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27-inch iMac gets a major update

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Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#491

Post by Veedrac »

bredren wrote: post #429
jkestner wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optics dictate that Apple show the superiority of the new silicon, and it wouldn't want it immediately pigeonholed as something like Surface X, a compromised curiosity. Apple's been consistent about ~10 hours of battery life for a while. They've hit their spec and think that most people don't need more in typical usage. So they'll be able to shave battery volume down to continue their trend of thinner without sacrifi…

I see no need for a standalone Macbook to negatively portray Apple Silcon. "Macbook" is the heart of the entire PC portable line for Apple. "Macbook"is the grounding of the brand itself. I think Apple will release the Macbook as the first Apple Silicon machine because of the optics of confidently putting the hardware at the symbolic heart of the entire portable line. I do not think the 12" that was discontinued shoul…

To the skeptics, Apple Silicon is about thin laptops and fat margins. It makes no sense for Apple to reinforce this. Apple's silicon team is exceptional, and they should prove it.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#492

Post by m463 »

_ph_ wrote: post #341

The one thing I keep missing on my 5k iMac is some form of video-in. Would be great if I could connect my MB Pro to it and use the iMac as a display. Perhaps even in a window and all mouse and keyboard events to the window get passed to the connected MacBook.

You know, there are a few key features about macs that have made them much better computers.

Target disk mode. Target display mode. Boot from an external drive using option. Boot from the network.

And you know the "decision makers" don't understand how much nicer it makes the computers to administer. (understand in the sense they would defend them for real in a feature-cutting meeting) Instead we get dongles.

sigh.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#493

Post by samatman »

dijit wrote: post #9
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?

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…

Agreed, and I want to add one prediction (which is maybe just a hope):

It will have a SIM card slot, and get at least 12 hours of battery life while using LTE.

This would be a truly compelling product, filling a niche Apple has tried to inhabit a couple of times, with the distinct possibility of getting it right this time.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#494

Post by Veedrac »

_ph_ wrote: post #243
ogre_codes wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can Apple say their new CPUs are the best/ fastest... but aren't good enough to ship in their flagship laptop? This first launch is going to be the most scrutinized & criticized Mac Apple has launched in years. Apple knows this and they are going to put a beefy CPU in their new machine to silence the critics. If they can't beat Intel performance at launch, what are the chances they are going to be able to beat th…

That is the reason why I think at least one of the MB Pros will be available on Apple Silicon from the start, I am just not sure they will start with the 16", as they would have to replace a dedicated GPU for that machine.

You are massively underestimating the performance of Apple's GPUs. They can beat the 5600M.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/hgahzx/apple_gpu_...

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#497

Post by byset »

kccqzy wrote: post #409
byset wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I see it it's basically price discrimination. Apple wants a certain profit margin for the model as a whole. Yet for customers who will never pay prices that will give Apple that full margin, they offer a model at a low price point with a compressed margin, but with a painful aspect that will encourage customers who can pay to go with a higher priced unit — here, the painful thing is the small SSD size. So the idea…

Perhaps that's true for people who buy personal Macs, but in several companies I've worked for, the companies that buy Macs for work almost always use the smallest SSD option: you don't need a lot of local storage, since most files will be in company-managed storage systems.

Sure, there will always be customers for whom the low-price option is perfect.

Outlet malls are another form of price discrimination, as they offer lower prices for those willing to travel further to get the lower prices. But there will always be some people happen to live next to the outlet mall.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#498

Post by lsllc »

samatman wrote: post #493
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…

Agreed, and I want to add one prediction (which is maybe just a hope): It will have a SIM card slot, and get at least 12 hours of battery life while using LTE. This would be a truly compelling product, filling a niche Apple has tried to inhabit a couple of times, with the distinct possibility of getting it right this time.

With tethering, I'm not sure I want a SIM card in my laptop! If nothing else, AT&T will charge me extra for that (I'm already paying extra per month for my Apple Watch to have LTE connectivity).

Whilst I don't take my phone running because I can use my Watch for music and can make calls on it while out, I don't think I'd ever be somewhere with my laptop and no phone.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#499

Post by tedk-42 »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #390
varjag wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I very much need Emacs and Unix-like environment for work, so iPad doesn't quite cut it. That said I've got a 11" Pro: mostly as a portable second display via Sidecar for MB12 but also some pen-based apps like Sketchr3d. It's nice and if you have a workflow that suits it, no doubt it's usable.

Get a cloud VM and Blink.sh, an SSH/mosh client. You can totally have a Unix environment on the iPad. It's limited, but still pretty powerful.

Pretty sad to see people touting this as a workaround solution.

It's still a workaround - possibly the most basic one for any kind of thin client there is. I want a consistent IDE as well and right now, you can't run vscode properly on an iPad.

I'm still hopeful that future apple silicon macs will be able to do local development with more grunt than current macs. I guess we'll see.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#500

Post by stuart78 »

fiblye wrote: post #496

I bought a 2012 iMac with 8GB of memory as the baseline. We’re more than halfway through 2020 and Apple is telling us 8GB is still just fine for a >$2000 computer?

Given their crazy RAM price markups, I prefer to have this option so that I can buy my own RAM from another source.
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