Apple WWDC 2020

[ilovejedd]

I’m liking the refinements to iOS/iPadOS 14. I’ll likely install the beta on one of my iPads. Here’s hoping they fix the memory management issues from iOS 13.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't really see myself as going for any new hardware either. I have been considering getting a mac mini with lots of ram and a big hard disk to use as a media server, but I also want it to work with sierra since I have some apps that don't work past sierra. Certainly the new hardware won't do that.

Our 10-year old Windows 7 desktop is on its last legs and doesn’t support a lot of modern features (no USB-C, NVMe, HEVC, etc).

I’ve been toying with the idea of replacing it with a Mac Mini for better integration with my iOS devices. I was checking prices yesterday and was reminded why I don’t own Macs. RAM and SSD upgrade costs are insane and it’s either impossible or extremely difficult to do aftermarket upgrades.

Mac Mini was $1799 for the config I want (quad-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD). A quad-core NUC with 32GB RAM and high-end 1TB NVMe SSD would just be $700 ($800 with Windows 10 Pro). Of course, the Mac Mini’s better but the NUC will serve my needs just as well. For $1000 savings, I can continue living without better iOS integration.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I’m liking the refinements to iOS/iPadOS 14. I’ll likely install the beta on one of my iPads. Here’s hoping they fix the memory management issues from iOS 13.



Our 10-year old Windows 7 desktop is on its last legs and doesn’t support a lot of modern features (no USB-C, NVMe, HEVC, etc).

I’ve been toying with the idea of replacing it with a Mac Mini for better integration with my iOS devices. I was checking prices yesterday and was reminded why I don’t own Macs. RAM and SSD upgrade costs are insane and it’s either impossible or extremely difficult to do aftermarket upgrades.

Mac Mini was $1799 for the config I want (quad-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD). A quad-core NUC with 32GB RAM and high-end 1TB NVMe SSD would just be $700 ($800 with Windows 10 Pro). Of course, the Mac Mini’s better but the NUC will serve my needs just as well. For $1000 savings, I can continue living without better iOS integration.

Yea, that's why I'm still at the considering stage. The configuration I want is $2000 and I don't think that I can downgrade to Sierra. If I could run Sierra in 64 bit mode, I would likely pull the trigger.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I’m liking the refinements to iOS/iPadOS 14. I’ll likely install the beta on one of my iPads. Here’s hoping they fix the memory management issues from iOS 13.

Yep, the memory management in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 is nearly non-existent and better labeled as “memory mismanagement”. iPadOS 13 also has some serious keyboard/typing issues that absolutely have to get fixed in 14.

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Our 10-year old Windows 7 desktop is on its last legs and doesn’t support a lot of modern features (no USB-C, NVMe, HEVC, etc).

I’ve been toying with the idea of replacing it with a Mac Mini for better integration with my iOS devices. I was checking prices yesterday and was reminded why I don’t own Macs. RAM and SSD upgrade costs are insane and it’s either impossible or extremely difficult to do aftermarket upgrades.

Mac Mini was $1799 for the config I want (quad-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD). A quad-core NUC with 32GB RAM and high-end 1TB NVMe SSD would just be $700 ($800 with Windows 10 Pro). Of course, the Mac Mini’s better but the NUC will serve my needs just as well. For $1000 savings, I can continue living without better iOS integration.

I’ve been a Mac fan on and off since 1985, but I’ve never had a top of the line model because I’m opposed to robbing banks! For a few years in the 1990s when Jobs was out of the company Apple licensed the hardware to 3rd party vendors, but Jobs cancelled the licensing after he staged a coup and regained control. The 3rd party Macs were better and more affordable than the crap Apple was building then, plus the old Mac OS was aged and useless. I lived in Austin then, and we had several 3rd party Mac hardware companies there turning out awesome machines, but they all went bankrupt after Jobs screwed them over. Thankfully Jobs did see how antiquated Mac OS had become and he got that issue corrected, but prices went through the roof again. The older Mac Minis were great, but the new ones aren’t a good value at all. BTW, none of my Macs or iThingies have USB-C. I can’t afford those. I doubt I will ever buy another Mac as they are just too darn expensive. I’ll likely have to go back to a Win 10 computer in the future, and that makes me sad.

[tomsem]

My advantage is that the only Mac I have owned is a 2009 MacBook Pro, which is still running great (SSD upgrade, new battery, new fan). The others have all been work machines. So it is a clean slate as to upgrading to a new one, no downsides.

At a minimum I have to be able to upgrade RAM so the current 21” iMac is a non starter. The inability to easily upgrade internal storage is not as important. External storage can be added, it gets cheaper and faster all the time, and it’s not likely to max out TB3.

The tricky part is to justify the need for a new computer. We also have two Windows 10 computers 8-10 years old. They are somewhat slow but still functional.

[OtinG]

External storage is painfully slow without USB-C, at least on my two older Macs. The MacBook Pro has an internal 256GB SSD, so that is fast, but I can’t really do much processing via files stored in external SSDs since that is too slow. So I have to use the internal SSD for processing data and external storage for backup or to move enough data off of internal SSD to allow good performance. Certainly doable, but a PITA when dealing with huge photo libraries.

My 2014 MacBook Pro has a Thunderbolt (2?) port, but those drives are too expensive so I’ve never tried them.

I sure miss the days when you could easily build your own WinTel box for a reasonable price. Too bad we never had that ability with Macs. Oh well, my 2012 Mini and 2014 MacBook Pro are still working fine. Hopefully they last several more years.

[tomsem]

Yes, I was talking about new macs with TB3. There you can get very acceptable throughput with low latency, external GPUs to speed up rendering and such.

[ilovejedd]

Just installed iOS 14 Developer Beta 1 on the iPad 7 (3GB RAM). So far so good.

Marvin seems to work just fine still so that’s pretty awesome.

Scribble is pretty nice. I'm amazed it can make sense of my chicken scratch.

There’s a weird font issue with Dropbox (everything’s bold) and some GUI gitches. Other than that, I’ve got fewer issues with iOS 14 beta than I did with early iOS 13 stable releases. Back then, the download manager and changes to the Files app really messed with my workflow until Dropbox updated their app and refinements to iOS 13 were made.

Jury’s still out on RAM management. I installed the beta on a 32GB model that I erased and set up as new so it can’t really handle my usual barrage of apps and data. As it is, System already uses more than 11GB storage.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Just installed iOS 14 Developer Beta 1 on the iPad 7 (3GB RAM). So far so good.

Marvin seems to work just fine still so that’s pretty awesome.

Scribble is pretty nice. I'm amazed it can make sense of my chicken scratch.

There’s a weird font issue with Dropbox (everything’s bold) and some GUI gitches. Other than that, I’ve got fewer issues with iOS 14 beta than I did with early iOS 13 stable releases. Back then, the download manager and changes to the Files app really messed with my workflow until Dropbox updated their app and refinements to iOS 13 were made.

Jury’s still out on RAM management. I installed the beta on a 32GB model that I erased and set up as new so it can’t really handle my usual barrage of apps and data. As it is, System already uses more than 11GB storage.

I have an iPad mini and Macbook Pro that I use for betas. In general, I've found it better to wait for the public beta rather than what they hand out at the WWDC.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tomsem

My advantage is that the only Mac I have owned is a 2009 MacBook Pro, which is still running great (SSD upgrade, new battery, new fan). The others have all been work machines. So it is a clean slate as to upgrading to a new one, no downsides.

At a minimum I have to be able to upgrade RAM so the current 21” iMac is a non starter. The inability to easily upgrade internal storage is not as important. External storage can be added, it gets cheaper and faster all the time, and it’s not likely to max out TB3.

The tricky part is to justify the need for a new computer. We also have two Windows 10 computers 8-10 years old. They are somewhat slow but still functional.

You can upgrade RAM on an iMac. It's very easy to do. The big issue for me is upgrading the hard drive. It's possible, but when I tried to do it with my old iMac, I ended up wreaking the machine. My eyes just are up to it anymore.

I have an external thunderbolt drobo that works great, my only problem is the some Apple programs insist on using the internal drive.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

You can upgrade RAM on an iMac. It's very easy to do.

You can upgrade the RAM easily on some iMacs. On the current 21.5" iMac, the memory is not accessible without removing the screen. Which is glued on. And then remove the motherboard. And then remove the cage covering the two DIMM slots.

[OtinG]

Some of the older minis were easy to upgrade as far as RAM and HDD/SSD. My 2012 model is easy, but some later models were a different story. I’ve seen videos showing how to update the latest model. It is doable if you have good eyesight and dexterity. In my case, my eyesight is getting bad and my arthritis makes it difficult to do those kind of tasks.

Apple has made it difficult to update Macs since the earliest models. In the 1980s you had to acquire really long 12” hex wrenches to undo the screws holding the case on. No big deal, but it did keep some from succeeding with a RAM upgrade. I do miss the WinTel boxes that only required a philips screwdriver and a steady hand to access everything!

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I have an iPad mini and Macbook Pro that I use for betas. In general, I've found it better to wait for the public beta rather than what they hand out at the WWDC.

The iPad 7 I used for the beta is not one of my primary iPads. Those would be the 2017 Pro 12.9, 2017 Pro 10.5 and 2019 Air 3.

I normally wait for public betas, too, but in this case I wanted Scribble support asap for an online training I’m attending today.

Honestly though, I find iOS 14 Dev Beta to be more stable than iOS 13 GM. Some GUI-related glitches here and there but nothing that was a show stopper like on iOS 13.

[OtinG]

Scribble is one of the features I’m hoping works well. Interesting that my Palm Pilot had rather good handwriting recognition back in the 1990s. It was of course very crude compared to what is available today, and you had to enter each letter/number using a specific font style, but it worked so much faster than pressing a tiny keyboard with the stylus. At IBM we used their relabelled Palm Pilot, the IBM Workpad. I’m looking forward to a much more sophisticated feature like Scribble once they get it running well and app developers start adapting it. I’m not clear on whether Apple is making Scribble work in all apps or if the developers have to code it into their apps. Hopefully the former as the latter will take longer to see it appear and be way more problematic.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Scribble is one of the features I’m hoping works well. Interesting that my Palm Pilot had rather good handwriting recognition back in the 1990s. It was of course very crude compared to what is available today, and you had to enter each letter/number using a specific font style, but it worked so much faster than pressing a tiny keyboard with the stylus. At IBM we used their relabelled Palm Pilot, the IBM Workpad. I’m looking forward to a much more sophisticated feature like Scribble once they get it running well and app developers start adapting it. I’m not clear on whether Apple is making Scribble work in all apps or if the developers have to code it into their apps. Hopefully the former as the latter will take longer to see it appear and be way more problematic.

The former. I tried it on Marvin Classic (circa 2016) and it works as an alternative to keyboard input. Just write on any text box and iPadOS 14 will convert it to normal text.

Finished my online training and made extensive use of Scribble. There were some off words here and there but it really handled my chicken scratch a whole lot better than I expected it to. Plus editing and copying my notes afterwards is a lot easier.

I had a Windows Vista convertible and that had pretty decent handwriting recognition. That was one feature I’ve wanted on iPads ever since Apple introduced the Pencil and I’m glad to see Scribble works even better.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

The former. I tried it on Marvin Classic (circa 2016) and it works as an alternative to keyboard input. Just write on any text box and iPadOS 14 will convert it to normal text.

Finished my online training and made extensive use of Scribble. There were some off words here and there but it really handled my chicken scratch a whole lot better than I expected it to. Plus editing and copying my notes afterwards is a lot easier.

I had a Windows Vista convertible and that had pretty decent handwriting recognition. That was one feature I’ve wanted on iPads ever since Apple introduced the Pencil and I’m glad to see Scribble works even better.

Does it require print script only or will it allow cursive script too? My cursive script is gosh awful, so I doubt it could interpret that. Sometimes I can’t even interpret my own cursive script! Print script would be fine, but cursive would be a bit faster.