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One Computer, Three form factors (#apple #macbookair #macbookpro #macmini)
āThe new M1-based MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini are best thought of not as three different computers, but rather three different manifestations of the same computer.ā
Astute observation by @Gruber in his commentary post on āOne More Thing" event. People are trying to figure out why there is so few differences between the three Macs Apple announced this week. Sometimes, the answer is simple.
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PC Gimmicky features rarely used (#windows #windowslaptop #microsoftsurface)
PC laptops introduced pencil support, touch screen, screen-based touchpads, et. al. because these are the only things they could do to try to stay on top in a commoditized technology platform. I will take in a heartbeat 3X or 5X performance gain and 6 more hours of battery life over the gimmicky features. This is one of the many reasons I’m so upbeat with the M1-based Macs.
Photo credit: Alexander Andrews on Unsplash.
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When the low-end beats the high-end... (#apple #macbookair #M1processor)
Twitter is ablaze since yesterday when first benchmarks of the MacBook Air were published. They show the M1-based and fan-less Mac to surpass the top of the line iMac! Itās impressive if not mind-blowing!
Now here is a simple theory: native apps will certainly perform really well but non-native apps will run under the Rosetta layer, which happens to consume CPU cycles. This performance room being consumed by Rosetta, the actual performance of a non native app will probably fall down to a more reasonable level.
Impressive nonetheless.
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Hourra, Ulysses ! (#macosbigsur #writingtools #blogger @ulyssesapp)
My go to app for blogging, Ulysses, is now ready for macOS Big Sur. Yeah! Iām doing my part, as Iām going to order this M1-based Mac mini today so I can run Big Sur on its own machine and experience the future now. And that icon is lovely, not too iOS-ified, enough Big Sur-ified to feel at home! Ulysses 21, Pt. 2 - Ulysses Blog
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Another experiment: Mac mini (#apple #macmini #m1processor #macosbigsur)
Recently published benchmarks of the upcoming M1-based Macs are impressive enough for me to take a deep breath and make a decision. A week ago, I didnāt think of this as a possibility. But here we are.
Iām going to make the plunge into the world of Apple Silicon-based Mac, Big Sur and universal apps. Itās the beginning of a new era, and I want to be part of it, experience it. Iām not waiting for the reviews next week.
Iāll get a Mac mini equipped with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TD SSD. Expected delivery date is mi-December at the earliest, just in time for Christmas holidays. I never owned a Mac mini, BTW.
Iāll use my 4K LG display that is currently plugged into my iMac. Iāll be testing universal apps as they come out. Applications like Adobe Lightroom CC, Omnigraffle and Pixelmator Photo will certainly take advantage of the M1 processor.
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Tim Cook's Apple: not perfect but utterly impressive (#apple #timcook #2020)
I recently wrote and published a very critical view of Tim Cook’s Apple. It’s not pretty, but it is my honest take. Now, looking at Apple’s strategy execution for 2020 which is close to an end, I must confess that I’m really impressed. Apple delivered. On all fronts. There are a lot of unknowns, for sure. Yet, I have the felling that Apple set the stage for its next phase of growth for the next decade.
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On M1 based Macs Unified Memory Architecture (#apple #mac #m1processor)
Here is the thing: the new M1-based Macs use the new “unified memory architectureā that is at the center of our iPhones and iPads. If you plan to buy one of these shinny new Mac, my recommendation would be to go with 16 GB of RAM, not 8 GB. Why? Consider this: Rosetta 2 is a new emulation software layer that will consume memory, something that is not present on Intel-based machines. On top of that, memory will be consume for video processing. My guess is: the biggest monitoring, the higher the resolution, the more memory will be consumed. Whatās left for the applications? Even if SSD is fast on reads and writes, application launches are fast, nothing equals the speed of RAM. I’m afraid 8 GB of RAM is the new meager 5 GB iCloud storage tier for M1-based Mac. We’ll see with the upcoming reviews and benchmarks.
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Intel: shit. (#appleevent #m1processor #apple #intel)
The graph put together by Anandtech is a wakeup call for Intel and the Wintel world, for that matter. These trajectories are incredible, impressive for Apple, worrisome for Intel. We are on the verge of a major shift in the portable landscape. Apple seems unstoppable.
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Lingering Questionsā¦ (#appleevent #apple #mac #macbook)
Why no clock-speed information about the M1 processor? How are iOS-based apps be presented on the Mac App Store? Why so little difference between a MacBook Air configurations, CPU-wise, RAM-rise compared to MacBook Pro? What āvirtualization technology support" actually means for normal users and tech enthusiasts? Why not bring back the 12" form-factor, an ideal candidate for power-efficient M1 processor? Will there be updates to Intel-based iMac Pro and Mac Pro? Why no 32 GB RAM configuration option for the MacBook Pro? What kind of performance levels should we expect to reach for non-Metal optimized graphic apps? Why does Apple can’t understand the need for an updated FaceTime camera in 2020?
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What's missing? A lot. š³ (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac #macbook)
No touch screen. No pencil support. No 5G or 5G wireless option. No high-quality FaceTime camera. No Face ID No redesign, no slim bezels. No 12" MacBook. No clock speed specs. No eGPU support. Fewer ports options. Third-party native software support still to come.
Am I missing something?
That’s the new Apple MacBook using Apple’s M1 silicon ship.
Still excited?
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History repeats itself (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac)
From rewatching Steve Jobs announcing Apple’s transition to Intel processors, here are a few interesting observations, just in time for tomorrowās #AppleEvent.
Steve Jobs reminds the crowd of transitions in Mac history: 68K to PowerPC, OS 9 to OS 10 then introduces the third transition: going to Intel. Each time, he uses the expression āto set Apple for the next 10 years". It’s all about the CPU roadmapās ability to enable the Apple’s vision. Also, even at that time, power consumption was an issue. He also repeatedly mention great updates still coming to the PowerPC-based Macs.
Can’t wait for tomorrowās version of the very same playbook.
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Honest iPhone 12 Pro review. (#apple #iphone12pro #review @basicappleguy)
I love those balanced review, even partial, of the iPhone 12 Pro. They feel credible, and I tend give them high credence. We should get more of these these days of highly nuanced upgrades offered by Apple, year after year. Photo by the article author.
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When Software Holds Back the Hardware (#apple #iphone12promax #ios14)
This quote from the Wall Street Journal’s review of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is priceless as ti summarize one of the biggest issue, in my opinion, about Appleās current state of its software in general:
āIt is crazy to me, however, that Apple hasn’t enabled us to do more on a phone that is practically iPad-size. Why can’t I view my inbox on the top half of the screen and my calendar on the bottom, like Samsung allows with its Multi-Window mode? Why does the tiny iPhone Mini allow the same number of rows of home-page app icons and widgets as the iPhone Giant? Why can’t I use an Apple Pencil to take notes on the notebook-size device?ā
These are all valid questions. Even before the iPhone 12 Pro Max, these questions were valid. Software, like for the iPad, is holding back the iPhone. Is it a ressources issue being spread too thin? Is it something about product differentiation? I hope the answer is the former, not the latter.
Photo: The Verge.
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Deception waiting to happen? (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac)
I have a feeling that we are in for some deception tomorrow at the āOne More Thingā keynote. Is this a natural mental process, some sort of auto-regulation of my own expectations, currently happening so I can be pleasantly surprised, tomorrow?
Yet, reading my Twitter feed today and people are expecting 15 hours of battery life while beating current Mac equivalent performance. And then what? The Apple Silicon story is more about the unification of software platforms at Apple than enabling endless hardware innovations on the Mac.
Change my mind.
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Another iPhone 12 āVirtualā Experience by @MichaelSteeber (#apple #iphone12 #experienceapple)
After spending sometime with the virtual experience from Apple, I found out another one by the well known @MichaelSteeber that is built with Adobeās XD. The experience is quite similar, and Iām still not able to find a fully satisfactory combinaison of the iPhone, the MagSafe case and the wallet. Really, the iPhone 12 is not for me.
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My iPhone 12 Ā«Ā VirtualĀ Ā» Experience (#apple #iphone12 #experienceapple)
Apple launched a webpage to experience the selection and visualization of different MagSafe cases and wallets for the iPhone 12. I played with it for fun from my iPad Pro. Itās an interesting way to try different combinaisons of iPhone, cases and wallet in a world where going to a real store to do the same is challenging.
This yearās iPhone and cases prove to be hardly satisfactory, though. The colours options are not really in line to my tastes. After spending a while, I found two probable configurations that I would buy if I was on the market for such things. Because of bad reviews of the wallet, I would skip this one as I would fear losing my three most important cards. I hope Apple will fix the issues with next yearās round of the products.
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I can breath. (#bidenharis2020) ššØš¦
Well, I can breath a little bit better now that this clown is on the way out. Good riddance. As a Canadian, I’m so happy to see this clown go. If there was a way to start fixing 2020, it would be it. Yeah, I know, he won’t concede victory, he probably won’t do a concession speech. Who cares.. we knew all that, already. Now, let’s hope Americans start to unite a little bit and fix their shit, because, it’s pretty ugly out there.
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The transition iPhone (#apple #iphone12 #iphonepro)
A recent tweet from @LeaksApplePro made me think about the significance of the iPhone 12 in the grand scheme of things.
Apple is about to remove the last port on the iPhone, so they are training us with the MagSafe. Next yearās version will fix many of the issue weāre facing today. 5G may not be ready, but next year it will be much better. LiDAR is fascinating, but next year we will depend on it. We tend to forget about the notch, next year it will be Apple who will forget it by putting it to rest.
Weāre still in the middle of the pandemic. Weāre not out of the woods. Weāll continue to work from home for a long time. Trips are not really a thing right now. But, in the fall of 2021, can we hope that most of this will be behind us and return to normal life? It would help a lot to enjoy the portless iPhone 13 or whatever stupid name they will name it. Right now, Iām a bit tired of not being able to go out and use the cameras to build my visual memories.
The iPhone 12 is the transition iPhone that will lead us to a better world, a year from now. I hope.
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The screen computer. (#apple #imac #mockup)
I want this to be the next iMac, running an ARM-based CPU. Thatās what a computer should look like: a screen. On a stand. Nothing more. We’re close to this. Consider the iPad. We are already there. I don’t expect such a computer to be revealed next week, though. We will have to wait a bit more.
Mockup credit and more available here: https://svetapple.sk/english/imac-2021-exclusive-renders-from-svetapple-sk/
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On the Mac pivotal moment (#apple #appleevent #applesilicon #mac)
The Mac has gone through many transitions in the past and I was there for each of them. From the Motorola CPU, to the PowerPC and the Intel processors, Appleās execution was almost flawless.
At the upcoming Apple Event, Apple will unveil their highly anticipated Apple Silicon Macs. When thinking about what Apple could do for this pivotal moment for the Mac, there is two possible roads Apple can take in regards to the general design of these machines.
First, Apple could choose to do the same they did when they switched to Intel processors back in 2005. Apple kept the same designs. There are a few advantages to this approach. By going the conservative way, Apple sends a “donāt worry, this is a Mac, everything will work just fineā message. This would probably helps keep the confidence level about the expected compatibility of these machines with current software. But there is one big drawback from a marketing standpoint: Apple chose to switch to its own CPU in order to enable new things on the Mac that wasn’t possible before. I’m not sure that keeping the same external design of the Mac is the best way to do it; it would be too conservative.
The second approach, the one that I prefer, would be for Apple to introduce a refreshed and modernized design. This could take the form of new materials, new textures, new tones. Screen bezels could be dramatically reduced in order to bring the machine down in size. On top of that, better FaceTime camera with 4K resolution, always-on Siri could also make their debuts. If battery life can show major improvements, Apple would have a winner here. Such a move by Apple would help mark the turning point for the Mac, a new era, just like they did in 2012 when they introduced the unibody design. The Mac is in need of such refresh and this is the right time to do it.
If Apple is really aiming to produce 2.5 million Apple Silicon MacBooks by February 2021, there has to be something special besides a powerful and power efficient A14X CPU. Let’s see which strategy Apple decided to chose.
Side note: it is fascinating to see that the PC never went through these transitions like the Mac did. It is something unique in the technology world. No other company ever did this, that many times. Now, we might wonder if this Apple Silicon transition will spark a similar move in the Wintel world. Why? Because Intel is no longer a synonym of real platform evolution, ARM-based design is.
