sacto joe

entropys said:

vazertuche said:

Why is everyone lamenting the loss of the Mac middle when it is here we just all fail to see it. I like many of you want something between a iMac or iMac Pro and a tower but what do I really want? I want to add in cards and RAIDS and whatnot. Well the eGPU and thunderbolt enclosures are here to stay. Yes we can lament the extra boxes and the lack of ability to have it all in one big box but thats about all we can lament. We CAN actually do everything we want, we just may not like it cuz it isn't "pretty" or "clean". I run pro setups all the time with iMac's connected to eGPU's and other boxes running other PCI cards and in the end it does in fact look clean and professional....it's not just not in one box. Think of it this way. The entire power of having a tower is gives you the "option" to add cards if need be. Well we still have this option with thunderbolt 3...yes we have to cough up some extra dough for a eGPU box but thats about it right?  What am I missing here??? I would rather argue about the hatred of having to spend $300 on an eGPU box to add a card rather than arguing over a whole missing product or cheap tower. But hey, thats just me. 

Because that would never be as good as a direct PCI-e connection, neatly out of sight inside the box. Sure thunderbolt can be a temporary solution, but wires and xtra boxes is offensive to my design sense. 

Why can’t we have performance and style? That lovely intersection between liberal arts and engineering?

hmurchison said:

ElCapitan said:

commentzilla said:

hmurchison said:

Nope. 

Based on past history of just abandoning anything that takes a modicum of effort 
it would be unwise for those who are not of the Apple Sheep cloth to put much faith 
in Apple being consistent with any product at this level.    You only need look at 

5.  OS X Server turning into a toy 

Apple’s spent their money on AI companies and other ancillary technologies but they haven’t spent much effort 
into growing their Pro apps beyond routine small features and maintenance updates. 

I’d trust Apple if I had a few workstations to purchase but I’d be wary with committing to anything more than that. 

All of OS X Server's functionality is still there via the command line. In fact, it's in every copy of MacOS.

Blatantly false.  - See post above.

Customers can get these same services directly from open-source providers.
Which for all practical purposes means a Linux distribution.

Looks like Open Directory is gone from 5.8 too, which cannot easily be swapped for a standard LDAP server. 

Exactly.  Apple never created an iSCIS initiator which meant you always had to look at 3rd party solutions, while I understand their motive for 
pushing people to just download and install the newest components. but let's call a spade a spade.  They've put zero effort into making 
higher level computing suitable for the masses and that was pretty much the foundation for the company.  

Apple really doesn't have clue where the future is going.   Tim Cook gets on stage and prattles a word salad of technology but Apple shows very little ability to being the lighting rod that the industry needs going forward.   Apple is spending billions on trying to become the next Netflix.   Didn't Steve say "A computer is where you go to turn your brain on, a TV is where you go to turn your brain off".   So Apple now casts it lot with the "Hey sit back and turn your brain off and watch some Apple TV +. 

I love Apple ...but they've become old and stodgy.  

wizard69 said:

lkrupp said:

Well written as usual. Unfortunately the crowd that incessantly clamors for the slotted tower of olden days at a consumer level price will not be convinced even though they have had the Hackintosh option for years now. It’s a shrinking niche as pointed out but that niche is angry and vocal so we have to put up with all the bullshit about it.

It has little to do with being a niche or even angry.   Rather it is the stupidity of trying to market a machine with limited appeal to the wider “pro” market.   In the end, over time the new Mac Pro will not ship enough machines to justify its production.  Combine that with nothing else in Apples line up that could be considered by a pro in need of a desktop and you end up with zero pro interest.  

As for slots a midstream “pro” computer these days only really needs one slot and that would be for a GPU card.   By the way a standard GPU card.   The great failing of the trash can is no capacity for a standard off the shelf video card.   Such a card slot would have allowed a pro to configure the video card to his specific needs.  

You can make excuses for Apple but the reality is this new pro has huge obsticals to over come.    If Apple takes the same path as the trash can they will not even have an entire system on offer.  

gatorguy said:

slurpy said:

hentaiboy said:

dewme said:

Radar is a time proven, reliable, accurate, and relatively mature technology for distance and speed measurement that doesn't suffer from some of  the issues that affect optical and acoustic technology based systems. Nonetheless, it's still impressive to see it scaled down to a smartphone form factor for personal use applications. 

Yes, first implementation of gesture-based computing on a smartphone only to be dismissed as a “party trick” by the author.

It is a party trick, at least from Google's weak implementations and based on the fact every single review/hands-on that couldn't get it to work reliably. 

Yeah, seems like it's an iffy project after being miniaturized so much to fit that sensor strip in the forehead. More party trick at the moment tho all the reviewers seem to be in agreement that it does make the face unlock function much, much faster. 

I've suspected from the get-go that Soli, at least this initial version and software, would be of limited value. No idea what if anything can be done with it via future software update. Then again aren't the testers using beta handsets, not production units? Conceivable that consumer devices might work a bit more reliably. Give it a couple of weeks. 

EDIT: Android Central has a slightly different take on the Pixel's Soli Motion Sense. 

"Motion Sense doesn't really feel all that special. You can use it to silence alarms, dismiss or answer a call, or change tracks in your music player by waving your hand in front of the phone. It can also be used to trigger the camera system for Google's new facial recognition to unlock your phone. We've seen something similar as far back as 2013's Moto X. there is a difference, though, and it's in the capabilities.

Other phones used "air gestures" to do similar things with IR sensors or even through the camera(s) on the front of the phone. None were perfect by any means and that's because the tech used had some limitations. IR sensors or cameras can't detect motion at as high of a resolution as Soli can and it takes more power to keep a camera or bank of IR sensors always on. Soli can definitely do a lot more than Google is showing us so far.

It's probably prudent to start with the most basic set of gestures when releasing new tech like Motion Sense. However, since Soli can also do things like identify the material of an object, count cards as they are dealt, or even identify a product based on its weight, it stands to reason Google can open it up to do a lot more. We expect to see significant improvements to Motion Sense once the Pixel 4 is a bit more mature and Google is sure everything is working as expected."