Retina MacBook Pro minus Touch Bar, iPad Pro Cintiq capability rumored in development
New claims about future Mac hardware have emerged after Tuesday's revelations from Apple's Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi, with the latest rumors suggesting that future high-end Retina MacBook Pros may not include a Touch Bar, and the iPad Pro could be used directly as a tablet input device for a connected Mac.
According to a report from OS News, and reinforced by notable developer Marco Arment, the new Mac Pro tentatively slated for a 2018 release only started development a few weeks ago. Apple was allegedly taken aback by poor "professional" response to the 2016 Retina MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and amped up attention to the segment.
As a result of feedback garnered in the wake of the release, reportedly, Apple's updates to the 15-inch MacBook Pro may not include a Touch Bar. Additional synergistic features between macOS and iOS are also rumored to be in the works, such as "hooking an iPad Pro up to a Mac to use it as a Cintiq-like device" according to OS News.
Apple's examination of the "Cintiq-like" features mirrors that available in apps on the App Store, such as a annual subscription to Duet Display, or Astropad Studio.
In an uncharacteristic reveal of Apple's future moves, on Tuesday Senior Vice Presidents Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi spilled the beans on a new Mac Pro in development for 2018, the evolution of the iMac, and the continuation of the Mac mini.
According to a report from OS News, and reinforced by notable developer Marco Arment, the new Mac Pro tentatively slated for a 2018 release only started development a few weeks ago. Apple was allegedly taken aback by poor "professional" response to the 2016 Retina MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and amped up attention to the segment.
As a result of feedback garnered in the wake of the release, reportedly, Apple's updates to the 15-inch MacBook Pro may not include a Touch Bar. Additional synergistic features between macOS and iOS are also rumored to be in the works, such as "hooking an iPad Pro up to a Mac to use it as a Cintiq-like device" according to OS News.
Apple's examination of the "Cintiq-like" features mirrors that available in apps on the App Store, such as a annual subscription to Duet Display, or Astropad Studio.
In an uncharacteristic reveal of Apple's future moves, on Tuesday Senior Vice Presidents Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi spilled the beans on a new Mac Pro in development for 2018, the evolution of the iMac, and the continuation of the Mac mini.
Comments
I think the only thing truly legit with these rumors is Apple got an earful from some "pro" consumers and they have to course correct. Alex Lindsey, who is on Macbreak Weekly said he'd prefer it if Apple got out of the Mac hardware business and let someone else do it. I think that's nuts.
If Apple thought USBC only was the future, it should have used the strategy where it was the only ports on a consumer device first (like the original iMac did with USB), not a machine people have to make their living off. Perhaps a cheaper education oriented device. They could have called it a MacBook Air or something.
RAM ditto. People should not be constrained by using a Macbook Pro to make their living off in comparison with Apple's competitors.
The only issue with the touchbar is it does not seem to be enough of a reason to buy an MBP over other solutions. Where is its killer use? Find that and it will be the bees' knees. And I guess, is the reason for the price rise. Having a cheaper version without touchbar also slows its more widespread adoption, but to add the touchbar to the cheap one cuts Apple's margin.
While using the iPad Pro as an input tablet to an iMac I guess is cool, I don't think too many people would use that solution, for reasons of cost (again) and let's be honest, it's a cludge, a "quick, we stuffed up, what can we do?" make up step to a final destination of more direct input. I also suspect it would come to regarded in the press as inferior to a more direct input method a la ms studio. Fair or not, that is what would happen.
Now, regarding the Mac Pro and the Mac mini, as I have stated before. The most obvious inevitable evolution of both lines is to kill the Mac mini and produce a new Pro-type Mac mini in a different shape and make that the Mac Pro. Little computers you stack atop one another in whatever order you wish to create your own perfect Mac Pro. All these cubes would slot into one another and connect via a robust physical connection and a robust wired data connection within said physical connection. It would all work like magic. Want more hard drive space? Buy a RAID cube. What's more graphics power? Buy a graphics cube. What more ports? Buy an IO cube. Want more RAM? You get the idea. A starter set would give you all the pieces for a working computer and would look aesthetically pleasing when assembled. As new cubes are released yearly you simply add-on or swap out and sell your old cubes on the grey market.
I'm a pro and I have no desire for what you've described. I want a thin, light, powerful machine. I have that. Battery life is good when on the go, and if stationary all day I can plug in.
RAM "issue" is not a issue. Maybe somebody has an outlier use case, but for most mobile users this guy has it covered:
https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=6355
...if you need to run more than that at once, you need a desktop.
Two thoughts here:
1. I am genuinely thrilled that Apple seems to be listening to pro-users and understanding their importance
2. As a corollary, I am also thrilled that the kinds of mindless fanboys who rabidly attack every criticism of Apple are not the kinds of people who appear to be calling the shots in Cupertino. You people know who you are.
I find this encouraging.
Apple's model of separate devices (instead of hybrid devices) makes a lot of sense from the "best tool for the job" perspective. But they need to work together very well.
yes, it was indeed an issue. The way the software works, and the way most often, editing software works, if you have really big files, as I often do, and you're working on layers, and compositing other photo layers in, your file gets really big. I mean really big. PS likes to have three of those files. Ideally, they all reside in RAM. If they don't, you end up paging in and out - a lot.
i found that even with just files that were 1GB in size, with 16GB of RAM, I was constantly paging, and slowing things down. It got a lot better with 32GB. But as we work, several apps are open at once, all with big files. Usually I've got PS, Illustrator and InDesign all open at once, along with other software needed. Oops! 32GB feels constrained. When opening Activity Monitor, and looking at RAM use, I can see that it's constrained. Software does odd things with RAM. Only when finally moving to 64GB did the problems stop.
Likely I'm an edge case, but I know a lot of others who are also edge cases. I'd like to see 32GB available for all Macs, at least. But, PCI SSD speeds have made some of that better. Paging in and out isn't nearly as bad. But it could be better.