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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#491

Post by kylehotchkiss »

mort96 wrote: post #281
simonbarker87 wrote: post #21

Seeing an M series chip launch first in an iPad must be result of some mad supply chain and manufacturing related hangovers from COVID. If the iPad had better software and could be considered a first class productivity machine then it would be less surprising but the one thing no one says about the iPads is “I wish this chip were faster”

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…

> Environmentally impactful CPU when one 1/10 the speed would do

Apple's started to roll out green energy charging to devices: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108068

If I had to ballpark estimate this, your iPad probably uses less energy per year than a strand of incandescent holiday lights does in a week. Maybe somebody can work out that math.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#492

Post by LeoPanthera »

marinhero wrote: post #318

I get frustrated seeing this go into the iPad and knowing that we can't get a shell, and run our own binaries there. Not even as a VM like [UserLAnd]( https://userland.tech ). I could effectively travel with one device less in my backpack but instead I have to carry two M chips, two displays, batteries, and so on... It's great to see this tech moving forward but it's frustrating to not see it translate into a more si…

UTM can be built for iOS.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#493

Post by kylehotchkiss »

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.

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.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#495

Post by kylehotchkiss »

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.

Why don't you take it to the Apple Store to recycle it instead of dropping it in the trash can?

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#496

Post by kylehotchkiss »

slashdev wrote: post #467
ipqk wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hopefully at least electronics recycling.

Where do you usually take it for that? If I find a place in walking distance, maybe.

You could try to stick it in the phones drop off thingy at target. That's my go to for all non valuable electronics.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#497

Post by samatman »

azinman2 wrote: post #339
samatman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fairly absurd that they're still selling a 256gb "Pro" machine in the first place. That said, Apple's policy toward SKUs is pretty consistent: you pay more money and you get more machine, and vice versa. The MacBooks are the only product which has separately configurable memory / storage / chip, and even there some combinations aren't manufactured.

I have a 256G iPhone. I think I’m using like 160G. Most stuff is just in the cloud. For an iPad it wouldn’t be any different, modulo media cached for flights. I could see some cases like people working on audio to want a bunch stored locally, but it’s probably in some kind of compressed format such that it wouldn’t matter too much. What is your concern?

I don't know about 'concern' necessarily, but it seems to me that 512GB for the base Pro model is a more realistic minimum. There are plenty of use cases where that amount of storage is overkill, but they're all served better by the Air, which come in the same sizes and as little as 128GB storage.

I would expect most actual users of the Pro model, now that 13 inch is available at the lower tier, would be working with photos and video. Even shooting ProRes off a pro iPhone is going to eat into 256 pretty fast.

Seems like that model exists mainly so they can charge $1500 for the one people are actually likely to get, and still say "starts at $1299".

Then again, it's Apple, and they can get away with it, so they do. My main point here is that the 256GB model is bad value compared to the equivalent Air model, because if you have any work where the extra beef is going to matter, it's going to eat right through that amount of storage pretty quick.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#498

Post by kylehotchkiss »

tiffanyh wrote: post #195

Nano-Texture I really hope this comes to all Apple products soon (iPhones, all iPads, etc). It's some of the best anti-reflective tech I've seen that keeps color and brightness deep & bright.

Will be interesting to see how it holds up on devices that get fingerprints and could be scratched though. Sort of wish Apple would offer it as a replaceable screen film.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#499

Post by alfalfasprout »

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.

Not really (I work on AI/ML Infrastructure at a well known tech company and talk regularly w/ our peer companies).

That said, inference on apple products is a different story. There's definitely interest in inference on the edge. So far though, nearly everyone is still opting for inference in the cloud for two reasons:

1. There's a lot of extra work involved in getting ML/AI models ready for mobile inference. And this work is different for iOS vs. Android 2. You're limited on which exact device models will run the thing optimally. Most of your customers won't necessarily have that. So you need some kind of fallback. 3. You're limited on what kind of models you can actually run. You have way more flexibility running inference in the cloud.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#500

Post by zincmaster »

I own M1, A10X and A12X iPad Pros. I have yet to see any of them ever max out their processor or get slow. I have no idea why anyone would need an M4 one. Sure, it's because Apple no longer has M1s being fabbed at TSMC. But seriously, who would upgrade.

Put MacOS on iPad Pro, then it gets interesting. The most interesting thing my ipad pros do are look at security cameras or read ODB-II settings on my vehicle. Hell, they can't even maintain an SSH connection correctly. Ridiculous.

I see Apple always show videos of people editing video on their iPad Pro. Who does that??? We use them for watching videos (kids). One is in a car as a mapping system - that's a solid use case. One I gave my Dad and he did know what to do with it - so its collecting dust. And one lives in the kitchen doing recipes.

Functionally, a 4 year old Chromebook is 3x as useful as a new iPad Pro.

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