Tell Siri what you like, and what you don’t

When a song’s playing, let Siri know if it’s something you like and Siri will recommend more stuff like it in the future. Just say “Hey Siri, I like this,” when it plays something you’re into, or “Hey Siri, I don’t like this band,” if it ever plays something you don’t like. Siri will take your taste into account and adjust what music it plays for you based on your likes and dislikes.

24. Set up multiple users

The HomePod (2nd generation) can now recognize individual voices from up to six users, so you always get your own information – like calendars and playlists – when interacting with it.

You should actually get a prompt to set this up automatically, provided you’ve met certain criteria that Apple has set out here (updating your iPhone to the latest iOS, having Bluetooth and “Hey Siri” turned on, and so on).

To customize how your HomePod interacts with your personally, head to the Home app on your phone, and tap the Home icon, Home Settings, then your home setup and your user profile under People.

25. Rename your HomePod (2nd generation)

You can customize settings for an individual HomePod (2nd generation), including changing its name from the default “HomePod” to something more descriptive, by using the Home app on your iPhone.

To rename your HomePod (2nd generation) – just long press on the device in the Home app, then tap on Settings, then tap on the current title.

26. Understanding HomePod (2nd generation) touch gestures

Along with Siri voice control, you can use gestures to control your smart speaker.

If your HomePod is in reach you can use tap gestures to control it, too. HomePod supports tap and touch for Siri and music playback. Single tap to Play/Pause, double-tap to skip to the next Track, triple-tap to jump to the previous Track, touch and hold to activate Siri, tap or hold the plus symbol to increase the volume, tap or hold the minus symbol to lower the volume.

27. Find songs by their lyrics

Have you recently found yourself singing some song lyrics only to discover that you’re unable to remember the actual name of the song they belong to? With Siri on your HomePod (2nd generation), you can quickly search the entire ‌Apple Music‌ catalog using just a short lyric phrase, allowing you to find the song in question and add it to your library or your favorite playlist for safekeeping.

Say ”Hey Siri, what’s that song that goes…” followed by a line or two to get a match – you can then ask to hear the song straight away as well, if you like.

28. Use your HomePods in multiple rooms

If you have multiple HomePods, you can move with your music or podcast from room to room, play the same music on all speakers and generally control audio in multiple places with ease. Multiple HomePods let different members of your household enjoy different music on different devices.

Go to Control Center on your phone and long press on the music playing tile, and you’re able to configure the multiple room setup further.

29. Play Ambient Sounds on HomePod (2nd generation)

To start streaming one of the sounds on your ‌HomePod‌, simply ask Siri.

“Hey Siri, play white noise sounds”
“Hey Siri, play rain sounds.””
“Hey Siri, play fireplace sounds.”
“Hey Siri, play forest sounds.”
“Hey Siri, play night sounds.”
“Hey Siri, play stream sounds.”

You can also get ‌HomePod‌ to play a random ambient sound by saying ”Hey Siri, play sounds.”

30. Update HomePod (2nd generation)

First things first, make sure to update iOS on your iPhone. Updates for the HomePod (2nd generation) depend on the most recent version of iOS on your iPhone.

Open the Home app and tap the Home tab at the bottom. If a software update is available, you’ll see this at the top of the Home screen. Tap Update Available.

Alternatively, tap the Home icon on the top left. You can do this from either the Home or Rooms tab at the bottom. Choose Home Settings.

Scroll down and select Software Update.

If you have more than one HomePod, you can view which will receive the update by tapping More. All HomePods in the list will receive the update at the same time.

Tap either Update All next to Update Available or Update next to the HomePod at the bottom and follow the onscreen instructions.

31. Turn off Hey Siri on HomePod (2nd generation)

There’s isn’t a physical button on the HomePod to turn off Siri like the Echo, Sonos One, and Google Home, but you can still turn off the function if you are worried about Siri listening in on your conversation. To turn Siri off on the HomePod you have to do it via the Home app on your iPhone.

Go to the Home app
Select HomePod speaker in Favourite Accessories
Long press on HomePod icon
Tap Details
Scroll down to Siri
Toggle Listen for "Hey Siri"

Tag: HomePod

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7 Apple Watch features that will Help Your Heart Health

Monday February 6, 2023 1:08 am EAT by Dave Johnson

We explain 7 valuable ways you can check and improve heart health with Apple Watch.

Whether you own an Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, or the second-gen Apple Watch SE, you should be able to find some useful features to check and improve your heart health in this guide.

Check and improve heart health with Apple Watch: 7 features

1. High and low heart rate notifications

If you’d like an alert when your heart rate dips below or rises above a certain threshold and remains there for 10 minutes while inactive, this feature is available for those 13 years old and up.
If you didn’t turn it on the first time opening the Heart Rate app or want to change it:

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app.
Tap the My Watch tab, then tap Heart.
Tap High Heart Rate, then select a BPM.
Tap Low Heart Rate, then select a BPM.

2. Irregular heart rhythm notifications

The irregular rhythm notification feature on your Apple Watch will occasionally look at your heartbeat to check for an irregular rhythm that might be suggestive of atrial fibrillation (AFib).

If you get a notification, the irregular rhythm notification feature on your Apple Watch identified an irregular rhythm suggestive of AFib and confirmed it with multiple readings. If you have not been diagnosed with AFib by a physician, you should talk to your doctor.

To make sure this feature is set up, follow the steps below:

On your iPhone, open the Health app.
Tap the Browse tab, then head over to Heart > Irregular Rhythm Notifications.
Once enabled, you can turn irregular rhythm notifications on or off in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone: Open the Apple Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, then go to Heart > Irregular Rhythm.

3. ECG and AFib History

Apple Watch Series 4 and newer offers an electrical heart rate sensor that, along with the ECG app , allows you to take an electrocardiogram (or ECG).

ECGs are for Apple Watch users at least 22 years old. If you haven’t used it before or didn’t set it up when you first got your watch:

Open the Health app on your iPhone.
If you don’t see a prompt to set up, tap Browse located at the bottom right, tap Heart, then tap Electrocardiogram (ECG).
Open the ECG app on your Apple Watch.
Rest your arm on a table or in your lap.
With the hand opposite your watch, hold your finger on the Digital Crown, then wait while Apple Watch records the ECG.

At the end of the recording, you receive a classification. You can then tap Add Symptoms and choose your symptoms. Tap Save to note any symptoms, then tap Done.

To view your results on iPhone, open the Health app on iPhone, tap Browse located at the bottom right, then tap Heart > Electrocardiograms (ECG).

You can also set up the more recent AFib History feature – this regularly checks for signs of AFib in the background

Head back to the Health app on your iPhone
Go to Browse > Heart > look for Set Up near the bottom under AFib History

Apple highlights that after an ECG “Regardless of the result, if you aren’t feeling well or are experiencing any symptoms, you should talk to your doctor.”

4. Cardio Fitness

Here’s how Apple describes Cardio Fitness (VO2 max):

“Cardio fitness is a measurement of your VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can consume during exercise. Your cardio fitness level is a strong indicator of your overall physical health and a predictor of your long-term health.”

If you haven’t set it up before,

open the Health app on your iPhone.
Tap Summary and swipe down near the bottom and look for Cardio Fitness (under “Get More From Health” – you can also look under Browse > Heart > Cardio Fitness)
Choose the blue Set Up button
Follow the prompts like confirming your health details (must be at least 20 years old)
You can choose to turn Low Cardio Fitness Notifications

Now you’ll see cardio fitness show up under the Heart section in the Health app

5. Heart rate variability (HRV)

What is HRV? It’s the measurement of how the interval of time between heartbeats changes, measured in milliseconds – notably this is a metric that changes a lot, so looking at broad trends, not daily numbers is most helpful.

Heart Rate Variability is an important metric that many Apple Watch users often ignore. HRV can provide you with good guidance regarding your health.

For example, if you’re taking steps to improve your fitness and overall health, you should gradually increase your average heart rate variability over time.

A downward trend in your HRV over several days is worth paying attention to!

This could signify that you’re training too hard, not sleeping enough, getting sick, eating poorly, encountering too much stress, or failing to hydrate properly.

Higher HRV is associated with reduced morbidity and mortality and improved psychological well-being and quality of life.

The best place to locate heart rate variability information is by using the Health app on your iPhone.

The information is not readily available on your Apple Watch. Here’s how you can track the details around your Heart Rate Variability (HRV).How to Analyze HRV (Heart Rate Variability) on your Apple Watch

Open the Health App on your iPhone.
Tap on the Browse tab located at the bottom of your screen.
Now, tap on Heart and choose Heart Rate Variability.
This report shows your HRV for the current day, week, month, and year.

6. View your heart data history

Your heart rate is an important way to monitor how your body is doing. You can check your heart rate during a workout; see your resting, walking, workout, and post-workout heart rates, and your heart rate during a Breathe session; or take a new reading at any time.

On Apple Watch

Open the Heart Rate app on your Apple Watch. to see daily data (app with heart icon)
You’ll see your current heart rate, swipe or scroll down with the Digital Crown
Now you can see your resting rate, walking average, workout heart rate, and heart rate recovery data (if you’ve done a workout recently)

On iPhone

To see your heart rate data over a longer period of time, follow the steps below:

Open the Health app on your iPhone.
Tap on Browse.
Tap on Heart.
Tap an entry. You can show heart data for the last hour, day, week, month, or year.

7. Bonus features – Vascular Age and Blood Pressure

Compatible with Apple Health, the Withings Body Cardio smart scale offers a Vascular Age feature that measures the “speed at which the blood pressure pulse propagates through the circulatory system.”

With those measurements, the smart scale is able to determine your arterial stiffness and health with a comparison to the average of people in your age group.

Body Cardio also tracks weight, BMI, body composition (water, fat, bone, and muscle), heart rate tracking, and more.

And if you want a seamless way to measure and track your blood pressure with Apple Health, the Withings BPM Connect is a great option.

Valuable ways to check and improve heart health with Apple Watch

These are the best Apple Watch features that will help your heart health. Have you been using some or all of these features with your Apple Watch? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments section below!

Tag: Apple Watch Guides

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10 secret Apple Watch features you need to find!

Sunday February 5, 2023 9:58 pm EAT by GeeksModo Staff

There are a lot of Apple Watch secret features you probably didn’t know about.

If you own an Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, or the second-gen Apple Watch SE, you’re probably used to taking calls on it, monitor your health and exercise habits, as well as checking your notifications right on your wrist while your iPhone stays in your pocket.

But the truth is that your Apple Watch has a ton of hidden features that you are probably not aware of.

To make the most of owning an Apple Watch, you’ll need to know about a few secret features that will make interacting with the wearable easier.

Here are ten hidden Apple Watch features that’ll help your productivity at work and in your day-to-day life.

1. Mute notifications with ease

While the Apple Watch will give you the notifications you need to be aware of, it can also be annoying. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to mute notifications. Simply cover the Watch with the palm of your hand for three seconds.

To enable this hidden Apple Watch feature, follow the steps below:

open the Watch app on your iPhone.
Look for the Sounds & Haptics menu.
Toggle Cover to Mute to on.

2. Mute the Apple Watch completely

If you don’t want your wearable to make any sounds, use this nifty Apple Watch secret feature to mute it. There’s no physical button to mute the device like on the iPhone. Follow the steps below:

Touch and hold the bottom of the watch face. Wait for Control Center to show, then swipe up.
Tap the Silent Mode button. This turns on Silent Mode. You can still receive haptic notifications.

3. Hide notifications from others

If you don’t want others to be able to glance at your Apple Watch notifications and read the contents, you can enable a privacy feature from the iPhone’s Apple Watch app. Follow the steps below:

Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
Tap the Settings app.
tap the Notifications menu.
Enable Tap to Show Full Notification.

This secret Apple Watch feature ensures only you can read the contents of notifications. You’ll have to tap on a notification to see the text. Those around you will only see the notification’s app icon unless you tap it.

4. Cut the notification spam

Since all iPhone notifications will ping or vibrate on the Apple Watch, you’re potentially looking at an annoying experience. The good news is that you can use this Apple Watch secret feature to choose the apps that can send notifications to the wearable. Follow the steps below:

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Tap My Watch, then tap Notifications.
Select Mirror iPhone Alerts From list and enable only the apps you want to push notifications to the Apple Watch.

You can make sure that only critical notifications reach your Watch this way. All other notifications will be available on the iPhone.

5. Quickly launch the most recent Apple Watch app

The Apple Watch also runs watchOS apps. These are the counterparts of the apps you have installed on your iPhone. If you want to launch the most recent app quickly, simply double-tap on the Digital Crown to make it happen.

6. Turn off Bluetooth to speed up Apple Watch updates

The Apple Watch and iPhone pair via Bluetooth, and that’s how you update the wearable. To speed up the software update, you can disable Bluetooth on your iPhone, which should force the update over Wi-Fi. This should speed up the download, as Wi-Fi is much faster than Bluetooth.

7. Turn on the iPhone’s flashlight to find it

Have you ever misplaced your iPhone at home or think you’ve lost it? Chances are maybe it went under the couch, but how can you find out for sure? If you have an Apple Watch, then you can use it to ping your iPhone, instead of rushing over to your computer and iCloud.com.

I mean, you could use iCloud.com to ping your phone, but then your inbox will get hit with a flood of emails saying that a noise has been sent — annoying! Using your Apple Watch to find your iPhone is much easier.

Note: Your phone needs to be turned on and have Bluetooth enabled for this to work, and it will only ping the iPhone your Apple Watch is paired with; you can’t currently find other devices in this manner.

The Apple Watch’s Control Center has a Ping option to locate your missing iPhone. Tap it, and the iPhone will play a sound, which should help you retrieve it. Sometimes that submarine-style ping isn’t enough to help you track down your device. If you tap and hold the Find iPhone button on your Apple Watch, it’ll make your iPhone’s LED light flash as well as chime.

8. Reorder your Apple Watch faces

When you add a new watch face on Apple Watch, it is added to the end of your list. If you’d like to reorder watch faces to make them easier to swipe between on your Apple Watch, follow the steps below.

Open the Watch app on iPhone
Tap Edit to the right of My Faces
Press, hold, and drag the 3 lines to the right of watch faces to reorder
Tap Done when finished.

Now you can more quickly get to the watch faces you’d like by swiping from right to left on the edge of your Apple Watch.

You can also reorder the Apple Watch faces from the wearable’s screen. Tap and hold on one and then drag it around the display to place it in its proper place. Then swipe left or right on the screen to switch between Watch faces.

9. Tip calculator

If you’re dining out and need to calculate your tips quickly, just open the Apple Watch calculator app, enter the bill amount, tap on Tip, and have your watch figure out the amount. You can edit tip percentages, see both the tip amount and total amount in the calculator, and even add a number of people to split the check with.

10. Control your iPhone Camera using the Apple Watch

Speaking of featuring shortcuts for your iPhone, the Apple Watch can control your iPhone’s camera. You can take advantage of this Apple Watch hidden feature if you need to record yourself or want to take a group picture.

One of the apps on the Apple Watch is similar to the iPhone’s camera app. When you open it, it’ll turn on your phone’s camera. The app will has a three-second timer by default so you don’t appear tapping your watch in that selfie. Just prop your iPhone on a table or shelf, or a tripod if you want to get fancy, and you’re ready to control the camera remotely.

To find the camera app on your Apple Watch, simply look through your apps by pressing down on the digital crown, then choose the one with the camera icon. This will open the camera on your iPhone and show a preview of what the camera sees on your watch’s display.

You can pick from the front or back camera from your watch, as well as options like flash, live photo, and HDR. Holding down the shutter button will record a video.

Tag: Apple Watch Tips

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Top 8 Disadvantages of Apple MacBook You Must Know in 2025

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:58 pm EAT by Moses Johnson

MacBooks don’t suit everyone, especially when it comes to the price tag and people who need extra power and customization. Check out all the disadvantages of a MacBook in 2023.

MacBook is easy to learn. Astoundingly powerful. And designed to let you work, play and create in ways you never imagined. It’s the computer that comes packed with apps that are ready to go right out of the box. Free, regular software updates keep things up to date and running smoothly. And if you already have an iPhone, it feels familiar from the moment you turn it on. But, what are the disadvantages of a Mac?

We’ll help you understand if Apple laptop is worth your money by highlighting major disadvantages or limitations of Macbooks. By the end of this article, you’ll know whether you should spend your hard-earned money on a MacBook or if you should purchase a windows PC.

1. High prices

There’s no getting around the fact that Apple charges a lot for MacBooks. You can argue that some of this balances out—Apple MacBooks hold their value, so you can usually resell them years later and make a decent amount of the cost back. But people tend to dislike expensive computers, especially one that’s perceived as a status symbol like Apple MacBook.

The cheapest current Mac, the Mac Mini, will set you back $599, but you can get super-basic Windows PCs for under $300 that will work just fine for basic tasks, such as running a web browser.

The same thing goes for laptops too. The cheapest Mac laptop you can buy is the $999 MacBook Air with M1 chip. There’s the first MacBook disadvantage. $999 is a lot of money for a computer to perform simple tasks. Meanwhile, you can get Windows laptops under $600 that will handle simple tasks just fine.

The most expensive Mac, the Mac Pro, has a base price tag of $5,999. And if you start to tinker to the point of maxing one out, expect to spend more than $50,000.

Comparing spec-to-spec between Windows and macOS PCs it becomes clear that you can get a lot more for your money with the former. Or, can you?

Apple often claims that the cost of its products is rooted in the quality and superiority they offer against other brands. But, there’s no absolute truth to these claims. This is just spectacular marketing.

Apple’s high pricing isn’t just for laptops, though. As mentioned above, MacBook accessories like dongles and chargers cost a lot of money. Apple’s upgrades are also way above the manufacturer’s price. Going from the base 256GB of storage to 512GB on a MacBook Air costs an additional $200, even though you can buy a high-end 500GB Samsung 980 Pro SSD for around $130.

2. Limited upgrade potential

I’ve upgraded Mac hardware from time to time, of course: Older MacBooks used to be fairly easy to open up and add/replace RAM and storage. Newer models, however, are built as system-on-a-chip, and while upgrade modules exist from some third parties, they’re extremely expensive relative to PC upgrades, and basically amount to replacing all of the internal logic components at once.

In practice, it makes more sense just to buy a new Mac than to upgrade the components in an M1 or M2 machine. And because someone will bring it up: Yes, the $6,000 Mac Pro is much more upgradeable, of course, but it’s in a totally different class of machine than anything even enthusiast Mac or Windows users are likely to buy. We’re really not talking about workstations here.

The range of hardware upgrade options for Windows PCs is at least as vast as the array of off-the-shelf PCs available for sale. CPUs, GPUs, RAM, storage drives, USB controllers, capture cards, just about anything that can be put inside a computer is available as a fairly easy upgrade for a desktop PC.

While laptops are generally proprietary and much more difficult to to upgrade beyond swapping out RAM and storage, a few allow for CPU and GPU module upgrades that can be done by anyone with a screwdriver. One particularly interesting option: The Framework is designed for DIYers and tinkerers, letting you build your own laptop and customize it to your desires.

When the time comes, my windows desktop machine will be ready for easy GPU upgrades. The case pops open in seconds, and all components are within easy reach.

3. MacBooks offers limited customization

Apple computers are less customizable than many Windows PCs and laptops. For many, the original hardware inside their Apple computers will work fine, and most probably don’t want to tinker around with upgrading parts. But anyone who does want to tinker around will have limited options with Macs.

Plus, you can build your own PC with exactly the parts you want. It’s surprisingly easy, not to mention satisfying.

You can build your own “Hackintosh” computer, but you’re limited in what parts you can use, and macOS is a pain to update and maintain on computers that aren’t made by Apple.

It feels weird to call Windows an “open” operating system, but compared to macOS, Windows is a big ol’ open playground of customization possibilities, both for hardware and software.

The Windows OS is also generally more customizable than macOS, although a great many utilities exist for both platforms.

Overall, you’ll find more settings to tweak in the Windows operating system than you will with Apple’s macOS operating system — formerly known as Mac OS X. More advanced users will find value in those extra settings. That said, Apple has a clear bias against encouraging users to tweak the look and feel of their OS, while Microsoft has long fostered a community of theme developers to help users personalize Windows to their tastes.

The PCs’ big performance advantage across the board is the ability to tweak hardware performance.

Overlocking software interface
Even off-the-shelf PCs include tools for overclocking and tweaking your hardware performance.

A knowledgeable PC user can overclock CPUs and GPUs, shut down system processes, and tweak every element of the software and hardware to optimize performance. Most gaming PCs come preloaded with performance management software just for this purpose, making it easy even for relative novices to overclock.

4. MacBooks have fewer hardware options

There’s no getting around it: The PC ecosystem is just massively vast. While the Mac range offers a healthy variety of form factors and performance levels, it doesn’t even come close to the breadth of PC systems available for purchase off the shelf.

Apple is the only company that creates its own Mac computers, and you have fewer choices when it comes to designs and specs. Having fewer options can make it easier to pick a computer, but it doesn’t always suit someone with more advanced requirements.

You don’t get much choice when it comes to the processor and RAM with Macs, for example, which dictates how much power the computer has and how smoothly it’ll run.

Since Apple moved its Mac lines to the company’s own CPUs, buying a MacBook means selecting an M1 chip or an M2. That’s it, unless you want a Mac Mini with an Intel Core i5 or i7, or a $6,000 Mac Pro with a Xeon.

By contrast, the mainstream Windows PC range presents an abundance of CPU choices. Intel Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 CPU lines each offer multiple options, as does the copious AMD Ryzen family. If you’re not easily thwarted by decision-paralysis, the Windows world gives you a lot more room to customize.

More hardware choices also means more pricing options. The lowest end MacBook, the 2020 MacBook Air, runs $999. A comparably spec’d Windows laptop can be had for $350. It won’t be Apples to “apples,” of course, because Mac hardware is proprietary, but the performance will be similar. Meanwhile, high-end PCs offer incredible specs in a vast array of form factors for every specialized need, from gaming to intense Intel Xeon-powered graphics workstations. At pretty much every price point, you get more hardware for the dollar with a PC than with a Mac.

5. MacBook has a smaller, less flexible software ecosystem

Both Windows laptops and MacBooks come with a healthy ecosystem of first-party apps, such as email, calendars, note-taking, and reminders. Apple’s offerings on MacBooks are still barebones. Notes and Reminders have come a long way in the past five years but still don’t match up to many third-party apps. Apple Mail is dismal, despite Apple’s mediocre updates since MacOS Ventura.

Thanks to Microsoft’s Your Phone app for Android, you can get a lot of the same functionality on your Windows laptop as you would on a MacBook, such as messages and file transfers (up to a limit). Samsung phones, in particular, work extremely well with Windows.

You’ll also get Microsoft’s excellent first-party apps built right in. Microsoft’s productivity software is light years ahead of Apple. Even the base Windows Mail client is more functional and easier to use than Apple’s horrible Mail app. OneNote is a beast and possibly one of the greatest productivity apps ever created.

Because Windows constitutes roughly 76 percent of the global computing market share, and developers around the world who’ve never even seen a Mac in person are cranking out apps constantly, the numbers game here is obvious. I don’t want to overblow this, because most of the really major productivity suites out there work on both platforms just fine. But if you want seemingly unlimited options for software in just about every category, Windows wins hands-down.

6. If you want to play video games, MacBooks are not great option

Another disadvantage of a MacBook is that you simply cannot enjoy Mac gaming the same way you can enjoy gaming on a Windows laptop. Sure, there are some big titles available on MacBooks. You can cloud game with Game Pass Ultimate, Stadia, and GeForce Now. But you can’t get all the functionality, smoothness or any offline capabilities.

Anyone who wants to play video games on a computer should buy a Windows PC, hands down. Only a fraction of the games available can be played on Macs, and anyone seeking high-end graphics won’t find them on Macs because they lack the power.

The biggest game studios develop for Windows first, then consoles or mobile. The biggest gaming titles tend not to be available for Mac at all.

Wanna play Call of Duty: Warzone II, Fortnite, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, or just about any of the top 20 games in 2023? You can get all of them on Windows, most of them on Xbox or Playstation, and even the Nintendo Switch has quite a few. A couple run on Macs, but you’ll run out of options fast.

You can certainly try running an emulator or virtual machine on your Mac, and there are ways to stream your games from a PC, but these are all kludges and hacks, and yield poor results. If gaming is your thing, Windows is a must.

7. MacBooks are expensive to repair

Another big disadvantage of a MacBook is that they are difficult and expensive to repair. While it’s easier overall to get a Mac repaired, it can be a lot cheaper to get a Windows PC repaired.

Whether you bring your Mac to the Apple Store or a certified Mac repair store, the prices are generally higher than they are to repair a Windows PC. If your MacBook is under warranty, the repair would be free. But it can cost upwards of $700 to get a single defective key repaired on a new MacBook or MacBook Pro, according to Apple Insider.

8. Most MacBooks don’t come with commonly used ports.

Another notable disadvantage of Apple MacBooks is that most of them come only with USB-C ports. That means you can’t plug in monitors that use HDMI, SD cards for photo transfers, and other regular USB accessories, such as external hard drives, without a USB-C adapter.

Having to use a USB-C adapter to plug in non-USB-C accessories is, in a word, frustrating. If you forget your USB-C adapter, you can’t use your non-USB-C accessories. If you lose it, you have to buy a new one, and it’s an annoying extra cost.

To be fair, USB-C is the evolution of connecting everything to your computers. USB-C plugs and ports support the so-called ThunderBolt 3 standard, which can be used for charging your laptop as well as hooking it up to a monitor and other accessories all in a single port instead of needing to plug your devices into multiple ports. And it transfers data a lot faster than previous USB and Thunderbolt versions too.

Conclusion

With all these MacBook downsides, the only reason you should choose an Apple computer over a Windows laptop is if you want to be comfortable inside that Apple garden. You give up the diversity of accessories and apps, as well as the ability to really game, but you get a polished, good-looking computing experience.

Everyone else should get a Windows laptop. You’ll have so much more freedom to use the machine how you want. You shouldn’t even be considering a MacBook if you’re packing an Android phone. There really isn’t a choice for gamers, either. It’s Windows or bust.

Tag: Mac Products

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8 Big Disadvantages of Apple Watch You Must Know in 2025

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:58 pm EAT by Kevin Hollington

From outrageous pricing to a closed ecosystem that locks its users in, there are many disadvantages of an Apple Watch.

Apple Watch is a wearable smartwatch that allows users to accomplish a variety of tasks, including making phone calls, sending text messages and reading email. Apple released the Apple Watch on April 24, 2015. Here are eight disadvantages of an Apple Watch in 2024.

1. You’ll Need an iPhone to Start Using the Apple Watch

One big disadvantage of an Apple Watch is that you can’t set it up without using an iPhone. The Watch must be paired with an iPhone to link an Apple ID. You can’t even activate the watch using another Apple product, like a Mac, Apple TV, or iPad. The Apple Watch app only works with the iPhone.

Apple’s choice to make its smartwatch a companion device to the iPhone has been controversial. An iPhone is expensive, and not everyone wants to shell out the cash to use the watch. Also, companies like Google have been more lenient. Android watches are compatible with other operating systems, including iOS.

You can’t use an Android device to set up an Apple Watch. The Watch is designed to be a companion device to an iPhone for much of its functionality. This is particularly true of the Wi-Fi model, though Apple also sells an Apple Watch with cellular connectivity that operates more like a standalone device.

Once you’ve set up your Apple Watch with cellular you can do many of the things you’d normally rely on an iPhone for, like receive text messages, take phone calls, and access functions that depend on the internet. Unfortunately, this isn’t advisable due to the power drain placed on your Watch when using cellular data.

You’re unlikely to receive all-day battery life if using your cellular Apple Watch away from your iPhone for prolonged periods. Wi-Fi models depend on your iPhone so you miss out on a lot of functionality when your paired iPhone is out of range. The exception here is when you’re in the presence of a Wi-Fi network that you’ve connected to before (when your iPhone was present).

2. Apple Watches do not work with Android phones

An Apple Watch and an Android phone might offer some users the best of both worlds, but it’s never that simple when it comes to Apple and Google.

If there’s one notable disadvantage of an Apple Watch, it’s the lack of compatibility with operating systems beyond iOS.

With a device as popular as this, it’s not surprising that Android phone users might want to consider pairing their smartphone with an Apple Watch. However, that’s not a very good idea as the two are just not designed to work with each other. To be clear, an Apple Watch can technically be used with an Android phone with a number of workarounds. However, there will be many issues to overcome, resulting in an experience that’s just not worth it for most consumers. Not to mention, an iPhone will still be needed to begin with.

The Apple Watch will only work with iPhones, which isn’t ever likely to change. To activate an Apple Watch, you’ll need an iPhone with the Watch app installed. There’s no substitute for this on Android, even if your device supports Bluetooth connectivity.

The main issue with using these two devices together is that they cannot be paired with each other. Considering that’s the main purpose of a smartwatch, the lack of pairing support and the inability to share data negates the point of owning a smartwatch and smartphone. More to the point, an Apple Watch needs to be connected to an iPhone during the initial setup process. Unless an iPhone is accessible to the Android phone user, they won’t even be able to get started with an Apple Watch.

In short, anyone can wear an Apple Watch, including Android phone users. However, the reality is that anyone looking to have a proper smartwatch experience should stay within their own OS lanes. Android users should use Wear OS or third-party platform watches, iPhone users should use Apple Watches.

3. Notifications on Apple Watch can be overwhelming

The Apple Watch is able to shoulder the tsunami of notifications you receive on a daily basis, letting you glance at updates without getting sucked into your iPhone. But most people don’t need or want such constant access to updates.

A more complex reason is that some alerts are only useful for learning information rather than doing something with that information without the iPhone. Furthermore, if you still view your iPhone regularly throughout the day, dealing with notifications on two screens instead of one can add to the mental load, rather than reducing screentime as intended.

Never-ending notifications can be harmful to both productivity and mental health. The Apple Watch make it possible never to miss another notification. But this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

4. Apple Watches are overprice

Yes, you want it. But do you want it to the tune of $799?

Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer models, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the next big software update. But the problem is the price.

In 2022, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches including the $399 Series 8 and the new $249 SE.

Oh. Did I mention there is a $799 model of the Apple Watch? The Apple Watch Ultra is made out of titanium, costs $799 and is built for extreme athletes. But a Peloton class with Olivia Amato is about as extreme as my workouts get, so these exciting new features were lost on me. If you’re like me and exercise is something you do to stay healthy, you don’t need to spend $799 on the Ultra.

For the same price, you can purchase a mid-range iPhone. The phone will have a bigger screen, higher specs, better functionality, and a built-in camera.

Apple Watches have their benefits, but in terms of value for money, there is no comparison.

First of all, you need an (overpriced) iPhone (a current model) in order to actually use your watch. Have an Android phone, or (like me) have no phone at all? Too bad, so sad. No Apple Watch for you.

Hypothetically, assume you have an iPhone. Then you buy an Apple Watch. Then your iPhone gets dropped down some stairs (hey, it happens). Now you need a new phone. Well, you better go plop down the (nearly) thousand dollars on a new iPhone… otherwise your exorbitantly priced watch just became a useless brick attached to your arm.

So what? It’s psychotically expensive. And, yeah, it forces you to use only specific pieces of technology for the indefinite future – effectively locking you out of any other technological advancements that happen outside of the Apple Watch/iPhone world. That doesn’t inherently make this a bad watch… does it?

Yes. Yes, it absolutely does. Add to this the fact that the Apple Watch hit the market a year later than the Android-powered smartwatches (which have more flexibility and more power than Apple’s gadget), and the Apple Watch instantly becomes a status symbol that declares to the world, “I have too much money, I want to be locked into a hardware ecosystem, and I like my technology to be out of date before I buy it.”

In such a situation, you are left wondering whether the watch is a fashion statement or a gadget. But the problem is that the device seems likely to fail on both counts. Viewed as a gadget, the device is just too expensive given its limited functionality. Yet it’s going to be an uphill battle to sell a square, bulky touchscreen device as a fashion statement. In trying to be both a gadget and a luxury item, it’s at high risk of falling in the no-man’s land between the two.

5. Apple Watch Need Regular Charging

Another disadvantage of an Apple Watch is that it needs charging every one or two days. This is understandable given the functionality but it’s something you should think about if you’re planning on replacing a traditional watch.

Having an Apple Watch means one more electronic device that you’ll need to keep charged. And if you forget, your new watch won’t even be able to tell time.

The current lineup of Apple Watch models will easily get you through a full day before needing a charge. In my testing, both of the new Apple Watch models get at least 32 hours of runtime, but this is on the low end compared to other wearable devices on the market.

For runners using watches, battery life is indispensable to the experience. It can be a huge barrier, effectively rendering a run non-existent if the battery runs out. If there’s even a remote risk, the value is diminished.

Apple hasn’t strayed from its 18-hour battery life claim in what feels like a lifetime. If you ask, Apple Watch loyalists won’t hesitate to tell you their charging regimen to get around the fact that it needs daily charging. But the Garmin and Polar fans love getting a minimum of 14 days on a single charge and somewhere between 30-40 hours of GPS activity. In comparison, you get roughly 5-6 hours of GPS activity on the Apple Watch. That’s more than enough for the average person, but it still requires endurance athletes to do a little math or specifically remember to charge up their watch before a run. With a Garmin or Polar, you don’t have to think about it at all. You can just go.

The Apple Watch Ultra has twice the battery life of the regular Apple Watch. And while this is great, it still pales in comparison to Garmin. Let’s take a look:

Battery Life:

Apple Watch Ultra: Up to 3 days
Garmin Epix: Up to 10 days
Garmin Epix Solar: Up to 17 days
Garmin Fenix 7: Up to 18 days
Garmin Fenix 7 Solar: Up to 30 days
Garmin Enduro 2: Up to 45 days

Or if we take a look at how the battery life holds up during regular GPS Mode:

Apple Watch Ultra: 12 hours
Garmin Epix: 42 hours
Garmin Fenix: 57 hours
Garmin Enduro 2: 150 hours

On top of that, longer battery is more convenient than scheduled fast charging if you prioritize sleep tracking. All in all, battery life is still a big reason why some people opt for Fitbit, Garmin, and Polar devices. Now if Apple were to figure out multi-day battery life? That’d be an entirely different story.

6. Fitness Tracking Is Sometimes Unreliable

Fitness tracking is a relatively new concept. This means that the data that you receive from them isn’t always entirely accurate.

Data tracking issues apply to both Apple Watches and fitness trackers. They can give you a lot of information that you wouldn’t otherwise have. But the accuracy of that data is not something that anybody’s health should rely on.

7. Apple Watches Are Not Convenient for Phone Calls

Apple is improving the Apple Watch all the time, but the watch is not yet convenient for making phone calls. It’s easy to argue that it never will be.

Holding your wrist to your ear is never going to be comfortable, and until everybody changes their mind about this, you’re always going to look pretty strange doing so.

Apple Watches do work well with hands-free headsets like airpods, but the benefit of a watch over a phone in this scenario is debatable.

8. A Fitness Tracker Might Be More Practical

Apple Watches are designed to be used as fitness trackers. They achieve this goal, but there’s a reason that many people opt for a dedicated device instead.

Fitness trackers are significantly cheaper, often much smaller, and usually have much longer battery lives. For example, some fitness trackers last for up to 30 days without a charge.

If you’re looking for a device that can track your activity 24 hours a day, an Apple Watch might, therefore, not be the best choice.

Conclusion

Apple Watch has improved a lot in recent years, and it has also become a lot more popular. But, with so many disadvantages of an Apple Watch, it hasn’t yet become must-have accessories. If you’re an Apple fanatic and want to try something new—or you’ve simply been looking at new watches to try—the Apple Watch will likely appeal to you. But before you commit to a purchase, you need to critically think about these disadvantages of an Apple Watch.

Tag: Apple Watch Products

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7 Major disadvantages of Apple AirPods in 2025

Tuesday January 14, 2025 2:59 pm EAT by Dave Johnson

Before buying Apple AirPods, you should know their main disadvantages.

Apple AirPods are some of the most popular wireless earbuds on the market – and since December 2020, when the AirPods Max arrived, the most popular over-ears too. Whether you’re listening to music, making voice calls or chairing a Zoom meeting, you can rely on the AirPods to do a good job. Due to many benefits of Apple AirPods, it’s nigh-on impossible to ride a bus or hit the gym without seeing a pair of Apple’s colourful oversized ear cups being pulled out of a bag, or Tim Cook’s familiar white buds poking out of someone’s ears.

In addition to the classic AirPods (2019), Apple has introduced a duo of pricier, noise-cancelling buds called the AirPods Pro, replaced them with the 2022-released AirPods Pro 2, and added the over-ear AirPods Max to the line-up. There’s also the AirPods 3 – a sort of middle ground between the Pro variant and the regular AirPods. So what are disadvantages of Apple AirPods?

1. They Are expensive

Being a premium product, the Cupertino giant’s AirPods don’t come cheap – in any of their guises. Granted, AirPods are more convenient, but they make you pay a lot more to enjoy that convenience. This is because making a pair of wireless headphones is more costly than making wired ones.

The added components that make Apple AirPods wireless inflate their bill of materials, i.e., the price of all intermediate goods required to create the final product. The higher this cost, the more you pay as a consumer.

The AirPods Pro are Apple’s noise-canceling version of the AirPods. They’re smaller and sleeker than the AirPods and come with an even heftier $249 price tag.

There’s the first AirPods disadvantage. $249 is a lot of money for a set of earbuds. For that sort of money, they don’t need to be good, they need to be pretty much perfect.

Simple touches — like Transparency Mode (which allows the outside noise in, which makes it feel like you’re not wearing earbuds) coming on automatically when you have one bud in, and noise-canceling kicking in when you add the second — are welcomed. And these features work and work flawlessly.

But, still, $249 is a lot of cash, especially when you factor in how long they will last. After two years original AirPods owners were starting to report that battery life was down to minutes, but you might be lucky and get three or more years or decent usage. But be in no doubt, these are disposable items, and the memory of dropping $250 on the earbuds might still be reasonably vivid by the time they start giving you problems.

Let’s assume a worst-case that they last a couple of years, then the AirPods Pro cost you $125 a year, or about $2.50 a week. I’ll let you choose whether that’s a good value or not.

2. They Require frequent Charging

In this day and age, where pretty much every gadget comes with a battery, having yet another thing to recharge from time to time is a major pain.

Having AirPods means one more electronic device that you’ll need to keep charged. And if you forget, your new headsets will be rendered useless.

On the other hand, wired headphones don’t need to be recharged as they come with an audio plug; the convenience of “plug and play” is nothing to take for granted.

Also, since you don’t have to recharge them constantly, they help you save some electricity and reduce your power bills just a little bit. While that may not be a big consideration for you, it’s an added benefit nonetheless.

3. They Have Latency Issues

Apple AirPods have come a long way, and the latency they used to have is slowly mitigating over the years. You may not notice the delay when casually listening to music, but if you are a gamer, you are well aware of how prominent those milliseconds can be.

Wireless latency is always a concern with any headphones or earbuds that use Bluetooth, but a new report points out that AirPods Pro 2 are way better than the generation they replace. But they still aren’t quite good enough.

Musician and developer Stephen Coyle has tested the latency of the first-gen AirPods, AirPods 2, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Pro 2 to see how well all of them handle latency. It turns out Apple’s latest earbuds are pretty great, but they’re still some way off being usable by people who need an instant response to things happening on-screen.

Sounds good, but not good enough

Coyle ran some tests by tapping the iPad Pro’s screen with an Apple Pencil and measuring the time it took for earbuds to play a sound. The results showed that the iPad Pro’s onboard speaker took 83ms to play the sound, giving us a baseline from which to work.

From there, the AirPods 1 took 296ms, and the AirPods Pro 167ms. The AirPods 2 were quicker at 153ms, with AirPods Pro winning the day with 126ms. That’s a notable improvement over the original AirPods Pro but a little off the baseline. “Perhaps a more interesting point to note is that the second-generation AirPods Pro perform only 43ms worse than the built-in speakers,” Coyle says.

However, as impressive as that might be, it isn’t good enough. Coyle says that “there’s still too much latency for audio feedback to feel snappy and responsive,” meaning some use cases still need wired headphones. Those are likely to be professional audio mixers and podcasters, but for everyone else, there’s a good chance that AirPods Pro 2 will be good enough for most things, if not all.

4. They Are Difficult and Expensive to Repair

This one is fairly straightforward. However, as AirPods have more components in their body, they are harder and more complicated to fix.

Apple will replace the batteries for $150, but that’s a lot of cash, and a significant chunk of the cost of an outright replacement, so I wonder how many will go down the route of getting Apple to fix them.

Forget about trying to repair them yourself, because you’ll fail and end up with a bunch of bits. I understand that it’s hard to make something that’s this small and integrated, and still keep it repairable, but the short lifespan, combined with the zero repairability, makes the AirPods Pro — and AirPods, along with every other product in this category — a crime against Mother Nature.

That’s not to say that wired headphones are a bargain to fix, of course. Depending on how high-end your headphones are, the repair prices vary. But by a general rule of thumb, repairing AirPods requires more work.

5. They Are not Ideal for Professionals

Pretty much all professional-grade headphones are wired, and that’s because wired cans are simply more reliable and are designed to be specialized as opposed to wireless ones that are made for the masses. This is also why studio headphones are so expensive.

For professionals like artists and audio engineers, headphones are a work investment for mixing and mastering tracks, not a tool for recreational listening. This means they must work as expected every single time and be tuned in a very specific way.

Apple AirPods are tuned to have fun and upbeat sound, i.e., a “V-shaped” sound signature. The sound signature is designed to manipulate the sound in a way that is pleasing to hear at the cost of losing accuracy and detail.

Professional wired headphones tend to have a flat or balanced sound signature to ensure maximum accuracy and precision of sound reproduction. Musicians can’t afford not to know how their track sounds; they need it to be as true-to-life as possible.

6. They Are not Environment Friendly

One disadvantage of AirPods is that they don’t last for a long time because their battery capacity usually decrease over time.

Like other Apple products, AirPods are not designed to be user serviceable. Sensitive circuitry is protected by a nearly impenetrable outer shell and held together with gobs of glue, but owners looking to keep the device functional will inevitably require a replacement for its diminutive Lithium-ion battery.

“For roughly 18 months, AirPods play music, or podcasts, or make phone calls. Then the lithium-ion batteries will stop holding much of a charge, and the AirPods will slowly become unusable. They can’t be repaired because they’re glued together. They can’t be thrown out, or else the lithium-ion battery may start a fire in the garbage compactor. They can’t be easily recycled, because there’s no safe way to separate the lithium-ion battery from the plastic shell. Instead, the AirPods sit in your drawer forever,” according to Vice magazine.

Finally, on the disposal end, one big disadvantage of AirPods is that they are highly toxic. The plastics, metals and batteries that go into making AirPods are rarely disposed of correctly. Most likely they will go into one’s regular trash.

Their compact design is attractive to buyers, but is intended for disposal and yet it’s difficult to do that without contributing to e-waste.

AirPods will stop holding a charge within a few months of purchase, and while Apple will be able to replace them with another set, that too will be heading for the pile.

When people throw AirPods away without a thought, they are contributing to a growing environmental problem of plastic waste.

7. They Face Connectivity Issues

Another notable disadvantage of AirPods is that they don’t always pair with your device seamlessly, forcing you to spend more time than necessary trying to get both to connect. Not to mention how there are a number of Bluetooth codecs, and not all of them will be compatible with your device. For example, Apple’s devices use ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to provide high-res audio, but that standard doesn’t work with other devices. On the flip side, many devices will use Qualcomm’s aptX (and its variants) or Sony’s LDAC for high-res audio, but Apple’s iPhone and iPad support neither.

Some users of the second-generation AirPods Pro are reporting ongoing issues with their brand-new earbuds randomly disconnecting from their devices as they listen to music or watch videos.

Symptoms can also include an iPhone or iPad showing the ‌AirPods Pro‌ as connected, but no audio actually being played. Reports suggest the bugs are sporadic and apparently not caused by anything specific, with no clear fix.

Such problems are not entirely unique to the second-generation ‌AirPods Pro‌, as customers of the original ‌AirPods Pro‌ that launched in 2019 have reported similar issues in the past. The new ‌AirPods Pro‌, having launched three years after the original, have caused some users to be frustrated that bugs related to connectivity are seemingly not yet addressed.

This is not a problem with wired headphones, as you just need to insert the headphone plug into the jack. The only minor connectivity issue with wired headphones is that if your plug or jack is dirty, you may sometimes hear static noises, but that’s something a quick wipe from a dry cloth can easily fix.

Conclusion

So, yes, the AirPods are great. They are like not wearing earbuds. But they are also an abomination. AirPods disadvantages such as limited lifespan and zero repairability are hard to swallow. The price is startling. The fact that they rely on so much support baked into iOS that other manufacturers cannot access is also worrying because it gives Apple such a leg up over all the competition. I’m begging you—yes, you, dear reader. You have to stop buying the newest AirPods just because they work well with your iPhone. Just don’t. Buy any of Apple’s other models, which have the modern features (and comfy fit) you deserve.

Tag: iPhone Products

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What to do if your iPhone is not receiving emails (2025)

Tuesday January 14, 2025 3:00 pm EAT by Kevin Hollington

If your iPhone is not receiving emails that you are waiting for, there could be various explanations.

Mail is the most stable and reliable email app on iPhone, but sometimes there are still technical snafus that stop your emails from reaching the inbox. This can amount to a minor disaster if the email is important (such as a lucrative job offer).

There is nothing new about the problem of iPhone not receiving emails as it has existed on almost all iPhone models. The issue has affected many iPhone models, including iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, XS Max, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone SE. So what do you do when your iPhone is not receiving emails?

Here’s a list of troubleshooting tips you can try if emails are not received in Mail app on iPhone.

How to fix iPhone not receiving emails issue

1. Check your junk folder first

Let’s start with the easy option. Even though email Spam filters are very advanced, they can still snag your emails up in the spam folder. This can be due to a word in the email tripping the spam filter or many other users marking that email sender as spam.

If you see the email in junk, you can bring it out again by selecting Move To > Inbox.

2. Check your trash folder next

The next step is to see if the email is in your trash. When deleting another email, it’s very easy to get carried away and unintentionally delete another one. So check the trash folder next.

3. Check to see if you have an internet connection

This one may sound silly, but we often overlook the obvious. If your iPhone is not receiving emails, maybe your Wi-Fi connection has suddenly blinked out, and you haven’t noticed. Or perhaps your internet connection is a bit sluggish, making it difficult for mail app to receive large emails?

Whatever the reason, turn your Wi-Fi connection off, then on again. If that doesn’t work, reset your router. But before that, maybe do a speed test first?

You may also want to check your data plan. Do you still have data, or have you run out? Have you even got your cellular data switched on? Also, check your signal strength in the area you’re in. Big cities and towns will have excellent 4G LTE coverage, but you could be struggling to get decent reception in rural areas.

4. Try refreshing the inbox again

Sometimes the problem can be due to a hiccup in your internet connection or your connection to the server. This is a best-case scenario! You can easily work around this by simply pulling down in your inbox to refresh your content.

5. Close And Reopen The Mail App

While it’s uncommon, closing and reopening the Mail app can sometimes fix minor glitches that may cause the problem of iPhone not receiving emails. Just bring up the App Switcher on your iPhone and swipe up the Mail app card. Then, relaunch Mail. In most cases, that should help get things moving again.

6. Restart Your iPhone

If you continue to have issues receiving emails on your iPhone, try restarting your device before moving on with the rest of the fixes. Believe it or not, restarting an iPhone can solve tons of problems. Sometimes your phone just needs a fresh start. Follow the steps below:

Go to Settings.
Tap General.
Select Shut Down.

7. Update iOS On Your iPhone

Another key troubleshooting step when iPhone won’t receive emails is to update iOS. Mail is a native iOS app, meaning it comes pre-installed on your iPhone. Native apps can only be updated by updating the iOS version on your iPhone. iOS updates contain bug fixes, one of which may help resolve the error your iPhone is currently experiencing.

Go to settings.
Tap general.
Select software update. If an update is available, tap download & install.

8. Delete The Problematic Account And Set It Up Like New

If your iPhone is not getting emails, deleting the problematic account and setting it up like new can give it a fresh start. Deeper account issues can be difficult to track down. Rather than trying to troubleshoot the issue, we’re going to completely erase what’s causing the error. To do this, you’ll need first to remove your email account from the Mail app.

Head to Settings.
Tap Mail.
Select Accounts.
Tap the problematic account, and choose Delete Account to take it off your phone.

Now, re-add the same account by following the steps below:

Go to Settings.
Tap Mail.
Select Accounts.
Tap Add Account.

9. Delete And Reinstall The Mail App

If the iPhone is still not receiving emails, it’s a good idea to delete and reinstall the Mail App.

Start by deleting the Mail app from your iPhone. Then, reboot your iPhone, reinstall Mail from the App Store, and set everything up from scratch.

10. Reset Network Settings

You can patch out broken or corrupt network configurations from interfering with Mail by resetting the network settings on your iPhone.

Head to Settings.
Select General.
Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Choose Reset.
Hit Reset Network Settings.

11. Contact your email provider for support

If your iPhone still isn’t receiving emails, it’s time to get some direct tech support for your email problems. A good first step is to check with your email provider (Google for Gmail, Yahoo for Yahoo Mail, etc.). Each email provider has different ways to provide support, but a good bet is to log into your email account on the web and then look for links like Help or Support.

If it’s a work account, check with your IT department. If you’re trying to check a work email account, it may be that the problem doesn’t lie with your iPhone at all. The problem might reside on the email server that you’re trying to get email from.

A temporary problem with that server or a configuration change that you’re not aware of could block your iPhone’s access. If the account that’s not working is provided by your job, check with your company’s IT department and see if they can help resolve the problem.

12. Get help directly from Apple

If your email provider can’t help, you may have a problem that’s bigger or more complex than you can solve. In that case, it’s probably best to take your iPhone — and all of the information about the email account — to your nearest Apple Store for tech support (you can also chat with Apple online. Apple Stores are busy places, though, so make a Genius Bar appointment before heading out to make sure you get help.

Fixed iPhone not receiving emails

If your iPhone is not receiving emails, it could be down to various things. The first thing is to check that the email hasn’t gone to another folder by mistake (such as the junk folder. Then check your internet connection. These troubleshooting steps should help you fix the problem you are having. Make sure to share this article on social media to teach your friends and family how to fix the problem when their iPhone is not getting emails. If you found this tutorial helpful, let us know in the comments below!

Tag: iPhone Troubleshooting

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Top Disadvantages of Magic Keyboard for iPad (2025)

Tuesday January 14, 2025 3:00 pm EAT by Dave Johnson

At first glance, Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro is a well-made keyboard case with a trackpad that lets you use the iPad as a kind of laptop. However, it has its disadvantages.

1. Very expensive

At $300 (or $350 for the 12.9-inch version), this is just a lot of money for a keyboard case, especially when the entry iPad costs about as much. It’s half the price of the iPad Air! It’d be lovely if a new model split the difference and became at least somewhat more affordable, because having a good keyboard on the go is increasingly useful with iPadOS.

For instance, the Logitech Combo Touch and Logitech Keyboard Folio are great options. In addition, many of these models offer viable protection for your iPad, which is not the case with the Magic Keyboard.

2. Heavy and Thick

The Magic Keyboard is built like a tank. That is both a blessing and a curse, however. There is nearly zero flex to the keyboard deck. The whole thing is stable on your lap and very well-balanced. It’s not tippy at all.

But back to that tank analogy: I don’t make it (excuse the pun) lightly. The Magic Keyboard is heavy — so heavy that when I asked Apple for the official weight for both sizes, the company declined to share.

According to my kitchen scale, then, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard weighs just shy of three pounds, about 25 percent heavier than the iPad Pro with the older Smart Keyboard. Three pounds is the same weight as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and heavier than the new MacBook Air.

As I mentioned above, the Magic Keyboard is also fairly thick. For the typing experience, that’s great. For my bag, it’s not. The whole kit is thicker than my 13-inch MacBook Pro when closed.

3. Limited Viewing Angles

Another disadvantage of Magic Keyboard for iPad is limited range of viewing and using angles.

You can tilt the screen from 90 to 130 degrees, which sounds fine on paper. But in practice, 130 degrees is not nearly enough. It can feel cramped, especially if you’re used to pushing a laptop’s screen back when it’s on your lap.

The Magic Keyboard’s odd design means it can’t fold all the way back, with the keyboard parked behind the screen. You either use it as a laptop-thing, or fold it shut. iPads are sketchpads and readers, too, and you can’t use the iPad easily for those purposes with the Magic Keyboard on. That means popping the case off (it attaches with magnets), and then you’re left holding a naked iPad. Surely Apple can figure this out? The old Smart Keyboard cover isn’t as good for work, yet was more flexible as a folio case solution. But it doesn’t work with the Magic Keyboard-compatible iPads (Air, Pro).

This point becomes even more unbearable when we consider the alternative options in the market. For example, many third-party keyboard combinations for iPad Pro and Air offer better viewing angles and create a pleasant environment to use the Apple Pencil.

4. Poor Protection

Another disadvantage of Magic Keyboard for iPad is that it does not do much to protect the tablet. The Magic Keyboard folds smaller than most other keyboard cases, wrapping tightly around the iPad. But it lacks protection for the iPad sides, and the magnets can detach when inside a bag or if you drop the iPad, knocking the entire case loose.

There is no drop protection or shock absorption due to the lack of edge-to-edge coverage. On the other hand, even some of the cheapest alternatives in the market can better protect your iPad.

The Magic Keyboard makes things even more complex in terms of compatibility. For instance, you can’t use a third-party iPad protective case if you want to connect the iPad to a Magic Keyboard. Otherwise, you must bear the annoying task of constantly removing and reconnecting the protective case.

5. No function keys

Another big disadvantage of Magic Keyboard for iPad is lack of function keys. Some iPad keyboard cases have extra rows of dedicated function keys, including volume control and play/pause buttons. I love these, and Apple oddly left them out on the Magic Keyboard. Apple has a lot of keyboard shortcuts in iOS, but dedicated function keys would be a great addition.

In the first of several “finallys” for the iPad, the keys are also backlit. They adjust automatically based on the ambient lighting conditions, and they were exactly the right brightness most of the time. However, if you just want to turn them off if you’re watching a movie in the dark or something, then you’re in for a hassle.

To fix that, you have to go to the iPad’s Settings app, then dig into General, then Hardware Keyboard, and only then will you be able to adjust the brightness using a slider. While you’re there, you may want to also remap one of your keys to Esc (I use Caps Lock) because there is no Esc key here.

Both of these hassles could have been immediately and instantly solved if Apple had simply put a function row of keys above the number row. There are plenty of system-wide buttons that would be useful there! Music controls, volume, screen and keyboard brightness, home, multitasking, search: all things for which it would be convenient to have dedicated buttons.

After giving in and providing a clamshell design and a trackpad, leaving both the Esc key and a function row out seems obstinate. You will still be reaching (or swiping) up to the Control Center to manage essential functions all the time.

These are the disadvantages of Magic Keyboard for iPad

The Magic Keyboard improves the iPad experience in only a handful of ways
The Magic Keyboard only improves a handful of those situations. It is an incredibly good, albeit expensive and heavy, way to use your iPad Pro like a laptop. If that’s what you want, this is a huge upgrade over what was available before, and you’ll love it. But what makes the iPad great is that it’s more than a laptop.

For all the other things I want to do with my iPad, the ergonomics of the Magic Keyboard are noticeably worse, which is why it’s nice that it’s so easy to remove the iPad and use it without a case at all. It makes the iPad a better iPad by its absence.

Tag: iPad Products

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