Apple Thread - The most overrated technology brand?

[Sammy]

After being a Windows fag for so long, I decided to make a significant sacrifice to my wallet and purchased a MacBook Air with 32 gigs of ram for personal use when I am on the road for work, which is often. The more I use it the more I love it. It feels more robust compared to my work laptop. Surprisingly, I can’t seem to locate the speakers, but wherever they are, they produce really good sound quality. Overall, I’m not regretting my purchase at all. Still gonna be a linux fag at home but it sure as hell beats watching family guy re-runs on TV.

Effectively,

Apple makes really good workstation computers.
If you need a machine that's rock solid for doing productive stuff - you don't care about tinkering with it, you don't want to overly customize it, it's not your primary entertainment station, you just need it to fire up, not break, and get the fuck out of your face with crap while you get shit done, an Apple computer will serve you well.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Effectively,

Apple makes really good workstation computers.
If you need a machine that's rock solid for doing productive stuff - you don't care about tinkering with it, you don't want to overly customize it, it's not your primary entertainment station, you just need it to fire up, not break, and get the fuck out of your face with crap while you get shit done, an Apple computer will serve you well.

The main thing is to buy a Mac with some headroom for what you plan to do for the next 5 years with it, then you do the forklift upgrade after that to the next one and sell the last one for a good chunk.

 

[Betonhaus]

Should I switch to a refurbished iPhone 15 Pro Max?

I have a Motorola Edge 2022 and I'm getting sick of the Wi-Fi cutting out as it interferes with Android auto. I'm also starting to get a little tired of the fuck fuck games Google plays and how shitty the ads are in some games.

Fido has a promo for a refurbished 15 Pro Max that's a fairly decent price

https://www.fido.ca/phones/iphone-15-pro-max-cpo?icid=F_WIR_CNV_MXDFRS

 

[Hunter Hearst Helmsley]

After being a Windows fag for so long, I decided to make a significant sacrifice to my wallet and purchased a MacBook Air with 32 gigs of ram for personal use when I am on the road for work, which is often. The more I use it the more I love it. It feels more robust compared to my work laptop. Surprisingly, I can’t seem to locate the speakers, but wherever they are, they produce really good sound quality. Overall, I’m not regretting my purchase at all. Still gonna be a linux fag at home but it sure as hell beats watching family guy re-runs on TV.

Old and busted: Watching Family Guy re-runs on TV.
New hotness: Watching Family Guy re-runs on a Macbook Air with 32 gigs of ram.

 

[jONALD]

Old and busted: Watching Family Guy re-runs on TV.
New hotness: Watching Family Guy re-runs on a Macbook Air with 32 gigs of ram.

It’s a lot better than being confined to my iPhone when I need or want to browse the web, my pinkies and thumbs have been a lot happier.

 

[⚞⛇⚟]

I need tech support.
I am trying to transfer files from a device running iOS to my computer. The issue is that when I do the transfer, the creation date of the file changes from whenever it was created to the time that is is when I transfer the file.
Does anyone know how to preserve the creation date of the files when copying it? I would also be fine with having the creation dates of all of the files being copied to a large spreadsheet.
I have jailbreaked this device. There are too many files to make changing the date after transferring the files realistic. The "last modified" date is not good enough.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

I am trying to transfer files from a device running iOS to my computer. The issue is that when I do the transfer, the creation date of the file changes from whenever it was created to the time that is is when I transfer the file.
Does anyone know how to preserve the creation date of the files when copying it? I would also be fine with having the creation dates of all of the files being copied to a large spreadsheet.

On a jailbroken iOS device you can run sshd no? If so, you can use a SFTP client on your PC to connect, then use 'get -p *' (in command line SFTP, or equivalent on whatever GUI client) to preserve the dates while retrieving the files. I assume there's also ways to install rsync, which might make the process easier especially if you're copying things back and forward.

 

[⚞⛇⚟]

On a jailbroken iOS device you can run sshd no? If so, you can use a SFTP client on your PC to connect, then use 'get -p *' (in command line SFTP, or equivalent on whatever GUI client) to preserve the dates while retrieving the files. I assume there's also ways to install rsync, which might make the process easier especially if you're copying things back and forward.

I tried what you suggested, but it turns out that Apple uses the attribute "Birth" instead of the attribute "Created" for the creation date of files.
I couldn't figure out how to transfer that attribute over with SFTP, so I was about to give up and use iTunes to transfer the files, but...
IT TURNS OUT THAT ITUNES PRESERVES THE CREATION DATE OF THE FILES WHEN THEY ARE TRANSFERRED.

---

So I just wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out how to tard wrangle APFS when I could have just used iTunes.
I honestly think that I might be going crazy. I could have sworn that the creation date got altered when I previously transferred files with iTunes, but I might have made a copy before checking the creation date.
Anyways, I wonder how many people have ever been affected negatively from Apple using "Birth" instead of "Created" for storing the creation date of a file in APFS. I would guess that it is in the high double digits or the low triple digits at most.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

I tried what you suggested, but it turns out that Apple uses the attribute "Birth" instead of the attribute "Created" for the creation date of files.
I couldn't figure out how to transfer that attribute over with SFTP, so I was about to give up and use iTunes to transfer the files, but...
IT TURNS OUT THAT ITUNES PRESERVES THE CREATION DATE OF THE FILES WHEN THEY ARE TRANSFERRED.

---

So I just wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out how to tard wrangle APFS when I could have just used iTunes.
I honestly think that I might be going crazy. I could have sworn that the creation date got altered when I previously transferred files with iTunes, but I might have made a copy before checking the creation date.
Anyways, I wonder how many people have ever been affected negatively from Apple using "Birth" instead of "Created" for storing the creation date of a file in APFS. I would guess that it is in the high double digits or the low triple digits at most.

btime effectively is the 'created/creation date' on Unix-like operating systems. ctime is not a 'creation' date, but the last time that permissions, extended attributes, etc, were updated, for auditing purposes.

 

[<3 norafawn]

Dell and Nvidia are working on competitors to the Neo and M5 Macbook respectfully. What's notable is that the Nvidia Surface will feature an ARM chip similar to the Macbooks.

Dell:

In the U.S., the XPS 13 starts at $699 for the general public and at $599 for eligible students, which is $100 more than the MacBook Neo [without the fingerprint reader] on both fronts. However, Dell said the XPS 13 offers the following six features "you won't find on a MacBook Neo."

• A touch screen
• A backlit keyboard
• A faster second USB-C port (10 GB/s vs. 480 MB/s)
• Wi-Fi 7 (vs. Wi-Fi 6E)
• Windows Hello to unlock laptop via facial recognition (MacBook Neo does offer Touch ID at the same $699 price point)
• Four speakers (vs. two)

"Apple's MacBook Neo is a capable machine, and its arrival confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices," said Dell. "Where Dell differs is what we think premium means at this price point and what we were willing to build to deliver it."

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/01/dell-xps-13-vs-macbook-neo/

Nvidia:

Surface Laptop Ultra is the most powerful Surface Laptop ever built. Engineered with NVIDIA from the silicon up, optimized for RTX Spark, built on Windows. Made for a kind of work that does not fit in a standard laptop.

[bla bla AI bla bla]

Surface Laptop Ultra is our first laptop to combine a powerful NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 128GB of unified memory and full CUDA support. Unified memory allows the pool of RAM to be dynamically allocated wherever your workloads need it most across CPU and GPU, so AI creation, 3D rendering and multi-model workflows run simultaneously, with 1 petaflop of AI compute, capable of running up to 120B parameter models locallyhttps://blogs.windows.com/devices/2...ace-laptop-ultra-made-for-world-makers/#_edn1. No walls. No compromises.

https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2026/05/31/introducing-surface-laptop-ultra-made-for-world-makers/

https://www.nvidia.com/en-eu/products/workstations/dgx-spark/

No benchmarks yet

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Those chips will benchmark out the same as the Snapdragon X, about a year and a half behind whatever Apple has out at the time of release.

Of course, build quality for the Windows machines using those chips will be, as always, like a Hyundai compared to a BMW.

 

[Susanna]

However, Dell said the XPS 13 offers the following six features "you won't find on a MacBook Neo."

• A touch screen

A point in the Neo's favour, touchscreens drain power and I've never used them on my laptops that have had them.

• A backlit keyboard

I guess I'll give them this one. I don't look at the keyboard when I type, but I know most people do. It's a small point though, the Neo keyboard legends are hardly difficult to read.

• A faster second USB-C port (10 GB/s vs. 480 MB/s)

A point in Dell's favour.

• Wi-Fi 7 (vs. Wi-Fi 6E)

Not going to be of any use to the target demographic, regular home users/students generally don't have more than 200MB/s Internet anyway, and university wifi is universally slow af, even when you're accessing the intranet.

• Windows Hello to unlock laptop via facial recognition (MacBook Neo does offer Touch ID at the same $699 price point)

Never tried Windows Hello. If it's as good as iPhone's face recognition, I'll call it a draw even if I personally prefer TouchID (TouchID is really good).

• Four speakers (vs. two)

Apple uses virtual surround techniques and hires actual audio engineers to design their laptop speakers to produce the best sound possible in the form factor. I won't give Dell a point just for having more speakers without doing a side-by-side comparison.
Notably absent are the two most important factors in a laptop, build quality and battery life. Macbooks are very good build-quality and Dell in my experience are about on par with Lenovo and HP, ie garbage. Dell conspicuously doesn't mention battery life, which implies to me that the Macbook Neo is far superior.

On the other side, though.

Surface Laptop Ultra is our first laptop to combine a powerful NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 128GB of unified memory and full CUDA support. Unified memory allows the pool of RAM to be dynamically allocated wherever your workloads need it most across CPU and GPU, so AI creation, 3D rendering and multi-model workflows run simultaneously, with 1 petaflop of AI compute, capable of running up to 120B parameter models locallyhttps://blogs.windows.com/devices/2...ace-laptop-ultra-made-for-world-makers/#_edn1. No walls. No compromises.

This sounds extremely good and I'm definitely going to look into it.

 

[Samhain]

What's currently the best option for read/write on NTFS formatted external drives under MacOS? I'm moving from Windows back to Macs soon and haven't used a Mac since owning a Macbook Pro 15 years ago. I have over 32TB of external drives that are NTFS formatted. Would prefer open source but not opposed to paying for something if it's the best option.

I'm going to be purchasing a Macbook Pro, but I still need to be able to swap files between Windows and MacOS. I might look into reformatting the drives to exFAT down the road so I don't have to deal with this kind of thing in the future.

 

[Betonhaus]

What's currently the best option for read/write on NTFS formatted external drives under MacOS? I'm moving from Windows back to Macs soon and haven't used a Mac since owning a Macbook Pro 15 years ago. I have over 32TB of external drives that are NTFS formatted. Would prefer open source but not opposed to paying for something if it's the best option.

I'm going to be purchasing a Macbook Pro, but I still need to be able to swap files between Windows and MacOS. I might look into reformatting the drives to exFAT down the road so I don't have to deal with this kind of thing in the future.

According to the clankers it’s the paragon driver

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

It has a ten day free trial if you want to test it first.

 

[Jerk Sausage]

What's currently the best option for read/write on NTFS formatted external drives under MacOS? I'm moving from Windows back to Macs soon and haven't used a Mac since owning a Macbook Pro 15 years ago. I have over 32TB of external drives that are NTFS formatted. Would prefer open source but not opposed to paying for something if it's the best option.

I'm going to be purchasing a Macbook Pro, but I still need to be able to swap files between Windows and MacOS. I might look into reformatting the drives to exFAT down the road so I don't have to deal with this kind of thing in the future.

If you're fully committing to the switch, and you can free up one drive, why not convert one to exFAT, move files to that, free up another one, format that as exFAT, etc? NTFS is the worst pick for cross-platform, exFAT is probably the best.

I just use APFS for everything now because I don't do anything cross platform (or just use a exFAT usb drive when I need to give someone files).

Also, switching OS or reformatting is the best time to really assess how much of your 32TB is really necessary to keep around forever. Not judging, but personally I find great pleasure in deleting shit off my personal machines.

 

[Samhain]

If you're fully committing to the switch, and you can free up one drive, why not convert one to exFAT, move files to that, free up another one, format that as exFAT, etc? NTFS is the worst pick for cross-platform, exFAT is probably the best.

I just use APFS for everything now because I don't do anything cross platform (or just use a exFAT usb drive when I need to give someone files).

You know, I might actually just buy another external drive and just copy files, reformat to APFS, and repeat until finished. I still intend to keep a laptop with Windows around for a few things, but otherwise switch to the Macbook for everything. A thumb drive with decent capacity could realistically handle copying files between OSes.

 

[Diesel]

If you like parental controls and AI this was the WWDC for you.

 

[AbsurdumRideo]

So did any of you get the macbook neo, how is it to actually use? All the tech youtubers I follow were gushing over it when it came out and my feed was flooded with neo reviews for a while.

I’m a Brokie so I got one. A bit too small but good enough. I can play some Sims4 if i want to, do my work shit and do my Writing stuff. It’s 699 coins with the student discount. I’m paying 60 coins a month for a year to be able to split it up. My 16e is shit tho, worst phone o ever had.

 

[Atlas Sneezed]

If you like parental controls and AI this was the WWDC for you.

No, the biggest thing, and the very first thing they showed is how they're unfucking MacOS from the nigger disaster that was Liquid Glass. The overrounded corners? Gone. Stupid accents on sidebars and refractions? Gone. Frivolous icons on menus? Gone

I didn't watch anything after that, instead I installed the beta. Lots of shit is broken but the visual adjustments are so worth it that I'd rather stay than go back to Tahoe. And you can see that they're only getting started.

Supposedly the nigger that did Liquid Glass fled the ship right after that to Meta, so they're slowly rolling back the damage he did

I'd still prefer to go back to the glory days of Aqua/Platinum combo. It was peak OS X

 

[Samuel Fuller]

No, the biggest thing, and the very first thing they showed is how they're unfucking MacOS from the nigger disaster that was Liquid Glass. The overrounded corners? Gone. Stupid accents on sidebars and refractions? Gone. Frivolous icons on menus? Gone

I didn't watch anything after that, instead I installed the beta. Lots of shit is broken but the visual adjustments are so worth it that I'd rather stay than go back to Tahoe. And you can see that they're only getting started.

Supposedly the nigger that did Liquid Glass fled the ship right after that to Meta, so they're slowly rolling back the damage he did

I'd still prefer to go back to the glory days of Aqua/Platinum combo. It was peak OS X

I miss brushed metal.