The New 13-Inch Macbook Pro Our Meetings
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The offcial journal of the Wellington Macintosh Society Inc Volume 37.05 – May 2020 Come to one of The new 13-inch MacBook Pro our meetings Online Monday 25 May 7:00 pm for 7:30 pm Subject: Picking a new Mac iPad Group TBA Help Desk TBA Apple has introduced an updated version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, completing the transition of Mac notebooks from the controversial butterfly keyboard to the new scissor switch keyboard. Where to find us Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not able to hold physical meetings under alert level 4 or 3, and they may not be practical under alert level 2. In the meantime we will be running online meetings via Zoom, normally on the same monthly schedule as our Wellington meeting: the evening of the last Monday each month. Meeting invitations will be sent to members via email. If non-members or former members would like to attend a meeting on a trial basis, please email [email protected]. How to Mirror Your Apple TV to Your INSIDE The President Writes p2 David’s Tech Guide p3 Mac p8 Be Careful When Scheduling Events TidBits of Information p10 Using Siri p7 Committee Contact Details p12 CAPITAL APPLE – MAY 2020 PAGE 1 The president writes ... I would have to say that much the same issues also apply to our group, and as the average age of members has increased, this has accelerated the loss of younger members. This is not to say this phenomenon is bad, but it does increase the likelihood of the group folding as the membership decreases, owing to infirmity and deaths. Graeme Moffatt The question that the committee needs to [email protected] address is what to do about this, and whether or not anything can be or should be done. Hi folks. As President, I now find myself back into the Well, our first monthly meeting that was not same position that I encountered last time I took on able to be attended physically, has been and gone. this role some twenty years ago. Unfortunately David was unable to make his The situation now is a bit different as the Keynote presentation on our regular date, or on average age has increased substantially, however first Monday of this month about selecting a new much the same issues are presenting themselves. notebook, owing to a serious fall he had, but will We were successful in addressing the issues of a be doing so this meeting and also to be on Zoom. falling membership that we faced back then and We did however have an online meeting on our largely managed to halt the slide, however this regular last Monday of the month, that was hosted time around the same actions we took will no by Jo Booth, and this allowed members a full longer suffice. meeting to ask questions. The main reason why this society was formed in This was well patronised by up to twenty seven the first instance was owing to the rapid adoption members, quite a few who were not resident in of the new technology, that not very members of Wellington, with one coming from as far away as the public had a good understanding of. Gore. We are now in the position that one of the major Your committee held its normal monthly reasons we are having to debate our future is for meeting last week, also on Zoom, and one of the exactly the opposite, in that most people do now topics discussed was this meeting and its relevance understand the technology, and the need for to meetings in the future. mutual self help by way of physical contact is no As I have already mentioned, the number of longer as necessary. Mac exclusive user groups around New Zealand If we are to continue and succeed into the future, has fallen to only two. then we need to address this reality and utilise the We are the largest, as we always have been, and technology that was at the root of our foundation. the only other active group is in the Hawkes Bay I guess the one bright point from the pandemic and meet in the EIT campus in Taradale. that we have been forced to confront, is that it has I was in Hastings during the weekend and took been the catalyst for finding a method to the opportunity to contact Steve Grooby, who is a communicate outside of physical meetings. member of that group, and he advised me that they Given our situation of being one of the last, and are still meeting even though he no longer attends also the biggest surviving group, maybe we have any of them. an opportunity to assist macOS and iOS users He commented that the majority of the members throughout the country to gather and discuss their are now older and need a far greater level of hand issues in an online manner. holding, and as a consequence his interests are no That’s all, folks! Graeme Moffatt longer being met. To contact me, email [email protected], or you can ring me at home (027 660-3094) CAPITAL APPLE – MAY 2020 PAGE 2 The presidentDavid’s Tech Guide writes ... by David Empson [email protected] The new scissor switch keyboard has increased 04 976 9755 key travel, which feels more like 2015 and earlier models, and is expected to be more reliable than butterfly keyboards. The increased travel means the keyboard is deeper, which makes the entire MacBook Pro a little thicker: up from 1.49 to 1.56 cm. Weight increases Apple Developer Conference slightly: up from 1.37 to 1.4 kg. Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference Width, height and other external details are (WWDC) is online only this year, and starts on unchanged. Tuesday 23 June NZ time. Apple have not announced a keynote but if they stick to pattern it should start at 5 AM NZ time. At a minimum I expect we will find out about the next OS versions due later in 2020. In some years, Apple has also introduced new or updated products at WWDC. Due to WWDC conflicting with our normal publishing schedule, we will be delaying the June issue of Capital Apple by a few days so we can include a summary of the major announcements. We can discuss the WWDC announcements at our meeting on Monday 25 June. New 13-inch MacBook Pros 13-inch MacBook Pro with Two TB3 Ports https://www.apple.com/nz/macbook-pro-13/ Apart from the keyboard, slight change in Apple has introduced a new generation 13-inch dimensions and increased storage, the low end 13- MacBook Pro, replacing the mid 2019 models. inch MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports is As before there are two major variants which identical to the 2019 model: it has the same quad can be distinguished by the number of core 8th generation Intel processors (“Coffee Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports: the low end models Lake”), memory and graphics. Standard memory is have two ports, and the high end models have four. 8 GB, with a custom option for 16 GB (which got Both variants have two notable changes: cheaper for this model only: now $175). 1. The keyboard is the new scissor switch type, Standard prices went up by $50, now starting at with Touch Bar, Touch ID, Esc key and $2349 for the cheapest model with 256 GB storage, inverted-T arrow keys, same as the 16-inch or $2699 for the 512 GB model. MacBook Pro. It is similar to latest MacBook Air If you compare models with the same storage, keyboard apart from the MacBook Air having this generation is effectively $300 cheaper: last year, function keys instead of the Touch Bar. it cost $2649 to get the 256 GB model. The same 2. Storage capacities have doubled in all $300 saving applies to custom configurations with standard configurations, as happened recently higher storage capacities. The maximum custom for the 16-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and storage option has also doubled to 2 TB (adds $1400 a minor refresh of the Mac Mini. to the price of the base 256 GB model). This marks the end of the butterfly keyboard in new Macs, as all models which used that keyboard have been superseded. continued over page CAPITAL APPLE – MAY 2020 PAGE 3 13-inch MacBook Pro with Four TB3 Ports What did Apple leave out? The high end 13-inch MacBook Pro with four The rumoured increase in display size with Thunderbolt 3 ports has more improvements. reduced bezel did not happen: this generation has The processor is updated from quad core 8th to exactly the same 13.3-inch display. 10th generation Intel (“Ice Lake”). Like the latest The lack of a new processor for the 13-inch MacBook Air, these processors are based on a 10 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports can be nm rather than 14 nm process. explained by Intel’s ongoing delays in introducing The memory is faster and there is twice as much new processors. Apple wanted to release the of it: 16 GB in standard models, with a custom models together, and Intel has only released some option for 32 GB (for an extra $700). classes of 10th generation processor so far. Apple For tasks that are limited by the processor and uses lower power processors in the MacBook Pro memory, this MacBook Pro is at least 10% faster with two Thunderbolt 3 ports.