I think you (almost) completely forgot about Service and Media.
Service: better integration of Home, Family-Sharing, ApplePay, Health on Mac with expanded analytics, ...
Media: more Music content, easier access through multiple HomePods, Movies, ...
And sure, Siri update!
Didn't forget. This isn't really a software-centric piece, though.
Oh, OK. Just from the title I thought this is what could be expected from WWDC as well.
Yeah, we talked about it briefly, you're right. Software expansions beyond version numbering are WAY harder to predict.
It seems obvious that Apple needs to do something with OS for iPads -- especially when they are used with a keyboard. They could add a cursor to the display and a touchpad to the kb. Given that, Apple could create a proOS [sic] that incorporates many of the features of macOS: multiple windows; file system; multiuser; Xcode; etc.
Apple is rumored to be releasing some ARM-based Macs by this WWDC or the next. It would make sense to announce/deliver a proOS Beta to developers next week... maybe, followed by a public beta in a month.
One can think of a whole lot of advantages of doing this now!
ARM macs: probably not this WWDC, and probably not next. Nothing we've heard or seen suggests hardware any sooner than 2020. You're right that some discussions with developers probably need to be had.
Im not sure! If Apple really intends to go this route, Mac specific ARM chips would already be developed. For something like the Mac Book Apple can get by with modest modifications to the. A 11. Even the Mini could go this route.
The other machines would need completely new chips. One thing you dont see much said about is custom Apple co-processrs to work with Intel hardware. Maybe a discreet GPU with AR and ML acccelerstion. This woukd be a great way for apple to bridge the transition gap.
If you read the above macroscaler article you will find that it requires more cores than are in the typical iPhone or iPad -- but those cores can be GPU correspondence as well as CPU cores.
I Can't find the link, but I read that when Apple started making its own GPUs on the A9 it had 6 GPU cores and 4 CPU cores. Two of the CPU cores could run efficiently at the default low-power, but could be jacked up to match the high-power cores -- and match the power of an Inter I5 chip.
I was hoping for a Macbook Pro refresh but don't think it will happen any more since Gurman said no. And also 10.13.5 has come out and there haven't been any reports of new drivers yet.
This is huge step up in CPU performance-per-watt compared to previous quad-core designs, coming in slightly faster than a 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro and getting close to the current base model 15" MacBook Pro, while using less than half the wattage.
The 8th gen CPUs do offer quite a boost in performance.
first 10 minutes will discuss how much money developers have made, how many apps have been downloaded, how cool the app store is, how everyone in the world simply loves the devs's work, how they are all going to change the world and bring whirled peas.
Angie will come out with pics (taken on an iPhone!) of the open spaces Apple is putting in all their stores, and what a great place those are to go to work. And I mean that literally.
Some esoteric software upgrades will be announced. The GPU performance will be enhanced, the speeds will be huge, everyone can code, download it now, see an apple engineer for some help.
Siri is everywhere. We love Siri. Something something Siri is getting better. Yawn.
AI is cool, AR is cool, all is cool with this cool stuff. It will be really cool when you see it. Everyone will be cool with that.
Look: we are working on some hardware. Nothing new or revolutionary. Profits will increase for everybody.
Something about Apple Music. Look how great our HomePod is.
Oh, education. iBooks. What's a computer? Kids can draw on our stuff.
WWDC is all about rah rah for their suppliers. It is only tangentially for consumers.
Want:
Can a new watchOS become available so I can get more than 12 hours out of my series 0?
Drop the price on Apple Music. I might bite at $99/year for a family deal. Might make me look at the HomePod thingy when the price on it drops. Or bundle it: Buy a HomePod, get a Apple Music sub for life of that unit. (and it aint happening.)
This one is out of Apple's control: I'd like wireless CarPlay in my new Ford. It can happen, but likely requires Ford to push a software upgrade to their Sync system. Maybe Apple can do it for them? It would make be upgrade my iPhone 7 to one of the wireless charging ones.
This is huge step up in CPU performance-per-watt compared to previous quad-core designs, coming in slightly faster than a 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro and getting close to the current base model 15" MacBook Pro, while using less than half the wattage.
The 8th gen CPUs do offer quite a boost in performance.
That'a assuming they want to go i7 quad-core versus the dual-core in the 13-inch MBP to differentiate between it and the 15-inch. I'm not convinced they do, and that's the premise. We'll see.
I agree with the basic concept, though. A quad-core eighth generation processor outperforms the dual-core seventh. What it does not do is outperform the quad-core seventh, and that's the point.
Can a new watchOS become available so I can get more than 12 hours out of my series 0?
Drop the price on Apple Music. I might bite at $99/year for a family deal. Might make me look at the HomePod thingy when the price on it drops. Or bundle it: Buy a HomePod, get a Apple Music sub for life of that unit. (and it aint happening.)
This one is out of Apple's control: I'd like wireless CarPlay in my new Ford. It can happen, but likely requires Ford to push a software upgrade to their Sync system. Maybe Apple can do it for them? It would make be upgrade my iPhone 7 to one of the wireless charging ones.
My Series 0 gets poor battery life compared to my 3, but it's also the original battery, which was charged every day for years. If yours is similar it may be time to service the battery.
I think $15/mo for up to 4 or 5 family members is a good deal. Normally it's $10/mo for one person.
Apple for sure can't perform Ford's software updates to Ford's hardware. Automakers (and accessory makers like Pioneer) have demonstrated time & again that they suck at consumer software.
Personally I have been really disappointed & depressed with the hardware in the MacBook Pro & the iMac for a long time. Plus I wished that Apple would be more serious about a Gaming PC. I love Apple’s MacOS, but in order to have a great Gaming PC I had to build a Windows Gaming Machine. Personally I hate using Windows, but that is the only way for me to play really great games with awesome graphics. Another thing is that I wish Apple would not be so obsessed with thinnest. Because of this we are limited in what hardware can be put into a iMac & in a MacBook Pro. I want to stay in the Apple ecosystem, but cannot do that if I want to play seriously great games. Another thing I would wish for is for Apple to ditch Intel. Intel has been awful to Apple treating them like they are crap & never producing any CPUs that is mind blowing. I would really like Apple since they already have a great relationship with AMD for graphics to use their CPUs or work with Apple to create a awesome CPU just for Apple Mac devices. I really believe that AMD is humble enough to be willing to go the extra miles for Apple to create great hardware if they can work out the problems with Thunderbolt 3 compatibility. For me the last 5 years I have not been impressed with the Mac hardware Apple has brought out. On the other hand I have been really impressed with the iPhones & iPads devices. Personally I think iOS still has much more room to grow & especially would like to see a refresh of the GUI to make me feel like I have really updated to a new iOS. In my humble opinion I feel that iOS GUI has been looking boring of late. Gets updated, but still feels like the same old iOS. So in the end I am not holding my breath or excited when it comes to the 2018 WWDC. I have been so disappointed year after year that I just don’t care as much as I use to. Especially after the release of the 2016 MacBook Pros. Which is sad because I really am a Apple fan & want them to be great with Mac devices along with their awesome iOS devices. If they can ditch Intel they will be better for it. Till then I will be hoping & waiting for the Mac lineups to improve dramatically.
My sincere advice is to leave the Apple ecosystem. If you think for one millisecond Apple is going to produce a Gaming PC you are living in another universe. No, really, you are. And then you proceed to trash everything else about Apple except for macOS. You say you’re impressed with iPhones and iPads but then say iOS is boring. After years of “disappointment” and “depression” you are way past leaving the platform. Go. Leave. Be happy. Apple most assuredly does not care about your user demographic. Serious PC gamers wouldn’t touch a Mac with a ten foot pole. Go to a Frys or MicroCenter, buy a bunch of parts off the shelves and put together your dream gaming machine and be done with it. Seriously. You don’t belong here and probably will not respond either.
This one is out of Apple's control: I'd like wireless CarPlay in my new Ford. It can happen, but likely requires Ford to push a software upgrade to their Sync system. Maybe Apple can do it for them? It would make be upgrade my iPhone 7 to one of the wireless charging ones.
All I can tell you is that I just got through updating my 2016 F-150 Sync 3 system to the latest version, which is 3.0. No wireless CarPlay yet. Android Auto users are crowing about version 3.0 allowing Waze Navigation to work now. CarPlay doesn’t apparently but CarPlay on the Sync 3 system is really fast and smooth for me.
On The latest iOS on iPhone and iPad, the Find Friends app supports 3D — just drag 2 fingers... AIR, they had that before, but removed it a while ago. It works anywhere in the world.
This one is out of Apple's control: I'd like wireless CarPlay in my new Ford. It can happen, but likely requires Ford to push a software upgrade to their Sync system. Maybe Apple can do it for them? It would make be upgrade my iPhone 7 to one of the wireless charging ones.
All I can tell you is that I just got through updating my 2016 F-150 Sync 3 system to the latest version, which is 3.0. No wireless CarPlay yet. Android Auto users are crowing about version 3.0 allowing Waze Navigation to work now. CarPlay doesn’t apparently but CarPlay on the Sync 3 system is really fast and smooth for me.
I'd settle for getting v3.0 at this point. Wireless CarPlay on Sync 3 is a pipe dream. But I gotta dream those dreams.
So I’m hoping for new Apple Watches & bands (the great article mentioned WatchOS but then skipped over the hardware)
- bands with additional sensors (heart, blood pressure, metabolism) and batteries (in the band) to allow up to a week on a charge
- An upgrade option for those who purchased a high end initial Watch that would essentially swap out the display and electronics. This would allow Apple to produce a high end watch that could be passed down from generation to generation as fine mechanical watches are today. Making them iconic.
I’m hoping for a MBP upgrade, but as discussed Apple may wait another generation of Intel chips to allow 32Gb ram (my 2013 is getting long in the tooth, so please hurry this along)
A new form of wearable computer - perhaps a arm sleeve cuff/band that would combine Apple Phone & Watch into a single device with a large curved display and much better battery life. Prelude to future add on AR glasses that would initially be hardwired to the cuff for power & data (which will require 8k resolution per eye)
That at of course would mean an 8k monitor for Macs...
This is huge step up in CPU performance-per-watt compared to previous quad-core designs, coming in slightly faster than a 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro and getting close to the current base model 15" MacBook Pro, while using less than half the wattage.
The 8th gen CPUs do offer quite a boost in performance.
That'a assuming they want to go i7 quad-core versus the dual-core in the 13-inch MBP to differentiate between it and the 15-inch. I'm not convinced they do, and that's the premise. We'll see.
I agree with the basic concept, though. A quad-core eighth generation processor outperforms the dual-core seventh. What it does not do is outperform the quad-core seventh, and that's the point.
I guess you can make a case either way and it is hard to know what will happen as the full MacBook range is such a confusing inconsistent mess. Pragmatically I think (aside from fixing the keyboards) it would make sense to move all the 13" models over to quad core 15W CPUs and drop the touch bar and the price. That would leave a very competitive laptop for most people and be the start of rationalising the lineup. I really hope we see this at WWDC. The next decision is to either merge the MacBook and Air into one good product or put them both out of their misery.
I think you (almost) completely forgot about Service and Media.
Service: better integration of Home, Family-Sharing, ApplePay, Health on Mac with expanded analytics, ...
Media: more Music content, easier access through multiple HomePods, Movies, ...
And sure, Siri update!
My sincere advice is to leave the Apple ecosystem. If you think for one millisecond Apple is going to produce a Gaming PC you are living in another universe. No, really, you are. And then you proceed to trash everything else about Apple except for macOS. You say you’re impressed with iPhones and iPads but then say iOS is boring. After years of “disappointment” and “depression” you are way past leaving the platform. Go. Leave. Be happy. Apple most assuredly does not care about your user demographic. Serious PC gamers wouldn’t touch a Mac with a ten foot pole. Go to a Frys or MicroCenter, buy a bunch of parts off the shelves and put together your dream gaming machine and be done with it. Seriously. You don’t belong here and probably will not respond either.
Harsh man. I would argue that every single Mac user wishes they could play games better on their Mac - who wouldn’t want a better GPU? Who wouldn’t want a better graphics engine?
There are millions of users who play games on their Mac. Most playing Blizz games cuz that’s all that runs half decent on the Mac. Lots of Pros play games on their macs.
I think you underestimate the frustration of Mac users.
My sincere advice is to leave the Apple ecosystem. If you think for one millisecond Apple is going to produce a Gaming PC you are living in another universe. No, really, you are. And then you proceed to trash everything else about Apple except for macOS. You say you’re impressed with iPhones and iPads but then say iOS is boring. After years of “disappointment” and “depression” you are way past leaving the platform. Go. Leave. Be happy. Apple most assuredly does not care about your user demographic. Serious PC gamers wouldn’t touch a Mac with a ten foot pole. Go to a Frys or MicroCenter, buy a bunch of parts off the shelves and put together your dream gaming machine and be done with it. Seriously. You don’t belong here and probably will not respond either.
Harsh man. I would argue that every single Mac user wishes they could play games better on their Mac - who wouldn’t want a better GPU? Who wouldn’t want a better graphics engine?
There are millions of users who play games on their Mac. Most playing Blizz games cuz that’s all that runs half decent on the Mac. Lots of Pros play games on their macs.
I’ve been a Mac user since 1984 and never wanted to play games on the Mac!
I suspect you over estimate the number of Mac users who want to play games on the Mac!
Comments
Yeah...
Here's a quote from last year:
Seems like a lot of wiggle room solely by the kind of ARM processors... Solely, My Ass!
Then there's this:
If you read the above macroscaler article you will find that it requires more cores than are in the typical iPhone or iPad -- but those cores can be GPU correspondence as well as CPU cores.
I Can't find the link, but I read that when Apple started making its own GPUs on the A9 it had 6 GPU cores and 4 CPU cores. Two of the CPU cores could run efficiently at the default low-power, but could be jacked up to match the high-power cores -- and match the power of an Inter I5 chip.
Now, that's 3 APU iterations, ago.
I would have thought recent feature (Dell XPS 13 9370 vs. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro, the ultimate comparison) rather contradicts this point:
The 8th gen CPUs do offer quite a boost in performance.
Expect:
first 10 minutes will discuss how much money developers have made, how many apps have been downloaded, how cool the app store is, how everyone in the world simply loves the devs's work, how they are all going to change the world and bring whirled peas.
Angie will come out with pics (taken on an iPhone!) of the open spaces Apple is putting in all their stores, and what a great place those are to go to work. And I mean that literally.
Some esoteric software upgrades will be announced. The GPU performance will be enhanced, the speeds will be huge, everyone can code, download it now, see an apple engineer for some help.
Siri is everywhere. We love Siri. Something something Siri is getting better. Yawn.
AI is cool, AR is cool, all is cool with this cool stuff. It will be really cool when you see it. Everyone will be cool with that.
Look: we are working on some hardware. Nothing new or revolutionary. Profits will increase for everybody.
Something about Apple Music. Look how great our HomePod is.
Oh, education. iBooks. What's a computer? Kids can draw on our stuff.
WWDC is all about rah rah for their suppliers. It is only tangentially for consumers.
Want:
Can a new watchOS become available so I can get more than 12 hours out of my series 0?
Drop the price on Apple Music. I might bite at $99/year for a family deal. Might make me look at the HomePod thingy when the price on it drops. Or bundle it: Buy a HomePod, get a Apple Music sub for life of that unit. (and it aint happening.)
This one is out of Apple's control: I'd like wireless CarPlay in my new Ford. It can happen, but likely requires Ford to push a software upgrade to their Sync system. Maybe Apple can do it for them? It would make be upgrade my iPhone 7 to one of the wireless charging ones.
I think $15/mo for up to 4 or 5 family members is a good deal. Normally it's $10/mo for one person.
Apple for sure can't perform Ford's software updates to Ford's hardware. Automakers (and accessory makers like Pioneer) have demonstrated time & again that they suck at consumer software.
- bands with additional sensors (heart, blood pressure, metabolism) and batteries (in the band) to allow up to a week on a charge
- An upgrade option for those who purchased a high end initial Watch that would essentially swap out the display and electronics. This would allow Apple to produce a high end watch that could be passed down from generation to generation as fine mechanical watches are today. Making them iconic.
I’m hoping for a MBP upgrade, but as discussed Apple may wait another generation of Intel chips to allow 32Gb ram (my 2013 is getting long in the tooth, so please hurry this along)
A new form of wearable computer - perhaps a arm sleeve cuff/band that would combine Apple Phone & Watch into a single device with a large curved display and much better battery life. Prelude to future add on AR glasses that would initially be hardwired to the cuff for power & data (which will require 8k resolution per eye)
That at of course would mean an 8k monitor for Macs...
Pragmatically I think (aside from fixing the keyboards) it would make sense to move all the 13" models over to quad core 15W CPUs and drop the touch bar and the price.
That would leave a very competitive laptop for most people and be the start of rationalising the lineup. I really hope we see this at WWDC.
The next decision is to either merge the MacBook and Air into one good product or put them both out of their misery.
I would argue that every single Mac user wishes they could play games better on their Mac - who wouldn’t want a better GPU?
Who wouldn’t want a better graphics engine?
There are millions of users who play games on their Mac. Most playing Blizz games cuz that’s all that runs half decent on the Mac.
Lots of Pros play games on their macs.
I think you underestimate the frustration of Mac users.
I suspect you over estimate the number of Mac users who want to play games on the Mac!