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Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

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Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#521
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems pretty obvious that some future Macs will have touch screens or larger iPads will run MacOS. Probably not. Apple has said they've prototyped touch screen Macs and from a UI/UX perspective, it doesn't really work. They've recently downplayed touchscreen Mac talk recently [1]. What Apple has shown is iPadOS becoming more like macOS, supporting a keyboard and a mouse instead of the other way around. I have a 2-in-…

Apple also said they weren't going to make a phone while they were working on a phone. A denial by Apple doesn't mean much (in either direction).

That was the gamesmanship of Steve Jobs nearly 15 years ago. He didn't say we prototyped phones and there's nothing we can add to them.

Again, not to rule anything out but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#523
One of the things I've noticed recently, and especially since the CPU space started finally moving again is how much of a divide there now is between the computer literate, and the computer illiterate.

It probably creates a social divide at least that which existed when the majority of people couldn't read or write, and is just as "not OK".

Example of this in the first paragraph of this article: > For everyday users who just want to browse the web, stream some Netflix, maybe edit some documents, computers have been “perfectly fine” for the last decade.

These kind of things now read to me like "for the everyday peasant, that just wants to go to swim in the river, seal the roof of their house and get to work on time, clay tablets and stylus's have been perfectly fine for the last century"

Even the title screams this kind of thinking, computers are not black magic, any more than medicine or writing were magic or sorcery back when burning witches was a thing.

Makes me a little sad.

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#524

One of the things I've noticed recently, and especially since the CPU space started finally moving again is how much of a divide there now is between the computer literate, and the computer illiterate. It probably creates a social divide at least that which existed when the majority of people couldn't read or write, and is just as "not OK". Example of this in the first paragraph of this article: > For everyday users…

This is very vague. What exactly do you mean by "computer illiterate" - do you mean someone who isn't a power user, or someone who can't program?

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice. But what does CPU/GPU horse power have to do with memory? If I want to spin up a bunch of VMs to do pre-commit test builds in clean environments, and each need RAM for the OS and user land, being able to edit a lot of raw video does nothing for me. I'm generally fine running macOS (or Linux), but sometimes I need to boot up Windows in a VM for specialized apps: how do I assign >16GB of memory to it if I…

Setting aside that you are way off thread here... > how do I assign >16GB of memory to it if I only have 8-16GB of RAM? This is Apple's slowest/ lowest performance M series CPU. Complaining that the CPU they built for the MacBook Air and the lowest end MacBook Pro doesn't have 32GB of RAM misses the entire picture. This is Apple's first and lowest end M series chip, and it's blowing away Intel chips with discrete GPU…

> In fact since Apple is migrating the entire line-up, it's likely the next generation of CPUs will support discrete RAM

I've been wondering about how much of the general purpose performance boost of M1 is due to having the RAM in the same package. That has to have benefits in power and latency. So if a future Mx chip supports discrete RAM, it may not seem quite as magical anymore. Then again, Apple's volume and margin is high enough that they could just build a single package with lots of RAM. You wouldn't be able to tinker with it, but it's not like Apple cares about that.

Makes you wonder if AMD or Intel will come up with a similar package for x86-based laptops.

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#528
post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally gatekeeper OCSP checks on app launches serve as telemetry in practice, and this has no preference or setting to disable it. This is just a check that the developer's certificate hasn't been revoked or expired. I wouldn't call it telemetry. Apple has said they're working on allowing users to opt-out of Gatekeeper checks if that's what people want. Details— https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/16/checks-on-exe…

> This is just a check that the developer's certificate hasn't been revoked or expired. I wouldn't call it telemetry. It's an unencrypted network transmission of a unique identifier, at the time of an app launch, that maps to a single app for 99% of cases (due to the fact that almost all developers publish only a single app). That's objectively telemetry no matter what you call it, irrespective of the intent of the d…

It's an unencrypted network transmission of a unique identifier, at the time of an app launch, that maps to a single app for 99% of cases (due to the fact that almost all developers publish only a single app).

As the article states [1], Apple is changing to an encrypted connection, the IP addresses are no longer logged and the checks never included the Apple ID of the user or the identity of the user's device. Definitely not telemetry.

[1] For those concerned with protecting their privacy, Apple makes it clear that “these security checks have never included the user’s Apple ID or the identity of their device”, and that it has stopped logging IP addresses.

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#529

These ppl are so drunk on the kool aid they don’t even realize that 80% of their experience is common to every new laptop purchase. In 1 year these “revolutionary” computers will be boring and slow again, especially when their batteries start to deteriorate.

Do you really believe this is a common hardware release? There’s nothing revolutionary here? People love to hate on Apple which is fair for a lot of reasons but I think you have to give credit where credit is due. The M1 will push all laptops forward and force others to complete which is great for customers.

Re: Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery

#530
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first comment that's made me actually want one...

Tbf, WoW will run on just about anything... I remember playing it on an Acer (or maybe Lenovo?) netbook back in 2009/10. Checked it out from school right before Christmas break so I would have a computer at home for a month. In the article here they show Minecraft running at native res and 60 fps. No small feat nowadays considering draw distances that are popular now.

It’s not just WoW and Minecraft. I’ve seen screenshots of Dota 2 highest settings running over 100 FPS. Borderlands 3, a graphics beast, at ultra settings, running about 30 FPS. Unoptimized. On a low-end Mac with an M1 chip!
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