kbeat

Thank goodness they're finally killing OpenGL. It had its day, but that day has long passed. No one uses it anymore except on Mac, where Metal is already so much faster and makes much better use of the hardware. Think of Metal like Sony's own APIs for the Playstation. Even though the PS4 quite similar in terms of hardware to the XBox, they don't use DirectX or any such derivative. They have their own custom APIs, which like Metal, allows devs to get right to the hardware without an OpenGL or DirectX middleman. This makes the system more efficient and often more powerful. Apple is absolutely doing the right thing here. It's not about standards, it's about squeezing every possible drop of performance and efficiency out of your hardware.

That said, without a little push, devs can be very, very slow to adapt, as adapting requires time and effort up front. If it can be avoided, they'll avoid it, but this should do the trick. Oh, and to those inclined to panic over such things, if devs and publishers are making money selling their games and apps on macOS, they will continue to do so. If they don't, they won't. This will not have any impact in terms of releasing software. If they're making money, they'll adapt, like devs always do. 

I'm less optimistic about OpenCL, as Metal hasn't yet proven to be as adept as OpenCL at offloading CPU tasks to the GPU. Heck, Adobe already supports both OpenCL and Metal for this very purpose in their apps, and to say OpenCL is faster than Metal is an understatement. It can be massively faster in certain tasks. Apple better make significant improvements to Metal in this area over the life of Mojave if this is to go smoothly. 

alandail said:

How do phone calls work with these?  Are microphones built in like with the AirPods, or do you have to plug in a cable?

Yes.

To clarify, you have both options. There is a microphone built in that works okay for phone calls. If you want better audio quality for calls there is an included cable with microphone that you can plug in. (I'm assuming these work the same as the W1 Solo3's Apple released last year.)

Rayz2016 said:

Okay, can the fake audiophiles line up here please? And make sure you have your “these are such poor quality compared to my Poseur9000 cans” comment ready. 

Thank you! Oi! No pushing at the back! You’ll all get your turn!

You don't see that so much these days. Most Beats reviews these days from audiophiles and tech sites acknowledge that they sound considerably better now with the latest Apple releases and are a decent sounding headphone for the money. Apple has dialed back the overwhelming bass that used to be the Beats signature sound and created a much more balanced profile. They still have a bass-y punch, but that's desirable for many, especially those who primarily listen to Hip Hop and Rock. 

They're never going to be the choice for those that like to put on headphones, turn off the lights, and catch every single note of a complex jazz arrangement, but that's not what they're designed to do, and that's okay! Poseur9000 cans exist for that. 

At some point, I think you've earned the stuff you stole. Chewing your way through steel reinforced cables? Yeah, keep it.