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Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

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Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#211

Post by coldtea »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #200
coldtea wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if it requires some unique genes or brains? If a place can do it, another place, with a huge track record on manufacturing and lately expanding all kinds of tech, can.

It might help to not have much in the way of environmental, safety or labor regulations. Whether or not you feel like those are good overall (I do), they do actually also slow things down.

>It might help to not have much in the way of environmental, safety or labor regulations.

Yes, like how it helped western industry early on. Or, well into the 70s for the most part.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#212

Post by coldtea »

buckle8017 wrote: post #198
coldtea wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That proves that spinning up US fabs takes ages. Chinese fabs might not be so tied with red tape and regulation upon regulation (which is a funny reversal, in terms of "communism vs capitalism" bureucracy/inefficiency cold war thinking)

The Chinese don't have access to new EUV machines. All of their fabrication ability is based on old processes.

Not so sure about that: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-china-built-its-manh...

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#213

Post by zer00eyz »

pstoll wrote: post #205

Except that Mac ultra M3 they talk about is now only being sold in the 96 GB configuration. It’s no longer being sold in larger Ram configurations by Apple Apple because of the global RAM shortage. And you can not add memory after purchase because it’s integrated/soldered on.

> And you can not add memory after purchase because it’s integrated/soldered on.

For as much as I dont like this aspect of modern computing, I understand why it is done from a technical perspective. Power, heat, and performance are all "better" when ram is on the motherboard vs in a "stick".

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#214

Post by Catloafdev »

mikeocool wrote: post #182
Sebastian_09 wrote: post #89

What I’m not sure to understand is that if you want to just run Claude code or openclaw type software with llm apis or subscriptions (and not run local models) to benefit from a local file system and always-on capability for ‘second brain’ type of workflows, I guess you don’t need a Mac mini but can run it on a raspberry pi or an old laptop ? Does anyone have experience with that ?

Yeah I find the Mac mini trend is kind of baffling. It seems like it's driven either by 1) people hearing Macs are good for AI, buying one, and using Claude for inference, not realizing that you interact with the anthropic API from an internet connected hair dryer. Or 2) people want their agents to have blue bubbles. I find it hard to believe that enough normal people are doing on device inference is driving Mac Mini…

The demand is not coming from 'normal Apple customers' it's coming from people who want a machine that can run local AI.

It has nothing to do with Macs being especially good at AI. It has everything to do with being one of the last 'cheap' devices being sold with that much unified RAM.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#215

Post by egorfine »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #208
egorfine wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm being sarcastic here. But I still strongly believe that Apple hates pro users because they don't make as much money and because they get in the way of serving laymen. The Aperture fiasco, the Final Cut Saga, the Xcode war of attrition and the never ending chain of failures with MacPro - all suggest that I'm right. (Developer of a major plugin for DaVinci here)

Good on ya. I'm not interested in fighting about this stuff. I've had people hating on me for using Apple since the 1980s. It gets a bit old. Sort of like high school popularity contests.

I'm an exclusive Apple user for a couple decades so I'm not fighting here :) just acknowledging the fact that Apple has some deficiencies

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#216

Post by Jcowell »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #188
egorfine wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is quite hostile to professional users, so no.

Sadly, that is an outdated PoV. It has probably not been valid, since last century. It's just that Apple isn't really focused on software development professionals, and it's still fashionable to throw shade on them, so we hear a lot of kvetching about it, in communities like this.

I’m interested to know the ways that Apple doesn’t cater to Software devs the way other OS does. I hate developing on a windows/non-unix machine

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#217

Post by xienze »

wiether wrote: post #127
_glass wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's only because you can send texts via imessage on a macmini. that's it.

Buying a new computer at +$500 just to have iMessage access feels insane to me. OpenClaw supports all the mainstream (and free) chat apps like Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram... None of them requiring a MacOS machine. Is it a lack of knowledge from the users or do they really value iMessage integration that much?

> Is it a lack of knowledge from the users or do they really value iMessage integration that much?

My understanding is that the barrier to entry to using iMessage makes iMessage a LOT more secure from spam. If you want to do mass iMessages you have to register as a business with Apple, go through all sorts of checks and attestations, etc.

At any rate, iMessages are a lot more trustworthy than SMS. So being able to spam people via iMessage is very desirable. I recall a few months ago a guy posting his little spam-iMessage-as-a-Service product here on HN. You could build your little iMessage spam army using a bunch of Mac Minis...

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#218

Post by deadbabe »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #20

Apple could probably sell a machine starting at $10,000 if they architected it as the sole place one’s Private Cloud Compute [1] ran. It would need a path to a $2,500 machine, I think. But this is a niche I don’t think another consumer-facing brand could do like Apple. [1] https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/

Our company would buy at least 10 of those instantly.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#219

Post by habosa »

Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat.

Just writing this down so I can be praised/mocked in 5 years.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#220

Post by Lt_Riza_Hawkeye »

mikeocool wrote: post #182
Sebastian_09 wrote: post #89

What I’m not sure to understand is that if you want to just run Claude code or openclaw type software with llm apis or subscriptions (and not run local models) to benefit from a local file system and always-on capability for ‘second brain’ type of workflows, I guess you don’t need a Mac mini but can run it on a raspberry pi or an old laptop ? Does anyone have experience with that ?

Yeah I find the Mac mini trend is kind of baffling. It seems like it's driven either by 1) people hearing Macs are good for AI, buying one, and using Claude for inference, not realizing that you interact with the anthropic API from an internet connected hair dryer. Or 2) people want their agents to have blue bubbles. I find it hard to believe that enough normal people are doing on device inference is driving Mac Mini…

I believe it was because it allowed OpenClaw to access iMessage directly
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