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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

#551

Post by arvinsim »

shitlord wrote: post #505
stouset wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a professional systems programmer. I agree with everything you're saying, in principle. Except I have two M1 MacBook Pros (one 16GB, one 64GB). I frankly don't notice the difference between the two on any workload. This involves compiling multiple projects, running multiple docker containers locally in virtual machines, running VS Code, Slack, Chrome, and other productivity tools. These machines frankly feel like…

The RTX 3080 is a massive power hog. All that energy has to be dissipated somehow. It's really impressive what Apple has managed to do with the M1 and M2 chips. If an Apple M chip ever offers comparable performance on AAA games, I'll get rid of my desktop computer.

The problem with Apple and games is less about hardware and a lot more about software.

I doubt that AAA game devs would develop for the MacOS/Metal platform anytime soon.

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

#552

Post by selfhoster69 »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #444
dgellow wrote: post #202

I hoped the notch would be just an experiment and Apple would get rid of it the next iteration. It seems I was wrong. It looks so weird to have your top menu bar split in two, I really don’t get why it is necessary.

I've read all the arguments pro-notch, that you won't notice, and that it doesn't take up screen real estate, and so on. But still, the design compromise bothers me; hiding a camera such that the aesthetic geometry isn't distorted feels wrong and fake, and something not here to stay for long, just as you say. Why not implement a mechanical flip-out camera holder? Helps with perceived big brother effect, too. Btw, is…

> Btw, is the mandatory touch bar thingy back? That would be a step back in my book.

It is not. The Touch Bar 13" MBP was updated with the new M2 chip but kept the old design.

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

#553

Post by captainbland »

apozem wrote: post #238
grumpyprole wrote: post #111

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.

The problem I have is that a 16GB machine from 10 years ago will still work better for certain tasks than an 8GB machine today. Memory capacity is still a fundamental bottleneck for certain workloads even with faster storage, processing, etc. And desktop software is generally getting more memory intensive rather than less.

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

#554

Post by lm28469 »

andrekandre wrote: post #385
lm28469 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely design consistency; to have the same design element across all devices

make every laptop look the same with a huge notch even if its not strictly necessary...?

It's Apple, necessity isn't their design language

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

#555

Post by vetinari »

olliej wrote: post #465
vetinari wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E implies the ability to use additional channels at the 6 GHz frequencies. With 5 GHz there are some problems, almost everyone uses the lower ones, leading to congestion and ignoring the upper ones due to DFS (radar detection; people are not fond of their wifi randomly not working). And contrary to yours opinion, I consider that both 4 (-n) and 5 (-ac) brought very nice things (like support for new frequencies, wider…

You miss understand - I thought the naming change from 802.11[a-z]+ was marketing BS, but now I actually had to look for hardware, a sane linearly increasing version number scheme makes life so much better :)

Oh, that's how you meant it. Sorry for misunderstanding.

Yes, the new naming scheme is way more understandable for normal users.

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

#556

Post by theshrike79 »

GordonS wrote: post #220
theshrike79 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Face ID and some lidar stuff most likely, the notch being the same shape and size as the iPhone one is not a coincidence.

Lidar... in a laptop?!

The latest iPads and iPhones have a LIDAR on the back camera. They can be used to scan the environment. And the FaceID setup for the front-facing camera is used to create those animated memojis that match your face.

If you add it to a laptop, it could actually map the background environment and do some really fancy processing for video calls. Or even improve audio based on the room shape it sees.

https://www.apple.com/in/newsroom/2020/03/apple-unveils-new-...

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

#557

Post by grumpyprole »

coldtea wrote: post #546
grumpyprole wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the point you are trying to make here. I wish you luck getting a 2022 Apple machine with 8GB of RAM to handle 2 VMs, IntelliJ, a logic project with 100 tracks or 4K video editing. These tasks are all limited by available RAM and the available RAM has not significantly increased since 2012 (my point).

I've handled all of these. With no issue. If you mean "simultaneously" thankfully I don't edit 8K video simultaneously with programming and recoding music. I don't know anyone who does either. My point is rather, "16GB in 2012, 16GB in 2022, no difference". And I say: try doing any of those things on your 2012 machine and a 16GB M1, and you'll immediately see the difference.

I didn't say there is "no difference" between these machines, that's ridiculous. My point is that Apples system-on-a-chip architecture, while giving big performance and efficiency gains, comes with a trade-off. That trade off is availability and pricing of RAM configurations. That 8GB or 16 works for you is great, but it doesn't work for every use case.

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

#558

Post by cma »

notatoad wrote: post #237
jmyeet wrote: 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…

for the person who's looking for a machine to handle emails, facebook, netflix, and maybe a bit of document editing, 8GB is totally fine. and even if that extra ram was free, it still has a cost in battery life. 8GB of ram is the right choice for a lot of people buying a macbook air.

8GB is less than phones are starting to be.

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

#559

Post by antifa »

znpy wrote: post #544
antifa wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're OK with 30 minute battery life and your CPU fan running at max decibels when trying to open a single email...

For 1/3 of the price? Sure!

$750/$999 is closer to 3/4, not 1/3. A little bit of diligence and patience could get you one on sale for $900 or $800.

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

#560

Post by tim333 »

fomine3 wrote: post #507
theluketaylor wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that the M1 doesn't throttle in a 10 inch ipad with passive cooling I think Apple absolutely could build a M1/M2 11 inch air or 12 inch macbook. They either haven't gotten to it or are deliberately avoiding going down into ipad size territory with macbooks.

Or they just found that there's no enough market for lightweight Macbook, similar story as iPhone mini series. It's sad.

According to their page the Macbook Air is the world's best selling laptop so presumably there's some market. I also went from an 11" air to the M1 and miss the smallness of the 11".
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