Weekender #79 — M2 MacBook Air

• Birb watch: still no update on Tailless the mountain dove. I believe their caretaker has been really busy with a lot of other birds. I am hopeful that they are doing well. In other birb news: the baby myna have left the neighbors roof nook. Handsome and Matey spent a good portion of Sunday and Monday luring them out. From what I could see (using binoculars), the baby myna was fairly large… so much so that it looked like a grown, adult myna. Since then, there have been no physical sighting of the new baby myna at all, which is a bit strange… Handsome and Matey have been hanging out in the driveway, but I’m not sure where the fledglings are.

• At work, I’m starting the process of investigating iOS and macOS hardware for our next large scale deployment to faculty and students. The timeline for ordering the new equipment is usually in March for delivery by the end of April, start of May timeframe. While Apple Silicon M1 Macs have been out for a while, I didn’t rush out and get one. I’ve been relying on a 2020 13” MacBook Pro (Intel) as my daily driver since it’s release. Seeing that I need to know the equipment we’ll be purchasing for everyone, I decided to order the new MacBook Air M2 to see how it holds up in daily use. It arrived on Thursday, so these are some quick thoughts:

  • My first impression is that the new hardware design of the MacBook Air is fantastic. The chassis feels like a very nice step up from the original “wedge” design of the MacBook Air. It’s hard to describe how good it feels compared to the older design. It just feels solid. That solidness lends to the illusion of more weight, at least it did for me. The M2 MacBook Air is actually 0.1 lbs. lighter than the previous M1 MacBook Air, and almost a half pound lighter than my 13” MacBook Pro.

  • I’ve heard about how quickly the Apple Silicon Macs turn on from the moment the lid is lifted, but never really experienced it in a daily work situation until now. Even connecting to an external display from sleep is instantaneous. It’s really like an iPad.

  • To get an understanding of how quick the M2 processor is, I transcoded a 3 hour, 2K video from .mkv format to .m4v. What would usually take 3 hours of processing on my Intel MacBook Pro, took only 1 hour and 44 minutes on the M2 MacBook Air. Impressive!

  • Apple’s release cycles have been thrown off in the last couple of years. This is mostly due to the pandemic related supply chain issues that many are facing. But— if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, I think I’m fairly safe in believing that a newer MacBook Air won’t be released before March 2023.

This week’s Link List

• I’ve been looking into a different way to search this website, since Duck Duck Go’s site search seems like it’s never going to be fixed. I’m currently taking a look at Pagefind. I’ll see if I can find some time to tinker with it and see how well it works.

• Security is becoming more important in everyday internet use. I know a majority of people rarely check their home internet router for security patches or updates. Believe it or not, you could already be hacked and not know it. Router Security is an easy to digest website of tips showcasing how to secure your router.

• Found on Reddit: A user created a list of 170+ Playdate GitHub-exclusive games, apps, instruments, dev tools and novelties — all free. If you have a Playdate, check them out!

• VMware announced VMware Fusion 22H2 Tech Preview. If you have an Intel or Apple Silicon Mac and want to run Windows 11, this free, public release give you a chance to try it out.

• Comic creator friend Karl Kerschl has a new comic called Death Transit Tanager that you can read online for free. Please check it out!

Media consumption

• We started watching Paper Girls, the Prime Video series based on the comic book written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang that was published back in 2015. At first glance, some viewers might make the comparison to the Netflix show, Stranger Things, but I feel it’s more reminiscent of Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me, but with a female cast and a science fiction storyline. Casting couldn’t have been more spot on for the four main characters!

• I got through this week with the synthesizer soundscapes of Greg Float’s Psychosynthesis, which was recorded during the 2020 lockdown. The collection is a cross between chill out and jazz-funk. Listen on Bandcamp | Apple Music.