Apple Silicon M1 Macs

Mac
#41

Unboxing an M1 iMac…

My dad’s M1 iMac arrived a week ago, and - with Apple’s 2 week return policy in mind - given lockdown / visiting rules not looking like relaxing too much too soon, I elected to open it up to make sure it wasn’t DOA.

I have to say, Apple makes an event out of their unboxing process. Was especially impressed upon opening the “lid”, and seeing the two arrows on either side. Following their suggestion, I pushed outward, and watched as the bottom also opened up to allow the iMac to be removed. Was like some kind of puzzle box full of hidden secrets.

As I “simply” wanted to check that the iMac powered up, and the keyboard / mouse worked, I tried not to unwrap everything, though that was pretty hard! In the end, the keyboard was still wrapped, Lighting/charging cable, and I kept the sticky screen protector sheet on - but took off the felt one.

Nice solid-sounding startup chime. Nothing compares with the TAM (har har), but still sounded pretty good.

Although my dad will in all likelihood not spend more than 2 minutes watching me set the computer up (or take it out of the box), as this is his first brand new Mac, I tried my best to put everything back how I found it. Not an easy process! In the end everything was almost as pretty as I found it - except the bloody power brick cable. I almost gave up and tossed the cardboard sleeve! A lot of work, considering he’ll no doubt be tossing the box in the bin the moment I’m out of the driveway coming home.

I doubt he’s going to accept the Magic Mouse. It’s just too slippery IMO - but I’ve never liked it. Having to keep it charged however will probably be the main problem. At least the keyboard (if I’m reading Google right) can remain plugged in. Not so the mouse.

Now however, the biggest question for me will be - What about my Solitaire!? That was the biggest pain in the ass when I moved him onto the 2008 iMac from the 2004 iMac - finding a new version of Solitaire that met with his approval…

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#42

Why can’t you use the same version of solitaire? M1 will run intel software

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#43

I’ll certainly give it a shot… Wasn’t sure how much of a compatibility issue there was. Usually these changes (ie Moto to PPC, PPC to Intel) there’s a degree of “just wont run”. Fingers crossed it just works. Will make things a lot easier.

#44

Rosetta 2 is bloody amazing. I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t run.

#45

Not if it’s a 32 bit app.

#46

Ah.

No idea, not even sure what it’s name is to try verify, and getting such a piece of info from my father would very well take half an hour… so - I’ll wait and see.

#47

True, but that’s an OS limitation not an M1/Rosetta limitation. Wouldn’t work on Catalina either in that case. :man_shrugging:

#48

Don’t mean to be a dick but if an M1 Mac can’t run an OS older than Big Sur then it is an M1/Rosetta limitation.

#49

This is the game… guessing he’s currently using a much older version given I installed it 5+ years ago.

Recent updates though, so maybe it will work on the M1.

#50

I have just emailed the Full Deck Software developer (https://www.grlgames.net/) and asked if they have tested and support Apple silicon.

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#51

I figured installing it on a M1 Mac was a pretty good way of checking compatibility…

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#52

Thank you so much both @kerr and @FaultyTaco !

At least that’s one less issue to deal with. Now if COVID could give me a window…

#53

Yeah utterly ridiculous that the only mouse Apple provides is wireless and cannot be used while being charged. I had an original Magic Mouse that used rechargeable batteries, that wasn’t so bad as I always kept a spare pair of charged batteries.

#54

He has a cheapo usb mouse, and I made sure to get a USB adapter, so he can use that if he doesn’t like the magic. Could give him my 2004 eMac mouse but - it’s mine! :slight_smile:

#55

Am in Horsham for first time in almost a year…!

M1 iMac now set up for my dad. Used his Time Machine backup from the old iMac to setup the new one, but having a few issues.

The (original) card game is working fine - after the Mac requested to install Rosetta.

MS Office 11 wont run (not 64 bit?). So, I’ll show dad Numbers instead… (and… the word processor…) Hopefully he’ll be ok with that. He only uses Excel for 1 spreadsheet… Writes a few letters in Word…

Email has become a nightmare. Was set up as POP on his old iMac, and he had about 2,000 emails that he’d kept on it over the past 10 odd years. So - initially, when I set the computer up I used Time Machine to bring everything over… but then when I opened Mail, it started retreiving emails from the Telstra server. He’s got 1tb of emails on the server…! (Well, maybe 90% of that much, because I went in a few months ago and deleted a bunch of old ones for him…) But now I dont know now to get him back to just having the 2,000-odd emails… so he doesn’t have to sort through 18,000!

Otherwise… going pretty well. I thought the Magic Mouse would not go down well, but he seems ok with it so far. It’s “different but similar” to the 2008 iMac/Mavericks…

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#56

Try logging into Telstra via web mail. If it works, show your Dad he can access his old emails that way.

You may then be able to use web mail to stop the download of the old emails.

#57

Hi @snarl

I’ve gone into Telstra webmail and deleted the 18,000 emails… just left a couple of days on there.

My problem now is to revert what’s on the new iMac (ie all 18000), back to what he had before (2000 emails).

I’ve been reading, and am hoping I can open Migration Assistant on the new iMac, and tell it to ‘migrate’ the Mail data. I believe it’s a shotgun approach - will be all documents - and I can live with that.

Failing that… I am thinking I’ll have to “reset” the iMac, and just import the whole Time Machine backup again.

I already tried this - I booted up holding Power til it gave me the options, went in and re-installed Big Sur, thinking that would wipe the whole drive - BUT it didn’t… and so wasted about 2 hours for computer to download the software (slowwww broadband here in the country).

Thus now I’m hoping there is a terminal command to reset Big Sur to thinking there’s no accounts, and let me use Migration assistant again…

I’m leaving for home tomorrow lunchtime… am staying in a motel cos we weren’t sure what was happening with COVID… with family that get pissy if I take too long on the computer.

So, heading back shortly to my parents place… fingers crossed.

#58

Created New user account, user data re-imported using Migration Assistant, and - email problem all sorted.

Kept searching RE Epson printer, and found lots of other queries about the same problem… then someone pointed to a driver - and that is now working too now!

Also got my mum’s email account working. For some reason, despite Time Machine being a current update - the password it brought over from the old computer was incorrect. And of course - all email passwords are hidden, so I couldn’t verify it (and every password that mum had written down was wrong lol). Took two attempts to reset the password with Telstra before it finally let me reset.

Solitaire just worked (after clicking OK to installing Rosetta), which was good.

And, my biggest surprise… My father so far is accepting of the Apple Mouse! Getting used to scrolling using the touch surface. Says he thinks it will be ok. Before I go home today I’ll test out his old Mighty Mouse - assuming it should be fine via the Belkin USB3 to USBC hub.

The POP email issue really threw me, but glad I’ve got it all sorted on my limited time. Going to be taking the 2008 iMac home with me now - was planning on ripping out the SSD and RAM for my 2009 iMac (for my son to use) and leave the machine itself for my dad to e-cycle, but running out of time to try tackle that here.

If anyone wants a 2008 20" iMac (C2D?) sans hard drive and RAM, with a backlight issue… for free… and you can pick up in Geelong… let me know. :slight_smile:

#59

What did your Dad think of Numbers as a replacement for Excel?

Even though I have used Excel for decades, I find Numbers to be an elegant spreadsheet solution. The differences in the user interface do take a little learning, however the user interface and ease of opening spreadsheets on both iPhone and iPad are impressive.

I like the support for multiple tables on the one sheet.

Issues I have noted include:

  • No support for named ranges
  • No locking down to the individual cell level
  • A few data formats are not easily supported
#60

I opened up his Shares s/sheet in Numbers… and it all looked similar enough for him.

But - a date cell was showing as a number.

I have used Excel professionally for 20 years… and I couldn’t figure out how to set the cell to show as a date…!

He said not to worry - he knew what it was meant to be.

Before I left, I opened the Stocks app and put in all of his shares to be watched. His comment… Why use that, when he can open up his drawer, and pull out the printouts he’s kept… Will be interesting to see whether he starts using it. :slight_smile: