Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#931

Post by pxmpxm » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 2:51 AM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #295

Dalewyn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who has and uses an M2 Macbook Air with 8GB RAM, I agree it's not a lot but it's more than sufficient for any use case a Macbook Air would generally see. This literally isn't Windows where 32GB of RAM is the new minimum. I will say the Macbook Pro really should start from 16GB RAM and at least 1TB SSD; it's for professionals, isn't it?

8GB of RAM is unusable for even basic 1080p video editing. I would think a Macbook air's use case included that, because there are a wide range of $700 Windows laptops that will provide the 16GB minus the extortionate markup.

I'm using 14.79GB of ram with just imessage, signal and 3 edge tabs open on Mojave. With 8gb you're almost certainly constantly swapping.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#932

Post by alex-korr » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 3:01 AM UTC

swedishfishes wrote: post #232

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, but Sweden's population is just too small to make any meaningful impact on Europe as a whole.

For the curious Americans, Sweden has about the population of Michigan.

Or the LA County

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#933

Post by skissane » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 3:58 AM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #517

oblio wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America, meanwhile, has decent native birth rate No, it doesn't. It's about 1.8 and dropping, and most of the higher values in that group are from recent immigrants, which are also having fewer kids. Educated folks also have lower fertility rates. The US is basically a mirror of Western Europe in this regard: https://www.statista.com/statistics/226292/us-fertility-rate... > AND a culture that's always willing to ac…

Even at 1.8, it's higher than the rest of the developed world. And America always has the option of simply opening the gates a little and fill up the gap with practically any immigrant group it wants.

> Even at 1.8, it's higher than the rest of the developed world.

Not true. If you look at OECD data – https://data.oecd.org/pop/fertility-rates.htm – the latest year for which the OECD has complete data is 2021, in which it records a US TFR of 1.6. The following countries all recorded higher TFRs than the US – Israel (2.9); Mexico (2.1); France, Colombia and Turkey (tied at 1.8); Costa Rica, Czechia, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden (all tied at 1.7). The US, at 1.6, was at the OECD Average (1.6), tied with Australia, Belgium, Chile, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia and the UK.

I suppose you might argue 2020 was a rather abnormal year due to COVID. Well, 2019 was pre-COVID, in which the US was still only 1.7 – just a a bit above the OECD average (which was 1.6 in 2019 too). In 2019, US fertility was tied with Australia, Costa Rica, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden; it was beaten by France, Colombia and Iceland (all 1.8), Turkey (1.9), Mexico (2.1), and Israel (3.0).

US fertility is not an outlier at all by developed world standards. It is somewhere between average and slightly above average. And I realise some OECD members might not be considered "developed" by everyone's standards – such as Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico or Turkey – but the US is regularly equalled or bettered by countries which generally are accepted as such, e.g. Australia, Denmark, France, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#934

Post by lttlrck » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:01 AM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #844

pradn wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lots and lots of natural resources facilitating lots of businesses which aren't really feasible in say, Germany, France, Japan. This doesn't seem to be a big factor in the boom industries in the US: tech, finance, pharma. It does matter for construction, the biggest employer. The US still seems like a more welcoming place than western Europe. Or at least you can take comfort in a suburban home and drive to people/i…

> The US still seems like a more welcoming place than western Europe. I personally know peolle that left US for UK because they found your immigration system unacceptable. If you are from india, you might have to wait 10 years to get citizenship after fulfilling all requirements. Uk immigration system itself is worse than that of France and many other countries. It costs $10,000 to apply for visas for a family of 4.…

That's a side effect of the system using quotas to balance opportunity so immigration isn't overwhelmed by the most populous countries.

Of course that makes it very difficult if you are from India for example, but it doesn't make the system as a whole less welcoming.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#935

Post by wkat4242 » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:02 AM UTC

alchemist1e9 wrote: post #590

wkat4242 wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AND a culture that's always willing to accommodate new people. Try getting a green card even as a trained European. Good luck :) Not that I'd ever be interested in living in the US. I prefer a country with a decent social security safety net and socialized healthcare. And where people can't just run around carrying guns. Spain is not perfect but I have way fewer things to worry about here. So I can relax and enjoy…

You are buying into a distorted image of the typical US population experience. Access to healthcare is pretty much instant and high quality for all but the very bottom of the society. 85%+ of the population can get an appointment within a day or two and if it’s urgent can access numerous urgent care clinics with almost no wait. Best I can tell for many European countries the situation is significantly worse in terms…

It's not the access really. More the worry about paying for it. In the US it can cost a lot, and while your employer covers it usually, this means you're really tied to your job. Here in Spain I never have to worry about paying for it.

I'm sure the healthcare in the US is world-class considering how much it costs. But that cost is the biggest problem for me.

But really, I'm a socialist and considering that this is a swearword in the US for many people, I just don't want to ever live there. My world view is just too different. I've never even visited.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#936

Post by wkat4242 » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:12 AM UTC

enumjorge wrote: post #776

wkat4242 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah they really caused some bad blood with this business prioritisation.. Not just with us in the community but also with Broadcom who now view them as competitors as opposed to a friendly outreach project. They should have stuck with their core IMO.

I'm not very deep in the raspberry PI world, mostly because it's been hard getting a hold of one. Are there alternatives that the community has gravitated towards?

For the original hobby niche of small electronic projects where a microcrontroller with wifi will suffice, the ESP8266 / ESP32 have been quickly overtaking the pi zero. Of course it's not really comparable and there is the Rpi Pico as a competitor but I find the ESP32 much easier to work with. It's also much cheaper (not to mention the 8266)

For heavier usecases that really there isn't as much of an alternative. Many other boards like the pine64, beagle and orangepi, but their ecosystem lacks sophistication.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#937

Post by lttlrck » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:15 AM UTC

amithanda81 wrote: post #852

rank0 wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US spends the majority of its budget on social welfare programs. Gun violence is a tiny fraction of death/injury here. You’re much more likely to die in a car accident.

hilarious ! nobody wants to help anyone else, because you never know if the other party has guns. Its nuts.

Nothing like a bit of hyperbole to ground a discussion.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#938

Post by pbronez » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:16 AM UTC

ducknalddon wrote: post #192

icemelt8 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its a hot take though, a Macbook Air has a better value then most Windows PCs

It's a shame how the market for PC's worked out. If I want a premium car there are a ton of brands I can choose from. Don't want a BMW then go for a Lexus instead, or an Audi or Jaguar and so on. If I want a premium PC then it's Apple or I can grit my teeth and go for a Lenovo with all the Microsoft crapware installed. My gut feeling is Sony, HP and all the others gave up too early and allowed WinTel to dominate. We…

Framework?

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#939

Post by wkat4242 » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:17 AM UTC

rank0 wrote: post #634

wkat4242 wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AND a culture that's always willing to accommodate new people. Try getting a green card even as a trained European. Good luck :) Not that I'd ever be interested in living in the US. I prefer a country with a decent social security safety net and socialized healthcare. And where people can't just run around carrying guns. Spain is not perfect but I have way fewer things to worry about here. So I can relax and enjoy…

The US spends the majority of its budget on social welfare programs. Gun violence is a tiny fraction of death/injury here. You’re much more likely to die in a car accident.

You're also much more likely there to die in a car accident than here :) I don't even own a car where I live and I don't need one. In fact I wouldn't even know where to leave it in this city.

Here in Barcelona a flat rate of 20 euros a month takes care of all my travel needs on metro, bus, tram and train <3

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#940

Post by wkat4242 » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:21 AM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #627

layer8 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple only adjusts the prices once per year per product, at most.

Yup, at most. They're still selling my 2019 Mac Pro configured the way I have it (12 core, 192GB, 8TB, W5700X 16GB) for $13,000, just as it was in 2019... ... and if I go to trade it in, they'll give me $850 for it ...

> ... and if I go to trade it in, they'll give me $850 for it ...

Lol, that's a joke :D

I'm really surprised how they let the Pro range suffer though. Every 5-6 years there is a major release bringing it up to spec but in between nothing happens at all, not even a minor redesign for the latest CPUs.

This is what I don't get - the Pro is specifically aimed at those needing the maximum performance out of their machine. But after the first year this has been overtaken by the rest of the market and the remaining years until the next redesign it's a pityful excuse for a high-end workstation. Not to mention they won't even drop the price (ok for the trash can model they actually did that once.)

So, to whom is this still an appealing offer? Who invests top dollar into apple workstations when it's almost guaranteed they're going to be left in an awkward spot with nowhere to upgrade every few years? What's the point of this whole product line this way?