Docker on mac. Apple's Touch Bar-equipped 15-inch MacBook Pro debuted in 2016. Stephen Shankland/CNET It took six weeks of tech support calls, power usage monitoring and Genius Bar diagnostics, but I'm finally convinced my new isn't an expensive mistake. And what I've learned along the way can help you, too -- regardless of what laptop you're using. I sight unseen late last year, confident that performance improvements, Apple's superior trackpads and better portability would justify the upgrade from its 2012-era predecessor. But my pleasure at the speed-up evaporated when I noticed within the first week how fast the machine drained its battery. My heart sank when the lasted only 3 hours, 7 minutes on battery in my first formal test just doing routine work -- chores in Google's Chrome browser, chiefly, but also a few minutes on power-hungry photo editing.

This was not supposed to be what happened when one of the biggest reasons I upgraded was to replace the feeble, worn-out battery in the old machine. I feared my Apple was a lemon. It wasn't just me, though, as evidenced by forum fretting and some cases of customer returns. But with help from Apple techies and a lot of testing, I reached a different conclusion: The 's terrific new screen, which maxes out at a significantly brighter level, was gobbling watts despite a more energy-efficient design. There are other factors, but dialing down the brightness helped me once again work all day on a single charge. For full details, check.

The world has been talking about this so called “magical” device for quite some time now. Ign best games for mac. The rumors that have been circulating for almost ten years came to their climax when the very first images leaked into the net almost a year ago.

Overall, I'm satisfied. Still, the experience made it clear that even top tech companies like Apple, Google and Adobe Systems still have lots of work to do delivering products that minimize power consumption. And it's disappointing how often power-saving techniques mean micromanaging your machine or doing without useful features.

A decade after the iPhone launch, it's time to assume your customers will be unplugged from the power socket more often than not. Hopes dashed on two tests -- 'wireless web' and 'iTunes movie playback.' When my Mac fell far short, I started investigating. Apple's Activity Monitor utility initially showed disappointing battery-life scores. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET I was not encouraged by posts like the explanation from developer or the.

I spoke to others, too. Duarte Cunha Rosa, a lawyer in Portugal, was distressed when his new 13-inch MacBook Pro wouldn't last more than 5 hours, and Apple tech support couldn't help. 'When asked if I wanted to return it, I did,' he said, pulling his 6-year-old Mac back into service. 'I'm seriously blanking on what my next move is.' I ran daily tests for weeks to try to understand what was happening. They weren't the most rigorous, since my daily work habits fluctuate, but most days I use the same thing: one or two dozen browser tabs for Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, blog posts and other information sources; Slack for work chitchat; and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for short bursts of photo editing.

Apple's Safari browser fared a little better than Chrome, which did better than Brave, which did better than Firefox, but none did well. I edit lots of photos outside work, which is why I bought such an expensive machine in the first place, but Lightroom lasted only three hours on the battery. Things were bad enough that I started carrying a when I knew I'd be working out of the office. It's slower at photo editing than the Mac, but it lasted all day on battery. The 10.12.3 update that didn't help. But Apple did. My initial interactions with Apple, including hours on the phone with tech support and two trips to stores to get my hardware evaluated, yielded only comic relief: One Apple-authorized repair store asked if I had a USB-C dongle so it could run a test, and Apple's own Genius Bar had to hook two dongles together to connect my Mac to their network cable.