2018 Mac Mini Review • Hacker News Board

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#371

Post by rsynnott » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:08 PM UTC

thirdsun wrote: post #185

antsar wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody's forcing you to use 2x scaling. I use two 27" UHD displays with Debian/GNOME. The system-level scaling factor is 1, and I adjust application zoom levels as needed. I typically divide each display in half, and each half comfortably fits one browser window, mail client, terminal, Spotify, etc.

1x scaling will be too small for UHD at 27". MacOS only works probably with integer-based scaling - 1x, 2x, theoretically 3x. Everything inbetween will lead to blurry text/assets and decreased performance since the output as a whole will be scaled and downsampled by the GPU. I'm working a lot with text and a sharp/crisp display is important to me. 2x scaling is the only proper option in my opinion.

Note that Apple uses non-integer scaling _on their own computers_ these days. Default for the 15" MBP, which has a native resolution of 2880x1800, is fake 1680x1050.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#372

Post by mywacaday » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

Can anyone explain the market for this to me? In Ireland Mac Mini: 8th Gen i5 Processor/8GB RAM/256GB SSD €1269

Dell XPS 13 with: 8th Gen i5 Processor/8GB RAM/256GB SSD €1189

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#373

Post by wild_preference » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #348

phaus wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a company where most of us use Macs. Everyone that has upgraded from a 2013-2015 MBP to the touchbar model absolutely hates it, including me. There's gotta be someone around here that actually likes it, but I haven't met them yet. Its OK if you like it. I'm sure lots of people do, but you know damn well significantly more people have had issues with this laptop than normal, so I'm not sure why you're implyi…

The touchbar made me realize that I have a habit of resting my fingers up there. I came to this realization because when I didn't think I was typing anything, stuff would happen. Eventually I realized I was touching virtual buttons on the touchbar. I don't hate it, but I wish more of the tools I use took advantage of it. I think it could be massively improved by shortening it a little on the left to make room for a p…

Consider mapping CapsLock to Esc (and Ctrl when long-pressed) with Karabiner. I haven't used my physical Esc key since 2014 or something. Might help with your issue.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#374

Post by invinciblehog » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

I wonder how long the Mac mini will stick around

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#375

Post by nik736 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

matthewmacleod wrote: post #138

nik736 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 2017 13" and while it was working with a single 4k screen at 60 Hz, it simply isn't fun working on it since everything is laggy and stuttering.

I guess that high dpi then as well? I found that wasn’t really nice to use because of the stuttering, but native 4K was much better. You need good eyesight though :)

Scaled down to 1440p yep. Native 4K is no option :D

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#376

Post by Jaruzel » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

H1Supreme wrote: post #169

kakwa_ wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be better with III but with a Raspberry Pie II XBMC/Kodi is quite slow and a bit laggy. Personally, I switch to an Intel NUC with a fanless akasa case, and aside from the occasional Lodi crash it works relatively well.

It's not particularly great with the Pi III either. I have one, and I find it's under powered for the "media server" role. Especially, if more than one person connects. I like it for lots of other things, but this isn't one of them.

Ah I use my mine as a playback front end only, pulling media from a NAS. I guess that's a different use case really.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#377

Post by shurcooL » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:13 PM UTC

> Unfortunately, we still don’t have any great standalone 5K displays. (The LG UltraFine isn’t.)

What’s wrong with the LG display? It gets a lot of criticism, but I find it hard to understand why. There was an interference shielding issue, but it was fixed more than a year ago.

For anyone familiar with the matter, what is it that makes the LG not great?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#378

Post by lewapkon » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #325

copperx wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone looking for crystal clear vocals should do exactly what NPR does: Stick a Neumann U87 six inches from the mouth with the bass rolled off and use a P-pop and Bob's your uncle. Money will be an issue with the U87, so you can look for good clones; there are a few in the market.

What does it mean to have the bass "rolled off", and what is a p-pop?

I'd guess he means a pop filter.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#379

Post by babypuncher » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #314

drcongo wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will definitely be saying "yay it hasn't gotten worse!" about these.

I don't have a problem with the Touch Bar. It's kind of handy for occasional things that are context specific and normally involve using the mouse.

I think the thing people have a problem with is the atrocious new keyboard

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#380

Post by babypuncher » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 5:19 PM UTC

throwaway9d0291 wrote: post #156

someguydave wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use optical audio in a mac mini as a home theater TV driver. No thanks.

These days optical audio is dying when it comes to home theater systems, primarily due to its lack of codec support. You can't passthrough DTS-HD over optical, you can over HDMI.

Somehow HDMI audio is still less convenient for me.

I send HDMI to my TV which sends optical to my sound system, and it still works pretty well. Earlier this year I bought a nice sound system with a receiver for the reasons you mentioned, but it added extra lag to my video games, so I returned it. My current sound system also supports ARC but it causes most of the same problems. Decoding those fancy codecs creates lag on every system I've tried, so sticking to LPCM over optical seems to be the only way to enjoy games still.