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The phone I am using daily is an iPhone 13 Pro Max, which has been with me for almost 3 years. At the same time, when I got mine, I also got an iPhone 13 for my wife.
Straight after purchase, I opted for AppleCare+ with the monthly payment option. Thanks to the recurring payments, my device is still covered under AppleCare+.
I am considering an upgrade later this year, possibly in September 2024, but I am not rushing into it. My phone is performing well for its age and is still in pristine condition, which is important for potential resale value. The only thing that is showing signs of age is the battery.
After over 33 months of daily use, I started noticing that the battery is not as good as it used to be. With the built-in Battery Health feature, I can see that it’s at 87% of design capacity. It’s not bad for its age.
However, after the same period with her iPhone 13, my wife began to notice that her phone needed to be plugged in much more often.
Recently, we even noticed that the battery surprisingly jumped from 59% to 61%, only to return to 59% shortly after.
This made me start thinking, so I quickly checked her battery health. From Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging, we can see that her health is at 80%.
It’s not a bad result after over 33 months, but also not great from the customer’s point of view, especially when you got AppleCare+ purchased.
According to AppleCare+ terms regarding the battery, you are entitled to have your battery replaced free of charge when it falls below 80%.
Exactly, it states “below” 80%, which currently you may think is not met, as the battery health in settings shows exactly 80%.
But what if that value is inaccurate?
Buying a refurbished Apple product is a great way to save money. I purchased my MacBook Air with an M1 chip through this route back in 2021, and the device is still working well.
The good news when buying refurbished items directly from Apple is that they are treated no differently than new devices in terms of support and service. You are eligible to purchase additional protection through AppleCare, just like with new devices.
The savings on refurbished items, compared to the same item new, can be significant. Of course, you can buy them even cheaper if you don’t mind losing the ability to get extra care for them directly through AppleCare, but if you do mind (like me), then there is one more thing that you should think about before going this route.
Just a few weeks ago I have been thinking about, what I am doing with my ageing MacBook Air with an M1 chip.
The MacBook Air Air with M1 was introduced in November 2020 but I purchased mine in July 2021, officially from Apple, but from their refurbished store.
I saved a bit on a base model and thanks to that I have been able to take 3 years of Apple Care and still meet my budget.
Despite that nothing happens along the road, so I don’t need to use this plan, I still wonder, if, after these 3 years, I will be able to buy, at least, a year more.
The device working well. I would like to have a bit more internal storage (currently got 256GB base), but apart from that everything working fine. The device is still fast and reliable. For my needs, I don’t see a reason for change.
I have been thinking about a possible upgrade when the MacBook Air is introduced with the M3 chip and that is what happens today (4th March 2024) through press release.
At the same time, Apple decided to discontinue MacBook Air with an M1 chip. Its place, in the same price range, has been offered to a 13-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip, which is typical.
But what does that mean for users, who use MacBook Air with an M1 chip? Also, what does that mean for people, who just now decide to buy MacBook Air with an M1 chip?
If your daily digital life relies on Google Services, once you become an iPhone owner this may not change. I was a long-term Android user before I changed to the Apple ecosystem.
Even though Apple is offering their equivalent of what Google offers on Android, I never found a better alternative for storing pictures than Google Photos.
Google Photos for most of the typical users is unreplaceable due to the Storage Saver option. Thanks to that we can store all our photos and do not pay too much for the storage. At some point we will need to pay Google to store them, however as they are compressed, they consume less space than storing them in full resolution in, for example, Apple Photo Library.
The first thing that I do when setting up my iPhone is to download the Google Photos app from the App Store. This is what I recommend to my friends who switch from Android to iPhone, however, there is one thing that needs to be remembered.
Imagine waking up one day to 11 unread emails from Apple asking you to verify your Apple ID. Someone has just created an Apple ID with your email address on their new iPhone!
Recently, I wrote about giving my friend’s MacBook Air from Mid-2013 (A1465) a new life by installing macOS Ventura (13.4.1) on it.
Although this laptop was still working well, it was not compatible with the latest macOS from Apple. However, the OpenCore Legacy Patcher gave it a new lease on life by allowing it to run the latest macOS.
After installing any OS updates on unsupported hardware, you should be prompted to install post-install volume patches (also known as root patches) on your first boot.
By installing Rapid Security Response Update 13.4.1 (c), the system froze at the Apple logo and progress bar at approximately 35% of the loading process during the first reboot.
Thankfully, the solution was not too complicated.
If you follow my page, you’ve probably already come across my post Blocking Ads in Safari on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. In it, I described how to use the built-in Firefox Focus feature to block trackers and ads without unnecessary configuration.
This method won’t work for everyone. Others may opt for AdBlock Plus, which can be set to block ads in Safari similarly to the method described using Firefox Focus. Daily I use Firefox Focus and AdBlock Plus in my Safari browser on my phone.
No matter what you choose, every solution is good with one but…
Everybody is writing down about the latest Apple TV 4K 2022 model as a perfect premium box for streaming movies. Due to the upgraded main chip and (already) wide support for controllers, everybody is forgetting that this is quite a decent gaming box as well.
I purchased my Apple TV 4K (2021) with the idea, to get back to playing games on a big screen. I don’t have time to invest in game consoles anymore and, for occasional playing, Apple TV as a game console would be a good alternative.
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