Monthly Archives: October 2022

Apple MacBook Pro 14 Inch Unboxing, Benchmark Compare

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Hi guys Matt from 123myIT here. In this video, we will take a look at the Apple MacBook Pro 14 inch and see if it’s still worthwhile in 2022.

There are three different MacBook’s in the MacBook Pro range. There is the entry level 13 Inch MacBook which I already did a video and you can check that out from the link in the description. Then there is the 14-inch MacBook, which is the model we have here today. Last in the line-up is the 16 inch, which has a slightly larger screen.

MacBook Pro Hardware

This MacBook is a 14-inch laptop comes with a M1 Pro processor, which has 8 cores it also has a 14 core GPU and a 16 core Neural Engine. If you do not know what a neural engine is, it controls the AI part of the MacBook.  Along with 16GB of Unified Memory and 512 GB of SSD storage.

Pricing for the 14 Inch Pro starts around $1999 USD for the M1 Pro CPU and goes up to $3499 USD for the M1 Max CPU. When buying the laptop on the Apple website you will have a chance to choose bigger storage memory and CPU options. Let’s take a look inside the box.

What’s in the box

First, up you will have the Apple MacBook Pro 14 itself. Along the bottom, it has MacBook Pro Stamped in the aluminum. The chassis is held together by eight-teck screw and It also has four think black rubber feet to improve air flow. In addition, on the top you will have the standard Apple logo.

Accessories

In terms of accessories, in the box you will get Warranty and setup documentation. It also includes two black Apple stickers. Next, up you have a 67-watt USB C power adapter. I tested the MacBook and it uses around 42 watts when charging and a Max of 60 watts when doing benchmark. However, you can expect to get around 11 hours of general use and up to 17 hours of video playback. Charging the battery from empty to full should take around 1 hour. The plug of the adapter does come off and you can buy an extension cable for it. The last accessory in the box is the USB-c to MagSafe 3 cable.

MacBook Pro Touch ID

When you take the MacBook Pro out and open the lid it will guide you through the setup process. During this process, you will be prompted to setup Touch ID and you will have to train your finger. Now this can used to unlock your MacBook Pro, authenticate payments or authenticate passwords.

If it’s one thing that I feel Apple never skimp on its their screens. The MacBook Pro comes with a 14.2 inch Liquid Retina XDR Display. With a resolution of 3024×1964 at 254 pixels per inch and up to 1000 nits of sustained brightness. It can even go higher to 1600 nits for HDR content.

apple MacBook pro 14

And it makes for some pretty impressive movie watching. Let’s take a look.

MacBook Notch

You might have noticed across the top of the display there is a notch. Apple has done well with this design as it gives you more display space without taking up any extra room because it sits in the menu bar. Inside the notch, you have an upgraded 1080p FaceTime HD camera. Which is great for those conference calls. Its upgrade from the 13 inch MacBook that only has a 720p camera.

All the MacBook Pros come with backlit Magic Keyboard and its a delight to type on. The keys do not bend when pressing and don’t tend to wobble too much. One difference between the 13 inch model and the 14 inch model is the touch bar has been remove and the Escape and function keys have been re-added. The backlit keyboard is also controlled by the ambient light sensor so it only turns on when the lights are low. Pretty cool huh!

Trackpad

The trackpad is still pretty much the same, it’s a force touch trackpad and allows for precise cursor control and multi-touch gestures.

The MacBook Pro 14-inch comes with a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers and wide stereo sound. I thought the 13-inch had good speakers but the speakers on this 14-inch MacBook Pro are really the next level. I do not say this lightly. It’s like having a dedicated stereo in your room. Let’s take a listen.

Ports

On the left, you have a MagSafe 3 Charging port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack.

On the right side, you have a HDMI port, Thunderbolt 4 port and a SDXC card reader. The Thunderbolt 4 port doubles as a display port so if you have a USB C to HDMI adapter you can plug in an external display. For me the HDMI port is a necessary addition and I never understood why Apple didn’t include them in the first place. You can have up to two externals displays at 6K resolution running at 60Hz. 

Build Quality

The overall build quality is great and there is little to no flex on the MacBook Pro. Also the silver aluminium doesn’t leave finger prints which is great. For me I feel like its almost the perfect size but there is some weight to it. So if you intend to carry the MacBook Pro around allot maybe check the weight because the 13 inch MacBook Pro or MacBook Air range might be better for you.

Underneath on both sides you have an air vent. I get that there are they for airflow, but the position of these vents are right where you would put your hands to carry the MacBook. In addition, while they are not sharp I found them annoying. Better placement for air vents are within the hinge itself like these ones are.

Display Hinge

Talking about hinges the display hinge only folds back about 160 degrees, however other laptops go all the way to 180 degrees, so 160 feels a bit awkward.

Lets go ahead and run the Geek Bench Benchmark software. Cool, so the MacBook Pro 14 Inch recorded a single-core score of 1770 and a multi-core score of 9995. Moreover, if we compare that with the scores from the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 inch we see there is not much difference in the single core scores. However, the multi-core scores there is a big difference of 2315.

Benchmarks

When running a Benchmark and while the Apple MacBook Pro 14 is under load, it is a really good time to check the temperatures and see where the MacBook Pro is heating up. The room I am in has a temperature of about 27 degrees Celsius at the time of recording. As you can see here, the MacBook Pro really heats up in the middle of the keyboard to about 44 degrees. And about 40 degrees in the hinges of the display. So there is some clever design here as there is no heat where you might be placing your hands and palms when typing.

MacBook Pros are designed with content creators in mind. People who are video editors and music creators. And in doing so they leave out gamers. The hardware just does not support gaming or a native install of Windows. So if you are after a gaming machine then you’re better off going with a gaming laptop. However if you are a content creator then the Apple MacBook Pro 14 is the best all-rounder in my opinion. The display is brilliant and the speakers are the best I have heard on any laptop. And you get all this in 14 inch footprint.

Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as How to use focus on iPhone and iPad. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might like this video please share it with them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

Top 5 Android Settings to Turn Off in 2022

Top 5 Android Settings to Turn Off in 2022

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Hi Guys and Matt from 123myit here. In this video, we will show you my top 5 Android settings that you should turn off in 2022. Guys I’m going to show you some Android settings that you should turn off straight away. These settings are designed to take the load off your phones CPU which will speed your phone up or save the battery life. It will also help you increase the privacy on your phone. Let’s get started.

I am using a Samsung Phone, but if you are using a different phone, it might look a bit different the settings will be the same.

Turn off device scanning – Android Settings to Turn Off

The first thing to turn off is nearby device scanning. And you can find it under Settings > Connections > More Connection Settings. This sets your phone to scan for nearby devices. This is constantly running so if you turn it off it will save battery power.

Android Settings to Turn Off

Next, you can turn off usage and diagnostic’s settings. This is information that is being sent to Google or Developers when you not using your phone and it chews up battery life. To find it go to Settings, Google and Tap the 3 dots in the top right and tap Usage and Diagnostics. Then just toggle the button off. Saves your battery life and cellular data. It’s a Win win.

Ads Personalization

Next setting is turning off Ads Personalization. You can find it under settings, Google, Ads. This is a funny one, have you ever been talking about something and then all of a sudden and ad for that starts popping up on your phone? This data is collected and sent to ads networks so they can send you more relevant ads. It’s too creepy in my opinion. To turn it off you actually need to turn this one on to opt out.

Improve accuracy

Next, we will talk about Turning off Improve accuracy with WIFI and Bluetooth scanning. You will find it under Settings, Location and tap Improve accuracy. If you turn these two settings off, you will save a ton of battery life. And toggle the WIFI and Bluetooth buttons off. Great your phone will not be constantly scanning, and your GPS will still work no problems there.

The next one is Google location history. You will find it under Settings, location and Google Location History, this lists all of the locations you have been. It’s similar to iPhones significant locations where is saves a long list all the places you have been. It’s a bit weird in a tracking sense. So just, turn it off at the bottom. Done.

Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as how to forward calls on Android in 2022. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might like this video, please share it will them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

Using Focus on iPhone iPad and iPod touch

How to Forward Calls on Android Samsung 2022

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Hi Guys and Matt from 123myit here. In this video, we will show you how to forward calls on Android. If you have, two phones and you do not want to carry them both around. You can forward phone calls from one phone to another.

How to forward calls on Android – forward calls on Android

Here’s how to do it. Open up your phone app and go to the three dots in the top right-hand corner.

And you will find it under Settings > Supplementary Services > Call forwarding > Voice Calls. If you are on an older Android phone it will be under Settings > More Settings > Call forwarding. If you cant find it on your Android phone. Just do a search for call forwarding.

forward call on android

When you tap on Voice Calls it will take a few seconds to get the settings from your service provider.

Cool so in here we have a few options. Always Forward means that it will forward any phone calls that go to your phone. Forward when busy means it will forward calls only when you are talking on the phone. This could be handy in an Office situation. Forward when unanswered means it will ring on the phone first than if the call is not answered it will forward the phone call to another number. And forward when unreachable means it will forward the call if the phone is out of service.

To forward the calls. Tap on Always forward and then enter the phone number you want to call to forward too. Tap enable when you are done.

Congratulations you have just forwards all calls to another phone. One last thing to mention. Calls will be forwarded. But services like SMS text messages will not be forwarded.

Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as how to focus on iPhone and iPad. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might like this video, please share it will them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

How to find Purchase History on iPhone iPad

Using Focus on iPhone iPad and iPod touch

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Hi Guys and Matt from 123myit here. In this video I will show you how to use focus on iPhone or iPad. Focus allows you to filter notifications based on what you are doing. You will find focus in control centre by swiping down from the top right and tapping on focus.

Do not disturb – Focus on iPhone

In here you will find the default focus which is do not disturb. Do not disturb silences all notifications by default. So, if you are really busy and don’t want to be interrupted you could set this and your phone won’t send any notifications. You can also tap the three dots and turn it on for 1 hour or until this evening. Alright if you close it and just go back out I will show you where it displays that Do Not Disturb is turned on.

focus on iphone ipad

Ok if you look in the top left corner you should see the do not disturb icon which tells you that the do not disturb is not turned on. Cool ok, let go back in an setup our own personalised do not disturb.

If you want to find the focus menu if is located under Settings and Focus. Focus on iPhone.

Focuses

To setup your own focus tap the plus icon down the bottom. Then you will have a list of pre set focuses. Up the top you have driving and fitness. Driving silences notifications, but will turn on automatically when connected to carplay or Bluetooth. Also if you have friends on iPhones, it will send them a reply that you are driving. Which is handy.  Gaming is a good one too. So if you want playing games on your iPhone and don’t want notifications interrupting the game then you can turn this on. And the last two down the bottom are mindfulness and Reading. Lets go a head and setup our own custom Focus.

Study Focus

Iam going to call mine Study. Because I want my phone to be quite when I study. Next you can select a colour and an icon for study. Tap Next. Now choose the people you want notifications from while you are studying. Notifications from other people wont appear until you turn the focus off.

That’s for notifications what about phone calls? If we tap on Calls From and then can choose calls from Everyone, No one Favourites or all contacts. When you are finished tap allow. If you don’t want to hear from anyone tap Allow none.

Allow notifications on Apps

Next you can select which Apps you want to allow notifications from so tap the plus and I am going to select Find My, Books and Messages. You can also turn on Time sensitive apps to send you notifications. Tap allow and your Focus is setup tap done to continue.

Alright before we personalised the focus I will show you what it looks like if you turn it on. Ok to personalise your Focus under the Options menu you have Focus Status. When Focus Status is turned on Apps like Messages will let people know that you have your Focus turned on.

Hide notifications on home screen

If you want to hide notification badges you can tap Home Screen. And in custom pages you can select which home screen page you want to show while in the focus. Under the lock screen menu you can dim lock screen in your focus and or show silenced notifications there.

One of the cool features is the Add Schedule or Automation. This allows you to choose to start your focus as a specific time, in a specific location or when you launch an app. So lets say I want to turn on the Study focus when I go to the Library. I would tap Smart activation to turn it on and then tap on Add Schedule or Automation. You want to tap on location and then type Library at the top. This will show you a list of Libraries near you. If this does not come up check under Settings, Privacy, Location Services and System Services.

Library Focus – focus on iPhone

Cool I found the library I am after. So what this will do is Whenever I go to the Library it will turn on my Study Focus automatically. You can use the little slider bar to make the circle bigger or smaller. Lets say I go to a nearby café afterwards. Really cool. So this would be useful if you had a work or school focus setup or a church or mosque something like that. If you scroll down you can also delete the Focus if you no longer need it.

Awesome so our Study focus is setup and ready to use. Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as how to find Purchase History on iPhone and iPad. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might like this video, please share it will them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

Take Control of Your Notifications iPhone iPad iOS