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I May Get My Wife's Unwanted M2 MBA

Buadhai said:
I thought my wife would be thrilled with the M2 MBA that I bought for her to replace her 2017 13" MBA.

I was wrong. She's a busy attorney and moving from the old machine to the new MBA has been a time consuming hassle that she would rather do without.

The main problem, as she sees it, is that the new machine doesn't have enough of the right kind of ports.

She mainly uses her old MBA at her office and our condo. Both places have monitors to which she connects using the old MBA's mini-DVI port, printers to which she connects via the MBA's USB-A port. She uses the other USB-A port for her Time Machine drive or an external USB keyboard.

She has Mag-Safe 2(?) chargers at both her office and the condo. The M2 came with one Mag-Safe 3(?), so she'll have to buy another.

She very much dislikes the idea of having to use a hub to connect her stuff. She'll either have to haul the hub around, or buy enough hubs to populate home, office and condo.

None of this would bother me. I'd accept it as an interesting challenge and would enjoy getting everything working right. Spending money doesn't bother me as much as it does her.

Of course, I'm retired and have nothing but time on my hands.

The upside is that I may end up replacing my kernel panic plagued 2017 iMac with the M2 MBA and, perhaps, a nice big display to go with it.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.
Click to expand...
I see this as one of those short term issues then you never want to go back. Similar to when the lightning connector was introduced. Oh my god-- we have to get all new cables and adapters. So much easier using this cable. Now we get ready to change to USB-C on our iPhones. I am ready for this. FYI I have the new MBAir- just moved my niece over to it, was the usual process of updates and reentering a few passwords. Was simple. I also got one for myself as a second computer for traveling. MBPro16M2 is the primary.
 
apparatchik said:
but they definitely benefit from an all-day battery life, which sounds like something the OP’s wife could use when going from office to home to condo.

heck, depending on usage patterns, she might not need the extra magsafe chargers as a single charge every two days might do, as does the fact that you have usb-“ c charging as a fallback.
Click to expand...
yeah probably, but one thing i witnessed is lawyers are pretty resistant to changes, especially in tech. i have a law school buddy whos now in workers comp, the only reason why he start using a macbook pro cause his firm supplied it. and for the longest time, he was pretty fine with his 600 bucks hp laptop. then again westlaw and lexis doesn't require much anyway.
 
Student of Life said:
Thats great. How do you like living in Thailand? I assume business is booming with expats. In the states we use Westlaw, Lexus. How good is amazon or its equivalent in Thailand, since that might make getting the hub more challenging. The main advantages of a new laptop will be the ability to keep multiple tabs open, which helps when dealing with complex issues.
Click to expand...
lexis, although my supervisor do drive a lexus.
 
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apparatchik said:
but they definitely benefit from an all-day battery life, which sounds like something the OP’s wife could use when going from office to home to condo.

heck, depending on usage patterns, she might not need the extra magsafe chargers as a single charge every two days might do, as does the fact that you have usb-“ c charging as a fallback.
Click to expand...
I remain baffled. I did everything I could to make this easy, transparent and attractive. The MBA is the 16GB/512GB model. I migrated everything from her M1 iMac to the MBA. I bought a hub with an HDMI port for the condo so she could connect to her external display and printer without adapters. I bought a 65 watt Anker 3 port USB-C charger so she could charge the MBA without having to bring the Mag Safe charger. I bought a 1 TB portable SSD for easy quick backup.

Oh, well.
 
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Student of Life said:
Thats great. How do you like living in Thailand? I assume business is booming with expats. In the states we use Westlaw, Lexus. How good is amazon or its equivalent in Thailand, since that might make getting the hub more challenging. The main advantages of a new laptop will be the ability to keep multiple tabs open, which helps when dealing with complex issues.
Click to expand...
Thailand is OK. The city in which we reside (Nakhon Ratchasima - AKA Korat) isn’t much to write home about but we do have a beach condo where we spend one week a month.

Business is booming. She’s one of the few Thai attorneys in our area who is fluent in English so she gets more work than she can easily handle. I’d prefer she work a lot less.

Thailand is not a common law country, so legal research is much less important than it is in the US. No need for something like Westlaw or Lexis. No need for writing briefs with cites in most cases. The only precedents that matter are those by the Supreme Court.

For online shopping I use Lazada, sort of an Amazon Marketplace. Easy to get stuff like hubs, cables, etc.
 
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Buadhai said:
Yep, really heavy, but solid.

I’ve replaced the battery a couple of times, but, as you note, they don’t last long. The dealer I bought from here in Thailand was pretty straight up about that.

View attachment 2038007
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I really miss this machine. Sturdy, reliable, not swamped/slowed by constant OS X updates, and keyboard felt like an extension of my mind and hand.

It isn't so much an aversion to change as it is not needing to change for change's sake.

Sometimes, it feels like we really don't need this much change as human beings. It is being thrust on us by businesses trying to show a constant stream of income for their investors and keep their workforce busy/paid. We don't have to buy, upgrade, or spend, but at some point, there's a forcing function, like Xcode, Safari/WebKit, Slack, or design software failing to work on older OS.

If I weren't a developer constantly being pushed to upgrade macOS to get working Xcode, I'd just stick with writing books and articles on a ten-year-old machine. Not kidding!

The software industry can learn a lot from the publishing industry -- let older devices continue to run older software without forcing upgrades, like the Nintendo Game Boy or DS.
 
Chester Stone said:
I really miss this machine. Sturdy, reliable, not swamped/slowed by constant OS X updates, and keyboard felt like an extension of my mind and hand.
Click to expand...

I’m using my old White MB this week. The keyboard is a pleasure.

I don’t much like the modern flat keyboards without much key travel. At home I use a Logitech K120 which is almost as good as the keyboard on the old IBM 3270.
 
Buadhai said:
I thought my wife would be thrilled with the M2 MBA that I bought for her to replace her 2017 13" MBA.

I was wrong. She's a busy attorney and moving from the old machine to the new MBA has been a time consuming hassle that she would rather do without.

The main problem, as she sees it, is that the new machine doesn't have enough of the right kind of ports.

She mainly uses her old MBA at her office and our condo. Both places have monitors to which she connects using the old MBA's mini-DVI port, printers to which she connects via the MBA's USB-A port. She uses the other USB-A port for her Time Machine drive or an external USB keyboard.

She has Mag-Safe 2(?) chargers at both her office and the condo. The M2 came with one Mag-Safe 3(?), so she'll have to buy another.

She very much dislikes the idea of having to use a hub to connect her stuff. She'll either have to haul the hub around, or buy enough hubs to populate home, office and condo.

None of this would bother me. I'd accept it as an interesting challenge and would enjoy getting everything working right. Spending money doesn't bother me as much as it does her.

Of course, I'm retired and have nothing but time on my hands.

The upside is that I may end up replacing my kernel panic plagued 2017 iMac with the M2 MBA and, perhaps, a nice big display to go with it.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.
Click to expand...
So a GAS filled husband and a wife focused on continuing to get work done. Add to it bored retired guy with too much time on his hands and a busy working wife. The writing was on the wall she was not going to want to switch just because something is new. Husband should keep the MBA and buy a guitar and watch Youtube all day learning to polish his new guitar and lust for more guitar not computers and be happy his wife still works.
 
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Gone but not forgotten.

tempImageiBkBFA.png


I asked, in my very poor Thai, for a receipt. But he didn't have one. So, I asked if I could take a photo. He was happy to comply.
 
Apple's return instructions just say something like original packaging with no mention of the shipping container. As you can see the DHL driver was happy accept it. It has now been delivered to Apple.
 
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lol, it's suppose to go back in the brown apple box it came in, wouldn't like it to turn up like that. Will be trashed by the time apple get it.
Wonder if DHL man new his photo was going to be plastered on the internet?
 
lbalk said:
I see this as one of those short term issues then you never want to go back. Similar to when the lightning connector was introduced. Oh my god-- we have to get all new cables and adapters. So much easier using this cable. Now we get ready to change to USB-C on our iPhones. I am ready for this. FYI I have the new MBAir- just moved my niece over to it, was the usual process of updates and reentering a few passwords. Was simple. I also got one for myself as a second computer for traveling. MBPro16M2 is the primary.
Click to expand...
Ok I'll be the one to say it, seeing no one else has in a week.
That computer does not exist.
 
Last edited:
Bodhitree said:
What are you going to get instead of the MBA? I mean that money has to go somewhere…
Click to expand...
No plans to buy anything at the moment. My wife is happy with her M1 iMac and her 2015 MBA. I have a 2017 21" Retina iMac. It is plagued with kernel panics now, but otherwise I'm happy with it. I also have a 2010 MacBook (white) that I use at our condo and I'm fine with it. I mainly use it to log on via SSH to a few headless Raspberry Pies. I'm not really fond of laptops which is why I didn't keep the M1 MBA for myself.

So, the money will go back in the bank.

If the kernel panics start to get worse, I'll probably buy an M1 iMac or an M1 Mac mini for myself. Undecided.
 
Ok, so you had no intentions of getting the wife’s Air 2 if you don’t like laptops lol
 
Dealmans said:
Ok, so you had no intentions of getting the wife’s Air 2 if you don’t like laptops lol
Click to expand...
I had actually considered it. Use it as a desktop with a decent monitor, but that ended up making no sense at all. I've never bought a laptop for myself, although right now there are four in our three person family.
 
Buadhai said:
No plans to buy anything at the moment. My wife is happy with her M1 iMac and her 2015 MBA. I have a 2017 21" Retina iMac. It is plagued with kernel panics now, but otherwise I'm happy with it. I also have a 2010 MacBook (white) that I use at our condo and I'm fine with it. I mainly use it to log on via SSH to a few headless Raspberry Pies. I'm not really fond of laptops which is why I didn't keep the M1 MBA for myself.

So, the money will go back in the bank.
Click to expand...

But… that’s sacrilege! All unspent money of forum members must immediately be spent on Apple products, didn’t you know?
 
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