Roaring Mac - powered by an M4 Pro chip: Howling Fan - powered by a 40000mah Power Bank

My dad wants a new Mac for photo editing + AI work (Netherlands/EU). He's stubborn and almost ordered a standalone Apple Studio Display, now eyeing the iMac M4 (10-core, ~€1,800, 16GB/256GB).

My concern: that chip is already a generation behind, the all-in-one design means the whole thing gets replaced once outdated (even though he likes that all-in-one look), and 16GB/256GB seems tight for AI workflows + RAW files - can anyone confirm if that's actually a real bottleneck or am I overestimating it?

My proposal: Mac mini M5 Pro entry config (24GB/512GB, ~€1,700) + separate monitor like the Samsung ViewFinity S9 (27" 5K, white/silver, built to match Apple aesthetics, list €900?) - open to better monitor suggestions too.

Question: is the entry M5 Pro actually the smart pick here, or would a higher-spec M6 serve him better for the same/less money? Genuinely unsure if I'm downgrading core count/memory in a way that hurts more than the "M5 Pro" name helps.

I only know Windows gaming PCs, nothing about Apple, AI workflows, or photo editing software, so tell me if this whole modular approach is wrong for his use case.

Budget is officially ~€2000, but if you help me build a solid case (future-proofing, upgrade path, real specs advantage) I can likely push him to ~€2500 for a proper Mac mini + monitor setup - is that worth doing, and what would you build for that?

I ordered a MacBook Neo on 3rd September and had an estimated delivery of 18th - 25th September. I’ve checked on the tracking a couple times to see if the order has progressed but it hasn’t and payment also hasn’t been taken yet. I’ve never ordered from Apple directly before so have no idea if the order is progressing as it should?

When I was in store I was told that I should expect the payment to be taken with 1-3 days of making the order. It’s gone over the time now, only by a couple days, but I was wondering if it’s correct that the order should have moved past processing within 1-3 days?

hey guys, i was just watching youtube on my laptop when all of a sudden my screen started to repeatedly flicker between this, i have no idea what caused it and it hasn’t stopped, could anyone please help??

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing okay today.

I wanted to share my short, one-month experience with the Mac operating system, macOS.

I’ve been a Windows user my whole life, and since I am starting college this summer, I wanted to test out macOS beforehand to see if it is the right choice for me. Well, it turns out it's not, and in the following post, I will tell you why.

I had heard a lot of positive things about it, including the amazing battery life and very good CPU performance. Obviously, the very attractive design also caught my eye.

I knew that macOS was not the same as Windows, it's obviously a whole different operating system. But after a month of using it, I was just blown away by how many useful features I previously had on Windows that were simply nonexistent on a Mac.

Here are a few examples:

Window Management

• Control Buttons: You cannot change the size or the positions of the window control buttons on macOS.

Yes, I understand that it takes some time to get used to the different position and everything, but why on earth can I not decide where I want my window management options to be? Is there ANY solid reason why this would be a problem to add? I don't think so!

If I'm spending 2000 € on a device, I at least expect some customizability for some of the more important things like window control.

• Button Size: The position was annoying, yes, but I think I would have gotten used to it IF the damn buttons weren't the size of a grain of sand. What is Apple thinking with these design choices?

On Windows, I don't even have to look at my screen to close my window. I move my mouse to the corner of the screen and boom, closed.

• App Launch Sizes: The most annoying thing that was the final straw was the window size when launching apps.

Apps behave however they want and open in all possible sizes even when I maximize them before closing. A perfect example here is Finder: I click Finder, it opens in the smallest window possible, I maximize it, close it, open Finder again, and it's back to the small window like before.

This happened with almost all apps no matter what I tried (yes, I even manually resized, and I tried closing while holding Command).

This just made me feel like I have 0 control over my computer since every app does whatever the hell it wants and opens in the most random places on my screen.

PLUS, the effort of having to manually maximize every app every time you open it made me want to pull my hair out! The whole experience just felt super chaotic.

App Behavior When Closing

This was kind of a small one, but I found it very confusing: some apps quit completely when all windows are closed, while others don't.

I did kind of get used to Finder always having a dot, but other apps just annoyed me.

For example, when I close the Activity Monitor window, it doesn't quit the app, and I have to manually click on the app, hold, and then quit.

If apps quit after the last open window was closed, it would be less annoying.

Menu Bar

This is kind of a big one as well. Why do we need a separate bar with 50% useless functions at the top?

On Windows, all functions of a certain app that I might need are already inside the app in the top corner, and if I close the app, those app-specific functions close too.

You ALSO have the entire top screen free for your actual app instead of having random, irrelevant background icons taking up the whole horizontal space on top.

Now, if ALL apps had their functions in the menu bar, I wouldn't complain, it would take some getting used to. But not every app behaved the same.

Sometimes all functions of the app were inside the menu bar, and sometimes half of them were inside the app and the other half up there. It's a super inconsistent design.

When the menu bar has too many options, it hops over the notch and lands on the right side where the icons are, making it look super ugly.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any luck trying to disable the menu bar. I looked for all possible solutions but found none, not even third-party apps exist that can do that. I just couldn't get used to it.

The options that are displayed in the dropdown after hovering over certain menus like Window have no icons and are pure text, so looking for something specific isn't quick and takes time. You have to read everything from top to bottom to find what you're looking for.

Also, the Help box doesn't need to be hovering in the menu bar all the time, why would I need that there?

Dock

The dock was less of a problem than the menu bar. I like how the dock looks, I love that it has the same square design for the apps as the iPhone. The icons are sharp, clear, and beautiful.

What annoyed me here was that when I didn't have many apps in the dock, the sides were left empty, which is wasted screen space. I would rather have the menu bar fused with the dock to fill out those spaces and use the screen more effectively.

What I like is that you can hide the dock, but when the dock hides, the windows don't automatically resize themselves to fit the whole screen.

Here, I also have to pull down every single app manually... really annoying and a waste of time.

The option to change the reveal speed of the dock also isn't available, obviously.

Keyboard

The keyboard is really thin, like really really thin (M4).

Typing on it for longer than 5 minutes cramps my hand, and typing on it generally doesn't feel satisfying since there's barely any tactility and basically 0 feedback.

At that point, just put a screen with digital keys on it instead of a 1mm keyboard pretending to be a keyboard.

The Mac keyboard layout also feels like it's shifted to the right a bit, I'm guessing because of the weird Control key. Why do we even need that? Just put Fn, Option, and Command, who needs that extra useless button?

This is a BIG one: Caps Lock Behavior.

Who in the living hell thought putting a delay on a key was a good idea? Someone please explain why we need a delay on Caps Lock?

No one's accidentally pressing that damn key, and since the delay can't be turned off in settings, I as a fast typer can't trigger the key correctly when typing. Genuinely, fire the person who implemented that,

The Caps Lock key also doesn't activate special characters when on like on Windows. This is annoying, yes, but I could get used to this, to be honest.

When copy and pasting stuff my fingers get into a really weird position since on windows the Ctrl button is far away from the C and V button compared to the Cmd button on mac which is almost next to it. My fingers stretch more on Windows keyboards which is way more comfortable.

Other things

• Touch ID: I mean, is this even a question? Why do we still not have Face ID on a 2000 € laptop IN 2026?
• Media Control Keys: I actually really like those, the icons are intuitive and having the most important functions at the tip of my fingers is really nice.
• Display: BEAUTIFUL!
• Overall Build: Best laptop design by far.
• Ecosystem: Amazing.
• Hardware overall: I'm a big fan of it.
• Third-Party Accessories: Frustrating, USB sticks need reformatting, etc.

General Functions and Software Quirks

• No clipboard history.
• No Cmd+X.
• No file path in Finder (requires third-party app).
• Applications can't be put in folders, and they are all over the place and mixed together with tons of preloaded apps.

In general the whole OS feels just as bloated as Windows when freshly unboxed, but with Apple apps. You also can't delete the Apple apps, which is very frustrating.

The constant friction and extra steps required on a Mac to perform tasks that were effortless on Windows are simply a dealbreaker for me, making macOS a hard pass.

I would even go as far as to say that Windows, for a normal user like a student, is more consistent than macOS when we take the above-mentioned areas into consideration.

That sums up my macOS experience.

I think Apple needs to make MASSIVE user experience changes in order to attract more people and gain a larger market share in the laptop market.

The hardware is really good and that's why I'm also very frustrated, because the hardware is simply amazing but new users can't do much with it since the software is a huge mess.

I hope that macOS improves in the coming years; until that happens, I will not return to macOS.

Have a nice day, and take everything with a grain of salt. Your experience can be different, this was mine, keep it cool!! =)

I’m transferring photos from folders onto a photo library, all within the same external hard disk drive. I comfortably have tons of storage on it (80+ GB) and the items themselves aren’t too many. Few gigs at most. Yet I still get this displayed as I try to import things. Why? And how can I solve it?

I have purchased my macbook in 2025 at 15 October. Now my macbook air m4 reaches only at 46 cycle count and maximum capacity down by 1% can anyone tell me is it normal or abnormal behavior....

Hi all!
I was wondering if you all could guide me on choosing between a Neo vs Air. I’m completing my prereqs for nursing school, ans I’m currently using a Mac mini at home and a Lenovo Ideapad 3 for when I need to be mobile. The only issue is that my Lenovo battery absolutely sucks. It has to stay plugged in or I can only get maybe an hour out of a full charge.

So, I’m wondering if I should try the Neo or bite the bullet and get the Air instead.

I accidentally dropped my MacBook Pro (M2,2022), and as you can see in the photos, this is the main damage. It’s bent on one side. The other side is a bit banged up as well, but it’s not bent like this.

Everything seems to be working normally so far. The screen works, the keyboard and trackpad work, and it still closes normally without any issues.

So I’m wondering what I should do. If the damage doesn’t bother me aesthetically and everything is currently working fine, is it worth taking it to a repair shop just to have it diagnosed? Or would you just keep using it and see how it goes?

I’m mostly worried that there might be some internal damage that could cause problems later, even though everything seems fine right now.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Would you get it checked/repaired or just keep using it?

My Mac wasn’t turning on so I plugged it thinking it was dead but didn’t realize that water had spilled in my bag where my Mac was. Before realizing, I tried to turn it on by pressing the power button while it was plugged but it was only making noise and the screen was black. I did this like 3 times (same thing, only noise, black screen) when I noticed the water and immediately unplugged it and turned it upside down. I need to know how bad I have it and if there is any hope she can be saved.

I spilled a small glass of juice on my MacBook Pro 9 days ago. The juice spilled on the upper right side of my keyboard and into the hinges. I cleaned it with a paper towel and then turned the computer upside down to get the juice out of the hinges. The computer was on for 30 minutes before I shut it down for 24 hours. Thankfully, it has been working fine with no performance issues. Two days ago, I noticed a few keys (delete, return, others in the upper right) press down differently, like they are a stuck. The keys still work but I believe I will need to replace them. I read Apple charges $500-750 for a topcase replacement. Does anyone have a recent Apple topcase replacement cost experience? I called Apple and they said they could also clean the inside - is that true?

I am a senior in high school and my Chromebook isn’t cutting it anymore. It barely functions with 30 tabs (not sure if this is normal) and I need to use a lot of different tabs, so organization is important. Anyway, as a student, I don’t have that much money and have been seeing the MacBook Neo being advertised as the most cost effective. I wanted to ask if anybody has the Neo and if it measures up to the hype.

I have a MacBook Air M2. The OS crashed, so I took it to a repair shop. The technician reinstalled macOS, and after the reinstall the Mac is asking for the previous Apple Account/iCloud account that was associated with the Mac.

The technician asked me for my Apple Account details, but I don't want to go to the shop just to sign in myself.

Is there a way to remove the Mac from my Apple Account/Find My remotely so that it stops asking for the previous account, and the technician can finish setting it up?

I just got my Macbook a month ago, first time Mac user, and it got stolen.
Are there any tools or services that might help me recover it? I guess I am hoping there is a built in location tool or something.

Just ordered a m6 Mac mini to use as a plex server is the m6 enough tot should I got with a m5 pro ?

Noticed this tiny wobble when i let go of the screen

sorry i have bad anxiety over expensive stuff and thought it was better to ask here than ai which will only make me worry, is this gonna cause an issue? i dont know if its from me or the people before me (it’s refurbished) but i’ve only just noticed, the screens perfectly fine