jmgregory1

MacPro said:

georgie01 said:

I wonder what the upgrade cycle will be for Macs with Apple processors, and how those processors will compare to mobile processors. If a Mac uses an A14 variant and then an iPhone/iPad is upgraded to an A15, will the Macs then be slower than iPhones and some Mac users feel the need to upgrade every year to have the fastest available? What Mac user is going to feel good about their Mac being slower than the next iPhone that comes out?

Or will the Mac variants of the processors be faster enough that an iPhone/iPad using next generation will still be slower?

My guess is they will be pretty much in lockstep although the various product line releases will most likely stay on the same staggered timeline as now.

I would be willing to bet that the performance of AS based Macs will be significantly higher than the version used in iPhones, just based on the fact that they’ll have far more room to push the chips (more power, ram, cooling, etc.).  It’s also unlikely that Apple will use the same chip naming structure for Macs, in part so that people don’t think that one is the same as the other.

I’m definitely excited to see the new iPhone Pro’s, as well as iPad Pro, assuming there is a further update this fall or early winter.  I’m less so excited about new Apple Silicon MacBook’s, Pro’s or otherwise, as I’ve already made the shift to working almost exclusively on my iPad Pro 12.9”.  The new iMac, whenever that gets released with Apple Silicon will be of interest, as a replacement for my aging early 2013 iMac 21.5” with Fusion Drive.  Not that it isn’t still plugging away, but I notice the lower resolution screen and it does tend to get overwhelmed when I have too many apps running at once.

It’s an exciting time to be an Apple fan.

DAalseth said:

MplsP said:

apple ][ said:

I remember people complaining about the price.

I suppose that their complaints were based on extreme ignorance combined with a healthy dose of self entitlement and just general cluelessness, which is nothing new when it comes to comments about Apple products and especially the pricing.

The x-ray shows that the Apple Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro is unlike any other offering on the market. If anybody thinks it's the same, then they should go buy one of the cheaper alternatives instead.

If you want the best, it's going to cost more than the others. There's a reason that it's the best. I haven't tried this magic keyboard yet, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that the feel, quality and usability will be way better than anything else out there.

The two issues are separate and irrelevant to each other. I've seen no one claim the magic keyboard was a poor device, but just because it's a complicated design doesn't mean it's not too expensive. 

Let me take it to the extreme - suppose it was $1000. Would it still be worth it? It's a complicated device, and the best, so obviously it should be worth $1000, right?

Total straw-man argument. Anything at some price point isn’t worth the price. The most economical item is overpriced is if someone doesn’t have the money. The question, and the point apple][ was making was that those that said it was just an overpriced keyboard with a fancy stand were wrong. There is a lot more to this. If they want a $50 keyboard for their iPad, fine. More power too them. But, and there were many posts in this vein, that were saying that this was overpriced because they could buy a $50 keyboard, or a $150 keyboard case were not comparing like items. This is a lot more high tech. Maybe it’s out of their price range. Fine. But for me I learned a number of things from this article that makes me think it is worth more than apparently similar items from Brydge or Logitech.

I agree completely with you, but I would add that for some people, the perception of high price wasn’t just that they could get something cheaper from another manufacturer, but rather Apple’s own other products, like the MacBook Air or 13” MBP can be had for less (than the iPad Pro 12.9” plus Magic Keyboard), if you’re simply looking at comparing them as laptop to laptop-like devices.

I’ve been using my iPad Pro 12.9” since I got it back in January of 2019, with the Keyboard Folio, traveling with it as my primary computer-like device - in lieu of lugging my 15” rMBP around with me.  I’ve liked using it, but it wasn’t efficient for working on spreadsheets, given the back and forth I was doing between typing and having to touch the keyboard.  

The new IPadOS with its trackpad support was such a significant improvement, it has me using the iPad Pro almost exclusively now, even as I have been working from my desk and not traveling.  I was one of those who was on Apple’s Store App clicking to refresh when they said the Magic Keyboard was launching, but ended up deciding that I could wait, since I’m not traveling now.  I’m actually using an old Apple Keyboard and new Magic Trackpad 2 (gray to match my iPad Pro) while the iPad sits on custom black acrylic stand I developed WAY back when the initial iPad launched.  I love the large sized trackpad, so it does worry me a bit that going down the very small sized trackpad on the Magic Keyboard will feel limiting.

I’ll definitely buy the new Magic Keyboard once I’m back on the road again, but for now my setup is working great as is.

AppleZulu said:

jmgregory1 said:

This is as bad of a design as Microsoft’s curved flexi-hinge laptop, because there is no way for the screen to fold flat against the base of the computer.  You would always have a gap at the hinge.  Just from an aesthetic point of view, the look that it creates isn’t good, and it of course presents issues with objects that could make their way into the opening and damage the screen, keyboard or trackpad.

I understand that companies have to keep innovating, even if things like this will never see the light of day, but I bugs me that they would even put something like this out there in the first place.

If by "put something like this out there," you're referring to filing for a patent, the answer is obvious. A company like Apple is looking at all sorts of design features, only a small percentage of which ever make it to a final product line. If they don't patent every promising concept under consideration, it'll be too late by the time it's shown to be worthy of inclusion in a product. 

My point is how is this design even something they would want to patent?  So what if some competitor copies this multi-layer design?  It is such a compromised design, it will only cause issues (if it’s even possible to make an actual production sample using the design) for anyone using it.

This is as bad of a design as Microsoft’s curved flexi-hinge laptop, because there is no way for the screen to fold flat against the base of the computer.  You would always have a gap at the hinge.  Just from an aesthetic point of view, the look that it creates isn’t good, and it of course presents issues with objects that could make their way into the opening and damage the screen, keyboard or trackpad.

I understand that companies have to keep innovating, even if things like this will never see the light of day, but I bugs me that they would even put something like this out there in the first place.