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2018 Mac Mini Review

marco.org

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#561

Post by tcfunk »

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…

Yes! I am constantly holding down the escape key without realizing it. Not a problem very often but occasionally causes some really confusing things to happen.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#562

Post by reaperducer »

bstar77 wrote: post #560
reaperducer wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use Plex, but went back to AppleTV/iTunes. For some reason Plex wouldn't see half of my video library. I eventually tracked it down to Plex not liking the filenames of certain TV shows. My TV shows are named Show Name - Episode Name. Plex wanted them to be ShowName.s0x.e0x. I'm not going to go through and rename all of my files. Plex should just work from the metadata like iTunes does. That's what metadata…

Not sure if you are aware of this, but you have to have your TV shows separate from your movies in Plex. When Plex scans files, it uses different logic for TV show and movie file name. I had a similar problem where I imported my TV shows as movies... some worked, but most didn't. After moving my shows out of my movies directory and re-importing them specifically as tv shows, everything detected perfectly.

Not sure if you are aware of this, but you have to have your TV shows separate from your movies in Plex.

Nope. Had no idea. And no idea why I should, since iTunes has no problem with it. I'm not going to spend six hours sorting 4GB of files because Plex can't read metadata that iTunes can.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#563

Post by bstar77 »

robk wrote: post #144
veidr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than…

Buy a cheap NUC for server (run Ubuntu) and use an Nvidia Shield for front end. Works flawlesslh.

The only downside to the NUC is that it maxes out at 32gb of ram. I have the fastest i7 model ($1,600usd) and it's an absolute beast. I offload my compiling and services to it and it handles everything like a champ, gpu stuff notwithstanding. I do hit the wall with some stuff at 32gb so a 64gb option would be ideal. I would never buy a mac to run servers and I would never buy a NUC to replace my Mac workhorse.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#564

Post by bstar77 »

notatoad wrote: post #405
maxxxxx wrote: post #198

I really don't like when reviewers test the high end configuration only. This makes the review pretty useless for most of us who may be considering a lower spec.

I agree with you, but somehow i feel like Marco gets a pass - he's not really trying to run a tech review site to give this thing an objective score, it's his personal blog and his opinion and this is the model he finds interesting. I know it's probably not fair to give him a pass on reviewing the top-end, because really it is a review and should be held to the same standard as other reviews, but something about his…

He said specifically that it's the model Apple decided to send him for review, so he had no choice.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#565

Post by simonh »

drcongo wrote: post #160
realradicalwash wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is a bit out of context. The sentence right above it: >It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. So, no, it's not "yayy" because it "hasn't gotten worse", it's "yayy", because "[it makes] almost everything better".

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

And now the top thread is dominated by an argument about laptop keyboards, for a device that isn't a laptop and doesn't even come with a keyboard.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#566

Post by stinky613 »

djsumdog wrote: post #431
lucideer wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader" Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.

It also doesn't look like it has a DisplayPort. If I wanted to hook it into my KVM, I'd need a USB-C to display port dongle.

It has four Thunderbolt 3 connectors. Thunderbolt 3 features DisplayPort 1.2

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#567

Post by spiritcat »

fipple wrote: post #507
ako wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand all the hate for the touchbar. I can never remember the functions performed by the function keys, so having icons indicating which functions are available seems really useful.

The problem is that most serious computer users use a laptop docked, so it’s useless 70-90% of the time, which means the software can’t rely on it, which means it’s an afterthought in all apps.

why close it when 'docked'? mouse on right, keyboard in middle, touchpad and touchbar on left

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#568

Post by Keyframe »

stevewodil wrote: post #64
Keyframe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of GPU wasn't OP's gripe.

How else would you interpret the comment? The only thing they mention is the lack of GPU, so I'm curious why you would say that. In any case the price is due to the SSD and RAM upgrades. You can get the i7 with 8gb RAM and 256gb SSD for $1300, which is still pricey but what do you expect from Apple...

I've interpreted it as being overpriced, with provision that it might not be if there was a (higher end) GPU inside.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#569

Post by jimmcslim »

wild_preference wrote: post #426
copperx wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you remap CapsLock to Esc, what key do you use for Control for doing Control A, Control E, Control K, Control Y, Control N, and Control P in every application?

I tried to address this in my parentheses, but Karabiner specifically lets you bind CapsLock to both: Esc when tapped alone, and Ctrl when held down in combination with other keys. And your post also answers you sibling comment: Ctrl modifier is useful outside of just Emacs. Try it out. I believe the API changed in the macOS release before Mojave, so they relaunched Karabiner under the name Karabiner Elements. This o…

In this mode... if you hold down CapsLock as Ctrl and then don't decide to press another modifier... does it still fire CapsLock as Esc?
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