General Apple Megathread

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by bossy22

So with the stores closed, where can I get a new battery for my macbook pro?

It's in the US, but macsales.com (OWC) has been a go-to for me for a lot of hard to find items.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

It's in the US, but macsales.com (OWC) has been a go-to for me for a lot of hard to find items.

Bought RAM and an SSD for my late 2009 iMac from there at the beginning of the month, installed on the weekend.

Now it’s useable for the kids doing there schoolwork, without being annoyingly slow.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

AirPod 3's, leaked.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-airpods-3

The only update I really want is a case that can chirp. It's great to be able to make the buds emit a sound to find them, but it only works if they're out of the case. I always lose my case–with the buds inside of it.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Russic

The only update I really want is a case that can chirp. It's great to be able to make the buds emit a sound to find them, but it only works if they're out of the case. I always lose my case–with the buds inside of it.

How accurate is the “find my....” app?

[Sliver]

Fataing Apple. I honestly can't believe this POS company.

So my wife has an iPhone 6 through work. I bought her an Apple Watch Series 3 for her birthday. The watch worked fine with the phone per the Internet until Apple updated the watches to OS 6 and now the Apple watch won't work with the Apple phone. It's unbelievable and exactly the sort of reason I ditched my iPad, MacBook Pro, iPods and three different iPhones and went to Android. It's the type of crap I never have to deal with now.

For real, my Samsung watch (Active 2, which is their latest) will work with her iPhone. Any FitBit will work with her iPhone. Any Fossil watch will work with her iPhone. But Apple's watch won't work with her Apple phone because they intentionally made them go from compatible to incompatible with a software update. It's such an a-hole move on their part.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Fataing Apple. I honestly can't believe this POS company.

So my wife has an iPhone 6 through work. I bought her an Apple Watch Series 3 for her birthday. The watch worked fine with the phone per the Internet until Apple updated the watches to OS 6 and now the Apple watch won't work with the Apple phone. It's unbelievable and exactly the sort of reason I ditched my iPad, MacBook Pro, iPods and three different iPhones and went to Android. It's the type of crap I never have to deal with now.

For real, my Samsung watch (Active 2, which is their latest) will work with her iPhone. Any FitBit will work with her iPhone. Any Fossil watch will work with her iPhone. But Apple's watch won't work with her Apple phone because they intentionally made them go from compatible to incompatible with a software update. It's such an a-hole move on their part.

Man, that sucks. I don't know how you do it, but perhaps downgrade to a lower iOS?

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by fleury

Man, that sucks. I don't know how you do it, but perhaps downgrade to a lower iOS?

My daughter has an iPhone 6 as well and when the watchOS update came out the second line said “watchOS 6 requires iPhone 6s or later with iOS 13 or later installed”. She walked over to me and asked what type of phone she has. I can totally get the frustration over this but it was communicated before the update and that particular update was not an automatic update for that reason as it requires iOS 13 to pair.

How did you do the update as it does not allow you to update the watch through the phone app to iOS 6 when the phone is running iOS 12?

You have to send in your watch to downgrade watchOS you can do this through Apple help just tell them your issue. The upside is the normally just give you a new watch when you send it in as that has happened to me 3 times and twice they actually upgraded the model as well (series 0 to series 1 then later upgraded that to a series 2)

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by fleury

Man, that sucks. I don't know how you do it, but perhaps downgrade to a lower iOS?

Apparently you have to mail your watch to Apple and they'll downgrade the watch OS to OS 5 and then it'll work again. There is no way to do it at home. We're just going to return it and buy something else instead. I have instituted a no-Apple policy in our house. They're not getting another dime from us. This just seems so lame and unnecessary. Particularly because the watch was advertised as working with the iPhone 6 and then they took that away likely in an effort to prod people into upgrading their phones, which I'm sure will work on many people.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

My daughter has an iPhone 6 as well and when the watchOS update came out the second line said “watchOS 6 requires iPhone 6s or later with iOS 13 or later installed”. She walked over to me and asked what type of phone she has. I can totally get the frustration over this but it was communicated before the update and that particular update was not an automatic update for that reason as it requires iOS 13 to pair.

How did you do the update as it does not allow you to update the watch through the phone app to iOS 6 when the phone is running iOS 12?

You have to send in your watch to downgrade watchOS you can do this through Apple help just tell them your issue. The upside is the normally just give you a new watch when you send it in as that has happened to me 3 times and twice they actually upgraded the model as well (series 0 to series 1 then later upgraded that to a series 2)

This is a new watch, just purchased (you can still buy Apple Watch Series 3 brand new from many retailers, including Apple). They are now shipping Series 3 watches with OS 6, so you don't have the option to decline the upgrade.

I went back and checked the Apple website and if you scroll right to the bottom of the page, in tiny greyed-out font it does say 6s or higher. You could argue I was warned; however, it doesn't change the fact that I knew the Series 3 worked with iPhone 6 phones because I have two friends that had this exact set up. The hardware works together fine. Apple changed the software knowing it would mean people were going to buy this watch and not have it work with their iPhones. I'm sure they crunched the numbers and determined it'll push enough people to upgrade their phones to work with the watch and they didn't care about the people that wouldn't/couldn't.

If you look up this issue online, there are many people totally piiiiiissssssed about it. Not the end of the world, of course, but super annoying, unnecessary, and a total hassle to rectify considering I can't just go to the mall right now.

[cam_wmh]

End of life support for either OS, whether Android or iOS, is common.

I'd keep an eye on this page, to avoid it in the future, as support ended a month ago for the 5s/6 (similar internals), which was released in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices

Conversely, the S7, from 2016, had its support ended last fall.

If you're less concerned about device security, and obviously as stated inter-operability, Android is the way to go.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

End of life support for either OS, whether Android or iOS, is common.

I'd keep an eye on this page, to avoid it in the future, as support ended a month ago for the 5s/6 (similar internals), which was released in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices

Conversely, the S7, from 2016, had its support ended last fall.

If you're less concerned about device security, and obviously as stated inter-operability, Android is the way to go.

Don't you see that it's not a lack of support, but rather an unnecessary software change that broke the connection between two devices that formerly worked together? That's a big difference in understanding my complaint. I'm not upset the phone doesn't have software beyond iOS 12. That's fine. I'm upset the software changed on the watch causing it to no longer work with the phone with no way of reversing that. It's created an inconvenience and a disappointment.

And no, I'm not going to be checking in on a random wikipedia page before I buy stuff to see how it works. Like, nobody would think of doing that so it's a ridiculous suggestion.

[Wormius]

They should have had the update initiated by the device it is paired with. That way they could better control over compatibility issues. Or else checked the pairing on the watch itself and not started the update.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Wormius

They should have had the update initiated by the device it is paired with. That way they could better control over compatibility issues. Or else checked the pairing on the watch itself and not started the update.

They do. WatchOS 6 could not be initiated by a device below iOS 13. However not everyone who owns a Apple Watch has an Apple phone so Apple allows you to update a watch to watchOS independently and puts warnings on the update page letting you know what devices (and iOS that is required) it is compatible with.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

They do. WatchOS 6 could not be initiated by a device below iOS 13. However not everyone who owns a Apple Watch has an Apple phone so Apple allows you to update a watch to watchOS independently and puts warnings on the update page letting you know what devices (and iOS that is required) it is compatible with.

It still sounds like they could have rolled it out better. At least if the watch was paired with an older phone, then just don’t update it. That should be easy enough for the watch to check before the install. If the user still wants to force the update, fine.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Wormius

It still sounds like they could have rolled it out better. At least if the watch was paired with an older phone, then just don’t update it. That should be easy enough for the watch to check before the install. If the user still wants to force the update, fine.

That’s literally exactly how they rolled it out. Phone would not let you update, you had to force the update on your watch and and click ok through 2 separate warning screens. One for the initial download and a second for the install. Both outlined the compatibility. So Apple put 3 stop signs in front of people and if they drove through all three there not much that can be done.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

That’s literally exactly how they rolled it out. Phone would not let you update, you had to force the update on your watch and and click ok through 2 separate warning screens. One for the initial download and a second for the install. Both outlined the compatibility. So Apple put 3 stop signs in front of people and if they drove through all three there not much that can be done.

Oh. Weird then. What the heck did Sliver do?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

That’s literally exactly how they rolled it out. Phone would not let you update, you had to force the update on your watch and and click ok through 2 separate warning screens. One for the initial download and a second for the install. Both outlined the compatibility. So Apple put 3 stop signs in front of people and if they drove through all three there not much that can be done.

Originally Posted by Wormius

Oh. Weird then. What the heck did Sliver do?

As of right now, when you buy a new Apple Watch Series 3, it already has OS 6, so out of the box the Apple Watch doesn't work with her Apple phone. It's preposterous. The hardware works together fine because this watch used to work with this phone. Now, they changed the software on the watch and it prevents it from working with their own phone. It would cost them $0 to make sure they still worked well together, but instead, they would rather I spend $1,000 or so on a new phone for the privilege of using their products together.

Maybe some of you who have been loyal to Apple for years don't see a problem with this. Other ecosystems I have experience with don't do this type of thing. I've had a Pebble smartwatch, a Fossil smartwatch and a Samsung smartwatch. All of the watches I've had will work with any phone, be it iOS or Android. I know it's not a challenge for these companies to allow a friggin' watch to be paired to a phone. It's a nothing. Apple allowed this with my wife's phone, and then they took it away. You can say, 'larf, look at this guy expecting free stuff from Apple' or whatever it is you tell yourself that lets you accept ridiculous stuff like this, but I'm not going to. I know it's an a-hole move on their part and it annoys me.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

They do. WatchOS 6 could not be initiated by a device below iOS 13. However not everyone who owns a Apple Watch has an Apple phone so Apple allows you to update a watch to watchOS independently and puts warnings on the update page letting you know what devices (and iOS that is required) it is compatible with.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I highly doubt many Android users are using an Apple Watch.

Can you use an Apple Watch with an Android phone?

So the short and simple answer is No, you cannot use an Apple Watch with Android Phones. The less simple answer is that you can sort-of, kind-of, get an Apple Watch to tersely exchange data with an Android phone. However, this is a severely limited setup and we can’t really recommend it.

Were you kind of suggesting my wife can't use her new Apple Watch with her iPhone 6 because Apple wanted to make the watch more accessible to Android smartphone users and her Apple phone was just collateral damage in some sort of altruistic software decision to open up their ecosystem to Google's customers? That's a stretch to say the least. They did this to get people to upgrade their phone. You can be okay with that, but don't pretend their motivation is anything other than the obvious.

[Wormius]

No, I do see a problem. They should have prevented any watch that was paired with an iPhone 6 or lower from updating firmware. That information is stored on the watch and it should have steered people away from updating it until it was paired with a newer model iPhone, at least.

I don’t know if the watches allow you do do a full back up like the phone, but that might be a good idea for anybody to be doing with devices where they are happy with a particular firmware release.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Wormius

No, I do see a problem. They should have prevented any watch that was paired with an iPhone 6 or lower from updating firmware. That information is stored on the watch and it should have steered people away from updating it until it was paired with a newer model iPhone, at least.

I don’t know if the watches allow you do do a full back up like the phone, but that might be a good idea for anybody to be doing with devices where they are happy with a particular firmware release.

Oh yeah and sorry if it seemed I was annoyed by your comments because I wasn't. Just annoyed at Apple. They don't operate how I like companies to operate, but I'm not their customer anymore so it typically doesn't affect me.