Increasingly Familiar Apple Lust Objects for 2016 and onwards

xps yeah hard for me to imagine going below 27'' 5K again. but i'm not partial to laptops anyway

podcast announcement yet?

The iMac 5k was much cheaper than there total of a standalone 5k LG and even a lower-powered MBP when I priced it up. I also kinda just like the all-in-one-ness.

I'm just about to go for an M1 13" MacBook Air and an LG Ultrafine screen (the 24" as the 27" is like hen's teeth in the UK) for my photography work and day to day.

The M1 27"+ iMac is going to be a while yet and it'll cost a fortune when it does appear.

The M1 Air and LG screen combo is cheaper than the current iteration of the 27" intel iMac I was considering before.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/20/magic-keyboard-touch-id-compatible-all-m1-macs/

i hope they sell this separately. i'd buy it.

and one with a number pad built in

definitely wondering about an iMac, basically don’t go anywhere with a laptop anymore and one of the new iMacs next to my existing HP 4K would be pretty functional.

That said I’m interested to see how functional an iPad Pro plus external monitor would be.

been wondering why they haven't done that yet, or even one w a touchbar. Not that I'd want a touchbar, just seems like something Apple might've done.

Count me among the many who don't get why they wouldn't take this iMac refresh as the chance to finally get rid of the chin and bezels. How much thicker would that make the computer? How much better would it look?

And for people shopping for second monitors who care about color, the order goes Eizo > NEC or BenQ. LG, Asus, HP, Dell Ultrasharp all make decent monitors, but it's really about Eizo or NEC.

The touchbar is dead.

i hated the touchbar on my old mac almost as much as I love being able to log in with my fingerprint on my new

^this

Touchbar is such a waste of time.

worse than that. i press the one on my work laptop accidentally.

I’ve got around that by using an external keyboard but when I was using the internal one I would accidentally strike the paste button in Microsoft office products almost every time I went to type an ‘e’.

across the intervening row of number keys?
I just set my touchbar to be the standard function keys, effectively negates it because I hate the stupid thing.

touchID on desktops/laptops is truly great, an actual leap forward in usability. paired with something like 1password it means i never have to type in a password again, for anything.

I agree!

It’s good, but Apple does still make you type the system password at least once a day I find.

I do it more often cause it’s quicker than lifting up the lid when have the MacBook closed and hooked up to an external monitor and keyboard, so a TouchID latter would be great.

external keyboard + touchid + 1password yes please

now I’m just having really dumb ideas like “will touchid in the new keyboard work if you... pair it with an iPad?!?”

it's M1 (i.e. T2 in the SOC) only, so my guess would be yes in the new ipad pro, no in the other ones.

It’s good, but Apple does still make you type the system password at least once a day I find.
― Alba, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:13

I only have to enter my system password about once a week (plz don't steal my M1 MBA with touch ID and cut off my finger with this knowledge)

this seems like a plausible explanation for why M1s feel so responsive in interactive use, even with less RAM than intel machines https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/apples-m1-is-a-fast-cpu-but-m1-macs-feel-even-faster-due-to-qos/

Interesting if true

https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/18/40-core-mac-pro-high-end-mac-mini-in-development/

really want that larger iMac — assuming the pricing still works out way better than new-Cube + standalone 5k screen

xps yeah the impression I get about the M1 is that it is a collection of good decisions, rather than any genius technical breakthroughs.

I know Intel CPUs don't have efficiency-optimized cores but it still seems like Big Sur could dedicate a couple cores to interactive processes ...

M1 vmic for Apple

if it works, it works

yeah not complaining. only question is if I can justify replacing my 2016 MBP which only feel sluggish in Lightroom.

If you’re using Lightroom Classic definitely wait till Adobe releases a Silicon-native version before replacing a 2016 MBP with an M1 one, I’d say.

I seem to have been particularly unlucky with my Rosetta 2 Adobe experience but I’m not the only one having problems.

I am actually using Lightroom 6, since it does what I need and it doesn't need a subscription. It works on Big Sur but can't be installed on Big Sur, so I'm probably going to need a change here.

Mac Mini Pro could be my ideal computer unless the RAM and SSD tax increases.

yup. that's all I ever wanted. I'm a monitor snob, about to finally buy an EIZO CS2740, already have other monitors to use as a secondary.

From work I have gotten used to using a macbook, so I will definitely way the price/power differences between a powerful mac mini pro and whatever the new macbook pros are gonna be.

any news on the M1 macbook pros?

Nope. Was expected sooner but I think there was some backlog due to screens. Last chatter was sometime between september and november.

I'm waiting to see when those hit, or a higher-end mac mini. I need a new computer for my new business/shop.

the lovely Emma B’s 6-year-old laptop needs a repair and i have convinced her to hold off buying a new one and do the repair instead.

i got a pair of airpod pros for my birthday and these are pretty fuckin great

Same. Bought them on a whim as they were heavily discounted and so far Im impressed. Just need to find a way to keep them where my 3 yo can’t reach them

the lovely Emma B’s 6-year-old laptop needs a repair and i have convinced her to hold off buying a new one and do the repair instead.

This is kind of where I'm at too - mid-2014 MBP15-Retina, 1100 battery cycles, is running ok but can't manage anything CPU-intensive when not plugged in to AC (shuts down). Runs Big Sur fine but won't support Monterey when it arrives. Battery replacement is a fair chunk of cash if this model gets no further OS updates (also: haven't taken it out of the house in 18 months, so being able to render video/photo edits off the battery hasn't been essential in a long time).

The funds all went on M1 MBA for elder daughter six months ago, which is fair enough, as she's got sixth form/college ahead of her (hopefully), an all-apps Adobe CC subscription through school, and may actually forge some kind of career/skill-set/rewarding creative practice out of this. Latest tech is wasted on 50-something hobbyists trying to fill the void :)

I'm not sure what to do because I want to buy a new MacBook and iPhone and I'm currently in the US, where if nothing else, Apple products are a lot cheaper (base MacBook Air is $999+tax, so $1082 here in New York, versus £999 in UK, which on current exchange rates is $1,389). I'm moving back to the UK in September, probably before the new Macs and iPhones are released, so I'd end up buying at the worst time. Probably still better than buying in sterling. Pleased to discover you can buy a MacBook with a UK keyboard here, though only from Apple I think, so that's another thing to weigh up – whether it's worth paying the extra to buy from Apple rather than elsewhere, where you can often pick up a discount.

any news on the M1 macbook pros?

are you waiting for the 16" version?

Historically, new apple stuff announced in q3-q4 is almost always done in the first half of September iirc

I was wrong, but most often September and almost never August

f hazel yes - not the current 13” one

Apple is selling refurb 256GB iPhone 11 Pro for $899. Feels like quite a good deal - I need something to replace the XR that employer will soon take away from me when I change jobs. Any thoughts?

$849, rather

I have an 12 pro and it’s the best phone I’ve ever had but then so was the original X so I think an 11 pro, especially at that price would be great. I’m not sure I’ve ever come close to hitting the limits of the 12.

i want touchid, but has anyone typed on this new external keyboard yet?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/apple-begins-selling-touch-id-equipped-magic-keyboard-new-mac-pro-gpus/

I used one briefly when setting up my folks' M1 iMac, it seemed very like the previous wireless keyboard (with the Lightning charge port).

they're pricey but I really want one. Don't have an M1 computer though. yet.

$149 for the wired one, jeebus. And that's the one without the numpad!