tenthousandthings

john-useless said:

Andrew, you wrote: "Because of Thunderbolt data limitations, it isn't possible to daisy chain two 5K studio displays." Do you know if it's possible to daisy-chain a lower-resolution third-party monitor to a USB-C port on the new Apple Studio Display?

I have a 27-inch Dell QHD resolution monitor, which is 2560x1440 pixels. That's the same resolution as the original Thunderbolt Display and Apple's 27-inch iMacs from the 2009 to 2013 models. (The 2014 edition of the 27-inch iMac was the first Retina 5K model at 5120x2880 pixels.)

I have an Apple Studio Display on order. I'm hoping that I'll need only connect one cable (from the Studio Display's one Thunderbolt port) to my MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) and that the one cable will provide the MacBook both with power and with connections to two monitors — the Studio Display and a 27-inch Dell monitor with USB-C and QHD resolution. In other words, the chain would be: 14-inch MacBook Pro <—> Thunderbolt cable <—> Apple Studio Display <—> USB-C cable <—> Dell U2721DE monitor, if that works.

Thanks for any info!

I think Andrew means that if it was possible to daisy-chain two Apple Studio Displays, then Apple would have provided a second Thunderbolt 3 port to allow that (same deal with Thunderbolt 4). He's explaining why they didn't, but even if they did, anyone trying to daisy-chain a 4K display would also run into those same data limitations. In theory, your 2560x1440 Dell would work, barely.

The three additional USB-C ports on the back are USB 3.2 Gen 2 (formerly known as USB 3.1), which can be either USB-A or USB-C. I think, by definition, they provide at least 7.5W power -- one of them is charging my phone right now. So think of them as USB-A ports -- you wouldn't plug a display into one of those. You could try it, though, before you do the following...

You'll need a powered hub to do what you want to do. The good news is that hub will be your best friend. There are several CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 hubs, but if you want Ethernet then you'll want the TS4 (in theory the TS3+ would work for your setup, but you'd need to make sure it is supported):

https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/16/caldigit-ts4-thunderbolt-hub-review-the-dock-of-our-dreams

I ordered online and picked it up in-store (got the last one they had) last Sunday.

This is a replacement for an old 2K Apple Thunderbolt Display. It works well for that. The camera works fine for Zoom/Teams with Center Stage turned on. Without it, it’s unusable. I’d love to see macOS provide real control over the Studio Display camera—surely, if it can do Center Stage, it can also do that?

If you’re used to the 5K iMac experience, this won’t be anything new. Or even a decent 4K. But if you’re coming from (or via), say, a MacBook Air or an older MacBook Pro, you’ll probably find the jump up to Retina 5K quite satisfying. 

Sameer Samat’s statement indicates Spotify is still paying Google its commission. 

Kuo sees and hears a lot of things from the supply chain, but putting it all together is not easy, especially when it comes to Macs, as opposed to mobile devices.

So he was hearing and seeing a lot of things that pointed to the Mac Studio, but he understandably thought that meant the Mini was getting a Pro version, which is what he predicted. Which is pretty much exactly what the Mac Studio is, except they aren't calling it the Mini, because the Mini is going to live on a separate product.

So now Kuo sits back and reflects on what he saw and heard, and he concludes the M2 Mini is not going to change form factor. However, most likely this is just him saying he's got nothing left that indicates a change in the Mini's form factor. The reality is that such a change could and certainly would use components from the MacBook line. So there might not be anything in the supply chain to indicate a change in form factor. 

My own instinct is that the fact the Studio has exactly the same footprint as the current Mini means the new Mini will change its form factor. Apple will want the Mini to be clearly differentiated from the Studio. So it will shrink in size and basically be a MacBook without the Book, as it were. It wouldn't surprise me if there were no M2 Pro version of the Mini at all. That all the rumors of a Mini Pro were based on information about the Studio...

AppleZulu said:

dewme said:

I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.

...

Seems like too much of this would be self-defeating for Apple. Advance previews of hardware upgrades undermines sales of current hardware. They might tell you a few months out about a new product, but not about plans for existing lines. 

Uh, what current hardware? Do you mean the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Pro? Like they aren’t already undermined? Releasing a Mac Mini Pro and announcing a coming iMac Pro and iMac Max, not to mention an M1 Mac Pro with the current form factor, might actually increase sales of the Intel hardware as its discontinuation approaches…