My first bleeding edge computer

It's called iStat. I saw some of the Mac M1 reviewers using it. You can get it on their website: iStat Menus or from the App store. I think it was $5 or thereabouts. I got the App store version so I could use it on both my computers and share it with my wife. I didn't bother checking the license for the one from the website. However, the one from the App Store is missing a feature or two. When you set it up, it will ask if you want to get that part from their website. The patch was free and easy.

Prior to that I was using one called System Monitor. It didn't run at all on this M1 machine. The iStat one is a universal binary that runs on M1 and x86.

I remember it well. The whole system that Intel & IBM set up was brilliant for the time. Computers were like Lego kits. It was the start of the x86 architecture that was so flexible back in the day. But now it seriously slows things down. Intel just released a chip that will keep up with the M1, but it uses a ton more power and costs a whole lot more.

It looks to me like the M1 is going to be as disruptive to the industry as the iPhone was.

 

That's a fancy looking slide rule. The one I ordered is pretty basic and looks very antique, but looks like it's in good shape. The seller would do well to learn how to take better pictures, though. LOL!

 

I remember seeing contests way back in the day between slide rule users and calculator users where the slide rule was faster at just about everything.

 

I'm not sure what mold you think the M1 fits. For me, it fits the mold of "do anything the old system did with less energy and noise, more speed, and less money." After a few days using this 8GB M1 MBP to replace my i7 16GB MBP, I've had no problems doing the same kind of photo editing, video editing, audio production, web development, and graphics design work as what I did on the old MBP with the screaming fan. And it does it faster, which is to be expected with a 5-year newer machine. I was a little leery of going with 8GB but, after reading about how the system handles RAM so much better than x86, I took a chance. So far, so good. I wouldn't be surprised if, by the end of 2021, the only use for x86 chips will be just to run Windows and to drain batteries. What really amazes me is that these entry level computers are as fast or faster than the top of the line laptops.

I guess the only downside is that you can't add more memory. But then again, the memory is handled more efficiently and the memory is a fraction of an inch away from the CPUs rather than several inches, which makes access way faster. I've mostly been using Adobe Audition so far to produce radio programs. The app still isn't rewritten for M1, so it's being translated by Rosetta 2 and it's still way way quicker at rendering mixdowns than it was on the i7 and the new computer doesn't get warm.

 

From what I've read and seen, the Air is every bit as good as the Pro other other than slightly less battery life and the possibility of a little throttling if you push it hard for more than a few minutes. Something most users don't do.

Most likely. I don't usually keep them till they die. My first Mac was a refurbished late 2009 27" iMac. The GPU went belly up in early 2015 and they were no longer available. (I pushed it pretty hard editing photos and videos.) I took out the GPU and sent it to a guy in California who reballed it for me for not much money. After putting it back together and running it for a while to make sure that all was well, I sold it and bought an i7 15" MackBook Pro that was twice as fast as the iMac. Now this new computer is twice as fast as the 15" MBP. So I guess doubling the performance is my trigger. BTW, I have a buyer for the 15" but haven't completed the transaction yet. That brings the cost of this $1,700 machine down close to the MacBook Air after throwing away the old junker.

It's a wonderful world having the iPhones and Macs playing so well together. If I'm at the computer and get a text, I rarely need to pick up the phone. Only if it's from an Android user. It's also very handy being able to copy something from one device and paste it into the other one. As for the SLR, there are lots of card readers that will plug into your USB port. I have a dock that has a card reader, three USB ports, an HDMI port, and a pass-through for charging the computer.

Yup, I find that a little scary, too. It gives the best possibility of reliability and extra performance, but for DIYers like us, it's uncomfortable. Maybe I need to get more serious about programming these new machines like I used to with other stuff so I feel like I have some mastery of the thing. LOL!

 

I think I have all the pieces now for my work-at-home setup. Just got the laptop stand and Magic Trackpad 2 today. Last week I got the 1TB NVMe SSD and external Thunderbolt enclosure. Already had the keyboard. The 27" 4K monitor makes this almost like the office except at home I have the added 13" screen and this little stinker is twice as fast as my 2017 iMac at the office.

 

Spot on, @ETC(SS). So glad she likes it.

On the LibreOffice thing: My wife always used to use OpenOffice. I switched her to Libre a couple years ago since Open wasn't being very actively supported. When she upgraded to Big Sur, something broke in LibreOffice. So I said, "Let's give OpenOffice another shot." Summagun! It worked great. Since that time, I've guessing that LibreOffice has fixed whatever got knocked loose withe change to Big Sur.

On mine, I have Office365 through work, and that's now been optimized for the M1 even though the Rosetta translations was working fine. Adobe Audition is where I spend much of my working time and even though it's running through the translator, it's still smooth as butter and quicker than on my 24 GB i5 at the office even though this thing has just 8 GB of RAM. It's amazing how it does so much with so little.

The graphics work is mostly the Affinity suite, which is M1 optimized and On1 photo editor which is not. Both run fast and smoothly. I have had to replace one app that monitored hardware for me because I'm a geek and like to see how hard the CPU is running, how much RAM I'm using, and stuff like that. Also, I had to do some research to get Google Drive to work on the desktop. Dropbox just worked.

I totally agree on the keyboard and trackpad. I could work all day using them if not for the ergonomics of hunching over a laptop as opposed to having the keyboard/trackpad lower and the monitor at eye level. Thankfully, the full sized Mac keyboard is really similar in feel to the new MBP keyboard, so no loss there. And the Magic Trackpad 2 is a wonder. Bigger than the M1's trackpad with roughly the same feel. (In settings, there are three firmness choices for the click, btw.)

The biggest difference I've noticed compared to my i7 15" MBP is that I have not heard the fan on this yet, no matter how hard I push it. The fans on the i7 sounded like a hair dryer just from browsing a couple web pages.

If this is their entry level system, the next edition is really going to rattle some cages at Intel and AMD. WOW. This thing continues to impress me. It gives the i7 a Dutch rub and then flushes its head in the toilet in the boys' locker room. The i9 can pretty much hold its own but will need a whole lot more amperage to do so. And the i9 is not entry level.

Hooda think that you could get a $1000 computer that can, in some ways, keep up with a $30,000 Mac Pro?!

 

I think I have it all set up the way I want it now. Amazingly fast, smooth, and convenient. The external Thunderbolt drive is spectacular. I copied a folder containing about 2GB from the internal drive to the TB drive in less than 2 seconds. Having the two screens for audio work while following a written script is nice, too.

No issues with any of the software I use. But it did take three tries to find a hub that works the way I want. This is even more productive than the 27" 5K iMac at work.

Even with just 8MB of RAM, it doesn't care how many apps I'm running or how many browser tabs are open. It's still over twice as fast as my office iMac. If this is the entry level, I can't wait to see what the big dogs will do when they get turned loose later this year.



Black Magic speed test Read/Write to external Thunderbolt drive. Writes over 1 GB/s!!



Edit to add a shot of what's going on with memory. It says it's almost full, but it has very little pressure, doesn't slow down, and the I've yet to hear a peep from the fan. My i7 MBP sounded like a hair dryer if I pushed it even a little bit.