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Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

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Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#281
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need 8GB just to run "modern" web applications, let alone develop them.

Tell me you haven’t used an M1 device without telling me. People getting their hands on 8GB M1 MacBook Airs in the early days were saying the memory management and performance were making it snappier than the 16GB Intel MacBooks.

I made a mistake of purchasing a 8GB M1 MacBook Pro. It was painful to work with. For casual stuff it worked just fine, but as soon as I ran a Docker image (with 2GB memory limit), had Slack and few other light apps open, some tabs in Safari it started to become slow. Painfully slow. The spinning beach ball was a very frequent sight to me. My RAM usage was often in the red zone and I had to kill applications constantly. When I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a M1 Pro with 32 GB of RAM all of these issues went away.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#282
post #238

Almost 10 years ago we purchased a MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for approx 2K UK pounds. It's really surprising and disappointing that a decade later these same specs essentially cost the same!

Not to be rude but this is an inaccurate and poor understanding of computers. The entire chip architecture of the Mac changed since 2010. 16 gigs of RAM on an M1-based chip gets you much, much better performance than 16 gigs on an Intel chip from 10 years ago. Even the RAM and SSD stats you cite are apples and oranges - both have gotten dramatically faster in the last decade.

Ya but neither have really mattered in terms of speed for years for most people. I'm still stick at 256gb over here and I have to be pretty picky about what stays on.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally my only question. If they don't understand that then this is a massive market-research fail. I went Windows before the M1 Pro Macs just because I could not run two displays well on the Air (Displaylink sucks so so much).

On the contrary, I suspect they have market research to the effect that only a small proportion of users have or want multiple screens, and of those who do, they're likely to buy a more expensive model in the first place. Basically everyone I know has gone the route of a single large display, Mac user or not.

My anecdata seems to confirm this as well. We ordered ~30 Macbook Airs at work over the last 18 months or so (startup, so no actual IT department), and I didn't even know they only supported one monitor until a month ago when a new employee asked why their second screen didn't work.

This was the 27th MBA we deployed, so 26 people only used one external monitor (and I went back and asked if anyone needed an upgrade for dual-monitor use in case they just ignored it). All non engineering roles though.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to that, today's 2000 GBP are more comparable to 1600 GBP in 2012 due to inflation.

Also, software bloat means that the old macbook can't do shit with today's software.

Sure it can

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#286
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given two options, both of which are bad for the environment, but one is less bad, is one not better than the other? Can you point to a product that highlights its strengths by framing them in a negative light instead of painting them positively?

Just to show our commitment to our users, we're only responsible for 25% of future cancer where our competitors are responsible for 29%. I just don't see that line being effective.

What do you propose, then? Should they just not say anything at all? Or is your contention that the product should not even exist?

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#287

I don’t buy 60hz displays in 2022. No way this comes without 120hz „Pro Motion“. Disgusting.

Pro motion displays have only ever been available on devices with the “pro” moniker, there was never a chance of the MacBook Air getting it.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#288
post #31

The 24GB unified memory is a really nice upgrade (the M1 MBA has 8GB upgradeable to 16GB). The CPU/GPU upgrades are predictable and wlecome but the memory is huge. A lot of development isn't CPU bound but is memory bound or at least can really benefit from more memory. This upgrade makes the MBA an entirely viable dev machine for many workloads. I have a MBP (Intel) but it's expensive. Getting a viable machine for $1…

> makes the MBA an entirely viable dev machine for many workloads. So this, like the M1 supports only ONE external display.. so as long as you live the lopsided big-small life, sure.

This is true, but that one display can be a 49" 5120x1440 ultra wide and it will drive that with no problems.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Basically everyone I know has gone the route of a single large display, Mac user or not. I've noticed that, too, which I don't quite understand. Dual displays were touted as a productivity multiplier back in the day. Is that not the case anymore?

Seeing as there are single large monitors with more pixels than those multiple back in the day monitors, it makes sense. People ran multiple screens to get the real estate. There was always a fight on how to arrange them to minimize the gaps from the bezels. Now, it's one screen, no interrupting bezels and more pixels.

I prefer my dual displays--I think. But there are definitely a ton of "power users" of various kinds these days who prefer a single large (often curved) display. I really thought about it a bit back and decided to stick with dual displays but I see the arguments for not having to deal with moving windows between monitors, etc.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#290

Almost 10 years ago we purchased a MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD for approx 2K UK pounds. It's really surprising and disappointing that a decade later these same specs essentially cost the same!

It's a lot faster and of higher quality now. Those numbers do not reflect the speed of the ram, the speed of the memory, the quality of the screen, or the performance of the CPU

Ya but it's the same amount. Wew my files load marginally faster, but I can only have 5 of them for the same money that I used to be able to have 10. That's like telling someone who can't get a new van with similar features for the same price to instead get a one wheel
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