Penzi

If the PSU is an external unit, as it is on the M series iMacs, I will not be thrilled. Further, if it’s a proprietary connector I’ll be even less thrilled.

“Jelly scrolling is apparently still there, but it's just not something I notice, look for, or care about. Looking at the display with slow-motion cameras will show the effect, but that's not how I or anyone will ever view this display.”

That you can only see it when slow motion cameras reveal it to you is lucky for you. I see it without that and it’s why I don’t have one… I will be checking out the mini 7 in the coming days to see if I like what has been done to it or if I need to wait another generation.

I am writing this on my M4 iPP, which is my 95% computer. I would love to have a tablet that returns my use case to what it was with the OG and iPad 2, just a screen with a cover and the mini would allow for that… because the Pros are too unwieldy to do that for me.

This depends heavily on whether you consider a computer with any NPU to be an “AI PC” or whether, like Microsoft, you have put a baseline down. If you use Microsoft’s requirement for 40 TOPs, you get Apple selling exactly zero capable AI PCs… there is so much conflation and chest thumping going on in ML at the moment that it’s hard to get an idea of who makes what and whether (and how much) it matters.

I’m inclined to agree, to the extent that this is a need to have, not a want to have for myself to purchase the product. Once it’s available, I’ll go in for a demo. I still doubt it will have sufficient use cases for myself to plunk out for it, but most of my doubts will be confirmed or debunked on use.

I do look forward to the release of a version that fits my needs, whatever those may be in relation to a paradigm I have not worked in before…

My wife and I wouldn’t be together had Skype not existed. It has definitely been abused and undermined in the hands of MS. Fare thee well, old friend! You’re but a shadow of what made you an anchor in my life for years…

mikethemartian said:

Is USB really a resilient interface? I recently worked a contract where test stations in production would often start reporting errors in the middle of the tests because some of the equipment was connected using USB and it would intermittently disconnect. This is compared to HPIB/GPIB which is old, bulky and slow but extremely robust.

I have found that USB (and HDMI) are far too flaky in mission critical work, and so I just try to defer to Thunderbolt and DP for as many needs as can be filled by those pieces of tech, despite the increased costs. My peace of mind and smooth workflow are worth it to me. So much so that I try to avoid USB and HDMI even for more regular avenues of life… excepting TVs and consoles, of course.

MacPro said:

I need to try out the Vision Pro.  I have always assumed that requiring reading glasses would make it a PITA; I know they offer lenses, but I am just dubious about how well that would work.  I have 20/20 over two feet and need correction for less than two feet; even 1.5 magnifiers work for me. I don't even need a prescription. Has anyone in a similar position tried the VP?

I have 30/20 with reading glasses that vary between 1.5 and 1.75 and tried it out. Works great!

The Ultra chips have always been an odd duck, if you’re a consumer or photography professional. Even video has few things that genuinely benefit from the dual Max chip setup. The M1Ultra was worse than the M1Max at certain tasks as well, although I assume that was software needing to catch up to the new chip design for Mac. Even when you had noticeable benefits, the Ultra performance scaled nowhere near linearly. But there are benefits and they are tangible if your field takes advantage of them. That’s the nature of pro hardware: use case. I’ll paraphrase… “if you have to ask, you won’t take advantage of it”

I’m very glad that Apple produces the Ultra but the Max chip is the one for me. It actually exceeds my present use case requirements but the Pro chips bump up along my limits, so Max it is. With the MBPros and Mac Studios now sporting Thunderbolt 5, my hardware requirements for an upgrade are met. But since the point of said upgrade rests on monitors that don’t really exist yet, I will wait for their release before I truly struggle with “desktop or laptop?!” once again… I am optimistic that this will occur with the M5 generation APUs.

@Blastdoor I, also, am intrigued by your use case where, I assume, you wire two Mac minis together (Ethernet? Thunderbolt?) and also as to why, for the exact same price, having the exact same number of CPU cores make the mini more interesting than the Studio to you. Straight up that they are the faster M4 cores? I know that in AI neither Ethernet nor Thunderbolt has sufficient bandwidth to make two minis as efficient/competent as one Studio but I’d love to learn more!

As usual, Satechi “designs for Mac” and leaves out Thunderbolt. This is not for me. So why do I post? In case somebody is in doubt of whether it is for them. 

“The solitary rear camera on the iPhone 16e is a 48MP Fusion camera, with an f/1.6 aperture. This is mostly the same as the iPhone 16's version, but there's the more typical optical image stabilization in use, not the sensor-shift version.”

There are only two ways to do image stabilization: shift the lens and/or shift the sensor. These can be done digitally as well as analog. While I do not doubt that Apple’s statements are intentional, I cannot conceive of the lens on a smartphone being the mobile part (not the same as knowing it is not the case). Thus “optical image stabilization” (which removes digital trickery as an option) is almost definitely of the sensor shift variety.

I’d be interested to find out why Apple uses different terms.