Apple Thread II | AirPods Pros Announced

[Robbo-92]

Tempted by the new iPad Pro because of the annoying storage options of the Air.

I find the storage options annoying on most of their lines to be honest, even more so when you see the price of the starting spec, base iPad should start at 64GB for example, all iPhones at 128GB and so on. Hell, the iPhone 12 Pro starts with 128GB, a phone that starts at £999.

Bloody hell, the new iMacs look smart. Going to be seriously tempted.

They do look very smart, wouldn’t get one mind as I’m very happy with my iPhone/iPad combination which suits my needs just fine at the moment, I definitely think when I next upgrade my iPad I’ll opt for an Air over a base iPad (if they still have it as iPad/Mini, Air and then Pro) as I use my iPad all the time, loads more than my phone. If I actually used a desktop more often I’d probably be tempted by one of the new iMacs over an iPad though.

[Prototype]

Quick question...

If I download this, will it work okay on my m1 MacBook Air? I’ve downloaded Steam on my mac so don’t see why it wouldn’t but don’t want to pay before I know it’ll run okay? Thanks

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/football-mana ... c-eu-steam

[Mafro]

Quick question...

If I download this, will it work okay on my m1 MacBook Air? I’ve downloaded Steam on my mac so don’t see why it wouldn’t but don’t want to pay before I know it’ll run okay? Thanks

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/football-mana ... c-eu-steam

Buy it from Steam directly to see if it works okay but don’t play it for more than 2 hours. Get a refund (piss easy to do) then buy it from CD Keys.

[Green Gecko]

I see apples trend of designing out functionality and repacking all the way down to SoC for 10x the price continues. 27" imac remains outside of 4k Facebook in art school libraries and editing utubes in your father or mother's separated "study". What's the strawberry floating point of a machine that thin on a desktop environment and cramming all the hardware into the lower bezel?

Beautiful machine, bad product imo. I'm surprised because it makes the new iPad Pro a better value proposition in terms of the scenarios in which the design actually makes sense ie industrial design which Apple was famous for but continues to appeal almost exclusively to aesthetics.

[rinks]

Quick question...

If I download this, will it work okay on my m1 MacBook Air? I’ve downloaded Steam on my mac so don’t see why it wouldn’t but don’t want to pay before I know it’ll run okay? Thanks

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/football-mana ... c-eu-steam

Buy it from Steam directly to see if it works okay but don’t play it for more than 2 hours. Get a refund (piss easy to do) then buy it from CD Keys.

Wouldn’t it be even easier to just try the demo?

But it’s looking like a good bet anyway:
https://www.macgamerhq.com/apple-m1/fm-2021-m1-mac/

[Mafro]

I see apples trend of designing out functionality and repacking all the way down to SoC for 10x the price continues. 27" imac remains outside of 4k Facebook in art school libraries and editing utubes in your father or mother's separated "study". What's the strawberry floating point of a machine that thin on a desktop environment and cramming all the hardware into the lower bezel?

Beautiful machine, bad product imo. I'm surprised because it makes the new iPad Pro a better value proposition in terms of the scenarios in which the design actually makes sense ie industrial design which Apple was famous for but continues to appeal almost exclusively to aesthetics.

What do you mean?

[Green Gecko]

What's the purpose of an ultra thin desktop computer?

It looks nice and that is all. Apple often come up with product ideas but don't seem to ask "why". The touchbar was shoehorned into macbooks too and nobody used it because tactile input and f keys in that design situation are more useful, so they dropped it.

And the chin. Why not put that hardware at the back and it will look nicer if that's all that apple care about? Nobody looks at the back. Yet you still have to stretch around the back of the machine to blindly access any of the IO which has always been a stupid decision on the Imac range in my opinion. Even the strawberry floating power button is on the back of those things and I still have to look for it with my hands.

I know apple have been soldering on RAM and engineering self-cooking GPUs into their computing hardware for a while now but isn't reducing things down even more to SoC just the logical end game for a pc that is basically the same as a laptop or an ipad now but with a 4k screen? They seem to have lost focus on what makes Macs a great production environment with a reasonable degree of upgrade or expansion options to making a pretty computer first and foremost... Yet with no practical benefit. I don't expect to see these iMacs in studios but in libraries and corporate offices where the use is basically email, Internet. Its like an incredibly expensive Eee PC with a decent processor... I say decent, but look at the price.

SoC has some benefits like power consumption, cost to manufacture... But apple are still going to charge a premium because... It's thin! This is strange to me. The margin must be astounding in these.

For the macbook air a thin machine that's lightweight makes sense. A super thin desktop, isn't that just a waste of money?

Basically Apple have moved further into boutique computer territory but the benefit to the consumer is... Nothing. Nice compliments at dinner maybe.

There's a difference between pretty design and functional design. Apple followed industrial design principles in the past. Now they're pursuing aesthetics.. Which is a different school of design (or not design at all). So I ask... What's the purpose of an ultra thin desktop computer when pretty marked sacrifices need to be made (exorbitant cost, zero upgradeability, virtually impossible to repair anywhere so apple can keep reselling entire motherboards to replace a single capacitor for example after the minimum 1 year warranty they still use despite charging 3-4x the equivalent)? Even the original iMac the colours parrot had at least some user friendly features like upgradeable ram, pci, strawberry floating USB ports.

Sorry I've not liked apple desktops for a while but the obsession with engineering a non existent problem like a paper thin desktop confuses me. This is about sales, cost cutting and not good computer design.

[rinks]

But you can get a red one.

[Green Gecko]

In other words it's an ipad without touch (the surface still for example has touch) on a very thin stand.

Apple have basically eliminated the imac with this. The retention of the 27" model I think says something there.

A Mac Pro is probably due soon but at 4 grand or something strawberry floating insane.

I'd much rather have a mac book on a riser than this.

The prada bag of computers. C'mon we know who apple are appealing to here and they'll continue rinsing buyers and paying no tax while destroying the environment and sending foxcon employees out of factory windows to finance it.

[rinks]

And a yellow one.

[Prototype]

Quick question...

If I download this, will it work okay on my m1 MacBook Air? I’ve downloaded Steam on my mac so don’t see why it wouldn’t but don’t want to pay before I know it’ll run okay? Thanks

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/football-mana ... c-eu-steam

Buy it from Steam directly to see if it works okay but don’t play it for more than 2 hours. Get a refund (piss easy to do) then buy it from CD Keys.

Wouldn’t it be even easier to just try the demo?

But it’s looking like a good bet anyway:
https://www.macgamerhq.com/apple-m1/fm-2021-m1-mac/

Cheers

Demo works aboslutely fine. Was more wondering whether the CD Key would work given it is only branded as "PC" and not Mac.

[Robbo-92]

Surely part of it comes down to whether you want/need MacOS or iOS? For me iOS is just fine and I can get by perfectly fine without a traditional PC now if I wanted too (I still enjoy sitting at the desk and booting up the Windows desktop sometimes though), iOS has its limits but not that many that’d make it impossible to use as your sole OS, for myself anyway.

I do see what you’re saying about the new iMac though, as I said it does look great visually but I always think for a desktop you may as well have a larger overall computer so they can put a bigger heat sink in, or a fan to keep everything cool, its not like it’s getting moved a lot so a little more weight also isn’t an issue. I think if I was dead set on getting a Mac, I would just opt for a MacBook of sorts rather than an iMac.

Personally I’m a fan of the green iMac though

[Green Gecko]

I was obviously hungry earlier lol, I just cooked a Makhani

Of course Unix and the multitasking features of OSX can be incredibly powerful on capable hardware, but these compared to a proper graphics solution and a 4K screen for something like video production or CAD? I doubt that'll play out.

The argument will be the SoC solution uses less power and generates less heat but it also inherently reduces the number and frequency of cores because they can't be cooled adequately in such a small space. Apple will promote it as "tiny form factor is expensive" but that's not true. An SoC system like a raspberry pi although obviously not comparable in terms of power is an extremely inexpensive computer that is miniscule. All smartphones which are SoC solutions range from £70 to £1000 (the latter famously being Apple iPhone X).

This is about reducing cost and increasing profit margin on a desirable but purposeless design solution for a problem that doesn't exist, that looks good on Apple.com. Designing non existent problems is bad product design as in my view "it's thin" as a USP has no value on its own.

I'd hope a motherboard replacement when one part fails on these boards would be inexpensive. In reality Apple will charge whatever they want. When RAM isn't adequate anymore or an SSD runs out of space Apple will just sell a whole new machine. It goes on like that, in an up sell spiral in the apple store forever, rather than a £20-£50 upgrade.

Moving towards planned obselence and propriety is always bad for consumers and the planet. Doing it for stupid reasons like making a computer 4mm thick or whatever speaks a lot for a corporation like Apple. Not just making insane profits but how and why they do that. How can they push innovation or increase options and avenues for consumers instead of taking the same fundamental thing and making it thinner and thinner until it disappears but is fundamentally the same product.

Tbh I've been disappointed by their product design for years and I don't get things like charging and losing the airpods either.

Despite writing slightly more words in response to something than a normal person, on top of all the other crap I siphon through my mind on a daily basis, I don't really care all that much either.

What does bug me is oh wow apple made a really thin computer, these resources Apple have can serve a much better purpose than delighting Instagram followers and and minimalist home interior fetishists who still do the same strawberry floating emails, spreadsheets and Facebook posts as everyone else... But it's thinner.

Iphones for example improved accessibility for a lot of people, they also brought some pretty terrible problems. This line of computers is just as dull as any other line of computers. Come on apple, come up with some ideas again.

[Mafro]

It's so thin they put the ethernet plug on the power brick.

[Cuttooth]

It's so thin they put the ethernet plug on the power brick.

I think that's where we reach the realms of something being too thin.

[Mafro]

I was obviously hungry earlier lol, I just cooked a Makhani

Of course Unix and the multitasking features of OSX can be incredibly powerful on capable hardware, but these compared to a proper graphics solution and a 4K screen for something like video production or CAD? I doubt that'll play out.

The argument will be the SoC solution uses less power and generates less heat but it also inherently reduces the number and frequency of cores because they can't be cooled adequately in such a small space. Apple will promote it as "tiny form factor is expensive" but that's not true. An SoC system like a raspberry pi although obviously not comparable in terms of power is an extremely inexpensive computer that is miniscule. All smartphones which are SoC solutions range from £70 to £1000 (the latter famously being Apple iPhone X).

This is about reducing cost and increasing profit margin on a desirable but purposeless design solution for a problem that doesn't exist, that looks good on Apple.com. Designing non existent problems is bad product design as in my view "it's thin" as a USP has no value on its own.

I'd hope a motherboard replacement when one part fails on these boards would be inexpensive. In reality Apple will charge whatever they want. When RAM isn't adequate anymore or an SSD runs out of space Apple will just sell a whole new machine. It goes on like that, in an up sell spiral in the apple store forever, rather than a £20-£50 upgrade.

Moving towards planned obselence and propriety is always bad for consumers and the planet. Doing it for stupid reasons like making a computer 4mm thick or whatever speaks a lot for a corporation like Apple. Not just making insane profits but how and why they do that. How can they push innovation or increase options and avenues for consumers instead of taking the same fundamental thing and making it thinner and thinner until it disappears but is fundamentally the same product.

Tbh I've been disappointed by their product design for years and I don't get things like charging and losing the airpods either.

Despite writing slightly more words in response to something than a normal person, on top of all the other crap I siphon through my mind on a daily basis, I don't really care all that much either.

What does bug me is oh wow apple made a really thin computer, these resources Apple have can serve a much better purpose than delighting Instagram followers and and minimalist home interior fetishists who still do the same strawberry floating emails, spreadsheets and Facebook posts as everyone else... But it's thinner.

Iphones for example improved accessibility for a lot of people, they also brought some pretty terrible problems. This line of computers is just as dull as any other line of computers. Come on apple, come up with some ideas again.

I don't get the fuss. There'll likely be a 32" version later this year with the next version of the M1 chip and more RAM targeted at tech heads.

[Robbo-92]

It's so thin they put the ethernet plug on the power brick.

I think that's where we reach the realms of something being too thin.

Definitely, could understand it with a portable device these days but for an all in one computer you’d just expect the ports to be on the device rather than in the power brick, which I imagine most people have on the floor rather than easily accessible on the desk.

[Green Gecko]

It's interesting in a roundabout way. Running ethernet is a drag. It's a chunky cable with a lot of wires in it that I wouldn't take up to the desk if I could avoid it, but I'd probably be running a desktop anyway. This is less of a thing with labs that have ethernet at the wall above the desk.

[rinks]

It's so thin they put the ethernet plug on the power brick.

I think that's where we reach the realms of something being too thin.

Definitely, could understand it with a portable device these days but for an all in one computer you’d just expect the ports to be on the device rather than in the power brick, which I imagine most people have on the floor rather than easily accessible on the desk.

Just one visible cable though, for optimum minimalism.

[rinks]

Or blue.