Anyone else buy an M1 Mac?

I have to wait till early Dec but I’m dying to get it! Replacing a 2013 Macbook pro so even if the M1 chips are “slow” they will run laps around this thing haha.

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My in-law’s just gave us their old (ca. 2013) iMac for the kids and it is slow enough that I’m already champing at the bit for an M_-based iMac next year.

I dumped Apple in 2014. The price differential just wasn’t worth it any more. They were offering “standard” hardware at about twice the price of equivalent kit - I looked at getting a MacBook Pro in 2010, I wanted a quad core i7 with 8GB RAM and BluRay, Apple could manage a dual core i7 with 8GB RAM and a DVD drive for 2,999€, I went with a Sony Vaio with quad core i7, 8GB RAM and BluRay for 1,399€.

That Sony is still going strong, as a Linux test station, although it has been upgraded to SSD.

The M1 chip is something that could tempt me back, but I want to wait and see how it really pans out. Is it really as good as they say? The other thing is, I want a *NIX computer, not an appliance that is under Apple’s iron grip, that makes me shy away from the Apple ecosystem as well.

So, I’m still in wait-and-see mode. The hardware certainly has a lot of potential.

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I actually just came back to Apple after years of not wanting anything to do with them. I’ve never found anything that compares to the fit and finish of a MacBook, particularly the track pad. Neither windows nor Linux integrate it properly. I also can’t stand windows anymore. I can’t stand windows and I’m over tweaking and playing to make Linux work properly. Pretty much left me with one option.

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It is the keyboard that keeps me away from the MacBooks, if I went back, it’d be a high end Mac mini or a low end Mac Pro. I currently have a 8 core SMT Ryzen with 32GB RAM and multiple SSDs that will need replacing in the next couple of years. The question will be, whether Apple have anything to compete on price/performance with that (or its equivalent at the time of replacement - it cost 1,200€ at the time).

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Wait and see mode here. The trusty 2013 i7 MacBook Air we used for music production stuff I’d like to replace with an M1 one - but waiting on all the software to be compatible. They even warn about using Rosetta. Bugs me that we spent a bit upfront for perpetual licenses when you could still get them, but now have to switch to subscription anyway as that’s the only way to get support and access to versions that are tested to work with Big Sur.

My maxed-out 2015 MacBook Pro refurb suits me fine, will prob keep that for a few more years.

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The early reviews seem very promising. I’m not a Mac user but let’s hope this lights a fire under others to make serious improvements over the next few years.

The only problem is because they seem genuinely good, Apple fanboys are going to be even more insufferable than they already are.

Might skip watching TWiT shows for the next few weeks to avoid the expected love-in :laughing:

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TWIT on Sunday was actually very good and, generally, very level headed in its coverage of the M1 chips.

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Ordered fully loaded MacBook Air day after they announced it. Not allowed to touch the box till Christmas morning. Been on High Sierra for 3 years on 2010 MBA.
Typical “geek”. Had to have 8 core GPU.
Hey, the price even dropped from intel based units downunder.

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Benchmarks for that M1 are looking pretty fire from what I’ve read today, even without considering the power usage.

Rene Ritchie mentioned today on MacBreak Weekly that his demo units have knocked the socks off of him, as compared to the Intel Macs.

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Received my M1 MBA today. Snappy, but already running into compatibility issues. Unable to get FireFox with LastPass extension to cooperate. FireFox will launch websites until I log into LastPass then the browser will stop loading websites. QuickBooks does not have a version that supports M1 hardware. Office365 is working fine.

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As with iPhone 12, not supplying a wall charger, the M1 MBA did not come with a power adapter extension cord. These little things Apple marketing is using to promote their green initiative seems more like an additional profit margin issue.

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waiting for the 16" laptop

Agreed. Unless they’re marking the cost of the charger off the price of the phone or computer, then their green initiative seems disingenuous. I call out Android device manufacturers for the same thing.

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Install the LP Mac app, for now, you won’t get autofill but at least you’d have access to your vault.

On another note, apple needs to get better at having product surplus ready for launch. I decided that I want on yesterday and just checked apple.com and they are now shipping Dec 15th earliest.

Covid has a lot to do with that.

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I removed and reinstalled the FireFox LP add-on and seems to have solved issue I was having.

Tried using new M1 MBA on Zoom call this evening. Very disappointed with grainy video compared to my Early 2014 MBA. Realize Zoom client is not native code for Apple Silicon yet however doing a FaceTime from new MBA and old MBA produced same grainy video on the M1.

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The video showing someone clicking and showing how fast all their apps open on the M1 is misleading. Opening Microsoft 365 apps, Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint first time takes 5-seconds each, then second time through less than 1-second. Still extremely fast but the bouncing ball affect is still there, just not as many bounces.

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