Toby_Corgi

SpamSandwich said:

Toby_Corgi said:

Kia's 2021 Telluride is Consumer Report's #1 Midsized SUV out of 25 tested. Their design and quality have become world class and their vehicles tend to be excellent values, too. Not bad for a relative newcomer to the automotive world. I suspect Apple has made an excellent choice in a partner if these reports are true.

I haven’t found Consumer Reports credible for several decades.

If it makes you feel any better, the Telluride took the same honors from Car and Driver in 2020.

corrections said:

jdb8167 said:

This makes it pretty clear that the developer transition kit isn't a Mac mini outfitted with an Apple Silicon SoC, but rather an iPad Pro logic board hooked up to multiple USB ports, Ethernet, and HDMI for convenience. It sports the same Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac WiFi, and can attach to an SSD for storage using USB-C.

This jumped out at me. The 2020 iPad Pro does not have 802.11ac WiFi but instead the latest standard 802.11ax WiFi 6. It is weird that this Developer Transition Kit doesn't support WiFi 6 when clearly Apple has the silicon to support it. It must be a driver problem. They have an iOS driver for whatever chipset they are using but not a macOS 11 driver.

Obviously, this isn't a serious lack on the DTK. I just found it interesting.

Yes - Apple just added WiFi 6 (80211.ax) support to iPhone 11 a few months ago, and to the A12Z this year. No Macs support it it yet. But beyond support in the SoC, WiFi 6 also needs the right supporting hardware and antennas to actually call itself WiFi 6. If the DTKit is just a temporary hack to enable non-public development for a few months, that would certainly explain why Apple shipped it with only "802.11ac" even if the SoC itself could support ax. Why would Apple develop and certify a temporary Mac Mini design it will never ship just to slightly improve WiFi on a test box that most developers will be using over Ethernet anyway?   

I suspect the A12Z-based Mac mini has been around internally at Apple for a couple of years since the A12Z became available. In fact, it probably has some extra features to make it useful as a Mac development device. They've needed a platform for internal MacOS development over that time, and it's probably not the first version they've done. Two years ago when it was probably developed, 802.11ac was what was available and there was no reason to upgrade it for a development platform.

I spent decades (retired a year ago) working on teams that developed custom state-of-the-art SOCs not much different than what Apple is doing. When you're developing a chip for a specific use case and have access to all the resources you could possibly need (Apple doe$), it's amazing what can be done. Also, Apple has cleared the decks with moves like only 64b apps to streamline the Mac AS chips. Intel doesn't have that luxury, they have to try to satisfy a variety of customers and platforms as well as include the baggage to be backward compatible to the beginning of time. Most Intel chips are still on a 14nm process, and Apple will be on 5nm. That means they can put about four times more functionality on a chip of similar size and power, worst case. Even against Intel's barely available 10nm process, Apple has about a 2x advantage. I expect to be blown away by what Apple produces for their new AS Macs.

The switch to Apple Silicon will allow Apple to expand the MacBook line down to much lower cost entry level machines thereby significantly increasing PC market share. Currently, the lowest cost MacBook Air is $999 and the lowest cost iPad is $329. An entry level MacBook could get by with passive cooling and a much smaller battery not to mention the Apple Silicon will be a small fraction of Intel silicon cost. The MacBook cost model will look very much like an iPad; therefore, I could see MacBooks starting at $499 or lower and the whole line dropping in price while Apple still increases profit margin. They will be able to go head-to-head with low-cost low-margin Wintel machines and make a nice profit, not to mention all the switchers they will attract. It's a brilliant move by Apple which is why the stock is on a tear.

Existing MacBook LCD displays are backlit with LEDs. The power dissipated is not dependent on what is displayed, white, black, or in between. OLED and microLED display technology is not backlit--the individual pixels light up to create the display. The whiter and brighter the image, the more power required. Therefore, darker displays conserve power. If this dark scheme is available in the new release I suspect it is foreshadowing new display technology now or in the not too distant future.

I think it's inevitable that Apple will eventually migrate MacBook displays to OLED and/or microLED to conserve display power. This will probably start at the same time that they switch to an ARM based CPU to conserve even more power. Since the display and CPU are the primary power consumers, these changes will allow a significantly smaller battery. This will result in a new line of MacBooks that are even thinner than the existing models. I also wouldn't be surprised if they ran Mac OS as well as enabled iOS apps on a touchscreen display to create a hybrid MacBook/iPad.

Personally, I would love a MacBook that's the size of an iPad Pro with a real keyboard and touchscreen that runs Mac OS and also runs iOS apps. One machine for all laptop and iPad uses. Remember, you read it here first.