Archive for the ‘MacBook-Pro’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/10/12
I wanted to use my old 9.7 inch iPad Pro 1st generation (yes – really old) as an Apple Sidecar external screen (iPad confusingly names this Continuity, but that OS X Yosemite feature does not fully support Sidecar), so needed the resolution to get a rough idea on what kind of settings would get the lease pixel scaling.
This was useful, but lacks the Apple model numbers: [Wayback/Archive] iOS Resolution // Display properties of every iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch Apple ever made
It meant I had to:
- get my iPad model number (iPad -> Settings -> About -> Model Number -> click on the “MLMN2NF/A” -> “A1673”)
- map the model number to a model name via [Wayback/Archive] Identify your iPad model – Apple Support: A1673 on the iPad Pro -> iPad Pro (9.7-inch)
- find the native resolution: iPad Pro (9.7-inch) -> [Wayback/Archive] iOS Resolution // iPad Pro (1st gen 9.7”)
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, ARM Mac, iOS, iPad, M1 Mac, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, macOS 10.14 Mojave., macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey, macOS 13 Ventura, macOS 14 Sonoma, macOS 15 Sequoia, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/06/26
Somehow the default dpi setting on my ARM MacBook Pro was 300dpi.
This caused all the specific printer settings saves (mostly permutations of N-up and single/double-sided) to have become 300dpi. Fine for scalable output (vector graphics and fonts), but awful for bitmap images.
[Wayback/Archive] How to change default printing dpi – Apple Community explains how to set the default:
- Print something to bring up the print dialog box.
- Make sure the Presets menu shows “Standard”.
- Change the dpi.
- Now from the Presets menu, choose “Save”.
- That should change the “Standard” settings.
But it fails to explain that the default is not retroactively applied to saved settings.
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, ARM Mac, LifeHacker, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/19
This still works for Apple Silicon based Macs: [Wayback/Archive] How can I tell what wattage my MacBook Pr… – Apple Community
TL;DR:
- Either:
- ⌘-space -> System Information.app
- menu -> About This Mac -> More Info… -> System Report…
Note that “System Report…” starts the “System Information.app” (how cool would naming consistency be…)
- Hardware -> Power
- Browse down to “AC Charger Information”
On my M1 MacBook Pro, the values depend on the charging ports used:
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Posted in Apple, M1 Mac, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/11/24
When I have an external monitor connected to my 2015 era Retina MacBook Pro machines, I wanted some apps to appear on the laptop screen and others on the external one.
That was harder than I hoped for as no single solution works in all cases.
What I do now is to make sure the icon bar is on the monitor where I want applications to open. Not perfect, but works for most cases.
Here are some links that helped me:
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Posted in Apple, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/11/10
TL;DR: it is impossible on a Mac to accurately measure power usage by attached USB devices. Only a general indication is possible, but it is unreliable.
[Wayback/Archive] How to monitor USB power consumption? – Ask Different
- System Profiler needs manual refresh and is a very rough indication
- iStatMenus is a graph, but not very accurate
- Activity Monitor is even rougher than the above
Related: [Wayback/Archive] View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac – Apple Support (UK)
Via: [Wayback/Archive] macos view usb power usage – Google Search
–jeroen
Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/11/03
Written a while ago, but forgot to schedule this in the blog queue.
This is in reverse chronological order and only for the models I have, had, or considered buying.
Table
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Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/08
Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, iOS, iPad, iPhone, LifeHacker, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/03
While recovering from cancer treatments and moving, I heavily cut down on spending money for my IT infrastructure as you can only spend money once.
Now that I have recovered quite a bit, and also gaining more income, I got more recent Apple hardware and could start to use this: [Wayback/Archive] Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac – Apple Support
It’s called Sidecar in Apple terminology and actually quite neat, though you need extra software to use the iPad in portrait mode (it is hard coded to landscape though a 10-inch iPad Pro fits very nicely in portrait position next to a 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro).
If I persist, I need to look at solutions like [Wayback/Archive] Rotated Sidecar · waydabber/BetterDisplay Wiki · GitHub ([Wayback/Archive] GitHub – waydabber/BetterDisplay: Unlock your displays on your Mac! Flexible HiDPI scaling, XDR/HDR extra brightness, virtual screens, DDC control, extra dimming, PIP/streaming, EDID override and lots more!)
Sidecar is part of Handoff, so these preconditions apply: [Wayback/Archive] Use Handoff to continue tasks on your other devices – Apple Support.
In the end, I think it is all based on AirDrop, especially because of the first Apple Support link above mentioning these “Additional requirements”:
Via:
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Posted in Apple, iOS, iPad, Mac, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/02/28
The winter after I bought my first ARM based (or Apple Silicon powered) MacBook I noticed that often about half an hour after sunset, within 10 seconds all the screens (the built-in and external ones) would get a red teint on them.
[Wayback/Archive] MacBook Red Screen Issue – SimplyMac was the very first search result, and mentioned this:
Adjusting Night Shift and True Tone
Night Shift and True Tone features can affect the color temperature of your display. Night Shift reduces blue light in the evenings, which can make the screen appear warmer. True Tone adjusts the display’s color temperature to match the ambient lighting. If these settings are misconfigured, they could contribute to the red screen issue. Check your Night Shift and True Tone settings in the Displays section of System Preferences to ensure they’re set correctly or turned off.
I had to turn off both Night Shift and True Tone to get rid of this artefact, though for some people that didn’t solve the issue: [Wayback/Archive] Screen has red tint at night (True Tone and Night Shift are Off) – Apple Community.
I fully agree with [Wayback/Archive] Am I the only one who prefers True Tone?* : macbookpro
The only thing I like about true tone is how great it looks when I turn it off.
…
I was soooo disappointed with how crap the display was on my M1 Max that I thought about selling it as soon as I got it. Decided to play around with display settings and found True Tone. Turned it off and felt immediate relief. That’s how bad I think True Tone is. Absolutely flabbergasted that Mac’s come out the box with it enabled.
My 2015 MBP screen looks better to me than a M series screen with True Tone on.
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, ARM Mac, Mac, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
