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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) on edge devices. This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending data up to the cloud for processing). Their primary business goal is to sell hardware. Yes, they’ve diversified into services and being a shopping mall for all, but it is about selling lu…

The MacBook Air is not a luxury device. That meme is out of date

Curious what criteria you're using for using for qualifying luxury. It seems to me that materials, software, and design are all on par with other more expansive Apple products. The main difference is the chipset which I would argue is on an equal quality level as the pro chips but designed for a less power hungry audience.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#673
post #332

Why are we running these high end CPUs on tablets without the ability to run pro apps like Xcode? Until I can run Xcode on an iPad (not Swift Playgrounds), it's a pass for me. Hear me out: I don't want to bring both an iPad and Macbook on trips, but I need Xcode. Because of this, I have to pick the Macbook every time. I want an iPad, but the iPad doesn't want me.

Visual studio code running from remote servers seemed like it was making great progress right until the AI trendiness thing took over... and hasn't seemed to advance much since. Hopefully the AI thing cools down and the efforts on remote tooling/dev environments continues onwards.

If we're going down that route then what's the point in putting good hardware in the device? It might as well just be a thin client. Having the same SoCs as their laptops and desktops but then relegating the iPad to something that needs to be chained to a "real" computer to do anything useful in the development space seems like a tremendous waste of potential.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) on edge devices. This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending data up to the cloud for processing). Their primary business goal is to sell hardware. Yes, they’ve diversified into services and being a shopping mall for all, but it is about selling lu…

As soon as the privacy thing goes away, I'd say a major part of their customer base goes away too. Most people use android so they don't get "hacked" if Apple is doing the hacking, I'd just buy a cheaper alternative.

is that still the case?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) on edge devices. This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending data up to the cloud for processing). Their primary business goal is to sell hardware. Yes, they’ve diversified into services and being a shopping mall for all, but it is about selling lu…

The MacBook Air is not a luxury device. That meme is out of date

Maybe for you, but I still see sales guys who refuse working on WinTel where basically what the do is browse internet and do spreadsheets - so mainly just because they would not look cool compared to other sales guys rocking MacBooks.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#677
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I wish my iPad's chip was slower! I can't do anything other than watch videos and use drawing programs on an iPad, why does it need a big expensive power hungry and environmentally impactful CPU when one 1/10 the speed would do? If I could actually do something with an iPad there would be a different discussion, but the operating system is so incredibly gimped that the most demanding task it's really su…

>To be honest, I wish my iPad's chip was slower! I can't do anything other than watch videos and use drawing programs on an iPad, why does it need a big expensive power hungry and environmentally impactful CPU when one 1/10 the speed would do? A faster SoC can finish the task with better "work done/watt". Thus, it's more environmentally friendly. Unless you're referring to the resources dedicated to advancing compute…

A faster and more power hungry SoC can finish the task with better work done per joule if it is fast enough to offset the extra power consumption. It is my understanding that this is often not the case. See e.g efficiency cores compared to performance cores in these heterogeneous design; the E cores can get more done per joule AFAIU. If my understanding is correct, then removing the P cores from the M4 chip would let it get more work done per joule.

Regardless, the environmental impact I'm thinking about isn't mainly power consumption.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#678
post #332

Why are we running these high end CPUs on tablets without the ability to run pro apps like Xcode? Until I can run Xcode on an iPad (not Swift Playgrounds), it's a pass for me. Hear me out: I don't want to bring both an iPad and Macbook on trips, but I need Xcode. Because of this, I have to pick the Macbook every time. I want an iPad, but the iPad doesn't want me.

I've been saying this for years, I would love to get a desktop Mac and use an iPad for the occasional bit of portable development I do away from a desk, like when I want to noodle on an idea in front of the TV.

I'm very happy with my MacBook, but I don't like that the mega expensive machine I want to keep for 5+ years needs to be tied to a limited-life lithium battery that's costly and labour intensive to replace, just so I can sometimes write code in other rooms in my house. I know there's numerous remote options but...the iPad is right there, just lemme use it!

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#679

Together with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, the high-performance GPU, and higher-bandwidth unified memory, the Neural Engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI. In case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) on edge devices. This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending dat…

I wonder if BYOE (bring your own electricity) also plays a part in their long term vision? Data centres are expensive in terms of hardware, staffing and energy. Externalising this cost to customers saves money, but also helps to paint a green(washing) narrative. It's more meaningful to more people to say they've cut their energy consumption by x than to say they have a better server obselesence strategy, for example.

Why would it be green washing? Aren’t their data centers and commercial operations run completely on renewable energy?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#680

Together with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, the high-performance GPU, and higher-bandwidth unified memory, the Neural Engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI. In case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) on edge devices. This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending dat…

>I personally really really welcome as I don't want the AI future to be centralised in the hands of a few powerful cloud providers. Watch out for being able to using ai on your local machine and those ai services using telemetry to send your data (recorded conversations, for instance) to their motherships.

> and those ai services using telemetry to send your data (recorded conversations, for instance) to their motherships

This doesn’t require Ai and I am not aware of any instances of this happening today, so what exactly are we watching out for?

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