Oct 18 Apple Event

I went with Space Grey 16" M1 Max (32 core GPU), 64GB RAM, 2TB of storage. My sister ordered the same spec but in Silver. I ordered within 60 seconds of the store opening so I got a Tuesday 26th delivery. My sister ordered less than 20-30 minutes later and got a December shipping date. Kinda sucks but it is what it is. She's excited about what kinda performance she'll get with 3D packages like Cinema 4D, as am I. I think battery life will be the biggest game changer for me because of times when I'm on the road visiting offices and presenting stuff on my laptop plugged into a TV/projector with HDMI. With my current Mac I have to constantly worry about whether or not the office I'm visiting will have a charger on hand (and honestly faffing around asking about a charger is embarrassing when I'm there to make a good impression), or I don't feel I can freely make edits on my laptop before the meeting in case I don't have enough battery left to present. These issues should be vaporized with M1's efficiency but only time will tell.

Better performance all around without the machine melting, ProMotion with miniLED, and actually usable battery life were the key elements that made this a no-brainer for me.
 
zakarhino said:
I went with Space Grey 16" M1 Max (32 core GPU), 64GB RAM, 2TB of storage. My sister ordered the same spec but in Silver. I ordered within 60 seconds of the store opening so I got a Tuesday 26th delivery. My sister ordered less than 20-30 minutes later and got a December shipping date. Kinda sucks but it is what it is. She's excited about what kinda performance she'll get with 3D packages like Cinema 4D.

Better performance all around without the machine melting, ProMotion with miniLED, and actually usable battery life were the key elements that made this a no-brainer for me.
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Battery life in the real world will be very interesting. To what extent did they tune this for maximum performance vs. power. We don’t know the peak clock rates or much of anything else yet.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Today really highlights what a value the initial M1 stuff is
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Last year they touted the first iteration of the M1 as the greatest thing since Christ walked on water, this year, it's the max or pro, or FU... not a single word about it. They're experts at sales and marketing, how else can they convince millions to upgrade an iPhone on an annual basis when the marginal changes are nearly invisible to the naked eye.
 
Cmaier said:
Yeah I am very confused. I take it the deal is you can’t use the music app, but have to ask Siri to play stuff? And it is missing some audio features? Maybe it’s good for people who only use HomePods? (But don’t own iphones? Who are those people?)
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Can you even set up a HomePod without an iPhone or iPad?
 
Renzatic said:
The major reason why I'll never buy a pair of AirPods is because they look like they'd be easily misplaced, or lost between couch cushions. I don't want to pay $200 for something I know I'll lose in a month.
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Offspring is on like her 3rd set for that very reason.
 
I honestly don’t get this fascination Apple seems to have with talking to your tablets, your speakers, the lights, the walls, … I guess it’s a cultural thing. I’m surrounded by people with iPhones on a daily basis, and nobody talks to Siri. Ever.
Siri is available, but simply isn’t used over here.
Oh well.

Even SSD speeds were really good.
 
Eric said:
Last year they touted the first iteration of the M1 as the greatest thing since Christ walked on water, this year, it's the max or pro, or FU... not a single word about it. They're experts at sales and marketing, how else can they convince millions to upgrade an iPhone on an annual basis when the marginal changes are nearly invisible to the naked eye.
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I'm not really following in the same way

The M1 is still fantastic and the value for the performance offered is outstanding (still!)

What was released today is really targeting an entirely different market
 
turbineseaplane said:
I'm not really following in the same way

The M1 is still fantastic and the value for the performance offered is outstanding (still!)

What was released today is really targeting an entirely different market
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I am referring to the MBP, this was highlighted as one of their latest and greatest today. It was last year, too, only with the original M1 chip.
 
Eric said:
I am referring to the MBP, this was highlighted as one of their latest and greatest today. It was last year, too, only with the original M1 chip.
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Oh - yeah -- to the uninformed out there, it was a con operation on that Pro for sure.
Never should have been a "Pro" M1 -- it really wasn't/isn't one -- good point
 
Eric said:
I am referring to the MBP, this was highlighted as one of their latest and greatest today. It was last year, too, only with the original M1 chip.
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well, both of those things can be true. Last year’s MBP was remarkable because at the price point of the bottom of the line MBP they provided performance that exceeded pretty much everything else out there (and definitely at that price point), by quite a lot.

This time they’ve provided a top-of-the-line MBP that will likely outperform all but the most kitted out desktop machines.

These new machines don’t replace last year’s machines - it was always understood that the “base” MBP would be M1 and the “fancy” MBP would be what they were calling “M1X,” at least for now. It was also understood that the 13” was a transitional product, and in a couple of years the base model was going become 14”.

I think we’ll see it evolve so that the “base” model will be a 14” with limited ports and M2, and then you have the higher end 14” and the 16” with all the ports and M2 Pro and M2 Max. They’ve treated the “base” ”small” MBP as a different thing for awhile now.

I assume that the MBAs also get the base M2, and that for minis and iMacs you end up with all three choices, depending on screen size, etc. I would *guess* that. given the timing, the ”big” imac will get M2 (with avalanche cores) and never see an M1 variant, but who knows. Could also be that for the iMacs they offer an upgrade to whatever the Mac Pro will use ( “M2 Pro Max Extreme?”)

Mac Pro is its own beast.
 
Cmaier said:
I don’t know, but I doubt it. Maybe that’s coming next. A lot of things don’t make sense to me about this.
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Saved this meme for something exactly like the combo of the Homepod MIni and a Siri-run Music plan.

bountiful harvest.jpg​
 
Some other technical notes:

- new processors use LPDDR5 (probably -6400)
- looks to me like two SLC blocks, each with 16MB. Very curious how they handle affinity.
- Even if these are firestorm high performance cores, I still think the high efficiency cores are not icestorm. Can’t be sure yet.
- 2 x 12MB L2 caches. (Again, affinity is an interesting question. Since apple controls the scheduler in the OS, this could offset the potential issues in this sort of design)
- The max is 432 mm^2. He’s a big boy.
- Max’s i/o bandwidth would put it in the same league has high-end discrete GPUs.
- the “pro” is not just a “max” with disabled portions. These are distinct die.
- since they are talking about the big GPU using 100W less than the competition, looks to me like the total SoC power consumption might hit over 100W at peak?
 
Entropy said:
I honestly don’t get this fascination Apple seems to have with talking to your tablets, your speakers, the lights, the walls, … I guess it’s a cultural thing. I’m surrounded by people with iPhones on a daily basis, and nobody talks to Siri. Ever.
Siri is available, but simply isn’t used over here.
Oh well.

Even SSD speeds were really good.
Click to expand...

I don't use Siri; she doesn't understand me and I'll bet the same applies to a lot of other users for different reasons. Siri and voice-operated this-and-that are not the be-all-and-end-all for many folks. I found myself getting rather annoyed by the happy announcement that "now even more people will have access to voice-operation for their music!" or whatever it was they were saying. Of course, for a monthly charge and special subscription, that is.... No, thanks!
 
Yeah - Siri based Music plan is weird.

It seems to be done simply to hit a price point

Given how poor Siri can be, it's basically a "random music shuffle" plan
 
turbineseaplane said:
Yeah - Siri based Music plan is weird.

It seems to be done simply to hit a price point

Given how poor Siri can be, it's basically a "random music shuffle" plan
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Yeah.... they need a better vamping routine to keep from going straight to "Sorry Dave, I can't do that".

Lizkat: "Hey Siri, quit Music on my XR and then on my MBA open my nonAppleMusic library and play the pizzicato from Bartok's fourth string quartet, the Takacs version".

Siri: "How about some popcorn while you wait?"

btw somehow Apple in the recent past has managed to revive a MacOS bug they had actually killed for awhile in Big Sur, so play counts and date last played don't update sometimes even if you do have "Use Listening HIstory" turned on everywhere on all your Mac or iOS devices and are signed into the same ID on them all too.
 
Entropy said:
I honestly don’t get this fascination Apple seems to have with talking to your tablets, your speakers, the lights, the walls, … I guess it’s a cultural thing. I’m surrounded by people with iPhones on a daily basis, and nobody talks to Siri. Ever.
Siri is available, but simply isn’t used over here.
Oh well.

Even SSD speeds were really good.
Click to expand...

You don't have to talk to Siri.

It (she) reads your mind smoothly like aluminium. ;)
 
Cmaier said:
well, both of those things can be true. Last year’s MBP was remarkable because at the price point of the bottom of the line MBP they provided performance that exceeded pretty much everything else out there (and definitely at that price point), by quite a lot.

This time they’ve provided a top-of-the-line MBP that will likely outperform all but the most kitted out desktop machines.

These new machines don’t replace last year’s machines - it was always understood that the “base” MBP would be M1 and the “fancy” MBP would be what they were calling “M1X,” at least for now. It was also understood that the 13” was a transitional product, and in a couple of years the base model was going become 14”.

I think we’ll see it evolve so that the “base” model will be a 14” with limited ports and M2, and then you have the higher end 14” and the 16” with all the ports and M2 Pro and M2 Max. They’ve treated the “base” ”small” MBP as a different thing for awhile now.

I assume that the MBAs also get the base M2, and that for minis and iMacs you end up with all three choices, depending on screen size, etc. I would *guess* that. given the timing, the ”big” imac will get M2 (with avalanche cores) and never see an M1 variant, but who knows. Could also be that for the iMacs they offer an upgrade to whatever the Mac Pro will use ( “M2 Pro Max Extreme?”)

Mac Pro is its own beast.
Click to expand...
That was my take. Apple seems to be obsessed of having multiple versions of the SAME thing, so that customers always have 3 options in seemingly every Apple product. Whether it's headphones, phones, tablets, their computers.

They introduced early on the 'entry' version of M1, even with the Pro series of Macbooks. Now they have mid tier of course labelled pro, and their high end as Max.

If it's M1, it's already something for pros, over their basic versions. Slapped in a 'Pro' version, it's meant for anyone who does 'Pro' work over reading emails & consuming media.

Really? Airpods / Airpods Pro / Airpods Again / 3rd Gen... 🤷‍♂️ Oh, and Beats & Airpods Max o_O
 
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