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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#831

Post by carabiner »

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…

iPhone Photos app already does incredible image subject search via ML locally. Versus Android which does it via cloud.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#832

Post by sneak »

vrick wrote: post #481
ilikehurdles wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPod classic had 160 GB of storage fifteen years ago. No device should be measuring storage in the gigabytes in 2024. Let alone starting at $1000 offering only 256GB. What ridiculousness.

To be fair the ipod classic used a platter drive and ipads are high speed SSD storage. That being said, it's been years of the same storage options and at those prices it should be much higher, along with their iCloud storage offerings.

People don’t generally run out of storage that often. I think perhaps you overestimate how much local data everyday people store.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#833

Post by sneak »

marshray wrote: post #772
ilikehurdles wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPod classic had 160 GB of storage fifteen years ago. No device should be measuring storage in the gigabytes in 2024. Let alone starting at $1000 offering only 256GB. What ridiculousness.

I just checked, and my iPhone is using 152 GB of storage. I have years of photos and videos on there. Apparently the 256 GB model was the right choice for me?

It stores lower res proxies on the device and full res in iCloud, iirc.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#834

Post by sneak »

littlestymaar wrote: post #566
EduardoBautista wrote: post #13

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

> 8gb of ram. WTF? Why so little? That's insane to me, that's the amount of RAM you get with a mid-range android phone.

Phones and tablets are effectively single-tasking. They don’t need much more ram than that in practice.

I use my iPad Pro constantly for heavy stuff and I don’t know how much ram is in it; it has never been something I needed to think about. The OS doesn’t even expose it.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#835

Post by [deleted] »

chipdart wrote: post #828
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 (...) I think you're trying too hard to rationalize this move as pro-privacy and pro-consumer. Apple is charging a premium for hardware based on performance claims, which they need to create relevance and demand for it. There is zero demand for the capacity for running computationally demanding workloads beyond very niche applications, for what classifie…

[deleted]

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#836

Post by chipdart »

klabb3 wrote: post #620
andsoitis wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 data up to the cloud for processing). Their primary business goal is to sell hardware. Yes, they’ve diversified into services and being a shopping mall for all, but it is about selling lu…

> but it is about selling luxury hardware. Somewhat true but things are changing. While there are plenty of “luxury” Apple devices like Vision Pro or fully decked out MacBooks for web browsing we no longer live in a world where tech are just lifestyle gadgets. People spend hours a day on their phones, and often run their life and businesses through it. Even with the $1000+/2-3y price tag, it’s simply not that much gi…

> Somewhat true but things are changing. While there are plenty of “luxury” Apple devices like Vision Pro or fully decked out MacBooks for web browsing we no longer live in a world where tech are just lifestyle gadgets.

I notice your use of the weasel word "just".

We undoubtedly live in a world where Apple products are sold as lifestyle gadgets. Arguably it's more true today than it ever was. It's also a world where Apple's range of Veblen goods managed to gain footing in social circles to an extent that we have kids being bullied for owning Android phones.

Apple's lifestyle angle is becoming specially relevant because they can no longer claim they sell high-end hardware, as the difference in specs between Apple's hardware and product ranges from other OEMs is no longer noticeable. Apple's laughable insistence on shipping laptops with 8GB of RAM is a good example.

> Even in the higher end products like the MacBooks you see a lot of professionals (engineers included) who choose it because of its price-performance-value, and who don’t give a shit about luxury.

I don't think so, and that contrasts with my personal experience. All my previous roles offered a mix of MacBooks and windows laptops, and MacBooks were opted by new arrivals because they were seen as perks and the particular choice of windows ones in comparison were not as impressive, even though they out-specced Apple's offering (mid-range HP and Dell). In fact in a recent employee's review their main feedback was that the MacBook pro line was under-specced because at best it shipped with only 16GB of RAM while the less impressive HP ones already came with 32GB. In previous years, they called for the replacement of the MacBook line due to the rate of keyboard malfunctions. Meaning, engineers were purposely picking the underperforming option for non-technical reasons.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#837

Post by jsxlite »

andsoitis wrote: post #539
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…

> 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 data up to the cloud for processing). Their primary business goal is to sell hardware. Yes, they’ve diversified into services and being a shopping mall for all, but it is about selling lu…

I wouldn't bank on that being true forever after 2012. A corporation is goal are vastly determined by the corporate structure.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#838

Post by monocularvision »

transpute wrote: post #819
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…

> Not even as a VM WWDC is next month. There's still a chance of iPadOS 18 including a Hypervisor API for macOS/Linux VMs on M4 iPads.

I hope for this every single year. I just don’t see it happening. But I hope I am wrong.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#839

Post by LtWorf »

kalleboo wrote: post #798
LtWorf wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is completely coherent with their privacy-first strategy Is this the same apple whose devices do not work at all unless you register an apple account?

That's not true though? I reset and set up devices for testing all the time, and you can skip logging into an Apple ID.

For real usage, not for testing a single app. And I mean phones.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#840

Post by tamrix »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #186
EduardoBautista wrote: post #13

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

If these things will ever get MacOS support it will be useless with 8 GB of Ram. Such a waste of nice components.

Why can't they just make it 12gb? It will sell far easier. It's all soldered on anyway.
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