I was underwhelmed with the M1 Mac reveal. Yeah I know it has a bad ass Apple processor and bad ass software support but I expected more from the company who invented the Mac.
Here’s what I expected
1. Apple modem or at least support for cellular networks.
2. App Store funnel for all applications. (Probably too late for this now)
3. A revolutionary new design. Maybe a new touchbar, FaceID, a hinge that can place the MacBook flat for Pencil support and drawing etc.
One of the main points of Apple Silicon Macs was that they didn’t run hot.... oh yeah and also noiseless.
1. Yeah. It is curious why they haven't had cellular modem options for their laptops.
2. As long people can side load, the App Store just isn't going to be a thing on macOS. Apple can make the App Store a popular place if they published some popular apps maybe, but they are reluctant to do that.
3. I don't think there is a "revolutionary" design in the cards for a PC, not like the OG iPhone was. It's all iterative refinements. A foldable, with robust display covers, will be coming, but I don't think that's a revolution. You are still operating it like a laptop or a tablet, except the keyboards and tracking devices will be virtual. I do think they need to put more work in with keyboards, both the software versions on iPads, the ones in laptops, and external ones. It's something used all the time, a primary UI device, and continued optimizations and maybe experimentation would be nice to see.
Eg, I'd like them to offer 2-row, 3-row ortho-linear software keyboards on iPadOS. Something that would yield more display area for apps.
4. The next revolution is probably AR. Obviously Apple has been hinting so for ages now.
One of the main points of Apple Silicon Macs was that they didn’t run hot.... oh yeah and also noiseless.
They still get hot, just less so then before. Moving the hot components away from the keyboard to the back of the display just eliminates having hot keys all together.
Then, we will see how it goes when the large Apple Silicon laptops arrive.
Apple is never going to put a cellular modem in their desktops or laptops. Reasons why, off the top of my head:
"Everybody" already has a phone in their pocket that they "always" have with them. Easier to share that connection than add hardware components that affect the design.
Apple sells iPhones for hefty prices that people are more than willing to buy. Why give up that revenue stream?
Frankly, I'm surprised that Apple put a cellular modem in the iPad. But I guess that's due to the evolution of the iPhone and iPad from the original idea back in the early 2000s.
The third reason would you’d be forced to pay monthly for another phone line.
That last reason is why I do not buy cellular for the Apple Watch or iPads. The thought of having to pay an extra $10 a month per device makes no sense to me. Unless you are on the road a lot and will be using cellular on those devices, it just isn't worth it. The same thing would be true for a Mac with a cellular modem. If you are mostly using the device at home with Wifi connection, paying for the cellular service is waste of money. FWIW, the personal hotspot on the iPhone works well. For both Macs and PCs!
I find the £5 a month fee for cellular on my watch is liberating.
Just last night I was out jogging. AirPods Pro + Apple Watch cellular is a dream match.
I frequently leave my iPhone at home now. I can still be contacted in an emergency and use useful features like Apple Pay, whilst not being distracted by my phone.
I think people don’t realise how much they stare at their phone whilst out for dinner, etc. It’s great.
I hope that some of the limits of Apole Silicon will be lifted:
1. no target disk mode
2. more / expandable ram
3. 3rd party graphics hardware
I don't see any of these being addressed in the next hardware release except for maybe discreet graphics. Apples processors get some of their huge advantage from having in package RAM. This is similar to high end GPU's and compute chips using HBM in package to increase performance. I wouldn't doubt if Apple take several avenues to lowering the access times to RAM and cache as improvements here allow for more cores and higher performance with out massive crank ups in processor clock speed. Basically going out to DIMM for memory access is just too slow these days, unless you go to very wide memory systems. Since I'm not expecting a Mac Pro class chip I'm not seeing support for DIMMS either.
Rather what I would like ot see as 3 very important improvements are these:
Full support for high speed M.2 modules. This must be beyond what the processor will be directly accessing and is expansion support. Yeah I know Apple doesn't care about storage expansion but we can hope.
Improved I/O ports and more of them. This would allow for machines more closely optimized for the desktop and working laptops.
Improved integrated GPU's. Lets face it Apple has a lot of space they ca dedicate to a GPU. However the problem with all APU graphics performance wise is memory so they will need to address that. DDR5 might be the path they take but it would be really neat to see HBM type memory in package to actually permit the chip to work well. In any event better GPU support is closely tied to improved memory systems.
I hope that some of the limits of Apole Silicon will be lifted:
1. no target disk mode
2. more / expandable ram
3. 3rd party graphics hardware
If you consider those ‘limits’ then just move on. ASi is a new paradigm where those considerations are moot. If that’s what you want just stay with legacy Intel boxes running Windows.
You are dead wrong, as always. Look at all benchmark results and discrete graphics continues to blow away the M1. Apple is not going to release an iMac, MacBook Pro 16, or Mac Pro with the inferior integrated graphics, even on the M1. The 16GB RAM limit of the M1 is embarrassing, and it is a big deal. Large graphics files would choke on it. Especially embarrassing when the previous Intel models had more features than the M1 models. But of course you hate Apple as evidenced in all your comments.
This is garbage, there is nothing embarrassing about M1. Apple debuted it in its lowest end machines and int hat regard it literally blows away anything in the price range. The M1 is the best tech Apple had at the time to put into something like the Mac Book Air. Feel free to offer up another passively cooled, low end laptop, that does better.
Finally an article that clearly points out the unfortunate limitations of the M1. Everyone is so blinded in tunnel vision of 3x performance that they are completely missing out on the fact that the M1 is a low-end base model CPU with less features than the models it replaced.
It was not long ago that all the commenters were complaining of soldered memory, soldered storage, no upgrades, etc. All Apple has to do is slap an Apple logo on a pig and the fanatics think it is the best thing in the world. It wasn't long ago that people were complaining about 16GB RAM in the MacBooks and then they cheered when Apple bumped it up to 32GB and 64GB. Now suddenly they are all happy that the M1 is capped at 16GB? Suddenly they are excited that integrated graphics in the M1 are faster than the integrated graphics on the intel Macs, but still much slower than discrete graphics? WTF?
Could you imagine if Apple introduced an iMac with only 16GB of RAM (instead of 128GB), 2TB of storage (instead of 8TB), two USB-C (instead of 4 USB/2 Thunderbolt), and integrated graphics driving a 27+" 5K display? It would be a joke! Or a Mac Pro with those specs? Suddenly people think a 16GB M1 can do anything? Not when you throw a huge graphics file at it. Let's not forget about the excessive read/writes that is occurring in the M1 Macs, wearing out the flash storage prematurely.
Hopefully the next iMacs have specs that meet or exceed the current 2020 models. There is a big reason why Apple is still selling the Intel models because they have more features than the M1 models. Notice how fast M1 Macs appeared in the refurb store? High customer returns triggered that. Unfortunate that Apple intends to solder everything to the board. No more replacing bad memory DIMMs or swapping out a bad drive. Now when that goes bad outside of the warranty, the Mac will end up in the trash because replacing the motherboard is an expensive repair and people will throw it away and buy a new Mac. I have high hopes for the iMac and MacBook Pro 16", but the M1 was too limiting in features to consider buying.
IMO, I don't see 16GB of RAM / 2TB SSD an issue for the three models of devices Apple released. I think the Mac Mini, MBA and entry MBP are focused at people with light needs, like web browsing, office apps, etc. I don't think these kind of users will have an issue with these specs.
My M1 Air is with me because it is a better device than an iPad for my mobile needs. For performance I have a large screen Linux machine in a desktop format. MacQuadra's comments just strike me as ignorant as everybody knows that every M1 released to date is a low end machine. This Air is incredibly good and I can't imagine that there is much at all that competes with it.
Now that doesn't mean the M1 Air is perfect but it isn't like I'm going to complain much as it is an enjoyable machine to use right now.
First, thanks for mentioning the GPU mystery as I have been pointing out in my comments for some time. You left out part of the mystery which is that if Apple continues to use AMD GPUs on Apple Silicon Macs, who writes the drivers? GPU drivers are highly optimized and are not as portable to a new CPU architecture as application code. AMD does need to port to ARM in any case (and likely already supports it) but the Apple Silicon CPUs are ARM variants and will need custom optimizations. Then there is Apple's investment into GPU design. The use of an AMD GPU on a M1+ or M2 computer would feel like a step backwards compared to the M1 which was all Apple. If I had to bet, I would guess that Apple will announce a new GPU to go along with the new Apple Silicon processor. Whether it can compete with current desktop GPUs is anyone's guess. Thus far Apple has come no where close to the performance of a RX 6000 series GPU (or RTX 3000 series) gaming GPU.
However, there is another mystery. The M1 had the RAM built into the chip along with the CPU and GPU. This was a surprise when Apple Silicon was announced. No other system CPU vendor does this to my knowledge. The up side is that this allows the CPU to talk to the RAM more efficiently. The down side is that you are limited to the amount of RAM Apple built into the package. Will the M1+ have the RAM built in or will it be external and upgradable? Will it be a combination with some high speed RAM built in as another level of cache?
I was underwhelmed with the M1 Mac reveal. Yeah I know it has a bad ass Apple processor and bad ass software support but I expected more from the company who invented the Mac.
Here’s what I expected
1. Apple modem or at least support for cellular networks.
[SNIP]
1. Yeah. It is curious why they haven't had cellular modem options for their laptops.
[SNIP]
One doesn't need cellular functionality in the laptops as long as your iPhone/smartphone has a mobile hotspot function and this of course requires you to have that service and that device. You could also use an external mobile hotspot if you prefer not to use your smartphone. Having optional cellular functionality is like including a CD burner, most people don't want it and there is an external option. Don't carry over a mentality of a typical Windows maker.
Comments
I frequently leave my iPhone at home now. I can still be contacted in an emergency and use useful features like Apple Pay, whilst not being distracted by my phone.
I think people don’t realise how much they stare at their phone whilst out for dinner, etc. It’s great.
This is garbage, there is nothing embarrassing about M1. Apple debuted it in its lowest end machines and int hat regard it literally blows away anything in the price range. The M1 is the best tech Apple had at the time to put into something like the Mac Book Air. Feel free to offer up another passively cooled, low end laptop, that does better.
However, there is another mystery. The M1 had the RAM built into the chip along with the CPU and GPU. This was a surprise when Apple Silicon was announced. No other system CPU vendor does this to my knowledge. The up side is that this allows the CPU to talk to the RAM more efficiently. The down side is that you are limited to the amount of RAM Apple built into the package. Will the M1+ have the RAM built in or will it be external and upgradable? Will it be a combination with some high speed RAM built in as another level of cache?