The current top results for single core performance are ~3,100 so it is, on paper, a substantial gain. The M3 in the iMac achieves around 3,053.
However, Geekbench is not that great (imo) so it does not necessarily indicate what you can expect overall performance to be or improve by between CPUs.
I do find my Macs increasingly difficulty to use, but like many things, Apple would consider quite a few of these features 'lost' as upgrades or part of the natural evolution of platforms. For example, getting rid of kexts is probably a good thing while the Settings app is straight garbage.
My time with PCVR streaming on the Quest 2 dramatically improved when I upgraded my wireless network, to the point now where I only wirelessly stream except for very high movement games e.g. F123. I thought there was nothing wrong with my previous setup and streaming (PlayStation and Xbox streaming included) was just terrible, but it turns out it was my setup all along.
This is the same for e-scooter rideshare schemes. Much of the evidence points to escooter use replacing walking short distances, so environmentally it can be a net negative overall.
And meanwhile, more and more USFF PCs will roll out into second hand markets, which offer a much more compelling option than the Pi, unless idle draw is your main consideration. Its an unfortunate state of affairs, and I hope a Pi 5 can come around soonish to reinvigorate this market.
I find it fascinating to see what the Foundation is turning its mind to now it has a seemingly high-volume, reliable supply of its house-design ARM chip.
I wonder if the future of Raspberry Pi products will be going even lower-end, rather than dealing with the complexities of making a competitive Pi n+1
If you’re interested in this odd Australian time zone, Lord Howe Island (10km long, population 350, hundreds of kilometres east of the mainland) also has its own time zone for half the year.
It reminds me of rideshare companies, where even though the ratings are a 50-point scale, (0.0-5.0), in the end it is a thumbs up/thumbs down system where anything less than nearly perfect will destroy you.
It provides a false sense of accuracy to corporate, while on the ground causes major issues, with confusion from customers about what rating to give. Not to mention applying these scores to experiences which don't really need one.
Re: Photos - if you have a Mac you can run your Photos library off an external drive. I have a 1TB NVME SSD attached via USB and it runs perfectly fine. The Photos Library is just a big folder so it is always possible to get at the raw files if you need them.
Re: Music - I still have my original MP3s and AAC files from ancient versions of iTunes (originally imported via LAME) and have travelled across many Macs and even across to Windows and back. If you've lost the originals I'm not sure what Apple can do about that
I've noticed this with quite a few devices I own - they ramp their fans to 100% presumably as a safety mechanism to try to ensure there won't be overheating while normal systems may be non-operational.
AFAIK in my jurisdiction the QR codes are a simple number, which the app reports along with the names of the people who have checked in or you are checking in. The number represents all the data that UK code is trying to convey. Not sure why the UK code needs all of that within itself rather than having a lookup table of some sort the number points to.
I've been keeping my eye out on the subreddit for a long time for something like your 50% - except with a function row. Really wish it were more popular
Apple make my favourite operating systems and some of the best hardware but are increasingly doubling down on dubious platform control.
This is an unsustainable position going forward, and smacks of being not only arbitrary (see Steam Link) but perhaps anticompetitive. Is the idea that no games subscription is allowed except their own Apple Arcade (which are local downloads, not streaming)
However, Geekbench is not that great (imo) so it does not necessarily indicate what you can expect overall performance to be or improve by between CPUs.