Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 623 posts

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

#81

Post by lisper »

rocky1138 wrote: post #58
mozumder wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple currently already does this very well via their iCloud sync. You stick 1TB of your files in your Documents directory (or app-specific data folders..), and you can access them in any device that supports iCloud, including iPhones & iPads. Try it, you'll like it, and you don't have to deal with physical storage devices. I mean, have people never even tried iCloud sync?

We're not just talking about files and folders, but the actual user as well (including all settings, etc.)

Exactly. And all my running processes too.

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

#82

Post by imagetic »

I personally think the iMac has been an amazing all-in-one package. It's simplicity gives it an appeal that has made it a near-perfect tool for casual users who want to avoid the quirkiness of Windows. The iMac also scales up to heavy-hitting design work and I rarely see a lot of complaints until you get to render heavy applications or try to do multi-track and high resolution video editing and motion graphics, which it isn’t really designed to do. But it's an amazing screen and overall it's very capable and well rounded.

The current Mac Pro has some serious flaws though. The concept was neat, but it wasn't proven in the pro market. Video Production is becoming increasingly demanding as camera resolutions climb. Since the release of the Mac Pro, a lot of people started jumping ship and going to Windows.

Today, if you're buying a Mac Pro, it’s probably not because it's an amazing machine, but because you aren't ready to leave OS X (MacOS) yet. That’s is a hard pill to swallow after years of relying on the dependability of the Mac desktop. Maybe they’ll give it a refresh, but I don’t see the tower with PCI capabilities coming back.

As for the Mac Mini, the only thing that was good for was a small server or media center, at least to me. And they abandoned that a long time ago.

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

#83

Post by gurneyHaleck »

FireBeyond wrote: post #76
gurneyHaleck wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ma…

"Apple's laptops are the sweet spot. I want them. The price is right." Is it, though? After evaluating the 2016 13" (and having owned a 2012, 2014 and early 2015), I now have the Kaby Lake XPS 13". $1799 for a _similarly_ (because yes, I know it doesn't have Touch ID, or the display - but build quality is similar, the display is better - 3200x1800, more connectivity options) specced model that costs $2499 from Apple.…

Oh, definitely true. Apple is always a higher price in general, just as a brand name. It's their intended marketing strategy.

Even within Apple's own product line though, compare what you get with the cylindrical desktop Mac Pro for the price, and stand it next to one of their own laptops.

Then stand the Mac Mini next to them. It's a lower price, but it's uncharismatic.

A game changer for the mac mini might be improved methods of environmental integration. Most of the time I think about better ways to hide it, out of sight, out of mind.

The only thing I want within immediate reach is a power button, and a wall switch (any variety of toggle) would be ideal. Hard wired. An actual button. I press button, it goes on. I press button, it goes off. Not an animated skeuomorphic 16 million color display depicting one. No wi-fi tether. No analytics. No GPS. No chipset. No thunderbolt. No USB. No IP address. No internet of things. Just a god damned switch. On/off. The end.

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

#84

Post by pdimitar »

bane wrote: post #47

I kind of feel like, once you're talking publicly about things like if you are committed or not, you probably aren't and are trying to keep people from fleeing while you figure out what to do or while some long-term strategy kicks in.

Agreed, I have the exact same feeling for this case as well.

"We have so many amazing things in store that I am so excited about" Actions speak louder than words. The new MBPs are the most meh Apple laptops ever. The iPhone 7/Plus are the laziest iPhones ever made, too. Rehashes losing legacy ports and trying to impose new ones (although USB Type-C is the best decision they've made in the last several years; I think they should've went with the same port for the iPhone as well). And losing battery life. Damn.

I was never an active Apple user. I bought my first iPhone and Macbook at March 2016 (the 12" Macbook and the 6S Plus; I sold the iPhone only 4 months later but that's a separate topic). But I did consider Apple because part of the Windows ecosystem -- and the entire Android ecosystem -- are disappointing me a lot lately. I was really curious what will Apple bring with the iPhone 7/Plus and the new MBPs.

Severe disappointment followed. I'll give them until the next iPhone release. If they can't excite me, oh well, guess it's time to sift again through the trash yard that Android has become lately.

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

#85

Post by Clubber »

wbillingsley wrote: post #74
Clubber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe that's supposed to be the unique selling point of Microsoft's continuum approach to mobile. Where at the mo they need to overcome the issue that desktop apps are x86 but for battery reasons mobile apps need to run on ARM

Is it possible for x86/x64 to approach the efficiency of ARM over time, or does the CISC vs RISC make that nearly impossible?

I read a while ago that Intel abandoned their mobile chips.

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

#86

Post by pdimitar »

analog31 wrote: post #27
hkarthik wrote: post #6

This comes at no surprise. I predicted that at some point desktop computers used by designers and software engineers would start approaching workstation class pricing (around 4K USD or more) as laptops took over. This will reflect the depressed demand as more people are able to get what they need done via a laptop. Apple might be one of the few manufacturers able to sell desktops at a loss, and justify it since the M…

I wonder if a problem is maintaining a commitment to the Mac when the computer market is no longer committed to desktop / laptop computers in general. It seems that the world has kinda topped out on what they (we?) need, which is some kind of modestly functioning computer with a keyboard for "work," and a phone for everything else.

The "death of the desktop computers" is greatly exaggerated.

It's simply that a well-built future-proof PC can easily last you 5 years. I have the 2nd generation i7 and after 5 years of usage, I only added 16GB RAM and a better GPU (since I play demanding games). Might add 2x 512GB SSDs but I guess I'll just switch the motherboard and CPU in order to be able to use the NVMe models.

Anyway. The market might have platooed on the profit margins several years ago but that doesn't mean that the PC and gaming laptop branches aren't VERY much alive and kicking, and even gathering steam lately.

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

#87

Post by richardkmichael »

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…

The OQO was mentioned elsewhere, I too wanted it for this years ago, along with a Pico projector and virtual/projection keyboard. Now that I've been disappointed by both the new MBP and the price of the current gen Google/Android phones, I've started wondering if I can spend $1000 on a new "phone" and use it for everything (with peripherals left at each site). I briefly investigated this approach just a few days and found Debian noroot and AndromiumOS (see also their related Superbook kickstarter, which did really well -- though personally, I don't want a laptop if I go this route). Quite a bit needs testing, but it seems promising, maybe one generation away still (USB-C/3.1gen2 everything, with power).

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

#88

Post by lethargic_meat »

sliken wrote: post #59

I'm sure 6 months ago apple would have said they are working on "great" laptops. But we ended up with half ish the battery life promised, 16GB ram max, and needing dongles to connect to monitors, mouse, cameras, or external disks.

The ram limitation, similar to the limitations on processor are Intel's fault, not Apple. Mac's latest version uses LPDDR3E which tops at 16G. For 32G you would need LPDDR4 or LPDDR4E and a processor compatible. http://fixmibug.com/if-the-macbook-pro-32-gb-of-ram-the-desi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_DDR https://ark.intel.com/products/88972/Intel-Core-i7-6920HQ-Pr...

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

#89

Post by petecox »

Clubber wrote: post #85
wbillingsley wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that's supposed to be the unique selling point of Microsoft's continuum approach to mobile. Where at the mo they need to overcome the issue that desktop apps are x86 but for battery reasons mobile apps need to run on ARM

Is it possible for x86/x64 to approach the efficiency of ARM over time, or does the CISC vs RISC make that nearly impossible? I read a while ago that Intel abandoned their mobile chips.

I'm sceptical a phone can emulate high-performance x86 software at the speed of a Core i7 but is Photoshop-on-a-phone the use case for most office workers?

Office runs natively ARM but businesses have a few productivity apps tied to x86 (e.g. requiring a P3 or higher) that shouldn't tax the CPU too much.

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

#90

Post by threeseed »

shmerl wrote: post #64
threeseed wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is far behind ? Utter nonsense. The team simply has different priorities in particular security and battery life which means some eg service workers take longer to implement (if at all). That's why on my Mac unlike Chrome and Firefox, Safari isn't a memory hog that chews through battery life like it's nobody's business.

Pretty poor excuse. Apple has enough money to work on many things in parallel. So if they choke their browser development team, it means they are behind. Basically, it's barely important for them altogether.

What are you talking about ?

It's not an excuse but deliberate design choices. That is why Safari is by far the best browser on the Mac.

Post reply on HN