colinng

SpamSandwich said:

Even if they merely brought back the “cheese grater” Mac Pro, I think it would be an improvement.

The tech has changed since the decade and a half when those towers were in the vogue. 

- 4x3.5” hard drive bays aren’t as important (or performant or quiet) as the chewing gum stick sized SSDs. If you really want 10TB or spinning storage you can get that in a single Helium filled drive. If you need more spinning storage, maybe a Thunderbolt storage array is a better idea? 
- What’s an optical drive? $50 at Costco for the 5 people with a burning need. 
- List 4 things you would put into a Slot that can’t be done better using Thunderbolt. Here’s 1: GPU. List 3 more? If an equipment manufacturer makes a ThunderBolt device, its addressable market is every Mac user. 

I’m surprised people are pissing on the Mac Pro. My guess is the thermal envelope isn’t high enough for people who want 18 cores and massive GPUs, but those people now have that need served by the iMac Pro. Sure, adding RAM yourself is hard, but is the cheese grater tower really the best solution in 2017?

If you can get 256GB RAM in 4 tiny slots wouldn’t the other 49lbs of tower really start to feel like wasted space?  

wizard69 said:

Effectively you get the performance of a couple of cores but you and Apple dont have to pay for those cores at Intel prices.  

It will be interesting this year to see how the new machines roll out.  That is will T2 be universal or not.  Also how much more can T2 like chips take on, in laptops that could be very interesting.  

I think it’s more about system security and Apple’s wish to reduce dependency on vendors.

They probably were really pissed off when they found that Intel firmware on the Thunderbolt controller meant that a specially crafted TB dongle could pwn a Mac. They were also not happy to be beholden to Intel’s chipset plans (which have been behind the times - to one point where Apple once used nVidia chipsets in Mac portables). Remember Intel Centrino? That was Intel’s ploy to get PC makers to buy their crappy chipset and crappy wireless cards. You needed all three to be Intel to get that flashy sticker. 

But switching to nVidia chipsets (most power efficient, includes GPU) and Atheros wireless (best radios) got them screwed when nVidia penny-pinched on the chip’s packaging, causing thermal issues (cracked solder joints) that resulted in massive recalls. 

None of the big vendors seem to have their head on straight, so Apple regretfully has to make everything. It’s not like they want to throw R&D behind Desktop CPUs when all the money is in Mobile. Oh well! 

They ship like 37 million iPhones a quarter, which are effectively a hardware legacy-free system (what’s a headphone jack?), so they probably can make a full desktop at some point. They’d probably rather not, though. Lots of R&D to get x64 code running perfectly on an ARM. I mean, even subtle details like Meltdown and Spectre have to be looked into. 

SpamSandwich said:

This is definitely happening as a direct result of Pres. Trump’s push for American manufacturing and making it politically uncomfortable for overseas overdependence.

Apple sources components and invests in R&D worldwide (i.e. $500M investment into flash controllers from Anobit in Israel, etc.). 

Apple partnered with Corning to be the first consumer of their special Ion hardened glass all the way back in 2007 to release the iPhone. 

If it makes the president happy to tick off a few checkboxes, sure, Apple will just continue its investments into high tech like it has always done, and make sure they qualify for the president’s checklist - get him off their backs. So now they can categorize a continued investment in Corning of $200M and in exchange Corning can give them VIP pricing on glass. 

Apple has always asked its suppliers to make things better than the status quo, which always requires... drumroll... R&D! 

If a politician wants to take credit and get bragging rights for Apple doing what it always does, who will stop said politician? Which voters are actually astute enough to credit the people or companies that made good decisions or investments? 

I think the iPad Pro should sell very well, and iOS 11 is going to really make it shine. Education market should be really happy with the iPad. 

I think it's we are on the cusp of it being practical to go Post-PC. 

I don't have a compelling reason to replace my Mac mini 2012 Quad i7. If I had $2,000 for hardware I'd put it into a 12.9" iPad Pro with LTE. I know lots of others would say the new MacBook Pro is more suited for what I do (software development and running VMs), but if I had to choose between a new MacBook Pro or an iPad Pro, I'd gladly keep running things on my Mac mini, storing movies on my NAS as before, and get ultra portable with the iPad Pro.

Remote Desktop fast enough, and low enough latency that it doesn't irritate me. Working Copy means I have my code repositories with me, and Textastic means I can edit code on my iPad. Push and let the CI system take care of compiling and running the Unit Tests.

1.5 lbs and 10 hours of battery life, and the ability to Pencil things in? Sign me up! 

lkrupp said:

techprod1gy said:

It is curious to me on the many difficulties that China brings to outsiders...I am unfamiliar with what if any difficulties Chinese firms have expanding in the US...Needs to be an even playing field if it isn't already.

No way is it an even playing field yet you seem to be implying the U.S. is at fault. Our trade deficit with China is humongous and growing. Chinese manufacturers produce ripoffs of American designed electronics with impunity. Walk into any retail store in the U.S. and 90% of the stuff in that store was made in China.  Tensions are rising between China and the U.S. over North Korea and Apple could get caught in the middle of a pissing contest in which China has the larger bladder. China can hurt us economically more than we can hurt them. In China, if a million people lose their jobs it’s no big deal to the totalitarian government in power.

And so it is China's fault that U.S. citizens either 1) are unwilling to pay a higher price for locally made products, or 2) not given local choices because local companies aren't willing to adopt technology and grow scale locally to reduce prices, or 3) being impoverished by unabated wealth transfer from the poor or middle-class to the rich, leaving them unable to afford higher quality goods, or 4) suffer from short-term thinking of buying many things instead of, say, 1 good item that lasts a lifetime?