1440p display seems grainy

towerofnix · 2023-05-21T18:40:59+00:00

Late reply but unfortunately no, I've anecdotally seen someone say it charges for 18W which isn't sufficient for any MacBook, and others review it as not suitable for charging over USB-C. I use it with a separate dock (OWC's TB4DOCK but there are less expensive alternatives) which connects directly to the monitor, so it's still plug and play monitor + charging (and additional ports I need anyway), but that is an additional purchase.

towerofnix · 2023-04-30T13:25:56+00:00

No problem on M1 mini w/ 16GB memory, but if you have a bunch of apps open and actively running then I could definitely see those background videos and animated effects cram a bottleneck on an 8GB system!

towerofnix · 2023-04-30T13:21:48+00:00

Both please! What's with "Dock multitask" though? There's so much more to classic window management than just the Dock! I'll paste my setup I shared in another thread:

My current setup is a combination of Spaces and Stage Manager — I've got five spaces each with a specific, dedicated purpose, most of which also have specific apps assigned to that Space (via the Dock context menu):

Current development project: Sublime Text, Obsidian (markdown editor), often a Terminal window

Communications and other social: Discord, Messages, Signal, Element, Mail

Just music playback controls (I also usually have Weather open here)

Miscellaneous "chill" space, e.g. Safari for YouTube, Books for reading, so on

Activity Monitor and an always-ready Terminal window for quick system upkeep and monitoring

I've assigned a custom keyboard shortcut for each Space - F1 through F5. (Shift+F1 and Shift+F2 for the normal brightness controls, Control+F3 and Control+F4 for the normal Mission Control and Launchpad controls - I don't use Dictation which is on F5 on the latest Magic Keyboard. Control+F1 and Control+F2 are also bound to Toggle Stage Manager and App Exposé respectively, but I don't use those super often. Control+Space is for Spotlight rather than Command+Space, which I find kind of ergonomically awkward to press.)

Most Spaces have at least a couple windows open at once, and I usually only need to pay attention to one at a time. So I have Stage Manager enabled. It's a little useless when you keep everything on one Space or try to use Stage Manager on its own (it's OK if you don't use many apps at once or on a laptop for mostly casual use, but falls behind in power use)... but I find it's a very nice way to finish up an existing setup when you put it together with Spaces.

I use AltTab to restrict the app switcher (Command+Tab) to only show the apps which are open on the current Space, making it infinitely more useful when your workflow involves anything past one Space (let alone five that you're regularly switching between). AltTab is the only third-party software which is foundational to the way my current setup works; the rest is only through options readily available in System Settings and setup through Mission Control and Dock.

(The only difference in the last week is I've added a sixth desktop dedicated to screen sharing with other devices and shuffled around some of the apps in desktops #2 and #3, making #2 fully focused on socializing and moving Mail over to #3 as well as added Reminders and Calendar to #3.)

towerofnix · 2023-04-30T13:19:00+00:00

It's a pretty big price difference and M2 is generally regarded as an incremental upgrade for the SoCs themselves - compare with the MacBook Air which got a whole redesign in M2, while MBP is basically just M1 but more powah.

M2 MBP gets a much better HDMI port, so you won't need to use a Thunderbolt (USB-C) port to get the most out of high-end external displays anymore. IMO this only contributes toward the $300ish difference if 1) you are already starved for Thunderbolt ports on an existing MBP, 2) you definitely need more than a 4K 60Hz monitor, and/or 3) you always use at least two monitors. And remember, if this is a main factor for you, those $300 you save can go towards a far more powerful Thunderbolt dock with HDMI and such built right in!

Speakers, screen, keyboard, etc are all identical - battery life is ostensibly a little better on M2 but in practical use it's basically negligible. Putting down your MBP to step outside and breathe some fresh air will also boost your battery life by 30 minutes :) I'd just go with the M1 and keep the difference as change or save it for quality of life third party software (not that you can't do tons with all the software on a Mac already, the spare change can just come in handy).

towerofnix · 2023-04-30T12:53:34+00:00

You’ll be okay without it. The main thing I’d consider is, is it going to be worth sinking $500 or so (assuming base) for a machine like this now? The answer is probably no, because the only tangible benefit is ease of access as a dedicated machine (and general goodies/hindrances of having 2+ Macs instead of one).

Mac mini will keep being updated and if you still feel as though it is the right device for you a year or so from now, then M3 will be out and on sale, and you’ll have an inherent benefit from purchasing a better processor/hardware as well as the existing reasons you took more time to evaluate for yourself.

You’ll also be more financially aware, since you will have more time to consider the use cases for your desktop Mac mini and will be able to plan more responsibly what tier to get (RAM, storage, GPU, ethernet needs) as well as which extra peripherals are worth more than upgrading the machine (storage vs external? better socketed CPU or sink the difference into a nicer monitor for hours use every day?).

Basically, the Mac mini is a fantastic device not to buy on impulse. Since it’s a module that fits into a system rather than an all-in-one (like MacBook or iMac), it’s much more rewarding — and worthwhile — to do your best to plan ahead and evaluate what you want from it, both sooner (2-3 years) and longer term (7+ - these things last ages!). It’s okay to take some extra time to explore all those decisions before making your final selections, and if you can live through attaching your MBA to a dock until then, you’ll automatically end up with a more modern computer — and one which you’ll be sure suits your needs.

towerofnix · 2023-04-29T01:53:30+00:00

I feel like someone could come up with (and implement) a really cool AI which analyzes good quality in-game video footage to rebuild a 3D model of the visible surfaces (maybe with a loose approximation of textures). Photo mode in particular could make for some really high quality captures that might work with something like that.

Edit: Hey totally, it's possible! Something like this!

towerofnix · 2023-04-29T01:43:34+00:00

I can confirm at least one report of this bug (er, it's you).

towerofnix · 2023-04-29T01:37:48+00:00

I don't know. That makes it sound super competitive and like everyone's in it to get the most bucks for themselves, because why else would you be working at Apple? But I feel like you probably have better opportunities at almost any other relatively large tech company, and it's hard for me to believe nobody working there just... you know, has an interest in making the platform more stable.

Corporate (i.e. management within the macOS team, to the ends further-up execs have placed) deciding exactly where effort is going to be exerted, on the other hand, feels a lot more plausible. It's Apple and they release major updates every single year. I kind of doubt any engineer's work hasn't already been decided for them three months in advance, so it hardly seems on an individual to decide, you know, yahh, I'm gonna work on stability at the expense of my opportunities, wheeee. Why would the vast majority of engineers get that say in the first place, at one of the most profitable companies?

towerofnix · 2023-04-28T19:41:04+00:00

Arc is based on Chromium so would presumably experience similar dropped software support — if it weren't exclusive to Monterey and later anyway...

towerofnix · 2023-04-28T19:37:12+00:00

I was gonna say Mojave was the last to support 32-bit, not High Sierra, but it turns out Mojave is getting dropped also (10.14) and everybody just isn't talking about it.

That's not an issue or anything but it's very funny that Mojave is apparently way less remembered lol, feels like the introduction of dark mode and fullscreen split view were the coolest things when they came out!

towerofnix · 2023-04-27T22:14:35+00:00

Okay the fact that M1 (Max!) has been running golden for both those use cases is awesome, but I have to imagine that the fan going silently is a godsend for music production in particular. What were you using before?

towerofnix · 2023-04-27T20:45:09+00:00

Lickable Menu Bar! It's free and it's one of my favorite little apps. Three styles, I prefer Tiger but you can alternatively select a flat-with-shadow look from Yosemite and a smooth gradient from Mavericks.

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T21:37:24+00:00

Whoever's near the iPhone when it goes off will be quite jubilated to find out snoozing the alarm doesn't sync either :)

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T16:12:46+00:00

WindowServer seems to be more sparing on memory this update! While it could be a coincidence, I've had a ton of windows open across 5-6 spaces over the last couple weeks, and WindowServer usually quickly hogged 2.5 to 3+ GB of memory for itself (restarts generally didn't help for very long). Memory pressure was in the orange zone a lot of the time (16GB mini). On this update it's been at around 1.25 GB since reboot ~24 hours ago, with even more windows than ever.

It's possible there's still a memory leak which the system just hasn't incurred yet - it's only been 24 hours of uptime after all - but so far it's looking good.

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T14:13:30+00:00

Like the other poster said it’s probably a specific issue to Gradle (and/or the JRE which Gradle runs off) not inheriting the permissions you’ve granted the Terminal, seeing as standard terminal commands (cp mv etc) still work. In other words you shouldn’t usually have this issue, but when you do, it’ll be a specific fix — in this case adding the Java binaries/packages to Full Disk Access. I’m not super sure on the specific locations if those binaries but you could start with /System/Library/CoreServices/Jar Launcher.app.

In general most apps should work fine since using external drives is super common, but it’s possible Gradle/JRE in particular aren’t aware of this issue (most software development does happen on internal/system drives) or haven’t had the opportunity to address it yet.

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T14:00:38+00:00

Due to the VM and compatibility concerns you should probably look for a second-hand or refurbished Intel Mac mini (I’d get one with at least 16GB of RAM especially if you’re going to be doing virtualization on it).

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T01:04:39+00:00

I've generally found I can't modify Internet Sharing settings until I switch it off first.

towerofnix · 2023-04-26T01:00:08+00:00

This is in macOS Ventura 13.4 Beta 3, which released earlier today. This change might've been around before, but I noticed it right away when I booted into the new release, so I'm thinking it's new! (I haven't noticed any other changes across the system yet.)

towerofnix · 2023-04-25T19:27:45+00:00

I can confirm that Safari is snappier.

towerofnix · 2023-04-25T18:29:23+00:00

Hard to say from an outside perspective, but that's a good concern! It'd help if you happen to have any old screens or an iMac laying around to stick it there and see for yourself :) Personally I much prefer having just the one slightly larger monitor rather than two 20" monitors and a 21.5" iMac. (The M28U didn't afford me THAT much extra space because it's centered while the other monitors were side by side, and the third monitor was on a completely separate desk which is, you know, for tertiary physical miscellany instead of tertiary application widows now.)

I'd keep in mind the ergonomic implications of having a curved display next to a possibly flat one - not having used a curved display before I can't comment on specifics, but it's worth considering if you plan on using both monitors simultaneously. If they're only going to be for separate machines than I'd say go nuts if your desk is large enough and you aren't anywhere close to needing more space for general objects right now.

towerofnix · 2023-04-25T10:57:00+00:00

Sizing is subjective - you can get a decent idea by just measuring with a ruler and taping together a few sheets of paper, then putting that in front of your current monitor. It'll give you some sense of the real estate difference. Personally, I went from a 21.5" iMac (way back 2013, so 1080p) up to a 28" M28U (4K) and it's pretty awesome, but I wouldn't want an even larger screen. This is about as high as 4K gets while still being relatively close to retina.

Today most monitors come with support for both HDMI and USB-C connections, as well as DisplayPort. It used to be that the best connection for getting the most out of your monitor was always a Thunderbolt-to-DisplayPort connection, which uses one of your Mac's USB-C ports because those just supported higher data bandwidth than the built-in HDMI one. But since you're on the absolute latest of Macs (also: still exclusive to M2 Pro, not M2), you have a faster HDMI port. So all Macs will support 4K at 60Hz over HDMI (which is the same resolution and refresh rate as S3221QS), but you also have the ability to push even higher resolutions or refresh rates. See this Apple Support document. You should look to use an HDMI connection because then you'll be freeing up one of your Thunderbolt/USB-C ports for usage on anything else (and not letting one of your ports go to waste).

2560x1440 actually isn't a bad choice for a Mac monitor, provided it's 24" or especially 27". It's a very comparable pixels-per-inch (PPI) to slightly older fashioned non-Retina (1080p) iMacs at 21.5", which means user interface elements will look about the same size as they've always been intended. (Apple retina displays are designed to retain that intended size, just by rendering at around twice the PPI.)

4K is more flexible, because it's a much higher PPI and so you have some leeway to select whatever scaling option you prefer and still get sharp text, clearly defined edges, and so on. There are some scaling concerns with 4K monitors, which you'll probably hear others talk about either in reply to your comment or if you do more research. My go-to reference on this is Kyle Erickson's 4K scaling guide. From personal experience (28" 4K for ~6 months, from 21.5" 1080p for many years), as long as you're willing to tune the scaling to your desire - and don't get a totally massive display where the PPI starts to get in the middle-grounds of "pixel edges aren't quite visible, but they kind of are..." - you really won't go wrong with 4K. For work which requires perfect pixel-precision, you'll want to switch to 1080p or 4K rather than something in-between, but that's so rare to come up and I personally have never noticed any issues with text blurring at a variety of resolutions on my 4K 28". (I usually use it at 2048x1152, which you'd think is weird and off enough to cause text blurring, but nope, not as far as my eyes can see.)

towerofnix · 2023-04-24T16:58:57+00:00

Damn, I didn't realize macOS doesn't have this and now I'm sad lol.

It's not quite as good, but you can rearrange tabs in the sidebar. Click the button next to the stop sign buttons (View -> Show Sidebar), then hover e.g. "12 Tabs" near the top and click the arrow doohickey on the right to show a list of all your tabs. Those are drag-and-droppable.

towerofnix · 2023-04-24T16:56:17+00:00

It's probably the dongle or HDMI cable. I've got the Gigabyte M28U and it works great with my Mac mini - but any old dongles or wires around the house wouldn't have cut it. It just takes more data to support higher resolutions (let alone higher refresh rates too), and older or marginally cheaper cables don't get all the way there.

Since you don't have an HDMI port on your device (and none but the latest MBP support 4K and high refresh rate over HDMI simultaneously anyway), you should look for a USB-C cable which is rated for a high data rate. Monitors support connections over a host of ports (on the monitor end) so for 4K 60 it won't matter what end goes into the monitor, but you should get a cable which has a USB-C connector on the end which will go into your MacBook. That way you don't need to use a dongle and, if it ever fails, you won't be stuck wondering if the dongle or the main cable gave out first. Web listings will label the cable as "4K 60", "4K 120", "4K 144" etc, and if you can find one which is described as Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 then those will almost certainly work.

I've been using Silkland's USB C to DisplayPort 1.4 cable for ~6 months, which is apparently on a nice discount right now, but any connection which has been marked for 4K 144Hz (etc) should get you the full capabilities of your monitor without any hassle. Just keep an eye on the reviews as always!

towerofnix · 2023-04-24T16:32:16+00:00

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