Quote:
Originally Posted by dirkronk
OK. I was afraid of that.
Alas, my 3T Time Machine is nearly as old as the laptop and during the covid thing a few years back, connection to her laptop was lost and none of my (well-intentioned but inept) efforts to reconnect worked. She also lost the ability to access our printer remotely from the laptop. We kept talking about getting a tech out to the house to reconfigure everything but that didn't happen. I think the current situation will provide motivation...
Still makes noise, so I think it was trying to boot up, but the black screen made it impossible to tell. I hope that's a hint that her software, downloads and assorted files are still salvageable.
Good input. What battery life should we expect in a new machine these days?
Yeah...I'll check out the iPad thing, but I will guess that my wife will still want a laptop. She keeps talking about finding a new computer tutor (her old one moved away several years back) but that's another thing that hasn't got past the talking stage.
More good advice. Being 3+ years into retirement and away from daily interaction with IT specialists (boy, was I spoiled!), I need occasional reminders of stuff like that. Once we get on the other side of this issue, my wife and I need to think about getting new iPhones (ours are 8 Plus models, so probably getting close to phase-out for Apple support). And Spectrum is changing our plan, so I really need to get deep into cord-cutting-streaming-service options for home WiFi and TV stuff. Man...this is likely to be a costly and tech-filled time for us barely-reformed Luddites!
Many thanks to you, imwjl, and to the rest of you who've posted.
Cheers,
Dirk
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If you have iPhones staying with a Mac will get you far superior phone integration in addition to battery life.
My work day is usually sitting at or carrying comparable Microsoft Surface brand laptop with i5, 16 GB RAM and M type MacBook about same age. The M MacBook usually gets 100% to 400% more from a full charge. Some video meetings burn up the Windows battery faster.
I purposely keep at the Windows phone integration options too for the sake of staff. It's coming along for basic stuff but is pretty lame overall such as handling multiple text replies and not differentiating PSTN and VoIP calling.
If you can go to an actual Apple Store you can have low or no pressure hands on with about any option. Some certified partner stores are good but not likely the same stuff to touch.
The Surface brand laptops I like are a but conservative for specs but very high quality build and no extra stuff I find annoying. At work we also buy the first tier laptops from Dell, HP and on occasion Lenovo. Lately HP have kept folks happier.
Our son got one of the historically good Dell XPS with an engineering student spec and had the same problem I see others have had with track pad popping out and after the repair the whole thing has been flakey so that has been a big disappointment. Hopefully Dell will get those back to the good reputation they've had.
If you go to an actual Apple Store you will not only get the free and ethical recycling but good trade credit for some older devices.
My biggest worry here is your data recovery. An Apple Store might be your best bet to have that done without it costing a whole lot and with competence. Don't ask or pay for a data recovery and ask for it part of a new purchase.