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New iMac with M4

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Re: New iMac with M4

#871
post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, then, why do you think iPhone or iPad batteries can’t be replaced by the average user after a decade and a half?

For the same reason I can't replace the battery on my electric car (not the 9V one). Because the car maker made that choice, for a myriad of good and bad reasons. What's your point?

I feel you. I just bought an exceptionally boring car in large part because it is meant to be largely user-serviceable. Sorry you got stuck with that problem.

My point was that GP made a strong assertion that didn’t quite bear up to scrutiny IMHO:

> I say this as someone who worked several years in engineering at Apple, and they were extremely environmentally conscientious years before it was a thing.

It seems to me that an “extremely environmentally conscientious” company would place a much higher priority on serviceability. But I am very open to contrary reasoning and I don’t know any Apple engineers. This was a rare opportunity.

I hasten to say that Apple products are so good I overlook this disadvantage, but then I don’t describe myself as extremely environmentally conscientious.

Re: New iMac with M4

#872

Reading this on 2017 iMac 27" - is the first 5k iMac that couldn't be used as a monitor after the computer inside is irrelevant. I hope EU will push for some law that requires all AIO computers to work in monitor-only mode if internal hardware is no longer good enough or no longer supported by software updates. I love the 5k screen on this iMac but the CPU is too old for photo or video editing as software got so much…

This surprises me I have a 2013 iMac that is solely used as an external monitor. Did they take a step backwards ?

Re: New iMac with M4

#873
post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, then, why do you think iPhone or iPad batteries can’t be replaced by the average user after a decade and a half?

Waterproofing. It really is that simple. The math would never work out trading that for easy replaceability. And every average user can get a shop to replace their battery.

I thought waterproofing came late to iPhones, like version 7 or 8. What would the reason be before that given environmentalism as a strong motivator?

Re: New iMac with M4

#874

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…

My laptop repair count went way down (from 3 a year to one every 5 years) once chips no longer had the ability to become unseated. I think it is a reliability boon and a repair cost savings, not an up-front cost savings.

Re: New iMac with M4

#875

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is only "green" in their presentations - in reality they care more about inifite sales only. needs citation. I say this as someone who worked several years in engineering at Apple, and they were extremely environmentally conscientious years before it was a thing.

It's not that they actively do bad things, it's that they only dedicate real resources in the direction of self-interest. Tim Cook likes to point to their solar investments and accessibility as examples of "doing good" when in reality the former is a good long term financial bet and the latter is generally under-resourced (or "cheap" to them). They'd use M.2 SSDs in their Macs instead of soldering flash chips to the…

[deleted]

Re: New iMac with M4

#876

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could do my work on one, but yeah, the screen size would be annoying long term. The sad part is that it's the exact form factor my dad wants. It's absolutely perfect for his needs, except it's wildly overpowered and overpriced. The 4K monitor is going to push up the price, and I'm all for giving everyone a high quality monitor, but I'd argue that the iMac is 30-40% over budget for those who'd like that type of comp…

It’s a 4.5K monitor and it starts at $1300.

4, 4.5K makes little difference, and no $1300 is the US price, not including taxes. It's 12,000DKK including taxes. People has to pay the tax, so it makes no sense to not factor that in when setting the price.

Re: New iMac with M4

#877

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They'll also never let the iPad run macOS, because if people could own one device instead of two, that would be bad for their profits. They'll keep them cleanly differentiated for as long as they can. They also don't have profiles on the iPad because then families could share devices which would be bad for their profits. Instead it is one iPad per person.

That functionality used to exist on Android, but I haven't seen it show up on the past two phones I owned. Does it still exist in stock and xiaomi just got rid of it for whatever reason?

Profiles available on my Oneplus 7 Pro and my Pixel 8 (that is running GrapheneOS though).

Re: New iMac with M4

#878
post #873

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waterproofing. It really is that simple. The math would never work out trading that for easy replaceability. And every average user can get a shop to replace their battery.

I thought waterproofing came late to iPhones, like version 7 or 8. What would the reason be before that given environmentalism as a strong motivator?

Getting a professional who will properly dispose of a battery is more environmentally conscious, and supports the local economy?

Re: New iMac with M4

#879
post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the UK; my iPad was unreliable from the off, eventually it was crashing 4 minutes after starting it. Trying to trade it in just got a message along the lines of "It can still have a good second life, go find a responsible recycler and give it to them. Have a Nice Day!". Unlikely to ever buy an Apple product again.

Are other companies much better in this regard?

It was disappointing to get unreliable hardware from a supposedly premium vendor, but it happens. It was the attitude and service that turned me off Apple though, not the hardware (which really should be more reliable than cheaper alternatives).

Re: New iMac with M4

#880

I'm surprised they are still shipping these with 256GB of storage base. I had a Macbook with a ~500GB SSD in 2012 (I installed it), and a 500GB spinning disk in like 2008 (also user installed). A 500GB SSD can be had for <$50 these days, and a 1TB for <$100. Still plenty of profit for Apple, even if they bump up the base storage to 512GB and make 1TB a $200 upgrade...

Are you familiar with the concept of "pricing ladders"? The point of the entry level product is not to simply be "the economy model", it's to be feature deficient in just the right way to make you take a "step up" the ladder to the next model.

What I've observed is that Apple does this by targeting the base model with a storage option that's just below what's probably the sweet spot for price / usefulness in the current market. You'll likely be just frustrated enough to take the step up that ladder.

MKBHD has a very fast explainer on this effect in iPad pricing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNYOZZLOyg

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