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27-inch iMac gets a major update

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Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#151

Post by rbanffy »

freehunter wrote: post #100
dijit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter? There will be a period where the Intel Macs are still supported and probably more stable, and it could be ~2y before your upgrade is available if it's ARM based. If you have a retina macbook pro from 2014~ it definitely makes sense to upgrade to a macbook pro 16" today. The thing will see you through another 5-6y easy.

My fear isn’t around Apple and OS-level support. My fear is around smaller or indie developers who are already being asked to support macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android and now have to support another target. It’s not uncommon to see these devs not supporting Android or Windows because they can’t keep up. So how long before those devs drop support for Intel Macs (or don’t support ARM Macs for several years)? For…

It's trivially easy to build software for both ISAs from within Xcode, unless, of course, you are playing with Intel or ARM intrinsics or other pathologically non-portable thing, in which case it's anything but trivial.

It's not much harder than supporting Linux on x86 and ARM.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#152

Post by nicoburns »

ogre_codes wrote: post #143
dijit wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will almost certainly be a low end macbook. In fact, there's a non-pro 'macbook'[0] that already exists which would be perfect, it was discontinued a year ago, but used ultra-low power CPUs. In fact when they were talking about them (prior to release) they thought they would have ARM CPU's back then. They are fanless and have a 5W thermal envelope, which fits in with the current A12X too. The major criticisms of t…

> But for a $600-$700 machine with an ARM CPU? that's insanely competitive, and is in-line with the "basic" macbook branding. I'm skeptical Apple's introduction of their high performance CPUs exclusively on a low end device. A super light/ high performance 12ish inch machine seems right up their ally, but they don't want the new CPU associated with being a low-end "Intel Pentium Gold" type device. There might be a lo…

I've heard rumours of a low end 12" MacBook, along with a 13" MacBook pro targeting developers as launch devices. No idea if it's true, but it would certainly make a lot of sense.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#153

Post by smnrchrds »

n3k5 wrote: post #134

“SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage” 1/4 TB of storage in the $1800 model, 1/2 TB in the $2300 one. Ugh. (So before the lower-end one had 64GB? [Edit: Nope, 1 TB Fusion Drive, thanks smnrchrds!] That would be FULL just from installing the one game the press release mentions.) What kind of magic fairy dust SSDs are they using that you can't have a sensible amount of storage space at those prices? Looking…

> So before the lower-end one had 64GB?

No, the lower end ones came with "Fusion Drive", that was 32-128 GB of SSD merged with a 1TB HDD presented as a single disk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_Drive

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#154

Post by onepointsixC »

oneplane wrote: post #131
protomyth wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic People realized how crappy the camera (an well mic) was on Macs compared to other computers now that we are all video conferencing. Its sad that every PC user with a Logitech looked much better.

Plenty of Mac users with a logitech as well ;-) works just fine.

Right, but having an integrated camera that is absolutely awful completely defeats the point of having that there in the first place. It really noticeable when you Facetime with someone on an iPhone and you compare the video quality of the two.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#155

Post by savoytruffle »

newsclues wrote: post #102
dijit wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will almost certainly be a low end macbook. In fact, there's a non-pro 'macbook'[0] that already exists which would be perfect, it was discontinued a year ago, but used ultra-low power CPUs. In fact when they were talking about them (prior to release) they thought they would have ARM CPU's back then. They are fanless and have a 5W thermal envelope, which fits in with the current A12X too. The major criticisms of t…

The Mac mini and MacBook will be first

The Mac mini is a vital part of the lineup, but it is so much of a utility computer. That's why they utilized it for the Developer Transition Kit. It's hard to market it since it's nearly invisible on a desk and there's no Apple monitor that is reasonable to pair with it. For 'Apple Silicon' for xmas, one would assume several notebooks and maybe something like an iMac with a built-in display.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#156

Post by ogre_codes »

minimaxir wrote: post #123
ogre_codes wrote: post #11

Finally they ditch spinning media on the base models. Also notable, the rumored iPad-like style changes are conspicuously absent, these look pretty much identical to the older iMacs. Otherwise this looks like a decent bump all around. Notably, the iMac Pro also got some love (though not too much it seems?)

Where do you see the updates for the iMac Pro?

2nd paragraph from the bottom of the release:

> iMac Pro now comes standard with a 10-core Intel Xeon processor. Designed for pro users who require workstation-class performance, iMac Pro features Xeon processors up to 18 cores, graphics performance up to 22 teraflops, up to 256GB quad-channel ECC memory, and a brilliant 27-inch Retina 5K display.

I think just a bump in the base CPU and maybe the graphics? There is a reason it's buried deep in the PR.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#157

Post by _ph_ »

ogre_codes wrote: post #122
_ph_ wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they need at least one Apple Silicon machine, which demonstrates that it is competitive for absolute CPU power and of course as a machine for all the developers. They do need not only a testing machine, but should be doing the development itself on an Apple Silicon machine. That is, why I would consider the rumor about a 13 or 14 inch MB Pro with Apple Silicon for highly plausible. The 16 inch would then follow…

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 13/14 and the 16 inch both released this year. That would mean 2 significantly different 16" MBPs in the same year. My thinking here is that it would be quite odd if they released a 14" MacBook Pro which is faster than the more expensive current 16" model.

The 16" was just refreshed and requires both a very beefy cpu and gpu. Not sure Apple will bring that with the first iteration. The 13" MB Pro has an integrated GPU, so that sounds more like a first step for Apple. Also, I think the Intel version of the 16" will stick around for quite a long time, might even be the last Intel machine sold in parallel to Apple Silicon, as developers and many others might require an Intel-based machine.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#159

Post by Shivetya »

burlesona wrote: post #3

Solid spec bump. Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic; makes total sense in the age of Zoom. I’d also speculate this means iMac won’t be the first computer getting Apple Silicon. I wonder if it will be the last? What’s the consensus guess now? Perhaps a new MacBook Air with good performance but the real “breakthrough” is > 12 hours battery life?

Man, this will put a lot of us in a quandary. Buy this knowing the Apple Silicon is coming down the pipe or wait it out. I am disappointed no obvious changes to cooling have been made. Current i9 models can really spin up the fan as a number of owners have stated it one of the loudest Apple computers ever.

Nano Glass is around $500 up charge which does not seem bad but I seem to recall it has special cleaning requirements so be careful if you have family or friends who are touch prone.

SSD upgrade from 512 to 1TB is reasonable as well, around $200

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#160

Post by rimjongun »

obmelvin wrote: post #140
oneplane wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of Mac users with a logitech as well ;-) works just fine.

It may work fine, but its slightly absurd to need a better webcam for a recently made 2k USD laptop

What are you talking about? My $3k Dell, and $3k Lenovo have horrible cameras.
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