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  • Apple cuts prices on high-end MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini SSD upgrades

    PylonsPylons
    maltz said:
    The story is missing the raw numbers, which are kind of important.  Even with the price cuts, the prices are insanely high, especially as an upgrade that doesn't include the cost of the base drive.

    15" MacBook Pro with 256GB SSD
    512GB upgrade is $200
    2TB upgrade is $1200
    4TB upgrade is $3000

    To put that in perspective, many high-end NVMe drives are going for around $250 per terabyte up to 2TB.  I don't know of any 4TB NVMe yet, but I assume Apple is getting there by adding more chips, since it's presumably soldered to the board and not constrained by M.2 slot shape/size.  That extra space requirement is perhaps the reason the 13" can't have it.

    I get that Apple is a captive market when it comes to upgrades, especially lately, but RAM and storage upgrade prices are really getting out of hand.
    Completely agree. It's even worse for models starting with less.
    Apple charges $200 for upgrading from the ridiculously small 128 GB on the Mac mini base model to 256 GB ($1.56/GB).
    Samsung 970 EVO costs $248 for 1 TB ($0.248/GB, or $159 for 512 GB which equals $0.31/GB).
    The iMac which was updated today still uses 1 TB 5400 rpm spinning rust on the base model. This contributes to a really bad user experience so I can't see why they still allow that in 2019.

    Personally I've moved my photo and video editing (Adobe Lightroom and Davinci Resolve) to a Xeon workstation with Windows but would like to come back to macOS if Apple's prices were not so insulting.
    curtis hannah

  • Editorial: Apple is making us wait for a new iMac for no good reason

    PylonsPylons
    While I share your general frustrations about Apple possibly neglecting Mac hardware updates as a whole, I think the iMac is one of the least problematic lines. New 8th or 9th-gen Intel CPUs would bring improvements in multi-core performance (~+49% for i7-9700K vs 7700K), but as usual not much in single-core (~+6%).
    I feel pretty confident that the reasons for delay is the lack of GPU updates from AMD. If Apple would release a new iMac now it would still have to use the same GPU, and that would not look very good. (Radeon VII is not an option, considering both the heat generation and cost.)
    I don't see any possible iMac updates until the launch of AMD Navi GPUs sometime around July.
    They could possibly consider getting back to supporting Nvidia GPUs as well, but from the AppleInsider editorial some month ago that does unfortunately not seem likely.
    Frankly, I'm increasingly pessimistic about trusting Apple to provide updated Macs on a regular basis, so I built a Xeon workstation and now use Windows and Resolve for video and Lightroom for photo editing.

    I'm more concerned about the Mac Pro (End of 2019? Really?) and with the mini and laptops having more and more components soldered and made non-upgradable and non-serviceable even by Apple's own technicians. In addition to protecting profitability there is an obsession with shaving that last 1 mm from already thin laptops. Making the Pro laptops one or two mm thicker would improve both ergonomics (keyboard), upgradability (SO-DIMM and m.2 SSD), battery capacity as well as cooling (which in turn improves both acoustics and performance).
    baconstang

  • Holiday Gift Guide 2018: Tech gifts for the musician in your life

    PylonsPylons
    Not trying to be negative, but the title should really read “Tech gifts for the guitarist in your life”.
    Any ideas for someone playing string or wind instruments, or percussion?
    SpamSandwich

  • Apple hypes environmental friendliness of new Mac mini & MacBook Air

    PylonsPylons
    ihatescreennames said:
    When I was working in Apple Retail for a time we were asked to talk about the recyclability of iPhones and (in a nutshell) how Apple made products being environmentally aware.  Not one person ever showed the slightest amount of care for that and it was obvious to me that it made little difference, if any, in their purchasing decision.  On a few occasions I even had people make disparaging remarks to me about it.  I found that mildly interesting considering the headlines when Greenpeace or whoever take Apple to task over environmental issues. And I know lots of people who recycle in their own home but also don't care that their iPhone is potentially more environmentally friendly than some other phone.
    That's very interesting. Apple's care for renewable energy is extremely important to me. That's why I find it almost insulting how they don't make RAM or storage upgrades possible anymore!
    igohmmm

  • Prices and user experience drive smartphone OS switching, poll suggests

    PylonsPylons
    ireland said:
    We need some more affordable premium Apple smartphones. And we need a 4.5 - 5” small size iPhone with all the high end features on iPhone X, for all of us SE lovers who want the premium Apple experience and feel these features shouldn’t be exclusive to the beasties.
    Completely agree! I am still using my iPhone 5S and would really like to upgrade this autumn, but I'm quite annoyed that only the iPhones with the biggest screens get the best cameras. In my opinion the size of the X may still be alright, but it's on the border of being too large.

    On the Android vs iPhone debate here are my personal opinions:
    Reasons to get an Android phone:
    - Better hardware selection (especially for the price).
    - More RAM (yes some say Android also needs more, but with 4-8 GB commonly available on Android flagships there's no need to wait when switching between apps).
    - Memory card!!!
    - I really really hate using iTunes for managing media.

    Reasons to get an iPhone:
    - Not selling my soul to Google.
    - Apple cares more about the environment.
    - User experience and UI is properly thought through, including app development guidelines.
    - iOS upgrades are available instantly, and supported even on older models.

    Not selling my soul to Google is probably what I feel most strongly about, which is why I'm still leaning towards a new iPhone, despite the other frustrations.

    watto_cobra