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

New iMac with M4

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

791–800 of 1001 posts

Re: New iMac with M4

#791

Post by Aaron2222 »

conradev wrote: post #733
v1ne wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using an M2 SSD instead of soldering the chip on board has more implications: PCB gets physically larger, and takes more power or has less performance talking to the SSD. Heat transfer is also worse. I completely understand why they go for a soldered SSD chip. One way of true environmentally-friendly innovation could have been to find a way to attach the SSD chip so that a user could safely replace it, though, with l…

Yes! I forgot that the NVMe controller is on-die. I want some way to swap the NAND chips. Reminds me of this video: https://youtu.be/KRRNR4HyYaw For an iMac, though, they have a bigger thermal envelope and no battery. It seems more reasonable. Apple even did the software engineering necessary to support the Mac Pro. That would be Apple’s counter-argument right there. Want Linux on your M1? Get a Mac, not an iPad. Wan…

This video[0] claims to show such a mod to a MacBook.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3N-z-Y8cuw

Re: New iMac with M4

#792

Post by s__s »

robotresearcher wrote: post #337
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never purchase the Studio Display on principle. It's an idiot product.

It’s really nice! Expensive, but it looks great and the 5K panel is beautiful. Speakers are good for a display, webcam is meh. It’s much better looking than the LG ultrafine 5K, slightly more functional, and costs more. What’s the idiot part? Price?

Personally I wish they sold a version without the camera and speakers. I already have those. A ultra wide would be nice too. I can’t imagine using two of them side by side, especially because it seems incredibly wasteful to have a duplicate speaker / camera set up.

Re: New iMac with M4

#793

Post by AnthonyMouse »

ferbivore wrote: post #691
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (maybe) take more time to engineer Apple, the richest company in the world, who spends millions in money and engineering hours on stuff like making sure the packaging having the right neutral smell, and the box sliding out with the right amount of friction when you open it, and on security teams/mercenaries able to pull family members of workers from warzones, and you're telling me they have to nickel and dime thei…

It's to reduce unit costs, not engineering costs. They integrated an NVMe controller into the SoC and they can now just buy NAND chips instead of full SSDs. Soldering them to the board is just an asshole thing to do though, especially since these machines can't boot off of USB if the NAND dies. Surely some elastomer BGA sockets wouldn't cost that much. There's no sane explanation other than they're doing it so you ha…

> They integrated an NVMe controller into the SoC and they can now just buy NAND chips instead of full SSDs.

What they/everyone really ought to do is to standardize that, with the flash chips themselves still connected via a modular connector and the "NVMe controller" as open source.

Imagine integrating the flash ECC/RAIN with ZFS et al. Or the ability to decide for yourself if you want a lot of QLC or a bit of SLC or a mix of both, in software at runtime.

Re: New iMac with M4

#794

Post by RayVR »

baron816 wrote: post #48
minimaxir wrote: post #3

16GB base RAM, they finally did it. They also did move the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse to USB-C.

Now if only they could figure out how to allow charging the Magic Mouse while it’s being used. I guess that technology is still years away.

The 'magic' mouse is garbage is magically useless. I could not care less about the charging port location. The size and shape are completely wrong for adult human use.

I think it's roughly the right size for my child, aged six. I used it for about ten minutes so I could order a Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac.

Of all the annoying things Apple does, this pushes me the hardest.

Re: New iMac with M4

#795

Post by thordenmark »

Got the Mac Studio when it came out and while its speed was impressive at first, ultimately I've been disappointed, too many technical glitches and issues with peripherals and the like, and my several iMacs before it are all junk now. I'm done with Apple desktops. So I'll be passing on this iMac.

They're laptops are still premium (better be for the price).

Re: New iMac with M4

#796

Post by Aaron2222 »

jujube3 wrote: post #719
baron816 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now if only they could figure out how to allow charging the Magic Mouse while it’s being used. I guess that technology is still years away.

What if (and just hear me out here), the mouse was attached to a cord? This would have several benefits. No need to charge or have a battery. The mouse would stay near the computer and not get lost.

Because a lot of people find corded mice annoying?

To be fair though, I've seen multiple computer labs with new iMacs and old wired keyboards and mice (because they don't want them "going missing" or switching places).

Re: New iMac with M4

#797

Post by AzzyHN »

danso wrote: post #788

I've held off replacing my MBP for about 5 years. In the meantime I built my own PC with an Nvidia card, but I have to admit it's been such a nuisance to get CUDA set up (I started doing it when WSL documentation wasn't quite fully baked) that I'm nostalgic for the days of doing `brew install everything`. The state of AI and other development in macOS seems like it's been pretty popular and solid for the past few yea…

Deep discount on the M3, imo. That $500 ($1500 on sale vs $2000 new) is better spent on more RAM, or non-Apple products.

If you're using an Intel-based Mac, it really is a huge jump. Intel Macs are basically just really poorly cooled laptops, making them worse, performance-wise

Re: New iMac with M4

#798

Post by Aaron2222 »

jasonventresca wrote: post #777

Integrating an LLM capabilities directly into the OS is pretty slick. I know it's just one less step than copy/pasting something into a ChatGPT tab in your browser, but that seamless experience makes it that much more accessible and lower friction. I'm excited to see where Apple Intelligence goes; though I do wonder if Apple choosing to partner with OpenAI will eventually put them in the backseat when other models li…

I recall reading that OpenAI was just the initial partner, and that they plan to offer other LLM integrations as well. Don't quote me on that though.

Re: New iMac with M4

#800

Post by ksynwa »

Sorry for this stupid tangential question. I had read that newer MacBooks with the M line of processors give a great battery life for a number of reasons like using ARM instruction set, the SoC architecture. I noticed that some Windows laptops now come with ARM processors too though they are touted as AI ready and not much else. Do these Windows laptop have improved battery life as well? Or have other manyfacturers not tried to catch up to Apple yet?
Post reply on HN