Jump to content

New: Mac Pro M2 Ultra - Mac Studio M2 Max & Ultra - 15.3" MacBook Air M2

David Nahmani
 Share

Recommended Posts

David Nahmani Grand Master

David Nahmani

Posted
Posted

Apple announced the new Mac Pro with M2 Ultra processor.

  • Same form factor as current Mac Pro
  • 24-core CPU,
  • up to a 76-core GPU,
  • up to 192GB of memory
  • Price starts at $6,999
  • Available for order later today. 

The Mac Studio can now be equipped with either M2 Max or M2 Ultra. 

A new MacBook Air 15.3" with M2 chip was also announced today. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fisherking Veteran

fisherking

Posted
Posted (edited)

the pro is impressive (and so is it's price 😳); i would not trade my 13" M2 air for the 15"... but i can see ppl would like that.

will report on sonoma once the public beta starts. possiblly coming: tears, raving (both good & bad), and of course, reports on how logic behaves...

EDIT: public beta: july...

Edited by fisherking
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
guavadude Enthusiast

guavadude

Posted
Posted

I think this is the most impressive WWDC since the iPhone release. Vision Pro is nothing short of revolutionary. 

The only problem I have when they update to a new iOS is that my Studio Max, which is staying on Monterey for now, won't talk to all my other devices. If some one finds out, can you please lmk if iOS 17 requires Ventura on desktops to work together. 

Music app developers are so far behind on even getting Ventura to work. I can't imagine how long it will be before Sonoma compatibility happens. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
fisherking Veteran

fisherking

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, guavadude said:

I think this is the most impressive WWDC since the iPhone release. Vision Pro is nothing short of revolutionary. 

The only problem I have when they update to a new iOS is that my Studio Max, which is staying on Monterey for now, won't talk to all my other devices. If some one finds out, can you please lmk if iOS 17 requires Ventura on desktops to work together. 

Music app developers are so far behind on even getting Ventura to work. I can't imagine how long it will be before Sonoma compatibility happens. 

is your phone on ios 16? you can always stay on that (at least, until you know about monterey compatibility)...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
David Nahmani Grand Master

David Nahmani

Posted
  • Author
Posted
36 minutes ago, des99 said:

I thought this Apple Keynote was the closest yet to watching an episode of Black Mirror…

That's so true. All it's missing are the little score card next to the people around you: 

4385816-6183893-image-a-2_1537344793924.

51 minutes ago, redgreenblue said:

I would love to see the Game Mode also work for Logic, being able to deprioritize other computer functions is something I've wanted for a long time

Totally, that's a great idea, I hope they'll jump on that.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
zevo Enthusiast

zevo

Posted
Posted (edited)

I like the way the Mac Studio is heading, and hoping they keep it around. Whatever version is around in 5 years (I hope) will be quite the upgrade over my 2020 iMac Intel, particularly since I only buy machines once they've been out long ago to have refurbished versions from OWC (and sometimes Apple).

Not interesting enough to upgrade to now for the price, though. I can't make either of my machines work all that hard under normal situations (though the M1 Pro Macbook CPU-spikes far more often than the Intel, which I suspect is the lack of plugin optimization/ARM specifics vs the years-of-Intel optimizations most of my plugins have/had).

The Mac Pro itself is clearly not for me, and the decrease in max memory vs the Intel frankly feels like a step backward for the people it IS for. That must be a chip-related roadblock. I know the memory management model is different, but still: if you ACTUALLY need 300+ GB memory (as some of our servers at work do), then you actually need it. You can't manage that requirement away if it's a requirement.

I'm more than happy to be wrong about that though. Like I said: clearly not for me anyway.

Edited by zevo
Link to comment
Share on other sites
wing Collaborator

wing

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, guavadude said:

Vision Pro is nothing short of revolutionary. 

I feel like I'll have to try one to experience it for myself. VR Headsets or tech-powered eyewear often get hyped up but ultimately feel like a fad or gimmick, and times I've tried one in the past I've absolutely hated the experience. While I understand this one is different, time will tell if it actually takes off. I'm personally failing to see the benefit, and it feels even more disconnected from one's surroundings (when I watched the announcement video it left me feeling a bit hollow and sad, people sitting on their couch alone looking at pictures of their estranged family? that's what it seemed like haha).

Black Mirror vibes indeed!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
fisherking Veteran

fisherking

Posted
Posted

i think for watching movies, making 3d videos, and for the novelty of 'working' in a virtual environment... this should be fun.

when we reach the point where we can work in logic, final cut, etc... that will be the moment this most interests me. i imagine that's a way off (but not going to guess how long until). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
des99 Grand Master

des99

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, wonshu said:

Is it enough to walk around looking like a douchebag?

It was always going to be dorky at this point - let's face it, if you were around in the late 80s and spotted anyone with a mobile (or car) phone, they looked like a douchebag too.

Today, phones are more powerful than many personal computers, slim, tiny, essential and normalised.

It's easy to see the *promise* of the head stuff if it can truly integrate many of the benefits of tech into our reality - shrinking down into funky looking glasses, or eventually being internally projected onto our retinas and not being externally visible at all (see the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You").

I'm interested to hear people's experiences of using it, what experiences and use cases seem valuable, and what things seem "meh". Eg it remains to be seen if there are tangible benefits of wearing the headset and working on your Mac with a virtually projected screen in front of you, or if after you spend ten minutes playing with it thinking "yeah, it's kinda cool" but then just want to go back to working on your regular screen...

This is an initial step along a long path to potentially being a new platform that could be where society goes post-iPhone, albeit that's a way off yet. Looking at how conservative people *actually* are, possibly further than we think. Look at the outcry when Apple dared to change the ole' qwerty keyboard a bit!

Novelty will motivate interest of course, but I've always been convinced that Apple's bullishness of AR and rejection of VR is the right call. I've always been meh on VR, even through we're just going through the third attempt at reviving the concept now.

To be widely adopted by the consumer (as opposed to enthusiast/influencer/gamer- types etc), you don't want to require people to *leave* their reality to engage in it, you want to bring the cool stuff *into* people's reality. This is a key reason why mobile computing has a much wider consumer adoption than desktop computing - it's the computer they have with them, always.

Interesting times...

Edited by des99
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
enossified Rising Star

enossified

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, fisherking said:

i would not trade my 13" M2 air for the 15"... but i can see ppl would like that

What I like is MagSafe is back and the ports are now Thunderbolt 4 which I assume means it can do dual external displays. The M1 Air ports are listed as Thunderbolt/USB4, not Thunderbolt 4 because of the single display limitation. 

I won't be upgrading my M1 Air but I really miss MagSafe. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fisherking Veteran

fisherking

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, enossified said:

What I like is MagSafe is back and the ports are now Thunderbolt 4 which I assume means it can do dual external displays. The M1 Air ports are listed as Thunderbolt/USB4, not Thunderbolt 4 because of the single display limitation. 

I won't be upgrading my M1 Air but I really miss MagSafe. 

my 13" M2 air has magsafe as well...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
des99 Grand Master

des99

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, fisherking said:

i would not feel weird walking around with (in 2023)....

* as long as it was running a cutting-edge private beta of virtuaOS, of course.

What *would* be weird is running the public release version...!

(Is the leotard entirely necessary?)

Edited by des99
Link to comment
Share on other sites
redgreenblue Collaborator

redgreenblue

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, enossified said:

What I like is MagSafe is back and the ports are now Thunderbolt 4 which I assume means it can do dual external displays. The M1 Air ports are listed as Thunderbolt/USB4, not Thunderbolt 4 because of the single display limitation. 

I won't be upgrading my M1 Air but I really miss MagSafe. 

The 15" Air still only supports one external display, that is a limitation of the chip, not the ports. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
redgreenblue Collaborator

redgreenblue

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, enossified said:

Aha, I see that at the Apple website the 15" is spec'd as "Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports" like the 13" unlike some press releases I saw stating it was Tbolt 4.  OK, I stand corrected. I still would like MagSafe on my M1 Air...

Yes, getting rid of the MagSafe was such a bad move. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
redgreenblue Collaborator

redgreenblue

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

I'm really missing my MagSafe on my new MacBook Air. I'm afraid the reason was the EU forcing all electronics manufacturers to use a single connector for charging, USB-C. 

They ditched MagSafe on MacBook pros in 2016, long before that EU regulation. It will, however, lead to them having to make the iPhone usb-c. Not actually a fan of that move, usb-c ports don’t particularly thrive in repetitive connecting and disconnecting. Plus it will lead to a whole round of people complaining that that ‘Apple keeps changing connectors on the iPhone’ when in fact they’ve changed it exactly one time, and that change was for the better. Definitely glad they never adopted the micro USB connector, that thing sucks. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
analogika Proficient

analogika

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

I'm really missing my MagSafe on my new MacBook Air. I'm afraid the reason was the EU forcing all electronics manufacturers to use a single connector for charging, USB-C. 

That’s weird reasoning, because every single Apple laptop introduced since the M1 MacBook Air — the M1 Pro/Max Books, all M2 Air/M2 Pro/M2 Max — has MagSafe. 

Edited by analogika
Link to comment
Share on other sites
enossified Rising Star

enossified

Posted
Posted

Probably because people didn't like having to tie up a Tbolt port to connect the charger. If MagSafe had not been removed, we wouldn't be buying docks with high wattage power delivery to the upstream port.

I assume the EU regulation allows MagSafe because the Tbolt ports can be used for charging, too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
redgreenblue Collaborator

redgreenblue

Posted
Posted

I would guess that Apple was soooooooooo enamored with the thinness of the TouchBar Macs and soooo convinced that we all loved it as much as they did that they never thought to see if that was something any of us still wanted. Plus Apple seemed to be convinced that everyone would want to do everything wirelessly so who cares about ports!?!?!?!?!

I'm still a little amazed that they backtracked on the newer MacBook Pros, but I'm glad they did. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
des99 Grand Master

des99

Posted
Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, redgreenblue said:

TouchBar Macs and soooo convinced that we all loved it as much as they did that they never thought to see if that was something any of us still wanted.

You don't really know what the market responds to until you put a product/design in front of them, no matter how much research and prep you do beforehand.

As I said, people are conservative. Some people really liked the Touchbar and are sad to see it gone, but a much larger number of people didn't get it, or were annoyed by the fact they changed something, or didn't like the implementation etc etc, and as such, Apple realised that was something that wasn't generally well-received, and it sent the message "don't mess with the keyboard" (somewhat sadly imo).

I think the current qwerty keyboard we have which stems from the typewriter, and the very earliest generation of home computers in the 70s is ripe for reinvention and modernisation, but it might take the older generation to leave the planet first before people, raised from young on touch screens, don't have the same typing baggage regarding the keyboard, and we can finally move past static "F3" keys, and memorising a bazillion command + shift + option + S key commands for every different app.

I get it, I'm used to the function keys too, but it's I'm sure possible to design a keyboard that doesn't have the same baggage, with more and better functionality. I saw an interesting Kickstarter one a month or two back which is starting to go in the (imo) right direction... a lot of attempts have been not great, let's be honest...

Edited by des99
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...