u/Level-Dig-4807

Hello folks,

I recently got a Mac Mini M2 from Croma (I was searching for old mrp m4 but found none only this was there so got it). It was available in a bundle, 36k INR for Mac Mini M2 Base along with 3 years Apple Care Services (by Servify not AP+). However it shows the warranty on the settings as protect+ it's for 3 years till 2029. I was wondering if I can extend it when it's near expiry or switch to applecare+

Anyone with experience?

Hello,

I recently got a Mac Mini M2 and I have BENQ GW2490.

I have never used a Mac Mini before and initially thought it would work fine with my monitor but after sometime realized the blurry text is hurting my eyes a lot. I have tried all the font smoothing and better display tweaks it does not suit me (I have high OCD prolly cz a lot of people using it fine idk how).

I am looking to buy between the following models Samsung LS27H700EAWXXL, LG 27US550-WB.ATROMSL or LG 27US500-WA.ATRPMSN or MSI MP273U my budget is 20-25k.

I like the LG one the most idk the diff between the two models but on flipkart there is like 2k price difference. I will buy by next month. All the models only have 60hz my most usage would be datascience and only games I play are Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves and Chess ; )

Anyone using mac Mini along with a FHD monitor? How do u manage even with Font Smoothing and BetterDisplay without hurting your eyes? I am also considering using it with my Macbook Pro 2015 somehow (old display but there is tailscale or Airmirror) meanwhile I get the monitor next month.

Hello,

I recently got a Mac Mini M2 from Croma and I have BENQ GW2490.

I have never used a Mac Mini before and initially thought it would work fine with my monitor but after sometime realized the blurry text is hurting my eyes a lot. I have tried all the font smoothing and better display tweaks it does not suit me (I have high OCD prolly cz a lot of people using it fine idk how).

I am looking to buy between the following models Samsung LS27H700EAWXXL, LG 27US550-WB.ATROMSL or LG 27US500-WA.ATRPMSN or MSI MP273U my budget is 20-25k.

I like the LG one the most idk the diff between the two models but on flipkart there is like 2k price difference. I will buy by next month. All the models only have 60hz my most usage would be datascience and only games I play are Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves and Chess ; )

Anyone using mac Mini along with a FHD monitor? How do u manage even with Font Smoothing and BetterDisplay without hurting your eyes? I am also considering using it with my Macbook Pro 2015 somehow (old display but there is tailscale or Airmirror) meanwhile I get the monitor next month.

Hello,

I had waited for Mac mini m5 but after Apple announced the price hike it was unaffordable for me to get a new Mac mini and the old price units were not available anywhere in offline stores.

After a lot of search I got Mac mini m2 base variant with 3 years of apple care for the price mentioned in title.

My main usage would be Studying and Coding mostly and I have a Ryzen 7 4700s setup and MacBook Pro 2015 which did the job but I was lacking iOS app development (MacBook ran Seqouia but newer updates required MacOS26 at least from April) So I decided to get this one just yesterday.

However, My Display is not rendering the Mac Apps properly(Youtube Videos are working fine). Upon some searching I found out BenQ has Mbook mode and also there's an app called BetterDisplay with which I can force enable hdpi which is definitely not going to be good as 4k but still better.

Anyone who's using a Mac mini with a lower resolution monitor? I am looking to get a better monitor later either a 24 or 27 inch 4k resolution this time. However can I do anything else to make my display better? I am seeing suggestions of disabling font smoothing for Mac mini I will try it as well.

Any Experience or Suggestions greatly appreciated

I am writing this for sharing what I have been through my life till now.

This will be very long to read but everything mentioned has happened throughout my life till now.

A month after I turned 2 years old, my father took me an my mom to a luxury hotel at Puri, we were enjoying and everything was great however he left for some work and never returned and stopped picking up his phone. My dad had paid some advance in the hotel which was exhausted and my mom didn't have any money with her, hopeless she had to contact the authories. 

This incident was published in newspaper and there are some articles online about the same which still exists on Telegraph India website.

My father had couple of affairs and even performed bigamy with a different name, I was born in March 2004 and I have a step sister who is just 2 months younger to me. My mom tried to adjust with him despite knowing everything about his affairs.

She came to her parent's home with me, we stayed there peacefully for sometime.

The House was near Dankuni railway station and it was 2 storey we used to stay in a room on the 2nd floor and below used to stay my mom’s eldest sister Soma Masi (she was mentally unstable) with her husband Uttam and they relied on my grandparents for food and money and did not have any children. 

There were some problems with the space and hence my mom’s proposed to re-building a 3rd floor in the terrace, however this incurred the wrath of my mom’s elder sister.

I still remember R Masi, U (S Masi’s husband) and my Grandfather shouting and screaming at my mom,

She was crying keeping her head below the pillow trying to cover herself, R masi (mom’s elder sister) cursed my mom and me she uttered words these exact words ,“Tor chele ke onath ashram e dire de” (trans: Leave your son in an orphanage), “Tor Bhalo Hole Surjo Uthbena” (trans: If you do good then the Sun shouldn’t rise). 

She also said “Tor chele manush hole Amar Bhagoban r there Bharsha Uthe Jabe“ (trans: If your Son becomes good man my faith would go from God)

Me not understanding why they are hurting me and my mom like that used to throw things at them trying to protect my mom.

My mom’s father used to say this “Beriye Ja, Nijer Barite Giye Thak” (trans: Go and stay at your own home) every day and night. 

I did not knowing what is “Nijer Bari” (Own Home) used to ask my mom to go there as we won’t be humiliated day and night and have to wipe tears before every meal, before every night.

My mom used to cry relentlessly so I used to wipe off my mom’s tears and say “Boro Ra Kadena” (trans: Grownups don’t cry), I had a yellow duck toy named Sweety (I have still kept her left on pic with Chimpu) with whose hands I used to wipe off my mom’s tears. They have became a part of my heart as always but ironically these were gifted to me by my so called father.

This went for weeks and months and we felt like hell day and night, those words and curses still echoes in my ear till date. I  can’t describe the pain and trauma we went through that time.

My mom had a job for which she had to do daily-passengery and we had rented an apartment in the Dankuni housing society, despite her parents having a Huge Bungalow there, we had to live in a rented house in the same town.

As her parents and our so called family told “Nijer poisa te Bari kine thak”.

Back in 2008 my mom’s salary was 12k (1.8lpa) and rent was 5k. Later my mom shifted to Kolkata with a better job opportunity somehow making ends meet.

Every night before I slept I used to hear my Masi's and Grandfather's curses and see those moments every now and then and my body became cold before sleeping. I felt disorientated for some reason and this went on in a loop in my mind. My mom took me to reknowned child psychiatrist at Bhagirathi Neotia Hospital.

I got diagnosed with mild-schizophrenia and prescribed these medicines; Sizodon 30 and Fludac 20 and counselling and it took me next 7 years to be normal, during this time I also grew fond of playing chess and starting learning and playing tournaments however losing winning games brought me back this trauma so my psychiatrist and special educator refrained me from playing chess for sometime.

I always desired to earn money somehow so I learnt programming at 12 and started freelancing as a webdev on fiverr and upwork as web dev to make money. It was very difficult for us to survive all these years bcz my mom’s salary increased only 10-15% a year however rent increased a lot and when we had to shift it costed us so much amount in brokerage, shifting and most landlords cut some of the deposit money even if there were no dues or damages.

During 2016 and 2018-19 My mom had received multiple better career opportunities with double the pay she received but it required her to relocate to Bangalore and Mumbai where she got more than 100% salary hike, however she was never able to go there as our grandparents health deteriorated exactly the same time when my mom had some good news to share with them, R Masi also guilt tripped my mom about abandoning their grandparents.

Irony is despite the previous incidents my mom helped Masi and her daughter when she was going through a tough time with her academics around 2015-16. 

Every time our Grandparents got ill, my mom took full responsibility of taking care of them to the hospital and the finances, As she worked in Insurance Sector she always had mediclaims for both of them, however mediclaim does not cover every cost like home nursing, physiotherapy etc which we beared. Ruma Masi's Husband was a Central Government Employee and since his parents had passed away he could have got medical benefits however did not even bothered to come or ask, regardless of that they had way more wealth compared to my mom and had multiple properties however they have not taken any responsibility or cost for them. 

In 2020-21 covid my grandmother was staying with us after demise of her eldest daughter Soma. My grandmother, my mom and I got Covid-positive. 

It was the peak time and my grandmother’s O2 level was falling below 50% and we had to admit her to hospital however there were no beds during that time.

My mom and her two of her colleagues had searched all day for hospital beds but we were finding none, my mom also asked R masi for help however she outright told she can’t do anything and told to take to government hospital everything would be done there for free, when she told her to arrange for that she told she can’t do anything it’s my mom’s duty. I was extremely agonised to see my mom this stressed and straight away messaged her “Tumi ki Dida r meye nou? Shob kichu Shudu Amar Maa korbe ar tumi Barite boshe housewife r moto Rana korbe ar khobordari korbe?” 

Trans:  Aren’t u grandmother’s daughter as well, why is my mom the only one to take care of her, what are u gonna do just cook like a housewife and reprimand my mom.

She is 10 years older to my mom, her husband is a top level central government employee earning lakhs in salary and they also have 4 flats and have two children both of them were working  and they way more income than us, despite that not only the cost but also the responsibilities had to be borne by us, my mom had a mere insurance job where she earned less than 50k a month and we had to pay 20k as rent, my income was very much inconsistent and can’t be relied on.

After all that,

My mom only had the option to admit her at private hospital and for her treatment my mom initially had mediclaim of about 10 lakhs (7 lakhs cashless and 3 lakhs reimbursement) and we admitted her at J.N Ray Hospital however the Doctor recommended to shift her to Apollo Gleneagles Hospital but the costs would have been unbearable so Doctor convinced my mom to shift her for few days to do some tests and consult some Lungs Specialist as she had tested negative for Covid but her Lungs was 70% damaged. However after admitting her there, her condition deteriorated and Doctor told that we can’t shift her from ICU, even if we take her to the Ambulance she will die on the spot, my mom got extremely tensed during this time and herself fainted and had to be taken to the Emergency ward due to all this stress.

My mom at-last used about 13 lakhs from her savings and 3 lakhs from Dida’s FD which was for my future & foreign education, however Doctor recommended ventilation  my mom had outright refused and sadly my grandmother passed away after 6 months of battle (2 for Covid and 4 post recovery) leaving us a debt for 15 lakhs (we even got a legal notice for this since her body was released without paying the bill but my mom had signed an agreement to pay ) However later the amount was brought down to 4 lakhs after some negotiation and a medical bill auditing agency (I had no idea of this but it apparently exists some hospital does overcharges). 

During my Dida’s cremation at Crematorium my Masi and her two children came late and we had to wait for 2 hours for them since they were not getting bus and while my Grandmother’s body was still at cremation they left early because the last “metro” will go. They easily had the money to book a cab for ₹200 considering they would get to see their mom/grandmom. Instead later accused my mom by telling, “Government hospital e shob free te hoyejai, tor boroloki chal dekhanor jonno tui maa is mere felli. Government Hospital e gele Maa thik hoyejeteo” trans: Everything is free at government hospital but for ur snobbery u took mom to private hospital and killed her. Among all the money we spent only 3 lakh was from my grandmothers FD which my Masi had taken, there are few more FDs of my grandparents which she has still kept. Strangely despite being miser she herself never goes to government hospital for treatment neither during the time took responsibility to take our Grandmother if she thought she could have lived.

During the same time our grandmother passed away, my mom’s eldest sister S’s husband sold off the Dankuni bungalow of my grandmother by declaring himself as sole successor eliminating my mom and R Masi. During this time R Masi called up and demanded my mom to do the legal work and my mom had started the procedure and it went for 1 year however my mom was unable to bear with the litigation costs alone and had to abandon the case midway (however currently we had resumed the case fortunately enough R Masi’s daughter had taken the responsibility for now)

Last year 2025, I went to Susrut Eye Hospital and I had given my mom’s mobile number to find my patient id and I saw there were 4 patients registered on the same and she had brought my grandparents more than half a dozen time nd I remember my grandfather even had cataract surgery, every cost and responsibility was borne by my mother.

My grandparents passed aways few years ago and despite everything they did to me and my mom, she took full responsibility whenever they had any health issues,

I always wondered why did my grandfather hate me so much at first? What could a 2-3 years boy done? I always had this question.

In 2023, My mom invited this girl named N telling she was a colleague’s friend to our house. She was older than me I referred to her as aunt, didi and even maa sometimes and grew pretty attached to her, I only have a handful of friends but all of them are pretty close, I considered her a genuine well-wisher, she used to pamper me sending gifts and was Phd from IIT Mandi she was a very good mentor to me.

She used to love and pamper me sometimes a lot, took me and mom to watch movies, lunches, got me a desktop kit for my CPU (I told her to order since she had Amazon prime but she refused to take any money from me after ordering), on 2024 my birthday she order me a cake on midnight and sent me Amazon and Dominos and a lot of other stuff.

Sometimes she even discussed me about her personal life now and in the past, for some reason I used to be very awkward and worried about this from her. One time, I was discussing about my future ambitions and told I was interested in going abroad and coming back after 3-5 years with enough capital for a startup or business. She told me NRI become very egoistic when they return and she doesn’t like them, I jokingly asked if she’s referring to any ex of hers and she told yeah and also told me about this guy who she finds very similar to me in a lot of ways our thinking ambitions and few other stuff and when I asked if I can met him she told yeah when the time comes u will definitely meet him.

It always felt like she was my family (apart from my mom), however few things were really strange like my mom talking to her secretly as my mom is pretty open minded and never hid anything from me, she made an excuse of network unreachable and phone breaks often but mostly she used to hide stories or block me occasionally then unblock again.

However I didn’t pay much attention to it then but later the dots connected.

In May 2025 she blocked us on WhatsApp and made a fake story of phone break, 

I understood the lie and I was hurt that why did she do this? Did I do something wrong or did she fought with my mother? I realised we never had any arguments or heated conversations(till then) so I decided to hack into my mom’s phone and I found 

On their chats my mom was referring to her boyfriend as my mom's son and a nickname that I partly recognise from my childhood as my elder brother.

Going through the chat I found that,

My mom was married when she was 15 and she had her first son when she was 16, she suffered domestic violence and decided to leave her then husband.

She married my father few years later and along with her younger son.

My father was extremely wealthy back then and he made my mom complete her education.

During the time my mom conceived me his father took him back.

N was dating my mom's eldest son So and planned to marry however since he had been very abusive, misognyistic, and alcholic (I taken the chat screenshots).

He used to think she cheats on him if he talked to another guy and always monitored her location and chats, he had damaged his liver due to excessive drinking. 

She had reached out thinking my mom would counsel him which my mom was very eager to.

My mom used to send Pithes, Payesh and few other homemade food for him (which I believed for her) and eagerly wanted to met her real son,

However after So came to know about N getting in touch with our mom he started beating her and did actually break her phone.

They broke up and eventually she didn’t want to be in touch with us. She blocked us and made this story, despite this she asked my help in completing few of her office work and I sent her the files via mail. I saw she came from calling my mom from "Ma'am" to Aunty to By Name.

After a heated conversation and when I pointed out her deliberate lies she stopped replying.

I have decided to calculate all the expenses the did for me and return it back with an interest giving her a final message by end of this year.

I was devastated to lose her but I was proud to know that I have a very successful halfbrother and emailed him (attached) and connected him on social media but he outright blocked me. I wanted my mom to reconcile with him since I was never truly accepted by anyone and maybe the cause of my mom’s misery and N’s relationship getting ruined.

I was unable to accept this and was losing my mind for the initial few days and was thinking if I got teleported into some alternate universe or am I living in a dream, 

I called up an old friend of my mom who told me few things and asked me not to search for past as it will only bring me even more pain than I am currently in.

Finally I decided to confront my mom and threaten to leave the house to which she told me everything from the start, 

I knew her age was increased by 3 years in her documents I didn’t knew why.

When she was 13 she was assaulted by this person she used to call "Bera Kaku" , my grandfather was was college principal and very well respected in the society, and our so called family fearing the society and reputation forcibly married my mom to that person! So they increased her age by 3 years since the legal consent age is 16.

My mom showed how many times to contact them however they wanted my mom to reconcile with their father only then they would meet my mom. 

Every relationship is held by mutual benefit rather than love or anything cinematic we have termed.

Before this incident I was very emotional and never let go of my old belongings however from then onwards I started exchanging my old electronics and throwing away my childhood memories items, distanced myself with my close friends.

Parallel to this time was also treating a stray cat named Lily who had a ruptured tumour and ascites, I had saved money for an iPad however when I found her I was not able to un-see her, she underwent 2 major surgeries and there was 1 final surgery pending, I was able to do the first surgery in a private clinic and then kept her at my home for sometime and later at a paid shelter where her tumour grew again and I had done her treatment at a NGO this time I was collecting money and even started a fundraiser however her condition rapidly deteriorated and she finally collapsed. If only I was more serious and mentally stronger I would have been able to work hard even during this phase and arrange better treatment for her. I had already spent more than 50k for her treatment but that was not enough to save her. 

Though my mom is might be the only one who cared for me, 

While I admire and love her the most, the fact remains that the only time I had to be admitted in hospital she could only afford to take me at MR.Bangur one of the dirties Government Hospital in 2018 when I had dengue, and I had waited for 2-3 months to get date for RCT at a government Hospital going suffering the dental pain with Painkillers, yet everytime my grandparents wanted help she was able to afford the best treatment for them despite the huge expenses. I can't help but feel neglected and betrayed here as well.

Regardless she did the best for me or not, she is the only family I have.

After my boards I gave SAT, 

I got a need aware tution-fee scholarship at a decent foreign university, however the living cost required me to take a loan, when we went to take a loan we had a huge setback,

My so called father is now a financial fraudster with couple of trips in jail took out a loan from a Credit Card using my mom’s documents and forging my mom’s signature which again caused us a huge harassment and trauma of recovery agent’s harassment and abuse and again shattered my chance of going abroad for my study.

I was not given the principal amount the credit card of standard chartered but the NBFC handling demanded a staggering amount of 1 crore and later dropped it down to 50k, The recovery agents had used extreme vulgar and abusive languages and threatened to use physical violence as well and used morphed images. I even messaged the owner of Shahafinlease on Linkedin but to no avail.

Upon further searching I found that this is a very common fraud with recipients of Standard Chartered Bank where they sell of their disputed loans to a recovery agency named Shahafinlease.

After the formal police complaint, Police warned them to stop calling however it permnanently damaged my mom's credit score ruining my chance for a co-signed loan and we had to file a separate legal case.

My father was even arrested numerous times over years, he is cousin of a famous Businessman who has a 5 Star Hotels chain in Odisha and a prominent Politician, My mother contacted him for help several times after my father did not provide her with the alimony and went absconding, He's known to help "poor people" as a Politician however he had cut all ties with my father and neglected our requests.

My Father has gone abroad leaving multiple huge loans, I have never met my step sister but talked with her and she wants to forget this and live her own life peacefully

I am still studying at 3rd year and I am building my own startup and I am making decent money but not very much.

I have all the proofs of most of the things I have said, my half-brother drinking and hitting N, My Father has multiple criminal cases filed against him, my Masi did not pay a single penny for the bank statements

I can't focus on my life setting everything aside, I don't want to spare any of them.

Anyways,

I decided to write everything down and also share this for some reason am feeling a bit lighter but this will not end here.

Hello,

As Everyone knows Apple Increased their prices, I am still getting old units at MRP (no discount).

I found the following offers iPad Air 11inch m4 128GB and iPad a16 256.

I will use it for academic purposes and the only games if I will ever play would be Genshin Impact and Chess. I want to go towards the iPad air due to longevity and it being latest however 128GB would be enough or not.

Hello,

As u all know apple raised their prices, I have an old Macbook Pro 2015 16/512GB running Seqouia, mostly use it for studies and coding stuff along with iOS development and due to apple forcing to develop with iOS 26 SDK after 28th April i was unable to use it for the purpose and I mostly sit on a desktop.

I thought of buying Mac mini m4 but that time the 256GB was not in stock and I was seeing rumors of m5 in June WWDC hence I decided to wait, however Apple increased the prices up by 50% hence I am forced to buy. I searched in local stores and one of them agreed to sell me the base air m5 16/512 MRP 1,19,900 for 7,000 INR extra. I am deciding to go with it as I find no stock for Mac Mini.

I am still searching a few places if I can get one as I sit on desktop that would be my first preference also m5 seems a bit out of budget but I will manage it am in a lot of confusion still ; (

Hello,

As u all know apple raised their prices, I have an old Macbook Pro 2015 16/512GB running Seqouia, mostly use it for studies and coding stuff along with iOS development and due to apple forcing to develop with iOS 26 SDK after 28th April i was unable to use it for the purpose and I mostly sit on a desktop.

I thought of buying Mac mini m4 but that time the 256GB was not in stock and I was seeing rumors of m5 in June WWDC hence I decided to wait, however Apple increased the prices up by 50% hence I am forced to buy. I searched in local stores and one of them agreed to sell me the base air m5 16/512 MRP 1,19,900 for 7,000 INR extra. I am deciding to go with it as I find no stock for Mac Mini.

I am still searching a few places if I can get one as I sit on desktop that would be my first preference also m5 seems a bit out of budget but I will manage it am in a lot of confusion still ; (

Hello,
I have been using Antigravity since it was launched and the Opus 4.5 that time was nearly unlimited, after a while they decreased the usage.

So I used Opus to plan and Gemini to execute however now the same thing with Gemini 3.1 pro as well. So I am looking for alternatives,

I have CoPilot via student email however they have limited access to claude models as well and the Auto mode (which gives Gpt 5.4 mini mostly) is awful earlier they had Codex 5.3 however they removed it as well.

Not getting any decent model at all which can execute the plans generated by Opus.