Peak Performance March 8 Event

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by OtinG

According to this article from AppleInsider published last summer the issue has been fixed, and might actually have only been a reporting error anyway. I haven’t heard anything else recently, so apparently they fixed it.

Not really a reporting issue.

That said, when I last used my M1 MBA, I noticed it was using swap a lot less and logging seems to be reduced compared to before so that should make for fewer writes. Back when I first got it, I used to see 100GB+ writes per day on Activity Monitor just web browsing. After MacOS updates, it was down to maybe 20-50GB per day.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Apple stated that the Mac Pro M-series will be introduced on "another day". At least that is how I interpreted the statement they made. That will position the Mac Pro as the professional level of the M-series desktops. With the introduction of the Mac Studio, Apple seems to have introduced the new mid-level desktop. The Mac mini will likely remain the introduction/consumer level desktop. It begs the question, "What about the iMac?" What is Apple's intention with the iMac line of desktops? Will they keep them or phase them out? The Studio might be their replacement, or maybe not. It will be interesting to see if Apple keeps them on the upgrade path.

At any rate, the Studio and Pro are way out of my price range as a retired hobbyist. My budget is more in the Mini and MacBook Air range. So I'm hoping Apple eventually updates the Mini with a M1 Pro chip without blowing the price way out. I suspect the Mini will eventually get the M2, but that will be an update to the M1. A M1 Pro would be good as it would bridge the void between mini M1 and Studio. The iMac could bridge that gap too if they keep it around, but I’m not an iMac fan. I shy away from all-in-one designs, although they are great computers, but they are also expensive.

I have the mini and my wife has the new air. Great machines. I couldn't wait on a new mini with an upgraded M processor. The current M1 works well fantastic.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I have the mini and my wife has the new air. Great machines. I couldn't wait on a new mini with an upgraded M processor. The current M1 works well fantastic.

The current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores will definitely work for the photo/video editing I do. To be clear, I’m not a professional photographer, just a hobbyist, but I’m also not a casual smartphone photographer either. I do a lot of astrophotography which requires a professional level of post processing that would scare the crap out of most "professional" photographers. It requires a lot of computer power. The current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores can definitely handle it because even my old 2014 MacBook Pro can, but it takes forever with the old MacBook Pro. With such an old MacBook Pro, pretty much any new Mac will seem like a huge upgrade. However, as you can see, I tend to keep computers for many years, so any improvement on the current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores will be good, assuming Apple doesn't raise the price a lot. If they don't bump up the Mac mini current M1 16GB with 8+8-cores, or if they do but charge too much for an updated one, I’ll get the current one, but I’m hoping for a bit of an upgrade. It doesn't have to be an M2 level upgrade, even a bump up to the M1, an M1.1 type of upgrade, would be welcomed.

[David Munch]

The Mac Studio is a machine I have dreamt of for many years, so I will definitely be getting one! I will wait until the M2 release, but now I know what to save up for.

The Studio Display is nice, but pretty mediocre in all actual panel specifications other than the resolution, so I will likely look elsewhere for that. I'd prefer a 5k2k ultra wide screen personally, with Mini-LEDs. Hopefully that has reached the market when I have saved up for the Studio revision.

[OtinG]

Apple always wants a premium for their accessories, so I suspect there are plenty of lesser expensive options with just as good or better quality when it comes to displays.

For myself, if I get another display sometime in the future it will need to be 10-bit or better capable, that is, capable of accurately displaying 1 billion colors. Most of what I do as far as photography is designed to be viewed on monitors and TVs, not to be printed, so a 4K or higher monitor will be best. I keep my files down to 4K size resolution because 8K TVs are rare, and I suspect 8K will never really catch on any time soon. To get any benefit out of 8K you would need to sit very close to the TV, and that really isn't practical for most people. Even 4K requires us to sit too close in order to see all the detail, but since HD doesn't support HDR and 10-bit color, a 4K HDR TV can still provide a much better viewing experience than an HD TV even from across the room. I think 8K won't improve over that experience, at least not at this time. So for my files, 4K resolution is all I need, so a 4K monitor is sufficient, but of course 5K would be nice too! But again, the monitor must be accurate in displaying colors else I’m going to screw up my work.

[tomsem]

Ultra wide displays have their place, but for me having more than one display is more important.

I could see getting a Studio Display and using it as secondary display for my iMac (27” 2020, which they just stopped selling). Currently my secondary display is 1920x1200 and nothing spectacular; however it supports multiple inputs (HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, SVGA) and I am using the first 3 of those to plug in 2 other computers. The SD has only one ‘upstream’ USB-C port. Maybe there’s some KVM switch that could handle it (and 5K video).

As a secondary display to the iMac, would I be able to switch to use its camera and speakers? I assume it would not support Center Stage even so, since it’s Intel. And apparently only M1 iPads can drive it.

At some future time I could get Mac Studio and make the iMac a secondary display (trade in value is only $1200 now and it’ll be much less in the future). I am not ready to get one now, anyway.

[OtinG]

FYI: I just checked the trade in value of my iPad Air 4 (64GB) if trading in on the new M1 iPad Air 5 and it is $335.

I have no desire to trade up my iPad Air 4 to a 5, but I was just curious.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by OtinG

The current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores will definitely work for the photo/video editing I do. To be clear, I’m not a professional photographer, just a hobbyist, but I’m also not a casual smartphone photographer either. I do a lot of astrophotography which requires a professional level of post processing that would scare the crap out of most "professional" photographers. It requires a lot of computer power. The current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores can definitely handle it because even my old 2014 MacBook Pro can, but it takes forever with the old MacBook Pro. With such an old MacBook Pro, pretty much any new Mac will seem like a huge upgrade. However, as you can see, I tend to keep computers for many years, so any improvement on the current Mac mini M1 16GB with 8+8-cores will be good, assuming Apple doesn't raise the price a lot. If they don't bump up the Mac mini current M1 16GB with 8+8-cores, or if they do but charge too much for an updated one, I’ll get the current one, but I’m hoping for a bit of an upgrade. It doesn't have to be an M2 level upgrade, even a bump up to the M1, an M1.1 type of upgrade, would be welcomed.

I saw this article claiming a new Mini won't happen till 2023.

https://www.cultofmac.com/769345/mac...ot-ready-2023/

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I saw this article claiming a new Mini won't happen till 2023.

https://www.cultofmac.com/769345/mac...ot-ready-2023/

I've seen that on other sites like MacRumors too, as well as a gillion other predictions/guesses. Once upon a time some of the guessers were fairly accurate, but they probably had credible sources within Apple back then. However, Apple seems to have closed the doors on most of the leaks now, so guys like Kuo and Gurman are no longer reliable. Neither of those guys, nor anyone else, predicted the Mac Studio. Some thought there would be a high end Mac mini with an M1 Pro or Max, but they were all clueless about the new Studio. About 24 hours before the event someone released a fairly accurate rendering of the Studio, but they didn't say enough about it to make it seem likely, but perhaps that person had a credible source. But over all, the past 2 or 3 years we have seen far more incorrect guesses than true ones. So I place absolutely no value in the click-bait rumor mill any more.

I will wait until Fall to see if we get a bump up on the Mac mini or MacBook Air, or perhaps a decent upgrade to either, then get one of them even if they aren't updated at all. My old 2014 MacBook Pro is too old to keep up any more, so I can't wait until 2023, especially since I don't have any faith in the rumors.

[OtinG]

Some of the initial reviews of the Studio Display are saying the webcam is pretty much subpar. Apple is saying they will fix it in a future software update. This is becoming a far too oft repeated scenario with Apple: Turn out subpar stuff then spend a year trying to improve it. One comment I read said basically, "Apple's response is 'you are looking into the webcam wrong!'" I wish Apple had more of the spirit of Woz, and less of the spirit of Jobs. They really need some good old-school hackers therein to get them back on track.

And for the younger ones here, "hackers" in the 1970s had a different meaning than it does today.

[tomsem]

I’m still trying to decide if I should wait for next iPad Pro 12.9” or just get the current one. It’s reasonable to expect some sort of CPU bump (‘M1X’ or ‘M2’) but it might just be a higher clock rate. (I found this amusing Apple M series table: https://cpu-benchmark.org/apple-cpus/apple-m-series/).

And it seems no OLED is rumored until next year…and I don’t want to wait that long. Of course if I do buy now, they are sure to come out with M2+OLED edition 3 months hence.

[OtinG]

You never know with Apple, and now that they have cracked down hard on leaks, you can't really put any faith in the majority of the rumors.

I can say that my iPhone 13 Pro Max's OLED screen is amazing, especially when viewing 4K HDR videos. It is mostly superfluous on an iPhone though since I will rarely watch feature length videos on the iPhone. On an iPad Pro 12.9" screen it makes more since, although I rarely watch feature length videos on an iPad either. Also note that I do NOT have any of the OLED eye strain issues we've read about. But everyone has unique eyesight so maybe my eyes are not susceptible to the issue.

[tomsem]

I must say, Universal Control is pretty nice. My office setup is a little too complicated to use it all of the time, so I still need 2 keyboards and pointing devices laid out, but when I can use it, it works very well.

[ilovejedd]

Ugh. Using Open in Background for links (including bookmarks) opens about:blank every 3 links on 15.4 Safari tab groups. Also Safari iCloud syncing is buggy. Wish I hadn’t updated.

[OtinG]

Ever since 15.3 I've had issues syncing via iCloud Notes, Mail, Safari, etc. I often have to force close Notes and reopen it to get it to sync changes I made on a different device. Really aggravating!

Another new issue is when you press and hold a link in Safari. Before 15.4 I wouuld often see a small representation of the web page the link is for, but now it just shows me the url link in text format. Not a big issue of course, but they definitely broke another feature. ETA: I just noticed that this feature does still work, but Apple in its quest to add senseless steps to simple processes added a “Tap to show preview” link rather than just leaving it as an auto preview.

Apple is sure screwing the pooch on their OSes here the past few years. They have a serious development issue they need to address. As I’ve mentioned on other forums, the Apple development team has become rotten to the Apple core. Not sure if corporate just doesn't care, isn't paying attention, or if team leadership needs a huge shake up and shake out, but this is getting terrible. If there was a decent rival to iPadOS I would have already switched. But I hate Android, so I’m stuck with a mediocre iPadOS.