exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Quick panoramic shop of the office/workshop :)

@rubber_jonnie needs an @exxos mug in that shot.

PhilC wrote: 09 Nov 2021 14:25 @rubber_jonnie needs an @exxos mug in that shot.

Indeed it does! need to push that non-existent merch ! :lol:

PhilC wrote: 09 Nov 2021 14:25 @rubber_jonnie needs an @exxos mug in that shot.

@Icky sent me an H4 mug back ages ago, 2019 I think. It went to the office I had been working from, but we'd been bought out by another company so I was going into their offices, so my boss collected it from the old place. Then Covid hit and he still has the mug!!

exxos wrote: 09 Nov 2021 14:27

PhilC wrote: 09 Nov 2021 14:25 @rubber_jonnie needs an @exxos mug in that shot.

Indeed it does! need to push that non-existent merch ! :lol:

Yaaay, non existent merch rulez!!

:dizzy:

I know my discussions about moving to Apple from Windows proved a little controversial, so I've decided to post a mini first impressions review on my main blog to keep it a bit lower key.

Here's the machine, which arrived Monday:


It's a 14" MacBook Pro with base M1Pro CPU (8 core/14 core GPU/16 core neural engine) 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, or as Apple call it, Flash memory.

Likes so far:

Build quality is superb. It is very rigid and feels built to last.
The OS is lovely to use.
Touch ID is great. I've heard Windows Hello is better, but as I've never used it I can't compare.
Keyboard is very nice and there is no 'deck flex'.
It is barely bigger than a 13" model but packs in so much more.
Magsafe - it is the best power connector by a country mile.
Battery life is astonishing. Yesterday I had it on all day and used it for my usual daily stuff. So mixed web browsing, video watching, email and other day to day tasks. I had it on from 09:00 to 23:30 and it still had 69% battery as I was turning the lights off to go to sleep. That's 13.5 hours, so really pretty good. I've never been able to come close to that with an intel laptop. It'll be interesting to see how well it does when I push the CPU/GPU. In terms of battery life it feels more like a mobile phone than a laptop. Charging is fast too.
The screen is fabulous, and it's absolutely amazing in 4k 120Hz mode, it is bright clear and super sharp. Anything HDR can be displayed at up to 1600 nits peak brightness, and it shows.
The sound is nothing short of amazing. I have never heard sound so good from any laptop, and the spacial sound I got from a Dolby Atmos demo on YouTube was something else.
The unified memory makes it super snappy, and unlike my older Intel MBP whose fans run constantly despite fixing up the thermals, I have only been able to get the fans running by manually doing so with an app!
It will seamlessly use both ARM and x86 apps. This is a really neat trick if your apps are not yet converted to ARM and does not slow down at all.

Dislikes so far:

It's a bit expensive, though it remains to be seen what the TCO will be.
The design is really nice and harks back to the aluminium G4s like the 17" model I have, however it has some sharp edges, especially around the air inlet/exhaust areas and the notch in front of the trackpad.
I don't like the feet, they're a bit too hard and don't grip the desk as well as I'd like them to.
I'm still converting from Windows in my brain, despite using my older MBP for nearly 6 months. I'll get there, but as I've been using Windows since 3.1, I have certain traits embedded that I am having to break, which is difficult since I still use Windows for work. I am slowly beginning to get the hang of Mac keyboard shortcuts, but it's tricky.
I'm still getting used to gesture control and the force touch trackpad. Jury is still out there.
The lack of reparability/upgradeability is a problem. Battery replacement is however improved over the MBP M1 13" model.

So overall a very positive experience so far, and it feels to me that it's the way laptops need to go. More powerful CPUs that are less power hungry. Maybe I'll think differently after more time with it, who knows, but I'd certainly recommend one if you are in the market.

And as for the screen 'notch', well it just isn't a problem, I just don't notice it at all.

Well, every now and again I look for an Atari 800. I really love the design and feel it was probably the pinnacle of the 8 bit Atari's. Yes, I know the XLs and XEs had more up to date cases and were newer, but from a build quality PoV, I always felt the 800 was great compared to the later machines.

The trouble is, they are soooo bloody expensive these days, it's just ridiculous. One I see on eBay a lot, probably because it hasn't sold, is up for £699, that's nearly £300 more than my MSTE cost.

Maybe one day....

Everything is. There's a lot of LOLpricing at the moment.

Case in point, someone trying to sell an Apricot F2, with keyboard (probably battery damaged), "mouse", definitely badly battery damaged, and monitor for £375. A few months ago I picked up an F2 with keyboard for less than £30 and a monitor for £30. Someone else picked up two motherboards and two case for about £30.

Just because things are old some people think that they're worth megabucks.

stephen_usher wrote: 16 Nov 2021 14:17 Everything is. There's a lot of LOLpricing at the moment.

Case in point, someone trying to sell an Apricot F2, with keyboard (probably battery damaged), "mouse", definitely badly battery damaged, and monitor for £375. A few months ago I picked up an F2 with keyboard for less than £30 and a monitor for £30. Someone else picked up two motherboards and two case for about £30.

Just because things are old some people think that they're worth megabucks.

I know, it's getting off the charts ridiculous now.

Prices for the CPLD I need are at least 3 times normal cost, and the wait is 52 weeks!!

Somebody mentioned merch the other day. Well here is my ST remake pen :)


Currently in daily use :)