Apple

I have two MacBooks that I acquired through two different startups. Both companies no longer exist and I was basically given the laptops. (They have just been sitting in my closet for a few years collecting dust, and it seems like a waste.)

Unfortunately, now that I want to use the laptops as part of a local k8s cluster (or even dedicated music production hardware), I am locked out of wiping the things because they want to connect to MDM servers that no longer exist or have admin passwords that have long since been forgotten.

Since these laptops are essentially "bricked" I have no problems opening them up and attempting hardware hacks to get around this stuff.

Both laptops are in various states of reset or wipe due to previous attempts to reset. (Funny thing, actually. I was personally responsible for locking down one of these laptops at the time they were in corporate use...)

Trash or treasure? I dunno. I am apple-dumb.

Both my M2 Air, and my 6th gen Pro have bent frames, and I am at a loss to explain how that happened

What’s going on with Apple Sports? Game is 21-3 at half…they show OU scoring 3 pts in 1st quarter, TX scoring 21 pts in 2nd quarter, and that results in 15-3??

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20732007

Not sure when iCloud on the web got this good, finally becoming a legit alternative to Google Drive or OneDrive

@apple_enthusiast

I adopted a new kitten a few weeks ago, and ended up with 4 albums for him. One I think is a person, an actual contact. One I was able to combine with one of the others, and then another album showed up for him with a different picture. So I am back to 4 albums for him.

I tried adding the main album and deleting him from the others and that seems to work on some images but not others.

If I select two or more albums and try to merge it is greyed out. If I try and drag them into one another the other album moves.

Anyone found a solution for this situation?

Kitten tax:

The first time I met him.

After spending about 20 minutes taming him.

Big stretch.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44256463

Source Bloomber article

I’m a web developer but I also do tons of work with large files being transferred across the network, I do some CPU intensive tasks from time to time, run Docker containers, etc. all on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM.

Well it’s 2024 now and the thing still screams. So what I don’t understand is: why are there suddenly so many enraged tech news websites bashing on the 8GB base RAM?

I get it that some people need more than just 8GB, but for the cliche web browsing, email and social media user it’s not adding up to me why anyone is so enraged about this.

@apple_enthusiast It pains me to see all the efforts of Apple in the Apple Vision Pro, whereas what would really have made a significant difference is an Apple printer. Like a printer that actually works in a really, really easy way.

💩posting after a 5+ year-old memory came to mind. The face of the employee I’d been chatting with (before momentarily freeing my hand) was positively aghast. Olympic contender in no-coaster defense competitions, guarding the impervious exterior of large corporate marketing assets like it’s the Mona Lisa.

“OBVIOUSLY you’re not supposed to put anything on it!” -my friend

(A little context - I would hope to be described as deferential and polite, occasionally even to a fault.) Oops

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/26195613

EDIT: Full instructions added: Custom iOS alert sounds. Currently I am making a bunch more from Alien. Personally, I like assigning each of my most frequent contacts their own custom sound.

#INSTRUCTIONS

Here is the complete set of instructions, including both iOS-only and Mac/iTunes-based methods, combined into one cohesive guide for creating and transferring a custom ringtone or alert tone to multiple iOS devices.

spoiler How to Create and Set Custom Ringtones or Alert Tones Using GarageBand (iOS and Mac)

Part 1: Create a Ringtone Using GarageBand on iOS

1. Open GarageBand on your iPhone or iPad.

• If you don’t have GarageBand installed, download it for free from the App Store.

2. Create a new project:

• Tap the + icon to start a new project.

• Select Audio Recorder as the instrument.

• Tap the Tracks View button (third button from the left) to enter track editing mode.

3. Import the audio file you want to use as a ringtone:

• Tap the Loop icon (top-right corner of the screen).

• In the Files tab, choose Browse items from the Files app.

• Locate your audio file (M4R, MP3, or another compatible format) and tap to import it into GarageBand.

4. Trim the audio to 30 seconds or less:

• Tap and hold the edges of the audio region and drag to shorten it to 30 seconds (the maximum length for ringtones on iOS).

• Use the Play button to preview your trimmed clip.

5. Export the ringtone:

• Tap the downward arrow in the top-left corner, then select My Songs.

• In the My Songs folder, tap and hold the project, then select Share.

• Choose Ringtone from the sharing options.

• Name the ringtone, then tap Export.

• After exporting, GarageBand will prompt you to Use sound as…. Choose whether to set it as your Standard Ringtone, Standard Text Tone, or assign it to a contact.

Part 2: Create and Sync Ringtones via Mac (Using iTunes or Finder)

If you prefer to work on your Mac, here’s how you can import an audio file and create a custom ringtone using GarageBand on macOS and then sync it with your iOS devices:

Step 1: Import Audio into GarageBand on Mac

1. Open GarageBand on your Mac.

2. Click File > New to create a new project.

3. Choose Empty Project, then click Choose.

4. In the new project, select the Audio track option under “Track Type,” then click Create.

5. Drag the audio file you want to use for your ringtone into the workspace from Finder, or go to File > Import and select your audio file.

6. The audio file will appear as a waveform on the track.

Step 2: Trim the Audio for Ringtone Length

1. Adjust the audio length: Ringtones on iOS can be up to 30 seconds long, so trim your audio file to 30 seconds or less.

• To do this, click on the edge of the audio region in GarageBand and drag it to shorten the clip.

• You can preview the edited version by clicking the Play button.

Step 3: Export the Edited Audio as a Ringtone

1. Once your audio is ready and trimmed, go to Share > Ringtone to iTunes (or Music app on macOS Catalina or later).

2. In the pop-up window, name your ringtone and click Export.

• GarageBand will automatically export the file in a ringtone-friendly format (M4R) and send it to iTunes/Music.

Step 4: Sync the Ringtone to Your iPhone via iTunes or Finder

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac using a Lightning cable.

2. Open Finder (for macOS Catalina or later) or iTunes (on Mojave or earlier).

3. In Finder or iTunes, click on your iPhone in the sidebar.

4. Go to the Tones section under General or Sync tab.

5. Drag and drop your newly created M4R file from iTunes/Music into the Tones section of your iPhone.

6. Make sure the option to Sync Tones is checked, and click Sync to transfer the tone to your iPhone.

Step 5: Set the Ringtone or Alert Tone on Your iPhone

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone (or any other alert tone category).

2. Your custom ringtone should appear at the top of the list.

3. Tap to select and apply it as your ringtone or alert tone.

Part 3: Transfer the Custom Ringtone to Other iOS Devices

Since ringtones and alert tones do not sync automatically across iOS devices via iCloud, you’ll need to transfer them manually to each device.

Method 1: Transfer via iCloud Drive (iOS-Only Method)

1. Save the M4R file to iCloud Drive:

• When exporting the ringtone from GarageBand (on iOS or Mac), choose Save to Files and select iCloud Drive.

2. Access the file on other devices:

• On your other iOS devices, open the Files app and locate the M4R file in iCloud Drive.

3. Import the file into GarageBand on each iOS device:

• Open GarageBand, create a new project, and import the M4R file using the Loop icon and Files tab.

• Export it as a ringtone and set it via Settings > Sounds & Haptics.

Method 2: Transfer via AirDrop

1. AirDrop the M4R file:

• Open the Files app on your iPhone and locate the M4R file.

• Tap Share, then select AirDrop and send it to your other iOS devices.

2. Accept the file on the receiving devices and save it to Files.

3. Import the file into GarageBand:

• Open GarageBand on the other iOS devices, create a new project, and import the M4R file using the Loop icon and Files tab.

• Export it as a ringtone and apply it in Settings > Sounds & Haptics.

Part 4: Setting Custom Alert Tones Manually

Once the M4R file has been transferred to each iOS device, you can set it as an alert tone (e.g., Text Tone, New Mail, Calendar Alerts):

1. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Choose the specific sound category (e.g., Text Tone, New Mail, etc.).

3. Scroll to the top of the list, where your custom ringtone will appear under Ringtones or Alert Tones.

4. Select it to set the custom tone as the alert sound.

By following this combined guide, you can create custom ringtones or alert tones using either iOS-only or Mac/iTunes methods, and transfer them across multiple iOS devices using iCloud Drive or AirDrop.

I would be happy to share, and provide instructions in how to do it (Apple makes it a needlessly specific and hidden process (you can’t just share the files, you must also follow the exact process)), if there is any interest.!<

This needs to be explained a bit, so here's my problem:

• I use Focus for sleeping. I manually enable it when I go to bed and disable it when I wake up.
• My Focus setting disables notifications for email, calendar, and some messaging apps.
• My security camera app notifications are not disabled, obviously because I want to be alerted if something triggers it in the middle of the night.
• However, there is a certain time in the morning between 7:30AM and 8AM where people walking on the sidewalk triggers alerts that wake me up. And no, I want to avoid not pointing my cameras away from that part of the sidewalk because it helps me catch people letting their pets pee and poop on my yard.
• I usually wake up at 8AM and getting woken up 30 minutes earlier is annoying.
• I am willing to accept the risk of not getting notifications from my cameras on my phone for 30 minutes before I wake up.

What is the most practical way to disable notifications from an app on a scheduled time duration while Focus is already in use? Schedule it in Health? Create a shortcut/automation?

I purchased an M4 iPad Pro and it arrived today. I went to set it up from my previous iPad Pro but it is running iPadOS 18, and 17.7 is the highest for the M4 currently. I updated on the 17th I think (a day or two after 18 came out) and wondering if I should wipe the new iPad and start again and try using a 17.x backup, or set up as a new device.