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Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

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41–50 of 623 posts

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

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OSX/MacOS is still viable but it doesn't receive the attention it once did. It feels second-rate compared to the mobile OS. I get the feeling one day Apple is going to release the new MacBook and it will just be an iPad with a keyboard.

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

#43
post #35

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.

I think they spend a whole lot of energy on the iWatch and it didn't pan out the way they hoped.

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

#44
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 would go a bit further: I want my state to be inside a seamless hardware agnostic VM, that I can access anywhere through public terminals that I only partially trust. I would have the option of either having my storage with me that I plug in, or in the cloud and I just provide 2fa. My device would have a cpu/gpu/etc befitting a mobile device, and the most barebones / untrusted terminals would just be screen/inputs/charger, but in better environments the terminal can optionally provide extra oomph if permitted.

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

#45
I sold my MacBook Air a year ago and don't really miss it. I do my day-to-day development work on a very small Lenovo desktop PC running Ubuntu connected to two Dell 23" IPS screens. It's fast, silent and cheap & easy to upgrade w/ standard PC parts. And since all my servers run Ubuntu there's very little context-switching needed between my dev & live environments.

For light photo editing work I use a Windows PC. I'm interested in doing more serious photo editing and the best practise industry expert recommendation is to buy a custom made PC (e.g., https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/build-a-powerful-pc-fo...).

I don't follow hardware that closely but recent developments around e.g. the amazing speed of NVMe drives and AMD's Zen architecture make the PC hardware space look pretty exciting. The new MacBook's Touch Bar seems like a gimmick in comparison.

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

#46
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not so sure it's no longer viable as it is stagnant.

Looking at some of the major "features" - more emoticons and reactions in Messages... Siri.

Some were certainly nice - Apple Pay... but I don't really see PIP being used, or Continuity (which usually actually pisses me off, because I'll switch from my Mac to my phone with an image or similar on the Clipboard, and have to wait several seconds while Continuity syncs - shame, such potential).

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

#49

the whole desktop line is in serious need of a refresh. at least some new Mac Mini units. it's been over two years now. I bought the mid-range Mac Mini, and it's identical to what's in the Store today. That whole line needs more RAM, newer CPUs, and SSD across the board. :|

But don't actually LIKE the mac mini. It's not something I particularly want.

I do kind of want the huge cinema displays. But they're expensive.

I do kind of want the cylindrical mac pro. But it's expensive.

Apple's laptops are the sweet spot. I want them. The price is right. And they have performed. Tablets and touchscreens suck compared to a solid laptop.

Mac minis are borderline indistinguishable from any other mac during use. But they've always been coasters. Lazy susans. Arm rests. Furniture.

The only time you think about it being a mac mini is when you cycle power, or when you imagine opening it up, and adding more power because multi-tasking.

Providing the mac pro at closer to mini prices would be cool. The polished metal cyclinder is kind of cool. But it's hard to find fetish items that endure six months these days. The death march of cell phone upgrades has seen to that.

Once they started soldering and epoxying internals, well... I start to feel guilty about polluting the environment with electronics waste, and I start googling recycling programs.

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

#50
post #48
post #24

OK, if they are so committed, where is OpenGL 4.5 and Vulkan support? Why is Safari so behind that it's now called "the new IE"? Talk is cheap, let them actually do something.

They wont support Vulkan since they have Metal.

Eventually they might. Or at least if they'll be relevant at that time.
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