lmg

9secondkox2 said:

I think that’s only part of the story. 

Jinping didn’t want to negotiate himself so he sent “his people” to do so. Trump did the same. 

I think when key leaders want to negotiate, trump will do so. But he’s got really strong competent folks doing that, so he doesn’t need to overextend himself doing every little thing. He’s the president. He has a team. He’s empowering his team to do what they’re supposed to do - as leadership classes teach leaders to do. The guy does everything. It’s about time he lets the other guys rise up. When you have a talented team, you can trust them to do important stuff. 

This administration is well-known for appointing unqualified, incompetent people for key positions. That, and the fact that Trump never gets along with anyone besides his children for long, were two of the reasons that Trump had unprecedented turnover in his Cabinet and White House during his first term. What you are seeing is not some master plan or a brilliant strategy at work - it's incompetence, pure and simple.

Hopefully they take this AI server chip, and make it an option in the Mac Pro.

For the average consumer, the iMac is probably pretty optimal. But, for businesses or prosumers, I think many would pick something more like the xMac if that choice existed. Many of us, would even pay more money for it. I suppose Apple could do some surveys, but aside from that, how could they have research on it, when they haven't tried it?

I somewhat agree with the idea that the majority of users don't upgrade machine, at least not anymore. But, again, that might be a chicken-and-egg thing in that most consumer devices have become throw-away these days. People just don't think like that anymore (though they are starting to swing back, IMO). Back in the day, I think most people upgraded machines, even Macs. When I did Mac consulting, almost every client added more RAM or changed out storage at some point. I did, and all my family members did. I'd say it used to be odd not to at some point.

Yeah, businesses in particular may find them especially appealing. 

I would agree. Once upon a time, I used Windows PCs, and I regularly opened them up to upgrade - hard drive, memory, graphics card, and optical drives. Since switching to Mac, I’ve never made an upgrade. Part of that is the nature of the computers - I’ve mostly had laptops and iMacs, and neither is especially upgradeable (or even reparable - I had a 2010 iMac that started having issues with its HDD, so I took it to Apple and they were unable to fix it as it was then considered a vintage product (this was a few years back now), and so referred me to a third party reseller. They wanted about $600 to replace the drive in it, and they cautioned me that during the replacement process, it’s possible that they’d break the display and would not be liable for that. That was ridiculously expensive, so I simply replaced the computer with a new,
much faster model with an SSD. The non-reparability was, admittedly, a little irritating... but, on the other hand, by the time it failed, the hardware had gotten old enough that it was starting to struggle to keep up, running slowly and in need of replacement. Not only that, but in that timeframe, the iMac had transitioned to Retina displays, and having adopted and grown accustomed to them on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro, it had become a little difficult to look at the lower-res display. 

But another part of it, I think, is that the necessity of upgrades feels lower than it once did. Part of that, in my case, is I simply have more money now and can (1) max out my systems at purchase to maximize their capabilities and their lifespans, and (2) replace my computers often enough (usually about five to six years) that upgrades aren’t really a need, for the most part. My current MBP has 16GB of RAM and it’s still so fast... my next will have 32GB and possibly 64GB depending on the specs of their next-gen model! Either way, I don’t really expect the need to upgrade that until the time comes to replace the laptop altogether.

(I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I really want to see a MacBook Pro with the footprint of the previous 17-inch model again. I never actually bought a 17-inch MBP when they were available, because at that time the computers were much thicker and heavier than they are now, primarily relying on HDDs, and I wanted to be able to carry the computer easily, and to be able to hold it in one hand, standing, and use it with the other, if I needed to. Since then, iPhones and iPads have proliferated, so the need for mobility in a laptop has been greatly diminished. Most of the time, I find myself using my laptop in the same spot or two, and while it’s great to be able to move it around, I have much less need to use it the way I described. The rumour, of course, is that we will soon see a 16-16.5-inch MacBook Pro with similar dimensions to the current 15-inch model, but with the display stretched to the edge of the glass. That sounds nice, but I think Apple should go a step further: build a laptop with dimensions similar to the previous 17-inch model, but with the display stretched to the glass to make an 18-19-inch display. Use the extra space to make the computer more powerful, and consider offering a Xeon processor as an option on that unit. The battery life would be bad, I’m sure, at least without putting a much larger battery in it, but I’m sure there’d be some users that would appreciate a true mobile workstation from Apple. I’d probably stick with the i9 to keep some battery life, but I’m sure there are those who’d love the increased power - and maybe the selection of that processor and top-end GPUs would make the chassis thicker to accommodate a larger battery and increased airflow. If they offered a bigger version of the MacBook Pro, I’d almost certainly buy it! Seeing as how they put out a pro version of the iMac with a Xeon, and a Mac Pro with incredible specs, it’d be nice to see them give similar treatment to the MacBook Pro.)

If the products were built to be more upgradeable, would I hang onto them longer and upgrade rather than replace? Possibly, at least when it comes to the desktops. (I have my doubts that a high-quality laptop could be built that is fully upgradeable and anywhere near as compact as the current MacBook Pro.) But I guess I like getting the latest and greatest thing, and replacing the entire unit from time to time. Each time I move from one Mac to the next, I’m upgrading CPU, RAM, SSD, GPU, I/O, and display all at once, and it would be difficult, I think, to make most of their computers such that everyone of those components could be upgradeable, particularly if they aim to maintain any semblance of a cohesive system design. Part of the excitement for me, I suppose, is the design and aesthetics of the new things they put out, and that is, of course, missing in the upgrades. Very different story, needless to say, when you have to consider the ROI on a piece of equipment in a business use case, but for my personal use, these things matter to me. 

What I do wish is that’s Apple would make its MacBook Pro chargers a lot more durable so I wouldn’t have to shell out $95 a pop when they inevitably fray! For a company that is as particular as they are when it comes to most of their products, they make truly terrible cables! The MacBook chargers, the Lightning cables, and the Time Capsule 3TB have easily been the worst Apple products I’ve ever owned! Over-priced and not very durable! Switched to Anker Lightning cables, and they are not only cheaper, but much longer-lasting. 

cgWerks said:

lmg said:

I really like the idea of re-purposing the design of the previous-generation (2013) Mac Pro to fill the gap discussed in this editorial, so long as there is some reasonable upgradeability (RAM, SSD, GPUs). (Even if the design didn't allow for GPU upgrades, I think it could still work for this niche if it were priced competitively, particularly given the option to add an external eGPU via Thunderbolt). I always really liked the design of this unit - it just wasn't well-suited to be the flagship Mac. The internals certainly need to be updated, but if you could have this machine, alongside the downmarket display discussed above, at a price that comes in under the new (2019) Mac Pro, that would be an appealing product! And from a business perspective, re-using this design would surely be more economical than creating one from scratch.

Agreed. They could just put a RX580 in it (I think it could cool that), or even an Intel GPU to keep the base cost down. Yes, we can easily add an eGPU to our liking, but the problem was lack of TB3 and rather outdated (and over-expensive) hardware. I'd have purchased something like that instead of my mini if it were available (and paid more money for it).

For sure, if they aren't going to keep the specs current then it's of little value, and while it was the Mac Pro, it was hardly updated at all. I'm not sure what it could be called, though. cMac? Mac medium? Mac cylinder? Just roll with xMac? Mac desk or Mac desktop? Mac roll?