[kscherer]

Just had a go at the Control Strip customization, and Siri can be removed. Sort of. You can delete the icon from the Control Strip's default view, but it reappears automatically when the Control Strip is opened.

So …

Something.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kscherer Just had a go at the Control Strip customization, and Siri can be removed. Sort of. You can delete the icon from the Control Strip's default view, but it reappears automatically when the Control Strip is opened. So … Something.

It doesn't seem to reappear for me from either the full nor the small version of the Control Strip, regardless of whether Siri is enabled or not.

Maybe it's different on an actual physical device.

[alcimedes]

My Siri button has not returned, and I've been playing around with it all day so I'd have thought if it came back on its own it would have by now. It didn't come back with a reboot either.

[kscherer]

Hmm

Well, our systems are running a custom Apple demo suite, so maybe that's getting in the way.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by alcimedes My Siri button has not returned, and I've been playing around with it all day so I'd have thought if it came back on its own it would have by now. It didn't come back with a reboot either.

Even when you open the Control strip?

[turtle]

Originally Posted by kscherer Hmm Well, our systems are running a custom Apple demo suite, so maybe that's getting in the way.

That is certainly the issue. Those demos suites restore the computer after us mean people delete all the files and stuff off of them.

[alcimedes]

Originally Posted by kscherer Even when you open the Control strip?

Yeah, must be part of the demo settings then.

[kscherer]

Well, poop!

[Dr. Bobsky]

I do wonder why Siri is being rammed down our collective throats.

[alcimedes]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky I do wonder why Siri is being rammed down our collective throats.

Think how small you could make the computer by removing the keyboard entirely1!!!@

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky I do wonder why Siri is being rammed down our collective throats.

Two words: Data Collection

Originally Posted by alcimedes Think how small you could make the computer by removing the keyboard entirely1!!!@

LOLZ

However, look no further than your iPhone.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky I do wonder why Siri is being rammed down our collective throats.

Because it's the new whizbang feature. Those always get a bit of an excessive focus (remember when Dashboard had its own dedicated symbol on the physical keyboard? Heck, remember Dashboard at all?).

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky I do wonder why Siri is being rammed down our collective throats.

So they can sell more information to third parties so they can target ads at people, which they hope will lead to same people buying more crap.

Originally Posted by chucker Because it's the new whizbang feature. Those always get a bit of an excessive focus (remember when Dashboard had its own dedicated symbol on the physical keyboard? Heck, remember Dashboard at all?).

This too.

First thing I do on any new Apple device is kill Siri.

[Dr. Bobsky]

I don't think the argument about tracking people for ad revenue makes much sense given that their laptop sales numbers pale in comparison to their phone sales (and the groups tend to have a high overlap).

It might be that they want data of their own consumer group using the laptop to try to explore future features that reasonably add value to the computers or iphones they sell in the future. I doubt it. Siri makes sense (or some sense) on mobile devices, but when I am home and not going anywhere and do not need information speedily, I rightly or wrongly believe that i am more capable of judging the value of a search/search result.

I am more in favor of chucker's explanation that this is a vanity choice.

[El Gallo]

This link claims that Apple upped the default resolution being scaled for the Retina display and that if you set it back to the prior setting, you'll get more battery life. (Also if your are older you'll just be able to read it again.)

I was actually kind of shocked to read about this change. Usually Apple increases resolution but finds a way to keep all the proportions all the same. In this case everything on the screen just got smaller.

Anyway per the link it activates the dGPU less and you get an extra 45-50 minutes per charge. That doesn't suck.

[alcimedes]

So went to the Apple Store this weekend to have my machine looked at.

The fan noise thankfully has gone away, the absolute shit battery life has not.

While at the store, I was told that I could exchange my machine for a different make and model, but I couldn't just exchange my machine for the same hardware. (If I felt like the battery problems were specific to this machine.)

I have 14 days from the day of purchase to decide. As it stands, unless something drastic changes this machine is getting returned. A laptop with 3 hours of battery life while on a network and web browser (THAT'S IT!!) is worthless to me, regardless of any other features.

Given that I personally have found the new ports and new keyboard to both suck in addition to the shit battery life this hardware is experiencing, I think going with the previous hardware revision is going to be my best bet. The only feature on this machine I prefer to the old ones is the touchID to unlock stuff. If I have to trade useful battery life for typing in a password when required, I'm happy to type.

Funny thing?

The Genius said, off the record of course, that this was NOT the first 15" new MBP that had come in with users complaining of poor battery life. Mine was the third or fourth this individual had looked at. Sounds like the problems are not restricted to just me, but I don't trust today's Apple to do the right thing in a timely enough manner for me to be happy. I worry it will be a year+ before they fix or admit to the problem, and I don't want to be stuck with a laptop that can't be used as one for that long.

[Dr. Bobsky]

What is your specific combo of hardware?

[alcimedes]

Specific hardware:

1TB internal drive (not standard)
2.9Ghz i7
16GB of RAM.
Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB of video RAM.
Inten HD 530 w/1.5GB of RAM.

[Dr. Bobsky]

Same machine as i have...

Odd.

Is there a coconut battery like app that works with these newer computers? Maybe the issue is the battery isn't completely there (as in interconnects between battery elements may not be working)?

[alcimedes]

Yeah, I ran coconut battery on it as one of the first things, it looks like the battery is performing as it should, and the total capacity lists itself correctly.

[Dr. Bobsky]

I have yet to see my computer jump to the Radeon card, is this the same for your machine?

[alcimedes]

My machine has never used anything but the dedicated graphics card.

No matter what I'm doing, it always says "High Perf." for the Graphics card setting in activity monitor.

I've toggled the option to turn it off when on battery power, but I've never seen it work. It's like the machine is always using the high performance card.

I presume the built in card is capable of pushing video to a second screen without having to invoke the dedicated graphics card.

edit: So, started a thread over at Reddit to see what others are experiencing, and it sounds like there's a decent chance the OS Beta update will resolve the issue. I've signed up for the beta and will be installing it tonight, will update with what I find.

[Dr. Bobsky]

It depends upon Apple's optimization: that is the chip itself should be able to push to three monitors (so two externals -- I looked this up to be sure, resolution and speed do matter though... and I have found some suggestions that Intel claims for how many monitors it can drive are a bit over ambitious), but Apple may have drivers that force the external monitor to use the dedicated graphics card. Does your battery life improve when disconnected from the external monitor?


Edit: Saw the edit, read the thread... It looks like you might have your fix in hand shortly. It does not seem rational that your dgpu was constantly activated, so a driver problem seems likely...

[alcimedes]

So, installed the beta update, so far so good.

turns out my machine had used the integrated card at least once before, but the battery life was still total shit. (although dropbox was going nuts at the time, it was all over ethernet, so again, I wouldn't expect it to take that much energy.)

Hmm, ok now that I'm typing that out, I had a thought. Is there any chance that writing data to the drive could be way more energy intensive than previously since FileVault is enabled by default? Would the effort of encrypting data being written to the disk be enough to kill 4+ hours of battery life? I was in the process of restoring a huge cloud backup of my stolen machine, so it could have been encrypting data almost non stop for days.)

I'll do the energy test at work tomorrow while I duplicate a giant chunk of data, see if that makes it crap out again battery wise.

Ha, running Civ 6 now on it, been running 45 min. so far. Started at 80%, down to 50% now after 45 min. of playing. I'm OK with that.

[Dr. Bobsky]

Yes, encryption/decryption are generally CPU intensive, but I think your recent issues have to do with the dgpu...

[chucker]

FileVault 2 is hardware-accelerated. Thus, the CPU overhead isn't that big.

[Eugene]

I wonder how quickly you'd kill your battery if you ran 3 threads in Prime95 and an instance of Unigine Valley at max display brightness. Napkin math suggests around ~35 minutes.

[alcimedes]

So, whatever was happening with the machine before is def. happening again. Apparently plugging in a second monitor means you have 3 hours of battery life, end of story. You can't push an external monitor with the internal graphics card.

I've got the machine sitting on my desk here, it's not doing much of anything, and looks like it's going to get just a hair over 3 hours of battery life total.

Given that, I think I'll be returning this machine today or tomorrow. (last day to do it) and exchanging it for a previous model.

Ugh. Annoying and time consuming.

[Dr. Bobsky]

You should be able to get more time out of a previous generation of laptop because of their larger battery capacity, but this is an odd usage case, where you are immobile because of the monitor but not plugged in (and have no power returning from monitor to computer)...

[Eugene]

Regardless of usage scenarios, TDPs didn't really change for the sum of the parts, and at most we are probably seeing 5% gains in PPW for the CPU and 15% for the dGPU. Putting a 25% smaller battery in the new MacBook Pro was braindead.