smack416

The trouble with basically any other monitor other than the 27" LG Ultrafine is the PPI. This BenQ is not retina resolution, nor is it well suited to MacOS as a non-retina display (reference: https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/).

With the 27" Ultrafine, you're sacrificing a few inches of screen largeness for a noticeable amount of clarity (218PPI vs 138PPI on the BenQ), many more pixels (5120 x 2880 vs 3840 x 2160 on the BenQ), and the LG costs you just $100 more. To me, there's no contest given the value, unless extreme response time is a deal breaker for you.

The knock on the LG monitors is that they are not great in build quality, but the screens are as good as it gets. Simply put: the 27" LG Ultrafine monitor is the only option available today if you're looking for the clarity of a retina screen, and will be the only economical option when Apple releases their pro display. At least until a competitor else releases a +200 PPI monitor. In the meantime, this BenQ monitor doesn't compare.

OutdoorAppDeveloper said:

But are any of those products really new or are they just updates to existing products? When will we see something truly groundbreaking from Apple?

My two cents:

Airpods were and continue to be truly groundbreaking (in case you're implying that they haven't released anything groundbreaking in years).

The new iPad Pro is groundbreaking from a hardware point of view, years ahead of the competition, and competing speed and GPU wise with current shipping computers. What would be groundbreaking is a sustainable model and commitment from major software vendors like Adobe (and Apple, for that matter) to bring Pro software to the iPad. I much prefer working on iPad over any OSX device, but I need better file management, Adobe Illustrator, and a few other software improvements in order to ditch OSX altogether. Then there's the whole programming on iPad issue.

A compact Macbook Pro with decent GPU performance would be groundbreaking. There's very little that's Pro about the 13" Macbook Pro.

Airpower for $150 or less will be groundbreaking, allowing you to charge your phone, wireless headphones, and watch at the same time, from one outlet.

Siri being able to understand my voice would be groundbreaking. I can't imagine how poorly it must work for people with an accent.

Shifting the AppleTV to be gaming centric (really, just a positioning and controller issue) could be groundbreaking, especially if there's a game subscription service in the works. Adding a wireless hub to Apple TV at the current price point could also be groundbreaking. Consistent, reliable wifi is still an unsolved issue at my home and office, despite trying various solutions (Apple and Orbi).

Incorporating a key, tempo, genre, and energy algorithm into Apple Music in order to auto mix playlists could be groundbreaking. I'd at least settle for adding this metadata to tracks so I can manually sort playlists more effortlessly. All we have now is BPM and genre.

Global ECG support for Apple Watch would be groundbreaking.

From my point of view, who needs brand new products (VR glasses? a car? iPhone socks?) when there's so much room to innovate across the existing product line. You can't even get a 6-core iMac right now, but you can get a 6-core Mac mini or 15" Macbook pro. I'd prefer they have more of their focus on the current product line than trying to find the next big thing.

docno42 said:

Ugh, once again integrated graphics only.  Once again Apple pays lip service to pro users.

For pro users who are fed up with integrated graphics, Apple is definitely all-in on promoting eGPUs. You want pro GPU performance from one of their more consumer-oriented systems, that's where they'll tell you to go, having pretty firmly settled into no discrete GPU in anything other than the highest end 15" MacBook Pro and high end desktops. 

Blackmagic just added a Vega to their eGPU enclosure and Apple is pushing both Blackmagic's original and Pro eGPUs on their MacBook Pro page and Thunderbolt page, with an eGPU mention on the Mac Mini page, and an Accessories recommendation on the MacBook Air tech page.

And since there has never been a discrete GPU in a unibody 13" MacBook Pro, I for one am grateful for the eGPU option for staying portable and powerful. Right now, the eGPU is an improvement on the best discrete GPU you can get in 15" Pro as well, but they've also just announced Vega GPUs will be an option for 15" MacBook Pros in November.

All of this points to Apple serving professionals better this year than any time in recent memory. If they release a new Mac Pro next year, you'll have the most diverse pro-friendly lineup they've ever had, with the option of plugging in an eGPU into whatever Apple computer you'd like, or spending 3+ months worth of rent on an iMac, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, or 15" Vega MacBook. That's more pro choice than I can recall them offering in the last 20 years.

I'd like to point out that I've had no issue playing the game on my iPad mini 4. I know the app store says you need to play it on a new iPad, but the fact of the matter is: the game is slow on any iPad once you get into the latter stages where the map is fully uncovered, in use, and it's processing all the moves by each of the sims.

I initially bought Civ 2 to play on the latest model iPad Pro but was surprised to find that it works just fine on the mini. I find it quite a bit more enjoyable to play casually on the mini than have to get comfortable with the size of the 12.9" Pro when I'm just lounging around. The only trick is to make sure you don't go with a map larger than "Small", which is still plenty big.

mavemufc said:

Here’s why it’s a bad idea, cost.

There's a simple way to address this: two SE models.

1. iPhone mini (replacing the SE)
2. iPhone X mini (as an SE premium)

The SE naming convention doesn't work if they intend to continue making ~4" phones. And my hope is that they do intend to continue making phones the size of the SE, because everything from the 6 on up is too big for me.

I'd happily pay a premium for an iPhone X mini (and I know many other people who would as well). I won't buy an iPhone X or iPhone 8. And I won't upgrade from my SE if the screen and front facing camera doesn't improve from the current model. So if they keep the budget SE by dropping in a processor upgrade but not switching out the screen from the 5s, then they're missing out on an entire market of premium small phone buyers if they don't introduce another, premium SE tier.