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I realised I had a load of work bonus / good-boy points that I could use at different retailers so picked up a mac mini to use as a living room computer / htpc. So far I really like it but am totally clueless about mac os. Are there any good guides anyone can point me to for getting set up? Like, it's working, but idk what the best software is and have no idea if there are any settings I need to adjust. I got a magic trackpad and a logitech MX Keys Mini for Mac and it's super nice to control from the sofa.
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Jul 9, 2022 19:47
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knox_harrington posted:I realised I had a load of work bonus / good-boy points that I could use at different retailers so picked up a mac mini to use as a living room computer / htpc. So far I really like it but am totally clueless about mac os. Are there any good guides anyone can point me to for getting set up? Like, it's working, but idk what the best software is and have no idea if there are any settings I need to adjust. What do you want to do with it? What is annoying you about the interface/what do you wish you could change? Whatever your htpc software is there’s a client for macos very likely. Importantly the App Store doesn’t suck like it does on Windows if something on there catches your eye. Don’t forget to check out Steam as well.
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Jul 9, 2022 19:51
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Arivia posted:What do you want to do with it? What is annoying you about the interface/what do you wish you could change? App Store is usually much pricier than alternatives like the developer’s own site and Steam for games. Unless it’s improved by leaps and bounds in the last year.
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Jul 9, 2022 19:53
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Ok Comboomer posted:App Store is usually much pricier than alternatives like the developer’s own site and Steam for games. Yeah I mean more in the sense of “it’s not poo poo shovelware to avoid at all costs” like the Windows one is.
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Jul 9, 2022 19:55
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I said screw it and bought an M2 Air. 8/10c, 16gb, 512gb. I have never actually owned a laptop and since it will primarily live on my coffee table, how does keeping it plugged in work? Is that bad for the battery? Does it only use house power when plugged in and I don’t need to worry?
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Jul 10, 2022 00:47
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if you leaved it plugged in all the time, after a few days the OS will let the battery drain down to 80% and hold it there for better longevity. i think it's automatic, or at least it was on my macbook that i often leave plugged in a few days in a row. also, if you don't want that behavior, you can force it to charge to full from the battery menu in the tray.
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Jul 10, 2022 01:06
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Bad Purchase posted:if you leaved it plugged in all the time, after a few days the OS will let the battery drain down to 80% and hold it there for better longevity. i think it's automatic, or at least it was on my macbook that i often leave plugged in a few days in a row. So it’ll always technically be charging? Sorry if these sound like dumb questions, I’ve only ever owned desktops
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Jul 10, 2022 01:27
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i don't know if it's constantly trickle charged while idle or just topped up back to 80 whenever it drains below some threshold, but the point of that feature is to keep it from being charged to 100% capacity all the time because that's bad for the lithium battery lifespan. i wouldn't worry about leaving it plugged in all the time, but if you don't see that feature kicking in after a few days, you may need to hunt for it in power settings.
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Jul 10, 2022 01:38
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Don't worry about it. Just use the laptop however you want to use the laptop. You can keep it connected to the charger or not. I've never carefully paid attention to it for my new M1 Macbook, but Apple hardware tends to have really good idle power consumption when compared to other companies' products, so you don't really need to always keep it connected to the charger.
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Jul 10, 2022 01:40
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If you're getting an Air you definitely should be unplugging that thing and dragging it with you to the couch or whatever. That's like the whole point of the drat thing.
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Jul 10, 2022 01:41
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Yeah the MacBook Air is like the ultimate couch computer. I don't understand why people like tablets for this purpose--small laptops are a much better form factor
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Jul 10, 2022 02:10
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If you’re reading or browsing the forums the iPad is an ideal couchputer, if you need to do actual work on the couch a laptop is better for sure
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Jul 10, 2022 02:18
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knox_harrington posted:I realised I had a load of work bonus / good-boy points that I could use at different retailers so picked up a mac mini to use as a living room computer / htpc. So far I really like it but am totally clueless about mac os. Are there any good guides anyone can point me to for getting set up? Like, it's working, but idk what the best software is and have no idea if there are any settings I need to adjust. For HTPC stuff, people like https://trash-guides.info/ a bunch. The software is generally the same between MacOS/Windows/Linux and fairly straightforward for the most part, there’s just lots of options etc. We have a very similar setup, a Mac Mini in the lounge I use for Plex serving and I’m VNCd into it from work as my daily use machine too. Love these machines so much.
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Jul 10, 2022 02:48
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:I said screw it and bought an M2 Air. 8/10c, 16gb, 512gb. I have never actually owned a laptop and since it will primarily live on my coffee table, how does keeping it plugged in work? Is that bad for the battery? Does it only use house power when plugged in and I don’t need to worry? Ideally you want your battery at 50% all the time but also lol don't worry about it. I think 20 to 80 will be sufficient for most crazy people. And generally if you unplug and use it like a normal laptop haver charging when it's low you'll be fine
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Jul 10, 2022 03:15
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Arivia posted:What do you want to do with it? What is annoying you about the interface/what do you wish you could change? Thanks. What I was thinking is more the unknown-unknowns, like I got an iPhone and discovered the different browsers are all just skinned versions of Safari. I don't want to poo poo up threads with very basic questions, so just wondering if there's a general use guide to getting set up and what programs people use. I was about to install a client app for a VPN but it needs to run through Rosetta, is that OK? Seems likely but could come with a weird performance overhead. I'm mainly going to be watching movies and listening to music, bit of Web browsing. Is there a good bittorrent client? Nice media player?
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Jul 10, 2022 11:11
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knox_harrington posted:Thanks. What I was thinking is more the unknown-unknowns, like I got an iPhone and discovered the different browsers are all just skinned versions of Safari. I don't want to poo poo up threads with very basic questions, so just wondering if there's a general use guide to getting set up and what programs people use. Rosetta is extremely good from everything I’ve heard, so I wouldn’t worry about running anything through it. Unless I’m way behind the times, Transmission is like the default torrent client. Lightweight, adware free, been around forever. Same goes for VLC for a media player.
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Jul 10, 2022 11:37
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VLC is fine in a ‘it does what it does perfectly well and you’re probably familiar with it from other platforms’ sense but for a Mac specifically IINA is the media player you actually want. It works amazingly well, it’s AS native, and it’s only on MacOS so the devs go out of their way to make it look and feel like a Mac app and quickly adopt new MacOS features. Actually I’ll go a step further and say VLC probably isn’t the best media player on any platform any more; it’s just become the one people are accustomed to using for the past decade
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Jul 10, 2022 12:49
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Man I just kept using qbittorrent when I switched from windows to Mac, gonna have to try transmission just because qbittorrent doesn’t have a method of doing auto updates. So on the rare occasion I need to download a torrent it always asks to update by making you go to the website. I remember trying IINA when I first switched too but I never stuck with it for some reason, it’s been years now so maybe I should give it another go.
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Jul 10, 2022 13:28
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:I said screw it and bought an M2 Air. 8/10c, 16gb, 512gb. I have never actually owned a laptop and since it will primarily live on my coffee table, how does keeping it plugged in work? Is that bad for the battery? Does it only use house power when plugged in and I don’t need to worry? I am probably insane but AlDente has been great at keeping a m1 mba capped at 40% for using around the house with plugs available everywhere. Also been using a 2019 16” at 35% capped since it’s just docked all the time. When I do travel I uncap them to 85% and they work just fine. There are some graph and data showing that the battery will basically last forever if you keep them at 30%~ or lasting a long while if you cycle them between 30-70%. And of course that kinda defeats the purpose of a laptop but who knew we would be stuck indoors for this long and the m1 air can still last a long while even if you start draining at 50%, especially just for home use.
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Jul 10, 2022 16:35
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What's the deal with M2 MBs not utilizing all the storage lanes? I am hearing 256GB 13" M2 MBPs only have one 256GB NAND chip for storage so their disk access is half of M1 MBAs that have two 128GB NAND chips. I can't claim to understand computer or even Apple things very well, but it seems as though this kind of thing would be the same for 256GB M2 MBAs, yeah? Edit re vv: lol. So the two scenarios are 1) Apple doesn't have 128GB storage chips and all M2 MBs will have slower storage at 256GB sizes 2) Apple released an even bigger steamier turd than we thought anothergod fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Jul 10, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 16:44
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The M2 MBPs seem kinda slapped together so there’s a possibility that the M2 Airs won’t have slower storage
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Jul 10, 2022 16:48
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The M2 MBPs are literally just the M2 chip plopped into an M1 body. The SSD is slow if you get the base 256, just get the 512 or larger and the speed is back
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Jul 10, 2022 19:20
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I get unreasonably irritated that companies still offer machines with 256GB of storage as the base figure
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Jul 10, 2022 19:32
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Is it actually noticeably slower or are people just running speed tests and gasping that number lower
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Jul 10, 2022 19:34
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Who is the M1 Pro for? I’m genuinely curious what market it serves, pinched as it is between the good-enough Air and the no-bullshit mobile workstation 14” Pro.
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Jul 10, 2022 19:35
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The Lord Bude posted:VLC is fine in a ‘it does what it does perfectly well and you’re probably familiar with it from other platforms’ sense but for a Mac specifically IINA is the media player you actually want. It works amazingly well, it’s AS native, and it’s only on MacOS so the devs go out of their way to make it look and feel like a Mac app and quickly adopt new MacOS features. Agree on both counts, VLC was a blessing when everything else sucked so badly and people were infecting their computers with codec packs but it’s definitely lower quality than alternatives. IINA is great except I often have an issue with low res video where it will happily playback but has essentially crashed while doing so. Can’t use any options, resize etc. tried various versions and lots of files, never understood why.
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Jul 10, 2022 19:40
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hatty posted:Is it actually noticeably slower or are people just running speed tests and gasping that number lower Pretty reliable sources are seeing half speed disc access speeds which matches with the explanation that it's got an unused disc lane. I have not watched tear down videos to visually confirm tho
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Jul 10, 2022 19:40
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Hasturtium posted:Who is the M1 Pro for? I’m genuinely curious what market it serves, pinched as it is between the good-enough Air and the no-bullshit mobile workstation 14” Pro. 1) It fills a gap in their lineup price ladder between the $1299 Air to the $1999 MBP 14” 2) It fills the gap for corporate buyers who’s purchase policy is “MacBook Pro” but are just going to HR, etc. 3) It’s entry point for people who think MBP means serious business but would not spend $2k on the 14” model. If the 13” didn’t exist they would be looking at a Dell XPS, etc. It’s not a good buy but, much like the iPad Mini, is a niche product with a specific use case. My guess is they eventually release a 15” MBA at the $1599 price point to replace it.
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Jul 10, 2022 21:36
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FCKGW posted:1) It fills a gap in their lineup price ladder between the $1299 Air to the $1999 MBP 14” yup, it more or less fills in a gap that the 13” non-retina dual core MBP filled for like two years a decade ago before the MBPs all went retina and SSD-only the then-redesigned MacBook Air was the superior laptop in every way, in many places embarrassingly so, but tons of people insisted that they still needed an optical drive and/or “weren’t going to spend premium money on an entry level machine” so tons of them plonked down $1400 for an outdated chonky boy with a 5400 RPM HDD and 1280p screen while its Sandy/Ivy Bridge MBA sibling ran circles around it with standard SSDs and a 13” 1440p display, to say nothing of the 11” for even less money and more crazy portability.
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Jul 10, 2022 22:03
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the 13 pro is for the diehard touchbar people, it's that simple
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Jul 10, 2022 22:08
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Bad Purchase posted:the 13 pro is for the diehard touchbar people, it's that simple there are dozens of them
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Jul 10, 2022 22:13
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I wonder if Apple still has money to recoup on the touchbar and its specific MBP topcase/hardware/etc or some particular stock/supply to burn through I certainly don’t think they expected it to flop as hard as it did in such a short amount of time and it wouldn’t shock me if there are things like tooling/R+D costs and supply stuff (maybe they have a whole warehouse full of controller chips or a ten year production contract for the touchbar hardware) that aren’t worth writing off if there’s still an eager enough market willing to drop a grand and a half on it
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Jul 10, 2022 22:20
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i still don't understand how it got approved in the first place. i remember on the day it was announced thinking how un-apple it seemed. usually they go for pretty minimal and simple product designs, often to a fault. adding a 2nd weirdly shaped somewhat programmable display seemed so out of place. just a bunch of new complexity, not to mention taking away the escape and F keys people were used to feeling, with no clear purpose or benefit over using a trackpad or mouse and the primary display. felt like a gimmick you'd see on a gamer keyboard or something. i still ended up with one because i needed a new computer in the era where they all had 'em, and it just sucked to use. the lack of an escape key, which they later fixed, was so goddamn awful i don't know how it lasted more than 5 minutes as a prototype. the only other recent example i can think of is how they keep tossing a drat-near useless lidar sensor on all the high end iphones hoping that AR will become more than a niche gimmick / party trick someday. but at least that extra complexity and hardware is not taking anything away and there is at least a theoretical feature it provides that wasn't already possible in a simpler, better way before they added it.
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Jul 10, 2022 22:40
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Bad Purchase posted:i still don't understand how it got approved in the first place. i remember on the day it was announced thinking how un-apple it seemed. usually they go for pretty minimal and simple product designs, often to a fault. adding a 2nd weirdly shaped somewhat programmable display seemed so out of place. just a bunch of new complexity, not to mention taking away the escape and F keys people were used to feeling, with no clear purpose or benefit over using a trackpad or mouse and the primary display. felt like a gimmick you'd see on a gamer keyboard or something. Apple is very invested in keeping their multitouch and traditional PC ecosystems separate but they still felt the need to counter Microsoft going all-in on touchscreens with something that could at least replicate some of the benefits without massively reinventing the Mac or folding and bringing multitouch to Mac OS/bringing Mac OS to iPad
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Jul 10, 2022 22:46
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should've just made the apple pencil work on the whole wrist area + trackpad or something sell more $100 plastic rods and it would probably be at least a little useful unlike the bar
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Jul 10, 2022 22:55
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It's pretty wild to me that the trackpad hasn't turned into a display, tbh. Also, now i'm looking for mobile apps that let me use my phone as a trackpad next to my keyboard.
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Jul 10, 2022 22:58
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anothergod posted:It's pretty wild to me that the trackpad hasn't turned into a display, tbh. Also, now i'm looking for mobile apps that let me use my phone as a trackpad next to my keyboard. Better touch tool has an ios app that'll do that. It also lets you set up shortcuts and stuff as buttons. It's a pretty okay side benefit.
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Jul 10, 2022 23:07
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hatty posted:Is it actually noticeably slower or are people just running speed tests and gasping that number lower Mostly the latter. The vast majority of users will not notice as long as the base M2 SSD's throughput is decent, and it still is. Latency is a much bigger predictor of usability for the average user, but it's harder to measure. Lazy reviewers can just download Blackmagic design's throughput tester, punch one button, write down the numbers, and call it a day, so throughput is what tends to get attention these days. People who actually need super high SSD read/write throughput are always going to be buying something much bigger than the base SSD option. Not only is that always necessary to maximize throughput numbers in every SSD generation (Apple made or not), if you actually have a use for 5+ GB/s write throughput you are rarely going to be satisfied with 256GB capacity.
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Jul 11, 2022 00:00
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The Lord Bude posted:VLC is fine in a ‘it does what it does perfectly well and you’re probably familiar with it from other platforms’ sense but for a Mac specifically IINA is the media player you actually want. It works amazingly well, it’s AS native, and it’s only on MacOS so the devs go out of their way to make it look and feel like a Mac app and quickly adopt new MacOS features. correct iina is rad i also use transmission. funnily enough when i bought the mini a couple of months ago my torrents started downloading like ten times as fast lol.
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Jul 11, 2022 02:19
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IINA is indeed a huge upgrade (and much faster feeling) vs VLC on modern Macs.
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