GRcade

rinks wrote:I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered a Mac Mini. I'd been really tempted to get a new iMac, but the cost is daft. For hundreds less I can get an equivalent Mini (10% off at Amazon) and a 27" screen instead of 24". OK, the screen won't be quite as stunning, but it's better to have them separate if/when anything fails. I'll finally retire my 2007 iMac!

Routine question, but what do people do re. anti-virus on Macs these days?

Which Mini did you go for? Went for the base spec M2 as my usage needs are very light and it's been spot on since I got it in May 2023.

Robbo-92 wrote:

rinks wrote:I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered a Mac Mini. I'd been really tempted to get a new iMac, but the cost is daft. For hundreds less I can get an equivalent Mini (10% off at Amazon) and a 27" screen instead of 24". OK, the screen won't be quite as stunning, but it's better to have them separate if/when anything fails. I'll finally retire my 2007 iMac!

Routine question, but what do people do re. anti-virus on Macs these days?

Which Mini did you go for? Went for the base spec M2 as my usage needs are very light and it's been spot on since I got it in May 2023.

Same, but with 512GB HD. It'll be used a fair bit, but nothing really intensive that justifies increasing the spec.

The Mini is unreal value for that price point and performance.

I don’t bother with antivirus.

Anyone getting the vision headset thing? Not for me at this point but does look pretty wild.

Rocsteady wrote:Anyone getting the vision headset thing? Not for me at this point but does look pretty wild.

I thought it was American only just now? Thus preventing me from using it while driving my Cybertruck that I also can’t have here.

It does look interesting, but more like a very nice dev kit for the actual mass consumer market.

Prototype wrote:

rinks wrote:Routine question, but what do people do re. anti-virus on Macs these days?

Literally nothing.

But would be happy to take recommendations if Massimo or anyone else can suggest.

Yeah same, haven’t used any antivirus on macs since I first started in 2003.

OK, cheers all. It’s not like I’m going to be visiting dodgy sites, downloading gooseberry fool or clicking on anything silly in an email, so I guess I’ll be OK.

rinks wrote:OK, cheers all. It’s not like I’m going to be visiting dodgy sites,

You're leaving GRcade?

Moggy wrote:

rinks wrote:OK, cheers all. It’s not like I’m going to be visiting dodgy sites,

You're leaving GRcade?

Heh, even having antivirus wouldn’t protect against the infections of this place. Some things are worth the risk.

On the topic of antivirus software, how do you actually run a scan on a Mac? On PCs it’s fairly trivial, but I’ve not come across how to scan on my Mac yet.

Robbo-92 wrote:On the topic of antivirus software, how do you actually run a scan on a Mac? On PCs it’s fairly trivial, but I’ve not come across how to scan on my Mac yet.

Won’t that depend on which antivirus software you have installed? Or are you asking if there is a built in button to start scanning for stuff in macOS? If the latter, then no.
macOS does a bunch of stuff in the background whenever you download files to check if files are malicious.

Rocsteady wrote:Anyone getting the vision headset thing? Not for me at this point but does look pretty wild.

I tried out a friends Apple Vision Pro the other day and it really is crazy how immersive it is, and just futuristic it feels. The pass through video latency is really quick. The onscreen elements look fantastic and stay exactly where they’re placed. The eye tracking and pinching gestures work really well.
You can see where that ~$4,000 is going, but it certainly is a big investment to make. If I had the money laying around I’d consider picking one up.

massimo wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:On the topic of antivirus software, how do you actually run a scan on a Mac? On PCs it’s fairly trivial, but I’ve not come across how to scan on my Mac yet.

Won’t that depend on which antivirus software you have installed? Or are you asking if there is a built in button to start scanning for stuff in macOS? If the latter, then no.
macOS does a bunch of stuff in the background whenever you download files to check if files are malicious.

Ah thats fair enough then, just so used to doing a manual check on Windows in the past, I wondered if there might be such an option on MacOS as well. No additional antivirus installed.

Mac Mini is here, with a new monitor. And now I have no idea which is best to connect them - HDMI or USB-C? Logically HDMI leaves a USB slot free, but are there other (dis)advantages? (It’s not a hub-type monitor.)

New as well using HDMI to free up a slot

OK, cheers.

Firewall is off by default. Shouldn’t it be on?

Tiny Mac Mini is impressing me so far. I might not be putting it under pressure at the minute, but there's no heat whatsoever, it's that efficient.

I bought the keyboard with Touch ID, and that's so handy when it comes to passwords. Unlocking with Apple Watch is a neat feature (though I'm not always wearing it). And the Magic Trackpad is beyond excellent. I've always hated trackpads as a compromised mouse alternative on laptops (old-style - I've not used a recent MacBook), but the size of this trackpad combined with the array of gestures make it a joy to use. I kept a wired mouse connected initially, thinking I'd prefer it for some things, but I've not touched it.

rinks wrote:Tiny Mac Mini is impressing me so far. I might not be putting it under pressure at the minute, but there's no heat whatsoever, it's that efficient.

I bought the keyboard with Touch ID, and that's so handy when it comes to passwords. Unlocking with Apple Watch is a neat feature (though I'm not always wearing it). And the Magic Trackpad is beyond excellent. I've always hated trackpads as a compromised mouse alternative on laptops (old-style - I've not used a recent MacBook), but the size of this trackpad combined with the array of gestures make it a joy to use. I kept a wired mouse connected initially, thinking I'd prefer it for some things, but I've not touched it.

I've inherited my wife's M1 Air because she wanted to upgrade (don't ask me why this thing works fine). Touch ID for passwords is indeed really useful!

I think I prefer the keyboard on my work's Lenovo Thinkpad but that's personal taste. The trackpad on the Thinkpad is definitely worse than the apple one though, you can push to click anywhere on the apple one, my work Thinkpad you can only push down the bottom corners and it's caught me out a lot now since I've been using the MacBook.

Is there a way to snap windows like on windows? Like on windows you drag the window to the side to do side by side multitasking.

I know you can hover over the green maximise button to tile two windows, but on windows I'd tile 3 sometimes 4 using snap.

Johnny Ryall wrote:Is there a way to snap windows like on windows? Like on windows you drag the window to the side to do side by side multitasking.

No, but there are a bunch of free little utilities for that on the Mac AppStore. I used to use Magnet years ago until I decided to build my own solution using Shortcuts.

The only good thing about Apple is Apple TV.

They should just become a TV only business.

Something tells me that would be bad for their bottom line Peter.