Apple Operating Systems (macOS, iOS, watchOS, & tvOS) Catch-All

In my work place we probably had about 8 generations of Macbook Pros running bootcamp. For the most part it runs fine but the the bootcamp Windows power controls and battery stuff is pretty bad. We just resigned to leave them in desktop mode with all power settings turned off.

TLDR = Just put the Windows power settings to Max performance / high performance

How are the fans when gaming in bootcamp these days? I remember a few years ago they went from 0 to max speed/noise all the time.

I'm curious, what does the touch bar even do in Boot Camp Windows?

LeapingGnome wrote:

How are the fans when gaming in bootcamp these days? I remember a few years ago they went from 0 to max speed/noise all the time.

I only fired up FTL and an old adventure game The Longest Journey so far. No fan noise yet. In fact, although I've only had it a short time, I haven't gotten any noticeable fan noise out of this pc yet.

T-Prime wrote:

I'm curious, what does the touch bar even do in Boot Camp Windows?

I had set macOS to show the brightness and media keys by default and that setting seems to have carried over to Windows. From left to right the touch bar shows Esc, Brightness, Keyboard Brightness, Previous/PlayPause/Next, and Volume. If I hold control, it shows the Function keys. Everything works brilliantly.

LeapingGnome wrote:

How are the fans when gaming in bootcamp these days? I remember a few years ago they went from 0 to max speed/noise all the time.

Mine does that every few months, but then it also does it on the macOS side from time to time. So maybe I have a different problem.

My Mac Mini 2014 still does it.

Unfortunately my bootcamp trial was short-lived. The laptop is company provided and even though I have root access, the management software is preventing partitioning the disc.

Does anyone know if a MacBook is secured with FileVault, is the Windows partition also encrypted? Or do I have to also encrypt the Windows partition separately? Right now, Windows is showing as unsecured.

This is a company laptop so I need to be sure it's encrypted.

I'm pretty sure Windows would have to be encrypted separately. However it wouldn't be able to access files on the encrypted partition so they would still be secure.

Filevault only encrypts the Mac partition, and things like Bitlocker on Windows need to change boot parameters and that's a no no for Mac, and that's an issue. Thats another point for running Fusion or Parallels - but that of course limits your gaming options a lot.

Thanks all for the info. It seems BitLocker doesn't play nice with Boot Camp, so I guess I'll look for something third-party.

I am now an iPhone owner...i hate it. I switched to ATT and their best deal was a buy one get one free with the iPhone or the GS8. I figured the iPhone would be easier to sell, so I got it. That bad part, I have to use it until my OnePlus 5T arrives. While I have it I want to give it an honest shot, so I can say I hate it from actually using one.

A few questions:

Can I make the dock at the bottom of the home screen transparent instead of a gray bar?

Can I put widgets anywhere other than the far left screen?

Can I make the red notification saying I have 2000 emails go away?

Is it possible to get the store to only require a password/finger print for actual purchases?

Can I make the home button a button that only goes home? Sometimes when I press it it behaves like a back button.

Can you make it group notifications from the same app? If I get 5 messages from the same person it shows as 5 separate notifications.

1. No (insert sigh here - it would have been such an easy win)

2. No.

3. On the lock screen? On the App icon? Which notification? If Lock Screen, swipe the notification left to see options. If App Icon, only if you go into Settings -> Notifications -> Scroll to and select Mail and flip App Badge off.

4. I thought so. I’ll have to hunt to option. Should be in Settings -> TouchID and Passcode maybe?

5. Uh..hmm. Another one I’d have to go hunting for. How does it act like a back button for you?

6. No

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Can I make the home button a button that only goes home? Sometimes when I press it it behaves like a back button.

Do you mean it brings up the app-switcher? That only happens if you double-tap the Home button. It will always go to the Home screen if you just press it once.

Gravey wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Can I make the home button a button that only goes home? Sometimes when I press it it behaves like a back button.

Do you mean it brings up the app-switcher? That only happens if you double-tap the Home button. It will always go to the Home screen if you just press it once.

If I launch an app from a folder, the home button goes back to the folder. If I press home while on the app switcher, it goes back to the last app I was using.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

If I launch an app from a folder, the home button goes back to the folder.

Technically that's on the Home screen.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

If I press home while on the app switcher, it goes back to the last app I was using.

Oh that's interesting, I never noticed that. If I want to go home from the app switcher, I've always just tapped on the space outside the apps.

Well those things you can't change. AFAIK the only changes to the Home button that are possible are accessing Siri (or not), turning on triple-click for accessibility stuff, and rest-finger-for-TouchID (or not).

4. Yes.

I agree, a lot of easy wins here. I don't like everything about Android but I'm quite jealous of my wife's Galaxy.

iOS11 has a bug that no one seems to acknowledge with the dock transparency. If you turn “reduce transparency” on and off, the dock will be transparent like it should be. It won’t last though. it’ll eventually go back to ugly boring grey.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Is it possible to get the store to only require a password/finger print for actual purchases?

Free purchases go on your Purchase record just like paid purchases.

Ah, sorry, I misread that.
4. No.

Just in case there's anyone who missed the news:

High Sierra (OS 10.13, the current Mac OS) has a critical security bug that allows anyone with physical access to the computer to log in as root without a password. Apple have just released a fix for this; if you open the Mac App Store you will find it listed with the pending updates. (If it isn't listed there, either it's already been applied automatically, or you're running an earlier version of the OS that isn't vulnerable.)

If you find this update listed, install it immediately. (It takes only a few seconds and does not require a reboot.)

Thanks! Installed.

athros wrote:

3. On the lock screen? On the App icon? Which notification? If Lock Screen, swipe the notification left to see options. If App Icon, only if you go into Settings -> Notifications -> Scroll to and select Mail and flip App Badge off.

It was the badge and that made it go away. Thanks.

I'm learning that it's

https://youtu.be/9Ht5RZpzPqw

that are going to make me not enjoy iPhone. There is no one big smoking gun. Just a hand full of quirks that I think Android does better.

PS I couldn't figure out how to paste that link into the YouTube url box. Long press wasn't doing anything within the box.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

PS I couldn't figure out how to paste that link into the YouTube url box. Long press wasn't doing anything within the box.

Tap in the box first, that’ll pop the keyboard, then long press. GWJ is about the only site I seem to need to do that with but *shrug*

Mr GT Chris wrote:

4. Yes.

I agree, a lot of easy wins here. I don't like everything about Android but I'm quite jealous of my wife's Galaxy.

Has the build quality improved? I switched from a 2nd generation iPhone (iPhone 3G? I don't remember) to the Galaxy S3 and thought it felt like a cheap, plastic kids toy. I was thrilled when my daughter chucked it onto our tile floor a year and a half later and shattered the screen. That and the sh*tty Samsung software almost pushed me back to an iPhone. Luckily, it's not too hard to find nice hardware that runs Android (I ended up with the Nexus 5 and am still happily using it), but my first exposure to it certainly wasn't positive.

It really depends on the manufacturer, doesn't it. My Motorola Droid cracked the first time I dropped it from waist-high. My LG G3 was like a tank. So far, the Pixel 2 seems very solid (which leads me to believe that HTC build quality is probably pretty good also.

I was not impressed with the Galaxy S phones I took for a test drive at the store.

It's a Galaxy Feel which I think is a Japan only budget oriented Galaxy model. It's not big but it's a good size compared to my SE. Screen looks great. I find Android a little fiddly but I eventually got it to where my wife needed it and now it's great.

Is there an equivalent app to Google Now? Essentially a news app that knows my interest and surfaces those articles.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Is there an equivalent app to Google Now? Essentially a news app that knows my interest and surfaces those articles.

I'm pretty sure that feature is built into the Google Search app - at least it used to be. I stopped using it a while back because I didn't find it all that useful.

I'm still all about good old fashioned rss via Feedly. If you want "smarter" news apps try Flipboard or Apple News.

Alas, corporate shot down my X order, so I've now got and 8+ incoming. We'll see how the larger size works.

As for Android what I remember is that there's no cohesion to the system, it feels like a disjointed collection of apps with a Vendor X reskin of some parts. While the UI is now probably inferior on IOS, it just feels better to use day to day. Mind you my experience is mostly from Galaxy series from a few year ago, maybe things are better now.