Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple introduces M4 chip

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#471

Post by slashdev »

stuff4ben wrote: post #97
slashdev wrote: post #72

I've got a Mac Pro paperweight because the motherboard went. It's going to the landfill. I can't even sell it for parts because I can't erase the SSD. If they didn't solder everything to the board you could actually repair it. When I replace my current Dell laptop, it will be with a repairable framework laptop.

Just because you lack the skills to fix it, doesn't mean it's not repairable. People desolder components all the time to fix phones and ipads and laptops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNKNjy3CoZ4

There’s always some wiseass saying “skill issue”

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#472

Post by izacus »

cletus wrote: post #227
izacus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple usually massively exaggerates their tech spec comparison - is it REALLY half the power use of all times (so we'll get double the battery life) or is it half the power use in some scenarios (so we'll get like... 15% more battery life total) ?

IME Apple has always been the most honest when it makes performance claims. LIke when they said an Macbook Air would last 10+ hours and third-party reviewers would get 8-9+ hours. All the while, Dell or HP would claim 19 hours and you'd be lucky to get 2 eg [1]. As for CPU power use, of course that doesn't translate into doubling battery life because there are other components. And yes, it seems the OLED display uses…

> LIke when they said an Macbook Air would last 10+ hours and third-party reviewers would get 8-9+ hours.

For literal YEARS, Apple battery life claims were a running joke on how inaccurate and overinflated they were.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#473

Post by andrewmcwatters »

joelthelion wrote: post #461
rsp1984 wrote: post #457

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…

>n case it is not abundantly clear by now: Apple's AI strategy is to put inference (and longer term even learning) I'm curious: is anyone seriously using apple hardware to train Ai models at the moment? Obviously not the big players, but I imagine it might be a viable option for Ai engineers in smaller, less ambitious companies.

Yes, it can be more cost effective for smaller businesses to do all their work on Mac Studios, versus having a dedicated Nvidia rig plus Apple or Linux hardware for your workstation.

Honestly, you can train basic models just fine on M-Series Max MacBook Pros.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#475

Post by legitster »

rsp1984 wrote: post #457

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…

> This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy (which would be at odds with sending data up to the cloud for processing).

I feel like people are being a bit naïve here. Apple's "Privacy First" strategy was a marketing spin developed in response to being dead-last in web-development/cloud computing/smart features.

Apple has had no problem changing their standards by 180 degrees and being blatantly anti-consumer whenever they have a competitive advantage to do so.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#476

Post by kjkjadksj »

atonse wrote: post #162
snapcaster wrote: post #16

Apple was really losing me with the last generation of intel macbooks but these m class processors are so good they've got me locked in all over again

The M1 Max that I have is easily the greatest laptop I've ever owned. It is fast and handles everything I've ever thrown at it (I got 32 GB RAM), it never, ever gets hot, I've never heard a fan in 2+ years (maybe a very soft fan if you put your ear next to it). And the battery life is so incredible that I often use it unplugged. It's just been a no-compromise machine. And I was thinking of upgrading to an M3 but will…

Thats surprising you haven’t heard the fans. Must be the use case. There’s a few games that will get it quite hot and spool up the fans. I have also noticed its got somewhat poor sleep management and remains hot while asleep. Sometimes I pick up the computer for the first time that day and its already very hot from whatever kept it out of sleep with a shut lid all night.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#477

Post by croes »

rsp1984 wrote: post #457

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…

It isn't privacy if Apple knows.

They are the gatekeeper of your data for their benefit not yours.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#478

Post by daniel31x13 »

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #290
daniel31x13 wrote: post #46

Well at the end of the day the processors are bottlenecked by its OS. What real value does an iPad bring that a typical iPhone + Mac combo misses? (Other than being a digital notebook…)

Digital artist's can get a lot of use out of it, I'd assume. The Apple Pencil seems pretty nice with the iPad.

This. If you’re anything other than a digital artist/someone who genuinely prefers writing over typing, an iPad is just an extra tool for you to waste your money on.

I had one of the earlier versions and this was pretty much its only use case…

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#479

Post by MuffinFlavored »

asow92 wrote: 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 don't want to bring both an iPad and Macbook on trips, but I need ______

Why not just make the iPad run MacOS and throw iPadOS into the garbage?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#480

Post by IggleSniggle »

krunck wrote: post #460
rsp1984 wrote: post #457

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…

Yes, that would be great. But without the ability for us to verify this who's to say they won't use the edge resources(your computer and electricity) to process data(your data) and then send the results to their data center? It would certainly save them a lot of money.

When you can do all inference at the edge, you can keep it disconnected from the network if you don't trust the data handling.

I happen to think they wouldn't, simply because sending this data back to Apple in any form that they could digest it is not aligned with their current privacy-first strategies. But if they make a device that still works if it stays disconnected, the neat thing is that you can just...keep it disconnected. You don't have to trust them.

Post reply on HN