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Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#41

Post by gergles »

amrrs wrote: post #11
394549 wrote: post #7

What's up with Apple? Seems to me like they should have just dropped the i9 option altogether, since they couldn't make it work. It just further torpedoes their fading reputation for being able to build top-notch hardware.

I think the comment that they can't build top-notch hardware isn't entirely true. Airpods really made an impression. We also need to count the fact that the entire PC laptop market is in some kind of limbo. Few tried touch and then hybrid then detachable. At least Apple is still kicking in the game I'd say.

AirPods were actually completely rushed to market and were hand-soldered according to teardowns. There were tons of supply chain constraints and bugs. I don't feel like this is the best example for your argument.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#42

Post by 394549 »

empthought wrote: post #40
rusk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> your 8 buck earpods in no way sound better Of course they do! Any wired solution will outperform even the best Bluetooth one.

In the common case for Apple users (listening to iTunes), the AirPods will have the same quality as wired headphones, since they play back with the same codec/bitrate either way (256kbps AAC). Now if they're wired headphones with gold-plated connectors, that's a whole different ballgame.

> In the common case for Apple users (listening to iTunes), the AirPods will have the same quality as wired headphones, since they play back with the same codec/bitrate either way (256kbps AAC).

Are they literally piping the AAC-encoded bitstream as it appears in the iTune files straight to the AirPods with no manipulation? Because if they're decoding then re-encoding (e.g. decoding the file to raw to pass to the OS, then re-encoding to sent to the AirPods), there will be quality loss even if both codecs are exactly the same, since you'll have generation loss.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#43

Post by edbaskerville »

rusk wrote: post #25
close04 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are re-living their 2003-2004 period when the IBM PPC G5 CPU was way too hot and power hungry to put in the PowerBook and it needed water cooling in the PowerMac. Back then their solution was to switch to Intel CPUs. Now it's probably going to be to switch to in-house designed ARM CPUs.

> in-house designed ARM CPUs. What could possibly go wrong!

Many things could go wrong, but the Apple codebases and engineering processes should be pretty robust to architecture changes at this point. NeXT went from 68030 to Intel/SPARC/others, and then to PowerPC with Mac OS X. OS X went from PowerPC to Intel. And large chunks of it are shared with iOS on ARM already.

(Fun fact: even classic Mac OS was running on Intel at one point before the 680x0-to-PowerPC transition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_project)

So there's good reason to think that they could pull this off.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#44

Post by alpaca128 »

jasonmp85 wrote: post #26
394549 wrote: post #7

What's up with Apple? Seems to me like they should have just dropped the i9 option altogether, since they couldn't make it work. It just further torpedoes their fading reputation for being able to build top-notch hardware.

Their design pipeline may be years deep. It's entirely possible they expected Intel to have completely exhausted their bowels from their bed-shitting by now and Intel has surprised them by continuing to soil the sheets. I'd bet anything Apple believed there'd have been a process shrink by now and they'd be able to get more cores in the same case design. Maybe Apple's been torpedoed but it's Intel doing the torpedoing…

It is irrelevant what may have happened between Apple and Intel.

Apple decided to put a CPU into a case that can't handle its heat. We can safely assume Apple knew full well about this and still threw the thing onto the market acting as if nothing was wrong. The question is if they seriously didn't expect the customers to notice or just don't care.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#45

Post by raverbashing »

aksss wrote: post #22
williamdclt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might miss something, but what's so great about the airpods? Mediocre sound quality ( literally my 8 bucks earpods have a better sound) and leaking so much sound it's obnoxious (if you're disturbed by music in the subway, look around: it's probably someone with Apple earplugs). I don't think they were the first to make bluetooth earplugs? Is it the miniaturisation? The touch-sensitive thing?

They look incredibly stupid as well. Style fail.

To me that's the biggest factor.

Makes people look a lot more pretentious, in my opinion

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#46

Post by rusk »

edbaskerville wrote: post #43
rusk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in-house designed ARM CPUs. What could possibly go wrong!

Many things could go wrong, but the Apple codebases and engineering processes should be pretty robust to architecture changes at this point. NeXT went from 68030 to Intel/SPARC/others, and then to PowerPC with Mac OS X. OS X went from PowerPC to Intel. And large chunks of it are shared with iOS on ARM already. (Fun fact: even classic Mac OS was running on Intel at one point before the 680x0-to-PowerPC transition: htt…

That’s an awful lot of hope

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#47

Post by charlesism »

close04 wrote: post #12
394549 wrote: post #7

What's up with Apple? Seems to me like they should have just dropped the i9 option altogether, since they couldn't make it work. It just further torpedoes their fading reputation for being able to build top-notch hardware.

They are re-living their 2003-2004 period when the IBM PPC G5 CPU was way too hot and power hungry to put in the PowerBook and it needed water cooling in the PowerMac. Back then their solution was to switch to Intel CPUs. Now it's probably going to be to switch to in-house designed ARM CPUs.

It's a terrible argument, but I agree it's probably how Apple views things. If they're willing to sacrifice build-quality, ports, and a decent keyboard all in the name of thinness... I suppose adding a fraction of an inch of headroom in the bottom case is unthinkable to them.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#48

Post by charlesism »

edbaskerville wrote: post #43
rusk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in-house designed ARM CPUs. What could possibly go wrong!

Many things could go wrong, but the Apple codebases and engineering processes should be pretty robust to architecture changes at this point. NeXT went from 68030 to Intel/SPARC/others, and then to PowerPC with Mac OS X. OS X went from PowerPC to Intel. And large chunks of it are shared with iOS on ARM already. (Fun fact: even classic Mac OS was running on Intel at one point before the 680x0-to-PowerPC transition: htt…

I have very little confidence it will be a smooth transition this time. Apple now is not the same people, and not the same culture as it was then. I don't see them sweating the details over Mac hardware.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#49

Post by rusk »

394549 wrote: post #42
empthought wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the common case for Apple users (listening to iTunes), the AirPods will have the same quality as wired headphones, since they play back with the same codec/bitrate either way (256kbps AAC). Now if they're wired headphones with gold-plated connectors, that's a whole different ballgame.

> In the common case for Apple users (listening to iTunes), the AirPods will have the same quality as wired headphones, since they play back with the same codec/bitrate either way (256kbps AAC). Are they literally piping the AAC-encoded bitstream as it appears in the iTune files straight to the AirPods with no manipulation? Because if they're decoding then re-encoding (e.g. decoding the file to raw to pass to the OS,…

> they're decoding then re-encoding

That’s what’s happening.

It’s not like Bluetooth uses the AAC codec, it must be decoded and reencoded.

I’ve done a direct comparison and the deifference is clearly audible.

Re: Apple fans returning new MacBook Pros with Core i9

#50

Post by williamdclt »

philjohn wrote: post #27
williamdclt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might miss something, but what's so great about the airpods? Mediocre sound quality ( literally my 8 bucks earpods have a better sound) and leaking so much sound it's obnoxious (if you're disturbed by music in the subway, look around: it's probably someone with Apple earplugs). I don't think they were the first to make bluetooth earplugs? Is it the miniaturisation? The touch-sensitive thing?

Yeah, your 8 buck earpods in no way sound better, quit with the hyperbole. Maybe they sound better to you. Yep, they may not have been the first, but once again, they come in and have a bunch of refinements that just make them stand out. I've had bluetooth headphones before, and from pairing to loss of sync when moving more than a couple of metres away, AirPods beat them hands down.

They sound better to me and my three bandmate, one being a sound engineer. Admittedly those are great for their price (good ol' Panasonic Ergofit), but pick any decent 20 euros pods and they'll crush the earplugs.

The sound quality is abysmal for >150 euros pods. Any "refinement" is worthless if the base feature of the object, the sound, is less than acceptable for the price.

And it is unacceptable to leak so much sound that it's a disturbance to people around you (yes, if you're using those in the subway, you're disturbing people).

That being said, I can absolutely believe that the bluetooth connexion is better than other brands and that it is a major feature for a lot of people that do not use earplugs in the same way Ido (communication rather than music)

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