Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac • Hacker News Board

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#31

Post by aroman » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:24 AM UTC

mtrpcic wrote: post #16

dba7dba wrote: post #5

I wish Apple never had their success with iTunes and iPhone. It was like winning lottery for them. And you know what happens when someone wins lottery. They forget about their roots and in the end, only ruin remains.

I don't think "only ruin remains" is a fair statement to say about Apple, when the causes you're lamenting are the saving grace that got them to be a $300B+ company from effectively the brink of death.

But they weren't on the brink of death before the iPhone. They were doing very well, selling lots of Macs, and had already rebounded.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#32

Post by nodesocket » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:24 AM UTC

tomatoman wrote: post #18

nodesocket wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean really the only component you're ever going to be able to upgrade is RAM right? Are you suggesting it should be possible to swap out CPUs in iMacs?

Why not hard drives?

Your right... and drive.

I actually upgraded my mid 2010 iMac to a 512GB solid state disk. Made soooooo much of a difference. Literally went from almost unuseable to back to my daily workhorse. I can't remember how much time from power-on to login screen was with the original drive, but ballpark a handful of minutes. Now with the new SSD it takes less than 10 seconds.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#33

Post by meesterdude » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:24 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #26

What I really want is for my state (SSD, RAM, maybe the CPU, but probably not the GPU) to be easily detachable from my human interface devices (keyboard, mouse, display). I want to be able to use a desktop in one place, then unplug a small unit which contains the aforementioned state (i.e. the equivalent of a sleeping laptop but with no keyboard or display), carry that someplace else, plug it in to a different set of…

I do this with a vertical docked MBP. I mostly am on my own display/keyboard, but when i need to go somewhere i can just sleep it and go.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#34

Post by jasoncchild » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:25 AM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #22

jasoncchild wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fantastically dramatic assessment! I'm curious just what aspects of the pre-iPhone Apple were preferable?

Off the top of my head I can think of a couple: 1) OSX was a viable operating system that was first class in the Apple ecosystem. 2) Laptops and desktops that were actually better than the competition including models geared toward power users.

Thanks! I've not much personal experience of pre-iPhone Apple. I'm curious about why OSX is no longer viable.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#35

Post by yakult » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:25 AM UTC

What I take away from this is that they've devoted so little resource to Mac internally that people in the know are asking inconvenient questions, hence the need for this article. You don't hear him assuring people about the iphone.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#36

Post by rbritton » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:28 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #29

rbritton wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upgradeability also includes things like the hard drive and card expansion slots. Those both let you extend the useful life of a computer a bit.

But you can already upgrade your hard drives through the USB interface. Nowadays that's plenty fast enough even for external SSDs. You don't really need SATA any more.

That is actually my biggest gripe with the current model Mac Pro ("trash can"). If I'm using a desktop computer, I want everything to be enclosed in a single unit as much as possible. I have and still use the previous model of Mac Pro ("cheese grater"), and I have six internal hard drives, maxed out RAM, and several PCI cards. None of that is possible with any current model Mac except maybe the RAM.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#37

Post by FireBeyond » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:28 AM UTC

enjo wrote: post #17

The latest rev pushed me to a PC for the first time in like 15 years. It's partly because I didn't love the new Macbook Pro, but also cause hey..change is fun sometimes. I'm very happy with my new Surface Book. I never thought I'd like the touchscreen as much as I do. I LOVE being able to go to tablet mode for calls and stuff where I sort of want to just wander around. The pen has completely changed how I do flow-cha…

Same here. My employer, who is almost exclusively Mac, were reluctant to get me the new MBP.

I got a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (Kaby Lake) and so far, so good. Am very happy. Like you say, I wish it had the Apple touchpad (but not the new one - that's getting _too_ big).

Everything else is great. The Infinity Edge screen, beautiful keyboard...

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#38

Post by wl » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:29 AM UTC

sengork wrote: post #28

cududa wrote: post #2

I'm sure they are.. the real question is will there ever be upgradeability again, and how fast will spells between refreshes be?

It'd be interesting if Apple resurrected the old fan-less Cube design/concept for the desktops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube The time is right now especially given the age and non-expandability of the Mac Pro.

I think the reason why we're stuck with the current Mac Pro is because Apple learned the wrong lesson from the Power Mac G4 cube. It was beautiful but few people bought it because you could get the more powerful and expandable Power Mac G4 for less money.

This time around, Apple didn't build the the tower nearly everyone in this market would have bought instead of the trash can.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#39

Post by Clubber » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:29 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #26

What I really want is for my state (SSD, RAM, maybe the CPU, but probably not the GPU) to be easily detachable from my human interface devices (keyboard, mouse, display). I want to be able to use a desktop in one place, then unplug a small unit which contains the aforementioned state (i.e. the equivalent of a sleeping laptop but with no keyboard or display), carry that someplace else, plug it in to a different set of…

If they could do this with a phone (x86/x64), or at least something with a cellular radio, they would hit it out of the park. I want a laptop that is just a dock with a phone slot in it. A desktop as well. Slide the phone in and instant form factor change with ports, GPU, extra HDD/SDD, etc.

Re: Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

#40

Post by vbezhenar » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 3:30 AM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #8

cududa wrote: post #2

I'm sure they are.. the real question is will there ever be upgradeability again, and how fast will spells between refreshes be?

I mean really the only component you're ever going to be able to upgrade is RAM right? Are you suggesting it should be possible to swap out CPUs in iMacs?

What's wrong with swapping CPUs?