Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

I’ve just ordered one! Trade in of my 2020 M1 £220 which is decent. Opted for 24Gb memory and base storage, and will use my 4Tb external SSD for Ableton Live, Logic and Luna projects.

also on M1 mac mini, gonna trade for the M4, even the base model is a huge spec bump! such good value.

So, would the Mac mini be a viable alternative for an aging MacBook Pro, which 90% of the time it’s plugged into a dock on my desk anyway and there are a few times a year I take it on the road to run lighting/audio for local bands and community groups. Given I have flight cases of gear anyway one extra with an external screen in doesn’t seem too onerous

an aging MacBook Pro, which 90% of the time it’s plugged into a dock on my desk

this is what I was trying to do 3 or so years ago and bought an M1 mac mini instead of a latest macbook, the macbook I was trying to replace (and I still use this as a backup machine is a 2018 MBP) and the jump in performance was enormous, from intel to apple silicone.

no1 should really travel with mac mini but if you have to its so tiny now!

Looking at specs there’s no spinning disks in the Mac mini so I see no particular reason why it can’t be moved infrequently, although obvs not carting it around in a backpack daily! It’d replace a 2012 MBP so I’d expect a decent performance bump (at 1/3 cost of an equivalent MPB…)

I often travel with a Mac mini, small keyboard, pebble mouse and a couple of cables to plug into hotel telly screens. I’m going to add a mini projector to my setup at some point to do away with the need for fiddling with the hotel telly.

I did the same, although my MBP was late 2011, so the M1 Mini seemed lightning fast in comparison!

Leaning towards a mini as well now as the the price to power ratio looks about as good as it could get for apple. Don't really need a laptop so the extra cash for it to just sit in a dock would be better spent elsewhere.

Intrigued as to what happens with the studio and pro now, the pro has been a bit pointless ever since the switch to the M chips. You'd think the logical step would be to have the mini for M and Pro chips and the studio for max and ultra chips?

All I know is that I'm pulling the trigger on something this week.

also considering getting a mini now, seems like a perfect buy, I currently only have work laptop and an iPad, no home computer at all and reasonably cheap way to avoid some stuff i probably shouldnt be doing on my work laptop long term

also very tempted by an ipad mini, i use my ipad pro alot, but find myself leaving it at home alot when id ideally take it out

Mac mini has thunderbolt 4 and usb-c. They look to do the same (although thunderbolt can daisy chain). I have a usb-c dock with up to 65w pass though power delivery I use for my laptop. With it all explode if I used this doc with a Mac mini so I don’t need to faff around with cables for my screens etc or will it automagically know not to use the power available from the dock?

Absolute bandwagon jumping here but if I ditched the work laptop what would be the best option for a camera - is there a good built in monitor option?

Continuity camera probably the best option? As a built-in, my Studio Display camera is dire but so is my face so I’m not too fussed, the low quality is doing whoever I’m talking to a favour.

Yeah probably, google meets seems to not love that as an option but maybe I need to try again

Also jumping on the bandwagon. I haven’t used my 2020 MacBook Pro much for about a year now, and instead use an iPad Pro. I’m a pretty light user with only the need for browser, Office 365 and the occasional Indesign etc. I’ve got an Apple Studio Display which the laptop just sits next to in a dock.

I was looking to update the laptop and sell the existing one, but reading the comments here thought the Mac Mini with the Studio Display more than meets my needs. But is it worth getting the base spec model?

I'll also get one!

In fact - they're so mini, I'll take two!

Well I guess there’s a new MBP now announced as well… https://youtu.be/G0cmfY7qdmY?si=d17ZMfEJ9UOB7n_W

Before you ditch your M1 or 2 Macbook Airs or Pros either by selling them or offering them as trade in to Apple, please let me know.

Looking to upgrade my pretty ancient Macbook Pro for M anything.

Cheaper, better!

Thanks

I use continuity camera with an iPhone 13 mini and this stand and it works great, on Meet, Slack Huddles, Zoom. Silly maybe but I appreciate consistently having the best video on a call, and it doesn't have any distortion so looks much more professional.

..yeah - as an owner of a 2019 MBP (which still has the mediocre 720p webcam) getting one of these iPhone mounts (and then using my iPhone 14 Pro's camera for Zoom etc.) was amazing.
Did not get why these Belkin things are so fucking expensive though; got a third party one for less than a tenner and it's great 👍

Not this exact one, but one very much like it - https://amzn.eu/d/eddb764

I chucked a pint of water across my 2014 MBP last week (not on purpose).

Good timing for the latest releases. I have education discount and I'm swaying between 14 inch MBP M4 with 1TB SSD or 14 inch M4Pro with 512SSD.

Can anyone tell me why one option is better over the other? The use case is not video editing/rendering or anything like that, just as the home non-work computer.

If you're just browsing / watching videos / do a bit of photo editing etc. then a MacBook Air is more than sufficient, if there's no specific reason for you to buy a Pro I'd rather save some money (and a bit of weight) and get the Air 👍

aliexpress has plenty more, one with tripod mount too

I used to do remote presentations during covid using some third party software and my old iPhone on a tripod as a webcam. That was a pain in the ass!
These little discs that just clip to the screen of the laptop and magsafe the iPhone are so much more convenient (at least for my usecase).

The Base one will probs be more than enough if its just photos your editing, the Pro will be faster but obvs has less hard drive space.

I think on reflection I got caught up in launch hype and an M3 Air would be more than enough, the weight saving to make it more portable is a win I think. I used the current MBP on trips to watch films etc.