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New MacBook Air with M2

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Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#461

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

jeffhuys wrote: post #288
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first ways a cult gets everyone on the same page is altered language and speech patterns.

This comment makes me sigh. I know you will defend yourself with "what? I'm just stating a fact!" but saying stuff like this makes me really dislike you. I really like Apple products, does that make me a part of a cult? If yes, why? I wouldn't die for them, I wouldn't go through pain for them.

The fact that my comment on the internet makes you "really dislike me" is probably all the confirmation you need.

This comment sent from my iPhone SE 2016.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#462

Post by greggsy »

hackernewds wrote: post #443
commandersaki wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What annoys me about MKBHD's video is that he complains about an ageing design like it's a bad thing for the general case. I laud any manufacturer that's come up with a time tested design that doesn't change, which is why the IBM Thinkpads of the day were so popular. But in this specific case, MKBHD is right, this is an Apple being lazy about design and probably reusing their existing parts and tooling just to slap o…

They likely could have released the M2 without a year stagger but elected to release the M1 then the M2, because capitalism

But they would have just called it the M1, and we’d be back in 2020, but it would be 2022.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#464

Post by brigade »

conductr wrote: post #392
carlycue wrote: post #39

This thing is going to sell like hotcakes. The combination of single core CPU and graphics performance, device thinness, battery life in this laptop is unmatched. It’s funny how Apple came back from the worst the Mac has ever been to the best in a span of few years. Johnny I’ve doesn’t dictate things around Apple anymore but the silicone chips team now does.

Wonder how long these M chips were in R&D and meanwhile they were just watching everyone on the internet complain how crappy mac laptops were but they knew this was coming

AMD and Intel chips take ~5 years from starting work to being available to buy

The architecture is basically frozen 2 years before tapeout, which itself is a year before they go on sale.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#465

Post by caycep »

carlycue wrote: post #39

This thing is going to sell like hotcakes. The combination of single core CPU and graphics performance, device thinness, battery life in this laptop is unmatched. It’s funny how Apple came back from the worst the Mac has ever been to the best in a span of few years. Johnny I’ve doesn’t dictate things around Apple anymore but the silicone chips team now does.

I would say, is this Ive's fault or Intel's? What the silicon team is doing is more or less what Ive needed to fulfill his visions.

Honestly, there's a lot of PC nerd pushback against Ive, but I think the industry as a whole needs someone like his asking the (to the lay person) obvious questions - i.e. why can't I have this amount of computing power in a human-friendly form factor, vs. the giant, imposing, and ugly monolithic towers of yore?

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#466

Post by morganw »

adrr wrote: post #416
smoldesu wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and external monitors don't require a lot of video memory per se. That depends. Your average 1080p display doesn't really use a ton of video memory, but a 5k display connected to an internal 1440p display? That's a pretty huge framebuffer. AFAIK, Quartz also has a separate video buffer for each individual window, ranging from 50-150mb for the average application. Add it all up, and I agree that 8gb is pretty low, e…

How many people are using external display on an entry level laptop? Think of all you family members and friends who aren’t in the software field. I don’t even use an external monitor on my personal laptop and its MBP 16” Pro with 32GB of ram. At most I side car an Ipad but that is more power user stuff. Air with 8 GM of ram is perfect for a personal laptop where your primary focus is web browsing, watching media and…

I have a Pro Display XDR for working at home w/ a 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max. I use it with my personal MacBook Air M1, too. I like my spreadsheets for personal finance BIG.

It's not just the GPU that shares memory with the CPU. The "media engine" buffers are in there, too at 18 megabytes per frame for 4k reference pictures in the decoded picture buffer. The decoder, scaler, GPU, and DRAM are fast enough to have several tracks of 4k (which even the iPhone 11 & SE can shoot), so don't let RAM size be your limit. I'm happy to see a max of 24GB vs. the M1's 16GB.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#467

Post by loeg »

pc86 wrote: post #401

I spent an embarrassing amount on a lackluster early 2019 MBP. It's fine as a general purpose laptop but is just a little too slow for serious dev work, a little too heavy as the main travel laptop, battery life a little too short for my liking. I got an M1 for my work laptop maybe 4 months ago and it might honestly be the best laptop I've ever used.

I'm still stuck on a 2019 MBP from work. What garbage hardware. Up for a refresh in December.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#469

Post by rolleiflex »

eropple wrote: post #362
jmyeet wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember it's not 8gb of dedicated RAM. It's 8gb shared with the video subsystem. Let's see how far that goes when you plug it into a 4K monitor and/or do anything that requires GPU acceleration (which can include simply decoding video). I think 8gb is borderline criminally low in the circumstances. At least this thing has the option for 24gb though. I just wish that was a stocked model so you could just walk into a…

For what it's worth--when I had an 8GB Air, decoding video in a browser didn't seem to really impact performance. Plugging in an external monitor, though, was not a fun time.

I have a 32Gb M1 Pro as a work laptop and connecting a retina 4K external display is not a fun experience for me either. It was very surprising to see it fail to maintain 60fps in the OS’ own animations.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#470

Post by SamuelAdams »

abrouwers wrote: post #348
thrwawy283 wrote: post #75

I want it, but I'm not getting it until all the hardware works under Linux. MacOS is great, but someday they will stop updating MacOS for this. I see it as a device with incredible longevity because of the fanless thermals and how it sips energy. I could see myself using it 10 years later. I want to run MacOS or Fedora Silverblue, with Silverblue being my true love. Immutable OS images HAH, downvoted in seconds. Woul…

I'm a current Linux Desktop (plasma) user, who is really tempted by this machine, given my 6 year old thinkpad is showing it's age. I'm not sure I can get used to MacOS's window management, even though the rest of the OS looks great. I'm definitely not a power user on linux (mostly sticking to defaults), but things like not being able to adjust the green button to maximize a window? Ugh.

I use rectangle (app) for snapping windows around. I think CMD F will full screen just about every app, if not it’s another keyboard shortcut. You can also assign your own shortcuts in the keyboard preferences.
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